TIGSource Forums

Hey everyone!
There is Ludum Dare the following week-end. We can use this topic to announce our need of people.

I need artists. You can PM me or look at: http://team-kwakwa.com (http://team-kwakwa.com)

5th, not 6th. c;

Tho it does start on the 6th for me too.

I'll be taking part... Though I'm not sure how much time I'll have, I always seem to be busy on ludum dare weekends... This will be my third time, I've loved both so far so I'm really looking forward to this one.

I want to participate this time, the themes look really neat. But I *may* be busy. I guess I'll wait and see.

Last time didn't go very well for me, but I'm still in. Hoping to make something decent.

inb4 ☃ wins.

This time I will participate for sure. After the #23 one, I didn't do it too well.

But we will see.

We need a new thread for this, no?

Good luck everyone, looking forward to all your cool games ;)
Maybe I'll actually have something done this time. Maybe. Oh the horror :epileptic:

Site down as per usual. Theme is: Entire Game on One Screen

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ (http://ludumdare.com/compo/)

Interesting theme I think.  Dunno what I will make with it.

I think there was a "one screen metroidvania" competition somewhere a while ago, I missed that at the time... might try that.  Or... maybe I'll come up with something while I sleep.

I'm lost for ideas. Anyone have a good one?

No idea too. Well, any game can be made to fit on one screen, but making a creative interpretation of it is not that easy. I'll think this over breakfast before deciding to make something random :gomez:

Late 70's, early 80's arcade games were mostly one screen games: Pong, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Missile Command...

Thinking about those might be a good start.

I really dislike the theme since it's restrictive without being inspiring. A good theme gives you ideas while leaving all possibilities open, while this theme just dictates a certain gameplay element of your game (it must be on one screen) and not really doing much else. I don't think we'll be seeing many interesting interpretations of the theme this time around.

Myself, I'll just be trying to get maximum complexity within the restrictions. For now it's a simple crafting game, I might add combat or survival elements or whatever at some later point.

In for my third Ludum Dare in a row but not really sure where I'm going with this or how it'll end up. Want it to be a guy looking through a peephole into a single room where a murder occurs but not quite sure what I'm doing.

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/MurderOfZafu-PeepholeTest.gif)

Good luck everyone.

I was thinking I might try to do something similar, Franklin, but couldn't come up with anything and not sure how you're going to solve it either. Following this with interest.

I did come up with a different idea, tho, so I'm going to stick with that now. I'll show stuff later. I'm only just beginning. Decided to actually get some proper sleep this time around before I started.

I am going to break my sanity with a one-screen pseudo-RPG. I've got some progress going and I actually like how it is turning out (so far), which isn't bad since I lost like 12 hours due to being down and out with a concussion-induced migraine all day. Where there's a will there's a way, though, so hopefully this year I will see it through. If all else fails I will have a nice project to expand upon after LD is over.

Thanks Prinsessa yeah, I'm hoping inspiration hits on day two and I figure something out. Also looking forward to seeing what you go with instead.

JWK5 interested to see your pseudo-RPG, always been a fan of your art.

Don't underestimate LD'ers.  :ninja:

All right, I've turned the simplest proof of concept level from my sketchbook into reality now. A personal rule of mine was to go 3D this time, so I did.

(http://i.imgur.com/qM8Hkmg.gif)

So, one screen, literally. It won't only be flipping this monitor around, but also turning the entire world 90, 180 or even 45 degrees in order to solve physics-based puzzles. The first few levels are going to be simple and just show off one mechanic at a time before the madness starts for real.

Fun to work with – I've got three cameras in this scene. One for either side of the stage, each rendering to the texture of one of a pair of planes inside the monitor that the main camera (i.e. the one whose viewport we're actually seeing here, pointed at the monitor) is looking at.

myLDpoop.jpg
(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/level4.gif) (http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/level2.gif) (http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/level3.gif)

Oooh, a bunch of games rather than just one? I did something similar for the "simplicity" theme but never got enough time to make more than two.

Nothing more has happened to my actual level design, but decoration of the game is ongoing! :gomez:

(http://i.imgur.com/WIXsfVy.gif)

EDIT:
Still no game, but now it has a name, Screencap'd, along with a simple story: the character gets caught in the TV screen. Thus, an intro animation has been made:

(http://i.imgur.com/zI26n9s.gif)

I really like this theme, simply because most of my previous entries took place entirely on one screen already :lol: I guess I just find it easier to quantify how much I need to finish if I have it all laid out in front of me.

Edit: That's really cool Prinsessa!

I'm working on a kind of city builder, kind of tower defense, kind of thing. I'll post some screens when they become available  :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm working on a survival game where two people get lost at sea. Why they were so far out with this silly little boat is beyond me though, but who cares.
It's too influenced by This War of Mine...

(http://bitserum.com/tempstuff/20-days-at-sea-mockup.jpg)

Looking neat, both of you!

I still don't have a game. :tiger: But now is the time to start on level design, finally!
I've just gotten the second important core flipping mechanic in there: rotating the stage.
Everything has sound effects now too. No music yet, tho.

(http://i.imgur.com/EEaQVQT.gif)

Started making a roguelike than got carried away programming the combat and enemy AI and decided to focus on that. Now it's a gladiator arena game with vector graphics!

(http://i.imgur.com/byzxzvd.gif)

DEMO TIME

(http://i.imgur.com/hQty2zM.png)

For those interested.

Click here to play online in the Unity player~ (http://operaroyale.com/tmptmp/ld31/build2/build2.html)

No real levels yet, but all mechanics working and level transitions and stuff.

Keyboard:

• Arrow keys to move and jump.
• Numkeys 1/2 or Q/W to manipulate level.

Gamepad*:

• Left stick to move.
• X to jump.
• Lower shoulders to manipulate level.

* I've only tried DualShock 3.

I love this theme!

(http://quikding.com/wiper/SS1.png)

My game is called Wild Wipers and it involves two steps:

step 1) draw your wiper
step 2) capture red balls, allow green balls to pass through

You can see a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKJ3tpU_2po
You can play it in flash here: http://quikding.com/wiper/

currently working on the levels.

Finally some progress to show. I still have a ton to do and balancing is going to take a while. I'm so moving to the Jam  :lol:.

(http://i.imgur.com/R41wMkG.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/RjlKfYp.gif) (http://www.dangermomentum.com/)

Finished my entry. It's an arcadey lawnmower game. Swear at your screen, mow some lawns, and try not to hit the flowers. You can play it in your browser here (http://www.dangermomentum.com).

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/407933/31332-shot0.png) (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=31332)
my entry

Well mine's very unfinished, but can be played: Entry page (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=35511)

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/407933/35511-shot2.png)

Here's mine! :D

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/thumb/54eb559e718846e1e48fcb4369c7f785.jpg)

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=11195

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=26967

here is mine

And it's done!


It's hugely complicated and extremely hard. Due to how much stuff is in the game I haven't had any time to balance it (or make music, unfortunately). To be honest, I'm not even sure if it's reasonably possible to survive the first winter (though it should be okay; worst case scenario you can at least play in a very lame manner to still survive).

EDIT: A chart of all gatherable/craftable items can be found here: http://i.xomf.com/zjjqn.png

I made a boss rush game. One screen, nine bosses. link (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=7793)


(http://black-moth.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/screen01.png)

Finished my game, thanks to lots of :coffee:

link (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=1534)
(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/407933/1534-shot1.png)

Break The Screen

Entry (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=34311)

Web (http://huangmh.com/BreakTheScreenWeb.html)

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/thumb/f74658d5aee089831df15c905b481efa.jpg)

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/thumb/3dc902e2d195ec6495363934f874daff.jpg)

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/thumb/2b725dd90abdc59f527926cba1c4b663.jpg)

Can't get out of the dungeon? Just break the screen!!!!!!!!! :P

Puzzle game again :)
Use Arrows the move. Space to take action.

Nobody else jamming? Everyone doing compo?

Nap Quest

An HTML5 game written using Craftyjs.

Entry (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=7542)

Web (http://sanojian.github.io/ld31/ld31.html)

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/thumb/1da4cb8197c60b43898bf8c16e05d17c.jpg) (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=7542)

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=25036 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=25036)

I made a ship sailing game. I feel like whenever I make a game, it always turns out the same. I need to be more creative in mechanics. But I only play competitive multiplayer games right now, so it's hard to think of innovative mechanics. :/

no you 46 % is not horrible ;_;

funny concept but the controllers, i have to say, did horribly :c

Beware of the Screen Scrollers! They will scroll your “one screen game” background image away, and destroy those precious pixels forever. Also, this image is your only ground, so you’d better protect it if you don’t want to be “scrolled away” too!

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/screenscroller_gameplay_compo.gif)

Use the arrow keys (or WASD) to move, and click on the “Screen Scrollers” to shoot them with your laser. Each kill will earn you points, so aim for the high score!

Play the Game (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=29773)

IMPORTANT TIP: when you are "frozen", you are still able to shoot down enemies, it only prevent you from moving the character.

^ That's a cool idea ;D

I love all the weird screen ideas people are doing. Look forward to playing games as soon as this madness is over. I'm jamming with a friend and we're feeling exhausted.
This happens every Ludum Dare for us, instead of coming up with simpler ideas we dive deep into something complex.

I'm happy though, we learned how to work with the new Unity's GUI and it kicks ass compared to what was there before.

(http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/342/8/e/witchcraft_by_thisisellian-d895vnj.gif)

Finished as well, have some potion mixing Cookie clicker gameplay~

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=7701

Very nice game, I loved it (and rated it!). You pixel art skills are outstanding! :)

FLIPPIN' Done!

I'll check out all your cool games tomorrow. I submitted during the last hour and it is now past 4 AM here. And I have to go to work today. Ugh.

Posting my stuff before I go, at least! Made by me and my girlfriend, this here game:

First time entry in the 48 hour compo. I surprised myself and actually made it.
Message me a link to your entries if you want me to rate them. Of course, you'll be obliged to rate mine too :beer:

Btw, I wrote a post mortem about my game's development if anyone is interested: http://ludumdare.com/compo/2014/12/08/romes-little-step-post-mortem/

The game changed a lot during the development and I thought it would be cool to write about it. :)

Hey guys!
Here's my LD Compo game -> http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=34576 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=34576)
I'm checking out all of your games right now!  ;D

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/thumb/89594e093b10cbc902602942cc51ac07.jpg)

Did the compo in August, and this time I tried the jam with a friend to proof his HTML5 engine, really enjoyed not working alone!

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/407933/39349-shot0.png)

BATHYAL COMMODORE (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=39349)

Time to get some sleep, so tomorrow I can try as much of your games as I can >:D

Finally... some sleep, time to start playing games.

Guys if you're posting on the Ludum Dare homepage I suggest linking all of your images AND your title to your submission. As these are much more noticeable than a single line of text stating "click to play".

Anyway, our game is 20 Days at Sea (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=24347)

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/407933/24347-shot2.png) (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=24347)

hey, i took part in the compo this time too.
here's the game:

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=29139 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=29139)

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/407933/29139-shot0.png)
(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/407933/29139-shot1.gif)

it's a puzzler and the first take on the genre i did since i were 5. I thought the levels are way too ez though some found it too difficult but i hadn't enough time to give it a more variety. (finished on the last minute)

I didn't make it, life intervened. Oh well, there's always next year. On the plus side of things, I like what I have done so far and I am having fun with it so I am going to roll with it and see where it goes. If anything, LD got the ball rolling for me. :coffee:

yo i played this.!

ha! i played yours too!
but i think i gotta try it with a friend again

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=25829

Got my entry up. I tried making a point-n-click puzzler this time.

(http://i.imgur.com/zIxzzKw.png)

I pretty much fall a sleep yesterday right after submission. It didn't came close to what I had in mind, but that was kind of expected. Anyways, I'll check yours later. Cheers.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=1990

(http://i.imgur.com/RPqFfhb.png)

First time participating in ludum dare.  I thought I did pretty good all things considering.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=45321

(http://i.imgur.com/NSOgvCw.png?1)

GHOSTBOMB.

You made the only good game submitted to Ludum Dare.

I love your game a lot.

Hahaha. Alright, this is my compo entry called That Dangerous Bridge.

You can check it here: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=10863 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=10863)

(http://i.imgur.com/vqX1Enk.png)

Oh yes, this was a pleasure.

Hi, I manage to make a game, which makes people dizzy! Talk about doing an impact...

(http://i.imgur.com/idFlZtAm.png) (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=35485)

Get spinny: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=35485

Why are there so many snowman themed games? Did you guys think that would win, and make a bunch of assets in advance?

I think people you really wanted that theme to win, and since the choosen theme wasn't restrictive in that sense... why not?

I guess.

I just can't imagine that many people giving a shit about snowmen.

This was a fun jam! If anyone from TIGSource participated, let me know and I'll play/rate your game and tweet about it (if you have the twitters). Got to get the word out to our fellow devs!

Me neither, it felt like most people were just jumping the bandwagon, but to each his/her own.

If you count the number of post in the LD site where people complain about the chosen theme, I guess it's simply some kind of "protest" move to show that they really wanted that snowman theme to win ;)
And the fact that snowmen is both a funny and season-fitting theme should have helped I guess.

The most complex when rating games is that many games only focused on the "snowman" theme and not on the "entire game on one screen" : some people have made games with multiple levels, or even scrolling, but with a snowmen.

In the end, I guess the important thing is that everyone made a game, a theme is just a "creative kickstart", not an unbreakable rule.

Snowmen arent funny.

Also every single snowman game is a top down shooter with snowballs.

You're thinking too much about the snowman thing. Every LD has a joke theme that people like to fit into their games just for the joke, this time it was "snowman".

Basically, it's a ludum dare meme :P

Oh man, I can't believe I didn't check tigsource throughout the whole jam! Oh well, looking forwards to playing all of your games!

Here is my entry:

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=45698

(http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/674/nouKCI.png) (https://imageshack.com/i/iqnouKCIp)

Damn, I didn't see this post before. I will check the games.

Also I did this game called That Dangerous Bridge. It was a lot of time since I made an entry to Ludum Dare, so I hope you enjoy.

This is my entry: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=10863 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=10863)

(http://i.imgur.com/VugVzEG.png)

It's both. As Tuba points out, many LDs have a 'sub-theme', in this case '☃', that people occasionally add to their games. However, at the same time, what seems to be an increasing number of people prepares concepts in advance for themes they feel will likely win (despite it being really against the spirit of Ludum Dare), and it's inevitable some of those had no concept for 'entire game on one screen' and went with their idea for '☃' instead.


It used to be an unbreakable rule, actually. From the old competition rules:


However, it's no longer in the new rules (which are still under development). It's unclear whether this is an oversight or one of the changes making the rules less strict. I really hope it's the former, but it could go either way.

In either case, games not fitting 'entire game on one screen' should definitely get a 1 for 'Theme' regardless of how much snowman it has. The theme was 'Entire game on one screen', not '☃'.


Good implementations of the sub-theme are possible. For example, Tifu's boss rush game has a giant snowman as one of the bosses. That's how sub-themes should be used.

Was able to finish mine with all the weekend distractions and somehow made it to work on monday with 2 hrs sleep. Not the most productive work day but worth it to finish another Ludum Dare.

My idea changed quite a bit from when I first began it but happy with the final result. Even if it is way to short. Feels more like a test of concept then an actual game.

Idea is you are looking through a peephole witnessing a scene unfolding. You know a murder is about to occur but your only tool is to flick the light off to try and throw off the killer before they strike.

murder of Zafu - http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=35424 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=35424)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54420601/LD31/MurderOfZafu-02.gif)

Spent way to much time on the animations so was only able to get one scene in. Had planned more of an impact with the ending and also people to react if you switched the lights off early.

Wanted to use the theme of "Entire game on one screen" a bit different then I thought most people would. Plan was that people would walk out of the scene at the end of each level and new people would walk in setting up the new furniture before the new victims/ suspects arrive. Always using the same screen.

In the end I'm happy with what I have but I don't expect my ratings to be very good because it's so short and unfinished.

So many great entries on this list!

Here is mine called EGGOGATCHI

It's a mix between tamagotchi and candybox bringing back memories of playing on those little screened devices.

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/content_banner-300x168.png)

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=24404 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=24404)

(https://5145677768426fb192a30b7abe5846b55e43f135-www.googledrive.com/host/0B5L7HpcRMuS0aGJHSGxfbS14NEE/eggo.gif)

@Franklin:

Finally! c: Played and rated. Left a comment on there. Same avatar as here.

I'm rating everybodys game here that I can. Pretty cool stuff, dudes.

Heres mine again.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=26967

you know what i mean, dude.

Here's mine: Bluman (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=12053 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=12053)). It's the first time I code a platformer. I thought it would be a pain doing it in Unity2D, but it was a breeze! I'm quite happy with how it feels. Hope you like it. Note: it's fucking difficult in some points, but I think the ending is worth it.

Thanks for whoever moved my post here. I knew it didn't make sense nobody was replying to it.

Anyway, here's my entry, Slope Challenge3.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=42145 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=42145)

my favorite thing is that people get so fucking butthurt when you tell them that their trash game is trash. then they come and leave a shitty comment on your game.

happens to me anyway.

I think the bigger issue is that you didn't explain your criticism.

(emphasis mine)

The first three are valid points, but what do you even mean by those last two points? The first is pretty much a 'your game sucks' without any explanation, while the latter sounds mocking without actually making any point.

I tend to give really harsh criticism, but I've never had anyone do anything like that to me before. Hell, with how things are nowadays I'm surprised there's even anyone else who leaves negative comments on games anymore.

Its whatever, it just cracks me up that people get so bent out of shape over it. His game does suck and the only way to improve it is to make a new game that isnt the one he made.

best post I've read so far on tig

Quite probably because you state your opinion but it sounds like a fact and that probably isn't too nice. Try adding something positive to your comments, not just plain criticism! I guess this was you in my entry:

The real difficulty of the game comes from the really heavy controls. It takes forever to come to a stop, it takes forever to reach your max speed.
Jumping felt very awkward.
Wall climbing controls are still confusing to me.
Players hitbox doesnt match his sprite.

'Forever' compared to what? Awkward why? Climbing confuses you and some others, but I already commented that one (it's probably due to the animation). Players hitbox seldom match sprites - they are usually smaller to give room to errors, right? Man, didn't you like anything at all?

But hey, thanks for playing. I can't play yours because it's windows only. Not web, not linux, not mac, no source code... but the screenshot looks good :P

Yeah that was me, and tbh no I didn't like it. It feels like the other 400 single screen platformers that were submitted that ALL do the exact same thing, and all miss the basics of good platformer controls. Save for Birdsong, that is.

It takes forever to stop moving. Compared to, say, any platformer that plays well. I made a really shitty platformer that controls like this. Its awful for this reason. You die constantly because you have no control over when you actually stop, and youre forced to adjust by pushing the opposite direction, which often results in the player dying to some other hazard.

It takes forever to reach your max speed, which means I have to get a really good running start to make jumps from platforms that dont actually represent how much room I have to run on because my player sprite is much smaller than his hitbox, which means theres literally invisible collision that I have to account for to make some jumps, and to get to my normal speed.

Jumping feels awkward because the height that you gain doesnt reflect the distance you can jump. You fall far too fast, and this makes jumping over spikes way harder than it should be when coupled with the ambiguous hitboxes.

Hitbox is way bigger than the sprite. I died countless times jumping over shit and trying to figure out where the magical invisible hitbox was so that I knew how to jump. The player sprite didnt matter at all at this point and it became a matter of trying to see through everything on the screen into what was actually going on. It makes the game feel unresponsive, and unfair.

(http://i.imgur.com/iFWwanV.gif)

This sounds harsh probably but its actually fact. Evidenced by countless other platformers with good controls. I AM trying to be harsh by the way because too many people will not tell you that your game sucks and its important to hear that it does. If my game sucks, I want to know and I want to know exactly why so I can fix it.

Ya dig?

Anyway its my fault for assuming that people will get anything out of a few lines about the problems their game has instead of an in-depth explanation.

And I wish I had the means to port to another platform but I unfortunately do not and I suck.

EDIT: I posted this here because I had time. Previously I didn't. Sorry bout that.

Now THAT'S useful. And I agree with all you say (though the hitbox is a bug, I swear I thought it was actually narrower than the player's sprite). But I'm happy with my entry nevertheless: this time I just wanted to create a platformer, I had never done that and I wanted to try. Next time I'll do better : )

But if the creator just makes a new game, it will likely suck as well, because he doesn't know what precisely he did wrong. You tell him element X is WRONG, but WHY is it wrong? It's much more important to understand why elements in your game are disliked than just knowing that they are disliked. By knowing why things are wrong you'll know how to make things more satisfying next time around even when the game isn't the exact same.


Precisely. The people most needing the feedback are the people that won't understand what you mean unless you describe it properly. If the person already understands the flaws of his game, what is the point of even pointing them out?

Now, your longer post on Woodwolf's game, THAT is excellent criticism. I'm entirely sure people will be more appreciative of your feedback if you explain it like that.

Meh, fuck that guy. He's an asshole. Unlike wood wolf. I don't have the time or want to explain how to design a game from the ground up because literally everything he did was awful.

it is not his job to design your game for you -- if you think his criticisms are vague, it is your job to make them specific. If you think he's wrong, you have the power to ignore him.

Videogames are so situational and contextual that there is virtually no 'why it's wrong' -- certainly not one that can be boiled into a single comment, or even a one-way article. Only an in depth discussion of the mechanic and the designers goals could achieve results and... That's game design, that's just making your game for you.

In that case your comment is useless and wastes both your and his time. He'll find out his game is awful when he sees his ratings. The point of criticism is to help someone understand what he could've done better, and if it doesn't do that it's not useful (unless the poster just enjoyed telling people their work is bad, in which it benefits the poster emotionally, but then the poster is what is generally referred to as 'an asshole').


I strongly disagree. I could agree about the 'you should ask further' if the criticism were given in a conversation, but when written as a comment on a page people will likely not revisit? You could ask, but you probably won't get an answer, either because the poster doesn't check back or because as in Rat Casket's case he's unwilling to give detailed feedback (otherwise he probably would've posted that in the first place).

There is most definitely a 'why it's wrong'. To take an example of an obvious flaw in a game, Tifu's game has no sound and no flickering enemies/player. And that's wrong. You could leave it at that (claiming that there's no 'why it's wrong'), but that doesn't tell the creator anything. "There's no sound and no flickering enemies/player. As a result, I couldn't tell when I was properly hitting the enemy or being hit." That's a clear 'why' that explains why it's wrong, and it lets the creator know why it's important (beyond just 'you should do it because everyone does it like that').

We've seen a very good example in this very thread. Rat Casket pointed out that the player's hitbox doesn't match his sprite. Why is that wrong, wondered Woodwolf, because it's pretty common for a player's hitbox to not match his sprite, and there's a good reason for that. It isn't until Rat Casket points out that he wasn't able to intuitively tell how to time his jumps because of the mismatch when the hitbox is bigger than expected that Woodwolf understood what the real problem with his game was. Explaining the 'why' is extremely important.


Isn't criticism one of the primary ways to learn artistic skills like game design? Yes, explaining why it's wrong is teaching him game design. But isn't that exactly the point? What is the point of the criticism if not to make him understand how he could perform better at game design?

Criticism, yes. Offering solutions, not necessarily. The point of criticism is to communicate your thoughts as a player/designer/whatever, not give the person you are criticizing a how to guide.


The job of a game designer is to ask those questions, and choose from the infinite possible answers. By providing a solution, Nathan is designing his game. Nathan's solution is not correct -- it is simply a solution. Explaining why is a way to offer insight to how the critic would design the game; There's nothing wrong with it -- but it's certainly not their responsibility. It's totally crazy to think that a commenter owes whoever posted the game design tips.

Hey I would like to say... I am the guy who made that awful game. It was the first time I ever even came close to making a game "finished", if you could even call it that. I also had to do all the art, sound, and programming by myself, and it was the first time I did a lot of things in Unity. Your first three sentences were helpful. your 4th was pretty undescriptive, but I actually know exactly what you are talking about, because the enemy logic is basically move towards player, and jump if stuck. thats it. that is all i had time for. People don't have to explain the criticism, its my job to make sense of it, but your 5th sentence was just plain rude and absolutely not necessary. Especially considering about half the games I play at LD are about as rough as mine, and we are working with limited time. You are wrong about one thing, YOU are the asshole.

Anyone else care to rate my game? its nice to hear feedback, even if negative. Honestly, I could take his commentary. His first four were negative but all helpful. Being straight up rude though, like 5th line, just makes me dismiss your opinion completely, and I will probably send angry words at you. I dont know why you would expect otherwise.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=44470

or here is a gameplay video with better sound quality
http://youtu.be/T-kRVscqqbs

I agree with both of these. The game is really not as bad as you make it sound, but its pretty bad, and I would rather not fix it and just take what I learned and make a new game. Im making an rpg/roguelike/interactive simulation game, which is more my style. The Dino Arena thing was just a silly idea, but really... its nowhere near as bad as you make it sound, and I am quite aware of why it is bad. I really don't understand why you seem to overlook that it is a 3 day game jam. It is the perfect chance to make something you have never made before, and I learned a lot thanks to LD.

That is not an excuse to make something bad. A lot of people made some amazing shit in those 3 days, or even 2 days on their own. Saying that it was for a 3 day jam doesnt excuse quality.

I've posted feedback on your game.


I think you're using the wrong word there. Good criticism is rude. Rude is just the absence of the polite niceness (which is often bullshit, as in the case of feedback) people use in conversation. I think you meant derisive, mocking or insulting.



If you DID mean you will discard any feedback people give you whenever it isn't nicely wrapped in 'great effort you made a game oh wow youre totally the best :) :) :)', then I would tell you to go fuck yourself as in that case you're not actually accepting feedback and just want people to praise you for doing the exact same thing 2636 other people have done last weekend (and many more are doing all the time, not just during jams).




Fully agreed. You can do amazing things in 48 hours, let alone 72 hours. "It's a 48/72-hour game jam" is no excuse for a lack of quality.

I don't want it nicely wrapped. His 4 lines were fine. But saying, "not sure what this is even supposed to be?" is not even feedback. It is an insult. Of course he fucking knows what it is supposed to be. This should not be something difficult to figure out or understand. He was being a fucking asshole. simple.

Look:

He is STILL being a fucking asshole. The game is not that bad. He is just being a total fucking bitch.

The excuse for not making a quality game isn't that it was 3 days, it is that I am new to this, and I have NEVER fucking made a game, and I know I did not get to 90% of the things I wanted to. I did not even have time to resize the fucking HUD text. MY god damn well froze over that weekend, because my landlord is a fucking idiot, and it is still frozen now. Those are excuses for the quality. The 3 day thing is supposed to be an excuse for you not to act like a fucking asshole. Just because people CAN make something quality in 3 days, doesn't mean everyone will. Why does he pretend to be such a confused innocent fucking bitch? He knows exactly how much of an asshole he is, and yet he is pretending this is about something other than that he is an asshole.

You need to calm down. If he is a genuine asshole, then you're only giving him what he wants by throwing a tantrum. You're not achieving anything (except for maybe amusing Rat Casket) by being angry.


But that is not what you said earlier. This is what you said:


We're not going to be more positive about your game just because it's only a 3 day game jam. A game is a game, and if it's not very good, it's not very good, regardless of in what context or in what time it was made.

But congrats on making your first game. It's not bad for a first game.

Very in depth feedback. All negative. But, all very useful. Most of it I am aware of, but even then it is very useful to hear people confirm the exact things I thought were wrong. You went well beyond what I could have thought of, which is even better. But you did not like a single thing?

Here is what I liked:
- I made a HUD for the first time, and the hearts and blue bullet icon look ok
- I got the jetpack working by accident, and it handles ok (it was supposed to be a rocket launcher)
- there are some sort of pickups
- there are some variety to enemies
- you can die
- you can kill dinos
- dinos can damage you
- I made a grass tile that tiles across the edge properly
- the barrel looks sweet. better than anything else I have done so far. My previous pixel art experience can fit on the spritesheet I used for the game.

These are things I have never done before... I have never even made a guy do damage to my character before. So I guess all the things I thought I got right, are things that most people take for granted.

The things I did not like:
- gun ended up being a stupid water gun. I wanted that one to be a shotgun, and then I wanted a rocket launcher and a machine gun. at least.
- powerups were made in last hour and did not have time to make textures for them (one is just a dino skin on a cube)
- powerups have no indication of what they do, and their effect is too small to be noticeable
- jetpack is barely working, and only worked by accident due to unity physics lifting my character up when I spawn objects under him. I would like more predictable and systematic control over it
- feedback of what is happening is non-existent. can't even tell when you died. can't even tell when you get a gameover.
- score system is an afterthought (finished in last 10 minutes)
- HUD lacks many feedback messages or they are too small. I would like to have created sprites with the text in these in very large stylized characters.
- There is no way to actually win the game
- The single worst part is the dino logic. Which is no logic. I would like them to be moving more systematically. The idea I had in my mind was that they would think about where you are and then try to move towards you for a few blocks, and then if they came within range, they would pounce. Instead I just have them moving towards me at all times, and they behave a lot more like orbiting planets than creatures. I was having a lot of trouble getting Unity to behave, especially with the mass and drag of objects. I would normally have moved the guys by Lerping their position manually between their current position and their target position, but this time I was trying to do it how Unity wants you to do it (I think?). Which is to use AddForce, but I spent almost an entire day just trying to get the damn dinosaurs to stop flying around everywhere or to stop moving like snails. This is the part that makes me want to scrap the entire thing and restart, if I were ever to try to remake the game again. Which I won't because it was just a reason to learn a bunch of stuff in 3 days.
- The game progression is basically just a number increasing every 10 waves, which increases all the stats of the dinos. This is very crude and would completely be replaced if I had time.
- The perspective was confusing to too many people. I was basically just re-purposing what I already had. I would have got even less done otherwise. But, now I realize either it completely does not work for anything, or at least it definitely does not work for a fast paced action game.
- The game is too dark. There is a very good color theory based reason for this, but I won't go into it. Ultimately if its too dark, its too dark. I will have to try to figure out how to solve this without sacrificing
- The sound effects would almost have been better if they had not been there. They are way too loud and ear piercing at times. I know exactly how to fix this, but didn't have time. Really, I would use something other than BFXR next time, I don't have enough time to be doctoring the sound files the generator makes.
- I wanted to do more tiles. Although, even the barrel shouldn't have been done, because doing the gameplay would have been a much better use of my time.
- Maps did not change. Originally the plan was to make the levels change between waves of dinos. I even had the thing loading maps from Tiled Map Editor xml files. Making a map only took a few minutes, but I did not have the time to code the actual part that changes maps into the game. I even wanted to include an in game map editor.
- the dinos spawn in just by dropping in from above. Even that was not working properly, because they were not supposed to float down. They were supposed to drop really fast. I could not get mass/drag to work properly, even by the end. I wanted to have them jump in from the sides, or spawn at little cave entrances which would be placeable using the map editor.
- and many many more things

The thing that I will be taking away from LD, is that I need to work on my time management, and that there is still a lot that I need to figure out before I can make a full game. Also, that I will never do another LD until I have mastered these things. I thought it would be OK to just see what I can get done, despite lacking the experience. I never expected that some asshole would hurl insults at me for doing this.

See? You can't win with this shitter. No matter what you say about his game he has to swoop in and justify all of his bad design decisions. Dude it doesn't fucking matter what you THINK about your game. This is something you need to understand if you want to keep making games. Nobody gives half a fuck about how YOU see the game. We, the players, are not YOU and since you are making a game for US it has to make sense to US.

If all of the feedback is negative, then your game is bad. And no. Nobody likes anything about Top Down Shooter #3948572093485720394857203946587194658 with shit controls and impossible visual design.

I mean congrats on making your first game but its fucking awful. Shut up and make a new game Jesus fucking Christ.

Every single person here who has made a game has made DOZENS of games that are trash can tier. My first game is a disaster! Here! Go play it! http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/blocpk/18692/

My second game? ALSO a disaster.
The 20-30 prototypes I've made this year? All of em shit.

Just because you produced something doesn't mean anybody is obligated to enjoy it. We aren't your parents. Its not going on the fridge. Its going in a dumpster with everybody elses failed attempts at "good". Its just how it works.

Stop crying and improve or find a new hobby, fuckboi.

I dont want people to be overly positive, that is pretty much useless. Let me clarify: it is bad. However, I still don't think it is AS BAD, as he makes it sound, and by that I meant specifically that he was saying it isn't even a game. Sure it is bad, but that is hardly fair. Also, the 3 days was not an excuse to get higher ratings. It is a reason for not insulting every bad game you come across. Of all the games I played so far, about half, if not more, were as crude as my game. Does he really go around insulting everyone like that? That is what I was trying to say. It is a game jam, does he really expect that every game will be finished? I do want people to rate it for what it is, and I like negative feedback, but this is only about the insult. There is no good reason to insult... especially a 3 day game jam. Lacking the ability to understand why it isn't cool to insult people at a 3 day game jam is even straight up stupid (still talking about rat casket, just to be sure). He still plays the innocent, acting like he doesn't understand what he did wrong.

They are not justifications, I was trying to show that I am aware of the problems. I was trying to demonstrate that I was making sense of the feedback I was getting, and that I was realizing that all the things I liked were actually not that relevant to others. I know this game is garbage. Starting from scratch is the best plan, and always was the plan. I didnt expect people to love my game. Some people left some positive feedback, but I could also tell a lot of people were just being nice, which isn't that useful. Like I have said repeatedly, you know exactly which part of your comment was insulting and unnecessary. Stop trying to ellude this by focusing all the attention on how bad my game is. And stop trying to twist it so that it ends up seeming like I just cant take the criticism. You KNOW you were being an asshole. Before I found you here at TIG, being a rat behind my back, you could get away with twisting it however you liked. But, now I am here, and yet you still try to play the innocent machiavellian?

Considering that telling you that your game is bad, and that I have no idea what you're trying to do with this piece of shit, is not a crime? I'm innocent as all hell.

But please continue to post paragraph after paragraph of tears and shit up this thread. Instead of, you know, sending me a PM or something so that you don't have to waste everybody elses time with your asinine and argumentative posts.

So either shut the fuck up.
Or yell at my inbox.

It certainly is not a crime. You really are good at twisting things. There can be innocence of more than just crimes. The innocent you play that I refer to is the one where you pretend like you do not understand why people get so upset when you insult them. Do you often wonder why people respond to you in anger? You made it public, it ends public.

Okay sure. I just want to stop ruining this thread so okay you win. You did it. now will you relax? You're starting to look like a real asshole and its embarrassing.

I am not embarrassed about having to go too far to stop a manipulative liar and cheat. You can't win with those tactics around me. I am a way bigger asshole than you, or most people. My parents would put that shit straight in the trashcan, tell me to go learn more maths. Fuck those assholes. I have thicker skin than you realize, but I also yell back, and that is what YOU were whining about in the first place. Your first four remarks were useful, fifth one, I had to respond. I don't think I even have control over it.

They wouldn't. Situations where no sound is preferable to shitty sound are extremely rare. Play Tifu's game (Deicide (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=7793)) if you want to experience an example of what happens if you have no sound in an action game. You NEED sound, regardless of how bad, for feedback reasons.


You should join again next LD. You learn by doing, and LD is one of the best occasions for it. You also sometimes get good feedback on your game which can help you improve faster than if you were to just make things on your own.


Hold on one second there. Rat Casket did not hurl a single insult at you until you made a mocking post on his game to get back at him for criticizing your game. Even then, he only insulted you for making that comment on his game (rendering you an asshole in his eyes). Even after that, he didn't insult you again until you threw your earlier tantrum. The big commonality here is that he never once insulted you for making a game, for making certain game design decisions, for submitting to Ludum Dare, or for any other part of participating in Ludum Dare. He called you an asshole and a fuckboi [sic] because of the way you responded to him. You need to learn to separate criticism of your game from criticism of you. This is an essential step in learning to take criticism.


Indeed. There's many shitty games every LD, and many of them are by first-time game devs like you. And I am equally harsh on all of them.

In case you were wondering, out of the 12 games I've rated so far, 2 received a worse rating than yours and 2 others have the same rating as your game (including, notably, one by a creator I've enthusiastically given 5/5 before). If it weren't for the star deducted for violating that one rule, there would be 4 worse than yours and 3 at the same rating.


While that's nice, and I personally don't mind, it's bad practice to do this as many will consider responding with your thoughts on the feedback to be defensive, and as such it discourages people from giving feedback. In your mind you will think over the feedback, agree with some of it and discard other parts of it, and that's completely fine, but most people don't want to hear what you really think of the feedback (beyond showing appreciation for the fact that the feedback was useful, if it was).


I like to burst bullshit bubbles before they can do any damage, so in case you didn't fully realize: Most of the 'nice game'-style comments are bullshit and they're just being nice to be polite (and blah blah blah welcoming community blah blah). They'll still rate your game low, so don't be surprised if your game is rated strangely low for something everybody claims to have enjoyed thoroughly.


But you can't take criticism. If you agree with criticism, thank the person who gave it and move on. If you think the criticism is bullshit and the person is an asshole, ignore it and move on. Getting into an argument because someone insulted your game shows that you can't take criticism. Note that not all criticism is constructive, and enduring non-constructive criticism is a part of being able to take criticism.


Oh please, like we don't both clearly know you trolled him into shitting up the thread. I highly doubt you're genuinely concerned about him shitting up the thread.


Yeah, no, you blew up over a simple troll criticizing your game and then let him troll you into posting angry rants. That's a serious lack of thick skin, which is not uncommon, but something you should definitely work on if you plan on hanging around places like these (or ever becoming a famous developer).

I come from a family of savages that yell at each other. By thicker skin, I simply meant hes not going to make me cry or feel bad about making a shitty game. I blow up over everything, and quite enjoy yelling and arguing.

wtf is going on here ppl pls

In no world is this a positive thing. .__.

Most people don't, so don't.

I've made a resource based city builder for the compo. Kept working on it these past days. Its still an alpha/compo game obviously.

It can be played in a browser: Game Launcher Website (http://anikki.com/ld31/index.html)

Tell me what you think.

(http://anikki.com/ld31/shot6_small.png)

Played and rated some of the games in this thread now. I'll continue from time to time throughout the rating period. No rush. Plenty o' time.

Pretty cool entries, people. Playing and rating every game I found here and I still don't finish xD

Btw, if some of you still didn't played mine, here's the entry:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=10863 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=10863)

I wait your constructive comments :)

Hi everyone :)
I did not spend so much time on previous posts here but from what I saw it seemed quite hot...
Anyway, i have my own LDJAM entry too ! I randomly called it DEATHMETALSLUG , I try to promote a bit, at least to have feedbacks elsewhere than on LD site. It might be important to me as i have bigger plans based on what has been made for now.

Here is the link :

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=46874

I'm working on new stuff/decent graphics/jam version bugs since and i'll try to release something really nice with the original concept at the start of the year. So if everybody think it's useless, i may look at my work from another perspective. For now I try to collect recurent (or not) things that don't make it really a good game but just a little prototype, to change it in upcoming versions. I do agree with the comments on LD (i mean at least about my game), and some comments even makes me proud, but maybe players here are a bit more direct or exigent so tell me what you think about my game if you have heart and time to give a try. If so,please avoid Java (GJ quicklaunch) version, try to download it instead.Too many troubles... This was made with GMS, and it's not HTML5!

Windows only sorry :(

Sadistic players are welcome. I can be a Sadist too sometimes. Here's an ugly gif representing what you may expect :

(http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/gameplay2-2-2.gif)

Cheers, and enjoy!Hope you'll like it.

Looks like results are up.

My entry scored 140th overall.  I guess that's good?  I was really hoping for top 100 though, and falling short is disapointing.  Maybe I needed more votes?  Maybe sound is a higher priority than I put it on my list?

Anyways, here's a link to my game:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=45321 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=45321)

Congrats to Managore for taking 1st in the compo.

The game that won top audio for the jam is good and all, but its... not that good. Especially considering a lot of the sfx are just plain bad?

I feel like there were so many games with great sound and music that should have won that.

My game was shit and I got a shit score. I think I have a problem with game jams, I never seem to make anything nice...

Link you game, Imp. I don't remember which one it was.

Overall I'm happy with my scores. Definitely shot myself in the foot by making a multiplayer only game.

#75   Fun   3.77
#97   Overall   3.76
#215   Mood   3.34
#260   Graphics   3.57
#458   Audio   2.88
#490   Innovation   3.22
#957   Theme   3.23


I ended up with a cool rank for fun and overall (best ones yet in 4 ludum dares). I'm just curious how I got such a good overall when the rest of my ranks are so low.

Well if people are like me, they probably valued fun over all the other categories.  Unless the game clearly wasn't meant to be fun.

I agree with GhostBomb, when I rate the "overall" category, I tend to express a general feeling, and If I had fun playing the game, then this feeling is obviously better ;)!

Here my scores for Attack of the Screen Scrollers (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=29773):

#20 Theme 4.46
#20 Innovation 4.34
#148 Fun 3.61
#182 Overall 3.63
#478 Humor 2.59
#561 Mood 2.93
#593 Audio 2.64
#714 Graphics 2.83

I'm quite happy with Theme and Innovation (didn't except that one), and Fun and Overall are similar to my previous LD entry (I actually got better scores, but lower ranks. I think it's due to the general increase of good games produced each LD ;)).

Regarding Graphics, Last time I scored average with "flash-based" cartoon vector graphics, so this time I tried my hand at pixel art. For a very poor score. It means I'll have to focus on this point for the next LD (and also I'd like to find a tool to create music for someone with zero skills in this area ;)).

Anyway, the winning entries for this LD are clearly awesome (Snowball Juggling Olympics is outstanding), and there was a lot of original entries despite the initial outrage at the theme!

Here are my scores for Slope Challenge (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=42145):

#221 Innovation 3.63
#333 Audio 3.08
#362 Theme 3.75
#409 Overall 3.33
#637 Graphics 2.96
#664 Mood 2.82
#799 Fun 2.83

I guess the difficult controls and some initial confusion (I made the help feature early on but never went back to update and improve it) killed some of the fun for sure. As an absolute noob at jams and new at Unity, I guess I'm fairly happy with the ranking relative to what I made.

I came #11 in graphics which I was really happy with since I wasted to much time on them and was left with too little time for everything else. Overall no big surprises, but next time I'm hoping to focus on gameplay first, graphics last.

Happy with what I did even if it is a one trick prototype.

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54420601/Twitter/Results.png) (https://twitter.com/FranklinsGhost/status/549903893090422784)

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=25036
 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=25036)

I know what's wrong with it. It's no fun. I had an idea that was way too big in my head, and instead of doing a vertical slice prototype i spent too much time learning how to code certain things.

This is the third time we placed 11th in Mood. I'm really happy with the results, and we got the morale boost to remake this into a larger, more polished project.

(http://bitserum.com/tempstuff/LD-results.jpg) (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=24347)

Hi !
Here are DMS rankings :
   Coolness   100%
#579   Humor(Jam)   2.44
#615   Audio(Jam)   2.30
#872   Fun(Jam)   2.50
#910   Innovation(Jam)   2.27
#912   Mood(Jam)   2.30
#912   Theme(Jam)   2.87
#921   Graphics(Jam)   2.17
#975   Overall(Jam)   2.43
( http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=46874 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=46874) )
I guess optimism is self deception ... Anyway I tell myself it's in the good half and comments and evolution encourage me to go on ! Maybe with more preparation/communication with the Compo next time. Feeling part of LD for the first time was great and constructive to me.
Franklins Ghost : I really liked animation on your game. Do you make flash movies or something like this usually?

Cheers ! :beer:

at least you learned a lot

Thanks FREAKNARF, I have done some short flash movies previously but haven't had time in awhile to work on any new ones. Latest project is using the same techique but just involves one figure. Here's the link to one of the twitter videos if you want to check it out Humqn Fishbowl (https://twitter.com/FranklinsGhost/status/533832182570049536)

Would recommend trying the comp version, think you end up learning alot when you have to do everything by yourself. My scores haven't ever been that great besides this time the graphics so I wouldn't worry about it too much. As long as your learning I think it's worth it.

My game was Quiet Life (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=7284):



I didn't expect my scores to be high, but I didn't quite expect them to be this low either.

(http://i.xomf.com/qdsnc.png)

Calculating the percentiles, that's my worst ever score (relative to other entrants) in Innovation, Theme, Audio (obvious considering I didn't have the time and added sfxr bleeps solely for feedback), Humor and Mood, with it being second worst ever in two of the remaining three categories, Overall and Fun. (Graphics was my third worst score ever, but that's because that score is always low.) As this was my 8th Ludum Dare, this is a bit of a disappointing result.

I was considering developing my game further, but at this point I'm just not sure if anybody liked it. On the other hand, my only LD game appreciated enough to keep being linked occasionally (my LD22 entry, Hikikomori Manager 2012 (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=7284)) is also my second worst rated game (it was my worst rated game until this LD), so ratings don't say everything either. (Meanwhile, my best rated game (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=7284), which was top 10 in three categories and top 25 overall, has only been played by around 50 people and never receives any attention anymore.)

One peculiarity I noticed is that my rankings are lower than you'd expect from the ratings, particularly in theme - my Theme score this LD was 3.44, which ranks me 769th among the 1365 compo entrants (percentile 43.66%). However, back in LD23, my theme score of 3.47 gave me 202nd place of 1072 entrants (percentile 81.16%). Though the score was only 0.03 lower, the percentile dropped by a whopping 37.5%. It's not just voting trends changing over a long stretch of time, either; my LD29 entry's Theme score of 3.63 ranked me #235 out of 1492 (percentile 84.25%). I doubt that 0.19 points of difference was worth an over 40% drop in percentile. A lesser effect is also visible in other categories (my LD31 Overall score of 3.20 is identical to my LD24 score, but in LD24 I was at 75.55% yet this time I'm only at a percentile of 60.00%). I wonder if there's been a big influx of higher-rating new users this (or past) LD or if there's some other explanation for this strange change.

While we're on the subject of strange votes, I'm also not entirely satisfied with the ratings voters gave to other games. While I don't mean any offense to Molten, I feel that SideLands (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=1534)'s #95 Fun, #97 Overall and #240 Innovation for a game of which the biggest draw is that the screen is rotated 90 degrees and that practically plays itself for lack of difficulty, in addition to being short, is rather excessive. Meanwhile great games like Tifu's Deicide (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=7793) (which despite its flaws in lack of player feedback and sub-optimal controls provides a great, fun, rewarding challenge) and Tuba's Rome's Little Step (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=11195) with its awesome combat mechanics get screwed with low scores like #445 Overall, #610 Fun and #657 Overall, #419 Fun respectively. I get the feeling that voters simply don't take the time to truly play the games and rate them in a shallow manner after playing for a couple minutes at most. (For reference: 2.5Dino Arena, although the score doesn't fully compare due to it being jam instead of compo, beats Deicide in Fun and RLS in Overall.)

(In case anyone's wondering, these were my votes for the abovementioned games, in order of Overall/Innovation/Fun/Theme/Graphics/Audio:
2.5Dino Arena: 2/1/2/2/2/X
SideLands: 3/3/2/2/4/2
Deicide: 4/4/4/4/3/X
RLS: 4/3/4/3/4/4)


And to supplement our earlier discussion on positive/negative feedback, here are some gems from the people who voted on my low-rated game:


Great game! 2/5

My game did sort of okay!
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=36638
   Coolness   71%
#249   Innovation(Jam)   3.48
#397   Fun(Jam)   3.19
#468   Overall(Jam)   3.24
#597   Audio(Jam)   2.40
#694   Theme(Jam)   3.33
#796   Humor(Jam)   1.87
#855   Mood(Jam)   2.47
#873   Graphics(Jam)   2.38

Obviously I didn't set the world on fire, but I am encouraged to score decently well with Innovation & Fun. It was my first time doing a solo jam and my first LD so maybe that balances out my disappointment with not cracking the Top 100. Percentiles are also a more ego-friendly way to look at this stuff

Also pretty clear that I should work with an artist for the next jam I do. Going solo is nice for speedily prototyping things, but I think Graphics play a lot into Fun and Overall.
Artist peeps who need good programmers/designers, hit me up for your next jammy jam!  :gentleman:

I guess all the people with negative comments choose to stay anonymous, so you only see the people who liked your game

Yeah I've learnt to not read too much into the comments, last LD was my favourite complete game so far and with the comments I received I thought I was going to go pretty well but ended getting pretty poor scores. Have now learnt to just do it more for myself and the learning process then anything else. Think the scoring is a strange thing with it all depending who is scoring you and how many people score you.

Incredibly bad on the coolness scale, but rather good in most other categories, considering there were over 2600 entries this year (which does make the coolness incredibly bad, tho ).

(http://i.imgur.com/8QKvgyR.png)

What does "coolness" really mean in LD anyway? I never really know what to put there when I rate a game. It can't be the general sum of the other categories, because there's already an "overall" one too.

Coolness is based on how many entries you vote on I'm pretty sure. It's for the people who really dedicate themselves and vote on like hundreds of entries. I guess the LD people thought they deserved some credit.

My game Behind the fog (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=21736) did rather well, I'm satisfied.


(http://i.imgur.com/WfElwHw.png)

I finally broke the 4 star barrier in at least one category of which I'm happy. I need to work more on my graphics and mechanics next time though.

How could you know? There's no coolness rating you can give games...
Your low coolness score is due to a low amount of games you rated, probably around 1 percent or less of total games.

Anyway it's what Impmaster said already... but here's a bit more, taken from the LD site (http://ludumdare.com/compo/rules/):

In addition, there is a special category Coolness. The more games you play and rate, the higher your score. ALSO: we prioritize people with a higher Coolness. More players will find (and likely) rate your game if you have a high Coolness.

Oh, yeah. I remember that now. I have gotten higher scores there before. Sorry for being uncool this time around. Just exploding with itching fingers these days. Been drawing, programming, writing, everything. :(((

My entry was Glow Drop (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=21252), a physics puzzle game where the entire game was built in Construct2 using only one layout. Many layers and event sheets were used to pull this off.


And because of the amount of comments demanding such, I'm currently working on updating it to Android and Windows Phone/Store 8. Hopefully there will be something released by the end of the month!