I’m testing different textures for the underwater rocks in Balancitos… What do you guys think?

That’s how one slays worms

(sorry about grammar and over-complicated English)

You can play the game here

It was my first LD and, in fact, my first game. Actually I’ve been playing with Unity quite a long time, and wanted to make some simple game, but somehow I always tend to end up with some abstract and complex idea which is not-so-easy to implement, and do nothing.

So my main goal was to actually finish my entry. And that’s the main thing that went right I made it! The main thing that went wrong though is that I wasted too much time.

Idea and general

Underground worms was literally the first thought that came to my mind (and just to mention: I never played death/megaworm).  So I started to make a worm immediately. And all that “worm” part of idea went OK I think.

But when it came to the “player” part I just got stuck. I had some ideas including bombs, some distracting items, using of environment(e.g. some safe stone islands) but didn’t manage to have a clear enough picture of how it should work.

So just to start I made throwing rocks mechanic. I actually made aiming with mouse first =/ and then changed it to  keyboard aiming. The main reason was that I wanted character to throw only ahead, so you have to face a worm  before throwing, but for some reason it felt awkward to me with mouse. Anyway aiming doesn’t make much sense since you don’t have enough time to aim and in general shouldn’t even try.

Really sad thing is that such simple idea as to make more weapons came to me too late. I decided to make some melee and shotgun but only managed to add some halberd-like weapon which actually made it more easy and fun. But it seems that a lot of people just didn’t see it so if you’re one of them please just skip to the 4th level and try it! (you can skip level after dying!)

(some response to comments)
Many told me that “it should give some indication where the worm is going to break the surface”, but it doesn’t make much sense given the way the worm moves. The worm tries to reach you so it’ll break the surface exactly where you stand UNLESS you’re moving, then it would surface at some distance from you and more horizontally. And of course you cannot see the worm beneath the surface, because YOU CANNOT SEE WHAT’S BENEATH THE SURFACE, that’s the very idea.

Audio

Since I received a lot of positive feedback about music here is the link to it, just in case.

“Soundtrack” was made relatively fast, I was playing with synths recently and had most of  them already set-up, and music itself… well, it’s so simple and straightforward if you ask me. It sounds EPIC though In the middle of the work I thought that it would be great to make a feel of total wormapocalypse, to match the music fully, e.g. add some burning and falling buildings and some people to save but I would definitely need at least an artist to do this.

Alas, I didn’t have any time to make proper sounds.

Graphics

There is not much graphics, but graphics took much time. Character took I beileve 2-3 hours overall. I made him twice actually, and have been tweaking come colors and animations every now and then. Worm took over an hour. At least I’m happy with graphics.

Time management

Time management in general is what I’m bad at.
Fist day was productive I think. I made most of the graphics and most worm-related things. But somehow I totally wasted second day. I got stuck with gameplay. After making some gameplay I’ve been spending too much time playing game instead of making it So I ended up with the game being far away from finished at the end of day 2 and decided to use 3rd day. Nonetheless there was a lot to do, and all “levels”, sounds and other finalizations were made in last few hours of Jam. I managed to made it just in time of deadline, and it was 5 a.m. for me… such crazy!

Main things learnt

KEEP WORKING! If you’re stuck, switch to other things you’ll have to make, or just try to implement it as simple as you can, but keep working.

Anyway I’m glad that I made it! And I had fun playing your games, can’t wait for another LD!

Tags: ld29, postmortem

It’s the last weekend guys! Why don’t you give my game a try ?

[ Beneath a red sky ]

Tags: gameplay, gif

PLAY THE COMPO ENTRY

Hi man there it is a preview of our brand new menù system in action.

That’s more, on the menù we also added some usefull option(sound,light).

Many one said that the game was too dark , don’t worry, if you become blind playing the game, now you can simply change the light

Here it is a ScreenShoot about our menù system ps everythings are animated like water text and other, hope you’ll like it

 

So let’s say a certain game creation tool I used to create my Ludum Dare 29 Game is currently having a sale which includes export modules and a certain export module is perfect so that people on Mac/Linux operating systems can play my game (hint: it starts with H and ends with TML5). Also let’s say that I already bought this and have a port ready to upload. Also let’s say that in order to get this port working I had to change one line of code so that I wouldn’t have my character whizzing about the screen…

Will this be acceptable as a “port” for a 48 hour Compo entry or is doing a port (with a minor bugfix) at this stage frowned upon?

Thanks Everyone, and thanks for those who’ve already played my game 😀

Woah! Look at all those games!

Hey folks! So, this time I’ve only rated 82 games. Shame on my, I know – I’m busy with my Master’s Thesis, but apart from that, I really have no excuses. I didn’t think I’d actually get around to do a Best Of list this time, but since those games are just so incredibly great I’ve done one anyway now!

So here’s a list of the best and/or most interesting games I’ve played – and so should you, in my opinion! But hey, I know it’s only three days left, so just pick the cherries. (Hint: They are all cherries.)

Excellence in EVERYTHING

Dig Hard by petey123567
Have you ever wanted to save the PRESIDENT from EARTH’S EVIL CORE and the UNDERGROUND DINOSAURS wielding BADASS WEAPONS? Sure you have! And even if not, this game will teach you why you SHOULD want that. It’s just so much fun even if when you inevitably die in mere seconds – and it feels more juicy than any fruit you’ll ever come across!

Planet Corp. by Maschinen-Mensch
Planet Corp is pretty short compared to the other games in this category, but what it does, it does really well. You are drilling different planets in our solar system for resources in a totally safe way (that involves throwing freakin’ drilling bombs down on them). But hey, the TV says it’s fine! Which it will in fact do ingame. The cutscenes are hilarious.

The Valley Rule by Raiyumi
I sincerely believe that the two creators of this game didn’t get ANY sleep, because there is no way they could’ve finished The Valley Rule otherwise. This game isn’t just the very definition of polish, it’s also incredibly big and a lot of fun! What this game lacks in innovation, it makes up in sheer production values. (And I still want the OST for it. Please.)

Behind Mirror by SaintHeiser
So, your friend just got his reflection stolen, and you want to catch the thief who is underwater. You can’t though, because your reflection is blocking you! So now your goal is to become a vampire, because well, vampires don’t have reflections, right? Combine this premise with lovely vector-art-pixel-graphics (is that a thing now?), cool music and the hardest jumps in this LD edition and you get Behind Mirror.

Rosa Neurosa by Wertle
In the words of the game’s creators, Rosa Neurosa is a “digging/mad libs/improv game.” I can’t find words for how awesome it is that they actually managed to pull of a digital single player improv game that is fun and works well, haha. Awesome graphics, great music and the option to actually share the story that you write seals the deal for me. (Try it! Post your endings here, please!)

Excellence in humor

NOPE by shadow64
I- I really, don’t know what to say about this game without spoiling anything. It’s Monty Python-esque. It’s short. It’s extremely funny. I promise you’ll like it!

Inside Look Activity Book by rylgh
The same thing applies to the Inside Look Activity Book, actually! The humor might be a biiiit more twisted and dark, but hey, it’s a book for children, right? What could possibly go wrong?

Excellence in storytelling/atmosphere

The Stanley Enigma by nddrylliog
Ah, the Stanley Enigma. You had a pretty bad dream about your friend Stanley dying, but dreams don’t come true, right? And I mean, who’d hurt Stanley anyway? Hum. Who indeed. You better check. Maybe you’ll find out in the ever branching storylines of The Stanley Enigma, a brilliant dialogue game with (as one commenter rightly remarks) Kentucky Road Zero vibes and over 1000 lines of text.

The Westport Independent by Double Zero One Zero
This game has a “Papers, Please?” vibe to me, and that’s definitely a good thing. Less good is that you’re running a newspaper which is due to be closed by an censoring antagonistic government. You’ve still got a few weeks left though – so what exactly will you print?

In Hiding by Sheepolution
Sssh. Everything will be alright. If you don’t get found, that is. Slightly scary, pretty atmospheric and the coolest effect for ingame soundeffects that I’ve ever seen.

Seven Souls by BrothersT
This is one of those games that I really want to be finished. Seven Souls is a storytelling game where you play a very nice creature which only wants to play with those other characters. Preferably in the water. No ulterior motives, I promise! A clean art style and great writing make this top list material, even if unfinished. (Also I love the accent of the creature.)

Excellence in audio

Orlok’s Ordeal by Davelope
The gameplay is fun on its own, but DAMN! This opening! Awesome voice acting combined with expressive story book pictures and dramatic music, this is just perfect. (Oh, and I love those paintings ingame. And the ending, haha.)

Ripple Runner by DDRKirby(ISQ)
A one (sorry, two. Eh, I mean three?) button runner with an innovative mechanic, game boy aesthetics and the BEST SOUNDTRACK. And the game is synchronized to it! This is just an absolutely joy to play. (And in fact, I’m listening to the soundtrack while I’m writing this list.)

Space to go by geekdrums
“Space to go” is probably the only LD game that has the complete tutorial/instructions in its title. It is storytelling synchronized to music and I can’t even describe why, but – synchronizing the words to sounds gives this whole thing an unexpectedly awesome and quite humorous feeling. It’s pretty short too, so there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t give it a try!

Excellence in being really, really different

Underworld Evolution by StudioWolfox
Underworld Evolution calls itself an “epic RTSE (Real Time Strategic Evolution) game” and it really delivers on this promise. You’re taking control of a bunch of pretty incompetent minions which you’ll slowly but surely improve – generation by generation! (Hum, maybe you shouldn’t actually play it, it’s super addictive! Don’t tell anybody, but I’ve spent over an hour on it and only stopped because I wanted to rate more games…)

Mini Metro Subway Tycoon by ripatti
A subway simulator in retro Sim City style – pretty cool. It’s a bit hard at first (I recommend watching the How To Play video), but soon you’ll be building subways like it’s nobody’s business!

You Don’t Want That by Dark Arts and Sciences
A creepypasta Ludum Dare game about making a Ludum Dare game? Sold! This is the most obscure LD game I’ve ever come across and it’s also pretty hard, but I definitely felt entertained. And I just love the idea. Don’t skip this game. It might get angry. And, uh, you don’t want that.

Generic Adventure Game by Jezzamon
As the title of the game suggests, this one is just a generic adventure game. Yup. Definitely nothing interesting here under the generic surface. (It might be pretty funny though. And have a cool concept.)

Please Come Back by PapyGaragos
This game has the greatest play-controls-avatar relationship I’ve ever encountered with a mouse. If yours has a scrollwheel, try it – you won’t be disappointed. You might get exhausted though, and the distress is pretty real too after a while. The only thing that I don’t like about this game is that it’s based on a pretty similar game, but I still think you shouldn’t skip this experience – and it’s pretty cool that it still works with such a simple art style.

 
 
Did you like my recommendations? If so, maybe you could rate and comment on my game too. I’d be really happy about that! (Although I can understand if you’re exhausted after all those other games I just suggested, haha.)
 
SnakeFormer by TobiasW
A puzzle game combining Snake with pseudo-physics platformer mechanics. It only has four levels, but it’s not actually short – level 3 and 4 are probably the hardest puzzle levels in this LD. I’m terribly, terribly sorry. (If you beat them, please tell me!)

 

Tags: animated gif, best of

Hehe, a bit late I know. Better late than never! Also, I fixed the “can’t advance because the staircase was placed beyond my reach” bug. Whoops.

If you want to save kitties, play my game! Just, uh, don’t click on them.

NOW WITH iPad and maybe even other tablets as well SUPPORT!

<3 Stevie

Play and Rate Now

Built and Rendered by your’s truly

 

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL DOWNLOAD

 

Enjoy!
-Seth

(Disclaimer: I didn’t do this video, it is done by Ganil Ganilder)

Well, it was a nice first Ludum dare, and my first published game in quite a long time; I’m the type of person who begins many projects, but “takes a lot of time to finish them”… So the two-day deadline was very positive for me. I had first thought of using pixel graphics, but the theme (and the fact that I’m not that good at pixel graphics) made me think of a more vectorial and music oriented game.

Play the game *here*

What went well
> The music. For some reason, the theme inspired me greatly. It also helped my think of the three different theme songs. The first one, above the surface, calm and nice, as if there was nothing wrong. Then, as you enter the surface, BANG! an unwelcoming music begins (Beneath the surface, life’s not so nice). And finally, the third song begins and loops forever, a music that is exciting and nice, making you want to stay, because, even if it’s not safe, not calm, “beneath the surface, it’s not that bad”. This made me able to subtly add the theme thanks to the music. And finally, a great idea I had was “Oh it would be nice to have my music and game beat together”. Guess why I used all my music in 120 bpm, and my game at a fps of 32 (instead of the usual 30)?

> The Code. The code was great. Even though it had some bad things (more on that later), it’s probably the one I am most proud of. It’s the first time I use constants like M_MOUSE_PROPULSION for my switch statements, and it helped a lot, as I used to just use numbers for identifying different states. Also, using these constants and switch statements, I managed to fake the Component-Entity paradigm into something implementable in a couple of hours, while keeping the diversity. This allowed my enemies to have different behaviours, so that some of them are following you, and some of them are just circling around. I think this was vital, as if all of them followed you, it wouldn’t be as fun. Actually, there are only three classes; the Main, the GameEngine and the Entity. Beneath the surface, you’re just another “entity”.

> It turned out to be more or less fun. It is also very simple, yet difficult, but the music is rewarding. I think that helped it become nice as a game rather than just a program.

 

What went wrong
> The music. There’s this weird silence after the mp3s. I tried to cut it, but I didn’t manage to fully smoothen the loops. Also, the second and third don’t concatenate well. There’s this tension the second makes, and the third isn’t able to release it successfully.

> The graphics. They graphics weren’t horrible, but there is a problem with the colours. As you go deeper, the shade of the water changes from bright blue, to black. In between, however, there are a couple of shades that make it very hard to distinguish the red enemies, for some reason.

> Perlin Noise. I wanted to use perlin noise, to make the idling enemies move randomly, and not just in circles. But there isn’t perlin noise on AS3 (I don’t mean the bitmap perlin noise, I wanted the actual function that gives a pseudo-random value if given a three coordinate input). I think I’ll try to make a perlin noise thing for AS3, for my next ludum dares.

> The Code. I was very proud of my code, but it did have some things I could do better. The main problem is that I overused the copy/paste way too much; things that should have been made functions, were copy/pasted in site, and many different modes (after you exit, as you enter) are severe copy-pastes of the main theme, with very slight changes (I should have switch-ed in those changes rather than the whole code). This was due to poor forethought, to be honest.

> Wrong decisions? I tried to make the game as simple as possible, so that you actually didn’t need a tutorial to learn the game.  For that reason, I didn’t add any instruction, except “Mouse, that’s all you need : )”. Now, I also decided only to show the score on the surface, for three main reasons: add to the sensation of being lost in sea, avoid distractions in a game where concentration is vital, and prevent the “Oh no I could have gotten 120394 points, but I lost them, I’m very sad!”. These decisions had mixed and strange result…

“some kind of instructions or objectives would be fine” – agus97 (Newgrounds)

“I think it is fine without instructions but it would be nice if the score would move with the view.” – Mandarien (Newgrounds)

“Lots of fun with wonderful music. At first I found it strange that I couldn’t see my own score once I went deeper. But I like it – adds to the feeling of being lost in a vast ocean.” – reheated (LudumDare)

Tags: as3, ld29, postmortem

Hey folks! May be a bit late, but we released post-compo version of our game – “Descent”.

Update changes:

1. Fixed some bugs, like passing through walls.
2. Update balance. Now you have more health and enemy have less attack damage.
3. Now lightning strikes spiders too.
4. Fixed attack button. Now it’s “z” or “Space”.

That was our first jam and first experience in creating games like it. I think, we will use this experience in our future games.

We would be very grateful, if you play our game and rate it.

Play and rate Descent

Helevenium is an action melee one hit kill game about you with a sword killing things somewhere.

Sharpen your reflexes.

Don’t waste your time.

Make your attacks worthwhile.

Test yourself HERE!

The post-compo version of Under Ytan is done!

What’s new?
All levels but one have been remade with more care than I had time for during the compo. The short time makes me very bad at leveldesign, the pacing was kindof of in the original version. The levels now also teach the player some stuff that I forgot earlier^^
I have also tweaked a lot of stuff with the menus and stuff. Things lerp in and looks nicer.
Added a really cool splashscreen!
Music! I added a song a friend of mine did, I think it’s better, but that’s kindof subjective I guess.

Hope you like it! I can now complete the whole game with all triangles in 01:56.. I’ve been playing too much.. ^^

PLAY IT, COME ON. IT’S A COOL GAME!
ps. if you haven’t rated my original game, why not do it now while you’re at it?

I’ve avoided showing content for Divernaut made outside the development window for fear of not letting go of the project. I know lots of entries have a post-compo version posted right on the page, and that’s awesome! I love those! I personally try not to do that because I’ll get in an infinite “just one more thing” loop and will never ever finish.

That being said, I did really really want to share the music I had originally planned for the game, but didn’t get a chance to finish enough to actually implement in the compo version. To showcase the music, and also have a little fun playing Divernaut myself, I put together a game trailer. Enjoy!

I had such a great time with Divernaut that I’m going to be remaking it from the ground up with new graphics, new content, and new coolness. I’ll be posting occasional progress updates on Twitter, Facebook, and Dustout Games’ Website so if you want to follow progress, those are the places to do so.

For LD29 Jam we developed the game Ice Hop. Quetzatl – Ice Hop EP (FREE DOWNLOAD) http://quetzatl.bandcamp.com/album/ice-hop ICE HOP Music developed in 72 hours for LUDUM DARE 29 JAM The instrumentation in this album features indigenous instruments from around the globe: Tambura, Aeta Flute, Amazonian Rainstick, Bamboo Stick, Kubing Mouthharp, Malaysian Djembe, Tibetan Ting She, and much more.

ICE HOP (LD29 VIDEO GAME – FREE DOWNLOAD)
www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=35354 credits:  Music by QUETZATL
CG by QUAZAAR

The SNOOTHAs is a self-described prestigious ceremony set up to award Ludum Dare entrants for their efforts. It may or may not be real. The “S” stand for Snoother (me, of course) and the “A” stands for award. I can’t for the life of me be bothered to fill in the rest.

The awards ceremony was held in a musty, windowless room by the “Robed Ones” — a bunch of self-appointed game critics donning brown, hooded robes. They quipped back and forth about “innovation”, “agency”, “underlying messages”, “immersiveness” — all that stuff. After weeks of sleepless deliberation, they finally reached a judgement. For each category they have assigned an overall winner and a selection of honourable mentions, listed alphabetically. Here are the results:

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EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION

Winner: And the Moment is Gone

An introverted and experimental conversation game. It brilliantly depicts the pains and frustrations of so many conversations by using an innovative game mechanic. The Robed Ones — for whom the voice of love often calls, only to find it’s a wrong number — felt they could particularly relate to the game.

 

Honourable Mentions: A Day in the Life; I Remember Alice; The Loudest Ballerina; The Pond; Space to Go; Substratum; Tenkosei Robo

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EXCELLENCE IN FUN

Winner: Gravity

A ridiculously addictive game in which you descend below the surface to collect all the artefacts, reveal the ending and, of course, beat the high score. The Robed Ones stayed up way past their bed time playing this one.

 

Honourable Mentions: Beneath the Ice; Black Bile, Inhuman Circuits; Coin Diver; Doomsday Bunker; Mimic of the Deep; The Pond; Senilescape; Substratum; Tenkosei Robo

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EXCELLENCE IN USE OF THEME

Winner: Not All of Them Died

A chilling and beautifully-minimal use of theme. It is “a game celebrating industrialised warfare” in which you walk through a vast cemetery of deceased military personnel, all individually named, including rank and date of death.

 

Honourable Mentions: A Day in the Life; Abstraction; And the Moment is Gone; Black Bile, Inhuman Circuits; Castle Engineer; Heart of the Cards; The Loudest Ballerina; RMBR; Series of Choices

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EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHICS

Winner: Wunderheilung

Wunderheiling has some gorgeous art with a gently-surreal touch. The gameplay consists of examining peculiar creatures for medical problems, virtually forcing you to stare at each fabulous pixel cluster. While playing, the Robed Ones were gazing endlessly into their computer screens and drooling slowly — oh wait, they do that anyway.

 

Honourable Mentions: Gravity; Last Dive; The Pond; Seven Souls; Tenkosei Robo; Watch Your Step

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EXCELLENCE IN AUDIO

Winner: Space to Go

A one-button music game — doesn’t sound like it should work, right? But oh my it does. With each spacebar press you control the pace of the music, moving forwards through this abstract plane and unexpectedly discovering a narrative. Just sublime.

 

Honourable Mentions: Any Ship Can Be a Minesweeper… Once; Coin Diver; Fragment; Gravity; In the Black; Last Dive; Magma; Mimic of the Deep; Tenkosei Robo

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EXCELLENCE IN HUMOUR

Winner: Black Bile, Inhuman Circuits

The humour is so incisive and devious, thanks largely to how well-written it is. Loads of subversions of tropes and referential humour, but, as I said, it’s done so well. You experience that which is “beneath the surface of the body, in the realm of bodily humors: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood.” (The Robed Ones nod along, frothing.)

 

Honourable Mentions: Any Ship Can Be a Minesweeper… Once; Orlok’s Ordeal; The Sadness of Rocky Barbato; The Surface; Wunderheilung

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EXCELLENCE IN MOOD

Winner: The Pond

This isn’t an outright mood piece: you have to sustain life in the pond for as long as possible by feeding the fish and moving the water. But it’s minimalism and life-and-death theme makes it remarkably evocative. Playing it feels serene, sombre, wistful. As the second-counter moves steadily onwards and your pond life begins to die away, you feel dejected — if only life weren’t so ephemeral.

 

Honourable Mentions: A Happy Place; Black Bile, Inhuman Circuits; Gravity; I Remember Alice; Last Dive; Mimic of the Deep; Not All of Them Died; Sopora

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BEST GAME OF LUDUM DARE 29

Winner: The Loudest Ballerina

So cute and well-executed: a game about ballet and a giant monster. Intrigued? You should be. For goodness sake, go play it! Even the Robed Ones love it — and getting them to abandon their hypermasculine gamer culture and do ballet is indeed an achievement.

 

Honourable Mentions: And the Moment is Gone; Black Bile, Inhuman Circuits; Gravity; Last Dive; The Pond; Tenkosei Robo; Wireside

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MY GAME

And what post would be complete without some aggressive self-promotion? This is, oh kind, generous reader, my game. A game that — wait for it — looks beneath the surface of an FPS.

Okay, in all seriousness I’d be really grateful for anyone to check it out. I put quite a bit of effort into it and there’s an important underlying message. It’s a text-based second-person shooter that explores the worst aspects of violent video games and the culture surrounding them.

 

–Snoother

Tags: best of

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY BLOG

Hello there! Now that I’ve played and rated 100 games, it is time. I might be a bit late in getting people to rate these games, but that’s not why I’m writing this post. These aren’t the “best” games I’ve played; at least, not by the traditional category metric. My main purpose here is to point out and analyze games that use interesting methods to tell stories and evoke emotional responses from the players.

I highly recommend you play the games before reading my analyses, as they will spoil the games for you.

Here are the games (the ordering is meaningless):

Sopora

 

I Contemplated the Sun of Limbo

 

The Dead Rest Beneath Us

 

Le Ver

 

 

Sunk

 

 

Persona

 

I Remember Alice

 

 

Drowning in Problems

 

Beneath the Surface

 

A Happy Place

 

 

Most of you are probably aware of the ongoing ‘video-games as an art form’ debate. If not, I recommend you go read up on it, particularly Roger Ebert’s arguments. The whole debate revolves around how gaming as a medium compares to traditional media of expression. In my opinion, the question is usually tackled from the wrong angle. We shouldn’t ask- how can we create a game that retells ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and does a good job of it? Instead we should be asking- how can we harness the power of video-games to create unique experiences unparalleled in other media? This power I’m talking about is, of course, interactivity. The medium’s undoing, according to Ebert, but I think otherwise. Jon Blow gave an interesting talk about how we can harness gameplay as a powerful story-telling device. He talks about meaningful gameplay, which is deeply tied to the story. In fact, the gameplay should create the story. The key word here is immersion- movies, books, and music all have their own ways of immersing the person experiencing them, but video games can do so much more! In video games, you can evoke a sense of agency, which in turn will make the player feel responsible for his actions. In video games, you can make the player feel that he is his avatar in a much deeper sense than in other media, or indeed in most modern video games.

In the game ‘Sopora‘, you awaken to find yourself in a coffin. You can escape, panic and suffocate, kill yourself, etc. When you do any of these, you feel like you’ve actually done something meaningful. Moreover, you don’t feel bad for the avatar, as is the case in so many games, because you feel that you are your avatar. You experience the game through his eyes. The game uses powerful audio to create tension, but it only serves to amplify the experience created by the gameplay.

‘Sunk‘ is another excellent example of this. You play as a man in the open sea, struggling to stay afloat. One button only, and yet you feel responsible when you drown. And just like in ‘Sopora’, when you screw up, you panic. You suffocate. And again, the sound effects and graphics are amplifiers, no more.

I loved both ‘I Remember Alice‘ and ‘Le Ver‘ very much, but the reason I’m mentioning them here is that they deviate from the pattern I’m presenting with the other games. Both games feature monotonous gameplay, and both make extensive use of text to deliver the story and the experience. The games lack in agency, but that is what makes the gameplay powerful. They stand out because their gameplay is tied strongly to the story. What I find interesting about them is that the gameplay, at least in my opinion, is an amplifier for the story, not the other way around. The experience is a sum of the various components- text, audio, visual feedback, gameplay. They create a cohesive whole that is very enjoyable and evocative. I’d like to see more games like these, because they explore in a not-so-obvious direction, and that is invaluable to the developing medium of video games.

One of Ebert’s main arguments is that games lack authorial control- if you give the player true agency, how can you walk him through a story-line? I find it very interesting to approach this question in the context of theology, but I digress. Ebert is right. We can’t guide the player through a linear story without limiting his freedom, and if we don’t, it generally ends with disastrous results. Let’s look at music- most songs don’t tell any story, and what about melodies with no lyrics? In my opinion, games can’t possibly tell stories like ‘Romeo and Juliet’ without devolving into lame movie-likes. Games like ‘Sunk’ and ‘Sopora’ are complete, and they are perfect examples of gameplay done right.

Responsibility: In ‘Beneath the Surface‘, you play as a buff American soldier who commits atrocities in the name of democracy. And you control him. This control you have over him forces you to click the ‘kill’ button in order to progress. There is no agency. You don’t feel responsible for your avatar’s actions, and by the end of the game, you despise him. The game is interesting because it attempts to elicit strong moral responses from the players, and it succeeds, to some extent. Most people quit the game because they can’t bear press the ‘kill’ button any more. That’s powerful. And yet, I think the game could benefit from a well thought-out choice mechanism. If players had a real choice, and chose to kill (which would happen a lot, I bet. Especially with the back-story provided in the game), they would really feel responsible for their actions. I can’t help but think of the LD25 game, ‘Cure 48‘. Play it before you read the post-mortem.

Speaking of morality, here’s another game where you are made to feel bad: ‘The Dead Rest Beneath Us‘. Well, OK, it’s not meant to make you feel bad. In this game, you are presented with different scenarios where you must rescue a person in immediate danger. As opposed to ‘Sunk’, here you don’t play the people in danger, which is a substantial difference. The idea behind this game is that you can’t actually save any of them, which is why people end up feeling bad after playing it. I must say, it was very frustrating for me as well. So here we have another case where there is a lack of agency, but does it create a disconnect? Well, I didn’t feel like I was responsible for the deaths of those people, but the game doesn’t mean to make me feel responsible. Instead, is sets out to raise awareness to the transience of life. A lofty mission indeed. This is another example of an idea which can’t possibly be executed in other media.

As we look at another game, ‘Persona‘, it seems that the ultimate lack of agency is a recurrent theme. In this game, you control your avatar through dialogue choices in various social interactions. You are presented with a choice between 3 masks, each one representing a certain behaviour. However, if you use the wrong mask, it breaks and can no longer be used; instead you have the option of speaking your mind without any filters. The premise is interesting, and it definitely makes for an interesting gameplay mechanic, but the ending presumes that you have failed to use your masks at least once, when in fact, it is possible to complete the game without failing. This reminded me of the scene in ‘Groundhog Day‘ where Phil tries to get Rita in bed, so he memorizes her quirks and gets closer to his goal each day. However, he never succeeds. ‘Persona’ could be exactly this in game form, if it would be unbeatable. Notice what I’m doing here- I’m talking in favour of reducing the player’s freedom and guiding him to an inevitable outcome. However, I’m not limiting his immediate choices, only his ultimate agency. This can lead to a very strong experience, albeit a frustrating one, where the player acts as one with his avatar, and feels like he has true agency, when in fact the outcome will always be the same.

Another game where this is the case is ‘Drowning in Problems‘. In this game, you play through a person’s life to the inevitable, bitter end. But it’s beautiful. I found myself in the part right before you can click to die, working and buying stuff indefinitely. The game is linear, and yet I feel like I have a choice. More importantly, the gameplay maps perfectly to what Notch wants us to feel from the titles of the actions. When I was clicking away, buying more and more stuff, avoiding the death button, I didn’t feel like I was clicking in a game with the theme of life. This theme isn’t artificially strapped on the gameplay- it is created by the gameplay.

‘A Happy Place‘ is another game where you play through your avatar’s demise. You play as a block, surviving in a wartime bunker. You walk around, cry some, eat, drink and sleep when you need to, while being constantly barraged with text. This text is the avatar’s thoughts, and it contributes a lot to the experience, but it doesn’t create it. As I said in the comments, I wasn’t sad when I died, because I knew it was inevitable, but the whole experience felt very real. Was it the audio? The visuals? The text? Maybe it was the gameplay? This one remains a mystery to me.

Last but not least, a game that scared the crap out of me- ‘I Contemplated the Sun of Limbo‘. As I said in the comments, my conclusion from this game is that I am fucking scary. What do I mean by that? Well, in this game, you control an avatar from a first person perspective, and you walk around on an island. You dive and resurface on the other side of the island, you sit on a stool, and then you go back to the other side. There you see a person sitting on a stool just like the one you sat on, and you suspect that he is actually some sort of vision of you. You interact with him and he explodes. Again, on the opposite side, you find the stool vacant. You sit on it, contemplating the sun of limbo, and then, while still on the stool, you turn around. You see the same figure standing behind you, exactly where you stood on the other side of the island when you disturbed him, and he pulls a slenderman. It’s scary, and it made me think of how other people might be experiencing my presence. The game shines in its surrealism, which is a sum of the visuals, the audio, and indeed the gameplay. I’m analyzing this game because it is completely different from the other games. When comparing these games to other media, most of them map roughly to movies or books in what they attempt to do. This one is a song. It’s a spiritual experience. Now, a lot of people would classify all of these games as ‘interactive experiences’ and not games. While I disagree with this, I find it interesting how a very diverse array of games can all be classified under one category.

And now for something completely different- my game! You didn’t actually think a post like this wouldn’t be followed by some shameless self-promotion, did you? Well, actually, my game has a lot in common with these games, so I don’t feel bad doing this

It’s called ‘A Day in the Life‘. I urge you to go play it before reading on.

In this game, you control the individual actions in your avatar’s life. You set a certain period in your life where you learn programming, and in the following frames, the option of making a game is available. There are three objectives- ‘Get a job’, ‘Be happy’ and ‘Start a family’. To fulfill the job objective, you need to work (which requires that you learn programming), ‘Be happy’ requires that you learn the piano and make a game, and to start a family, you need to work and date. People figure all of this stuff out in the first couple of minutes of the game, and then they realize that the overall objective is to get all three objectives at the same time. They manage to get a job and be happy, and they manage to get a job and start a family, but they can’t get all three. Most people realize this, and this is what I set out to do. I wanted people to realize that they can’t get everything in life, and that they have to make choices. It doesn’t matter if you quit the game with some objectives activated rather than others, there’s no text or cutscenes to acknowledge your choices. The game ends in effect when the player realizes what the message is. A strong theme that I have noticed in people’s playthroughs is that they get frustrated when they try to figure out the game. They attempt to solve it as if it were a puzzle, but it doesn’t unfold. Now, this game doesn’t tell a story, not does it evoke spiritual emotions. If I had to classify it, I’d use the word that flrn used to describe his game, ‘The Dead Rest Beneath Us’ – vanitas. Both our games aren’t exactly games in that they are more static in nature, and would compare best to paintings.

I want to create a discussion surrounding the ideas that I have presented here, so I’d love to read what you people have to say about this!

If I have offended anyone, please accept my apologies. I only mean to provide honest feedback and encourage discussion.

Enjoy rowing about in vr now :), you can find the download links on our ld game page (in the top of the description are the download links to the Oculus version, running out of space to link to stuff :D)

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=23493

It took some effort due to reflections and skyboxes not working properly on the rift and you need to do something special if you use NGUI to make it work with the rift, but that’s sorted out now.

 

Intro Tips

This being my third Ludum Dare I had a decent idea of what I was getting myself into. These game jams are really a great way of practicing on actually making something from start to finish. I think that is what many of us really need to get better at, I know I for one have put tons of time into other bigger projects which never see the light of day, maybe because they are simply too big of projects. Here are some quick tips which I’ve learned from previous mistakes and could be good for newcomers entering into a ludum dare, for starting any new game project I guess.

• Start with making something really simple and make sure the “fun factor” is there early on, the rest is polish!
• Don’t explore some new technology while trying to complete a game.
• Give each aspect (design, planning, code, graphics, audio, testing, etc) enough time each. Don’t spend the first day and a half coding and get the rest done in a few hours.
• Make sure the game is done well before the deadline so you have time for playtesting, bugfixing and polish.
• The most important thing is to complete a game from start to finish, not that it’s the most feature packed perfect game.

Download Post-Compo Version! Fixes all known issues! Contains 3 new secret artifacts and fixes all known issues

 

The Game

So I’ve been playing unhealthy amounts of Spelunky lately and I wanted to make a platformer with a bit of the same vibe, and I’m a huge space fan so I went for that. When the theme got decided I thought I’d make a underground platformer. Since I love the jetpack in spelunky and don’t get it often enough, I thought I’d make a game with a similar feel as the jetpack in Spelunky. I also wanted to make a simple and addicting game with online highscore, so I played around with the idea until I ended up with what the game is now. It could still get a lot better, but I’m quite happy with the end result in just two days work.

 

I wanted to make a platformer with jetpacks with Spelunky feel!

Warmup & Making Music

I’m especially happy with having produced music for in the game, and am even quite happy with the end result. Truth is I’ve wanted to learn how to make music for a while now, and started various tutorials but never got very far. The day before Ludum dare I made a warmup game called Space Survivor. It took me about 2 hours to make, and looking at the highscore stats I can say that it’s probably the game I’ve made with best time coded vs time played ratio ever.. which is a bit depressing. Anyway, the cool thing is I also decided I was going to make music for the game. I opened a a music program called SunVox, which is the first music program where I actually like the UI, and decided I’m going to make a song from start to end, it doesn’t matter how crappy it is, but it’s going to be finished. My first song. Instead of trying to learn each aspect of music and mastering it before I even make a song, this technique really taught me how to make music and I put it in the game! And I’m so happy for it! The day after Ludum dare started and I made another track and put it in my Ludum Dare entry, and it turned out quite nice for my second track ever!

 

I used the “ludum dare” technique to learn how to make music by making a warmup game! Download here!

The Good

For the first time I felt that I was done enough for the deadline. Overall I’m very happy with the end result, here are some points which I’m happy with

• I had a nice balance of time spent coding, making art, making sound, making music, testing, bugfixing and polishing which made all areas good enough!
• I actually made music for my game and learned how to make it in the process!
• I had online highscores – this is something that really makes some games so much more fun!
• The game feels like a complete game and is polished
• I invited two friends over for a little Jam-Lan-Party, this made the whole thing event more fun and I think we made better games because of it!

Even for a 48h game, the graphics went through several iterations

The Bad

Although I’m very happy with the end result, there were a few hickups.

• About half way in on day two I began writing ugly code to make things rapidly. This made the final code quite cluddered and just makes it harder to update and improve the game further. I will have to spend a day just to cleanup the code later!
  • Lesson: Things don’t have to be perfectly coded, but alteast keep it clean and organized at all times!
• Some MySQL issues have made the online highscores slow/unresponsive sometimes, which results in a lot of statistics/scores have gotten lost. This is really a shame because I wanted to present cool playstats here for you!
  • Lesson: Brush up MySQL skills for next time for better highscores/stats!
• I’ve got about 60 ratings to my game and I’ve done 120 on others, so I can’t complain. Still somehow I feel it’s very hard to get people to try my game. I believe this is in large part because I don’t have a web version. I know the feeling when testing games, if you gotta download it, let alone run a seperate redist install, it’s hard to want to try it! I really do think this is a shame, I think games feel better when not played in a browser. And c#/xna is awesome!
  • Lesson: Consider using a web-platform next time or accept low play stats. (HTML5, Unity, etc)
• The title. To be honest I suck at titles. It was never really my intention that the game would be named Gravity. I sort of just wrote something while designing the graphics/menu to get the style right. In the end time was running out and I hadn’t thought of a better title and then I forgot. I thought of the George Clooney film and just added a random subtitle since I thought that looked cool too.
  • Lesson: Titles can be important, decide on a good one early on and roll with it. It’s hard to think up a good name at the last minute!

The  temporary working title ended up being final, I just removed George Clooney so that I wouldn’t need to share the royalties!

Some play stats!

With each play being registered in an online highscore, I can also calculate some play stats from them. Sadly my MySQL skills weren’t good enough in time, so a lot of the stats got lost because of a query taking very long time to load sometimes.. But here are some fun play stats at the time of writing!

Disclamer: Sadly up to approx 50% of plays may be missing, so stats below could probably be doubled, but this is what I’ve got! (Any new stats should be recorded correctly I believe)

• Total number of unique players: 82
• Total number of plays: 6617
• Avarage plays per player: 80
• Total play time all players: 35 hours 1 min 55 seconds
• Avarage time played per player: 25 minutes
• Player with most plays
  • Diamonde: 718
  • Rebecca: 595
  • Tobias-PC: 587
  • Maxime: 549
  • Anebo: 517

Top 10 scores at the time of writing.

Timelapse!

Check out the timelapse of making Gravity! May contain spoilers!

Lastly, I would really appreciate if you

play and rate my game!

Good luck in the final results all!

Tags: post-compo, post-mortem, timelapse, tips

We really need to stop leaving so much dangerous military ordinance underground.

Don’t forget to rate us before the Jam ends!

5

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2014 at 12:58 pm and is filed under LD #29. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.