My first update! Everything is going quite well. I only need to be careful the complexity of the game, since the theme is minimalism after all.  I’ll give more information of the game later on!

This is my first Ludum Dare, and I’m excited to be a part of it! I hope I can deliver something nice this weekend.  That’s it for this blog.. there is work to be done!

It’s kinda early, ain’t it? Well, I just want to say I’m participating in Ludum Dare 27! I’d love to work in Unity3D and Maya, but I’m pretty inexperienced with both programs. I guess I know what to do the next eighteen days.. practising!

Alright, my first update! I’ll make it a short one, because I’ve got a lot of work to do. In fact, I’ll make it so short, that I only post a screenshot. More info soon!

This will be my third time participating in the Ludum Dare. It’s just too much fun not to join in! I’m thinking about live streaming this weekend, and when I do, you will hear about it. Good luck everybody!

Engine: Scirra Construct 2 OR Unity 3D

Graphics Paint, Paint Shop Pro, Autodesk Maya (only if I’ll use Unity)

Music/Sound Not sure yet! Any recommendations?

This will be the fourth time in a row I’m participating in the Ludum Dare. It’s just too much fun to skip! Perhaps some of you recognizes the main characters of my previous entries in the left image. (would be cool, haha) This weekend, I am planning to do something I have never done before.. create a online multiplayer game. It is going to be challenging, but I think I will learn a lot during the process. Good luck to y’all!

Platform: Web
Engine: Construct 2
Graphics: Paint (hey! don’t judge me!), Paint Shop Pro

This is the first update of my compo game. I’ll make it a short one since time is valuable! The game will be an realtime strategy game that only includes online multiplayer modus. There are some advantages and disadvantages that comes with this decision.

Multiplayer Only Entry Advantages

• No need to write a complicated AI for computer players
• It’s something new for me. I have never created a multiplayer game before, so it should be exciting!

Multiplayer Only Entry Disadvantages

• Fewer people will be able to play it and give feedback. I love to get feedback, because it is great to receive and it can be really helpful!
• It’s something new for me. I have never created a multiplayer game before so it could go really wrong.

I should get to work now. I’d love to hear you guys opinion on this!

Spaceships are placeholder graphics. Background may change too.

Of course I’m in. Normally, I’m participating in the compo, but this time around I’ll team  up with my brother for the jam! We will attempt to make our first game in Unreal Engine 4. Good luck to all participants and have a good one!

Platform: Windows
Game Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Graphics: Paint, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, Blender

<- Characters of my previous Ludum Dare entries! Perhaps you recognize some of them?

Heyo! It’s time for the first blog post on the development of our Jam game, called Space Mechanic. I’m working together with my brother He mainly focuses on the programming side, while I am trying  to improve my Blender skills.

We will release some more information later this night, so stay tuned!  You can also check our livestream to watch the development.

It’s still work in progress. Will be working on the lightning later this night!

Me and my brother will participate in the Ludum Dare once again! Our skills with Unreal 4 has been improved since the last Ludum Dare, so hopefully we’ll be able to pull something off. This should be an exciting Ludum Dare either way, so good luck to you all!

Platform: Windows
Game Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Graphics: Paint, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, Blender

<- Characters of my previous Ludum Dare entries! Perhaps you recognize some of them?

This is a very short update on the progress of Freeze Tank. In the first update, we talked about the concept of our multiplayer game. This time we’ll show the main menu. Well, there’s a lot to do, so I’d better get to work! If you are interested, you can watch us on this Twitch stream.

You can join us at the official server #1!

Click here to watch our Twitch channel! (live!)

Ludum Dare Page

You can join us at the official server #1. We’ll see you on the battlefield!

Click here to watch our Twitch channel! (live!)

Ludum Dare Page

It’s time for a little post mortom of Freeze Tank. I would like to keep a short one, since I don’t really think most people want to read a wall of text. So, let’s dive in the good & bad points!

Play & Rate our game

Follow our Twitter for playing/streaming schedules!

What went right

• The game is playable! We were in such a rush during the last hours, so we were really surprised that we could deliver an enjoyable game.
  We have never finished a multiplayer game before until now. It was definitely a challenge, since you face problems you wouldn’t encounter while developing a singleplayer game.
• (Thijs) This is my first attempt to create handpainted textures for a game. I still have a lot to learn, but I am definitely satisfied with the results! I cannot wait to improve my skills for the next Ludum Dare.

What went wrong

• Some small features were not implemented that turned out to be very important from a game-experience perspective. For example a scoreboard, a notification of the winning team and instructions for the player.
• GITHUB. Gotta hate it. The Unreal Engine has no option to merge in a proper way (yet!)
• No tutorial, players don’t know what to do if they have not read the description on the Ludum Dare page.

Multiplayer entry pros

• It’s very satisfying to see other people playing and enjoying your game.
• You are automatically the no-life-pro-master with 72 hours of gaming experience on record, before the game even came out.

Multiplayer entry cons

• The biggest issue with a multiplayer entry is that you won’t receive as much feedback compared to a singleplayer game. Our servers aren’t 24/7 and we can’t expect all players to make their own server. We are trying to compensate this by livestreaming play events. This approach resulted in some interesting games, although we didn’t reach the full potential of the game yet. (5v5)

Last but not least.. a timelapse! (perspective Thijs)

Tags: exeranger, freeze, freeze tag, freeze tank, freeze tank post mortem, multiplayer, TAG, tank, thijsku, tumbleweedgames

Previous blog posts

Update #1 – Haunted house in the making!
Update #2 – Haunted House progress!
Update #3 – The last day

The bad news

Lets start with the bad news. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to submit an entry this time. The gameplay is really lacking at the moment, and there is just too little time to make something fun out of it. We should have spent more time on coming up with a solid game concept.

The good news!

Of course this Ludum Dare wasn’t a waste at all! First of all, we learnt so many new things about the Unreal 4 engine. Personally, I finally figured out what the animation workflow between Blender and Unreal 4 should be like. I have wanted to learn this for the longest time, so I’m really excited I’m finally able to bring my future project to life with animations.

Secondly, this isn’t the end of the project. We just got a brilliant idea for the game and we are ready to experiment in the coming days. Follow our Twitter if you’re interested in the progress of Haunted House!

Final words

Good luck to all jammers and congratulations to all participants in the compo. I look forward to playing your entries.