Ludum Dare 36! It seems like it was just yesterday that it was the 35th jam. This was my first time building a game for this jam, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. The theme this time around was “ancient technology”, which is more of a style than a gameplay theme, but it was fun to develop an idea for it.

My game

The basic premise of my game is that you’re constructing a pyramid before the four-minute timer runs out. You have to mine each of the blocks for the pyramid in your two quarries, and then transport them to the construction site. To make things difficult, enemies are attacking your blocks that are in transport. You have to defend with explosive attacks, which cost one coin each. Coins are falling from the sky (a gift from Ra), and you can catch them to afford both explosive attacks, and upgrades to your quarries.

The game relies on the simple mechanics of both time-pressure, and a constant flow of conflict while you’re trying to perform another task. Together, it makes for an exciting gameplay experience.

What went well

I’m really happy with how the art turned out in the end. There are still some small details I would have added in the terrain if I had more time, but I’m okay with how it is.

The tutorial took up a lot of the time, mostly because I had to redo it several times to make it clear how the game is played. While there are still some other details I could add in the tutorial, I’m happy with how it turned out.

What I’ll do differently in the future

At the last minute, right before submission, I realized that I forgot to install the Windows and Linux build modules in Unity, so I couldn’t build to all the platforms. I had to quickly perform an update at the least convenient time, which was unfortunate. Thankfully, I intentionally aimed for submission an hour or so early, just in case that would happen…but in the future, I need to make sure to check to make sure every aspect of the engine is functional. That’s almost the number one rule of Ludum Dare, but I still missed it.

The code was unfortunately sloppy. I’ve worked in professional code for years, so a part of me died as I threw away good programming practices to buy more time. There wasn’t enough time to make the code absolutely top-of-the-line, but there were certainly places where it could be improved.

Gameplay-wise, I think having special events happen later in the game (such as an intense battle happen when you’ve completed half of the pyramid), could make the game not become so monotonous after a minute or so of play.

Screenshots

PLAY HERE

Visit my website: http://www.actuallyeverything.com/
Twitter: @notactuallycam

Special thanks to @crossmark for creating the amazing music for the game.

Here comes my long (I dont want to call these post-mortem) experience post about my LD game: Remedy of All.

The Timelapse

This was my FIRST JAM ENTRY. But I had 4 compos before. And difference is huge.
I got music, most of the text, and graphics from others and that time added to + 24 hours is just GREAT.
I did code most of the game cleanly and had enough time for coding conditionals for ending(s). I thank each one of them for their support.

I want to go step by step on each topic.

Theme

I did woke up to my alarm and looked at the theme. Which was kinda my favorite but also had no idea for a game. And returned to sleeping because 4 AM.
In the morning while waiting for my friend(graphics) to wake up I had a phone call with another friend of mine and he gave me the idea. If that didn’t happen I’d go for an JRPG and utterly fail to finish it probably. Then I dumped all of the ideas on a text file here (Which Is in our native language btw.). Then we decided on this idea. Sick people comes in in a window and you craft cures on another window. But at first the idea was making items silly and disgusting a bit probably. And had much more complexity. But I am happy we left those behind and finished the game as it is.

My first concept sketch thing. It’s pretty normal If you can’t read it.

Coding (ScriptableObject in Unity)

For my game I needed 3 editable data holders. For items: Name, Danger Level etc. For crafts: Items and waiting times in order, resulting item. For Ilnesses: name,symptoms, curing items.
I learned about Scriptable objects(how to create them, how to code custom editors for them.). And at this point I didn’t think much about UI. At least until before I stuart with sickness data object. A screenshot from those times. Only the UI and placeholders. Which are my spare time drawings btw. Just found them on the desktop and used for item images.
http://cloud.corupta.net/uploads/345423721/gameplay.gif

That’s a GIF!

Total Gameplay (Still no graphics)

After day 2 code was almost ready. The thing left was coding the Lookup Book. At this point you can see the gameplay with paint.net drawn graphics. About this time I contacted Carlos for a background music. Which is the first time I’m asking someone to make music for my jam game. And another friend of mine helped by finding the sickness data and symptoms. Which also gave me more time to focus on coding.

That’s a GIF!

Last afternoon

was the time where I started getting the graphics into the game. I replaced each placeholder one by one and made the UI look old-ish. My thanks for another friend who found the font Roman_SD, which looked great with this concept. I have no other screenshot because game looks the same after this point.

Endings (Spoilers)

My game doesn’t follow the theme directly if you don’t count the ending. Which is really COOL. At least I think that way. There are 2 different endings which you’re supposed discover the second one after finishing the game once. (Seen those Rods in the crafting book? They are about the ending which is the reason you don’t have the Crystal Gem at the start.) I wish we had time for some illustrations for each one of the endings but game only has some text explaining what happens after you actions. But to give an idea of what’s gonna happen here is a character from the game.

Ain’t he cool!

In the end I did code the ending ang got the background music packed the game and uploded. I’m pretty happy about this one and I can see my improvement by comparing this game with older ones.
If you want to play the game, here is the link again.

Remedy of All

Its my first Ludum Dare and I have created a game called “Stone Age Rampage”.

Its a small game with good action and fun[atleast for me]!

Please try it out and give me tips and suggestions as comments, so that I can follow them in future.

I hope my game can get some appreciations too.

Check out the game here.

Tags: Age, Age Rampage, rampage, stone, stone age, Stone Age Rampage, Stone Rampage

Hey, all! As you know, we here at Tech Valley Game Space (TVGS) have been streaming ourselves playing Ludum Dare 36 games, but did you know we’ve been exporting our Ludum Dare 36 live stream into their own Youtube videos as well? Now you do! Check out this neat, always-up-to-date playlist below:

Our latest videos are:

• Khufu’s Delivery Service: Video, Game
• Warp Stone: Video, Game
• On fire: Video, Game
• Miky the Inuit: Video, Game
• Cave Escape: Video, Game

Well,

It was nice playing and participating in this LD.

I got lots of feedback about how I should improve my user indication and guidance, yet it seems that most people actually liked the soundtrack and thought it was the strongest point of my entry.

So if you want to, you can give it a listen through soundcloud and I now allowed downloading it, so feel free to use it in whatever project you want. =)

Hello again! It’s been a hectic week, but now I can finally breath and relax a bit.

If you haven’t been following, we haven’t really made a game and finished LD36 with only a “tech demo” of sorts.

HOWEVER! We will still play as many of your games as we possibly can, and still give you guys feedback, and of course – trophies!

You should give trophies out as well! Read up our small PSA to learn more (and even get some cool trophies Mati made):

Ludum Dare PSA – Feedback & Trophies

So yeah, we didn’t make a game in time, we didn’t beat the challenge, but we still had a ton of fun doing it – and that’s what’s important. I love my friends.

You can play what we made here! And a proper postmortem is coming soon as well, probably.

Until next time,

Lonebot

♥

Three years ago, I saw the Commodore 64 port of “Thunder Blade” and its top-down parallax.
For the Ludum Dare 31, I have tried raytraced shadows.
For the 35th, I have decided to mix both into a simple action game “The Infiltrator” that I did not manage to finish in time…

With this frustration in mind, I have participated to the 36th edition of the Ludum Dare and I now present…

“ALLAN”!

An action and adventure game in an almost 3D environment with shadows, darkness, shadows, blackness, and a little more shadows.
Made with only a few pixels, for lovers of old computers and old consoles and for curious people.

It is my 6th Ludum Dare, and I think this is the first time I wish to go one, to work and develop more my game.
I would love to create a bigger game on the same principles (with more items, monsters and puzzles, of course).
Maybe try the steam greenlight? I do not know

Please, play my game and tell me what do you think. : O
I hope you will enjoy it.

The Flight of Daedalus

When the theme was chosen, I was fairly disappointed with the theme. I think a lot of other people were too which makes me wonder who voted for it. I noticed after viewing a lot of posts and entries that many seemed to cling to their preferred theme instead of the theme chosen. Regardless, I stuck with the theme and kind of just went with the first thing to pop in to my head. I had watched a Greek mythology series in the past few months so Daedalus was in my mind. I decided I would do a bit of research on him and come up with some story for it.

I easily found the story of Daedalus and Icarus’ escape from King Minos which ends with the well known flying too high for Icarus and the ego of Daedalus costing him his son. I had an idea to make an action platformer that tells this tale.

The Good

I learned a few techniques during this LD that taught me more about pixel art in Unity and how to arrange them to prevent bleeding edges. I used a lot of the same code logic as I did for my past game controllers and that helped me avoid some easy time wasting bugs or research. I actually felt fairly confident through out the whole 48 hours that I would finish with at least something. I was definitely taxing myself trying to do everything I planned and also doing it well, but with so many great entries next to mine in the past I knew I had to try even harder.

The biggest win for me this LD is that I learned more about Tiled and Tiled2Unity. Being able to build a level and import it into Unity was something I struggled with in the past and having that tool open to me now I was able to make multiple levels instead of just 1. I also branched off from doing a repetitive arcade game, which honestly might be a worse choice for a short compo, but it is my own way of challenging myself in these compos. I don’t think I’ve done the same thing twice yet.

The Meh

I spent a super long time making sprites, then reworking the spritesheet, then reworking it again, and again, and again. I lost so much time fixing some of my prior mistakes that I had to cut out a lot of the features I had planned and many of them kind of important. I added in a health system that works similar to some old games where an item, like a heart, represents your health. But of course the enemy in my game wasn’t done being coded so it just stands there. I also managed to get a weapon coded but it’s just used for comedy or getting rid of bees, which do hurt you if you walk in to them. So, I mean if you die in my game it might come as a shock.

The Bad

I lost a lot of spirit towards the final hours of the compo. Instead of wanting to make a fun game, I just wanted to be done with it. I don’t plan on making any updates or fixes to the issues in my current submission. While I feel this ludum dare helped me grasp a few useful concepts and tools, I lost a bit of my motivation.

There are a couple bugs that I am aware of that involve the sound, and that is if you never go in to the sound menu the sound default never gets set. Meaning that I get comments telling me it would be better with sound, when in fact I made a track for each level. The game is technically “finished” but so much had to be cut that it’s kind of a shell. I had planned to add dialogue when you interact with something or reach key points in the game. I also planned on you killing birds to get the feathers you need to make your wings, robbing hives for their honey and wax, and sneaking into the storehouse using a guard’s key to get the rope you needed. Then once you made your wings you were to escape from the tower using the wings and avoid arrows and catapult boulders. I know I am capable of making that game a reality but I needed either more time or more hands.

If I decide to compete in the next ludum dare I think I will try to keep it simple again. One core mechanic, replayability, with a splash of humor. I did not have the active knowledge to build what I wanted in 48 hours, and so I was disheartened with the result.

I just released a Post-Jam version for my game thepyramid. In it you explore the depth of an egyptian pyramid, evade traps and other kinds of Ancient Technology and solve puzzles.

You can download it here:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-36/?action=preview&uid=33967

Changelog:

MAJOR:
– Incresed performance
– Increased size of player light making “realistic”-mode actually playable

MINOR:
– End-door actually emitts lights (It should have done so before. Just misnamed a file)
– Dust particles dis-/appear if you change to/from Bright setting
– (Hopefully) made the hint for one puzzle more clear
– Made Torch-flickering look less shitty
– Redid all text screens without anti-aliasing to look more like the menu
– End-screen no longer sometimes ends because of previous input
– Pressing Space or E now quits puzzle mode
– You no longer see the light of torches behind walls

Thanks to all the feed back I was able to polish up my game this week.  A link to the post jam version is below Added working gamepad controls(I solved the “Game Maker Effect”) LOL.  A charged shot.  AI for the spiders fixed. So is there animation. Score drifting away fixed. Last but not least the title screen that hurt everyone’s eyes is fix LOL. You can even press start on your controller to progress past it. I also added a scope like effect and more music/sound effects. Thanks you everyone who helped me make Bobby Bow a better game. Please play and rate on Game Jolt.

http://gamejolt.com/games/bobby-bow/183835

Special Thanks To:

@Vegevan @Jonpul @Decentsauce @wheerd @JustASHadow @MrBrenan @Nnnnneeeedddd

@Senor Salty @Geckoo1337 @Tackwin @Aaranos @adaFish @johnasebok @Wicked7000

@sorlok  @purgatory @nervous.composers @IshikawaNakamura @metalhaze @Casevse

@simple_blue @MrErdalUral @frix360 @Xinelu @moobchunks @Hackingroelz @ramoncb

In the Quest for Domination of the Skies in an Ancient Neon Space battle, the Kawaii Fish is king. Just don’t trip over any old ladies while you rush along in your Steam Powered Strider Mech.

Neon of Ancient

KMF

Spectacular Stride Machine

Miss out on the first episode? Watch the LDL 36 Playlist. 

Got a game to Submit? Then use this handy dandy Google Form! It’s fancy!

Hi!

I’m just posting a shorter version of my entry’s post-mortem, since I just typed up a longer version of it on my dev blog, here.

I didn’t really expect to finish my entry for this 36th jam, even with my poor planning, but I suprisingly did, unfortunately with many features cut out.

Because I had to cut out a lot of features, the gameplay was not very good, as pointed out by other people here who played it.

As far as a story for the game went, I didn’t put too much time into it, since the gameplay and graphics will strongly overshadow it. It was kept to a very minimum.

I was most proud of the game’s graphics, since it fared better than the other parts of the game. I also had the most fun creating the sprites and stuff.

As a first LD jam entry, I felt that it wasn’t bad at all, despite the lackluster gameplay. If this is a game that you guys would like to be developed further, post LD, it’d be great to hear your thoughts. If you haven’t played Glutenburg yet, check out my entry here.

Till next jam.

-E

Tags: gamedev, glutenburg, LD36, Ludumdare, postmortem

I was bored, and learning a new video editor, so I decided to make a little trailer for my game. It’s super cheesy, just the way it should be. 😉

This is my 7th LDjam, I decided to make a challenge for my prototyping efficiency.

And here I made a RPG game for this jam, with minimal narrative / control / event / battle.

Stayed up whole night on last day, cut many extra features, pushed to the last minute, and finally finished this little game.

Hope you would have some fun time with that

[START ADVENTURE]

This was my first game jam and I was super excited. Didn’t do very well sadly because the games full of glitches no sound and only one level. Other than that I feel pretty good about how I did.

I think the problem with the way I did the jam was that I didn’t have a good idea of the game I wanted to make going into it. Plus I was garbage at managing my time so I ended up rushing. I did gain some good knowledge about how to succeed in a 48 hour game jam and Im excited for the next one.

You can check out my game Here

You can only vote the very first week after the Dare?  I forgot and was so busy that I… er… waited til this weekend to vote.  :/  EDIT:  Never mind.  I figured it out!  But here’s the game anyway.

So!  Here’s my game?  Leave a comment if you feel like.  I’m teasing all you Jukebox lovers.

gwbloom.com/dev/games/ludum/ludum36/

If you want to play an easy to learn, hard to master Game. Then why not ours.

You have your own blacksmith and has to earn as much money as you can.
Try it out and complete the hardests blueprint in the game.

Have Fun

Ancient Weapon Smith Technique

Just wanted to let you know that the post jam version of Free Afternoon in available on newgrounds.

This is basically the same game as the original (I wasn’t much motivated by adding any more levels to it…) with the walkman level improved visually (slightly better graphics and animations added). I made the level in an hour or so during the jam so it really needed improvement.
There are also several medals implemented if you like this sort of thing.

Link to the LD entry.

Free Afternoon

I’m the top of the pyramid! Woohoo!!!!

Did you find your game yet?

http://williame.github.io/LD/Mosaic/index.html?ld=36&img=pyramids1.all.kuhn-munkres&tw=48&th=32

Also check out my game ON FIRE here or on itch.io

Play Mead Boy here