My entry for LowPoly Daily with the theme: Magic Wand. Youtube process with fbx files (link included in the youtube video’s description).
Since the theme is about magic wands, Im trying to make the magic wand item in Dota 2. Not too close though but I think the structure is the same. I think I just need to add halo though but I got tired.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWfx3JrBWGw
My entry for LowPoly Daily with the theme: Fireworks. Youtube process with fbx files (link included in the youtube video’s description).
I made the fireworks look like my logo. I found some quick tutorials in the net where I learned this keyed animation of particles. It turned out great and I am so proud of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEFv2bRpk-s
It's time to start counting down to Ludum Dare 39! The event kicks off earlier, on July 28th (or the 29th depending on your timezone), instead of in August as usual. This isn't a permanent change, just the best compromise to avoid conflicts with an August packed with major industry and related events.
Theme Suggestions are now open. Go make yours now!
This event will be a standard Ludum Dare event.
Thanks the adjusted schedule, there hasn't been as much time between events (a bit over a month). I had planned to check-off a list of major features beforehand, but between GDC, launching the site, and 15th anniversary stuff (some of it didn't work out, other things had to be aborted), frankly I pushed myself too far. Oops! :sweat_smile:
So going in to Ludum Dare 39, I'm not promising any big new features, just a smoother experience (*cough*, which I'll admit isn't saying much).
For my health I'll be forcing myself to move to a more normal schedule, instead of the death-crunches I pushed on myself these past few events. That means I'm not going to have enough time to do everything I want, but I'm hoping that means I'm left less broken after. Heh, news to me: full-time projects need to be both financially and mentally sustainable. :wink:
That's it for now. Go make your Suggestions, and come back next week to help us decide the theme!
I got quite a lot of :heart: yesterday on my post for showing the differences between my LD38 compo entry HexCity and my Android game Hexpert.
Today I decided I'll get a bit more technical (not too much :wink:) with the design decisions and the problems I've encountered while making my first game for Android.
If you've played HexCity, you know the game is hard to understand and the game itself is very hard to play. It's a puzzle that really makes you think a lot of moves in advance and it's very hard on new players.
I already knew I was going to implement multiple levels, so it was very important that my first three levels were designed in a perfect way. The player had to get a grasp of the core mechanics without the need of an external video or a wall of text (Please never do this to your game).
In HexCity, my compo entry, the learning was done like this :
Hexpert uses a lot of small things, that together, teaches the player how to play! My game actually has a textual tutorial, but even if the player skips it, he will still be taught on how to play
Let's take a look on how I did that!
When you go in the first level you will get this screen (without the red highlight :sweat_smile:)
This is my textual tutorial, it doesn't matter if the player reads it or not, but it will help if he does.
The fact that the house is cut in half (shown by the red highlight) shows that the player can scroll down and read the rest that didn't fit in.
But let's assume the player just doesn't care and pressed OK without reading.
The player will see the content of the screenshot above. If you played HexCity, you will notice that there's no score, there's only the standard grass tile and the only available buildings are the farm, house, mine, wind turbine and factory. The first level removed useless complexities that will be introduced later.
The player will see the objective next to a shiny gold medal Build 1 factory. Now it is very likely that the player tries to place a factory (if he did not read the tutorial) By doing so he will click on the factory.
On the top of the screen the building requirements are written, he will see that he does not have the required buildings. If he actually tries to place it, an "X" will briefly appear with a sound that gives feedback that it's an invalid move.
The player will see the formula : Factory = House + Wind + Mine. It will be very likely that the player tries to build the house first, since it is first in the equation.
The house only needs a farm. The only tile you can place it is highlighted. This is not only to show the valid move, but it also teaches the player that the tile must be adjacent. A few players were confused in HexCity, because they didn't understand the fact that the buildings needed requirements that needed to be next to each other instead of being placed on the map somewhere.
Once the building is placed, the player will most likely try to place the two missing buildings : The mine and the wind turbine, which both only require a house.
Now he places his factory and has completed the first level of Hexpert!
Hexpert introduced a remove option, by clicking on the bulldozer, you can remove the buildings not used to construct others.
You can't remove the house, because the two mines and the wind turbine need it! You can't remove the farm either, since it's part of the level!
That was the first level!
Time to get into the next two levels. Note that the first level used a fork formation. You had a farm and house being the long part of the fork and you had the mine and wind turbine being the pointy parts that allowed the factory. In the next two level, we will reuse this fork formation that the player is already familiar with.
When entering level two we are prompted with the new building : A market!
Now let's get an actual look at the level :
Doesn't the level look familiar? It is basically the fork formation turned 45 degrees left with a bit added! :smile:
The player, already familiar with the fork formation is very likely to start like this screenshot above. Note that the fork formation is absolutely not the only way to make a factory, but it's definitely a decent way of playing that will help the player later on. In HexCity, some players really struggled to make factories, some had 3 houses to build it! By the way the subreddit /r/Hexpert is available to post Hexpert related strategies. The subreddit has no activity, because this is the first place I post it :smile:.
Let's finish level 2 now :
Once the factory is placed, the only tile left finishes the level with the placement of the market. The player also realizes that he can use the same wind turbine for the factory and the market. Another strategy that the player is taught here.
Level 3 is quite similar to level 2 :
The bank is introduced to the player, the first building with four requirements!
We have again the fork formation preceding a market. The player already understand that you can use the same wind turbine for multiple buildings. Once again, the level is not really hard, you can place the bank at the last tile and finish it!
The first three levels are done and the player knows how to place buildings even if he did not read the tutorial!
Heya,
I'd rather work with someone else this time around, find details at https://t.co/R1LWC5KkXb
Heya, gonna post again because I posted this yesterday at like 3am which isn't the targeted timezone i'd like. So I'm looking for an artist or something to jam with, would rather not do it solo this time around. This would be my 5th? ludum, I think 5th ye
more details at https://crowdforge.io/jams/ludumdare/teams/101
Let's do this again!
Basically, I have to study instead. I would love to be in but I just can't. But hey, who knows maybe I'll change my mind at the last second. Anyways, have fun! I might find time to play some of your games later though.
This is going to be my second Ludum Dare game jam in a row. This time I want to play a lot more submissions at the end so I can actually get a score at the end. I also want to do a timelapse and post updates on my twitter Software: Gamemaker 2, Paint.net, BFXR, ZDoctor on Musescore 2 and Audacity.
Good luck everyone!
Hi.
I'll use Unity2017 as usual, Paint.NET/Krita and try to make an awesome game this weekend! I may stream on twitch too.
Check out http://nek0las.xyz to see if I'm streaming (and read my recently drawn comics)
If you want to talk about LD, do not hesitate to reach me @nek0las on twitter :)
Have fun coding you all!
Before I begin, I just want to say that I LOVE Ludum Dare! I have done 11 LDs, but I will not be participating this weekend due to other plans.
This will be my 8th time sharing these tips, but each LD I revise them and (try to) add a couple of new things to the list. These tips are just from my experience, so feel free to disagree.
On the day of the event, (in no particular order) get lots of sleep and take a shower. I recommend showering right before the time hits because personally I don’t like wasting my time showering during a game jam. I know it sounds kind of funny, but you want as much time as possible to work on your game. Also, sleep is really important too because you’re not going to get a lot of sleep during the weekend. Personally, I like sleeping 4-5 hours on both dev days, giving me a total of 8-10 hours of sleep during the weekend.
Buy some snacks, like right now! Buy super unhealthy snacks!-- Although if you can prepare healthy meals before the event, you should probably do so. I wouldn’t go cooking a full-blown meal during the jam if I were you, but I'm not you so you can do whatever you'd like. You'd be surprised how long you can last without food, but regardless you should eat. Stay up as long as possible. If you have difficulty staying up, have others around to talk to, drink caffeinated beverages, and don’t get too comfortable where you’re sitting because you don’t want to fall asleep. Most people say to cook healthy meals but since I'm more of a Hardcore All I Care About is This Game I'm Going to Make kind of Ludum Darer, I don't care about what I eat, if I eat at all, because I'm stuck in the LD Zone.
If you don’t finish making a game, DON’T WORRY because you’re not alone!
GAMEPLAY is important! Yes, pretty Graphics are nice, good Music is even nicer, but you need Gameplay. Graphics, Music, and other things definitely improve your game, but you only have 48-72 hours to create something. Shoot for the gameplay. The first thing you should do with your game is to create the core mechanics. Make all the Graphics rectangles, and forget about the Sound for now. You don’t even need to turn in your entry with fancy menus. Sure, on the last day you can change the graphics, but earlier on just focus on the Gameplay.
Now this is just my opinion, you can do whatever you want. And if you’re going to make a narrative game or a game that’s just about the visuals, then just ignore what I just said about the Gameplay being the key. I'm just a Gameplay kind of guy.
THEME is important. THEME is not important. It all depends on who you are. If you can think of an idea for a game revolving around the theme in a few hours, awesome, but if you can’t, I would just start making a game that I have been wanting to make and then incorporate the theme down the road; or sometimes I just wouldn’t incorporate the theme at all. After the Compo/Jam is over, you receive ratings on multiple categories, and there is only one Theme Category so if you didn’t care about the theme, no big deal. (If you don’t incorporate the theme into your game, I recommend opting out of the Theme Category.)
Once again, do whatever you want; this is just my recommendation. Some people like to take their time to come up with an idea for a game, and that’s okay, I just recommend getting that out of the way fast. I just see LD as a great opportunity to make prototypes really fast.
If you haven’t completely finished your game (which is probably the case), try to finish/polish it even though your entry is already in. When you’re done with that, add the link to the Post Compo/Jam version of your game next to the 48/72 hr version so that people can play both of them. It’ll make you proud and make you feel better about yourself. And if you really like how your game is looking, continue development and try putting it on Steam, because why not?!
RATE GAMES! Rate as many games as you possibly can, and give everyone a comment! Comments help because some people will look at their comments and click on your name to see your game (also it’s just a really nice thing to leave a comment). If you don’t rate any games then just about no one will see your game, so…
Be on the lookout for Mike's Dare to Play post where Streamers and YouTubers leave links for you to submit your game to them. Look at this page everyday and keep an eye out for google doc links and email addresses! And don't be afraid to hop in on a Twitch Stream. You can watch people play Ludum Dare entries and you could leave a link to yours in the chat. Watching somebody play your game is a really fun experience!
What I do
I usually work on the core mechanics for the game first, and then make some music for it so it plays better. I personally think the graphics should go last.
That is just about all I have to say. And once again, these are just my recommendations, so feel free to do whatever you want!
My laptop's hard drive died recently and is currently getting fixed. I managed to get access to another laptop for the event. I was also able to save my important files from my laptop's hard drive(including my game engine). The computer I'm working with has about 10MB of memory left after installing python, pygame, and cx_freeze, so I'll be working mostly on a flash drive. It also has 2 GB of RAM, so this is gonna be tricky to work with. Still glad I can enter though! This is my 5th Ludum Dare. I haven't missed a single one and I didn't plan on missing this one. :smile:
What I'm using: - MS Paint or Px Editor(a pixel art tool I made for my raspberry pi) - Python - Pygame - SFXR or the mysterious place of outside(not sure if you guys have heard of this, but it's a great way to get audio) - Beepbox.co(pretty much my only option for music) - A cheap laptop I got my hands on
I almost ended up entering the LD on my raspberry pi. heh
Look at mah twooter!
The create post button is missing for some reason, so I wrote this post by editing an old un-published draft. xD
lets make something!
using SDL.net, I made a lil library that I'll be trying to expand and use to make something. I'll use Aseprite for sprites. Dunno about sounds. Maybe I'll record something? idk
I'm still working on my game of the last jam over here which I hope to release very soon.
I'm currently adding options for atmosphere settings. There are now well over 200 settings including solar system generation, gameplay settings, physics and lots of visual settings like this.
All these settings are also used for randomizing everything on the press of a button so every game can be completely new generated. But you can also unlock all the different settings for you to tweak and save as your own custom presets. You can shoot projectiles the size of planets or create massive destructive shockwaves or make the goal to be destroy the most or shoot projectiles that bounce off the planets Peggle style or be on a moon orbiting your planet... there is lots that mixes things up.
In case you never heard of Dots In Space, it is basically shooting whole solar system to pieces while trying to destroy your opponents planet, it share a good amount of resemblance to the Worms games but here you have to take the gravity of the planets and sun in account and if you are not careful your projectiles might come right back to you. Here is the old jam page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/dots-in-space
Here is how that looks: https://twitter.com/TocoGamescom/status/878617166068817920
Another LD? Another LD! :D
Hi, all you lovely LD jammers out there! :)
Last jam was a disaster, I didn't have the time, and the game ended up not even being a game.. :/ This time the jam falls on my birthday, so a good chunk of the time will be spend enjoying the company of friends. :D Should I join and aim for a very, very small game, or just let it go?
I want to join! I missed so many LD jams, it just feels like there is always something getting in the way.
Maybe, maybe..
Help me decide
My fifth LD so far. Hope the theme won't suck.
Our room setup is finished.
Have a look:
And yeah its the first book (in german) of "Song of fire and ice".
Decided last minute to participate in the game jam! Because after 1.5 years of game dev, I'm still a baddie and need more practice.
Will be using: -Unity 2D -Aseprite -Famitracker -BFXR -Google -Time -Computer -Soul
Send me your love. (or a teammate or two. thanks.)