3 Weeks Ago

I participated in my first collab Ludum Dare Jam; now results are out. It's bittersweet.

Overall: 541st (3.473 average from 114 ratings)

Fun: 417th (3.438 average from 114 ratings)

Innovation: 861st (2.784 average from 113 ratings)

Theme: 1052nd (2.383 average from 113 ratings)

Graphics: 380th (3.795 average from 114 ratings)

Audio: 334th (3.444 average from 110 ratings)

Humor: 413th (3 average from 106 ratings)

Mood: 650th (3.241 average from 108 ratings)

wuuuut, but I had so many ratings, and good karma~

Quality over quantity, gets the cake!

Not like that's a bad thing, that's how it should be!

so then why was 9/10 of the reviews "excellent game, amazing graphics, audio fit the theme, fun gameplay~"

Deceptive much?

Well, I guess people did want their games played. And don't get me wrong, I enjoyed most of the games I played 🤣

So I guess my game was just bad?

The trend in the top 100, unless your game is a globally popular one, once 20-40 people voted on your game and they're all your audience, that'll sure trump 100+ of varying audiences with different tastes for varying genres.

but saying that is making an excuse, right?

No copping out, do better next time.

It goes back to the saying, if my game was better, the results would have shown that. Because there are the rare top 100 that have 150+ votes. And unless mine was on that caliber of awesomeness, I shouldn't expect such glorious results 😂

but what about the other amazing games that didn't make it?

Tactics! Skills!

Bloodless was the top jam game during votings; it placed 97th overall. Other tops, weren't as lucky. Many of these results surprise me, as I genuinely thought hands down, that they'd make it.

As for the top 100 games; they did so well to keep their ratings just above the Danger Zone (games ordered by 20 votes or lower), and their personal reviews below the Smart Zone (games ordered based on how many reviews their author made). Because I could not find them 😅

was that their master plan???

Well, I'm new to all this, but it doesn't change my personal experiences earned.

Lessons learnt:

Maybe if: I turned it into a puzzle game, it'd have done better. Many people liked the idea of a puzzle brawler. But I barely got time to complete the Brawler, who'd have time to delve into a new category of gaming like puzzles, especially as this Brawler was a new game genre for me as well!

Maybe if: I aimed for only the minimum ratings (20), results would have generally been higher numbers? But these extensive ratings are what pushed me to take this game further!

Maybe if: I voted minimally, I too would avoid my game appearing much. But who wouldn't want to play all these games! Besides, what's the point of Ludum Dare if you just make a game, drop it in, and move on!? (the main objective is to start something but that alone is boring; sharing/interacting is fun!)

Maybe if: I listened to the audience and changed the controls, it'd have been less spam-feely. But 3/4 of the players seemed to love it! Besides, this is what I envisioned for this game! Regardless of if it was well received or not.

Maybe if: I made a better game, results would have been better. But it's possible the system is flawed; or not. It is what it is.

Overall:

It was amazing making a game for the first time with an artist. @AXLplosion was able to take all my ideas and bring them to life! I'm just sad I couldn't make the game better for his sake.

I'm satisfied with the progress I made, utilizing game libraries and APIs I started working on in preparation for the event; call them my own "engine".

I'm amazed by the game I accomplished, and I'm excited to continue building on it did someone say multiplayer 👀; I did not know what I was getting into when I decided to make a Brawler, and I must say, the spaghetti code was worth it!

I'm grateful to Ludum Dare for the initiative they make to prompt a game, it really pushed my limits and helped me grow; looking forward for more competitions.

I'm just disappointed with these results.

But hey, at least Bob the Brawler is Frontpaged on Newgrounds (at this time of writing)

Seeing it climb from Daily Pick to Popular Game to Frontpaged was an excitement of it's own 😆

Moving on:

Bob the Brawler is my Ludum Dare entry. But it did spark some ideas I'm willing to expand on, as well was include suggestions from all the reviews on the game.

In addition to that, I'm also dabbling in some multiplayer experiments, developing my own systems for Client-Side Prediction and Server Reconciliation, Entity Interpolation, and Lag Compensation, based on these articles from Gabriel Gambetta.

get a friend or another window, and just move around in this canvas. it's just a test to see how websockets work, so tell me if it lags: multiplayergaemtest

Ludum Dare 45 Results