Well I am definitely in! Might try joining forces and do a team game this time…. or just solo it? hmm

My second project as an independent interactive-digital-media developer is out and has been for a week.

Try the demo here!

Haven't been able to take part in Kajams due to work, work, work. The Artificial Intelligence one would have been fun, but alas. At least I had time to play through the entries now.

Looking forward to the 3rd Alakajam! Not skipping it for any reason.

I made a guideline image using the easel and background so I could tell where to draw in the game. Also, if you look hard enough, you can see the lines from any color. My 77% was the second of 2 tries after I made the guideline image. ^-^

Spike was probably my favorite game to play for the tournament. At first it seemed like luck, but eventually you figure out there are some rules to the map gen (or possibly hand made maps?).

First off, there's the obvious tip of figuring out where the walls are so you don't hit them from two sides.

Starting with this:

You can already tell where two blocks are, which leaves only one path through:

One of the "rules" I was talking about was the fact that (I don't think) the end is ever in a straight line from the starting point. I don't think I've ever seen a case where there was only one turn either.

You may be tempted to do this:

But going off of the previously stated rule, you can assume those routes are blocked, which leaves only a few paths:

Now let's take an example of another level. In this level, you start 2 blocks away from the spawn. Since it would only take two turns (not counting turning on the starting point) to get the the end, we can assume there are blocks there. Typically (not always the case), the levels don't make you walk through the entire area, so two paths are immediately obvious here:

Which as you can see, one of the paths I assumed was correct and led to the end without any deaths:

One more rule I'd like to point out is that the pathways are never 2 tiles wide. Which can help you guess even more block locations/likely paths farther on.

The "rules" for Spike are only coming from my experiences, so they may not be true. However, the "rules" still seem to be accurate, so they definitely helped me get a good score. :D

Lollipop Ninja is probably the hardest game to post a score on, as it seems to take around 30' for most people to beat the first time. After finishing it twice I finally feel like I have the hang of it. So, a couple tips:

• The cooldown for Smoke bombs is super low, so use them A LOT. Since they can both be used on enemies and on yourself, you can basically advance through levels hiding behind smoke. The more confident you'll get, the less you'll have to use that.

• Going invisible is mostly useful to advance tricky sections with lots of jumps/wall jumps, until you can finally reach either a safe spot, or a flat place to hide behind smoke again. The cooldown is quite high here, so if you run into trouble try to hide in smoke waiting for the skill to ready. Again, with more confidence you'll realize some enemies can be passed without using the skill at all, by just rushing through.

• Sometimes it's hard to figure out where to go next, leading you to get lost a bit or end up in a hole. Some guy did a video speedrun of the game, so if you're getting too frustrated with the trial and error feel free to check that.

• The very final jump of the game requires a specific wall jump technique. It took me a lot of practice so just smoke the guy below the jump before each attempt and you'll be able to try for as long as you need. Basically the idea is to hold Left after the ninja has jumped, and then immediately switch to Right to reach the opposite wall. Again when at the right wall, keep holding Right when you jump, then immediately switch to Left. After a couple back and forths you'll be on that sweet lollipop.

EDIT: Some more tips courtesy of @Raindrinker

• You can walljump on top of a non-smoked enemy for a looong time because the sight line collides with the wall or something.
• Also vertical shafts are super safe, so waiting there for your invisibility cooldown to restore is quite useful.
• Going invisible resets your alert rate, so sometimes just running towards an enemy and pressing the skill in the last moment possible is enought to escape his gaze.

Bonus: On Disappainted, use white paint to leave a slightly visible mark on the canvas. It can help you put down the contour of your drawing before you fill it with actual paint.

There's just an hour left to vote! If you haven't already voted, you really should. If you have, though, why not try to improve your score on Prison Breakpoint? :D

To get you motivated, here are the top 5 scores for each level so far ;)

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

A remake nobody asked for

I'm planning to submit my MiniLD 74 entry, Cooperoids for the first AKJ tournament. Not happy with the way the game currently looks, though, I'm releasing a brand new edition. Introducing Cooperoids: Tournament Edition (oooOOooh).

In brief, expect (hopefully) fixed audio, better graphics and more intense gameplay (full description here). Enjoy! :)

I just realised the music was not there on the version of BDSM that was uploaded. There is now! It's music generated by a web that uses AI to create background music, so it's as fitting with the theme as it can possibly be.

Maybe you find it useful for your games -> https://www.jukedeck.com/make/tracks/browse

Just wanted to share! :D

And so I have jettisoned my fragile game, Prison Breakpoint, into the internet wilderness, ready to be devoured by a howling mob of people with probably totally valid criticisms.

I'll write a longer reflective post after the voting stage, but these are my initial thoughts on the game.

• I had to crunch pretty hard last night to turn what was a congealed blob of JavaScript spaghetti into something resembling a game, but am happy with the end result. It's definitely basic in some ways (the art styles are mixed and incoherent; there's no SFX or music), but it does have a reasonable level of polish.

• Because I lost a big chunk of time, there's not a whole lot of AI. The whole game is about writing some AI, which is enough to get into the jam, but it still feels like a cop-out. I would have preferred more AI in this game.

• The elephant in the room: I suspect this game is a bit too inaccessible. It's not particularly hard, but… you have to read a manual. Seriously. What the heck was I thinking?

I finished my Kajam entry… and I managed to do it before the sun rose.

I'll figure out how to upload it—probably to Itch—tomorrow (still a few hours left before the deadline), but for now here's a screenshot. I hope this piques your curiosity :)

A couple busy weeks put me a bit late with my 1v1 PvE platformer, but I'm back on track!

Throughout the month I have managed to complete all the basics & structure required to make the game playable, leaving this week-end to actually develop an interesting AI. All the iterations of that AI are actually going to be in-game as various levels. I hope to get at least 5 levels done:

• Level 1 (DONE): Almost idle AI
• Level 2 (DONE): Jumping around the map
• Level 3 (DONE): State machine-powered objectives
• Level 4 (IN PROGRESS DONE): Pathfinding
• Level 5 (TODO DONE): Tactics (health management, human movement anticipation)

I'm currently hacking together a waypoint system… and hoping it won't be too hard to build movement on top of it, so that the robot can actually jump on platforms correctly.

EDIT: And the game is finished at last! One day early for once :)