7 Hours in and I thought I’d almost just wrecked my project with dastardly maths.

Turns out I’d put the wrong scale value in the distance calculation to begin with. Now I have to go root out the rest of the scale code and make it work with the proper values.

Time to down more caffeine and keep going.

http://www.twitch.tv/geeitsomelaldy

Tags: LD30

Well, it’s been a hectic 2 days and I’ve nearly got something I could call a “Game”. At least, at the moment it has no failure states (or win states) – so I guess TotalBiscuit wouldn’t agree that it’s a game in that respect.

One hurdle I’ve come across is thanks to the engine I decided to make the game in. Unity. The 4.6 Beta. Which – and this would be obvious if I thought about it – requires the beta web player in order to play any web builds.

So when it’s done I’ll be putting up both a Web Build (for those with 4.6) and Windows/OSX/Linux executables for those without.

Another hurdle I found was cutting things for time. 48 hours isn’t that much and I had a lot of ideas for this game. The first thing to go was having a crew. Originally I’d had the idea that you’d only get the mutiny ending if your crew hates you. You’d have a Chief Engineer, a Chief Security, Chief Medical and your First Officer. Each event would affect them differently and each one would have a random personality assigned at the start.

It’s one of the ideas I’d like to implement later on once the Jam is over.

Another idea was having Events occur when you reach a destination. It would make the other planets on your way actually useful. As it stands you have all those planets out there, and the Trojan stations, but they don’t do anything. If time permits later in the Jam I might quickly put some dirty ones in.

Another idea was difficulty levels. Having different missions and such. As it stands you get a random destination, with missions you’d choose beforehand. You’d have faster/slower ships, with more or less population aboard. Different starting rates for unrest/illness/hunger etc, and even different starting positions. You might have to evacuate a dying colony, or ferry prisoners (the original intention was for Neptune’s prison colony to be this)

Anyway. Back to work. I need to put in the Game Over screen.

Tags: #LD48 #LD30

This will be my second LD. I had a great time at the last one, but this time I’m going to prepare a bit more.

The first time was a bit spontaneous – a spur of the moment idea – and I paid the price the week after. So this time I’ve booked both the Friday and Monday off work to both prepare for the late-night start, and to recover and return to normal sleep patterns when it’s done

I’ll likely use Unity again, and good ol’ Photoshop Elements 10 and Spritr for graphics and animation. BFXR for sound effects and, with any luck I’ll have time to do proper music with Caustic.

So, for a little bit of preparation I made a quick platforming script in Unity: http://pastebin.com/Gdp2tebW

It supports 1-way platforms and jumping down off them, as well as skidding. I made it in about an hour and a half.

I think next I’ll try and make a simple 3D Platforming script and see how that goes.

Perhaps this is cheating just a little bit, but it is rendering every room at the same time:

12 Hours in and I have something playable. To completion.

Well, kind of. It’s a glorified fetch quest at the moment, but it works, and you get an ending!

http://canazza.co.uk/Files/WIP/AllInOne/12%20hour%20build/12%20hour%20build.html

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=40246

2 days in, and I thought I’d post a quick update on my Pong clone. It certainly looks the part. Though there seems to be a problem when the ball spawns. I really need to check that out. 😉

Thanks to Sound Effects, fonts and sprites from Kenney.nl I’ve been able to focus on writing scripts rather than drawing things. Though I did quickly throw together the arcade cabinet graphics below:

Updates will be published here

So my Pong-themed platformer is now completable, but lacks challenge. I shall be focusing mainly on level design this week and actually getting some pong-themed puzzles in.

I don’t intend for it to be quite as hard as my LD31 entry, I am Sigma (even as the developer I can’t complete that with less than 40 deaths D:), and should be a lot less linear than that is, with more focus on exploring the world you’re in and using your ability to move pong paddles in interesting ways.

So what actually happens behind the scenes of a game of pong?

Where do the balls go when they go off screen?

Maybe they go into a giant crusher, waiting to be recycled?

Maybe there’s a game of Arkanoid in there too?

Or Super Mario Brothers?

http://canazza.co.uk/Files/LudumDare/MiniLD58/ is still incomplete, but it’s getting there. I’d say I’ve got 80% of the screens done.

It’s completable, but I just need to add a few more screens of obstacles in your way >:)

I’ve also put the music I made for it on soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/canazza/sets/robots-playing-pong

I mean, tossing a Caber is rather unconventional…

Seriously. I just made a terrible game.

Saturday morning. 2 am. Walking home from my friends house warming. The themes come up.

‘Hah.’ I thought, ‘Growing… what if I did a game where you grow wings?’

‘Two button controls? I can totally make a platform game with two buttons.’

Can I f***.

Mouse aiming. Left button leap forward. Right button fire your uzi. What a piece of sh… Genius.

Maybe I should just stop making platform games.

You can play and rate this travesty here:

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=40246 

Tags: travesty

So one thing I always try and do is come up with some original music for my Ludum Dare entries and I dare say some of them work better than others.

Original Music always brings out the best in even the worst games. Personally, I use Caustic for Android partly because I’m used to it now, and partly because if I do need to step away from development I can go somewhere completely different and still work on something to do with the game.

One of the earliest pieces of code I wrote in Ludum Dare was a Background Music script for Unity that played a track from the start then looped it from a fixed timecode when it reached the end. ie, a track might have a 4 second intro before getting into the main song, so at the end it’d loop back to the 4 second mark and continue.

It’s not perfect, and there is probably a much better way of doing things, but it does what I need it do to (and one of the cool features is it lets you control its volume through PlayerPrefs so you can even tie it into an options screen)

The music I’ve made, over the last 4 Ludum Dares, well I’ve compiled them all (for better or worse) on soundcloud.

The first LD game I made music for was as much an experiment in music as it was in making a game. I am Sigma (Theme: Entire game on one Screen) played more or less of the music the deeper into the game you went, eventually playing every layer on the very last screen.

For my MiniLD game Behind the Screens (whose theme was ‘Pong’) I made two tracks with similar rhythms but different instruments to produce two different tones. One quite laid back and subtle, the other 8-bit style chiptune.

The less said about the development of Caber Toss (An Unconventional Weapon) the better, but it involved suffering, sleep deprived, through a birthday party with no less than 14 under 8’s. The music for this one was made in an hour, shortly before submitting the game.

Kaiju A-go-go (You are the Monster), while not having an original name (I had no idea it had a namesake when I named my entry) had 4 short pieces of original music. The intro, the level loop, the boss theme and the outro music. Each of which is quite short, but I think work quite well.

My current entry, Eva Ness goes to Hell, while again mechanically frustrating (I did decide to make a 2-button platformer) contains 2 pieces of original music designed to be slightly unnerving, invoking a hellish landscape and with the boss theme, add in a little mix of church organs.

I was not entirely satisfied with my entry for this Ludum Dare, however it would appear that the numbers disagreed with me.

While not my most highly rated game (that goes to I am Sigma, my second LD entry) It wasn’t quite as close to my worst rated entries than I’d originally thought.

Granted, none of the Rankings broke the top 200 this time, but at the same time none of them really fell below the top 500 (okay, I got a 506 for theme even though I covered both the themes). If anything this is my most consistently ranked game.

But the rankings only show how well the game did against the other games in this jam. The raw Star-ratings (out of 5) show the real improvements.

Despite Theme being my lowest ranked metric in this game (at #506), and it’s the second lowest ranked for theme of any of my games, it’s actually the second highest starred rating, coming in at 3.7/5 (compared to 4.3 for I am Sigma, ranked #50 in LD 31 and Kaiju at 3.53, ranked #371). So what the hell does that mean? Well, for one it means that more people in this Ludum Dare followed and better executed the theme than ever before. Which is either amazing considering the challenge posed, or a direct reflection on how easier it was to implement one or both of the themes.

Interestingly enough, despite my generally cack-handed programmer-art style I actually broke the 3/5 barrier for my graphics! Hurrah! They’re now officially above average! (Also broke top 500 for the first time too)

Audio also almost matched the rating and ranking of I am Sigma, getting a 3.11 and sitting at Rank #263, but consider I Am Sigma had an entire day devoted to nothing but the soundtrack, and having the layers of the BGM get layered the deeper you go in the game, I’m actually kind of surprised that Eva Ness got such a good reception. I ended up using the Eva Boss music as the music for the intro screen, as I ran out of time/energy to finish the actual intro music.

Both Humour and Mood got a high ranking this time, though Sigma beat it on humour by 0.03. The music, again, likely contributing a lot to the mood, and the fact I had you shooting at demonic veiny penis monsters likely contributed to the humour.

For Innovation and Fun, well, this was my second most innovative game (next to Sigma, naturally), and my most fun.

Most Fun. Good god you people are masochists. 3.38/5 compared to Sigma’s 3.31. It even ranked higher, by 44 places (311 vs 355)

In conclusion, I feel I did refreshingly better than I expected. From a completely idiotic premise: A 2-button action platformer, to a not-entirely-shat-upon Ludum Dare entry that I’m fairly happy with.

Here’s to the next Ludum Dare, perhaps a slightly saner Theme implementation, and to the next Mini Ludum Dare!

I’ve included the spreadsheet screenshot below

I'm done! And with time to spare.

I might add more to it if I get some ideas, but for all intents and purposes it's done: https://geeitsomelaldy.itch.io/mallows-world-adventure

Along the way I've learned that if you don't guard against it, then putting things into a full inventory can cause a stack overflow, that my programmer art is getting better and is somewhat passable, and that a topographical map of Sri Lanka looks kind of like an Avocado.

Positive feedback on Mallows World Adventure has spurred me in to making a proper go at a sequel.

Mallow and the Nuts of Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq13bP8McK4

Stranded on his island after a Hurricane destroyed the only bridge - without any Milk - Mallow must travel across time in order to get his morning cup of tea.

Travel back ten years to 1977, or get drunk with the British Colonial Navy in 1887, or off to the far flung future of 2007, where paper money is a distant memory.

https://soundcloud.com/canazza/mallow-visits-the-future

Here's a list of some games that are still in the danger zone also run in your browser:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/small-town

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/your-small-world-2

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/its-me-billy

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/infectious-virus-attack

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/little-world-of-pistachio

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/darkman

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/a-small-story-in-a-small-world

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/small-world-giant-steps

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/100-infected

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/first-entry-a-small-world-ld38

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/planet-orb-trials-time-attack

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/small-world-inc

This is really just a reminder for me to play these when I get home, so feel free to add more in the comments.

The last Ludum Dare I participated in was Ludum Dare 34. That was the one with Double Themes: Growing and "Two Button Controls".

I thought my entry was terrible but the numbers seemed to disagree. It was my second-highest rated game. So I wanted to figure out why.

I compared it to my Highest rated game, I am Sigma, for Ludum Dare 31.

So, the question I keep asking myself after these Jams is - "Am I improving?"

After LD34 I took a 'break' - Not intentionally. I ended up having other things to do on those weekends. Instead, I did some other Jams. So asking, after a year of crunching 10 game jams in 12 months, should yield some interesting results.

Ludum Dare 31 had 1364 48hr Compo entries, Ludum Dare 38 had 1104 Compo entries, so a higher ranking in 38 is actually worth significantly more than in 31.

Mood

My main point of contention with this category is that what it means is really really subjective. Especially with Humour existing. It's not a category I try and target. Still, Sigma hit rank 341 with a score of 3.18 and Mallow hit rank 227 with a score of 3.214. So apparently a globetrotting Marshmallow has a better mood than a tortured robot in a space-based Argos.

Humour

Humour was a category I was targeting. The game is about a Marshmallow who goes around the world, trying to save his brother trapped in a block of ice, discovering the topographical map of Sri Lanka looks like an avocado and giving his pet Guinea Pig to someone who wants to eat it.

Mallow ranked 155 with a score of 3.028, beating Sigma's 313/2.88 significantly. So yes, Mallow is funnier.

Audio

I've always tried to set aside time to work on the soundtrack for my Jam games. While Sound Effects are generally just made with BFXR, I do try and hand-craft the music.

I am Sigma had a multi-layered sound track that added more instruments the further you got in the game (Link).

Mallow ended up with 4 30 second loops for each area type (Link).

Personally I prefer Mallow's over Sigmas, mostly because Sigma's was a very simple loop that added instruments, wheras Mallow's added more to the atmosphere of each area and aided with the players navigation of the world.

Sigma's experimental layered approach hit rank 201 with a score of 3.32, Mallow beat it, coming in at rank 111 with a score of 3.471.

Graphics

I've definitely improved my artwork over the course of these Jams. It's one of the easiest things to ignore and half-arse for a programmer like me, but also the place I can improve on significantly.

Sigma's graphics came in at rank 637 with a score of 2.96. Mallow came in at 309 with as core of 3.11. The score itself wasn't much better, but its rank was. Being around the 3-score I'd assume (though without the figures of everyone I can't be sure) that both games are near the middle of the bell curve, where a small increase in score equates to a much higher rank.

Even so I do think my graphics have improved, but Mallow is not my best work. For that I'd probably say one of my non-LD games, such as The Ninjas Garden where I had a bit more time to work on it.

Theme

I am Sigma was in the top 50 for the theme "Entire Game on One Screen" with a 4.30 rating. This is the highest rating I've ever had on any category, and is such a statistical outlier I don't think I'll ever top it. Mallow's World Adventure was at rank 257 with a 3.431 rating. Considering the theme of "A Small World" was incredibly limiting (half the games took the word 'small' and half took the word 'world' and it was rare to find a game that fulfilled both. By trying to actually take the phrase 'A small world' and apply it to the whole game I think it gave me a nice boost, but my absurdist implementation of it may not have been obvious to some.

Innovation

As with Mood, this is an incredibly subjective category. It's rare that I try and make any kind of innovative game mechanics, but Sigma's zoomy-fly-through-previous-rooms thing seemed to have boosted my Innovation score, coming in at rank 127 with a 3.86 score. Mallow is probably the opposite of Innovation, being, as it is, a Dizzy throwback. Mallow came in at rank 418 with a score of 2.6667. I think perhaps next time I should attempt something other than a platform game.

Fun

Games should be fun. In one way or another you should be entertained by a game. While both Sigma and Mallow were platformers, Mallow was designed to be a chill, easy experience while Sigma was a balls-hard death-filled platformer. While Sigma ranked lower, at 355 vs 311, it scored better 3.31 vs 3.068. I think it's hard to compare the two, as they appeal to different types of people. It's hard to say if I've improved the fun aspect of my games, but I believe that people found Sigma significantly more fun than the too-easy Mallow. if anything it's indicative that LD38 games weren't really that fun.

Overall

Sigma ranked 124, with a score of 3.71 while Mallow ranked 295, with a score of 3.264.

From the comments on Mallow people seemed to get frustrated and confused with some of the puzzles, and still ended up getting lost despite the small size of the world. This frustration likely affected the overall score and navigation is definitely something I'm working on addressing in the sequel.

Sigma was clearly a simpler game, with the goals more obvious and the only obstacles being the players platforming skill. I think people were more willing to rate it higher because - while they may have died a lot - they didn't give up because the game wasn't helping them.

Perhaps next time I don't make puzzle the core of the game.

By combining Match 3 and Snake into one game, I think I failed the theme because the result is a fairly compatible game.

I'm not sure I'm excited to play what people have made, unless they're disregarded the theme to some degree the games will be, by definition, flawed, janky and unfun.

Scoring for Theme in this jam will be incredibly difficult to read as well. Did I get a high score in Theme because I took 2 seemingly incompatible genres and made them compatible, or did I score low because I succeeded in combining the two? How will people score success in this theme?

Knowing the motives for how people vote in Ludum Dare for 'Mood' and 'Humour' has always been hard to figure out, with Humour being subjective, and Mood been ill-defined. Now for LD 41 'Theme' will also fit into that category too.

Scoring isn't my only issue with this theme, I'm also worried about new Jammers being turned off by it. It's hard enough to make a game with one genre in 48 or 72 hours, let alone two genres that are fundamentally incompatible. So many people wanting to have a go, only to be put off by one of the hardest to fathom themes in Ludum Dare history.

We'll see next week if my fears are unfounded or not, but it seems to me that this theme was not a good idea at all.

I'm notoriously picky when it comes to slaughtering themes. I maybe say YES to 3 or 4 out of the 2,000 theme suggested.

So here's my list of rules I use, and 50 themes, what rules they break and why

I Reject if the theme is:

1. 1 Word
   • Often overlaps with rule 14. One-word themes are often too broad and can be interpreted too liberally to be nearly pointless
2. A Meme/Too Meta
   • Everything from TV shows to Internet-in-jokes to development In-jokes. That instantly puts people who are out-of-the-loop off joining the jam.
3. Restricts Genre(s)
   • While having too broad a theme is a bad thing, restricting the theme narrowly is also undesirable. Rules 3-6 reflect the desire to be able to make almost any game you want with the theme.
4. Restricts Game Mechanics
5. Restricts Setting
6. Restricts Graphical Style
   • This is a short, intense, game jam. Entrants are not always the best designers and will not join if they don't feel comfortable switching up the graphics style they're used to using. It would also eliminate certain development tools like, say, Pico8 (with its 2D graphics and limited colour pallete) if the theme was "HD Graphics"
7. Is a Simple Contradiction (ie 'Destroy what you create')
   • Usually the opposite problem to rule 1, these are often too restrictive and limit the kind of game you make. With the example you'd first have to have a game where you both create and destroy things. Be it in game-play or narrative. And they're usually incredibly unimaginative.
8. Too wordy
   • Ideal themes should be between 2 and 5 words long. Often they get too specific.
9. 'Fill in the blank' (ie You have too many _) , or implied blanks (ie One too many), or emphasis on pronouns (mostly 'it's')
   • Similar to rule 1, often too broad.
10. Starts with "What" or "You"/"Your"/"You're"
    • These often feel like demands from a topic, rather than a request. Tend to be very broad topics too.
11. Is a Question
    • Often are unimaginative, regularly bleeds over to rule 2 as well.
12. X the Y, X to Y, etc
    • Again, unimaginative and vague.
13. Overtly Political
    • Not against political games, but you shouldn't be forced to make one if the theme demands it.
14. Very Broad Concept
    • Really a catch-all for any theme that still feels too broad without falling directly into the above
15. Already been a theme, or very similar to an old one
    • Simple explanation, people love submitting old themes, slightly tweaked... and it's unimaginative and boring to retread old ground
16. Bad Spelling/Grammar
    • You're not writing a novel. It's a single line. It's not hard to proof read.
17. It's just bloody stupid
    • Come on, some of these are just stupid
18. Would put off Beginner Devs from joining
    • While this is at the bottom of the list, it is a very important one. I will instantly slaughter a theme if I think it would put off a dev who is new to Jams, or new to development, from joining in. A theme, at face value, must allow you make something simple, like snake, or pong variants or something, out of it. If the answer is no, then it's not a good theme. If the theme passes this test and doesn't have very many creative variants, then it puts off experienced devs looking for a challenge. I'll slaughter it then too.

Not all of these rules are created equal. I know a lot of you wont' care about rules 7 through 14, and that's your prerogative. These are my rules, subjective as they are, but any theme that passes them is going to be a great theme.

And the Themes I slaughtered:

• Pathfinding
  • Rules 1, 4, 18
  • Forcing a game to involve pathfinding, or at least suggesting pathfinding (even if you come up with a creative alternative meaning for 'pathfinding') would put off new or uncertain devs.
• Carrot and Stick
  • Rule 12
• Drift
  • Rule 1
• At least one thing procedural
  • Rule 18, procedural generation is difficult. To the point that there's a Procedural Jam that allows you two whole weeks to make something, and doesn't care if you submit something you've been working on for years. It's not something you can do in 48 hours, especially if you're a new dev.
• World drained of colour
  • Rule 6, for all the reasons stated in Rule 6.
• The Keyboard as a weapon
  • Rule 4 because having a weapon restricts the Genre to one that requires a weapon. It would encourage people to make a game first and shoe-horn in the theme after the fact, which doesn't make for fun games.
• 2d shooter
  • Rule 4
• Build-a-Dungeon
  • Rules 12, 14, 18
  • Again, while creative ideas can be made with the theme that don't involve actually building a dungeon, it's incredibly limiting, and at face-value many new devs would feel put-off by such a daunting task.
• Cheat to Win
  • Rule 12
• Close to Home
  • Rule 12
  • Note: I submitted this theme. I never said I was perfect.
• pixel art
  • Rule 6
• Buildings
  • Rule 1
• Not enough power
  • Rule 15, "Running out of Power", (See the game I made for LD 39)
• communism
  • Rule 1
• Just a minute
  • Rule 12
• pirate
  • Rule 1
• If you're moving you can't ____.
  • Rule 9
• Background
  • Rule 1
  • Honestly, this wins the award for the vaguest theme I've seen yet.
• your weapon will not help you
  • Rule 4, 8. Again, restricts the game you make to something that has a weapon.
• Make Two from One
  • Rule 9 (Implied blank: Make Two ____ from One ____)
  • Rule 12
• Platformer Gimmicks
  • Rules 3 and 4
  • Seriously, I love making platformer games. And Gimmicky ones at that. But I wouldn't force that on everyone.
• Survive in Space
  • Rule 12
• Time to Think
  • Rule 12
• Heat
  • Rule 1
  • Okay, got something that's ousted Background from it's vague throne
• not a game
  • Rules 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 14, 17 and 18. But mostly 17. Definitely mostly 17.
• With Wings
  • Rule 9 (Implied blank: ____ With Wings)
• These Themes All Suck
  • While true, it's definitely breaking rule 17, and 2 (those rules tend to go hand in hand to be honest)
• Random Powers
  • Rule 4
• Superpowers in day-to-day work
  • Rule 8
• More than the sum of its parts
  • Rule 8
• Joke with battle royale
  • Rules 2, 3, 16 and 17. This structure sentence english not.
• An unusual form of currency
  • Rule 14, really vague. This could apply to almost anything in a game. Easy to shoehorn in to anything, makes the jam too easy.
• Charge
  • Rule 1
• Lose to Win
  • Rules 7 and 12
• Why Are We Still Here
  • Rules 11, 14
• Topsy turvey world. Roles are reversed
  • Rules 7 and 8
• Fusion
  • Rule 1
• Never Ending
  • Rule 9 (Never Ending ____)
  • Rule 14
• Love You Enemies
  • Rule 7 and 16
• Lost the Instruction Manual
  • Passes!
  • Firstly, I can think of numerous different ways to apply this to very simple games that would make them fresh and exciting. How this theme might inform everything from story, to mechanics, to presentation. It's a very open theme, but not too vague. It's not restrictive, but instead provides guidance into more creativity.
• heat wave
  • Rule 14
• Always expanding
  • Rule 9 (Implied blank: ____ Always Expanding, or Always Expanding ____)
• Glow
  • Rule 1
• It's alive!
  • Rule 9 (Implied blank: 's alive!)
• combine game and gamedev tool
  • Rule 18, very much so. Like, I've been programming for 20 years and making a game-dev tool in 48 hours is daunting, let alone a game and a dev tool that can be used in game at the same time.
• Anti meta, meta game
  • Rules 2, 7 and 18
• Big world, small you
  • Rule 7
• Decremental
  • Rule 1
• Maze
  • Rule 1
• OS simulation
  • Rule 3 and 18

Well, if you made it this far, good for you. I hope you're not bored to tears, but it felt good to get this all down in writing.