Participants of Ludum Dare 22 were asked to fill out a survey on their experience. A whopping 747 people filled out the survey.

Thanks for taking the time to fill it out!

I love this enthusiastic and supportive community.

Here are the results (click to zoom).

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Merry Christmas – Happy Holidays! Just for fun, here is the snowy SANTA version of my LD22 game, Greeble. Can you revive all your Santa Claus clones? Can you find the Christmas Kitty? It was made in HTML5 and runs at 60fps in all recently updated browsers. Enjoy! Hope your holidays are filled with friends, family and fun!

http://www.mcfunkypants.com/LD22/xmas/

Greeble is an HTML5 game where you are the captain of a crashed spaceship. You are ALONE but need some help to survive. Collect the cryo-keys to activate the stasis pods in order to free your friends.

What went right?
Was very familiar with my tools, both engine, language and art creation pipeline. The amazing JAWSJS game engine was a breeze to work with. Had a very easy time making the art, since my level editor was just photoshop. Enjoyed screenshotsaturday, twitter and google+ as a means to stay motivated. I did well in the time-management arena, and planned ahead of time. I used placeholder art during programming and coded everything first in an ugly room with rectangles for characters. Only after the first day (when all coding was done) did I dive into the art, so I had tons of time to make it real puuurdy. I spent 75% of the time on the art and was feature-complete the coding by noon on Saturday. Total time spent on the game: 14 hours.

What went wrong?
Ran out of time before I could add sound effects. No user instructions or intro. No GUI. Had to cut features and simplify to finish on time. Got a bit stressed about it on the last day, racing to finish. Drawing the level took more time than I predicted. Overall, had TONS of fun regardless.

About the game:
Features pixel-perfect, non-grid platforming, bounce-pads, transparent glass tubes, a fun retro “scan line” effect, silly AI followers and A KITTEN. Your objective is to navigate to the exit where you will be rewarded with a trampoline party!

→→→→ CLICK HERE TO PLAY! ←←←←

Use the ARROW KEYS to move around. Try to find a way to revive all your friends (including the hidden secret kitten, which signifies my enthusiastic participation in the “kitten challenge”) so you can all bounce on the trampoline at the end.

I had so much fun making this game. I even had time to hang out with friends, go for a hike, and decorate my house for the holidays! There is a lot of room for improvement but overall I’m really happy with the final product. Created using ippa lix’s wonderful jawsjs game engine.

The word “greeble” comes from the original Star Wars ILM special effects artists who used the term to describe generic “tech” bits and pieces that adorn sci-fi hulls. There are thousands of greebles in this game’s level art.

How it was made: I drew two “techno” textures as the base texture for all the world platforms (one brown and one silver). These patterns were covered in “greebles” (panels, buttons, wires, lines, etc.) In photoshop, I made opacity maps for each and turned everything transparent. Then, I drew the game map itself by drawing black and white pixels on the alpha (opacity) channel so that certain parts of these materials would become opaque. An effect filter that added a little emboss to the edges completed the look.

In the game engine, the entire world map is one gigantic .PNG image, which is layered on top of two parallax-scrolling background tiles (set to move slower than the foreground). The retro “scanlines” effect is merely another overlay image that sits on top of everything.

This is the entire map image I drew, as used in the game (click to zoom in):

… and this is the scanlines overlay I created:

Making “Greeble” was very inspiring. I now have an HTML5 platformer game engine that allows me to create freeform worlds in photoshop. No tiles or level data files required!

→→→→ CLICK HERE TO PLAY! ←←←←

Ludum Dare is so much FUN. It is amazing what you can accomplish in a speed-coding weekend.

If you participated in the Ludum Dare compo or jam – even if you did not finish – I warmly encourage you to fill out the POST-MORTEM SURVEY for use in my Game Jam Survival Guide book. Thanks – and happy holidays! www.mcfunkypants.com/survey/ (EDIT: over 600 surveys so far! Keep them coming! Results will be posted in two weeks or so.)

Remember the KITTEN CHALLENGE! Don’t forget your fine furry friends and add a kitten somewhere in your game as an easter egg. If you are participating, be sure to post to the blog using the “kitten-challenge” and “easter-egg” tags and put this icon on your title screen or screenshots.

This is an official challenge to all Ludum Dare gamedevs.

This weekend, your quest is to put a KITTEN somewhere in your game as an “easter egg”.

This “kitten challange” will be like a meta game in which everyone tries to find the kittens in each game they play. You know you want to.

Do it – for the love of kittens. For the love of meta. For the love of all things LD48.

Edit: Dock was cool enough to make an icon that you should put in your game title screen or game thumbnail screenshots so we know to look for your kitten:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/16/1-kitten-badge/

Finally, be sure to post to the blog using the “kitten-challenge” and “easter-egg” tags.

Here are the tragic results of theme voting. Where’s the kitten love?

1. Alone+227
2. Randomly generated+206
3. Evolution+41
4. Parallel dimension+14
5. Forgotten places-29
6. Falling-77
7. Moon-105
8. Tunnels-108
9. Consequences-113
10. Decay-116
11. Dreams-118
12. Underground-125
13. Time-travel-133
14. Teleportation-148
15. Self-replication-170
16. Territory-284
17. Mechanisms-291
18. Antihero-325
19. Reflection-417
20. Shape-shifting-477
21. Kittens-481

I’m looking forward to watching everyone make amazing games this weekend. I have a request: please connect with me so we can encourage each other to do amazing things! Be sure to post tons of screenshots on twitter using the #screenshotsaturday and #LD48 hashtags.

I’d be grateful if you followed (I’ll follow you back!):

Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcfunkypants

Google+: http://mcfunkypants.com/+

Just wanted to join my fellow honoured gamedevs in declaring my intention to join this weekend in Ludum Dare 22. The themes so far have been absolutely amazing and fill me with ideas. I’ve been doing a lot of hardcore, low-level coding recently with book projects, client work and 3d gamedev, so I’m going to take a break and go LOW TECH. Here are the new tools of choice for me:

HTML5, using Ippa Lix’s lovely JAWSJS canvas-based 2d sprite lib.

No grid, no tiles, no level editor: all art will be hand drawn.

No IDE, no server, no database, no 3d: just a text editor and photoshop.

Low bandwidth, low resolution, low workload: simplicity is my goal.

No physics, no AI, no multiplayer, no optimizations: so simple it runs well.

No installer, no plugins, no downloads: an .html file, a .js file and a png or two.

No stress: I’m aiming to finish a playable working prototype a day early.

Lots of sleep, lots of playing with my baby son and going out with the wife.

Lots of free time playing Skyrim and going outside.

I’m not here to win, I’m here to grin!

Happy holidays, everyone! Can’t wait to play your games.

Here’s something to motivate you:

Check it out: an infographic from postmortem data! (click to zoom)

For the book I am writing (Game Jam Survival Guide) I did an in-depth analysis of  (more…)

Life is so great. My Stage3D Flash11 gamedev book was just published today!

Easy-to-remember links for sharing with people verbally:
http://mcfunkypants.com/amazon
http://mcfunkypants.com/book

Shortest possible links:
http://amzn.to/tYmiSf
http://bit.ly/ptMfmP

I’m listed on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Stage3D-Molehill-Programming-Beginners/dp/1849691681/

Here’s my page on the Adobe website:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/author_bios/christer_kaitila.html

Here is the product page at the publisher with more information:
https://www.packtpub.com/adobe-flash11-stage3d-molehill-game-programming-beginners-guide/book

Full table of contents with all topics listed:
https://www.packtpub.com/toc/adobe-flash-11-stage3d-molehill-game-programming-beginner%E2%80%99s-guide-table-contents

The free sample chapter PDF, chapter 8:
http://packtlib.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/1680EXP-Chapter-08-Eye-Candy-Aplenty!.pdf

Demos of each chapter including the final game I teach readers to make:
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-1/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-2/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-3/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-4/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-5/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-6/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-7/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-8/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-9/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/flash11-stage3d-book-chapter-10/

Anyway, just thought I would share the happy news. I’m also 95% done my second book “Game Jam Survival Guide” which already has a contract and ISBN number, and a third is in negotiations!

I’m so grateful for all the good luck I have. I could not have done it without +David Barnes +Maitreya Bhakal +Terry Paton +Thibault Imbert +Ryan Speets +Alejandro Santander +Mikko Haapoja +Evan Miller and so many more of my gamedev colleagues here, on g+ and twitter. There’s a bit of each of you in the book.

I must have saved the universe in a previous life since so many good things simply fall into my lap. Okay, a little hard work doesn’t hurt… but overall I feel like the luckiest guy in the world on a daily basis. Perhaps just believing that you’re lucky makes it so.

Kind regards,

Christer Kaitila
aka McFunkypants

blog: http://www.mcfunkypants.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/McFunkypants
google+: http://gplus.to/gamedev

P.S. This is how I feel right now:

I’m happy to declare my participation in this month’s most awesome game jam: the ZERO HOUR jam.  I may live in Canada and have to suffer with the Nov. 6th daylight savings time date, but just for kicks (and because jamming with friends is half the fun) I’m doing it tonight.  The jam starts in 45 minutes and lasts one hour.  My plan is to hack my bullet hell shooter engine to make it a top down arena shooter called 999 zombies.  Wish me luck! =)

EDIT: Here is my final submission!

http://www.mcfunkypants.com/0hgame/

My game didn’t follow the miniLD theme strongly enough so I don’t think it would be welcome in the official submissions… but at least I DID make a game in 48hrs last weekend! Perhaps the “horror” of drowning is enough to make it worth a quick play.

Silly little html5 + box2d “plinko” game that runs on web browsers and Android phones where you are trying to save drowning victims by throwing life preservers to them.

If the victim sinks past the bottom of the screen they are lost. How many can you save?

http://www.mcfunkypants.com/OrcaJam2011/

I would love to see someone make THIS game for the horror miniLD:
(the winner earns a bottle of “redrum”)

(from http://gametoilet.posterous.com/gametoilet253-shining-flag-come-and-race-with)

So far the games I’ve played have been AMAZING!  But there’s one thing I miss…

Now that things have returned to normal, it sure would be nice to have the sidebar back.

Perhaps it could be turned into static html that only gets updated once an hour?

More importantly, the new improved sidebar needs one extra feature:

Got the back to school blues? The end of summer blahs? The “LD21 was so much fun, when’s the next?” daydreams?  Just looking for some gamedev fun in September? Your wish has been granted! Prepare to jam your face off the weekend of September 17th:

- increpare’s miniLD (Ludum Dare)
- Orca Jam (in Victoria Canada)
- GPCv8 (Game Prototype Challenge)
- Mysticism Pageant (Super Friendship Club)
- Story Game (Experimental Gameplay Project)
- Glorious Trainwrecks (Klik of the Month Klub: only 2 hours long!)
- Pyweek #13 (Python Game Programming Challenge)

Some of these jams are ongoing all that week or even over the entire month.  If you are super mega hardcore, maybe you can make one game that fits all the themes and submit it to multiple game jams! Anyone up for the challenge?

Did a little post-compo work on my LD48 “pinball” game, Bounce-onium: Escape from Prof. Kitty von Doom’s Laboratory - there are now 25 levels, a level select screen, cool chiptune music and most notably: SPIKES!  Lots of polish added – for example, your mouse/ball now spins properly and there are lots of new block types that can be used for level designs.

I’ve also used PhoneGap to compile my HTML5 + box2d source code into a native Android app and it runs GREAT on my phone with super smooth FPS.  Coming soon to an app store near you… =)

Anyone who made an HTML game, be sure to check out PhoneGap – you can compile your app to Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, etc.  Completely free, open source goodness.

Final Ludum Dare progress of the day before I finally go to sleep: My game has slowly evolved into what could be described as “you are the pinball” or “you are in a plinko machine” and the goal is to grab a key to unlock a door to get to the next level. You can use the arrow keys to apply “english” to yourself like tilting a pinball machine.

I have implemented pickups, score, items that can kill you, lives, a main menu, and the ability to destroy the world in order to spawn the “next level”. So we officially “have game” with physics, game triggers and sound effects but it is still completely art-less: all just coloured circles and squares.

I wonder what tomorrow’s art will bring. My hope is to make some levels that look like a cross between a pinball machine and a plinko wall and focus exclusively on art. If I’m lucky I will do almost no programming at all during the last day of Ludum Dare.

KEYNOTE TIPS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHD1QBP4ww8

I’M IN MOTIVATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYuOrCnokCQ

PURE WIN AMAZINGNESS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaIvk1cSyG8

It took me an hour and a half to come up with anything to fit the theme of  ”ESCAPE” but once I forced myself to sit down with a marker and a piece of paper, I soon had a simple little thumbnail sketch of what I wanted to make.  I’m using an ultra-simplistic concept that fits the theme and I’m quite happy with it. As my first progress report, I’m happy to say that I’ve finished implementing the basic gameplay mechanic. I’m using HTML5 and box2dweb and am creating a physics puzzler for web, windows exe and android (compiled to .apk using PhoneGap). It took me about two hours to code the entire thing from scratch.  I’d never tried any work with box2d before, and I stumbled with bodies and fixtures and sensors but I’m really happy to say that my basic gameplay testbed and proof-of-concept is complete: we have a “main character” that can bounce around and the engine detects when you touch a “key” which unlocks a “door”.

This means that I am “done” the low level engine and have the rest of the weekend to make it look pretty!

“A man has only one escape from his old self: to see a different self in the mirror of some woman’s eyes.”

Clare Luce

“The greatest escape I ever made was when I left Appleton, Wisconsin.”

Harry Houdini

“The horse may run quickly, but it can’t escape its own tail”

Russian Proverb

“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”

William Blackstone

“This is a place where I can escape to fantasyland.”

Elaine Vogel

“If you think you’re free, there’s no escape possible.”

Ram Dass

“Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher’s the poet’s equal there.”

Emile M. Cioran

“Creating a character on or off the stage is an escape.”

Roger Moore

“Death, after all, is the common expectation from birth. Neither heroes nor cowards can escape it.”

Ellis Peters

“It is a pity that we cannot escape from life when we are young.”

Mark Twain

“Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith.”

Christopher Fry

“Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.”

Ayn Rand

“A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”

Albert Einstein

“Faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.”

Walter Scott