So I’ve heard of this “Ludum Dare Gamejam-Competition” and I thought I’d enter my own jam.

To create Game-Jam of course only the classic ingredients of Grapes, Apricots, Mango and Elderberries would do (I know, I’m a comic genius).

Here is the fruit. I had to fall back on elderberry-preserve, as they are ridiculously hard to come by.

Turns out cutting grapes is totally fun, and not at all tedious or complicated.

It also turns out that Elderberries have a very strong color that overpowers everything else. Or it’s the food-coloring I added. Not quite sure.

And here it is! Finished Game-Jam!

Quite tasty. And extremely sweet.

-Matthew

Hi there,

A while ago the October-Challenge was held. It went over the entire month, with the simple rule “make 1$ with a game.”

I planned to enter this game, but unfortunately the port wasn’t ready in time. So now, with a slight (and very miniscule) delay I present my iPhone-game!

Unstoppaball DX is a marble-style puzzler, in which you roll a ball (by tilting the iPhone, no less) through 30 varied levels.

Check out the trailer if you’d like to know more.

Also features a new soundtrack and ball-customization, with 36 balls available.

It’s now up on iTunes. Some say it might be the Best Game Ever. (it’s not) (it’s still fun, though )

-Matthew

So I made an ego-adventure-story-cat-experiment called 5 DAYS. Allow me to recap.

What went right

Graphics

Creating graphical assets is a time-consuming task, so I immediately dropped it and only concentrated on stuff I could efficiently produce. The current style is a nice trade-off between detail and costs.

Level-Design

I started this thing from the ground up on tiles, which allowed me to make changes and updates right till the end. Having everything based on clean tiles also meant I could easily add objects, like the lamps, which effortlessly clamped into the architecture.

Intro

I /love/ the intro. This is the closest I have ever come to a cut-scene, and even now it’s completly gameplay, not a video.

The original idea had everyone dying in a scripted explosion, while the player could do nothing (but walk around). Having the player actually kill the reamaining crew (be it by accident, admittedly), would only further compel her to save the cat.

The cat

Your only companion is a cubic cat (no time to model, as mentioned above), which is aptly named Boxy. You have to feed for it to survive, but doing so will deplete your own ressources.

Title-Cards

The game starts with a cold open right in the action. The title is only seen after the first room, and then perfectly sets up the story.

My original title was ALONE. After the player would have watched his friends die / kill them, she would be ALONE. But because the name would probably be overused, I changed it to 11 DAYS. Eleven turned out to be too long, so I shortened it to 5.

I love how the title 5 DAYS becomes a chapter-card, turning into 4 DAYS, and so on. I contemplated putting the title at the end (Hot Fuzz/The Dark Knight-style), but only few people would see it then. I guess this doesn’t work in games.

The only downside of this title is that I already made a game called 5 Days in Charleroi. I was already trying furiously too get the gameplay to work, so this didn’t even occur to me . Oh well.

Timelapse

The video went alright. If you comapre it to my previous ones, you’ll notice I frown a lot in this one.

Music

Instead of composing my own background-music I was forced to try out Wolframtunes, where I found some interesting ambient-tunes. I was able to reverse-engineer those, and created a fitting soundloop in comparatively little time.

Also notice how the sounds picks up after the title, further signalling that the game has “begun”. Nice effect.

What went wrong

Initial idea

This was actually my first idea, but I classified it as “way too ambitious”. I had some others, but none of them impressed me as “stuck with a cat on mars”. So I begrudginly started, planning to either switch to a new project a few hours in, or use what I would have built in that time to make a smaller version.

I had a crisis after 8 hours, when I decided this was too big, and tried out other ideas. „Lone asteroid in space“ I actually started, when I realized switching to that would be even more work. It was quite a dilemma. I (not crying, completely manly) went back with further resolve to finish this project (in a manly way), and soldiered on.

After 32 hours everything then came together and started working, which lifted my spirits, and caused the classical game-design-high.

Gameplay

I noticed near the end that I unable to create the payoff every time. If the cat dies very early, the player will have a lot of food, thus eliminating the conflict and creating a boring game/ending. Typing this I realize I could’ve built it so that the reserves will adjust. ARGH THIS WOULD’VE BEEN PERFECT

Then there is the thing that re-playing it offers little incentive, as the gameplay already was rather un-action-y, expecially should the player die. Even a nightly checkpoint wouldn’t have worked, as resetting the player each death would reail-road them to the „desired“ ending, which is strictly against my principles.

There things stem from the initial idea, and show how much I tried to fix this issue but ultimately failed (see timelapse).

No pointer/cursor/crosshair

Here’s an important thing: We are a lot better at playing games than the average player, especially at playing our own games. It didn’t even occur to me add some sort of crosshair/targeting-thingie, as my aim was always spot on. This stuff you only realize after one day not playing it.

All in all

Although this had a very bumpy ride, I believe it was a succesful experiment. Those who actually manage to get through to the end all agree, calling it „amazing“, „brilliant“, and me a „meany“. On Kongregate this is already my second most-played game, Ludum-Dare-ratings are doing well, and I even got a review.

Play here | Entry-page

-Matthew

So I thoguht I’d explain the somewhat complicated voting-process again, for everyone who’s new.

This is the voting-screen. Here are the details

1. The list of Developers. The entire list is randomized, to ensure equal visibility. At the beginning only 20 names are visible, but once a certain number of those has been voted on, the list extends, showing the next random batch.

2. The amount of votes this developer has gotten.

3. Pressing this button will load the entire list. It will still be randomized, though.

4. Coolness-rating. Hovering over this spot reveals the coolness-rating of this developer. Coolness is awarded for the percentage of rated games. Should this person rate ALL games, she would get a coolness-rating of 100%. The developer will get a medal displayed on the left, next to the name. Bronze at 25%, Silver at 50%, and gold at 75%.

5. Competition-rating. Games can be rated in the categories Overall, Innovation, Fun, Adherence to Theme, Graphics, Audio, Humor, Mood and Community. The Community-rating describes the actions of the developer towards the community, for example by providing blog-posts, timelapse-videos, and other additional pieces of information. Ratings can be 1 to 5 stars, or “n/a”, should you feel you cannot give a proper rating in a certain category.

6. Jam-Rating. The same system as in the competition applies, only with games that have been entered in the Jam.

7. Text-Comment. An X appears should you have given a comment (which is broken, I guess, as it always shows a X when you have voted. Or it does something else that eludes me)

I hope this helps

-Matthew

Hey guys,
So here’s a video of me frowning and cursing at my computer for two days, while drinking 5 pots of tea and occasionally working on a game. Enjoy

Go Play | Entry-Page

-Matthew

Hi people,

I’m done. This was a taxing challenge, but I am proud of what I just created. I present

5 DAYS

A game about being stranded in on Mars with barely any ressources.

Go Play | Entry-Page

-Matthew

So if kittens isn’t the theme, what am I supposed to do with my awesome minimalist kitten-sketches?

-Matthew

During the last Ludum Dare 600 games were developed. The one before that it was 380 games.

I played them all.

And after witnessing the same “setup-choices” over and over again I decided to write this assortment of DOs and DON’Ts, which will hopefully make your game more appealing to other players and judges.

These things are important. The games who are easy to start and play get more votes, plays, word-of mouth and ultimately publicity. If a game is a puzzle in itself to start, we will have to move on, so that we at least may sample more of the (probably) 600+ games available.

//Edit – Sos created a nice complementary list with more details about engine/framework-builds. Give it a look

DO make a webbuild. If that isn’t possible, a windows-standalone is fine. Mac + Linux-versions are a nice bonus, but shouldn’t be the only versions available. While mobile-versions (iOS, android, windows-phone) are nice too, installing them is (compared to the others) a hassle and only few people have the devices and/or know how to install custom apps.

DON’T require extensive framework-tools to start your game. XNA is acceptable, as many people already have it and many games are made with it. I guess JAVA is too. The same goes for “only in browser X”-games, which require me to download/install/start an unknown program. Many people will also pass over your game if it requires and installer, or a registry-update.

DO call the executable of your game something other than “LD22.exe” or “the_theme.exe”. After a while I have 20 of these on my desktop, which makes it difficult to locate a file, should I want to play again, or give a better rating. “kitten_simulator_2″ will do.

DON’T hide the executable of your standalone in the_game/the_game_unzipped/binaries/system/system64/exe/1182772/localized/the_game.exe. The longer it takes to slog through your files, the higher the chance of me rage-quitting gets.

DO use an easy-to-access download-service. Dropbox is fine. Please no “wait 60 seconds, then enter undecifferable captcha, then close 3 pop-ups with forced audio”-hosting-sites.

DON’T keep me from playing the game once I started it. Hampering the start-up with more than one tutorial-screens or lengthy videos/credits is tiresome (you’re making a /game/, not a movie or a book).

DO actually end the executable when quitting. I have encountered several games which don’t “unplug” after quitting them, and still show up in the task-manager where they slow down my system.

DON’T require players to read instructions or a manual outside the game to understand it. Put vital instructions right inside it.  NOBODY reads readme-files, unless of course they’re called something like “WHY WOULD YOU READ THIS ANYWAY”, which might peak my interest.

DO have international-keyboard-layouts in mind. German and French keyboards have different key-locations, and when the keys don’t react people have to find find the replacement-key, and distort their fingers. Or alternatively mess around with keyboard-layouts.

Following keys are taboo (on qwerty-layout): Y Q Z. These are the major swapped ones internationally and the most used ones in games. EVERY symbol (% & * + – > | § # ?) has a different international location. Stay away from them. Games which have their controls on Y+X  <- bad.  Move them one key to the right on X+C however, and you just made your players from two major language-zones happy.

DON’T use the caps-lock-key in your game. Refrain from using the shift-key, as hammering it will cause a popup in windows. Everything around the landmine that is the windows-key should also be approached carefully.

DO play other games and give a vote. And don’t restrict yourself to the popular ones.

DON’T make the kitty sad.

I hope this helps

-Matthew

Hi folks.

So I just stumbled upon this list, which contains HUNDREDS of free tools to use for indie-devs.

I hope this helps

-Matthew

Add: Remember, assets for Ludum Dare HAVE to be made by you during the 48 hours. Too bad we can’t use the massive art- and sound-listings.

Hi folks

So I’ll be competing in the upcoming LD, using Unity, Coffee, and some 20 other tertiary programs which I will not list.

This will be fun

-Matthew

I’m afraid I have to skip this mini-LD48.

I already lost a day to my dayjob, have no idea for a game, and need the time to complete this:

-Matthew

Horror, that is. Creating a feeling of suspense, dread and perhaps unpleasantness.

In my game you have to find 3 artefacts to open the door to the outside. You move in darkness, carrying a small lamp. Lanterns light up when you reach them and are save havens, where you cannot be attacked by the monsters, which chase you once you come to close to them.

I like the idea of the light-element, which not only helps you see, but also repells the monsters. Unfortunately, this game needs way to much polishing to be in an acceptable state.

I still learned some interesting things though , and will put this in the “prototype”-folder.

I’m looking forward to playing the other games, and seeing their takes on the genre.

-Matthew

Now that the euphoria of not sleeping and game-developing has settled down, let’s take a look at what went right and what went wrong during the development of Metal Sphere Solid.

Well actually, everything went pretty alright. There isn’t much that went “completely wrong”. Ah well, I’ll talk about it anyway.

What went (somewhat) wrong

The theme – Because “escape” is such a non-theme. You can put virtually everything in it. In that regard it is even worse than “it’s dangerous to go alone.”

The color-scheme – The main charater needs to contrast with the environment he’s in too create tension. If the main character just blends in, he’s not in jeopardy, he’s at home. So I was a little miffed when I figured out with 12 hours to go that the environment was mostly blue, and I didn’t want to create a red ball again.

I went for a glowy green (which I nailed this time), which nicely contrast with the level. The color-combination is still a bit weird.

What went right

Tile-based level – Having everything in clean tiles made putting this together much easier. This further creates a nice little gag when you leave the tile-set at the end.

Timelapse – I love timelapses. Everything seems ultra-efficient.

The Story – This is the largest amount of story I ever put in a game. Until now I’ve worked under the premise that good games-design has to be the basis, while story is optional. That still holds true, but now I see how an engaging story can pull you into the game.

The end – I love it. Too bad I couldn’t extend it a bit. First you see your friends, an assortment of balls similar to you, but with different colors, core-structures and sizes. You free them, they say a random, possibly funny line, and roll to freedom. You join them, and while joining them leave the rigid, tile-based confines of the main level and enter a free terrain.

I need to expand upon the “friendly ball”-theme more. It’s fun.

The ball-design – Compared to one of my previous games, Unstoppaball, the ball-design is much better. The glowing core is warmer, the outging light shows the strength of the character, and the brightness contrasts nicely witht he relatively dark surrounding.

The Soundtrack – I experimented with my guitar until I found something that was both interesting and fitting to the gameplay. So far it is only good, but nothing special. Also, the loop is off by half-a-second. Need to remember that next time.

What I would have liked to add/improve

Better character-fragments – So far the “remains” of the hero or the enemies are just four to five relatively uniform fragments. With more time I could have created something more complex and organic.

Better score – The score that is now measured is the time you spend being seen. The highscore-list is reversed, which means that people with the least amounts go on top places. This is far from optimal, as there is a “finite” highscore, and after attaining it doesn’t create an incentive to keep playing.

More complex enemies – The original plan of having patrolling enemies fell through due to time-contraints, but I still managed to make something interesting with only stationary guards.

Conclusion

Well, pretty much every aspect came out positive – The game is emotionally engaging, throwing enemies in spikes is fun, the sneaking mechanic is relatively rare, so far I’ve gotten a pretty good amount of votes, critiques are positive, and a good number of people have played it.

Also, I got a review. Which is always nice.

I call this a success. Now let’s see how you will judge this .

Play here | Entry-page

-Matthew

When I started with my first LD, I was at first confused by the somewhat complex voting-system. So I thought I could explain it for anybody who’s interested.

This is what the voting-screen looks like. Here are the details:

1. The list of Developers. The entire list is randomized, to ensure equal visibility. At the beginning only 20 names are visible, but once a certain number of those has been voted on, the list extends, showing the next random batch.

2. Pressing this button will load the entire list. It will still be randomized, though.

3. The amount of votes this developer has gotten.

4. Coolness-rating. Hovering over this spot reveals the coolness-rating of this developer. Coolness is awarded for the percentage of rated games. Should this person rate ALL games, she would get a coolness-rating of 100%. The developer will get a medal displayed on the left, next to the name. Bronze at 25%, Silver at 50%, and gold at 75%.

5. Competition-rating. Games can be rated in the categories Overall, Innovation, Fun, Adherence to Theme, Graphics, Audio, Humor and Community. The Community-rating describes the actions of the developer towards the community, for example by providing blog-posts, timelapse-videos, and other additional pieces of information. Ratings can be 1 to 5 stars, or “n/a”, should you feel you cannot give a proper rating in a certain category.

6. Jam-Rating. The same system as in the competition, only with games that have been entered in the Jam.

7. Text-Comment. An X appears should you have given a comment

I hope this helps

-Matthew

So this is me sitting in front of my PC, working (mostly).

I love it. In Timelapse everything seems ultra-efficient.

Go Play | LD Entry

-Matthew

Well, this was once again fun.

Agenda right now: SLEEP

Agenda later: A timelapse-video, I’ll upload the soundtrack, and see wheter that source-upload crashed again.

In the meantime, why don’t play a bit of Metal Sphere Solid? (it’s fun, I tell you )

LD-Entry

Web-Playable

-Matthew

So as I have been saying for the last 4 months, I’m in

I’ll be using

• Unity3D to put the thing together, written in Javascript (also iTween I guess)
• 3DS Max for modelling
• Photoshop for everything graphical
• My trusty guitar and Guitar Pro for music
• Coffee. This time I’ll make sure I have enough of a stockpile.

This will be fun. I already heard from some interesting people to join, and I hope we will get a theme worthy of interesting designs (go Nihilism!)

-Matthew

Heya

So I had to make this game for game-design-school instead.

You control a virtual-reality-submarine in several missions. Also, torpedoes.

While it is fun, it needs a few weeks of polish I couldn’t add due to time-contraints. Anyway, have fun.

Now this is over I can once again concentrate on the next challenge.

-Matthew

So I’ll have to sit this one out, I guess.

Unfortunately I’m straddled with extra-work at my day-job this weekend, and I also should be working on this other game I’m supposed to be making for game-design-school.

So instead, here’s a gif I found on twitter.

-Matthew

Well, that was fun. And hard/tiring.

Anyhoo. Dirt Driller is complete! Go play.

Once I have slept enough I’ll check my screencaps to see it this makes an interesting timelapse.

-Matthew