To celebrate the launch of GameMaker Studio, I’m giving away a copy of Studio valued at $300. For a chance to win, simply do one or both of these things on my social media channels:

Follow me on Twitter and retweet this linked tweet

Like my page “Myriad Online” on Facebook and share this linked post

Both actions will give you one entry into the draw, however you must have at least 20 followers on Twitter for that to count.

I will announce the winner at the end of this month, May 2012, and they will be contacted directly.

Congratulations to YoYo Games for this huge milestone, and good luck to all the entrants in my GM Studio giveaway!

Official blog post: http://bit.ly/WinGMS

I’m done!

CAPSULE is a really weird interactive experience. While it is considered complete, it is not really much of a game, and I have no idea if anyone will like it or even get it. But, I had a heap of fun making this game, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

Play it here (web)

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Controls:

LMB – positive interaction
RMB – negative interaction

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Find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TrueValhalla

My game, CAPSULE, is progressing well…though I’m not sure if it’s really a game, it’s just some interactive environments that give me an excuse to add weird scenarios and dialogue. I don’t know how it will rank overall, but I’m having fun making it so far.

First post for my entry , “CAPSULE”. It’s an experimental game, and the plan is to have a strong focus on characters, dialogue, and interaction with the environment. It’s set in platform view, but the player does not control a character (technically).

I’m making the game in HTML5, and while progress is slow I like the direction it’s heading. What do you think?

I’ve been up for 15 hours and I’m not really tired yet, but I’m having a lot trouble getting into this theme with the direction I started taking…I should have gone for a platformer. So now I’ve got this weird arcade-ish setup, with no real direction.

I can’t think of any gameplay that would be suitable for it while also matching the theme. I am literally just staring at my screen trying to think of something. Anything! It’s frustrating, because I don’t mind the graphical style really. I’m tempted to just scrap it all, or maybe I’m out?

I uploaded what I have so far, you can try it right in your browser here and here’s a screenshot:

So it’s coming along well…been working on my entry for about 8 hours, getting a little frustrated with HTML5 so gonna take a break.

Added tiles, collisions, a menu, some effects to the player, and a lighting system which was way more complicated than it should have been.

I also figured out a basic premise for the game, but it’s nothing special. Looks like the focus will be on puzzles, which is probably a bad idea given I haven’t designed a puzzle game before! Will try to give it more of an exploration style if possible. Anyway:

I don’t know where it’s going, but it might be some sort of abstract exploration/puzzle game. Unfortunately I’ve got to limit my use of special effects since I’m using HTML5. Not sure how well I’m going to incorporate “Alone” as a theme but I can work with it.

Hey everyone! I missed the last LD – and then it turned out to be massive thanks to the marketing power of Notch’s twitter feed! I’m betting it’s going to be even bigger this year, so my chances of achieving any notable position or ranking seems smaller by the day.

But that’s cool.

I’ll be doing things a bit differently this time, as I will be using Game Maker to create an awesome HTML5 app – it will be interesting to see the difference a web-based entry makes compared to my normal .EXE entry, especially in terms of plays, ratings and comments.

However, this of course introduces a few restrictions, especially on my usual over-reliance on particles and blend effects…so I’ll either stick to basic shapes with nice effects, or my zoomed-in-enough-that-it-wont-make-you-vomit pixel art style. Either way, this time I’ll have to focus more on gameplay than graphics.

I still haven’t learned how to make decent music within the past 6 months, and I really don’t plan to. I would still love to add some though…anyone know of ways to create nice ambient music that don’t break LD rules..?

Finally, I intend to eat healthily this time round…every other LD that I’ve entered had me stocked up with junk food, but I want to see if I actually fell better during LD (ie. not so tired) if I eat some fruit instead of a donut

And due to the distinct lack of cat photos on the front page:

So I successfully completed my 2nd ever Ludum Dare. I had worked really hard during Ludum Dare 19 to deliver my game, and I really enjoyed the experience. This time was same, and I’ve delivered a unique game that turned out just how I wanted it to.

“A Tiny Sin” was fun to develop. My goal from the start, no matter what the theme, was to create a space-shooter. When the themes for the GMC jam and LD20 were announced, I wanted to combine them, and after some design ended up with a goal to make a more story-orientated game than I originally had planned. In fact, I’ve never made a game just to tell a story, so this was new to me.

The development process was fairly easy-going for me this time. For Ludum Dare 19 I made an RTS in 48 hours which in itself was quite a feat, but it didn’t turn out to be a fun game. This time I was set on my final product being enjoyable to play, and as polished as possible. I wanted it to have a “completed” feel after the 48 hours. I wanted to be able to release it publicly knowing that someone would actually enjoy it.

"A Tiny Sin"

And I was happy with the final result. It certainly isn’t a game for everyone, but from the feedback I’ve received so far I’m glad to see at least a couple of people understanding what this game is meant to be. People playing it just for the gameplay or graphics, don’t “get” it. But that’s OK, I knew this would be the case from the start. The gameplay is fairly simplistic at its core, but it was the storyline I really wanted to focus on, and in the end it was delivered just how I wanted.

Graphically, the feedback has been entirely positive, and while I don’t mean to boast – this was expected. If I have even the slightest chance of doing well in any of these Ludum Dare categories, it’s graphics. In LD19 I came 6th in graphics, and I’m hoping maybe I have a chance for top 5 this time around…

In regard to feedback, I’ve received surprisingly little on the Ludum Dare site itself…3 comments really. Now at first I thought maybe everyone was just recovering from the event itself, but I see some games with 50+ comments already! Granted, some of these other games look amazing, but I feel like either my game has gone unnoticed or it just doesn’t appeal to as many people as I’d hoped. All I can really do is be patient, though, so that’s what I’ll do.

On the GMC I received some great feedback, and on GameJolt, YoYo Games, and 64D I got a bit as well. The common complaint seemed to be that the bullets are too small to see, and that the gameplay is a little lacking. While I agree the gameplay is more consumable as opposed to in-depth, I think it serves its purpose. In regard to the bullets being too small to see I’m still trying to figure out if this is due to resolution issues or just personal taste. The game runs at 800*600 but on my laptop (1024*768) they look fine to me. Slow text was an initial complaint so I fixed that very quickly, though said text only appears at the start and end of the game anyway. I also got a few reports of an unexpected error occurring on game start, which I found out was because GM throws this error on older PCs if you have a large image in the game (the background texture). This has since been fixed too.

Overall I really enjoyed this experience once again. I spend most of my year developing a single, large project, so by entering Ludum Dare I have an excuse to take a break and actually release a game every 3 months. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to produce in 48 hours – I think it’s amazing what others have achieved too. I really hope to find some time to play and review at least some of the other entries, here and at the GMC.

But thanks for reading, and for the experience – this is a great community and I hope to contribute to each and every Ludum Dare for many years to come. It’s been fun.

@TrueValhalla, “A Tiny Sin“

“A Tiny Sin” is finally finished! It’s an experimental story-driven arcade shooter. Yup! Give it  ago

Play “A Tiny Sin”

Play “A Tiny Sin”

Comments very welcome

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [4 hours of sleep, 25 hours awake]

Adding more enemies, balancing gameplay. Then I gotta code AI movement, and maybe some powerups, and then I can get to work on the story..!

-Tv

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [4 hours of sleep,  23 hours awake]

Since I woke up this morning (5am) I have added:

• Combat
• Player turret + effects
• Flexible enemies (inc. combat, blur, turret) [no movement AI yet]
• Enemy HP bar
• Slightly randomized bullet damage
• Graphical feedback (with critical hits!)
• A cool tracking system (not shown in screenshot) to point to objective
• Effects to bullets
• Enemy death (incl. score incrementing)

Not even at the 24 hour mark – I’m  very happy with progress, considering I even got a short sleep in!

-Tv

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [3h 30m hours of sleep, 19 hours awake]

Was good to get some sleep in, now back to work n_n Waking up at 4am after only 3 and a half hours sleep is one of the hardest things you can do..!

-Tv

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [0 hours of sleep, 18 hours awake]

That urge to sleep is kicking in, but I’m happy with progress. The whole engine is pretty much done, sans some weapons. Enemy AI I am saving for later, though.

I’ve added:

• Text display (with some nice effects) for stats
• Completed booster code
• Linked booster to interface
• Improved flexibility of interface
• Added a massive background image
• Added background particles

It’s similar to the last screen but I wanted to put the background up:

I’m thinking since I am further ahead than I planned, I’m going to get a few hours sleep in. I’ll be back in 4 hours.

When I wake up, the goal is to complete all the weapons and get some basic AI finished, and an objective display system.

-Tv

The interface – keeping it simple again. All coded to work (bars are HP and booster):

-Tv

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [0 hours of sleep, 14 hours awake]

Been half reading Ludum Dare posts + chatting on GMC IRC, but I’ve gotten a bit done.

Added a “boost” feature which the player can activate by holding shift. I decided to replace the shields with the boost, so combat is more tactical.  I added 2 weapons, gotta finish them off in the effects department still.

Also added a blur effect, because I felt like the player needed more motion.

Might create some enemies or the interface next.

-Tv

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [0 hours of sleep, 12 hours awake]

I’ve been awake for 12 hours now. This is when I start getting a little drowsy, but I plan to work through the night.

In regards to the engine, it’s actually kinda close to being finished. This is a far step up from where I was at last Ludum Dare (where I made an RTS in 48 hours).

Anyway, I’ve added the base code for multiple weapons with independant damage, accuracies, etc., I’ve added stats to the player (hp, shield, xp, level, etc.), and also added a little bit of polish (the glow on the player fades in/out on acceleration/deceleration, improved particles, etc.).

Finally, I improved the bullet parents in preparation for enemies, and added the player death condition. Once this engine is finished, the first thing I will complete are the variety of weapons (so far I’ve only created 2 basic weapons fully).

Looks like I’ll have a lot of time to implement the story line and add polish..!

-Tv

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [0 hours of sleep, 11 hours awake]

I’ve now coded the movement completely, coded the shooting mechanics, a base for bullets, and finally added some particles to the player character.

I feel like I haven’t made a heap of progress in 5 hours, but that’s because I’ve been too busy reading other posts n_n

Here’s a screenie of the current state:

-Tv

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [0 hours of sleep, 8 hours awake]

Prototyping character graphic and style. Here’s what I decided on for the player ship (simple with simple glows):

edit: Revision

Working on game engine next.

-Tv

“A Tiny Sin” game development log
LudumDare / GMC Jam – [0 hours of sleep, 7 hours awake]

The name of my game will be: “A Tiny Sin”. It will be an arcade shooter with a strong story element presented throughout the game.

Spent about an hour working out how to use this theme – and I am extremely happy with what I’ve come up with. It manages to work into my original goal (to make a space-themed arcade/action shooter) and adds a really cool psychological element through the storyline.

I did want to focus on action, but with this theme my new focus is telling a story. If I can manage to finish this thing, I know you guys will love it.

I wish I could post more details but I want to keep them a secret for now! Beer in hand, time to work!

-Tv