Alright, I think I’ll do my obligatory look back at the competition.

I’m going to look at it in percentiles because the numbers aren’t impressive.

Categories I care about:

Overall: 967, 41%

Fun: 864, 37%

Ok, not the best scores, but technically, above average! This was my first major game competition, and I’m proud I did it!

My game was Left vs. Right - http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=16998

I finished my game, Left vs. Right, today for my first Ludum Dare! I’m happy that I finished and that I got a nice result! There’s not much more I can say than that I accomplished something this weekend!

If you’re wondering about my game: It’s the definition of easy to learn, hard to master. It has simple graphics and gameplay but like chess; it’s very intelectual, not to mention the whole “Left vs. Right, Red vs. Blue” American politics nod there. Oh, and here is the link. BTW: No music I know. I was trying to learn how to do that before the comp. but whatever. (Can anyone show me how to do that?)

I was so busy grading other games I forgot about mine! Well, here goes.

My game, LightYearsAway, got 4th overall and 4th in fun as-well. Those are the two categories most important to me. I’m happy with that! I really am! Most of the comments I got were good constructive criticisms.

I agree, the pop-up message did look bad and in hindsight I should have changed that to the tip animation. The best criticism I got was making the look of the spaceships relate to movement and make them look different rather than pallet swaps!

That was my first game jam and I’m happy with the result!

Over the course of the past 2 weeks I have worked on a game for minld39. The game is not a finished game but I am in 1gam so I’ll continue to work on it. It’s called Light Years Ahead, I think. (Not at my computer right now + the name might change) It’s nothing to brag about, just a side to side space shooter like Galaga. What I’m most happy about is that I have conquered the art of infinite objects and I can carry this skill to different games in the future.

Game submission tonight;I’m pumped.

Let’s go. I was busy during LD compo and jam but now in miniLD this is my chance… I have no idea what I’m going to do but updates will come soon. I’m sure you don’t care too much about me or my games but I felt the need to write a little “I’m in” about this.

As the October Challenge comes to an end, and my game finished, I feel the need to talk about my first purely private game. Sure my October Challenge game was released and had 5 sales, but it’s still not completely private. I did it for the challenge.

The next game will be (and already) more planned than the previous. This time it will be built better from the start, now that I have experience.

It’s an assassination game. You jump and avoid the guard’s sight to kill your target. As you play the story develops and you unlock weapons. If you want to Alpha test, contact me @gkamer8 on twitter.

Can I have some feedback on my new game, Rockwell? Get it here for free. Thanks.

Check out Rockwell! Rockwell, my October Challenge entry, is free. It’s free because it’s my first game. Rockwell isn’t the best game and if you have to pay, I want to bring my A-game. Consider this a successful failure for the October Challenge.

Get Rockwell HERE, FOR FREE!!!!!!

Watch some gameplay here!

Okay, now, I’ve got to promote my game. Best way to do that? Ludum Dare, October Challenge. It’s $1 on Indievania. Rockwell is an arcade style, addictive, time-consuming space-shooter. It looks and plays like classic games such as Pac-man and asteroids. It has a page on gumroad, a digital-download marketplace. Buy it here! 

Well, if you wanted to check out my October Challenge entry, Rockwell, it’s free for a limited time on Indievania! I would love to hear some feedback! Rockwell

So, my game, Rockwell, is in beta and I think it’s time to release. It’s already being reviewed on Indievania and will soon be on StaticVoidGames. I may put it on the chrome app store but considering it’s not a web app it probably will not. However, if Rockwell has support it will show up on the Mac app store. Rockwell, although not a technical masterpiece, is a fun addictive arcade game.

Well, things have been going well. I problem solved and retextured the spaceship. Here’s a screenshot to show some progress. 

This October challenge I have gained a myriad of information and experience on game making and developing.

My no-named game is now nearing completion. I have just put a game, I made roughly a month ago, on the indievania store as a test. During this month I now can, sort of, say I have experience on a “shipped” game. The game I’ve made may not be the next angry birds or zelda, but this process will help me make more complex games in the future. The game that is in Alpha 0.0.2 is a simple arcade game that is designed to be addictive and time-consuming fun. Although I think the best platform is mobile, I can’t at this time. When my new game is “*music* out of beta and releasing on time *music*” It will have one more main feature.

Well, here is my plan. I’ve got basic mechanics down, like I said in my last update. That means that It’s likely I get out of Beta and release somewhere in the semi-near future. With that said, how am I going to release the game? + datails about the game that other programmers want to know.

Info for programmers

The game is written in Java and will be distributed with the .Jar format. I’ve used paintbrush and eclipse so far. I’ve TRIED to use a professional coding process (organized classes, making variables private, ect.). My #1 tip for new programmers (like me) is that you MUST break the game into steps. EXP: instead of “Do game, ” “Create advanced spawn system,” and to narrow it down even more, “write if statements in Bullet.class to help with spawning.”

Release details + How? and When?

How? – I PLAN to release first, on the chrome web app store through making the icon a download link for a .zip folder. It will cost the high, bank-breaking, infinitely times larger than free, price of 99c.  The game will hopefully have some kind of arcade, replayable, fun aspect. I have the arcade and fun down, its just the longevity of “Mom, can I stay on a little longer, please?.” My stretch goal is to have the game on the Mac app store as a .app obviously.

Basic mechanics and scoring are implemented. Game is surprisingly fun already. I just need to add a menu screen, perhaps even a screen with my twitter handle or something, make the game more replayable(level up, other guns ect.), and obviously make a name for it, suggestions?!

Basic Engine and moving mechanics. Everything’s up from here!

I will try to do the October challenge! This will be my first game. I hope to use Java 2d rather than html5 because I want to make the $1 off sales rather than adds on a website not to mention buying the domain. I guess the hardest part of this will be finding a place to sell… Perhaps you guys have some ideas? The game will be a space shooter if you were wondering.