Wow! That was an interesting 48 hours.  I had to change game ideas once, because my first one sucked… but the other was was good. And, I finished (just barely) in time! I’ve learned so much about games, mostly the Slick2D API.

Anyways, I felt I would share my thoughts on a few topics surrounding the Ludum Dare.

• Editing your game after submitting is ok, as long as you don’t change the gameplay. I think that doing things that help play-ability is ok. Things like changing a few lines so your code works on someone else’s computer is fine by me, as long as it doesn’t change gameplay. Performance improvements aren’t as ok, but if your game is running at a low enough fps, that its noticeable, its fine also.
• Evolution is a tricky theme. From what little I’ve seen, there aren’t that many original interpretations of the theme. If I see one, I’ll rate it 5 stars, otherwise, I’ll rate it based off of how important and evolution based gameplay mechanics are.
• Most lines of code should be an official award.
• Devs should test their browser-only games on all browsers.
• I like getting comments, so I give them!

Please feel free to shear your thoughts on my ideas, or add your own.

[Mandatory game link]

After trashing my first idea 6 hours in (because it sucked) I decided to change game ideas. I’m going with an RTS. In this RTS, you guide a tribe on incredibly stupid people to victory over the Gremlins they inhabit the island with. So far, this is what I have:

I was thinking a little the other day, and it occurred to me that there was a very easy way to play endless music in a game, that was simple enough  to be able to be included in a Ludum Dare. This may not be revolutionary, but its still a pretty good idea in my opinion.

Most music is organized into sections. Intro, chorus, verses, bridges, and the outro. If you had separate tracks for each section, you could play them in a continuous manner. Begin the game with the exciting Intro, then transition into your chorus, followed by a verse, another chorus, then more verses, etc. There is no need for an outro here, because there isn’t enough time to play one once the player exits the game, unless you wanted to transition between songs, in which case you would need one. As long as your individual songs didn’t do anything like change key or tempo, without a way to bring it back to the original, it would sound fine.

One note to anyone thinking about implementing this, when you render your song, make sure that you include the remainder. This will keep any leftover sound, mostly from your effects like reverb or delay. When you play your sections back, you need to know the exact length of their content with no remainder, so you can start the next one on cue and the remainder from the previous section will seamlessly bleed over into the next section. Using a tempo like 60 or 120 bpm will make it so it ends on a solid second value, which can be handy if you don’t want to keep track of milliseconds.

Have fun with your dynamic song structure, and good luck in LD24!

-geekygenius

After completing my first LD, I have been playing and rating many different games. While playing/rating, I’ve noticed a few things that I should do next time to make my game better. Here is a list of what I have so far. Please comment if you have anything to add.

• Games should be 32 bit not 64.
• Cross platform things like Unity, web games, or Java games are also good.
• Any background music that isn’t annoying to listen to is a good use of time.
• Clear controls and simple game play.
• Gamepad/XBox controller support is awesome.
• Good collision detection is important. I’ve been stuck inside too many things. -_-
• Games that look cool send a better first impression.
• Arrow key alternates seem to be very nice for people with non QWERTY keyboards.

I know its kinda short… but oh well, its better than nothing! If you’re interested in seeing where I am coming from for my list of improvements, you can play my game here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=6529

Hello, I would like to take this time to introduce myself to the community, because I have been told that the community is interested. Unlike many programmers I know, I do not have a Job programming. This would mostly be because I am too young to have a job. At the time of this writing I am about a month over 14. I know it’s fairly young, and I am a very inexperienced programmer compared to many people I know, but I would say that I have a fair amount of capability. I just might not do something the standard way because I didn’t know there was a standard.

As for my actual programming experience, I started when I was 12 with an interest in computers, specifically programming. I went to my local library and checked out a book on python with pygame. A while later, my uncle bought me a book on Java, (Headfirst Java specifically) and that’s where I learned my preferred language. Using knowledge from the fundamentals in the two language, I have learned many other scripting languages. Right now, I am learning C++ mostly for my High School’s Robotics team, but also because I know its still the industry standard for anything that needs high performance. (Everything)

As for non-programming related interests of mine, I play the Euphonium, or Baritone. If you don’t know what it is, you can look it up. Here is a guy who is really good, playing it. That’s not me though. I wish! I also enjoy listening to dubstep, and Skrillex is my favorite artist right now, with deadmau5 and DaftPunk behind him. My favorite

I can’t wait for the Ludum Dare compo, this is my first one if you didn’t know.

~geekygenius