I would really appreciate if you rated my game, so I can get 20 ratings! Thanks!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/sugar-rush

I've gotten my smart rating up so I expect more but just in case :) Send me your games and I'll vote + review. Thanks!

Here’s the soundtrack from our new game, made for LD39.

https://soundcloud.com/blinch_music/thermal-power-plant-k-13

PLAY GAME: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/thermal-power-plant-k-13

Took a few minutes yesterday to record a quick Post Mortem for my entry. Check it out if you are so inclined. There is also still time to vote! If you haven't played my game, I'd love your input.

Play the Game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/invaders-from-the-next-planet-over

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_trhDdxdz3E

I used AnimationCurves in Mr Mayor's Energy Crisis to denote stat changes in the world.

AnimationCurve?

Is a data type representing a curve in 2D. The current value of the curve on the Y axis can be evaluated in code based on a value on the X axis. These values can stand for anything, for instance position, acceleration, Max HP, monetary value, etc.

Data type in code

Data type in inspector Curve editor

Evaluating the prior curve at X position 0.5. This evaluation returns 1 as you can see from the curve itself.

Proper examples

From MMEC (the abbreviation doesn't quite work).

The names speak for themselves.

Let's look at the first one, Day to population increase, in detail. This curve indicates how much the population increases every day, if that wasn't clear already. It could have also indicated the exact population count per day, both approaches work just fine.

Reading the curve reveals that there is a spike in population influx at day 4 with 16 people, tapering down to 13 people by day 15.

One more example:

This one is the nuclear meltdown chance based on the nuclear plant condition. As you can see the chance is 0 when the condition is higher than 0.4 (as in 40%), but then rises greatly once the condition closes on 0.

Nutshell

AnimationCurves are flexible, easy to use and most importantly they allow clear visualization of data which you don't get with mere numbers and algorithms.

Cheers!

I stumbled upon some more cool entries today that I think you should really give a spin, also some of them could really use some more feedback.

Lost in Translation at Space

“Lost in Translation at Space”, a game about a Spaceship Captain having a lot of troubles passing by an asteroid field, and his brilliant Robot who is having some difficulties understanding his orders.

To play this game you will only need a microphone, so you can tell our Robot the commands he needs to gather fuel and repair the spaceship engine, so it can help our Captain return home.

It is currently playable only on Chrome, both for Desktop (PC/Mac/Linux?) and for Android.

Spacy adventure

You need to control your space ship and keep eye on the energy! Every shot cost’s you some, as you move forward, your battery discharges.

Avoid enemies, kill the boss and survive as long, as you can!

This game has an amazing amount of finish and feels amazingly addictive to play.

The power of blood

Vampires used to be kings of the dark age, their brutality was so vast that the moon bleed from all the slaughter and destruction, giving them more powers than they could ever imagine. But, when mortals started to fight back, the blood moon began to fade as vampires were getting killed and the whole race started to flee to save themselves, as they were stronger, but fewer.

If vampires really wanted to continue their kingdom of doom, they had to kill and feed the blood moon’s desires so It wouldn’t run out of power.

Your job is simple, Kill as many villagers as you can! If you don’t provide enough blood for the blood moon, you’ll lose your battle.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

If you are still on a voting and review spree and you haven't checked out my game yet then please give that a try too.

Making a board game for ludum dare, you would think I was expecting it.

Truth is, not that much.

It saddens me to see I'm still 6 votes shorts of being ranked. I understand not everybody can find 6 friends to play with but I'd still appreciate some feedback, even if only just based on the rules =)

Inspired by Secret Hitler and The Werewolf, Everybody Breathes mixes bluff, deception and investigation to give you a trip into space you will remember.

Who is the robot ? Is it John who keeps failing his maintenances or Rebecca who seems to run away from detections ? Investigate your friends, share information and hopefully you'll all get back to earth alive.

Everything can be downloaded and printed here:

Everybody Breathes ... until you run out of oxygen.

Thanks for taking the time to read this message and long life to your crew.

Include shiny photostock image here

Because making a gif for a board game would be ... well, you tell me.

It wasn't good as the sound was bad and the graphics all wrong. There were loads of bugs too as I rushed it. Now I have polished it (as good as I could in 1 day) and now it is better than ever. Please check this out and review/vote/rate it (Warning: it is windows only). Comment your games and I'll rate them. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/get-energised Thank you!

I thank everyone who played Asteroids. I loved playing the other games. Many excellent games. If you have not played yet: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/asteroids I hope you have fun!

Shattered needs ratings! I'm trying my best to play and rate as many games as I can this weekend because I haven't had much this time round due to so many commitments.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/shattered

Shattered is an online multiplayer game focused on PVP and keeping your base's energy topped up at all times by siphoning power from the world and stealing it from other players.

One reason why I haven't had much time to rate games is that I realised fairly early on that without players the game will be dull and unplayable and in a Ludum Dare context it's especially hard to reliably have people playing at the same time.

We actually made a multiplayer game for the last Ludum Dare as well but we managed to get bots in there for that one so that it could be enjoyed even without real players.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case this time round so we made Dangle: a tool for scheduling sessions for small multiplayer games. Hopefully some of you can use it for your own games or Shattered if you want to play it.

Good luck to everyone else desperately trying to get the 20 ratings they need this weekend!

If you like horror games and also if not it would be great if you could try and vote our game. THANK YOU!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/lost-lantern

ok so ludum dare is almost finishin and yeah we still have to complete the 110 ratings challenge so LETS DO IT

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/drain-2

This is the first Ludum Dare I recieved so many feedback. And I'd like more! Check out my game! (you can play it on browser)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/constellation-exploration

I've been quite busy with work and such over the past few weeks, but I have finally have the chance to try out more entries from the jam. So far I am blown away by the huge variety on display for what I thought would be a fairly restrictive theme. I will definitely be checking out as much as I can over the weekend.

I've had a blast making my game for this jam, and would like to flesh it out some more post jam. I would love to hear some more feedback on what I can improve or expand upon in my 3D Platformer game! I've been brainstorming level themes, power ups, level layouts, and improvements for the base mechanics for the past few weeks and would love to integrate as much feedback as I can.

If anyone wants to try a collectathon with a wind up toy theme, check out my game!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/windup-1

Entry page

If embedded video doesn’t work here’s a link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7WgQjeaEhs

Entry page

As my final post I would like to share my appreciation for the feedback I received. All directly quoted from the LDJAM game page.

The following comment really sums up the overall feedback really well:

The dark mood was great; Art style, music and sfx really did the job.

Some people gave me very extensive reviews, which I have shortened "a bit":

Wow! Just Wow… That game is amazing! One simplistic mechanics bring 3 different challenges, that are welll telegraphed to the player. [...]Anyway - this is a perfect scone for me!

Hmm, I like scones.

Some people do the much appreciated overreaction:

WOW! One of the best entries I’ve played in any LD.

Yes, that image was part of it too.

And apparently, although my game is rather niche, even people that weren't the target audience seem to like it:

Normally I’m having trouble getting into “artsy” games, but this one grabbed me from the beginning!

Not everyone seemed to have like the movement:

I’m not sure I have the patience to navigate through those long, tight, green corridors with the loose controls, but I totally get how the controls are part of the aesthetic that you have going on here.

But my carefully fine grained movement, is also liked :heart:

Favourite part is the movement. It’s just fun and it fits the character perfect.

I sneaked in a quote from a gamedev streamer on Twitch:

Was this made in 48 hours? _ I'm quitting game dev._ -QaziTV

And finally, mainly streamers, but also some comments. People asking if I will continue this game.

Like you could build up a whole world around that little spider dude as he floats and drifts from place to point.

I'm not sure yet, but there's plenty of ideas.

If you're curious and haven't played it yet:

You can play it here

Also, recently people have shown interest in the source code, and this being a Compo entry, you can download under the same link.

Help!

The Dark Lord got into our lives one day.

He ate our healthy breakfasts.

He took over our bedrooms one by one.

He burned all the marshmallows at the picnic.

He even forced us to make a game about him.

Please him, we beg you! Play the game and free our souls (maybe):

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/heal-the-dark-lord

P.S. His Dark Majesty likes high ratings in the overall category for some reason.

...just kinding. I don't think I will ever be able fully master Unity physics.

Everything looks fine here right ?

Not really...

I know it's risky to create a game in 48 hours, a game based on something that need to be well adjusted and balanced. I don't know why, but I just can't stop designing games that are heavily physics based. In my previous entry, I limited myself to 2D physics only, so at least I could throw that Z axis away, but not this time ! I went all in and gosh, I wish I could have learned something from my previous mistakes :P

The result is some kind of Destruction Derby / Twisted metal, with an almost realistic physics that from time to time, throws the player or enemy tanks flying in the air :P

Note to my future self if I decide to use physics, test it A LOT :)

Jump, bounce, tackle and fly as you try to destroy your opponent !

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/tanks-battle

How does ratings influence your placement in the leaderboards ? Do more ratings is better than good ratings? Is 20 ratings really enough to get a good place in the leaderboards ? I'm currently at 27 ratings but see a lot of people wanting 50 / 100 / 200.

As I'm writing this, we only have about 1 day and 23 hours left. Wow. This really did go by quickly, but, it is not over yet. If you want you can play me entry here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/dodge-the-box And, if you want me to play yours, go ahead and send it over to me, Good luck all!

Hey!

Last 2 days to play and rate games!! I have 33 votes received (overall)

Do you wanna play and rate CAPTAIN LETTUCE?

Go to my entry

As we near the conclusion to the rating portion of this great event, I want to provide (and ideally receive) as much feedback as possible. As I have seen many others do, I am inviting you to share your games with me in the comments of this post, and I will try to get to all of them. In return, I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide some feedback on my game, Mr. Plug, which can be played here:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/mr-plug-1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FpAieAwjMM

I made a rhythm game for this Ludum Dare. Here it is!

In this post-jam edition, songs can include held and slid notes. A new song has been added (featured in the above video!), plus a short, easy level to help familiarize the controls.

I'm still a bit short on ratings. If you check out my game and leave a comment, I'll check out yours!

That's right! A smattering of bugfixes and some improved features.

• Fixed the moving obstacles freaking out when they intersect with a bubble
• Adjusted hitboxes slightly to fix a few things that felt unfair
• Improvements to Endless Mode generation. Still not perfect, but a lot better.
• Adjusted camera position slightly upwards
• Minor adjustment to the mode selection screen
• Winning the game should now take you back to the mode selection screen after some time
• Added A/S/D control support
• Added Mouse control support. This means the game ought to be playable on mobile browsers than can run the game in the first place.

Play it Here!

Hunt for the glory of Ull, the god of winter, in this nordic-themed action game !

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/berzerk-hunt

Your Fury is the only thing that keeps you alive in this harsh environment. How long will you maintain it to survive ? Squash rabbits and fight wild animals using your powerful abilities !

We dearly hope you enjoy our creation. Have fun !

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/breathless-parks-running-out-of-power

I've been on holiday for the last two weeks and i saw that my game haven't received at least 20 votes for each categories. If you like a modern platform with an hardcore component you have to play my game! Please help me to get to the final rating!!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/light

I finally got the timelapse of our livestream from making Shoulda, Coulda but Didn't completed and uploaded, and I'm happy to now share it with all of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXxRiVqf8bo

The video covers our entire livestream - foibles and all - so you'll see us writing the dialog for the game's popular voice overs, our ongoing struggles with car control, me developing the volcano that is almost never visible, the arrival of the Franken-Pizza, our way-too-late bug testing, and the time that I forgot my screen was the one we were currently showing, so I started absentmindedly doodling random stuff while Will (@floata-1) told a very long and somewhat confusing story.

For everyone who has rated and commented on our game already, thank you! If you're still interested in trying it, we would really appreciate it and you can do so right here.

If you are looking for a frantic platform inspired by VVVVVV, Super Meat Boy and Downwell your quest is over! Soul Gun is here!

Thanks for taking your time in this final hours. The end is nigh!

THE GAME

• Play right away: https://ex3.itch.io/soulgun
• Ludum Dare Page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/soul-gun

MORE INFO

• Post Mortem Part I: https://tinyurl.com/SoulGunPM1
• Post Mortem Part II: https://tinyurl.com/SoulGunPM2
• Post Mortem Part III: https://tinyurl.com/SoulGunPM3
• Post Mortem Part IV: https://tinyurl.com/SoulGunPM4

Cheers!!!

Hello everyone,

I didn't expect to get even 20 ratings!

But now i got over 40 ratings, and it would be nice to get the 50!

Game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-rising-of-the-machines

Hello people /o/

Our game, Energy Tanks just got a huge update that fixes all the major bugs people found. Please play+rate so we can get to 40 ratings O

In the game, you live in a post apocalyptic scenario where Tanks fight for energy in order to survive.

Game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/energy-tanks-1

Thanks :D

Old Post, new one on top

For your convenience; here are some games between 10 and 20 votes. I think together we can give them their last few votes to get a ranking! All with HTML5 builds, all tested and working. Go rate them!

Please check if the game has 20 votes already, so we can be an efficient machine and rank as many as possible!

Round 1 1. Achievement Get! 2. Achievement Get! 3. Achievement Get! 4. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/blackout-defense (3 needed) 5. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/spaceship-rescue (4 needed) 6. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/i-have-no-spoons-and-i-must-survive-in-a-capitalist-society (4 needed) 7. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/turtle-jam (2 needed) 8. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/mystic-power (4 needed) 9. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/voyage-of-the-indefatigable (5 needed) 10. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/action-power-robot (7 needed)

Round 2 1. Achievement Get! 2. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/carrot-labyrinth (5 needed) 3. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/powerrungame (5 needed)

Successful Missions: 4

Last update 15:22 GMT

I'll update this post with more when games reached their required 20 votes. Or create a new post when this post drops off the main page. I picked these randomly. Is your game almost at 20 votes? Add them in the comments and I'll update this post!

We've received great comments and thank everyone who played Exocharge Infinite (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/exocharge-infinite). We wish we had more time to play and rate other games but its tough using only cellphone internet (times are tough :P).

In summary we've learn't a lot from this Ludum and aim to take the game forward in development with the aim of a potential indie release sometime next year. Lookout for Karnage Studios ;).

Thanks again peeps <3

Video here Our entity

Promoting my android game for the last day hehe :D

Description:

Colors is a fun, challenging, and exciting brain exercise game that will test how quickly and accurately you can use your knowledge about different colors. The mechanics of the game are very simple --as the colors switch, you need to identify if every color matches the word spelled out. It’s EASY, right? But is it?"

This game is a mind test, also known as the stroop effect, where in you gonna tell what is the color of the font of the text.

SCREENSHOTS:

Links:

Google Play Link: http://bit.ly/martycolors

My Game for LD39: http://bit.ly/martysld39power

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT GUYS! :D

Hi everyone, we have completed a post mortem for our entry, Modular Destruction Labs. We like to do our post mortems in a chat client and keep them fairly relaxed, so we won't post the whole thing here. If you're interested in reading about the game, as well as my upcoming gin problems, you can read the whole chat on our website here:
https://www.seconddimension.co.uk/blog/2017/modular-destruction-review.html

If you want to give the game a go, you can do so on the competition page here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/modular-destruction-labs

Thanks to everyone who has played and commented so far, we do really appreciate it

One day and a half left and only 20 reviews to reach 100! 🎉 Please go try our game Any feedback is really appreciated because we are already thinking of making it a full game. We also have a Post Event version with different modes, and a Post mortem for your reading pleasure. 👍

Finally a big thank you to those who already left us feedback, go try their games:

@andidebob, @badly-drawn-rod, @behenate, @bloodjohn, @c0nst4ntin, @deadlyalive, @dorkandy, @dotsquid, @dragojt, @evil-as-shit, @gamesplusjames, @geck0, @guckstift, @hhsaez, @herniewise, @huitre, @irishbruse, @jason200101, @josehzz, @jsmcag, @lereveur, @machinetribe, @mamoniem, @mathiouza, @matt-fabius, @naminuz, @oddballdave, @pavel-kouril, @peachtreeoath, @pfeyffer, @phlip45, @pixel-game-wizard, @pjchardtthesecond, @prodigalson, @qzqxq, @rafael-souza, @ratly, @rixud, @robotsandmuffins, @rootpew, @simonhutchinson, @simplepotential, @steve-johnson, @sugarbyte, @sythgara, @teacapn, @thecodefactory, @tjakka5, @tmpxyz, @tyler-miller, @valphera, @vasco-rodrigues, @virtualacademy, @zyow.

Hi! We update our postjam game version.

short changelist: - selfie added; - new quest with Nancy; - start dialog added; - add more mobile interaction.

Game page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/run-joseph-run

As Ned, you must appease IT's rage with the power of a PowerBar.

Disclaimer: This game was not sponsored by PowerBar Inc. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/ned-and-his-powerbars

I sent my game to a youtuber called "kanetsu" and I challenged him to do 70 kills in my game! And he accepted!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsVdvk1wZtI&t

If you want to beat his score, or you want to play the game, you can play it *HERE*

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/keep-em-alive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BuhLWP9C38&feature=youtu.be

Newer updated version above!

For your convenience; here are some games between 10 and 20 votes. I think together we can give them their last few votes to get a ranking! All with HTML5 builds, all tested and working. Go rate them!

Please check if the game has 20 votes already, so we can be an efficient machine and rank as many as possible!

Round 1 Chapter Complete!

Round 2 1. Achievement Get! 2. Achievement Get! 3. Achievement Get! 4. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/night-shift-1 (6 needed) 5. Pizza Get! 6. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/nuclear-dash (4 needed) 7. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/ld-39-cyborg-mattness (5 needed) 8. Achievement Get! 9. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/captain-quark-and-the-search-for-more-power ( 4 needed) 10. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/my-dear-battery (8 needed)

Round 3 1. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/nightfall (7 needed) 2. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/find-out-yourself (8 needed) 3. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/running-from-power-2 (8 needed) 4. Bacon Get! 5. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/zombie-rush (2 needed, no WebGL)

Successful Missions: 16

Last update 20:15GMT

(x needed) are quick approximates (if you opt out from several categories they only count as n/8 points).

I'll update this post with more when games reached their required 20 votes. Or create a new post when this post drops off the main page. I picked these randomly. Is your game almost at 20 votes? Add them in the comments and I'll update this post!

You might need to cache-clear-refresh your browser to see updated versions of this post.

It's been a great jam for me and many others. Loads of quality feedback has been given, life is good. Then there are the other others who don't seem to get it. They take the wrong things and treat them way too seriously.

These are the types I've seen in this jam, without naming any names:

• One user leaving fake comments gobbled together from other users' comments, without playing the entry itself.
• One user poaching ratings, promising to add more features once Rating milestones are met.
• Multiple users loudly advertising their Rating goals. "Help me reach 100 by the end of the week!", then next week "Help me reach 150 before the end of the jam!"
• A few users outright spamming the very same ad post every single day.

Why am I complaining?

• Spam is annoying and hides more interesting posts under it.
• To hopefully make these people understand that learning to become better and helping others is the point of the jam, not fame. (Luckily there is no money involved in the jam, directly at least!)
• To have a stern talk about fairness. If you have considerably more ratings than you've given out, look in the mirror! There are many entries with less than 20 ratings and you are only thinking about yourself.

What can we do?

Always check the ratings received/given ratio. I kind of understand it if a "celebrity" has 139 (just a random number off the top of my head) to 0 ratio, they have fans and cannot help it.

How could the site be improved for future jams?

• Flag for spam button. There is no need to surveil and ban people, just have a visible X people think this is spam flag in each post. Then the author at least knows they've gone too far.
• Tags. Each post needs to be tagged one of the following: Pre-release, Release (one per user), New version, Post-mortem (one per user), Educational (as in articles about useful dev techniques), Advertisement or Other. Posts in the wrong category would get the spam button treatment pretty fast.
• Main page tag filters. So if I don't want to see Advertisement posts, then I can just toggle them off. Simple!

I just had to get this off my chest. Have a nice last day.

If you haven't already, why not give my entry a go. I'd also be interested to hear about any games you think I should play. Thanks to all who've already played and left some great feedback :)

Play in browser: https://machinescreen.itch.io/surge

Ratings & feedback appreciated: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/surge

As the voting phase is getting closer towards its end, I want to say thanks to everyone who had played my game and left feedback and suggestions so far. This was the first time I actually finished a game for a LD and I'm really, really happy with the results.

If you haven't done so, you can play The P.U.R.G.E. Protocol here. Also, I've written a postmortem a few days ago with the lessons I've learned from this amazing experience.

Thanks again!

ok there is 4 ratings left and 1 day to finish the vote processing LETS DO THIS

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/drain-2

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/drain-2

As I've been away on holiday/vacation I've not been around to play many Ludum Dare games or even support my own. I have to thank those of you that played and voted on my game, Oil Patrol. I only wish I could have returned the favour before the deadline (I'll play a couple tonight, so perhaps drop some links in the comments below).

I've not written a full postmortem as of yet, but I know that in future I will be making sure I have enough time to play games as well as participating.

Here's a little more information about my work process and tools used, along with a full development timelapse: http://noonan.design/devlogs/ludum-dare-39-time-lapse-oil-patrol/

@SeanNoonan

Hello everyone. I have to say I played some great games this Ludum dare. I would appreciate it very much if you play my game. I am at 17 views an would love to get to 20. Also thanks to everyone who played and reviewed my game!

@jason-kennedy, @tuism, @falk-bruskeland, @internetpaulicy, @lawrence, @tomdev, @ganbaregameskyle, @sgt3v, @theflyingkeyboard, @pcmaster, @reuh, @sparewizard, @themonsterfromthedeep, @jondalnas, @sleepystudios.

For my first Ludam dare i think it went well! Also, make sure to check out my game aswell: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/zombie-rush

Thanks everyone! :smile:

Hey there, our game Shattered is an online multiplayer bulb-fighting pvp game!

We need just a few more votes in order to qualify for most of the categories but let's see how many people we can get online over the next couple of hours! I'll be online for another hour or two so be sure to download the game and I'll see you online!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/shattered

Hey!

We're really close to the end, and I just realised we didn't post anything this LD!

I hope everyone had a really good time, and that everyone is happy about their work!

Here is what we did with my team, for our 10th LD : Ride Out

It's a little musical runner, the week-end didn't go very well and the game isn't really what we wanted, but we are still proud! We really need some feedback, so don't hesitate to try it and comment!

Here's a video of the full game if you don't have time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OqATMxA9oc

A big thank you to everyone, the LudumDare is still one of the most important event in my life! <3

I thank everyone that played, rate and leaved a comment for my game "Energy Boy". As the votes are ending soon this could the last time to say some small words about the game.

The game is still there in the Jam Version but i want to continue work on it in the next weeks and improve it ( i am now back from my 2 week vacation). For this i have tons of ideas and many of you had great ideas for improvements too.

If you havent played Energy Boy - you still can do it here and leave a comment or just rate the game.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/energy-boy

As it was my first LD i want to say just one more thing: it was a really great experience and i want to join LD40.

So hopefully see you all next LD here too. And i love what you guys did in this great time period..there were many many great games that was made.

Another Reason why i wanted to join LD39 was to be able to leave feedback to your games (as i still watched the games in LD38 and 37 and i didnt before recognized that only developers can leave feedback).

Sooo one bonus motivation to finish this was rating for other games and tell the developers what great things they did.

3rd and latest post!

For your convenience; here are some games between 10 and 20 votes. I think together we can give them their last few votes to get a ranking! All with HTML5 builds, all tested and working. Go rate them!

Please check if the game has 20 votes already, so we can be an efficient machine and rank as many as possible!

Round 1 Chapter Complete!

Round 2 1. Achievement Get! 2. Sauerkraut Get! 3. Bacon Get! 4. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/night-shift-1 (5 needed, no WebGL - oops) 5. Pizza Get! 6. French Fries Get! 7. Liquorice Get! 8. Smoked Sausage Get! 9. Sushi Get! 10. Hummus Get!

Round 3 1. Long Island Iced Tea Get! 2. India Pale Ale Get! 3. Water Get! 4. Four Roses Get! 5. Macallan Get! 6. Ginger Ae Get! 7. Ristretto Get! 8. Gin&Tonic Get! 9. Martini Get! 10. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-last-question-1 (9 needed)

Successful Missions: 28

Last and final update 01:00GMT

(x needed) are quick approximates (if you opt out from several categories they only count as n/8 points).

I'll update this post with more when games reached their required 20 votes. Or create a new post when this post drops off the main page. I picked these randomly. Is your game almost at 20 votes? Add them in the comments and I'll update this post!

You might need to cache-clear-refresh your browser to see updated versions of this post.

I'm off to bed soon, will do one or two more updates.

Thanks for playing and checking out my game, especially if you rated or commented! I tried to comment or at least just rate everyone back. I'll definitely use the feedback and criticisms to improve my next entry! If there's interest, I'll write a post-mortem.

Thanks again! See everyone next dare!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/cranked-1911

If you didn't check it out here is a game you should try:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/resistance

Does anyone have the patience to run a marathon using only two buttons?

Appreciate all the comments for this, I'm happy to have taken part!

Play Running the Marathon here

This is it! Today is your last chance to rate our puzzle-adventure The Music Box!

Thanks so much to everyone who has already given us feedback -- we've read through every single one of your comments, and have been floored by the number of people who have enjoyed our game and provided helpful advice.

Play and rate The Music Box at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-music-box

Only 24 hours left -- keep rating, keep playing!

My game is finally able to be played in browser. Hurray! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/$34441

Hello, guys!

I'd like to tell you about the music for our first LD game. Although, we didn't manage to finish the game on time, the audio part went quite well, so we decided to share it anyway.

The theme and all the sounds were created solely on this baby, which is a 100% analog synthesizer, despite of its modest size.

There are two people in our team. I'm a musician in everyday life, but this was my first experience in game sound design. Our platformer is about a cute little robot, who's travelling through dark unfriendly corridors. I tried to emphasize this contrast via music. The main aim for me was to create atmosphere of alert and action without making it aggressive.

The work on the game is still going on, and your feedback at this point is very appreciated. Thanks a lot to everyone who has already commented and rated our sketch. We're really happy to participate.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/recharge-3

Hey everyone!

I know some of you are keen for a post-LD game jam, so I'm hosting the Music Game Jam in September, where you create a music-related game in one weekend!

It's not limited to rhythm games - you could create an 8-bit tribute to your favourite band, an interactive music video, a Beethoven RPG, or an FPS musical - it's up to your musical imagination!

There'll also be ~$100 in game prizes! :video_game:

Including: - Telltale's The Walking Dead - Worms Clan Wars - Geometry Dash - Devil May Cry - Undertale - and more...

Everyone will have a random chance to win these prizes just by participating! :trophy:

PLUS we have a long list of content creators waiting to play your entries and give you great feedback!

So whether you're a developer, artist, or musician, a complete beginner or a seasoned pro, if you've got an awesome idea, want to try something new, or if you simply like winning great prizes, it would be great to see you take part!

Please express your interest by clicking 'Join' on our jam page!

You can also stay updated with the official Twitter here: https://twitter.com/MusicGameJam

Cheers! :musical_note: :smile: :microphone:

Play+Rate is running to a close, but I am still in need of more people to rate my game! If you guys could check it out that would be awesome! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/nectar-frenzy-1

https://jason-holland.itch.io/the-overseer

Would love to hear any suggestions or feedback you may have on the game either positive or negative.

Here is a gameplay video if you want to see more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-khQUbk3l5g

Thanks for your time.

1 day until the end and Space Power Defender still gets a lot of updates.

It is currently at version 2.1.0 and since i released the first version, i'm still working on the game to make it even better, listening to the feedback given to me and doing my best to give a better experience ever since.

For me the comments are pretty important, so if you play my game, please leave a message about the game, complements, critics and advices are always welcome.

PLAY THE GAME HERE * https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/space-power-defender

:heart:

My LD39 game is now on Google Play! Play it here: http://bit.ly/2wfPv3U

Getting On is a retro-style comic take on 80s arcade games. It has 3 minigames inspired by Pac-man, Donkey Kong and Q-Bert. Now, 30 years on, the original game consoles are battered and glitchy and so are the characters...

In Pac-man - The Divorce, Pac-man is chased not by ghosts but by Ms Pac-man and her lawyers as they all compete to gobble up the dots (coins), that is, Pac-man's hard-earned dosh.

In Donkey Kong Senior, Mario is still going strong (well, maybe not quite so strong...) and is still quite lethal - he slams enemies with his Zimmer frame.

Q-Bert was always a bit whacky - sadly he’s now a hopeless dope head and calls himself Q-Bud.

The glitches that appear in each level must be run over - to stop them slowing things down even further, and to boost flagging battery power.

>>> Play the game here! <<<

We spent almost a whole day brainstorming game ideas before we started on the actual games. Boris did the graphics, music and programming, using his homebrew WebGL game library (https://github.com/borisvanschooten/jgame.js), and LMMS for the music. Val did the game sounds. Smartphone mike for recording, Audacity for audio processing of game sounds. Some waveforms were sourced from and processed on JXFR before being further mangled with Audacity.

Some of Val’s audio equipment ...

Rest of the team (aka our Vomcats, who inspired several of our previous games) were not so productive. Vomcat1 hangs out with pears...

... while Vomcat2 wasted Loveapple’s VR setup.

We were powered by junk food, meat, sugar, and wine (and catfood???) ...

Greetings from our urban gamedev studio!

finally got some time to write this up for you when i promised it the day after submitting (yeesh!) so here was my creative process for tiny warlock. originally, i wanted to bend the theme and make it about a king trying to keep power over a realm of angry peasants through acts or force. basically a big philosophical game showing "do you really deserve this power?"

guess what. i only had 12 hours due to work.

so my next idea was an open world, where you run around, kind of dark soulsy or risk of rain like, fighting monsters and bosses.

i decided early on to make the game chaotic, and it looks like that is what my downfall was in the end. early goals also included 20 enemies (i only completed 10) and due to memory issues (and work) open world was not achievable.

so i made the enemies spawn in. but remember what i said? chaotic.

originally i wanted you to fight one enemy at a time, but this quickly got long and boring, esspecially with only 10 enemies (regardless of my random spawn order). so i allowed an unlimmited amount to be on screen at any time. what i should have done is only allowed 2 or 3. but oh well.

the last downfall was the boss. originally, i wanted a dragon. time did not allow for such pixel art. neither does my skill level im sure. so i made him small, but extremely deadly.

some other things i noticed but didnt patch got complained about such as the ability to live forever and spam attacks when you have no life left so long as you are being attacked. i thought of power more as "willpower" so i excused this. will be changed for final release.

24 hours in i had 20 reviews. 2 weeks in i have 100. regardless of how well this turns out, this was my most successful jam. i will be releasing this game in a post jam version when i get the time (college starts tomorrow)

I will do a full post mortem in a coupel days, but this Ludum had my first serious project in a while! "Dance on the Wire" was fun to do, but fraught with development challenges and technical issues. I've put up a post Ludum version as well, with the hours dwindling away.

Hopefully I can continue to improve the core of the gameplay. I really did not have the time this jam to put together good levels, but I had lots of external interference this time around.

So instead I tried to see what I could do to make the basis of the game 'feel' cool, and I will put together more of what it could really be in the future. We'll see how far I can cook this little game up!

Jam ver: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/dance-on-the-wire

Post Jam: http://gwbloom.com/dev/games/wiredance/

Hello everyone, juste a quick shoutout for my game who is still missing 7 votes ! The game is quite hard to get into it but a run is about 5min. The game is available as a download for windows and android but alors in WebGL ! Every feedbacks are good feedbacks so do not hesitate to give a look at the game :

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/blackout-for-the-new-warden

Thanks to you all !

It is the last day for ratings and it passed so quickly. I'd be grateful if you play and give me your feedback on the compo game I made. Hope to see you all next LD!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/defend-home-mars

Just 16 hours left and we still miss 9 votes ! As it's our first game jame, we'll be very grateful to reach 20 votes before ratings end ! Stellar blackout is a game where you play as an management AI which must protect citizen of a space station. The game is playable directly on the web thanks to html/js !

You can play our game here : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/stellar-blackout

* EDIT * We made it ! We got more than 20 votes ! Thanks a lot everyone !

With few hours left I'm proud of say that my game has received enough votes to get a rating. This was my third LDjam and the first after a lots of months of inactivity, I'm very proud with the final resault and I have to thanks all the people who voted and played the game!! If you haven't played the game yet you have few hours to try it, I promise it will be good! Thank you again for the support!!!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/light

test post pls ignore

Hey all,

Several new features have been added into our Ludum Dare game, Inferno. In case you missed it, last weekend we released v1.4, which added 3 new weapons and fixed several balancing issues. The update that I'm currently working on is more feature and polish based - so I wouldn't expect many new weapons or enemies as instead it is more focused on improving the gameplay and game feel.

When I update the game, chances are that I will make a post about it on Ludum Dare as well as GameJolt. If you want to be notified when I update the game, I would advise following the GameJolt page.

                                                   NEW MINIBOSS

Here is a sneak-peak of a new miniboss. He spawns during Wave Five (half way through the game) and killing him will unlock a new weapon. He currently has no name, however if you have any suggestions be sure to leave them below.

                                               ADAPTIVE MOUSE CURSOR

This was a new feature that was added in order to improve the 'Game Feel'. Basically, whenever you use the weapon, the mouse will increase in size and slowly bounce back again. The type of cursor that is display will also change dependent on what weapon has been chosen. A similar system was used in Midnight Animal - A Hotline Miami Fangame

                                                    COMBO SYSTEM

The way this works is that the combo you get will alter the amount of Blood Points you receive. If you have a combo of 2X then you will get 1.5 times the normal amount. If you get 3X, then it's 2 times more and so on. This is a good way of making players much more aggressive in combat, as it will encourage them to kill enemies at a much faster rate. I also plan on adding a perk that either increases the time before the combo breaks, or increases the maximum combo you can get (which is currently 5).

                                                     HARD MODE

Here is one of the biggest changes that is being made to the game. I wouldn't expect this to be done for the next update, however we'll try our best to finish it as soon as possible.

In terms of changes that this new mode will add - I'd like each enemy to be slightly re-designed, from both their behavior and their sprite. The music for the game may also be changed around a bit, too. Also expect to see a completely different final boss and ending if you beat the game in Hard Mode.

                                                   DOWNLOAD GAME

LINKS

• Download: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/inferno
• Soundtrack: https://soundcloud.com/jackassmusic/death-march-inferno-ost

As far as I know, no one yet beat the boss of my game Energy Raid.

Who wants to be the first?

If you haven't tried my game out yet, check it out!

Game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-rising-of-the-machines

We already reached the required votes some time ago, but would be nice to have some more feedback. :)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/last-chance-to-mars

Also, if you happen to need some more votes, my teammembers and I would be happy to help if you leave a link to your game.

Consider playing my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/energy-tanks-1

Thanks :D

I've choosen a random list of games, which are in danger zone. And I got this list :

Help these games get ranked : - (Recharge 3) Ranked - (Pokkie) Ranked - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/beachside-battery - (New Home) Ranked - (Down the last percents) Ranked - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/overcharged - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/power-necromancell - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/home-is-dead - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/trump-card - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/ragoop - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/ludum-dare-simulator-click-and-make-your-own-game-inside-a-game

* If you have a game that is under 20 votes, don't forget to add it in the comments *

* This post will be updated if some of these games get ranked *

* GOOD LUCK EVERYONE :heart: *

Hi all, sorry I haven't had the chance to rate as many games as I normally would. Life has been hectic the last few weeks. It took some major doing just to get the weekend off to make a game for the Jam. Thanks to everyone that has rated my game, we did make 20 votes, just barely.

If anyone wants to try our game, it's basically an escape the room/point and click adventure type game in 3D. Game Page

Thanks again everyone.

Some more reviews would be really appreciated!

OMG only 11 hours left!!

A procedurally animated rhythm game where you scare away a monster with the power of Funk!

Play Funkotron 5000

Any feedback much appreciated. Also tell me if you feel like the audio is lagging behind on your system.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/the-castle

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/ludum-dare-simulator-click-and-make-your-own-game-inside-a-game

You can play it here

Only 10 hours left to rate our games!! What a great experience and great community! Thanks so much Ludum Dare! Just a final effort: let's try to reach 50 rates!!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/pepe-the-power-plant

Thank you so much!!

SO GUYS WE'RE ONLY 937 RATINGS AWAY FROM 1000!!! CAN WE REACH 1000 BEFORE THE JAM ENDS???? PLEASE GUYS!!!

Only less than 10 hour left to play and rate Turtle's Quest.. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/turtles-quest

And now time for post-mortem.

What went right: 1. Graphics. We are quite satisfied on how the sprites look (considering we only have limited time and the first day was for brainstorming, level design, and making sprite 2. Game design and level design. 2 mode for turtle (normal and shield mode). And the whole metroidvania-like puzzle platformer concept. 3. Code. Okay, the code is a little messy but at least it wasn't too spaghetti-ish :P

What went wrong: 1. Character controller and colliders (physics). We used rigidbody (unity 2d physics) and ended up with buggy character collisions. This was our first 2d platformer game ever so we learned the hard way of doing the physics wrong xD 2. Balancing. The game seems to be too brutal :o (oops! sorry). 3. UI. UI kinda block the view. And small font :/ 4. Background. A little blurry.

Plan after Ludum Dare: continue developing the game. Add "tutorial" level. Add boss fight, more enemies, more enemies. Add interesting/cute stories. Add more mode for Turtley (ninja, shooting, flying, etc). Turn it into full-fledged metroidvania-like puzzle platformer game :D

I guess that's all... Thanks for all the feedback and rate :)

Hey!

So I've been quite quiet for the past for LDs unfortunately, usually because before, during, or after (or a combination of the three) I've sadly been very busy for one reason or another. The same was true here. I had just returned from Rome and then went to Wales till just yesterday, which was my Birthday!

Now I'm back home and trying to give the game Cameron and I made higher than 26 ratings :) some really awesome entries I've seen so far, and I keep being pleasantly surprised.

Meanwhile, I wonder if perhaps I could interest you in our horror game, REAMS? It's kind of spooky and pretty neat!

You can play it here!

See you tomorrow, on my results post!

Do you wanna play a hard game? lol It is your last chance! :D

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/metal-rescue

Due to the lack of time,I could not play many entries this Ludum dare so I don't have many ratings nor time...SO I humbly beg you guys to play and!Surely if I get the time I would play your games as well! :D

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/mega-mia

Thanks everyone for making my first game jam such a profoundly awesome experience! This was also my first release as a game artist/designer. It was a close call since I found a team of strangers to work with remotely (across an ocean of time-zones), as I'm sure many jam entries start. Two people quit the first and second days somewhat unexpectedly, slimming a team of 5 down to a team of 3. One programmer, one artist and one composer were left. The composer nearly quit too, since our scope was set up for 5. In the end, the remaining dedication prevailed. There were quite a few things that we left unpolished, and in all reality, untested, because we were making changes to the build up in to the last second! Even with it's set backs, we're extremely proud of our entry. I can't tell you how psyched I am that nearly 100 people rated it and many left amazing feedback.

The remaining team do plan to make this entry into a larger and well polished game that we will spend more then 72 hours on, since the feedback has been so great.

Thanks, Everyone, Could not have done this without you!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/light-switch-crusader

Only 24 hours left to play Wave! (Well, to vote. You can probably play it until the day Itch.io no longer exists)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA4rYGR6hxI

Thanks everyone for the support so far! Don't forget to check out the Logiraffe Website to get in on the beta for our unrelated multiplayer party game!

Make sure to check out my game at: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/ludum-dare-simulator-click-and-make-your-own-game-inside-a-game ! Thanks ^^

I've choosen a random list of games, which are in danger zone. And I got this list :

Help these games get ranked : - (Beachside battery) Ranked - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/overcharged - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/power-necromancell - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/home-is-dead - (Trump card) Ranked - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/ragoop - (ludum dare simulator click and make your own game inside a game) Ranked - (Destroy your country) Ranked - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/everybody-plays-golf - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/wired-game - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/lost-connection - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/unpowerer - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/running-out-of-butter - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/lightbulb-1 - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/snowstorm

* If you have a game that is under 20 votes, don't forget to add it in the comments *

* This post will be updated if some of these games get ranked *

* GOOD LUCK EVERYONE :heart: *

I used two useful, yet simple, data type tricks in Mr Mayor's Energy Crisis. The first one AnimationCurves for NonAnimations, the second one you're looking at right now.

Events!

There were many of them, 35 to be precise, and they needed to be stored somewhere. In a longer project I might have used JSON, CSV or one of my own custom formats from the past, but for a jam I needed something simpler and most importantly quicker to setup.
:thinking::bulb: Serialized objects!

Object?

C# objects are made out of a class like this one. You should know this.

If you make a public object out of the class, it won't show up in the inspector though.

Trust me, nothing will show up.

What did I tell you!

Serialized?

But if you add the [System.Serializable] attribute to the class, things will change.

Such a little thing

Makes all the difference

What now, boss?

Well, lets make an array of events.

More events!

And add a text variable to the event class with the [TextArea] attribute.

You'll see what the attribute does in the next bit.

Now editing multiple events in the editor is smooth sailing

It expands the text area! Who would have thought!

So ah, how to use this thing?

We need to be able to find events from the database and easily access it. A linear search function will do as a quick and dirty solution for the first issue.

Sometimes a simple for loop is all you need.

The second problem is trickier, but turning the database into a singleton takes care of it.

If you don't know what this means, just wait and see.

And here is how to use the database from any script.

At this point you can do whatever you want with the data in the event object.

Possible improvements?

There are a few: * Use an enum to find events instead of the name string. This cuts down on typo related bugs. * Rather than using linear search you can sort the array at Start() based on the enum and then find events via direct index at O(1) time. Lightning fast, as they say in the industry.

Conclusion

Simple to code, easy to edit. That's about it and here is the code.

Cheers!

Jetpacks are now added to the sequel of my entry! Entry: PowerCrisis

…But this time I'm very very late! I finally managed to add a framed version of my HTML5 entry, to give it a chance to be seen with the intended pixel size. My art was very poor, and I was OK with that. But with the auto-sized version I found it worse. So, if you played it you could want to see it with the intended size. And if you didn't try it yet… You still can rate it for yet few hours! :D

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/tax-rebel

With less than a day left, I decided to write a postmortem for my game:

What went wrong?

Bad explanations

The objective in “Robot Invaders” is to recharge the mother computer with the batteries that the enemies left when killed.

But, a lot of people didn’t understand that. The relation between the batteries, the computer, and the time bar wasn’t clear, and the additional effect of the batteries (increment Dave’s power) make the things even more confusing.

This is bad because this mechanic was the more original element of the game. Without it, it is just another “robot that needs energy to move”. If I ended improving this game, the clarification will be the top priority. I think that a simple arrow that points to the computer when the battery is low will do de job.

“Subpart” visuals

When I start this project, I wanted to use all the “juice” tricks of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg At the end, I was only able to implement camera shake and the rudimentary animations. Time constraint forces me to leave behind other effects like: - Particles effects like explosions, sparks from batteries… - Shadows for the characters - Afterimages for bullets - Better animations for batteries and the HUD That would have added a lot to the feel of the game.

What went right?

Interesting gameplay

My design philosophy is “gameplay first” and I think that this time I finally nailed it. I was in the right mindset when I the jam started. The previous week was the GMTK Jam that has the theme “dual purpose design”. Even if I couldn’t compete at the end, I extend that weekend thinking about how to design elements with more than one uses.

So, when I come with the “original” idea of “a robot that collects batteries to keep himself alive”, instead of doing the obvious, I started thinking about different uses for the batteries. This mechanic went through several iterations (like use the batteries to buy power-ups and turrets) but at the end, the batteries serve to charge the computer, power up yourself and power up the enemies. This combination of uses creates situations where the player has to make interesting decisions (like “should I went now to the base, or try to keep the power boost a little longer to prevent the enemies from picking the batteries)

At the end, even if I am still thinking how to add turrets, the battery system is the strongest point of the game and I am very proud of it.

Solid code

I know that in the game jam scene, code quickly is more important than coding well. I’m not very good at keeping the code clean. But this time, with some effort and the lessons learned in previous jams, I was able to write my cleanest code.

That helped a lot. The animations and the day one fixes wouldn’t have been possible if I had decided to write the code like in my previous projects. It wasn’t perfect either, but it was maintainable.

The music

In all my previous game jams, I ended tired of the music. Except for this time, this time I love the music.

I don’t know exactly why, I have even use a song that I have previously used in another project, but I think that the fact that all the music were made by the same author has helped.

Anyway, thank you very much Fox Synergy, this game wouldn’t be the same without your music.

What have I learn from the experience?

How to make some visual effects

Even if I ended not implemented them, I have studied particles, afterimages, “realistic” shadows and more before and after the jam.

The limits of my GM knowledge

Apart of how to implement the visual effects previously mentioned, I also realized how limited Is my knowledge in the sound aspect of the game development. More things to study, I think.

That you need 10 points in reddit to publish in the Webgame subreddit

I learn that by the hard way…

So, that's all. If you want, please try Robots Invaders and leave your ratings and comments.

Yesterday concluded Ludum Dare 39, a global game jam in which thousands of participants come together to pair up or fly solo to create a game from scratch. There are two different modes you can decide from: the compo (48 hours, solo) or the jam (72 hours, solo/team). For the 39th Ludum Dare, my good friend Daniel, artist/composer came to stay with me over the weekend (I went to see him on the 38th Ludum Dare). Meanwhile, our lead programmer was staying at his home.

Weeks Before LD39

The weeks leading up to the event were torturous for me because of the excitement and anticipation of the announcement of the themes. For every event a theme is announced and the timer starts, but beforehand community members can submit their own themes which are then judged by others in the community. After three rounds of judging, the final round begins. The final round consisted of 16 themes, one of which would be announced the theme of the LD39. If there was one thing that I learn from LD38, it was that preparation was absolutely imperative to the success of the weekend.

Days Before LD39

The hardest thing about Ludum Dare is finding a good idea for interesting/feasible game mechanics and story. To help this process along I decided that I would look at each of the 16 themes that could end up being the one and create a "mind-map" for each them. [Mind-mapping] (http://www.mindmapping.com/) is an effective technique to have in your arsenal when you exploring the idea of something. I decided I would time-box my approach dedicating 5 minutes to each theme and scribbling down any thoughts or images that came to me during those 5 minutes. By the end of the exercise I had two pages of notes to pull from when the time came to design the game we wanted to make.

My second item of preparation was preparing the workspace, which was the dining room table where Dan and I could both comfortably work. I also cleaned up around the house, doing laundry, dishes, dusting,...etc. so that our surroundings were pristine.

Most importantly was gathering food and drinks for the weekend so that we always had snacks and meals on hand. A big thanks to my girlfriend for preparing most of these meals for us over the weekend!

Now that all the preparations were in order it was time to begin the jam.

Day 1

Of course the theme that was chosen was one of the ones I had the least amount of notes and good ideas for. The theme was "Running Out of Power." We went back and forth on a few ideas and then we came around full circle to and idea. This wasn't good. It was the same exact pattern of LD38, where we damn near scraped the entire project of day 2 and started over. Luckily, I remembered something that had resonated with me from a video I found on YouTube, where concept artist, Matt Rhodes discusses the importance of [knowing the story of a character] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2BRl1hWnnY&t=2612s) when drawing it. I think it's really the same kind of thing for game design. I think things tend to work better when you first start with the character instead of the setting. So I told Dan, the artist, to shut up and just draw the first thing that came to his mind. The result was this little service robot.

Once we all saw the service robot, a very fuzzy outline of a story started coming to light. This was enough to get us started and work on art assets, the main game play system, and the menu UI began. It was just after 1AM Saturday morning when we all decided to go to bed and get back to work at 8AM.

Day 2

I spent most of my morning watching Unity menu tutorials because I'll be the first to admit: I don't know WTF I'm doing in Unity. This project was the second time I had really ever even opened [Unity] (https://unity3d.com/) much less actually use it. Lunch time came around and Jordan wasn't feeling well and had to go lay down, Dan and I decided to go take a break and get some tacos from the new local place that just opened up near my house in Knoxville, TN. Once we got back I pretty much finished the UI layout, after much cursing and screaming because I'd thought I'd be a baller and animate between the menu screen. The animation of the camera was extremely frustrating but I'm glad I went through that pain because it turned out pretty nice at the end. I found myself in the evening kind of just sitting there without anything to do, which on one hand I guess its a good thing because I wasn't still trying to build the menu like last time. I got a build from Jordan and started play testing it into the night. Then it was off to bed again.

Day 3

I woke up and decided I was going to start writing a story about what had happened to the power plant and why the robot was in there. Dan woke up from a dream that morning and he told me in that dream he had decided the name of the power company in our game was named "Sunflower." Really for no other reason than it sounded pretty good. I opened up a text pad and the story just dumped right onto the page. I highly doubt I would had been able to come up with anything comparable had it not been for the "sunflower" word. Dan was furiously working on the last of the art assets and beginning to write music. Jordan was wiring up all the game mechanics and I was trying to fix all the grammar and misspellings I did in the dialogue of the game. (Yes, there were plenty of mistakes found in our release build.)

Day 4

I pretty much idled all day. Went over the dialogue again. Missed all the mistakes I had made again. I gave my menu scene to Jordan to integrate. "What the fuck, man?" was the response I heard when he opened it up. See he had forced the game to play in 832 x 832 resolution whereas I had mine set to full-screen. So to fix that I had to change the canvas sizes and shuffle my UI elements around about 15 minutes later Jordan had integrated my menu to the rest of the game. There was one other slight issue. I had written my UI scripts in JavaScript, mainly because I wanted to sharpen my JavaScript skills to help me out at work. Jordan however has been writing all his scripts in C#, which is the more common approach in Unity. In hindsight, using JavaScript to interact with GameObjects is kind of stupid and it just feels wrong. Maybe that's the object oriented programmer in me speaking but damn it just feels wrong. So Jordan was able to convert my JavaScript to C# in about 15 minutes, which I think speaks to both of our skills, Jordan being a excellent programmer in C# and me having writing understandable JavaScript. The rest of the afternoon was spent idle watching all the art and music assets getting loaded in until we got a build of the game and began play-testing. I think we ended up with 3 or 4 build before we got the release candidate, which we then submitted as our entry.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable weekend and I had a lot of fun. I also learned a lot of lessons and was able to used what I experience from the last LD to our advantage for LD39. If you feel so inclined you can check out our game at these links below:

Now on [itch.io] (https://unibear-studio.itch.io/fizzle)!

You can also check out Unibear Studio!

I've choosen a random list of games, which are in danger zone. And I got this list :

Help these games get ranked : - (Overcharge) Ranked - (Power necromancell) Ranked - (Home is dead) Ranked - RagooP - Everybody plays golf - Wired game - (Lost Connection) Ranked - (Unpowerer) Ranked - Running out of butter - Lightbulb - (Snow Storm) Ranked - Doctor duck and the pitiful power production - Scrap Metal

* If you have a game that is under 20 votes, don't forget to add it in the comments *

* This post will be updated if some of these games get ranked *

* GOOD LUCK EVERYONE :heart: *