Ludum Dare #1, theme Guardian. My game, Trout!. Trout! is a game where you the blue fish must rescue the orange fish. Well… assuming they were in peril. Being the first LD48, I still hadn’t got used to how to best work in 48 hours. The game lacked scenery collision, making it no actual challenge at all. Beware the hook though. 
The game scored Bronze in the graphics category.
Tags: allegro, final, Fish, guardian, hook, keys, LD1 - Guardian, Peril, Trout, Windows
LD48 #6 theme was “Light and Darkness”. Another theme that came close to winning was Remote Control, which I also included in my entry. So I made Habitat For Horror. This game is quite flawed – it’s a somewhat interesting and worthwhile puzzle/arcade game where you have a limited supply of fuses with which to keep rooms lit in an apartment building. Evil CHUDs crawl up from the sewers, but can only travel in the dark, so you must keep your tenants safe from them. The flaw is that in order to have remote control, I have you working only on a fusebox rather than clicking directly on the rooms you want to lighten or darken. It’s just kinda weird. Would be much more playable if played directly.
Tags: apartment, CHUD, darkness, final, fuses, light, PTK, remote control
LD48 #8 theme was “Swarms”. It also occurred right around the initial release of the Nintendo Wii. Thus, you get Wee Ninja, a game where you are trying to beat an insanely large horde of other shoppers to the last remaining Wees in stock during the holiday season. It’s fun to play, simple, and includes achievements to unlock bonus abilities. One of the more complete entries I’ve ever done (possibly because the gameplay was so incredibly simple!).
Tags: beat-em-up, combos, fighting, final, ninja, PTK, shopping, swarms, tiles, wee
LD48 #8.5 was an unofficial competition with two themes: Moon, and Anti-Text. “Moon” was actually some insanely long thing about how you’re looking at the moon and suddenly realize it’s an alien spaceship or something, but we just called it Moon. So I created probably my favorite of my own LD48 entries, Moon Invaders. There’s no text whatsoever in the entire game, which makes reading the manual rather necessary, since it’s a strategy game. It’s basically a tower defense game, but instead of monsters following a path, they descend Space Invaders style. I greatly enhanced this game post-compo, working obsessively for a week. I just like it!
Tags: anti-text, explosions, final, invaders, lasers, moon, PTK, research, retro, shopping, space, tower defense, upgrades
LD48 #8.5 was an unofficial competition with two themes: Moon, and Anti-Text. “Moon” was actually some insanely long thing about how you’re looking at the moon and suddenly realize it’s an alien spaceship or something, but we just called it Moon. So I created probably my favorite of my own LD48 entries, Moon Invaders. There’s no text whatsoever in the entire game, which makes reading the manual rather necessary, since it’s a strategy game. It’s basically a tower defense game, but instead of monsters following a path, they descend Space Invaders style. I greatly enhanced this game post-compo, working obsessively for a week. I just like it!
Tags: anti-text, explosions, final, invaders, lasers, moon, PTK, research, retro, shopping, space, tower defense, upgrades
LD48 #9’s theme was “Build the level you play”. Sadly, I came up with that theme, yet still spent the first 12 hours or so of the contest trying to come up with an idea that would work. Eventually, I decided that Medusa was somebody who could build the level she played (by turning enemies into platforms). In the end, I had Medusa’s Lament, a game so simple it could’ve been a flash game you played on the web. But it’s fun for the few minutes it keeps you entertained and features a mildly disturbing soundtrack.
Tags: build the level you play, crows, final, medusa, PTK, statues, stone
LD48 #0 was a 24-hour competition with the theme “Indirect Interaction”. To celebrate that, I created Castle Smash, an RTS game where you have no control over your units. You just make buildings to create them, and decide where to build bridges. Their “AI” tells them what to do. Yes, it’s a lot like Majesty, which I had not even heard of at the time. This is a 2-player (at the same computer) game, with no single player option at all.
Tags: building, castle, final, indirect interaction, knight, peasant, RTS, tiles, tinyptc, wizard
Ludum Dare #3 (2003), theme Preparation. My game, PuffBOMB. Propel a hamster character to an end zone using bombs. Incredible Machine with explosives, burning, and screaming. :). The original compo version, unfortunately, featured only 2 levels.
PuffBOMB scored a Silver for sound, and came in 5th place for fun.
Download: Original compo version
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After the compo, I continued to work on the game over a couple weekends, adding 10 actual levels to the game. Also, adding custom level support, due to Stephen Stair offering to build a level editor. The game was later featured on several on several game magazine coverdisks.
Download: Post compo version (0.8)
Eventually, in 2005, I went ahead and fancied up the original game for submission to the IGF and Slamdance competitions. Changed the graphics dramatically, toyed with some graphical effects like a cartoony fire effect, white outlining effect, and so on. Added a proper menu, and ported the game to the Mac.
PuffBOMB was a finalist for the “Popcap Casual Game Award” at Slamdance 2006.
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Today, development continues on the so called “super remake” of the game.
Tags: allegro, burning, final, fire, hamster, LD3 - Preparation, mac, mouse, osx, preparation, puffbomb, scream, Windows
Ludum Dare #3 (2003), theme Preparation. My game, PuffBOMB. Propel a hamster character to an end zone using bombs. Incredible Machine with explosives, burning, and screaming. :). The original compo version, unfortunately, featured only 2 levels.
PuffBOMB scored a Silver for sound, and came in 5th place for fun.
Download: Original compo version
After the compo, I continued to work on the game over a couple weekends, adding 10 actual levels to the game. Also, adding custom level support, due to Stephen Stair offering to build a level editor. The game was later featured on several on several game magazine coverdisks.
Download: Post compo version (0.8)
Eventually, in 2005, I went ahead and fancied up the original game for submission to the IGF and Slamdance competitions. Changed the graphics dramatically, toyed with some graphical effects like a cartoony fire effect, white outlining effect, and so on. Added a proper menu, and ported the game to the Mac.
PuffBOMB was a finalist for the “Popcap Casual Game Award” at Slamdance 2006.
Today, development continues on the so called “super remake” of the game.
Tags: allegro, burning, final, fire, hamster, LD3 - Preparation, mac, mouse, osx, preparation, puffbomb, scream, Windows
Save The Hut was my very first entry into the world of ‘make a game in a low amount of hours’ compos. It was all about The Hut, and how to Save it from the hut-hungry alien invaders. The player had to make sure The Hut survived for a certain amount of time. To achieve this, stuff could be built, but there was a limit set by the amount of credits available. It played as a mix of RTS and puzzle.
Featuring 10 levels, 8 bit palette graphics awesomeness, developed for DOS using Allegro and DJGPP, it placed about 14th. Its shortcomings seemed to be that people had trouble figuring it out, had real trouble passing level 3 (The Holy Cactuses, which was pretty hard), had trouble running DOS games, and also found ‘hold out for X seconds’ extremely annoying (because it sucks to fail at ‘2 seconds left’ and have to replay the level).
You can download a newer, slightly improved version (for Windows) of Save The Hut as a .zip archive, or as an installer. Or, you could get the old compo version (for DOS).
Tags: 2D, aliens, allegro, building, C++, cottage, DOS, final, firs, guardian, huts, invasion, protection, puzzle, RTS, save, tiles, Windows
Save The Hut was my very first entry into the world of ‘make a game in a low amount of hours’ compos. It was all about The Hut, and how to Save it from the hut-hungry alien invaders. The player had to make sure The Hut survived for a certain amount of time. To achieve this, stuff could be built, but there was a limit set by the amount of credits available. It played as a mix of RTS and puzzle.
Featuring 10 levels, 8 bit palette graphics awesomeness, developed for DOS using Allegro and DJGPP, it placed about 14th. Its shortcomings seemed to be that people had trouble figuring it out, had real trouble passing level 3 (The Holy Cactuses, which was pretty hard), had trouble running DOS games, and also found ‘hold out for X seconds’ extremely annoying (because it sucks to fail at ‘2 seconds left’ and have to replay the level).
You can download a newer, slightly improved version (for Windows) of Save The Hut as a .zip archive, or as an installer. Or, you could get the old compo version (for DOS).
Tags: 2D, aliens, allegro, building, C++, cottage, DOS, final, firs, guardian, huts, invasion, protection, puzzle, RTS, save, tiles, Windows
We cheated! We were two ppl working on SokoBomb me (drZool) and dr Elak. Yes, but we told so up front when we begun. Anyways the compo game is a randomly generated sokoban adventure… minus adventure. And the postcompo game is a puzzle/action adventure, without randomly generated rooms. But with whitty npc’s and melting icecubes
The original entry with random levels are here
The post compo beta/demo of the game with hand made levels can be found here including a video of the gameplay. We did enter Swedish Game Awards with it, but did not place.
Here are screens from compo entry:
First random generated level. Note to self: improve difficulty.
Dr Zoolak in a mean mood. Random-generated level.
A visit to cubicle hell, random style.
Here comes post compo screens:
Soko showcasing the latest in weapon sprite fashion.
Refraction in action.
Who farted?
Better put your shades on, those are real hardshadows.
No smoke without fire. Creeping features abound!
Pathfinding up and running, so are the conveyor belts.
Tags: action, adventure, burn, cheat, explosion, final, fire, iso, NPC, pathfinding, puzzle, random, shockwave, sokoban, sokobomb, water, whitty
We cheated! We were two ppl working on SokoBomb me (drZool) and dr Elak. Yes, but we told so up front when we begun. Anyways the compo game is a randomly generated sokoban adventure… minus adventure. And the postcompo game is a puzzle/action adventure, without randomly generated rooms. But with whitty npc’s and melting icecubes
The original entry with random levels are here
The post compo beta/demo of the game with hand made levels can be found here including a video of the gameplay. We did enter Swedish Game Awards with it, but did not place.
Here are screens from compo entry:
First random generated level. Note to self: improve difficulty.
Dr Zoolak in a mean mood. Random-generated level.
A visit to cubicle hell, random style.
Here comes post compo screens:
Soko showcasing the latest in weapon sprite fashion.
Refraction in action.
Who farted?
Better put your shades on, those are real hardshadows.
No smoke without fire. Creeping features abound!
Pathfinding up and running, so are the conveyor belts.
Tags: action, adventure, burn, cheat, explosion, final, fire, iso, NPC, pathfinding, puzzle, random, shockwave, sokoban, sokobomb, water, whitty
Ludum Dare #2, theme Construction/Destruction and Sheep. My game, Sheep Strike. Sheep Strike is a 2 phase game. In the first phase, you construct using Tetris blocks, a defensive barrier to protect the baby wolves. Occasionally getting guns as well. In the 2nd phase, using your guns, you’d defend the base from a bombardment of sheep coming from the sky.
The game scored a Silver in the Theme category.
Tags: allegro, construction, construction destruction, destruction, explosion, final, LD2 - Construction/Destruction, mouse, sheep, shooting, tetris, Windows
Gnome Guard was my entry to LD1 – theme guardian. In the game, you are confronted with a horde of small gnome children, and have to safely guard them home after school.
The title screen
The gnomes will run towards the green pillar, and avoid the red pillar.
But only if they feel like it.
The original download is mirrored here – no idea if the game itself still works: download link
Tags: allegro, final, gnomes, guardian, LD1 - Guardian, linux, povray, RTS
Insanity was my entry to LD4. The topic was “infection”. My idea was somewhat far-fetched and only in the story – the home town of Ian the janitor is befallen by an infection of insanity – so he has to beat up all the scientists at his workplace to find the cause of the infection and a cure.
Since I messed up the base engine (tried to somehow stuff the 3D into 2D), I wasn’t able to finish. There’s just one level with place holder graphics, but the level can’t be won and so the story never reaches its conclusion.
Tags: allegro, beat-em-up, fighting, final, infection, insanity, janitors, LD4 - Infection, linux, scientists, unfinished
Battery was my entry to LD9. The theme was “Build the level you play”. Initially, the open voting hinted at a clear winner of the theme “battery”, for which Hamumu found the best explanation: Battery is a place where bats are hatched. Now, when I woke up the morning of the LD, first thing was I checked the theme, and it mysteriously had shifted. So, I decided to make an RTS where you start with nothing, then have to build up the battery you play.
The title screen.
An in-game shot. Basically, you can order bats to dig (build the level you play), and in the new cave room build different structures for hatching worker and soldier bats and providing food to them. At fixed intervals, a wave of most horrific enemies will attack the battery – so you better have enough soldiers by then.
Tags: bats, battery, blender, build the level you play, building, construction, digging, final, LD9 - Build the level you play, linux, pygame, python, resource management, RTS
Hydra was my entry to LD7. The theme was “growth”. It’s a top-down shooter, where you play a growing hydra.
At the start, the hydra is merely a small worm – and even a single knight who has set out to kill you is a dangerous foe.
Some levels later and after eating lots of knights, the Hydra has reached quite some size. But, there’s now also more knights, and they also got bigger and stronger.
The final form when you win the game – I doubt anyone ever has encountered this without using cheat codes.
Download: original LD7 submission (no idea if it still works on modern systems)
Tags: allegro, final, growth, hydras, LD7 - Growth, linux, opengl, shooter, top down
My first LD entry, for the #7 compo in December 2005.
Story, according to readme.txt:
You’re kidding right? Uhm… Control
Jackie as she tries to escape from her
sugar-induced nightmare by climbing an
ever-growing flower. Flying pigs are
attacking and she needs to feed them
candy until they burst.
Collect delicious pig eggs for score,
and keep a look-out for hearts to boost
your health should you need it.
What more is there to say? You jump around, throw candy, collect eggs and try not to fall into the water as platforms appear and disappear from the randomly growing flower. The flower itself was the most advanced piece of code in this one, and the first thing I started working on. Generally I seem to go about LD compos that way – think of some cool technical concept, then implement it and try to turn it into a retro platformer somehow…
Download, WIN32 binary+src: jackiebs.zip (1.24 MB)
—
Just starting out, no platforms have grown out yet.
—
Flower has grown a fair bit and there are tons of platforms.
—
White pig has eaten too much candy, burst is imminent.
Tags: birds, candy, final, flower, grappling, jackie, pigs, pixels, platformer, retro
Having learnt some great lessons from my previous LD48 entry, Save The Hut, I decided to not include as much boringness, confusion and frustration in my next game. Together with the theme Construction/Destruction, and a cosmetic theme of Sheep, it all became so obvious: I was to make a game where you construct traps to destruct sheep. And lo and behold! there was The Destruction of the Sheep.
I decided to use pretty much the same tech as for Save The Hut, but used it better to get some fancier stuff, like sub tile precision movements, rotated sprites, pseudo 3D particle gibs, and paintable background.
The game was supposed to be a puzzle game, but in the end only a few levels were puzzly, the rest was just mindless, but entertaining, sheep destruction with lots of gore. All in all, it worked out very well, making me a winner in ‘fun’ and ‘complete’ categories, and third in ‘gameplay (innovation?)’ and ‘overall’.
There’s an improved version available, adding some fixes, and a 2x time speed-up button (but there remains at least two bugs and a lot of spelling errors). You can get this version of The Destruction of the Sheep as a .zip archive or as an installer. They’re for Windows.
The original compo version is also available, both for DOS and for Windows (the Windows .exe was kindly provided by Hamumu during the compo). There’s also the source.
Tags: 2D, allegro, building, C++, complete, construction, destruction, DOS, explosions, farm, final, fluffy, fun, gore, puzzle, sheep, tiles, traps, Windows, winner