Finally, after a frustrating night of trying to submit this game, IT'S HERE! :smiley:
While crying hysterically he screams: “WHERE ARE YOU BABY?!” , not knowing his tears would come to harm him. A platformer with a twist. An electric plug in search of it’s lover.
YOU CAN PLAY IT NOW: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/electric-lovers-1
While crying hysterically he screams: “WHERE ARE YOU BABY?!” , not knowing his tears would come to harm him.
A platformer with a twist. An electric plug in search of it’s lover. :heart:
YOU CAN PLAY IT NOW: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/electric-lovers-1
So yeah, the event will start at 3AM where I live... So I will be working on it from tomorrow morning, which I lose a bit of time by doing, but also gaining sleep ^^. I also made the great decision to go out with friends tonight. RIP tomorrow, good luck everyone!
Yep, it's official: I shouldn't have gone out last night, I've now waken up with a pounding head. It got me thinking: that would make for a great game though. The more alcohol you consume, the worse your hangover gets :P
So yeah, finally the map is done. Time to start coding the main mechanics... Yeah, I know I'm late you don't have to yell at me :c
The game is done and I can finally have some rest ^.^ It was a challenging weekend, but I managed to put something out there that I'm quite happy with.
You can play it here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/$54310
So it's already been quite a few hours since I finished my LDJAM40 game 'Untouched'. I thought I'd do a postmortem! :skull_crossbones:
Play it here if you haven't yet: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/untouched
What didn’t go well
I hadn’t specifically freed up much time this weekend. Where I live there was a holiday this weekend, so I also had to split my time between prepairing for that and building a game. It just felt like in general I didn’t really prioritize the game-jam enough this Ludum Dare.
The jam starts at 3 AM here in Europe. Usually I would’ve gotten some good sleep and set the alarm for 5 AM to start working, but this time was different. I decided to meet up with some friends the night before and it had gotten pretty late: I got home just when the jam began. The next morning I woke up terrible un-rested and with a mild headache. This whole thing definitely killed my motivation to start working on the game.
I didn’t spend enough time brainstorming ideas, and got stuck fairly quickly (as so many people do). I had wasted too much time to be taking a break so I could think up a better idea later: instead I just went with the first manageable thing I could think of. This lead to a game that is OK in theory, but kind of MEH-like in practise. I’m sure there is potential to make this a great game, but just not with the way the current mechanics work.
The whole experience was supposed to be relaxing. You were supposed to zone-out to the easy mechanics, the mellow visuals and the soothing music. There were two problems with that: 1. The mechanics might be easy: but the gameplay still happens too fast and abruptly to actually be relaxing. Also there is no fail- or winstate yet. 2. There just plain isn’t music, or any sound effects for that matter. This is a real shame in my opinion, since that would have added a whole new dimension to the experience.
And last but not least, I put all my eggs in the ‘aesthetics’ basket, which is why I didn’t spend enough time actually fletching out the main mechanics of the game. I am way too perfectionistic, which is NOT a good thing during a game-jam.
What went well
I managed to create a visually pleasing game while still keeping everything fairly minimal – which was the goal (the opposite of the more you have the worse it is). The island feels like it’s a miniature diorama and I love it for it.
For the amount of trees that you see in the scene at once, it’s fairly optimized! I think there are around 1300 trees that the player could potentially see at a time, which could definitely choke up less-great PC’s, but for anyone with a decent graphics card, it runs pretty well. I accomplished this by making LODs for every tree in the scene, so when the camera moves away from them, they get (unnoticeably) less detailed, which lightens the load on the PC.
I spent some time doing actual animations. They are subtle, but help to bring the world alive. The water calmly moves up and down, and buildings can rise from the ground, as well as fall down when struck with a hammer.
I spent a whole day just coding the camera. It still doesn’t feel perfect, but it’s a lot closer to what I imagined it being than I would have expected. The second day however was where the really heavy lifting was done. All mechanics that AREN’T the camera, were coded on that day (Including the spawning of trees, the buildings that deal damage to the environment and the tools that the player can use).
I was way more confident in my ability to code ANYTHING (provided it’s in the scope of 48 hours). Of course, this might not be entirely true, but I do feel like my ability to program games gets better and better with every project I finish. It worked out for me during the building of this game!
What achievements was I proud of?
The fact that every tree is randomly placed, avoiding water. I once did a project where I placed hundreds of trees by hand, which took up days. The fact that I coded a script that spreads trees around the map, avoiding water saved me a HUGE amount of time.
The calm atmosphere I created purely through visuals. Although the gameplay doesn’t compliment that atmophere yet, that is something that can be changed.
I’m also really happy with the fact that I actually finished a playable prototype within the 48 hours of the compo. I didn’t have the best weekend and my time wasn’t spent too well, but my biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to deliver anything at all, which luckily didn’t happen!
I’m also really happy with the amount of new things I’ve learnt about game development. Game-jams force you to just look up new information for stuff you need, and it definitely works really well for me. I’ve learnt new stuff that I was actually quite afraid of before, because I thought that it was too hard.
What of the things that didn’t go well was preventable, and how would you prevent it next time? Next time I’ll mainly try to get good sleep during the whole event. That definitely has a great impact on my productivity.
I’ll also try to reserve my whole weekend just for the jam. Preferably I’d like to work the greatest deal of 48 hours (and maybe sleep a bit, we’ll see :smile:).
I should also plan to spend at least a few hours to let the theme sink in and come up with a great idea. The initial idea is super important and if it’s really mediocre, then that definitely impacts your motivation.
What new skills have you learned in the course of the jam?
I learned how to use LODs (low object detail) models to increase performance. This really helped with the performance, seeing as it’s possible for the camera to see more than 1000 trees at a time!
I also learned about custom cursors and how to make a script that changes them based on events that happen. I can only begin to imagine the possibilities that brings!
I learned how to code a fully fletched 360 degrees camera system that includes: panning, rotating and smooth zooming. This needed some creative ways of using child objects as different moving parts of the camera, but it works very well!
What new skills do you want to learn for next time? In what area do you want to improve?
I’d love to be able to make sounds and music for my games. I never dabbled with audio- and music creation software, but it’s quite a crucial part of making games. Seeing as many programmers manage to get into the basics fairly quickly, I am confident that I would be able to do so too.
I’d also love to learn a lot more about the GUI system that’s build into Unity. I never got around to building menu UI for my previous projects, and as such I have never looked up the information needed to build anything interactive in this way.
Anything helpful that you learned that may seem obvious to you but could help others?
Thanks for reading! I know this post is long, but it's mainly for future-me. This game is still work in progress, so I'll keep working at it!
Wanna calm down after a long days work?
Go play this relaxing game in which you protect a happy peaceful environment!
You don't find it relaxing you say? Please leave me some feedback telling me why! :smile:
So I'm doing a schoolproject where I need to research how to make a stress-relieving game but I need FEEDBACK
I made this game as a hybrid between the theme and my research-proposal, but I need more user input:
Play: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/untouched
Thanks in advance guys
Thanks so, so much everyone that voted! My game will now get a score :D
Who needs a little help getting their game out there? I'd be glad to play some games tonight, just post them!
If you haven't played my game yet, do it now!: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/untouched
I hope you're all warmed up, because after stealing all this money you'll run like you've never ran before :wink:
Pretty pleased with the progress so far, only started yesterday night, hope I can make it!
Finally got some enemy models done, 'AI' (as far as you can call it that) is done too. Let's eat and get to building level pieces and building the main game. Probably won't get all of it done today though... Might have to join the jam :cry:
Go grab that cash and make a run for it! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/$101422
Go grab that cash and make a run for it! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/$101422
I'm around 14/20 votes, I'd love some more people playing this, I'll rate yours of course! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/$101422
Can you make it to the getaway car before it leaves??
Who wants the honor of getting me into the rating system AND doing a heist at the same time?! :smile: :moneywithwings:
PLAY IT HERE https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/$101422
Started extremely late, but I'm working my ass of to make this into something fun. It's going to be a puzzle game about bouncing on trampolines :D
They're just too cute :c
I always forget a little tutorial, which leads to people not having a clue what to do.
NOT THIS TIME! hehe
After furiously building and coding, I'm finally at the stage where I can put everything together and build some nice levels. Let's give a cheer for the final push!