Other Software > Developer's Corner

Ludum Dare 30: August 22-25, 2014

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TaoPhoenix:
I caught up with this, and it's a cute little puzzle game!

(Semi-Obvious) key strategy tips for his game:
- The size of the planet determines how many hits it can take as you loop around to get the shield generators.
- You do NOT have to do one of those "hit every planet to clear the board"; only what it takes to get out. So the whole point of his designs is there are lots of red herrings, both big and small.
- It turns out though without a level counter that I could see, I got to level 7, because it's , aka one of the big direction choices is the red herring because it leaves you in the wrong place to finish the board, and sometimes they run deep.

Some less obvious ones:
- Unlike composed chess studies, sometimes there are alternate solutions. (What is the word for that? Isomorphic?) Level six has a beautiful symmetrical butterfly look to it, and I think it has at least a twin solution.
- Turns out Level 7 is the last one. So my tip is look at the section with the guarded shield gate and count the number of paths connecting the shieldgate planet between the two sections. Ignore all the chaos for a bit and use a bit of game theory to think about directionality in the final couple of steps. This game has some nice similarities to old puzzle books I used to read as a child. (Do they even make those anymore in this web age?)

With those tips I beat the game on my second try, so I rate it Phoenix-easy, which was nice. : )   (I luv being able to rate games at that level!)

From Deozaan's Post Partum blog:

What didn’t go so well:
1.  The problem with it being a puzzle game is that I couldn’t judge how hard or easy or fun it was. Since I was designing the puzzles, I already knew all the solutions, so it seemed a little boring and easy to me. I probably should have gotten a couple of people to play it while I was working on it to see their reaction to help me judge the difficulty of the game. Though from the feedback I’ve received thus far, it seems even other players can’t agree on the difficulty, with some saying the difficulty curve was just right to others saying they got tired of losing so much and didn’t finish it.

Edit: Since it's public now, I'll just re-post the final level 7 here, and people can ponder it in the comfort of eating pretzels before they start re-playing the game.


I felt quite free to use the level reload by pressing "r". Seeing how far I get this time...

TaoPhoenix:

Completely tangent topic but derived from here, Deozaan used http://soundtraxxmusic.com/ , which has royalty free music. There's also a hosted podcast on there too about how the concept works. "Royalty Free" sounds a lot like Creative Commons Attribution Only.

TaoPhoenix:
I've been playing through some of the LD30 entries...
-Deozaan (August 27, 2014, 05:36 PM)
--- End quote ---

I am feeling a little better these days, so I will peek at some of the LD30 games too! Let's see if I can find a few more pleasant "Phoenix-Rated Easy or Medium ones!" And I'm armed with six hours of sleep, some American cheese and a monster drink!
8)

Plus, despite Deozaan being a minor deity (heh which pantheon?), I wonder if I'll be utterly mesmerized again with one like I was with Undermined last time.

Even if not, I like posting a few strategy cracks to bring down a game that initially looks Cthulu-Hard into one of the Phoenix categories. After all, I'm just a senile ol' birdie, if I can do it, so can you!

TaoPhoenix:
Misc Stuff

- guys called the Button Masher Bros do writeups on playing some of the games, in a podcast. It's good, amusing fun as they struggle with some of the games, or quietly freak at game surprises, and sometimes even the user names!

Here's "Episode 11" from this compo.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/09/11/ludum-dare-to-believe-s2-ep-11/

------------------------------------
The main organizer says he wants to get a little bit of money for his time after so much work.
Some posts exploring the options:
(I haven't listened to the podcasts, just skimming before I start playing.)

Part 1: Outlining the problem
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/09/15/the-future-of-ludum-dare-part-1/

Part 2: Concerns
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/09/17/the-future-of-ludum-dare-part-2/

---------------------------------------------------

Raw entry page for LD30

I've always found the LD site a little strange in layout. (And per that discussion, I'm not the only one!) They've already flipped into planning for the next event, and it's far from intuitive how to get to the master list of LD30. It doesn't currently seem to be listed in "recent events" yet.

Fortunately it seems like they use a standard pattern for their structure.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview

So I think you can change that number to anything and get any of the original game lists.

-------------
Off topic grump:
My wireless modem keeps misbehaving, and it just went down again a half hour ago as I as about to play stuff, so I unplugged it and hard plugged my comp directly into the main modem. Onward!

TaoPhoenix:
Okay, here come a few games!

First entry in the hysterical humor department (with great art too!)  :

Going Postal!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38494137/LD30%20-%20Going%20Postal/Web%20Version/Going_Postal_Web.html

A good effort by a novice dev:
Bus
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=40724
Rating is in fact Phoenix Easy, (just with some delaying tactics because you can't save levels), because the first few levels are a total snap, and a little inspired lateral thinking added to typical arcade timing reflexes wins the last one featuring two planes. My spoiler is on the LD page because everyone seemed to get stuck on it.

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