I'm finally publishing my entry's post mortem... this time around I've just been too busy with school to write it earlier. PLEASE check out the timelapse video for a quicker look at the process (it's way more concise):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNvqXLZVTE0

Making GAIA

You can play Gaia before reading if you like!

Tools:

• Unity
• GIMP
• SFXR
• blipseq

Overview:

So I began with the intention of using pixel art in my entry and decided on making a platformer based on the theme. I was actually busy for the first four hours of the compo but I figured out a general Giant Earth Beast concept to work on when I got home. Yeah it kinda sounds silly but it was great pixel art practice :D

Clouds seemed like the way to go with creating the levels... and I came up with a mechanic to sort of push the clouds back and forth to manipulate the level. Turns out this was really problematic for platformer logic because it created some awkward physics :( I spent a whole lot of time tuning the movement but even now it's still wonky. The problem was trying to have the clouds drift across the screen over time while the player jumps along them.

So clouds ended up being a sort of trampoline thing you can get through levels with. This took a lot of time to get right cause I didn't do it right the first time.

Thoughts

The Bad:

The #1 complaint by far has been movement and getting stuck/not understanding the jump mechanic... I just didn't have the platformer experience to make collision work the way it should have with the moving clouds in the initial release. I made it a bit better within a day but it's definitely Gaia's weak point. The concept itself could have been better, I felt a little limited by the clouds. I even avoided making enemies of any sort and the gameplay suffered. You can never playtest too much.

The Good:

I did my best in the art area for the time I had. The effects and animations were greatly improved since my last entry (which was my first attempt at pixel art). I'm ridiculously proud of the music for some reason... I was able to put it together very quickly with blipseq. I've barely attempted music before this Ludum Dare. It plays in the background of the timelapse above if you want to hear.

Conclusion:

All in all this has been an awesome (my sixth I think?) LD38 and I've learned a lot from my entry's problems. The games I tried have been pretty awesome and I'm anxious for Wednesday's results. Feel free to comment any questions or thoughts on this post. Thanks for reading of course!

Sorry for the long post D: see you for results!

Entry | Twitter | Itch.io | Game Jolt

For non-Twitter users:

EDIT: "To get a score at the end, you need about 20 ratings in a category. To get ratings: play, rate, and leave feedback on games. Every game you rate and leave quality feedback on scores you Coolness points. Having a high 'Coolness' prioritizes your game."

EDIT 2: Feedback Friends and this tool might help find entries in need (tool source). The numbers from @avavt's tool don't seem to add up, not sure why.

Source

Core gameplay and art is pretty much done. Might have to extend into the Jam... still need a viewmodel.

The gif quality makes the game darker than it really is.

Still work to do, 20-ish hours to make some levels

I've been so busy with school work since the Jam ended that I haven't been able to play any games or post about mine. But now I'm doing both... here's Enchain!

What is Enchain? It's basically a first-person shooter with a grappling hook. You can only finish off enemies by grapple-throwing them. However, this causes their souls to be chained to you, restraining your movement until you release them back into the physical world. The enemies you carry might be needed to open doors along the way.

Want to try it out?

PLAY HERE (WebGL)

I finally edited together all my footage of Enchain's development; my 72 hour weekend is now about 2 min:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTEz4uwC0kA

Also, see the game here: PLAY ENCHAIN (WebGL)

Enjoy!

Glad to say that my weekend is free and I will be participating again! This will be my eighth time joining.

• Unity
• GIMP
• Blender
• Audacity / BFXR

Good luck and have fun everyone!

Took way too long to do this

Finally some decent menus

Took some inspiration for the GUI... https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/astral-fantasy

PLAY ON WEB

Just uploaded for those interested, shortened to 3 min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf-sCL38luk

Entry Page

Astral Fantasy is a cross between space shooter action and turn-based RPG mechanics, created for the compo.

This post will outline the general process of my entry's development and discuss what I've learned, for those interested. Hopefully my struggles and successes will be as valuable to you as they have been to me. View the timelapse for a quick visual overview of the development:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf-sCL38luk

BUILDING THE GAME

Unity, Blender, and GIMP were my tools.

I settled on the idea to combine realistic physics and RPG styles after some thought; I'm currently taking a physics course so I've always thought it would be fun to work with some kind of orbital concepts. Also I'm a fan of 90s Final Fantasy games. The idea of combining these "genres" seemed so ridiculous I had to do it.

NOTE: You'll see a pixel aesthetic already implemented below. I tend to like the palette customization that the shader provides, so I went for such a retro look very early.

1 - Orbital Physics Stuff

Modeling planet gravity wasn't hard; F = G*M*m / r^2 is the relationship I know best, so I started with that. After writing some planet classes, gravity worked fine and ships could orbit in the way I envisioned. Next I needed a way to draw the trajectory of moving ships. The trajectory prediction feature was adapted from this script, obviously modified with custom planet gravity in mind. It basically calculates a series of positions and writes them to a Line Renderer.

This orbital trajectory prediction was probably the largest stump in the weekend, hitting me right in the first 6 hours, when I couldn't find a satisfying way to calculate trajectory quickly and accurately. I reached a reliable algorithm after dropping mass from calculations and only drawing new paths between player turns, seen above. Simplifying the factors allowed me to move on.

2 - UI and RPG Systems

Taking heavy inspiration from Final Fantasy, I started to work on the UI and turn-based elements of the game. This is also when I began testing playing with two ships at once, seen below.

I am happy with how the UI turned out, although it probably took longer than it needed, cutting into other areas of polishing. Most time was spent putting the menu together and getting input working with it nicely. Despite this being far into the weekend already, I hadn't even gotten around to modeling ships, making unique weapons, or anything that should logically come before the UI. That might have been my biggest mistake.

3 - Design and Compromises

Time was running out, and I had an effective RPG system going, but little content. The last few hours were a rush to make ship models and enemy types; I had to cut features I hoped to have in the final game such as music, items and shops, limit breaks, and even a stat point system. It was very discouraging to drop all these RPG aspects that I initially wanted, since I knew it would negatively impact the gameplay. Thankfully, I didn't give up and I simplified healing and leveling to negate the missing features.

When I finally submitted, the game world consisted of scattered planets with their own sets of enemies to spawn, as well as two ships to rescue and add to your party. When the player feels ready they can take on the boss ship to win. Each player ship had three weapons that would unlock as they leveled up, but stronger enemies would spawn to counter progression, making the space battles more intense and difficult.

CONCLUSION

In developing Astral Fantasy, I've learned ways to implement RPG elements as well as space-like gravity. I could use some improvement in a realistic scope, however, as I worked to the last minute unfinished despite hoping to finish early (which always happens). Most of my first few hours were wasted trying to get orbital trajectory prediction working perfectly, and in the future I will probably try to find a quicker solution to my problems so I could move on rapidly. I also know now that complicated mechanics such as orbital physics are probably better off as the only focus for a jam game, since I could have made that unique aspect possess greater depth.

I'd like to note that there is plenty of work that could have been done to Astral Fantasy post-jam to enhance the game, but following submission, I was too busy with school to work on the game at all, so I decided to leave it as it is.

Despite the errors along the way, I am glad I participated, sacrificing some school work time, because the new challenges I faced with the theme and chosen genres have given me valuable experience. There's still time to rate it:

PLAY (WebGL)

Thanks for taking the time to read, until next time!

So this is my belated "I'm In" post, turns out I actually really like the theme and its time for me to get working! It's been a year now since I was in LD41. I'm hoping to make something more polished than usual, let's see what happens.

Good luck everyone!

A trading game...? Hoping to have lots of polishing time!

I haven't posted about my entry yet so here it is: Double Deal (HTML)! You start in a boat that has mysterious doubloons that can convert other rival currencies into itself, and your goal is to use doubloons with other traders to make it the dominant sea currency. I want to see how far others can get in its unpolished state. Try it out, but be warned that it ended up a bit confusing and difficult to learn!

Joining a team this weekend, have not done a LD in a while! No plans for tools yet but likely Unity. Good luck yall

gameplay

https://streamable.com/rbchsc (the sound effects really heighten the experience)