Tardigrades (pronounced /ˈtɑːrdɪɡreɪdz/), affectionately dubbed “water bears”, are eight-legged microscopic marvels known for their remarkable resilience. But did you know you can now embark on a totally bizarre adventure through time AS a tardigrade? Yes, indeed!

Now you can be a pint-sized powerhouse that defies DEATH!

This game is a little rough around the edges, but I would really appreciate if you would help rate it! If your game needs ratings, I can help rate your game too!

Here's the page link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tardigrade-travels-a-tardigrades-terrifyingly-terrific-traversal-through-time/

Thanks so much!

Try it!

Can you get to 100 points? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/cheese-siege

This three small colored humans have been trappped in a giant room! ...well, at least for them... Can you guide them to the end?! Please try it! Or he won't be so happy...

So the time for game rating is nearing its end, and my game still didn't got the required amount of ratings :x

I think i missed out on a lot because i wasn't able to play other games right after LD finished because of real life :<

Anyone still out here?

Would really appreciate some feedback for my little core Javascript game. <3

And the in game Fairies are still looking for Timukin, willing to pay you in valuable gems for them!!!

Get those gems now! Here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/timukin-explorers

Much love <3

If you want to reach a healthy population

you have to cull the herd.

Brutal, but that's nature! https://bippinbits.itch.io/squeezlings

Need ratings?
Tonight I will have plenty of time to play and rate some more submissions, so please place your submissions in the comments for me to play!

Rogue Creatures
I am also in need of some final ratings, so feel free to also play my game.

Click here to play Rogue Creatures

It's almost the end of rating period, and our game Bodega Bandit still needs some more ratings to qualify. It would be much appraciated if you can try out our game and leave a rating/comment. :heart:

Link to our game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/bodega-bandit

If your game also needs ratings, please feel free to drop a link in the comment and I'll check it out!

...just wandering around a scary dungeon with no way out.

We have heard your comments that our game is too short and we are seriously thinking about developing a full version, which will be able to fully deliver the originally conceived experience.

What do you think of your creations, contestants? Will you be developing them, or moving on to something new?

http://twitch.tv/arcanerituals

Going live in around 2 hours!

We'll be playing the games that have already been submitted from these lovely people:

@fooorsh, @jamespoole, @niamhicus, @betovf, @she-wrote, @benjatk, @Forik, @jrevel, @limbonaut, @limboette, @thomas-gelman, @blazejmg917, @rakthalekk, @maxededo, @ssschrodingers-cat, @prankorigami, @shamotte, @liniux, @zedgame, @igorekkedziorek, @falubaz, @Yerisderanak, @DahliaInosensu, @callumlarge, @aosiee, @qwertydud3, @emsea, @iroroi, @calcopod, @itsBoats, @arluci, @magicstunts123, @rosalyn, and @aprilapparently

If you want to check out our game you can find it right here.

It's hard.

No, it's not a puzzle game, it's a rage game.. kinda..

..ok not really, we have checkpoints.

But blobs are cute, only game hard.

Yes, the game is stressful.. cute and hard and stressful.

There is timer to make it more stressful, we hope you like it.

Get golden blobs, it's even harder. (They better than brown blobs, and more cute)

(We nerfed this game multiple times already. Play version 1.2 or in the browser, it's easier now)

Play blobs. Blobs hard.

.gif for attention:

Check out more effort posts here:

• Tutorial to 2D shaders in Godot
• Changelog for version 1.1
• Changelog for version 1.2

Play a game all about making amulets to ward off the deadly creatures that swarm this small village in the nighttime!

Gather wood from the sacred tree

And help us get a few more ratings to qualify!

Play it here!

Hard to say...

Widdle Werewolves and Sammich game links and descriptions are in the video description.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_wwn4JaNIk

Please like and Enjoy!

After a jam, there's always that urge to improve the game. You sit down and list the tasks: fix something here, add something there, rework this, and maybe even remove that entirely. But then you look at this list of tasks and realize it’s already turning into a completely different game. And this is where it’s crucial to strike a balance: keep the game as it is but make it clearer. Remove the annoying parts while preserving all of its charm.

As the results approach, I’m preparing a post-jam version. I’m not sure if I managed to keep the spirit of the original, but I hope the game has become more enjoyable.

Let’s see how it turns out. In the meantime, feel free to check out the jam version of the game and leave your feedback!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/kingdomos

This tiny town is the perfect place to start a family! It looks like this whimsical child has inherited traits from both of his parents... He has his father's nose.

Witness the beauty of genetics: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/zanymen

Since LD is basically a festival of gaming, I am doing sth odd: allowing myself to share a game, very old by today's standards.

From 2006. It's an old gem of a crazy platformer! Definitely has its own character! Along with a few fresh ideas possibly?? Never beat it, back then with my friends, when I was little. Maybe unfairly difficult. Interestingly it ran on a 300 MHz CPU.. though it lagged like hell. 18 years later.. can I beat it? I just read it has over 170 screens LoL

The New Satan Sam

What a name to remember... still have no idea how this got into my hands back then. The guy shoots / blasts / rotates in the air and propels himself to beat the enemies and to jump over gaps.

Video of the game

The website of the guy: http://satansam.co.uk/index2.htm

To the older guys.. anyone ever played this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaUJZSzK9VI

Version 1.25: NOW LESS BORING!! ~

Compo Version ~ Itch.io ~ Game Page ~

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/multimorph https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/cellspace-cellular-automata-sandbox https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/little-life

New update incoming!!

Poppet version 1.2 is now available and comes with a number of quality of life improvements​. We have also provided a Linux build for the hotfix and 1.2 versions of the game.

[Patch Notes]

• Collision has been tweaked to eliminate frustration. The Microwave is no longer curse!!
• A proper options menu has been implemented providing a handful of screen and audio settings including fullscreen mode.
• The lose screen will now display the ghost type that kills you.
• The win screen will now display all the Poppets you have defeated.
• Poppets are more chatty and will shut up when stunned.
• Lights will now flicker during Power Surges.
• Blacklight symbols will now appear in other parts of the room.
• The green button activates far less frequently.
• The volume of some sfx have been modified to improve the experience.
• A lot of bloat has been removed from the game's directory to minimize the file size. Most of this was due to high quality sound files.
• A message will now display when a new Poppet spawns.
• The main menu scene now mirrors the main level correctly.

Thank you again for all of the love and support for Poppet. ​We really appreciate all the feedback received over the jam period and hope that players will continue to enjoy Poppet outside of LD56.

Play Poppet v1.2 now!

Ever wonder which Ludum Dare entries have the potential to become full games? We're asking ourselves that same question with Chanterune, our "MetroidBrainia" platformer entry. When does an idea justify the investment of thousands of hours of work? How can one tell if a concept will sustain a team's motivation in the long term, without being so ambitious that it becomes daunting?

Have you found any LD56 entries that you believe could evolve into full games? Feel free to share them in the comments! I'd like to play them and give feedbacks.

We'd also appreciate any feedback on the potential of a full Chanterune game - not just what we accomplished in those 3 days.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/chanterune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cx999vhnTE

COMMENT YOUR GAME AND WE WILL RATE IT!!!!!!!!!!

Way back in LD47, as we were making Express Without Remorse, our first game, @ruruie made a request: could we have a beam?

We could not. We had no idea what we were doing, we barely (but successfully) made a game at all. Multiple shot types were right out.

Two years ago as we were making Witch Contractor, our fifth game, @ruruie made a request: could we have a beam?

We could not. We had to build out complex map logic and multiple enemy types to create some depths for the players to plumb and that took all of our dev capacity. We had different bullet types but they all behaved the same. We couldn’t introduce a whole new way for enemies, or the player, to interact with one another.

Is it really a shmup, if you don’t have a beam? We had to say ‘yes’. We had to compromise. You don’t need a beam, we lied to ourselves.

It’s LD56. We are making a game. It’s a shooter. Ruruie doesn’t even have to request the beam. We both know about the beam. It hangs over us. It is the shadow, the creeping death, the cold laughter in the back of the mind. We build out bullets. Change how bullets work. Develop enemy types. But something is missing, something is always missing. We need to cut features. There’s no bombs, no background variation, no procedural infinity. We need to get an MVP out. We can’t have another disaster like LD54. But we can’t cut everything. We have to push to make the jam worth it, to develop our powers and beyond what we've made before.

Bare hours before deadline. We’re in panic feature-completion mode. It’s a shmup. It needs a boss. We make a boss. It has spread fire, circle fire, a hypervelocity orange, the standards. But. The boss is a witch. It’s a shmup with a witch boss in it.

The time has come, it's now or never. We need a beam.

It turns out the mechanical logic for a beam is very straightforward with the systems we already have. It’s just a bullet with a different hitbox and movement logic. But that’s not enough. You can’t have a beam if you don’t have the actual beam. With a bare 80 minutes to go I ask @ruruie: Can we have a beam?

(read bottom to top)

All we need is a rectangle with a rounded end and some gradient, right? Nothing too fancy, I've given our artist a tall order but it's doable if we keep it simple.

The beam produced is not a rectangle with a rounded end and a little colour gradient.

In the middle of final crunch time @ruruie produces not just a beam but a beam, a fully-featured piece of firepower with a complete charge and fire animation, more spectacular than any of our other bullets. In the last hour of the last day of the jam where we had to do it, the dream of long years becomes real.

Our game has a beam in it.

(play it here:)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/magical-girl-danmaku-dandelina

The review period is almost over and I still need to do a few reviews on my game to get to 20, so I'm taking some time to play and review the other games here.

If you want, leave a link to your game here so I can play it and if you can also play mine, I'd appreciate it.

In Lost Orbit, crashed on a mysterious planet, you and your faithful pet must work together to solve puzzles and explore a spherical world full of secrets. Switch between the explorer and your little creature to overcome challenges and find your way back to space. An adventure of strategy and exploration awaits you!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/lost-orbit

So kick some here!

My team made an idle game, if you enjoy idle games try it out :3 :tropicalfish: :blueheart:

Play Here!

If anyone needs a last minute play and rate, reply to this post and I'll play your game!

Hello everyone, I created with other musicians from the jam a playlist of the music composed during the LD56.

We have currently 11 tracks and that already answome. Come in the thread and share the youtube link of your best song if you want to be in!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIjR-zaySirD_JKPtusFdFpzB71Ub-Bfj

Hope you enjoy listening to all those great songs.

Kisses

:heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat:

Thank you all Ludum Darers for giving me 200+ ratings! <3

I haven't LD'd in years even though I regularly cite LD as the best game jam in the world, and ya'll have proven why it is the best jam in the world! Having people actually playing your prototype is just the best, thank you thank you thank you all! <3

It was very exciting. I would like to thank you for the positive ratings and comments. This was our second game jam, and we decided to make a small horror game "Cheddar or Dead: The Purrfect Nightmare" https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/cheddar-or-dead-the-purrfect-nightmar

As usual, it wasn’t without its adventures, but we managed to release a fully completed and tested game about the challenging survival of an apartment mouse. The theme of the jam, “Tiny creatures,” reminded us of our apartment mouse, which we had been feeding for a long time. Sadly, after another round of disinfection, it stopped coming out of the ventilation to eat the food we left for it. We remember and mourn.

Hello all! Would love to get some more feedback and ratings from the community on our LDJam submission about you (a turtle) trying to get to the water while avoiding seagulls.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/turtle-beach

Lelou needs your HELP carrying this band of useless fools!

Play as Lelou and leverage your parties strengths to reach the end!

Maybe you can post your score in the comments and get a healthy competition going :v: that's if you can beat the game of course :wink:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/im-a-porter-for-the-worst-dungeon-party-in-the-world

This was sent to me by an artist who liked the game ❤️ I think it looks super cool and I should share it!

You can play TINY PACK here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-pack

The artist is looking for a collab/commission work with a good team, shoot him a message if you're interested. https://t.me/weaverkrut

My project is in the danger zone. I need more votes. I don't expect anything, but I would like to get a final score - that's all. So rate this little project and I will rate yours if you are in the same bad position. My entry is a little GOL simulator. Take a look - download and test the project - leave a comment. Have a nice day bro' ++

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-creatures-1

If your game needs more ratings, leave a comment! I'll rate your game on Friday!

My game just needs two more ratings to leave the danger zone, so I would really appreciate a rating too! (This is my team's first Ludum Dare, and we didn't know about the rating system until a few days ago ><)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tardigrade-travels-a-tardigrades-terrifyingly-terrific-traversal-through-time

Let me know what your game link is, so I can try out your game!

Hello ! In the exotic platforms post ( https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/petri-plate-potpourri/entries-for-unusual-platforms-ld-56-edition ) there is a Meta quest game that don't have enough votes : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/meeptoss I'm sad I can't try it, but if by any chance you have a compatible VR headset, please go note the game, it would be great to encourage those kind of experiments.

So here is the link : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/meeptoss

I just want to thank all those who have played Goober Goblins: A Nose Picking Simulator. I appreciate all the feedback. If you have played, rated and commented on my game and I have yet to play yours please let me know by commenting here and I will try to play and rate your game before the last day is up!

Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/goober-goblins-a-nose-picking-simulator

I know it's cringe to advertise project in such fashion, but our game is just a few votes away from getting over the qualification barrier. So we will be very happy if someone will be interested to play it <3 👉👈 https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/titan-shadow

But you know perfectly well why this happened

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/escape-from-wonderland

HIII!!! I finally updated my game again! Now the mouse sprite tutorial is not hideous like before. One of the reasons it took so long was that I was trying to create music for the game; it was really frustrating. I clearly need to learn more about it! In the end, I added a royalty-free track called Ethereal Vistas by Denys Brodovskyi. It fits well enough, and I'm happy with it, hopefully, it’s just a placeholder for when I get better at creating music. The YouTube link to the music and the website where I downloaded it are below.

I finally finished adding all the practical controls I wanted to the game. Since it is a mouse-only game ...and there are only three buttons on a mouse, practically every combination of buttons was used, lol! The controls are just hard enough that I think no one is going to use them except hardcore fans of mine ~~...that don’t exist lol~~

Anyway, now that I'm happy with the controls, I will try to focus on the battles and enemies. I've received a lot of feedback from people wanting more power-ups, and they might come up in the next update. I want to add more creativity-stimulating elements that mix with the battles, maybe a pixel power based on the amount and placement of pixels ...I’m still brainstorming.

What I do know is that I will make the game endless and add randomly generated enemies. The game will restart if you run out of pixels. I want the player to feel like it’s not a one-time game; I want replayability. I've been working a little bit, and it should come out in the next update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKYZjfrQ0A

https://pixabay.com/music/beats-ethereal-vistas-191254/

Demonstration of all the new controls:

Changes:

1.32 - Music ...not mine though

1.32 - A new control to make the monster run

1.32 - Now you have a chance of losing black pixels with each enemy attack or contact

1.32 - New controls to practically pick up attached pixels

1.32 - Additional sounds AND THE BEST POPPING SOUND EVER!!!!!!!

1.32 - Changed the mouse tutorial, and it is on screen until you use all controls possible

1.32 - Now the game restarts instead of ending

1.32 - All enemies now have bullet path indication and weak point indication, and colors were added to them

1.32 - Monster's hitbox was polished

1.32 - You can hold the middle mouse button to pick all your black pixels at once

1.32 - Fixed a few bugs

```

This is a windows only game:

Version 1.32: NOW NO LONGER BORING!! ~

Compo Version ~ Itch.io ~ Game Page ~

NEXT UPDATE: More enemies, randomized enemies, and the game will be endless!!

I'd say it's a good amount to play. There were certainly some fun ones, some good ones and some funny ones. And that's what we want.

I feel like the game we made fits in with the rest of the experience.

Enjoy my gameplay of ArachnoNinja and Those Who Die Like Cattle. I should have more VODs to uploading every couple days. Do not forget to checkout the entries in the description or below the video link :heart: (and like my vid :wink:)

https://youtu.be/MOQvnWwS2QI

ArachnoNinja: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/arachnoninja

Those Who Die Like Cattle: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/those-who-die-like-cattle

Last chance to rate: CellSpace cellular automata sandbox and Cellspace IDE (postcompo version).

With the postcompo IDE you can create full games and share them easily. You can now share games that open in the IDE. I created 4 more example games, play and edit them via the links below.

My LD entry contains basic instructions

Some example rules explained in this post

Play and edit the example games

Douse the Fires - click to remove walls

Platform game - you cannot jump, fall onto the monsters to kill them

Escape Room - push the keys to unlock the locks

Tanks - destroy the tanks with fire

Boulderdash - get all the diamonds

Harvey Wallbangers - draw walls to make the wallbangers get the potions

Cell Pacman

Shooter - space to shoot

Last day of rating begins and we are still looking for more employees in our Head'quarters!

Apply here!

Like I did for Ludum Dare 55,

I'll soon be posting a video talking about our games development!

Be sure to keep an eye out for that on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HelperWesley

Also, we took some time to update/fix the game and launched the new version on Newgrounds.

Check it out here: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/952914

If you have the chance, please check out the game and rate it. Our little ghostly friends would love some company and the house owners would hate to find their house in disarray! Dive into the chaos, brew some potions and get ready to hunt possessed furniture and silence talking pumpkins.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/haunted-house-sitter

If you leave your game in the comments, I will have a look at it as well!

I just realized, a day before rating ends, that we never actually published our game as a Gam Jam game :cry: It was always just unfinished... And I was wondering why we didn't get any type of ratings or comments

Hey everyone! As the jam comes to a close I just wanted to say go try out our game! We have absolutely loved seeing all of the amazing comments and other jam games during the jam so thanks for the awesome time! Play now: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/critter-gang!

I will post from time to time now games that are in danger zone from person i know or which seems very interesting :)

Tiny Creatures by geckoo1337

This games needs only 2-3 votes! So go play it.

Play it here

Less than 24 hours left in the jam, one week till Halloween, and only one night to survive. There is an infestation of Poppets and you are the only one who can stop them!

CALLING ALL SCORE CHASERS!!

Think you’ve got what it takes to be the best? So far, only one streamer has managed to survive the night. @deadroach, the legendary Poppet King, who took down 6 Poppets! Do you have the skills to beat their record? The challenge is on! How many Poppets can YOU kill in one night?

Play Poppet now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8CYP_9laTc

COMMENT AND WE WILL RATE YOUR GAME!!!!!!!!!!

Blobs are cute, only game hard.

Yes, the game is stressful.. cute and hard and stressful.

There is timer to make it more stressful, we hope you like it.

Get golden blobs, it's even harder. (Better than brown blobs, and more cute)

(We nerfed this game multiple times already. Play version 1.2 or in the browser, it's easier now)

Play blobs. Blobs squishy.

(This is our last post before the rating ends. We don't want to spam the feed section because some games might really need it to escape danger zone. Good luck everyone!)

Check out more effort posts here:

• Tutorial to 2D shaders in Godot
• Changelog for version 1.1
• Changelog for version 1.2

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/microbe-mayhem We have put a lot of effort into creating a game that fits the theme of GameJam this time. The game process is relatively complete, and we hope that great game developers can give us a rating. Thanks ,love you!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/lil-chimeras Hey jammers. I'm pitching myself out here in hopes of getting enough ratings. Was my first compo game and while rough, was a great experience. Looking to have enough ratings to place so I have a metric to compare myself against next Ludum Dare. Leave a comment and I'll check yours out in return.

Have a great weekend.

Participating in Ludum Dare 56 was a blast! Thanks to everyone who participated and those who took the time to review and leave feedback! I just wanted to share my experiences, what I learned and what went well and not along the way.

Results - What I Made

Gettin' Squirrely

A game about being a squirrel, climbing on trees, jumping around collecting nuts and delivering them to your nut stash.

Moving and Collecting nuts

Climbing trees!

Delivering nuts and a fun speedy jump move

oh, and your cheeks fill up with nuts!

the game page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/get-squirrelly/

The process

At the onset of the theme announcement I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Many of the ideas that came up during brainstorming felt very complex and difficult to implement. Eventually I realized I was overthinking it and I decided it was best to follow my initial gut intinct. Outside my office window on my neighbor's house a squirrel is usually hanging out on the roof, its cheeks stuffed with nuts. I thought it would be good fun to make a game with climbing and snappy jump mechanics, and a simple game loop of gathering nuts and stashing them to score. Climbing on trees was a key differentiating feature that I thought could be really fun if I could pull it off.

I specifically was interested in creating a Unity 3D game because I wanted to exercise new skills in rapid modeling, shaders, and animation techniques. I had never worked with animating quadrupeds previously, only humanoids, so LD was a great excuse to dive into it. This also meant that I had to have a very regimented project and time management strategy to limit the time investment into each mechanic, concept prototype, and asset.

I created Gettin' Squirrely solo, which has been how all game jams have been for me in the past. I know that I could improve in my networking skills as I've never been asked to join or had any luck with attracting others to join my project. I'll admit part of this could be my own apprehension of leading other people that have studio experience making me anxious about it. I seriously considered just being a "fly on the wall" for a team in the jam just to immerse myself in the experience of creating a game with others as I have only ever worked on games solo, never with other professional creators.

I didn't get sound completed in the game, even though I have a deep background in audio production. I have worked in recording studios in the past and have professional recording equipment at my home to use. It just didn't happen due to lack of sleep, and in that moment I decided to cut audio from the initial Jam release and add it in later.

Posting the game to the Ludum Dare site as an embedded web player highlighted a an oversight in my plan. When attempting to build the web version the shader variants for the trees were so generic that they had thousands of variants to compile which after 20+ minutes I realized would not complete by the deadline. I had to scramble to resolve that issue and modify shader code to reduce the variants. Building earlier in the prototyping phase would have exposed this issue much sooner.

Later I recorded "Foley" sounds for every sound effect using condenser microphones, including barks from my dog, nuts cracking and dropping, foliage moving, and sounds of squirrels screeching in my yard. I created and recorded a song that is now forever stuck in my head for better or worse. I added sound to the game in an update posted to Itch.io, not included in the LD jam version. Other bug fixes and improvements based on feedback were made and more improvements and enhancements are in the works.

What Worked

• Building the game for Linux and getting it running on a Steam Deck made me about fall out of my seat in excitement. Nothing compared to that feeling - I was totally floored!
• Taking care of myself - Having lots of good snacks and beverages available, taking breaks, walking the dog and sharing progress with friends. I still remember looking forward to the scheduled "Tasty Burger" lunch I planned on Saturday.
• Trusting my development instincts and skills to create and learn what was needed to quickly complete a feature on the fly.
• Rapid prototyping - specifically creating each prototype with a question to answer, cutting features by honest evaluation. Focusing on the core movement first, and informing design with each prototype
• User Interface design felt easy and automatic, with very little time investment.
• Gamepad support just worked, I never tested it until submission time. Using Unity's Input System and configuring the inputs generically it worked out of the box.
• Simple and effective Visual Effects and Post-processing "juice". By adding camera shake, motion blur, trail effects during jumps, and impact effects when jumping and landing added a lot to the game feel.
• Almost every bit of feedback I received was highly positive about the "fun" of the game, and many constructive comments which helped drive bug fixes and other improvements.
• Vector and Rotational projections to calculate climbing and jumping were used liberally. I recently became much more comfortable with these concepts through learning shaders and this was a huge boost to creating the mechanics.
• Custom collision and physics. I did not use Rigidbodies for movement or collision. The jump routines and movement all utilized custom collision and overlap checks. I had never done fully custom collision and physics this way before. This provided greater control of all the movement, and made jumping onto trees and immediately attaching to the surface possible. The only Rigid bodies used in the entire game were for the nuts that sometimes fall from the trees.
• Focusing on simplicity and the core gameplay loop. Keeping things as simple as possible and "following the fun" without reservations or FOMO for more complexity (complexity does not mean depth).
• Creating an itch.io page, rigging up all the analytics, screen shots, creating devlog updates. Still room for improvement but it was good practice.

What Needed Improvement

• Need more connection and community involvement with other game developers. I am not an introvert but my entire game development experience has been in a vacuum - solo.
• Build early and often - compiling the build early would have exposed many issues that could have been avoided.
• Camera controls - despite being "Squirrely" the camera movement was jerky and sometimes called out as "tank controls". This was even more disorienting on trees, but this type of camera movement was a compromise as it helped with allowing the player to see their squirrel more easily when on the tree. The mistake was using the newest bleeding edge Unity which has the new Cinemachine package which changed the layout of all of the components, so time was spent familiarizing myself with the new system that could have been spent just creating with the system I already knew well.
• Dog AI - the dog was intended to be the primary balance to make being on the ground dangerous. The dog's AI was not aggressive enough to locate the player, and was never a real threat. The dog had some animation issues related to basing the animation transitions on the Nav Mesh Agent's desired velocity instead of it's current velocity. This was patched later but was not in the LD jam version.
• Collision - Many different raycasts are needed to make detecting the character orientation to achieve predictable climbing on the tree and avoid randomly dropping off of the tree during movement. One particularly difficult part of this was that the tree collision mesh included the leaves, and this caused some fighting between the raycasts. Learned that by separating the leaves to a non-collidable tree instance alleviated this issue, and some transition animations were needed to make sure that attachment to the tree would be reliable. This was improved in later version.
• Indecision / Analysis paralysis - Not enough trust in my own ideas during ideation. Initially during brainstorming I solicited ideas from community and friends then became a bit loaded down feeling like my own ideas were not "good enough". This made me feel a bit deflated, so the first night of the jam I did not make much progress. Once I made an executive decision picking a theme, progress came quickly.

Plans for the future

I would like to bring the game to Steam, and hope to do so soon and will be looking to engage with others with more experience in doing that. I have many ideas including new game modes, characters, and stages to introduce. Primarily I want to get more familiar with the entire launch process and build my portfolio. I would really like to engage more with and explore community and feedback driven development, but it has become more clear that I need to network and build community first to be in a position to do that.

My team made an idle game, if you enjoy idle games try it out :3 :tropicalfish: :blueheart:

Play Here!

If anyone needs a last minute play and rate, reply to this post and I'll play your game! :3

There's finally a post jam demo build up for my game Particle Wars. Unfortunately there's only a windows version as of now. Any feedback/suggestions are welcomed, and needed so please give it a try :)

And a huge thanks to all of you who've played and rated my game, it's been a blast!

Itch: https://nickhellquist.itch.io/particle-wars-survive-demo

What's next for Miku's Minion Madness? (Playable here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/mikus-minion-madness)

Well, lots of stuff! We've been working hard at a post-jam version for Miku's Minion Madness, and here's a quick sneak peek!

We've been working on updating the UI and creating new cards. We are also working on using images for creatures, instead of just vague shapes:

These updates haven't been released yet and absolutely are just part of the upcoming update so keep an eye open - they're coming to itch.io at some point in the not so distant future!

Small Problems to Grapple With it's a grappling hook platformer where you play as a tiny frog trying to escape from the flood and avoid enemies. The goal is to get a high score

if you haven't checked it out yet you can try it here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/small-problems-to-grapple-with

Hi guys I am hidden61ade!, getting myself in the field of gamedev for just a straight year since LD54 and a participant of LD54 and 56. This post is for reflecting my stories with LD (and perhaps getting some more ratings for my ld56 game https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/night-at-the-8th-warehouse ((()

As you might have noticed, LD is the very key element of me entering the field of game development. For LD54, the game club in my school, CUHKSZ Game Odyssey, held a lecture about Unity engine and promoted LD as a bonus and held an onsite grouping session, it was then that I teamed together with some awesome and really nice people like @madoka @fan @nanamaki @kuchinashi and @the-iaald. As a complete beginner to game design or development, on LD54, I acted as a scripter and even got myself a task of embedding the SFX and music. However, when trying to use Wwise for the embedding and to cope with Unity's version control PLasticSCM, they conflicted on the final merge so yeah basically I f**cked up on this part when the game was submitted (though fixed later). But this as my first hand-on experience on gamedev is very valuable since I learned a lot from my awesome teammates and hey, the core gameplay of that game is from my idea!! Receiving many likes from the comments about the scripts I wrote and having a decent ranking at the end is also very satisfying.!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/space-bar-porter-qq

One year later and during this year I have got myself into some other gamejams and even a complete game design & development competition that is national-wide and big title sponsors like Hypergraph and Paradox Interactive, together with my LD team, we won a major prize. With such experiences added, again in the Unity lecture of my game club, this time I am the lecturer teaching others about what is LD and why we should all try our best participating it. Also, for LD56, I am the leader of my team and also the multi-tasker responsible for programming , game design, scripting and also teaching the rookies all the way through--from them I saw the shadows of myself on the last year. The complexity and content of this game is also way more finished than my LD54 game. Creating a game is already cool enough, but leading it is more satisfying, teaching rookies into this industries makes it way more meaningful.

Though facing some sort of harsh comments, I can still fill the warmth and passion of the Gamedev society of LD, and it is the pure Gamedev spirit that makes me fall in love with LD. I will definitely do LDjamming more in the future.

So yeah enough talking, please come and try our stealth-(horror)-platformer Night at the 8th Warehouse!!!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/night-at-the-8th-warehouse

Hi !

Everything's in the title ! Come and try our game out if you haven't yet, we're waiting for your feedbacks :smile:

---> https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-world-mayhem <---

After rating comment below and Ill be quick to play+rate yours. :smile:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/shrink

Hi there!

We got lucky as I had a lot of time to review others when the rating period started.

Now we're close to the time limit, and I'm using my time for a reminder:

Please go to https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/games/danger/all and vote!

This filtering shows games close to hit the 20 votes required to get a score at the end.

Let's get them in! <3

The best part of Ludum Dare is that you get honest feedback on what needs fixing. So even now, with less then 10 hours left to the results, we managed to fix our little mice from flying through walls or moving too fast in some scenarios.

You can still play and rate our game here: La Révolution Francheese: Bonamouse

Written by the main man @fooorsh ! (Vibe: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/stuarts-perfect-day)

We're still exploring what Stuart's Perfect Day could become!

Here's a few quick sketches on re-imagining the little creatures found at sea. They still carry the same personalities, just more standardized!

We have also been thinking about how Stuart's journal could look. Here's a little peek at how it could look in the game. It's simple and minimalistic - in tune with the overall expression of the game!

Beyond this, it could be cool to introduce some musical little fellas, that could join in on the journey and play some tunes!

Go vibe! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/stuarts-perfect-day

The current version of our entry is the version we made for the jam, warts and all:

However, we've cleaned some things up. Made the physics less floaty. Added a better UI. And since then, @wraithind and I have been working hard on trying to take our entry and turn it into a tiny Metroidvania, a Microvania if you will.

Last couple of days, I added color palettes.

Tomorrow morning, after the jam, I intend to clean up our working project to make it just the bits that were in the jam, but with the better UI and physics, and upload that. And then onward, to release Get in ma Blunderbuss DX on Steam in a couple of months. I don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced cheese, or to do especially well. But I do expect the experience to be educational, like the last time I released a game on Steam.

Wish us luck.

Checkout my highlights and reaction to The Blueberries Dawn!

https://youtu.be/aNyxoCmmD18

Game link in the video description and below!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/the-blueberries-dawn

Have you ever been to a raid with a healer who can't heal? A warrior who can't pull? A mage who can't aim? Welp that's our game... Except YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO CARRY THEM.

Come lead these idiots to victory! Before the end of the jam!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/im-a-porter-for-the-worst-dungeon-party-in-the-world

~~i am in desperate need of 2-3 more votes! So i am shamelessly advertising my game!~~ DONE, I GOT MY VOTES! Thanks for the help! 🐝🐝🐝

Also, there is a global highscore! I double dare anyone to beat my score of 14 000 points! Second place aint even close!

link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/gottabeethere

Hello everyone! We have made the game "Ferless For Fears". Yes, this is our first Ludum. But we think that the game isn't so bad.

NOW A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE GAME: We'we thought much about the idea about the game. And we wanted to do a little bit more but we didn'y have time :( . We aren't used to time limits. Instruction: W - go up. A - go left. S - go down. D - go right. Duble shift - sprint. Than when you enter the game you are greeted by this kind of menu: If you tap on any buyyton you will see a window like this (this button is settings' button): (Sorry because of your lack of time languages don't work :( ) When you click on button "play" you will be shown the backstory (here it is): Next slide: And the last one: Than when you click on "continue" you will appear at the location with boss called Ursa. Here's how it looks: Here is some guiide about the gameplay. If you start to play you will see this panel with skills: 1 - Explosion of suffering - This skill appears under boss. It reduces 1% of boss HP and has a 4-second cooldown. (Of course every skill has its own cooldown to make the game harder :) ) 2 - Vortex of undefeated - This skill goes from you to boss. It reduces about 7% of boss HP and has a 14-seconds cooldown. But when you just entered the game you will have 20-second cooldown of this skill (because it makes the game harder :) ) 3 - Fireball - This skill goes flies from you to boss. It reduces about 2% of boss HP and has a 7-seconds cooldown. 4 - Syner's special lightning - This skill appears under boss and unlike all the others, it is homing. It reduces about 3% of boss HP and has a 6-seconds cooldown. 5 - Healing candy - This skill will heal you. It doesn't reduces boss HP and has a 7-seconds cooldown. 6 - Syner's Surge - his skill appears under boss. It reduces minimum 10% of boss HP and has a 30-second cooldown. Then when you will kill the boss you will appear at the next lvl: This This screenshot is cropped to avoid spoiling the level :) And if you complete the game, you'll get this icon: P.S Right now we are working on game, making it better and more playable :) || P.P.S: There is a bad optimisation of player’s health(it’s going above 100), but it is the problem of engine - Construct 2. - it literally makes everything what it wants :(

Hi Everyone!

We are sorry for throwing all your previous pumkins into the void. No Longer!

Thank you so much for making my first game jam experience a really positive one! We have made one final update to our game where your pumpkin carving stays for the entire game once you finish your carving.

Hope you give us a try in the last hours of the Jam!

Hello everyone! We have made the game "Ferless For Fears". Yes, this is our first Ludum. But we think that the game isn't so bad.

NOW A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE GAME: We'we thought much about the idea about the game. And we wanted to do a little bit more but we didn'y have time :( . We aren't used to time limits. Instruction: W - go up. A - go left. S - go down. D - go right. Duble shift - sprint. Than when you enter the game you are greeted by this kind of menu: If you tap on any buyyton you will see a window like this (this button is settings' button): (Sorry because of your lack of time languages don't work :( ) When you click on button "play" you will be shown the backstory (here it is): Next slide: And the last one: Than when you click on "continue" you will appear at the location with boss called Ursa. Here's how it looks: Here is some guiide about the gameplay. If you start to play you will see this panel with skills: 1 - Explosion of suffering - This skill appears under boss. It reduces 1% of boss HP and has a 4-second cooldown. (Of course every skill has its own cooldown to make the game harder :) ) 2 - Vortex of undefeated - This skill goes from you to boss. It reduces about 7% of boss HP and has a 14-seconds cooldown. But when you just entered the game you will have 20-second cooldown of this skill (because it makes the game harder :) ) 3 - Fireball - This skill goes flies from you to boss. It reduces about 2% of boss HP and has a 7-seconds cooldown. 4 - Syner's special lightning - This skill appears under boss and unlike all the others, it is homing. It reduces about 3% of boss HP and has a 6-seconds cooldown. 5 - Healing candy - This skill will heal you. It doesn't reduces boss HP and has a 7-seconds cooldown. 6 - Syner's Surge - his skill appears under boss. It reduces minimum 10% of boss HP and has a 30-second cooldown. Then when you will kill the boss you will appear at the next lvl: This This screenshot is cropped to avoid spoiling the level :) And if you complete the game, you'll get this icon: P.S Right now we are working on game, making it better and more playable :) || P.P.S: There is a bad optimisation of player’s health(it’s going above 100), but it is the problem of engine - Construct 2. - it literally makes everything what it wants :(

Hi everyone! Sorry to bug ya at the final hour, but I have a friend who did his first Compo ever and is just two ratings short of qualifying for a final score. He's reviewed a whole bunch of games, and it would be really sad to see him not place at the end.

His game is Lil' Chimeras, it only takes like 3 minutes to play, and it's web based. If you have a few minutes before the jam period expires, please help him out!!

Play His Game

Don't know what to do while you wait for the results?! Try our new Post Jam version! We put a lot of effort into it. Hope you enjoy it!

Play it in one click!

I am taking this evening to take one last look through the entries and vote. If you are doing the same and fancy saving some ducks in the process, swing by and check out DUCKS ON THE ROAD!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCR9tVgyzec

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/ducks-on-the-road

Good luck everyone!

You still have time to play the greatest mix of SHMUP and Vampire Survivors style game!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/w-a-s-p-warrior-and-scout-protocol

Tired of the classic “Once upon a time…” thing ?

Ink Rebles is still waiting for you !!🔥

Click to PLAY

*Use your talent to control the tiny ink drop and its buddies to run as far as you can !! On this journey, you’ll bump into all kinds of weird enemies trying to block your way—like eyeballs in the mouths, headless knights, and even the giant riot from no where! *

Think you can dodge them all? Be careful and don't let them kick your ass! Now’s your time to show what you've got!

And don’t forget to check the leaderboard to see where you stand ;3

Go on, brave reader! Let the adventure begin!

Huge thanks to our tiny team for making this game possible. We hope you enjoy the adventure as much as we enjoyed creating it!

@perka, @tarisma, @eva-chipsy, @kyuz, @fei-encelade

...and thus playing my comedy text adventure Bean There Done That 💖

Written by resident art, design and dreamy-thinky man @fooorsh

The jam has been a blast, and seeing all of the amazing stuff you guys are creating is really inspiring!

We've been left with lots of dreams and drive for our little project.

Here's a short recap of how Stuart's Perfect Day went from quick prototype to bigger dreams of a unique, cozy little world.

Be sure to check out our prototype from the jam, and if you're interested - check our itch page for future updates!

Come play! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/stuarts-perfect-day

Came across this when playing danger zone games, only needs ~2 more ratings, and it's a pretty simple game/has a web build

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/creature-rehabilitation-lab

i maybe already started preparing for ld 57

Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/invadium

Add your games to the queue here: https://forms.gle/M4LTfcvSzhdNHXZ49

Check the playtesting queue: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/164IcsUjZZV0mR4SHa2nxWaiXkIFX6dmsSjbUWKkAp50/edit?usp=sharing

I have a suicide pact with my collaborator for if we don't reach 50 votes. We have 50 in nearly all categories, but some wishy washy asshole wants us dead and didn't rate the mood so it's at 49. Please save our lives

We had so much fun working on Miku's Minion Madness (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/mikus-minion-madness) in this game jam, that we've decided to keep working on the game a bit post jam!

That said, besides more cards, what sort of things would you be interested in seeing added to the game? Currently, we're looking into things like converting the block sprites to actual sprite art that matches the cards, adding a bit of deck building and some roguelike elements, and potentially a meta progression system.

We'd love to hear your feedback, so head on over to our page and let us know what you think we could do to make the game better!

Thank you all for your support through this jam! We hope you all had as much fun participating as we did!

-The MMM team.

Its less than two hours left till rating ends, and I wanted to thank the community and organizers for such great jam. Its been my first Ludum dare, and I was able to achieve scale and quality that I never reached in jams before, and its been very positive and transformative experience for me. And special thanks to all people who from thousands submissions chose, played and left feedback for my game, I really appreciate it.

If you didnt had chance to try my game yet, now is the best time. Both windows and Linux versions are available. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-wreckers

Good news! TINY PACK will be getting an upgrade in the nearest future and I want to thank everyone who voted for it or played it on itch.

Here are some materials from the post-ld version, a screenshot of the map and a sketch of a more polished animal design!

If you want to follow the project just follow me on itch.io! https://xk.itch.io/

You can play TINY PACK here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-pack

This Ludum Dare was a blast, can't wait for the next one!

Only 2 hours remain!

Haven't experienced Poppet yet? Dive in now before it’s too late! This ghost hunting game only takes minutes to play but leaves you with chills that linger for a lifetime. Dare to face your next nightmare?

@deadroach continues to dominate the Poppet King title and has set another record by banishing 9 Poppets with support from @autotrophian and @langotriel in a single night!

Play Poppet now!

I have uploaded all videos of the games I've played on stream to Youtube and then took a few days of rest before finally returning to the development of Sea Beckons.

Huge thanks to everyone who tried Sea Beckons in it's current state! Seems like despite my advice against it, many have played it and actually managed to enjoy it :smile: Many expressed their wish to try the final version when it's out and I will work as best and as fast as I can to not disappoint.

If you want to know when release happens, consider following on https://empyreans.itch.io/sea-beckons

There's also more Pirate / Naval action on the way in a bigger project :wink:

So every feedback received on this game also helps with another :heart:

Tomorrow I plan to do my stream of "The Best of..." in my opinion of the games I've played there. Very subjective of course and while the winners in some categories were easy to name, not so much in the others. That's all because you all made such cool games, it makes the picking process incredibly difficult :angry: So I blame it on you, stop being so awesome :laughing: (JK)

I might also play some more of your games then, if you want, but without ratings ofc as this train choo choo'd away now.

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

~XpMonster

Just a little bit left to go. This has been awesome and so much fun!

This was my first COMPO, and I'm really happy with how it all turned out! Thanks to everyone who played, and thanks for all the kind words.

The post-jam polished version is already ready and will be released soon. In the meantime, feel free to try out the jam version: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/kingdomos

If you'd like to stay updated, feel free to subscribe at https://mrkvinter.itch.io/

Thanks again, everyone! See you in six months ❤️

These games can be played in the browser and only need a few more ratings. Please check them out!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/nectar-nomads

Only needs 1 more! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/slimecube

Kinda late, but I played this game several days back and I think it is really neat and deserves to get the 20 needed ratings. Corporate Swarm is a short well polished game where you avoid the little corporate men to get the 'blue marble of your dreams'.

It's available on html so its super easy to play it!

Check it out, it won't disappoint ;)

(https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/corporate-swarm)

Last post from us before the voting closes! This jam has been freeing for us and lead us in directions that we weren't expecting! Appreciate ye all for trying our lil game and sending feedback our way.

I got lost last weekend making a wee port of our jam game for the Playdate. Its not finished or released but Ill tap away at it over the next while and hopefully it might go somewhere. I feel like the format suits the short, calm experience of Stuart's Perfect Day. It lends to picking it up here and there for a chill moment and to check in with his world.

Here's a picture of it running on the device

The crank can finally be used in a fishing game as the gods intended! Play the original jam version here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/stuarts-perfect-day

Hi everyone,

The end is near! This Ludum Dare has been my very first, and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. With the results on the horizon, I wanted to reflect on what we’ve accomplished since submission.

Working around 2-4 hours a day, with graphics support from my buddy Leo, we’ve managed to:

• Completely overhaul the visuals (still a work-in-progress)
• Add some basic animations to bring the game to life
• Rework dialogue management, now with event controls and SFX integration
• Redesign the storyline management, laying the foundation for multiple paths and endings
• Get our Steam page created and approved (yay!)

The game has grown from a simple RPG-inspired memory-game concept to an interactive story with casual gameplay mechanics. There’s still a lot to be done (especially the real RPG-mechanics, WIP) and nothing is set in stone just yet, but I’m excited to share this journey with you!

As always, any support on Steam or Itch is greatly appreciated! :)

Below, you can see how it’s all evolved in pictures.

Also, both versions -JAM and Dev- are accessible, for those who would be interested. - https://arcade-eleven.itch.io/creepy-crypt-critters-jam-version - https://arcade-eleven.itch.io/creepy-crypt-critters - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3287220/CreepyCryptCritters/

Regards, Joel

Submitted

Now

I managed to get a point and click adventure game engine going more or less and you can get to the credits, but unfortunately even after 80 hours I couldn't get the content done... Anyways I will upload the source code later with the Windows build if anyone's interested in the implementation.

Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/$401218

Currently working on a post-jam update for our game! There were a few things that we wanted to implement that we didn't get to + some issues that we wanted to fix over the next couple of weeks. Would love to get any input/suggestions!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/algies-adventure

Also, I'll post again on here when we release :)

Looks like the ratings are still up, so if anyone else is playing Danger games last minute Creature Collect needs a few more ratings!

Explore a Zelda-style dungeon collecting creatures and try to make it to the end and collect optional creatures along the way. It's only 7 ratings away!

You can play it here (there's a web build), and if you have any web Danger games that are only a few ratings short leave them in the comments!

As the rating period for Ludum Dare 56 comes to a close, I just wanted to thank everyone who gave our little game, Get In Ma Blunderbuss, a try. I truly appreciate it. As someone who's only been programming for a few months, I'd never had hoped I could have been a part of something this exciting, and I have Logic Monkey to thank for that. Without his knowledge and incredible art, I'd have had no hope of getting this far with this. This whole thing has made me sure now that this is what I want to do with my life. I love creating things, and I feel that no other medium has the opportunity to express itself as much as the potential of video games does. So, I'm sure you'll be seeing me around here again, and as Logic Monkey said, we aren't finished with our little project here yet. Rest assured, the version of the game posted here is still the end result of those first 72 hours, that has not changed, but we've been working on cleaning it up and adding a few things, that hopefully in a few months we will have a complete experience to share with everyone. And I hope that you'll check that out as well. I wasn't able to play and rate as many of your games as I was hoping, as life unfortunately had to take over after this, but I've seen some incredible pieces out there, and will continue to flip through them when I find the time and desire to do so. This has been one of the most exciting things I've ever been a part of, and I look forward to doing this again. So, again, for those of you who have given our little game a chance, thank you for playing our game.