Hey guys! I just wanted to let you all know what Team Jam will consist of. So far, we have:

-Programmer: xhunterko (me)

-Programmer: davidsgallant

-Programmer/Designer: Wixio (please comment below if your still in!)

-Audio: MaverickProgrammer

I would love it if an artist or two would join up! Also if your a smaller group and want to be part of a larger project, consider joining! Or if you’ve ever wanted to collaborate with someone else but never have got to, come in! Post below if your interested!

(programmers: while I’d like for the game to be developed in flixel (so i can help), and ludum dare is really not the best time to learn a new language (at least for me) consider any way cause you might be able to port or you may have another skill set we could use!)

One more thing! Team Jam twitter members! The tag #TeamJam should be used for the jam game updates!

Tags: Flixel, jam, team jam

I’ve been interested in doing this for awhile and now I have time. Never actually finished a game fully before so this should be an interesting experience

Using Eclipse/Java, Photoshop/Paint.net, and sfxr for sound

I’m in and looking forward to my 2nd attempt.

I might only have 1 full day to come up with something, but the challenge is the thing.

I’m using Scratch for the game, Tile Studio for the graphics, & either Caustic or Soundation for audio.

I’ve seen a few posts from people talking about how they voted. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I like the voting to be an organic decision, not something engineered by campaigning.

That said, you can’t stop campaigning, so I guess it’s legit. So here’s my thoughts:

Overall, I liked all the choices in Round 1. All of them felt like viable themes. A few felt too close to previous themes, so we’re easy reject on that basis. Although, I’m not opposed to reusing avoid theme if it’s been a while – as the event grows there will be a lot of people should missed out on the theme the first time around. I had to adjust my thinking from “which of these *could* I build a game about to which do I *want to build a game about.”

On first pass I had 8 +, 1 0 and 1 – votes. Wanting to be more decisive, I took a second pass. Here’s what I thought.

Construction: previously used.
End of the world: I’m sick of zombie apocalypse and mayan calendar stuff.
Guardian: a game where you have to escort and protection could be fun.
Ghosts: I’ve had some ideas for a ghost game for a while, this could be a good time to do something experimental prototyping.
Inverse World: wouldn’t be a bad theme for a game, but I’m not sure how I would invert to make a unique game that was playable. There’s definitely potential, though.
Mirrors: I can imagine a few cool mechanics using mirrors, and some neat graphical tricks.
Outer Space: done to death. Admittedly, a great theme, but I feel like it’s tapped dry by now.
Quarantine: Just doesn’t grab me for some reason.
Salvage: I can imagine a fun game based on finding junk and trading it in for points, or building a New Thing with it.
Symbiosis: a player and a player-aiding AI team up. How would they synergize?
Trapped: Similar to Escape, true, but not necessarily. Maybe it could be a prequel for your Escape game 😉
Unstoppable: all I can think of is the Halting Problem, and Blast Corps on N64.

Tags: theme, voting

Also inspired by Sorceress

I vote +1 way too much. Basically I vote 1 on things I like, 0 on things that aren’t the best and -1 on things I really don’t like.

Construction – This could be quite fun, making games like MC, Terraria, a Tetris like game, TDs, Strats. The possiblilities are amazing!

End of the world – Many games have this as a plot line so it’s not a very specific theme however it would be easy to make any game in this theme.

Ghosts – Way too specific, there would be too many games that are alike.

Guardian – Being/having a guardian in a game could make it quite interesting. Also not many may know this but Guardian was LD #1s theme in 2002

Inverse world – This would be interesting as we will have a chance to make physics work in bizarre ways!

Mirrors – This could defintiely push many of us to create a unique and origanal game with the odd mechanics of mirrors.

Outer Space – This is an average theme however I wouldn’t call it bad even though is broad.

Quarantine – This makes me think of alien and zombie infections, cures, hospitals, doctors, building quarantines and such, many opportunities.

Salavge – I really want this one to win, the thought of salvaging broken down planes, vehicles, buildings and the the such makes me really want to play a game like that.

Symbiosis – Sym-what? *looks up* I suppose this is an ok theme… Not any ideas right now on it.

Trapped – been used already in escape, the only difference? One can be trapped and escape but one doesn’t necessarily need to be trapped to escape. This is an ok theme but I wouldn’t like it to be used again.

Unstoppable –  This would definitely be a challenge mechanic to properly code into a game with it being OP or something.

I hope there will be better themes to come!

I decided to take part to the Ludum Dare again.

My first time was in August 2012 (LD24) and I done a Jam game with MrHalfman and Scipion (music by Lykan), check out it here :
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=15080

This time, it will be a Compo : my friends have exams and can’t join this LD. :'(

I will be livestreaming at :
main : http://www.livestream.com/demurgos
secondary (if the first doesn’t work) : http://fr.twitch.tv/demurgos

I will use these tools :
My game will be an HTML5 game, so the engine will be the MelonJS or my own MomentumJS. Actually it depends of the stability of my lib (it’s rather young, even the website is not finished).

Graphics : GIMP
Sounds : ???

__________

J’ai décidé de participé au Ludum Dare une nouvelle fois.

Mon premier LD était en aout 2012 (LD24) et j’ai fait un jeu Jam avec MrHalfman et Scipion (musique par Lykan), n’hésitez pas à y jouer ici :
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=15080

Cette fois, ce sera un compo : mes amis sont en période d’examens en ne pourront pas me rejoindre pour ce LD. :'(

Je ferai un livestream :
Live principal : http://www.livestream.com/demurgos
Live secondaire (si le premier ne fonctionne pas) : http://fr.twitch.tv/demurgos

J’utiliserai ces outils :
Mon jeu sera en HTML5, donc mon moteur sera MelonJS ou mon propre MomentumJS. En fait ça dépend de la stabilité de ma librairie (elle est plutôt jeune, même le site n’est pas fini).

Graphismes : GIMP
Sons : ???

Tags: demurgos, html5, ld25, momentum

So, LD23 was a washout for me due to crunching on LEGO Batman 2. And LD24 I couldn’t commit to because of LEGO Lord of the Rings. But this time…no excuses. I’ve been waiting all year for a chance to get creative.

Tools: Unity, Blender, Paint.Net, MixTikl, Audacity. Have a hankering to use WorldMachine too, but it depends on the theme.

Finally, a quick shot of my current bijou workspace, including the whiteboard I was so proud of last time but never got to use…

So, I am going to be competing in Ludum Dare again and am growing increasingly excited. Although I didn’t manage to finish last time, I have learnt from last time and hope to be able to this time. I still have a lot to learn in regards to this, but at least every time is a learning experience.

Language: Java
Library: LWJGL

Graphics: Paint.NET
Sounds: Musagi

Plan: Spend first 30 minutes planning, then start working on getting the core game concept working. Once that is done start polishing it up by adding menu, etc. and composing the sounds and music if there is time.

Tags: LD # 25

I just created a new account. I really have no idea why this happened, but it looks like a problem with wordpress.

I will not use this account for anything until the issue is resolved.

I’d like to do LD #25, however I’m in the middle of finals week right now, and I’ll be flying from Texas to Washington on Saturday.

My concerns are:

a. I will be too burned out from finals to want to do anything, and may need to recuperate for a few days.

b. I won’t have enough time to work on an LD entry. I’m unsure as to how much of a problem this will be. I have yet to try programming on a plane, and if I were to run into a problem, I wouldn’t be able to google anything until I land…

I’m going to see how I feel on Friday, and then I’ll try to make a full commitment.

Hello, this will be my first LD so maybe I don’t finish the game. This is the tool planning:

Platform: Android

Framework: Libgdx

Graphics: Gimp, Map editor and maybe more

Audio: ¿??? no decided still

It’s my first time with this framework and first LD so it will be interesting 😛

I think I’ll give this another go. Last 2 hadn’t worked out for me, and if this one doesn’t too it is for the same reason. So, even though this is the weekend right before finalllllssssss…….. , . , ., ., ., .,.,.,.,.. :O

Language: Java

Library: LibGDX/Box2D(I think is the physics engine with libgdx).

IDE: Eclipse

Graphics tool: aseprite

Music: finale and sonarX1. Some bleeps and bloops. Maybe Max MSP if I’m feeling creative, but probably just some midi work on a synth.

Platform: PC/MAC Desktop (.jar), maybe android if I’m lucky in my control scheme.

Going to try and organize some other Bridgewater State University students into giving it a try as well.

I notice a number of similarities from some of the choices this round vs the previous round.

Inverse World – Parallel World
Trapped – Stranded – Quarantine
Afterlife – Ghosts

I suppose there are subtle differences, but not huge ones, and I wonder whether the selection committee could do still better by consolidating similar themes and giving us a more diversity.

Afterlife: I like for the same reason as I like ghosts.
Chaos: too abstract.
Claustrophobia: suggests interesting constraints on level design and could contribute to mood.
Growth: could combine nicely with Claustrophobia.
Infection: my previous two games have been about microorganisms,  so I want something different.
Inside: could have potential, but i don’t feel inspired by it.
Parallel Worlds: I like this one more than Inverse World for some reason.
Science: too broad.
Shadows: I would like to play with a lighting system, this could be pretty cool.
Stranded: moody theme. Try to signal your rescuers? Wait around?
Surveillance: hmm, seems like it would result in a lot of slow-paced,  boring games.
Time Loop: this seems more like a mechanic than a theme, and lots of inferior Braid clones.

Tags: round 2, themes, voting

Since my finals I haven’t really gotten any ideas for game dev, plus I have a birthday party to attend right in the middle of the compo. I’m thinking that I’ll make some basic game skeletons to warm up, then see how I feel.

I really want to participate, though. I want to know if my great performance last time was beginner’s luck or not.

Here’s the obligatory desk shot. Ok, I’m in the zone.

Over the weekend I worked out:

1. How to create the appearance of continuous platforms in a side-scroller. (Still having a little trouble running backwards though.)

2. How to change scenes and levels

3. How incredibly strange it feels to bind every object in a scene so that it moves when you press the arrow key, while the main character who’s supposed to be running forward isn’t really moving at all. I’m probably not doing it right. suggestions?

and 4. space (the key i want to make a “jump” key) is already used by the browser to automatically follow page links. It’s disconcerting to jump over an obstacle and end up on facebook I’m working on a way to disable that. I could use a different key for jump, but that just feels wrong. I bet someone else has run into this same problem?

After much umming and arring I’ve decided to give LD a go for the first time ever. This is probably a very stupid decision. Mainly because I’ve been coding for about a month, so it will probably take all weekend for me to work out how to make something go in a straight line. But on the other hand why not try?

Tools: Unity 3D, Blender, Photoshop, BFXR

So yes I am making a 3D game. This is partly due to a sad (although understandable) lack of 3D games in previous LDs, and also I only have experience with Unity (although little enough of that…). I understand that this is extremely ambitious and I’m not making it easy for myself, but hey, it should be fun and I’ll be happy having made something that vaguely resembles a game. This can only go well right?

I will be participating in the Ludum Dare 25 compo.

Things i will probably be using:

• FlashDevelop as my IDE
• FlashPunk as my engine
• Paint.NET for graphics
• sfxr for sound
• LMMS for music (if i have time for that)
• An mp3 converter for converting the WAV files that sfxr exports to mp3s that can be used in flash

I might use unity instead of FlashPunk if i want to do 3d, but that is very unlikely.

Looking forward forward to the 15th.

Bye!

All right, third time doing LD! I’m super hyped! last time I actually got mouse-arm from drawing, but I have got a tablet to draw on now, so hopefully I will even be able to push out more graphical content this time around! Good luck everyone, see you next weekend and let the best darer win!

So I’ve built my own library for the next LD I attend. This is a simple maze creator.

Written in C#, it is still rough at this point.

Demo of the maze creator library

S is start, e is end, and no diagonal moves allowed.

I plan on using SFML and this in a game if I make it in.

Here’s a link:
http://www.kins-home.net/ludum/timelapse/MazeCreatorLib.zip

First of all, I’m in! I’ll be using Flashpunk and AS3 for code, Inkscape for graphics, and maybe Pixitracker and SFXR for music and sound, if I have time.

I thought this might be a good time to introduce some of my helper libraries that I use for Flash stuff. I’ve used them in a number of projects and they’ve been very helpful for speeding up iteration time. Collectively they’re called FLAKit, but I wanted to go into detail about the most interesting parts.

Live asset reloading

FLAKit comes with a program that builds an XML file containing the filenames of all the images, sounds and XML files in the lib folder of your project. When you launch your game, all those files are loaded into memory, and you can access them from anywhere in the code. Here’s how it looks:

var img:Bitmap = Library.getImage("myfolder.myimage.png");
 var mp3:Sound = Library.getSound("myfolder.mysong.mp3");
 var doc:XML = Library.getXML("myfolder.mydocument.xml");

Since all the assets are loaded at runtime, live-reloading is possible. It’s extremely easy; just press F5 and all the files will be loaded again. You can even set a callback that will run when loading is complete; on my last project I had it set up so that the scene I was working on would be restarted when the assets were reloaded, which decreased the time I spent iterating on level design by a huge amount.

You can also switch over to embedded assets (necessary for release mode) without having to modify your loading code at all with the Embedded library builder program.

In-game console

FLAKit also comes with an in-game console that uses my (extremely experimental!) AS3 scripting language Slang. At the moment it’s not very useful for anything more than simple commands, but I’ve found it very useful for things like toggling debug mode, switching between scenes, and adding health to the player.

 
FLAKit has been open-source from the beginning, so technically I don’t need to declare it, but it’s been very useful to me and I thought some of you folks might want to play around with it in the days leading up to LD.