The usual pride before a fall:

Ludum Dare Mini 31: Fear – Team and preparation

That mentions our little ‘barebones’ framework we’ve made for our LD entry, and a tiny bit about our team members.

It seems the audio and video kind of lose sync when youtube transcoded it – the original was about 40 seconds longer and somehow it got squashed.  Most atypical of Googlers.  Hmm.   Anyway, excuses aside, its understandable.  Mostly.

I trimmed off a spoiler describing what we’re going to build; I’ll post that and timelapse and stuff when we start our 48hrs, which will be Friday evening European time.

“Mr War” hasn’t much free-time this weekend so he’s been putting some of his 48hrs in in advance.

Shameless blog promotion: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/

Hi all, Just updated the online map editor app im developing. v0.3-beta:

- Fixed several UI bugs
- Added unit selector for tile size
- Added status pannel and tile info
- Added default tiles for demo use
http://www.callidusrex.com/mapper

After using my Ludum Dare account for a few weeks now, I’ve been noticing a few weird things… If anyone can help me (and others with the same problems) please don’t be afraid to speak!

1. Association With WordPress.com And Gravatar.com

• I tried logging in to wordpress.com with the account I created for Ludum Dare, but it was saying someone else owns the username So for some reason either the Ludum Dare account is completely different from a wordpress account (which makes no sense, being that I’ve seen those people running around with avatars ) or the password is not being accepted from wordpress for some reason.
• The Home Page on LudumDare.com/compo says “Add an avatar – gravatar.com, use same email”. So I did. And it didn’t work. Because it said I didn’t have a “wordpress account”.
• Instead I created a separate wordpress (using wordpress.com and not ludumdare) account with the same email.
• I got into gravatar using the wordpress account, and changed the avatar, but it didn’t change my ludumdare account’s avatar (No surprise there)
• I tried logging into LudumDare with the wordpress account, and it failed.

Suspicion: I think for whatever reason, LudumDare accounts are just not compatible with WordPress accounts.

What Could Be The Fix: That “WordPress 3.3.1 is available!” always bugs me. Maybe because Ludum Dare does not have the latest wordpress, the accounts are no longer working with each other.

Question: How did you people out there get avatars? How can I log into WordPress with my Ludum Dare account?

2. Video Embed HTML Code not working

• I tried to embed a video by going into HTML mode and pasting the HTML code that YouTube gives you to embed. It didn’t work, all I got was empty space.
• I tried the “Old Embed Code” and it had the same problem.
• I tried the visual edit view and clicked “Add video with URL”. It gave a link to the vid, which was not the embed I wanted.

Suspicion: Ludum Dare’s HTML is outdated or is not compatible with the standard YouTube embed code.

What Could Be The Fix: Whatever code other people use to embed videos should be public or on the ludum dare home page. OR, Ludum Dare needs to update or make sure their HTML code is working properly.

Question: How did you people out there embed videos? What code did you use? Is there an easier way besides code?

3. Visual Edit for adding pictures and videos are messy

• I’ve added pictures into a post before, using URL, but they came out stretched and distorted.
• Instead of adding pictures using URL, I added them from the computer, and they came out perfectly.
• The “Add Video” button for URL, as I said before, just gives a link to the video. I don’t know what happens if you upload a video from your computer, but definitely the easiest way is to do it from YouTube or another site.

Suspicion: The Visual Edit mode needs to be updated, or fixed, or made easier to use.

What Could Be The Fix: Updating WordPress.

Question: How did you people out there make your titles in a larger font and make your pictures not distorted, to the side, and embed videos? (The last one being the most important)

Sorry if that seemed a little noobish, but I am a noob at heart, and the best way to get help is to ask the community!

Please comment, and thanks for the help in advance!

EDIT: Gravatar problem fixed, you need a wordpress account with the same e-mail as your ludum dare account. (Thanks Chaoseed)

Video embedding is solved thanks to matthias_zarzecki. “The video-embed-thing drove me mad when I tried to figure it out. Turns out just adding the link into the text automatically creates the embedded video.”

I’m trying to do a study on what aspects make a game fun (and specifically how that works with the Ludum Dare), but I need to get a good sample size in order to do that. Since this community is likely interested in the results of this and also are the judges in the Ludum Dare, people here are ideal for this. I would very much appreciate it if you took 3 minutes of your time to follow the instructions on the following page:

EDIT: Thanks for all your data folks! I’ll see if I can make meaning of it…

EDIT 2: Didn’t get conclusions. Probably need more data and better experiment.

Hello,

My name is Kaylin. I’m an independent game designer looking to create a game exclusively for Kongregate. I have been designing this game for 3 intensive month in advanced to this post, Here is a little background information on what the game is about and a small description on the game play aspects:

Story:

Traced is a hacking type game set in a cyber-punk world where player plays a Grey Hat hacker. SecuDrone Industries has been an established company for some time; putting security programs in every major business and home system. Recently though, there have been reports of computer viruses and power surges worldwide. Evidence points to SecuDrone Industries as the culprit. In a bout of vigilantism the player will be tasked with the choice to either Defend Secudrone Industries by eliminating the evidence, or by investigating them in order to uncover the truth.

Aesthetic:

Visually, the game will look like a normal computer screen with a “special” program created by the player loaded into it that renders hacking easier. The graphics will be minimal, as most of the files and nodes will be represented as primitive shapes.

Gameplay:

Visualize a computer screen that displays the world map with different blips on it indicating “server spaces.”

Upon entering this server space the player will be presented with a number of servers to choose from.

Upon choosing a server they are taken to an objective screen that explains the files they need to retrieve from the server. After that they’ll be sent to the outside server view window which will look like a smaller circle (indicating the player) hovering above a larger circle, indicating the server they are about to crack.

After entering a series of commands oto learn information about the server, find its weak points, and ultimately crack into the server, they will be taken into the server’s mainframe.

The mainframe will be presented as a maze where the files are hidden. While going through the maze to find said files they’ll have to avoid the “SecoDrones” that will be patrolling the server. As the player moves through the server they’ll drop little squares called “Logs.” that can be detected by the Secudrones.

If the SecuDrones detect a log they’ll follow it in order to find the player’s point of entry, or “Trace” (picture pacman if you will). If they find the point of entry then the player will be booted from the server resulting in a lost port to crack. Three loses results in a game over. After successfully finding the file the player will enter backtrack mode where they must re-trace their steps and “delete” the logs from the server. once they’re out, the whole process begins again but with another chosen server.

Artist:

• Requirements: Experience, punctuality, and willingness to cooperate with other team members.
• Task:Even thought the art is minimal in this game, it needs to be stylistic, something that though primitive is easily distinguishable. The artist will be tasked with creating the graphics of the game.

Level Designer:

• Requirements: Experience, Willingless to Cooperate with other team members
• Task: This game has over 50 levels each of these mazes will span the size of a 8.5×11 inch piece of paper (2,550 × 3,300 pixels). The level designer will work closely with the game designer to create levels that will not only enhance game play experience but also bring out elements of the story.

Programmer (x2):

• Requirements: Knowledge of Flash Action Script, Experience, Willingness to cooperate with team members.
• Task: This being a game mainly based on coding, Programmers are the glue of what will make this project come together. Programmers will work with the designer to design, create, code game play elements and mechanics in accordance to the design document.

Before I open up the forum to replies let me get some things out of the way:

Will you be working as well?: Of course I will be working as well. Along with designing and leading the project, I will be doing Music composition, Writing, and Programming.

How will this all work?: I’ve designed a schedule that consists of meetings and deadlines that will be explained to members who join.

What will I get out of all of this?: Having you help me on this project means a lot to me (this being my first big project), Ideally, I want everyone on the team to get an equal share of the revenue that the game generates.

The official start date of the project, or the first meeting will be on the 18th of January, 2012.

For more information email me at onemanproject@live.com.

Thank you very much for your time.

I’m currently in the process of producing a makefile to compile my (future) game. However, In my interest to target as many people as possible I would link to know the following:

1. What OS are you using? (Windows / Linux – Include which version if you so desire but it is not necessary)
2. Are you using 32Bit or 64Bit? (This is the biggy)

Hi All !

I just received my Ludum Dare Christmas gift ! The sender is Polm23 who doesn’t know what to send me so He looked at my LD21 submission which is Pastagus Fantasy. A crazy shoot’em up that is a tribute to Parodius and other amazing shmups. So He decided to offer me Gokujo Parodius on Super Famicom ! He also adds a weekly manga pre-publication magazine and some flyers of the mythic retro game shop the well named Super Potato.

His gift is just AWESOME ! Obviously like a lot of people here I’m a retro gamer and so a fan of Parodius games and I love receiving Japanese stuffs ! Fortunately I didn’t have this one and can’t wait any more to play it !

So once again a big thanks to Polm23 ! You are the best ! And here is a photo of what was inside the package.

Merry Christmas Everyone !

Some of you may remember a post I made at the close of LD21. In it I declared my intention to carry on with the game I started during the contest and to use its tech to create an online map editor tool that can be used to build maps for 2D tile based game engines. Well, the game hasn’t seen much attention but I haven’t been completely idle. The map editor is now complete enough to be useful, and a beta version is available online at http://www.callidusrex.com/mapper. I hope some of you find this tool handy, its in active development and comments/feedback/noise are more than welcome! I will be using this tool during my participation in LD22.

http://intermorphic.com/tools/mixtikl/index.html

Check it out. There is an iPhone app version as well as the desktop builds. I think it should be on the Tools page!

Hey people!

A few fridays ago we jammed a small iPad game in a single day here in the office. We managed to submit it to the Appstore and everything and it is out today!

The game is pretty strange so we wanted to make some strange trailers and therefore ended up spending a day on a boat.

Help us spread the word and let’s see how far we can take a one day production :)

Here is the result:

Trailer!
Watch on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/sybogames#p/u/0/4tBWlGc5VDg
Teaser 1: http://www.youtube.com/user/sybogames#p/u/3/DDs2GJm8GWM
Teaser 2: http://www.youtube.com/user/sybogames#p/u/4/Jy-QdJKJnXg

Appstore link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/fallingfriends/id474784061?mt=8

Tomorrow we’re releasing a small and weird game jammed in one day! Tomorrow we will release a weird trailer and do some more weird stuff.

We could really use some help to do some pre-marketing: http://www.sybogames.com/FallingFriends/friends.html

More stuff tomorrow! I promise weird and fun stuff.

Saturday evening I made a small christmas game with a friend. It’s far from done and I doubt that it will ever be more than a Saturday evening jam game

Here it is:

http://timgarbos.dk/Sneaky/

Notes: Quite bad level design. No difficult levels. (I will fix that).  You only have 2 clones, but I didn’t add any GUI to show you that

Awesome graphics by Pernille Sihm (http://www.pernillesihm.blogspot.com/)

So I ran the match-up script for the LD gift exchange 2011 and just sent out the mails to all the participants.

It’s 33 participants in total, and unfortunately some europeans got other europeans for a sendout. I hope though that the script ran just fine. I actually don’t know who got who for the gift exchange. I could look it up in the database, but that would be only half the fun.

So if there was any mistake with the match-up and you got someone from your own country, please contact me.

But so long, go shopping and send out the gifts until the 30.th of November.

CompoHub (which wrote about earlier) is finally fully open! It lists all kinds of game development events, like Ludum Dare, and optionally sends them to your feed reader too. Check it out if your interested!

I haven’t added all the features I’ve talked about but I may add them later. Contact me if you would like to update the content.

After the bad news that adobe announced last week, i want to share with the community my new flash game called “Course 2 voiture radiocommandée” (french game) . I hope flash will stay alive for long time.

With all the library out there the game took only 2 day to code, I used Flare3D for 3D and QuickBox2D for phyics. I like flash if you too,  just send #FlashIsNotDead on twitter

The game is in beta (only 5 level) to test if my visitors don’t have problem with Flash11..
Herre some screens of the game:

The game is in BETA (only five level, and one game mode you have to collect the coin in shortest time possible)
To test the game http://www.jeu-de-voiture.com/course+de+voiture+radiocommande.php

And Don’t forget FLASH is Not DEAD

P.S.: Sorry for my bad english .. I’m french

October challange is great since it encourages those of us that don’t always get ourselves focused to work in far more focused fashion. Now some of us didn’t finish oct challange for various reasons, others just couldn’t participate at all.

So we’re putting together the xmas club with a similiar goal, the plan is to work from the 16th of nov to the 15th of december (the day before the LD starts) and have something out making money by then. While similar in goals we’re hoping to be a bit more “tight” by having those who are trying to do something working together and pushing each other to acheive smaller goals on our way to the final goal.

Right now we’re a couple who sit on #xmasclub on irc.afternet.org so join up there . If you’re irc averse for some reason reply with your g+,twitter or similar profile here and hopefully we can get in touch.

Waiting patiently for LD22? How about a little challenge to help pass the time?

The challenge is to make one game per day for 10 days! All code/assets must be written new, but on day N you may reuse anything made on days 1 through N-1.

The reuse rule also extends to reusing assets made by other contestants, should they choose to make them public domain. Asset swapping is encouraged.

I would enjoy taking part in this if others are interested too, even if we devoted only 1-2 hours per day.

There are 30+ days before LD22, so take the game per day challenge whenever you like before then!

A few days ago I posted calling for entries into the 2012 IGF Pirate Kart compilation to be entered into the Independent Games Festival Main Competition! Now the Pirate Kart is all put together and uploaded!

319 games by over a hundred people! Quite a few Ludum Dare games are in it!

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed games and helped compile them! The process went much more smoothly than I ever would have expected it to!

Check it out! Play some crazy games! Maybe help seed the torrent!

VERY, VERY IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE:

I have to do a full citation!
Please send me an e-mail to richard.blechinger@hotmail.com, include your FULL NAME, OR your FIRST NAME and the FIRST LETTER of your LAST NAME, i.e “Johnny M.”, if you want to be kept anonymous.

That’s it. Now you can read the rest of the article.

You have 2 weeks.

Post anything you know about “indie”, answers to common questions, opinions, and more, I can convert any data.

• Do you think you could live off your hobby?
  Your definition of “indie” vs. “AAA”,
  Post-Mortems,
  Success (or terrible failure),
  Which language you use,
  Which IDE you prefer,
  Indie-Magazines,
  Articles,
  Games (Windows, or Flash/HTML5/Java),
  Examples of random code snippets (Commented if possible, please)
  ANYTHING.

It doesn’t have to be all too technical, because my classmates aren’t exactly computing geniuses. (Some random commented code snippets are okay, though. Just for showing them what’s going on behind the scenes)

Also, if I meet any of you on IRC while I’m slacking, I may ask stuff :p

There you go, bombard me, LD-Community!

I just realized that this is something Ludum Darers might care about and I better mention it here quick!

Yesterday on Twitter @bentosmile asked why there is no Pirate Kart for the IGF competition. (The Pirate Karts are compilations of tons of tiny games that we’ve done a few times now over at Glorious Trainwrecks Dot Com)

This was a VERY GOOD QUESTION.

So we are making one! All games welcome!

Here’s the event page over on GLORIOUS TRAINWRECKS DOT COM. http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/1966 with a little bit of a FAQ.

If you would like some of your games (made for a Ludum Dare or otherwise) to get into the IGF COMPO FOR FREE as part of this, send ‘em over via email: <mike at meyermike dot com> !!! (you might want to mention how I should credit you if it isn’t immediately obvious from the sender name) If this wasn’t so last minute we’d have set up some kind of submission form and tried to gather screenshots and descriptions, but even though this is kind of half-assed I think it’s a wonderful thing!

Deadline-wise: I’ll try to get everything in I can, but there’s conversion work I need to do for a bunch of them so as we near the IGF submission deadline on Monday night the odds of making it in get lower and lower. So try to get it to me by Sunday night if you can!

We have a lot of games already! I lost count somewhere around 120!!!

Spread the word!