With sound: https://twitter.com/Lngly_/status/1444200536849346561

Video: https://twitter.com/Lngly_/status/1444351211210100740

With sound: https://streamable.com/gz2sgo

I struggled a bit this Ludum Dare.

At first everything went well, I had the chore mechanic of jumping on notes to play music done within the first half day of the jam. Tying it to Beethoven as the game's character was also rather quick. But then I hit a roadblock on what the actual game play should be.

The prototype was a side scroller, but initially I had an infinite jumper in mind. So I switched to that but could not quite make the endless jumping work. As the character dropped, notes that spawned after the initial batch were too far apart form the character to ever get back up. I kept trying to make this work until shortly before the compo deadline. Defeated and exhausted I went to bed.

Five hours later after waking up, I decided to switch it back to being a sidescroller. I started by researching about Beethoven a bit, what compositions he made when, what his life was like, his struggles etc. Then after I had that I started transcribing three of his songs into text files, carefully watching simple versions of the songs on youtube. And thus Road to Joy was born.

The game is a bit rough around the edges, it lacks proper world graphics and some parts are horribly hard tuned. The movement mechanic can be quite awkward and difficult but very satisfying once learned. Playing Beethoven while jumping on platforms feels amazing to me.

I'm really happy with how it went, I just wish I had abandoned the infinite jumper earlier. If I had spent all of Sunday and the early hours of Monday on this, I think it would be a lot nicer looking.

I'm dusting off a very old idea I did in university. You're a little flame in the sewers and are desperately trying to survive by burning up trash and getting through the level.

Spent a lot of time on brainstorming before a friend reminded me of this game. The original game was in 3D for a CG class, for LD I'll do it in 2D.

It took me a while to get the particle system to work the way I imagine it I'm still not very happy with it, I think I'll keep it for now and move on to gameplay and come back later to make it better.

Here's a video from the original game I made back in 2010 https://i.imgur.com/N4gJxDd.gif

and here's what I currently have

I spent the entire day tweaking the particle system for the character until I was somewhat happy with it. It's still not perfect but I really like the way it looks when standing still, especially the full health version is nice.

Here's a gif of going from full health to 75% and then back up by consuming a crumbled up paper.

I added Mario Bros style fireball shooting. Each fireball consumes your health so you also run out of them with each tick even if you don't shoot.

I need to focus on gameplay now, art and sound will suffer for sure unless I abandon compo and aim for jam.

I was aiming for the compo 8h before the deadline I realised it's impossible to really get the game in a state I wanted to show off so I went to bed instead and opted to use the extra day and submit to the jam instead.

Second time in a row that has happened, but for different reasons this time.

I'm really happy with the version I submitted, I think it's best game yet.

There were a couple of things I couldn't get in, some which are rather simple and would've made the game feel even better. For example getting hit sounds on enemies and the character itself, some background music, spending a bit more time to tile the final levels.

It was also the first time I took a stab at bigger pixel art, like the boss here. Overall I think it went okay but the run animation is horrible :)

Would love to hear some feedback!

Very little progress. Widened the area bit and added score and some birds. Also this isn't centered...

I really struggled with the theme. I wasted so much time doing nothing but complaining about the theme. In the end, I stuck with my first idea and now I like it alright.

That's my lesson for this jam: Keep it simple, every time I go with my first idea I usually make it into "something" ta least.

https://twitter.com/Lngly_/status/1652349087919013889

Yet another compo done, yet another Celeste clone.

The jam went very similar to the last one, I had an idea and a mechanic very quickly and then proceeded to slack off for far too long. Only afterI added some basic art and sfx, I realise that it's actualyl kinda fun to play. Rushed to the finish line but the game is just too short.

I need to plan my time better.

How did your jams go?