There’s something that was still missing for my entry, and it was IE9 support. Turns out Microsoft did some efforts for HTML5, and with a few tricks it just works. Check it out.

Merry Christmas folks!

Uno de los lugares más espectaculares de su casa podría ser justo afuera de su puerta trasera. Después de todo, este es un espacio que se va a aprovechar al máximo cuando el clima es agradable, y sobre todo cuando son entretener a los invitados, pasar tiempo de calidad con la familia, o simplemente participar en algunos muy necesaria en I + R. Si usted está contemplando una baraja, tiene sentido olvidarse de las cubiertas llanura rectangular de antaño y de invertir en algo que va a su estilo de vida y te hacen feliz cada vez que se aventura por ahí. Artículo recomendado por Cubiertas de Madera

I finally prepared the timelapse for my entry, Alone in the Mansion. Enjoy!

Timelapse of Alone in the Mansion on Youtube

Here is the link to the original entry.

Today I’ve experimented with the tiles and made an ASCII tileset. I like the result and want to share it:

It isn’t original game, not only because of tileset – it also has reduced difficulty, so i won’t add it into my LD#48 entry. But you can download it here (jar, must work on all platforms)

More detail description and tips:
- there is 9 underground levels. to descend just step into hole
- to ascend step on the rope and press Enter
- you can drill (Spacebar) non-solid rock that blocks your way
- to collect fuel (green diamond), drill it
- you can carry only 10 fuel units. visit your ship (step into the center of the ship) to unload it.
- do not drill fuel block if you can’t carry anymore, cause it will just dissapear (there is more than enough fuel inside the planet to collect though)
- your drill charge (Z) reduces, don’t forget to recharge it in time, because sometimes quake can block your way to the rope
- you also can kill monsters with your drill (only if the drill has some charge)
- screaming monster (yellow face) hit’s you every your step (even if you just run into wall), even if there is rock between you and this monster
- if there is more than one screaming monster around you, be attentive to your energy and restore it in time
- you restore your energy by eating food (Shift). don’t eat if your energy is full – that will be waste of food
- radar (Ctrl) shows full level map. don’t press any key if you didn’t finished looking. to use radar again, you must visit the ship.
- you can walk on lava, but it harms you
- don’t forget, that you can walk diagonally
All this tips is also actual for the original game – link to the entry

If you have any questions, ask here. If you won, please let me know. (Cause I can’t =)

I was finally able to make a video of some gameplay!

Here’s my voting link again:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=rate&uid=7360

My postmortem is online, at last.
Now I should really get back to work (with pauses once in a while to rate games ^^)
http://01101101.fr/ld48/

Hug Monster!- I played this several times before tiring of it, really simple yet really good.

The invention of colour - an interactive side scrolling story with crisp pixel art and drenching audio.

Midas - a heartfelt game that I think matches the theme perfectly!

Alone Together - despite not being challenging and really short, it’s fun to complete

Survive the Desert - an artgame!  unrefined, coarse, gritty… like sand.

If you’d like me to rate your game (and I haven’t already…) feel free to leave a comment or mention on irc.  Feel free to rate my game in return!

Most of the games I’ve recommended or publicly pointed people to in this LD have been really high on the graphical production value chain.  I want to point out two particularly nice games that completely throw fancy graphics out the window while still maintaining a polished feel.  As of this writing, neither of them have gotten much attention, and I think it’s time to change that.

The Library of Madness – by Pre-order Cancelled!

Some things once seen cannot be unseen.  Such is the nature of the horrors that lurk beyond the shadows of space, and within the murky depths of our oceans and caverns.  Great cyclopean edifices pay homage and tribute to nameless horrors that could as soon exterminate our species as look down upon it.  Perhaps it is for the best then, that this game of Lovecraftian horror is a roguelike?  In this game, one must try to escape the library of madness amidst shambling horrors that may drive a man mad at the mere sight.  Some things in this world are simply best left to the imagination, and as such, the letter C will be seared into your very being until the moment of your death.

RGB – by Benn

A testament to the philosophy of gameplay over everything else.  This game’s graphics consist merely of red dots, green dots, and blue dots.  You are the green dot.  Rescue the blue dots from the red dots.  Simple premise and fun execution.  The red dots dance in magnificent sine wave patterns, whipping and waving, circling about.  It’s as artful as it is engaging.  This is, to me, the essence of game design.  It’s not necessarily original, but it is definitely worth a playthrough.

I’ve been playing games steadily since the end of LD22, and I’m going to share some of my favorites that I’ve found along the way. There are a few others out there that are doing the same thing, and they’ve helped to turn me on to games that I may have overlooked otherwise. I THANK THEM!

Some of the games from Volume 1 are games that have since blown up with recognition since I started compiling this list, but OH WELL. They deserve to be played by as many people as possible.

First up… I’m going to jump straight into the game that I consider to be the GREATEST thing I’ve seen in any LD competition. PERIOD. Yeah, you may not agree… but this game really appeals to me on every single level. It lacks audio, but I was able to play something from my own collection to fit the mood.

One Final Trek – by vandriver

This game is AMAZING. It’s a platformer with two very interesting mechanics. First… you have a jump with a pre-defined radius/distance. You can’t change in midair, and you can’t shorten or lengthen the hop. This restriction sets the game apart from just about every other platformer out there today. The areas are PERFECTLY designed so your jumps are appropriate. Second… the LANTERN / LIGHTING MECHANIC IS GENIUS. And it’s beautiful. It has to be seen to be appreciated. Just check it out, and play it to completion. I want to see this game get a proper ‘FINAL VERSION’ with music/sfx.

Braille – (Jam) by Rudy and Cole

This is an atmospheric platformer with an obvious nod to the graphical style of Limbo. What sets this game part is the unique stone throwing mechanic that you use to light your path. You can’t see in front of you, so you have to toss a stone. When the stone hits, it makes a sound and briefly lights up the ground. There’s lots of great art to be seen here, and the game follows the theme beautifully.

The Love Letter – (Jam) by axcho

BEST USE OF THEME. PERIOD. You control the main character, a young school boy, by clicking on the screen. You have been giving a love letter from a secret admirer, and you must find a secluded spot to read the letter in order to avoid taunting/humiliation from your classmates. The game currently lacks a proper ending, and I desperately want to see this game reach a conclusion. This game is incredibly charming, refreshing, and just plain’ ol’ dang ol’ FUN.

Final Trip Soccer – by Benjamin

You’ve probably already seen this, but it still deserves to be pointed out. The gameplay is framed by an actual story that handles the theme WONDERFULLY. The game is a HUGE pile of originality from top to bottom. The animation and sprite work is INSPIRING to say the least. So… it’s soccer? HOW IS THAT ALONE? You’re a soccer player that ends up alone against alien blobs after everyone vanishes MID-GAME in a giant stadium. BRILLIANT! You kill the blobs by kicking a soccer ball. It is awesome. GO PLAY IT.

Super Smash Lander Suicide Party, Bro? – by Black Ships Fill The Sky

OK, so this game doesn’t really follow the theme. AT ALL. I don’t care. It’s amazing. I don’t even know what the hell it really is, but that’s why it’s so amazing. Two alien bros do bro-like things by zooming super fast and blowing shit up, bro. There are THREE individual phases and playstyles in the game. You start by circling the earth to hit asteroids and satellites, then you enter the atmosphere and try to land without blowing up from SUPER HEAT (you can hit flocks of birds to cool down) and then the third section has you bouncing off of the earth … slamming into buildings and cows and other things to earn points. Then you explode and do high fives of EPIC proportions. This is mind numbingly amazing.

The Lonely Sphincter – by Crackerblocks

I always love what Crackerblocks does. The games are always hilarious, and this is certainly no exception. This is like NOBY NOBY BOY… except it’s actually fun to play. You eat people and either hold them in your body or you poop them out. You can chomp down on their bodies and crunch off their heads/arms/legs/etc. It really is amazing to be able to control a giant, flying sphincter while people say nice things to you. LOVE IT!

And my game, Ab-Alone, only has like ONE actual review comment. So this is me blatantly begging for plays/reviews. You can check it out HERE. I don’t know EXACTLY when I’ll do another one of these review posts… but I’ll certainly be back.

I added a Windows standalone release to my game, The Sheep & The Peach, since I was informed that Linux users should be able to run it under Wine. Let me know if there’s any issues with it, I don’t have a Linux desktop available anymore to test on myself.

Edit: I also put up the soundtrack if anyone wants to check it out!

What Went Right:

Time Management…?
I was able to plan out most of my time pretty well, so thankfully I was able to implement nearly all of the features I wanted, with just a few minor ones going undone. I spent about 5-6 hours on audio, probably roughly the same on graphics, and the rest coding, which is about what I expected (and planned) going into the weekend.

Audio
I was already pretty experienced in making this style of music (and making music in general, which I’ve been doing since 2004) so it wasn’t too horrible of a prospect to make a bunch of game tracks in a short amount of time. Having done a whole ton of album-a-days (http://crapart.spacebar.org/aad) helped on that front too – thanks Tom 7! Trying to come up with a variety of original material was probably the most creatively difficult aspect of the whole weekend but I’m really happy with how the music came out. And of course, working with bfxr was a pleasure.

What Went Wrong:

Game Balance/Playing My Own Game
I think the biggest issue with the game as it stands is the balance or difficulty – depending on how you play it, it’s probably either way too easy or way too hard. This wasn’t really obvious to me until around Sunday when I little else to do but play my own game and do lots of polish. It’s kind of funny to think that I didn’t spend enough time playing my own game in a 48-hour game dev competition, but it actually makes sense, especially considering the sort of game I was going for. I’ll try to keep this one at the forefront when I do my next Ludum Dare.

Slight Unfamiliarity with Tools
This wasn’t too much of an issue, but I had to look up a few XNA-related things to implement certain features, particularly graphics-related ones. I also struggled with GIMP a bit, which is probably understandable to anyone who has ever used it.

All in all this was an awesome experience. Can’t wait for the next challenge!

I decided I’d learn how to program for the Sega Mega Drive.

Soon afterwards I decided I’d port my entry to it.

This is probably 3 days of work, and has exactly 1 glaring bug I know about that I’d like to eliminate. (It has something to do with scrolling. Bet you won’t find it.)

So here it is: Sega Mega Drive port, beta #1.

If you can fix the bug, let me know (it comes with source code, and can be compiled with asmx – if you wish to change the Z80 sound driver, you will need to compile that separately).

Im Getting me a smartphone for christmas Its a Telecom HUAWEI X1

The RNG is my friend, and he is rewarding my rating efforts! The games I rated and commented today were so good that I had some real difficulty choosing which 5 games to highlight. I ended up choosing the games with the highest degree of polish in the list. One of the picks only had 5 rates so far!

Without further ado, here are the reviews I want to share with you tonight.

Alone in a Cave — A turn-based puzzle game, you have to take your character through maze rooms while avoiding robots and picking up items. The graphics and sounds were well though out and fit well together, and the game is generally well finished, with animations, transitions, good controls (minus keyboard controls), etc. The challenge is another high point.

Blue Moon — A fantastic puzzle platformer. The main mechanic of the game is quite innovative: you can spend your life force to activate mechanisms, or drain the energy of mechanisms to replenish your life. Animations and story are also quite well developed. The game is initially quite challenging, but suddenly gets trivial. Even then, it is a well polished game definitely worth playing.

Split Party — This game is the king of polish so far. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a game like this come out of a DS cartridge. Sounds, controls, graphics, everything fits well together in one tight package. Everything is actually dead simple, but I say this is a testament to controlling the scope of your game. The only downside is that to win this game you must be a heartless bastard who makes cute boxes cry.

Solus — A beautiful side-scrolling shooter. The mood of this game is palpable, and everything was built around it. Even the kittens hidden in the game don’t break its aesthetics. It is not so difficult since you don’t return to the beginning when dying, but it has a very engaging boss battle.

She Loves You — A 3D Action/Puzzle game. A very creepy game. This game is not as finished as the previous ones, since it still lacks things such as intro and ending screens, but it is worth the pick for its uniqueness alone. The model for the girl in the game and the maze design are very good.

That is it for tonight! Check out my journal if you want to see the picks from my previous days, and feel free to plug your game in the comments! I’ll make sure to give it a fair shake and offer some suggestions for improvement. A shout out to THE HUG MONSTER who is also making a series of reviews in his journal. (-o^_^)/\(^_^o-)

See you tomorrow!

All right! Our LD22 Jam Entry Aloneasaurus is live in the app store, just minutes before the holiday shutdown.

Go get it, it’s a free download on the app store and try it out! Ratings and comments are much appreciated, both here and in itunes. Thanks!

Aloneasaurus in the App Store

Thoughts and planning already underway for a post-compo version with better tuned gameplay.

Due to popular demand, I give you the ‘cat vend’ game theme song.  I threw it together for the game literally at the last moment, did it in one take per track via Audacity, and unfortunately quietly (screws up the sound) because it was early in the morning. The melody is Journey’s of course but there are actually a number of instrument and arrangement modifications so that it ‘goes to 11′.  I hardly ever do covers but it fit the theme so well, I had to do it.  I figured they wouldn’t mind since they apparently found their last singer on Youtube or some such thing doing covers of their songs. I should have some new actually good tracks coming soon for the ‘Adventures of Robin Hood’ album project since I’m finally on vacation.

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/zqvGdqSX/catvend.html

So I’ve finally decided to share what I made during LD. I was running late, so I wasn’t able to finish it by the jam deadline, but did finish up about 5-6 hours later. You’re not going to find me in the set of 891 games though.

Fighting some Bats

You can try it here: http://www.alonethe.com/prototype/

- Best played in Firefox, in Full Screen (F11).
- F5 to reload (WHEN you die, MUAHAHA!)
- If using Flash Block or NoScript, enable Flash. It needs Flash Player 9+ for Sound.
- Arrow Keys, Mouse, or Touch Screen.
- Works on all current Browsers. Some may lack sound.
- Works on all current Mobile Browsers too! Best in Firefox Mobile (w/o Sound).

You can find an extended postmortem on the game on my blog.

Thanks everybody for making Ludum Dare 22 great!

Here’s another round of really intriguing games that I’ve found that I want to share with you all:

Midas – by Wanderlands

TaintedFork in the irc channel turned me on to this one.  It’s a platformer / puzzle style game with an interesting twist.  Everything you touch turns to gold, including the person you want to marry, unless you break your curse by stepping on a water tile.  Be aware that the gold blocks are heavy and will fall if not supported by something under them!  This jam entry was really inventive and delightful.

Lonely Star – by Dietrich Epp

Another platformer / puzzle game, this time with the object of clearing the board of other people (or rather the one other person).  Pick up a shiny star and show it to your arch enemy, and he’ll race after you to grab it.  Lure him off a cliff for some peace and quiet.  The art style is, as described by the author, crayola and construction paper.  It’s beautiful.

A Tale of Seven Kittens – by digital_sorceress

I was charmed by the art style here.  Huge pixel textures in an otherwise high-res environment, in a 3-d 1st person adventure.  I am ridiculously amused by the fact that you can equip a kitten as a weapon.

Some of these have a pretty low number of ratings and i’d hate to see them completely ignored.  I’ve basicly been randomly picking games with a low number of reviews that I can actually play and rating them, so far these are the best games of LD22 (in my opinion, of course, but I suggest others try them out as well)

I won’t bother posting already well known ones, just ones here that are still relatively unplayed.

48 Hour Compo Games

“Cave Wanderer”  by Greasemonkey

“Soloing” by Goldendice

“Sinkhole” by Shaun Inman

“The lonely island” by Bezza

Jam Games

“Ancient Rover” by tnelsond

I Have Figured out how to Make Game Maker be able to make a runnable exe with gml

(Useful if your Making an External Level Editor For a Game)

The Script

[code]

global.out = '//{ object export data'
with (all) {
    trace = true
    if (object_index == obj_control) trace = false // add lines like these to make objects that should not be exported
    if (trace) {
        global.out += chr(13) + chr(10) + 'instance_create(' + string(x) + ', ' + string(y) + ', ' + object_get_name(object_index) + ')'
    }
}
global.out += chr(13) + chr(10) + '//}'
clipboard_set_text(global.out) // or move it somewhere else[/code]

You Need to have an Object called

obj_control is where you Put the object name that you dont want exported

you Can make more lines of it with the name of all the objects you dont want exported

the clipboard_set_text only adds the data to the clipboard Im Not so good when it comes to writing text to files

enjoy