First Jam for me!

I tried to learn Löve, but for this one, I’ll finaly be using:

• Gamemaker Studio
• Paint.net
• bfxr
• Audacity

Good luck everyone!

So all the assets are drawn (unless I have extra time to animate more characters), so I’m implementing monster visibility. They can detect you if you cross from above/below/left/right, unless you hide behind a box (or a hole). For testing purposes, monsters turn blue 😀

Now it’s time to design some levels! (and start screen, and stats, and tutorial…)

Ok, so HUD done, room handling also done and some tutorial. TODO list before submission includes:

• Levels
• Finish tutorials
• Better “you win” screen with stats

Time to work!

I can’t believe it, but I’ve finished Monster House!

Now it’s time to sleep a little. It’s 4:00 am in Europe. Tomorrow i’ll play some of your games. Congratulations everyone!

Being my first Jam –and my first complete game-, my main objective was to deliver a complete product in 48 hours. Although I’ve been programming since 2006, I was very little experience with graphics, and almost zero with games.

I’ve tried different frameworks and engines to make games during the last years. I’d loved to deliver a game that can be played via web or -at least- in the three main OSs, but due to my lack of experience, I finally used GameMaker Studio (Standard Edition), cause I felt more confident with it. In retrospective, it was a good decision; I doubt that I had completed the game with another tool.

The Theme

So it was like 3:00 am here in Europe when the theme was published. I wanted to do something original, but keeping in mind that I had to keep it small. Fortunately, the idea came this same night:

Here is a draft of the mechanics of the game. In that moment, there was a single type of monster and two types -green & red- of characters. Nevertheless the main idea, that is, characters run away from the monster turning clockwise or counter-clockwise, was already there. I chose those colors to ‘guide’ the player, cause are the same colors used in planes, boats, etc. to indicate left and right.

So I had a somewhat solid idea of a puzzle ‘lemmings style’ but with a 2d-cenital perspective.

Day 1:

First day I decided to do the assets in the morning. My idea was do all the art and core mechanics in the first day, leaving levels & tutorial creation and SFXs and music for the second day. So I did a list of all the assets I needed:

I don’t have much experience drawing sprites, so I decided to keep them small, and choose a 16×16 grid that I’d zoomed later to obtain a 32×32 base size. Although I was to use Paint.NET, I decided to do a quick research for more specific tools, and I found Piskel, a free -and awesome- online sprite editor that I used to do almost all the assets. I need also a color pallette, but I quickly found this thread of Pixel Joint forums where an user provided a 32 tones pallete, that I ended using:

To my surprise, I discovered that I actually liked my assets, so I decided to animate them, so I spent some hours in it.

In the evening, I finally began to do some coding. I’ve already decided to switch the mechanic from two types of characters to two types of monsters, so I drafted the ‘monster detection algorithm’ and began the work.

That night I thought that I had almost all the code, so I did a ‘test room’ just to be sure that all was working properly. Here was where the bugs began :(. I apparently didn’t understand properly the collision system in Gamemaker, so there were a couple of corner cases where the characters ignored the monsters. I couldn’t finish the code that day, so I went to sleep and left the bugs for day 2.

Day 2:

So I spent all the morning solving those nasty bugs, and I was running out of time: I had like 12 hours to do all the SFXs, the scenes structure and all the levels -both the tutorial and the game ones-. I decided to skip the game music and I focused in the game structure. Fortunately, all went smoothly and a couple of hours later I was this problem solved.

For the SFXs, I tried to record actual sounds and equalize them to sound more creepy. I could do it with some effects, but I ended using SFXR for the rest of them.

I spent several hours doing the buttons, start screen, credits, etc. So I had only 6 hours to do all the levels. I though that it was more than enough -I didn’t knew how deeply wrong I was-. My initial idea was 5 tutorial levels + 10 game levels. I wanted to do them right so I planned to show 1 new rule in each tutorial, and a smooth learning curve in the real levels.

The process was simple, but time consuming: I first named that level to provide some initial idea. For example in Level 03 – Semaphore, you have a 1 green + 1 red monsters. Second thing was to draft my ‘ideal’ solution for this level (note the floor tiles in the image above), and after that, I looked for another alternative route to provide more than one solution for the player, and an ‘easy’ route without additional points to ease the level to the player if they can’t find ‘my’ solution. Finally, I added the ‘traps’ (ghosts, bats, etc.) to the routes, and complete the map with the rest of the assets. Unfortunately, I ended spending almost one hour per level, so I had to cut my initial idea of then levels to only 5.

When the submission hour was approaching, I ran the game and completed all the levels & tutorials to ensure everithing was Ok, and submitted the game. Unfortunately I only have ‘standard’ license to Gamemaker, so I only could generate the Windows executable -aparently you need a Mac to compile Mac version-. I’d really wished that I could have submitted an HTML5 version :(.

What went right:

• Gameplay idea: Fortunately it came very quickly and was solid enough.
• Tools used: I consider to use Löve2D, but I’m sure that I had not finished the game if I had used a different engine.
• Mission acomplished!: For my first jam, my main objective was to deliver a game. I did

What went wrong:

• Time (lack of): I had planned some little tweaks that I think that would improved the game playability, but I spent too much time with some bugs and I didn’t have the time. The lack of music is a pity too.
• Fast button: In the comments, one common issue by several players is the lack of a button to accelerate the game. I agree 100% with them, and the button it’s actually there -F key to fast-forward-. I mentioned in the info screen, but I had to mention it in the tutorials too. Lesson learned
• Learning curve and level design: Clearly, the difficulty progression that I’ve planned was not too good. And the ‘lack’ of fast button definitely didn’t help. I need to design the levels more carefully, and a ‘pass the level’ option when the player can’t complete it, maybe would had helped.

Conclussion:

This Jam has been an amazing experience for me. I honestly never think that I were capable to create a game like this in just 48 hours. And I think that the game can be improved with some tweaks, so I guess I’ll continue developing it in the next days. I’ve enjoyed so much Ludum Dare, both the event and the community, so expect me for the next! 😀

Tags: post-mortem

Ok, my second LD, but again, no time for practising, so let's keep it simple:

• Gamemaker Studio 1.4
• Piskel
• SFXr
• BoscaCeoil

Good luck everyone!

Second Ludum Dare for me, and delivered! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/ludum-delivery

Now, time for some retrospective for the last two days :D

I was not sure I could participate in this LDJam: I arrived home on the same day and had not participated in a game jam since 2015 so I had no time to try something new. I decided to keep things as simple as possible and use basically the same tools: Gamemaker Studio for the programming, Piskel for pixel art and SFXr for sound effects. This time I wanted to add some sort of music, and I found the awesome BoscaCeoil. After I completed the tutorial, I was feeling confident enough so I decided to try it in the Jam.

As being my second participation in Ludum Dare, my only objective was to deliver a finished game, hopefully related to the theme.

Day 1 - Early Morning

I definitely not liked the theme very much. I tried to think in some original uses of it, but I could not think of any idea that I could implement in 48 hours besides the obvious ones (tetris, snake, bust-a-move...). Since it was about two o'clock in the morning, I jot down whatever came to my mind and went to bed.

Day 1 - Afternoon

Twelve hours have passed and I still had not chosen an idea. I kept thinking in the inventory management of some games (e.g. Diablo 2), so I decided to combine this idea with some sort of tetris-like mechanic and add some risk/reward loop. All of this set in a truck delivery system.

Since I was not sure if this could work, I used a paper&scissors prototyping to test it out before:

So there are two trucks with a grid each and a conveyor belt that spawn new pieces. The player loads the trucks and send them to deliver. At the time, I was considering some penalty if the trucks were not fully completed when they were sent. It seemed to work out (sort of), so I started to implementing it.

The idea was that the trucks kept travelling for some time, during which they can not be loaded. The player had to consider carefully when they should be sent. I drew some quick sprites and began to work:

Unfortunately, I was having some issues implementing the "snap-to-grid" function for the pieces, so I decided to left the programming for the night and switched to the sprites design. Several hours later, I returned to Gamemaker with new, shiny trucks :)

It was late in the evening when I finally had the main mechanic properly implemented. At this time I was not feeling very confident into finishing the game. Let alone to add the music and sfx.

Day 2 - Afternoon

Since in my first jam did not have time to add some music, this time I wanted to try at least. When I did the tutorial of Bosca Ceoil some days before, I quickly managed to compose some little tune. This time, however, I suppose I was not feeling very creative, so I tried to scale down and ended using only some drums, a bass line and a very simple melody. After that, I added a single variation and repeated it in a different instrument, but keeping the same melody so the song could loop. It definitely could be better, but I was short on time, and it did not sound too bad, so I decided to keep it.

When I imported the melody in Gamemaker Studio, the loop thing did not work very well. So I decided to loop it manually for a few minutes by using Reaper. Rough, but effective.

Thankfully, SFX were easy thanks to SFXr and BFXr. For the truck motor sound, I used the "explosion" setting in BFXr, I imported later the WAV in Reaper, looped it, and copied in four tracks with some delays in between to simulate the pistons explosions in the engine. This worked surprisingly well.

The rest of the afternoon I finished the graphics, including the cover image for the game and some more tiles to add variety. I also implemented some rough Game Over scene with the score and the transition between different rooms (main menu, main game, game over).

Day 2 - Evening

With core mechanics, sounds and art ready, I sketched a to-do list to be fullfilled until submission:

The most important task was to tweak the different variables for the main mechanics to get something enjoyable to play. These variables included the velocity of the pieces in the conveyor belt, the travelling time of the trucks, the lenght of the departure and arrival animations, the percentage of the grid that must be completed in each truck until it is allowed to leave, etc. I really missed having some more time to adjust all of this more carefully, specially the level progression and the initial configuration; but all in all, I think that I got something playable.

In the last hours I finished the main menu, added a screen to show controls and rules, and I played a little to identify any obvious bugs. Some things including bonuses, aditional pieces and another scenario had to be discarded because of the time contraints.

Conclussions

The Good

• Good selection of tools. Some days before I was considering Pico-8 for all the development. I tried it some months ago and I loved it. But I am sure that I would have spent much more time fiddling with lua instead of implementing mechanics. The rest of the tools were simple to use and powerful enough for my purposes.

• Provide a web version. If your engine is capable of, a web version, not dependent of external tools, OSs, etc. can be definitely useful to widen the people willing to try your game.

• Finished and playable game. Second jam, second finished game! I hope it stays that way the next time :)

The bad

• Time management. More than 12 hours thinking of an idea in a 48h jam... not a good start. When I was tuning the playability I missed that time a lot :(

• If it is implemented, show it to the player. In the game, there is level progression, with increased difficulty, and bonuses for completely filling the trucks. But none of this matters (in a simple game like this, at least) if the player is not aware of this features. Small details like a simple and flashy animation with each level change, or a noticeable warning when the difficulty ramps up can made a huge difference. A big thank you to all the people that have tried the game and have left feedback. Very useful to learn from it.

• Little tweaks. Adding a button for switching off the music, using a keyboard key instead of right mouse button to rotate pieces (that is not available in some laptops), clickable trucks for send them instead of more buttons... Little details, very easy to implement, but they can made a difference in playability. Lesson learned!

It's time now for trying other entries. Thank you for reading and see you in the next jam!

During this week I've polished my original submission with new items, some bugfixes, better level progression, better PRNG for new pieces, an updated controls screen, and some niceties here and there. I'd love for you to try it and give me your feedback, especially if you played the original submission.

This time, besides of the classic endless mode, I've included a secret 100 Trucks mode. It can be activated by clicking in the truck sprite in the main menu (see gif below). The challenge is to send 100 trucks without losing. You can even try a perfect game if you send 100 perfect trucks (completely filled).

Want to try? https://korso.itch.io/ludum-delivery-v11-post-compo

3rd compo for me. Once again I have not practised since last LD, so let's keep it simple: GameMaker Studio, Piskel and BFXr. And hopefully BoscaCeoil or even Reaper to make some tunes.

Good luck everyone!

Ok, so player controls a farmer which has to rescue his chickens from the wolves and return them to the farm. Wolves will chase and eat both the chickens and the farmer, and they run faster. So, sometimes, sacrifices must be made, leaving a chicken behind to run away while the wolf eats it. Each level requires more chickens to be saved.

The bad news is that there is so much to do, and I'm not sure if I get to finish in time.

Surround playfield with walls, fill the interior with different grass tiles, add the pen with the fences, throw some trees and generate the chickens, the wolves and the farmer. Done.

Bad news: wolves ignore solid objects when chasing :(

I was not very fond of the theme this time. I managed to think about some mechanics related to the theme, but I'm having several bugs and I don't find the game enjoyable enough to keep pushing, so I've published it as "unfinished" (link below) and I'll try to do better in the next LD.

I've seen several interesting entries nonetheless, so I'll keep an eye in your submissions. Good luck everyone!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/animal-farm