https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

Bring more of your cool games :)

Games played count: 54

Last games: 1. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/exter-meh-nator 2. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/crabs-on-the-island 3. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/particle-wars 4. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/swamp-axe 5. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/window-creatures

I just wanted to let everybody know that I will be playing every single game submitted to me on my streams for the entire time I've been doing this. There's already 10 waiting in queue, but I will be accepting more during this Saturday after which I will have to dedicate the remaining time to make thumbnails for those that don't have one and publish videos. It all should be done before rating period ends. I will be also commenting under each one I've played.

I did had to postpone the update of my own LD game to make this all happen.

I have played 58 games so far.

If you want your game played on stream

• Best Way: Drop a link to your game on stream when I am live https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx
• Join and post on the discord server (in #lobby) https://discord.com/invite/v9mwvt72Qj
• Comment under this post (ineffective when I go live)
• If you prefer anonymity, reach out to me by email support@empyreans.net (also ineffective when I go live)

There is no gatekeeping, I play post-jam version when one is available.

And finally "The Best of..." in my humble opinion

There will be 8 categories with 8 places each: - Game-Design: unique game mechanics especially, but also how coherent it is - Narrative Design: story and how different parts of the game contribute to it - Level Design: both logic and beauty of it - Immersion: how it captures player's attention, whether the world of the game feels alive as if there's something much more to it than is shown. That's in large part "atmosphere / mood" category, but not quite. - Fun Factor: games not necessarily must be fun to be good nonetheless many games are made with fun in mind. Replayability and near-intuitive mechanics / controls do contribute a great deal to this. - Original Soundtrack: only music made specifically for the game - Sound Design: Sound Effects, Voice Over and how it all sounds together - Graphical Design: 2D Art, 3D Models, Animations and how it all looks together

And the tiny big winner, the best of the best based on scores on each place.

If there's a draw, a pinch of bias or maybe a roll of dice would decide the ultimate winner!

There will be also the best "Compo" game separately, but compos are rated along with the rest.

"The Best of..." will be near the end of jam's Rating phase.

...also can you find your game here? :smiley:

*All in chronological order as I played them.

**"Poppet" is missing as I was hoping for updated version and my original playthrough wasn't good (that's on me)

Be seeing ya all,

~XpMonster :)

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

This is the last day you can submit your game :)

Drop a link to your game on stream. Other forms of submissions are no longer accepted. See here for details - https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/sea-beckons/this-weekend-is-the-last

Games played count: 58

Last games: 1. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/placeholder-fish 2. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/rattalion 3. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/animal-golfing 4. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/detective-roach

I have uploaded all videos of the games I've played on stream to Youtube and then took a few days of rest before finally returning to the development of Sea Beckons.

Huge thanks to everyone who tried Sea Beckons in it's current state! Seems like despite my advice against it, many have played it and actually managed to enjoy it :smile: Many expressed their wish to try the final version when it's out and I will work as best and as fast as I can to not disappoint.

If you want to know when release happens, consider following on https://empyreans.itch.io/sea-beckons

There's also more Pirate / Naval action on the way in a bigger project :wink:

So every feedback received on this game also helps with another :heart:

---

Tomorrow I plan to do my stream of "The Best of..." in my opinion of the games I've played there. Very subjective of course and while the winners in some categories were easy to name, not so much in the others. That's all because you all made such cool games, it makes the picking process incredibly difficult :angry: So I blame it on you, stop being so awesome :laughing: (JK)

I might also play some more of your games then, if you want, but without ratings ofc as this train choo choo'd away now.

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

~XpMonster

The best of all the games I played on my stream at https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx (72 of them) :smiley:

While not all games got a place, I have to say that I did loved every single one! :heart:

You're all amazing, keep creating amazing games and I can't wait to see what you'll make in the future :sparkles:

Not official Ludum Dare ranking!

The Best of The Best :trophy:

Among The Deep

@langotriel

---

Runner-up: Fear of the Ungnome & Ponding Experience

The Best of Compo :muscle:

Tiny Checkers

@thyoi

---

Runner-up: Moldable Monster of Mine

The Best of Heart :heart:

Tiny H.O.C.'s Pro Creator

@peter-dam

---

Runner-up: Critter Conflict

"Best of Heart" meaning my personal favorite, all objective points aside

The Best of Graphical Design :paintbrush:

1. Fear of the Ungnome
2. Animal Golfing
3. Chumini: Tiny Army
4. Waddle
5. Bento Bugs
6. Echo Echo
7. Sammich
8. Mystic Mites

The Best of Sound Design :loud_sound:

1. Among The Deep
2. Ponding Experience
3. One Million Microscopic Kittens!
4. Critter Conflict
5. Fear of the Ungnome
6. Tiny H.O.C.'s Pro Creator
7. BomBom Wash
8. Blob, to the Top!

The Best of Original Soundtrack :musical_score:

1. Cyber Critter
2. Planet Maxim
3. Critter Conflict
4. Sammich
5. Neckmeat's Tiny Adventure
6. Small Problems to Grapple With
7. Among The Deep
8. Snake Rolls

Might be a bit incorrect as with some games I couldn't confirm that it was original

The Best of Fun Factor :video_game:

1. Mooovement Game
2. Bento Bugs
3. Critter Conflict
4. Tiny H.O.C.'s Pro Creator
5. Grablin Battle Festival
6. Tiny Checkers
7. Slime King
8. MonkePok

The Best of Immersion :earth_americas:

1. Among The Deep
2. Fear of the Ungnome
3. Tiny Creatures - Lost Kittens
4. Poppet
5. Ponding Experience
6. One Million Microscopic Kittens!
7. The Blueberries Dawn
8. The Fleshfather

The Best of Level Design :city_sunset:

1. Waddle
2. Animal Golfing
3. Mooovement Game
4. Swamp Axe
5. Blob, to the Top!
6. My Tiny Friend and I went on a Puzzle Adventure in the Forest...
7. Dino Island Safari
8. Oddball Assembly

The Best of Narrative Design :books:

1. Ponding Experience
2. Among the Deep
3. Critter Conflict
4. Detective Roach
5. Ego
6. Those Who Die as Cattle
7. My Tiny Friend and I went on a Puzzle Adventure in the Forest...
8. The Fleshfather

The Best of Game Design :game_die:

1. Moldable Monster of Mine
2. Tiny Checkers
3. Tiny Push, Big Nap
4. Inside Creatures Out: What is your gaming MBTI?
5. Flea Circus
6. Rattalion
7. Cyber Critter
8. Critter Cannon

That's it!

P.S. If you want to see the final version of my game, Sea Beckons, consider following on https://empyreans.itch.io/sea-beckons

Farewell till next Ludum Dare!

~ Best wishes,

XpMonster

My 4th Ludum Dare in a row.

I did lose a chunk of time due to personal events, but no worries as this time I'm actually scoping for the jam format :)

Rainesphere who also made music for "Sea Beckons" will help me with the sound design. https://www.youtube.com/@Rainesphere/videos

GLHF everybody :)

P.S. I maybe will stream your games after I'm done, but we'll see how it goes :)

~Xp

And have spent less than 48 hours too! Though final levels may have suffered a bit from this, but that's no biggie.

I am not entirely sure how people will see it fitting the theme. It makes perfect sense to me and I guess that's all that matters in the end.

There's also the fact that this game in a way is actually revival of my very old dusty abandoned project...like 2013 old (damn I'm old now)

Huge, tremendous thanks to Alexander "Rainesphere" Raines for Music, but also to Jerem Watts and OGma_badparenting101 for lending me their beautiful voices.

If you want to try the thing: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/rhombus

Hope you all had a great time jamming. I'll be checking out your games soon, maybe even on stream.

Alrighty! Time to take a nap before I get flatlined myself xD

~ Xp

Changes

• Updated Level 9

• Reworked Level 10

• Added smooth background color change between levels

• Fix: Ricochets are now more reliable with updated collision mask

• Fix: Voice lines at the start of the level repeat only after a couple retries

Also featuring Windows & Mac v1.1 version. Mac version hasn't been tested so any feedback is welcome.

Current browser version includes all changes.

Jam version with ricochet / voice over fix is available separately as a Windows executable, but doesn't features anything new as that would be cheating.

Try it here

P.S. I'm planning to stream tomorrow. You can join server where I will be posting in advance https://discord.com/invite/v9mwvt72Qj

~XpMonster

Changes

• Features “Last Run Score” and it will save in cache. However you must beat the game once for it to be saved.

• Fix: No more clipping through blocks

• Fix: Final update to collision mask to make ricochets more reliable

Original jam version itself receives none of these updates.

Check it out

P.S. Now I can move on to play your games :)

~ XpMonster

and some games just play themselves

v1.2 for Flatline with Autocomplete Feature :robot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRPKiro5TVg

This is the last update, I'm serious now :)

Changes

• Added Autocomplete. Use this if you just cannot complete the game yourself. Click on Rhombus in the top-right corner of the menu to enable it. It supports override as well! Note, your run score would mention you used it so you cannot cheat your way into top score. Fellow Ludum Dare people who just want to see the game can either use this or see Youtube video. I ubisofted my own game

• Made uncharged ~~protagonist~~ ~~ball~~ balltagonist more easily distinguishable from the charged version

Also now featuring Linux build 🐧

Game's here

Enjoy!

~XpMonster

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

First day playing your games :)

Drop a link to your game on stream!

~Xp

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

Submit a game via our Discord server and be present on stream :)

Empyrean's server: https://discord.gg/4h5scpz6ek

~Xp

From Nowhere to Somewhere

"To Nowhere" was a little demo project with 5 levels which I made back in 2013 while feeling a bit down, perhaps because many of my projects from the time were left unfinished and I just wanted to make something extraordinary simple. This is how I came up with this simple concept and assembled a few levels. I was working with Robert Menus (that's a nickname) composer at the time. He made / sourced the sounds and composed the original track.

You can check out "To Nowhere" on itch.io, you'll find it at the bottom of the project files. Preserving it there for history's sake.

Ludum Dare

Itch.io

There you should find some resemblance to Flatline as I did base most of it's style off that original project.

Ludum Dare 57

I started working on the game from a completely empty project only on the second day of the jam. My first day idea was actually something even more abstract about zooming in rhombuses (hence the name in the LDJam's link) where you had to tap at the right time and keep up with momentum, but I lost that train of thought due to IRL distractions and early on the second day scrapped that idea entirely feeling I didn't had it in me to make a game for this jam, especially in time. But then I started thinking and figured I could revive an old project which brought me To Nowhere (?).

The idea to make the game about a person in a near-death experience came later when all base mechanics were already finished. Probably because I decided to use a background from my other project that I was making earlier this year which represents neurons and cells in the human brain. So now you know what that actually is meant to represent. Rainesphere's original composition for the game also contributed to that decision as it helped invoke these feelings in me.

Before that I thought the game would have no story of any kind, but as I had this idea everything came in naturally. I instantly realized what I wanted to do with it and all pieces in the puzzle started coming together.

Voice Overs

On the impulse, I had an idea of adding VO to the beginning and the end of each level, I immediately reached out to Jerem Watts asking whether he knows anyone who could do male & female voices for me, and while I knew he could do it I thought he would understandably be too busy with his own Ludum Dare project Dreamcyst, but then to my surprise he agreed to do it together with OGma and I am very thankful to them for that, because the game just wouldn't feel the same without their beautiful voices.

You probably already know them, but just in case you don't - I'm sure you'll love them as much as I do so check out their Twitch channels!

• Jerem_Watts

• OGma_badparenting101

Base Camp

Alexander named his soundtrack for the game "Base Camp". I only just now asked why he called it like that and he explained

"For every big mountain climb, you start at the base camp. Since the characters soul is just starting his climb back to life, I thought it was fitting"

and I couldn't agree more!

Rainesphere - Base Camp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blTQs_vhpX0

Flatlined

The game's title itself came from the SFX I asked Alexander Raines to make for the game over. He sent over a zip file with one of the sounds being named "Flatline", and I as proceeded editing it - I figured it was actually a fitting name for the game.

The last day of the jam and second day of game's development was starting out very strong. I thought I had plenty of time which is why I was spending too much time polishing mechanics which in the end made it cost for the level design, and while the end result in some levels turned out to be more chaotic that I originally planned, I think it fits with the character's declining condition.

And that's it! Now you know Flatline's development lore :)

And there is more to come! As after I finish integrating Online Highscores into the game, I am planning on making a successor project for the Mobile & Browser platforms. It probably will be our first commercial project!

~Xp

This is the final update now. For real!

Changes

• Live online Highscore Table! Time to begin the score chase! Don't try to cheat with autocomplete feature as it would not be registered as a highscore.

• Change your name in the game. Note, if you want your highscore to use your current name you must change it before starting the run. Changing the name post-run would only change it locally for you.

• Few minor fixes here and there

This update is available on all, but Jam version of the game.

Now we're going to move on to the successor project! Have fun everyone ;)

Begin the Score Chase

Enjoy!

~Xp

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

Submit your game via our Discord server and be present on stream :)

Empyrean's server: https://discord.gg/4h5scpz6ek

Games played count: 16

Last games:

1. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/the-drop

2. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/minddive

3. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/a-knight-and-his-well

4. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/saturation

5. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/walking-simulator

6. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/profundidude-in-search-of-planet-telex

7. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/squirrel-swirl

8. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/high-pressure-arena

9. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/explorer-of-the-depths

10. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/not-too-deep

11. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/paladino

12. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/slip-stream

13. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/a-new-hell

14. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/echo-of-fallens

15. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/depth-rhythm

16. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/hexadig

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

Submit your game via our Discord server and be present on stream :)

Empyrean's server: https://discord.gg/4h5scpz6ek

Games played count: 21

Last games:

1. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/view-in-the-depth https://youtu.be/aIYCMPWpwR0

2. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/little-delver https://youtu.be/vW0HOCrNSaU

3. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/hadal https://youtu.be/vQLk4UBjtKI

4. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/bucketbot https://youtu.be/U1KMRPKZC3Y

5. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/mr-moneys-phenomenally-soggy-water-removal-romp https://youtu.be/QF50EkahrLU

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

Submit your game via our Discord server and be present on stream :)

Empyrean's server: https://discord.gg/4h5scpz6ek

Games played count: 26

Last games:

1. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/deep-fry https://youtu.be/lvom2wTdAHQ

2. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/upstream https://youtu.be/9YkF3lvas8w

3. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/nine-lives-deep (to be reshot for YT later)

4. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/helmet-man https://youtu.be/RXi5e26Zm0s

5. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/serp-slurp-spicy-hot-chocolate-3 https://youtu.be/-VhX3o-tAAU

~Xp

New Features

• Green Blocks - turn into Blue Blocks on hit recharging Movement Shift & Adrenaline
• Adrenaline Ability - temporarily slows down time to make precise movement shifts. This will help many people who are struggling with the game's high difficulty. Adrenaline is spent on use so you have to think ahead. On Mobile devices Adrenaline is activated automatically on Touch, but placement of Green Blocks generally will help. Each use of Adrenaline is going to take a good chunk of your run's score so it's a huge NO if you want to climb to the top score (so Mobile is at disadvantage by default)

Minor changes

• Start-up timer is twice as fast now due to popular demand
• Tutorial now at the first level includes controls for Adrenaline ability
• Green blocks now replacing some Blue blocks
• Moving objects now start to move at the same time on each retry. Previously your first attempt would have a different timing to the consecutive ones.

Find Your Pulse

Enjoy!

~Xp

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

Submit your game via Empyreans Discord and be present on stream :)

You can ask me to contact you through DM when I'm ready to play your game.

Games played on stream: 27

I also played, gave feedback on & rated many games out of the stream. If you don't want the highlight and just want me to play your game then drop the link in the comments below.

My game

~Xp

https://www.twitch.tv/xpmonsterx

Submit your game via Empyreans Discord and be present on stream :)

You can ask me to contact you through DM when I'm ready to play your game.

Games played on stream: 27

from the previous stream:

1. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/graffiti-tower https://youtu.be/SAQUJNDPqis

~Xp