Hello fellas,

This is my first Ludum Dare though I’ve participated in game jams before.

So, the idea with this game (so far) is to go all out for 10 seconds and hopefully that’s going to be enough to get you through the enemy waves. Then you get another 10 seconds, and a more difficult wave.

The twist is in the way you have to tap.. it’s got to be both fast and with a tempo 😉

You can try it here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73205545/WebPlayer/SpinIt.html

Keep you posted after my break 😛

Woohoo first signs of life :P

So, I thought I’d share my progress so far:

Here’s a link to the web version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73205545/WebPlayer/SpinIt.html

So, you’re this weird-looking-ball-man-kung-fu-master with an awesome staff which you fancily spin around.

Your goal is to reach the end of the map (still working on a story :P) by tapping buttons as fast as you can while keeping as good a tempo as possible.

You can Run towards the end (“R”) if no enemies are nearby  or Spin your staff (“Space”) to defend yourself. These abilities can be chanelled for 10 seconds and then you have to wait 10 seconds before you can use them again.

If at any point an enemy reaches you, you have to Wrestle them (“W”) before your life (top left bar) runs out, and then you can continue as before. This also gives nearby enemies something to think about 😉

Really looking forward to some hints / comments!! 😀

Finally, after a few missed meals, a moderate feeling of sleep deprivation and some light halucinations, my first Ludum Dare challenge has come to an end – it was a great experience and I’m already looking forward to the next one!
In these 48 hours I decided to use Unity3D to “narrate” the Legend of Jarrow – a young kung fu master that suffered a terrible curse of exhaustion by his former teacher.

As the name states, it weakened our hero so that everything he does – be it fighting, wrestling or even walking – requires his complete focus, yet he can’t focus on one action for more than 10 seconds without exhausting his muscles – and then he has to wait another 10 before using the same muscles again!

The game is played by tapping R (Run) to progress, Space (Spin) to defend yourself or W (Wrestle) when things get tough. Oh and it’s not just about speed it’s also about keeping a tempo between your key strokes!

The 10 second cooldown / duration mechanic turned out very different than what I expected and it did add a sort of unique feeling!

Feel free to give it a shot 😀
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=25993

Hope you all managed to ” finish” your games (a.k.a. hope you’re happy with your progress 😉 ).

Comments are much appreciated!!

Enjoy 😀
~ Konstantinos

Hello boys & girls,

as many before me I decided to throw in my two cents about the compo.  A small spoiler before I start – this was fucking awesome!

So, this was the first time I took part in a Ludum Dare and I must say I’m really disappointed that I’m gonna have to wait another 3 months to do this again 😉

The entire experience was epic – from the hectic schedule, to sleep-deprived coding and the last minute heart attacks induced by game-breaking bugs you found but can’t wrap your tired brain around. I think I lived off of bananas & energy bars on Saturday and forgot to eat on Sunday >_<

The first “Thumbs Up” comments I got made it all worthwhile though 😀

Without further adue, here’s how it went for me:

• The Ups:

Well first of all, the process of making a game, from start to fin.. *cough* a working demo, as you all know, is very rewarding in itself

Also, as with any Game Jam, it put pressure on me as a whole – from my skills, to my ideas, to planning, performing under stress and even taking some very hard decisions what to let go and what to work on till the very end so I can say I pushed my limits which is always accompanied by the liberating feeling of “Hell yeah, you’re the man!” (I’m sure you ladies out there can relate :P)

• The Downs:

Uhm, nope no downs, everything went according to plan and the game is already making millions..

.

.

ok ok, maybe that’s not entirely true Planning was ok overall, but I underestimated the time it would take to animate the entire storyline – the game is like a pre-recorded movie that you control yourself, and so I was left without time for proper fine tuning which led to a few mental breakdowns from “Fuck, I’m so not gonna make this…” and “Come on code, you’re a good fella, you can debug yourself.. pretty please?” to begging, threatening and physically abusing the computer until it finally worked.

• Thoughts:

To all of you that made it: Kudos, you guys are awesome and I can’t wait to try as many of your games as possible! And to those of you who didn’t, well, I know the feeling but don’t let it eat you up – it was more likely than not a great experience and I’m sure you can make something of it

• Wrapping it up..

I leave you with a short timelapse in pictures :

– Model creation .gif – and yeah, I use the term Model quite loosely 😉

– Proof of concept – Check 😉

– Versions 0.1 and 0.2

– And the final export

If you wanna try the game, here it goes:

Click to play!    (Opens in a new tab)

Hope you all had as much fun as I did and I’ll see you guys & girls in 3 months 😉

Ciao,

~Konstantinos