Yall did good

See ya next LD

I used this LD to test an easy but cool looking art style, because I have a 3D game project but almost no experience with 3D.

The shader is an homemade -unfinished- shadergraph, it's basically just cellshading with a texture for shadows, and two sobel filters for contours (on normals and depth).

I learned the theory behind color palettes but still struggle to make good ones, so I tried using generators. After trying several ones I settled on huemint.com and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Getting 3rd place was very encouraging. I intend to continue working with this art style.

My only regret is on the gameplay, althought it's not a big deal as gameplay wasn't my focus for this LD. I thought about making a racing-ish game, that would fit the art style perfectly. But I didn't as I wasn't sure to be able to handle the physics on time in a 48h compo. So I tried to make a puzzle game, but ended with a physic game with junky physics anyway.

I think this wasn't my worst game but it's the worst rated by far xD

877th overall I think is second worst after my first attempt on the old LD website >_<

Regardless, it was fun and I look forward to participating again in the future.

See you!

"uhhh, aplove! we missed the ludum dare top 15!!" "we're not aiming for the top 15"

awesome submissions everyone, keep up the awesome work

see you in 130 days

Congratulations everyone on another successful Ludum Dare! Now that results are out, I'll reflect a bit on my game (Holding Out). I also realized I never formally wrote a post-mortem for last event's game (Fallowtide), so I'll include that here as well.

There is actually a surprising amount of overlap between the two events, despite how different the games are, so I'll summarize into a few shared takeaways:

1. Make the player feel something
2. Play to your strengths, but maybe not too much
3. Utilize base code
4. Plan ahead
5. Sleep

Here goes!

Make the player feel something

Both Fallowtide and Holding Out are built around delivering a particular emotional experience to the player, but they do it in different ways.

Fallowtide is intended to be mysterious and uneasy. This is supported by art that is visually dark, a mysterious NPC with his face hidden by shadow, a spooky music-box soundtrack, and dialogue with ambiguous intention ("May you dream of fire and warm things"). The mechanics support this as well; the player is free to play slowly and carefully while the game gradually reveals more to the player.

Holding Out is intended to be slightly frustrating and absurd. It's built primarily off of one joke: contrasting the frantic, high-energy nature of a zombie survival situation with a comically sluggish and unhelpful customer service line. The goofy animations and stereotypical hold music add to this feeling.

Actual customer feedback for Gary was mixed:

We'll go over this feedback at Gary's next quarterly review. (Thanks @jcmonkey, @jdeedubs, @jvolonte, @yorsh, and @mpk90 for your amusing and varied comments)

One important pitfall here is to avoid accidentally undercutting the emotional experience with contradictory aesthetics or mechanics.

For instance, Fallowtide probably suffered a little bit from a lack of a lose condition; the fact there was no risk for the player limited how effectively it could apply tension. Contrast this with Sacrifices Must Be Made, the Ludum Dare precursor to Inscryption, which does the dark mystery reveal more effectively because the player is also struggling to stay alive in game.

Holding Out has almost the opposite problem; it relies a bit too much on players learning the underlying systems (like how enemy spawning/movement works and which upgrades are most efficient), and is easy to lose if you don't. Losing means you are forced to restart and hear the same jokes again, which isn't very fun. I probably should have added checkpoints or reduced the overall difficulty so most people could beat it in one run.

See also Fade, where I unintentionally made an emotional story-based game brutally difficult so that many people couldn't actually finish it to experience the story.

Play to your strengths, but maybe not too much

Everyone has different goals for Ludum Dare. Maybe you want to build a portfolio; or learn a new engine or framework; or test how well you work with a new team; or grow as a game developer in some other way. What your specific goals are will highly flavor whether this section applies to you or not.

I have two goals that have been somewhat consistent throughout my Ludum Dare experience:

• Make cool games. Test my mettle as a developer to deliver enjoyable, polished games in a short period of time.
• Try something new. Learn and grow by tackling different genres, visual styles, and emotional experiences.

Holding Out was really my first attempt at a humorous game (not counting the "so bad it's good" game I made in five hours for LD49). Since humor was the "something new," I felt okay falling back to standard 2D shooter mechanics as the base gameplay. For Fallowtide, the "new" was the visual style (non-pixel art, with a large character illustration) and gameplay (tile-based farming deckbuilder).

I think Fallowtide was probably more useful from a personal growth perspective, simply because it was so much different than my past games. For next event, I might try to focus on Innovation, which has historically not been one of my highest categories.

Utilize base code

I use PyGame for most game jams, which is a relatively lightweight Python wrapper for SDL 2. As a graphics library, it's missing most of the features available in game engines (animation handling, particle systems, physics, update/render loop). So, it's particularly important to utilize base code.

Per the Ludum Dare rules for Compo:

You’re free to use any tools or libraries to create your game. You’re free to start with any base-code you may have.

Frankly, I haven't been very organized about building base code prior to the event. However, I will reuse some code event-to-event as needed:

• Fallowtide and Holding Out both modified versions of a dialogue manager originally built for Broken Threads
• Holding Out uses some primitive objects and a particle base class from Launch Party
• Holding Out uses a sprite and animation manager I built way back in LD42 for Rampart and upgraded for GMTK Jam 2022 for Six Shooter
• Fallowtide and Holding out both use an image manager and sound manager class that I originally built for Spellcraft

Ludum Dare is about designing and building a game in a weekend. If you find yourself writing the same boilerplate every event, you probably aren't learning anything new, and it's stopping you from using the whole time efficiently. For next event, I might try to consolidate the various pieces I reuse often into a starter project.

Plan ahead

48 (or 72) hours is not a lot of time. It can be tempting to rush through the ideation and planning phase so that you can dive into the "real" work of programming your game without wasting any time.

Do not do this. You will very often make a worse game.

I'll often spend at least the first 2-3 hours weighing ideas and planning how the game will work on paper. You should have a good idea of what your main mechanics are and roughly how the game will look. If you're making a puzzle game, you don't need your final levels, but you should probably think up one or two to make sure the mechanics are actually viable for making interesting puzzles. This might feel like a lot of time, but it's way better than realizing 24 hours in that your entire game idea doesn't work and you need to start over (that said, you should pivot if you need to --- Spinnerets was originally going to be single-player, and it would have been a much worse game).

I had a long planning period for both Fallowtide and Holding Out, and I think the games benefited from it. I probably should have gone a little deeper in the initial planning for Holding Out, since I ended up making some odd design decisions on the fly (like giving the player a dodge roll when it really wasn't useful in combat with the enemy designs).

Sleep

In my experience, it's not worth sacrificing much sleep during a game jam. If I get less than ~7 hours of sleep, I'll lose that extra time in reduced productivity anyway. And be more miserable.

Conclusion

Both of these jams have been an amazing experience, and I've gotten some personal best scores in multiple categories:

Thanks everyone who played my game during play and rate. Comments and feedback are what completes the loop and leads to iteration and personal improvement. I absolutely would not be where I am today in my development journey if it weren't for this community and the support and insight it offers.

Cheers, and here's to an even better Ludum Dare 54!

This jam has probably taught me the most about practical game development. The main thing though is focus on gameplay. I decided to derogate the gameplay to the bottom of importance which left me with a glorified walking sim. This was a terrible idea. I next time need to just make a good gameplay loop and ignore story because im a terrible writer and if I wanted a good story I would just read a book.

Oh wow! For a game I tried to keep simple to avoid repeating missing the deadline, I'm quite humbled to get in the top 10 in one category for the very first time I believe.

I'm also very happy to get 36th overall, especially when applying lessons I've learned last Jam. My last few entries were trending downwards, so I was actually thinking of trying out different styles in the last two jams. I decided to go with a more action-oriented, arcade style to it. I've tried doing that in LD52, but scope creep and unfamiliarity with doing this kind of genre for a Jam ultimately doomed that project. For The Convoy, I therefore decided to do it very simple: Run around a delivery truck and shoot the enemies. And it actually kinda worked! Well at least good enough for me to be able to ship the game in time :D

However, after shipping it, I still realised there are two main areas that kinda hurt the game:

1. Players struggled to figure out you could shoot diagonally

This one really surprised me! In my mind, I thought that was something everyone would assume, but nope! But then, looking at Contra (Which inspired the control scheme), there are subtle cues to let the player know that shooting in all directions is indeed possible. Let's look at it shall we?

youtube.com/watch?v=2mWZlNOzdv8 (Sorry for the raw link, couldn't figure out how to embed and don't feel like figuring out)

When you start the game, two things come to mind. The guy on the bottom shooting at you, which would instinctively make you try to shoot downwards, and the bonus capsule hovering around, just enough to coax you into aiming up. And of course, since that game had more memory than mine does (Mine fits in 24 kilobytes... Yes, kilobytes!), they could add more aiming animations to let the player know this more easily. Visual cues are important, obviously, but next time I should not just assume everyone would naturally know something that is a fairly central mechanic. Which brings me:

2. Testing...

Ah yes, that part that always brings my games down. I always tend to focus on developing my games, but never let someone else test them. Partly because I'm too busy making the game in the first place, but also because I'm reluctant to do so since the Compo stipulates you must work alone. I don't know to what extent it would be okay to let someone else playtest the game, but I'd certainly think about allocating some time to get someone else try the game during development, so that I can iron out any design cues like I've pointed out in 1.

And with that said, I think that's gonna be a wrap! See you next LD.

I remember somebody created an analytics page, where you can compare your results with previous games and other participants. Does anybody have a link to this?

I just spent the day going through every jam I and my friend @coda-highland have ever participated in (both as a team and independently) and throwing everything into a spreadsheet. Turns out we crushed it this time around. Loading Zone ended up topping the charts on Overall, Fun, Innovation, and Theme.

Here is how we did:

(Entries in orange are games we did not get 20 ratings on. It is also worth noting that both Running Out of Space and Game Over were done by Coda's son.)

This jam was admittedly a bit of a weird one for us. I started jamming with Ludum Dare 35 and started jamming with Coda in LD36. By the time we got to LD41 I had burned out while Coda kept jamming without me. After years of not participating I finally convinced myself to participate again and we were ready to go, only to find out the week before that we missed the notification that the event date had changed and that Coda had scheduled the wrong date off work.

I almost didn't participate in this jam. It wasn't until Dawn (8pm) of the final day that I actually came up with an idea I actually liked and I ended up pulling a complete all-nighter to actually make the thing in time. On top of that I did it in html52d, Coda's own custom HTML5 game engine, which I had no prior experience with. While Coda was able to help towards the end, I am used to him carrying the majority of the work load. This time however I programmed almost all of it while he, funnily enough, was the artist!

Overall I am extremely happy with how this turned out. Not only did I manage to pull through with 1/3 the time everyone else had in an engine I was completely unfamiliar with that has no documentation, but I managed to beat every other game the 2 of us have ever worked on in the process!

Thank you to everyone who played and rated this game. I look forward to participating in the next jam!

|Links|| |-|-| | Loading Zone: | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/loading-zone | | My Games: | https://ldjam.com/users/drazil100/games | | Coda's Games: | https://ldjam.com/users/coda-highland/games |

...and if you ever need to train for delivering news irl - the game's right here for you to go back to.

Now that the judging period had ended, does anyone know basic stats of the jam such as:

-How many people/teams competed in each format.

-How many games were submitted on time.

-How many games reached 20 ratings and were scored.

-Which games came top 5 in each category.

If anyone knows even a single one of these stats please post them in the comments section.

I am new to ludum dare so I don't know if @pov is going to post these stats.

I believe this info is extremely important for competitors to gauge how good their game has performed relative to other game jam submissions and also so that the top performing jam entries and their developers are greatly appreciated and are given the attention they deserved for all their hard work making such a good game in just 2 or 3 days all from scratch :).

Not too proud of the game this time, but I guess it can serve as a mistake for me to learn from. I'll try to plan a bit better next time around.

Anyways, see you in September!

Eventhough Dungeonfalls is not my personal favorit in my LD entries, it became one of my best rated games. I'm esspecially happy with rank 29 in Innovation. This is great for me because I often think, I'm not a very creative game dev. Thanks a lot for playing and rating!

Play Dungeonfalls on itch.io

Cause we had a lot of fun doing the jam, our team decided to give it a shot and continue to develop Maily Melo !

With the feedback we recieved thanks to the jam’s participants, we are happy that most of you have experienced the fun factor we’ve tried to build. We took note of your suggestions regarding the consequences and the lack of clarity in the game and we might have some plans to solve it c:

Your advices have given us even more ideas and plots that can be build for a full, silly and just as relaxing experience.

To make it easier for you to follow us, we made a Twitter for the game :

https://twitter.com/MailyMeloGame

Thanks again for the love and support ✌️

This was my second Ludum Dare and third game jam I've ever completed!

My game was a compo submission: Rat Delivery Service

Given I have no professional work experience, I'm pretty pleased with this! 180th may not sound too impressive, but it's still top 40%! Top 100 in several other categories is cool too!

I wanted to focus on conveying a unique idea, since I felt the theme was relatively closed-in and would cause a lot of samey ideas. Plague rat delivery is pretty unique, so I think I was successful in this regard! I don't know when I'll get around to releasing an update or full version for this game, but I have been working on it! No promises though, especially since my studies resume soon.

In the meantime, enjoy this "lit :fire: undefined" rat that I accidentally created due to a loading issue while working on updates:

Also!

I saw people shouting out other games so I figured I'd do the same!

Special Delivery Jam game by @/ismael-rodriguez

This was a really good one! Very fun gameplay and cool visuals; I especially like the 2.5D box and how it affects the physics and gameplay. This submission got 8th overall which is super deserved (if not better), great job!

Legal_Transactions.bat Jam game by @/arcling, @/calamador, @/fgkeiji, and @/johjoh

Criminally underrated in my opinion, and quite possibly the most unique game I managed to play in this jam. Very interesting gameplay, with an extremely well executed visual aesthetic to boot. Memorable! I'd really recommend giving this one a try if you haven't already.

Boxbrawl Delivery Compo game by @/cruise-elroy

Super good NES/arcade style game! Despite its obvious inspirations, it manages to have gameplay that is unique enough to give it its own identity. All around a very complete and solid experience (top 50 in almost every category), and likely the game I sunk the most replay time into.

Last Stand Delivery Jam game by @/yx0884, @/sheng-mai, and @/yuriscat

Another super underrated gem. There's a lot here! Very charming graphics and dialogue, 8 well designed levels, and an intriguing twist to push-puzzles make this game great. Please give this one a try too!

Moonshot Jam game by @/koolruz

Very fun and satisfying take on a platformer! A little bit biased as a golf enjoyer though haha. The movement mechanics here are great. Quite the challenge too! This submission got 9th in fun, a testament to just how enjoyable it is!

And that's all I really had to say!

Once again, good haul all around. Many fun games were made; so much great work from the community! Take care yall!

Hi guys!

Thanks to everyone who played The Infernal Trail, my compo entry where I tried to put Vampire Survivors on rails, really appreciate it! :)

In the past 2 weeks, I've been working on its post mortem, and finally it's done! :)

I hope you enjoy it, let me know what do you think! :slight_smile:

Sadly I still can't post links, so here it is in plaintext and its thumbnail:

youtube.com/watch?v=5wXzGgvJpTA

I didn't expect much from the ratings of my game, so I'm surprised to have hit top 100 in most categories.

Play Rogue 'n Royal in the browser

What's next for Rogue 'n Royal?

There are a lot of design choices I'm not too fond of: the limited time to explore, the roguelike-ish world design yet not being a true roguelike, and the mini-games in general. Adventure Jam 2023 is coming up next week, so I might take the good parts, the tile-based world map and the graphics, and try a completely different approach. A procedural generated open world maybe? Follow me on itch.io if you're interested.

See you next Ludum Dare!

Thanks to everyone who played our game and left feedback. We’re the 68th funniest jam game thanks to you! We made a post jam version called FedUp - Express Edition that fixes somethings we ran out of time for plus added a character select, an endless mode that uses all the characters, and leaderboards. Check it out if you get the chance.

https://roguebrain.itch.io/fed-up-express-edition

DDRKirby's postmortem writeup for Goodnight, Meowmie was one of my main motivators for participating in the Ludum Dare 53 game jam, so my experience wouldn't be complete without a postmortem of my own!

First off, let's start with the scores:

Scores: - Overall: 883rd (3.297 average from 39 ratings) - Fun: 1181st (2.473 average from 39 ratings) - Innovation: 567th (3.365 average from 39 ratings) - Theme: 625th (3.892 average from 39 ratings) - Graphics: 579th (3.703 average from 39 ratings) - Audio: 469th (3.389 average from 38 ratings) - Mood: 113th (4.162 average from 39 ratings) - Average Score: 3.469

My rating for fun was the lowest, which isn't surprising considering the nature of the game. Most of the ratings circle around a bit of a "meh" rating of under 4, but I'm pretty pleased with mood having the highest score.

For my first jam game and first game altogether, I'm happy that I got enough ratings to receive a ranking. It's easy to get competitive and feel disappointed for not getting a higher ranking, but I have to say that for what I put in what I got out is entirely fair. It motivates me to make something better in the future. In addition it felt really good to have some influence over how many people would play my game depending on how much effort I put into other participants' games. Getting to play other people's works and comment on them was a really enjoyable part of the process, but also made me feel, for the first time in my life, that playing a game was "work." It's a different attitude to have towards what you're playing when you know that you're going to be giving it ratings and leaving a thoughtful comment, and it was an interesting role to take on.

The Creation Process

As for what went well during creation, telling a lot of people I knew about the game jam and setting myself the goal of creating something (anything) even at the risk of making something bad helped me to keep going even as I wanted to quit because I didn't want to feel ashamed in front of others or myself. With a schedule to adhere to, I HAD to create, so my brain juices were flowing a lot more freely than they have in a long time. I think I was extracting inspiration from every piece of media or moment in my life that I've experienced ever, which is a level of intense creation I don't think I've had before. As soon as the theme was announced, I lay in bed (it was quite late in my timezone) brainstorming for about an hour until I could fall asleep with an idea I was excited about. After it got to marinade as I slept, I woke up with more ideas and a zest for creation. And finally, because I was in charge of the entire game, I got to switch between tasks and do whatever I was excited for at the moment.

Regarding what went badly during and after creation, the main thing is that my workflow was entirely without structure. I kept sleeping, procrastinating and then staying up all night full of excitement, torn between wanting to give up, forcing myself to continue and being entirely giddy with excitement. It worked out fine regarding the creation of the game, though I'm sure many people could have created the same in 48 hours and much fewer breaks, but for me the issue was how much it ate away at me in the following days. I think it's normal to need to recover a little (and going by the blog posts on the Ludum Dare website it would seem others experienced a few days of fatigue as well), but I don't think this workflow is sustainable if I want to participate in multiple game jams a year in the future. On top of that, I severely underestimated how much a topic that was so close to my heart would end up affecting me. For one thing, I hadn't expected to feel so giddy and terrified to send my baby out into the world (no pun intended), but more than that I think my own game genuinely triggered something in me that I wasn't prepared to deal with. In the future I definitely want to have more of a social net and some self-care plans for the following days to recover more healthily both mentally and physically.

What Worked Out Well

Positive aspects I'd like to mention include that it proved to be extremely beneficial that I learned the basics of RenJS at the last minute instead of opting for Ren'Py, as people overwhelmingly chose to play in-browser. As for my game's content itself: While keeping in mind that those that commented are probably from a baseline of people that don't mind unsettling plots, I was still very pleased by comments from people who enjoyed my spin on the theme and the dire atmosphere. I have my doubts that anyone interpreted the story the same way as I did, but that's perfectly fine. I enjoyed keeping it abstract, and I think I was still able to convey the overall atmosphere which seems to be reflected in the mood scoring. I think that the atmosphere did make my game stand out in its own way as something different. On top of that, I think (and hope) that the game wasn't boring! which is the sin I'm the most afraid of committing, so that's a huge relief. A few people said it was quite a ride, and a friend told me that it gave them goosebumps midway in. What surprised me the most was that aside from one ear-strainy bit (which I did leave in intentionally, but admit might have been a bit much), people seemed to find the audio decent, and some even enjoyed it. Since I had absolutely no idea what I was doing as I threw it all together I can't really feel proud, but it definitely makes me feel like I must have been on the right track about something. Before my next game I hope to learn how to compose simple melodies instead of relying on noise so heavily. Feedback on the minimalist style for the graphics was generally positive, so while I think there were a lot of parts that would have been improved with more illustrations, and there are some illustrations I'm pretty unhappy with, the overall style appears to have been the correct choice.

Improvements

I'm extremely grateful for all the comments I've received on what I could improve in the future, and I've split up the ideas into small and big fixes.

Small fixes: - text should appear about twice as fast - a CTC button when images only are showing to indicate how to proceed to avoid confusion (I'm not sure how to implement this on RenJS aside from a hacky technique of making text the color of the background appear, but it should be possible) - settings menu (I actually made one but couldn't figure out how to have the buttons align properly in the GUI builder, so I settled for a single "start" button) - Some things I personally want to fix: I hard coded every single voice blip because soft coding wasn't working out (technically I wanted them to appear continuously Phoenix Wright style, but for the atmosphere of the game a single blip seemed to work as well). I'm also not sure why the title screen won't play music despite implementing it in the GUI builder. For the next Ludum Dare game, I'd also like to learn how to embed directly on the website (this time around, I kept getting error messages).

Big fixes: - While I did regret not being able to add in more branches due to time constraints, I'm not sure why it came as a surprise to me that people strongly desire a sense of agency in their gameplay. I suppose I just thought that for a self-contained story like this it would work out, but in retrospect the comments helped me see that the story COULD take on a few different turns and lead to different endings. - Personally, I would really like to redraw the art, add illustrations to the parts that are missing it, and possibly add short animations in some parts as well. I'd also like to use better sound effects not made by me, especially a real heartbeat sound.

Closing Remarks

Altogether I felt like a complete hack during the entire process, and was forced to give up on a lot of things I would have liked to put in, but it ended up being exactly what I wanted it to be: a good learning experience, an opportunity for me to prove to myself that I CAN create something if I set my mind to it, and a motivator to create more in the future!

I'll round this off with some of the amazing works of art that helped make my first game possible (and some additional ones, because a few days after releasing the game I sometimes went "huh... that's actually a lot like X when you think about it"): - mili's songs, especially Between Two Worlds and Extension of You - Serial Experiments Lain - Welcome to Nightvale episode 220 - A Radio Jupiter Holiday Special - lots and lots of indie games (including Victim Doll, Greaser, everything by etherane, We Know the Devil, Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk)

Serum Run is my most successful Compo entry to date (got 19th in Mood, and personal bests in Overall and Graphics), and I've released a post-jam update with some music, bug fixes, UI improvements, and a bit more content.

I have more ideas for narrative content, but part of me feels like continued work on the game will have seriously diminishing returns, because who's gonna play it now that the ratings period is over? I mean, unless I'm willing to put serious time & money into developing a "product" that can be marketed, kickstarted et cetera, what are the odds that enough people actually play it to justify the additional effort?

Maybe it's different if you make the top 10 or have an existing online following, I guess. But it seems like after the rating period ends, sharing your game around online stops being part of a pro-social community activity and starts to verge into unwanted marketing/self-promotion, and the quality bar to justify this sort of marketing is so high.

What do y'all think about post-jam updates and diminishing returns in terms of potential viewership?

Hello guys, here's the story (along with my appreciation) for this event! First off, thank you all and to @Mike for all the positivity which is felt throughout this jam! I got pleasantly surprised!

Let it be time-lined (you will laugh)!

• 26-27 Apr - I recall there is sth like Ludum Dare, I say to myself, why not do this, had it on my list 1 year ago (in the meantime, I am not in front of a computer and in the jam weekend, I am going to be busy with other things, haha)
• next few days {life is busy as hell} - you know, people today live x20 speed nowadays> - I read the rules, I see there is possibility for an Extra entry, phew, awesome... maybe that would happen
• I am checking out the themes - oh my, there are some pretty cool ones - maybe I don't like a few like delivery; my brain is already pumping ideas (maybe I will finish a game this time, haha)
• 27th - 31st Apr - nope, I am not here, I think I skimmed through here to see it's the Delivery theme, I am seeing some posts, not sure what is going on
• 3rd May - here I come! - my Phaser3 setup is a bit dusty, haven't gotten to this in 6 months, I decide I would do a game which includes physics, why not?!
• (3rd - 10th May) - hell yeah, I was able to squeeze around 5 consecutive hours into... doing basic setup around 1 particular issue with my physics engine (where everything speeds up enormously) - finally resolved ;;((( but the scars are real
• (10th - 16th May) - hell yeaaah - I was able to sit around 4-6 times more (nor sure exactly), some sits around 1 hour - I was able to actually (almost) get a core loop running, I still have just 3 levels in my game
• 18th May - I came with a nifty mechanic to make my game more meaningful - eject areas - otherwise it would actually be pointless haha
• 18th - 19th May - I add more levels, clean up some rough edges, fix a few bugs, add main screen content and level selection
• 19th May (I do italic this for a reason) - I create a LDJAM account now and post post my game 19 minutes after - it works but... I don't see it listed anywhere; people don't see it ; ((((( I cannot create posts, it doesn't work, but I can post comments on existing posts...
• 20th May Evening - I am going over the site, checking out how stuff work...
• 21th May - Thankfully to Mike's effort (and to me commenting in a few posts and maybe writing to support, not sure which one), my account gets whitelisted! I also start to play some games... I am totally blown away by the quality of those games, many games! I am totally blown away by the positivity going around in commenting games. Thank you guys, this is awesome! I think this was the day I also noticed the post by Mike on the huge spam... then everything (on the whitelisting) was clear.

I will be playing more of your games, if get time, they are awesome!! ... Thank you all!

Oh, it's a post-mortem, kind of... then here's a few things from my side: - DON'T try to do physics games if your setup is flaky - HAVE an LDJAM account earlier... not on submission day hahaha - Polish your setup/framework and flows for the things you want to include in your game / in my case I didn't even have a visual level editor; all code - Plan plan plan but keep it simple... 1 core mechanic done well is much better than 3 mechanics done in a mediocre manner - Note: while I was not on the computer, my head was pumping stuff, some of this stuff had to go on paper to get validated - I've spend a lot of time thinking about what's to be done next, not "trying to just code it" - novice programmers should take note of this

Oh, here's the game, it's ugly and has one nasty bug :D but... if intereseted Airborn Island Delivery (AID)

New Features

• Score screen - after you deliver the prophecy, you will get a screen showing the effects your choices had on the client. - Depending on your overall score(positive or negative) this can affect future conversations with the client.
• Animations - added some more animations to make things look a little nicer
• Branching Dialog - dialog changes depending on your overall score with each client.
• Saving - automatically saves after each prophecy and you can continue from the main menu.

Available here - https://chrisashtear.itch.io/ld53

Let us know what you think!

For anyone like me who still hangs around, subconsciously opening this page every now and then, I hope you enjoyed this blast of a jam! and hope to see you in September. goodbye!

Is there any way to find the number of games rated in each category? I checked out the stats page and saw total number of submissions as well as percentage of submissions rated—but those weren't broken up by compo v. jam—and also there were plenty of games that excluded themselves from one category or another.

I'm just a game writer, so I have no idea how to read the open source code to get this info, but I'm happy to learn if anyone wants to teach me...just hit me up...I'm a fast learner, I swear...

Hello everyone! Thank you all so much for 9th in humor!! I am amazed that we got top 10 and I am glad so many of you liked it.

As I promised everyone else on my team, VS Mode is now out! We made the mistake of planning to make a fighting game before the theme was announced, and then when it was after many idea switches we finally made a beat-em-up instead. The true fighting game will come someday, but for now you finally have the power to beat me up as one of my friends, or vice-versa. Thanks, and here's to next time!

Play Here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/fission-fight

Wow. Our fifth dare and our best result by far. It all came together this time. A good theme, a good idea and good programming experience. However it wasn't all smooth sailing and there were a few times it nearly fell apart.

What went well

A bit of backstory. Me and @pegasys first dare together was LD48 back in 2019. After a 3 year gap we returned in April 2022 for LD50. We had two ideas we really loved for this jam. A stock market card game, which would eventually become Market Maker, and a lorry delivery game where you would have to place packages and then drive to avoid obstacles. I think you can see where we are going. We had this idea on the back burner in every dare since then. Slowly refining it each time till where now for LD53 it was our strongest idea. So when Delivery won we were excited and highly motivated to finally make this game. This is reflected in it being our most polished and complete game yet and, in my opinion at least, our most fun game to date.

(Our original sketch from Ludum Dare 50)

Another aspect that we are really proud of is the 3D. Every game we have made so far has been 2D. Mostly due to our lack of experience in 3D. This time we decided to take the plunge and create a game in 3D. While functionally it still behaves as a 2D game, all the packages are on the same axis. The added depth from an artistic standpoint really makes this part of the game pop.

What went poorly

Our biggest issue was a lack of planning on what the exact gameplay was going to be for the lorry section. We had a vague idea of placing packages and then items or mechanics to make this more challenging or easy. Near the end of day 2 we had the placing of packages in place in an empty van with one test item. It quickly became apparent that the item wasn't very satisfying and that this section of the game had little actual "gameplay". It caused us to have a bit of an identity crisis over what the game actually was and this combined with having spent a non insignificant amount of time making the item lead to a steep drop in morale and motivation. Thus we decided to end work for the day and start fresh on Monday. In the end we removed the item and added different box sizes and shelves to put the boxes on. While we still think this isn't as fun and in-depth as we would've liked we are mostly happy with how it turned out.

The next issue is one of consistency. We worked (mostly) separately on the two sections of the game, regularly communicating but implementing each section alone. As such the visuals of the two sections diverge and the art style isn't entirely consistent. We have several ideas on how to alleviate this but unfortunately there wasn't enough time to work on this during the jam itself.

One way I would personally like to improve this in future is by getting more practice with 3D art so that we can both work on each section rather than having to split between the two of us. This would not only reduce the chance of inconsistent design but also allow more parallelisation of workload and less of a potential bottleneck for art heavy games.

Lastly is audio. This has been an area that has consistently been a weak point for us in all our games. From being absent entirely in Untitled Robot Game, to being two sounds in Market Maker. Once again the audio is a weak point. While some sounds are very good, such as picking up and dropping boxes. There are several noticeable omissions that hurt the mood of the game, such as background music and engine sounds.

Post Jam Version

Given how much we enjoyed making this and the results we have gotten. We have decided to continue working on this post dare. Our plans currently, after refactoring the current code, is to greatly expand the gameplay in the lorry as well as improve the art style and consistency and add more levels and content. We also plan on making a mobile port of the game, the drag and drop gameplay seems like a natural fit for touch screen displays.

Closing remarks

We are really proud of how Packing Heat turned out and are excited for where this game goes in the future. We'd like to thank everyone who rated our game and left valuable feedback as well as all our fellow jammers who make each of theses dares super fun and lastly Mike for creating this Game Jam and running it multiple times a year.

We'd love if you tried out our game Packing Heat. See you all in LD54!

My game for LD53 was an improvised speech-giving game interrupted by Cue Cards that tell you words, actions and emotions, and literary devices to incorporate. I decided to do a bit of a devlog/post-mortem video that starts with me using the game to explain the game:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=91uTOmCMfeM

I hope you enjoy the game and the video!

We just released an EP with the music from our Jam entry: BANKWAVE: Neon Networth. Check out the album art!!

You can give the EP a listen here: https://greggrossetti.bandcamp.com/album/bankwave-jams.

We're planning big things for BANKWAVE. Join the Waitlist for our Kickstarter! https://bankwave.frabjousstudios.com

I tried to get into game dev about 3 years back. This for the most part was working fine. However I hit a massive road block. I simply could not code what I envisioned. That be it visually or gameplay wise. I tried to overcome this but simply could not. This was mainly I believe because as game devs a lot of the time we are told that coding is not all that important and math is mostly useless. Or atleast that is what I was told. This ended my attempt at game dev a year in. Recently I was inspired again a couple months ago. This time however I found what I was missing. Instead of focusing on creators like architect of games and Gmtk or Mental Checkpoint. I focused on the technical side of game development. I ended up watching through every publicly available Freya Holmer video and now feel technically competent. I have programmed everything I've envisioned with no problems whatsoever. I can program shaders pretty confidently aswell. So if you're hitting the same road block just look up Freya Holmer game dev math and that should really help like it did me.

Does anyone remember the animated sprite generator I wrote almost 10 years ago?

http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/spritegen/

It's based on mirrored random pixels, and used the same animation technique as my AI sprite generator. The Java code is a bit outdated now, so I thought I might as well re-implement it in my new tool. I improved a lot on the original, with nicer colour schemes and more animations. I also fixed a bug in the animation code, so the walking characters should also look better. So now you can create both walking characters and other kinds of sprites in 8x8. There is also a 10x10 version, like the original Java generator. However I think at 10x10 the sprites look a little too random.

Use the selection dropdown at the top right to select the type of sprite to generate.

http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/ld53-charactergen/

Hello. My project for the 53rd LudumDare has been positively rated with the 100 rank in the Overall category. I don't use any dependency so as to develop my games for LudumDare. It's a challenge for me, a way to increase my C++ skill - and this time it worked as well. I created a little template (a Pixel Game/App Engine) to get what is required for a simple game - a frame using OpenGL 1.0, some keys for strings, a basic ECS system for objects, an appCreate/appUpdate section (virtual functions), a single function for randomized values, etc. Using this template, you cannot load any sprite, sound or something else. You have to create everything by code - and usually it is possible. This template is free and available on GitHub. If you want to learn C++ developing games, it is a good tool. Take a look at the link below if you are interested. I hope that you will be with us for the next LD. I wish you the best. Be safe ++

https://github.com/geckoo1337/Geckoo1337-engine

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/the-overlooker

Hey guys,

HMS Deliverance v2.0 is live now on itch.io

https://sherwinkc.itch.io/hms-deliverance

Update includes:

Players can now choose which weapon to install at any install point on Mothership.

Mothership weapons now have health and can be destroyed individually.

Rail Gun added.

Expanded upgrade options per weapon.

Weapons can also be installed via the Quick Access UI.

Destroyed weapons lose all upgrades.

Two Super Weapon options added.

Expanded enemy roster to include Elite, Drone Gunner, Frigate and more.

Enemies can now spawn in via a portal.

Added a Scanner to help locate objectives, resources & objectives.

Multiple Harvesters are now purchasable (max count of 3).

Harvesters now have a health bar & resource bar.

Multiple command options added for Harvester Management.

Adding New Weapon types & multiple upgrades per weapon.

FTUX/Tutorial added.

Added Tooltips for many selectable options.

Explore & Battle Music updated.

Graphics and Display options added in the FE.

Multitude of bug fixes and improvements.

Would love for you to play the update and feedback welcome as always.

Original Entry: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/hms-deliverance

Had some crazy and fun moments working on Rocket Lawnchair 2: Baby Deliverydoo! Here's a video with some stream highlights for you to enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd3-XK_TvZA

Flap flap drop post jam will be soon with a hard difficulty, engaging flaps, enemies, too many commas, and a pause menu. I suspect done by 6/15/23

Ever since the dawn of my game programming journey I've been struggling to find a better alternative to Unity. Because it's way too bloated for 2D and I also just wanted to make my own engine or other engines. (Plus it's been controversial more or less recently. And I just HATE the obligatory splash screen.)

The recent DOTS update though, along with jobs system/burst compiler, and other updates like fullscreen shader node... coupled with my very recent shopping spree in the Asset store such as full fledged AI pathfinding etc... made it utterly impossible for me to leave it. I'm just gonna throw my white flag and decided stick to Unity. Doesn't matter how "unprofessional" it seems to have its logo on it. Unity has come a very long way now and fully solved its possible performance issues, not that it ever mattered for my very very small 2D games anyway...

The only reason I'd ever choose another engine is when I can't stand with its still painful UI system, especially in pixel 2D where its scaling is pretty much non-deterministic (I don't know if that'll ever change with uxml)... or if I'd "ever" need the 3D graphic capabilities of Unreal, now that it has Lumen (global-illumination) and Generative AI for auto-world building. I'm pretty sure Unity will catch up as it always have, but I'm especially tempted by the latter - I can see why people say Unreal is setup well for artists and world designers, while Unity set up for for programmers' ease of use.

So yeah... tl;dr I'll probably see you again in October with Unity. Again. I'm not gonna reinvent the wheel. I like making games. Not engines. I tried, I really did. But it's too much for me, trying to find the right language and workflow and all that... after wasting my past month trying different things, I'm back to Unity and sticking to it for good, especially with its promising updates.

Won't someone PLEASE do something about that splash screen though? Do I still really have to pay for that thing too? Does it realize how much it makes my game seem unprofessional?... It's not my fault the engine still has that stigma.

Hi everyone. This is not a marketing post, since we are all devs here. Okay it still kind of is.

Early this year, I made Crop Rotation during LD52. The game was very basic but I really wanted to make a card drafting game.

After working on it for close to half a year, it is finally (almost) ready. I will be participating in the coming Steam NextFest, which means that there is a Demo :)

You can find the demo on steam or if you prefer to do it on web, you can find the web demo on itch.

The game looks totally different from the original LD version, but the core idea of "drafting" is still there. Do give it a try and if you have any feedback do let me know here or you can find me on Mastodon/Discord :).

I remember checking in here around the end of last LD, and it was just full to the brim with spam, I'm glad it's doing better now (:smile:)! I know it's not perfect yet, but I've been up to date with the effort that's gone into to fixing it, so thank you @pov! I appreciate seeing people talk in here without the bots, haha. (monkey nod of approval)

Today is release day and i am happy to announce that my game "Super Drunken Guy" is available today for Nintendo Switch.

Super Drunken Guy is a platformer which i initially made for a nerd party where you get drunken the more beer you collect. The drunk idea was previosly an idea for a part of my LD40 Jam ("The more you have, the worse it is").

Some of the gameplay footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxk8Tp74aXQ

You can get it here if you want:

US : https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/super-drunken-guy-switch/

EU : https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Super-Drunken-Guy-2395839.html

PS4 & PS5 Ports are planned and in progress :)

Ahoy, daredevs!

We listened to your feedback carefully, therefore present a visual adventure based on real paintings made for Adventure Jam on itch.io, in 2 weeks from scratch.

Play HorseMare

Play for the Horse, waving in the distand dreamlike fields. Bite blooms to get on with the story.

Feel emotionally attached to whatever's going on.

We're developing a full-play in this lore now. Wish us luck and time, and all the logics and gameplay done smoothly.

Thanks again for being such a great community.

Slainte!

hey i would love some ideas for weapons/items that i should make as a pixel art sprite :)

With other projects being made Flap Flap Drop was not being worked on, I have still not gotten Lachlan5150 as of writing this post. I have recently finished some animations for it, almost the entire game will be resprited; when making it with a time limit we saved visuals for last and kept some of the unfinished artworks anyways. For the postjam there will be new fart sfx more sfx finished music particles and resprites here is one of the resprites for the explosion.

Is the timer on the right wrong? It was stuck at 103 days for like a week or something.

Hi all!

We had so much fun creating our game for LD53 and it go so well-received (thanks for the 71st place :heart:) that we kept working on it for a while, so here we are with the post-jam version based on your valuable feedback, including: - Adding audio (ambiance, SFX, custom music) - Improving visuals, with a different weather every day - UX/UI quality-of-life features - Accessibility features

Play "Lern Island Letters" post-jam!

screenshot_day4.jpg

For those of you who didn't get the chance to try it during rating season, "Lern Island Letters" is a calm narrative game set on a remote island with five intriguing residents. It's your first day as a postman here, so you'd better start learning who's who to find the correct recipients and ultimately try to save this natural haven from a terrible fate.

Having three days to work with instead of the 48 hours we were used to was key to make a narrative game, which was a challenging task for a game jam (especially with only a team of two). We spent about half the time writing and paper-prototyping the story elements, and even if we could have done even better we're very happy with the characters and mysteries than we ended up with.

We hope you like it, have fun! :love_letter:

After LD53 ended I decided to keep working on my game, it still isn't finished, but it's quite there.

I had the opportunity of exhibiting it at an art fair in my college, so I kinda rushed it a bit to showcase it there, fortunately, it was almost the way I wanted, so now I just need to make some final polishing.

I designed even more characters and completely overhauled the graphics, I intended to make them this colorful from the start. When I created the art for the jam I decided to make it first in black and white and later, if I had time, color it, obviously, I didn't get enough time.

I also decided to slightly change the game's name from "My Flavor-ite Kidnapper" to "My Flavor(ite) Kidnapper", I think it looks a bit nicer and expresses the pun a little better.

The original jam version also lacked music, I think it quite diminished the experience, but now I put some songs and I'm very pleased with the music I chose.

Check My Flavor(ite) Kidnapper at: https://cosmicfoxgame.itch.io/my-flarorite-kidnapper

You can also check my original entry here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/my-flavor-ite-kidnapper

You can still download the original jam version if you want to see how much the game improved.

Some screenshots of how the game is right now

My job is going to be severing a bunch of people in my department in a couple of months, myself included. I’m going to take this opportunity to focus on game development, and while I have other major projects I’d like to do, I’d like to first see if I can expand one of my Ludum Dare entries in the meantime.

So I’d like an opinion on which entry would be best to expand. I’m leaning towards either The Discloser, Theory, or my most recent, Foxcrate. But some of my older ones, like I Need a Charger or Cat Outta Hell might also be worth revisiting.

Any opinions on this would be great! (Or, if anyone wants to collaborate?)

Although RIP didn't rate well during LD53, the feedback was consistent with what I was looking for. I've since secured a steam page, been updating the prototype, and presented the current version at Canada Game Con.

The event was a blast! Lots of players kept coming back to try and beat their previous times.

I think the prototype is in a place now where I can start replacing assets with ones closer resembling the final product. Changes coming soon(ish) include:

• Improved character controller (model, and fixed ragdoll included)
• Interactive hazards
• Online leaderboard
• Improved graphics

Check out the updated prototype here! Play RIP: Ridiculously Injury Prone

Signup for updates here!

or

Wishlist on Steam <3

Continuous Factory has been completed! The post jam version of our puzzle game adds polish and 24 mind-bending levels to challenge your wits to the limit.

Play free online

Continuous Factory was a jam game for Ludum Dare 53; the game did somewhat well, but we did not spend nearly as much time on it as we would have liked, and felt there was a lot of untapped potential in the game mechanics. The jam version contained only 3 challenging levels aside from the easy, tutorial levels, and we wanted to make more, as well as add some much-needed polish, quality-of-life features and fix weird bugs.

We've spent the last several weeks doing just that, adding more than a dozen new levels, fully exploring the mechanics of this deceptively simple puzzle game about moving folders around with conveyor belts. So even if you played this game during the jam, it's worth revisiting, and in any case, see you all at the next LD!

This time around we had the wonderful opportunity to work with my good friend Cameron Bullard who filmed the entire design process over the course of 3 days. You can watch it here!

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

You can see more of Cameron's amazing work over at https://www.facebook.com/CameronBullardPhoto or https://www.instagram.com/cameronbullardphoto/

De-Liverance of a God is an experimental game in which you can talk with ChatGPT powered NPCs.

As the eagle whose duty is to eat Prometheus' liver every day, you see how unjust his punishment is. Can you persuade Zeus, the king of gods, to set Prometheus free?

It was using GPT-3.5 in jam version, I updated the game to use GPT-4. I expect the NPCs will be smarter with this update.

WebGL support will come once I solve some server-side technical problems. I'm open for collaborating with talented pixel artists and musicians.

I'm open for collaborating with talented pixel artists and musicians.

You can download the game from Itch for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Way back when, in LD53 there was a jam with the theme "combine two incompatible game genres". Many people were combining all sorts of games. Being the unstable and brave soul that I am, I combined THE most incompatible game types: a board game with a platformer. Just imagine if you took the card, dice, and style of one of your childhood board games and then mixed it up with something like a time pressure platformer of the 1990s... what would you get?

You'd get Platboarder!

Since that jam, the idea kept recurring in my head and I was thinking, "There might be something to this. Maybe?" So, recently, I presented the game to a new, indie studio startup and it was released as a short, casual and family friendly indie game on Steam.

While the game is up in its basic form, we are 100% adding a lot more levels, more board mechanics, new cards, and most importantly... a level/campaign Editor which will allow people to torture their friends and family-alike with custom campaigns.

The game is just a couple bucks, and buying it will give me space to continue developing features in the long term, beyond the next update (which will be the level editor and a couple new mechanics). I'd really like to see how far I can take this particular game-- it's such a dumb idea, but I absolutely love it.

Also, while the game is designed to 'push' you and make you feel 'intensity' to get through each level, I made sure it can also be configured to be a super chill untimed leisure game, suitable to entertain even children of all ages.

Also, I hope you fall in love with our adorable little board pawn.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2050210/Platboarder/

I learned a lot at LD53 regarding pixelart games and UI. So I sat down for 6 weeks and developed a new game. And again I learned a lot during the development time.

If you want to have a look, here is the result:

Hi Gamedevs!

I wanna post about a newly released mobile game that I started in 2014 during LD31.. And later released it on mobile with my friend @linus-lindberg in 2015. At that time I was using Phaser and developed it almost completely in one script.. I have no clue how I got through it. Atleast I've learned since then.

https://youtube.com/shorts/lwOVnXD3QRU

Made to be a preview on App Store.. (tip: don't edit with iMovie)

With the theme "Entire Game On One Screen" (which I didn't really prioritize) I randomed two games online and tried to combine them. First one being mini-golf and the second one, you guessed it, was about a ninja!

While I didn't manage to realize the idea too well during LD, I really liked it and showed it to my friend who is way more artistic (see below). During the coming 6 months we finished the game, still using Phaser, and managed to publish it on iOS and Android as a free game with a paywall. It was fine, not the code structure, but we released our first "big" game!!

Art by ME during LD 31..

Art by @linus-lindberg for the mobile release..

Which one do you like better?! :D

This leads to me to NOW. The last screenshot is actually for the new release of Ninja Star: Puzzle Adventure, out on your AppStore now(yes I'm plugging) for FREE. We always dreamed of making more levels and updates on the 2015 release, but we had completely left Phaser by then and with the project being a complete mess to get into again this was not an option..

So we decided, after a few beers and not really spending as much time on gamedev as we wanted, to regroup and recreate the entire game in Unity! This will be quick we thought to ourselves.. It took another 6 months, if not more. But hey, here we are!

And with the architecture being very much improved we can finally continue our work on the project with updates and new content. And improved in many ways: - New Levels - Updated graphics - Daily Map - Cloud Save for cross device saves - and more!

iOS AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ninja-star-puzzle-adventure/id6450400095

Android AppStore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Curlew.Ninja

You can find more on our website http://curlewstudios.com/#ninja-star

This is why LD is such a fun thing to be a part of! <3 It generates ideas, builds relationships and keeps our gamedev brains alive. See you all in 2 months!

So, in LD52 I made the game No Farm, No Fowl, but that isn't what this is about. The most weirdly inspiring game to me from that jam was Wheat Master, an isometric idle game about farming wheat. It was so satisfying to play and the isometric tiles felt so good to me that I decided I had to make my own satisfying isometric tile map.

Clearly, I took a much different direction from wheat farming, and clearly it's moved past just a tile map, but it really was my inspiration! Aaand here's why I'm posting: I recently launched a demo of an isometric tactics roguelike which ultimately began with my little tile map experiment.

You can try it out on Itch: https://squarewavejams.itch.io/trash-of-the-titans

Or you can try it on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2450400/Trashofthe_Titans/

If you get a chance, please let me know what you think of it! I'm really excited about it, and feedback from fellow developers is worth its weight in gold. Wait, feedback doesn't weigh anything. Uh... feedback is just... really valuable?

And if you happen to be reading this, big thanks to nyxkn for making such a satisfying little farming game. My whole family played it and loved it.

Luckily the changes weren't irreversible, but I was trying to make a mobile friendly version. The mobile version will just come later I guess?

I always enjoy reading stories about people continuing the development of their LD games and publishing them to Steam. That's why I want to share my progress for the last 4 months. Game is called Stellar Initiative.

This is how my game started as the entry to LD 53 with theme delivery

I made a simple linear tower defense game with the idea that you need to plan the delivery of every building, as they are sent from a ship and do not appear instantly.

This is how my games looks now.

Main direction I took is making it roguelike and splitting each run into missions

The idea is that you unlock new upgrades, discover artifacts and learn how to combine them to win.

There are different types of missions and it's a player's choice if they want more resources for upgrades, new artifacts, or a harder challenge.

Artifacts have unique bonus, that can give you a direction for you strategy.

Resources earned can be spent in upgrades tree, to unlock new paths for buildings, with each offering two separate directions.

As you progress, missions get longer and harder, and to hold enemy waves it becomes mandatory to upgrade your buildings, create layers of defense and use ship attacks.

There's still a lot to do, but I'm really enjoying the progress so far. I'm aiming to realse my game in early 2024. You can wishlist it on Steam if you want to follow the development: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2529080/Stellar_Initiative/

Hello all, I’m curious when the next jam will be? I think I saw something at some point saying the September long weekend just curious if I should start prep?

Hi everyone!

We just released Superfetch Dog as a full release after working on it some more since the last Ludum Dare!

Play as Gale, a Very Good Boy, and fetch a mysterious orb for your little master who keeps throwing it away! :dog:

The new release has quite a few reworks compared to the Ludum Dare version, mostly things have been changed to really put forward the core loop of back and forth from the game of fetch! But of course we also added some more content, with new environments, upgrades, and dangers in the forest, as well as a good ending!

Please do check it out!

We can't wait to take part in the next Ludum Dare! Until then!

-PUNKCAKE Délicieux :pancakes:

Today is the Indiepocalypse #44 new release. This is a monthly anthology in which you can find some interesting indie games and/or projects. It’s the reliable anthology model that provides a low-risk opportunity for newer artists and artists whose work can struggle to find an audience (according to the author's words). Often the games inside have some real potential and the creator of this magazine wants to help indie devs to gather a little community around them. It is not always easy because of the big amount of new games each day - forgotten among all the commercial AAA projects. So taking a look at this zine, you help indie devs. Buying this zine (usually for 15$) you support indie devs. Clicking on the heart below, you put a smile on my face :) In this 44th edition, you will find TYMD (Take Your Meds Darling) - one of my recent projects. Play with gravity in a non-euclidean environment, trying to understand what you are supposed to do here. I hope you will also be sensitive to what has been done by others, especially supporting the author of the Indiepocalypse zines and more generally indie devs who create games with their tiny hearts. I wish you the best. Thank you. See you later for the next LudumDare ++

https://pizzapranks.com

https://pizzapranks.itch.io/indiepocalypse-44

https://geckoo1337.itch.io/take-your-meds-darling

Hey! I do game art. If you are a programmer or have a team with a project or would like to start one, I would like to join! I do 2d/3d art and animations, preferably low poly fantasy style, strategy or rpg.

Here is my portfolio https://www.artgram.co/ruslana and Twitter https://twitter.com/ruslana_rv

Or maybe just let's do the next Ludum Dare together! Feel free to ask anything!

Sadly i noticed that the weekend when LD 54 will happen i am out of business and i am not able to take part.

This will be a weired situation. Since LD39 now i took part in every Ludum Dare (so it was 15 in row).

I also took part in a jam where i was on holiday (which was in 2018) and since i am again on holiday i have to time to take part this time.

Too bad as the winter/atum jams are my best and lovely mostly.

My best games for myself was: Claimbeer, Hyper Skater and Wonderland - they might be not the best in ratings but had a special place in my heart :).

I wish you all a good jam.

Hi fellow Godot 4.1 enthusiasts,

As the next Ludum Dare approaches, I wanted to ask if anybody knows if the issues around embedding Godot 4 based games has been fixed in 4.1? I am struggling to find clear information on this. Does anyone know of any nice work arounds?

Is it best to stick with 3.5.2 for the next Jam if we want to have our game embedded in our Ludum Dare game page or work on Mac OS?

Nozomu, the creator of ROBOT DETOUR (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/detour) reached out to me with an update to their game, and I'm going to play it! It was one of my top favorite games this time around, so I'm pretty excited. If you're interested, come say hi!

https://twitch.tv/Aurailus

I've updated our LD53 entry, "Foxcrate", into a full game, which can be purchased at itch.io here:

https://agentparsec.itch.io/foxcrategame

I've taken the original concept and turned it into a roguelite, where new options are available each day to add complexity. Everything from the ones that were in the original entry (Priority shipping, Fragile, etc.) to new things like Heavy Traffic or Porch Pirates.

I'm probably going to do more LD entry conversions in the future if this is successful. Please check it out!

My Type

Background

I first made 'My Type!' for LD50.
I got a surprisingly good reception for the game (117th overall and 66th fun), so I decided to work more on the game.

About game

'My Type!' is a speed-typing game where you have to quickly type the words that fall before they fill up the screen. In the new version there are special words that have different effects when you clear them. For example typing 'freeze' stops time for a few seconds giving you some time to catch up.

Try the game

The game is available on the App Store and Google Play Store for mobile and itch.io for the desktop version.
All links to the sites are on our website https://curlewstudios.com/#my-type

I am eager to start planning and preparing for the next jam, only couple of weeks!

I've added a trailer for "Foxcrate", which is also available on its itch.io page here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UriNWU2Ecxc

more ideas i couldn't visualize here

I am happy to announce the final version of my ludum dare 50 entry! The theme was Delaying the inevitable! Bernice has short-term memory loss, and she wants to ensure she remembers her birthday! Every 12 hours, she recalls those good memories. Help her keep them, and please grab some snacks and drinks during your stay!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq8KyG0ZBTs

How do I party?

• Press A or D to move!
• Move the mouse towards objects/memories that are fading away, then hold left click, to bring them back! But don't hold it for too long, the timer will go down faster!
• After restoring 5 memories (indicated by orange stars), you can rest your eyes and reset the timer by holding the right click!
• if the timers reaches zero, you can't restore memories for a little while!
• If a memory/object disappears completely, it is gone for the rest of the game
• Try to keep the mouse away from your head to keep the vision stable!
• Press 1 to enter full screen

We saved you a slice of cake!! 🎂