But I have made some progress. I did decide to use the html/php framework from last Ludum Dare to create a different game. Basically its akin to using an engine, I had basic movement and npc implemented last ludum dare, and I’m building off of that.

This is a different style of game in that rather than have to perform any sort of combat (can’t find a good way to do combat with this engine/framework) it has you answering who wants to be a millionaire style questions.

The tie to the theme is thin at best but meh.

All that is missing now is 30 additional questions. The game was already cut back in scale and I think this is the smallest amount I can do to give you a decent test of this style of game.

Unfortunately I’m running out of time to complete the questions and that will be my goal in the morning for about 3 hours before work (and to submit it)

No screenshot because it is just text.

So I made a relatively short and silly browser game, and I don’t even mean that kind of browser game. Using html, CSS, and php and text to create a website that functions as a sort of game.

Mostly this was a challenge to myself to create a game system that did not use a mysql database to function. Instead I make use of a txt file that I store some php variables in. In total there are 260 lines of code. Its not much to look at.

You can play and vote on the game here.

Also if this sort of thing is of any interest to you the source is commented on if you want to take a look at it.

I spent a lot of time thinking about different games I could make this time around, well over 24 hours. In the end I still ended up going with my initial game idea, with one difference, I’m only using the Growing theme (for now anyways).

Initially the idea was to create  a two button php adventure game. The entire concept was to completely gimp the controls within a menu that only had two buttons, one an action, the second button almost always more.

In the end I decided that was a dumb idea/concept and decided to just focus on the Growing theme instead. It is still a php powered game, using text files to store the save.

So far I have 154 lines of code, the bulk of the functionality is in, I have a few more names to add and the end game parameters.

Time allowing I would like to attempt to make it look a bit nicer.

I have the basic actions finished for my player, and now need to make it all work for a second player. I want to at least have a local multiplayer mode. I would really like to have online multiplayer as well, but we will see. My aim is three characters, and 3 or 4 different stages.

The game idea is to make a 2D fighting game…with unconventional weapons…  Right now one green colored square bashes on the other unmoving  one.

This will be my 12th time participating in Ludum Dare in a row. My Weekend is mostly clear and I should have plenty of time to make a game this weekend.

I’ll be using:

Construct 2

bfxr

Photoshop

abundant music

Gamejolt API (Achievements and Highscore table)

My entry is called Cultural Influences, it is a satirical interactive experience that you will either despise and hate or laugh at.

Play and Rate

Without spoiling to much of the experience, here are three of the screens/levels/environments.

Post Creation thoughts:

I will be writing a full Post-Morteum later on, I usually wait until after comments have come in. There are several things that I want to get out now so here goes.

Firstly I had a lot of fun making this, Going into this Ludum Dare I knew that I wanted to make something that used an art approach. I recently graduated with a bachelor degree in Studio Art my emphasis was in Printmaking and Photography (I’ve done photography games in the past). This time I wanted to bring my printmaking background into it. All of the drawing were made in photoshop on a graphics tablet. So lets examine the art style a little shall we, at first glance a bunch of readers probably moved on already, the drawing style has the reputation of being able to be drawn by a child. The inspiration is drawn from about three sources, the first source is Ancient cultural artwork (Native Americans, Mayans, Egyptians, and so on), Second part is what is known as Outside Art [to most of the world, Art Brut to some] This is such a widely varying style that it is hard to give examples, basically Outsider Art is made for a small group of people to understand and not mass appeal to a large institution, The third and final bit of inspiration comes from so called Folk Art (Folk art and Outsider Art are often times the same) the emphasis with Folk Art is in story telling, and conveying the information, they would do this by emphasizing some elements and getting rid of others. With these three art styles I think brought my printmaking into it, I could screen print even single background that I drew extremely easily. In Screenprinting and most printmaking processes you work with blocks of colors, and don’t have the ability to create shading. So that is the reason and inspiration behind the art, the next bit that I knew I wanted to pull in was using my voice and experience from doing Let’s Plays in a way to narrate the story. The bottom line I had a lot of fun creating this, and I am happy with how it has turned out. This brings us to the next part.

The second thing is I already plan to release a post-compo version. There are several features that I cut out due to time, and this sort of game could always be expanded. I think my single biggest regret is my lack of ability at making music (background music is just from Abundant-music) I think that music for each stage could really push the game to the next level. So now the question is, would anyone be interested in creating music for the post-compo version of the game? It would be something like 6-8 20-30 second long songs. If you are interested comment/tweet.

This has already grown longer than I intended, so in closing I think what made this so much fun to make was the usage of cultural references (Books, songs, and games) and other cultural happenings that I’m not going to spoil. I will be making a post in a week or so that lists out where the experience draws inspiration from. But now it is time to get started on playing and rating some games.

My bed is calling me, so I’m going to keep this short.

Today I finished all of the planned art for my interactive experience, finished most of  the “gameplay” elements, and added Trophies.

Todo list for tomorrow, finish the last gameplay thing, audio, audio, and more audio. I still have all of the voice overs to record for the game, and I still need to write most of them. Then there is music, and sound effects. I feel like it is doable.

I still don’t have a title for this.

This was not the theme I was hoping for, or expecting. but I just stopped over-thinking the theme and enforcing additional parameters and now I’m on my way.

My “Game” is going to make use of cultural events, happenings, and stories to tell a new story and hopefully get some laughs. The art style that I went with is something of a outsider artist style or folk art. When drawing I place the focus on recognition of the object without over-detailing it.

I am going to be use narration with Voice in the game to drive the story, this come from doing Let’s Plays for the past two years and wanting to do something with that in terms of making a game. Hopefully it all works out and gets done.

As of tonight I have 2 of the 6 screens finished, so I have another 4 that I would like to do tomorrow,  I also need to record the lines.

First level, before it was in the game

second level, in the game

Customary I’m In Info:

This will be my 11th time participating in Ludum Dare in a row. My Weekend is mostly clear and I should have plenty of time to make a game this weekend.

I’ll be using:

Construct 2

bfxr

Photoshop

abundant music

Gamejolt API (Achievements and Highscore table)

Let’s Play Video information:

I will also be creating YouTube Videos of the Completed games, and they will be on my Youtube Channel If you would like a video of someone else playing your game with commentary then sign up here. The videos will usually include the entire game, depending on the style of game.

Last time I made 25 videos for Ludum Dare 30, you can find them on my youtube, or here on the Ludum Dare blog.

My entry for Ludum Dare 30 was Connected We Run an endless platformer game.

The post LD30 version of the game is available on Gamejolt

Connected We Run on Gamejolt

Major Changes as I remember them:

-Inverted the players

-Vastly improved platform generation (Now the jumps are possible most of the time)

-Implemented difficulties at various levels. difficulties decide how fast the platforms start at, increase speed at, and the generation speed of new platforms.

-Use of the Gamejolt API for Highscore tables, and achievements.

A large part of doing a post compo version of this game was to test out Gamejolt, and decide if it was something I wanted to use for Ludum Dare. It is, it will make the Highscore table much simpler, because as so many people pointed out on my compo version, the Highscore table on my website is not secured against out of range scores. Achievements are also something I would like to have in my Ludum Dare games,  and Gamejolt makes achievements easy to implement.