http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=rate&uid=5551

It's at the point where you can fairly honestly say there's gameplay. I've got a limited pool of mechanics and I'm going to spend the next day just trying to perfect them. I'm on schedule and overall things have gone suspiciously smoothly so far.

I'm kind of sick of making platformers, and this theme lends itself better to strategy/god games anyway. Have some decent ideas cooking up already.

I remember Mysterious Song! One of my early ventures into JRPGs. From what I remember, it was short but hard, and the ending made me tear up a bit.

Like you said, this is niche as hell, but I found a gameplay video on Youtube and I can tell it's made with true indie passion.

Is there any reason to use the main Feedback forum instead of this one now?

Looks like the main Feedback forum is used for games without a TIGSource devlog.

I just know I'm going to have the inspiration of a lifetime this LD, get into the top 3, and won't be eligible for cash prizes because my game isn't compatible with Kongregate. story_of_my_life.jpg

Also I actually like the round 2 winners. Hopefully 'construction and destruction' will prevail over 'abandoned'.

'Survive' is just one of those ultra-generic themes like 'escape' where pretty much any imaginable game applies, so it kind of defeats the purpose of having a theme.

It's kind of funny how you see so much votes for those themes, but the community response is all complaints.

I'm more comfortable with a theme that covers a mechanic rather than a feeling because it tips on how the game should be played rather than focusing on the game's atmosphere. Which is important, but I'd rather not focusing on it on a 48h/72h compo.
There aren't any mechanic-specific based themes in this LD apparently, so I've chosen the themes that could more easily translate to a mechanic. (like Dim Lights or Paradox, for instance) 

I agree with what you're saying, but "dim lights" doesn't seem as much of a mechanic than a mood/visual style. Maybe there's a couple of gimmicky games about flicking light switches to be done, but it seems awfully specific.

"Paradox", well, I don't really know what to make of that one. I'd probably stare at an empty paper for a while and struggle to make another puzzle-platformer, then excuse it with a background story about paradoxes. What kind of games did you have in mind for this?

the themes this time are garbage


i gave maybe 5 +1s.

"Construction & destruction" and "territory" are some good ones. Both instantly gave me a couple of varied gameplay ideas, which is what a theme should do in a speeddev compo. It was kind of sad to see so many people give up immediately in the past few times because they thought something like "alone" was too vague.

Gee, I'm sure we'll get a decent theme this time, instead of abortions like "tiny world" and "escape".

What's this whole "lo-fi with gradients" trend about?

Whoa, looks like the word of this game really blew up on Reddit today. Congrats for making something successful out of a simple LD prototype.

But of course! 4th time for me, it's a great way to get over perfectionism and do something experimental.

The notion of a game having thematic similarities with 'The Name of the Rose' intrigued me enough that I took a look at 'Panacea'. Beautiful, beautiful idea - get it finished!

It was quite a leap of faith for you to assume that I meant Panacea, but in this case, you happened to be right. Development's been pretty occasional because of real life, but I'm as excited about getting it done as you guys are.

Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose.

I heard praise for it, and was interested because it seems to have weird thematic similarities to a story I'm working on.

While I enjoyed the overall level design (and the ability to make your own levels) in Jetpack, I didn't like how easily it was to break the designs because of the randomly spawned powerups. In a level where you were not meant to have the Jetpack item, for example, having it randomly spawn within reach of the player at the beginning of the level can turn a challenge into something completely trivial. I wish it had been possible to turn the random items off whenever necessary.

My trademark style involves a Metroidvania design where you first go half the level without fuel, dealing with puzzles/tricks/glitches, and once you get to the fuel it becomes something closer to the standard levels. As such, my levels are often carefully planned down to a tile, and then a FUEL TANK OUT OF NOWHERE comes in and spoils it. It's not common enough to bother me, but still sort of a design flaw discriminating against puzzle levels.

But if I remember correctly, you could block random items from spawning by placing decorations everywhere. Nah.

That's like, all "indie" fonts in one package. Releasing that is like opening Pandora's box because you'll start seeing those fonts everywhere.

Getting game ideas is the least of my worries. I constantly get new ones when I'm working on a game I'm supposed to have finished ages ago. Inspiration comes from other games, mainly, like seeing something fun happen with physics and thinking of making a full game out of that.

I don't have to imagine because you're going to make that game and I'm going to be whipping you until it's on my screen.

Looks very... Amiga.