I was happy to see the first Let's Play video of my LD43 entry Blót =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJTwL-snrKk

Since I didn't get to play through the game before submitting I am happy with the way the timing and flow (and the fact that it's "completable") =)

You can play Blót here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/blot-1

Tonight I will add a WebGL version - there seems to be a problem as it removes some particle systems which I rely on in the game - hopefully it's just a quality settings issue.

Meanwhile, here's the run animation in Blender, 21 frames:

And a small preview of the ragdoll in game:

The Windows Download version of Blót is available here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/blot-1

I'm happy to share the timelapse that I recorded while making my lowpoly platformer Blót. I've added narration to the video so I speak a little about my thought pattern, priorities, time management, problems, and techniques.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqzLrMMmrr4

You can play Blót here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/blot-1

I've added a WebGL version of Blót: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/blot-1

But now... time to sleep... I am sending my hero from Blót to bed too.

I will be hosting a speedrun competition for my game Blót where you can win a prize. Rules to be announced soon. Here is my personal best run so far, but there is still a lot of time that can be found where I wasn't very smooth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9lhaQrPcN0

Hint: As with speedrun competition you can find bugs and use them to your advantage to shave off time :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UgxL6JdGw

I'm continuing to work on LD43 entry Blót. This version isn't released yet - I will release it after the rating period of LD43 has ended so it doesn't get confusing. In this video, I have added vertex shader animation for trees when they are struck (Fortnite-like bobbing =) and the tiles shake when you land on them and when lightning strikes. I have also changed the sound to some of the thunder sounds that you can get from my Universal Sound FX pack.

As I continue to do a post-compo version of Blót, I am creating a video tutorial series that I'll be posting on YouTube when I make this enemy character for the game.

The video series is about 30 episodes long and broken into 3-15 minute videos that go through everything about modelling, detailing, coloring, rigging, skinning, and animating the character. You can follow my YouTube channel or Twitter if you are interested to see when the videos appear.

Hi everyone,

I am making some more enemies for my game Blót and this time around I thought I'd create a tutorial since I am not under the normal Ludum Dare time pressure =)

If you want to follow along, I am making the episodes very detailed to describe every step so it'll be about 20 episodes to create, color, create armature, weight paint, and animate this character. The first two episodes are available on YouTube and I'll be uploading one every day until the entire series is up:

* Part 1 *

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

* Part 2 *

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVl4tPGOzK0

I'm happy to announce that the speedrun competition is now open!

Prizes include $50, $25 and $10 Gift Cards at Amazon or Steam.

Check out all the details here, including rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShieefdTYqA

Livestreaming your attempts is always welcome too =)

Good luck everyone (and I hope I didn't miss out any important details =)

This is turning out to be so much more fun and rewarding than I ever expected.

* Inspiration*

A few weeks ago I watched a video analyzing Super Mario world record run Super Mario World Record Explained and I was amazed at the level of hardcore frame timing and how important it was to leverage bugs and glitches in the game to achieve fast runs. That video game me an idea. When I created my LD43 platformer Blót, I knew it would contain some bugs - which Ludum Dare game does not? =)

Inspired by the Mario World Record runs I made one level in Blót but I broke it up into 6 stages (you could call it 6 mini-levels). Since most play+rate period game playing probably lasts in the region of 2-10 minutes (my own uneducated guess) I aimed towards a playtime of around 5-10 minutes to complete the game. I figured that I can add more levels and content post jam if the game seems to generate some interest.

* Hosting my own Speedrun Competition *

A couple of weeks following the LD weekend when the dust started to settle, I decided to host a speedrun competition for Blót. When I play-tested before release, I completed the game in about 5 minutes. Before posting the official launch of the competition I recorded my own speedrun as a demo and the time I achieved was 3:28:279.

I have implemented a timer in the game so one can get an accurate score and the idea of the competition is that you have to record your screen to prove your run and post it to YouTube.

* What can you win, and why am I doing this? *

My main driver for this was to just do it for fun and maybe get some more eyes on the game. I thought I would add some motivation by offering some prizes to the winner ($50), runner up ($25), and third place ($10) in the shape of Amazon or Steam gift cards as a token of appreciation for taking the time to participate. I was a bit concerned if this would be considered unethical in terms of LD since it's all about having fun, training, sharing your game and code for free, and so forth - but at the same time, I figured that if people decided to possibly pour hours into playing the game for the competition there should be some type of reward so I made the decision to give it a try at least.

* Let the speedrunning begin *

The first day, nothing really happened. Then I got a notice that a Twitch streamer, Hagge (check out his stream: https://www.twitch.tv/ahagge). I noticed he was really trying to set a fast pace and he was starting to identify glitches in the game to exploit. For example, I had a keystroke in the game to test the ragdoll during the development which I forgot to remove before I released the game. That keystroke can be used when you reach a runestone to kill the character which saves you a couple of seconds for each runestone as the Viking would otherwise do a little celebration gesture. I also noticed that the resource count did not reduce if you quit to the menu and restarted the game, which means that you can save precious time by not chopping down trees as originally intended when designing the game.

* Today, two new world records were set *

One by Hagge with a time of 1:39:974:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlH9Jb5-zNg

And within the hour, a new one by HexaBit with a time of 1:33:882

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Hj7unJ2h8

These are amazing times already. Only 3 days into the competition. And I see in the videos above that there is still plenty of time to shave off which makes me wonder what the final time will be when the competition ends on midnight of New Year's Eve!

* What's fun and what's rewarding? *

So, I started this post by mentioning that it is turning out to be more fun and rewarding than I expected.

The fun (and rewarding for that matter) part is seeing people playing the game. I do worry a bit that it will become a bit obsessive though. I noticed myself trying to set a score that adrenaline and nerves kick in and frustration sets in when you throw away what started as a good attempt.

The rewarding part is that the game is receiving extremely thorough play testing and I even get detailed glitch reports (such as this one Blót Glitch Explained how to reproduce bugs. When I make the post-LD version of Blót, I have very valuable information when it comes to reducing and eliminating bugs.

* It's not a bug... *

Finally, I am enjoying the glitches and the bugs. Even though I strive to eliminate them during the development process, it's funny to see them become tactics in the game when trying to set the fastest possible time to get from start to finish. I suppose, in this sense, I can really say "It's not a bug, it's a feature" and really mean it =)

* Want to play? *

If you want to participate, there is still plenty of time. Check out the announcement video with the rules and prizes here:

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

* Have a great Christmas! *

For now, I wish you all a nice Christmas holiday - take care and have fun making games!

I performed worse in most categories with this game - and ironically enough it seems that the less time I spend on a game during LD the better it scores =)

The speedrun competition finished at the same time as the LD43 voting and it was a very useful approach for bug testing. Four players in particular played between 100 - 400 runs each to set the fastest time during the past 3 weeks and when they found a multi-jump glitch they cut the time down to do sub-minute runs. This was the winning speedrun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P971qaGI3tc

This winning run made use of the multi-jump glitch, the suicide glitch (press R to go rag-doll, that I used during development for testing), the resource reset glitch (I forgot to reset resources to zero if you pressed "quit" instead of "continue".

Thanks to everyone for playing and rating Blót!

I was away for the first 36 hours of this Ludum Dare celebrating my wife's birthday. I didn't think I'd manage to put together much considering there was 12 hours until deadline when I started about 3pm Swedish time on the Sunday. With this being my 9th consecutive Ludum Dare, I wanted to at least throw together something so I wouldn't break the streak =)

I'm happy with the result though. I won't score well on Innovation I'm sure because I made a top down shoot em up =) I had to stick to something safe considering the time.

Hey all - Just after the LD event I went abroad for a short vacation and when I got back I was overloaded with work. But now, I'm finally able to play and rate some games.

I'm working on a tweaked version of the game to balance the game play a bit and I'm also considering hosting a competition like I did with my last entry, Blót.

I hope you get a chance to play and rate Blood Money, it's available in Web/HTML5 - what score can you get? I'll play and rate your game if you post a comment after trying the game - feedback is most welcome and appreciated =)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/blood-money-3

I'm in the process of making a post-compo version of my entry Blood Money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzmxBCh0Fn0

I'm quite happy with the progress so far. But the player ship is just a tad overpowered during progression (understatement =) and I reached integer overflow on the scoring...

The video shows some shorts clip over from a half hour session. I am aiming for a sub-10 minute play time per round with the final version.

Hey guys and girls!

Another Ludum Dare is archived into history - this event is such a cool thing to be a part of! Remember - the results and rankings are of course interesting to dig in to, but it's taking part and submitting a game before the deadline that is the true challenge and everyone who did so should be proud regardless of what ranking you got!

In my game "Blood Money" I used a simple method to create modular spaceships that are UV mapped, textured, and assembled into a bunch of unique spaceships with very little effort.

I feel that this is a very powerful method to use, especially for events such as Ludum Dare where time management is critical. I created the spaceships in my game in a matter of minutes and I'd like to share the technique with everyone - hopefully you can find it useful and use the technique in your future games =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZe00W_WDq0

I wanted to share some of my lessons learned and tips that I've accumulated over the past 9 Ludum Dare event's that I've had the pleasure to take part in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyJ3fhNrn9g

Hopefully the video can act as some inspiration and encouragement to keep participating in future Ludum Dare events for both newcomers as well as experienced gamedevs!

Keep it up everyone!

Less than 40 days to go now! I thought I would re-post this video, hopefully it can provide some inspiration and ideas while waiting and preparing for Ludum Dare 45 =) The video is particularly aimed towards those of you who have never tried Ludum Dare, but maybe it can be of some use even for seasoned participants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyJ3fhNrn9g

LD45 will be my 10th consecutive event. Originally I wanted to participate ONCE to see what it was like. That was LD36. Now I just can't stop - and I don't want to stop for that matter.

Get your tools ready and take care everyone!

Hey - I hope you are all super excited for Ludum Dare 45!

Sorry for the re-post, but as some of you are getting prepared, I wanted to share this video one last time about making a game in a weekend during Ludum Dare. I hope it can add to your ideas while you patiently wait for another 2 hours until the event begins :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyJ3fhNrn9g

Best of luck everyone and have fun!

As always, I'm excited that it's time for Ludum Dare! Unfortunately I've caught the flu this time but I will try to make a simple game despite that. I don't want to break my ongoing LD streak =)

My tools are the usual suspects: * Unity (2019.2) * Blender 2.8 * Photoshop * Illustrator (if I flip out and go 2D again) * Cubase 9.5 + countless VST instruments * Sound Forge 11 (old, yet NOT reliable =)

I have finally, after I don't know how many years, started to use GitHub so sharing the project will be much simpler this time around after the event.

Also, please, please let me stay away from shoot'em'ups and platformers. I need to redeem my innovation rating!

Phew, I finished in time and I've uploaded my compo game "I Have Nothing - If I don't take from you".

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/i-have-nothing-1

With having the flu this weekend I was skeptic if I would make anything at all. Then I spent the first 5-10 hours making art assets so I was even more doubtful after that, haha. But, I'm happy I made it to celebrate my 10th consecutive Ludum Dare!