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So.. This will be my 10th ludum Dare – In a row.
My very first Ludum Dare was #26, where I made a game in XNA. In total I’ve made 2 XNA games and 7 Unity Games.
I was actually hoping to branch out to a new engine for my 10th Ludum Dare, but I simply didn’t have the time to get into a new environment, as such I will most likely go with Unity again.
The tools I will be using are the following:
Engine
Unity
Graphics
Paint.NET
Blender
Inkscape
Spacescape
MakeHuman (Only if there’s plenty of time)
Sound & Music
SFXR
Sunvox
CGMusic
SynthFont
I’m looking forward to yet another Ludum Dare, and I’m looking forward to seeing all your games as well! – Good luck!
Hey there! Want to try a bit of an unconventional first person game? You should check out my entry – “Unconventional Universal Remote” (UUR). You get a remote, and there are robots!!
I wanted to try something different with this game, and add some kind of narration to the game. I did run out of time, so the story of the game didn’t really evolve as much as I would’ve liked. Anyways I prefer to make the game speak for itself – so go play if you’re up for it
I’d love to hear your opinion or some constructive feedback as well, if you got the time. I will of course repay the favor, as I usually use the comments on my game as a sort of backlog of games to play.
About 2 hours til the dare is over- I’m excited and a little sad at the same time
Personally I think this have been a very good dare- I’ve had the honor of playing a lot of good games this time. I really think the quality of games has been very high.
Before I go play a few more games here in these final hours, I would ask if you would try out my game if you haven’t already?
You get to toss around coins and break stuff while doing it- What could be more fun?
Anyways, if you’re, like me, rating your last games this dare, maybe one of those should be my game?
You can even brag about playing it before hitting 2015
With that said! – Thanks for a very good Ludum Dare – And I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Good luck on your ratings- And a happy newyear!!!
This dare has been one of the better ones in my opinion, in terms of quality- Either that or I’ve been quite lucky with the games I have chosen to play. I’ve played over 70 games, and I still have a few more on my to do list.
From the ones I’ve played so far I remember three games that epsecially stood out- and thus I decided to make my own Top 3 (listed in no particular order, and are both Jam and Combo games).
I really fell for the cute atmosphere and I was impressed of how much life there was in the animations of these primitive shapes. The game felt very polished and although the game wasn’t overly difficult there was a nice sense of progression from picking up upgrades and such. Something about the graphics and animations just spoke to me and I was sold! I can definitely recommend that you try out this game!
This game is a must try. Writing too much about it will spoil it all, but suffice it to say, I really got a good laugh out of this game. Although there’s not that much to do in the game, solely because of the humor, it is worth trying!
I really had a lot of fun playing this game. It takes a short while to get used to the controls, but once you get the hang of them, this is actually a very nice game. Basically you are a (space) wizard that have to build a tower, gather resources and protect it from meteors coming from outer space. It can be addictive though – so be careful!
Also if you haven’t tried out my game yet, I humbly ask you to try it out as well:
A game about tossing coins at objects to make them break. I promise – It’s great fun
I’m already working on a post-jam version and I’ve put up a page for the game on indieDB At a later time I might go into more detail about the post-jam version, but for now, check out the games above if you haven’t already – I really enjoyed them!
Below is a video of me showing most of the things you can do in the game- But I advice you to play the game yourself first as the video is sort of a spoiler.
What went wrong
The Theme
The thing I had the most problems with was the theme. Since I really wanted to work in 3D I struggled with finding an idea that fit the theme. I therefore decided to “honor” the theme by basing my “intro screen” on the theme. I also removed movement from the player so that the player had to stay in “one frame” – But I’m not really sure about that interpretation. – So basically I felt that I struggled with the theme- How I did, is up to you when you’re rating!
Stuff I had to remove
I actually had 2 more things implemented that I had to remove. One was the ability to unlock another coin by doing some specific things- But what I had implemented didn’t really feel like a good idea, so I ended up just giving the player the extra coin right from the beginning. The ice coin (silver coin) is slightly heavier, but it is better at sliding.
The other thing was the refrigerator. As it is in the game now it is just an nothing else. I actually had mechanics that made it possible to open it, and get access to even more stuff inside of it, but I ended up struggling with physics, because the shelves where too thin inside of the fridge, and sometimes the coin would simply get stuck inside the fridge door. Eventually I decided on removing that feature, and just keep the refrigerator as a static object.
What went right
Planning and Time
For every single Ludum dare I’ve participated in I’ve always been struggling to get things done right up to the end. This time however I had it all planned out much better. I made sure that all the more “boring” stuff like UI and general structure between the scenes was finished way before I actually had to deliver. Roughly 12 hours before the Deadline I was actually ready to hand in the game. After that I managed to add a few more things, as well as play around with the aforementioned coin unlock system, and the refrigerator. If I hadn’t had that extra there would have been a bit less content, and maybe the bugged fridge would have made it into the game.
3D modelling
It’s fun to think about that my Ludum Dare 29 entry (which wasn’t that good graphics wise) was my first attempt at making my own 3D models. Since then I’ve been improving.
Every single model in Coin Toss Simulator 2015 was made within the time frame by myself. Most of the textures are also homemade or derived from other textures. Although the models and textures could be way better, I am pretty happy with the results.
Final words
I really like the idea of this game, and I would love to take it further. I am already working on a somewhat bigger version of the game
With all that said- I’d be happy if you’d try out and rate my game- If you leave feedback I’ll definitely also try out and rate your game
I’m back for the sixth time – and I can barely wait!!!
So far, the last five dares have been fairly successful for me, since every single time I’ve managed to create a game that you could finish in one way or another- Not all of them received good ratings, but my success criteria is to deliver a game that can be finished.
I am especially proud of my last entry that scored #83 in the Fun(Jam) category- Which means that I have set the bar high for myself this time.
One problem I’ve had with most of my dares is that I spend a lot of time trying to get in as much content as possible, and even though I think it worked out on some occasions, I leave myself too little time to polish the game. So the goal for this dare is to go a bit smaller, and try to polish the game a bit more.
What Will I use?
Engine / API
Unity3D (C#)
XNA (C#)
Greenfoot (Java) (In case I spent too much time on getting an idea 😛 )
Graphics
Paint.NET
Blender (If 3D)
MakeHuman (If 3D)
Spine (If 2D)
Sound
Audacity
Myself
SFXR
SynthFont
CGMusic
I’m really looking forward to this dare and I can’t wait to play your games!
Good luck to you all – See you on the “battlefield!”
I’m in for the fifth time and I just can’t wait to get started.
I’ll be using one or more of the following:
Unity (Engine, obviously)
Paint.NET (Textures)
SFXR (Simple Sound effects)
Blender (Modelling)
Sculptris (Modelling)
CG Music (Midi Music Generator)
SynthFont (Make Midi music better)
Audacity (Editing and recording sounds)
Spine (2D bone animation)
I’m really looking forward to this one- I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll be joining the Compo or the Jam, it really comes down to what kind of game idea I end up with.
Good luck to you all – I’m looking forward to seeing all your awesome games in the weeks to come
Last time I entered the jam instead of the compo, because I decided to use Unity, which was very new to me at the time. This time I’m going for the compo as I prefer to make stuff myself, plus you learn more from it
I will either be using Unity or XNA, depending on what type of game I’ll end up making. Currently I’m in the mood for a 2D game, and I haven’t really tried the 2D part of Unity yet.
I will be using Audacity for sounds, and if I end up doing 3D stuff in Unity I might (If it is allowed) use the UFPS asset.
I am in for the third time in a row. Since I will have very limited time due to various Christmas arrangements, there’s a good chance that I will be submitting to the Jam rather than the combo, but I will be aiming for the combo if possible.
I will be using either XNA or Unity.
If I use Unity I might be using the Tidy Tilemapper asset and/or UFPS based on what type of game I decide to make.
I will be using Paint.Net for textures, and try my luck on blender (Very new to that one) for simple 3D models.
I’m looking forward to play a lot of fun games when this weekend is done. Good luck to you all!
My second Ludum Dare is done, and right now, I simply can’t wait until the next
Even though my game did not turn out as I originally planned, I am more or less happy with what I ended up with.
What Went Right
Limiting My Ideas
During the weekend we had visitors coming and going, to celebrate my daughters 2 years birthday. I was aware of that prior to the Dare, so I had already decided to try and limit my ideas, and as such I managed to cut away some of my ideas, before even trying to put them in the game. And since I submitted only a few hours before the deadline it seems I did the right thing there.
Graphics
I’ve never drawn spaceships or anything like that before, but I decided that I wanted to have at least some decent graphics,. I sat down, and spend close to two hours, just to draw 1 spaceship, but I was very happy with the results, which helped keep the motivation high. I’m also happy I decided to do the multi layered star background. In my opinion that added a lot to the game.
Getting Rid of Tiles
All the games I’ve ever worked on has been tile based, at least to some degree. I actually started out with a grid, where the ships were supposed to move around, like pieces on a chess board. At some point I realized that the tiles were more of an obstruction and decided to get rid of it. In turn this decision changed the game play into what it is now.
What Went Wrong
Code Structure
Since I am more or less a self taught coder, I’ve always struggled with maintaining a structured code. This gets even worse when there is very limited time. If I decided to continue this project, the first thing I’d do is clean up the code.
Collisions
Initially I decided that if the ships collided, they would damage each other, friend and foe a like. This turned into a big mess, since it was next to impossible not to hit your own ships early on, and again when close to the enemy, it was like one giant traffic accident – in space! The worst part was, that since the collision part felt so natural to be included, I spend a lot of time testing and tweaking it, until I finally realized, that I should try to get rid of the collisions. The first test I did after removing the collisions, the game immediately felt like a game. I could have spent that time adding another nice feature
Lack of Helpful UI Elements
A lot of small things would have made this game feel more polished, and somewhat easier. I wanted to add some UI element, that helped you keep track of where you and/or the enemies ships were. The plan was to have small markers at the edge of the screen, for each off screen ship, showing you the direction they’re in compared to the camera. I’ve played a few games, were I “forgot” about one of my ships, and it just flew off in some direction, never to be heard from again. This could lead to situations where you’d have to restart the game.
The Theme
Before I finish this post, I wanted to write a few things about the theme. Initially, I wasn’t happy at all with the Theme, and I found it hard to come up with some solid ideas. Through the voting process I had my eye on the “Space” theme, so I thought – Why not make an idea based on that theme, and after that convert it to the 10 seconds theme- And that was exactly what I did, and personally I think I managed to include the Theme, and not leave it as some secondary thing.
In Space Blitz, the 10 second delay is too much time, at least for some people. If I decided to continue this project I would probably reduce that time, or even let the player be able to adjust it.
If you want to try out my game the link to it is here: (Best viewed in full screen in 720p or higher.
I’ll be participating for the second time. I have some real life things happening in the weekend, but I believe there will be time enough to make something useful for there dare.
As last time, I will be using XNA 4.0, and I’ll do the graphics in paint.NET.
I really look forward to trying out all of your games over the next few weeks!!
This will be my very first Ludum Dare. I believe I will be one of the most inexperienced participants, but I will take this challenge seriously. I even talked the Mrs. into taking the kids out of the house for the Ludum Dare weekend. I am still deciding what I will make the game in. Either Unity or XNA 4.0.
