I’m doing a circle resolution. I have an idea for my game: you can change the gravity for yourself, but for other objects it remains the same. I even made up an intro:

*school, physics lesson*

- Username, how much is gravity force?

- I don’t know.

- Why don’t you know?

- I don’t want. Gravity is unimportant.

Play the demo! Drag the level, get the ball (either one ) to the yellow circle. Red is no-drag zone.

The placeholder name is “Problem, Newton?” Maybe I’ll leave it as it is.

And I’m going to port it to Android! You will have to tilt the device to alter the gravity direction.

P.S. I just started, so I’ll end a bit later.

Post-post-mortem is a post-mortem with a double post.

I made a game for LD23, and it’s called “Shipwrecked“.

I examined the rating of my game.

Overall: Well, I did a better game. I’m surprised the rating didn’t change much.

Innovation: My game is more innovative. It was well-planned.

Fun: I made an over-complicated game.

Theme: I followed the theme. That’s all I can say.

Graphics: My previous game had crappy graphics. My new game has not-crappy graphics.

Audio: My previous game used the music the set the mood. The new one does it as well, but the game isn’t moody itself.

Humor: The fog of peace? What else is humorous?

Mood: It happened accidentally. I relied on mood when I was making the previous game, but not the new one.

Coolness: I rated 100 games. You can always earn a gold medal… just by playing games.

Average: Average is more likely to be close to overall. And it is.

I made a better game, and I calculated that if I’ll continue improving at the same speed, it’ll take me about 8 LDs to get a 5 average. Good luck!

Summary: my game is more polished, but more complicated. If somebody played my other games, he can say I (almost) always make difficult games.

Sometimes you wander around Ludum Dare and stumble upon some AWESOME entry. It has an awesome idea, an awesome design, awesome graphics and audio. And you, minor Ludum Dare game maker, who haven’t been in top 50 even with a jam game, think: “How the hell can I make it?”

Indeed, making games combines many kinds of art. You use art (drawing) to make graphics, composing to make music, acting to make voice, writing to make a plot, martial arts to fix hardware problems. How can you even do that?

I discovered a way of making everything. If you are not an artist, you can still create a beautiful game, if you never composed music and don’t know what is “half note” and “quarter note”, you will make some music for your game. LD is made for studying, isn’t it?

WARNING: Not tested on anybody but myself. You might fail succeed. I have a good imagination, but I am not sure about you.

Here is the algorithm:

1. Think of something
2. Make a draft
3. Upgrade a draft
4. Goto 3

Draft is the key!

If you are not a game designer.

I suppose you played a computer game before. A lot. And not-computer as well. What’s your favourite one? What is the best thing in games in your opinion? Have you ever made a game in childhood? (I used to draw point-and-click games on paper) Or thought about making one?

Take the best from all the games and your own ideas. Imagine how the game will work. And do exactly the same.

If you are not an artist.

Evolution

Drawing people/animals, and other stuff as well:

Step one: imagine the result. Step two: make a rough skeleton. Step three: outline it. Step four: polish it. Step five: color it.

Of course, the most important step is step one. Imagine the result as good as possible and simply copy it. And watch the drawing become as good as possible as well.

If you are not a composer.

The hardest part is that you can’t make a draft of a melody. You can only play it in mind. Or hum it. The next part is tedious yet productive: open the audio editor (I prefer PXTone). Hum the first note. Play a random note with the editor. Compare them. Pick another one that will be closer. Do it until the sound will match. Place the note. (If you really don’t know what the “half note” and “quarter note” is, better make all the notes the same length) Do the same to the next note. Yes, it’ll be a bit tedious. But I prefer making short loops.

Random joke: How do you call somebody who participated in compo? A composer.

If you are not a writer.

If you want to make a good plot it’ll be hard. But here is 1 rule: ask the player a question. Preferably about life. Like: “Are fame and fortune worth achieving?”, “Can a weak one survive in a strong world?” and tell the player your opinion as you play. For example, tell about life of a businessman, who works hard to make money, lives a luxurious life and then gets abandoned because he had a bad character. It will be a good plot.

Then use the above-mentioned algorithm to make a plan of the most important events. Like: Event 1: a man sees the life of rich people and wants to be the same. Event 2: he works hard to become rich. Event 3: he starts a lazy thoughtless life. Event 4: he becomes a bankrupt, everybody abandon him. Event 5: he returns home very poor.

Then add some less important events. And so on.

If you are not a martial artist.

Call servicing.

So, go on and make something you haven’t made before for the upcoming miniLDs!

I made a post-compo version of my game, “Shipwrecked“. I did not change the gameplay, but I made the interface more user-friendly.

Change list:

• Stats are now always shown to the right.
• Feedback is now displayed on the top.
• New hotkeys: QE/12 for using actions, spacebar for closing a window.
• Help addition.
• Pop-up help.
• Shafts are 25% more steady. Deposits bring 2 times more material.
• In dungeons the amount of monsters nearby is displayed on top.

I planned to make the help system similar to MCX360′s one (Minecraft for Xbox 360), and it’s now even more similar.

(You still can suggest things)

I rated 100 games so far. It means I have a gold coolness medal! (Dogbomb will have a tough time reviewing games that got a gold coolness medal )

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ        Rating        ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I liked the new judging system. Before to get a lot of rating you either had to make a great game or make many eye-catching posts, and now you only have to rate other games. Democracy! At first I was surprised that my entry often appeared on the front page.

I had the idea of breaking the code that calculates Default from Rating and Coolness, but I couldn’t. If anyone is interested, here is 125 example combinations of D, R and C: (Excel file). Separated values have 100+ coolness. Graphs show the values, the third one shows values for D=51. Two lines, huh?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ        Games of choice        ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

(Images are clickable)

1st favourite: Memento XII. This game have a great gameplay, great graphics and a great story. A must-play for fans of interactive fiction, and for other people as well.

2nd favourite: Tinysasters. A fun and enjoyable strategy game with amazing visual effects. It’s a great experience even if you are bad at strategy games because of adjustable difficulty.

3rd favourite: Walker. A platformer game that will keep you busy with clever gameplay and 12 levels to pass. It is based on a world within road signs and has cool sound effects.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ        Criteria        ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Before I rated games almost randomly. Then I compared games and ratings I gave them and was unhappy with the results. So I came up with criteria. They are based on a simple principle: many games get 3/5. A little less games get 2/5 and 4/5. Even less games get 1/5 and 5/5. This way especially good and especially bad games are highlighted. Every little thing in some category guarantees that it’s higher than 1/5; I call 5/5 “Bullseye”, aka flawless. And don’t be afraid to compare games if you are unsure what rating to give. Don’t be mean, best games have to have at least 4/5 (which means it must have some 5s as well).

Overall: There are rather much things that can affect it, but generally it’s the sum of the work done and the impression created.

1: Crap        2: Playable        3: Good        4: Great        5: Top N favourites

Innovation: Things that you can’t think of. Nothing more to tell.

1: Nope        2: Nothing new        3: A new game        4: Original        5: An invention

Fun: Based on the impression you got, how much did you go into the game and how did your mood change after you played the game. If the game made your day, don’t rate its fun low.

1: Too bad        2: Poker face        3: Mood went up        4: Wow        5: Awesome

Theme: How did the game fit the theme. And if you could create the same game that will fit another theme, like changing text a little, it’s bad (2/5 to be precise).

1: Offtopic        2: Fits the theme        3: Based on theme        4: Great/Unexpected        5: Outstanding use

Graphics: How the game looks. It doesn’t have to be good drawings, great visual effects are also counted as great graphics.

1: Crap        2: Done        3: Nice graphics        4: Beautiful        5: Masterpiece

Audio: Music and sounds. If game has no audio, don’t hurry with rating 1: perhaps for some reasons you don’t hear it (Popular amongst web games). Note that full audio only brings a rating of 3.

1: Nope        2: A bit        3: Fully done        4: Nice audio/Nice use        5: Awesome audio+Awesome use

Humor: How funny the game is. I noticed that LD games rarely make me laugh, even if they are funny and I got all the jokes, so be cautious about this one.

1: Nope        2: Supposed to have        3: Funny        4: Made you laugh        5: ROFL (Rolling On Floor Laughing)

Mood: Check emotions you had after the game. The game can be creepy, thrilling or mysterious, but if you sat with poker face, mood isn’t very high.

1: Nope        2: Supposed to have        3: Has mood        4: Nice mood        5: Deep stuck inside yourself.

The final word about rating: make your own criteria. If it’ll be the same for everybody, rating will be very monotonous.

So, if you haven’t rated 100 games yet, keep rating!

If you ever wondered how to play my LD entry, Shipwrecked, I show you how do I play it.

I cut out many parts due to 15min limit. I found out that dungeons consume the most time.

(No music )

I made a timelapse for my LD entry, Shipwrecked!

I’m working on a play-through. Can anyone advice how to fit it in 15 mins? I have a 28 min (I didn’t expect my game to take so much time) video, should I increase its speed (can anyone advice a program to do it)? Or should I delete some parts?

This is a post-mortem for my Ludum Dare game, Shipwrecked! This time LD went more successful than the previous time. I made a better game and it took less time.

What went right:

• I did it! It was my first random-generated game and I did it!
• Graphics: I’m not an artist but with such a minimalistic game graphics weren’t a problem
• Music: I got used to music. I think I can compose rather good!

What went wrong:

• Bugs: I had lots of them because of complicated coding. But I managed to fix them!
• Testing: Random fact: I never passed this game. I just had not enough time.

What I learned:

• Random generating, of course! It isn’t that hard.

It was a nice weekend. I accepted the challenge and I did it!

Timelapse and walkthrough shall be done after.

I’ve done my game! I’ve got a new player btw:

I also made music. I’ll write a post-mortem tomorrow.

Play it!

I’m almost done! Hurray!!! Kittens and ROUSes includen!

Here is the screenshot of the most important part: tutorial!

It’s not really a tutorial. It’s wiki-like – you click a tile and you can view information about it.

I’ve beaten all the bugs and made a dungeon minigame!

It’s played with map covered with fog of war (yes, this time it’s a war) just like a minesweeper. And there are kittens. Not too much, but you can stroke them!

Who wants minigames? I have some!

In this minigame you must delete adjacent gems to earn material! There also will be dungeon minigame, which is similar to minesweeper, but you only can move (and uncover tiles) 1 tile per turn, so you can’t jump over monsters (Which are going to be ROUSes). (Can anyone gimme a ROUS version without +?)

I’m very happy because I made game gameplay! It isn’t everything I planned, but you can:

1. Move
2. Collect resources
3. Build and destroy
4. Mine
5. Craft tools
6. Eat
7. Sleep
8. drumroll… Level up, gain skill points and spend them!

And I made up a name! It’s “Shipwrecked”! You even have a ship in “Medium” difficulty (Yes, I made difficulties, too)

I still have a lot of thing left to do!

Actually I’m surprised by how fast I’m going.

I’m progressing, I’m progressing! I gotta hurry, cuz I am going for compo! Yay!

So I made interaction and stuff.

I made a fog of peace, moving and… building! You can build a house, or a shaft, or pillage a dungeon (not really, you can only press “pillage” button)

It’s noon and I’m making a game. It’s a tilebased minecraft-inspired PRG/strategy hybrid. And it’s randomly generated! It’s my first randomly generated game!

I didn’t give it a name yet. I thought about naming it “Tinycraft”, but I’m afraid Notch’s game will have this name.

I was too upset about Ludum Dare. And when I’m upset I need to do soemthing.  Like plasticine modelling. So I made this plasticine guy:

Meanwhile I made lots of other things. I took a photo of my mouse pad:

And tested my Chronolapse (light at the end of tunnel):

Gonna turn in now, because I’ll have to wake up early.

I managed to make a LD warmup entry! You got thrown kicked into a shaft. Escape it! Don`t think it`ll be easy, because you cannot jump! You are just a ball after all. There`ll be lots of puzzles. Swimming up the tube? It`s here! Manipulating a claw? It`s here! Blowing up mining trucks? Here, too! Looking for a cake? Also here! Go play it here!

And I`m disappointed by themes. There is no kittens!!!!!

I doubt I’ll be able to do warmup now. I had very much to do, I’m stressed now and I’ll be busy until Friday. I don’t think I’ll even do warmup in Friday! (Because I have some evil plans for Friday. Mwhahahaha!) So I’ll enter LD not warmed up. And that’s when my Chronolapse isn’t working! And I want to sleep. I can’t imagine myself being OK during LD. And it starts in 4 days.

(Why would you read it anyway?)

Have a nice LD everybody! Make sure to sleep well before it and do a great warmup!

It`s my fifth LD (second not-mini LD), and I`m in! (I`m having 3 competitions this month) What I`ll use:

Coding: PhYard

Graphics: GIMP

Audio: sfxr, PXTone, Audacity (maybe GP5)

Timelapse: Chronolapse (Last time I tried to use it it didn’t work, so I`m not 100% sure)

I`m not sure will I participate in compo or jam. That`ll depend on how much will I do in 2 days.