For the first time, I’ll be joining in Ludum Dare. Have a team of 5, and we’re looking forward to doing our best!

This is technically my third Ludum Dare, though during the second one I got (literally) the worst case of food poisoning in my life and never completed it. I had the great priviledge of working alongside several other very talented, inspired folks this run and I look forward to working with them again soon!

We'd be honored if you would give our game a try here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis And Leave a Comment in our Itch.io board.

What Went Right:

I spent the entire week before the Jam rebuilding all my tools, updating my libraries, getting re-familiarized with the pipeline, and getting my work-space all set up for 72 Hours of insanity. This translated into a very high starting efficiency. I spent the entire first day building a robust back-end of the game that would support all the features our designer wanted. It also meant when it came time to compile the code, even with 1 hour scheduled to get the builds running on WebGL and Windows, it compiled and ran flawlessly on the first go with only a single minor shader error.

The acquisition of the Hamilton Soundtrack greatly improved my own mood throughout the jam. 11/10, do recommend.

Every single team member got better at their craft by a magnitude. I've always described high intensity jams like Ludum Dare to be a kind of Crucible and I was not proven wrong.

Most of All: What we made, looks, feels, and plays like a halfway decent game. I'm very happy with what we ended up with... I see all it's flaws, but I'm super happy with what we accomplished.

What Went Wrong:

The damnable Ocean. I spent hours creating this really awesome looking ocean only to have to scrap it at the last minute due to incompatibility issues with WebGL. We have thoughts on how to make a new ocean that will look even better if we move forward... but it still bums me out.

Saturday: The wheels went off the Team for about 12 Hours. Half the team was "Deep in the Flow", and the other half had no idea what was going on. This was a group failure and created a lot of tension. I think we lost a lot of man hours during this time and it's something during our own group post-mortem we've agreed we need to be better about. We ended up taking a huge break to have several small discussions and while I think we walked away as a much better team, it certainly impacted our productivity. Alas, an improvement that will bear fruit in future runs but not this one.

Integration: As the only active programmer, almost all the meshing of Code, Art, Music, and Design at some point fell through my bottleneck. Once Monday hit I ended up putting a total feature freeze on the game and spent the remaining time, from 1am to 8pm (We scheduled 1 hour to get our builds running) getting the basic features done. This meant a whole host of features ended up on the cutting room floor in varying states of completion. I compiled a full list here if you are interested: https://itch.io/t/76217/cut-content-design

Pathfinding: I've done it so many times but for some reason this go-around a solid, perfect implementation has not panned out. I want to go in and do some major overhauls after the jam. For now I have to accept that it has a few quirks because they always occur in favor of the player.

Hit me up on Twitter @OccultSoftworks or post your feedback on our Itch.io board or LDJAM Page. We havn't yet decided if we are gonna finish the game, and would love to hear folks thoughts.

I look forward to playing everyone's games tomorrow!

My what a week it has been, and we're only half-way thru!

Streaming

I'm in the process of streaming my way through LD38 and leaving constructive criticism and thoughts on how the game might be improved either from a design or technical aspect. I am not very good in getting the word out since the LDJam site only seems to support Twitch.tv streams, but I'd love to get some folks into chat as I do it. Especially if they've got games they want someone to spend some time on. I found it super helpful when other folks played on camera and I wanna provide that to the community as well. You can find me here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w

Metrics

I'm looking to put together some metric numbers for a bunch of games and I was curious if there were any folks who would be interested in submitting a few basic numbers to me at the end of the jam? I'd be willing to publish my results but keep individual game data points a secret unless you specifically opt into those numbers being released. Things I'm looking at:

Community Interest Curve across all games thru the course of the first week How the Lack of the Coolness Rating during the first few days affected what games. How the lack or inclusion of certain features on a LDJam Page (Screenshots, Videos, Etc) affects the views and scores. This jam was quite unique in its construction due to the various features and it may be interesting to compare against future (Or past if folks wanna reconstruct old data) jams.

>500 Plays

So ATLANTIS (Shameless Plug: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis) has reached over 500 Plays/Downloads, and 36 Comments in the LDJam Page. The team collectively decided that, while we might have a burning desire to sit down and muck with it; try and fix all the UI problems, we're going to be patient and wait until after the Jam is over. We've gotten some seriously useful feedback. That said, I think this is a really great number to be at for the jam at this point and time, especially as the interest and clicks per day has begun to take a nosedive over the past 24 Hours.

As a former Analyst, I like to try and find unique and strange ways to look at metrics and data. I was going over the reviews to ATLANTIS (Shameless Plug: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis) and mindlessly scrolling thru my facebook feed when one of those "Timeline Wordcloud" things popped up and I wondered if the same technology that drives these posts could be useful for creating an "At a Glance" board from which I could gain useful data.

I saw the original tool didn't strip the capitalization from the data I provided, so it has a few places where a word appears multiple times. This was easy to fix with a few keystrokes. Next, I decided to remove some of the less useful words: Possessives, things like "It's", "And", "Get", and the like just aren't super useful without the context of the rest of the sentence, and the wordcloud takes that away... Finally, I went thru and fixed the spelling errors that cropped up across the document. I didn't get them all, this was just a for-fun experiment as I start cataloging feedback.

The result was this:

I'd love to see what other games' review clouds look like! I used the tools at: http://www.wordclouds.com/

We're in the final week of judging, I wanted to let folks know their comments and reviews have been listened to, cataloged, analyzed, and implemented! I hope we've done a great job resolving all the issues people had with the GUI that made the game difficult or impossible for them to play! We've entitled this update the "Ancient Technology" Update, and even if you've given our little game a shot before now, I hope you will try it again!

Click Here to Play: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis

Our official Jam Version is featured prominently for all the purists out there as well!

Shout out to:
@drazil100 , @camilo , @akirassasin , @drtizzle , @spacewarp , @digitaldude555 , @kevtukk , @jamesy012 , @faithcaio , @tiny-planet-studios , @aurelien , @fernandoadolfo , @stefvanschie , @oxrock , @loktor , @smbe19 , @mathijsvissers , @wevel , @shurty , @geeitsomelaldy , @jackyjjc , @valicitor , @fanu , @zarkonnen , @palemachine , @kr4ft3r , @canochaba , @knightess , @rick , @andyman404 , @random-storykeeper , @christina-antoinette-neofotistou , @gamechoy , @nettleflap , @thecritterscove , @burgee , @fangzhangmnm , @jk5000 , @twistashio , @linus , @pandakipu , @terryg , @mox , @pkenney , @piller-yann , @epiplon , @ekkiiiii , @blackrose , @richard-michael-smith , @peachtreeoath , @franklins-ghost , @mewsoul , @subwooferx3 , @pyokoanarogue

And Anyone I may have missed! Thank you all for the fantastic reviews. I spent the past 48 Hours curating your reviews and cutting them into usable data (See my Word Cloud Meme for examples of this), and implementing fixes based on all of your input. I’ve pushed an updated we’ve entitled the “Ancient Technology” Update, and I hope you’re willing to come back and give our game another try!

Our Patch Notes can be Found Here: https://itch.io/t/75895/patch-notes

Give me a shout on Twitter: @OccultSoftworks

Or on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w

I'm looking forward to another week of streaming, reviewing, and chatting with other developers. I've really enjoyed all the conversations I've had so far.

On Wordclouds: If you liked what I started, gimmie a follow on Twitter or YouTube. I want to do more fun Data Analytics stuff with Ludum Dare and you guys can help me do it.

I'm going to be streaming this evening around 4pm Eastern, and I'd love to spend some time playing your games. I focus on Constructive feedback and criticism (always from a place of love, even if I occasionally get grumpy). If you'd like me to stream your games, use this form to submit them to my list: https://goo.gl/forms/dgULXi8lA5eXFdAm2

While I'm at it, go ahead and give my game a shot over here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis

Find me on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w

Sorry about the wordcloud meme I started! It seems to have taken over LD38.

I'm streaming now over at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zCqO_O0iIo

Hit me up in chat, submit your games here: https://goo.gl/forms/UKOYJAOPoTlnQEt33

While I'm playing, if you could, go play mine over here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis It would mean quite a bit to us. We have a lot of faith in the game and we could use every vote.

See you guys on YouTube!

This past day's stream was probably my best so far, LOTS of interaction with all the other developers in the chat rooms, some really amazing games. Check it out below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zCqO_O0iIo

Highlights: Learned about the Economies of 14th Century England and France. Did not win the Best Voice Acting Award (It went to "Someone Else"). Learned my fiancee is even more of a music nerd than I ever imagined.

I'll be doing another stream tomorrow, around the same time (4pm eastern). If you'd like to submit your game to the list, go to this link and fill out the info. I'll post a similar message around 3pm Eastern-ish to remind folks it's going up. That link is here: https://goo.gl/forms/cDYNNUA6kZ6JKPjz1

I'll be updating all the game pages tonight with my reviews and thoughts, maybe do an "After Hours" session if folks have an interest in a late night stream of something not-LD related (Maybe a horror game?). Who knows.

Hit me up on Twitter @OccultSoftworks And Check out ATLANTIS: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis

I'll be streaming again today, yesterday went incredibly well and I'm hoping today will go just as smoothly. Want me to check your game out? Fill out this form here: https://goo.gl/forms/daQ96CAtq9GMtKQi2

I've now reviewed 250 Games as of last night's stream!

Our team is eagerly watching the Vote counter for our own game and it would mean a lot if folks could come give it a shot. Check us out here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis

If we can get to 100 Views, I'll probably post something fun you guys can laugh at, like me playing a horror game or something.

Hit me up on Twitter @OccultSoftworks

Or on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w

I only have 4 Games on my streaming list so far for today. If folks want me to play, make sure to submit your game here: https://goo.gl/forms/daQ96CAtq9GMtKQi2

While I'm at it, go give my game a shot here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis

Hit me up on Twitter @OccultSoftworks

Or on Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w

So in talks with a couple folks from the stream yesterday, I was asked if I could move the timeframe up by a few hours to make it easier for the European folks to catch. Catch it here as I start work on the list of games you guys submitted this go around: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w/live

Shoot me a Subscribe if you want to be informed every time I do these: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w Hit the like button if you liked the video!

I'm on Twitter: @OccultSoftworks And I'm pretty active in chat as folks yesterday saw.

If you're feeling generous, check out my game here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis We're getting close to hitting 100 Votes and could use the help getting there!

We're getting very close to reaching a big milestone with ATLANTIS and could use a handful more votes. If you've got time, give it a shot over here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis

I've really enjoyed hanging out and chatting with members of the community, and the conversations I've been able to have were both fun and informative. Are there any good / active chat rooms folks use (Preferably ones without high levels of community toxicity). I'm in my local IGDA Chapter Slack but it's mostly dead for weeks at a time.

Streaming

Tomorrow, assuming I am not sick, I'm hoping to do a big final stream for all the folks trying to get their games the last votes they need. Join me at 4pm Eastern on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w I'm on Twitter: @OccultSoftworks

Rising Tides

Check it out here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis

This is my last big update for LD38. We've worked our butts off to get one last big update for the folks who really enjoyed what we did this jam. The original jam version is still featured prominently for folks. If you like, shoot us some feedback on the new version, it's absolutely immense, full patch notes here: https://itch.io/t/75895/patch-notes

If you enjoyed the game, and think we should make it a full thing, please let us know. We're still a bit on the fence... hoping we do well enough on the scores to justify it.

Metrics

Everyone likes to see these, so here's ours for this Jam: I'm going to be doing a big super postmortum of my efforts this jam and hopefully get time to do analysis of several games' analytics in the coming weeks.

Thank you all so much for the encouragement, community, and great fun. I've met a ton of really cool folks, played a ton of really cool games, and definately became a better dev for the experience. Here's hoping for LD39! (I'll be doing a Metrics post to pool info from folks after voting concludes.)

I've gone ahead and made a Discord for folks to congregate and chat in, coordinate LD stuff, talk game dev junk, etc. https://discord.gg/p3UXSFJ : This link should never expire.

Feel free to invite folks. I'm not super big on rules, I think the only one we currently need is: "Be cool to Everybody."

Note: Streaming at 4pm today, going to round up folks to try and get as many deserving games rated as we can before voting is over. @OccultSoftworks on Twitter, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w on YouTube.

I'm going to bed shortly, but I decided to look at some metrics as we had a good discussion earlier about the pending deadline and possible deadline expansion. I'm too sleepy to do any kind of deep analysis, this is a mostly a surface skim. I'd love to wake up to see what other folks do with this stuff.

Total Games Submitted to LD38: 2983

Total Games with >=20 Votes: 856 (28.7% of Total)

Total Games with <20 Votes: 2127 (71.3% of Total)

Note on GTRR (Given to Received Ratio) Scores: 30 Games have Unrealistically High Scores and are considered outliers for our purposes.

Total Games with 0 GTRR: 939 (31.5% of Total)

Total Games with >0 GTRR: 2044 (68.5% of Total)

Total Games with >1 GTRR: 797 (26.7% of Total)

Unranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0: 920 (30.8% of Total)

Unranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0.001 or More: 1207 (40.5% of Total)

Unranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0.33 or More: 1115 (37.4% of Total)

Unranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0.66 or More: 918 (30.8% of Total)

Unranked Games with GTRR Scores of 1.00 or More: 735 (24.6% of Total)

Unranked Games with GTRR Scores of 2.00 or More: 50 (0.02% of Total)

Unranked Games with GTRR Scores of 3.00 or More: 33 (0.01% of Total)

Ranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0: 19 (0.01% of Total)

Ranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0.001 or More: 837 (28.1% of Total)

Ranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0.33 or More: 758 (25.4% of Total)

Ranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0.66 or More: 603 (20.2% of Total)

Ranked Games with GTRR Scores of 1.00 or More: 403 (13.5% of Total)

Ranked Games with GTRR Scores of 2.00 or More: 53 (0.02% of Total)

Ranked Games with GTRR Scores of 3.00 or More: 16 (0.01% of Total)

By these numbers:

31.5% (920 Games) of the Games Submitted to LD38 were likely Abandoned by their creators, or they did not submit any feedback (thus not participating in the system)

0.01% (18 Games) Did not Participate in the System, and were rewarded with enough votes to be properly ranked. Unfair, but statistically insignificant. I'd be curious how their scores panned out.

24.6% (735 Games) of the Games Submitted to LD38 must be given highest priority by the website as their creators have participated in the System above what the system has given to them and it has not rewarded them with rankings.

0.01% (33 Games) have an extremely high degree of feedback but have not gotten rated. These should be looked at, and where there isn't data errors, given extreme focus to bring their numbers back to reason).

If we were to remove the 920 Abandoned Games from the System, we are left with 2063 as our baseline. With this Adjusted Total, we would see 41.5% of all Games having received Ranks Currently.

To Reach 50%: +175 Participating Games Voted to 20 Rankings in a Category

To Reach 75%: +691 Participating Games Voted to 20 Rankings in a Category

To Reach 100%: +1206 Participating Games Voted to 20 Rankings in a Category

Using Data from :https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HWYo-es4weXRFnUBhKAUHX9rCodGiczvyIsWRkx9eoo/edit#gid=0

Credit to: @timeracers

Hey Guys: Is your game struggling to hit 20 Rankings? At 4pm Eastern Time I'm gonna be rounding up folks to play with me streaming over YouTube to get as many games as we can over the finish line while still providing constructive feedback!

Subscribe and Join us at 4pm: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w

Hit me up on Twitter: '@OccultSoftworks'

Fill out this link here: https://goo.gl/forms/Bo9APlF7EHECKiCy2

Join Discord: https://discord.gg/p3UXSFJ

My Game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis

Join if you wanna help rate and provide feedback for games in the danger zone! Still need 20 Scores? Fill this out! I'm doing any on this list first before we move to the Danger List: https://goo.gl/forms/Bo9APlF7EHECKiCy2

Join Us Here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPY6adDEbEbx4CoxiVsAb1w/live

It's been a blast guys! Looking forward to seeing all the rating wrap up!

NOTE: THESE GAMES BELOW URGENTLY NEED VOTES:

40 Ratings Given, 14 Received: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/rocket-me-out-of-here

18 Given, 7 Received https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/group-traffic-control

36 Given, 16 Received: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/evo

On to the Metrics!

Ranked Games: 28.70% Last Night versus 32.18% Tonight

Unranked Games: 71.30% Last Night versus 67.82% Tonight

We see a Positive Shift of 3.48% over the course of the Day: 104 Games Added to the Ranked List.

We've seen a very small decrease in the amount of Unranked games with very high GTRR Scores: 2.79% to 2.01% . My current hypothesis on these are games that run exclusively on niche or unpopular platforms. Linux exclusive games seem to be struggling to get folks to play them, despite having very active creators. This group would benefit GREATLY from a Platform tag, Filter, or button so folks on that platform can search for them.

The amount of Ranked Games with GTRR Scores of 0 have decreased slightly, 0.64% to 0.57%, I hypothesize this is the result of creators returning to their previously abandoned pages the night before they assumed voting would end.

Unranked Games with a Score of 0, which I previously labeled "Abandoned", do not appear to have budged significantly. They have gone from 31.04% last night, to 30.84% tonight.

At current rate: We will likely NOT break the 50% Mark. I would guess probably be sitting at about 42%

My current numbers are from a Snapshot at around 5pm Eastern. Credit to: @timeracers

These numbers have shifted about 1% or so since then as per Data from: https://api.ldjam.com/vx/stats/9405?pretty

Hey Guys! I am working on moving thru the danger list, but I see a lot of devs posting on this page that they would like their game played! I want to reward active devs so if you post yours in the comments here, I'll get to it right away. (I even occasionally find really awesome ones that I try and get extra eyeballs on for some facet I really enjoyed.).

While I'm working, it'd be great if you could review other games in need of help, and if you are feeling really generous, give us a shot here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/atlantis