Not this time, unfortunately. However, there’s a tiny chance I will be around Sunday to hack something together. If that’s the case, here’s probably what I’ll use:
-Game Maker
-Paint.NET
-SFXR, BFXR, or one of those…and Audacity
Good luck everyone, can’t wait to see what you all come up with!
Made some great progress tonight. Got all the core interactions working. Still lots to do, but I think this might turn out to be a playable thing by Sunday night.
Hooray!
Made some really good progress today. Gameplay and story are coming together well, I think.
Tomorrow is going to be a mad rush to get gameplay flow code done and textures and sounds in. Oh dear.
I got my game finished, but not as finished as I wanted (he said, with an obvious tone) 
Overall, I am super happy with the game. The textures are minimal (really, very), but the audio turned out okay, and the game is pretty neat and fun I think (I had fun while playtesting).
Give it a play right over here.
Post Mortem, Timelapse, and hand written notes coming tomorrow or so.
*falls asleep at keyboard*
I am in the middle of re-organizing things so my office (and PC, etc.) are in boxes. I will be working on my 7 yr old laptop.
My goal is to keep the scope really small since I don’t have the full weekend. Design constraints so far are (probably) a single screen game that can be played on a low res monitor using keyboard and mouse. A point/click puzzle/adventure/something game maybe. We’ll see what the theme yields.
First evening/night is winding down, as my brain is entering “useless mush” mode.
I have an idea, and am fairly committed to doing it. It’s kind of abstract I guess, and I don’t feel super confident the end result will be very good. Oh well, that’s half the fun!
Finished adding a bit of game logic with consequences, and suddenly I have to actually play the game when testing. Getting there!
My game is kind of shaping into something playable. I don’t think it’s going to be fun, but that really wasn’t my goal with this idea. I’ve got a trend chart and some other bells and whistles. Hoping to round out the look and feel tonight and tomorrow. I think proper artwork will help a lot.
My game is getting there in terms of rules and gameplay. However, I still need to do mostly all the graphics and try some sounds (although I have more or less decided on sfxr/bfxr style).
I added some randomized events that impact game play, including a bribe based boost system that allows the player to boost sales if they can pay off the reporters from the New Roman Times (har).
The paper also spins at the camera in style. That’s the most fun feature so far for me
Welp, I am about out of time, and have not started sounds. My plan was to just use SFXR anyway, so I guess people will just have to listen to music while playing, or enjoy the silence
50 mins to go! 😀
Got some great feedback so far, and have implemented a bunch of changes. Some of them aren’t 100% tuned yet, but it’s getting there. Thanks to everyone who has played and given feedback so far!
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=7424
(original for ratings, and post-compo version linked for future enjoyment :))
Getting excited for the compo 😀
Will be using the standard fare from my laptop, as my desktop is still packed away:
My main focus is to make something simple, but well designed, and hopefully complete feeling. I want to keep the scope as small as possible and deliver something interesting.
Good luck, all! Let’s hope the theme isn’t Christmas related!
In order above:
I chose a palette of 6 colors to keep things really basic. Seems to be working so far. Time for some mental relaxation time then on to tomorrow’s marathon coding session!
Hope your jams are going well!
Here are some things I’ve noticed when playing/rating some games:
Keep these in mind when submitting your game. I hope this was a helpful reminder
What went well
The color palette and general look and feel. The UI feels nice, and the style feels consistent to me.
The graphics in each scene are simple but effective enough. I am especially happy with the police car animation (above). It was a total hack using rotation, so I got away with one sprite, with flashing light pattern, and just moved and rotated it.
What didn’t go well
I didn’t leave enough time to make the “meter” mechanic as tuned as it needed to be. Currently, it is a bit too hard, especially on the first go. It is punishing, which is frustrating. However, the thing I really struggled with was the intentional difficulty. I want the game to be hard. I want it to be a little frustrating. But, I wanted it to be less frustrating than it is. Not “winnable” or “beatable”, but also not so hard that people want to stop playing.
“Tennis Serve“: I played with the idea of a “tennis serve” style introduction to the meter mechanic. By this I mean the first time you see the meter on the level, it sloooowly starts dropping, then increases in speed until its max speed. By that time, you could get your bearings and understand the level a bit. Picture a tennis serve: The opponent tosses the ball in the air and winds up, but you know what is coming your way – the ball – at high speed. I didn’t implement this, as with the other ideas, I wasn’t sure how to make it “not too easy”, which would defeat the purpose and message of the game.
Outcome Text strings: I left these to the end, and shouldn’t have. My original intention was to have a dynamic set of text that was specific to the outcome of the game. I wanted more diversity in tone while maintaining variety (for each outcome combination), without adding too much work. It turns out this is more complicated than I thought, and I couldn’t finish. So, I reverted to a more bloated set of strings with more straightforward logic. On the upside, I demonstrated to myself the honed skill of determining when I have enough time to do something and when I don’t
Summary
Overall, the feedback so far is about what I expected. Some people seem to get it, which makes me happy. All things considered, this feels like my best entry to date. It feels concise and cohesive.
Check it out if you’re keen:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=7424
Thanks for playing!
I am just not feeling it this time. Good luck everyone, excited to play your games!
Probably going to do the Compo, and likely use:
Woo, let’s game jam!
Pictured below is the tight little test factory setup for testing. Also kept my raycast range to infinity to I can quickly play test with just the mouse (no WASD)
Some progress so far on the main game loop. I have my main machine state working, buttons can be presed, objects can be wrangled. Might call it a night at get back at it tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow’s plan: finish all core loops and object mechanisms, prepare grey box layout of level, and event triggers. Sunday tentative plans are for textured 3d models, sounds, a main menu, and adjustable mouse sensitivity.
So I guess I got a second wind, because it’s 3 hours on and I’m posting another update.
Forward progress! Woo
I got a lot done today. All systems working, and got to some model and texture work too.
I have to resist falling into a texture/model trap tomorrow, and finish the game rounds logic, and scoring.