So I finally loaded up Vegas Pro 9 last night and inserted the some 2,537 images that Chronolapse took of my screen during the 72 hour Jam for LD#22. I whacked on some good music, was surprised by how well the tempo of the music and the image changes matched up in places, and published.
My only regret is not capturing Nathan’s screen, as that’s where most of the game’s art happened and a bit of coding, too.

Let’s not regret though, enjoy the timelapse!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5zSoB9fVCI&feature=youtu.be

Christmas Sharks!!!

Play and Rate Aurea Oceanus here

Play Christmas Version here

Merry Christmas everyone!

I haven’t written this yet because ChronoLapse hasn’t been cooperating and I wanted to post my timelapse at the same time. After several days of wrestling with various video programs, I finally got my timelapse video uploaded. If not for the video, enjoy it for the music:

Since I’m sure another wall of text on the front page would be annoying, I’m going to let you hit the break if you want to read on. I’m going to babble on about my life as well, so you are hereby officially warned.

(more…)

First of all, Merry Christmas to these who celebrates that
Okay, so I have played thru 50 of some of your cool/crazy/weird/… games and it has been fun.
I comment on some to help or to congrats for a well made game.

Here are some random games that have less then 10 votes that you guys should tryout and also vote on.
In no particular order:

Goodbye – elektron – 48 Hour Compo Entry ( Windows )

Summit – gimblll – 48 Hour Compo Entry ( Flash )

Insanely Awesome Physics Saga – Merrik – 48 Hour Compo Entry ( Unity3D )

Dig Dig Dig! – Rijida – Jam Entry (XNA)

Warrior cursed by Loneliness – Spotlightor – 48 Hour Compo Entry ( Unity3D )

We Are Alone – Tifu – 48 Hour Compo Entry ( Windows BlitzMax )

Calculon’s Revenge – whaddon – Jam Entry ( Linux, Windows port in comments )

Fernands War – nickd3000 – 48 Hour Compo Entry ( Windows, OS/X )

Alone with a flashlight – norgas – 48 Hour Compo Entry ( Windows, Linux )

I’ve created an annotated playthrough video of my 48hour compo entry “Alone with… things!”, especially for those who can’t play the Windows-only game.

Figuring out what to do is part of the fun of the game. Watching the video will spoil it for you, so do not watch it if you still intent to play it yourself.

You can rate or download “Alone with… things” here!

(-o^_^)-o The HUG MONSTER has taken a break from its furious game rating and reviewing spree to work on self-improvement. Naturally, none of these improvements will be posted to the official LD site for judging, but the feedback from people who have already played the LD original has been taken into account.

If you want to compare the LD version of Hug Monster against the newest version, you can find the updated version at my site.

Changes include:
• The jumping in the new version should be better when flying face-first into a wall (not perfect still, but more approaching what I would expect)
• Some of the levels that were unintentionally hard have been tweaked to be a little easier
• Two new levels exist, both of which make you trick the Hug Monster into helping you get home
• The level order is a little different now, hopefully with a more even progression of difficulty
• Earlier levels show more of the game’s internal rules and logic more prominently
• The final levels are still intentionally difficult (but still winnable as before)

HUG MONSTER <3 YOU AND ALL YOUR FEEDBACK, AND FOR HELPING TO MAKE IT A BETTER GAME!

Hi Ludum daritome,

I just upload an updated version of my LD22 entry I hope you like it

Play the Original

Play the Post-compo version( Windows)

 

Here is the Timelapse Video:

Alone In Space… Timelapse

And a Gameplay Video:

Alone In Space… Gameplay

 

 

To Play or Rate Alone In Space… Click Here.

So this is it. This was my first time participating in Ludum Dare, and it is definitely not going to be the last time! It was incredibly stressful, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Wow. Thanks for the great experience everybody!

I am very proud of the result.
We are talking about this.

The Good

• The idea — I had a pretty strong image of what I wanted to do in my head. It wasn’t very innovative, but I was sure not to stumble into a situation that I did not know how to get out of.
• The language — Using C++/SFML has been great. I considered using HTML5/JavaScript at the beginning, but now I am very happy that I changed my mind. Everything went smoothly and none of the expected cross-platform issues arose (even though I did not have the time to package it for Linux, yet).
• The tools — I used Photoshop for graphics, SFXR for sound effects and the NetBeans IDE. I did not have trouble with any of them. Everything worked like a charm.

The Bad

• The time management (who would have expected that?) — Everything went nice until I hit a very ugly bug in my collision/line-of-sight-detection system and got stuck. That caused me to loose many hours, resulting in limited content. I should have skipped it to deal with it at a later moment in time.
• The planning — I should have laid out more of the game before starting. I had to re-do my map system after discovering that it simply would not be fast enough to edit the map in Photoshop. I could have avoided that by realizing that a tile-engine would fit my needs best at the very beginning.
• The communication — Even though the IRC was permanently running on my second screen, I totally missed to socialize with other participants. I also planned to post status updates with screenshots on the blog, but that did not happen either. This will change next time!

Nonetheless, I am really happy with how everything turned out. I could adjust my path in time, so that the game ended up being fully playable, even though some planned content was missing.

Please feel free to play and rate my entry here!

Finally, here is my timelapse for this LD:

Also, NO DAMN KITTY IN MY GAME!

Well Christmas is here and I thought I’d take 5 minutes to christmas-ify my Ludum Dare entry.

I gave “Alrion” a little Santa cap and made it snow – The game is exactly the same besides that. You can give it a whirl over here: The Invention of Colour

Community Challenge:

Take 5 minutes and post a christmas version of your LD entry! Doesn’t need to be fancy (mine was a quick 5 minute job), but it would be lots of fun to see. Let’s get out our pixel snow and elf ears Make sure you let me know if you post a Christmas version.

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone and stay safe.

Usted va a través de la forma de activar el intelecto relacionadas con estos, ya que se va a quedar en una caja muy challenged.Cyber ​​es una tensión grande nominal de las islas más o menos todo lo skills.Sudoku de las islas un juguete frecuentes estos años y uno podría experimentar un montón de rompecabezas de Sudoku a hacerse cargo de Justo debajo Sudoku.If que son los pensamientos no da lo suficiente, 01 de mayo gritan los juegos de puzzle casi todo la noche en el Tiempo Para Fun.Aside lejos de este tipo de juegos, una muy posible que experimente la actividad juegos, juegos de fiesta, así como games. Artículo recomendado por Juegos Friv

Urine Trouble

a game about piss

You may be asking yourself “What could possibly be more fun than urination?”

Why urinating in public of course!

While you’re there enjoying yourself you might as well spread the joy and the warmth of the Christmas spirit,

Shower your friends and family in the golden embodiment of your giving and caring nature.

I do so honestly believe that if you drop enough of this liquid pleasure onto your peers they may even explode with happiness!

But why take my word for it when you can spread the Christmas cheer for yourself right over here

I can haz savez and loadz!

I never originally intended to have a possibility to save and load (other then maybe level start in case there were more levels) since it takes time to do this in unity. It took less then I expected (but only because I made it in a very ugly way), but still required few hours and rewriting some pieces. Now you can save and load (only one position). I also added a bunch of small bugfixes and some balancing. And PC Windows build.

My entry page

Extended web version

Direct link to Windows extended version

Hi! And Merry Whatever!

In August we were plenty to cover the LD21 on L’Oujevipo. This time, I’ll try to do it alone.
It means I’ll post a new LD22 review everyday during the rating period (and maybe after). I don’t try to review the best games, but the most interesting to me (i.e the ones which deserve 5 stars in Innovation ^^). So if you want to read about games you missed or maybe about your game, why don’t you take a look ?
So far, I already reviewed Al-one, Craequ, I used to speak to the wall, Älone and Comfort Zone (This game is the GREATEST! You should totally play it!). Many more are to come.

Only problem…The reviews are in french…So maybe you should try Google Translate.

-French reviews

-Poorly translated reviews. (Sorry)

Eventually, feel free to rate and give feedback on my own game : Never Alone Hotline .

I’ve broken the barrier of 10% of the all games played. Yay!

That said, today was a bit slower than the other days. I have to take a plane to visit my family this weekend, so preparations for that means less games played . Even then, people in the irc and comments pointed me to some really amazing games. The picks for today are:

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Spawn — You are a creature, alone in the ocean. You can create more life as you get nutrients in the environment. Your creations will vary based on the type and order of the nutrients acquired. And that is it. Although the premise is simple, the execution is well made, with relaxing graphics and sounds, and an interesting variety of creatures. Not as much a game as a toy box, but I spent a lot of time seeing what was the next creature that would pop out.

Arzea — A very well polished action platformer. Graphics and sounds work well together. The game is extremely fun to play — I had a lot of difficulty putting it down to rate other games . Levels have a nice challenge to them, although the spawn rates are a bit high at the moment.

Blind — A maze solver with a unique mechanic: You can’t see the maze! You navigate using sonar, that will warn you of walls (or, in this case, of corridors). This makes for a hellishly difficult game, but worth trying out for the novelty.

Comfort zone — Another maze solver with a unique mechanic, but this one is a bit more complicated to describe. Your interactions with the different objects in the maze will alter your speed and your ability to move through obstacles. The mechanics allow a lot of room for interesting maze design, and the controls are very slick.

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I hope that you are enjoying these reviews If you want more, check my journal for my previous posts on this series. And if you want me to take a look at your game, feel free to drop a comment! I try to give suggestions/report bugs on all games that I play.

Fun holidays for all, and check next week for more reviews!

Hi All, Last weekend was my first time competing in a Ludum Dare Competition. I started off making a game with Blitz3D. The premise of the game revolved around a sole astronaut stuck on Mars who needed to collect pieces of the remains of previous missions. However, that game was too involved and would be accessible to fewer participants: It would only run on Windows.

I figured: Hey, it’s my first time, why not use this pressure to learn something new and challenge myself. I have coded games and other software for fun using the various “Blitz Research” languages. (Plus, 3D, Max)   but I’d yet to try out their newest creation, Monkey. Its basically a programming language that isn’t compiled, but rather translated into other languages that target certain platforms. ( HTML5/Javascript , XNA , iOS, Android )   I read through the documentation and looked at some of the provided example programs. Pretty standard stuff a “game” class that extends a base class containing methods to handle initializing, updating, and rendering. (kinda like an Xbox game using XNA C#)

Like all programmers the first thing I did was a simple hello world test. Except instead of the usual display of hello world i drew a sprite to the canvas. Success! I was off to the races! from that point I began thinking of simple 2D mechanics that I like. I mean, perhaps its just me, but I am more motivated when developing a game i want to play, not just a game i am making.

I started with the idea of a single player side-scrolling shooter. you played a US soldier sent in behind enemy lines just before D-Day. your job was to destroy a large traincar-mounted gun. I created graphics for the main character and the enemies. both had only 2-frames of animation: walking and standing. Although the character was technically alone, I felt I could better capture the theme.

[RE: Your Brains] Unlike many gamers I know, I have yet to tire of zombies, and  zombie themed games. Feeling unsatisfied with the enemy soldiers, and the relevance to the theme, I added molly in the minecart and replaced the soldiers with zombies. Like the main character and the zombies, the minecart is only two frames of animation. I did not want to waste time drawing additional frames. If you look closely when the characters animate the move up and down 1 pixel. This was accomplished by simply changing the Y-position of the sprites before each frame was rendered. Although the HTML canvas is 640 x 480 I created the sprites and backgrounds as if i were rendering to a 160 x 120 screen. After the sprites were drawn, they were up-scaled to fill the 640×480 screen. (4 times their original size) I felt this gave the game a more retro feel.

[Can you hear me now?]: No Sound!!! I ran out of time before i could create sounds i needed for the game. In addition to that, there is no standard sound file that can be used across all browsers. I read the Ludum Dare’s tips and should have taken their suggestion: download and use a simple sound generator.  It’s better than no sound in your game!

If you’ve played the game, you know its way too hard. The controls are also poorly laid out. I spent too much time on the graphics and not enough time on the game play and sound. The game’s zombies multiply so fast as you advance that its becomes impossible to finish. Game play is key. This is my biggest take away. That although its obvious that game-play is critical, you have to make time to polish it.

All in all this was a wonderful experience and I’m hooked. I learned quite a bit about rapid game development and I can’t wait for April. But to prepare I am going to do one game each month in the Ludum Dare 48-hour style.  9pm EST Friday to 9pm EST Sunday. Since LD22 was my first attempt, I plan on working  through each of the previous themes. So, in January I will be tackling the theme for LD1. (assuming there was a theme, haven’t looked yet)  When i am finished, I’ll post my “results” finished or not.

Thanks to all who played my game. Now I’ve got to go play yours.

-Spencer

[EDIT 1/3/2012 ]: Here’s a link to the actual game: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=7958

Cámara de los planes de dar al propietario una idea de las dimensiones de cada habitación y el general cuadrado-cantidad. Este conocimiento ayuda al propietario a decidir el número de habitaciones y de cómo se distribuirán. Un plan de la casa decide cómo funcionará el edificio, lo que las habitaciones y espacios del edificio tendrá, en el que todas las zonas de las habitaciones se encuentra, cómo los residentes a caminar de una habitación a otra, y señalar la ubicación de todas las ventanas, puertas, y así sucesivamente. Los planos son simplemente el diseño o los diagramas de la construcción. Artículo recomendado por Construcciones y Reformas

I just updated my entry with a spoiler-free gameplay video, if you in a hurry you can still check it out

check the game page here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=rate&uid=7981

Finally got my timelapse up for Voxterium

 

Found out I’m not good with video editing software.  Just another thing I’ve learned from this compo…

I would like to start a list of Entires into the Comp/Jam that use the XNA framework:

I have only checked the first fifty odd on of my list, please add a link to your submission to the comments and I’ll update this list daily!

Update: This list now has 62 entries, is mostly complete and has been sorted to allow easier navigation.

I have created this list in the hope that we XNA developers will be able to sample each others games and provide much needed and valuable feedback to each other.

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A dark dream – 0×64 – 48 Hour Compo Entry A Hero In! – SunnyCode – Jam Entry A Realization (in 13 acts) – A-Type - 48 Hour Compo Entry A sub-par adventure – Jcorp – 48 Hour Compo Entry ALONE .. Developer – Jase – 48 Hour Compo Entry Alone – DivideByZero – 48 Hour Compo Entry Alone in Space – AleksandarDev – 48 Hour Compo Entry Alone In Space – Gregory – Jam Entry Alone- The search for home. – gavin5564 – 48 Hour Compo Entry Alone with… things! – Hazard – 48 Hour Compo Entry Argus Finnigan’s: Loneliness is R’lyehian – triggs – Jam Entry Atlantic Flight ONE – Tritax – 48 Hour Compo Entry Below – OddOneOut – 48 Hour Compo Entry Blackout – phill99 – 48 Hour Compo Entry Braille – Rudy – Jam Entry Challenge Accepted! – fatality674 – Jam Entry City of One – CaptainFresh – 48 Hour Compo Entry Crawl the Dungeon – Frib – 48 Hour Compo Entry Destination Eden – _ferritt - 48 Hour Compo Entry Dig Dig Dig! – Rijida – Jam Entry Enneige – envy3d – 48 Hour Compo Entry Erasum – Wompus – 48 Hour Compo Entry Happy Land – Vilborg – Jam Entry I don’t want to be alone! – nilstastic – Jam Entry Josh The Fan-Tastic – Th3dz – 48 Hour Compo Entry Leave Me Alone – SaiKai - Jam Entry Left Alone – Static_boy123 – 48 Hour Compo Entry Lifeless – DragonSix – Jam Entry Lone Escape – glitch – Jam Entry Lone Survivor – Pokelover980 – Jam Entry Lonely Adventures of Al Oneman – invaderJim – 48 Hour Compo Entry Lonely Dungeon – eerongal – 48 Hour Compo Entry Lonely Island – Awesomeclaw – Jam Entry Lost Kitties – Stirlando – 48 Hour Compo Entry Loyd’s Tale – pillowdrift – Jam Entry Nothing But Stars – wbobeirne – 48 Hour Compo Entry On Top Of The World – guerrillacontra – Jam Entry Party Quest: Never Go It Alone – ScreamRawr – Jam Entry Planet Earth Is Blue – Adhesion - 48 Hour Compo Entry Quiet, Please! – ladron – 48 Hour Compo Entry Run Away – Dax – 48 Hour Compo Entry Shadow – FinalMirage – 48 Hour Compo Entry Skull Hunt – Kelly Thomas – Jam Entry Solitude – dastry – 48 Hour Compo Entry Solved with Head – Jeremias – 48 Hour Compo Entry Space Shuttle – Wukkopi – 48 Hour Compo Entry Speed to Freedom – helloserve – 48 Hour Compo Entry Squido does not like being alone – fpMiguel – 48 Hour Compo Entry StarDrive – Thief – 48 Hour Compo Entry Stand alone – AhNinniah – Jam Entry Super farm boy – zoral – Jam Entry Teddies – Jiyko – 48 Hour Compo Entry The Break – tayron – 48 Hour Compo Entry The End – NiceAlexanderAS – 48 Hour Compo Entry The Grey Waste – Kharza – 48 Hour Compo Entry The Last Man on Earth – h.attila – 48 Hour Compo Entry The LD Lament – TiMMyyMMiT - 48 Hour Compo Entry The Lost Viking – lasseastrup – 48 Hour Compo Entry The Rescue – JoeDev_net – 48 Hour Compo Entry T – O – G – E – T – H – E – R ______ A – L – O – N – E – jsjwooowooo - 48 Hour Compo Entry Void – inlinevoid – 48 Hour Compo Entry Voxterium – Kitch – 48 Hour Compo Entry