After thirty hours of work, I can proudly say I finished my game for this Ludum Dare.

I called the game “Nothing is impossible”. Is a platform game where you must control two characters in a split screen, each screen represent the black and the white and this create a constrat between the character and the wall.

The game consist, as I said before, in the control the two characters dodging the boxes and stakes you will find in the way, all this while they run forward.

My intention was do the game very very difficult, but at the same time do a addictive game and I think I finally achieve.

But well, let’s cut the talk. You can find the game here.

Thank for read and play!

Sorry for no add potatoes, serious, i’m very sorry

So, spent lots of time and work on the sort-of-game idea I had for the theme. Math was involved and sketching occured, evidence can be found here:

All in all, I feel pretty good about how the game is coming along, haven’t started making it look good yet. Gameplay goes first.

If you want to try it out, there are two builds available here:
Windows 32-Bit build
Linux 64-Bit build

There are a couple of command line switches you can use:
-f Fullsceen
-b Rebind all controls before starting the main loop
-r WxH Specify resolution
-m 0-100 Specify music volume
-s 0-100 Specify sound volume

Standard controls are WASD, and if you’re using -b then you can bind to both keyboard and joystick controls. It’s been tested with both an original Xbox Controller S and the Xbox 360 controller.

Also, I know that something is strange about collisions, at times they don’t seem to register at all. This is a bug that I’ve spent too much time trying to track down, and so sort of decided to leave it there until it becomes a more pressing issue.

If you happen to have a 32-bit Linux system, then you could try to build the game yourself. The source is available on Github (C++) and it uses CMake to build, you might need boost and SFML 2.0 (Don’t know if the RC works since I’m using the latest git myself).
There’s a small issue with the CMakeLists file so you might also have to set Kunlaboro_BOOST to On in your cmake cache for it to build properly.

Hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this (And maybe even enjoyed what exists so far of the game). Please comment.

This is Ace, reporting to bed.

In Empire Reclaimed you play as a race of conquerors who have returned to an empire they abandoned centuries ago. Command Cortex Transport ships and deploy your fighters to decimate cities.

Linux build available too!

Just finished submitting my little game for the compo.
With 10 hours still in the clock, I could’ve probably still polished it, but some rest & laxin sounds nice since gotta go to work tomorrow

The game contains 3 minigames all of which are different criminal activities to gather money for the end goal.
I had really hard time coming up with the 3rd game (which ended being the credit card fraud one), but it worked out OK.

Not 100% satisfied with the game, it kinda needs some bigger game to wrap the minigames or give a reason for the minigames.
Now it feels bit glued on :/

Anyways happy that I finished since 2 last LD’s have been major fails on my part and couldn’t even submit anything.

The games submit page is here: link

And here’s a screenie:

Thanks everybody for awesome event, can’t wait to get my hands on all the games developed this weekend!

PS.
I had some issues with the screen capture software and Im not entirely sure if I can make a time-lapse, but atleast I will write a post mortem…

After I made my warmup game (play) here’s the obligatory I’m in post:

• Platform: Html5 Javascript
• Editor: gedit (code completion is for wimps)
• Frameworks: box2d, modified cocos2d-javascript, jquery
• Basecode: github-link
• Graphics: Gimp, Inkscape
• Soundeffects: sfxr, maybe bfxr
• Music: I’ll use autotracker.py as music generator. I’ve got a local copy in my repo, since the link form the original post is dead. Alternatives: DarwinTunes, Otomota, lmms
• Timelapse: neosam’s scripts, his ld-profile
• OS: GNU/Linux Ubuntu

Keeping with the ludum dare tradition, time to do a little analysis on what went right and wrong during my development this time!  Before I get started with that though, for one I’d like to apologize, normally i do this at the same time as my “100 games rated” review and best of list but unfortunately so far my review list, though not quite at 100, to be perfectly honest i just dont have that many games that really stand out yet, not enough to make a real list, so expect that some time in the next week or so as i revew more!  Secondly, my timelapse is now up, accompanied by a nice track of classical music as always, so please enjoy this.

Get on with it!

Right! postmortem! The point of this post, for starts, here’s the link to the competition page itself

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=7131

What went right:

• The theme: frankly i was dreading another dreary, artys/emo theme like “abandoned” winning again, those kinds of themes are simply NO FUN for us programmers and it’s horifficly hard to get a decent gameplay idea that’s not just bolting the theme onto the story/background. (I generally rate 1 on theme when people do that myself, as just tacking it on isn’t really “meeting” the theme)
• My engine: my game engine worked BEAUTIFULLY, a few minor fixes were needed after release but having a fully cross-platform engine set up and ready did wonders, so even though my idea made me write a full entity system and isometric renderer from scratch having windowing/input/state management/texture and memory management already taken care of made the task a lot easier
• My tools: the newest version of my sprite editor (available under the “tools” link at the right) worked like a charm, it made animating the modular sprites a breeze even for a crappy artist like me, this time around a lot of people have even said they LIKED my art style!
• Time: for the first time, I was actually able to be HOME on both days of ludum dare! So this was the first competition i technically actually had 48 hours to work in

What went wrong?

• Timing: This ludum dare took place on the first weekend college is in, in the middle of one of the hottest weekends of the year in southern california so of course we had rolling blackouts all day saturday, my UPS tried it’s best to keep my desktop running but i ended up with a few hours of downtime midday, losing a good 4-5 hours of development, I ended up having to cut features due to this
• Mouse control:  The game was meant to be controlled entirely by mouse using pathfinding, unfortunately due to being down most of the day saturday i ended up having to cut pathfinding or I wouldn’t have had time to make actual levels and art to play.  This made getting around corners somewhat tricky though thankfully still do-able (wasd also works as analternate, it was debug code though and not the way the game was meant to be controlled so it’s a little jumpy)
• No way to restart: Another feature i had to cut due to time was resetting the player after he dies to restart (the levels already reset, only the player needed to reset) so i was forced to put just a simple game over screen when you die
• Lame ending: Another cut feature, I was going to make a better image to show when you get to the end and to thank you for playing but again, due to playing catchup for saturday a lot of art had to be cut, so all you get now is a blurb of text for the temporary ending
• not all evolutions have artwork:  my game actually tracks a LOT of statistics when you’re evoloving, over 2000 combinations are actually possible but only a tiny portion make visible changes due to my inexperience in isometric art that’s not geometric in nature and lack of time. There is no distinct skin/leg/ear/or fang graphics for the other features that evolve, only general body type, head type, and back type are actually shown
• needed a statistics readout window:  I really needed a window to show your current statistics, the “overall” statistics modified by your current evolution status are  attack/defense/speed/flight/poison/and vision, a lot of people had trouble in the caves because they did not kill enemies outside first that would buff their defense before starting to fight the much tougher bats and spiders inside

And to close out, here’s a short gameplay video of how it all turned out!

I’ll start with the part that’ll interest more people….now that I’ve rated 150 entries, here are my top 7! (in no particular order)

Bottlecolonies By tcstyle : A clever little strategy/puzzle  game, the art direction is great, the sound both fitting and awesome, and the gameplay itself is solid and complete…a joy to play

Nanofactory By JustinMullin: A solid puzzle game about a nanobot assembling widgets, a little hard and cryptic at first but the puzzles are both simple and clever

ANT SURF HERO: THE SURFENING By Jigxor:  A refreshing change from the massive number of dull uninspired platformers,  aside from a few physics issues it’s really fun,  and riding on top of the ant is amusing to say the least.

Housefly By dacap: You play as a fly on a mission: to get back outside!  It’s a short but very immersive adventure game with solid controls, great visuals and sound…its hard to describe but the flight control feels “right” for a fly. Very fun.

Recluse By chambers: You play as a snail with a neckbeard in a “metroidvania” type game….but with a twist.  Easy 5/5 for innovation personally, I don’t want to ruin it by the starting room is misleading and it quickly introduces one of the most unique gameplay mechanics i’ve ever seen. (even if it is mostly a gimmick…it fits the theme very well)

Hero of Rain By 31eee384: Extremely incomplete but what there is of it is very enjoyable, the story is both fitting and interesting, the gameplay is for the most part pretty good (though touchy at parts). All around a good feel to this game.

Fusion Time! By NeiloGD: A simple but solid arcade-type game where you fuse atoms in a sun.  Theres not much too it but the explosions and strategy of timing the fusing makes it surprisingly fun to play.

Please try these out if you havent! Most still have a pretty low number of ratings and could use some more love! Also, <shameless plug> I really wouldn’t mind a few more tests on my entry as well, it’ll be linked below with the timelapse and postmortem</shameless plug>

Post-Mortem:

First off, here’s the link, try it out yourself and let me know what you think!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=7131

I have to say…I had more fun with this theme than I would have thought, it was a lot easier to make a game that fit the theme but was still….you know…a GAME..than it was for “alone” (LD22)

What went right:

•  My game Idea! I came up with it MUCH faster this time and IMHO it’s a much more fun game than my 22 entry
•  My cross-compilers were already set up, saving me a lot of time testing the windows build
• Using my sprite editor (listed in the tools section to the right) I was able to do what little spriting I needed very quickly with decent results, it was MUCH easier than trying to do it in GIMP (great editor….not so good for animating)
• I planned fairly well what I would have time to do,  I was complete (though had to cut a few units) and able to submit before the rush.
• Deciding early to render with opengl instead of plain SDL was a good call,  I ended up abusing it quite a bit to scale/recolor graphics & text (SDL can do it but it’s so slow it would be near unplayable..).  Having recently written a LOT of OpenGL code also it was pretty fresh in my mind and I was able to painlessly get it up and rendering.

What went…welll…not quite as right:

• Once again, LD fell on a weekend I had to be gone quite a bit, I wasn’t home on saturday till nearly 6pm, so I lost a good 18 hours of copetition time there (seriously, i had NOTHING planned that couldn’t be moved for like.. a month prior and a month after…only that one day)
• I had to take care of some stuff outside friday and was EXHAUSTED after the theme was announced, ended up losing even more time by going to bed early. (though i did finish a opengl renderer + sound system before then)
• I had a OpenGL/SDL/Angelscript based game engine I’ve been working on for quite some time that I was going to use so I could concentrate more on game code….unfortunately I had some last minute issues and there was no way I’d get a windows build of the engine working in time, so I had to change plans and just write a renderer/sound/input engine from scratch during the competition.

And of course, here is the timelapse video! (with soothing music added)

Posted a Linux version video demonstration.

Still doesn’t tell you how to win, but that’s kind of the point.

Wow, NME works great thanks all people working on NME/haXe.

So I have submited my game and it is working on:

• Android (http://games.corne.info/LD/LD23/release/dist/astronautics-android.apk)
• Linux (http://games.corne.info/LD/LD23/release/dist/astronautics-linux-x86.tar.gz)
• Windows (http://games.corne.info/LD/LD23/release/dist/astronautics-windows.zip)
• HTML5 (http://games.corne.info/LD/LD23/release/)
• Flash (but the stars on the background) (http://games.corne.info/LD/LD23/release/dist/astronautics-flash.swf)

Not tested but compiled:

• WebOS (http://games.corne.info/LD/LD23/release/dist/astronautics-webos.ipk)

Not able to compile but probably working (Thanks Apple)

• iOS
• OSX

What went well:

haXe + NME, the cross platform compiler + its graphical friend. I never thought I would be able to deliver so much version of my game without having to change anything in the code (except for a -1 to 999999 for the HTML5 version). During this two days I was compiling to random targets and if something didn’t work on a version I didn’t have to check a very long script. And a few times it saved me from code that wasn’t correct. On some platforms it did work, but on one platform it got some problems so I knew something wasn’t right.

Inkscape, I didn’t know that I could draw planets so nice. I impressed myself this weekend (thanks LD).

What went wrong:

I think the game has still some memory leaks. But I’m not able to fix that in time, IF i’m even able to fix it. It is possible that it is a bug in NME. And second, my code is a mess. Long time no scripting didn’t make it better.

But I really like the product I have made this weekend.

OSX/iOS

If someone one a mac knows how to use haXe + NME. Could you please download the source (http://games.corne.info/LD/LD23/release/dist/astronautics-source.tar.gz) and compile it for iOS/OSX?

My entry: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=4506

I finaly have a playable version of the game Now I only have to fix some bugs and than I can add additional stuff.

You can play the HTML5 version here: http://games.corne.info/LD/LD23/6/html5/bin/

Used so far:

• haXe
• NME
• Inkscape

What works:

• Planet are being spawned
• My rockets flies and attaches hisself to the planets
• Gameover screen

What I want to add:

• Fuel
• ?

One of the key elements is almost done. My planets are being spawned, rotated and moved down and I can easly add more planets. And I’m still able to compile it to Android, HTML5, SWF and Linux.

Screenshot from android version:

It’s looking good so far. I have a rendering engine and most of an animation engine. However, I’ve run into a problem art. I forgot about my animating skills. Oh well, I just need to play with it a bit more tomorrow. But for now, sleep.

Here’s what I have so far: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8016309/ld23/index.html

I’m streaming and updating that link as I develop the game, come watch when I wake up for more development tomorrow!

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)

Right, I’m in! This is my first year of ld, so don’t expect anything special.

I’m (probably) going to use:
Pyglet + Pymunk + Python
and I’m developing on Linux

My development will be done in https://github.com/kragniz/ld48-22

Good luck all other contestants!

Still on the fence here, as I’ve been crunching for a few weeks, currently have a splitting headache, and could use a few days off instead. But…

OTOH, the Kobo II Tech Preview is now on-line, which means that I have a working Win32 executive, making deployment trivial. (There is no game code in kobo2.exe, only EEL with SDL, OpenGL, ChipSound, physics etc.) So, I should be able to pull this off without touching glorified assembly languages, or even running a native compiler. (Well, I might rebuild the executive with a different icon. That should be safe. I think…)

So, if I do it, here are my weapons of choice:

Language: EEL (Runs on the Kobo II executive.)
Editor: KDE Kate
Libraries: Kobo II/EELBox executive (SDL, OpenGL, ZeeSpace, ChipSound, …)
Sounds: ChipSound
Music: ChipSound
Graphics: GIMP, ZeeSpace

Hi, this is my first Ludum Dare. I’ve messed around in game development before but never really completed anything. I hope the stress of the competition acts as a great motivator.

I just released my own programming language called MoonScript which compiles into Lua. I’ll be using that to make my game. This will be a great test to see how it works. One of the original use cases of the language was game development because there are so many engines that use Lua.

If you happen to be using Lua, then I suggest you check it out because it’s pretty awesome, works on all platforms, and I’ve written a ton of documentation.

Anyway, about my game. So far I plan to create a platformer, but depending on the theme I might switch things up. I’ll be developing on linux but using LÖVE so my result should run everywhere. I hope to do a time lapse screen capture of the entire weekend but I haven’t found software yet. I’m worried about creating graphics and music because I’m not very good at those things. Must not let them consume too much time.

Here’s the final list:

Language: MoonScript (compiles to Lua)
Editor: VIM
Framework: LÖVE
Graphics: GIMP
Music: MilkyTracker
Sounds: Audacity

Follow me on twitter for updates, and here’s a pic of me being serious:

Well no not ALL the things, but some of the things. Some of the things is better than no things at all.

It’s currently available on the android market and pending in a bunch of other places so I’m sitting on versions for windows, linux and osx. In all honesty I focused more on getting it ready for the igf (student edition) and less about scouting marketplaces.

“Is this the part where you tell us to buy it?” the crowd asks. Well yes actually: “Go buy it!” Or at least +1 it on the android market or tell your friends and family and that cousin George you haven’t spoken with since 3rd grade about it. Yes the one with the bigger thumb on his left hand.

Some of the features will roll out to the free (ad supported) version relatively soon (the updated graphics and music), while others will be kept a version behind(mostly new levels and such).

And here’s a trailer for you(can someone please tell me how to embed videos? the code just gets eaten up)

Thanks for reading

GAME PAGE

So, Cosmic Heist was my entry for the recent Ludum Dare compo. It was a major success by my reckoning, as it was completed in time. That aside, however, I would like to write a little about how things went.

What went right

I spent some time coming up with a couple of interesting(ish) ideas, but ended up throwing them out before settling on what became Cosmic Heist. When I designed the game that actually ended up being made, I actually cut out tons of things, and cut even more as I developed it. This is one area that I really want to improve (I, like many others, am horrible at the “cutting things until it’s right” part), and I feel I made some good progress during this compo. I was able to reject tons of ideas, some good, some bad, but all non-essential.

I had a decent personal code base to start from, and already knew all about the language, libraries, and tools I used beforehand, so I was able to jump right in.

I left some time for play-testing and bug fixing/tweaking near the end, but ended up not needing very much of it. The game was small and simple enough that it wasn’t too buggy by the end, and my wife and I tested it some as I worked on it anyway. However, I would definitely leave this buffer time again anyway, because it really kept things stress-free.

The menus ended up looking/working/sounding great, and I added a cool animated menu background near the end that I really liked. I’ll probably use some of the work that went into that stuff off into the future in other projects.

The music turned out to not suck as much as I thought it would. That was actually my highest-scoring area in the competition, and I am still somewhat unsure what to make of that. This was my first time really making any music, and I don’t really have experience playing/reading/etc. music either. But it doesn’t sound too bad, so I am counting that as a nice success.

The controls are really fluid, and are my favorite part of the whole thing by far. The way you control the ship is great, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I actually didn’t spend much time tweaking that, and by implementing everything I needed for it, I had a whole system for various enemy ship movements, too.

What went wrong

The player’s ship is a bit oddly shaped. This makes it hard to see where you are going. I didn’t realize this at all (duh! isn’t it obvious! the ship points in the direction I drew it to point!) until people began commenting on it. Certainly something that would need to be fixed.

Some people kept looking for the shoot button. I didn’t make it very obvious (at all) that there is no shooting in the game. You just pilot your ship, and enemy ships try to plow into you.

There were a couple of features I wanted to get in, but had to cut due to time constraints. I wanted enemy ships to shoot at you, and every level was supposed to start at a shipyard, from which you had just stolen a ship.

There might be a problem with the Linux build of the game, as one person mentioned they couldn’t get it to run. Unfortunately, it runs fine for me, but I only have two machines to test it on, and they are both almost identical in both hardware and software. If anyone has or can test the game on Linux and tell me if it a) explodes, b)doesn’t run at all, or c) runs fine, I would greatly appreciate it.

Conclusion

All in all, as I said, I was very pleased with the outcome, and I even got some people to play my game, so that was really exciting. I hadn’t ever participated or followed LD until now, so I didn’t have any idea what to expect. I honestly didn’t think anyone would even see my game! Thanks to everyone who rated mine. One thing that I regret is that I didn’t have time to rate any games myself. I did play a few, and they were all great. Next time, I want to set aside some time to rate a good number of games.

Links

Ludum Dare entry

Cosmic Heist on Cheese and Bacon (my website)

Cosmic Heist on Google Project Hosting (MIT License)

While rating your games I came across several written using Unity3D, which is understandable as it looks like a modern 3d Flash on steroids. However, there still is no Linux player available, so go and vote for them to write one!

Most of you probably don’t use Linux, and might be thinking “why should I care”. But you should. It’s about freedom of choice as much as about anything else. One might think that people should be free to choose the operating system they like, without being punished by third parties. Ok, I know it’s not that simple, porting to a new OS requires an effort and some companies will have to make a cost/benefit calculation, while many others can afford to be selfless most of the time.

I  will always try to make my games multi-platform, even though I think Windows is crap and that Apple is an awful company (with good products ). Not because I think I can sell more copies, but because of you. You should be allowed to use the OS you chose, not the one I do.

Hullo, I’m Scio. Nice to meet you :bows:.

This is actually my third Ludum Dare, but so far I have been totally asocial and never even introduced myself, let alone post the games, of which there was only one that was even remotely playable. Don’t ask.

But motivated by the trivial coincidence of this being LD #21 and being 21 years old myself, I have finally braved an intro. I am quite proud of that.

Let’s see if I can make a game too; shouldn’t be too hard. No pressure…

I will be working with the following tools, depending on how far I manage to go of course:

• The ever lovely LÖVE, if making a desktop game. This’ll mean lua.
• The ever…scripty…Processing.js, if making a web game. This’ll make it sort of javascript, sort of Processing.
• Inkscape, GIMP, and Mypaint for graphics.
• Blender for CGI: I won’t be making a 3D game.
• Sfxr (yay) for sound effects, and possibly Neil if daring to make music.
• My snazzy, Compiz-y desktop running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx.
• Certain other non-computational implements.

I will, almost certainly, not be able to make the competition deadlines, so I’ll focus on Jam instead. And I will try to come up with something fitting the winning theme, but if I can’t…I’ll just choose another one I like and roll with it >.>

As for participation: I will silently stalk the IRC, and try to visit the Hangouts if my connection holds. I don’t have enough bandwidth (or courage) to livestream my work, but I will set up gLapse which was thoughtfully made for this very occasion!

Furthermore, I promise not to get too nervous and go into zen-procrastination-mode like I usually do during rushes.

[Also: Did I go overboard with the tags?]