Do you want to kill rats for getting keys? Well, if you play our game you have to kill those cute rats in order to escape the waste press. Good luck and please rate'n'comment if you played it.

Stack Master is a stack stacking game, make as many points as you can, come and test Hardcore mode where only the strong survive, we did our best, we hope you have fun.

Stack Master é um jogo de empilhar coisas, faça o maximo de pontos que conseguir, venha testar o modo Hardcore onde só os fortes sobrevivem, fizemos nosso melhor esperamos que se divirtem.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/stack-master

You may think I'm crazy, and you're right. i'd done a lot of game jam in the past (like 30/40) and generally I'm only doing like 3 projects at the same time. But this time i tried to go beyond my limit. (Like Son Goku, but without blond hair)

So, what's my project and I've done on every project ? ## That's a good question billy !

First, little presentation : I'm Aurélien Montero and I'm a composer & a Sound-designer (or "The sound guy" for those in the know). So on all the project I have created the music and the SFX.

Dumpotopia

You control Poiskaï, a cute little creature with fantastic powers, who's pursued by the evil Pabo. To escape this ugly fish, Poiskaï enters Dumpotopia, the Garbage's Kingdom. Help Poiskaï to runaway Pabo, but be careful of all the dangers under the surface.

For this project it's mainly some ambient orchestral with three music (including one boss music !)

Play it here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/dumpotopia

Choose Them Up

Choose Them Up is a small Shoot 'em up where you need to reach the highest stage and deafeat the boss.​
To improve your spaceship, you can loot upgrades on enemies, but be careful, if your inventory is full, ​to equipe one, you need to destroy two already equiped.
In normal mode, you gain one more slot for upgrade per stage. Not in hardcore.

Here's you will have some chiptunes/electro track !

Play it here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/choose-them-up

Brick It

Do you feel your blood being pumped up by looking at this testosterone-packed mini-adventure? Then Brick It! is for you! Your life will eventually be forfeit. How long can you last until those 4 ugly and menacing turrets kill you? Try to stand up and put up a last struggle. The show is yours (and maybe the high score?).

Some Synthwave music is waiting for you in this game ! :D

Play it here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/brick-it

Home

You are the captain of a cargo named LD-42. You running out of space. Your loads are Humans (alive). Your mission, deport them (every where you want), and go home. Good Luck !

If you like ambient music, check it out ;)

Play it here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/home-1

The Last floe

The end of the world is near, while last animals on earth find refuge on the North Pole, you are sent by an intergalactic organization for a special mission called “Noah’s Ark”. Your goal: save as much animal couples as you can before the terrible “Orange Face” shots you with his giant lasers, or finish to destroy the last floe…

If you like funny game, check it out it's really hilarious !

Play it here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/the-last-floe

Hope you will enjoy what's you will play and listen ! :)

See you ! :D

(and yeah I like Dragon Ball)

Hello!

I just wanted to share some more death animations (and the run cycle), because sharing is loving and loving is lovely. ,,, , ,

I tried to put them all in the same line but I have no idea how to do that lol.

Anyway, this is our game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/ode-to-resilience

If you don't, it is totally fine. Have you tried our game yet? If not, You should definitely try. We will be more than glad to hear your feedback!

our LD game is being played live at Gamescom, the biggest trade fair show for games in Europe!

Play too rainforest, Inc. here!

Thanks a lot to everyone, our team really appreciate !

Come try our game if you have not already :) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/loneliness

Blocks is currently at 96 ratings! Help it reach 100: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/blocks (web based) I'll be sure to rate those people's games who play and leave a comment on mine. And a HUGE thank you to everyone who played :smile:

Check it out and drop me some feedback!

Leave your submission in the comments and I'll play!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/we-need-space

Hello :) I’d like to present my submission : No Destination - a science-fiction management game, in which you control an increasingly small spacecraft, and shoot off asteroids !

Here’s the link if you want to try it : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/no-destination

I’d be honored to receive your ratings and feedback !! Have a great day :)

im still in the danger zone i swear my game is fun

Thanks to lots of amazing feedback we've released version 1.1 of our game, Legacy!

It includes several bug fixes, QoL improvements and the difficulty curve is smoother now. It's still difficult though - even if there's no "game over" in a normal sense, finishing with all the items collected would pose quite a challenge.

One of our main goals this time around was creating a world of respectable size for a jam game. Here's how it looks:

Do you think we succeeded or should we go bigger next time to fulfill such a goal?

Oh, and now we've got a macOS version as well, so come check it out if you couldn't before!

Play Legacy.

* Audio is definately not my strong point. I played soo many games with great audio and I want to know the tools you use - so that I can experiment and up my audio game. *

I've recorded some gif of gameplay to encourage you to try it!

Humble link to the game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/running-from-space

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/get-to-the-airlock We've already received some great feedback from you all, but we could always use more! We plan to finish this game and release a full version of it, so thoughts, feedback, ideas are all welcome! Thanks!

A video from when we were developing the game: https://youtu.be/MkVduRbMAAY

@Irhileth and I will be play-rating games for a couple of hours! Please leave your link below, if you want some feedback :blush:

Don't forget to play-rate our game as well!! Feedback, ideas, thoughts! We are all in for those

I will be playing and rating games today. Link you game in the comments and I'll play.

Also check my game Bus Stop Blast. Play as a bus driver who brings kids to school in a bus that keeps getting smaller!

Toss virtual dishes, and land them on the table to score points. It will make you feel better, and it's cheaper than throwing actual dishes.

KILL THEM NOW

Help my game reach 50 ratings.

Hey there! I want to talk to you about the way we designed the narrative and the texts in Take Care of Her. If you haven’t played it, you can click here to play it!

So I won’t go spoiler-heavy, but will merely tell you how we designed the narrative sequence of the game, and how we tried to work on certain aspects of the game to make the reader or player feel moved and engaged in our game.

My main inspiration for this work was as much from books as from games. First, the French writer Annie Ernaux, that you may know for her autobiographic work about her life and her will to write. She creates room in her text thus the reader can easily project themselves in these holes, filling it with their experience and point of view. From games, I mainly got the inspiration from narrative-heavy games such as Firewatch, which frames characters and events by very little amount of text!

What we really tried with Take Care of Her was to create a character, Daniel, who had a unique life, yet you could easily identify with him on many levels. We wanted the player to feel like each fragment of memory was a part of Daniel’s life, but could also be a part of their own life. Here are several ways we used for this :

• Most of the memories about Daniel depicts a peculiar moment of his life, but most of us already lived what he lived (last day of school, looking at stars with friends, attending a wedding…), thus we can easily relate to the event with our own experience and the symbolic meaning we gave it.

• Text is written with an emphasis on senses and how Daniel “feels” the world: it mentions several colors, several smells and feelings, like being in a crowd or smelling sweating bodies in a party. Also, there are a lot of mentions about the body and its condition: being hot (and you are probably quite hot because of this bloody summer :D), being in bad health state, being sweaty and moist. What we want is for the reader to “feel” the text. If it works, they can more easily connect with it and the sensations that are expressed.

Thus, each choice that the game offers to the player are getting harder and harder. In the end there is only one choice : am I building Daniel, or am I wishing I could live again these memories I have and erase some of them ?

Thanks you for reading this! And, please, Take Care of Her

• Lucas

If you've got some time I'd really appreciate it if you'd play my prototype game. You can find it here.
I've had some positive feedback on it so far and I'm excited to see what you think!

You diserve some adventures !!!

Based on all your awesome feedback, and all the things I didn't have time to add, there's an actually pretty fun version of my game!

Play it here: https://boopsgames.itch.io/the-gargoyle-landing-post-ld

Hey guys, We just ported our game as a HTML5 game and provided the link on the games page. So, Please go, play, rate and leave feedback on our game & we'll do the same for u. Here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/void-productions

Leave the link of ur game in the comments and i'll definitely rate them.

Post-jam update for High Castle is live! Special thanks to all the great feedback I've gotten so far! The addition of easy and hard mode let players of all sorts actually get to see the end-game screen, and the enhanced tutorial plus mechanics simplification really bring the experience together!

Grab High Castle post-jam version here!

If you haven't played the LD42 compo entry version of High Castle and you'd like to, check it out here! All feedback is greatly appreciated, don't hold back! I try to reciprocate and play your game when you leave a comment on mine!

There's plenty of interesting things to talk about in regard to our game CYBATRON. There's mistakes we made and a large number of improvements we could still implement post-jam to have the game explain itself much better. None of the humorous content we had been thinking of even made it into the game.

But I am not going to talk about any of those actually interesting things, I'm gonna talk about the graphics.

A Change in Art Direction

Ludum Dare 42 was a little different for us, visually. Our previous entries are generally x2 or x3 scaled pixelart. Even if they weren’t scaled up, it was still quite clearly pixelart. This time, @daanvanyperen asked me at one point: “Why don’t you try something like your digital paintings?” All right, out of the comfort zone we go! (In regard to game art, anyway.)

As I got started on the graphics, I figured I'd start clean and eventually get to painting over things, but I quickly realized I quite enjoyed the clean style. I only ended up using my Wacom tablet for quick little sketches of buildings to figure out the general design of things.

(I lost a few sketches when I neglected to save the file, so I don't actually have any left that look like the assets I ended up making. D'oh!)

Cyberpunk: It's All The Rage Right Now

80's music, a new Bladerunner, Cyberpunk 2077, the current fad of neon magenta and cyan lighting... Cyberpunk seemed a pretty obvious pick. We'd also brainstormed past Kowloon Walled City, which is where the height of my building assets came from at least. There was more cyberpunk that we wanted to include originally. Tiles that merge together with cables and wires connecting them, etc. In the end, we ran out of time for that.

The Good

I think we achieved a high level of polish for our game. I had taken the monday off from work (first time I did that for a Ludum Dare) while @daanvanyperen did have to go to work (probably also a first time) so I had 8 to 10 hours of doodling extra. I had consciously postponed work on some assets so I could spend the monday doing those, and the extra time paid off.

The game also has a fairly uniform style to it. I tried to art direct myself by shooting down ideas that, while they might look nice on their own, would not fit with the rest of the game. That internal direction worked 90% of the time.

The Bad and The Ugly

There are a bunch of things, graphically, that could do with improvements. Some of might be nitpicking, but I do indeed pick nits.

1. Go Away, Escher

The height of the blocks causing an optical illusion that a block closer to the foreground looks like it's below the other blocks. Reducing the height of the blocks should probably do the trick.

2. Ticks Are Off The Mark

The tick mark on the resource icons hovering over the buildings when they are active does not fit the style of the game. A five minute fix, but it didn't stand out to me until after the jam ended.

3. I Cast Magic Missile, Not Shadow

A more uniform use of shadows. The buildings draw shadows on the tile below, but not on themselves in a bunch of sprites. The casino in the image below was the last building sprite I made ion the last day of the jam; I got careless.

4. Anchor What?!

We have a tile that doesn't allow blocks to be moved away from it. It started with reinforced edges. That didn't look good. Then I reiterated and reiterated. I reached a point where more time spent on it just wasn't worth it. We needed a quick symbol fix. Either a lock or an anchor? Those don't seem very cyberpunky. I clearly saw the anchor in my mind, I went for it. Don't judge me.

5. A Farmtastic Failure

Yes. Yes, that is a farm. It really is. It supplies food to the residential buildings, enabling the population to live there. It started as a regular greenhouse; that looked too present-day. Then it turned into a hazy cylindrical glass chamber; cylindrical did not suit the angular style of the game. @daanvanyperen asked for a biodome, but round shapes still don't suit the style. Righto, some green-tinted glass boxes it is.

6. Where's The Cyber, Punk?

This is probably my biggest gripe with the graphics I ended up making. It may be kind-of reminiscent of cyberpunk, but it definitely doesn't scream cyberpunk. As I mentioned above, there was more we wanted to do with it, and as a result our game merely became cyberpunkish. It's a good thing we put it in the name of the game.

In Conclusion...

We ended up with a pretty good looking game that could have looked better. But of course, the could look better part is always true in a game jam. While I directed my art well, there's more details to keep in mind that I neglected. Step back and try to be objective.

If you made it this far down, thanks for reading. There will be a graphics timelapse video somewhere in the next few weeks. If you like these kinds of things, keep an eye on my YouTube or Twitter.

For the ones having issues with the physics, dumb me forgot to put physics stuff in FixedUpdate, so now it is fixed. Please let me know if you have further issues..

Also thanks a lot to everyone who played, rated and commented! And for people who have not played it yet, give it a try! I'd love to hear your thoughts:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/stuck

If you are in love with space (I mean space space like black holes, vacuum, deadly radiation and so on) and like fiddling around with hard games then try https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacesorter and rate it. Leave a comment with a link to your game and I will rate it as well.

As the title says I have now given 50 rating and received 50, if there are any HTML5 games people really enjoyed please share and I will happily rate. I am trying to get to 100 ratings given and 100 ratings received. Yeah asking a lot for my first Ludum Dare.

Play this game! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/knighttime

Heyoo, our survival space shrinking game will definitly satisfy you. I hope you have a blast. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/relentless-siberia

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/demon-space

evil robots from some other dimension.
The robots try to kill you by cutting the surface

special ability to cut into their energy beam

Noooooo!

play the game here =)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/nooooo

My game has almost 60 ratings 😍 many thanks to everyone who's rated and given me feedback 😁 I'm slowly working my way through all your games but I don't have much time for it 😅

It's our second Ludum Dare and we had a lot of fun creating "No Space In My Stomach" — a puzzle platformer game about the extraterrestrial snail Stewart. Help us to get 100 rates! In return, I will play and rate ALL HTML5 games from comments under this post and under our game.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/no-space-in-my-stomach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7WfU53GP1o

Please help "The Sword in the Darkness!" You can now play it online.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/the-sword-in-the-darkness

I just realised that at some point, I accidentally changed the link on my game page back to an unfinished backup from some point over the LD weekend. So a good number of the people who played my game were playing a broken unfinished version :cry: I'm an idiot and it was my own fault.

I have corrected it now (just the link, not done any more work on the game). So if anyone wants to help out an idiot, maybe give the correct version a try here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/evercloud

Delete each and every one of the downloaded files, before these become hidden in the folders.

Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/cluster

For those who have not played yet https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/anstorm

My game was unfinished, but my post LD version has a few more levels. Try it if you like! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/growth-rates-ld-42

Hey guys!

Did you play Dark plague? I need some votes to reach the minimun of 20. You can give me some feedback if you want :)

It's a bit challenging ^^

You can play and rate it here

Here is the post-jam version of RunnINN out of space, a tetris-like inventory management game with a JRPG combat system :

Added features:

The guest now stays for multiple days at your inn, choose who can stay wisely ! Weaker characters will occupy a bed longer without providing enough manpower to defend your inn from monsters !

Permanent units for your party. These units will cost a lot more gold, but they will stay in your party until they are defeated by monsters !

New heroes, new shapes, new items ...and new monsters :D

Live now on * *Twitch Adding a Hero & Shape Editor :D

Play & Rate here !

If you like the game and would like to stay updated, follow me on Twitter

This is the second compo I've entered, and the first 3D game I've finished (yay!). It's inspired by the second Death Star trench run, so if you're into dodging deadly stuff in confined spaces then this game is for you!

I had a really great time making this, and honestly am pretty happy with how it turned out, especially given it's a compo game. That said, future changes will probably include some improvements to the controls, a couple UI changes, and hopefully more levels and music.

Please give it a play and let me know what you think and wanna see in a future version!

Please check out my Postman simulation game, its a mix of Tetris and Papers please! if you do, I will play and rate your games back!

Get the game!

When the theme landed, it was another case of "I can't believe this was the winning theme ughhhh".

I had a few game ideas in mind - such as a collapsing land of tiles, a roguelike where tiles kept falling off where you walked and if you fell off you'd get to the next level, walls closing in on you, a shrinking table with items falling off, and a space fitting puzzle where you'd put dancers on stage while hoping they don't bump into each other.

However I had given myself a rule this time: Make a 2D entry - to make it easier for me to complete the game within the compo period without losing much sleep. Even better yet, go with something minimalistic!

I kept gravitating towards the idea in the game of Hundreds, which is a minimalist game on iOS around expanding spheres while making sure that they don't collide. And then thought - why not place a twinstick shooter inside it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM0Vo7neVpw

I also analysed the game of THOTH, which is a minimalist twinstick shooter for some inspiration. I liked its slow introduction of the various mechanics and subsequent subversion, keeping the gameplay fresh. In particular, the creepy mechanical sound effects, the ambient soundscape and the shooting sound which was rather clear but unobtrusive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg4Z8Szhp5o

The choice of going minimalistic and 2D was a real significant move, as I had finished the core mechanic of my game on day 1, and had much more time to add mechanics, apply polish, add stages and even compose a BGM from scratch for my entry this time (although it is kind of a crappy ambient piece!). I still lost some sleep, but kept my sanity.

Here is a trailer for my game, and you can clearly see where I was ~~stealing ideas~~ getting inspiration from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7V2nCTc4MI

Check out the game here!

:whitecheckmark: :ballot_box: I made it to over 20 votes! (Ok, hardly a "flood" of votes...) Thank you all who played Deluge of Doom and voted -- and a special thanks to those who left constructive comments.

In honor of no longer needing votes, here is a link to the post-compo version of my game which has improved artwork, animation, and bug fixes :arrow_right: http://deathraygames.com/play-online/deluge-of-doom/ (playable right in the browser on a desktop)

Of course I'd still love more votes and comments, so you can find the entry and the relevant links here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/deluge-of-doom

Hey, please check out our game!

Game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/running-from-space

After one rejection apple finally approves my game.

Post Jam Versions are now available in the AppStore and on Google Play!

Hey LD jammers!

If you're looking for a post-LD game jam, I'm hosting the 2nd annual Music Game Jam from Sep 1-15 (250+ signups!), where you can make any music/audio-themed game you want in two weeks!

Last year's games included music-based tower defense, pitch-controlling platforming, and guitar shop management, and you could make anything from a game for the blind to a music horror game!

There'll also be ~$200 in game prizes! :video_game:

PLUS we've organised >30 YouTubers and streamers to play your entries and give you great feedback!

And all participants will get a free unlimited asset license for the Wwise game audio software!

🔊🎶 Join Music Game Jam ->

You can also join our Game Jammer Discord community and follow MusicGameJam!

PS: if you are a YouTuber / streamer interested in playing the entries from the jam, I can add you to a list on the jam page! (comment below or message me on Twitter / Discord)

Hey there everyone psst come here.. I got an awesome game for you. You like survival games with snow blocking off everything restricting you from moving well ur at the right place. Hope you bave a blast. Have fun! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/relentless-siberia

nothing

Leave your web games below, and I'll rate them!

It would be great if you could rate mine too: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/blocks :smile:

Hey mess around with the pitch guys https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/beater

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/beater

Here's a recording of my sequencer playing the Runnink out of Space soundtrack!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DumYSU9i3o4

The making of Runnink out of Space's music

This is the first time I've entered Ludum Dare strictly as a musician, which was an exciting change. I knew working with the talented @Aurel300 would be a breeze, and the challenge of making Amiga-sounding music was quite attractive.

I'm used to making more modern elecronic music, so while I wanted to make the music sound retro, I wasn't comfortable going with true vintage software like a music tracker. Instead I stuck with my software of choice (Propellerhead Reason), and tried to study some Amiga game music, eventually looking for samples, instruments & production tricks that could help get a fitting feel. I eventually found this public domain Amiga sample pack which was of great use, as ~90% of the music ended up built out of samples from it.

The first hours of production turned out a bit frustrating, if only because my LD participation was quite improvised and I had no keyboard, no quality headphones, just a small netbook with cheap earplugs to work with. Brainstorming melodies and other ideas was difficult in the beginning, but I eventually figured out a base that conveyed a fitting atmosphere for our "quirky puzzle game in space". Eventually I got hooked into the work and forgot my hardware limitations :)

In the end the main theme is... not exactly what I pictured it would be! In particular it's less ambient that I aimed for, but this wasn't a big issue. The overall retro sound feels also less "authentic" than I hoped for. But overall, I still feel the track is good, catchy, and not too repetitive. It also seems to do its job of helping set the mood of the game.

So this was a great experience overall, and one which grew even more my curiosity for retro music and chiptunes.

We've finally done it!

We've got a post jam version with some minor updates but the major thing is it now supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and HTML builds.

We want everybody to be able to try it out if they want to.

Click here to try it out!

Its a diamond in the rough but there are some pretty fun scenarios to try out. You travel through space and save money to buy new parts so you don't end up dead. You eventually run out of space for new parts and have to prioritize what parts to keep.

It isn't ready to implement yet but we want to eventually make it 3D and add in cut scenes and animations for different events.

Also we don't have a way to test Linux or Mac so if any problems come up with those feedback would be appreciated. Future updates to come...

We have received tones of awesome feedback and we are looking at getting even more!

We want to take our game much further and to do so we could use a lot more feedback.

If anyone gets the chance please play our game and leave a comment and let us know what you think :)

Like to game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/running-out-of-space-26

~~Playing your web games..... leave the link in comments!~~ [Time Up!]

Also, please check out mine: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/blocks :v:

So it is done...

Another Ludum Dare, another weekend of sleepless nights, another small game that surfaced in this cruel world... What a time to be alive!

So my jam game, What Is On The Walls Inside, is now released. You can play it online right now, if you feel like it.

I feel like this one was one of the best Ludum Dares I had in the longest time. Maybe because for once I did a lot of things right, and while I was unable to complete the game for the compo and had to fallback to the jam, I'm happy to say that it was an interesting experience and totally worth the time.

But let's examine this in order and see where things went well and what we can improve next time.

Genre

I am not that good as a programmer. There, I said it.

Maybe it is my stubbornness in using a barebones HTML5 engine that I made myself, or maybe just the fact that I don't practice nearly enough than I should: but I can't make games that are too complex in scope or mechanics.

This means that I am naturally brought to games that are simple in terms of interaction with the user, and visual novels are the kind of game I gravitate towards. This is not only a matter of necessity, but it is also I am naturally brought to. I love stories (if you didn't get that already from my twitter bio), and as such I like to express them in a medium like games. This is probably a controversial topic, since many people wouldn't even consider visual novels in the same field of games; but I don't like to make too many categories in my head. To me games are interactive experiences, and anything that fits in that scope can be considered as such.

Of course, this means that narrative games are my first choice when it comes to game jams, since it is both something I'm decent at making in that timeframe, and something I like to make. This however has put me at a disadvantage, since it seems that games too heavy on the narrative are quite harder to accept than games that are more action-oriented. That is rather obvious, just like movies are more popular than books.

This always made me feel a little inadequate when it comes to making narrative games. I mean, why bother when I know that not many people are going to enjoy it? That always made me think twice about mi first ideas, which always involve some kind of narrative, for something that is more interactive and workable from the point of view of the user. This, however, always meant that I had to wrestle with mechanics that I was not an expert into, which in turn made making the game in question much more difficult to make. So I always ended up scrapping what I had been working on for most of the time, because I realized I didn't have the technical proficiency to complete it. Not only that, but I didn't feel as motivated to complete it, because it was not a game I was making for myself: it was mostly for some generic other, someone who could enjoy that kind of game. And working your ass off on something that you don't really want to see completed is real pain, especially if there is no outside incentive other than "it is for a game jam".

For once, I was able to ignore this. I just decided to make a game I wanted to make, without trying to pander to a wider audience for some imaginary glory (that would not come either way). That was a very important decision, and something I needed to understand by myself.

Lesson 1: Always choose the idea you want to make, and not what you think others want to see.

Time

The most important thing for me was time management. This is the first time since I started doing Ludum Dares back in LD26 that I was actually able to use the whole 48 hours without external problems and without wasting time.

The usual for the past jams was this: find an idea, start gushing on how great and simple it is, then grab the keyboard and start working. Then, a few hours later, realize that the idea isn't as contained as I wanted it to be, and end up throwing it away with a stab on the chest while I start looking for another, crumb-size idea to make in the squeeze of time remaining. This became such a routine for me that I came almost to expect it. I'm glad to have broken the spell for once.

Luck was also on my side because for once I had the full weekend for me, instead of having the usual unexpected things that happen right when you least expect them, like the dog throwing up in the kitchen. It was quite uneventful as a weekend. Of course, one can't rely on luck that much, but it is always a nice thing to have.

I also ended up being rather economical in terms of what I was making. Usually I end up brainstorming tons of ideas that end up in oblivion, or create tons of art or writing that I can't really use in the game. This is a big waste of time, and for once I was able to instead be more focused and only make what was needed.

Ludum Dare's early start also made it a lot more easy on the time management side, since I was able to brainstorm ideas for an hour before heading to bed for a weekend of work. This seems trivial but in fact is one of the biggest problems I had with Ludum Dare until now: three days of work instead of two relieve a lot of stress from the nervous system, and I was much more productive with the little time I had at hand. I'm glad to see it is going to be considered as a base for future August jams. Horray!

Lesson 2: Be sure to only focus on the core of your idea, and manage your energy so that it is balanced during the whole jam.

Clarity

The main goal for this Ludum Dare was to be as out there as possible. Realizing that most of my games were held back in some way because I was scared of what others may think was depressing and a moment when I decided this had to change. So this time I wanted to take an idea, simple of course, and I would pursue it no matter how wild it may turn out to be. It was mostly an experiment on relasing creative brakes that held me back in the past.

And well, that is exactly what it came out to be. If you played the game, you probably noticed it isn't ortodox under any aspect. I just followed this idea, trying to put it on paper as close as I could, and I think I ended up doing a better job than I expected. I don't know how much it made the game enjoyable, but I think at least it made it interesting.

But this raised a big clarity problem. I admit I had almost no idea what the heck I was trying to create. Say you want to make a platformer: it is something that has done before, and everyone has some practice designing such a game. Now, consider whatever What Is On The Walls Inside: that is something that is completely designed from scratch. I was just following an idea without any ground under it, and trying for the whole time to somehow make it stand up on its own in the real world. And that was a lot of work.

I had a vague sense of what I wanted to make, but I still had to test and feel around the game and see if it was working or not. In the end it kind of did, and it holds itself as a whole like a nice cake, but it was a lot of work. This is probably the main reason why I was unable to finish the game in time for the compo. I'm not annoyed, because the extra time of the jam was a wonderful help for making the game shine, but I still believe I could have fitted the whole game in the compo time frame.

I cannot overstate how important it is to have clear in your mind what you want to create: the clearer the image, the easier it is to transfer it into something playable. This is a staple of all arts, but it is especially important in games, because the interactive element of games can literally break it if you don't realize beforehand that you are aiming too high.

Lesson 3: Have a clear vision of the end product that you want to create.

Conclusions

Overall, I consider myself more than satisfied on how this jam went along. It was very interesting to play around with ideas and experiment, and it was a great way to learn something new.

For now, that is all. Thanks for reading.

You can check out What Is On The Walls Inside, if that tickled your curiosity.

Say Hello to your new enemies....

New update coming soon!

Added new type of enemies and many more!

Here you go : https://youtu.be/skFpefWIPYY

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/reverse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN8AiYe6idA

Hi just wanted to make a small blog post on the tools I used to make Block Caver for LD42. If you're interested you can check it out here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/block-caver

Tools

• Art - Aseprite, Photoshop + wacom tablet
• Music - Garageband + AKAI keyboard + double bass (see below)
• Engine - Unity 2D
• Sfx - Audacity + voice

Check yourself!

special ability to cut into their energy beam Brings you points

play the game here =)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/nooooo

Leave the link to your game in the comments and....

Please check out our game as well and leave us some feedback. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/void-productions

HEY! i heard there's this cool game called "The Crunch"! it seems to be something with space and stuff but idk, i didn't make it. (i totally did) i think it looks awesome, and think you might find it entertaining as well.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/the-crunch

This is a rhythm game ,Some difficulty. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/rhythm-doodle

Play it here (web based): https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/blocks

I really want feedback. Working on post jam version atm. It is much improved from the feedback so far. Can you give me the feature request of my dreams? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/clapbang

I really like rhythm / audio based games, and I'd like to try some, but couldn't find any in this jam.

So if any of you find or made such a game, feel free to comment ^^

The link is working now. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/beater

Delete each and every one of the downloaded files, before these become hidden in the folders.

Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/cluster

Stream starting NOW: Fixing our #LudumDare42 Game #MazeCrusher LD - Looking forward to hear your opinions!

http://www.twitch.tv/firesplashtv

Thanks for passing by! Stream is mixed language.

Oh and if you did not do this yet - You can still rate the game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/maze-crasher

:rabbit::rabbit::rabbit::rabbit::rabbit::rabbit::rabbit::rabbit::rabbit::rabbit:

If you want to play a cute game in your browser, then check out Easter Shabobble: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/easter-shabobble Thank you for playing :smile:

Play it [HERE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPSG5Ar-oQM&t=142s

The video: https://bit.ly/2NaASUu

Also, the post-jam version will be ready soon! With checkpoints and improved collisions!

We almost reached 60 ratings. Help us get there and leave some feedback, we give out hearts :] https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/demonic-digestion

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/membrain

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/membrain

I know you need 20 ratings to get a score, but besides that is there any advantage for more ratings besides personal pride? I know I aiming for 100 as a nice round number

After taking a bit of distance with my game and reading and thinking a lot about the feedbacks I've got so far, I wanted to write a little post mortem for my game "Disco Lovers". This is the second game I release for a ludum dare and the third game I release for a game jam. I learned so much since my first participation to the ludum dare one year ago, and this definitely helped me create and achieve this game.

The theme and how it blocked me at the very beginning

The theme I hated the most amongst all theme in the final row was "Running out of space". And damn, it was the one that was picked. I woke up at 5AM the first day (so 5 hours after the begining of the ludum dare), and got immediatly anxious because I literally did not know what to make. I overthought it, and tried prototyping or thinking about different things - a platformer and shmup with a mecha, even a point & click, and also a rythm game. But everything I thought about was crap. Eventually at 8 AM I gave up on those ideas I've made and decided to at least take a break, so I went outside and took a walk (well, not really a walk, I went picking vegetables but well). At 11AM I got an idea and thought about it a lot while getting home.

The theme wouldn't be used for the actual gameplay of the game, but for the scenario. I thought my idea was pretty good (and I still think it even if I think I could have implemented it better, so not only could it be more obvious, but also maybe have a link with the gameplay).

The organisation and how I should think... Little

One of the very big problems of this is not only that I actually began working on my game 12 hours after the beginning of the jam, but also that I thought about a concept that required wayyyy to many scripts and graphic resource to feel good. I was obviously unable to release my game for the compo (only because it wasn't finished), so I decided to take the extra 24 hours and release it for the jam. And even with those 24 extra hours, I felt like I couldn't release my game in time.

In the end I succeeded, but I had to abandon the Idea of making any music for the game - wich, as some people told me in their feedbacks, is an absolute shame for a game called Disco Lover. Also, I had to cut some ideas I had for the game (like being able to level up some room to boost their productions) because they just didn't feel finished, and it was a bit frustrating to be honest.

The gameplay and how I should think about making things more obvious.

One of the major problems that was recurrent to many feedbacks was the fact that the player was lost and didn't always know what was going on in the game. Some thought they have to place random rooms and eventually access to one of the two endings, other wanted to be more informed of what was going on the productions of each rooms...

This is something I have to improve on this game. There should be more feedbacks to the player of what is going on. I'll probably take "fallout shelter" as an example (But that's also what "simcity : builder" opted for) : the player will have to reap the benefit from each room himself, so he will know exactly what is going on, in the way that he controls this. This is something I already added to the game right now (I may be working on a post-jam version... But that's a secret !), and it does work well. I still need some feedbacks from some beta testers, but I feel like it's way better. I added a lot of different things that will show you exactly what is going on with each room, what you have to do to make them work better... I also already added a lot of new actions you can perform on more or less every room...

The art style and how doing simpler made it better

Realising I was running out of time (haha... ha... ha...), I decided it would be better to draw simpler art. I still spent a lot of time on it (maybe a total of 12 hours or so). I really ran out of time at the end, so I had to do even simpler with some assets (Like the vigil office or the bathroom are... Not really good looking). But the art style was fine, and using a LOT of lightning effect was a pretty good Idea.

(If you wonder, because I've already been asked it : the lightning effect is made in two step. First, I duplicated every elements that were supposed to glow in another layer on gimp — but you can do it in most art program —, and applied a blur to them with a ray of the width of each object. I updated a bit the settings of the layer so it was actually considered as light. Then, in Unity, I used the post-processing effect to add just a little bit of bloom (But not too much, because you don't want to ruin the work you have done AND the bright colors that aren't supposed to be lightning will with this filter.

I think that with all the effect that I applied to the scene, the art is good looking and neat. Eventually I will now be able to enhance the sprites so it will look even more pretty !

The inspirations I got and how they influenced my work

Talking about the actual gameplay, my inspiration obviously went from the game "Fallout Shelter" by Bethesda, that I used to play a lot in the past. I enjoy a lot city builder games, but I never thought on making one myself, and this is something this theme pushed me to do (And I'm glad for it !).

But my real and most important inspiration went from a serie actually, named "Pose". It is a drama series created by Ryan Murphy on FX renewed for a second season. It features more than 50 transgender characters played by actual transgender actor (Wich is awesome !!), and describe "several segments of life and society in New York : the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe, the downtown and social and literary scene, [...] the ball culture world", a part of the life of LGBT people and a part of the life of seropositive people during the 80's.

I didn't get enough time to include everything I wanted but this show really influenced me a lot on the making of this game, and if I keep working on this game I'll definitely more clear that it was an actual inspiration and show more of it.

However, you can already see a bit of it in the gameplay : the main character wants to create a safe space, a shelter for every LGBT people and especially young people in need of a home. However the time depicted in the game in not really the 80's, but more in a futuristic time, just like in dystopias. This is something i'll really try to add in the game with a lot of graphics elements.

Notes :

If you liked the game and want to see the progress i'm making on it, please check it on itch.io (https://hishicorne.itch.io/discolovers), i'll post some updates on it later this week !

I also published this post mortem here : https://hishicorne.itch.io/discolovers/devlog/45682/ludum-dare-42-a-post-mortem-of-my-game-disco-lovers-

We really need it.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/32d-1

Finally figured out how to port the game correctly for mac and I ask for your testing and feedback to know if I did a good job or not! Hope this makes the game accessible for more people, Thank you.

You can find the link to download and rate here:

Play and Rate CLOT! (MacOS now available)

As usual, we at the Tech Valley Game Space had a real-world meeting, and we're proud to present the games created from that very Jam! Here were the three games created in our local area (and a little surprise at the end):

Open Spaces

Agoraphobia is the abnormal fear of being in crowds, public places, or open areas, sometimes accompanied by anxiety attacks. This is a visual novel designed to create awareness for this form, and other forms, of anxiety and depressive disorders. Your character decides how to interact with other characters, who either show you support or impatience. If you make decisions to isolate yourself, or let the negative thoughts take you, the dark mass of “Fear” creeps further and further into your mind. There are many ways to combat anxiety, and there is no single solution for everyone, but seeking support is always a good first step. This is the first game I have written and designed and it could not have been completed without the incredible talent of the members of Tech Valley Game Space in Troy, New York.

Trigger Warning: This game includes depictions of anxiety through audio and visual elements which may be difficult for some.

Thinning the Herd

Human overpopulation is becoming a major problem, time for nature to thin out our numbers. Click any part of the world to call forth natural disasters and monstrous creatures to bring down the human population as it continues to go up. All art and audio is original.

Hachi Block

Hachi Block is a combo-focused Tetris-based puzzle game! Score high by dragging blocks into a grid and creating a three-in-a-row horizontal or vertical block formation. Stay alert, however; don’t let the blocks rise to the top of the screen!

"Hey, doesn't the Tech Valley Game Space also live stream playing Ludum Dare Games?" you might be asking. The answer is yes, we are! We plan on streaming this Friday, 8:00 PM EST. We'll post a reminder again tomorrow, but if you want a head start, the sign-up process is described in our Twitch.tv channel description below the video player at:

twitch.tv/techvalleygamespace

Here's some gif of game processes:

Thanks a lot, and here's a link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/running-from-space

I'll be streaming some Ludum Dare games on my twitch channel in a few minutes. I have a queue but you can submit your game during the stream if you want.

You can find my channel here: https://www.twitch.tv/syrapt0r

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/pirates-greed-1
Please, enjoy!

We'll also do the same for u. Now, Coming to the point,

WearOut is a nice little story about a guy called Captain as he's a real captain of a cruise but that's not the reason why he's called so. Can u guess what is?

Here is the link to the game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/void-productions

I probably should have gotten around to this earlier, but following the responses to the game, the biggest complaint was the slower progression, causing the game to feel like a grind. So the multiplier used to increase the shield size has been reduced, so less data is needed. And, while I was at it, I built the game for mac, so more people will be able to play.

Hope you enjoy, and thank you for all the replies so far,

Chris.

(Play here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/insufficient-storage)

now.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/escape-the-junk

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/reverse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN8AiYe6idA

...where we did a lot of fixes and changes! We changed the scoring-algorhitm and implemented lives instead of negative score. If you toiuch enemies more than two times - game is over.

Oh and we refined the enemy waves a bit. Less enemies per wave in the end and more time to kill the enemies. That makes on one hand less stress - on the other hand more difficulty as you might have to plan better to not get stuck in the "late game".

Will you now be able to reach thy mystery maze number 3?

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/maze-crasher

https://indieeclipse.itch.io/shrinking-room

Thanks to everyone for 30+ votes on Ink Flood!

If you haven't played the game already you can check it out and download it here:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/ludum-dare-42-2 - https://gamejolt.com/games/inkflood/361114

For those who have not played yet https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/anstorm

I've create a post-mortem of Bunny Bazooka, which includes why I took pictures of my pyjamas, why I switched game engines, my struggles and a lot more.

This is a reflection and a reminder of my experiance. You may find it usefull, particularly if you are new to game jams.

*Post-Mortem : https://bit.ly/2MpyZae *

*Play the Game / Rate the Game : https://bit.ly/2OZGWjk *

Hey everyone!

It's been a busy week! A small update has been made to Avarus, which includes several small tweaks to the game based on player feedback. If you need more games to rate, head on over to the game page and check it out :D

My queue is empty!

I'm playing and rating games on Twitch.tv but my queue is empty! Submit your game in chat, in a comment, or better yet at the link here.

You can see the (empty) queue here.

Looking forward to playing your awesome game :smile:

Hey everyone! I'm doing my 7th, and most likely last LD42 stream right now! If you want me to play your game on stream the queue is empty as of the start of the stream: https://goo.gl/forms/eOHifNpeqalYTLy52

I'm going live here: https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames

I'm looking for some puzzle games to play with the family on an under powered wi dows laptop while on vacation. Will obviously rate anything we play. Any suggestions for family friendly puzzlers would be appreciated.