Well, this Ludum Dare 48h Compo – being my first one – is officially over (go jammers, go)!

My contribution is a small game called Exciting Electrons, in which you shoot photons at  electrons in order to excite them.
Exciting them is not really the aim of the game though, rather the electrons falling back down the energy levels – emitting photons as they do – is the effect you’re after. Specifically having them emit photons with wavelengths between certain values is the goal.

Each level has at least one wavelength goal – broad or narrow, in the visible spectrum or outside it – and they’re modelled after real life values.

My experiences from this venture are several. Firstly, plan more before hand or chances are you’ll do more refactoring that you want to. Had I integrated the GUI lib I used from the start then I would probably have gained an hour or more for more fun things.

Also, concentrate on game play before effects and other things or you risk not having time to get your game play as complete as you want it (though I doubt many first-time-LD:ers do get them as complete as they want).

Lastly, go wild, don’t be afraid to set some time off to try new things – you’ll learn something from it and that’s the most important part of this competition as I see it (and of course to have fun!). I decided to try and make a custom GLSL shader (used for the “spectrum” part in the gui) and I learned much from it.

Exciting Electrons ended up only having two levels, as I ran out of time and there are several things I want to improve and I will.
The game will probably be a mini-game in a larger game I’m working on (in a team) and so it will get developed further. It might also get released as a separate mini-game, perhaps interesting for schools to learn about physics by playing a game.

All in all, it was a most rewarding experience and I look forward to future Ludum Dare’s.
Thanks to all you other competitors and the great games you made (and will make)!

Exciting Electrons