Well, as I’ve been working on it throughout the week, I’ve been putting a lot more effort into it, and it’s been going way past the original 48hr game concept, hehe.
As such, I thought I’d post up a post-mortem on what went wrong in the 48 hours, and what went right.

The Good.

The theme was great. I love sandbox style games, be it sandbox in a “giant world to do as you please” sense, or even in a “here’s a puzzle, figure it out as you like” sense – as Little Quirks was to be. So that got the creative juices flowing, so to speak!

My concept was very simple – basically a Lemmings clone where they can crawl up and along walls and ceilings. The art was nice and simple too, fitting with the cute aesthetics as well.

The engine was in better shape than last time, after being used in another couple of projects since LD11 ( Plight of The Weedunks being one of the most well known – yes, this is basically the same engine, minus the 3D layer! ) and I got something up and running very quickly, and only took an hour to upgrade the engine to do dynamic colour replacement.

The Bad.

Hard drive hiccup. That wasn’t fun, especially seeing as I’ve just recently replaced one of them. Losing several hours of work is a killer, and more so when you’re in the middle of an SVN commit to an external server to try and avoid losing too much. Moral of the story, save and commit often!

Sound. Or lack thereof. I actually factored no time in for sound. This may have went against me if I had actually finished within the time limit. Something to be wary of for LD15; making time for everything is quite tough, but then that’s half the challange of Ludum Dare!

The Ugly.

Tilechecks are quick, and for the most part work very well. However, when there’s a lot of logic behind what your entities are doing (crawling around any side of a tile), those tilechecks quickly spiral out of control. I really should have been doing pixel checking with a hotspot being at the bottom of the sprite. Then again, I was able to get a ludicrous amount of them squirming around, with a full Lua-based state machine for each of them which a more expensive pixel check routine may not have allowed. A puzzle for sure as to what would’ve been better 😉

What Next?

It’s become apparant that there’s actually a bit of depth in this concept while I’ve been continuing it after work, and it’s been slowly going beyond just a 48hr game. I’ve decided to continue working on it on the run up to LD15, as it’ll let me see what my engine still requires, and fix some of the hideous bugs I’ve uncovered along the way.

I’ll still be releasing the game – source and all – when it’s done, and probably post it up here complete with final tag … more than likely 48 days after MiniLD11 rather than 48 hours 😉
The game was also designed for handhelds ( GP2X, Wiz, and Dingoo in particular – click for image – ) so you’ll probably see it on one of the sites for those hand helds when it’s done too

Tags: little quirks, post-mortem

Hey Ludum Darers!

Just a quick heads up: If you can’t contain your anticipation of this month’s coming LD, there are two opportunities to vent this weekend!

First up, RPGDX are holding a 48 hour contest, with the theme “Sidescrolling Mini-RPG“. It’s not a sub genre you see a lot of, so there’s bound to be lots of room to explore it! A few of you might remember the LoFi RPG contest earlier in the year, which went down quite well The rules are loose, and attempting to make an RPG in that kinda timeframe is a pretty interesting experience, to say the least. More information here!

Also, if you happen to have two hours free at midnight on saturday (GMT),  Glorious Trainwrecks host a rather cool monthly jam called Klik of the Month, which happens to fall this weekend. Klik and Play is the recommended development environment, but you can use anything you like – the only rule is that you finish whatever you’re working on in just two hours. More information on that here!

Personally, I’m planning to do both And can’t wait for Ludum Dare!

I finally got around to doing something I had been thinking about for a while — dumping all of my ludumdare code on a hosting site somewhere. You can find all the ld48 (and a few related contests) that I’ve participated in at:

ld48jovoc at Google Code

This has a branch for the compo versions and the post-compo versions (the trunk) of each project. Most of these are unchanged or have only minor edits (such as moving from plib to prmath).

Right now the build system needs a lot of work. About half of them build on linux, and you will need to tweak the project files a bit to build any of them on windows. As soon as I sort that out, and fix a few other things, I’ll make a release with some prebuilt binaries. But trust me, it’s not worth trying to build any of these at this point.

Non of these are finished games, they are pretty unplayable and incomplete. My favorites are BadFood, Railroad Merchant, Crossroads and The Wanderer. Which, oddly enough, also happen to be the least complicated game designs. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

The other reason I did this was in preparation for the next LD48. With this set up, I can check in code as I go, providing a more or less “live” update of my progress.We’ll see how it goes.

Also, I lost the code for my LD3 “Hannibal’s Cannibal’s”, which was not a very good game, but if anyone has a copy of the old LD3 entries, please email me.

Quote = ^DJ_Link^

Hi there. Just to share that http://www.theindiebay.com/competition will be having a competition in which you can use whatever framework you want

.
It’s a 48 hour competition in which you will be given a theme or topic to follow, the rest is up to you.

Hope to see you there

Competition#1 – 19 September

Looking over the rules here, I see that I’m supposed to declare my custom libraries ahead of time!

From the MiniLDs I’ve done, I’ve built up a little bit of a framework in Actionscript 3 that I think I’ll be using again for LD 15.

I’ve put it on Google code, so you can browse it online here or grab it from svn with something like this:

svn checkout http://meyermike.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ meyermike-read-only

It’s not too fancy, but it has been quite handy for the kinds of things I’ve been making lately.  I didn’t make any documentation for setting it up or using it yet, but if anyone is interested in using it, just let me know and I can do that.

Pretty much what the title says. It’s available at http://flixel.org/. It’s licensed under the MIT license, and it’s pretty fantastic, to be honest. I’ll likely also be using the broadphase collision culling grid I built which is available here: http://flixel.org/forums/index.php?topic=224.0

If all goes well, I should be able to participate in Ludum Dare 15. As with previous rounds that I have participated in, I will be using C/C++, OpenGL and SDL. I’m tinkering with the idea of using Box2D too, depending on if it fits whatever game idea I come up with. I’ll also be using a little framework code I put together to get started – just some technical stuff like SDL window initialization, input, texture loading, basic graphics code and such. During the other two Ludum Dare competitions in which I’ve participated (12 and 14), I learned a lot of useful things about rapid game development, so I have high hopes for the next one.

School unfortunately is starting the week before LD15 weekend… I just hope I don’t instantly get homework rushed. Depending on what kind of game I’m going to try to make, I’ll use one of two setups for my game:

Physics game or similar
ActionScript 3 in the Flash 3 IDE, using Box2DAS3. I’ve been meaning to try this out but haven’t got around to it.

Other
C++ in Code::Blocks, using a conglomeration of SDL, SDL_mixer, SDL_ttf, and my own code, PlatyGame. I’ve finally seen the miracle of version control, so I might put it on Google Code, but for now fetch it at http://apps.platymuus.com/programming/platygame/PlatyGame.zip. That’s not strictly the version I have right now but it will be within the next 24 hours or so when I get around to uploading it.

And I sure hope I have some clue as to what to do with the theme.

EDIT: Okay, finally uploaded current PlatyGame… if it explodes though, not my fault (also meaning I might change it in the middle of the compo)

Well, it’s not much of a press pack, but it certainly has a logo.

Under the bookmarks to your right, you’ll find a new link.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/logo-and-press-pack/

There you’ll find high resolution transparent PNG versions of the logo you now see at the top of the page.  Also a source PSP file for those few still living Paint Shop Pro users.

If there’s anything else like that you guys (and gals) want, let us know.  We’ll do what we can.

Tags: press

I would just like to pronounce my intent to participate in the upcoming ludumdare. Provided that this week does not turn into chaos, of course.

Having recently installed a trial version of Unity3D, i’ll be attempting to use it for the competition. Luckily the trial period lasts well beyond the weekend, so I should be covered there. Using this middleware will help me tremendously in both getting to create the gameplay faster, and (more) importantly actually making other people able to play with it. Both of these points have been very limiting factors for me in previous lds, so I hope that using Unity3D will make it much smoother

I’ve got it setup so that I can use Visual Studio for all code writing (seriously, auto-complete/intellisense is necessary to be efficient), and i’ll be using Photoshop/Blender for other asset creation.

Bring on the theme-voting!

Wee — LD15. Color me excited, or deep turquoise.

In the name of honesty, and because there’s been a flurry of this sort of activity of late, I thought I’d post a link to my framework code that (pending theme selection and noggin-bursting spasms of creativity) I’ll be using this weekend. I call it Bebop, partly because it’s proved relatively useful for improvisation, but mainly because I’m madly in love with clever acronyms. A (slightly) more exhaustive description posted over in blogland, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

Ok. Let’s get cracking, folks.

Heeey!

This is gonna be my first compo, and I’m excited for this. =D

I will use C++ and Allegro, ’cause I’ve been playing with it for a few years… Code in Windows, but using mostly opensource softwares, such as gimp, inkscape, netbeans (or notepad++, who knows…) and mingw compiler. I’d use GitHub, if I could set my git to work with github in windows… but whatever… haha

I’m reallyyy excited, cannot wait! hehe

Hey everybody!

Probably the biggest thing that didn’t go well last time was entry voting.  So we’d like your help to artificially create similar conditions as last time, that way we can tweak a few things before the real compo begins.

So here’s what I’d like you to do.  First off:

READ THIS CAREFULLY

We’re going to create a fake compo that happened sometime in the year 2000.  The year is important, because we don’t want to litter the front page with these posts.

SERIOUSLY! READ THIS CAREFULLY!

Create a new post and do ALL the following.

1. Choose the category LD Test from the categories box.
2. Add a Final tag in the Post Tags box (don’t forget to click Add)
3. Set the date to any day in the year 2000.  You can change this in the Publish box, by clicking Edit beside “Publish immediately”.  *IMPORTANT*
4. Upload a screenshot to the blog! You must upload a new image! Tutorial here.

Give your post a reasonable (or silly) name.  Pick a tasteful (or silly) picture.  And fill the body of the post with some text, just for completeness.

DID YOU ACTUALLY READ ALL 4 THINGS?

If you did this right, you should show up here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/category/ld-test/

Checklist (circle your answer)

• I picked a date in Y2k (i.e. year 2000) [True/False]
• I uploaded an image to the blog [True/False]
  • My image shows up in the grid [True/False]
• I couldn’t think of a 4th point, but is your image showing up in the grid? [True/False]

If you’re screenshot is uploaded correctly, it should show up when you click “show me the grid” at the top of that page.  If you don’t, then for whatever reason your image isn’t in your posts local gallery (some wordpress feature we’re utilizing to make the grid work).  Delete your image, and re upload it (i.e. step 4).

Thanks!

PS: The answers should all be true.

Like a few other here, this’ll be my first LD. I’ll be using Construct for the creation of the binary if my concept ends up being 2D. For 3D, I have a variety of technologies I’d like to explore.

The first is Dage. I’ve been playing around with it for a few days now, and even though the odds of me getting to make a 3D adventure game are hard, I’d certainly embrace the chance to use my recent experience.

I’m also not above Unity, if the trial is viable.

No matter what I use to assemble the game, though, I’ll be using Blender, Photoshop, and Notepad++ for the majority of modeling, texturing/art, and writing, respectively. I know that I’m a bad egg and should use GIMP–but, hey, I like Photoshop’s interface better. If I wind up with Dage, I’ll also have to use Max in my pipeline, another evil, commercial program.

As far as my experience in other areas, I’ve tried a few compos, followed more than a few, but never made a real entry. I’m determined to sneak one into this LD. I’m pretty experienced with Construct, Blender, and Photoshop, and I’m just learning other techs like Unity and Dage. I grasp programming concepts pretty well (Event Sheets in Construct come almost naturally to me), but I fail pretty hard at actual programming (even XNA is beyond me). I like it that way. I like that in this modern day and age, there’s a bunch of technologies (Construct, MMF, AGS, Wintermute) that allow you to script an entire game without programming it. I like that many things are set up for you, and I like WYSIWYG. There’s nothing wrong with WYSIWYG in my book–if you can create something totally awesome, it doesn’t matter by what means.

Anyway, that’s me. Sorry for being wordy. I can’t wait to participate, honestly. I’m sure I’ll be dreading my decision in about 144 hours.

Tags: 2D, adventure, blender, compo, construct, dage, first, first compo, intro, photoshop, tools

I’m pretty excited about the compo. I’ll definitely be entering, and using my regular tools: Slick, LWJGL or possibly Java2D. I’ll also be using my SlickTemplate again.

Tags: LD #15 - Caverns - 2009, ld48

I’m probably using a new library this time.   It’s not terribly full featured at the moment but what it does have is a simple way to get a nice Fullscreen framebuffer on the OLPC-XO.   I figure If I can write a halfway decent Game during the Ludum Dare then it can be added to the XO’s repertoire.

The source for the library is in here along with a small test program I wrote last week to give it a try.

http://screamingduck.com/Cruft/doodle.tar.gz

I’ll probably be be adding things to the library right up to and most likely during competition time.  If anyone else wants to give the lib a go (Yes, It’s pascal) get in touch and I’ll make sure you’re up to date with the code.

This is how simple a program can be using the Lib.

program demo;
 
 uses
 Drawing,simple16;
 
 var
 pic : tPicture;
 
 procedure Load;
 begin
 ScreenMode(640,480);
 pic := tPicture.loadFromFile('Frog.png');
 end;
 
 var
 X : Single = 320.0;
 Y : Single = 200.0;
 dy : Single =0.0;
 dx : Single =0.0;
 
 procedure Update(ticks : integer);
 begin
 X:=X+dx;
 Y:=Y+dy;
 dx:=dx+ random()*0.2-0.1;
 dy:=dy+ random()*0.2-0.1;
 dx*=0.99;
 dy*=0.99;
 end;
 
 procedure Draw;
 var
 i:integer;
 begin
 ClearScreen;
 DrawImage(pic,X,Y);
 end;
 
 begin
 Run(@load,@update,@draw);
 end.
 

The run procedure calls the Load update and Draw functions at the appropriate times, giving a picture that does an inertial drunkards walk around the screen.

The definition of the Ludum Dare competition is:

“Ludum Dare is a regular accelerated solo game development competition. Entrants develop games from scratch in 48 hours, based on a theme suggested by community.”

But it seems we are doing things less “from scratch” than we used to. People are now using full fledged engines, physics libraries, their own engines, etc. I don’t think this satisfies the definition anymore.

I’m not necessarily saying this is a bad thing. After all there is limited fun in reimplementing texture loading and opengl setup in every competition, especially since all those simple things can very easily add up to whole day and leave only half the time for more creative tasks. But have we gone too far?

Is LD48 a competition meant to be from scratch or using existing engines? What do you guys think about that?

And now, you kids can get off my lawn…

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 2:21 am and is filed under LD - Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

By hook or by crook, I will be making an appearance for this weekend’s LD15.  I need to definitely wrap some things up before this coming weekend, not least of all getting together my collection of Python code I hope to use for this coming competition.  I still need to clean a bunch of it up and make sure it’s good to go, but sometime Wednesday I’m hoping to have it up for public download so that I’m all in compliance with the rules.  Beyond that, totally looking forward to yet another weekend of insanity and insomnia in an attempt to crank out something worthy of being called a game.

So, I’m very excited, it’s been a few (last was LD11), but I am planning to enter LD15 now – Currently throwing together a C++/win32 lib that I’ll be using for my entry (will release wed or so), and working on a new display app for timelapse v2.0 >:)
Looking forward to it!

This compo will be very abbreviated for me: prior commitments reduce my available time to about 4 hours. But I’m still going to waste a few judges’ time with whatever I can throw together in that interval!

Tools: LOVE2d, Photoshop, Goldwave, and adrenaline.

I am just posting here to say I have plans as of now to compete in the 15th LD, and also to mention my tools of use. I plan on using Java and the slick library as of now. If that changes I’ll notify here in advance.

edit – I also should mention I might use photoshop, fl studio, and/or sfxr.

I will be entering in LD 15 this weekend. I plan on using Flixel, Gimp, Tiled, and my custom Tiled map loader for Flixel.

I’m planning to do Ludumdare this weekend!   This will be my third ludumdare attempt, and I’m hoping that I’ll finish a game on time this time. My previous two games ended up in an unfinished state, and I’m hoping to avoid falling into the same trap this time.

I’ll be using Unity for my game.

Thinking of giving it a go this weekend.  I don’t think Game Maker 5 on up qualifies as judges need the paid version feature to read/compile my source.  Back down to Game Maker 4 then.

48 hours seems impossible but I usually program that way anyway.  Last minute is my style.  To sleep or code?  Do I have the grit?

Cheers!

Nooo, this is exactly one week too early! I will be at a wedding this weekend. Sad…

I’m just getting ready for this week-end. I bought a few bottles of coke, some crackers and sweets. And if things get too frustating I still got a bottle of beer left. 😉

Tools I’m gonna use:
FreePascal 2.2.4
I’m also using a custom, platform-independant framework (based on SDL) called Elysion Frameworks. If you’re interested, get it from http://elysionsdl.sourceforge.net (use the latest files from SVN)
GIMP
GarageBand (if I find the time and need for some background music)
Dr. Petter’s SFXR (if I the time and need for some sound effects)

Officially declaring my intent to enter too

This is my third Ludum Dare. The first two times I didn’t finish by the deadline, but I’ve entered and completed two mini ludum dares since then, so hopefully this one will go better! Liking the themes so far a lot.

I was hoping to give Unity a shot this time, but it turns out that my laptop can’t handle the editor. Oh well. I’ll probably use flash then.

I had to go into town today so I stopped in one of the local computer shops that I happen to be buddies with the owner

And scored a 1984 Model “M” 1391401 with a ps/2 cord

yay!!

works perfect, using it now

And I am in for the upcoming LD, still using love

Tags: deskphoto, tools

Hey what’s up guys, first time in this compo!

Right now I’m praying to Odin that the theme won’t be too hard to make a game for. My tools:
Construct
Adobe Photoshop CS2
Dr.Petter’s sfxr (seriously, magnificent)
I have not figured out what I’m gonna do in terms of music.

good luck and wish me luck

I’m currently on the 4-hour Everyman sleep schedule, so I might as well. If I wasn’t then I wouldn’t compete as school starts next week, but this will be a great primer. This will be my fourth or so?

I might try and crash-course-learn Panda3D during the 48 hours to make a 3D game for once, but if that fails then I’ll just revert back to PyGame. (I am tempted to try making a game in Scheme though…)

Right this time sort out basic framework, make sure it’s open source before hand!
Get lots of sleep (getting old you know) ;o) and do a trial run!

Using BlitzMAX and any free to use modules I can get my hands on!

Hey guys. Participated two times before and hoping to participate this time too. Not shore that I will finish with something playable tough.

As in previous times will be using Flash. May be some open source physics engine depending on the theme like Box2D. Also may be some of my code libs for user interface and may be physics. Nothing special tough. Doubt it will have any sounds or good graphics as I am no musician or designer but may end up using Photoshop or this srfx(for first time) everyone  is talking about here. Probably will need to test it out on Friday before it all starts.

If you ever wondered why Ludum Dare keeps going after all these years, it’s for awesome news like this.

Ludum Dare veteran Joseph White (aka Lexaloffle, aka Lex… when I’m lazy)’s latest game Swarm Racer 3000 will be on display at this upcoming Tokyo Game Show. It’s one of several titles being featured at the indie friendly Sense of Wonder Night. You can read more about it here.

Lets look at some gameplay footage.

Pretty sweet looking ‘eh.

The Ludum Dare connection? For those of you that missed it, back in 2006 we had the very awesome theme Swarms. And back then, Lex produced this really great entry named Swarm Racer.

http://indygamer.blogspot.com/2006/05/swarm-racer.html

Since then he’s made it far more awesome.

http://www.lexaloffle.com/swarm.php

And today, the all new Swarm Racer 3000 is looking pretty freaking great.

So a great big congratulations to Lex, from all of us at Ludum Dare!

– Mike Kasprzak (aka: PoV)

Tags: press

I thought it would be only fair to provide a quick rendering of my workspace ahead of this weekend’s compo to give you all enough notice…

That’s right.  I got a Game Tron recently.  It is currently configured to publish an AS3 Flash game though I’m still fiddling with the param sliders a bit.  I’m hoping I won’t need the slider on the far right.  Good luck everyone.  Looking forward to this weekend quite a bit.  See you in the LD pits.

Tags: as3, flash, gametron, motivation, pits

This will be my first Ludum Dare, although I followed the last one and played a lot of the games.  Hopefully the theme is interesting and inspires something.  This is good, gives me a deadline for ironing out some of the kinks in my current engine that might get in the way.  In any case, I’m excited.  Does anyone have any tips for the first timers, other than the basic stuff in the wiki?  I think the shortest time span I’ve made a game in is 2 weeks.

I’m probably going to enter, but with pyweek looming directly after I may chicken out. This will be my 3rd ludum dare and if I finish something it will be using cocos2d and pyglet.

Hello all,

This will be my first time entering the competition.  I will be using Blender‘s game engine (with python and Bullet Physics).  I’m hoping to keep it simple, finish an entry, and show off how great the Blender game engine can be for rapid game creation.

Good luck to all, I cannot wait to find out the theme and see what people come up with!

Tags: blender, bullet, First entry, first-timer, python

Oh wow.  I’ve been looking forward to this over the past month.  I even blocked off time on the calendar and made sure that no other events were being held.  No baseball games to attend.  No weddings.  No parties.  Nothing but wide open schedule.

I dusted off the basecode from the last few compos and created a project just to make sure that I don’t have any crazy problems right before I start to code.

I’m not partial to any themes this year, though there are plenty that I could do without.  So far it’s Burrowing, Caverns and Castle as the favorites of Day One voting.  I guess any of those are fine and are open enough to not restrict creativity.

Again, I’m going to use mostly the same tools as before:

• Java 6 SDK
• Eclipse IDE
• Photoshop, maybe some Illustrator
• DrPetter’s sfxr for sound effects
• Audition, if I can get it to play well with my sound card
• HP OfficeJet 6450 All-In-One for scanning doodles
• No Fear Energy Drink Sugar Free (Go Boris Said/Carter Racing #60 & #08!)
• Everlasting Gobstoppers
• mIRC for chattery
• Killer Game Programming in Java and the base code I used from last compo.

Good luck to all, and see you in two days and five hours!

Tags: basecode, ld48_15

If you stay up late enough, you might just catch them…

Tags: ld48_15, motivation

Heyo,

I have been following LD since 2002, and every single time it comes up I’m either a) busy, or b) hear about it too late. 

Looks like I heard about it early enough, and it falls right on my holiday so there is a high probability I can participate this time around!

Just a giant HELLO to everyone, I’m looking forward to seeing the entries — especially the catastrophic failures, and incomplete implementations, please do post those, I plan to!

I’m still waffling between using Python/Pygame, or C++/SDL. It will certainly be one of the sexy couples.

cheers,

    – Jacob

I plan to enter Ludum Dare 15. I’m not yet sure if I will be using ActionScript or Java, but I will definitely be using one of the two.

Should I use ActionScript, I plan to use a very simple support class for input

http://pastebin.com/m120a889c

and a gutted version of this for sound:

http://pastebin.com/m32c62888

Best wishes to everyone else participating. I’ll see you on IRC!

Hey, everyone.

This will be my first Ludum Dare, though I’ve been watching from the sidelines for a few rounds now. I’m really looking forward to trying this out, though I do have a few other things going on this weekend that will take some time away from coding.

I’ll be using Ruby + Gosu for my game, plus possibly some other libraries like Chipmunk, TexPlay, etc., depending on the theme.  I may end up using some support code for Gosu, Chipmunk, etc, I’ve got in my BitBucket repository… or I may not. Either way, I suppose that counts as a custom library, so I’m announcing it here before hand.

Best of luck to everyone!

Edit: Just discovered the wonderful sfxr for sound effects, which I’ll definitely be using. Depending on the theme and the game I end up trying to make, I may use Pixen or perhaps just draw lines and circles and stuff, for graphics.

Tags: intro

Hello everyone,

First time LD’er here, looking forwards to seeing what odd combination of themes combine to inspire us to greatness this time!  I’ve got a long weekend free (it’s a Bank Holiday – woo!) and nothing to get in the way but my own procrastination.  I’m intending to do my entry in XNA/C#, if that’s allowed, using SketchUp with a .X exporter for any 3d graphics I may happen to need.  Of course, never having used XNA or C# in anger before, it should be a hell of a learning experience – hence the title of this post!

In real life I’m a professional Level Designer – which usually means I know a bit of scripting, and a bit of art – but not that much of either!  Wish me luck, as I wish you all the same!

Tags: C++, intro, introduction, LD #15 - Caverns - 2009, ld48_15, SketchUp, xna

For the last few LDs I only found out that the competition was on once it had already started. This time I signed up to the mailing list, got the emails,  and have no excuses.

I’m not sure what tech to use – I know Java well, but not for graphics or making games. If Java doesn’t work out I’ll use BlizMax or ActionScript.

Tags: intro

Yep, I am hopefully going to get time to participate. Using SFML and a bunch of other little libs. Should be able to publish source. I’m hoping to create something that will serve as an example of a game gems article I’m writing as a way of motivating myself

See you there.

I spent a hunk of time today hacking myself up a proper library and deciding on what I’ll be using for LD #15, should I not wuss out at the last moment.

I am leaning towards things which I have used for the longest, this is to reduce the amount of figuring-out I have to do.

As tempting as it is to use python/pygame/macos, I have one half the experience with that, so it is best to stick to ancient and familiar technology, despite its limitations.

To implement:

• C/C++, sloppy and mixed. The way I like it!
• 2d vector graphics where possible, otherwise rotated/scaled sprites.
• Win32 (though, I would like to have it compile/run on MacOS as well. This shouldn’t be a huge problem.)

Libraries:

• SDL (sound, graphics, and input)
• OpenGL (strictly 2D and orthographic, unless I drink too many trappists and decide otherwise)
• mmgr.cpp/mmgr.h by Paul Nettle
• vector2d and related math templates by Bill Perone (I can’t seem to find a link right now!)
• MT19937 Mersenne Twister random number generator

To create:

• Photoshop for Graphics
• SFXR for Sound
• SciTE for Text
• Visual C++ 6.0 for Code
• SVN for revision control / backup

To eat:

• Water
• Trappist Beer
• Cola
• Food with nutritional content yet to be determined

Random thoughts:

I have a feeling I may regret my choice to use a gamepad/keyboard for input. But for now I will.

• Con: Mouse games have a lot of instant-appeal. Easier to get interaction “feeling right”
• Pro: Keyboard/gamepad is oldschool and works on consoles.
• Pro: Leaning back in a chair with a gamepad is more relaxing then hunching over a mouse.

I can do sound. SFXR is freaking cool. I spent a few minutes playing with it today and fell in love. This saves me from making corny sound effects into a microphone during the last minutes of the compo! Thank you DrPetter

All of the libraries, save for my starting template are freely available online. None of them resemble a game library / engine, so they are squeaky clean.

At some point I will post my starting source up for anyone interested. Hopefully there is something useful in there to be pilliaged by others during this compo, or future projects.

I’m curious to see what other people are using, or who else is using a similar (fairly heavyweight, rusty, and old) setup.

Tags: 2D, C++, opengl, SDL

Hi all,

I’ve been following this compo for a long time, and now I will participate for the first time.

My tools for the job are:

• Language: Java (1.4+)
• IDE: Eclipse
• Graphics:  Graphics Gale, Gimp, Inkscape
• Sound/FX: DrPetter’s sfxr (really nice app), Modplug tracker.

Waiting for the theme.

Hello world! This is my first ld, but my second 48 hour competition. The first being No More Sweden that I failed, so this time I will win The winning combination will probably be C++, sfml, fmod and box2d on the code side and paint.net and sfxr on the tools side.

15 seemed like a good number to start at, this year I’m not on the sidelines.

I’ll be coding in AS3 using FlashDevelop for all that FOSS goodness, combined with APE, Tweener, and maybe Flixel if I have the time to get familiar with it before tomorrow.

I’m going to try and stick to Paint.net and Gimp for graphics. Audio wise… I have a microphone… we’ll see how sound goes.

Just for the sake of pushing myself a little further, I’m aiming for a full timelapse (screen+webcam) of the 48 hours. And a wicked game on top of that of course.

See you guys in IRC.

I am sad. Meow.

Tags: ld48_15, motivation

Tags: ld48_15, motivation

The Ludum Dare 15 competition is about to start and I’m getting prepared to join the fun =]

my tools are:

• program language : Bennu / Fenix
• Graphics program : Photoshop CS4 + Graphics Gale
• additional tools : Wacom Intous 4 Med =D
• Sound : my trusty Mic
• Music : Ejay techno 5

I wish everyone good luck =] I’m getting my 6 pack of energy drinks and doritos green packs readyfor 5 in the morning for the compo Its going to be awsome dudes~! I just hope the theme will be cool =]

This compo looks very interesting, I will try to submit something this weekend. It will be my first try at rapid prototyping a game.

My tools are:

• Visual C++ Express
• Blender
• Gimp

Good luck to everyone.

I’m very happy to be competing in LD48 this time around!

I’ve competed in Pyweek twice, but that’s all the game development compo experience that I have.

This compo fits rather nicely into my schedule, as well. The last two days before my college classes start! Woo! 😀

I’m a community college student majoring in computer information systems.

I love Python, C++, and occasionally a bit of Ruby. SDL is my first pick for libraries, especially for compos.

I enjoy playing shooters (Though I’m mediocre at them :-/), Mario Kart, and a few other games.

—-

I’m looking forward to the compo 😀

Here’s to fun, games, and having one while making the other.

—PyCron

There’s a substantial risk that I will participate in LD15. In case this happens, a list of the tools used can be found below…

Language: Bennu/Fenix

IDE : Context

Graphics (if any): Graphics Gale

I expect to write everything from scratch. This doesn’t mean every line of code written is a masterpiece of original creativity. As I understand it, one is allowed to use experience and memory. Will definitely require those.

That is all.

P.S. I hope I’m uploading this post in the correct manner.

It will be my second Ludum Dare. With aggressive viral marketing i manage to get some friends enter too. Can’t wait for it :).

Code: c++/ ilmarin ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/ilmarin my own game framework). I’ll upload the latest version of it tomorrow.

Gfx: GIMP with regular old mouse.

Sfx: maybe sfxr (if i can manage to run it on my linux machine, i dunno never tried it before)

This’ll be my second LD.  Hopefully it’ll go as well as the last one.

I’ll be doing my coding in C++, and using SDL and SDL_image, as well as PortAudio and libvorbisfile for the audio.  The whole thing will be based on the same game template code I used for the last one (you can see it here).

Edit: Realized that it would be foolish to assume everyone can run a pygame program, and instead decided on C++

Strategy:

Going simple. Most likely a top-down shmup.

Hoping that flow wins, so I can go all pedantic with Flow Theory.

Going to go with my “normal” sleep schedule, which is very strange, but seems to work well for me. (Bed at 6-8 PM, up at 1-2 AM) (Still technically enough sleep)

Tech:

SDL, SDL_image, SDL_mixer, and… for love, honor, and glory…

C++ 😀

(Well, I’m actually tempted to do it in C :-P)

I’ll use SFXR for sound, I think. (Played with it, really like it :-D)

I’m not sure about graphics. Really depends on the theme.

Either GIMP, Inkscape, or procedural stuff using pygame.draw.

Food:

Overall — Lots of fiber. Helps me think clearly.

Snacks — Cereal bars, high-fiber ones. Also, fruit. Oranges, especially.

Meals — Oatmeal, rice, and salads

To Drink — Water, coffee, and a little bit of soda.

—PyCron

Only a few months late! This is my first game maker game, conceptualized for miniLD8 (theme: mashup 2 past entries) and developed in about 48 hours over the past many months.

Link to my site with exe/source downloads and infos: http://www.originowl.com/Home/drsplodeyhead

Tags: final

It looks like my math-library will be finished in time for the competition, so I’m gonna use that. I’m telling you this because…

As an entrant, your custom library should be declared before the start time

It’s over at google code, currently under a lgpl license and despite it’s called a engine it’s currently only a math-library with a modular design.

… was at a time before I got kids, a house and debts I can’t find my entry, but I remember playing Bathroom Teacher, so it was on or before Ludum Dare #2!

I never finished my entry, which was about sheeps, wolfs, boats with cannons and tetris blocks, hopefully I can finish this one! At least this time I can blame the kids if I don’t finish

EDIT : Blah, I forgot the tech : XNA 3.1, and my template is “File -> New project…-> Window Game”. Thats basically it.

I think I’m in this year. No Flash this year, and no C#. I want to get out of my comfort zone.

I was debating whether to try using Unity this year, along with 3D Studio Max and PhotoShop CS4, but I have decided to try something else, hopefully more fun this time.

I’m going to use the Processing language (processing.org) which is a simple language based on java designed for generating visualizations from data. My goal is create a game that only uses dynamically generated resources. All art and sounds have to be created within the program.

It’s going to be a small, simple game, without a lot of complexity, to ensure I can focus the majority of the time on the gameplay and effects.

I want this game simple to interact with, so i will restrict all input to mouse movement and the left mouse button.

With Processing, I can generate applications that will run on Windows, Mac and Linux. Java will be required on whatever system it runs on. I’m not sure if I will release an applet on the web, or a set of applications. I’m thinking I’ll pick up a domain name and deploy the applet to the domain, which will be a very easy way for everyone to play (as it is with Flash).

Well, let’s see how it goes. I’m doing a fast study on processing right now!

Unity Test. The URL works from HTML, but if it doesn’t work from WordPress then I guess I’ll be providing downloadable exes. Yeah, that’s quirky all right. It doesn’t work for me.

[WP_UnityObject src=”http://www.badlydrawngames.com/ld15/OnlineTest.unity3d”/]

Hiya! I’m planning to work on a game for LD15 this weekend. I’m on break from school, having just completed my first quarter at UC Santa Cruz in the game design program, and looking forward to moving into the dorms in a few weeks. I’m currently travelling around in my van, so I will be coding from friend’s houses or parks or coffee shops or wherever.

I will be developing using either C++ with Allegro and my toolkit/empty project: allegroblank or Game Maker.

I’ve just updated my library to include midi support through allegro functions. I will compose music using Anvil Studio.

Graphics using Allegro Sprite Editor and The Gimp.

Sound via SFXR and my microphone.

Good luck everyone!

Tags: tools

Heyo everyone,

LD15 will be my second Ludum Dare compo – I feel like I have a much better handle on it this time than my last (I did #12 last year, right around this time). And thankfully this is one of those few periods where I have an entire weekend to just shoot code out of my eyeballs. I’m going to be using some of my code from that entry, along with HGE and …I dunno. Some C++ compiler. Maybe FMOD for sound, and my masterful *cough* abilities at programmer art…

I will also be arming myself with my guitar, microphone, and baritone voice so that I may serenade you all.

I’m primarily going to fuel myself with spinach, beer, and death metal. I also refuse to relinquish my running habit this weekend – so I will occasionally be stumbling out the door to go run for an hour or so. I feel like that will probably help me come up with some ideas that border on the edge of endorphin-fueled psychosis. I am willing, for a price, to take pictures of my sweaty post-run ecstasy.

Good luck to you all! 😀

So, this is the first time I’m entering Ludum Dare.

Languages/libraries:

C++

OpenGL with SDL

Tools:

Visual Studio

Photoshop

SFXR (awesome little app, btw!)

ModPlug Tracker

Here’s hoping I manage to finish something by the end of the weekend :).

Mattdev

This is just a test post to see if I can still post.  I intend to compete in…LUDUM DARE 15!  (15!  15!  15!)

hello

strong here

i fully intend to make a game in this competition, which will by my second ludum dare ever after my entry in ld14, the last one, in which i made a game in powerpoint that ended up below (and yet above) expectations.

i will probably be using multimedia fusion 2, though i may use construct, but seeing as they’re basically the same program the difference should not matter.

sound will be probably handled in sfxr, same as everyone else.

yes.

Tags: strawng, Strong

My friends are ready to go with me on this LD15, and so these others:

• Java 1.5
• Eclipse
• Jlayer (yes still alive)
• Gimp
• Inkscape
• SFXR (my new best friend)
• some unknown installer friend (will decide tomorrow)
• lots of water
• random food (this time will take pics)
• some good music to cleanup my brain, remove old ideas, and leave room for the new ones.

edit:
more friends:

will use this to record my screen each minute and build a video – this one I tested hehehe
http://www.athanazio.com/2007/06/02/screen-capture-2/

planning to build the video using this
http://www.snapfiles.com/download/dlssmm.html (didn’t test yet)

edit2 : will use this java classes to help me
vacavitoria-engine-2009-08-25.zip

Tags: deskphoto, friends, homer, LD #15 - Caverns - 2009, mickey, yoda

Hi all! This will be my second LD (first was LD10). The entry I did then was a little too ambitious and I didn’t have the energy to polish it much after just getting it to work, so I’m hoping to do something a bit more procedural this time and have more time for tuning the gameplay into shape. Lets see how that goes. My LD10 entry I did with Python and pygame, so for a change I’ll be doing this one with ActionScript3/Flex. Gfx will probably come from Paint.Net/Flash CS4. For sound, no idea yet, probably Sfxr and Audacity at least.

21 hours to go, can’t wait!

I’m kinda moving back to Finland this week end, so even if I’m just getting back to my own place, I might have things to do like buying food, seeing people, going to barbeques, having sauna + beer, and boring real life stuff like that.

If I don’t, on the other hand, I will certainly compete for my third LD (woohoo), and try to get a position in other categories than Journal, for once.

My tools are as usual:

• EeePC 901 running Ubuntu 8.10 (yeah I need an upgrade), with a mouse
• LÖVE or evöL (my own Lua wrapped SDL engine, which now supports OpenGL through LuaGL, in the last SVN version) or C + SDL
• Inkscape, GIMP, Digital Camera
• GoatTracker (XM tracker) or Rosegarden (MIDI sequencer) + Qsynth (soundfont player) + ZynAddSubFX (soft synth) + any other linux audio soft
• Bazaar + Launchpad’s personnal junk space for backup

And ‘course lotsa motivationnal posters.

Now that I’ve spammed the compoblog a bit, I can get back to packing properly.

In the interest of not starting -completely- from scratch this year (as I’m very much a from-scratch enthusiast), I’ve put together a very basic win32 rendering and audio library, in the hopes that I’ll be able to easily extend it and do what I need to during the competition. The code isn’t 100% complete (I ran out of time), but this should be a step or two above what happened to me in LD11, when I spent half my time just getting rendering to work
This includes various gems as a C++ template driven generic triangle software renderer, and super-easy desktop rendering support.

For your enjoyment, my LD15 library code / win32 binaries:
ld15_lib.zip

Alright, I’m in. I’ve got a case of iced coffee drinks and a clear schedule for the weekend. Looking forward to this.

Also, I learned a really neat trick today (just in time for LD) and thought I’d share. In an earlier post during the “advancing wall” contest, I mentioned my experiment with trying to tune the gameplay using automatically reloading config files. That didn’t really work out so well, it worked but it was too much of a pain to add each new value to the config file. I think I only had one or two in the end. Waste of time.

But… Ben Garney, who inspired the  approach in the first place, commented and pointed me to this thread which discusses a really neat way to handle this.

Click the image to expand to readable size.

Basically, everywhere you put a constant that you want to tune, you can instead use a macro like _TV( 4.2 ) instead. The _TV stands for tweakable value. In a release build it does nothing, but in a debug build, it checks if the source file changed and updates automagically.  You can see a simple example of usage in the screenshot, I’m editing and saving the values in the source, and the printfs in the console reflect the changes.

I just hacked this together so it’s probably a little flaky, it’s pretty much untested.  It should work on linux as well, if you’re using gcc 4.3 or above, but I haven’t tried it yet.  I’ve added this to my ld code dump, you just need the .h and .cpp file if you want to try it, or you can probably roll your own.

Several years ago I wrote this handy list of “rules” for surviving LD which you might want to browse through: http://iki.fi/sol/ldsurvival.html

I’m not sure if I’ll have time to enter this time. Probably depends on whether I get struck by crazy inspiration or something.

Hello everyone, this is my first time participating in Ludum Dare.

I’ve been looking forward to take a part in some compo. Just this morning, I found the LD15 is starting tomorrow. Having a free weekend, I decided to give it a shot

My tools:

• FlashDevelop + Flixel
• GIMP + Inkscape
• Sfxr + Audacity

Good luck to everyone!

I’m doing this as straight as possible. Planning a straight interpretation, chunky mechanics, my signature crappy graphics, made in Game Maker, 48 hours from scratch.

Pretty clear weekend ahead, so I’m giving it my all. I won’t be staying up extra late, though. Nope. Not happening. Well, okay, maybe.

This is my first full LD. I don’t have any libraries or artwork ready, although if I can, I’m gonna make it post-apocalyptic, and brown. Why? Because I’m playing a ton of Fallout 3. This will actually be me trying my hardest not to make Fallout 3. I have no idea what I’m going to do for music, but if all else fails, I can always infringe someone’s copyright and *bag’d* fwgh! wffhffwhfg

Tags: motivation

Tags: brave, motivation

This is going to be my fifth Ludum Dare, I participated already in

• 4 – Infection
• 8 – Swarms
• 13 – Road
• 14 – Advancing

So to commemorate my fifth anniversary I bought a new computer on Monday, which basically means I have nothing installed / configured.

Sofar I have only Windows 7 RC and ViM, let’s see if I can actually setup my toolchain before the competition starts

Since I have a quad core machine, I would like to write something multithreaded, so that I can enjoy the tremendous fun of debugging concurrency issues, locks and critical sections, which I never had the chance to experience on a single core machine.

Or maybe this time I could actually concentrate on building the game

Tags: deskphoto

Tags: motivation

Okay, so like I said in my previosu post, I wanted to post a link to the “framework” that I’ll be using this weekend.  So without further ado, I present: the Ghetto Game Engine. This has just been my attempt to get a general purpose “engine” together, but since I haven’t exactly been winning to the fight in search of free time, this hasn’t progressed too terribly far.  That said, I plan on using it this weekend, and I’ve posted the source for all who want to see and possibly attempt to use it this weekend.  Warning: it’s very terse right now.

Speaking of what I’ll be using this weekend, I figured while everyone else is doing it, I’ll post my own list of tools and tech!  Everybody loves lists, right?

TECH SIDE

Language: Python (version 2.6)
Libraries: Right now just pyglet 1.1.3, might look into pulling Rabbyt in as well
Platform: I’m working on my Macbook, but since it’s Python, I’m hoping to easily put it on Windows as well.  I just need to figure out how to use py2exe and py2app
Version Control: Subversion.

ARTSY SIDE

Graphic Software: Photoshop CS4 w/ Wacom Intuos tablet (there is no WAY I’m going to try to draw things with a track pad or mouse)
Sound Software: I’ve got VMWare loaded on my Macbook for the sole purpose of running Sound Forge for mashing up sound effects.  If need be, I can go out with my field recorder and take some samples, then contort the crap out of them in Sound Forge.  That said, I might be wanting to check out this sfxr program people keep talking about.
Music Software: If I’m actually lucky to get to a point where I can try and make some music, I think I’m just going to hook up a Casio keyboard the recorder and mash something cheesy out.  I have a copy of Cubase from when I took digital music classes back in college that I can use for sequencing, but I want to make sure I have some gameplay done before worrying about the music (and sound for that matter).

Yeah, aside from all that, I really got nothing.  Looking forward to the competition, and best of luck to all that do participate!

Hey competitioneers I’m going to PARTICIPATE.

I’ll most likely be using Flash (using either APE or Flixel + Flan depending on the game idea), although there are a couple themes where I’d want 3D and would choose Unity. Going with those because they’re cross-platform and web-based which means GOOD TIMES FOR MORE PEOPLE.  I’ll be using Milkytracker to make my sounds and music.  Photoshop for the artsing.  This is my first time laughing in the face of God.

Also I love every one of you.

Tags: skelethulu announces participation in ludum dare

Woot, another compo…

I’ve just finished building a small framework, derived from my last one…

Amazing features:

– D3D9 initialization
– 2d graphics system (sprites and camera system)
– Texture manager (for resource cleanup, etc)
– 3d system (FFP based, lights, meshes, camera)
– 3ds reader (in case I want to go 3d this time, since I model much better than I draw)
– Application/Screen document model

And that’s it, I think…

You can download it and use it at will: http://clientes.netvisao.pt/~dandrade/Framework_LD15.rar

Going to use the same tools as always: VC2008, D3D9, sfxr, Photoshop, 3d Studio, Chronolapse for the timelapse video… Still don’t know what I’ll use for the music, but I’ll think of something…

Hope the theme is a bit better than “Advancing Wall of Doom”… They seem better this time, actually… except for zombies, which I kind of think limits what you can do… at least in 48 hours…

Anyway, good luck everyone, have fun and catch you in some hours!

I’m so excited!

Tags: motivation

This is my first Ludum Dare, but I’ve competed in smaller ones before.

Main language will be Ruby, since it’s just so sweet. OpenGL  2D gfx with Gosu (http://libgosu.org).

Gosu is available for Ruby and C++. Good stuff.

On top of that I’ve worked on my own framework this summer called Chingu ( http://github.com/ippa/chingu/tree/master ) which builds on Gosu.

Chingu adds game states, easier input handling, animation, text and particle classes and a bunch of other useful stuff.

Graphics: Inkscape and probably TileStudio ( http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net ) for pixelart / animations.
Music: Reaper ( http://www.reaper.fm ) – amazing DAW. And a bunch of VSTs on top of that.
Soundeffects: most likely http://www.freesound.org/

I have no idea why I got doublespaces between some words. Tried editing with both latest firefox and latest IE and it behaved the same way :p.

Hey! I just found out about this today, and I figure ‘why not?’

So I’ll be entering with Löve as the engine, and misc programs like the gimp for visual content.. I can probably play with audacity to make some brutal sound effects as I need them.

Since I hear we’re allowed to use some existing content as long as we share it beforehand and it contains no gamelogic, here’s my generalized poorly written GUI setup made in Love.

EDIT: won’t let me upload to the post for no reason.. I’ll upload it elsewhere and link to it I guess http://www.mediafire.com/file/yez1mluwykt/GUI.zip

EDIT 8/22/10: Updating slightly

I’ll likely be using a global leaderboard with my Flash game entry like last Ludum Dare because it can be really fun to encourage competition with fellow LDers on your game. I remember a few Flash devs being curious about the process so I wanted to post a brief step by step tutorial for those of you who want to take the plunge this weekend. If you are using AS3 I’ll also be hanging in the IRC channel and am happy to answer any tech issues you may have if you choose to implement these.

Without further ado — 10 Steps to Global Leaderboards:

1. Login or create a new account over at MochiMedia.
2. Once you are logged into your ‘Dashboard’ click the tab called ‘Add Game’.
3. Fill out the ‘title’ and the ‘dimensions’ of your game. For the purposes of LD15 you don’t have to worry about using ‘Live Updates’ (their distributed version control system) so you can leave it on ‘No’ if you’d like. Click the submit button.
4. At the next screen you can totally skip all these settings and hit the ‘Done’ button at the bottom if you’d like. Why? Well that is because all the settings on this page are related to using advertisements in your game which you probably don’t want to do for the purposes of LD15. Ads aren’t required at all to use their global leaderboards.
5. Once you’ve clicked done you will see your game’s title in the game list on this screen. It should have a little ‘pause’ icon next to it. Don’t worry, this doesn’t matter. Click on the title of your game.
6. Once you’ve clicked on the title of your game click the ‘Scores’ option to setup your highscores.
7. You will see a little info about the leaderboards but the important part is to click the ‘Create Leaderboard’ button at the bottom.
8. On the ‘Create Leaderboard’ screen enter the title for your leaderboard (ex: “Highscores” etc), optional description, and then any scoring format/sort data. Fairly self explanatory. If you are using a traditional ‘high scores = better’ then the defaults will probably be fine for you. One thing you may want to mess with is the color / transparent and formatting options near the bottom as that will let you configure the leaderboard widget to match your game’s color theme. I often do ‘transparent’ so that my game background will show through when this is displayed. You can edit this later as well. Click ‘Create Leaderboard’ again at the bottom to generate yours. (NOTE: I always click transparent and it resets to background.. you have to re-edit again and hit transparent and re-save for that option to stick.)
9. Your leaderboard should be created now and you will be looking at a screen displaying it. The link now that you want to click on is called ‘actionscript code’. A bunch of fields will appear along with 2 radio buttons. One for AS2 and one for AS3. Pick the appropriate technology for your game. Also note your ‘game ID’ and ‘leaderboard ID’ as you will need these later.
10. You can use these provided code snippets in tabs labeled ‘submit score’, ‘submit score and name’ and ‘show leaderboard’ to get the relevant editable code snippets to drop in that will connect your game to your leaderboards.

Can’t wait for the theme!

Tags: as2, as3, competition, flash, highscores, leaderboards, mochimedia, tutorial

Tags: motivation

Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, this — is Ludum Dare 15.  The big one-five.  And talk about big.

We have many many new things to share with you today, so read this post carefully.

New website look and Avatars

You’re seeing it right now.  A shiny new theme to compliment the shiny new version of WordPress.  And after some web hackery, we also have Avatars (i.e. gravitars).

To set your little picture, you need to sign up at www.gravatar.com.  Gravatars follow you around on all the wordpress blogs you post on, by hashing your e-mail address.  So all you should need to do is sign up at both sites (ludumdare.com/compo, and gravatar.com) using the same e-mail address.  Easy.

New Submission System

We have a brand new submission system.  Gone are the days of “Final” tags and confusing image upload problems (that I usually end up fixing).  Now we have a lovely brand new streamlined entry submission system put together by everyone’s favorite philhassey, Mr. Phil Hassey.  When you’re ready to submit your entry, hit this page.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-15/

Again, that’s no more final tags!  Hooray!

NOTE: The submission system hosts images, but not downloads.  If you need help hosting your entry, ask in IRC or make a comment/post requesting help.

NOTE2: Please only create an entry once you have a download ready.  You are not required to declare your intent to enter.  Just show up, sign up, and submit once you’re done.

Keynote Address

That’s right.  What better way to say Ludum Dare 15 is a big deal than to say it in recorded digital video.  So without further ado, check out the Ludum Dare 15 keynote address with Mike Hommel (hamumu).

Voting Categories

We’ve gone ahead and refined the voting categories for the competition.  They are as follows.

Innovation – How interesting, original or unique an entry is.
Fun – Unique yes, but is it actually enjoyable?
Theme – Good, clever, or interesting uses of the theme.
Graphics – Is it pretty?
Audio – Does it sound nice?
Humor – Does the game amuse you. The concept, the presentation, etc.
Overall – Do you love it?
Community – Journaling, sharing workspace photos, meal photos, motivational posters, recorded a timelapse video, etc.  How well did they tastefully go above and beyond to participate, as well as tell and show you what they did?

Coolness (i.e. Voting) – This isn’t actually a category you’re voted on.  Rather, it reflects how well you voted on entries during the voting phase.  People that play and vote for 25%, 50%, and 75%+ of the entries get awarded bronze, silver and gold icon medals in the coolness category.

More Stuff

You can join us in IRC.  #ludumdare on irc.afternet.org.  You should be able to find more than a few people to answer your questions there throughout the weekend.

We have some common tags for types of posts. deskphoto for pictures of where you work. foodphoto for pictures of your meals. motivation for silly motivational posters you decide to make. timelapse for timelapse videos. Try to use those so people can more easily browse them.

Seth (mrfun) fixed the World Map (*cough*… that I broke).  You can  see where people around the world are entering from, and add yourself.  In addition, we collect humorous quotes from IRC throughout competitions and the off time.  We’re adults, so some of the things said may not be suitable for minors.  Those you can check out here.

We do mini Ludum Dare competitions in the off months.  Veterans take a month, pick a weekend, and provide a theme.  Check back regularly to catch the latest Mini LD.

And if you’d like to stay informed of future events, we have a mailing list.

From all of us at Ludum Dare, good luck!

– Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

Tags: keynote

So long as I don’t get called in to work over the weekend (big work project currently in the submission process…), and as long as the theme isn’t Evolution (lol, I’ve been voting that one down for years, still don’t have any half-decent ideas for it!), then it looks like I’m in

Just got a shiny new PC upgrade, too – a Geforce 275, an SSD, running the Win7 RC…  so expect some brute-force GPU abuse – I think I’m mostly set up ready for some gamedev…  got a reasonable supply of caffiene and snacks…

Planning to use the same little DX9 base code that I used for my last LD entry – no fancy 3D model support, but it handles all the initialisation stuff, texture loading, 2D blitting/fonts, vector/matrix classes (which I had fun discovering a few arkward bugs in during my last LD48…), and very basic shader loading

Ahoy! It’s my first official Ludum Dare and I hope to try and make something exciting for this!

Depending on the theme I fancy doing some homebrew development for the Nintendo DS. I spent today re-reading the libnds documentation (I haven’t used it in about a year, it’s changed a bit), building Lua for the ARM and putting together a special makefile to auto-generate a NitroFS folder. You can download it here.

Good luck everyone!

dont forget to check on this one !!

http://www.ludumdare.com/wiki/purity

wow this should be part of the profile LOL 😛

This is the first time I will join the competition. My personal arsenal for this battle includes:

• Unity3d – The game engine.
• Blender – For 3d modeling and animation.
• Gimp – For image processing.
• Inkscape – To create vetorial graphics.
• Wave Raiser ( or sfxr ) – To create sound effects.
• Melody Raiser ( or musagi? ) – To make midi melodies.
• CamStudio – For screen recording.
• AudaCity – Sound Editor.
• A Genius G-Pen 4500 to draw.
• A cam to take real photos.
• A mic to whatever.

I don’t know yet what’s the theme for this ludum dare, the ludum dare 15, but I’m looking forward to know. My next post on my blog will be about my experiences with this competition and, I hope, I will show the game I developed.

Genius G-Pen 4500

Tags: tools

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 5:56 pm and is filed under LD #15 - Caverns - 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

So, I’ll be participating this weekend, and I’ll be using a new library/framework I’ve been working on during the summer called dokidoki. It’s a collection of lua modules which provide utilities useful for game development, and some native C modules which interface with glfw, opengl, portaudio, etc. The idea is that you have a binary which runs init.lua in the current directory, which implements the game.

Source code for the binary parts

Compiled version for linux x86 (includes the lua parts of dokidoki)

Some examples (copy them into the binary directory and rename any of them to init.lua):

The windows binary isn’t ready to release yet, but I’ll be working on that sometime this weekend (or more likely Monday).

First of all, get on IRC to chat during the compo! Great for wasting time and panicking! Our channel is at irc://irc.afternet.org/ludumdare (#ludumdare on afternet.org).

Second of all, it’s a tradition to make a timelapse of you building your game. For this process, (If you’re on windows) I’d strongly suggest Chronolapse, built by community member Keeyai, available at: http://keeyai.com/projects-and-releases/chronolapse/

Timelapses are fun and cool. You want to be fun and cool too!

This is my first LD and I must say I am quite excited about it.

Tools:

Game Creation: Either LÖVE or Novashell (just found LÖVE today and it looks very interesting)

Graphics: GIMP, Paint .NET, Inkscape

Sound: sfxr and Audacity

Here’s my last minute framework code addition.  Oh, and I’m in for this compo!  If I can, I’m going to do an iPhone game in 48 hours.  If not, maybe I’ll fallback to pygame or something.  But I’ll hopefully have a win32 release of my iPhone game for people to check out, since the iPhone version won’t be available for like 2 weeks after the compo.

-Phil – www.galcon.com

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 6:33 pm and is filed under LD #15 - Caverns - 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

This is how the office looks in my new apartment, and this will serve as my workspace this weekend. Look, there’s even a plant! (although, I gotta admit, it’s plastic)

Tags: deskphoto, workspace

Here’s my super late declaration of entry! 😛 Count me in! I’m sure you guys remember my fail project for the Roads theme last year, with Chuck Norris knocking cars off the road. Right? Right?… I guess not! Well, hopefully we can get a theme voted for where I won’t have to go with a cliche, run-into-the-ground joke. Wishing you all luck, and I will *try* to document food intake 😛