I’m in for my 1st LD ! I’ll have only one goal : finish a game !

My weapons / tools :

• Eclipse IDE and Sublime Text, for coding
• Gimp and Pixen, for graphics
• Audacity, for sounds (if I have time)
• Cubase, for music (if I have time, but that seems very unlikely)
• A coffee maker, for my body.

I am ready !

So here it is, I got finally got into that game-jamming thing that I have been following for two years now.

I am not an experimented coder, lousy with arts, so I didn’t really know if I would be able to do anything this week-end, but I said to myself that I needed to try if I wanted to make it, no matter what.

And so far, so good. I will definitely have something to upload before the deadline, which was my goal. I even had time to update my blog! 😉

Anyway, here are few screens of where I am so far.

Oh, if you can see some mistakes with my English in the intro screen, feel free to correct me ! English isn’t my native language.

Yamzho.

So, I finished a game ! Woot !

What went well ?

• The idea: I added a positive message to my game, despite the theme was about having a weapon. Spread love and happiness, nothing can be more positive, right ?
• The minimalistic look: I chose to get minimalistic graphics for that game. Reason is: I suck at pixel art ! Haha ! I think the game looks nice though.
• The gameplay: The game play is very simple to understand and straight forward. Some could argue that the gameplay is too simple, but I think that kind of game has to be simple to play.
• My time management: I was afraid before the competition of the lack of sleep, of being too much on my computer and of not being able to socialise during the weekend, but it happened to be the opposite.

What went wrong ?

• The music/sounds: There is no music… and it would have add a lot to the mood of the game. Also, sounds level are not optimal and I should probably have worked a bit more on this.
• The code: the code is a real mess ! DO NOT LOOK AT IT !!! 😉 I tried to comment the code for about an hour and quickly dropped that idea !
• I did a typo !!! Will you find it ?

What’s next ?

• I’ll work a bit more on the game during the next weeks to improve several things and tidy the code.
• Some people in the comments have suggested a mobile version of the game, I’ll definitely think about it !

Can’t wait for the next LD !

Hey there !

So we finally got those ratings we’ve been waiting for the last 3 weeks ! And I have to say : I am happy with the score of my game “Happy !” !

Here’s what I got ! (52 players rated my game)

As I am pretty new with game development (it was actually the first game I have ever finished), I am really satisfied with my ratings ! After all, I am in the first half in every category !

Theme, mood, graphics and even fun went well, and this is a real satisfaction, because that’s what I have been focusing on. I am even surprised I got 2.72 in audio (come on guys, sounds were pretty sh*t, it didn’t even deserve a star !).

Well, now I have a reference and I need to improve things next time ! Can’t wait for it !

If you still want to play Happy !, here’s the LD page. You can also read my devblog (in French).

Finally, I am currently working on rewriting the code, adding features and fixing the difficulty progression and will release an improved version of Happy ! soon, so feel free to follow the development on IndieDB ! 😉

See ya next time ! Be Happy !

Hi guys !

Last time was my first Ludum Dare, and it was an amazing experience (obviously !). Therefore, I am attending to LD33 ! I should be entering the compo and use the following tools :

• Eclipse for Java
• Gimp
• As3sfxr, Chiptone, Audacity, Bosca Ceoil
• Other miscellaneous tools I don’t know about yet… 😉

I will also use :

• Coffee (with no moderation)
• Spotify

Finally, I will try to stream the testing sessions on Twitch.tv (nickname : yamzho) !

Can’t wait !

Hi there,

I hope everybody’s doing fine ! I had a slow start on my side, the theme was one of those I wanted to avoid because I couldn’t find any idea I liked. But I guess I am now on tracks.

Here’s a very rough and empty prototype I started. See you all later for further “indev” news ! 😉

Well, not exactly. It could have been worse ! 😉

So here we are, 10 hours before the deadline. Not everything has gone as smoothly as I wanted so far, but it’s not that bad. I still have victory conditions to do, intro screen and music to load (I had time to do some kind of music, so I’ll use it I guess). If I have time, I’ll try to polish a bit.

I hope all of you are having fun, can’t wait to try your games ! Some look reaaaaaaaaaaaaally cool !

See ya in 10 hours !

Game has ben submitted ! And you know what that means ? Game is READY TO BE PLAYED !

I hope you’ll have fun with my one keyboard multiplayer game !

And good luck to all the coders and artists still working on their projects !

Oh, the game is there !

Well, well, well, Ludum Dare. We met again ! I had been waiting for you for the last four months. You did not disappoint me !

So how did it go ? Not bad I would say. I entered the compo and chose to build a 2D – one keyboard – 1v1 multiplayer (kinda) arena called A battle for the Graveyard. The final product is not perfect, but I really enjoy it (more that my previous entry, by far).

What went right ?

• The gameplay : I think I did the right choice by avoiding to build an inverted rogue-like game. A 1v1 game is always fun to play !
• The graphics : It was my first time using a Wacom device, and I think I did a pretty good job. The whole environment looks consistent and, even though it could be better, it felt polished enough to me for a 48 hours game jam.
• The sounds : Despite there’s no music, I think the ambiance sounds are adding a lot to the game.
• Time management : Once again, I did manage my time pretty well. I posted the game 2 hours before the deadline without the feeling of being rushed. I slept a total of 10 hours, had walks, took the time to have proper meals.

What went less right (who said wrong ?) ?

• Controls : Some player felt like the controls for player 2 could have been better. And I must agree with that. I could have use the arrows instead of IJKL.
• That’s a multi player game : In general, this isn’t wrong. But when it comes to Ludum Dare, people have to try a lot of games in a short period of time and usually do it alone. I guess a lot of people wanted to rate the game but couldn’t really appreciate the gameplay.
• Game balance : Even if it isn’t that bad, it still needs some tweeking. Some abilities feel a bit OP sometimes.
• Animation : I did the mistake to not implement animations in my code when I should have and when I realised I should have had, it was too late.

What’s coming next ?

Well, I will work on a full version of the game, implementing more features and fixing issues, such as :

• Different multiplayer modes (same keyboard, LAN, Internet).
• Solo mode (which means I will have to create an AI).
• More abilities, more characters, more environment elements.
• Animations, more polished art.
• Music, more sounds.
• Gamepad controllers.
• A more balanced game.

I hope you’ll enjoy the game as much as I enjoyed creating it ! And do not forget to rate it and to leave a comment ! 😉

Yamzho.

Well, well, well… I think we’ve all been expecting that moment : Ludum Dare 34 is coming ! And I’ll be part of the event for the third time (in a row) !

I’ll be using :

• Eclipse IDE for Java
• Pixelmator and Gimp
• Audacity and some procedural sound generators
• A Wacom One graphic pad
• A lot and a lot of coffee, some pizza, sandwiches, etc…

The goal this time, finish another game and rank in top 100 in at least one category !

If you want to check my previous entries, here they are :
Happy ! (LD32)
A Battle for the Graveyard (LD33)

Also, as usual, I’ll be dev-blogging during the event in French here !

See you in a week or so and… Good luck everyone !

Hi there !

I have a little (huge) issue : My project works fine on Eclipse (my IDE), but freezes just before the gameover screen when playing the runnable java version.

I have no clue why and after 2 and a half hours of debugging, it is still not working. As I am working on Mac and do not have a PC, I would like one of you guys to check on a Windows machine, just to check this isn’t OS related.

Thanks to anyone able to help !

The game is there : Download the buggy version of Stem

Well, it took me three hours to find a game-breaking bug, but it’s behind me now. So, let’s balance the difficulty ! 😉 Oh, and here’s what it looks now…

First of all, I have to tell everyone : MASSIVE WELL DONE ! This was my 3rd Ludum Dare, and I’m always impressed by the amount of awesomeness I can see every four months here ! Wow !

As usual, I did enter the compo challenge. And again, it felt like 48 hours were not enough ! But I guess the feeling is shared with every Ludum-darers ! But I managed to ship a game right before the deadline. The game ? Stem, a game where you control a growing plant with your left and right keys.

What went right ?

• The gameplay. The mechanics are easy to understand: collect good stuff, avoid bad stuff ! I think most game during Ludum Dare should keep mechanics simple for two reasons : one, it is way easier to develop; two, a lot of players spend little time rating each game and usually give up when they have to spend more than 3 to 4 minute trying to understand the rules.
• The aesthetics. I love the clean, simple, minimalistic look of the game. I have been playing a lot to Two Dots & Mujo (both on Android) and loved them. Also, I am not good at pixel art ! 😉

What went wrong ?

• The difficulty. The game difficulty isn’t properly balanced. It is way too easy at start and gets harder too slowly. I released a post-compo version which solves partially that problem (but if you rate the game, rate the initial release only to be fait to other contestants). I’ll need to spend more time for future releases.
• The sound/music. Well, there’s no sound or music to the game. Unfortunately, I ran into game breaking bugs in the compiled version of the game (bugs that were not appearing in my IDE) and spent about three and a half hours debugging the mess. So, I had to skip on recording the music and sounds. Funny enough, I actually implemented the classes to play sounds in the game (you can actually see them in the source code).

And now ?

I will try to implements new features, some musics and sounds, and to balance the game during the following weeks. I’ll keep on posting updates here until the next Ludum Dare ! Oh, and of course, do not forget to…

RATE MY GAME : STEM !

There’s only 10 hours left before the results are out ! 10 hours to try and rate more games, including mine : Stem ! Be quick !

And while I’m still here : I want to thank everyone who has tried, rated or commented on my game ! You guys rock !

… But if I am, I will be using my usual weapons :

• Eclipse (for Java).
• Gimp and Pixelmator (for gfx).
• Sfrx and Audacity (for sfx).

• I’ll be live blogging in French and live tweeting in English during the event.
• I may be live streaming if I can set up everything in time.

I’m in with my coffee and stuff !

GL everybody !

Oh wow !

The last Ludum Dare I entered was LD37 ! It's been a while... I've had a super busy time for the last 3 years, but I'm back ! And I have to admit, the midnight to midnight schedule (as an European person) is exciting to me !

Tools that may be used : Eclipse for Java, Gimp, Pixelmator, Atom, FL Studio, Audacity, and probably some other softwares I can't think about right now. Services that I can already thank : itch.io and stackoverflow (I know I'll visit you, a lot).

You may follow me on twitter and itch.io : http://twitter.com/yamzho & http://yamzho.itch.io !

Good luck to everyone !

Oh well, time goes fast ! I entered my first jam in years (the theme was 'One room') ! And this felt sooooooo gooooood !

I wasn't a big fan of the theme at first, but I have to admit it was far from being one of the worst ones. An idea came to my mind quite quickly and I stuck to it. I tried to make the game a bit more polished than I use to do, and hopefully, this is noticeable.

Fell free to try the game and to leave a feedback ! I'll try your game as soon as I can ! ;)

Here's the link to the game (It's a java .jar file, I will link a .exe later this evening if you do not have java installed on your computer) : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/simpledriller

Thanks guys, and have fun playing all those games !

I think I am done ! I present to you "THE VOLCANO WOKE UP !" !

This is a turn based strategy game (sort of), hope you'll play, like and rate it ! :) Can't wait to play your games, guys !

Oh yeah, here's the link : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/the-volcano-woke-up

Hi there !

I have been playing a bunch of your games and they were amazing ! Well done guys !

Some of you have played my little game too and left a review, thanks a lot !

I am really pleased with the feedbacks and have done few changes to The volcano has woke up ! in a post-compo version. - It came back to me that the game felt like it was a lost battle way too early, so I balanced the difficulty a bit. The difficulty curve should be a bit smoother now. - Some player had issues determining how the fire was expanding/spreading. Which I agree with. So I added arrows to show where the fire will spread next turn.

The original version is still available (of course) and should be the one to be rated. But if you want to play with a better experience, feel free to try the post-compo version ! :) Here is the compulsory link to both versions of the game : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/the-volcano-woke-up

Have fun !