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!

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.

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!