I had so much fun working on D_Sync this past weekend and I decided I'm going to fully flesh out this game and release it on Android. I'm going to try to add more mechanics that will be based off of time travel, like puzzle elements that require you to travel back in time at critical moments to progress.
Anyways I'm going to keep monitoring feedback and use it to make the best game I can!
Game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/d-sync
Boy was this a fun Ludum Dare, I got together with my artist this time instead of working over the internet, and that made a huge difference! I thought I'd end up waiting at least till the weekend before I began to work on it again though, but I just couldn't wait even after a long day at work. First thing I have to do is untangle all the spaghetti I created this weekend so that I have a nice clean start.
Play it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/happy-harvest
The jam was fun, this time we managed to plan the entire game the first night rather then our usual "get a rough idea and just refine it as we go". We've been thinking about ways to expand this idea so that we could make a full game and release it, let us know of any cool ideas!
You can play it below:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fowl-goods
What an unusual jam? For once we actually went from idea to game without making any major compromises to meet the deadline. With two hours to go I sat there debating on which "stretch goals" to work on, something I've never done in Ludum Dare. The last couple hours is usually where I got into panic attack mode as I start to try to make the game actually playable. Anyways it was a blast and I'm looking forward for the next LD!
Hope you enjoy our game!
I can't believe I've participated 7 times already, it feels like I just did my first one recently. With each attempt I can feel my progress as a game developer improve. Now each LD has different challenges, but there are a few common ones which I have learned to deal with. Some of these may seem obvious, but I want to stress how important they are.
The idea
Try to choose an idea as soon as possible and stick to it. Now you do want to make sure you put some proper thought into the idea as this is what your game is going to be, hell I generally I toss out my first few 'original' ideas as it usally turns out they aren't so original as I thought after I play some of the other submissions. But you also don't want to spend too much time trying to find the perfect idea, time is a precious commodity during LD. One thing I find I have to actively suppress is thoughts of "You know what would be cool..." while I still haven't gotten close to finishing the original idea. The games that tend to have the best score are the ones that focus around 1 simple idea, but are really well polished.
The tools
In my first LD I used libGDX and wrote almost everything from the ground up. It was satisfying to finish but the quality was nowhere near a lot of the other attempts. This was when I gave in and decided to try Unity, and I haven't gone back since. Unity handles a lot of the boilerplate stuff as well as provides the foundation for a lot of other functionality and let's you jump straight into the game making process. If writing from scratch or using minimal frameworks is your thing then go for it, Ludum Dare is supposed to be fun, but if you haven't tried an engine such as unity or unreal before I say give it a shot at least once. I can't stress how much it helps in a game jam.
The most important thing though, is tool familiarity. I did my second LD with Unity while I was still new to it, so I wasted a ton of time trying to figure out basic stuff which cut into the limited time we had. It helps a lot to practice your tools outside of LD so that when you participate you can focus more on the game jam less on the tools themselves.
Reuse you logic
This applies to all of programming in general, but you can take stuff you've made and change it a little to add more variety to your game. For example we have some fireflies in our game to gently lead you through the levels. The end screen felt like it lacked a little pizzazz so I repurposed the fireflies, I gave them a random color and applies some gravity and some random noise to make confetti. It took a few seconds yet I felt like it really helped with the end screen.
Don't try to optimize your game
This sounds kinda weird but hear me out. Unless your game actually has some performance issues don't worry about trying to write the perfect code. These games tend to me small, so don't worry about avoiding anti-patterns such as singletons, just make sure your game gets finished and works well enough. Yes this can introduce troublesome bugs that might be a chore to fix on time but because these games are small it's usually easy to fix or find some workaround but more importantly a buggy game is better then an unfinished game.
Hope this info is useful to some of you! Also if you haven't checked out our game yet... We're in the process of adding more levels and improving the overall feel of the game so we would love any feedback!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/it-came-from-below
Had to scrap an entire days worth of work because the original idea didn't work but I somehow managed to pull through with a new idea! Played a couple games, looking forward to play more tomorrow after my brain stops being mush.
Come play it here, it's HTML so no download necessary https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/loopy-orbits
After some thoughts and reading comments it does seem like it could be a fun simple mobile game. Wondering what else I can add to make it more fun/challenging without changing the core game. Looking for fun ideas!
If you're looking for a quick and easy game then come check out Loopy Orbits!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/loopy-orbits
I build the project to target Android now, so if you want to try it on mobile go ahead and check it out! it works pretty good with the touch controls.
As usual this was a fun time, another Ludum Dare to put in the vault of good experiences. First time doing a game that's not pixel based and we must say that we love it!
Hope y'all had fun, anyways, you can play our game here, we have HTML5 https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/bun-ker-buster
Try to save as many of the rabbits friends from a nuclear disaster by bringing them to the bunker. The controls are simple, just use the WASD or arrow keys to dash. Make sure to hold the keys down to keep travelling in the pressed direction. Some blocks need multiple hits to break while the purple ones can't be broken.
HTML5:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/bun-ker-buster
In the past we have only done 2D games, we decided to challenge ourselves with a 3D game and oohhh boy was it a challenge. It didn't help that our idea was ambitious, a puzzle game that would require a ton of assets. In the end we managed to finish it, but had to remove a lot of the original content we wanted(as usual for LD).
Anyways you can play our HTML 5 game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/topographagnosia
This is my second solo attempt. Gotta say, doing both graphics and programming is really tough to juggle priorities. Shame audio went out the window as I have no skill in that area, perhaps that should be something I focus on in the future.
Something else I really need to focus on is spending more time on the initial idea, I had to throw out 24 hours worth of work once I realized my first idea just wasn't going to work.
Finally balancing the game is an art I still have yet to master after all these LD, it's so easy to swing from too easy to too hard. Striking that sweet spot is something I should be trying to do earlier on and not leave words the last minute.
In case anyone is looking for an HTML game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/futile-fire-fighters
Phew, what a weekend, guys! As much as I like the challenge I'm glad it's finally over, and it's time to chill out and play some games. I've already tried a few, and seriously, they're amazing. So many creative minds out there – it's wild!
I know you guys love HTML5 games cause they're super easy to play, so I made sure to use WebGL for my own game. This way, you can enjoy it without needing to download anything.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/electron-odyssey
Hi everyone! I wanted to share my experience participating in the recent Ludum Dare game jam.
What Went Right
Normally I don't spend as much time on a level editor and instead hack together levels with the built in unity editor, however this time I made a fleshed out robust level editor inside of Unity.I was able to design this tool to quickly assemble levels by adding electronic components and making connections between them wherever I wanted. Despite being a programmer by trade, the 3D models turned out surprisingly well, which is a great achievement for me.
What Went Wrong
On the flip side, I ran into trouble with the circuit board mesh. I wanted it to have nice rounded corners, but when I created a mesh in Blender and imported it to Unity, the corners were inconsistent depending if the level was much wider or longer and would very between map sizes.
To fix this, I decided to create a circuit board mesh generator that would adjust the mesh based on the map size and desired corner size. I had some experience with generating meshes in the past, but this task took way more time than I anticipated. It was a clear case of the sunk cost fallacy, as I consistently felt like I was 20 minutes away from finishing, but it ended up consuming hours. I should have bailed earlier and just accepted the circuit board corners being a little iffy.
Conclusion Despite the challenges, participating in the Ludum Dare game jam was a valuable experience. As usual taught me a little bit more about time management and being careful about the tasks I take on, especially under tight deadlines. I look forward to applying these lessons in the next game jam!
Anyways I know a lot of you like playing HTML 5 games so I made sure to build it to play in the browser:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/electron-odyssey