I'm seeing a lot of tiny planets and cool mechanics.. and here I am with a platformer about bees, larvae and giant chickens! Give it a try! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/$17327
Best of luck to everybody who's still jamming!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_96HohardM
Play it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/the-spoiled-prince
I never wrote a post-mortem for any other of my entries so I thought I should do it for this one. I think I’ll go over my general workflow as it has been pretty similar for all my entries.
Where I live it’s 03:00 AM when the theme gets released so all I really want is to decide on an idea and then it’s off to sleep. I’m usually already in my bed with a block and pencil jotting down possible ideas. I spend an hour at the most on this but I always decide on something then because when I wake up, I want to get going right away and not worry about an idea anymore.
For this LD my first thought was “insects” which I ultimately went with. I also had an idea for something involving the phrase “It’s a small world” but it was just too abstract and I never want to start making something that’s not clear in my head. That circle was a tiny planet idea I had. I was thinking of the Raphael Raven fight from Yoshi’s island but I couldn’t think of a creative spin on it.
Since my mind was on Yoshi’s island I got the idea of carrying an insect larva “Baby Mario” style and went with it. Making another platformer wasn’t the most exciting since I’m quite familiar with it but I could see some puzzles involving having to carry the larva so I felt it was interesting enough.
I usually stay awake around 20 hours and do probably 80% of the game the first day. I prefer it that way and having the second day be pretty chill and stress free. My goals for the first day are
1)All graphics
2)All mechanics
3)Most of the design.
The first thing I do is basic graphics and animation (yes, before a single line of code). For a platformer it’s usually the player character. I don’t know, I just can’t stand just having the classic placeholder square for a player, it just demotivates me. Anyway, then it’s time for core mechanics and getting something playable.
When I’m done with player I move on to the other objects of the game, enemies and such in the same way (graphics first then coding). I usually also finish up the rest of the graphics (background/tiles). I made mushrooms to serve both as “floating” platforms and to cover up the edges on the ground tiles (so I wouldn’t have to do additional graphics for the edges :stuckouttonguewinkingeye:). The spike plants are also used to cover these edges as well as being a hazard. I also added a random rotation angle to the spike plants when they spawn to give visual variety with just a single sprite. LD-schedule leads to some interesting cheating.
Second day is preferably spent just on sound and polish but for this LD I spent more time on the graphics and had to push the design to the second day. Second day goals are:
1)Finish off what’s left of the design (In this case all of it)
2)Music and sound
3)Polish
Since it was a platformer I felt pretty confident even without having any levels yet. For a game jam you don’t need too many levels since even if you make 10+ levels most people won’t play that far. I decided a tutorial level and two regular ones were plenty. You can do pretty much with just the core mechanics and death spikes but I added some chickens for variety and because.. chickens! Chicken animation was just some simple rotation code on the neck and wings, quick and easy and looks alright.
I usually spend about about 2 hours on music, wanted something upbeat to match the visuals. For sound effects I normally use sfxr to quickly generate some. For this LD however I made most of the sounds with my own mouth. Yes, everything from the baby whining to the bee buzzing to the chicken cluckin’. It was a good time :grin:. I made sure to NOT follow Yoshi’s Island’s lead and instead make the baby whining pretty subtle instead of traumatically annoying. I think this has been appreciated! With music and sound done I do some last polish, add a title screen and end to the game, maybe a cutscene. Then I get all submission stuff in order and usually submit a few hours before the deadline.
Somehow during Ludum Dare there is like a switch in my head into LD-mode, where I’m suddenly 1000% more efficient with my time than otherwise. I wish it could always be switched on but I guess that would fry my brain. Still, I have a pretty relaxed attitude towards LD. I think pretty much all my previous entries could’ve benefited by some more polishing but I just never want to stress in the final hours and usually come to a point where I say “eh, it’s good enough” and just submit. With this entry though, even with the design pushed to the second day it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way and there is not much I would want to change really.
I did thread familiar ground and it’s probably my strongest entry yet as far as general polish is concerned because of it. I do like it and think it turned out good but I am thinking of putting a personal restriction not to make a platformer for the next LD (unless I have a really really good reason to).
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/similize-the-savages
You've been sent to civilize the natives of a primitive planet. Use your mighty spacegun to convert the savages and mark zones for them to develop their new city.
Try my narrative puzzle platformer! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/metamorphosis
Try it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/fallen-shovel
Good job everyone, it's been a blast as always!
SEXY BOOBY 95: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/sexy-booby-95
A game for boomers and teenagers alike.
The mail has been scattered! Help Mailman Murphy recover it and deliver it at its rightful place!
Added web builds for both the original and Post Jam versions (including some quality of life changes.)
Decipher the ancient texts and experiment to find ways to summon beasts from other realms!
I made a cozy sim game about a tribe of tiny creatures developing their village while you interact with them. Sadly I didn't have enough time to add much challenge and I wanted to have more player interaction involved.
The post jam build has an added challenge and goal:
-There is now a rival tribe you must defeat by raising an army!
-More characters, items and interaction.
-Tweaked sim behavior and other fixes.
-Additional polish
Jam and postjam versions can be found here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-tribe