Read it in an awesome format here (with links and whatnot):

http://synsugdev.blogspot.com/2013/04/ld-26-opener.html

CONTENT:
Well, here we are at Ludum Dare again. This time, I brought friends! Quite a few, actually. Last time was just myself and my roomie, but this time we have multiple coders. I’m really excited to see how much more can be accomplished with 24 extra hours and more people, perhaps multiplayer functionality is in order? We’ll see.

It’s late on night one, and we have a very thoroughly fleshed out game idea. If you’d like to read through the game design document and see our process in action, just follow this link: it’ll take you to the magic.

With all this wonderful progress, I think I’ll head to bed soon… In the mean time, meet the team!

Greyson Richey (myself): Code, studio owner, designer, music enthusiast.
Craig: Art, music
Greg: Code, design
Ryan: Code, design

Looking forward to what tomorrow brings. GL HF
Our stream

This is… LD #7 for me, I think. I’ll likely be doing it with Jonnopon and a co-worker whom I managed to convert to the cause, but we’ll see.

Syntactic Sugar Studio (my studio) has been pretty busy with a major commission, so this weekend may end up being too busy for us. Again, we’ll see, but we’re planning on doing our best!

Tools:

• WebStorm
• Notepad++
• NodeJS
• Paint.NET
• FL Studio 10
• Bfxr

Languages:

• HTML/HTML5
• JavaScript
• SASS
• XML
• JSON

That’s right, HTML5 devs up in here! Good luck to you all!

P.S.

Motherload clone, anyone? ;D

Livestream

GDD

Good luck, guise.

Game Title: KINDERGARTEN KILLING SPREE

trollface.jpg

Language: HTML/JavaScript

IDE: Webstorm

Gfx: Paint.NET

Sfx: Bfxr

Music: FL Studio 10

Libraries: SugarLab(my own creation)

Other: Goldfish, Energy Drank, obnoxious roommates

Hey all! Syntactic Sugar Studio (me and some friends) is participating in a competition to win a small grant from a university here in Utah. We need your help to make it to the top five, we just need a vote! Click “Vote for This Campaign”, enter your email, then click the confirmation link they send you. Voting gets you a bunch of perks, like a mention in our game!

If you share the link to this post or the site on any social platform, you’ll be entered to win a $50 American Express giftcard! Just show proof in the comments below. Thanks everyone!

http://www.saltvalleytally.com/campaign/detail/198

Join the G+ Ludum Dare Hangout! We can discuss strategies, games, people, food… Whatever you’d like! A nice little distraction, or a place to come for help.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/s/%23LD48 should take you to a search in which you can find it, or just go to your G+ profile and search. Look forward to seeing you there!

Use this link: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/0827f3f82b02513b5ac9840cf9c43f7aa330773d

I know it goes against all the admonitions of the greats, but I did it anyways.

I downed a triple size, triple strength Rockstar at 2:30 am.

THIS IS NOW ME:

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHH

Childish and obvious but totally necessary joking aside, I forgot to write this post. Must’ve been caught up in the excitement… Anyways, here’s a breakdown of what I’ll be using:

Language: HTML/JavaScript

IDE: Webstorm

Libraries: SugarLab (my own creation)

Music: FL Studio 10

Art: Paint.net, Spriter

SFX: bfxr

Good luck to everyone! I’ll update on my progress here, and livestream here if you’d like to follow along. I’m also @Bloodyaugust on twitter.

If you’ve ever wanted to find or watch a stream, you may have noticed that the list made by comments in WP isn’t very conducive to that. So I made a list that is much easier to browse, and figured I’d share it here. I also wanted to be able to search by language, so I found who was using what language where I could. Enjoy this little list, and have fun with the competition!

If I missed anything, let me know. (read it here for nice formatting and styling)
Bloodyaugust - http://www.twitch.tv/bloodyaugust93 - HTML
bigbass1997 - http://twitch.tv/bigbass1997 - Java
thatshelby - http://www.twitch.tv/thatshelby - AS3
quill18 - http://www.twitch.tv/quill18 - C#
Nick Cash - http://www.twitch.tv/syncarn - Python
Raptor85 - http://www.twitch.tv/raptor851 - C++
Folis –  http://www.twitch.tv/BlechiRC - HTML
Anon - http://www.youtube.com/user/CreamerLad
Fififox - http://www.twitch.tv/fififox
cniangel - http://twitch.tv/cniangel - Java
andrew845 - http://www.livestream.com/ld24andrew845 - Processing
TehSkull - http://www.twitch.tv/tehskull - Corona
JaydenB - http://www.twitch.tv/atomicmonkeypro - AS3
Jeremy Stark - http://www.twitch.tv/thejeremystark - AS3
galman - http://www.twitch.tv/galman33 - AS3
danlthemanl - http://twitch.tv/danlthemanl- HTML
nidjo123 - http://www.twitch.tv/nidjo123
Lucariatias - http://www.youtube.com/user/Lucariatias
hoggydoggy - http://www.justin.tv/hoggydoggy
BenW - http://www.twitch.tv/garagecoder - AS3
TestSubject06 - http://www.twitch.tv/TestSubject06 - AS3
chrizc - http://www.livestream.com/chrizc
vircung - http://twitch.tv/vircung - Unity
fritzendugan - http://www.twitch.tv/fritzendugan
grimpunch - http://www.justin.tv/grimpunch
michax  - http://www.twitch.tv/anidev/
90sml - http://www.livestream.com/90sml - Python
sgehlich - http://de.twitch.tv/lesoosh
dhasenan - http://twitch.tv/dhasenan
NedortGames - http://www.livestream.com/NedortGaming
kiwi - http://www.livestream.com/random_and_shit
pragmascript - http://de.twitch.tv/pragmascript
zeh -http://www.twitch.tv/zehfernando - AS3
mappum - http://twitch.tv/mappum
Milligan - http://twitch.tv/Milligan_
skyllartor - http://www.twitch.tv/skyllartor - Java
jayitinc - http://twitch.tv/jayitinc
NateAGeek - http://www.twitch.tv/nateageek
JaydenB - http://twitch.tv/atomicmonkey
Windryu121 - http://www.twitch.tv/windryu121
MattySVN - http://www.twitch.tv/SirMattyHD
laubori - http://twitch.tv/lauboman
cafaxo - http://www.twitch.tv/cafaxo
myachin - http://ru.twitch.tv/myachinsa
bablo - http://www.twitch.tv/baburo
KEFIR - http://twitch.tv/kefir_msk
panuo - http://twitch.tv/oks4
ScreamRawr - http://www.livestream.com/screamrawr - Art
Demurgos, MrHalfman, Scipion - http://fr.twitch.tv/demurgos
MrHalfman – http://fr.twitch.tv/halfmans – HTML/JS

You know.

Fun Fact: Joke theme is EVOLUTION, BECAUSE IT ALWAYS GETS SO CLOSE.

Read it here for nice formatting and style.

Let me say this at the outset: I am in favor of the Kongregate move. Now let me clarify some points:

1. Kongregate is not offering monies based on how well you do in the Ludum Dare ratings. Instead, they use the popularity rating system of their own site. This means that those who do not choose to submit to Kongregate are not in any way forced to participate. If you are for whatever reason steadily opposed to the idea of being involved with Kongregate, go nuts. Block all the entries hosted there. Really show ‘em who’s boss.
2. Kongregate is not paying the hosts of the competition for the opportunity to conduct this separate competition. They are choosing to spend their money in a way they feel will be beneficial, to who or for what reason is outside my knowledge and the scope of this writing. They are not “paying off” McFunkypants or Kasperzak to take the jewels of our fine competition. They are simply offering another opportunity.
3. Kongregate is well within their rights to do what they are doing. They have in no way broken any law, written, assumed, or otherwise. What they do with their money and site is their business. If they want to have an incentive for great coders to host their game on Kongregate, good for them.
4. This does not go against the spirit of the competition. The idea of this competition is to make games, and have fun while doing so. It is beyond me how someone could feel that money somehow removes the fun-factor. Money is used to motivate fun in *every* competitive sport! If you ask an average athlete why they play their game, they’ll tell you it’s because they love what they do. Same goes for us game developers.
5. A chance to win a prize will indeed increase the popularity of the competition, but not necessarily the quality or focus of the games. Fun games get played. Crappy games get tossed. If your game is a fantastic one (and web-based), it will probably win both competitions. If it sucks, you’re not going to do well in either.
6. This is great for publicity of the competition. Duh.
7. This provides another way for coders to gauge the quality of their game. More feedback in the form of their rating and comments system is just another way to improve our processes.
8. Making money for an indie dev is a good thing. Some people take issue with involving money in the competition. WHY?! If a person who is new to the competition x-posts to Kong, and realizes they can make money off of their talents, the industry and their lives are bettered. Of course, this creates more competition, so there will obviously be resistance to this idea.

So why are we fighting this? Why not embrace the next stage of this wonderful competition? Lets all accept that this is happening, and figure out how to best utilize it for our industry, and the fun it involves.

Please, can we get it over with, and let evolution *finally* win this thing? I have so many ideas, all trapped…

I went into this LD with a very different mindset from previous ones. You see, I’ve been doing a TON of game programming lately, and I recently opened up my own studio. I’ve made and released games before, but never with a ton of polish or functionality outside of the actual game. So this time, I decided I wanted to focus much more on meta-game aspects.

One such aspect that took up A TON of time was setting up and utilizing an account with Amazon Web Services. They have a “trial” program that allows you to run a fully equipped (albeit wimpy) server on their cloud. I set up a Win2008 Server edition, and remoted in to control it. I set up the domain, and got WAMP running. Finally, I also did some PHP scripts and made sure that I had the ability to directly control the MYSQL database. With all this set up, I began work on the game.

Admittedly, my game is not an actual game, and for some reason Dropbox is having as yet unresolved issues hosting it. I made some of the usual “mistakes” such as spending too long on art and audio assets. I wrote some scripts I ended up not needing. I changed halfway through the compo from using vanilla Unity3D with an orthographic camera to using Orthello 2D, which ended up causing a lot of frustration for me. I think a major outcome of this scenario is that I’m going to learn how to model, so I don’t have to try to make unity do things it doesn’t want to anymore.

With basic functionality set up, I figured out a menu system, then quickly moved on to some scorekeeping functionality. I wanted my game to be able to utilize the server I had set up earlier, so I delved into the Unity3D docs for the WWW class. In reality, this may be one of the most powerful aspects of Unity: to be able to interact with the web with one slice of code across all major platforms. I was able to wrestle this functionality in, and was more than pleased with the outcome. I’ve never before done anything involving multiple players in one game, so this was a huge step.

On a final note, I’d like to say that even though my “game” was by any consideration horrible, on of the reasons I love this contest is that it can give me a dedicated time to experiment with new things. Don’t judge yourself on completeness, judge by how much fun you had and how much you learned, and I promise you’ll continue to enjoy Ludum Dare.

I return once more from the brink of insanity, TO THE BOWL OF IT!!! }:)

I honestly can’t tell you guys how excited I am for this, I LOVE THIS COMPETITION! This is my 3rd time participating, and since the last one I’ve actually started a company and published a few games! You can check those of us at Syntactic Sugar Studio out here, or here on Facebook.

Anyways, I’ll be using the following:
IDE:  MonoDevelop

Language: C# and JS

Framework: Unity3D

SFX: BFXR

Music: FL Studio 9

Art Assets: Paint.Net, PixelEdit(tiling tool created by a friend)

Libraries: Of my own design, which I will make available on the studio site.

ETC: Goldfish, family, and friends! But mainly Goldfish.

I decided to be lazy and write it only once, so come see it here.

I was going to do a more adventure type game.

Now, feces to that. It’s time for a TOWER DEFENSE GAME. TOTALLY ORIGINAL.

Now here’s what our main character was going to look like. I know, it’s utter crap, but it still took me like an hour.

I’m so good.

I like to write to properly explore my ideas, so chances are I’ll have re-written this post quite a few times before I publish it.

Liam Mith is, as far as he knows, the last person alive in the world. Any communications by radio ceased about 2 years ago, when the Virus hit. The year is 2047, and the world is much different than now. Technology had made absolutely incredible advances. We were on Mars, we were traveling throughout the the solar system to gather materials. Most governments across the world had crumpled, and people did as they pleased. They used their will to shape the world around them, not other people. It was a golden age.

Unfortunately, progress sometimes has side-effects. The entire world was connected electronically. Everyone wore an iEye (pronounced eye),  a contact lens that had the power of todays supercomputers thanks to Quantum Computing. Everything, even your toilet, was wired for network access.

Then the Sun, like it does, screwed everything up when it decided to emit a solar flare so massive it consumed Mercury entirely. The resulting wave of electromagnetic energy had an odd effect, because of the safeguards we had put in place against it to protect our precious electronics. Near instantaneously, every person who was wearing their iEye went abso-freaking-lutely insane. The massive radiation had caused instant cancer in nearly every place of the body, and fried certain parts of the iEye programming. The effects varied pretty widely, but one thing was constant: insanity.

Our current concept of Zombies does not cover what happened to these people. Image what would happen if every cell in your body simultaneously went through a period of such rapid uncontrolled growth, that you went from standing to mush. The pain these people went through is absolutely indescribable, and if not for their iEyes, they would have been killed instantly. But obviously, that didn’t happen.

The iEye was the only processor left, and the sudden radiation burst caused it to fuse with the brainstem in most cases. The effect this had was clear and present: you had formings of flesh running about at lightning speed with only animalistic functions left to them, but amplified by Quantum Computing. Essentially, super-intelligent beings with a wisdom score of 0. The remaining people of Earth were almost all engineers who worked underground during the incident, building the sacred electronics in pristine environs.

Liam Mith was one of those engineers. This is his story, as played by you.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, it’ll be a 2D front-view puzzle/shooter/strategy game, where you have to farm, salvage what electronics you can, and begin assembling your robotic army to re-take the globe. Along the way, you are accompanied by your trusty feline friend, whom you met just after the disaster, and have no idea where she came from.

Perfect time to post, just after theme announcement!
I think I’m gonna do a zombie game. I know what you’re thinking, been done a million times right?

ROBOTS. YOU MAEK THAEM. AND FARM. AND HAVE A KITTEH.

Then you fight some zombies. And survive. ALONE = LAST HUMAN ON EARTH.

My dad brought the link below to my attention upon realization of kittens as a possibility.

I SWEAR, IF KITTIES MAKES THE THEME, YOU WILL ALL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT FOLLOWS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX3iLfcMDCw