Well, we HAD to be late for a post at some point, hadn’t we? Fortunately, we have a bloody good reason.

Ludum Dare : WE DID IT!

Ii took place from 27/4 to 29/4 (or, more accurately, 30/4 at 4 a.m.). All current members of GSM participated, that to say three less than during our latest JAM ; but everything went well !

Informations about the game

Theme: Minimalism

Title of the game: Outside the box

Game’s type: RPG

Plateforms: Windows and Linux (for now)

Download and play: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=16481

The pitch: Everything begins in the small village of N among which live our two main protagonists: Nel and Nod. They’re both youngsters and are surrounded by adults scolding them all the time, telling them to respect conforming rules they don’t agree with.

Those two have friends, Nus and Nad, for whom the big day has come: the day of their coming of age ceremony. N the Wise, head of the village, directs the ceremony and forbids anyone to reveal what’s truly behind it.

(To be continued…)

Some screenshots :

A first feedback : Christel

I might talk only on my behalf but I really appreciated this Ludum dare. Of course, I already participated to the first we did together but this one was better by a long shot.

First of all, our game is playable! So, the result is better than last time, when we’d bitten off more than we could chew. This improvement is due to several reasons and, there, I think I’m talking on everyone’s behalf:

-We’ve learn to identify what we are capable to create in this limited time frame

-We’re better, from a technical point of view, which of course help to do more in less time

-We know more precisely what are the capacities of each member of the team, and how each of us likes to work

-We gave from the start all necessary tool to everyone (especially git and cocos 2D, which allowed us, poor graphists, to follow the game evolution)

We still have to improve all those points, of course, but it’s great to note we’re going toward the right direction.

Then, from a personal point of view, I was capable to help a bit more than last time, when I limited myself to design… and it was exhilarating. To have responsibilities, to be answered, sometimes, when you ask a question, “do as if you were the one deciding, ok?”, I like it – and I’m not even being sarcastic.

To see the actual CODE, too, was a great satisfaction. To poke at it, even a bit, even from afar.

And then to test the game, of course; to see it improve; to see it being polish beyond what I thought possible within only three days.

The first time Bastien told me about Ludum dare, about the fact he’ll participate to a challenge which dared to create a video game within two days, I thought he’d fell on his head.

And now, we did it.

(Then, the others still had to endure my bad mood in the morning and, more generally, under stress. I’m really, truely sorry. I couldn’t improve that since last time. I promise to provide more cofee next time.)

Anyway, thank you, dear friends, for inviting me in your adventure!

#GAM April

April’s participation was provided by the Ludum Dare. However, the ongoing project are still evolving!

Hence, Bastien composed a background music for Thomas’ game. You can here it here :

https://soundcloud.com/grungi-ankhfire/chip001

Thomas asked me to write a first music track for his ongoing project. I decided to go with a chiptune track that would be suitable for a title screen. While it is a bit more than straight chiptune – I used a couple of effects like delay – it still retains the raw sound you would expect to find on a gameboy or similar gaming machine. The track itself is a mid-tempo, dark-ish theme supposed to make you curious and excited to explore the dungeons of the game. Hopefully it succeeds somewhat…

Alun Hevel

No background this month! Christel have been busy with some sketches for Bloboy…

To compensate, a few sketches for Alun Hevel’s main city. Noting finalised; those are research sketches to have a basis for the actual background.

Also a little preview of “Frryl’s Laugh” :

It is a volcano. In Alun Hevel’s univers, Frryl is the name given to the Fire.

Bloboy

We inserted Bloboy into a background in order to adjust the camera’s movements when he jumps. Indeed, the scope is to be able to zoom in/out to evaluate Bloboy’s jumps.

The full background:

Of course this background is just a working darft. Objects from the game are integrated into it in order to judge if they are still visibles and recognizables even when we dezoom.