Ludumdare is a game jam where they announce a theme and you make a game over the weekend just for fun and practice.
It’s a fantastic way to get your game design juices flowing as hey, no matter how bad you fail, it was only a couple days. The time-pressure if only having a few days and HAVING to release whatever you have is great for those that like to quit projects halfway, like me.
About the “game” I made:
Rogue-Life is a weird experimental thing that crosses a board game, a rogue-like, and the hollow illusion of controlling that random dungeon of existence we’ve each received.
Can you find meaning before you “Grow” old and die? There are 5 of them to find.
Tips:
- You are always aging (even while standing still), and you will eventually die
- Don’t waste your life on the wrong jobs, different jobs give different emotional benefits as well as pay. For instance, a Soup Kitchen pays $0 but raises your Self Acceptance
- Some lives cannot be happy or successful no matter what you do
- Overcoming an obstacle (the pad-locked doors) give a bonus to all stats
- Your stats change with age. For instance, your Physical will go down as you enter old age, and your Self Acceptance takes a hit in your teenage years
- Meanings are marked by trophies icons – you can zoom out with your mouse wheel to see where they are easier
I’m not ever sure if it’s possible to find all “meaning” in a single life before dying. 3 out 5 is my best.
Post-mortem:
Good:
- Well, I made what I set out to do
- It’s funny in weird and unexpected ways, like to accept lack of control and chaos (one of the meanings) you may need to murder someone
- “Pushing” against a job to continue working there is a nice easy way to control things
- Got a bit more comfortable with Unity and WegGL
Bad:
- It’s kind of boring. You end up pushing against everything without even reading what’s happening
- The more text and numbers I removed, the better it plays. But don’t feel like doing that
- The random stuff is way too random, each life is completely different and some don’t make sense. Hey, maybe that’s fitting though
For the daring, you can play the game in your web browser here. Probably doesn’t work right on mobile as you need arrow keys to control stuff.