Alright, so... Ludum Dare 48 is officially over, my team did not finish our game, and I think I'm pregnant.
2 of those things are real.
For those who might not know, Ludum Dare is a super cool and one of the longest running game jams that takes place entirely online (although there are occasionally some IRL meetups hosted by independent third parties).
Game jams are fun little events where game developers are challenged with making a game in a limited amount of time. Some jams impose themes the games need to include, or limitations they need to adapt to, or other various restrictions, incentives, or goals. Some jams last 24 hours, some last 7 days, some last a full year... some last 0 hours.
Their fun, challenging, rewarding, and just an all around goofy time for you to test your skills, flex your creativity, and abandon your health (latter not advised!).
When I heard that the 48th Ludum Dare was upcoming, I reached out to a really dope artist I'm currently working with on a side-project, and asked if he'd be interested in having a little chill-sesh for the weekend. This would be our first game jam together, so it was more to test the waters than do anything serious. We were both also using this time to learn new tools, so we weren't expecting progress, but rather practice.
And, after carving out some time, this cool dude gave a cool "Yes". Thus, ROLLINKUNZ joined the chimp gang.
This dude's art is beyond sick. Check out this small selection of his work and then go give him a follow!
https://twitter.com/ROLLINKUNZ/status/1369367082463338496
- ROLLINKUNZ
https://twitter.com/ROLLINKUNZ/status/1367175268218109955
- ROLLINKUNZ
Cool as shit? I know right! And I got him as a teammate, so I'm pretty much king-chimp now 馃憫馃惖
Friday night came, and the theme for this jam was announced as "Deeper and Deeper". That definitely has some mileage to it in terms of themes.
Rollin and I hoped into a digital whiteboard to plan out some ideas, concepts, and late night jokes.
We had quite a decent selection of ideas to go with. Everything from a hole digging game, to a nose picking adventure. You know, the normal stuff.
After a quick final voting round on our favorite idea, we manage to end "night 1" of the event with an idea. For those unfamiliar with game jams, this is usually considered a leg up. Having a good idea and solid starting place in the first few hours will make the rest of the time more scoped and focused.
Our idea? Underwater golf. Possibly with mythical ancient god oysters.
Again, normal stuff.
Rollin came in clutch with this idea, as it was based off a game concept he had awhile ago. After weighing out options, we both agreed this was the best path forward as it had the simplest scope, easiest vision, and a good amount of fun.
After the first night, we had this:
2 nights later, we're looking at this:
It was a good bit of fun going back and forth with Rollin on different ideas, and sharing progress directly with someone else invested in the game is very motivated. I think making stuff like this in teams creates an internal motivation and feedback loop where you proceed to work hard in order to impress and 1-up your teammates.
If the vibe is right, cool stuff gets made. It's like long-distance virtual creative baby making.
This was my real venture using Godot, so it took me awhile to learn the basics. I think I realized I'm a rather slow learner. If something is intuitive to me, I'll pick it up and run with it in minutes. But if something operates differently to how I would expect it, I tend to hit my head on stupid small bumps over and over again. I also lack motivation to learn tools that don't do what I expect them to do.
In short: Ape brain.
But, thanks to the numerous video & written tutorials, and the very handy in-depth Godot documentation which is just so kindly placed right inside the editor itself, I did manage to learn the fundamentals. Now that I understand how Godot wants to work, I feel like I'm at the spot to progress faster.
Learning the baby steps is the hardest part, because it's the least fun. In fact, dare I say: It sucks ass. You have to spend an hour understanding the UI, core concepts, organization structure, blah blah blah. And at the end? You have some shitty Pong game. The "Hello World" of game development.
But, this shit is important. SO LEARN IT. Did you? Ok, good dev, now you get a cookie. And by cookie I mean you get to watch more tutorials and get closer to your MMORPG VR INFINITE WORLD SANDBOX REAL ECONOMY BLOCKCHAIN 4K MULTI-CONSOLE game of your dreams!
But first... Pong.
Yup. Technically, at least. To complete the jam you have to submit your game in within the time limit. Ludum Dare has 2 events: A compo and a jam. Compos are for solo developers, and they have 48 hours. Jams are for teams and they have up to 72 hours.
72 hours was up, and we did not have a finished product.
So, naturally, we yelled at one another, threatened each other's lives, doxxed each other, and ultimately died in a violent murder suicide shootout.
Also, I'm lying.
Even if we didn't finish a game, we weren't bummed at all. From the start we made it clear this would be a low energy, chilled out, experimental trial run. We weren't concerned with finishing a proper game on time, we were more focused on learning new tools and working together under a new format.
So, by Ludum Dare's rules: We failed.
But, by our rules: We won.
That's right, change the rules and you'll always win!
In all seriousness, I do consider this weekend a form of success. While I still have lots of learning to do with Godot, I think I've finally settled on the fact that it's a game engine worth learning.
The syntax is nice, the UI is pleasing, the concepts work once you understand them, and the community is active enough to help get you unstuck 99% of the time.
On Rollin's end, he spent the weekend setting up a new iPad and learning Procreate for the first time. I'd say he learned well, because look at this dope little diver he made:
Weekend well spent.
Welp, the immediate next steps is to finish the project we were originally working on before the jam. I have a few personal projects I'll be working on, as well as being more frequent on here.
After that stuff is done, I think the enthusiasm for this idea is strong enough in both of us that we will continue to work on it and at the very least make a fun little prototype from it.
Long-term vision? I see this being a really fun game with tons of replay value and a good potential for speedrunning and lots of great lore in the game world we can expand into other formats like webcomics and spin-off games, and even the possibility of a multiplayer element.
But first? Pong.
The warm welcoming on these posts are really kind. I haven't been curating nor commenting on here recently as much as I'd ultimately like to, so I was truly surprised to get curated by 
I will take a break for the rest of this week, but I will be back to writing more posts (hopefully including some short-form content for the non textwall lovers out there). I'll also be engaging more in the communities I have the most interest in, for example the game-dev, programming, art, and NFT spaces.
Thanks for reading everyone!
This was fun!
It can be fun for you too!
Ludum Dare is over, which means there's over 3,500 games to go and play, for free!
Take care, see you all soon!
- Chimp CEO 馃悞
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