This is a story on my first journey to creating a game in a Ludum Dare weekend: Fetch Ball!

Ludum Dare is an event where people create a video game in a weekend. People showcase not just their game development skills, but their ability to quickly create games from scratch.

I always liked video games, perhaps enough to even learn how they are made. While I learned to create a few games from time to time, I never created a video game in the span of one weekend. I would be at awe on how people create fun games in such a short amount of time, but hesitant to join due to various reasons (eg: exams, not knowing how to build a specific feature, more exams, and other commitments). However this time, I decided to take a leap: join this edition's Ludum Dare myself!

Theme and Inspiration

The theme for this Ludum Dare was Deeper and deeper. It was not a theme that I expected (or prepared for) 😅 Nonetheless, it was time to brainstorm. What was could go deeper and deeper? While thinking, my dog visited my table to say "hi", complete with tail wag 🐕

That got me thinking: what if I make a game about doggos? About her? I remembered that she likes to play Fetch, but only for a limited time (until she gets bored). Then I had an idea: Get a deeper and deeper friendship with doggo!

Planning

The goal was to create a game within the Ludum Dare weekend. It needed to be simple, fast, and fun. For this game, I wanted to play "fetch" with doggo through a platformer.

The main mechanic is to run towards the ball and return it to the hooman. The quicker the doggo returns the ball, the more chances for playing "fetch" (and a higher score). Lastly, I added a timer for the doggo's playtime, similar to how my dog plays for a while until she gets bored (or I get tired 😅)

I mainly used a tool called Unity. It's a software specifically for game development. I used it a few times in the past out of curiosity, but I have never used it in a scale that requires a fully working game in a weekend. It was high time to push myself and learn the tool a bit more (eg: "Challenge Accepted") 💪

Art

Most assets were made by hand. I got a little bit of "help" for my underground background and fences by using sprites from an asset pack by Kenney. The asset pack came with a pack of games that I got in a sale in the past. Meanwhile, the main character/doggo was created by hand 😅

Our main character: Doggo!

Sounds

This is where it gets challenging: I have no idea on how to create sound effects 😅 Luckily, there's a sound generator called sfxr, which was originally created for Ludum Dare!

With a bit of tweaking and random options, I had sound effects in (almost) no time. Plus, it works with concepts that I encountered in a course back in school, such as ADSR envelopes, and others.

Deployment

Deployment was done in itch.io. I decided to build the game as a web-based application to extend the game's reach to more users. It would be simpler to load the game on the browser itself than to manually download then execute the game.

Thoughts

It was a pretty crazy weekend for me, learning (and re-learning) a lot of things on-the-fly. I learned so much and there is so much more to learn! Most of all, it was fun... and games 😆

Ludum Dare is also an opportunity to learn from other game developers and veterans. For instance, I got some tips on how to create in-game music, which I will definitely use in future games. Additionally, this gave me an opportunity to try learn some animation techniques with more depth.

Perhaps I'll make a post-jam version to support touch screens 😉

As always, please Share or Tweet this post with your friends! Stay tuned for future updates (or games 😉)

# dog

My First Ludum Dare Experience - Fetch Ball!