Just changed some backgrounds

Together with my wife Anne (who does all the sprites) i joined Ludum Dare a tenth time for LD48. We wanted to make a simple game that is polished and appealing, instead of something very experimental. We moved between both ends in the past, but we were so satisfied with how our LD46 Blackbird turned out (where we had the same “simple and polished” strategy), that we wanted to try it again. Back then it was out of necessity - we have our infant daughter at home whose care took a lot out of the day back then. Luckily, my mother was able to visit us this time to care for her, giving us more time to work.

Out we came with Dome Romantik, which is a small mining game where you mine resources and bring them back to your dome. There, you invest it into powerful upgrades and try to defend against the wave of monsters that arrives about every minute. Design wise, the focus was on smooth gameplay, upgrades that feel intense and useful as well as the goal conflict between mining and defending. This is all displayed in a minimalist, moody pixel art view of 320x180 pixels.

Dome Romantik was a real surprise hit to us. On itch alone about 7.500 people played it. As is tradition, the web version also got “pirated” by some sites, so the player numbers are actually a bit higher. We ranked place 9 overall (despite having a high amount of ratings, which seems to harm the score slightly) which is our highest ever. So, let’s see first what went wrong here!

What went wrong

End Goal unclear

Many games don’t quite make it clear what the end goal is. Having it written in the games description or start screen is not enough - the players will forget, or at least some of them. I fell into this trap too - it’s not like i had time left to do it, but i would have prioritized it, if i had known the consequences. In Dome Romantiks case, i consider it especially harmful. The game is balanced to provide 10 or fewer minutes of fun, where you mine and most of the upgrades. When you get the last ones, the game becomes very easy - at that point you are supposed to drill down into the core of the planet and see the end screen. Quite some players didn’t do that, but kept on playing, eventually getting bored, wishing for more upgrades, weaker final upgrades, or a proper ending. That was a missed opportunity. I think this can only reliably “delivered” to the player, if it appears ingame at the right time, and not through a text or panel at the start or pause menu. Did you find an elegant way to incorporate the push into an actual end in your game?

No Music

I opted for a old school sound scape and tried to find fitting, free music for this. I spent maybe 2 hours doing that, but didn’t find anything that would fit the very low energy mood of the game. I put in some ambience noise, and that was it. After the rating phase ended, the great @cameron-paxton made some amazing tracks that really elevate the mood. Having him on board would have been great, both saving time and improving the game a lot - music is so powerful.

Cut Content

I lost about 6 hours (15% of the available time) due to having external meetings for work and for the “long night of computer games”, a stream event where we were invited with our previous game-jam-entry-turned-full-game Of Mice and Moggies. I enjoyed being there, but i lost quite some time which led to the cutting of a dearly missed element: the flying monster. Originally, we had the idea of adding two walking and two flying monsters, to attack the dome. We ended up with only one walking monster in total, which made the combat a bit simplistic. Many people suggested a flying monster, which was right on track. But it came down to having the flying monster or having sound, so the decision was clear for me. the flying monster and double laser we released after the rating phase ended

Web Build

I exported Dome Romantik natively for all 3 major OS and for the browser. The browser had a ton of issues. First of all, the audio had a really irritating crackling to it. Many small texts became unreadable when playing in a lower resolution than 1920x1080. I tried to fix that, but accidentally broke the tutorial panels (they were out of screen, faulty position calculation), which left some players wondering what to do. All in all, this did not deliver the best version of the game to the players. I think it’s no coincidence, that jam winners often only have a downloadable version. Still, web reaches so many more people, and after all we’re joining Ludum Dare to have people play our games and get feedback, not to have the highest score.

If you use Godot and got crackling sound: Export with "Threads" enabled. It won't run on some browsers in itch though.

No one dedicated to sounds

I don’t think i need to tell you how important sounds are. They take time, skill and dedication to get right. Like usual, we had no one to care for sounds, so i had to do it on top of game design, programming, playtesting, directing the art and keeping up with the community. I try to do my best with free sounds i can find, but it always takes about 6 hours, which i dearly miss on other parts (like communicating the end goal, or creating flying monsters).

Making a good jam game with only 2 people is so hard, that i have immense respect for anyone making a proper game alone here. Wow, you folks!

What went right

Graphics

Anne made a little sketch early up with about 320x180 pixels. I was very sceptical of that and i often pushed for higher resolutions in the past. This time i fully trusted her with that as she seemed confident about it, but also because she has grown so much as a pixel artist the last year. The first concept i dismissed and asked Anne to make some different types and colors. She quickly came up with something we both immediately liked, and it stuck and ultimately was very well received. initial sketch on the bottom right

As you can see, the "winner" got iterated upon, with a pretty nice feel of depth to the dome.

An additional benefit of having such a low resolution and minimalist style was, that those sprites are made and animated rather quickly. The monsters are shapes of a single color with eyes, for example.

Simple but polished

Honestly, i was so surprised when i didn’t get a ton of feedback in the sense of “oh, another mining game, and it brings nothing new to the table, great!”. We purposefully went for something we thought of as pretty obvious (and i still think it is), and not something hugely innovative or intricate. But we knew we wanted to make it really well playable, and that worked out well. Maybe we’ll do something more experimental next time, but i learned something i was always a bit scared of: It’s okay to make something obvious, as long as it’s fun. You don’t have to be clever with it.

That was a bit freeing, as i always discarded the obvious game ideas even if i had nothing better in my mind. I wonder if you disagree with that, or if you had instances the same thing happened to you.

Tutorialization

This is one of the most important and most difficult parts of making a jam game: how do you teach the game to your players in a way - that’s not annoying - that is effective, as in the players apply what they learned - is not boring, or even fun - or even better, not necessary at all (by being self explanatory)

Overall that wen’t pretty well for Dome Romantik. This goes way beyond having explanation texts. I made a little post about that some time ago, check that out if it interests you :)

Of course it wasn’t perfect. What haunts me is one thing: In the game you can collect water, to turn into fruits that let you fly faster. I intended this as an early game changer that adds fun and complexity. But it seems, most people did not understand at all what is supposed to happen there and took the trees as decoration. I simply did not explain it properly and somehow thought, the players would notice it and try it out of curiosity. Turns out, when you are under time pressure your curiosity shrinks a lot.

Time to playtest

I spent more time ever before playtesting the game, making dozens of runs on monday. I think that showed in balancing, power feeling of upgrades and appropriate game length. I also found out about a few things i had to simplify, which i described in the Tutorialization Post.

It was also the one if the first times Anne actually had fun playing on of our games :D Ain't that strange? It might feel strange, but actually and seriously playing your game will probably be better for it than adding more features and content. I rarely did this in the past jams, because i never felt i had the time for it. But now i'd rather cut content and play more.

Up Next

Ok, that’s it for now. We are happy to say we will continue to develop Dome Romantik into a full game (but with a name change, most likely), where you go on runs across different planets. If you want to keep close to development, please join our Discord. I’m actively seeking your feedback and value it a lot. new worlds for the full game

We also set up a Steam Page for it, i’d love to get your feedback on it (Trailer will follow!). We’ll also release on itch, love that platform.

Sorry for the long post!

Hey, we just started trying out LD48 games! I'll leave comments on the ggames as well but feel free to drop by! We'd love to get your thoughts and opinions!

twitch.tv/egechu

Last Ludum Dare I made some fanart with a touchpad and Windows Paint 3D and it was kind of.... really bad. I've honestly never figured out how people can draw so good on a PC without a touchscreen or pixel art, I'm just so bad at digital art.... 😅 Major respect to those who can actually draw with a mouse or touchpad.

Recently I've been improving on my pixel art skills, since I've been working on pixel art for my upcoming PC game. Limiting one's self to merely black and white is a bit harder than standard pixel art because you don't get shading, you don't get color, etc. As is demonstrated by the fact I intentionally overscoped my Compo game despite using several mostly-untested tools, I like a good challenge. 😁

Part 1 of my fanart giveaways has begun!

"Thothev - VTOTV" -- Vast Trivia Of The Void, by @jorgegamedev, @moski, and @zachary-blystone

A present to Whales And Games for making the only Ludum Dare game I've ever played for over 6 hours! 😬😆 It's nowhere near as good as @moski's official art, but at least it looks like Thothev. (Also a bit of a "thank you" gift for @moski's mindblowing sketch of the protagonist of last Ludum Dare's game from Peace Of Cake Games)

"Dome Romantik" -- Dome Romantik, by @rongo-matane and @idinakloppstock

A "good luck with your post-jam version!" present for Bippinbits! The funny thing is, this image is roughly around the size of the actual original art, so it's basically a prototype version of Dome Romantik in only 2 colors. 😄

I'll be back with some more artwork soon! Just those two took a couple of hours (that's what I get for using a touchpad), so it'll be another 24 hours or so until the next batch is ready. 😴 Who knows, maybe your game will be the next one to receive a fanart, reader!

Hello everyone, thought I might as well share the post-jam version of my compo entry. I am still working on it and aiming to flesh it out to a proper game. Thank you to all the participants, organizers, testers and voters. Cheers!

LINK https://tiltaghe.itch.io/micanthul-ld48

Another Ludum Dare season has come to an end and the show’s over! However, we still have our results to look at! How did our game, Vast Trivia Of The Void, perform this Ludum Dare? :whale:

Game jam results are always interesting to analyse. Should we be worried if we went down on stats? Do the ratings show actual improvement? What can we learn from the results we get at the end of the jam?

Before we do that though, we want to thank every single one of you! Whether you played our game, submitted questions for our trivia, or just did your part to keep the Ludum Dare experience running, you’re amazing! Thank you for making this a great experience for us all, and regardless of your own results, we hope you’re proud of the game you’ve created! :clap:

Now then, let’s see what happened this time around! :point_down:

Not bad at all! We got over 100 ratings on all the categories, which means that the results should accurately portray the average jammer’s opinion towards our game. In previous jams, we have made a Google Sheet with all the results we’ve got across Ludum Dare, so let’s add in this jam and compare how we stack up!

Our highlights this time around were Graphics and Audio, and the Overall is pretty fantastic! The Theme rank was admittedly a complete disaster, making it the first time we’ve landed ourselves a sub-1000 rank. But to be honest, of all the categories, that’s the one we tend to concern ourselves the least about. The most important thing for us is to have a game done at the end of the jam, even if the theme’s interpretation is a bit of a stretch!

But the important question is, how do the ratings themselves stack up against our previous entries? Did the lower ranks mean that we didn’t do as well as on previous jams?

Turns out that Vast Trivia Of The Void actually scored the highest rating of all our previous Ludum Dare games in four categories: Overall, Fun, Audio and Mood! Basically, when it comes to design, programming, music and sound, our team knocked it out of the park.

For a more fair comparison, in our sheet we’ve added a new average that weighs only Fun, Graphics and Audio. We can associate these with the tangible skills of the team: Programming, Art and well, Audio. With that average being of 4.36, Vast Trivia seems to be our best constructed game for a Ludum Dare to date!

This is why it’s important to always take into consideration not only your ranking, but also your ratings! If we only look at the ranks we’ve got, it would seem that our performance was not as good as previous games. However, when we look at the game’s ratings in context, the improvement becomes clearer and much more measurable

The lower ranks don't mean you did worse, but rather that there were many more high quality games this time around!

Nowadays, a lot more games that are created during Ludum Dare make it to commercial releases in the post-jam, regardless of the ranks and ratings they had during the event. Did you know that both Dorfomantik and Friday Night Funkin’ started as Ludum Dare entries? And look at the massive following they have nowadays!

If you’re proud of the game you have and want to continue working on it, please do! Take the feedback from the comments you’ve got, and push your game even further! :muscle:

All things considered, we had a great time seeing what you and the community have made this time around! Genuinely good stuff left and right! Seeing all of these inspiring submissions and community is always a treat!

Finally, we’d love to stay in contact with y’all! Some of you have already dropped by our Discord server to say hello, but everyone is welcome! But if Discord is not your thing, we have our Twitter profile as well! We’re really eager to show you more we’ve got in the plans for this year!

Thanks a lot for reading! Here’s hoping to see you around next Ludum Dare! :sparkles:

Had a lot of fun with this! Pushed my little entry to the App Store too :’) I’ve realized I’ll never be “Finished” enough with my apps, as there’s always so much to polish and it can always be ‘better’ Trying to get over perfectionist tendencies and just.... send it xD

IOS; https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/now-you-see-me/id1566539533

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Haiyoooo.NowYouSeeMe

LD really inspired me to make small polished games Thanks everyone for playing!

d

This time I finished almost 100 places higher than the last time, so I am very happy with my results. Thanks to everyone who played, rated and commented on my game.

Congratulations to everyone who participated and...

See you all in few months!!!

My mouse's middle scroll wheel button died in the middle of these (there goes scrolling), but I'm back with two finally complete fanarts!

Commence Part 2 of fanarts!

"A Taste of the Past" -- A Taste of the Past, by @julia-lee, @johnnywan, @caiojmini, @isabelle-szeto, @lancival, @kelvin-nguyen, @jaimi, @emily-pitcher, and @carolinewang !

😭 is basically the emoji that describes me after playing. Easily one of my favorite games I've ever played; good luck on your Steam release!

"Lenny G and Leopold" -- Far Side of the Mirror, by @xellaya and @ddrkirbyisq

As usual, a solid and polished entry from Cocoa Moss! I just had to draw Lenny G and Leopold, I love those guys. (I am forever in Leopold's debt for giving me a weird rock)

Part 3 of my fanarts coming soon! Stay tuned if you like 400 x 250 pictures pixelart-drawn in exactly 2 colors.

Heh, I keep meaning to say something, but it's all felt really surreal. Like, when first saw my game Fallumns up on the results page, I thought, "Oh, it must just be a bug. Soon it'll finish calculating everybody's scores and show the ACTUAL winner." And it still kinda feels that way?

But I'm extremely grateful! Thank you everyone who's played and rated and enjoyed my game, and to everyone who made so many awesome games this time! This is the 10th time I've done a Ludum Dare, and I think it's the most fun I've had yet, both with making and playing things!

Which is basically same as the text version: https://kuviman.itch.io/dig-world/devlog/255566/so-i-made-an-mmo-in-48-hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoqOEtr6jRc

This thing got 12th in graphics, and it makes me very happy. I mean it doesn't get you any insane amount of attention or marketing potential or anything, but I've been struggling with graphics for the last four years (or so), and it's nice to see people rewarding the effort with 4+ star ratings. Thank you all!

Ну вот все посмотрели свои результаты, подивились на результаты остальных. А я приглашаю всех заценить топ игр LD48, сегодня поиграем в игры финалистов в категории Overall. Смотреть тут https://www.twitch.tv/runuchok !

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/deeper

Added particles around pickups, Made pickups more common, Slowed game down a little to make it easier, Added heart / life pickups, Maybe fixed bug with invincibility timer, Increased invincibility time, Added particles when taking damage, Added cool down to game over screen.

I had a lot of fun creating the 3D art for this Jam. If you want to play the latest version, we uploaded it to itch.io here: https://jam-a-llamas.itch.io/the-space-between-us.

Thanks again, and let me know if you plan to take your games further. I want to follow your progress.

Thanks to everyone for all the great ratings, we couldn't be happier with how our game turned out!

"A Taste of the Past" is a 2D sidescroller meets Cooking Mama meets a heartwarming story about loss, grief, and hope and we are currently polishing it for a full release! if you're curious to know more about our process, our writer and project manager @emily-pitcher made this vlog about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rFSFnXkBrc

About the Game

Third Dimension is a game about a 2D robot that needs to travel into the third dimension. You control the two-dimensional plane and the robot itself so it can venture deeper and deeper into this third dimension.

(the game doesn't exactly fit the theme, but hey at least I tried something innovative and interesting).

Screenshots

i don't really have a lot of time sine i am rn revising for my exams, But i want to say Thank you so much for everyone who rated & played the game, it still feels like a dream that my game is one of the first 100 games in the mood, & that the ratings are good, Thanks for playing the game, & i really appreciate all the feedback everyone gave me,

Thanks :D

Thank you all for playing our game -- we were blown away by your response. This was our first project together and we loved every second of it. We plan to update the game and add it to other online platforms. We'll update you when we do!