If you are bored with gamedev or programming, game jams is a thing you need to try. In october 2016 I found my self bored with c++ madness. Suddenly, I found a blog post about great game jam, that will help you to re-think your skills.

Ludum dare is one of the worlds largest and longest running Game Jam events. Every 4 months, people make a game from scratch in a weekend.

Sounds neat right?

I though, I will have a try. My first LD (37), I wrote an RPG-kind of game:

It was my first experience of java game development, I was completely to game jams. Any way, I did a great job, and I was proud of my self, because I did compo first try. Things I noticed:

• Ascii art is great, but doen’t fit game jams
• My java framework was buggy
• I did not have any clue, how to make music

But, what I enjoyed a lot, that I got new inspiration from the jam and the positive feedback from people. It was so lovely, to hear great words about your game!

Streaming

Till the LD, there is always a few streamers, that stream their development. When I saw that on LD 37, I thought, that it would be nice to try this. I wrote a small plugin, witch can be found here. Not the best code ever, and the idea is taken from Drunk Devs on twitch.

The plugin it self is a twitch chat bot, that displays all of the users, that had typed something in the chat, on the screen. And every 7-10 minutes happens a random event, that users can vote for.

The truth

My stream got 0 viewers Strange, isn’t it? Also, my PC was not powerful enough. When the chat bot was active, my PC was lagging so much…

Another way to do this

Next LD (it will be in summer 2017), I will record a time lapse, and post it on youtube. Hope, that it will go better.

Wait, but what about LD 38?

Ah.. it was a complete fail.. First of all, in a few hours before jam, i found pico-8. I thought: “Well, I write a game-emulator, this can fit almost every theme..”. I created a prototype console, and got to bed.

When the theme was announced (it was Small World), I though, that this theme is great for writing an emulator.

The first day went alright. But on the second day, I just did not know, what to do.. I mean, I run out of ideas. My game was not playable enough. There was not enough time to start another game.

I just failed.

By the way, game is here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/mf100-hack-the-jam

END

Never start a brain storming before LD. Otherwise, you will fail.. Trust me. Next time, I will use lua + love2d for my game. And no ascii art!!

I made the getComponent() similar to unity in which you use Generic in method to get the component that you want.

I’m planning to try again for LD 38, likely for the Jam instead of Compo.

My first Ludum Dare was LD 37, where I tried the jam by myself and music from my brother. However, things didn’t end quite so well, as I wasn’t able to get function version to distribute by the end of the 72 hours. After the event, I did at least resolve the major bugs into the version you can find here on my itch.io. There is not much substance to the game, but it’s something I made in four-days time so that’s one step at least.

Pre-Event Thoughts

One thing I learned from the last event was to improve my time management. I ran short on time to get a functional game. I spent too much time with small details that ended up not being used in my rush to finish the game in some form where people could at minimum click the button. Ludum Dare 37 was my second project using libGDX and my first project using Ashley for entities and Box2D for physics. I learned a lot, especially using some other open-source projects to get some general ideas and guidelines.

With LD 38 coming up, I’m hoping to get a more complete, more enjoyable game than my LD 37. I will have less time than before due to work, but I’ll still have a decent amount of time. I want to create something minimally substantial, preferably an idea that I would want to go back to later and continue.

Tools

I’ll use Java and the libGDX game framework.
I will probably use Ashley as an entity-component management system.
I will probably use Box2D for any physics/collisions.
For sounds, I’ll use sfxr/bfxr.
Music I will either create using musagi.
Art will be created using paint.net

Just check it out

As reference to my earlier post about the shapedrawing program (java2d):

Source code: https://github.com/doppelgunner/ShapeDrawing

Someone in youtube commented that maybe I should try to export the images in svg format. So here it is. I found a way to save the image into SVG format. I used a lib called ImageTracer. Below is the sample. I love the mousepad though (the mousepad with the sexy girl).

It’s rushed but I made it for school activities. It is even saveable (PNG image type). The source code is included in the youtube link description. Source code: https://github.com/doppelgunner/ShapeDrawing

Last valentines I drew something using the program:

next time maybe I’ll make a pixel type software just for fun. With, image processing techniques maybe (using famous algorithms). Also subscribe to my channel.

IMPORTANT:
1. The game is not finished cause I don’t have enough time(school…)
2. My first time Making music

– CONTROLS:
– W,A,S,D
– Arrow Keys
you can choose

– THE GAME:
The core idea is that you have a music bar and if you run out of music you
die! It’s a 2D Platforming fun game you can play at home!
Because of school, I am not able to add items and such so the game isn’t
ready
for this MiniLD! I may have a go and continue development soon on my
YouTube channel!

– ABOUT:
I’m a 14-year-old self-taught programmer!
I upload develops tutorials and much more to my new Youtube Channel calledHellowPixl!
Because in just 14 and self-taught please rate fair!

– SOFTWARE USED:
– Eclipse
– Audacity
– LMMS
– Photoshop cs2 (it’s fully free)

This will be my first ever  Ludum Dare, i will be using LIBGDX as Engine and my own custom made map maker for the design and gimp or paint.net for graphics :D.(Will start a bit late tho like 3-4 hours after it started)

I think I may try it using:

• Java and LibGDX
• Notepad++

Hey fellow developers and players,
I just uploaded a time lapse from my game making process of my card game “Bloodshifter“. I built the whole game from scratch in Java, so if you are interested in seeing that then here it is:

You can try out the game for yourself here. Thanks a lot.

After some hours I’ve been able to complete a very first prototype with the basic gameplay working and end condition. You have to survive by being in a safe (black) place because every few seconds the background map will come to foreground, be sure to move to a good (black) position.

I think this time I will work less hours, now it’s 23:36 here and after playing a little bit I’ll go to bed. I prefer to wake up early and continue adding the HUD, sounds and other effects.

Hi Ludum Dare guys. I’m in again for my 3rd entry.

I will use tools I have placed in my bag :

• Netbeans ( Java code )
• Photoshop ( GFX ) with my new Wacom tablet
• Bfxr, Audacity and potentially LMMS and Beepbox ( SFX )
• Sheets, pencils ( Drafts )
• Coffee, Tea, Pizzas for brain fuel…
• Github for deposit and share the final game ( If I have finished ! xd )

I will be live tweets and live post facebook for achievements during the event.

And new in 2016. I have decided to stream on my new twitch channel.

And to finish, I want to deliver this message : “Good luck to all the participants and enjoy ourselves”

Day 1 is over and I’m going to sleep, but before I do here’s a picture of my work in progress Overgrow, complete with terrified citizen.