Arcane Anagrams is an addictive word game that draws players into the mystical world of letter manipulation and quick thinking. Play the game by making words with runes. If too many runes are summoned, it's game over.

We're so close to getting enough ratings to qualify for a score. If you have a free moment, check out Arcane Anagrams, play our game and give it a review :smile:.

Play 'Bail Out!' (web browser version + stand-alone binaries available).

Play as a skateboarder who has been summoned to make an appearance at court before noon and pay a fine for the "crime" of skateboarding. Except you don’t have any money and noon is only 2 minutes away! Skateboard around the city gathering as much loose change as you can find and make it to the courthouse in time. Just don’t get caught by the cops!

Having fallen in love with our Towners and Downers, I decided to create an animation still after the publication of the game. I sketched out frames for this animation during the creative process of the game with idea for this to be part of it.

It was very fun to learn to make animation by doing it and with crucial technical help from my brother. Here it is!

Play the game here: https://tykki19.itch.io/candles-of-doom

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/duro

Hi! This is a list of games the fulfill at least one of these requirements: - Can be or must be played on hardware other than a basic computer e.g. PlayDate games, VR games - Require unusual setup like setting up a virtual machine or emulator - Are played best IRL, e.g. paper and pencil, physical games - Are multiplayer

These games are often harder to get people to play than most LD games, and it's hard to find them when you are looking for them. If you have the required hardware, or have the time and energy to do the setup, or have friends available for multiplayer games, here is a list where you can find them all in one place.

If you know of more games that fit the bill, let me know in a comment and I will add it.

Deprecating this copy so I don't have to maintain multiple copies. Master list available here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/i-am-a-wizard-and-my-shoulder-hurts/uncommon-hardware-unusual-setup-games-list

We did it! We survived! @togis and I, we are still alive and kicking, for the ones who are worried about our health :smile:

It was an amazing and fun challenge and we got to play tons of fun games and met amazing people along the way. Thanks to everyone who tuned in to our streams. You made it fun and possible, your support made us keep going.

We hope our lenghty feedbacks were useful for you and you learned a lot from our streams and playthroughs (and from other jammers of course).

Hope to see you around, keep on making games, learning, growing and having fun!

:video_game: The list of 100 games we played

Here is our Twitch channel if you want to watch the vods and follow us around (Whole challenge took us about 40 hours of streaming :dizzy_face: ) https://www.twitch.tv/tobugis

:gem: Our LD55 Game

As some of you know, the 7th annual Penguin Con is coming up this weekend in the usual location.

For anyone who didn't get a chance to try my "game", I will have a demo table set up at -72.346906 latitude,-3.217483 longitude, and will also be fielding questions about my hair. Hope to see you there! (Bring a sweater and a thermos.)

(Bring your own fish.)

Sminer

Sminer's got a lot going on in quite a small amount of screen. It's a really cool take on combining different ingredients to summon different types of monsters to defend your tower. It does this by focusing on how you're gathering your ingredients by mining down for different resources. The presentation of it is really lovely as well, it's great pixel art and so well done on so few colours!

Eulerian Demons

I really love a bit of graph theory, and Elerian Demons really appeals to that part of my brain. There's a really cool puzzle in "how do I combine these different shapes without taking my pen off the paper" and this game presents that puzzle well.

Centibleed

Centibleed's got a really cool de-rezzed look to it and some great music. There's a good ramping up of your conflict with the opposing magical centipede, and there's just a great vibe to the whole thing. Some pretty liberal use of screenshake as well...

Matthew, Emissary of Balance

This game's got a really straightforward 2 resource economy that has a really satisfying loop to it. I really enjoy a good horde-mode-defend-a-thing gameplay and this pulls it off really well with a good variety of cool stuff to summon.

And of course... my own game - Hellevator

Voting for score chasers has ended and the competitors have voted on the 5 games that will be played in the tournament! Here are the 5 games in order of when they will be played.

#1: Infernup's Ablazummon (around 4:15pm UTC)

A score based game where you need to absorb falling humans and then resummon them, either to aid in your survival or to sacrifice on altars for points.

• By @colisan

| | | | --- | --- | | | |

#2: Make New Friends (around 4:45pm UTC)

A score based game where you need to summon the correct friends for shapes (aka summon the same shape as them). Each arrow key corresponds to a different shape and points are earned by choosing the correct one as soon as possible.

• By @benjamin-halko

| | | --- | |

#3: Throes of the Javelin (100% run) (around 5:15pm UTC)

A speedrunning game where you need to traverse a subterranean labyrinth with hidden collectibles. You can use your javelin to knock yourself back, to use as a platform, or to summon back to get its momentum. The 100% route will be run meaning all collectibles will need to be collected before completing the game.

• By @idan9000, @justin-ma-wav, @skransow, @matterlinx

| | | --- | |

#4: Polymancer (Stress Mode) (around 6:00pm UTC)

A score based game where you need to draw shapes around enemies of that shape to defeat them. The stress mode version will be played which is 5x harder than the regular game submitted to the jam

• By @markais

| | | | --- | --- | | |

#5: Salmoning (Race Mode) (around 6:30pm UTC)

A game where you need to touch waypoints by driving around on your bike and avoiding traffic. The race mode will be played which requires players to race against each other on the same track through a series of waypoints.

• By @soves, @nestral, @badcop, @rincs, @kuviman

| | | | --- | --- | | |

Interested?

Score chasers is a tournament where people compete to get high scores in games submitted to this Ludum Dare. This includes things such as completing a game in the lowest amount of time, getting the most score in a game, or other ways a game can be competed in. The tournament is taking place on Saturday, Saturday, April 27, 2024 4:00 PM UTC at https://twitch.tv/ategondev.

Qualifications for joining is still open until 24 hours before the tournament starts. In order to qualify for the tournament you need to submit an impressive score in any game submitted to the jam. To submit you can join our discord at https://discord.gg/FhP4jaZ7KS and post a screenshot of your score in the entry submissions channel.

Hope to see you there!

Hi, I'm Bo, and I'm an artist on our team! In this post, I explain how we optimized our pipeline, the challenges we encountered and the decisions we made to overcome them. For game Uncanny Inscriptions

Preparation and thoughts

We decided that the game will be in 3D, however creating characters in 3D takes much time. For instance, my model of a duck includes: sculpting, retopology, UV-layout, texturing, rigging, and finally animation. But I needed to figure out how to create several characters within a short timeframe. I decided to create 2.5D characters, which simplified my work. You'll understand why as we progress.

Creating Character in ZBrush

I'm skilled in 3D rather than drawing, starting with _ZBrush where I can rapidly refine the shape of my characters and add cost-effective details. I created a model for 2D rendering, so the most important part is the front. I don't focus on the other sides. Also, I used Polypaint(vertex paint) for texturing characters—an easy but effective method. I didn't need retopology and UVs, which are often the most frustrating parts of 3D work

Render and export the sprites in Unity

For rendering, I used _Marmoset Toolbag 4. I separated the model into several layers in ZBrush and exported it to Marmoset. Then, I set up the scene, adjusted the camera angle, and lighting. Additionally, I added an extra render pass for the Normal map. Furthermore, I used this scene for other characters. I organized and refine the render layers in Photoshop and then exported the PSB file to Unity. The "2D PSD Importer" automatically separated my layers into sprites

What's the issue, my friend?

Before this moment, I hadn't tried working with 2.5D. I realized that sprites don't interact well with a 3D environment and lights. This confused me, but our programmer figured out how to fix it and wrote the shader. Sprites began to behave as I wanted; I was able to use the Normal map, and the sprites responded to light.

Rig and Animation

I rigged the characters using the standard _'2D Animator' and 'IK Components' in Unity. During animation, I focused on my favorite principle of animation: 'Follow through and overlapping action'. We realized that we didn't need triggers for animation, as the animation starts automatically when we call the prefab. The programmer prepared prefabs before for characters that we planned, and I began to fill them with other characters.

I hope you found this post useful and interesting. It's my first time writing something like this. I've always wanted to share about my work on the Jam. Thank you for reading, and _don't forget to play and rate our game Uncanny Inscriptions

Geekmancer

Play

Leave links to your games in comments :point_down: we will rate it.

Thank you so much for your support and feedback! As a first-timer I am nothing but grateful for all! In accordance with your feedback, following improvements were made without addition of any new content or mechanic: * Text cannot be skipped before it ends, to avoid missing texts. * Movement speed in text scenes was decreased, to avoid potential erroneous triggering. * Text color in the final scene was changed to distinguish the speaker from the protagonist.

Jam and the bug-fix versions for Windows are also available in the game page and you are more than welcome to check them out for evaluation.

If you still haven’t played yet CLICK HERE

Last but not least, here is the new post-jam artwork.

That's what I fixed: * Bullets still existed after restarting the game or changing level * Mobs could shoot without existing * Mobs still existed after changing level

Test it at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-seven-crystals.

Hello, fellow LDJammers! I hope my story will be motivational and inspirational for you. Three year ago, at Ludum Dare 48, the theme was "Deeper and Deeper". I decided to make a game where you first dig potatoes, and then dig deeper to mine for coal, ore and other deposits. I named my simulator "Farm and Mine", to stand out among other idle resource managers, which are usually either entirely farm-based or entirely mining-based.

At the jam the game performed moderately, but the players noticed the potential and I decided to keep working with it afterwards. After 4 months of open beta testing I was ready for the mobile release, which I did in August 2021 at Pocket Gamer's Launchpad event.

Since then I updated the game with new content on a regular basis and responded to the players' suggestions and reaction. And now I'm proud to tell that the game is available on 4 major platforms

Google Play. Farm and Mine is available for Android phones and tablets, and also for Play Games on PC https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.airapport.farm.mine.idle.ludumdare48

App Store. Farm and Mine is available for iPhones and iPads and other Apple devices. If you try our game on Apple Vision Pro, don't hesitate to share your impressions! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/farm-and-mine-idle-tycoon/id1564694016

Itch. Here you can get play Farm and Mine in full screen on Windows and Linux computers. https://airapport.itch.io/farm-and-mine

Poki. Web HTML5 version of Farm and Mine is available here, so any device which can run web games will run this version of our game https://poki.com/en/g/farm-and-mine

Here is what to expect in Farm and Mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdWdXowA9Tc

• Over 60 facilities which produce resources, convert them, sell, or provide new game aspects;
• Integrated autoclicker: just click on the facility which you want to boost and the autoclicker will do the job for you;
• Unlimited offline time: having made sure you automated the production chains, you can leave your farm to return later and see how much did your citizens produce;
• Interlocked resource branches: agriculture, industry and population, each one depends and empowers the other;
• Elaborate prestige system which allows you to select which aspect of the game boost the most (and you can change your mind and try a different strategy on the next run);
• Human-drawn buildings and characters who work everywhere in your growing city;

Feel free to use these ones to activate the timed bonuses which will speed up your progression:

EUZUMQO: Time speed x10 (2:00) EPHP7UI: Clicks x10 (1:00) EO6MWON: Transport x2 (12hour 0m)

The current game rating on various platforms is around 4.4 - 4.8 after thousands reviews, so we hope you will enjoy the idle farming and resource mining, too. Have fun!

Be mindful of your spell choices from your deck, or you might end up as the main course on your enemy's barbecue menu!

Choose wisely!

➡️ Let’s Kick a** ! https://shenoit.itch.io/sheep ⬅️

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/s-h-e-e-p-sheep-hell-emissaries-eradicate-purity

@z0rg @andy-link @nougato @shenoit @katanajellyfish

We are so close to the top now everyone! For our first ever gamejam and for a 3rd year project and am beyond proud of what my team was able to make within the time limit and am still speechless that more the 130 people have played it, WE ARE SO CLOSE TO THE TOP 5! please play, rate and share our game it means more than anything

https://youtu.be/sFtoTaEVCPQ

Hihihi, just a quick update.

The post-jam version of Tristram is up! It includes a bunch of new eye candy and a few QOL updates. If you haven't played it yet, now's the time!

Also, as seen above, I uploaded the soundtrack to YouTube, with some gameplay footage to make it more palatable. :wink:

Thanks so much to everyone who has played and rated so far! We're pushing 160 ratings, which is wild, and the response has been fantastic. :green_heart:

Summons of the Sovereign
If you like digital board games, look no further! Play against a fully voiced computer opponent or play locally against your friends. The game is a weird mix between chess and rock paper scissors but I am personally quite pleased with how it turned out. Feel free to give it a try and do not hesitate to also share your feedback!

Click here to play Summons of the Sovereign

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

Insert coin here! Pew! Pew!

the voices are loud and they advise you to pay attention to them.. you can find them everywhere, even in your own reflection. you are free to choose your future path, and all we can do is to offer you to play our game!

HOPE YOU WILL ENJOY IT!

During the development of STUPID LEGS for the Compo I stumbled upon A LOT of physics problems, funny bugs, and weird interactions, so I captured some of them just in case :)

Multiple rigidbodies are no joke!

"Have you by any chance seen my eye here?"

When the monster part attaching mechanics are still Work-in-Progress

I managed to tame Unity physics, but it wasn't easy: a lot of features worked not as I wanted it to work, so I had to use a lot of workarounds and questionable solutions. Although I'm still glad with the result (even the Compo version).

If you wanna try short (5-10 minutes) fun and funny game about summoning custom monsters, try STUPID LEGS. There are 2 versions available: compo, (made in 48 hours) and post-compo (more polished, more content, intro and tutorial added, sounds added).

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/stupid-legs

Hey everyone! This is the intermission video that will be played in the breaks of the Ludum Dare Score Chasers tournament. It includes gameplay from 52 different games submitted to Ludum Dare 55, 4 songs from games in the jam and 1 extra song made by me.

Try to see how many games you recognize! These are not games that will be played in the tournament (only 5 games will - schedule here)

https://youtu.be/YuddhZScWxo

If youre interested in joining or watching the tournament when it happens feel free to join our discord! https://discord.com/invite/FhP4jaZ7KS . Its taking place Saturday at 4pm UTC on https://www.twitch.tv/ategondev

I've ported my game, Fire Quota to Godot 4 and my experimental HDR10 branch.

In theory, if you have a HDR10-capable Windows system with a HDR10-capable display you should see additional brightness and contrast with this version. The HDR is calibrated for a 1000-nit display.

Note that since this isn't really a "port" in the strictest sense, you should probably use one of the other versions for actual judging. Also, since this is a recompiled version of Godot, Windows Smartscreen may not like it.

If you have a HDR10 capable display and system, you can try this version here. Make sure you activate HDR10 mode before launching it by pressing Win+Alt+B.

Hey hey, come show me your games! Send your game link in twitch chat (not LD comments), I expect it'll be fairly quiet so I'll probably be able to play right away! I look forward to playing more awesome games :heart:

Come join: https://www.twitch.tv/justcamh

Added some new levels and 2 new power ups to release a post jam version of my game:

1. Rune: summon an ancient creature which will take down an enemy for you:

2. Laser: shot a short but powerful pulse which will destroy everything on its way:

You can play and rate the jam version here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/muddy-wars

seems i'll go to internet cafe ...maybe pay for a night. my videogame is unfinished... but the point was participating in a jam :v:

For our mixed narrative / puzzle game https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/spiritweaver our graphist did an amazing job. Here's the spirits spritesheet, which one do you prefer?

And as a bonus same question for the characters:

Hey all! I finally posted the timelapse for Clone Stacking with the full intro music I remade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gBm8ZDFg

I remember it was a common practice to record these type of videos in previous Ludum Dares, but barely have seen it lately. :)

Of course, if you haven't rated Clone Stacking, please do:

Rate Clone Stacking

TANKZ is our small Thronefall-inspired game where you control a small tank, summon buildings and defend your base.

Thank you so much to everyone who has rated and played so far! We love all the feedback and comments, and we've adjusted the game based on your feedback here, and are excited about this latest version.

A repeated request from the original entry was to remove sprint, since it had no drawbacks; so we turned "sprint" into dash. This also makes it easier to survive and move your tank away from incoming enemy fire.

Here's some highlights of changes made to the post-jam update:

| Lazer-sight & Manual Shooting | More Tank Upgrades | Minimap | | -------- | ------- | ------- | | | | |

• added 2 new enemy types (short ranged + missiles) :rocket: :boom:
• made the beach even beachier with palm trees :beach: :palm_tree:

The changes we've made to the game change up the gameplay to be even more fast-paced action, so we're excited to hear what you think!

If you haven't played it yet, give it a go here!

:joystick: Play TANKZ here!

*The Jam submission is of course still available too, so if you check out this new version, don't forget to try out the first submission and rate us :blue_heart: ! *

Hey everybody! I uploaded a browser version for my game on itch finally, for all of you who were unhappy with the previous download-only

https://ldj.am/$384624

Also: There's finally a cover image :D (which is also now the new title image, so a non-bugfixing post-compo change I have to mention)

So in case you haven't had enough of those "sum"-pun entries yet and a few minutes to spare, I would be happy to get the last votes and read about how you enjoyed it :) (or didn't enjoy ^^)

And now please excuse me, I also still have some games to try out and vote on...

:joystick: Play it here! :star: Rate it here!

Hey friends! Just made a video talking about my Ludum Dare experience this year and my appreciation for everyone that makes something. Your all awesome! Check it out if your interrested: https://youtu.be/TbHGjM8rPso

Our LD55 game Tristram got covered by Nic Reuben from Rock Paper Shotgun. 🤯 And the article is really funny too! https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/stay-awhile-and-play-this-free-diablo-inspired-indie-as-the-mayor-of-tristram

Summoner's Chess is a weird mix of chess + checkers + killing enemy pieces to summon your own.

Thanks to everyone for their awesome feedback so far! I've been busy working on a post-jam version and wanted to preview some of the ongoing work:

✨ Visual Revamp

I'm still fairly new to game dev, so making things looks nice is pretty tricky - especially in only 48 hours. Improvements were also needed to make the summoning button much more obvious.

| Before | After | | ------ | ----- | | | |

♟️ Upgrading Pieces

When pawns in chess and men in checkers reach the end of the board, they upgrade to stronger pieces. Previously I was able to include the automatic upgrades for checkers men, but wasn't able to finish it for the pawns - this is now possible!

🎥 Camera Views

By default, I included a fixed persons-eye-view of the board, which can now be rotated. I've also added a new top-down view - it's essentially Civ V's "Strategic View".

🛠️ Custom Matches

The compo submission includes 10 progressively more difficult levels, but I kept finding myself wanting to create more and more more wackier custom layouts. So the post-jam version will include a 'Custom Match' mode for creating any layout you want. This is currently on-going work, but going well so far.

The post-jam version will be available on itch after LD55 ends - so go follow me there if you're interested. Thanks!

Protest Forest got a new update, where you can get infinite mana reward and spam the road with animals:

https://youtu.be/xvZv5wMyeHg

Play it here

Thanks to everyone for playing and rating our underwater adventure/puzzle game 'Thalatta's Grand Heist'!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV6VDhVRqmI

About the Game

Embark on an epic underwater heist in Thalatta’s Grand Heist, a thrilling adventure game set in the depths of the ocean. You play as Thalatta, a cunning thief on a mission to steal back the legendary Crown of the Tides from the clutches of the evil goddess Ceto.

Explore an ancient submerged temple filled with treacherous obstacles, and fiendish traps. Discover summon spells to aid you in your quest. Match wits against a devious rival thief who seeks the Crown for their own ambitious purposes. It’s a race against time to reclaim the Crown and restore balance to the tides.

Uncover the secrets of the temple, master Thalatta’s skills, and prove yourself as the greatest thief in the seven seas!

Created with passion (and lots of caffeine) during the intense 72 hour LDJam game jam. Can you rise to the challenge and pull off the heist of the century? Dive in and find out!

Play/rate here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/thalattas-grand-heist

Mythic Garden (Original Game Soundtrack) 🎵

I had a blast composing the original music/SFX for this game and I was heavily inspired by the music of Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy series, Stranger Things, Ecco the Dolphin and more.

Listen to 'Thalatta's Grand Heist' via Retrograde Arcade: - Stream/download: https://retrogradearcade.bandcamp.com/album/thalattas-grand-heist-original-game-soundtrack

Hey! I figured since the rating phase will end in a week, I'll be playing some more games live at my Twitch channel. I should've done this since day one honestly, but I might as well do it now since I got the idea.

Come join and submit your own game!

https://www.twitch.tv/gabrimer

Summon drawings by combining different art elements to overcome platforming obstacles

Unlock different elements to create more drawings

And use them to overcome your Aphantasia!

Play it in your browser:

LDJam Link

(Firefox is crunchy sometimes on ldjam site, if so, play on itch instead)

Itch.io Link

play the OFFICIAL SEQUEL TO BRAID 1, by Jonathan Blow, BRAID 3: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/braid-3

Hey guys, I'll be playing streaming, and critiquing LD games once again!
Also happy to try out Post-LD entries! Starting in about 5 minutes (9:20 MDT)

https://www.twitch.tv/technostalgic

Submit your game to the #ludum-dare channel on my discord, I'll be playing them in the order they are listed there:
https://discord.gg/HA65WGU9Dm

I've been having a blast continuing the development of Ritual of Ribbit. What initially was a short platformer for the compo is now evolving to a full adventure! Most of the stuff in the compo entry will be ditched, though - but the premise is the same: An evil wizard frog steals a magical artifact and tries to take over the world. At the same time, all other wizard frogs are rendered powerless... Except our hero, an initiate who is the frogs' only hope.

Follow on itch.io :) https://manabreak.itch.io/ritual-of-ribbit

Also, the first devlog post is up! https://manabreak.itch.io/ritual-of-ribbit/devlog/721634/post-ld55-trying-not-to-suck-at-pixel-art

Come join the stream! https://www.twitch.tv/justcamh

Send your game in twitch chat and I'll play, probably right away because I suspect it'll be quiet. Hope to see you there and play your game! :heart:

It's a print and play, but no actual printing or dice required! :smirk:

I'd love for you to play Summoning Detective here! It's a game about a magical PI that finds people's things by summoning them!

Here it is in all it's glory!

If you are interested in having a play, you can just markup the pdf on your device and use google for rolling dice.

Play my game Summoning Detective here!

I'd also love to play any other print and plays, so please let me know if you have seen any or made one yourself! Already looking forward to the next jam! :smile:

Hi, I'm Bo, and I'm an artist on our team! In this post, I explain how we optimized our pipeline, the challenges we encountered and the decisions we made to overcome them. For game Uncanny Inscriptions

Preparation and thoughts

We decided that the game will be in 3D, however creating characters in 3D takes much time. For instance, my model of a duck includes: sculpting, retopology, UV-layout, texturing, rigging, and finally animation. But I needed to figure out how to create several characters within a short timeframe. I decided to create 2.5D characters, which simplified my work. You'll understand why as we progress.

Creating Character in ZBrush

I'm skilled in 3D rather than drawing, starting with _ZBrush where I can rapidly refine the shape of my characters and add cost-effective details. I created a model for 2D rendering, so the most important part is the front. I don't focus on the other sides. Also, I used Polypaint(vertex paint) for texturing characters—an easy but effective method. I didn't need retopology and UVs, which are often the most frustrating parts of 3D work

Render and export the sprites in Unity

For rendering, I used _Marmoset Toolbag 4. I separated the model into several layers in ZBrush and exported it to Marmoset. Then, I set up the scene, adjusted the camera angle, and lighting. Additionally, I added an extra render pass for the Normal map. Furthermore, I used this scene for other characters. I organized and refine the render layers in Photoshop and then exported the PSB file to Unity. The "2D PSD Importer" automatically separated my layers into sprites

What's the issue, my friend?

Before this moment, I hadn't tried working with 2.5D. I realized that sprites don't interact well with a 3D environment and lights. This confused me, but our programmer figured out how to fix it and wrote the shader. Sprites began to behave as I wanted; I was able to use the Normal map, and the sprites responded to light.

Rig and Animation

I rigged the characters using the standard _'2D Animator' and 'IK Components' in Unity. During animation, I focused on my favorite principle of animation: 'Follow through and overlapping action'. We realized that we didn't need triggers for animation, as the animation starts automatically when we call the prefab. The programmer prepared prefabs before for characters that we planned, and I began to fill them with other characters.

I hope you found this post useful and interesting. It's my first time writing something like this. I've always wanted to share about my work on the Jam. Thank you for reading, and _don't forget to play and rate our game Uncanny Inscriptions

I hope this post will draw your attention to our game, because we still need some ratings :D This is why I put gif of gameplay right below this text

:joystick: PLAY (post jam version)

:star: RATE

And some patch note, because FnB really got a post jam update, which makes the game better!

• We added a list of cooked food at the top left corner, so you can see and analyze what you have and what you need
• Storage of food will be clearing every morning since this update. That's fair, isn't it?
• Rebalanced rent payment and income from customers
• Now you don't have to hit SPACEBAR to collect the cooked food. It will be automatically collected if you are nearby.
• Your employee are rebalanced, but you still have to figure out what the last one does.
• [fix] Upgrade of cooking stations didn't spend your money
• [fix] You earned less money than you saw in the order card
• [fix] There was a drinks station but nobody wanted drinks
• [fix] Cooking stations were placed in confusing order in building panel

Check out our making of for the game Autobahn to Hell!

https://youtu.be/Y7IJef_MvzE

We are kinda proud of the result, even though we had many obstacles and some setbacks along the way :slight_smile:

When ludum dare create new ocds

Our game is gettings more reviews than downloads (stats available on itch) and most of the comments dont make much sense. I get that people dont want to download a game with unusual installation process, but leaving a review without actually playing it just makes me angry...

Meaningful and costructive feedback would be highly appreciated!

As we keep playing and voting for your games, loving them as there are so many really good ones out there, we still need just a few votes for https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/The-Summoners-Apprentice

Helping us out is cute, we'll love ya!! <3

Game Description You are the apprentice of Aurelius​, a master summoner. He left you in his shop to practice your skills and will send you an assignment every day until he thinks you are ready to be a master summoner yourself.

Check the blackboard. Here you will find a few words from Aurelius himself, and the job he received from one of his clients that he trusts you to complete for him.

Find the correct props ​ and place them on the correct places in the summoning circle. Watch for what’s north. A compass is provided

Throw the correct runes on the ground in the circle. It doesn’t matter where in the circle, as long as it’s in it.

Use the spell book on the lectern to cast the correct spell .With your knowledge, bravoure and a bit of luck you will summon what was asked for. Or maybe not…

The Good

Generally, I'm really happy with how Hellevator turned out. Feels like one of my more well rounded jam entries personally. But some personal highlights would be having spent the last day resigned to the fact I probably wouldn't get time to do music and then in a moment of madness banging together a decent amount of tracks that I actually felt quite proud of. I also had a lot of fun recording and adding in the voice clips - which partly ended up being a bit of a patch job for the fact I wasn't sure anyone else would associate elevators with "being summoned", so an "Elevator Summoned" voice line seemed like quite a good way to work that in.

Also very pleased with my main character (particularly the wings and wing animations), I mean, look at this little guy:

The Bad

Communicating game mechanics has long been one of my weaker points. Before the jam I had vague intentions of trying to make a game where there was no text explaining anything and I'd just put everything across via in game action. This went out of the window immediately. A lot of the reviews have mentioned that the controls aren't always intuitive and I get the impression a lot of people don't realise you can fly. It also seems a bit unclear at what point opening elevator doors actually lets passengers in and out.

The Ugly

I made a major miscalculation with some of my naming of things and ended up with "Floors" being a concept that was used in 2 different ways. Where you've got the sort of floors in relation to how high up you are, like this:

Those ended up being "FloorLayers" in the code, where as each individual platform was also a "Floor":

Having 2 floors on the same layer was something that didn't really get added until part way through the process, and I think the levels would have had a bit less to them if I restricted myself to only having floors at different heights. But having those 2 concepts and not feeling I had the time to refactor the original "Floors" into "Platforms" or something lead to some deeply confusing code. Particularly around souls trying to pathfind their way to their next workstation on the more complex levels where you'd have to take 2 different lifts to get from one platform to another specific platform. This wasn't helped by me trying to do Dijkstra's algorithm from memory for the pathfinding - I really should've looked that one up! Please enjoy this image of the true hell behind Hellevator

I suppose you could say it was a bit of a flawed approach...a "floor"-ed approach..a...ah forget it

Anyway, in general, jazzed about how it's turned out - give it a play here if you fancy!

Although maybe prioritise danger zone games at this point!

Maybe you would like to play (and rate!) before reading, so you have more context? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/unpacking-armageddon

"Unpacking Armageddon" is my entry for Ludum Dare 55, themed "SUMMONER". Given the theme's specificity, it's no wonder that many entries gravitated towards pentagrams and summoning demons. However, I've noticed a significant decrease in platformers and a broader diversity in game genres in this edition?

DAY 1

For some reason I felt like making an arcade puzzle game. Fortunately, knowing I wouldn't have much spare time that weekend, I came up with an idea much more quickly than in previous editions: Sokoban for someone who doesn't really enjoy Sokoban puzzles, pushing and pulling boxes that are just in the way, so you are forced to constantly shuffle them around in a shrinking space. This allowed me to start working early on Saturday morning.

And thus, the story emerged from the mechanics and the theme: Armageddon has begun, you are a hell-designated summoner, but it caught you in the middle of moving into a new home. All your belongings are in cardboard boxes lying around the invocation basement! Demons are eager to enter our realm, but can't do it if something is on top of the pentagram that serves as a gateway. You have to clear pentagrams free by pushing and pulling boxes in order to let demons enter our real and fullfill your summoning quota.

After the Unity Fee mess last year I also started looking for alternative game engines, and found that Defold is pretty interesting for pure 2D games. Early this year I entered the Global Game Jam with Defold, making a 'full' game for the first time with this engine, and the experience was superb. So I have switched from Pico8 to Defold. I still miss Pico8, but Defold makes some things just easier. At some point I might try Picotron...

I enjoy, however, working with really low resolutions, so I stuck to Pico8's 128x128 pixels and 16x16 sprites. It gives games a nice blocky look that reminds me of NAMCO games, which I love.

By 13:30 I had some final art (main character, boxes and the background), and the character could move and detect boxes.

A friend was visiting, so I left home to have lunch and didn't come back until 19:00 - totally worth it, though. I still managed to work two more hours at night and finished the main mechanic: pushing boxes around to set pentagrams free. If not done quick enough, pentagrams explode- Otherwise they glow and disappeared, scoring.

Not much for the first day, but pretty good for roughly 5-7 hours of work, considering art was final already. I expected a hard second day.

DAY 2

Woke up early on Sunday and went for the next basic mechanic, pulling boxes! And once that was working the whole thing started to actually feel like a game. Added some FX for pentagrams - when they are cleared, they glow, some arcane text floats up, a demon appears and flies upwards and a new pentagram is created. If too much time passes and a pentagram is not cleared, it explodes and a new one appears. With each pentagram a new box appears too (don't know, maybe someone is throwing them to the basement for you to organize?)

By lunch time I came up with the last game mechanic: while you have to clear pentagrams from boxes, you have to place the Ritual Candle on them to complete the summoning. Game felt quite fun! So all that remained was adding sound, UI and good/bad endings.

Freesound.org is great for sound effects, but one of the last things I added to the game wa the summoners' chant when the Ritual Candle is placed on a pentagram. Shouting KLAATU BARADA NICTO! to the mic at 11pm while the family was already sleeping was too fun.

Extra points if you get the RIGHT movie reference!

WHAT WENT GOOD

Almost too much, to be honest! The game idea was fun to play even when the game was barebones. I don't speacially enjoy trial-and-error Sokoban puzzles, but as you can move boxes around freely the game doesn't feel so restricted. Sprites were easy to make, and programming was not too complex thanks to how Defold enforces certain behaviours, like message passing. Things are compartimentalized by design, but you can always resort to LUA modules to share critical information if needed.

WHAT WENT BAD

With not much time to work on Saturday I couldn't animate the main character nor demons. I like my game jam entries to have smooth character animations, they make the game feel much more polished. But I just did not have more time to draw them - yes, I could have lost sleep time, but... it's a game jam, no need to stress things out!

There are some silly bugs around, like boxes falling on the character (although you can walk out from them) or pentagrams reappearing right where they just vanished from. But the most important issue is that most players DON'T READ INSTRUCTIONS (no surprise here), so they have no idea they can both push boxes - which is natural, just bump into them - AND PULL BOXES - which needs the player to press Z while moving. I should have made it clear in the first tutorial level by placing the candle by a wall, with an on-screen message or something like that.

Will probably add all that in a post-jam version at some point.

LAST THOUGHTS

I'm specially happy with how this game plays and would love to revisit it at some point. I think I can add some new mechanics - maybe imps that run around pushing boxes and being a pest, rocks you can't move, maybe larger pentagrams and more candles? Not too much, just a few things to make it last a bit longer.

Already looking forward to the next game jam!

Meanwhile, TRY THE GAME YOURSELF and don't forget to rate! :D https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/unpacking-armageddon

We were talking with a professor of our university and reflecting about the deficiencies of our UI, since we couldnt give it much attention during the Jam.

While we talked I started a run to show the Gameplay and I kept playing and playing this run without dieing! Even though I had a great build it was insane luck to reach Round 120.

I wonder if anyone will ever beat that Score, but feel free to try :D

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/chimera-combat

NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.twitch.tv/ategondev

Schedule

https://www.twitch.tv/stanov

Hey, all! The Tech Valley Game Space community will be live-streaming ourselves playing Ludum Dare games tonight, April 27th, from 6:00 - 8:00 PM CDT on twitch.tv/techvalleygamespace and youtube.com/c/techvalleygamespace

To have your game in consideration for playing and judging, you can sign up on this form: forms.gle/kbUdacxVfnVaGrq17

As the form states, we do enforce a Code of Conduct in our live-streams. As such, we do reserve the right to cancel streaming and rating a game for any reason.

Hope to check out your games soon!

Our first Ludum Dare Entry, bergs, is almost at 100 ratings! If you haven't already, consider checking out our little puzzle game!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/bergs

Thank you to everyone who has already played the game and left feedback :)

Hi everyone! After fixing some problems, our game is finally playable. At least I hope so... So don't hesitate to try our game that combines adventure, fantasy and fear.

link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/wisps-of-the-forest

The goal in my game is supposed to be to meet the various geometric requirements in the lower right... but instead I decided try to make my magic circle look like a cat. And then modify it to meet the requirements... success! And probably more fun than the actual game as designed ^_^.

Post your prettiest magic circles in this thread, or on my game's page.

less than a week left before we get our ludum results! we’d like to receive some clout for our game, so that’s how we'll know if we did a good job! we are open to play your games as well!

also i’d like to add that’s wonderful to be a part of such an amazing community you guys are, thanks for the feedback <3

(also my imagination is working hard as always i hope you like these funny pics..)

ENJOY DEMANAGER HERE

Well, I've got the game for you!

Check out Stars Align!

Hey! Doing another livestream playing some more Ludum Dare 55 subsmissions. Come join and submit your game!

https://www.twitch.tv/gabrimer

In STUPID LEGS you summon customized derpy monsters to do the chores for you: check mail, do the laundry, gather apples, pay taxes, etc.

I know that it's not very convenient to download builds for every compo/jam game, so I made a playthrough video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHfVqIe7SHY

Feel free to try it yourself, it will take 5-10 minutes – https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/stupid-legs

Hey hey, I'm playing your LD games on stream! Send your game link into twitch chat and I'll play it, it'll be quiet so there'll probably be no queue at all! Game submissions is open for everyone, I'd love to try yours :heart:

Join the stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/justcamh

Can you defeat the Fae Queen?

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/faemori

Life's been hectic but I owe it to you - the better game, the better gameplay! Feedback's been amazing, so... I owe it to you - the players.

Let's get those bugs!!!

Info how to play on the game page - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/bugs-vs-bugs

New gameplay video: https://aweskybear.github.io/ld-55-Bugs-vs-Bugs/video/postcompo-1.webm

PostCompo game link: https://postjam-ld-55-bugs-vs-bugs-aweskybear.netlify.app/

Definitely taking a break after these updates. But looking to your feedback forward on. :)) Thanks!

ENJOY

For this Ludum Dare, I made Colormancer, an ASCII puzzle game where you summon colors to solve various puzzles! I need 6 more ratings to get a score of the end of this.. Please play my game https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/colormancer Leave your game in the comment section and I'll have a look!

Maybe it wasn't the most polished experience, but both us and players really liked our spin on a deckbuilder - with minmaxing points and strategically burning your deck. So, we decided to polish the experience, add a little twist and head to Steam!

Proper announcement and page launch will probably happen after LD ends, but for now, small sneak peek into Steam changes: - Proper tutorial (imho the biggest problem righ now is lack of clarity in rules) - Finish animations/SFX - Balance some cards, add new ones - More variety/events/modificators to spice up the trip to Satan - And some big visual/gameplay change that we want to keep a secret for now (it is too powerful to be released too early)

Once again, thank you so much for our support! I don't know how good we'll score in this gamejam, but it already sparkled a joy of finishing a proper game — and it's all that matters to us.

If you are up to some quirky deckbuilder, you can play Burn With Me here (I suggest itchio build): https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/burn-with-me

I made this game for Ludum Dare 55 Compo, it was tough. Though rating games is about to end in few days, I still didn't get the required amount of ratings... I guess it's because I was busy with my mid-term for the past two weeks and missed the popular time period.

I really do appreciate anyone who can play and rate for my game at this moment, thank you!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/trinity

:musicalnote: music, :musicalscore: sfx, and :joystick: control improvements are also included :whitecheckmark:.

:arrowdown: Play POSTCOMPO Version here: :arrowdown:

https://fumybulb.itch.io/high-school-of-conjuration

Sadly we need some more reviews for Autobahn to Hell, but I have time this week to try more games and I am sure some of you also need those last votes for scoring! Let's help each other!

the postjam version of my solo jam game resown is up on itch -- it's pretty similar to the original, just with some bug fixes. If you haven't played it yet and would like to rate it, the original jam version is also up on itch: https://beefyuncle.itch.io/resown

Here's a little trailer of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNmm0If76Lw

https://www.twitch.tv/stanov

It seems that some of you really like our game, inspired by adverts for games that we've all seen at some point and never played. Well, we did it !

🛠️ This weekend we made a few quick adjustments to bugs that some of you explained to us in the comments. For that, the whole team thanks you warmly, it means a lot! 🛠️

🔥The spells summons in action !🔥

| The Bomberlamb | Sheep Norris| The Kraken| | -------- | ------- |------| | | | |

🛠️ Path Notes v1.1 (28/04/2024) 🛠️

General:
- Fixed the explosion radius of Bomberlamb, now reduced by half.
- Reduced the blur effect of Kraken.
- Limited to only one Kraken at a time to avoid buggy effects.
- Kraken effect no longer hides the player or the sheep.

User Interface:
- Power cards are now placed in a free space, not hiding the player or the sheep.
- Fixed a main menu issue related to mouse interaction.

🚀 We'll leave you to try it out and enjoy, and hope you like the experience 🚀

➡️ Enjoy ! https://shenoit.itch.io/sheep ⬅️

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/s-h-e-e-p-sheep-hell-emissaries-eradicate-purity

@z0rg @andy-link @nougato @shenoit @katanajellyfish

I just wanted to share a deep dive into my copy-pastable runes feature that I've used in a couple games now. It's on my blog, here: https://write.as/comments-and-code/impractical-ish-encoding-intro-and-futhark-runes

Had some time this weekend so I made a splash for our narrative puzzle game ! And I am currently thinking about adding some more content to the game, would love to have some more constructive reviews !

I want to share how I made my game written in my custom game engine for Ludum Dare 55.

The game logic was written in C++. The engine has support for writing game logic in C#, but that is still missing some features.

I decided to go with a pixelated/blurry n64-like aesthetic with the game because that seemed like something I could manage in 48 hours and it was something I had never tried before.

The idea for the game started as "Overcooked but you summon demons help you run a shop". I quickly realized that I had no idea how to make that work well in 48 hours, so it changed to running a shop while performing a demonic ritual.

There was some trouble with time - I implemented most of the gameplay features on the last day and only had one person playtest the game.

Overall I'm very happy with how the game turned out, even though the difficulty is a bit too high. Please give it a try, I'm still missing some ratings.

A picture of the editor with main scene open and fog removed:

And today we reach our third day of the last week before the rating phase ends. Want me to play and rate your entry? Come join the stream!

https://www.twitch.tv/gabrimer

I'm a bit late, but Blood From a Tome has reached enough ratings to be ranked! Big thanks to everyone who has played it already.

If you haven't yet checked it out, there's still some time. We have builds for WebGL, Windows, Mac, and Linux! :smiley:

I really appreciate seeing so many different engines and tech stacks used. It makes just browsing random games super interesting.

Also, thanks for everyone rating me too. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/uber-for-summoning-circles

I've been quite busy last days and there's so many great game to play.. I'll try to catch up and play as many as I can! It seems mine is missing some notes, so feel free to try out Combirunes! Thank you all :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6O9QvwHVFU

Would there be any interest in musical post-mortem along with a tutorial? I was thinking that I could show my workflow and tools (all free software) and how I used them to make the music for Ritual of Ribbit.

Thank you all for the reviews! This was my third Ludum Dare submission. The first one I actually published too late, and the second one was quite uncompleted. Now, I finally got to make I'm happy with (although there's still a LOT to improve and explore), so thank you all for the support!

Thank you all for the reviews, I enjoyed reading the comments! This is my first LD project and I also worked alone. I was able to publish it in time and the game is (mostly) working well - this is already a big achievement. But reading your comments and playing your games made this short time wonderful. Thanks for all of you, it is really an encouraging community!

I did not have the time to test all your games, although I wanted to. Sadly enough, I won't be able to try out new games until the rating ends (because of university exams) :(( Ready for next round in October! (and feel free to try out my game:)

"You fought those monsters well, and planted many trees. You completed your mission and rated your experience. Now we're ready to fly off."

As my first ludum Dare, it was a great experience, seeing the feedback almost in real time, seeing streamers play my game and enjoy it and play other people games was really fun.

You can still play my game, just for fun if you wish . And don't forget to post your high score and difficulty to have a chance to ener the leaderboard! Thanks for playing!

Did not have enough time for many things during this jam, and credits was one of them.

So, I took my time and created proper credits in line with the game's style! :smile:

Will most likely add it to the post-jam release, still not sure if this silliness is suitable for the rest of the game...

Come join me: http://twitch.tv/oddlyspecificgames

Thank you for the ratings and the nice feedback...If you want to enjoy some flashes of zany humor and give us a few more ratings, try our little point and click adventure and tell us what you think!! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/a-cake-from-beyond

Leave us the link to your submission so @nuanda79 and I will play it and rate it too!

I know the rating period isn't over yet, but I wanted to give a quick thank you for everyone who rated our game so far!

We are 5 ratings away from reaching 100 ratings. This is the most ratings we've ever had on a jam entry and for that we're just super duper grateful!

You all are the absolute goats!

If you haven't already you can play our game here! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/bean-and-brew

Or watch some gameplay footage here, as I go in depth a little bit about our game and it's creation process here: https://youtu.be/c26FER2AicM

I will start playing everyone's games now, before I wouldn’t be able to give it the required time and attention as I was working on the finished version of the game. Working solo is always hard, but very rewarding :)

Please leave a link to your game in the comments :) I will play, rate and give some feedback.

My Game's Page https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/death-reckoning

(Don't mind the name of the link, I was so sleep deprived back when I created it that I forgot my own's game title lol)

* Download now from Itch.io *

https://empyreans.itch.io/death-beckons

* You can watch developer's walkthrough here *

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I-BL19NDRQ

Hey everyone!

This jam has been highly unusual for me haha. I usually work in a team and handle audio but all of my buddies decided to go solo this time. Apart from my phone, I had no access to the internet during this jam and still don't. I'm using a hotspot right now! Honestly, I'm super appreciative of all the people who rated and reviewed my game after it came out and I would love to return the favor but playing every game is proving to be a little difficult for me. Please forgive me

Merely four days remain until confronting the celestial foes. Will you be intelligent and sharp enough to make the right choices, moves and decisions? ☠️💥

⚠️ 🍖 If you lose you'll end up on the barbecue 🍖 ⚠️

➡️ Enjoy ! https://shenoit.itch.io/sheep ⬅️

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/s-h-e-e-p-sheep-hell-emissaries-eradicate-purity

@z0rg @andy-link @nougato @shenoit @katanajellyfish

Are you able to get out of the dungeon? Be careful, the dragon is protected!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBG_4yz1Ru8

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-seven-crystals

I now have 18 ratings but the website thinks I have over 20. Whoops!

https://www.twitch.tv/stanov

This seems to happen to me every time, but I had to go back to work pretty quick after the Jam. Gotta make sure I can pay the bills!!

That means I haven't spent as much time advertising as I'd like! So if you could, go check out our game! It'd really help us out!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/neon-citadel-guardians-of-the-stars

I'm also working on a short postmortem post for after rating and stuff is over!

Messing around with circles, got an almost nice looking fire , that I wish I'd have figured out how to do during the jam :scream_cat:

Made with Construct2 game engine.

I think I need to learn godot next , do some of this with shaders or something.

Play the Game that would have had fire here - Manafest

+ Dont forget to check out our game slaymore if you havent already, it was our first ever Ludum dare!

Become the action figure of your dreams in this hybrid Tower Defense / 3rd Person Shooter as you protect the Lab Mainframe from the hundreds of out of control killer robot toys out to get it!

We just got around to uploading a web build to itch, so easier to play now. Check it out!

Play Arsenal Toy!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/star-stone

Star Stone is a single level 2D platformer collectathon

there is a WebGL on itch https://ungarblapp.itch.io/starstone