Taking into account the fact that I've had more past papers than you can torch and other last minute GCSE revision to do, I'm pretty impressed with how it's going for me. I mean, OK, it's probably not the most exciting idea, but I don't have time to come up with enything else.

So what is it? Your in a 7x7 world, and you need to pick up the water and use it, along with your money, to make factories, which give you money for a short while before being automatically destroyed. Collected water and destroyed factories replace the previous tile with useless dirt, which can't be harvested or built on, and this takes up to 4 minutes to return to what it was before.

So basically, you need to build enough factories to pay your $2/second rent without destroying the world, which would cost you a lot. On the up side, you can mine rocks for $1/25 clicks...

The controls I've settled for are incredibly simple: arrow keys to move, space key to pick up water, place factories or mine rock, depending on which tiles you're stood on.

So, yeah, not the most exciting thing, but with no end goal, it gives you the opportunity to see how long you can run your own not very eco friendly world, and if nothing else it's a bit of an eye-opener.

All that's left now is music, and the game will be primarily finished. It'll need a bit of polishing - extra Mechanics? Better Graphics? Leader boards? - but that'll, sadly, have to come second to GCSEs.

All that said, it's been a good first Ludum Dare so far and, regardless of how this one goes, I will definitely be returning in the Summer for another, more dedicated stab at it.

Have a good one,

~Wolfie

Considering I only have an hour or so to work on my game today, I think major changed and the compo are out of the question. Regardless, I have a few plans and tweaks in mind.

Firstly, I'll be limiting your water holding ability to just 3 litres. This essentially makes the damage to your world more concerning and long-lasting.

I'll also be adding some sort of points system. Right now, there is no way to measure your performance, so a scoring system and few trials runs should do the trick.

Next, since there is no audio, I'd like to add some music and sound effects. I'm thinking of having a piece of music for the game, and one for the menus, and to save time for one of these I've settled on a track I've already written for my Music GCSE.

The only other problems are the two bugs im experiencing. One is that sometimes, dirt tiles regenerate waaayyy to quickly, AND they fail to reset their worldData value, so they are forever broken. The other one, is that the worldData doesn't seem to setup correctly when you restart for a second or third time etc., but that should be easily fixed by clearing the worldData array prior to generating the world each time, to ensure that the fresh data is used.

OK, so the plans are qunited minimalistic, but I've got a lot of work to be doing outside of Ludum Dare, so I think the plans are reasonable.

Good luck Everyone!

~Wolfie

This'll be a quick one-

Thanks to a couple of friends, I think we have some the best used and unused SFX assets that exist. Not because they're good, but that's what makes the funny. So huge thanks to them for giving me and good laugh!

Good luck Jammer!

~Wolfie

OK! It's done! It's finished. That's ignoring the few pesky bugs, of course. That said, they're not too much of a problem as they seem quite rare... and I hope they stick that way.

I'm happy how everything has turned out really, considering I have only been able to work on it for 3 hours or so due to school, school work and GCSE revision.

All in all it's been a fun experience, and I look forward to returning to have a better go in the Summer.

Good luck to those still busying away!

~Wolfie

With just under 30 hours to go, I've decided the Ludum Dare 39 will be my second Ludum Dare. Why? I still don't know.

Looking back on my last LD attempt, I think I let my rather amateurish and, how can I put this other than this, dreadful artwork (something that I had expected to be a mildly "under par", if I'm trying to be optimistic) get be down, so, having seen some of the remaining themes, I'm feeling hopeful that focusing on the Music and a Story might be enough to make this one a bit better than the last.

Having taken a look at the current themes I can see, I've had a few basic thoughts for any plots and their quality... varies, shall we say, so I can only hope that the music can more than make up for any "let-downs".

If there was only one thing I would still be slightly pessimistic about going into this is that I'm working alone on it. I'm rather disappointed that, knowing many friends you are very good at art and programming, I've been unable to rope anyone into creating a team. I don't think this'll be too much of a hindrance, since every other game I've made (bar one) I've done along (not that any of them have been finished or published...) (That said, I'm looking into joining a team over on CrowdForge, so this may not be a permanent issue!)

Looks like we'll just have to wait and see what this LD roller coaster has in store for us on Saturday.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! ~Wolfie @Infinite8Games (Twitter)

With exactly three hours before the Jam starts, as I write this, I'm glad to say that I won't be doing my second Ludum Dare alone.

After joining a team on CrowdForge.io (go there if you need teammates) we've finally got roles and a pre-jam plan sorted, and all seems good... well, the fact that I'm the only one who has no idea how to use RPG Maker VM - the tool we're going to be using - is slightly unnerving, but I think I'll manage to get away without, seeing as I'm going to be focussing on the audio.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! ~Wolfie @Infinite8Games (Twitter)

Having joined a team for this jam, I had the luxury of finishing about 5 hours before the end... and that was after a 2 hour break I'd had earlier today!

I've loved writing the music for our game, and can only wish the best of luck to my teammates, who are still busying away with various last-minute tasks and bug fixes.

So, to everyone else making full use of the final two hours... GOOD LUCK!!!

This is the first morning I've woken up with nothing to do... and it feels great!

I've loved working with EnigmaDragons ( @silas-reinagel , @noah-reinagel , @caleb-reinagel and @timeracers ), writing what ended up being a fifteen minute soundtrack.

This Ludum Dare was the first time I got to experience working solely on the music, and, being a studying composer, it's been really useful; I'll definitely do a similar thing in a future jam!

My favourite part, though, was naming the pieces. Whilst I may have uploaded them with logical names, like "GarethsTheme", I was having a great time burying their true names in the meta tags, my favourite being "Hero? More like here-go", as cringe-worthy as it may be.

Now I'm just looking forward to playing some games!

Well done everyone!

~Wolfie

This Ludum Dare has been my favourite so far, with many firsts for me, but I want to take this time now to look back on the experience, and ask myself a few important questions.

1) Have I enjoyed the experience? Yes - it's been my favourite of the two I've participated in, in my opinion, because, unlike last time, I worked in a team, and focused solely on the music, rather than trying to do everything.

2) Am I happy with the outcome of my work? In this case, I feel like all the work I did was to the best of my ability, and am particularly proud of the fifteen minute soundtrack I managed (somehow) to get done in the 72 hours.

and finally, 3) Would I change anything next time around? I will, obviously be back again next time - how could I say no to such a great experience? However, I would probably alter just one thing - my team. I'm not saying the team I was with this time were bad - they were all very nice, highly skilled individuals, but, as a studying composer looking to follow a career in music composition (especially in games and film), I'd like to experience working with new people and, as far as is possible, I'd like to work with a new team in every Ludum Dare I may partake in in the future.

So, I think this just about does it from me this time around - See you all again in LD40! ~Wolfie

With this being my first PROPER Ludum Dare, I was hoping for a top 250 finish in the audio category (my responsibility), and am more than happy the 264th I eventually achieved in this, regardless of just missing out on my target - as a sixteen year-old student, I feel that this is definitely a result I should be proud of.

With that in mind, I look forward to returning in December for LDJam 40, with a fresh team, theme and target - 263rd!

Well done to everyone who took part and, regardless of your result, you have made something you should all be proud of, and happy to call yours!

See you next time! ~Wolfie @ OliSimpson2001 (Twitter)

I'm back and looking forward to my 3rd Ludum Dare and I can't wait.

Last time was my first time in a team, and I loved solely focusing on the music, rather than being put off by my (very!) limited coding and art capabilities.

This time, I hope, like last time, I'll be in a team and so will be spending the next week or so looking to form a team either directly through this website or through crowdforge.io/jams/ludumdare

Good luck everyone! ~Wolfie

Phew! I've been working on the music for our project now for about 9 hours and plenty of progress have been made.

Unlike last jam, this time we'd like the music to transition smoothly from one to another due the nature of our game, so a lot of time was coming up with a good rhythm to use for this. So far, I've written about 4 minutes of a soundtrack which I hope will eventually be about 12 and a half minutes long, so I'm a little behind schedule, but considering the time taken to get a decent rhythm to transition with, as I've mentioned, I'm happy with the progress.

I am concerned, however, that I don't have a full day to work tomorrow or on the last day (only a few hours on the last day) so I'm aware that from now until whenever I stop in about fifteen minutes, and for the remainder of the jam I'm working as hard as I can and that I'm entirely focused.

With that said, I'd better get back to it.

Good luck everyone! ~Wolfie

Having had only three or four hours to get stuff done today, I'm very pleased with the progress.

I've fully finished and polished the main theme, and finished three other pieces. That means all I have to do tomorrow is finish the fifth piece and polish the four that are yet to be polished. Unfortunately, I'll only have one or two hours to do this, so if it means the pieces have to be a little less polished that I'd have liked, then that'll sadly have to be the case.

Regardless, I'm happy with how the jam is going, and I wish the best of luck to everyone (especially those entering the compo - I have no idea how you guys and gals do it!)

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!