This one will be no. 6 for me! Using gamemaker studio as usual and probably sfxr for sound.

Good luck everyone!

No point turning around now. Not as much progress as I hoped today but still far more than I would ever get done outside of a Ludum dare :).

Concept: You are stuck in a snowglobe and enemies form out of the snow to consume it, leaving less snow in the air after more enemies spawn. At the end of a stage, the snowglobe is shaken and all the snow from the dead enemies is put back up into the air to create more! Only one variety of enemy so far (angry snowman thing in the gif) but more definitely coming.

Any Thoughts?

Planning on having enemies coming from the other directions while this is happening so there is actually a challenge.

Been holding off on rating for too long and now I need to make sure I get enough ratings. I will try to play and rate everyone's game who comments on mine.

Thanks!

I NEED more ratings. I only have 11 so far. I left it to the last minute to get coolness because I have been extremely busy and now I'm worried I might not get enough. I worked really hard and am very happy with what I made and it would be a shame if I didn't get enough ratings. Like most people, I will give a rating in return to anyone who comments/gives feedback, showing they have played/rated my game.

Reasons to play my game!

• A really cool concept.
• Awesome pixel art!
• 3 cool and unique enemies to fight.
• A challenging but completely beatable boss fight!
• BECAUSE I NEED YOU TO ;P
• Because snowglobes are awesome.
• Because being in a snowglobe with a bunch of scary monsters is not as awesome so you have to kill them.

And of course here's the link!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/snowglobe-warrior

This will be my 7th Ludum Dare, but my first jam. I have always done the compo because I enjoy the challenge however this time my brother will be joining me because he wanted to try it and this is his last chance before going off to university. I will be using GameMaker: Studio 1 (I have 2 but not familiar with it enough yet), probably sfxr for sound effects, maybe graphics gale if not using gamemaker's sprite editor, and not sure about music yet.

Good Luck to everyone!

I saw mentions of a big LD discord group but was not at my home computer before. Can someone in it send me the link to the discord group? Thanks.

there is no way in hell my game will not have a lava lamp

Been so busy the past few weeks and just rememembered I had to rate some games this morning. I put a lot of effort into my game this time and I would really appreciate anyone who could give my game a rating so I can get a final result. I still need about 15 at this point. Anyone who leaves a comment I would gladly rate yours in return. And of course here is the link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/greed

Thanks in advance! :)

So I'm only at about 13 right now I've been so busy lately but I've rated around 25 others. Anyone else in the same situation I would gladly rate yours in return!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/greed

Here I am on the last day sitting with 16 votes. I would greatly appreciate anyone who could help me out and give my game some votes. I worked really hard this time around and would really hate to see my game not hit the 20 votes I need.

Of course I can return the favour to anyone else still needing votes.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/greed

Thank you so much to everyone who has given my game votes this morning, I finally hit 20! And to all those who said I needed a screenshot on the game page I put one there, and might as well throw it here as well. :)

This will be my 9th LD. Been doing every one since 33. Doing the compo and using Gamemaker Studio 2. Not sure what I'll use for sound this time.

This was definitely a tough theme, but I made it work

Try out OLEK, my roguelite/card game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/olek

This will be my 10th! been doing every one since LD33. Using Gamemaker Studio 2 for mostly everything and not sure about audio yet.

These are just my personal votes and thoughts on what I would like to make with each theme. Some that i gave -1 i still think are great themes just doesn't match with the kind of games I would like to make.

Running out of space (-1) Doesn't really work with game style I like to make, I imagine a lot of games with a constricting play area (battle royale?) or maybe more and more objects added to the game with less space to work with. Would maybe make a cool Tetris inspired game here with some other added mechanic to make it my own.

Night is coming (+1) Think this one could be really cool and could apply to many cool mechanics based on time like having a day/night cycle that makes it harder at night or something like Rain World where you can only be out for so long until you have to go back to a shelter. Maybe even a game taking place over one day where you must complete a goal before night comes.

Decay (-1) Could probably have a few really cool game mechanics based on this, but I feel like a lot of people would struggle to find a good solid concept for this one (me being one of those). None of the simple ideas I can think of would really be a game I would want to make.

Safe in the dark (0) Not too sure how I feel about this one. It is an interesting theme with enough room for variation but I feel like we would see an overwhelming amount of stealth-based games. I would maybe do a high-speed platformer based on manipulating shadows.

Fragile (+1) Seems like a theme that could bring a lot of fun games. Could do a lot of things with this like trying to manipulate fragile objects without breaking them or some sort of defense game where you must protect a fragile object (maybe an egg). I would love this for making a game with a fast-paced fighting system with one hit to kill and one hit to be killed.

You are the final boss (-1) Don't really like this one. Feel like a usual video game boss relies on slow-ish predictable movement and hit cycles and stuff and I don't feel like that is a fun play style. Also the general understanding of this theme would force people to make a player AI, which a lot would struggle with. Would maybe do a 2-cycle game where you start as a boss, then must go back as the player and fight the moves you made as the boss, although that might be difficult to pull off well.

Evolve (-1) This could be an interesting theme, although I feel like a lot of people would go with the obvious skill tree or level-up where you improve yourself throughout the game. I might go for something similar to my LD34 game where any time an enemy is killed, it comes back stronger in some way. This is part of the reason i put -1 because I wouldn't want to do something with a similar theme to what I've done, with LD i like to do things completely different from what I've already done.

Light is key (0) I've got a couple ideas for this one, mostly relating to the player having some dependence on light, whether it carries around a slowly diminishing light source which has ways to be recharged or preserved, or maybe the player can only do specific things when exposed to light. Maybe even a literal key, where light has to be directed somewhere to reach some goal. I have a few pretty good ideas on this one, just maybe not that fit what i feel like making so I gave it a 0.

Death is useful (+1) This is a theme I've seen very often in the voting rounds which I think could have many cool concepts and mechanics based on it. I feel like a lot of people would interpret this as the player's death being useful, where there is some mechanic based on dying, but I might take it in a different direction like having different ways to use the corpses of the enemies you have already killed, maybe even a game that requires you to kill enemies using the ones you've already killed (aside from the first one obviously). Definitely a theme I would like to try. Been hoping for this one in past jams.

Two points of view (-1) Seems interesting but very limiting on what kind of games could be made. I'm sure people could find lots of ways to work with it but I feel like it would be a lot of games that are just 3d with 2 separate cameras and angles to view, and some people making 2D games might have a hard time. Might be cool to see some games where there are 2 different dimensions or planes and you can only view one at a time, and you must switch a lot to know what is actually around you and you could interact with objects in both at the same time. I would maybe create something where you must play through each level from the perspective of 2 different characters, one being more simple and violent, then again as a more mobile but passive character, trying to avoid instead of killing. It would force different paths and play styles through the same level. I wouldn't mind this theme but my idea of having 2 completely different play styles would force me to make 2 games in one which is hard with only 48 hours to work with.

Dying planet (+1) I feel like this theme would more inspire the feel and design of a lot of games, rather than the mechanics, although there are definitely some ways to work with this as a mechanic. Main reason i gave a +1 is because it works well with a game idea I've had in my mind for quite a while and would love a chance to make it in a Ludum Dare.

It's Spreading (0) Could be taken multiple different ways, allowing for a good variety of games but specific enough to inspire ideas. First things that come to mind could be a game about avoiding fire, maybe controlling a fire, spreading something on bread, maybe growing a civilization (last one might be a bit hard in 48 hours depending on scope). Once again, I like the theme, but my ideas for it don't match the style of game I'd like to make this time around.

3 Rules (0) Seems like something that could be cool, and would work for whatever type of game someone wanted to make, although I feel like that is the problem, being too broad that it's hard to come up with a solid idea that's based well on the theme and doesn't feel like the theme was an afterthought. You could basically throw this theme on any type of game, just maybe not well. That being said though, it might work for an idea I've been wanting to do for a while with a few changes to make the game feel very centered around the rules, so I gave it a 0.

One enemy only (-1) Nope. I don't like this one. Not a bad theme, but the games I like to make are more fast paced and the player is generally able to kill things rather quickly if you make the right moves. I feel games are much more satisfying and fun to play this way rather than smacking a while at one giant enemy. Having only one enemy would clearly cause an issue here, unless maybe I did something like my Evolve theme idea with an enemy coming back stronger every time. My other option here would be to try to make a smart AI enemy which is equal to the player, and is basically like a PvP 1 on 1 fight replaced with an AI, although I'd rather not spend half my weekend on an AI.

One minute (0) Insert Minit clones here...? Idk how many people would actually do that or even how many have actually played Minit but anyways, not a bad theme, but just also seems like a variation on the 10 seconds theme that happened before (not sure when but it was before when I started on LD33). There are a lot of ways this could be used, and one minute is also a nice length for a quick jam game, but I feel like thats what a lot of people would do though, just use the theme as a time constraint. I would probably make a game with an event that happens every minute, and is easier to survive based on how much progress the player made during the past minute. Maybe like each day lasts a minute and at night you dream of an event, which you must survive or else you don't wake up and have to restart.

You control the environment, not player (-1) Once again, another theme that I just generally don't like because it doesn't work with anything I would want to do. Would be interesting to see some of the different ideas that come from this though. I can basically just recycle my points from the other themes to describe why I don't want this one. 1) Controlling the environment implies a player going through it, like i said before, I'd rather not spend a lot of time on AI. 2) I usually like making fast paced combat based games (that rhymed) which I guess could technically be possible but extremely hard to pull off with this theme. Anyways, I prefer to make games where a player is controlled, so for that reason, I'm out and giving this a -1.

So those are all the themes and wow that took forever to type. Threw this in Word and the word-count was just under 1700. Hope the few that made it here enjoyed my essay ;)

TL;DR I like the themes for the most part but I'm just kinda picky and have a specific game style in mind that I want to make. there were only a couple of the themes that I didn't think were good, but for the most part, I've got some sort of idea what I could do with each of them.

It was made for the compo and i finished it yesterday, but now that I've updated my submission page, I might as well post about it here!

Here's the link below if you'd like to give it a try:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/aeromancer

Letting everyone know that my game is here and ready to play with one last shameless plug before I start grinding through other games. This was made for the Compo in 48 hours.

You can play it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/aeromancer

I've put feedback on a few people's games, and even though I didn't set it to give me notifications on them, I keep getting notifications for one of the games whenever someone comments on it. I haven't found a way to disable this, anyone else get this or know how to disable? Really annoying because I always see the notifications coming and hope more people said rated and left feedback about my game or maybe someone replied to something I said but it's just from someone commenting another person's game.

Okay so after completing my 10th Ludum Dare I'm just going to start by saying that based on my feedback so far and how much I enjoy my game, this is for sure the best game I have made for Ludum Dare so far, or maybe even best game I've ever made in general! My art style has definitely improved, and I have found myself adding in a lot more subtle effects to make the game feel better and more satisfying to play. Balancing the look and the gameplay of my games has always been a point where I struggled, either focusing a lot on the graphics then realizing later that the gameplay was kinda bad (like my games for LD40 and LD38), or sometimes focusing too much on the gameplay where I could have used a bit of that time to significantly improve the graphics or overall design (Like my LD39 game). This time around I found that I did a much better job at balancing all aspects of the games design, leaving no area feeling like it needed improvement.

Deciding on an idea

I feel like one thing that definitely helped me be successful with balancing my game out was that I didn't have to spend too much time on thinking of an idea, leaving lots of time for everything else. I came up with the idea for a shrinking skill-set because you needed space to pick up items rather fast although I did consider switching it a few times and didn't even start working on that part of the game until about 20-24 hours in. Once I thought of this idea, I realized I could use this with some game mechanics (the ability set) which had been floating around in my head for a week or so before the jam.

Process and timeline of how things went

It took me about 20-30 mins total to decide on my idea and I was ready to start on my basic character art rather fast. With this done, I was able to finish my basic stand, jump, and running animations and have my character running and jumping around by around the 4th hour. By around 4:00am, 10 hours after the start, I had my full ability set working, although some temporary animations were used, and I even had the most basic enemy in the game too. Having this solid start done and feeling very confident that my gameplay was feeling good, I was able to go to sleep and then in the morning start working on more art and creating more enemies and implementing my theme idea into the game. By the second night, I had all my game mechanics working, all 3 enemy types fully created, and one basic testing level. Also, my main graphics style and level decorations were mostly done. I woke up late on the last day leaving me only 7 hours to work. In this time I crammed in a LOT of work! Here was my to-do list for the last day: - Create a quick 7-part tutorial teaching each mechanic of the game, and at least 5 levels (only had one done at this point) - Do all the music and sound effects for my game - Create a main menu to select either start game or tutorial - Add a LOT of particles and effects to the game including, blood when hit, yellow sparks when get key or box, floating particles in the background that even interact with the player when he walks by, small black particles that appear whenever either a door activated or de-activated or when the player lands on the ground after a jump, improve the particle effects in the upward wind zone ability, a small spinning spiral above head when enemy is stunned, a subtle vignette over the game to make it feel darker and so the gradient background would feel less plain (aside from the floating particles in front of it), small plants and or rocks that would randomly appear in different places in the background, with varying looks and transparencies, glowing orbs that move to the player when you pick up a box to make it not look like it just disappeared.

To even my own surprise, I was able to do all this within the 7 hours I had left and was very satisfied with my final outcome.

What I think I did well

• Interesting graphics, mechanics, and game feel which in my opinion and based on the comments is super satisfying and enjoyable to play.
• Unique idea and mechanic/level design. I took a puzzle platformer and gave it really fun abilities and ways to take those away forcing players to adapt their play style.
• Good time management. I was able to complete everything I wanted, even with sleeping in on Sunday and having a couple hours less than expected.

What I wish I did better

• A few "bugs" that I could have spend a couple minutes each to work on, not anything that was terrible or ruined the game in any way, just some inconveniences like not having cool-downs reset on death, but even that wasn't too bad because the longest one is 6 seconds so you would only wait a couple seconds at most.
• Condensed the tutorial more. I split it up to 7 different sections which individually did a good job of teaching the mechanic so the player would understand before moving on, however for those who went slowly through it, it might have taken a bit too long, like maybe 4-ish minutes. I had a couple streamers play my game and by the time they got done the tutorial, they only did 1 or 2 levels on stream before they felt they should move on to the next game so they weren't able to experience the full game in the 5 minutes they usually try to limit a game to.
• Focused a bit more on the flow of the levels. Based on the feedback I received, people loved the level design and thought it was really good, however there was one thing I wanted to eliminate from the levels, wait time. In a couple of the levels, I had areas where you would need the wind zone ability to either kill an enemy or get up somewhere, but then would also need it again right after, like to either get out of where you killed the enemy, or get up to a second area, but would need to wait another 5 seconds to use the wind. While this was probably not noticeable and didn't effect most players who would just play through the game once, after playing my game for the entire weekend as I tested, some of these moments became frustrating to me, and afterward, I found some ideas to eliminate this wait time which did not require previous setup (all situations of the wait times in my game could be avoided by planning ahead and setting up a bubble somewhere before the ability was disabled by grabbing a key or box).
• One last thing would maybe be a slight bit more explanation of the different ways the bubbles could be used, most times people would simply figure it out themselves that they could jump off it, but a better explanation of that would help with my slow tutorial issue. (The explanation I gave in the tutorial gave a simple graphic of the character jumping on a bubble but I should have put that to words to make it more clear)

Well now that all that's done, here's a link if you want to give it a try!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/aeromancer