I should've said this earlier but, eh, better late than never!

I was able to submit my game Shape Invasion. A game where you have to defend yourself from shapes popping out from seemingly nowhere!

Link to the game's page here!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/shape-invasion

I've updated my game Shape Invasion!!

VERSION 1.1 CHANGES

Less detailed background

Removed music (I did NOT like the music at all)

New Pixel Emulator font (this WAS in the original version but I realized thanks to @pkenney that the font DOESN'T magically appear in the game folder)

DOWNLOAD LINKS:

GAME

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HRoExpSwz0or3Ts81eVlTK1tp6GzuS9g/view?usp=sharing

SOURCE FILE

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1suNaveKoOQqtCOf1JvuJYd0XWlIu2kzu/view?usp=sharing

Playing and rating the game would be appreciated (you don't have to).

My Ludum Dare 40 game Shape Invasion has a logo that looks like this:

and the game's entry page has this picture:

This post is supposed to show all of you the creation of these images, from what they ORIGINALLY looked like, to their final versions. As I thought that I should show you all what happened. So let's go through the buildup from start to finish.

THE LOGO

I originally started drawing the logo in GIMP, as this:

I then traced the picture in Inkscape, making it look like this:

I loaded this picture in GIMP, and I colored it, and included some shapes as well (and removing the black line at the top), this became the final image seen above.

ENTRY IMAGE

This was the most interesting (and tedious!!) picture to create. I opened up Blender and rendered this picture:

I then traced it in Inkscape, like the logo, producing this (I also made Jake's head bigger than in the render):

I went back to Blender, rendering this:

Traced it in Inkscape (with render):

And without the render:

I then inserted the background into the image, and after painstakingly cleaning up the picture (getting rid of gray/white spots) I had this final picture:

And that's it! That was a quick runthrough of how I made the logo and entry image. Hope you enjoyed this post :)

My Ludum Dare 40 entry Shape Invasion has now received 20 ratings! Thanks to everyone who rated and/or commented on the game!

Ludum Dare 40 has been a MUCH better experience than I thought (The event was not AS bad as I might have made it seem in the description on the entry page).

Now I'm REALLY wondering what my game's score will be in the end... Oh! And good luck to everyone else, too! :D

RESULTS

DANGIT!! I couldn't publish this before 2018 started, well anyways, my game didn't do very well:

But this IS my first Ludum Dare, I definitely didn't think my game would do well, but I ALSO didn't know that it would've been THIS bad! And, interestingly, the Audio category has the 'highest' score, even though it was my LEAST favorite part of the game.

I've now finally gotten to watching @philstrahl and @jupiter-hadley play my Ludum Dare 40 entry Shape Invasion. I REALLY enjoyed watching them play the game and learn how things work i.e. Bombs. Also, I've had the idea of making a sequel to Shape Invasion, and if I ever do that, I would CERTAINLY use the ideas Phil proposed in his video.

Here's the links to their videos if you wanna see them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoYb4Qywy04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFjCDu50TQs

CUSTOM EMOJIS AND HOPES FOR 2018

I've made some uh, 'emojis' of my Ronan Rorry character seen in my profile picture! Here's one right here:

I'll call these "eRojis" X)

2017 has been a good (and bad!) year, MUCH better than 2016 but still not the best. Hopefully 2018 will be better than 2017, and the years beyond being better than the ones prior. Even if not every year is SUBSTANTIALLY better than the previous one (the same thing can technically be said for Ludum Dare events as well).

I want to probably have some kind of 'question' at the end of these posts to really INTERACT with people more. Heck! Maybe even YOU could ask some question to me (as long as it relates to the post or me)! If you think I should make this a thing in my posts, heart it, otherwise, don't.

Yeah, I guess I'm technically begging for hearts at this point, but hey, I don't want the comments section to be filled with comments saying 'Yeah!' or 'heck no!'. And IF people like this totally original 'idea' (sarcasm), if I don't respond to your question, don't freak out! I won't always be on this website checking for questions.

In the end, 2017 wasn't the best, Ludum Dare 40 wasn't the best, my game (and it's ratings) isn't the best, but I enjoyed making my game and watching Phil and Jupi play it! I'm so happy I decided to make an account on this site. As I've now been able to SHARE stuff with people, and give Ronan new life even if he isn't that old, instead of all of them being COMPLETELY unknown.

So, my question is: What do you all think of my Ronan Rorry character? Please be polite in your response, regardless if it's positive or negative.

I'M ALIVE!!

Oh, sorry everyone, anyways...

I am making a new post after 2 gosh darn weeks. There are 2 reasons for this:

1. I couldn't come up with a good thing to post that is Ludum Dare related.
2. I caught a cold that lasted 4-5 days and it sucked.

I know it's VERY late to do this, but I'll give my opinion on Shape Invasion and how it turned out in the end. sigh this will be a VERY long post..

THE BEGINNING

I was deciding if I should make an account or not. This sounds stupid (and it is) but before Ludum Dare 40, I made games "Under The Theme" of jams, keep in mind that these weren't Ludum Dares and that term I created actually means I 'pretended' to participate, as in, I would make a game - but I wouldn't submit it. Yeah, makes no sense now.

Now, I lack decisiveness, so I basically wait until the last moment to make a decision. I made an account JUST as the theme was announced, I was too late.. I wanted to do it with spare time to vote but I couldn't.

I didn't have much experience with GameMaker: Studio (still don't, really) and I could BARELY use Unity, and that's being nice! So I used what I was familiar with: Clickteam Fusion 2.5! I still feel guilty using it as it is one of those 'no coding' programs. Now I know I shouldn't feel guilty using what I know best, but visual programming and it's users are scoffed at, other people seeing them as 'lazy' and 'stupid'.

DEVELOPMENT

I actually made a few video clips showing the game from beginning to end. Please excuse the Bandicam watermark, I didn't have the full version of Bandicam, I recorded the last bit of footage today which is why the watermark is (thankfully) gone. Here's the video (Also excuse the poor quality)

I didn't make a timelapse as I thought it would take up too much memory, and I didn't have appropriate software to make one. Yes, I know Bandicam counts as a timelapse program, but THAT took up too much space in a few images!

As you can see in the first clip, I started with a simple rectangle (which became the hitbox for the player) some simple sprites and a test level. FYI, the shape is colored white as that allows me to change the color of it without it looking strange.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RAIFPELokNfeP4fWWLtv2VIVSMxISBJO/view?usp=sharing

In the second clip, I've made a slightly more 'complex' level, shape spawning, color differences (even in the chunk objects belonging to a shape) and a camera that moves to let players see ahead.

The third clip details a more complex (without the quotes) environment. Now including the player and gun/cannon sprites (the player character didn't have jumping and falling animations yet), a background with parallax scrolling, different background colors each time and score UI.

The fourth clip shows the final level design, albeit a different foreground color (I wasn't able to change the foreground color so I kept it as the color seen in the final game), flashing when shapes are destroyed and bomb UI (I don't know if there were actual bombs in the game or just the UI)

The final clip is the final game. Specifically footage of version 1.1 as that has less intense flashing, less particles and no music.

While making the chunk's colors match the correct shape, I kept using incorrect methods involving custom R, G, B values. Until I made the stupid realization that the correct approach was quite simple in the end.

Also, during the beginning of development, I was getting allergies and kept sneezing. This thankfully didn't persist. What did, eventually was hunger. I'm not sure if it was stress from the jam or actual hunger, but I felt it, it wasn't good, as expected, I tried to fend it off with a plate of spaghetti, but it persisted. Two fiji apples later, it still was there, kind of. The only other thing I ate during the jam was Pop-Tarts (Sour Apple Jolly Rancher flavor, specifically).

For sleep, I only slept around 14 hours for the jam. I usually worked on the game until around 5:00 AM CT, then go to bed. I got some VERY uneasy sleep as thought kept flying through my head as to what can happen today. I'm used to waking up at 12:00 PM, which I know is bad for a game jam and anything in particular, but hey, this is my first Ludum Dare after all, I'm not yet sure when the consequences of this will make themselves known.

I got REALLY stressful as well, even when the jam STARTED. Because I created the entry (but didn't submit it yet) and I panicked as I thought I HAD submitted the game. One night, I had a 'sort of' nightmare, which I'll call a 'mini-nightmare' as it didn't scare me that much. It pretty much detailed the deadline being 17 minutes after I woke up, meaning I would have a VERY unfinished game to submit.

My description might be a little more intense than it actually was to experience.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I submitted my game a little less than 6 hours before the submission hour. I wish I hadn't done that, I wish I made more levels, of which there could've been potential for tricks like bouncing a projectile on a wall, making it hit a shape that way.

The music, good lord the music. I hate it, I hate it SO MUCH!! It sounds awful to me, I bet it could be used as a form of torture, forcing victims to listen to my god-forbidden music. That would be more effective that forcing them to listen to Justin Bieber's Baby, or Rebecca Black's Friday (no offense towards anyone who likes those two, I apologize if you do). Still baffles me how Audio was the highest rated category, considering how much I HATE my music, even IF it's only the second composition I've ever made.

Yeah, I am not fond of my first entry, oh well, I'll try to develop a better view of my next entry.

And, the game was basically a watered-down version of a game I made previously, called A Very Normal Road Trip. They both have hazards spawning randomly and they both have projectile weapons, among other things. But the main difference is, AVNRD was actually fun to play. Then again, I made that in a WEEK, instead of two days.

MAN! I'm harsh upon myself, c'mon myself, stop hating me so much, what did I do to YOU to make this happen!? You really need to develop a better view upon yourself and your creations, myself.

Oh also, @philstrahl, Jake (the player character) has something to tell you, so I'll allow him to write it here:

JAKE HAS JOINED THE SERVER

Jake: So, I've seen you play the game I'm in, and while I said that shapes appear 'out of thin air' and that I 'honestly believe that is just a bunch of baloney!'. I noticed something about your playthrough of the game

Jake: You appeared to have assumed that the gun/cannon ALSO popped out of thin air, and mocking me in the process!

Jake: So..

Jake: You know what?

Jake: That gun didn't appear out of nowhere, see, there is an opening that I jumped into to get there, that gun just CONVENIENTLY fell through the opening. Didn't see that, did ya!

Uh, Jake?

Jake: What!

Um, you seem to be a little more rude than you usually are.

Jake: Well how 'bout YOU get mocked like that, 'cause ya sure won't like it!

Uh.. okay, I think that enough for now, can I take over now please?

Jake: HECK NO!

Jake, I will force you out here if you refuse again.

Jake: HECK NO!

Okay

JAKE WAS KICKED FROM SERVER

Sorry about that, anyways, .. What? He wouldn't leave, also, he seemed VERY ticked off at something so trivial.

(Also, This part was just a joke, don't take it seriously, I REALLY love Phil's content, ESPECIALLY his post mortems. They just never stop being awesome!)

Moving on, I want to make the eRo- sigh Ronan Emoji file downloadable, I actually made a file in GIMP which is basically a mix and match file for Ronan Emojis. Here's a download link, just in case:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xsIZVXgoILGeTWQemZLQ0roc73aFySob/view?usp=sharing

WARNING

By default the resolution is 869x1140, but the pictures I show are 381x500. As I scale down the image beforehand, or else it looks like this:

Yeah, that is FAR too big.

But now, it is time for the QUESTION OF THE DAY!:

If you participated, I want to know what YOUR least favorite part of development of your game, and the final game, was?

Don't be afraid to ask any questions of your own! Just be aware that I won't ALWAYS be around to answer them.

Anyways, I'm going to read my HTML and CSS book by Jon Duckett (not sponsored, of course). Also, sorry for such a long post.

Hmm, what could this mean?

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! A new Ronan

The main color of St. Patrick's Day is green. you know what's also green? The logo for GameMaker: Studio! Well, I guess there's also black in there as well..

I want to make my LD41 entry with GameMaker, but that means I'm gonna have to learn it, specifically the GML scripting language. As with Ludum Dare 40 I used a software called Clickteam Fusion 2.5 for my entry. This was something that I regretted with my entry. Even though I know I shouldn't feel bad, it just doesn't feel right using a 'no programming' game engine in a game jam seemingly centered AROUND programming.

Back to GameMaker. I, thankfully, already have some experience with the software and GML, the key word there is 'some'. One thing I'm unsure about is if it's a bad thing to basically RELY on the 'if' statement.

This is an unfinished code action in the Step event of an enemy object in a simple topdown game, with lots of 'if'

I really don't know so if you do, please tell me so, I honestly feel guilty and even uncomfortable using mainly if statements. Oh! And yes, I am using GameMaker: Studio 1. Why? Because I want to become familiar with that before deciding if I want to switch or not (no pun intended), and plus Studio 2 costs $99 (yes I know there's a free trial but I want to become familiar with Studio 1 beforehand). And I've owned Studio 1 since 2014 (but didn't truly start learning it until 2016)

Also, I want to document my Ludum Dare 41 experience. From the ideas I had for a game, to the ups and downs of the development of my entry, along with other miscellaneous stuff like things that happened in the real world. And finally, submitting the entry and the results, for anyone who doesn't want to bother keeping up with my entry for the entire voting phase. This is HEAVILY inspired by Phil Strahl's Ludum Dare post mortems. Though the result will mostly resemble his LD34 post mortem, since I don't have the tools, and the talent, capable of creating such masterpieces that are his later post mortems.

That might all be a little ambitious to do, but let's just see if it works out or not!

So, the wait for Ludum Dare 41 is killing me right now. But, in the meantime I made some music. This is the third composition I've ever made. And, for the first time, I actually LIKE the results. The other two I wasn't very fond of, one of these two is actually the music in my LD40 entry Shape Invasion.

Here's the download:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gNyRumVHWlx2KYOaeTUFDqOz6OtvijZD/view?usp=sharing

And here's a download for the original source file

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OU-fQGCkKCxgPpJeckpty8Od9afxqncM/view?usp=sharing

I'd like to know how you all think of it! Also, on a side note, the name of the software (Bosca Ceoil) is pronounced as buska kyoal, if you didn't already see the pronunciation on its home page.

One last thing: I am thinking of, in the future, taking some of the tracks I made and compiling it into an album called "First Songs I Made". I am mentioning this because if you magically see this picture upon opening the file on Windows Media Player: Then you basically know about the whole "album" thing and what it'll be like. I'm not sure if this'll happen for all of you, and I don't wanna make the same mistake like I did with the font in Shape Invasion. You have been warned.

But anyways, I'm certainly excited for LD41! It will definitely be quite an adventure considering my plans for both my game and the post mortem experience.

Here's to hoping that LD41 won't suck balls! Had to find SOME way to shoehorn this picture into the post..

Let's just say a LOT a themes met their fate because of me

Hopefully I didn't spend all this time slaughtering themes for not (aka, hopefully the theme doesn't SUCK!)

Ludum Dare 41 has been arriving faster than I would like, but that's okay. I'm gonna lose a few minutes at the start due to having to go somewhere at 5:00 PM CDT, and won't get back home until 8:00 PM CDT, great. But at least I can get some interesting footage for my post mortem experience!

This will be my second Ludum Dare ever, I sure hope I'll do better than last time, but who knows..

OH! I almost forgot!

Since everyone else has been doing it, and no time is better than now, why not list all the tools I'll be using in LD40-I mean LD41!

GameMaker Studio 1.4

GIMP

Bosca Ceoil (maybe LMMS?)

and Audacity

Hope Ludum Dare 40-DAH! Ludum Dare 41 goes well for all of you!

In the few hours before LD41 I decided to make a program for generating basic piano roll melodies called MelodyMaker. There are three buttons in this program:

• Start This button generates a melody from left to right

• Clear Notes This, as it's name suggests, clear every note on screen.

• Alternative Creation This one generates a completely random melody, results might not be a very good melody.

Then there's the height

The height value changes how flat the melody is, it's recommended to have it at '2' as that is the most effective value.

Here's the download link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1omklrASTApAmsr82XqtgFnXnPz6a2Wb-/view?usp=sharing

And here's a timelapse of the creation of the program:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iAQbk0Rm9hQPmMe7C5mkLP1H2MyAmY13/view?usp=sharing

This is a VERY hastily made program. So if there are any errors, that's the reason why. Also, this program is meant to create a visualization of a melody that you could then recreate in another program. Please take it with a pinch of salt. Hope this helps in any way possible for you all. ya knew I had to

Well, Ludum Dare 41 has started and the theme is.. acceptable. However I am REALLY scared as to the problems I'll face, like, problems that will take me FOREVER to fix, if I even CAN fix them but, hopefully this won't be too painless. Good luck everyone!

I've now finally come up with an idea for a game! But for now I'll just let you all guess from this picture what my idea is ;p

I'm not going to enjoy making this post, but I didn't make a game for LD41 :(

The reason?

Well, there's actually 2 reasons. However, both are pretty much the same:

1. The Theme

To me, the theme sucked. Surprising, I know. But here's the thing, technically, it is impossible to make a game with 2 incompatible genres that is PLAYABLE (This isn't accounting for movie or literature genres FYI) and if you DID manage to mix two "incompatible" themes into a playable game, it doesn't do what the theme asked! (I apologize for being so pessimistic, but this really ticked me off)

2. An Idea

If you checked my feed, you might've seen a post with this image:

No no no! That's NOT the image I showed. THIS is the image I showed:

In my post, I said that I had an idea for a game, and I decided to let you all guess what idea I had. But I'm not doing that now.

The idea I had was a game that vaguely mixed the genres of Tower Defense and Escape the Room, but ended up being more like an Arcade/Top Down Adventure game, sorta. You would control both the archer shooting at enemies while at the same time you would control a character supposedly held captive in the tower, and has to escape said tower.

But the thing was, I didn't enjoy making it. I didn't enjoy making it. Which is probably one of THE worst things that could happen to you in an LD ham-I mean jam.

So I decided to scrap that idea, especially considering hoe-HOW! How how how.. um, how I didn't feel that it was mixing two genres in a clever way. So I decided to come up with another idea..

But I couldn't come up with another idea..

And so, after having lost an ENTIRE DAY thanks to a lack of ideas, or INSPIRATION, I dismissed myself from LD41. I'm sorry jammers.

And it's a real bummer as well, since I was going to document my experience. But it all turned out to be just a waste of gigabytes-_-

But I'll show some of it anyway. In another post, since I don't want to make this post feel longer than the Wikipedia article on the 1918 New Year Honors (or 'Honours' I guess) I wanna keep these posts short and sweet.

But, before I end this post. Even if I didn't participate, I feel like I should still play and rate your entries! But I'll probably do that tomorrow, just to give you all time to post links to your games (not that I'm asking you to, but I'm okay with it) mixed with some games I'll choose myself.

Anyways, goodbye everyone! I'm gonna shoot myself in the head if Brackeys participated...

Oh come on!

I REALLY doubt I'll be able to participate in LD42 unfortunately. The internet connection on my PC is acting up, but on the other hand it works fine on my phone.

I guess I'll say which theme I hope wins, and which one I dread , sort of. Those two themes are 3 Rules and It's spreading respectively.

I still hope L4D2- I mean, LD42 is a blast for you all! Goodbye

Okay everyone, I apologize for saying this, but I’ve lost interest in Ludum Dare.

I’ve been getting a passion for languages, spoken languages, not programming languages. And am currently learning Esperanto to help with any other language I would pursue learning.

I still do have a somewhat minor interest in game development, but I think I need to acquire more knowledge about programming if I want to truly participate in LD jams, which usually requires a good bit of knowledge about it, after all, this is "The ultimate test of your game creation skills".

I have been making a game already, since around January 2017, which I eventually cancelled in favor of my first, and potentially last LD entry Shape Invasion. I’ve been remaking this game recently from scratch, and believe that it will be finished in 2019.

I plan to release this game on GameJolt when it’s complete. But, the bottom of the line is, I want to spend my time on this game and Esperanto. Though Esperanto is, naturally, taking time away from making this game (which I named Square Stroller) as I have to devote my time to Esperanto if I want to learn it.

Like I said at the start, I’ve lost interest in Ludum Dare, so don’t expect to see me on this site again for a while. I want to develop Square Stroller (And maybe another idea I’ve had) in my disgustingly high amount of free time instead. So, I am sorry to say this, but I’m going to dismiss myself from a Ludum Dare event for a second time, it sickens me to think about it. But then again, I wasn't a big fan of the ‘Running out of Space’ theme, I preferred ‘3 Rules’ rather, but I would take this theme ANY day over LD41’s.

Shudder

Anyways, sorry for such a long post everyone, I just thought I had to inform you all about this. I should still reply to any comments this post gets, but I’m not really expecting many. I might also make a post on this site announcing Square Strollers release, however that’s not a guarantee. Goodbye everyone, and I mean that.

...

Oh! Another thing, here's a short video I recorded just to lighten up the mood a bit (I'm sharing this through Google Drive as I don't want to make a YouTube account). And plus, I was writing/revising this part during Submission Hour, which is fitting for this blog post that I've worked on since the last two days. Actually, in a depressing sorta way, this IS my entry to LD42. Kinda. Anyways, here's the video!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mgK6Bd75v4vTttWzOtw1fZR0wiRJey/view?usp=sharing

And one last thing that I feel I should share with you all: What I voted on!

Goodbye everyone!

I'm not the biggest fan of this picture, but at least his head's still intact

@pov If you could please change my username from:

orig: RonanRorry

new: RonanRory

Thanks very much in advance.

ALSO! Any of you other people who are seeing this post... shhhhhh

Nearly 4 years ago, I last participated in Ludum Dare #40. I had big plans for the next iteration, but then we found out how much of a stinker that ended up being; not long after that, I completely lost interest and decided to leave to do other things, like improve my drawing ability.

Back then, I couldn’t draw to save my life. I would scribble some abomination with Flipnote Studio, then take a photo of it to clean up; and I was terrible at that, too. My profile picture used to look like this:

But in recent years, I’ve grown fond of GIMP, and drawn a bunch of ~~generic~~ different character designs. More recently, I've tried drawing myself; this picture in particular I made specifically for this post:

You can decide for yourself if/how much I’ve improved.

But being good at drawing can only get you so far in a game jam, so what’s changed since?

For my Ludum Dare #40 submission: Shape Invasion, I used Clickteam Fusion 2.5 as the game development tool. I’m not exactly too proud of that decision, even IF it was all I knew back then. I wasn’t very experienced with GameMaker: Studio at the time, and Unity was.... well.. it's still a pipe dream.

Even while typing this, I'm kinda worried about how much experience I DO have with it, as that's what I wanna use for this jam. And I'm specifically referring to GameMaker Studio 1.4, as I've never fully completed a game with it, though I got super close once.

Bosca Ceoil is the popular music creation choice for many a participant, and for good reason: because it's incredibly intuitive! And I certainly used it for Shape Invasion. But I cannot STAND any music I've made! I've reached acceptance with drawing; that my work will easily be outclassed by the other guy, and I don't care. But music has taken the backest of seats. Funny enough, my game scored highest in the Audio category. Despite that, I'm not exactly looking forward to making music for my entry.

But who cares about any of the above? I know you all are just teetering at the edge of your seats to know what themes I've suggested; I know I'd be doing the same, of course!

Well, I've spent a few days with a LibreOffice text document of the themes I've come up with. I came up with two REALLY good themes (in my opinion), but a third one wouldn't come, so I said "screw it!" and typed up the bottom theme in this picture:

Here's the full list of themes that I came up with:

Feel free to use one of these for a personal project, even if I do state why the red ones probably wouldn't be a good Ludum Dare theme.

Apologies on behalf of this post's length; I can get a little carried away. So yeah, have a good one, everyone.