So, I ‘competed’ in the last miniLD. That was my first experience of a gamejam, and it was fantastic. I’ve been looking at the big-boy’s proper full-on Ludum Dare for a long time, with dreams of entering. I think this is the one. 24 Here I come.

So, here we go:

I’m in.

I hope.

I could code all day long, but nobody else in the house understands. They don’t even know what a jam is, and what it means to me.  So, knowing my luck, the jam weekend will be the one where my mother decides to kick me off the computer or my brother decides he wants to spend all day playing his god-awful golf sim.

If it were up to me, I’d be coding for every one of the 48 hours.  But, life tends to jump in the way every time I try.

So, fingers crossed, hopes up, star firmly wished upon.

I’m in.

Hello everyone,

I made a mini-game called “Switch”. It was meant to be for the MiniLD 36 with the theme Contrasts, but I was busy then and could not get to work on the game. I still wanted to make the game though and I finished it today in Processing (I love Processing; almost no “housekeeping” code).

How to play: Move the mouse so that the green ball only travels on the white areas. Click to swap black for white and vice versa. Press ‘r’ to reset the game. Try to finish the track!

Here is a link: http://switch.netai.net/

Nat —||—

Hey there, LD! I took a break from game development for a while, but now I’m back and ready to rock.

I’m in for this month’s LD.

I’m going to be working on getting my personal game framework ready for the jam. Hopefully I can do it in time!

I’m probably going to try making a JRPG, since I’ve been fascinated by them lately. I’ve been playing Breath of Death VII and am going to start a game in Cthulhu Saves the World soon; you can get both of those in a pack on Steam for $2.99 USD, by the way.

So, that being said, I’m looking forward to this.

Did you miss me?

- Henry

First off i’m not affiliated with this company but i love they humor and they are looking for people.

So if you want make TRUE games tell them us

go on…im waiting…

i wanna see witch is the best *gif animated file out there…I NEED ARTWORK PPL!

I haven’t been a Ludum Dare’r for very long but what I have noticed is that the point of this isn’t winning. Ludum dare is an excuse to make a game for two days straight. Its a way to bring all Indie game makers together. Its a reason to try new tools and work different ways. I think of the rating system as a reason to play all the games people have put time into to create. There will be a winner, and it must be fun to be that winner, but thats not the only reason you should enter. So to sum up, Lets make a game, a fun game this Ludum Dare, because we can and because we should. The ratings are what they are, but the game you make will always be yours…

Every now and then I see someone tackle the discussion about voting and results, after thinking for a while here are my thoughts.

One of the main problem (right next to small number of votes == possible better scores) is that some voters like to give good ratings, while some doesn’t. You can imagine someone being a jerk and giving bad ratings to good games, and the opposite, someone who is way too nice and gives good rating even to bad games. I noticed this on my last entry (LD#22), where I quit halfway through and still some people gave medium ratings to my game.

To remedy this, maybe we could give ratings based on other rating by the voter. If someone gives a lot of games 2-3 stars, but gives a game 5 stars, it must mean that that game is somewhat better than the rest. On the other hand, if someone goes around giving 5 stars to a bunch of games, it’s possible that those games are not really worth 5 stars.

Two possible workaround would be: calculating the rating based on the position of the game in relation to other games the voter voted (if he votes for 3 games, giving 2, 3 and 4 stars, their real rating would be 1, 3 and 5 stars, or something like that) or letting the voter order his voted games from best to worst. I’m not sure if this would work out, and I know you guys will be able to find a lot of flaws in it

Another possible solution to the voting problem, and this would mean an overhaul of the voting system, would be to separate voting in phases. Every phase would last for a week, and during that week the voter would have to vote on 10 games for his votes to be considered. The first phase would have all games, randomly given to the voters. The next phase would have just a fraction of the games (something like the 500 best voted games), the third phase even less games (for example, 100) and the last phase would have the top 10 games to be voted. I believe this would make voting something a lot more exciting than just picking random games and hoping they don’t suck, and would also make people vote more, especially on the last phase where almost everyone would come to vote, since the games are somewhat guaranteed to be good.

I would like to hear comments from the community what things they do to help inspire their games, whether it would be doodling, staring at their favorite model, messing around with a laser pointer near a cat.  No comment here is too crazy or simple!

I played around with crossfilter a few months back, which is a neat library for filtering data across different metrics. I figured, the Ludum Dare statistics would be fun to visualize that way. So, not gonna go to deep into what this is and how it works, but here;

* Crossfilter, http://square.github.com/crossfilter/
* Ludum Dare 22, http://comicbookguy.kvisle.net/dump/ldcf/
* Ludum Dare 23, http://comicbookguy.kvisle.net/dump/ld23cf/

It’s just something I made for fun, and you can do whatever you want with it for what I care

Raw data:

* Ludum Dare 22, json encoded: http://comicbookguy.kvisle.net/dump/ldcf/minut.txt
* Ludum Dare 23, json encoded: http://comicbookguy.kvisle.net/dump/ld23cf/minut.txt

Have fun. And, I can’t guarantee that this is bugfree, but it looks OK at a first glance.

I think the rating system in Ludum Dare is not good (and in many other websites as well). I don’t know a better solution, but I think it is worthy thinking about this problem.

Let’s say there are 1000 submissions and 1000 reviewers.  If each submission receives a lot of reviews, then the average of the reviews will give a good estimation of the quality of the submissions.

However, if each reviewer only reviews a few submissions, each submission will only get a few reviews, which means that the average will yield a very poor and “noisy” estimation that doesn’t represent the opinion of the community as a whole.

This means that simply asking people to rate and averaging the rates is not a good idea in this case.

I suggest that we invite our mathematician friends to come up with a smarter and more elegant solution for this. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

//i hope you guys liked my previous scripts,for we shall be coding in GML. if you experince errors in the compiler
//like, “PROGRAM ENDS BEFORE END OF CODE” it means you have one too many programs. other than that lets get
//started shall we? this script is about players and handling with them. because its soo short we will
//throw in some more commands on messages.

//to see how many players are on a session,along with a certian name, you would do the following:
{
mplay_player_find();
mplay_player_name(a_number);
}

//note that in order to do this you MUST use mplay_player_find(),else it will not work.

//to find the ID of that certian player,use the following code
{
mplay_player_find();
mplay_player_id(a_number);
}

//now onto messages.messages are pre-programmed strings the will be sent to a player instance.
//but enough of that! lets get programming! lets start on a personal message sent to a player.
//it would look like this: (use 0 to send it to all players)
{
mplay_message_send(player,id,message);
}
//to make sure its sent to it,you would use the following code:
{
mplay_message_send_guaranteed(player,id,message);
}
//this next code will have you “recive” messages from other players: (use 0 for any message)
{
mplay_message_receive(player);
}
//now we can tinker with this abit.the next following code can be used to do diffrent things with the message:
{
mplay_message_receive(player);
mplay_message_id(); Returns the identifier of the last received message.
mplay_message_value(); Returns the value of the last received message.
mplay_message_player(); Returns the player who sent the last received message.
mplay_message_name(); Returns the name of the player who sent the last received message.
mplay_message_count(player); Returns the number of messages left in the queue from the player (use 0 to count all message).
mplay_message_clear(player); Removes all messages left in the queue from the player (use 0 to remove all message).
}
//there you have it! if your eager to see more code ill be happy to show you just simply post a comment
//down below and ill see how it goes!

im still working on some multiplayer games, and heres some more code for you to see (if you dident already see my previous code…):

//this piece of code is more or less about creating sessions. note that complilation errors will occur if you
//just copy and paste it onto here. this is because only one program or “{ & }” can be put at a time.
//and as such, i will try to limit my programs as minimal as possible, still keeping a good deal
//of debuged funtions as possible.

//to start a session, or what would be a server, you would do this:
{
mplay_session_create(name,player_amount,playername);
mplay_session_name(a_number);
}
//to find the amount of sessions avaible, and join, you would do the following:
{
mplay_session_find();
mplay_session_join(the_number,playername);
}
//note that the number may be 0. (the first session, IF avaible)
//to check the status of the session,along with witch connection your using, you wold do the following:
{
mplay_session_status();
mplay_connect_status();
}
//to easily end the session,along with a message, all you must do is this:
{
mplay_session_end();
show_message(either connection lost or the game session has ended.);
}
//to display it as a bug,do the following
{
mplay_session_end();
show_error(the game has ended and/or crashed.,abort);
}

ok ive gotten a bit TOO eager about multiplayer games, and i made a post containing GML code that will show what my game will look like:

//this connection is made for ipx connections
{
mplay_init_ipx();
}

//this is another for TCP/IP and its a bit more complicated…
{
mplay_ipaddress();
//to show the ip address is completely OPTIONAL and is NOT recommended,unless its in a separate room.
mplay_init_tcpip(address_here);
}

//heres one for modem connection,as you only need to enter your phone number
//note that the initilization string is left empty,witch is possible
{
mplay_init_modem(0,95155658066)
}

//finnaly, heres one for serial, witch is much more complicated and im only using this for demonstration.
{
mplay_init_serial(2,100,0,3,1)
}

//heres a short command to see wheather is returns successful
mplay_connect_status()

//and if the command above fails, the server will end to prevent bugs, or “crash”
if (false)
{
mplay_connect_status();
}
else
{
mplay_end();
};

//note that this code is VERY buggy and im leaving this open source.if you wish to debug it and repost it, im
//glad to do so. also note that certien pieces of code will not appear normally when i put it up, but will show
//normally in the compiler from where i typed it up.

OK so first off, i use gamemaker because i’m S*** with scripting languages, but i thought because gamemaker can support mutliplayer via GML (witch i gotten the hang of now) and can and will be releasing the link to my game for beta multiplayer witch will probably use a modem connection status for simplicity. but right now i cant find a place to post my game for the download page so ill update my status for now to give you the closer i have gotten to getting a publisher. for now however we can only wait for the best!        :D happy ludum everyone

.:UPDATE:.

-notes

- i CAN be using a IP/TCP address  if the modem fails to work, otherwise, i will make connection settings custom via 4 settings: IPX, TCP/IP modem or serial (MAYBE not sure though)

-also i will be making connection (SEE ABOVE) to the main server in a custom options menu that will appear when one selects mutiplayer, where they can choose between 4 options (not sure about serial though…) and then connect to 4 different main servers, depending on the chosen connection, each server compatible up to 16 players.

~ Mohammad Mohammad :3

Here are a few videos I put together showing progress of my game Vox…

http://www.facebook.com/VoxGame

This is a direct continuation of the voxel engine/game that I made for Ludum Dare #23.

Hope you like… feel free to ask me any questions or comments yo might have?

Alwaysgeeky

I just finished porting My Ludum Dare #35 (Originality) entry, Eternal Life, to Flash and yesterday I uploaded it to Kongregate…where it already has 329 plays!

What would happen if we could really live forever? Take a look at the answer with Death as your tour guide in this game made for Ludum Dare #35 (Originality) in 48 hours and converted to Flash as an exercise in learning the language.

Play it here!

http://www.kongregate.com/games/SkullSoft/eternal-life

Thanks to ThirdEyeWild for helping me with the Flash version!

Today the winners of the hack-a-jam were announced. I got the award ‘Game That Makes You Rage The Most’. I really liked the jam and I recommend it.
http://youtu.be/_fNEHNNEVds here’s the link for the timelapse I made. Downloadlink for the game is in the vdeodescription. I’m already looking forward for the next hack-a-jam. It was a great experience!

So, I made a Spaceship game called Cruithne (pronounced ‘croo-ih-nyuh’) for miniLD#36. I really loved making it, but on release, people said that it was more than a little bit too hard. I quote @Puzzlem00n here: “I like what you have going here, but this game is so hard it’s ridiculous”.

Sorry guys!

I’ve updated the game with smoother controls, weaker gravity, and a bit less thrust. You can play the updated version on StaticVoidGames.com here.

The new version has 3 new (relatively easy) levels (4, 5, 6), to make a grand total of 13ish. If you have any comments, criticism, or proclamations of your undying love, feel free to post them here, or tweet me @iandioch. Don’t be shy!

I might get around to adding another few levels sometime in the future, if you want. My convoluted code makes it a bit awkward, but I’ll suffer it if you ask nicely

Hope you enjoy the game!

-iandioch

Hi everyone!

Some of you played my game “Lab Lights,” the game I created for the miniLD #36.
Well if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a difficult puzzle game where you push around batteries, crates, TNT, and magnets with a main goal of lighting up all the lights in each of the 23 levels in order to get to the last room and turn on the generator!

You may play it on my site here:
http://www.zanzlanz.com/GamePage.php?n=Lab%20Lights

Here’s the link to the miniLD entry:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-36/?action=preview&uid=11407

Screenshot

So here’s what my feedback was like:
When I put it on Newgrounds, it got daily 3rd best flash submission and later front-paged for a few days!  A rush of reviews and comments appeared.  Many people loved the difficulty of the puzzles.  A few people mentioned how rare it is these days to find good puzzle games this hard.  A few people compared it with “Chips Challenge” and “Shove It.”  MDeathM (on Newgrounds) says, “All in all, a phenomenally challenging and engaging puzzle game. Thank you for this creation.”  These words are very nice and I can only thank Ludum Dare for challenging me to make it.
To my surprise, Ryry67dude (on Newgrounds) made an hour long let’s play of it (and rage-quit at level 17) the day after the release!  Here’s his video:
http://youtu.be/8GMa8hw5aJ8

Unfortunately though, not everyone enjoyed the difficulty level of it.  Many people got stuck on level 2 or 7.  Some players mentioned I fried their brains, heehee!

Since I recognize how hard these puzzles are (I describe it as brutal), I made a full walkthrough of all 23 levels.  Here’s the video:
http://youtu.be/XMvwN4WGut8
(You should subscribe to me as well )

Lastly, some people said I should make a sequel.  I was thinking about it lately, and I think it would be a good idea.  I have some new gameplay elements that would be cool to add (Lasers and mirrors, differently sized boxes, teleporters, and boulders).  If you have any ideas, I’ll be happy to hear them

Thanks for listening to my rambling, and thank you Ludum Dare for another fun experience!  If you want, you can rate and review the game in the comments on this post.
- Zanzlanz

Here is my game for the Mini-LD #36. The reason it is late is because the deadline date was during my holidays, so I had to start early, and submit late.

To say that this is only my second real game created in Java, I am pretty happy with the result.

I took Folis’s die to win idea, and the aim of the game is to get killed as quickly as possible to fill the bath full of blood.

Here are some screenshots:

Download Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v15nxnysi62tvom/Bloodbath.jar