Haven't done one of these in a very long time! I keep adding games to the games section as I make them, but blog articles take a lot more time to write. I rewrote the blog back-end once again, this time it is Haxe compiled to Node.js. Bye bye PHP! I also updated the about section, since that was becoming a bit dated.
Quick recap
Since the last post, I participated in a couple of gamejams (not counting the 1HGJ entries):
I also had a 6 month internship at Haxe Foundation, which was very enjoyable and spawned some interesting projects. I talked about this a little bit at HaxeUp 2019.
Current plans
Currently I am working on my MEng thesis based around creating a new, faster garbage collector for HashLink. The deadline is around June 2020. After that, I will be starting a PhD in Switzerland. I am very much looking forward to that. In the meanwhile, I will continue with hobby projects and gamejams, of course!
Ludum Dare 42 was held August 10th – 13th, 2018. The theme was "Running out of Space", and I made a puzzle / adventure game I'm very happy with called "Runnink out of Space".
I am adding this post very late, but – I participated in Alakajam! 2 over 23rd – 25th Februrary. The theme was "You can't see everything", and I made a rogue-like game set in a conspiracy-filled paper world.
"The more you have, the worse it is" was the theme for the latest Ludum Dare - LD40. I made a cyberpunk surveillance simulation game called Ignorance is Bliss. Here is how that went.
Unexpectedly enough, I participated in another rapid gamejam. This time, it was Alakajam! (mind the !), a 48-hour event held over the September 22nd – 24th weekend. I participated in the Solo division and enjoyed the experience thoroughly.
As is tradition, I did Ludum Dare 39, and so it's time to tell the story. The theme was "Running out of Power", and I created a point 'n click puzzle-solving game with a 90's aesthetic, played in a Windows 95-esque desktop environment.
I participated in another Ludum Dare (three years / eight LDs in a row!) along with my friend and we made Planet of Babel, a multiplayer tactical strategy game, over the course of 72 hours. While a lot of things did not turn out the way I wanted, I learned new things, so I regret nothing.
As promised, although heavily delayed, I am writing a technical explanation of the way the rooms are rendered in one rooms. Featuring basic linear algebra, old school pixel-by-pixel rendering, and depth buffers. Sounds fun already!
It was that time of the year again! For Ludum Dare 37, I made a 2.5D point 'n click adventure in 72 hours – one rooms. I also skipped one night completely, opting to work for 40+ hours without any sleep whatsoever. Here's how everything went down …
This weekend I participated in yet another Ludum Dare. This one was exceptional, however, because there were no ratings. It was also exceptional for me, because it's the first time I submitted a (mostly solo) Jam entry, meaning I had 72 hours to create the game.
As is tradition, I participated in another Ludum Dare, with the theme 'Shapeshifting'. Though the game is rather simple and certainly not revolutionary, it might be one of my best LD entries to date.
Ludum Dare 33 is almost here, so I am getting ready – I made a warmup game, prepared my music libraries and published some tools for other participants.
The last Ludum Dare was, unfortunately, a failure for me – I couldn't finish what I had started. As is often the case, I spent too much time on a single aspect (buggy / slow pathfinding), which led me to realise there wasn't much to my game yet and not enough time left to implement a good amount of the features that would make the game somewhat interesting, for me or the players.
One hour for making a game is definitely not enough at all for a polished result. However, I believe this is good practice for rapid prototyping / any kind of gamedev jams with very limited time. It helps identify problems with your framework, workflow, the tools you're using, your time estimation, et cetera. So I gave it a go, hopefully this could turn into a fairly regular exercise.
Ludum Dare 31 was held this weekend (December 5th – 8th, 2014) with the theme Entire game on one screen. I wanted to make a point and click game for a while, so I gave it a go, and I am indeed quite happy with the result, Cell #327.
Skipped a weekend worth of revision for my exams the following morning, didn't really get to sleep for them either (cause European timezone) but ... I think it was worth it :) When I was coming up with the concept, I imagined the resulting game to be a little more ... dark, more atmospheric. In the end it is a bit different, but maybe that's for the better. Seems to be more fun, the different worlds are noticably different in their palettes, etc.
Ludum Dare 27 was held this weekend (August 23rd - 26th, 2013), and I participated. In case you didn't know, Ludum Dare is an event happening every ~3 months, with smaller events (MiniLDs) accompanying happening irregularly. The point of the LD competition is to create a game in 48 hours from scratch (code, audio, graphics, story, ...), following a theme announced at the beginning. This time the theme was '10 seconds' - I made Thade.