Cross-posted from the Dark Acre blog

The only thing more important than finishing & shipping—yes, those are one thing—a Ludum Dare 48 compo entry is then rating the hard work of all the other clinically insane brave competitors. Well aside from eating, drinking, & sleeping but that should go without saying. Shouldn’t it?

In the earlier days of LD48 this was a relatively easy task to accomplish, even for the competitor with a day job. A couple hundred entries could be leisurely played over the course of the allotted two weeks.

Then somewhere along the line LD48 became more mainstream—this said without a hint of hip irony, I mean come on, it’s the truth—attracting larger numbers of participants each time.

The most recent event saw some 2,347 (supposedly) playable video & analog games submitted for peer evaluation.

Competitors are given 3 full weeks to play then rate each entry, & leave a comment if they’re feeling egotistical/snarky/fancy. I tend to leave a lot of fancy, ego-driven snark. It shows I care.

So 3 weeks. That’s 30,240 minutes. Assuming you do nothing but play & rate entries that allows just under 12 minutes for each one.

The key question then becomes how much time should you allot for playing vs. offering stars & design advice? It takes me about 8 minutes to complete my own entry, & I know exactly how to complete it. I imagine it could take some folks upwards of 30 minutes to finish. If their goal is to be completely, magnanimously fair with the ratings process they wouldn’t even have time to finish & would be forced to offer a rating based on an experience not wholly experienced! Not that there’s anything wrong with that, game journalists & forum commenters do it all the time but that’s beside the point.

A person is then forced to make certain compromises if they want to go sifting through the entries for the gems. There are gems in there, trust me, but unless you just want to sit back & wait for others to find them, not bother rating—which ends up reflecting poorly on your own entry—, & shun the process entirely you need some form of filter.

This was my 8th Ludum Dare 48 in a row. I’ve gone from rating all of them to not giving a damn & then realizing I have to give a damn if I’m to get rated myself, so I’ve run the gamut.

I’ve crafted a handy spreadsheet of my evaluation process, suitable for framing.

It’s a “do unto others” sort of framework, & I’m horribly selfishly biased because I’m capable of producing web builds. But I’ve stomped my way down that route only because I kinda wanna get as many people as possible to play my game. If I was only in it to show off I’d just pull a SOS.

Rate early, rate often. Rate with purpose.

Whatever.

Compo only.

I’ll be using just Unity3D—Pro, but just the bare bones stuff that’s available in Free aside from the custom splash screen—SFXR for sound effects & FL Studio for a song loop if I’m feeling fancy.

iTween for basic animations.

Modeling & advanced animation in 3D Studio Max, texturing in Substance Designer, UI via NGUI. External image editing via Photoshop.

Oh, & M2H’s most excellent Localization Package since it makes text handling such a breeze.

Lots of alcohol. Kids, if you drink don’t drive.

Oh, and don’t go full indie. You never go full indie.

Here’s a video of me playing & talking about my entry:

Also, if there’s no comment on your entry from me yet, it means I haven’t come across it. I’m rating like mad, so if you want me to drop some wisdom/pain on you feel free to link me your entry & I’ll git right on that.

Hey.

Special shout-out & thanks to all who’ve given my entry a go & taken the time to write a comment. I added a detailed design breakdown in the entry comments, so if you’re curious about why I made some of the choices I made there’s some info there.

The following is copy-pasted from the project page on the Acre:

What Went Right

1. Years of Preparation
I’ve been at this for more than two years now. The only jam I participate in is the Ludum Dare 48 Compo, because I love its brutal nature and it’s perfectly suited to my modus operandi. This was my 7th entry, and I’ve submitted working games for each. In the interim I’ve done more than a dozen Darkade jams, a handful of major projects, and all the while gathered skills with the tools I use. All of that culminates in these compos, which I see as tests of my abilities. So yeah, I’ve got experience and it really showed this time out. I managed to make what was in my head a reality, and within the time limit. It’s not without its warts and bruises, but it’s by far my best entry yet, and that’s all to do with the talent I’ve been cultivating through relentless full-time practice in the art of making videogames.

2. Focusing on Content
In the past I spent way too much time trying to come up with “innovative” systems to support my designs. This time I kept it simple so that I could spend less time mucking around in the guts of Unity and more time doing things like creating interactive objects. I chose a fixed camera, no lighting systems, and a very basic graphics pipeline. All of that enabled me to come up with a nice, tight little adventure game.

3. Holistic Asset Creation
For the first time in my history of attempting these challenges, I managed to correct something that previous post-mortems had identified: the uneven creation of game objects. In the past I would approach everything in a sort of layered way; code the interaction systems, block out the levels, add models, materials, textures, and finally audio. This time I made things as I went, treating each little asset as final, and imagining that I wouldn’t be coming back to polish it later. Whether or not this is a “best practice” is debatable; I’ll let my results speak for themselves. But by crafting every in-game object to be fully functional on implementation, I was able to keep cranking out content right to the end without worrying if I’d added appropriate SFX to a door, or properly textured a wall, or written a description for an area.

4. Fixed Camera, No (Visible) Characters
I decided almost immediately that the environment was going to be the main protagonaist, so I focused a lot of the storytelling production there. Like, how could I make this area interesting? How could I show a bit of history with this object? It wasn’t an extremely detailed execution, but that was only because I knew I only had 32 hours to work (I like to get 16 for sleep) and I could only communicate so much with that amount of production time. There were no (visible) humanoid characters, so there was no rigging or complex modeling to worry about. Also by fixing the camera and forcing the player to move in a grid-like fashion I could tightly control what they saw at all times. It also freed me from worrying about things like collision and physics. So yeah, for those who are complaining about the fixed camera/movement system, that was by design and it helped me execute the game on time. If I had allowed more freedom who knows how many more hours of production I would have needed to finish. More than 32, that’s for certain.

5. Sought Early Feedback
I threw up the production build almost immediately, I think within the first 4 hours, and right away I got a lot of good responses. It was clear that my initial camera choice (free, mouselook 1:1) was not comfortable. Certain things didn’t read well. Parts of the UI were confusing. I managed to address all of these concerns (some perhaps not to 100% satisfaction, it’s hard to work for perfection when you’re under the gun) but at least they were informed design choices. I knew by the time I submitted my entry that it had been tested to some small degree, and in game development even having one extra pair of eyes other than your own on the project can mean the difference between a good game and a bad one.

What Went Wrong

1. Not Enough Time Spent Mastering Texturing
I’ve identified a bit of a weakness in my speed pipeline, and that’s with texturing. Originally I envisioned using the “AO bake style” that you see in the game to complement some nice bumped/specular textures made either in Quixel’s nDo/dDo or Allegorithmic’s Substance Designer. As I worked I kept notes on what was to go where: grated floor panels in the main corridor, control panels on the machine and keypads, grime on the sewer walls, an so on. Right up to the last few minutes I had everything clearly mapped in my mind, but there just wasn’t time. I made that decision early on when going with the “holistic asset creation” method mentioned above, and I told myself that the AO bakes would be acceptable. And I think they are, I mean at least the game has a unified look to it. But it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a few detailed textures in there, either.

2. No Title Card
This shouldn’t bug me, but it does. The game jumps right from the standard Dark Acre splash into the game. I would have rather had a little title marquee with “THE CONDEMNED” animated somewhere on it, but whatever. It’s a vanity thing.

3. Looked At #LD48 & the Ludum Dare Site During Compo
I think somewhere I’m quoted as saying that one of my secrets of success is how little I engage with Twitter/blogs/comments. And I think this is still the truth, but for this compo I let that discipline slip a bit. I figured making a few community posts on the site would help. Sadly, the pessimist in me tends to focus on the negative, so when confronted with people complaining about the theme, or dropping out, I got a bit down. But then I said to myself, “screw those weak bitches” and let their failure fuel my success. There’s only ever been one theme for LD48 for me, and that’s “make a playable videogame in 48 hours or less, and make it one that doesn’t waste anyone’s time”. I’ve managed to do this 7 times in a row now. The streak is real. Now if only I could win the thing I could retire.

Thanks again for reading, and happy holidays!

P.S. A playthrough with developer commentary is coming, hopefully before the end of the week.
P.P.S. If you tried to play the game using the Windows standalone, it was broken. That’s been fixed now.
P.P.P.S. The flashlight doesn’t work in the sewer; that’s by design. If it did work as intended I doubt so many people would be able to “win” the game. I’ll talk more about that in the video.

I think I used every available calorie of energy my aging body would let me.

Kind of wish there was an “ambition” category.

Best entry yet? We’ll see.

To all the others who’ve successfully completed their compo entries:

To everyone who didn’t make it… I’m sorry your parents didn’t raise you better.

Where’s George’s entry?

You shouldn’t be reading this. You should either be sleeping or working on your game. Unless you gave up.

No pictures of my food, for I sustain myself on the tears of the competitors who couldn’t make it. Every “I’m out” is like a fine morsel of filet mignon.

Here’s a screenshot:

Hell yeah it’s dark. Dark like the Acre.

My ambition is becoming a reality. This has been the best attempt so far, and this is the seventh attempt in a row. Will he finish? Will it suck? All questions shall be answered in due time.

Detailed updates live here. There’s a link to a “playable” build on that page.

Follow me on Twitter, Friend me on Facebook, Subscribe to me on YouTube. The usual crap.

Dark Acre Jack, signing off for the night.

I don’t usually post progress reports on here, not really sure if anyone actually reads them they fly by so fast during compo, but whatever. Gotta get that mad “Community” mark by at least pooping out something up in this here piece, amirite?

Here’s a picture of an empty glass that held 3 liberal rum & eggnogs:

And here’s the latest screenshot:

Not really sure what I’m going for aside from my most ambitious entry to date. I guess we’ll see if it all comes together in time. Track it here. There’s a link to a “playable” build on that page.

Follow me on Twitter, Friend me on Facebook, Subscribe to me on YouTube. The usual crap.

Dark Acre Jack, signing off for the night.

Seven times you’ve called. Seven times I’ve answered.

It’s no longer a question. The rest of the time I’m not doing LD I’m Conan the Barbarian. Pushing on the Wheel of Pain. Preparing.

Once again the copy-paste from the previous “I’m in’s”. The more things change, the more they don’t. Or something like that.

Primary Tools

• Unity3D 4.0 Pro
• Autodesk 3D Studio Max
• FL Studio 10.x

Secondary Tools

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• NGUI
• Substance Designer
• nDo
• dDo
• Autodesk Mudbox
• Autodesk Motionbuilder

Tertiary Tools

• Propellerhead Figure
• KORG iMS-20
• KORG iELECTRIBE
• Animoog
• SampleWiz

Libraries

• Pixelplacement’s iTween
• Owlchemy Labs’s Texture sizer
• Stramit’s Strumpy Shader editor
• Basic “Darkade” template

The Darkade template contains copywritten material. Anything related to Dark Acre, iTween, Owlchemy’s Texture scaling or Strumpy Shader are property of their owners. Refer to various licenses for details.

Let’s have a good time and REMEMBER! If you must quit, give up, or bitch about the theme please carefully write down all your issues in a well-worded document, go into the bathroom, and hang yourself. Because no one else gives a toss.

<3

Another Dare in the can.

Check out the detailed explanation on the Dark Acre.

Best of luck to all competitors and we’ll see you again in a few months!

… your mom making you a baby brother.

Despite Arenanet putting their Guild Wars 2 head-start right smack in the middle of this Ludum Dare, I wouldn’t DARE (get it) miss this as I’m 5/5 in a row and ain’t no way I’m breaking this streak.

You’ll pardon the copy-paste from the previous “I’m in”. Or you won’t. It’s up to you.

Primary Tools

• Unity3D Pro
• Autodesk 3D Studio Max
• FL Studio 10.x

Secondary Tools

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• NGUI
• Substance Designer
• Autodesk Mudbox
• Autodesk Motionbuilder

Tertiary Tools

• Propellerhead Figure
• KORG iMS-20
• KORG iELECTRIBE
• Animoog
• SampleWiz

Libraries

• Pixelplacement’s iTween
• Owlchemy Labs’s Texture sizer
• Stramit’s Strumpy Shader editor
• Basic “Darkade” template

The Darkade template contains copywritten material. Anything related to Dark Acre, iTween, Owlchemy’s Texture scaling or Strumpy Shader are property of their owners. Refer to various licenses for details.

Let’s have a good time and REMEMBER! If you must quit, give up, or bitch about the theme please carefully write down all your issues in a well-worded document, go into the bathroom, and hang yourself. Because no one else gives a toss.

<3

The requisite 48-hours of time-compressed evidence.

Enjoy?

Posted a Linux version video demonstration.

Still doesn’t tell you how to win, but that’s kind of the point.

Let’s go for 5 of 5, shall we?

Quick tour of the office:

Primary Tools

• Unity3D Pro
• Autodesk 3D Studio Max
• FL Studio 10.x

Secondary Tools

• Adobe Photoshop
• NGUI
• Substance Designer
• Autodesk Mudbox
• Autodesk Motionbuilder

Tertiary Tools

• Propellerhead Figure
• KORG iMS-20
• KORG iELECTRIBE
• Animoog
• SampleWiz

Libraries

• Pixelplacement’s iTween
• Owlchemy Labs’s Texture sizer
• Stramit’s Strumpy Shader editor
• Basic “Darkade” template

The Darkade template contains copywritten material. Anything related to Dark Acre, iTween, Owlchemy’s Texture scaling or Strumpy Shader are property of their owners. Refer to various licenses for details.

You could use the Dark Acre textures but uh, why would you? Just replace them if you want to use the same animation effects.

Let’s have fun, and remember: it’s very difficult to play an unfinished game.

Happy 2012, and thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to rate my (and everyone else’s) entry.

Don’t have the time/patience to actually play the game, but still want to justify a 5/5 Theme rating? Check out the walkthrough:

Also, if you can figure out why I apologize to Stephen King, Tweet at me and I’ll give you a prize.

If I can.

Now, back to trying to win this pot of gold…

I did a timelapse/commentary thing:

Actual thing here.

Super busy trying to win this, but still rating like mad when I can. Seriously, would a 3-month rating period really be all that bad? I don’t think so.

Happy ho-ho days! Hope you get to stuff all the stockings your heart desires

TOOLS

• FIRE
• IRON
• BLOOD

Or the same stuff as last time. I’ll figure it out when it starts.

Hey, just scrolled through a dozen pages of posts, collecting people on Twitter like Pokémon, and I noticed that a few had entered the entire Twitter URL into the field on their Ludum Dare profiles.

You only have to put your Twitter name in the field, with or without the @.

Not a huge deal, but makes it easier for folks keen to Follow you up

It seems that my chief problem with getting rank on my LD entries has been the distinct lack of kittens. Hope to rectify that this time around.

I’ll be using:

• Unity 3D for the vroom vroom.
• FL Studio 10 for the boom boom.
• Photoshop/Illustrator CS5 for the pixel pushing.
• 3D Studio Max for the polygons and shadows.
• pixelplacement‘s iTween for the bits that move.
• Still standing!

I really should assemble a basic code library but it’s more stressful fun to do it all from scratch.

Best of luck to everyone, let’s make some killer games!

Hey all!

Excited for the upcoming compo/jam? I know I am!

If you’re on Google Plus, and want other LD’ers to Circle you, would you mind adding your voice to this thread here? It would be a great help in gathering everyone, and facilitating Hangouts during the events.

Looking forward to see you all!

Here’s the last push for a bit of attention to my LD submission, if you have a second and haven’t already done so, please check it out and toss me whatever rating you feel it’s worth.

This whole experience has been absolutely fantastic. Thanks and much love to the organizers and participants for making this such a great ride to be on!

There’s a walk-through video, a time-lapse, and a self-hosted project page if you’re interested.

Here I present the “edited and abridged for LD’ers” version of the post-mortem:

What Went Right

1. Leveraging the Power of Unity Prefabs

All of my past projects up to this one had been done almost exclusively in C#, with almost no special use of the Unity environment. They were done that way to help me come to grips with coding in C#.

For this LD, I threw that mentality out the window and crafted nearly everything in scene, using prefabs. What an amazing difference it makes! Defining game objects, exposing the variables on them, and using drag-and-drop to configure game play is really what Unity is all about, and I’m glad I had this LD to finally realize that.

2. Scripting Tight

Sort of a knock-on effect of switching over to prefabs, code bloat was immediately reduced to a negligible amount. With all the variables explicitly used and exposed on the game objects in scene, it was far easier to manage what was going on and limit the overall messiness of the scripting process. That’s not to say there’s no kludgy-hacky nonsense going on, but there’s far less than there was when I was in pure code mode.

3. Winning the Theme Roulette

This time I followed the theme selection very closely. I hadn’t before because I didn’t want to set my sights on any one theme before the final was announced, and avoid any kind of disappointment. This time I didn’t really fixate on a theme, but I had a very strong feeling that ‘It’s Dangerous…’ was going to be chosen. The night before the compo I dreamed a fully-formed concept for a game that used this theme, so you can imagine my relief when it turned out to be the one that made the cut. Lucky advantage.

What Went Wrong

1. Uneven Production Process

When tackling any long-term project, I tend to break things down into manageable chunks and then assign levels of ‘completeness required for play’ to them. This means there’s a round of building, and producing passable assets so that I can start to see if a game is going to be fun or not.

For Ludum Dare, though, it seems that one thing that makes games stand out and get recognized is the end quality levels of art. I’ve always envied these 2D wizards that can crank out beautiful pixels for their projects that really make them shine. So, I told myself I was going to push it to the limit with the 3D assets this time out. The problem was I focused so much on making the 3D nice that I had little time for audio and controls polish.

It’s always a trade off, a fine balance of managing just how much to produce in the time given.

2. Not Enough Kitties

Apparently this is also an important thing to producing a popular entry, and I’ll endeavor to add more cute meme-cats to my future entries.

3. Not Enough Zelda

Looking back at it now, I probably could have taken the time to insert at least a few nods to the venerable Nintendo classic, but I’m still happy with my interpretation of the theme and glad that it left enough leeway for all the other creative entries that weren’t strictly focused on emulating the Tri-force hunter in one way or another.

It’s really important to note that this LD sparked enough of a creative fire under my butt to finally abandon another project that I wasn’t really having much fun with and shift all of my production over to creating an improved version!

Thanks again and congrats to all that participated in this LD, I’m looking forward to seeing you all and more come the next one.
-
Jack

<click here for Dark Acre Jack’s entry>