#583 overall… Well, better than last LD!

You may remember my disappointed musings at the close of the last LD (my first) where I placed about halfway up the ladder.

So I was still miles away from winning this time around again, but this time, Anthill landed me roughly just shy of the top 3rd. That’s improvement as far as I’m concerned! I was much happier with the game overall compared to my effort last time which I think felt a little sparse and cobbled together to really be a competitor. The response was far more positive and I think the game was FAR more fun, as well as miles more quirky

The competition was also especially tough this time around, with 1,400 contestants all submitting some seriously cool material!

Overall I’m pleased with the result and can pat myself on the back knowing that I did better than last time, so long as I’m improving and learning from the community, I’m happy

Next time I will: Learn that a game can’t be a one trick pony. Consider making gameplay more varied. One fun idea will only have limited playability. Have Nikolai compose the music again (his help gained us the #110 (might be 1 or 2 out) spot on the music rankings!)

Had great fun making Anthill, and even more playing everyone’s creations! Until next time, Darers, until then

I shall rise again!

James

So long as they are credited?

Made more progress than I had hoped today! Got the game running nice and smoothly, fixed the lag problems and tomorrow it’s onto sound and polish!

Good night all! Happy Dare-ing

Got the game working, but it’s about as efficient as Sisyphus with rickets :S Need to find a way to scan large arrays faster with less resources.

I’m in for my second Ludum Dare!

I’m switching tools this time to XNA or Director depending on genre and theme since Allegro turned out to be waaay too much of a faff last time around.

My target? Surpass last time’s performance and complete a game with SOUND this time!

I’ll be entering the compo rather than the jam, I like the pressure

So after the compo ended, I decided to reskin my entry, Starlighter, into something new. What resulted is a borderline obscene (yet inexplicably hilarious) new product fit VERY only for adults. Kids, stay away from this one!

I did this partly out of boredom and partly out of the desire to see how with a simple reskin and a crude sense of humor, a game with a depressing and drab storyline can become a game which had numerous people in the room rolling around on the floor in fits of laughter and disbelief. If the theme were “Crude and Borderline Obscene”, I like to think this would have won the humour category

Seriously though, this is ONLY intended for adults (18+) to play. It’s not pornographic or anything and contains no real life nudity, but is just by it’s nature, pretty darned inappropriate.

It contains wanton use of cartoon *ahem* dongs and other related (cartoonized) bodily fluids.

Really, it’s just for fun, I intend no offence by linking to it, I just wanted to share the result of a reskin which had me and some friends in fits of laughter

I can’t really provide any technical support for it other than if you get an error message about MSVCR100 missing, install the redist package included in the folder. Any other problems I can’t help :S I know there are some bugs with the engine for some users and if the original game didn’t work for you, this probably won’t either.

So, for your entertainment (and purely for laughs for over 18′s only), I present what may be the first reskin of a Ludum Dare entry:

Super Turbo Fertilizer Extreme 2: Gentleman’s Edition

Made using the Starlighter Engine

Download (Windows Only I’m afraid!): http://www.mediafire.com/?aw70coj4144i4da

It seems my little rant I went on about my results has generated some attention and I wanted to qualify it by saying it was never intended to appear as a rant of anger or rage. It was meant to be a rant of disappointment in myself that came off as a little aggressive. I stated that I may not participate in future events but I have in reality never considered giving up. I was simply feeling sorry for myself. I want to thank everyone for their kind words of encouragement even after I said some things that could have been taken as digs on reviewers. This was never my intention and I acted solely out of disappointment in my own performance. However I am glad the discussion happened in that I am sure there are other entrants who may be feeling disappointed whom I hope will be encouraged by the community’s positive and reassuring response to my post. I apologise once again for becoming emotional, I hope everyone understands that as a first timer I threw everything I had at this contest and perhaps I was unprepared for the high level of competition I would be up against, I’m sure we all know what it’s like to try your hardest and not succeed, however, what I didn’t consider during that time was that a sub par performance this time is a learning experience I am sure every newcomer goes through. I will be entering next time and hope my little rant has not damaged my reputation here. Thanks to the community for their support and kind words, as one commenter said, I am still a ninja in training, now I need to show that I can use my sword next contest

Thanks to everyone, for everything

James

So my first LD comes to an end, and a pretty tragic one at that.

After failing to secure a score above 2.5 in any category, I’m just not sure I’m cut out for this contest. Pouring a whole weekend of work into a game

which apparently sucked across the board has just been a pretty significant disappointment for me. The disappointment is coupled with the frustration of a glut of comments on the game

stating that it didn’t work at all when looking in the instructions provided with the game and reading my numerous description updates directing people to RTFM would have

shown people that they simply needed to install a VC redist which was also included with the game. I swear people just don’t read instructions any more.

Unfortunately comments can’t be removed and so the number of comments from people who failed to read the manual probably put off a number of people who skipped over the game.

Oh well, what it comes down to is the thoughts of the people who DID read the manual and play the game. Sadly they thought it sucked in pretty much every way. I’d have to agree.  Don’t think I’ll be entering next time. I don’t think I have what it takes to be honest.

Anyway, I had fun trying and I suppose that’s what counts. Maybe I’m being unjustly moapy, I’m just disappointed that the only positive comment my entry received was one thanking me for not cheating.

So this was my first Ludum Dare and I managed to finish which is nice

Introducing to the world: Starlighter!

A 2D space shooter esque game with a depressing story

Rjynwor is the last of the Starlighters, as the Runner, his mission alone is to sacrifice his life to relight the stars. But will he be able to relight enough before his inevitable demise?

Now to make it in some way appealing… And add some graphics.

I’m a first timer who has been cursed with shifts at work all over the weekend but I’m going for it anyway! It’s going to be an experience!

I’m going solo and my armoury is as follows:

Visual Studio 2008

Allegro (yeah, I’m going there!)

Photoshop

Paint

C++

I’m going in like a true noob to represent my arguably skilled brethren the world over!