Hello all! This will be my first Ludum Dare, and hopefully my first successful one as well!

Going strong with my trusty GameMaker 8, sfxr, and photoshop!

On the subject of the Alone, I decided to explore the loneliness of being surrounded by people. You don’t have to be physically alone to feel isolated, and there is nothing quite like people who can help, but refuse to, that crushes the kindred spirit.

Of course it’s only been a few hours, and instead of any of what I just said, I have some lovely bits of floor and a character with basic walking implemented! Also, a massive glowing stone. It’ll be an uphill battle from here, since I haven’t quite nailed the core mechanic, but until then I’ll try to populate the world with people and events.

After some harrowing final hours, I pushed through to the end! There are far too many bugs for my liking, and it’s possible the game cannot be beaten (I couldn’t exactly playtest…) but hey, it was a ride getting here.

It’s funny, I have these personal rules against starting any new game with jumping/platforming elements(due to inflated scope, collision nastiness, and oversaturation) but I charged head first into making one for my first compo…I only remembered my rules afterwards, and this serves as a reminder to me to write them down and staple them to my computer screen! I probably lost 50% of development time to screwed up jumps and collisions!

Here’s a link to the entry page

And here’s a link to the download

Alright, second time is a charm!

For some strange reason, I swore after the last Ludum Dare that I wouldn’t do the next one. Well, I’m sure showing myself! Now that I know how Ludum Dare is actually pronounced, how can I refuse? I’m out to use what I learned from my first Ludum Dare to make something fun, un-buggy, elegant, and focused!

~Gameplay!?: GameMaker 8.0

~Graphics!?: Photoshop

~Audio!?: sfxr, musagi?

Spent roughly an hour or two designing a game where you influenced a man’s mental process by bribing his organs to vote your way during cranial congress, in order to get him to walk to the couch. Mercifully decided that that was way too complicated. Wound up with this instead.

Stunning, I know. It’s about shifts in size and background/foreground. Not enough real gameplay yet, but the mechanics are there. I hope to have something more interesting and design-y tomorrow by lunch!

Well, I’m halfway through my second day and I only just now achieved what I thought I’d have done within a few hours of waking up! I should have guessed that changing and moving what can and cannot collide was going to be a big headache.

But! Since that’s my only mechanic, I can finally move on to designing the game challenges now that it’s done. I know it’s still uglier than a warty toad’s awkward cousin, but I learned last Ludum Dare time that beauty can wait. I want this thing bug-free and fun! With any luck, I can have a still-hideous-but-gameplay-goody before I sleep tonight. I’ll let tomorrow me worry about sprites and sounds!

Still hard to convey in pictures while it’s all colored blocks, but you can see that bits both large and small are shifted around the map. Can you spot the player in all this?

If you feel like trying out what I’ve got so far, follow the link!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/911517/LD48-23-2.exe

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/911517/LD48-23-3.exe

Alright, behind schedule once again! The gameplay isn’t all the way finished, so I’ll add that to my cornucopia of false promises (it’s a lovely table decoration especially during the holidays). Though I did spend this time building a tile system for easy placement, with a majority of the tiles completed (but without time to implement most of them). A few of them are placed already. The micro-scale collisions are eating up much of my time, especially the parts that can move.

Ah well! I think I can get this one done tomorrow, though it will be lacking in polish elements.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/911517/LD48-23-ExpandExploreExpatiate.exe

Well, here’s what I’ve got mere hours from the deadline. Not a lot of time left for graphics, particles, or sounds, but I’ll make sure it’s not completely dead. Hey, the game can be played all the way through now with exploring and challenges and whatnot! If you play it, tell me what you think!

Go to the submission page and play the game!

Wahoo, Ludum Dare is done! Happy 10th anniversary, Ludum Dare!

I feel better about this year (and somehow still have a little energy left for the day). Well, my game didn’t get beautiful at any point, and it was definitely out of scope, but it works and I think it at least has some interesting bits. But hey, I’m a horrible judge, please play it and tell me what you think!

Now I’ve just got to resist the urge to dive into the pile of this year’s entries and play until I collapse…

Alright, I’m in! This’ll be my third Ludum Dare and this time I’m doing a jam with my good buddy and coworker, Chris Stallman! Looks like I’ll be working with GameMaker, sfxr, and Photoshop.

Minimalism sounds like an interesting start! Well, to start, you take a potato.

And then you take a potato. And then you take a potato. And then you take a potato…

It’s not much to look at yet, but here is progress on the game. Chris is still arting away, and I’ll try to convince him to give me stuff to post when it’s ready.

As you can see, the game revolves around taking potatoes. Currently I have all systems for potato taking, random potato generation, and encouraging words implemented. For instance…

Yeah, take that potato! Is taking potatoes all you do? Well, it’s a minimalist game, you tell me.

Update on “First, You Take A Potato” with some graphics and more!

You play as POT4, a potato-taking robot. Your sole function in existence is to take potatoes and then put them down again. A helpful radio reminds you to keep taking potatoes.

Here he is in motion!

Anyway, functionally the game is complete. We just need to finish up the graphics and figure out what kind of ending best suits this life of potatoes. Maybe none at all…

This is a game about a potato-taking robot. Taking potatoes is all he was made to do. Can he do more? Can he do less?

Technically this game was done many hours ago, but I got busy and couldn’t upload it! We spent the morning polishing up the game and getting the ending to work (yes, there is an ending!)

Please do us the honor of playing it. Check out the submission page here!

Just for fun, here is some of it animated…

GREETINGS, COMRADE! IT IS DEAR LEADER!

WE ARE STILL PREPARING THE KITCHENS FOR YOU.

WHEN WILL IT BE DONE?

I WILL LET THAT QUESTION SLIDE ONCE, COMRADE. TIME HAS BEEN BANNED FOR YOUR SAFETY. CLOCKS ARE THE TOOLS OF THE LAZIEST DEVILS. BE AT EASE, OUR FINEST ARE HARD AT WORK BUILDING YOUR WORK STATION. THEY WILL NOT HAVE BREAKS.

(THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE STILL, BUT IT IS FUNCTIONAL)

YOU WILL HEAR FROM ME EVENTUALLY, COMRADE! UNTIL WHENEVER THAT IS, PRAISE BE TO DEAR LEADER (ME)!

GREETINGS, COMRADE! IT IS DEAR LEADER!

OUR WORKERS HAVE FINISHED THE KITCHEN FOR YOU TO COOK IN! PRAISE BE TO DEAR LEADER (ME)!

IT IS A MODERN KITCHEN WITH UP TO FOUR COOKING DEVICES! AS TIME IS NOW ILLEGAL, ALL CLOCKS IN THE AREA HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH. IF THE STRESS OF HELPING YOUR FELLOW COMRADES GROWS TOO MUCH, JUST GAZE UPON DEAR LEADER AND BE AT EASE!

WHY CAN YOU NOT GET COOKING NOW, YOU ASK? THAT IS STRIKE TWO, NO FURTHER QUESTIONS, COMRADE.

MY SECRET WORKERS ARE INSTALLING DEVICES TO MONITOR YOUR PROGRESS. WE CANNOT HAVE YOU CHARRING THE FOODS OR SMUGGLING CONTRABAND WATCHES! WORRY NOT, IF YOU FAIL, THERE ARE DOZENS MORE COMRADES ABLE TO TAKE YOUR PLACE!

PRAISE BE TO DEAR LEADER!

GREETINGS, COMRADES! IT IS DEAR LEADER! THE KITCHEN IS READY! IF TIME WERE NOT ILLEGAL BY MY ORDER, IT WOULD NOW BE TIME TO COOK. NO FURTHER QUESTIONS!

GET COOKING!