Finally have everything ready after my hard drive crashed last week.
But I am in, and will try to be on time for the compo instead of the jam this ludum, hopefully

Language: Java, with libGDX
IDE: Eclipse
Graphics: Photoshop or paper/pen (depending on theme)
Sound: Bfxr

Good Luck All, looking forward to playing your games

We’re a little team called ‘Awakening Games’ and this is our first time at the Ludum Dare but we’re here to make it to (at least it’s what we want). I’ll be the representant of the team, Cerberos will be making all the art stuff and SunLock will be coding with me.

We’ll use the next tools:

Art: Gimp and Audacity.

Code: Eclipse(Java and Java2D).

You can follow us on twitter (@AwakeningGames). See you this weekend!

This is my first attempt at Ludum Dare. My aim is simply to produce something playable.

Language / Platform: C# using Silverlight 5.

IDE: Visual Studio

Libraries: None. I’m hoping to code everything from scratch, although I feel like I might regret this…   😉

Music: Probably none

Sound: I’ve never used SFXR before, but I might try it; otherwise I’ll be recording some sound effects.

Art: programmer art in Paint.Net. It won’t be pretty!

I’m very happy to be joining you all in this fantastic event. Good luck everyone!

I’m excited to be participating in Ludum Dare for the first time this weekend.

Language: JavaScript / HTML / CSS
Supporting frameworks: jquery.js, underscore.js, backbone.js, require.js, tween.js and modernizr.js
Pre-made classes: gameobject, engine, vector2, rectangle, circle and clock

Various Editors:

Text: Vim
Graphics: Photoshop
Sound: http://www.bfxr.net/

Howdy, Ludum Darers!

Last Ludum Dare, I wrote a little guide to using Launch4j to package your Java game so that people don’t need Java installed to play it.

I’ve only got Windows instructions, but they’re not old (yet), and you can find them here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/08/24/how-to-package-your-java-game-this-ld/

I understand that Linux and OSX are also supported by Launch4j (albeit you need a Mac to package on a Mac, and some variety of Linux to package for Linux), but I can’t vouch for how well they work.

There are other ways of doing the same thing: our team recently got a license of Excelsior which does this, in the comments on the linked post there was mention of Processing, and apparently there are some well-supported OSX applications which do the same thing.

If you don’t already package your game this way, I hope that you seriously consider it: erase every “I really wanted to play this game, but I don’t have Java installed” comment from the possibility of existence!

Happy holidays and Merry Ludum Dare.

So, I’ve gone and produced my warm-up game.    It’s called Driver Hunter, and it’s laughably abysmal, but I figured it’d be worth doing just to see if I could actually produce a working executable.  Don’t trust  that fancy tool you’ve been told does the trick, because it doesn’t.  Distributing pygame is like fighting an angry dwarf.  In my case, it turns out pygame doesn’t like my system font.  Don’t ask why.  So my game now uses Arial, because I’m hip like that.  If  Pygame2exe isn’t working, maybe it’s worth trying for you too.

So yes, lesson 1) check you can actually publish your damn game.  Do you want to release to mac?  To Linux?  To Windows?  Try it, and make sure it bloody works.

Lesson 2?  Sound.  I’ve never done any of my own sound before, but seeing I’m trying to enter the compo, looks like I’m going to have to!   I discovered automata thanks to this post, and it worked flawlessly, producing something that was at least barely passable as game music.

Other than that?  I’m good to go!  Timetable is cleared, tools are ready, fridge is stocked with diet coke.  I’ll be producing a timelapse if I can

Tags: lessons, pygame, pygame2exe, timelapse, tips, warmup

Language: Java
Libraries: LWJGL, twl PNG decoder
IDE: Eclipse
Music/Sound:SFXR and Others(not decided yet)
Art: Fireworks

My setup (minus the drinks and snacks):

Hi there!  I am Zanzlanz!  Glad to see you here at Ludum Dare!

So, I made a game for the last Ludum Dare, but it didn’t turn out as well as I hoped for.  I want to redeem myself, indeed.

However, there’s one thing that must happen in order for me to join for sure.
Some of my friends must join.
I talked to GhostID, Jawn, and Josh-EXE.  Josh-EXE is most likely to join, but I haven’t gotten a yes or no from the others
I really really hope I can get GhostID and Jawn to participate this time… otherwise it could end up being a pretty boring compo for me.

So I THINK I’m joining…
If so, it’ll be the same as last year.  I’ll use my basic tools:
– Flash CS5.5 Pro (Yes, it’s legally bought!)
– BFXR
– GIMP
– FL Studio 10 (Also not pirated!)
– Audacity

And I’ll stream with
– XSplit (http://twitch.tv/Zanzlanz)
– Audio Repeater 1.13 (So I can talk on the stream if I have to)

Other things:
– Spotify, iTunes, or Pandora to listen to music.  Most likely just Spotify.
– Can’t stay on the computer after 8…
– Water.  Cookies and milk… all that jazz

Also, I’m working on a simple tile engine to help me out.  I actually am quite unsure how far it will get though.   I’ll post the files on Friday.  Make sure I don’t forget.  Please.

Anyways!  Hope to see you this weekend!
Your buddy,
– Zanz

Let’s recap:

I’m Falkreon. I’m a prolific Minecraft/Bukkit/Forge/Spout modder and I also develop games as standalone cross-platform JARs.

My goal this time around is to shade in a lot more atmosphere and polish than my previous entries, and continue upping the WTF factor by abandoning or eliding features people generally expect in a genre. Every Ludum Dare, get about ten games I can’t live without, so I definitely agree with the keynote, it’s kind of like getting a hundred xmas presents at the end.

Behind the cut: I relate some of my LD history and share some wisdom received over the course of the production.

My first Ludum Dare was a painful failure. I didn’t know how to kill my babies, and the project was just completely untenable as envisioned. Editing is really important in game design. Ever since then I’ve had a particular approach to my LD design:

• During the final voting round, I rearrange the top themes into a series of boxes based on similarity of tone or theme. This helps me both pare down the number of early-stage designs, and stay organized and straightforward about my design process.
• For each box, I write a couple words to a sentence worth of design. Don’t write too much at this stage; just let the possibilities swirl in your head. I usually like all of the design possibilities, but I can only do one; the final theme selection is a sort of useful design roulette. I don’t feel bad about abandoning the other designs because I forced myself not to write too much, and only the particular theme box’s design will work on the selected theme.
• When the theme comes out, I reserve some of the precious competition time to write more about the design, and think more about the design. This is extremely important, building a game that fits the scope of the time limit, and to some degree you’ve just got to get a feel for it. I don’t want to put an exact number on it, but in practice I usually take a good ten or fifteen minutes just to make sure the design is extremely clever.
• Most importantly: Once I have a design you’re 99% confident about, I kill my darlings. I take the idea and ask myself: What are all the various things I need to do to make this happen? Then I rank them in order of importance and for time management. During this process I usually find that some of the clever features fall like a rock to the bottom of the list: They’re amazing features, I love them, but they’re totally unnecessary to the design. I doubt I’ll get to them in time, and maybe the design will actually be better with them streamlined out.

My second Ludum Dare, Erased (for #22, the Alone theme) was a tenative success: I released a product. I spent the next month refining it, and it was much more playable in the post-LD version. Even though there was much more that could have been done, at some point I finally admitted that nobody wanted a roguelike that wasn’t rogue-like, and it wasn’t worth polishing. That’s kind of a corollary to “kill your darlings.” Sometimes code is only digestible if you cook it on a rock and then eat the rock instead. Well-meaning programmers can create that code. Don’t feel bad about a failed project, and especially don’t feel bad about the risks you took in the design. Code is cheap if you write it often. Take new and different risks, put in a more thoughtful and skillful effort, and you’ll find that eventually, the risks pay off.

My third Ludum Dare, mini-LD #37, I’m calling a huge success. Little Stories was *exactly* what I envisioned. I removed game mechanics, control systems, and a lot of planned content never made it, but the design wasn’t something I expected to be feature-rich. It wasn’t a platformer, even though it looks like a platformer. For one thing, you can’t jump. You don’t kill anything. The whole goal was different. Not having a template was freeing to me, and suddenly I didn’t have to include something because games of genre X just always have Y. So my final piece of advice is, even if you have a genre, keep cutting. Kill their darlings too.

So, in review:
Kill your darlings,

Kill your darlings,

Kill their darlings too.

All the darlings.

Totally in.

Well, make that half in. I do want to participate, but I’ve got a lot already going on this weekend, so we’ll see how much I get done.

I will be attempting to code in the language Boo (available at boo.codehaus.org), which is similar to python but rests on top of the .NET framework (I’ll be using Mono because Open Source), which makes it pretty much as fast as C#.

It’s a relatively new language (it was first available I think in 2004… correct me if I’m wrong), and there isn’t as much of a documentation and library resource base available for it. Yet. I’m sure as people learn to love this little beauty of a language it will begin to have more things available.

I won’t use unity with this because the computer I’m using has no graphics card… (I know, right?) So that’s a bummer, but whatever. This will be an interesting adventure, even if I don’t get done what I hope to. One never knows until one tries!

For graphics, I will stand by Paint.net as my tool of choice.

Sfxr is great for sound effects.

I play the bass, the guitar, and the drums, and have Garage Band and a mixer… and Saturday I’m having a jam session at my house. Coincidence? Totally. But why not put the music to good use?

On another note, I am excited that the final round of voting is up! I can hardly wait to see what the theme ends up being. (My fingers are crossed for Time Loop… we’ll see how that goes, though.)

Good luck everyone!

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Alright everyone, update here. I ended up having a lot of trouble getting Mono and Boo to play nice on my computer… so I might be using AS3, FlashDevelop, and Flixel.

I’m getting out my Ubuntu machine to see if that will work better– we shall see.

Glad I decided to test things out before the compo, though!

Cheers,

BeefPop

Tags: Beef Pop, declaration, ld25

We’ll see if I regret this later.

Language: Javascript
Libraries: My own framework.
IDE: Zeus editor + Chrome.
Music/Sound: Goldwave + Milkytracker.
Art: Manga Studio / PS Elements.

I’m a first-timer, and I’m using this to force myself to learn Javascript.

I’ll post up the framework I’m working on on Friday, but as it’s the result of precisely five lunchtimes worth of Javascript experience, I wouldn’t advise anyone else using it. Plus, I’m a real OOP whore, and Javascript’s take on inheritance makes me cranky, you’ll hate it.

Being in the UK, I get to know the theme at 2AM on Saturday from my perspective, so my design technique is going to be to find out the theme then go to bed. Hopefully I will then dream the perfect design, preferably for a shmup of some kind.

Well, I’m in, as long as I don’t drop out again. The last two Ludum Dares didn’t go very well (lowish ratings in LD 23, and dropping out in LD 24), but with a bit of luck and effort, I should be able turn to that around.

I plan to use Love2D this time, along with my personal library, Ammo.

Good luck to all contestants!

So I figured I should probably post something, so I’m just going  to get right to it.

This is my first Ludum Dare, and I hope it’ll be the first of many.  I’m going to be using Actionscript (Flash builder) with the Flixel libraries, and PyxelEdit for sprites and stuff.

This will be my first “real” game, and also the first time I’ve gotten in-depth with Actionscript.  I’ve got plenty of programming experience with Java, and the transition to Actionscript hasn’t been all that hard, so I’m feeling pretty good about whatever my Dare entry ends up being.

Not really sure what else there is to say, After the end of the Ludum dare I’ll make another post about what went right or wrong if people would be interested in that.

Best of luck to everyone else attempting the Dare!

Hello everyone, I’m Josh-EXE. This year I am joining Ludum Dare

This is going to be my first Ludum Dare and although i’m not the best at programming, i’m going to give it a shot.

This Ludum dare i was pretty much talked into it by my friend ZanzLanz, and I’ve gotten kind of excited even though i am by no means a proffessional, I’m not even on Zanzlanz’s level, but i’m going to try.

My basic tools:
– Game Maker (no, I’m not kidding. I’m a noob)

– Paint.net

– Audacity

And I’ll stream with
– VH Capture (www.twitch.tv/joshdotexe)

– Adobe Media live encoder

Other things:
– Music

– Food, i will eat some

– I will be gone for a few extra hours on Sat or Sun.

– Possibly will talk to other and will take breaks.

Anyway, I hope to see everyone on friday night.

– Josh-EXE

I don’t really care what the theme is, I am flexible and can adapt to it. I will be using Java with Conundrum Engine to make my game. I will be doing it with a couple of my friends to get it done in the 72 hours. I hope to be livestreaming the whole event, but you never know…

I intend to make a persistent browser based game this time around – I’m probably not going to come close to success. Should be fun!

Engine: PHP, MySQL. I’ll be using my MVC framework I’m currently (!) building.
IDE: Notepad++
Art: For anything art, I’ll be using Game Maker’s sprite editor.

When I reach the 48H mark, I’ll decide whether or not to submit the game then or switch to the jam.

This will be my second LD and hopefully far more successful than my first.

After scrapping my game three hours before closing time last time around and cobbling something together in an hour I have learnt my lesson… I hope.

Tools:

Language: Java

Libraries: No extras

IDE: Eclipse

Graphics: Paint.NET, GIMP

Sound: Audacity

Base Code: I may use my Base Code if I fell like it, if I do I’ll link the download before the comp

Other: Lessons learnt from past failures

I hope I get to spend some serious time coding if work doesn’t get in the way, other than that, Good Luck to everyone

A couple of months ago, I decided to enter the December Ludum Dare Jam as part of a bet on Facebook. Just today, as I was browsing the internet, I came across one of Notch’s tweets about how he will miss Ludum Dare. That’s when it hit me. So I checked the website, and sure enough, Ludum Dare is in two days. As my first Jam, I’m a bit nervous, because I really want to finish my first game, and I don’t know what to expect. Hopefully, I’ll be able to manage somewhat of a game before the time is up, so my fingers are crossed!

~Throughthefire

Language: Java

IDE: Eclipse

Experience: Not much…

I am declaring my intent to participate in Ludum Dare XXV. Last time out was one of my more successful entries, even if I only got what I would consider a passing score. This time I plan on taking it further. Here are my tools:

• AS3/Flex+FlashPunk+FlashDevelop
• Photoshop
• SFXR
• Audacity
• pencil, paper, eraser, ruler, iPad
• Scanner
• mIRC

My usual set of guidelines:

• KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid! Making something too complex is just a recipe for a headache at 1pm on Sunday afternoon.
• Finish most of the work by Saturday night so I can spend Sunday polishing.
• Don’t run into dumb problems that eat up eight hours.
• Doodle/Pixel art style. I usually sketch something and then do some post-scanning modifications. I’m not a great artist, so sometimes I’ll just draw half of the object and mirror it to keep it symmetric. I now have an iPad, so I will probably experiment by drawing on it with a stylus.

Tags: declaration, flashpunk

I’m RokB and this is my first Ludum Dare. I’m not expecting much but I want to try it.

I will use the following:

C++ with CodeBlocks with the MinGW GCC compiler and SFML 2.0. I’ll also be using my own personal very simple thing (don’t even want to call it an engine) which will save me an hour or two (it’s probably really bad though): https://github.com/RenrokB/RokEngine.

Art: Paint.net, GIMP

Sound: sxfr, Audacity

Music (probably not): Demo version of FL Studio

Good luck everyone.