This article is a copy from my blog.

On December 15th, Ludum Dare 25 started. As usual, this was an interesting experience, as exciting and awesome as it was soul-crushing. But this might be just me.

Like before, I didn’t have the right idea for the theme. This time it was “You are the Villain”, which was a better theme than usual, but unfortunately it only triggered gameplay concepts for me which all belong into the “that was already made before” category. So the first thing coming into my mind was “Dungeon Keeper”, and as much as I’d like to do a game similar to this awesome piece of gaming history, it just would be a clone without the right amount of innovation (or would it?). Among the other ideas I had were a “Pirates!” roguelike, a game where you control four bandits at once (robbing innocents and wandering around) and a board game creator where you’re the dungeon master placing the monsters (think “HeroQuest” or so).

None of these ideas were the incentive for me to actually start developing (although I still like them). In my mind, I combined them, added features and the result got bigger and bigger, and after finally deciding that it would be too much of a hassle, I started at zero again. Then I came back to a thought I had days before, namely the thought that often, good ideas for games (mostly puzzle platformers) are those which are inspired by childrens’ fantasies. So I imagined a bit what a child could think, and being able to grab the moon with the fingertips and move it around just like that, well, that seemed like a good candidate. At this point, the theme was still in the back of my head, but I tried to ignore it mostly as it obviously would just hinder me to actually develop anything. I never was good in the “Theme” category, and for that I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s the category I want to shine, really.

I tried to create a Unity3D prototype out of that idea with the moon. Of course, prototypes become the real game eventually when doing a game jam, but first I wanted to see if I could actually create something like that. The main problem to begin with was the scale of the object currently grabbed, as it always has to be the same size for the player, no matter how far or near it would be away. I read something about the focal length of a camera before and I thought I had to factor this in in any case. I experimented (using some basecode I already announced in my “I’m in!” post) and searched on the internet, but it just wouldn’t work right. The object’s subjective size didn’t stay constant, and being very frustrated, I stopped after a while.

Thus, I re-evaluated the idea of the four bandits. This one would follow the theme and I’d really like being able to control a group of (evil) adventurers – in first person perspective! In order to make it easier for myself, I started programming the movement (again in Unity3D), which would be along the cardinal directions only and also on a grid. Just like those age old games you might know, “Dungeon Master”, “Eye of the Beholder” or “Legend of Grimrock”. In the end, the movement worked somehow, and you could add NPCs to your party, and press a button to see all four viewports at once. Probably I could have made a more or less full game out of it, but at this point I didn’t see how I could add “fun” easily and I stopped yet again.

second prototype, no fun

With the thought of fun being the most important part of it and without really expecting any results for this Ludum Dare anymore, I got back to the first prototype, and suddenly, the old problem was gone. Thinking about the focal length was a dead-end, and just getting rid of it was the way to get it work. The only problem now was the collision detection of an object that would get bigger the further it goes. Using Unity3D’s SphereCast() was the wrong direction, because the size of the collision sphere would be always the same. So now CheckSphere() gets called with a gradually increasing size of the radius parameter, and it does that a lot of times every frame – because of the simple nature of the rest of the game, this was possible without any noticable performance hits (at least on my computer). Of course, this means that every object basically has an additional bounding sphere, and that’s why most objects sometimes don’t behave as expected, especially those which don’t have uniform dimensions.

first prototype, working

I uploaded the first prototype of the game – just a simple demonstration of the gameplay – late in the night, and those who actually started it and “got it”, said it could be awesome. Yay, motivation! Also, I earned myself some sleep. The next day I “only” had to make levels and fix any occuring bug. Also, story. Also, sound. Also, …

I planned five levels at the beginning, and because of some very sad events before Ludum Dare, I didn’t think about it too long when I realized that I wouldn’t have time for all of them – as one of the levels would had have a kindergarten setting. So, three levels were made (in 3dsmax), and they describe how the protagonist is a kid with just an overly active imagination, and how this leads to an unfortunate outcome. I didn’t have time for more, and the ones I made aren’t really balanced/tested, so I am sorry for that. On the other side I am just relieved that the main gameplay works and can maybe be the foundation of a cool game; the Ludum Dare version of the finally named game “Tale of Scale” is mainly a sandbox game which happens to have a subtly communicated goal in each level.

the end result: Tale of Scale

A short summarization of What-Went-Bad:

• The start, or rather the theme. Either it is the start of a game for me, or it just stands in my way. Harumph. I squeezed the theme into the final game, but as most people won’t play it through, they probably will wonder where it actually is. I got a bit inspired by the movie “Looper”.
• I still can’t make music. I tried composing some once or twice before, but I’m always embarrassed by my own efforts, so I don’t ever get over a certain point.
• I don’t have a cool base code which actually would free me of the burden to do some stupid and boring stuff again and again. At least that’s a learning and can be helped … some day.

And What-Went-Good?

• The idea was cool enough to let people ignore the crude levels and graphics, hehe.
• I actually managed to make three levels, even in the timeframe I wanted to make them. Seems like I finally get the hang on estimating such things, and this is one of the things a game jam really can help with.
• I made most of the sounds myself with a microphone, and they sound okay enough. Nice.

That’s it! Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to play the game (here’s the entry page) – or at least watch this gameplay video:

I finished my entry even though there were times this weekend where I thought I would give up completely. The theme didn’t give me the right ideas, so I did something else and kind off added the theme (I think it still fits). Nonetheless, have fun playing Tale of Scale!

I will participate too. I will be excited. I will use a programming language, an IDE, perhaps an editor, some art tools, and maybe sound software. I will program. I will draw. I might make 3D stuff. I will sit on a chair, I will have a computer with monitors, keyboard, mouse. I will eat food and drink liquids. I will sleep some hours, and poop. I will have an idea and create a game. I will finish it, and upload it.

[edit]I could use this little “framework”, which is based on the stuff I made for LD23. It’s mainly a simple character controller for Unity3D, which doesn’t work perfect, but well enough for simple needs.[/edit]

Hi!

I recently made a (still very short) list of useful/interesting/neat online tools people recommended via Twitter, Facebook and – of course – Ludum Dare. The tools are suited for game designers, programmers and artists – and most of them can help in 48h game jams. They are all free.

The list is here. If you have any more/better recommendations, I’d be happy to add them.

Please have a look at this gallery from nearly all the entries for the Mini Ludum Dare 37.

Bigger versions of the screenshots and a short summary can be found on my blog:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

I hope you all enjoyed the themes “not-games” and “real real-time” as much as I did. I wanted people to think about the rigid definitions of what games are and if those definitions even are necessary to create interesting and compelling experiences. And yes, most of the entrants succeeded in surprising and entertaining me – for that I want to thank you all, and also for forgiving the somewhat too long theme announcement.

I finally uploaded my entry for the Mini Ludum Dare #37 – it’s a 3D model viewer with a game-y museum atmosphere. I reused the music my brother made for “The Sun Is Deadly”, and the texture are all created with images from cgtextures.com.

The Modeleum is pretty empty right now, I only uploaded three characters I made some time ago. They are in the “Characters” section. You can submit your own 3D models (OBJ format, if there are textures they must be JPG or PNG ).

It’s 0:00 o’clock in Germany and the miniLD game jam therefore officially ends here for me. But in order to give more people the chance to create something and submit it, the submission form will be open until (at least) Friday, Sept 28th. Just be awesome and creative! Updating your submitted entry is also allowed until then.

So far, we have 30 entries! I am so proud of you all! I didn’t know what to expect regarding the amount of entries with such a complicated miniLD, but now I am relieved that some people really liked the themes and dedicated several hours to it. Thanks!

Awkwardly, I didn’t have energy this weekend to create an entry myself, but at least I got some interesting ideas that I will develop further some time.

(more…)

Jana created a gameplay video of our entry “kernel exception“, for all you people who can’t or don’t want to play the game!

Ok, here it is!

Sorry for the very few words, but this Ludum Dare drained all my energy. Doing a game in 72h is obviously too much for me.

The idea of our game was “System Shock reversed” – you play a space station computer which gained self-awareness and now tries to get control of the whole station …

We’re in, too. We, that is Jana, Björn and me.

Jana and Björn will do the graphics and probably use 3dsmax and Photoshop. I’ll do the programming, within Unity.

This is the first time we participate as a team at Ludum Dare, and after my four times in the compo (LD20/21/22/23, with 20 being not a real compo entry) this might make it more interesting.

Hallo!

Some of you may remember “TRI“, the game I made for Ludum Dare #20 with Unity. The theme was “It’s dangerous to go alone, take this!”, which was good luck, as it fitted the idea I had the night before. It also was my first real Ludum Dare back then.

 The original TRI

The game was about triangles; you created them by shooting three little spheres onto gray surfaces. These triangles could then be used as platforms and reflectors. That’s about it. TRI didn’t feature any story, but some texts on walls here and there, for hints and to somewhat simulate the voice from some god-like entity, like GlaDOS. Overall it worked pretty well and there were some people who liked the game although the controls were pretty flawed.

A year later, we (my partner and me) decided to make TRI into a full commercial game. Only the idea of the triangles was adopted, so the setting, the “tri gun”, the maincharacter, the story and the everything changed, or are due to change. (We still use Unity, though.) This basically means the new TRI isn’t a sequel to the LD game.

 The new TRI – WIP

We added some gameplay elements, most prominently the wall walking. Yes, the triangles can now not only be used as platforms to walk on, they also temporarily change  the personal gravity of the player. This way, she or he is even able to jump into a hole in the ceiling – this needs a little bit of exercise though.

Walking on walls

Also, instead of deadly lasers only there are also non-fatal light rays now, with which you activate crystals in order to open doors and do other things. And then there are those little flying ghosts (the Kami), which lead the way and later can be reflected, too. They will be more important later in the game.

 Reflecting light rays

The new TRI is still named TRI, as most of the names we came up with were just too silly or too complicated (Some examples: “Trinsane”, “Trizarre” (thanks Cell), “Tri and Error”, “The Third Eye”, “Connect the dots”, “Konstrukt”, “Trigonomancer”, “Trimancy”, “Triception”, “Triplex”, “The Right Angle”, “180 degrees”, “From Point To Point”, “neuTrino”, …).

TRI can now be pre-ordered for $5, which guarantees access to the pre-alpha. The current  build has one big level (with three sub-levels) which basically serves as a tutorial. There’s also a demo, showcasing the first sub-level. Oh, and here’s a trailer:

The final version hopefully will come out end of the year, and have a price tag of $10. There are far more informations on the official website, tri-game.com, so you might want to give it a look.

Thanks for reading!
- ratking

Entry page of Wunderworld | Gameplay video

Ludum Dare 23, wow! This time, it was super-awesome, even though I was a little reluctant to even participate. One weekend before, we had made another 48h game (“The Sun Is Deadly” for the IndieBuskers game jam), and I wasn’t sure if I would have some energy left to create something equally cool, or at least have fun making another game.

Thankfully, I did!

One of the primary reasons why I not only started cheerfully but also was in a pretty good mood throughout the whole jam was the fact that I made something I really wanted to create. I saw a video of “Delver” some time ago, and although – or because – I don’t like how the combat is far-range only, it made me wanting to develop my own Ultima-inspired game. I played “Ultima Underworld I – Stygian Abyss” pretty late, but I bought the second part, “Labyrinth of Worlds”, when it came out in Germany (with no understanding of English texts whatsoever), and it is still one of my favourite games.

As I didn’t want to just rip off the Delver guy, I mixed my Ludum Dare entry with another passion of mine: game development, what a surprise! I was thinking for some years now about creating an easy-to-use level design tool; it should be very restricted regarding the basic elements, but possible to design some story-heavy games. The idea really started when I searched for a subject for my university diploma project, and I was always fascinated by the thought of it. For Ludum Dare 23, I didn’t know if I could do something like this in just two days, but I knew that it could be very minimalistic this way and still cool. Another part of the reason was the theme, “Tiny World”, as it made restricted size and small scope a very helpful design target.

So it became “Wunderworld”, which is a mix of “Wunder” (“wonder” in German) and “Underworld”. I even wanted to name it “Wultima’s Wunderworld” at first, but I didn’t find a good enough way to implement a protagonist named Wultima.

Perhaps the question arises, is Wunderworld even a game? I don’t know! But I have to commemorate a quote from the book “Game Architecture and Design” by Rollings&Morris, which is:“Rule Number One isn’t ‘Make sure it’s a game.’ It’s ‘Make sure it’s fun!’” Thus I didn’t care much if my entry would fit perfectly into this (or any other) category. And really, Wunderworld is all about goals, and conflicts, and combat, and exploration – it’s just that the player has to define these elements him-/herself. In a sense, it’s more like a set of random Lego building blocks.

The fun part for me was the expandability of the concept. All it needs to function are only three things really: walls, fights, and a test mode. The walls were the easiest thing to do, although I had my own little problems with Unity’s MeshCombine script. The test mode (became the “Play Mode” later) with a fully functional player character controller did cost me some hours, but it was worth the time (especially because the game was playable then, and never stopped being playable and fun afterwards). Last but not least came the fighting – after modelling some enemies, which make use of nearly the same character controller, adding some really basic AI was a nice finger exercise.

When I was done implementing these three things, the game was basically finished and I could just refine and add stuff, like a goal, horizontal windows, health potions or gates which open after the death of all enemies. Right after the compo, I added stairs and lava, which was a matter of minutes, not hours.

Another reason why I was so relaxed during the compo was that I didn’t have to do levels. The levels were the cause of minor burnouts during my other Ludum Dare entries in 3D (“Tri” and “Soliloquy”), which were puzzle platformers and thus relied heavily on level design, which I had to do in a 3D modeling program. But this time the players would have to create the levels for themselves, and it would also be very easy and even fun to design them.

(By the way, if Wunderworld would have required me to make a level, I’d have done it right from the beginning this time around, instead of afterwards, hours before the deadline. This is a lesson I learned from the other Ludum Dares.)

The editor of Wunderworld is very basic. In order to keep me sane I resigned doing submenus and subscreens; instead, I’ve gone the KISS way. I initially planned to let the player adjust the enemies’ damage, the potions’ health values and so on, but it would be too much for the two days. And without too much options, everything fits nicely on one screen, too. All it consists now is a list of items the player can choose from, and a text area for the file name, and it’s still enough to create some nice levels. Of course, there always will be people who will miss several things regarding settings and comfort, but they will have to live with that or just download Unity/UDK/whatever, hehe.

Another benefit of the “Tiny World” theme was my lack of urge to optimize the code. Sure, with a standard level of the size 10x10x10, you have 1000 blocks. But thanks to the MeshCombine script from Unity – I use it on every slice of blocks – the amount of draw calls is pretty low. Altogether the “think small” direction of the theme helped me to be content with a small, working base game, and diversify it from there – instead of trying to make a rich, broad game which would have needed much more work. So, remember to extend and refine certain gameplay elements, and not the whole gameplay in itself – it would be a bottomless pit.

On the other hand, Wunderworld is predestined to offer a very wide range of gameplay elements. It could be expanded in 1000 ways! Without much effort, one could make an FPS, an RPG, an Adventure or even a puzzle with it (or even a combination of those), if I would have the time/motivation to add the right block types. Of course, this would need more work overall, as for example an RPG isn’t much without the ability to add NPCs with texts, or stats. But the general foundation is given for something like this, and I think that’s exciting.

So, what went wrong, what did I really learn?

I already mentioned the character controller, which I created very quickly at the beginning and was working somehow; yet I was deeply dissatisfied with the way the jumping behaved. It then needed some hours of redoing the whole thing, but in the end it worked more than okay and now I’m comparatively sure how to do nice and predictable character movement for 48h game.

There was also a certain lack of time before the deadline, when I had more than enough stuff on my “would be nice to have” list, and preset levels was one of them. It should have been much higher on this list, because even though I really had a test level, I lost it in the process of deploying. And even if it would have survived, I had no way to fit it into the webplayer version, so it would have been for the standalone only (which only few Ludum Darers download nowadays, according to my experience).

My biggest weak point regarding the compo is music. I managed to make some decent sounds via bfxr, but I still don’t know how to create non-generic music via a sophisticated tool. And although I used inudge.net for my older Ludum Dare entries, I want a more fulfillling experience in this regard nowadays. Thus I got FL Studio now and look forward to learn a bit about it, but I don’t know when I will have the time. Meh.

There were several other problems, which are more technical tidbits but nonetheless interesting details. For example, while the navigating through the level slices via Q and E is pretty straightforward, people complained about the lack of overview – they have to remember how the slice above the current slice looks, which isn’t very userfriendly. I still don’t know how to circumvent this problem in an elegant way. Also, the possibility to resize the level would be nice, or the support for an improved AI with far-range combat.

Until recently I also had no idea how to allow sharing levels via the webplayer version, thanks to the security problems. The standalone has a separate folder with simple text files which contain the level data, so you can trade them with others. But the webplayer saves its data in the PlayerPrefs (being the registry under Windows), which means that sharing levels is much more work there. Thanks to the idea of a friend I added level sharing by copy&paste in the post compo version – just press “Export”, get a string and post it. Or press “Import” and paste the string from someone else.

On the art side one could argue that 8×8 pixel textures aren’t really perfect for a block of 2×2 meters, but somehow it emphasized the “Tiny World” theme once again, I think. What I really would want here is the support for custom textures, which needs some thinking about the internal workings of Wunderworld. Another friend (Björn Grunewald) already tried to create 16×16 versions of some of the textures.

And what’s the conclusion?

Until now, this was the most satisfying and fun Ludum Dare for me. I wasn’t overly stressed, and never had the feeling of not doing enough or doing too much. Even shortly after the IndieBuskers jam my motivation was really high, and that means that there can’t be too much game jams in general!

Also, there were no really negative reactions so far, with the complaint of lacking preset levels here and there. Of course, there was the uninformed Kongregate commenter who wrote “guys forget this play minecraft this is a copy of minecraft so play minecraft its way better” (actual hilarious quote), but he apologized later, so it doesn’t count anymore, hehe. And, yeah, my game isn’t anything like Minecraft, you can’t mine and you can’t craft – instead, you can build and play, so perhaps should I call it Buildplay. The main difference probably is the possibility to be not only a level designer, but also a game designer in Wunderworld.

As mentioned before, in the new post-compo version you can now import and export levels easily – so it would be awesome if you, dear reader, would make a level and post it in the comments! Lockstep80 and nyvrem on Kongregate already made some really great levels, and the creativity in them honestly surprised me.

It must be just a tiny fraction of what Notch feels when he sees all those videos of people showing what they build inside Minecraft, and even this tiny little fraction is so awesome, and exactly the reason why creating Wunderworld was totally worth it.

Entry page of Wunderworld | Gameplay video | Page with levels created by fans

Aw, yeah. Wunderworld was finished in time.

It’s more of a tool than a game, because you can build your own dungeon with it. Put a sword and some enemies in it and you can fight. Place a goal, and it’s winnable. Unfortunately it lacks some premade levels, so I made a trailer to show the features and work-/play-flow:

It’s inspired by Ultima Underworld, thus the name (I even wanted to name it “Wultima’s Wunderworld”, but I just couldn’t justify the “Wultima”, as you don’t play a character).

I recommend the standalone version (Windows). The Mac version has Mouse controls too sensitive, so I’ll hae an update ready in some days. And the webplayer version works, too, but it doesn’t save your levels as a textfile, unlike the standalone, so you can’t trade them with others.

Please play and rate Wunderworld!

Yes, sorry. I am late with my announcement. I just couldn’t motivate myself enough to do more writing, especially after our IndieBuskers game jam, but here it is:
I use Unity3D, 3dsmax and Photoshop Elements. Not sure if I will do sounds.

Current screenshot:

I made a video of SOLILOQUY, especially for Linux users which can’t use the Unity3D webplayer plugin.

(This post mortem can also be found on our own blog!)

SOLILOQY – my LD compo game – you can play it and rate it!

Ludum Dare 22 was somehow pretty exhausting for me, and kind of depressing. I don’t exactly know why, but I think that multiple factors brought in.

The weekend before the compo I made a “warm-up game”, even though I planned to do it long before PoV announced this kind of thing. I just wanted to make a game in 48 hours in order to help a friend (a 3D artist), who needed a programmer for his university project. The programming part wasn’t wasting, but the fact that the game didn’t get finished at this weekend (mostly because of my friend ) left feelings of “incompleteness” inside me, which I hate.

Another thing: I didn’t like the theme “Alone”, and I still don’t think it was the best or even a good theme of the ones in the final voting round. But, as I always have to live up to my own standards I wanted to follow the theme AND make a good game. And this often leads to a status-quo – as long as I don’t have the right ideas I won’t start, and as long as I don’t start I won’t have the right ideas. Or something like that. My mind was blocked and I did other things, like playing Skyrim and chatting on IRC (not in #ludumdare, though, that place was CROWDED). Later, I started Unity3D and tried to play out another idea I had days before, about some time manipulation gameplay. It wasn’t feasible to do it in Unity3D, but due to the fact I did something concrete (game with 3D environment and FPS controls) I could develop another idea in my brain, which became the concept of the final SOLILOQUY.

I still think the best part of my game is this name! I thought of it before I thought of the gameplay (but it didn’t give me any directions,), and I liked it so much, I wanted to use it in any case. I’m quite happy nobody else named his/her game the same, too.

Even though I have some experience by participating at Ludum Dare before, I still don’t really know how to cut back optimally. The concept of SOLILOQUY demands levels, and levels demand content and art and story and design and choosing colours and making 3D models … but I knew this would be hard for me, as it was when I made my Ludum Dare 20 game, “TRI“. So I decided to do NO textures this time, and it didn’t hurt much (on the game’s side), but the benefits weren’t that great either. I mainly put the levels together in Unity3D instead of 3dsmax (in contrast to TRI), but this didn’t help me much, either. Altogether I have six levels now, where I really wanted ten, but at least seven.
The levels don’t look that bad (abstract style for the win), even though I chose the colours quite randomly. On the other side, what I don’t like much, the levels are all tutorial missions only. You just jump around in the first two, learn using your souls in the levels after that, press some buttons and work together with yourself. After this, the real levels should come, but I didn’t have time to do any more content.

I finished the last level three hours before the deadline, and I couldn’t do any more creative stuff. I especially failed in doing sounds or anything like music, unfortunately. I thought about using inudge.net again, but it would sound like my other two Ludum Dare games, so I dropped that idea. At least this frustration encourages me to actually learn how to make simple songs with real tools. (Wish me luck.)
The reason why I couldn’t do more creative work: This time, Unity3D was my enemy. Sometimes I really had to fight the engine, mostly when it came to the text you see in the game (story & hints) – Unity’s GUI system still is awkward to look at, and it has bad effects on the performance. So I used someone’s code which displays bitmap fonts via SpriteManager (the original one), but it didn’t work out of the box with all my bitmap font generator tools (I decided to use “TWL Theme editor”). After those problems were resolved, at the very end of the process, suddenly my white text became gray in the webplayer version. Argh! I needed nearly an hour to find out why that happened – a plane with alpha (the dark overlay) had the same distance to the camera as the text, and somehow the editor sorted it differently than the webplayer. Whyever that is.

After the mixed (or even bad) feelings I had about my own game, I’m really relieved that people actually liked it! The current feedback is mainly positive, and some things that were criticized are fixed in a post-compo version (on Kongregate, for more attention)! Other things, like the jumping height / range being too crass, are somewhat subjective and unfortunately can’t be changed without rearranging some of the levels.
Of course, many people complain about the brain-hurting aspect of the game (gameplay and visuals alike), but that was expected. I could have done the double-soul mechanic with just a picture-in-picture style or something like that, but then the game would lose its uniqueness pretty fast IMHO. Also, as soon as dogbomb does his “I play your game drunk!” video, the whole game visuals will make much more sense, haha.

BTW, if you have a look at the source you will need Unity3D. The indie version should suffice for just reading the C# files and so on, but you need Unity Pro (or its 30 day test version) in order to actually start the game, because I used Render To Texture. Sorry!

Thanks for reading this wall of text, and don’t forget to PLAY THE DARN THING!

Day 1 feels like it’s already over, but I have a few more hours. I wasn’t very productive, because I don’t like the theme and it didn’t inspire me. But at least I have some kind of idea now, and did a first test:

You play two souls at the same time which have to find each other by synchronizing. You can play the first test here, it’s Unity3D.

Eating cheap spaghetti right now. FYI.

Heya,

I gave a talk in October 2011 (at the Devmania, a small-ish Hobby Gamedev Convention in Germany) about the three Ludum Dare games  I made so far, in front of ~80 people. You can watch it here if you happen to speak/understand German or just want to hear some gibberish: http://www.devmania.org/videos (scroll down to “Ludum Dare”). You won’t see my face in the video, as I was hidden behind a monitor, thank God.
Unfortunately the recording started a little bit late, so some stuff about I told about Ludum Dare is missing. But you probably know it anyway.

I’d also like to avail myself of the opportunity of announcing that “I’m in”! I’m not perfectly sure that I will really participate in LD No 22 (as the date is a little bit too near to Christmas), but at least I would like to do it.

Some shameless advertising following: At the Devmania I also created a game (theme: “Pirates”) in ~12 hours, called “Treasure Chest Island”, together with talented artist Björn Grunewald. You can now play an extended version on Kongregate. It is the first game I know of in which you play as a treasure chest, or a chest in general.

Hi,

I won’t participate in the current MiniLD (no time), but here is something to inspire you all: Parity is a Flash animation I found years ago, perhaps even before 2000 … I don’t know. Back then I found it to be pretty scary, and if you dim the lights and turn the speakers up you perhaps will know why.

It’s dated, alright, but IMHO the animation shows why sound is very important for this MiniLD’s theme.