[Play and Rate] [Post Mortem]
Made for LD 46.
I make games. And I work with Snakes. And I'm studying Veterinary. I may be crazy. I R CRAZY!?
Ludum Dare 23 | Ludum Dare 22 |
Since most of Ludum Dare games are platformers I think this is a required read to all of us:
11 Tips for making a fun platformer
and…
I probably won’t do anything, so I’m giving free ideas away:
I have played around 80 compo games by now and four of them didn’t have a link to the source code. The rules state that: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/rules/
Ludum Dare Competition rules are stricter than the Jam rules. This is to encourage a fairer playing field for participants. The core rules are:
A very short Postmortem about my Compo entry: Ant, Bee, Cow, Pig and Spider BOSS. http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=2465.
I think I shouldn’t have participated this Ludum Dare, I was/am overwhelmed with work, and I should have kept working on the weekend. Also I hated the game I submitted.
What went wrong
What went right
Play and rate it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=2465.
Missing 3 minutes to the end of the Compo Submission, I managed to submit my entry! Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=2465.
Meet the…
A mix of jumping, shooting and a little stealth.
Again, you can play it here.
While building a level to my “Shmup Boss” idea I ended up having lots of fun with the insects and decided to abandon the Shmup idea; that would have no direction. Instead, now I’m focusing on a single mechanic, which will be way better to produce – and acceptable to my limited time frame.
For now it is an Insect/Bug’s Life mix of Stealth and Collaboration game (w/ unlockable characters and mechanics according to your progress).
I’ve uploaded a simple playable build with stealth detection: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11453596/LD/23/sb/sb.html
* Temporary name.
This is my game pitch: “A game where you control insects that have to collaborate to gather resources that power a Shmup mothership boss – the insects morph into the mothership”.
You basically control the NPC side of the Shmup, in a two stage game: gather resources and then Shmup action! Also the resources gathered are used by the boss (you) in battle. So if you gather just a few of them, you may end up dyeing to to the enemy.
You can play a very rough build here (nothing yet aside to allow moving with WASD + Jump with space): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11453596/LD/23/sb/sb.html
It’s being a hard day. It’s already 8 PM and I could say I worked on the game for just 2 hours; I spent the rest of the time procrastinating about the game. Due to the small progress I don’t know if I’ll manage to finish it for the Compo. Anyway, what do I have:
Came with an idea while on the bed yesterday, then sprited some insects with Sprite Somethings on the iPad. But it’s already 11 in the morning and I haven’t made any progress. Will now finish the sprites in Photoshop and start working on the gameplay. Also the sided flying insects will be changed to top down. The only side view insect will be the ant.
Seriously, if you don’t watch this video you are losing part of your game design life, energy, inspiration, motivation, and all these fancy words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM (a funny yet deep comparison of game mechanics and controls).
This will be my second time, but having read “The Game Jam Survival Guide” book I saw how I’ve done wrong last time. At least I have a better understanding of all this atmosphere and I hope to do way better. Last LD I just did a “test game“, it had a level and a extremely linear gameplay; some persons called it an animation instead of a game, and I agree.
Sticking to what I know! Depending on the theme I may do a 2D or 3D game.
This is a very short post mortem about my entry Loot Alone.
I planned to make 5 levels, but I couldn’t continue working on the game, so here it is with 3 levels and half of the planned story. It is playable with a surprise on the end.
Entry: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=2465
Made with:
– Unity3D (C#, iTween)
– cfxr
– Audacity
– Garage Band
– Photoshop
Timelapse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ItVDEzuzY
I had planned to use 2D Toolkit to make the game, but I couldn’t go on with it because it is a commercial library and I want to take part on the Compo. For that reason, I had to do 2D manually in Unity and it took me long hours to figure how to correctly Scale the sprites, because I am too used to 2D Toolkit and it does the task for me.
Anyway, initial controls and camera logic is ready, you can play it (VERY SHORT DEMO).
CONTROLS:
After the initial idea, I came to a concept and story, which I plan to post later once I start developing. Also the game name is “Loot Alone”.
For now, I pixeled all the objects. And man, let me tell you, how I struggled to make these 7 elements… They aren’t that good and still they took me 4 hours of work:
Next: I have 4 characters to draw. I think this will probably take me another 4 or more hours. I REALLY want to get better at doing art. But looks like the more I try, the worst I become.
BTW: In the game concept I included a Kitten.