So here is what I think of my game :

Graphics
I thought graphics were the strongest part of the game as they were the parts I spent most time perfecting (to my style). It may be really common to have that style of tiles or whatever but I really wanted to have a go at creating a low-res game and I thought they were okay at the end.

If I had more time though, I would of spent even more time on the graphics. I would of probably made the tiles 16×16 so I could add more detail in and maybe add more effects.

Gameplay
The gameplay was bearable in my mind, it wasn’t too complex(well I don’t think so), and I didn’t try and make it really hard for the player either. But I have a long way to go with gameplay ideas, as this is my first ever game, so it won’t be great.

I had this idea in mind a few hours into the competition and just sort of went with it, and I hope people liked it as I did. But I do think over time, I will understand more about game design and level design so they will get better in the future.

Sound
The sounds in the game were pretty much rushed because I wanted them in the game, but didn’t have enough time to perfect them. This also goes with the music, if I done it again I would of spent maybe an hour longer on this to make sure it suited the mood.

Cross Compatibility
I thought I had this under control, as I knew LOVE2D would work on Mac, Windows and Linux. But for some reason when I was compiling some windows users were having trouble playing. As far as I could tell from researching the problems it was to do with old integrated graphics and some could be probably fixed by updating the drivers. But oh well, maybe next time I’ll properly test an engine before I do another 48hour competition.

Overall
Mainly, I think the game went well because as I said it is my first game and to me any good comment makes it worthwhile. I did it to try and help me learn LOVE2D better and it did! The idea of Ludum Dare is very effective and helped me more in them 2 days more than my whole time with the engine.

So that’s what I think of my game,and maybe if you haven’t checked it out yourself you can do a quick play now?

Play Here.

Just a small town boy. Livin' in a LONELY world.

This is my first Ludum Dare attempt ever. Before I didn’t have the time, courage, or I straight-up forgot. Anyways, account is made here and I’m in the process of making a neat little game for the theme. I hope to do well and get something out in time!

Here’s an early screenshot:

- Sounds like a great idea! Pity I only knew of its existence since last night. At T-14 hours until the theme announcement -  I walked into the Ludum Dare world, and was instantly impressed/excited/interested. I came across this whole thing from Notch’s twitter feed, and remembered seeing his amazing entry into Ludum Dare 18 earlier in the year (except at that time I had no idea what it was, and was too busy to really look into it)

The community vibe is great, I spent last night looking around the site, getting more and more pumped about the contest about to unfold and made certain I would keep tabs on its progress to see how it all worked, in preparation of Ludum dare 20 next April (which I planned to be my first attempt) But here I am now, about to get into this current contest. Pretty exciting to be able to go up against some major game designers.

Why?

- As soon as the theme went up and as soon as I got some time off work to check it, I was hooked. It took me a matter of minutes to work out the game I wanted to make, and once you get that little spark going theres nothing you can do to stop it. I mean its hour 38, Ive just had a super busy day, tomorrow will possibly be busier, but I really want to get something done for this, even with terrible time constraints. Im sure Im not the only one only just getting started.

Who am I?

-My internet name is AD-Edge, my real name is Alex Delderfield. Im from Australia, Im 21, Im studying Computer Graphics and Programming at University. (That covers just about everything)

Ive been writing/drawing stories since before I can remember, making 2D/3D animations in the past few years, and in particular focusing a lot on games. My tools of choice so far have been opensource and Im strongly a part of the Blender community as Blender is my primary tool.

My game!?

-Well the first thing I thought of when the theme was announced was the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Thats what the game will be based apon and I saw someone post saying that they hoped someone would do a game like this (I havent seen anyone else with this idea yet, lots of space stuff, but not space shuttles exactly)

In the game you are in control of Discovery, from T-2:00 mins on the launchpad, it will be your mission to get Discovery into the air and in particular, if your lucky and somewhat skilled with a tendency not to explode – space. There will be a mission to do once you get into space, one which involves a discovery of some sort (double discovery!!). I would like to do a landing part to the game as well when you return to earth, but Im trying to keep this thing short (I dont even know if Ill get up to getting this thing off the ground – haha D:)

If I have time I might attempt a landing part (but I really dont think Ill get that far). But theres always time after the contest to add these things.

What will I use for my game?

-Firstly (and obviously) – Blender.

For my first Ludum Dare I had a gut feeling to do something purely from code, some oldschool retro 2D platformer. But jumping into this one headlong I feel like I should stick to something Im fast with and have had plenty of experience with. So the Blender game engine (BGE) will be my engine of choice, a very much under-appreciated game engine in my opinion. Its not exactly UDK, not at all, but in the right hands some pretty cool stuff can be created. And lets face it, making games in BGE can be extremely fast (perfect!)

-I will also use Python for the scripting (thats what BGE uses)

-Gimp for all 2D texture needs.

-Audacity and maybe pysound for sfx control.

Anyway, next post Ill have a space shuttle to show, maybe more (lets hope)

Id love to hear comments, or other questions etc! Looking forward to getting to know this community better, and of course seeing some awesome games!

-ADEdge

*Edit* Wow, post turned out longer than I thought, hope this isnt too long… :/

j)lDolBPZ^0)

The first is Dage. I’ve been playing around with it for a few days now, and even though the odds of me getting to make a 3D adventure game are hard, I’d certainly embrace the chance to use my recent experience.

I’m also not above Unity, if the trial is viable.

No matter what I use to assemble the game, though, I’ll be using Blender, Photoshop, and Notepad++ for the majority of modeling, texturing/art, and writing, respectively. I know that I’m a bad egg and should use GIMP–but, hey, I like Photoshop’s interface better. If I wind up with Dage, I’ll also have to use Max in my pipeline, another evil, commercial program.

As far as my experience in other areas, I’ve tried a few compos, followed more than a few, but never made a real entry. I’m determined to sneak one into this LD. I’m pretty experienced with Construct, Blender, and Photoshop, and I’m just learning other techs like Unity and Dage. I grasp programming concepts pretty well (Event Sheets in Construct come almost naturally to me), but I fail pretty hard at actual programming (even XNA is beyond me). I like it that way. I like that in this modern day and age, there’s a bunch of technologies (Construct, MMF, AGS, Wintermute) that allow you to script an entire game without programming it. I like that many things are set up for you, and I like WYSIWYG. There’s nothing wrong with WYSIWYG in my book–if you can create something totally awesome, it doesn’t matter by what means.

Anyway, that’s me. Sorry for being wordy. I can’t wait to participate, honestly. I’m sure I’ll be dreading my decision in about 144 hours.

“Advancing Wall of Doom”?!

Last night when “Yo Dawg” was in the top 5, I started planning for the worst case scenario and actually came up with a pretty good idea for it – some kind of Warioware mini-game affair where our protagonist must race against the clock to make a game with a “Yo Dawg” theme and halfway through realises that he can make a game about making a game about making a game about…

But anyway, I sort of have an idea for the Advancing Wall theme. I’m about to start scribbling on paper and flesh out the design.

So, here are my weapons of choice this time around:

• Python 2.6 – such an awesome language
• PyGame – really does take the “C++” out of game development
• pythonutils – a library I have lying around with some basic utility classes
• Eclipse IDE with PyDev plugin – people tell me to learn Emacs but having written Java for so long I just can’t part with my IDE
• Graphics Gale – best thing I know of for creating animated sprites
• GIMP – for any CG artwork I might need
• GoldWave – for editing sound effects
• Cakewalk Sonar – if I actually get time to rustle up some music for this one
• SFXR – Dr Petter’s incredible sound generator tool – like MsPaint for sound effects
• Pen, paper, food, maybe even sleep!