Its been one hell of a ride, but I have finished! Had some great fun with my team; Love you guys!

Our game Polymorph:

Polymorph

This was my first game jam ever. Hell, it was my first game ever. A few of friends were talking about ludum dare 2 weeks before and I felt the need to butt in.

What went wrong:

Preparation. They were lacking a programmer so I thought maybe I could learn some unity in those 2 weeks. My knowledge of programming goes back 5 years to my highschool days which is really all a haze now, I was really in for a surprise when I was trying to make stuff happen in unity. Two days before the jam started I suggested we use construct. I ended up going into the weekend having finished 2 very basic construct tutorials which led to me learning how to use everything that first night.

Time management. By the end of Saturday night I were so sure that we were close to finished that I kind of just took Sunday very slow not realizing that I had overlooked a few things. (being a jam entry we had till Monday, but everyone had work on Monday)

Graphics. We didn’t really have an “artist.” Our original plan was to just keep everything very simple, black and white with very basic platforms. When it came down to running the prototype everything looked very dull. On Saturday I asked one of the random friends to mock up some background images on extremely short notice.

Physics! So understanding exactly how to implement the physics was the biggest hurdle I ran into. A lot of the problems we started running to towards the end I just kind of threw a band-aid on and moved on, just for the sake of having a “working” game. But of course this all goes back to preparation.

What went right:

Ideas. We met up on skype right before the theme was announced. Within an hour of the theme being announced we knew exactly what we wanted to make. Hardly anything was changed from our original idea as we were developing the game.

Audio. The audio really helped with the atmosphere of the game. The time was spent implementing the audio mechanics of the game were the most productive.

Organization. Lucky for us dropbox is a very easy solution to share files. Everything was neatly organized and easy to access.

Summary:

Overall I felt like this jam was a success. It was great fun, and I learned a lot! The nervousness I had going in just seems so silly now. I will definitely be back next time!

As Ludum Dare 27 has drawn to a close, I’ve been busy rating and reviewing as many games as possible. As always, the community’s output has exceeded my expectations—I’ve played through 100 games thus far, but over 2000 remain.

Unfortunately, I’ve found that a lot of the games that I’ve played thus far lack a certain polish, at least in the gameplay department—perhaps an unavoidable result, considering the rather stringent “10 second” theme that governed this LD challenge. Many of the games feel as though production was rushed. However, there’s been some truly stunning work in the visual department, as three of my favorite games (listed below) amply display. I advise you to personally check them out, but if you need convincing, here’s a few words of praise:

“Step Out”

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=24347

A very relaxing puzzle platformer, “Step Out” features gorgeous environments that mesh well with the bell-like tones of the sound effects. The otherworldly ambience is particularly suited to the game’s core mechanic, which is a 10 second “astral mode” in which your character steps out of his body to interact with the environment around him. Furthermore, the platforming mechanics were solid, leading me to conclude that the creators both cleverly and competently incorporated the challenge theme in “Step Out.”

“Loopy Lumberjack”

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=7580

Three qualities especially stood out to me in “Loopy Lumberjack:” the visuals, the music, and (by far my favorite component) the humor. It’s difficult to create a game where “the funnies,” “the arts,” and “the sounds” all come together to blend into a seamless whole, but the creators of “Loopy Lumberjack” managed just that. The only criticism I can offer is that the gameplay was not particularly complex, in that it mostly consisted of button smashing. Nonetheless, the game is fun—almost to the point of being addicting, when factoring in the leaderboard. What pushes this game past the “almost” in addicting is the dance mode—definitely check it out at some point, but I’d caution those of you with school, work, or “real people responsibilities” to wait until the weekend to do so.

“Mebby”

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=2958

Speaking of addicting, here’s another game to add to the list—“Mebby,” a schmup that’s a LD equivalent of drugs, chocolate, or both. Again, the game’s humorous elements were one of the reasons I enjoyed the game, along with the great sound effects and visuals. There were plenty of cool (and laughable, but in a good way, I promise!) units and weapons, such as the dubstep emitter, and my own personal favorite, the toilet. Like the previous two games, this is one of those games that are best played rather than talked about—so what are you waiting for? Get to it!

….. and of course I have to plug my own game!

“Keg Quest”

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=20961

Written by: Emily Hosokawa

Added Windows version for those who have trouble with Unity Web Player!

Play & Rate!

Play and Rate Here!
What went right:
The idea was fleshed out pretty quickly that first night.

No big interruptions over the weekend, even had Monday off from work!

I’ve learned from my previous entries to make the learning curve much more friendly. I think the tutorial worked really well.

Level design! I am pretty proud of the levels and the feedback I’ve gotten on the design.

The art overall was great, shout out to my buddy Kahlil (@kahlilangeles)! I really loved what he did with the cut scenes.

I think the narration turned out pretty well, though I am a terrible writer (as you can see in this post).

What went wrong:

All the people I was suppose to work with for this jam disappeared, I assembled different people right before it started so it worked out in the end.  I always prefer working with other people I think its more fun to share the experience! (If you think we would be good partners in crime hit me up! @CraziGame)

Terrible workflow! I was not familiar with any tiling plugins for unity it made level making a huge chore.

Collision problems! Lots and lots of collision problems, along with a few other small bugs.

Sound was kind of the rushed job. I initially forgot to loop a couple stage tracks which I fixed pretty quickly. There were also some volume issues where the music was too loud compared to the narration.

Timezones. The artist and I are on opposite sides of the world, our sleeping schedules heavily overlapped the most productive times for the other person.
Lessons learned:

LEARN THE TOOLS BEFOREHAND! Especially tools for making levels.

I need to familiarize myself with sound making tools.

Tags: ld29, postmortem

Missed out on a few jams but finally got a chance to do one again! Turned out nothing like what was brainstormed, but we finished!

Try it here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=20961