Rating myself:
Overall: 4 stars:
Innovation: 3.5 stars: Most of the gameplay elements ‘just work’, but it’s not the most original I’ve seen.
Fun: 4.5 stars: There’s something about the freedom the game gives I really like. Of course, I’m biased.
Theme: 4 stars: While not the most original take on the theme, they are definitely ‘tiny worlds’.
Graphics: 3.5 stars: The trees are nice, the sprites are OK. More life would’ve been nice
Audio: 2.5 stars: Not all bad, but nothing exceptional
Humor: N/A: I don’t think I have any humor
Mood: 3 stars: It’s not mood-less, but it’s nothing special either.

(I’ve made this post with 17 days to go for rating, and I’m going to compare it with the averages I’m actually going to get)

#121 Overall: 3.56: half a star lower than I anticipated, but beating the average.
#153 Innovation: 3.53: Right on the mark
#169 Theme: 3.53: Half a star lower than I anticipated. Come on guys, they WERE small planets
#262 Fun: 3.12: Massively lower than I anticipated. I guess it became boring more quickly than I anticipated.
#305 Mood: 2.91: Right on the mark.
#450 Audio: 2.44: Right on the mark
#531 Humor: 2.05: Well, to be expected rly.
#677 Graphics: 2.41: a star lower. Perhaps I should’ve focussed more on the trees or the more unique features.

Well, that’s it! I’d like to thank all the voters, and I know I shouldn’t be disappointed: 121st of over 1000 entries is very good for a first entry. And of course congratulations to all the winners!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5952

(more…)

More importantly, Rate me! I’m first on my own list, that can’t be good

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=default

or more specifically:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5952

You know what that is? That is OneSeed running – albeit badly – on my IPAD

Watch this space

And we’re off:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5952

Everyone please play my game

I’ll release later tonight, but here’s 2 screenshots my friend made:

(For the record – He’s purely and only my beta tester, I made the whole game)

1. Bugfixing
2. Graphics
3. Menu/Titlescreen
4. Sound

Once that all works I may add some more features, dependent on the time left.

Because I love you so much:

Ok, I’m quite confident I can turn Cinder to my whims when it’s about Graphics and Input.

But I also know the sound system Cinder uses is utterly… well, it doesn’t work very well.

So, from today onward, I’m using Bass (http://www.un4seen.com/) and this post will present anyone with a little cheat sheet on how to use it.

(more…)

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23-warmup/?action=preview&uid=5952

UPDATE ! UPDATE ! UPDATE ! UPDATE

Now includes:
Small improvements on the movement and mutation of seeds
A small GUI: A left click now creates a plant or a seed!

Hey there,

I had an idea for a rule change considering the Compo.

Many people are good at one thing, while bad at others.
Game Designers may have very good stories, but buggy games, or games made in higher level programs like GameMaker.
Game Programmers may have solid games, in well-established low-level programs like C++, but are usually very poor at making graphics.
Artists may have very nice art, but will need to use programs like Game-, RPG- or Adventure Maker.

Here’s my suggestion:
When submitting your game, you are presented by a number of checkboxes:

• Graphics,
• Coding,
• Music/Sound.

(Perhaps more, but these 3 seem most important)

If you check the Graphics checkbox, you abide to the rule that all graphics are made by you. It also means people judging you can give you a grade for graphics.
If you check the Coding checkbox, you abide to a new rule not to use programs like Game Maker or Quest3D or Flash (Which programs are banned can be debatable) to make your game, and only use a real coding language and at most a basic library. This includes a grading for coding.
If you check the Music/Sound checkbox, you abide to the rule that all music and sounds are made by you. It also means people judging you can give you a grade for Music or sounds.

For each checkbox, not checking it means more lenient rules, but also not being graded on the subject at hand. This would allow coders to use spritesets, unless they want to make their own programmer art (I’m all for programmer art by the way), and people not to bother with making their own sounds and music if they don’t want to.

For the Overall grading, I’d say put any opted-out grading to a standard 1. This way, the overall champ will still be the one making the best package, but it will allow people put off by the strict rules on graphics and sounds to make and show a game as well.

This is mostly just a brainstorm, and a post ment to set up a debate. I’m more then happy to abide by the rules, and I will, but I hope this post will at least make some people think and wonder whether this would be better or not.

And before someone mentions it: Yes, anyone could join the Jam instead. But the Jam hasn’t the same magic as the Compo.

Here’s a massive tutorial for a Hack&Slash RPG, in Unity3D. Now, I don’t think you can even FOLLOW this tutorial in 48 hours, let alone make something unique, but you may be able to pick up some pointers for your game!

http://www.burgzergarcade.com/hack-slash-rpg-unity3d-game-engine-tutorial

Well there we go:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23-warmup/?action=preview&uid=5952

As mentioned, not much in the way of interaction, I think I’ll keep that part for the actual challenge next week.

So, hope you like it, love to hear your comments (Whether it works at all would be fab XD)

- Gemberkoekje

There we go; looks about how I’d imagined it.

There are a few bugs, most notably that the seeds have a tendency to go right too much.. Need to fix that one

Oh yeah, also, there’s zero interaction….. so it’s not really a game…

Anyway, I’ll try and fix it tomorrow, see if I can’t make something for you to download.

Well, here’s my first Screenshot!

They are procedurally generated plant! life! thingies… Still needs some work, but I’m having fun bugging about

Alright, let’s see if I can knock something out this weekend.

Theme: Tiny Plants Jump!
Language: Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition
Engine: CinderLib (http://libcinder.org/)
Graphics: Either procedurally generated or knocked out of gimp or paint.net – can’t remember which one I used before

For the record, I got no clue yet what I’m gonna make, so it may fail altogether, but I hope to at least have something silly. Without sound, most likely.