As some people are adding crazy constraints to the already constrained process of making a game on your own in 48 hours (like programming an entry in assembly language), I’m also adding a – more modest – constraint to the game I’ll be making:

I’ll make a ‘physics game’ using the built-in Unity3D’s physics engine for this one. This could make it more challenging, as this kind of physics are a lot harder to tune than custom physics.

For the compo entries I did in the past, and for most prototypes PreviewLabs developed, I programmed my own physics. This is often the fastest solution, as you can implement the simplest physics model needed and save a lot of time on tuning while having full control over the physics’ behavior.

If the theme makes it too hard to create a physics game, I’ll at least use some physics in the game (even if it’s for a background effect).

By the way, by ‘physics game’ I mean a game in which the core game mechanics are relying on the physics engine.

BoulderBridge Prototype

The screenshot above is from ‘BoulderBridge’, the first prototype we did with PreviewLabs. It’s a ‘physics game’ with a concept similar to bridge builder or world of goo. With quite a lot of physics settings, tuning them took quite a long time; about a day – which is a lot if you’re making a game in 48h.

The first iteration of the prototype for this game took a week to complete with three programmers and one artist (so 3x 40h of programming and 1x 40h of art).

A game was based on the prototype, and it will be released soon for the iPhone. More info on the game and some screenshots of the iPhone version can be found here, on the website of Crazy Monkey Studios.

I’m in (most likely). Although I registered to the mailing list a while ago, I’m about to participate for the first time in Ludum Dare this weekend.

I’ve been doing some game compos in the past:

• The retroremakes.com competitions (in 2003 and 2004 I think): Blockman3D (a remake of a game called Block Man by Soleau Software) and Pipetris (a combination of Pipe mania and Tetris). These were made in DarkBasic. I’m not sure about the exact years any more, as the competition’s pages aren’t online any more. Six or seven years seems to be too long for the memory of the Internet…
• The global game jam in 2009 and 2010: Burn them out (done in Python + pygame) and Vikings & Bankers (done in Unity3d).

If anyone would try any of the previous compo games I worked on I would suggest trying Vikings & Bankers. It contains some interesting puzzles, and I had a great time working on this. Especially the creation of the music and sound effects was a great experience; this was done with only a microphone and Audacity.

During weekdays I’m quite busy with PreviewLabs, a company specialized in rapid game prototyping. Rapid prototyping is actually not that different from making games successfully in 48h.

I feel like going for ‘The Competition’, but I may participate in ‘The Jam’ in case I can gather some people nearby.