So, I entered Ludum Dare 26 last weekend (27th-28th April 2013). Ludum Dare is a game jam, where you have to develop all aspects of a video game from scratch, to finish, in just 48 hours. This was my first solo game jam, and the first time I did a game jam in the comfort of my own home. Since time was short, I decided to use Unity as my game engine. Unity is great for getting something on the screen fast, as it has a lot of the work done for you.
I’ll be honest, I only decided to do this the night before the game jam started, so I wasn’t very prepared. Nevertheless, I tried my best. I worked about 12 hours on the Saturday, and another 12 hours on the Sunday. I was wrecked by the end of it! This game jam was more for getting used to a 2D Toolkit asset from the Unity asset store that I had purchased just days ago. Since I had no experience with it, it did slow me down a bit. However I am more experienced with it now, and would highly recommend the Unity + 2D Toolkit combo if you’re interested in developing 2D games without having to creating your own engine. 2D Toolkit does cost a small amount, but it’s worth it!
My concept was a difficult platformer, where the player had the ability to toggle blocks of certain colours: red and blue. If red blocks were active, blue were inactive, and vice versa. By active, I mean you could use them as platforms. If they were inactive you would simply fall through them. Using this mechanic, the player had to toggle the blocks and the right time to complete the levels.
There are a few Ludum Dares a year. I recommend trying it for any game developers out there.
Click here for my ludum dare page
Click here for more technical information
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