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…

13 More Tips for Making a Fun Platformer

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

• Came with around 10 ideas; worked a bit on each one of them and on the end the game was nothing related to the initial ideas.
• Worked only 10 hours.
• The graphics, ah the awful graphics.
• Too short: I’ll blame the fact I had dozens of ideas and didn’t work on a specific one, so I couldn’t focus on more levels/mechanics.
• Problems with the 2D library in Unity: I decided to go with Orthello 2D free version, but I have never used it before. I spent the first hour just playing around with it and on the end I gave up and had to go with my own solution from scratch (I normally work with 2D Toolkit, but since it is a commercial library I can’t use on the compo).
• I didn’t like my end result.
• I drank too much cold Cola, so I’m a bit ill now.

What went right

• Used tools I’m familiar with.
• Althought I’m a bad artist (99% of my time in “real life” I’m doing only programming), I’ve gone the only art route I know: pixel art.
• I had fun.

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…

Ant, Bee, Cow, Pig and Spider BOSS!

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).

Metal Gear Ant! *

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:

• Idea.
• Gameplay Idea.
• Characters animations (yes, more than one) and main tiles.
• 2D framework in Unity.
• Unpolished background.

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).

I’m in for the second time, even although I’m flooded with work to do

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.

Tools

Sticking to what I know! Depending on the theme I may do a 2D or 3D game.

• Unity 3D with C#, iTween, Orthello 2D (the Free version)
• cfxr
• Audacity
• Inkscape
• Photoshop
• Blender
• Screenflow
• Checkvist

This is a very short post mortem about my entry Loot Alone.

Good Points

• I developed more than 22 games (as a contract developer), but this is the first time I took part in Ludum Dare and managed to submit a game to the competition! This was one of my 2011’s goals.
• First time I ever did graphics for a game. All the games I worked before were done by hired artists. I could say I was always scared of doing art, and doing these graphics lighted up a flame inside me, that now wants to make me a better artist.
• I came up with the idea in less than an hour after the competition started and I may consider of taking it further and making a commercial game from scratch with this idea.
• When doing 2D with Unity I always used a 3rd party commercial library. Since I took part in the competition I had to come with a solution by myself, so I ended up learning how to “do 2D” in Unity without external help.
• I liked the concept of a linear comics-style navigation I made.

Bad Points

• I worked only 8 hours, I didn’t use the available 48 hours. For this reason, my entry can not even be considered a “game”. Let’s consider it “an interactive short animation“.
• Due to the short amount of time worked, I didn’t manage to make all the scenes: there are 3 scenes; being 2 playable levels and an animation one. The initial plan to make the game “complete and playable” was to have 6 scenes. So we have 3 scenes that are out.
• The rocket cat was meant to be controllable, so you could kill the dragon.
• In the 8 hours I worked, I coded for only 2 hours. That means there are bugs, mostly on the messages system.
• My lack of knowledge in Unity for 2D without a 3rd party library left some bugs on the graphics, mostly due to scaling.
• The linear comics-style navigation can be confusing, since you can end up going to the wrong side.

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

Practically all the game logic and programming is done. Missing only two or three items now. Also a DRAGON, A PRINCESS, DIALOGS…. and a Kitten somewhere!

Time for some sleep… 3:19 AM.

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:

• A, D: move Left and Right.
• Space: action.

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.

Why if you are alone?
But… loot.