I did that last MiniLD, but I haven’t done an actual Ludum Dare yet, so this will be my first one. I’m trying to learn a programming language, but for now, I’m just using Stencyl.
Here are the tools I’m using:
Game: Stencyl
Graphics: GraphicsGale/Paint
Music: Pxtone
Well, my first time participating in an actual Ludum Dare was interesting at least. I was just coming back from vacation without internet so I had no idea about the theme or enough battery life in my laptop to get started until Sunday. A minor setback I suppose. Hah. Anyway, I threw around a bunch of ideas, which all resulted in failure, until I came upon the idea for Tiny Archaeologist, which you can play here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=8229 Originally the ending was supposed to be a section where you are chased by water, but after two hours that still wasn’t working so I scrapped it and put what is there now.
Anywho, let me start with the theme. I loved it. It fit with so many ideas I’ve had floating around my head for a while now so coming up with an idea was easy. Of course I made up a new one, but that’s besides the point.
Now let me talk about my game. In my opinion it’s a solid meh. I think it came out okay, but it could have been way better. Let me start out on things I liked about it. Firstly, I liked the idea. I love games with tiny characters and huge worlds, so it was awesome to be able to make one myself. I also am moderately pleased with the graphics, while they could have been better, they are some of the better pixel art I’ve done. One of the best parts of this was I got the opportunity to work with Stencyl 2.0, and this was a really great crash course on some of the new features.
Now for the negative. I spent most of the time on the graphics, but I still don’t think they were varied or bright enough. They seemed a little dull to me. The music was just a simple loop, but I didn’t have time. And putting music always gives me difficulty because of the long process of getting it from pxtone to Stencyl, so the ending got a little chopped off. The gameplay is barebones and incredibly simplistic. I wanted to add more, but since I started late, there was no time.
I’ll end this on a positive note: I had a really great time working on this, and I look forward to more LD’s and more games in the future.
Until then, see you,
toaster
Tags: flash, ld23, postmortem, stencyl
I’m looking forward to another ludum dare. I can’t wait to make another game.
The tools I’m using are:
Stencyl – For the Game
Paint/GraphicsGale – Art
Bfxr – Sound Effects
PxTone – Music
Well I have not yet thought of a good title yet, so it is tentatively called a game with a castle. It is one screen, and takes about a minute to beat. However, the first time you play, you probably won’t have the slightest idea about what is going on. The more times you beat it, the scenery will evolve and change until it is very obvious what is going on. This is the first level.
Still working. nothing too much new to show as far as gameplay, however I have started working on giving meaning to all the white boxes. Oh yeah, and here’s a title screen.
The area to the left will be a new game + type mode, however I do not know if I will have time to implement it before LD ends.
I’m in again, hoping to this time make a game that is more enjoyable than the last two times I’ve done this.
My tools:
Stencyl, Paint, GraphicsGale, PxTone, Bfxr, and yeah, I think that’s it.
Good luck to the rest of you, and let’s make games.
The beginnings of my Bowser Stealth Game. On the to-do list,
-Create patrolling toads
-Make background
-Make more tiles
-Make the game
I’m in for Ludum Dare again. Hoping to make something better this time, but we’ll see.
Tools:
Game Making: Stencyl
Art: Paint / Paint.net / Fresh Paint (maybe)
Sound: PxTone / Bfxr
Yep that sums it up, looking forward to going at it again.
So I just finished my game, Left & Knight. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I struggled a bit at times, but it all worked out in the end.
Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=8229
I had a great time, and I look forward to the next Ludum Dare,
Tags: LD26 stencyl pixel
I guess it’s time for the obligatory “I’m in” post. So hi, I’m toaster, and I’m in. This is my fourth LD, and I’m pretty excited.
I’ll be using:
Stencyl (Game Engine)
Paint/GraphicsGale/Paint.net (Art)
Pxtone/bfxr (Music and Sound effects)
So, I’ve been off to a decent start, which is new for me. Usually my first ideas fail in previous ludum dares, but I am confident that this idea is feasible. Oh well, we’ll see.
Here’s the main character’s walk cycle. He’s an adventurer-type person/thing.
And here’s a screenshot. The background is just a placeholder for now.
Until next post,
toaster
So, I finished my game, 10 Second Spike, in the nick of time. You play as an intrepid explorer, but watch out, every ten seconds spikes will come out of the ground ready to kill.
I’ll make a post mortem in the near future and I feel like this game is an idea I can easily make into a full game without too much difficulty. Maybe this will be my first major project.
Hey guys, time for a postmortem on my game 10 Second Spike. You can check it out here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=8229
So when I first heard the theme, my first thought was: Warioware! Then I immediately dropped the idea, and thought of something else. Usually my LD entries are the results of several failed ideas until one finally works, or can be made fast enough to reach the deadline. This time I worked on my first real idea, and that was 10 Second Spike. Every ten seconds a trap would be sprung and would need to be avoided. I thought the idea had potential so I started pixelling. I made the main character, without hands of course, because I stink at animating hands. After that I started making tiles, using the tetris-esque style that I had started to really like lately, and made several different palettes for different areas. Finished most of those and started mapping.
I decided to use spikes as my first trap because, frankly, they were really easy to code. I had originally intended to do all manner of traps, but as it turned out, I didn’t have enough time for that.
This weekend was my first weekend in college, and as a band geek, it was also the last two days of band camp before practice. So there went most of the day, and there is the reason I didn’t finish Spike for compo.
So yeah, that’s enough “backstory.”
Overall I’m pleased with how it came out. The game itself is kind of a jerk, reminiscent of I Wanna Be the Guy, which was more or less how I intended it. There is no indicator as to where the spikes pop up, and touching a spike leads to instant death, so I understand how it could be frustrating. However, I did want to create a semi-creepy aura of paranoia, which I think I was moderately successful with achieving. One has to tread carefully and remember where all the spikes are in order to get to the end.
As far as the art goes, I’d say it is one of my better looking games. So yeah, it’s an art style of games I like to play, so I was inspired by that and used it in my game.
The music was okay. I originally was going to go with making a countdown clock, but I thought that music might better fit the tone more, and once the player figured out when the music was going to end they would have to sit through the couple of tense seconds before the spikes would appear.
So, in conclusion, 10 Second Spike is a hard game, but that’s okay in my book. I personally like hard games, and that sensation of being victorious is much more pronounced in beating a hard level of game. I feel much more accomplished beating a level in Super Meat Boy, than I do after beating a level of Kirby’s Epic Yarn, for example.
Also, I’m planning to make a full version of this game. How long that will take, or if it will happen is questionable, but I’m going to give it a shot. I’m going to increase the graphical and animation quality to make it a much more lush and vibrant world of death. There will also be different types of traps, and it will not be instadeath. Most of the time there will be some sort of indicator of the presence of spikes.
I’ve started redesigning the main character, so here’s what he looks like at the moment, although that will probably change.
From left to right, there is the current character, the new character, then the new character wearing a backpack.
I’ll try to post more regularly on twitter as long as progress is being made, so if you are interested in the game, feel free to follow me.
Until next time,
toaster
So, I’m in again, for my sixth LD. So, as to my tools:
Game: Stencyl
Art: Paint/Graphicsgale/Paint.net
Music/SFX: PxTone/Bfxr
I look forward to another awesome weekend of making games.
-toaster
I finished my LD game, well actually I finished last night, but I was tired, so I’m just posting this now.
This world is broken is a ZX-Spectrum inspired game, where you only get one ability: the wall jump. Wall jump your way to victory in hopes of saving the world. It still needs some work, and can be a bit challenging, but overall I’m pleased how it came out.
Play it HERE.
Hope you enjoy it, and I’ll see ya’ll next time,
toaster
Howdy ya’ll. I made a game for Ludum Dare a few weeks ago, and I think it’s high time I actually make a postmortem for it.
So the theme this time around was “You Only Get One.” I came up with a few concepts before settling on this final option. The first idea was a game where you get one chance to win the game, and if you die you run you don’t get a second chance, a la a game I played on Newgrounds a while back. (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181). My next idea was a metroidvania game where you can save one princess, however there are several trapped in the castle. Neither of these ideas went far so I decide to come up with a new idea. I wanted something simple, since by that time it was Saturday I night and I was running out of time.
Now I started working on This world is broken in earnest. I decided to go with a ZX Spectrum style, since I was annoyed that I didn’t have time to work on much of game for SpeccyJam, a few weeks prior, and I had the palette on hand. I came up with the idea of only being able to wall jump and the game started to flow out. In the end, I finished in the nick of time, although I would have liked just another hour or more just to hammer out a few kinks.
Overall Feelings: I like this game. I like the concept and I enjoyed making it. I think the difficulty curve is a bit steep, although to be fair, almost all of my games have a very challenging aspect. I seem to make a lot twitch platformers.
Art: The art was simple, but so was the game, so I thought it was pretty fitting. Other than the color changes it really only had two sprites and a tile, but it fit the concept pretty well. I think it all worked well in the end.
Sound: Ugh. UGGGH. Okay, I didn’t end up having time to input a background track. So, in the last few minutes I added a jump track, which seemed like a good idea at the time. It wasn’t. Boy, was it awful. I corrected that in the updated version, but I think that the music and sound was definitely the worst part about this entry.
Updated Version: I have created a post compo version, and now all levels have a title card. A few levels have been tweaked for difficulty. I also added a background track and got rid of the sound effects.
Links to both the compo version and the updated version are located here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=8229
Looking toward the future: I’ve been making games regularly for the last two years or so. This year I managed to complete the One Game a Month Challenge, and last year I made a ton of little games. However, this upcoming year, 2014, I would like to actually make a game. Not just a jam game, but a full fledged game. I’ll talk a little more about this in a future post, but at the moment, I think a full game based off of this concept is what I’m going to do. More on that later. For now, I hope you enjoy This world is broken, and I’ll see you guys next time.
-toaster
Hiya everyone, I’m back for my seventh LD.
My tools shall be:
Game: Stencyl or Twine
Art: Paint, GraphicsGale, Paint.net
Sound: bfxr, PxTone
I’m looking forward to it.
-toaster
So, I’ve started working on a game. Not sure what I’m going to call it yet, but it’s about a mushroom bouncing on other mushrooms. I’m planning on having different mushrooms that will have different effects. This one bounces the player back to the same height it fell. Still deciding on what style I want to go for with the tiles.
Anywho, back to work,
-toaster