I’m in for this LDJAM! I will be my 12th jam (only skipped the last one).

As per usual I’ll be making the game in JavaScript, using my rocket-boots kit.

Likely other tools:

• Chrome
•  Pickle 2
• Bxfr
• Photoshop
• Sublime 3
• GitHub

I went through each theme and wrote up a game idea or a reason why I don’t like the theme: http://deathraygames.tumblr.com/post/142775660982/final-theme-voting-for-ldjam-ld35-and-my

7 green, 5 yellow, 8 red. I’m excited that there are quite a few good themes on the list!

In case it wasn’t obvious: I’m in. It will be my 11th consecutive Ludum Dare. I guess that makes me a veteran?

I’ll be working with my usual toolset:

• JavaScript, HTML, CSS, all written in a Sublime editor and tested in Chrome.
• For artwork I’ll be trying to do it all in Pickle (I loved Pickle 1, so I recently bought Pickle 2; I’ve seen a lot of bugs in it so far, but it’s too late to switch editors now).
• Libraries: probably just my open source RocketBoots set of game-building tools, with jQuery, and possibly another OSS js library if I get experimental.
• Sound/Music: Maybe bfxr for a few sounds, but it’s probably better off if I don’t attempt music and leave it quiet.

I’m also going to try to take on the additional challenge of limiting myself to 64 pixels x 64 pixels for the low rez game jam. I’m also excited to try out this color palette that I’ve admired for a while. We’ll see how it goes…

Good luck to everyone!

I’m in for Ludum Dare 33. …but will likely be busy for a good deal of the weekend, so I’ll be doing the insane, self-imposed limited 24-hour compo!

Same deal as last time (“I’m in” post from LD32): I’ll be using the open web stack — HTML5 & JavaScript — and will use some of…

• Software:
  Chrome, Notepad++ or maybe Sublime3, Pickle, Photoshop, Bfxr, Bosca Ceoil
• js Libraries:
  jQuery, Underscore, RocketBoots JS game framework, Minor bits of code copied from previous games (all open source)

Because I don’t have time to do anything too daring I’m going to stick with my plan from last time, and will likely make some kind of incremental/idle/clicker-type game since they are fairly easy to program, and get good scores for fun.

Follow me on Tumblr or Twitter — almost all my posts are about Ludum Dare!

I’m in for this weekend! I will be doing a game in the open web stack — HTML5 & JavaScript — like all my previous games.

I will make use of the following…

• Software:
  Chrome, Notepad++, Pickle, Photoshop, Bfxr, Bosca Ceoil
• js Libraries:
  jQuery, RocketBoots, possibly minor code copy/pasted from my previous games (all open source)

Using my previous scores as inspiration, here’s my plan: http://deathraygames.tumblr.com/post/116465730727/ludum-dare-32-plan

• Fun: “Clicker”/idle gameplay
• Graphics: Pixel/retro
• Mood: Cheery and clean
• Audio: repetitive music and silly sounds
• Humor: Silly sounds and cute animations

…entirely subject to change based on the theme.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Completed my eighth Ludum Dare! Behold: A game where you get to cook food for hungry – and very grumpy – dwarves …plus you get to wear a crown — despite not having earned it.

TAVERN KING

Dwarven Walking Simulator

I definitely need to write a post-mortem about this game eventually… you would think that after so many jams I would know enough to limit my scope. “Complex crafting + A.I. + business simulation with a half-baked framework? Sure, I can do that.”

I’m still proud of the graphics though, despite not having enough time for animations. It’s also fun to just watch dwarves shove each other around.

In my last “I’m in” post I mentioned putting together a collection of some common functions that I’ve used in previous LD games…

Well I’ve done it and named it “RocketBoots”. If you’d like to check out the Github repo, feel free to use the code or contribute. It’s all open-source, freely licensed — and a complete mess at this point.

I figure this will either help out my LD-31 game by giving me some useful generic functions for menus, sound, canvas, and 2d coords… OR will completely distract me, causing me to write efficient, reusable RocketBoots components rather than concentrate on the game itself. But at least this time I have some base-code to work with and I’m not start with a completely empty page.

Onward, upward! Good luck everyone! I hope you voted smartly. 😉

 <– Cutis homepage on GitHub

Interested in customizing the look and feel of the Ludum Dare website? Check out this open-source re-skinning tool I built recently that I’m calling “Cutis” (latin for “skin”).

If you try it out and are interested in new features, or if you know some CSS and want to add a style, please let me know (either via GitHub issues or twitter @deathraygames), or just do a pull request in GitHub.

The animated gif below shows how the current version works. Thoughts?

JavaScript programmer here… I’ve usually started from scratch for the JavaScript/HTML/CSS games I’ve made for Ludum Dare in the past. But I’m thinking of starting with some kind of framework this time around. Community — What do you recommend?

PS- I’m in! Regardless of framework/tools…

My game can be summed up perfectly by gnx’s review: “Click things and numbers get bigger“. 

I have been very pleasantly surprised by the reviews. I thought the game wasn’t going to be much fun, but people tend to be enjoying it.

Some good quotes:

• “Very fun and addictive game”
• “a nice fun game”
• “Well done balance and execution”
• “Having a fun time with this one. :)”
• “Played it for a long time, not sure why, but I had fun.”
• “the different buttons have nice thought out synergies”
• “I enjoyed it even though there is not much of a challenge “
• “…but I like idle games and this one is cool!”

Some criticism:

• “Aaaah, my poor fingahs. I played that for a lot longer than I meant! “
• “I felt like a rat on a wheel after a while”
• “I would’ve liked to see some visual representation…”
• “I was missing was some sense of reward”
• “Fingers hurt”
• ” idle games aren’t really fun and full of creativity…”

What Went Wrong

• No Time — I had very little time over the weekend, so I only had ~6 hours on Sunday and a few hours on Monday after work. Although I usually submit to the 48-hour competition, I had to submit as a Jam. More time would’ve meant there would have been a lot more features and maybe some nice-looking icons.
• How it all fits together — I also didn’t have a clear vision of how the UI would look or how the synergies would work between the different currencies (money, customers, satellites, etc.). A lot of it was developed on the fly.
• Full Testing — I didn’t test the game all the way through until the very end. It made me realize that the game got a bit boring after a while; even I never played all the way through to unlocking all the planets.

What Went Right

• Work with a known Gameplay style — I knew I wouldn’t have that much time, so I decided ahead of time to create an idle Cookie-Clicker-esque game. I had done this kind of game before for a mini-LD (Conspiracy Clicker), so I knew I could borrow the general concepts and maybe a few lines of code (it’s open source on GitHub). Picking a small scope and a gameplay I was familiar with was the only way I would’ve had a chance at completing anything playable in such a short amount of time.
• New Last-minute Feature — After the bulk of the development was done on Sunday, I knew it wasn’t much fun. My girlfriend played the game and commented that it was missing “things to buy” like I had in Conspiracy Clicker. At the last minute I added in the Engineers and the Marketing, which help to add another element to the gameplay. Without them, the game would be even more tedious.
• Exponents — If you’re going to make an idle game like this, make sure you don’t have a linear progression, but instead have some kind of exponential difficulty and growth. I added Math.pow() in pretty late, but it definitely helped.

Enjoy! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=17861