Last Ludum Dare, (22) I entered the compo with Isolated Assault, a 48 hour game.

Since then, I’ve struggled to make a post-compo version, because it’s too boring, the game’s basically already complete, and I don’t think that many people will play it anyways.

So what have I been doing these past months?

• First, I’ve been working on improving my music. I realized, much after the fact, that the song I wrote for Isolated Assault was actually kind of catchy and pretty impressive considering what other songs I’ve written at the time. (Here’s a tutorial for writing music I made so that hopefully there will be more amazing music in Ludum Dare entries)

• Also, I’ve been working on a YouTube series called Conner’s Kingdom using a game called Minecraft. (Made by Notch, who joins Ludum Dare every competition)

• Finally, I’ve finally been able to sit down work on a game project, after being inspired by Mirror’s Edge. Remember “Parkour Project” from this image?

• I’ve been developing the project into something better and worked on, using scripts and elements I’ve already created from past games, and I’ve got a pretty good free-run system. Using some pre-made buildings, I’ve got an open world level started, though it still needs a lot of work, and I have no clue how I’m going to make the story line.
• I’ve also been working with light-maps and working on improving my level lighting, and I’m impressed with Unity’s shadow system. Though I won’t be able to make moving objects have shadows, because that requires Unity Pro.
• I realized I’ve been using techniques to get around Pro features, such as overlaying a plane over a camera with darkened edges to get around the fact that you can’t have vignettes in Unity Free. And I’ve also realized that particles can add a lot of detail to levels, and Unity’s new particle system works pretty good.

So what will I do for Ludum Dare 23?

I’m hoping the theme will be new and creative this year, for the 10th anniversary, but yet specific enough that I can make a game out of it. I think I want to make a 2D side-scrolling action game, but I’m not sure until I see the theme. I might stick with first person, though, because it’s much easier.

I hope to once again record a time lapse, though with less frames per minute, because the last one took forever to render and watch. Also, I will probably lower the resolution to an easy 720p and use YouTube instead of dropbox, to make it easier to watch.

I’ll make another post detailing the tools I’ll be using later on in the week. Thanks for reading, and please remember Rob Productions when voting for Ludum Dare 23!

Oh, and one more thing: Last Ludum Dare, I said my goal was to beat Notch in at least one category. I ended up beating him in seven.

Apparently, I’ll have to raise my goals. This competition, my goal is to get top 10 in at least one category. (Btw, last Ludum Dare my closest place to top 10 was #40, in the community category)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 at 2:16 pm and is filed under LD #22, LD #23, LD - Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.