https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/anything-for-you

You visit your hometown after a year in college. Faced with the aftermath of your grandfather’s death, you are tasked with cleaning out your attic, filled with his belongings. Explore the artifacts in the room, learn why your relationship with your grandfather is so strained, and experience poignant flashbacks of when he was alive.

The next day you enter the attic, and all of the progress you made cleaning is reverted. Who is undoing your work? And why does your grandpa’s record player keep looping the same song?

This is my first time participating in an official game jam -- hope you all enjoy!

We're making a narrative game about family, loss, and noodles! Think 2D sidescroller meets Cooking Mama. A story about having hope in the darkest times + wholesome vibes. As for our interpretation of the theme, we're thinking deeper and deeper into the past.

Here's one of our sprites + a WIP of our settings.

Our game is Cooking Mama meets side scroller meets a wholesome story about hope. A Taste of the Past is about reconnecting with your mother's culture through food while navigating a train that goes deeper and deeper in time.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/a-taste-of-the-past

I never felt like I was good enough to make games.

Before I began my game dev journey, this space felt like a pipe dream, one where I faced constant rejection, reminding me that perhaps I wasn't meant to tell stories. Making games did not alleviate that insecurity -- instead, I became obsessed with those more knowledgable and talented than I am. I was never proud of any project I worked on, and I doubted my investment in a creative career. Honestly, I was jealous of all the amazing games made for Ludum Dare, all the developers who could take me to another world, games where I could temporarily forget my worries.

I was nervous coming into this jam, but I told myself I would put my all into this event. I love cozy narrative-driven games, so I set out to make a simple yet heartwarming game, which manifested in A Taste of the Past, a cooking game about reconnecting with your mother's culture through food while navigating a train that goes deeper and deeper in time. I stayed up past 5am to finish and submitted with less than 10 minutes to spare.

I wanted to say thank you for the love on my project -- those of you who have shared personal stories about loss and family, those who made playthroughs of my game, those who left a comment, those who played and felt something. Your support has given me hope that I belong in games. My heart is warm because of your constructive and complimentary feedback.

For those who enjoyed my game, we plan on making a more polished version to release on Steam! You can follow my Twitter to keep up with our development process.

We're making a mystery top-down game about ghosts and family! With less than one day left in the jam, here's what we've been working on (and what's ahead of us...Note: Finishing is not looking good). This is the most ambitious idea we've taken on for a game jam, and we are paying for that decision right now.

Art wise, we're almost done! We've finished all our sprites + maps; only a title screen and finishing touches are left. Here are some WIP pieces:

Writing wise, everything has wrapped up. I'm using Yarn for the first time and ran into some issues with testing it on Unity, but they've been resolved. While our game is heartwarming like our other games, this is my first time with mystery. Also, somehow all of my LD games have been about familial death. Here's one of the lines said by an NPC: "Don't mind me, I'm just casually thinking about how my mother's ghost is haunting me."

We've wrapped up on music and sfx; all that's left is importing it into Unity. Hoping that happens tomorrow...

That leaves programming: our great challenge. I have major regrets about the complexity of our concept. We were having troubles with Github earlier today, and there's so much left ahead of us. We're working on implementing art + writing, finishing our inventory system, and having quests. Looks like a long night is ahead of us...

Hey everyone! For Ludum Dare 48, I made A Taste of the Past, a narrative sidescroller about cooking Asian food and accepting your mother's passing. We've been working on our game since the jam, and we've released a trailer and Steam page.

Please consider wishlisting our project! If you are also releasing an improved version of our game, feel free to link to your game so we can support it.

Watch our trailer here: https://youtu.be/BrNtI6g74zM

Hey, all! Our game is a narrative platformer where you're a member of a development team trying to make a game for Ludum Dare. As your team disagrees about what type of game to make, chaos and hilarity ensues! Our game is experimental and a little silly, so if you're looking for an unconventional LD game, check us out. :)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/delaying-ludum-dare