Connecting LD30 to the Real World by Will Edwards
( FOLKS, I'VE SWITCHED THE SERVER OFF NOW! SORRY, BUT I CAN'T KEEP IT SCRAPING AND HITTING THE LD SITE INDEFINITELY :( THX TO EVERYONE WHO USED AND LIKED THIS GAME! )
REAL WORLD <-- connected --> VIRTUAL WORLD
Use arrow keys to pan, and + and - to zoom or use scroll wheel.
(**** Due to an interesting browser compatibility issue, the scroll wheel may be inverted for non-Mac users. Weird! Live with it ;) ****)
View and play Ludum Dare 30 games whilst exploring a nicely illustrated world map!
I track the games you comment on, and the players who comment on your game. I use this information to expose more and more of the underlying map to you.
(I scrape the LD website and don't want to to put too much load on it, so I'm not scraping very often. Rather than be impatient, go play and rate a few games and come back to see how the map progresses!)
I hope you find it fun, pretty and pretty useful!
Special thanks to Wombatica, who contributed some of the cool map illustrations. Its really worth pretending you live in some far-flung part of the world e.g. India in order to expose his handwork *hint* *hint* *cough* *splutter*!
REAL WORLD <-- connected --> VIRTUAL WORLD
Use arrow keys to pan, and + and - to zoom or use scroll wheel.
(**** Due to an interesting browser compatibility issue, the scroll wheel may be inverted for non-Mac users. Weird! Live with it ;) ****)
View and play Ludum Dare 30 games whilst exploring a nicely illustrated world map!
I track the games you comment on, and the players who comment on your game. I use this information to expose more and more of the underlying map to you.
(I scrape the LD website and don't want to to put too much load on it, so I'm not scraping very often. Rather than be impatient, go play and rate a few games and come back to see how the map progresses!)
I hope you find it fun, pretty and pretty useful!
Special thanks to Wombatica, who contributed some of the cool map illustrations. Its really worth pretending you live in some far-flung part of the world e.g. India in order to expose his handwork *hint* *hint* *cough* *splutter*!
Ratings
| Coolness | 93% | 2 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.76 | 80 |
| Audio(Jam) | 1.52 | 652 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.14 | 318 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.05 | 509 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.94 | 195 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 4.60 | 2 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.06 | 395 |
| Theme(Jam) | 4.42 | 4 |
Thumbs up for innovation/originality!
Two usability comments:
1- For some reason, scroll wheel up zooms in the map and scroll wheel down zooms out the map - it feels like it should be the other way around.
2- Also you cannot drag the map around, only click to move it, which is a bit unintuitive.
But super awesome idea, have all my stars!
thank you.
(I needed to disable HTTPS Everywhere on GitHub, just for people for whom it doesn't work properly).
I'm gonna use it to play other games. By the way, I was located in Paris but I'm not there (I'm in Nantes), dunno if it's a bug or not. Well done!
Nice to see where other members are located.
Awesome job and thanks for encourage people to vote more!
Great work, I'll to be come back to play it and also I'm gonna check the source!
I like the 'capital of Iceland' joke, but you should move it slightly NW to my pin - that's where the actual capital is :)
Navigation on the map is little bit weird but I like the idea very much.
...and I see that we are 3 guys in the Czech Republic! :D
in my opinion was the game that best fit the theme
The interface could be improved if you went for a 'click-and-drag' sort of map rather than a 'click-to-move-here' kind of map. Also it would be nice if you could set your own location a bit more precisely.
Very nice idea. I can't actually see my name on the map where it's highlighted, but I suppose that's because I overlap with another user.
I'll be keeping this one up in a tab during the voting period. I've found several interesting games by trying to fill blank spaces of the map already!
-Flatgub <3
I can't use it at work because of a proxy, but it's okay at my home. It's a very useful tool to discover other entries, for example lost in the middle of nowhere.
What a pity all entries at the same place are superimposed on the same arrow button. Good work!
Anssi@MooseflyGames
Also, thank you for sharing all that cool stuff too! And sorry my bad english ^^
#element {
color: white;
text-shadow: -1px 0 black, 0 1px black, 1px 0 black, 0 -1px black;
}
Great game anyway! Top score in almost everything! :D
Lets see what it gives at the end of LD =)
Safari, Yosemite, OSX
Could some people move over to the oceans so that players would be able to get full map coverage, please? ^^"
...or there is such an option, and I somehow miss it? >.<
It would be awesome to be able to check this every LudumDare.
Great work!
(yes, I'd really like to see how the whole world looks like...)
Originally I was going to build a Risk-gsme using real locations, but infrastructure e.g. scrapers and servers took longer than I budgeted and I couldn't invent a fair feeling ruleset.
So it turned into this :). There is a long list of possible improvements and further games, and if approached by the LD organisers I could do a fancy version with decent scrolling etc and bells and whistles for general use for next LD.
Just look at the number of comments on this page that are only a few words! "wow", "awesome", "great", "this is cool" might be good ego boosts, but they are not constructive critisism. There is only a few people adressing the weird control with the mouse, or the fact that you can't reveal the whole map.
Anyway, you get the top score in innovation and theme from me :)
Somehow the scroll is inverted, but doesn't matter that much.
Really cool stuff!
1- Remove all players so I can see the map in its glory
2- Filter players by has commentes/was commented by (so I only see the players I haven't commented yet, or vice versa).
Cheers, and again, fantastic entry.
Thanks!
Revealing the map is a nice incentive to try out games from different perspectives as well, more worldviews makes for more rounded individuals/game devs. Top notch.
For me it looked like you are super close to where I am, is that just the default or the weirdest coincidence(first pin I highlighted, haha)?
I like the brute force approach to which you implemented this!
Gamification of the gamification could include a 'road trip' mode where you have to connect two locations on the map. Or a strategy game where you somehow invade, occupy and conquer locations like Risk.
What I liked :
- Being able to know who made game near me a try more "local" games.
- Overall view of jamers positions in the world
- Right in the theme =)
What imo could be improved :
- UI Juiciness. Make button move or play sounds when the are pushed. Indicate more precisely what button is for what action. To sum up : get some reads about UI good practices. Even if you don't do much UI, it's always worth knowing UI good practice for game design inspiration because there are lot of connections between UI experience and game experience.
- Graphics. Hand drawing is ok but at least some anti-aliasing would help getting a smooth rendering.
- Not a real game experience, but I'm not sure it could be improved in this case because it's more a service than a game, and I appreciate that. Gamifying is hardly ever making a better product.
Overall I enjoyed your entry as a gate to other games, you really created connections, and for that, thank you =)
The intro reminded me onjames bond never say never again table game with largo.
I can only place the comments on the map for those who have told me their position. Currently about a third of players can be placed, and you commenting on their games will reveil on my map.
It's an interesting take on the topic with a twist that amaze me how creative the LD community can be. It's a clever and brilliant idea.
Actually it lack of some score... ;)
Next time i will play to game of people near me.. that's really funny to imagine that someone is nearer than you think.
Best jam!
I can't see any pins, just the blue background. The red section disappears after "I admit it." and "Cool! Let's Play!", but never gives me a login window, or the three icons in the screenshot. (on both Chrome and Firefox on MacOSX; Safari doesn't even load the background)
Is it broken?
Do I have to comment here BEFORE playing in order to unlock the login window?
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at ws://31.192.226.244:28283/ws-ld30. websocket.js:6
"websocket" "ws://31.192.226.244:28283/ws-ld30" "encountered an error:" error { target: WebSocket, eventPhase: 0, bubbles: false, cancelable: false, defaultPrevented: false, timeStamp: 1410802454997684, originalTarget: WebSocket, explicitOriginalTarget: WebSocket, isTrusted: true, NONE: 0, CAPTURING_PHASE: 1 } websocket.js:32
"websocket" "ws://31.192.226.244:28283/ws-ld30" "closed"