I participated in the last Alakajam as well, and while things didn't turn out quite how I wanted I learned a lot and continued to learn in the meantime. Hopefully things go even better this time!

Software/Tools:

Unity
Maya
GraphicsGale
Photoshop

Unfortunately, I'll have a lot of other stuff to do during this AKJ. I'll still try to make a game though. :D

Tools and Stoff:

• Python / Pygame
• MS Paint / Px Editor
• Bosca Ceoil / LMMS / Audactiy (I just got an Akai MPK Mini!)

Here's my last AKJ entry:

Hi, I'm cygni! I found Alakajam a few weeks ago and recently joined now that the 4th one is coming up. This'll be my first jam, so I'm excited to make something for it!

I use Twine for anything I make right now and I want to learn another engine, but I'll be sticking with Twine for this one.

There's a lot of themes so far that I like, so I'm looking forward to see how the voting goes!

Hi guys.

I'm Zyava and this will be my first entirely online game jam, but previously i took part in GGJ 2018 and BeHealthyHackathon in Gdańsk, Poland which was not restricted to games, but we decided to treat it as "let's just do game to have fun".

My journey started with RPG Maker, but currently i make games with Unity. I also like playing with graphics using Blender and Gimp, and i have basic knowledge of editing audio for my needs, though I try to focus on improving my programming skills cause nobody can be perfect jack of all trades :)

Themes which i submitted were coopetarion, crafting, and pressure. I really like when games put people together, make them creative and relax or forces players to improve timing and reaction time.

My aim for this jam is to start small, stay motivated and put attention to code quality which is my weak point :)

I wish you many great ideas on 4th Alakajam!

This is my first jam, and I posted my three themes: 'Classic Books', 'Children Movies', 'The Life of an AI Virus'!
I will be making my game for Windows with Unity 5.6. It will be 2D and will most likely be 8-bit.

I hope my 'Classic Books' theme wins!

The 4th Alakajam! will start the October 12th at 7pm UTC and last to the October 14th at 7pm UTC. But for now, we have to find a theme!
So you can create an account, go here to submit themes (up to 3 by account) and vote for those you like!

The voting process

• For one week (starting today, September 28th) you can submit up to three theme suggestions. Everyone else will be able to rate your suggestions positively or negatively.
• After one week (at October 5th) suggestions will be closed. The top ten themes will be made public and everybody can vote for them in order of preference.
• The final theme will be announced with the launch of the jam (at Friday October 12th, 7pm UTC) within a stream!

Things you can do

• Create an account to participate in the jam
• Write a "I am in" blog post -- Tell the community who are you, what tools you use or what themes you like!
• Check the detailed rules and the help section
• Join us on Twitter, Reddit or in the IRC chat

It's been over three months since the last Alakajam. The next competition will take place on the 12-14 October weekend!

The goal of the event is simple: make a game, from scratch, in just a weekend. You can do this on your own, or in a team, you can be a seasoned pro or a total beginner. If you opt-in to the competition, you will get to be ranked against all the other contestants!

First we need to decide on a theme, which we do by letting people submit their ideas and vote for all other submissions. Once we are closer to the jam, we will crop the list to the top 10 suggested themes, and there will be a second voting phase. The final theme will be revealed on stream just as the 4th Alakajam starts!

The full schedule is listed below:

Schedule

Dates	Phase	Description
September 28 - October 5th	Theme submission & voting	You can submit theme ideas for the jam and vote for all other submissions.
October 5-12nd	Theme shortlist	Only the best 10 themes are kept. Rank them by order of preference in this final phase of theme voting.
October 12, 6:30 UTC	Countdown stream	DanaePlays and Aurel300 host an official stream on Twitch to launch the event!
October 12-14th	THE JAM!!!	From Friday 7pm UTC to Sunday 7pm UTC, make a game solo or as a team, and simply submit it before the deadline!
October 12-15th	Unranked jam	If you want to go for a relaxed weekend - or need more time - you can create a game in the 72 hours of the unranked jam.
October 14-28th	Game voting	For two weeks all entrants are invited to play, rate and comment on other peoples games.
October 28th	Results	The results from game voting are released and the winners are crowned!

Rules

There are three divisions:

• Solo, in which you make a whole game alone in 48 hours
• Team, in which any number of persons can gather to make a game in 48 hours
• Unranked, a more open division which grants about 72 hours to finish the game. Useful for those not interested in the competitive aspect of the event, want to work on an existing project of theirs, or simply did not finish their game in time.

See the full rules for the Alakajam.

How to enter

All you need to do is:

1. Create an account on this website
2. Publish your game before the deadline

A lot of participants also post an "I am in" blog post presenting themselves or their team before the event. Describe what tools and frameworks and engines you will use to create your awesome game! Which themes do you like? Let us and the community know!

If you can, feel free to spread the word about the jam - the more we are, the merrier! And of course: good luck and have fun ;)

Game over!

We're sad to report that the tournament is now finished. Well done everybody who participated, and special congratulations to the winners, for pwning the rest of us with their awesome skills.

We had a great selection of games, and even though the tournament is over you can still play them! So if you haven't managed to play all (or even any) of the games, you still can (and should)!

What's next, eh?

Get some well-deserved R&R, but make sure you're back in time for the 4th Alakajam! on October 12-14th. It's gonna be magical! :P

If this isn't supposed to be posted here, I blame @toasty. He told me to.

Click for Super Potato Bruh Release Trailer

Heresagif:

Anyway, Super Potato Bruh has been released. It's a platformer with some bullet hell elements!

It's available here (source included!): https://cmlsc.itch.io/super-potato-bruh

Hi there,

During August 2018 I was blessed to work with xXBloodyOrange, Thunraz and Aurvandil on Thyl's Tale. In about two weeks we created a Zelda/Hyper Light Drifter like game. I was really excited when I saw that our game is also featured in the 2nd Alakajam Tournament. In that tournament players fight for the top position in a leaderboard, which takes into account the highscores of 6 games from the Alakajam community.
This post will be a (non-exhaustive) list of tips and tricks to help you with doing a speedrun.

Thyl's Tale Tricks

This is separated into two parts, one that contains spoilers and one that is spoiler free.

NO SPOILERS

The intro is skippable (but doesn't count towards playtime)

If you are tired of watching the intro cutscene for the n-th time, just hit ESC to skip it.

Manage the movement

If you want to get a good time, you need to do precise movement. The normal movement ist done by WASD or Arrow keys and the attack/dash can be used with C/X or J/K. Alternatively: If you enjoy playing with a gamepad, Thyl's Tale also supports gamepads (tested with xBox 360).

Dashing is your friend

You will use the dash to avoid enemies, to pass over cliffs and just to move faster. Therefore get a feeling for the dash and how it works.
Did you notice the timer right above Thyl? That is the dash cooldown. Once the text gets bigger in size and starts to fade, you can dash again. Try to pick the appropriate timing.

Know when to fight … and when to run

There are only some specific places where you really have to fight to proceed. In dev speak we call them "arenas". Those are the levels where you enter a certain region and wall emerge, blocking your movement. The first time this happens in the third level after leaving the city, when entering the ruins and at the boss fight.
In all other cases you can easily run through the levels and not bother with the enemies.
Also see: "Learn the levels" below.

Get some healing

The shrines can heal Thyl if he gets beaten up by the enemies. Just walk near a shrine to trigger that effect. There are some shrine on the way which you can use to refill your health.

Teleport back to the city

When you are low on health you can also teleport back to the city and use the shrine there.

Take a look at the stats

When pressing F you can see your stats. Try to get items which maximize your walking speed and dash range and also minimize the dash cooldown. Good items are the Katana, and the leather armor.

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Know your enemies

There are three different enemy types (plus the boss) and all of them require a different way of fighting:

• Slimes: They perform a random walk until they see you. Then they move towards you and if they are in charging distance, they will charge towards you. This is the only time when touching them will hurt you. After the charge hey are exhausted and need to rest a bit. This is the best time to attack them as they don't move.
• Smasher: This big grumpy ork will do a random walk until he sees Thyl. Then he will walk towards you and start his smash attack. Try to deal as much damage as possible before the attack comes down. Shortly before that you should dash out of the white "danger zone".
• Shooter: This cultist attacks you with a magic bullet over a mid-range distance. As he does not deal that much damage it is advisable to just dash towards him and kill him. Luckily he just takes one hit even with the starting weapon.

Of course all enemies can also be killed with the bow and arrow from a safe distance.

Easing the bossfight

The boss (called Raon) has three stages:

• In the first stage Raon shoots 6 magic bullets in a counter-clockwise order.
• in the second stage Raon fires three rounds of 20 magic bullets at a time
• In the third stage Raon summons some minions and goes into invincible mode until you kill them off. Additionally he will shoot an occasional magib bullet towards the player's position.
• The three stages loop in that order.

If possible, try to avoid the third stage as this will take a lot of time. If you bought a good weapon, Thyl should be able to defeat Raon way before that.

Learn the levels (and the world)

Knowing the progession of levels is really helpful as you can plan ahead. This image (created during development time) shows all the maps. They don't show the final version of the maps but a basic, blocked version. It might help you find your way through this adventure.

Know the puzzles

There are two puzzles levels in the game, just before the bossfight.

• The first puzzle level is easy: just activate the first trigger (best: shoot it with an arrow so you don't have to walk there) then walk up the bridge towards the second lever and activate that one. Then go back towards the first platform (the one in the south west with the wall) which is now reachable through a second bridge. Activate that third lever and continue to the north of the level.
• The second puzzle follows right after that but requires some tinkering. The combination is as follows: Left Trigger, Right Trigger, move towards the (now reachable) platform, activate that trigger, go back to the south and activate the middle trigger. Then move towards the top platform and fight with the boss.