Banana Wallpaper Artist Extraordinaire OxySocks and I are once again participating in the jam! During our previous jams we have used Unity3D and later our custom Java game framework. This time we decided it was time for something new, so we will be using JavaScript and the PIXI library this time. Let's see if we can make something amazing this time :)

Check out the progress screenshot we made yesterday!

Now that image uploading works, we can finally share it :) As you may or may not derive from the screenshot, we are making a city-builder type of game using JavaScript, but since we are working with just two programmers, the art is all just placeholder art for now. At the moment of writing, improved icons are in place, but we'll save those for a later post.

After 2 years I'm going to try my hand at Ludum Dare again. My previous (jam) entries were collaborations, but this time I'm planning on participating in the jam alone. While I would love to once again do a collaboration, the reason for going solo this time is that I've been dealing with 'life' in the past 1.5 years. That means I have barely done any programming in that period of time, even though I used to be a professional software engineer. I'm going to use LD45 to see if I still 'got it', as a practice project, and I don't want to hold back a teammate with what will probably be low productivity on my end.

To be honest I don't expect to think of a fun game or to finish one, but I'm going to try nonetheless. At the very least I'll get to enjoy the experience of an active community of people with a similar passion for game development, which has always been a pleasure in the past.

Anyway, I've seen people post their suggestions, so here are mine:

Looking forward to LD45!

Ten Ludum Dare events after the last time that we participated (LD38) team SoulSocks (Oxy and SIGILL) were back to make a game in the jam! Meet our game "Mr. & Ms. Deeper: Descent to Inner Depth", a platforming puzzle-adventure with a lot of.. depth! Jokes aside, I personally disliked the theme a lot (as per usual it seems) and it felt difficult to come up with an original and fun game concept. We went with a vertical game, something I come across a lot during the weekend, but instead of just a single character you control two: Mr. and Ms. Deeper. Mr. Deeper is a lasso-wielding adventurer akin to Indiana Jones, Ms. Deeper is an experienced diver with a heavy suit and a spear gun. After a lot of thought and deep discussions they decided to venture down into the depths in search for the true meaning of life...

The game was made in Unity, using Pyxel Edit and Aseprite for the art (all made by Oxy!). It features basic platforming, lasso-slapping, spear-shooting, traps, terribly angry slimes, moving platforms and draining/filling room with water. I don't think we got to use these elements the way we really planned to, but it's still something that was a lot of fun to make and a game I'm proud of!

This Ludum Dare I already have to participate on my own instead of with my regular partner, which is a real shame. Especially since I can't art for the life of me, so anything I make won't be appealing to play at first glance. After having an exhausting week, combined with feeling uninspired and even annoyed by the themes in the voting rounds I had decided that I wouldn't join this jam.

When checking the theme out of curiosity I suddenly and instantly got an idea to work on though! It's not great and I'm not sure how to make it actually a fun game yet, but at the very least I'll be entertaining myself by working on it. I've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation lately (I love the nostalgic cozy sci-fi feeling of it) and things tend to get unstable there.. a lot. So when I saw the theme I immediately came up with the idea to create a bit of a parody of the techno-babble and the fact that engineers always seem to come up with accurate time estimates the moment they hear something is wrong.

In my LD49 game, playing as chief engineer Feordi LaGorge you will have to keep the 'wurp core' stable while decyphering technical messages describing your tasks and determining time estimates as accurately as possible. Of course a variety of events will make your job more challenging.

Hopefully I'll get at least some playable version ready by monday!

This first day was mainly trying to figure out what my gameplay loop would look like, spending time trying to make art, which I know I can't so it's a terrible thing to prioritize, and fighting my exhaustion. I really want to participate and finish the game, but I'm not sure my body is going to allow me to :slight_frown:

Anyway, the main thing I've got working is the techno-babble generator, a.k.a. the random non-sense generator. It randomly picks words from a couple of lists to create a 'defective machine part', with some flavor around it. These are two small examples of many possibilities it may generate:

Here's hoping I'll get a good rest tonight so I can be super amazingly productive tomorrow. Good luck and enjoy to everyone that's already started on their second day (which I believe can be the case?.. timezones confuse me)!

I'm not sure whether I can make it fun or balanced enough though. Nor aesthetically pleasing. But just having finished something while doing a solo Ludum Dare would already be a major achievement. Today my teammate Oxy and I started out working on a different game, but unfortunately due to circumstances and reasons (pesky buggers) I had to continue on my own. I decided to work on a different game entirely so today was a relatively short day for me when it comes to work on the entry I will be submitting.

My take on the theme is the inevitable collision of a moon in a decaying orbit with its planet. You have to delay the collision by building 'accelerator and repulsor fields' that apply forces to the moon and slightly alter its orbit, while also having to quickly set up buildings to collect resources needed to pay for said fields. Resources are also needed to construct a rocket, which will be used to evacuate part of the planet's population. Complete the rocket before the collision happens and you win! The physics are most likely wildly inaccurate and for now it's all very WIP, but I do get to see some pretty fun visuals by showing the moon's path at least:

I had hoped to finish my game for the compo, so I can get this madness behind and get some rest and get back to normal life.. and mainly because I would just love to finally submit something to a compo after all these years. Even though I have something that is 'playable' I'm not done yet and I rather spend a bit more time on finishing and polishing the game and adding a proper ending than submitting something half-assed. So I hope I'll be able to spend the extra day wisely and make something I'll be satisfied with.

Behold the current state of the game, it has 'art' now!

I'm looking forward to seeing and playing all your creations. It takes a lot of discipline to not start playing the submitted compo games already, but I've got a game to finish!

After almost 10 years of casual and infrequent on/off participation, mostly in a team with a few solo attempt in between, I'm proud to finally present my first finished and submitted solo Jam entry! Introducing "Evacuation of Zorkid", a game where you have to delay a moon colliding with the planet Zorkid while building a rocket to save the Zorkidians! Featuring wildy unrealistic physics, programmer art, possibly stressful gameplay and a cluttered interface.. a perfect recipe for fun :smile:

Even though I didn't get to implement a lot of features that would've made the game a lot more gamey and fun, I'm still happy with and proud of the result. The development process was a lot of fun and I feel motivated to expand this game into a post-jam version, adding the ideas I didn't have enough time for right now. Although I've wanted to do post-jam version of other entries as well, so it remains to be seen if that's every going to happen.

I've seen some great-looking games in the feed so I'm excited that I'm finally able to play them now that I'm done. I hope everyone had fun during this jam and to those still working on those finishing touches for the next 2 hours: good luck!