I can't wait for your next documentary. They're always so entertaining and humorous! This is the first time I'm entering Ludum Dare as I'm only 14 and I didn't want to do it last year as I really didn't have much skill. (Even though I've been coding since I was 11!). Anyways ramble over, good luck this year everyone. Hope you all have a slightly stress free 48 hours!
Don't worry, just give it a shot. Even if it doesn't work out the first time, you know what to improve upon for the second try. You don't have to tell anyone ;)
As always, great video and very helpful! Also, not sure if this was your intention but I loved how you said "May the theme not suck" it's like ludum dare's version of "May the force be with you" just awesome!
Ludum dare games don't need a lot of length, but they do need a solid idea, to put them apart from the rest. Take WindowFrame, for instance. The actual gameplay is very short but the window mechanic is so cool that people don't really care.
I'm gonna be participating for the first time with my friend in LD #41, my friend and I are only 14 years old and are quite curious as to how our LD game might turn out, thanks so much for these tips, I really enjoy your videos, keep it up! :D
Awesome advice's and love your videos by the way ! I would like to add one : is to set a another challenge beside the fact that you're actually making a game which is awesome ! I find that constraint of time is a really good opportunity to learn , at least it works for me anyway , it's always more interesting to try to explore uncharted territories be it in terms of programming , art or game design .I find that way , you will never came out empty of a game jam , finished game or not :)
I love your videos! After watching your post mortems and videoes like this I think I might try participating in the next Ludum Dare. Seems like a lot of fun! (well... a lot of work, but that's the same thing, right?)
That sounds great! The more people contributing with their own perspective and games, the better! If game dev work is fun to you then you're one of us already! :) And thank you for watching!
I need just to ask you what is the best way to learn the main stuff like coding , graphics, sound , is it to see many tutorial and try to make something similar or to take a course or try with your self (try and try , try and fails until get experience) hope you give me advice to find my way ('o')
Hi Mahmoud! That's a hard question because it depends on how you learn best. But I can tell you what worked for me if that helps: I played around with a simple programming language, BASIC, which helped me understand, well, the basics, such as branching (IF ... ELSE) and loops (FOR ... NEXT), which I find is the most essential thing to understand about programming. Then, I just tried out many different languages, by reading & watching tutorials. The problem with just watching tutorials is, that most of the times they show you only the right way to do things. And if something along the way goes wrong, you have absolutely no experience in finding out where what led to an error. So: Learn the basics, watch a few tutorials, but always modify the tutorial code to understand how things work, then try something similar (but not completely the same) yourself. When you're stuck on a specific aspect, ask questions in the forums. People are much more likely to respond when you have a very specific question than a broad one like "how do I make a game?". As for art and sound: Listen/watch a lot, try to understand why the artists made something look/sound the way it does, and how. Approaching anything analytically helps me a lot: Why did they choose only these colors, what makes the guitar sound so amazing in this song? How many frames is the jumping animation and why? Just a lot of questions. Hope this was a bit helpful to you. All the best! Just have fun learning! :)
really that is awesome , help me very much I AM doing this right now but I was not sure if that could make full understand the programming ,and really it is the best way (at least for me ) to learn easily , thanks for your advice really appreciate that .
We're ready for the new Ludum Dare Documentary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also Im sure you already thought of this but just a suggestion, do you think it would be a good idea to start your concepts during the final voting round that has only those few potential themes before the theme is announced? I know it seems counter productive to think of concepts for potential themes that aren't used, but this would help give you a jumping off point for when the theme is actually announced and you could avoid going to the mall to get your game ideas ;) lol
Pixel Prophecy I understand that. one more question: would you ever consider doing a sort of run down video of all the stuff you use to be a one man dev team? like "here I use my H4N to record the sfx then transfer the file to my pc and here I use my Casio keyboard to make the synth sounds and in game music" things like that?
+Alex Chapman That's a great idea! I'll put it on my list for future videos. Already have some notes for "cool tools" I use in general, but a little work flow rundown seems very useful.
Awesome tips I just want to add one Take the time to actually think of a great idea Too many people just try something and realise half way through the game isn't going to be fun. That can be a problem ;) So just take those 1 a 2 hours (or more) to think of a great idea!
This is an excellent video almost a year later. I'm looking to participate in the Ludum Dare that's going down on 4/20 (:P) to April 23rd this year, and this is really reassuring. I think I have the method down pat. I need to make more progress on my current project, hopefully be done with it before the Ludum Dare, but regardless, I don't have time for any of the other Ludum Dares of the year. It's great that it's in April, because that means I'll hopefully be able to go out and just soak in the sun for a while during the competition. Vitamin D is excellent for the mind and the body. I'm going to write a document planning what I'll do about this, what I'll need, what schedule I'll follow, and so on. It's in the middle of everything else, but thankfully, it's before Valborg and probably after the cow let I'll visit this year, or maybe even before. It could be in May, depending on the weather. Your videos are excellent, especially your LD documentaries. I'm hoping to see your next one in April! Don't let me down!
Thank you very much! Sounds like you have a good plan down already. All the best for LD41, I'm very much looking forward to recording another documentary then :)
This really helped me a lot thank you so much. tomorrow I think I'd like to participate in Ludum dare 38. My 1st time. so thanks for the inspiration. :D
"May the theme not suck" Hahahahaha...this made me laugh...the theme always sucks. That is the nature of LD :D EDIT: Forgot to say that this is an awesome video. Wish I did everything properly the first couple of times I participated :)
Yeah, that's true. Hopefully we don't miss anything important :) Don't forget to get out of you room for the good ideas :D I definitely won't. Good luck!
It went fine. :) In short: I collaborated for the first time in my game dev and because I didn'T have to worry about coding, I polished the shit out of every asset ;) Here's the link to our game, if you're really curious: ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/headroom
That was absolutely gorgeous. It took me a little while to figure it out, but it's a really cool concept. I did lose the key once and had to restart, not sure if it was a bug, or just me losing it. Mine is available here ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/$18181 if you care, I worked with a group as well. Looking forward to watching your documentary about this one. I hope you were able to given the collaboration.
Thanks for playing! And sadly, there are still a few kinks with the colliders and the key. "Lose the key, lose the game". And great that you figured it out, we were a bit worried that the mental leap players are expected to make was a bit too big ;) And I'll check out your game first thing tomorrow. Anything Lovecrafty in tone I feel instant affinity for :)
If you plan to work alone on a single branch you basically only need to know : add, commit, push, pull, clone From my personal experiences it's much faster than SourceTree on many aspects, especially the cloning time on large projects ST vs Git Bash
I was in your exact same position. don't panic. Wait for the theme and make sure to be creative. Part of the fun, especially if it's your first time doing Ludum Dare, is to come up with creative solutions to the limitations set by the competition, the theme, and your own limitations. Also no shame in not finishing, you can always release what you got done, or make a video showing off what you managed to do :) Good luck and have fun! don't take the competition too seriously.
![Game Jam Macro Design Document Guide And Template [Indie Game Development]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6feTiNH17ng/mqdefault.jpg)
![Game Jam Macro Design Document Guide And Template [Indie Game Development]](/img/tr.png)
I can't wait for your next documentary. They're always so entertaining and humorous! This is the first time I'm entering Ludum Dare as I'm only 14 and I didn't want to do it last year as I really didn't have much skill. (Even though I've been coding since I was 11!). Anyways ramble over, good luck this year everyone. Hope you all have a slightly stress free 48 hours!
+PURE Thank you! All the best and have fun! :)
PURE Same over here! I would like to enter but I'm really nervous every time I think about it tho.
Don't worry, just give it a shot. Even if it doesn't work out the first time, you know what to improve upon for the second try. You don't have to tell anyone ;)
As always, great video and very helpful! Also, not sure if this was your intention but I loved how you said "May the theme not suck" it's like ludum dare's version of "May the force be with you" just awesome!
It really *is* a recurring thing with LD ;) But this time I am strangely optimistic, that it'll be good...
Ludum dare games don't need a lot of length, but they do need a solid idea, to put them apart from the rest. Take WindowFrame, for instance. The actual gameplay is very short but the window mechanic is so cool that people don't really care.
Man, I like your videos so much... You are amazing!
Thanks to pass your experiences to us =)
I'm gonna be participating for the first time with my friend in LD #41, my friend and I are only 14 years old and are quite curious as to how our LD game might turn out, thanks so much for these tips, I really enjoy your videos, keep it up! :D
Thank you! I wish you all the best, hope you have fun! I'll be taking part in LD 41 as well, so see you in April :)
Thanks so much! I wish all the best for LD 41 as well. See you in April! :D
Awesome advice's and love your videos by the way !
I would like to add one : is to set a another challenge beside the fact that you're actually making a game which is awesome !
I find that constraint of time is a really good opportunity to learn , at least it works for me anyway , it's always more interesting to try to explore uncharted territories be it in terms of programming , art or game design .I find that way , you will never came out empty of a game jam , finished game or not :)
+Jessr_San Absolutely! You're much more creative with some boundaries and constraints thank with total freedom.
I love your videos! After watching your post mortems and videoes like this I think I might try participating in the next Ludum Dare. Seems like a lot of fun! (well... a lot of work, but that's the same thing, right?)
That sounds great! The more people contributing with their own perspective and games, the better! If game dev work is fun to you then you're one of us already! :) And thank you for watching!
You have given me so many ideas for my next game project thank you
Cool! I'm glad my video was useful to you :)
I need just to ask you what is the best way to learn the main stuff like coding , graphics, sound , is it to see many tutorial and try to make something similar or to take a course or try with your self (try and try , try and fails until get experience) hope you give me advice to find my way ('o')
Hi Mahmoud! That's a hard question because it depends on how you learn best. But I can tell you what worked for me if that helps: I played around with a simple programming language, BASIC, which helped me understand, well, the basics, such as branching (IF ... ELSE) and loops (FOR ... NEXT), which I find is the most essential thing to understand about programming. Then, I just tried out many different languages, by reading & watching tutorials. The problem with just watching tutorials is, that most of the times they show you only the right way to do things. And if something along the way goes wrong, you have absolutely no experience in finding out where what led to an error. So: Learn the basics, watch a few tutorials, but always modify the tutorial code to understand how things work, then try something similar (but not completely the same) yourself. When you're stuck on a specific aspect, ask questions in the forums. People are much more likely to respond when you have a very specific question than a broad one like "how do I make a game?". As for art and sound: Listen/watch a lot, try to understand why the artists made something look/sound the way it does, and how. Approaching anything analytically helps me a lot: Why did they choose only these colors, what makes the guitar sound so amazing in this song? How many frames is the jumping animation and why? Just a lot of questions. Hope this was a bit helpful to you. All the best! Just have fun learning! :)
really that is awesome , help me very much I AM doing this right now but I was not sure if that could make full understand the programming ,and really it is the best way (at least for me ) to learn easily , thanks for your advice really appreciate that .
You're awesome. Love your videos. Reminding mine personal characteristics while working on game development. :)
+Paulius Leonardas Haha thanks! :)
Excellent advice! Thanks for taking the time to put this out there. :)
+Dylan Kelk Thanks, Dylan! Glad you found it useful :)
No problem. Starting my first Gamejam this evening(where I live in Canada, that is).
+Dylan Kelk Ah, the Global Game Jam, I presume? Best of luck and lots of inspiration. You'll have learned a lot when it's over :)
Indeed, it's the Global Game Jam. Thank for you the well-wishing! I'll almost certainly be doing music or sound as that's what I'm good at.
It's not boring to write down a schedule!
+Potato Missing Depends on what type of person you are. I found it boring until I realized how fun it can be, actually 😅
Nice video! Good luck with this Ludum Dare. Can't wait for the post mortem. You gonna stream?
+Steven Tokarek Thank you! And no, I won't stream, having too much work shooting footage for the next documentary as it is ;)
We're ready for the new Ludum Dare Documentary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also Im sure you already thought of this but just a suggestion, do you think it would be a good idea to start your concepts during the final voting round that has only those few potential themes before the theme is announced? I know it seems counter productive to think of concepts for potential themes that aren't used, but this would help give you a jumping off point for when the theme is actually announced and you could avoid going to the mall to get your game ideas ;) lol
I know, but it feels like cheating somehow ;) Maybe next time, since, again, it took 14 hours for the final idea...
Pixel Prophecy I understand that. one more question: would you ever consider doing a sort of run down video of all the stuff you use to be a one man dev team? like "here I use my H4N to record the sfx then transfer the file to my pc and here I use my Casio keyboard to make the synth sounds and in game music" things like that?
+Alex Chapman That's a great idea! I'll put it on my list for future videos. Already have some notes for "cool tools" I use in general, but a little work flow rundown seems very useful.
Awesome tips
I just want to add one
Take the time to actually think of a great idea
Too many people just try something and realise half way through the game isn't going to be fun.
That can be a problem ;)
So just take those 1 a 2 hours (or more) to think of a great idea!
+Gamad Great addition! And I have to agree, especially as someone who's particularly challenged in that regard ;)
This is an excellent video almost a year later. I'm looking to participate in the Ludum Dare that's going down on 4/20 (:P) to April 23rd this year, and this is really reassuring. I think I have the method down pat. I need to make more progress on my current project, hopefully be done with it before the Ludum Dare, but regardless, I don't have time for any of the other Ludum Dares of the year.
It's great that it's in April, because that means I'll hopefully be able to go out and just soak in the sun for a while during the competition. Vitamin D is excellent for the mind and the body. I'm going to write a document planning what I'll do about this, what I'll need, what schedule I'll follow, and so on. It's in the middle of everything else, but thankfully, it's before Valborg and probably after the cow let I'll visit this year, or maybe even before. It could be in May, depending on the weather.
Your videos are excellent, especially your LD documentaries. I'm hoping to see your next one in April! Don't let me down!
Thank you very much! Sounds like you have a good plan down already. All the best for LD41, I'm very much looking forward to recording another documentary then :)
This really helped me a lot thank you so much. tomorrow I think I'd like to participate in Ludum dare 38. My 1st time. so thanks for the inspiration. :D
Then I wish you all the best and lots of fun! :)
"May the theme not suck"
Hahahahaha...this made me laugh...the theme always sucks. That is the nature of LD :D
EDIT: Forgot to say that this is an awesome video. Wish I did everything properly the first couple of times I participated :)
+BenJoe72 Haha thanks! There's always something you do completely wrong without realizing it. I wonder what it'll be for me this time ;)
Yeah, that's true. Hopefully we don't miss anything important :) Don't forget to get out of you room for the good ideas :D I definitely won't. Good luck!
Your videos are sooo good!! Thank you :)
And thank _you_ for watching :)
LD38 will be my first LD, but not my first time making games, so wish me luck!
+Lucas Andres Costa Good luck! 👍
Well done! :]
Also... *looks around* ...Fourth!
Thanks man really, helpful vid.
It's going to be my 1st LD so thanks for your words, I hope I'm not gonna die :P
+Maksym Rudek Please don't die! 😉
I've already watched your #36 post-mortem and you mention that 21 yo should be able to stay for 50 hours.. I'm 21, challenge accepted :P
+Maksym Rudek What have I done?! xD
I'm curious what's that text editor that you were writing your ideas? I mean that one with bluescreen and white letters in one of your post-mortems?
So, how did LD38 Go? Any spoilers? Did you hate the theme? Did your mind blank on theme announcement? The suspense is killing me ;)
It went fine. :) In short: I collaborated for the first time in my game dev and because I didn'T have to worry about coding, I polished the shit out of every asset ;) Here's the link to our game, if you're really curious: ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/headroom
That was absolutely gorgeous. It took me a little while to figure it out, but it's a really cool concept. I did lose the key once and had to restart, not sure if it was a bug, or just me losing it.
Mine is available here ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/$18181 if you care, I worked with a group as well.
Looking forward to watching your documentary about this one. I hope you were able to given the collaboration.
Thanks for playing! And sadly, there are still a few kinks with the colliders and the key. "Lose the key, lose the game". And great that you figured it out, we were a bit worried that the mental leap players are expected to make was a bit too big ;) And I'll check out your game first thing tomorrow. Anything Lovecrafty in tone I feel instant affinity for :)
A huge thank you! That will help a lot ! ;)
Thanks, glad you find my tips helpful, Ruben! :)
On the theme finalists what are the themes you want to see and the ones you don't?
Here are my votes: twitter.com/PixelProphecy/status/855209744629465090 In short: It seems like I am inspired to do something Myst-like ;)
are you using some kind of version control?
+Alexander Sieg I recently got introduced to Git + Source Tree, so that's what I am looking to test drive this weekend :)
if you need any help. I can and will help you
+Alexander Sieg Thank you! :) Let's see how it works out for me with this fancy version control all the cool kids are talking about ;)
The cooler kids use Git Bash ;)
If you plan to work alone on a single branch you basically only need to know : add, commit, push, pull, clone
From my personal experiences it's much faster than SourceTree on many aspects, especially the cloning time on large projects ST vs Git Bash
good advice man ^_^
I'm 14 and this is my first ludum dare. I'm programming for 3 months now, sooooo....... What's the easiest game to make?
+V V Pong :)
But there are physics... :-)
Sorry, my english isn't best because I'm from Czechia (you know, above you).
I was in your exact same position. don't panic. Wait for the theme and make sure to be creative. Part of the fun, especially if it's your first time doing Ludum Dare, is to come up with creative solutions to the limitations set by the competition, the theme, and your own limitations.
Also no shame in not finishing, you can always release what you got done, or make a video showing off what you managed to do :)
Good luck and have fun! don't take the competition too seriously.
All joking aside, I would suggest to start with a 2D, top-down game, so you only have to deal with collisions and no gravity :)
Dieser Moment wenn man erkennt aus welchem Land du kommst anhand daran wie du die Zahl 3 mit deinen Fingern darstellst😂😂.
Aber trotzdem tolles video.
Ich dachte, das erkennt man schon sobald ich den Mund aufmache ;)
Pixel Prophecy Das war dann nur eine Bestätigung ;)
I have a clickbait detector extension and it flags this as clickbait lol
Haha! Probably because of my click-baity title syntax: "[number] Tips for a [adjective] [noun]" ;)
9. Don't drink coffee
Or in general: Don't do drugs. ;)
Third!!! :P I love your channel dude!
+Bradley Harvie Fourth! Thank you! :)
I already hate the theme. ;)
+Archimagus Sounds familiar... ;)
First!!!
sorry my dude but the theme ALWAYS sucks
It's an unwritten law, apparently. But I've learned to cope ... a little :)
Second