Very excited to start developing. Looking forward to the challenge and also playing all the games at the end of it all!

Tools: Unity, Visual Studio, Paint Shop Pro (oh how I miss the days when it was made by Jasc), Goldwave, 3DS Max, Akeytsu, Acid Music.

Fuel: Pepsi Max

I'm also going to try and make a timelapse video - for some reason I love them!

So, the theme is "A small world". My plan is to try and create a shoot-em-up (or shmup as the kids are calling them these days) inspired by Geometry Wars 3, Space Invaders, and Missile Command. Controls will be dual-stick - best played with a 360 controller or similar.

I'm relieved that I actually have an idea as my biggest fear was if the selected theme was "Dark/Light" because I was struggling to come up with something for that!

Thankfully I can now get a little bit of sleep before cracking on tomorrow. Good luck to all my fellow jammers!

I have been looking forward to making a time-lapse video so much that I've done one already! Here it is:

YouTube Timelapse Video

I feel like it's going well. I've got a game idea, I've got the basic mechanic working, I've got placeholder artwork, I've started on a piece of music, I've created sound effects using sfxr and there's still over 24 hours remaining. Right now I'm feeling pretty good!

At the moment I am adding bullets...I think it would help if they moved...:grinning:

Image of bullets

In movies they say that the hero is only as good as the villain...well, perhaps games are only as good as their bad guys too? With that in mind, I have used all my "programmer art" creative skills to bring you the ultimate bad guy...

Oh yeah...and I'm playing with the title being "Globe Trot" (it was my wife's idea so I'm trying to think of something better)

Image of the Globe Trot enemy

Working on some UI stuff at the moment. I still have a long list of "must-dos" and a reasonable list of "should-dos" and a much longer list of "want-to-but-can't-dos"!

Looking forward to playing everyone's creations when this is all over. In the meantime, it's back to the main menu:

I was so excited to create my first ever time-lapse video! So I thought I would share it with you all:

After 10 days of feedback the biggest problem I have with my game is the camera. (The other problem I have is instantiating too many sounds but that's another story.)

"Globe Trot" was created in Unity - here's a link to the game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/globe-trot

The camera tracks the player object - if the distance from the player to the camera exceeds a certain amount then a force is added in the direction of the player. The further the camera is from the player, the larger this force will be. If the camera gets too close to being directly above the player (where gimbal lock would occur) then a force is added to repel it. The direction of this force is always to the "right" of the player object.

It's the issue of the camera being directly "above" the player (relative to the planet) when the problem occurs - because which way is up in that situation? To experience this - just move down as soon as the game starts and you will experience the camera rotation.

One solution would have been to keep the camera a fixed offset from the player (i.e. be in the player's local coordinate system) but I fear that would feel too rigid (it would be similar to those bits in movies when the camera is attached to the actor and they are supposed to be drunk).

Having gone back to re-play Geometry Wars 3 for the first time in a while...I am now wondering if the camera is actually moving around the globe at all - or if the globe is rotating (as well as the sky box) keeping the camera's up direction fixed. That would certainly make the camera orientation a lot simpler!

When the compo is over, I will re-visit "Globe Trot" and try different camera solutions to find something that works better - and I will fix the audio issue and any other problems reported. Until then, happy gaming!

Dear Linux Users,

I would be very grateful if you could test the Linux build of my compo entry: "Globe Trot". I know the Windows and Mac versions run ok...but I haven't heard if the Linux build works.

Here's the page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/globe-trot

and a direct link to the Linux files:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n84e05k0pgv5887/Linux%20%28Universal%29.rar?dl=0

Thank you!

I can't believe that I've only played (or attempted to play) 4% of all the games so far!

I know what you're wondering: what are some of your favourites so far? I'm glad you asked...

The Colour of Height

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/the-colour-of-height

My idea of a small world

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/my-idea-of-a-small-world

The Deep

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/the-deep

Space Travel 15

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/space-travel-15

Factions

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/factions

Super Collapse Guy

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/super-collapse-guy

Do you think your game belongs on that list? If so, leave a comment and I will play it!

Shameless self promotion....here's my game:

Globe Trot

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/globe-trot

Many thanks to all of you that have played, rated and left feedback for my game. Hopefully I have returned the favour.

For any of you that haven't seen it yet, here's my entry:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/globe-trot

After reading all the feedback, I have created a list of what I will do as soon as the judging ends:

• Fix the camera - this is my biggest problem. During the jam I should have fired up Geometry Wars 3 again and paid more attention to how they move the camera. I should NOT have allowed the camera to rotate with the player. Big mistake!
• Fix the audio - when there are lots of enemies on screen and they are all firing at you, each one starts a new sample. I should have kept track of how many sounds I was playing and put a sensible limit of the rate at which new sounds could be played.
• Allow restart immediately at Game Over - like some of the most addictive games out there, being able to restart immediately is very important. I regret not including this and it's probably one of the biggest lessons I have learned from this jam.
• Show the player's score at Game Over - an oversight - but funnily enough, people want to know how they did when they die!
• Make the player's death BIGGER! - Feedback from @hegemege suggests that the player's death should be more "spectacular" and I like that idea!
• Support PS4 controller - When @occultone played Globe Trot in his live feed (1hr 17min in the video below) he was playing with a PS4 controller...and it did NOT work at all! So I need to sort that out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr-ZBj_dJa4

Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

My current balance over on the Feedback Friends website is down to 6! I'm aiming for zero!

Help me by giving feedback to my game:

Globe Trot

I'm not sure I'm doing this right...

Thanks to all of your wonderful feedback you have got my balance to ZERO!

I knew we could do it. That's what happens when you get a bunch of motivated people together and you work as a team! Great work team!

So the question arises...can you get a negative balance??? :grinning:

It's almost lunch time here which means I've got an hour to play as many games as I can. So far I've attempted to play 182 games:

Apparently I've given out ratings to:

The OCD in me really wants to hit 200 games played and I reckon I should be able to do that before voting ends. So, like others before me, I invite you, ladies and gentlemen, to suggest a game for me to play. If it helps: I'm a Virgo, right handed, and I don't like bananas.

Suggest away!

Firstly, congratulations to everyone who took part in this Ludum Dare, and thank you to all of those who played, rated and left comments for Globe Trot.

For my first ever LD I am proud to have some very respectable positions - particularly in Fun and Audio. Those of you that played the game already will know I created some suitable music BUT I had some audio problems when too many sounds were being instantiated. The other big issue of course was the camera. I am happy to say that both of these issues have now been fixed for the first "Post Jam" version which you can play in your browser here:

https://richard-michael-smith.itch.io/globe-trot

Enjoy!