Tech Valley Game Space’s presentation, How to Survive Ludum Dare is streaming right now!
Watch live video from TechValleyGameSpace on www.twitch.tv
The slides are up: http://goo.gl/fPllMj
Presentation: How to survive Ludum Dare (Happening NOW!)
Ludum Dare
Presentation: How to survive Ludum Dare (in one hour!)
A reminder that we’ll be presenting on how to survive Ludum Dare via Twitch.tv in an hour.
Also, don’t forget that we now have an office available at Troy, NY:
Presentation: How to survive Ludum Dare today (7:00 PM EST)
A reminder that we’ll be presenting on how to survive Ludum Dare via Twitch.tv at 7:00 PM EST today. Check it out!
Also, don’t forget that we now have an office available at Troy, NY:
Presentation: How to survive Ludum Dare tomorrow (7:00 PM EST)
A reminder that we’ll be presenting on how to survive Ludum Dare via Twitch.tv tomorrow, 7:00 PM EST. Check it out!
Also, don’t forget that we now have an office available at Troy, NY:
Ludum Dare 31 at Tech Valley Game Space
We here at Omiya Games are proud to announce that we’ll be helping out Tech Valley Game Space at organizing the internet’s largest online Game Jam, Ludum Dare 31 at Troy, NY! Join in the fun, crazy mess as we develop a video game within 72 hours.
Haven’t been to a Ludum Dare yet? Not to worry! We’ll be presenting on how to survive Ludum Dare on Twitch.tv on Thursday, December 4th, 7:00 PM EST. Check it out!
What’s next? This month’s schedule.
So now that Prototype: Murakami has unfortunately been delayed, what’s next? Well, we have a ton of stuff coming, and we think a little transparency is in order. Here are all the big events going on at Omiya Games:
First, a Pie for Breakfast game called Dead Man’s Trail is going to be submitted for Indies in the Middle at Smithsonian in DC. And naturally, we’re giving as much help as we can for the project to meet the live-judging deadline. We’ll keep you up to date on how that goes.
Second, we’re collaborating with Indies Need Booze to create next month’s free game for them. Jacob, the organizer, has been incredibly supportive of our games, and it’s only fair we return the favor. We’ll have more about that in the coming few weeks.
With two projects going on at once, we won’t have the time complete a game for November’s #OneGameAMonth. What does this mean to the Patreon donors? Good news! Donors will not be charged this month. The campaign is setup so that donors are charged only when a game is out, so this month, they get a break and keep those precious dollars for holiday shopping.
Lastly, this leaves December. We’ll be helping Tech Valley Game Space to organize Ludum Dare, the world’s largest online game jam, in the Troy, NY. This major event will take up the majority of December, since even after the 72-hour development period, there’s still a 3 week period of voting. We’ll probably do a lot of live streams playing other people’s games, so stay tuned about that.
Hopefully that makes our situation a little more clear, as well as explain why Prototype: Murakami was delayed a full 2 months. In the meantime, we have updated Suddenly, Thousands to fix several bugs, including the camera being obstructed by walls all the time. Expect an update on all the web portals soon.
Registered for Bacon Game Jam October 2014
I forgot to mention that yes, I’ll be attending the Bacon Game Jam this weekend. Bacon Game Jam was originally created at Reddit to help game developers learn to develop and finish their project. The game I create for this game jam will cover the #OneGameAMonth for October.
Due to shoddy internet connection at my current location, I won’t be live-streaming my development progress. I will, however, attempt to create a time lapse of my progress. Assuming I don’t make the same mistake I did last Ludum Dare…
How I made the graphics on The Sentient Cube
I figured I’d talk about how I got the graphics on The Sentient Cube. It was surprisingly quick and simple, although it required a lot of tweaking to get it right. In this step-by-step instructions, I explain how I’ve used Unity’s installed scripts to create a stunning toon shading.
Note: this only works with Unity Pro license.
Step 1: Import stuff
In the menu bar, under Assets -> Import Package, you’ll need to import the Image Effects and the Toon Shading.
Step 2: Camera, Lights, Action
Create a cube, camera, and directional light for the scene you’re working on.
Step 3: Toon material
Create a material under the Project pane, with the shader set to “Toon/Lighted,” and the Toon Ramp set to a 1-dimensional image. In this case, I created a custom ramp.
Step 4: Test material
Drag-and-drop the new material from the Project pane to the cube in the Scene pane.
Step 5: Camera effects
Add the “Edge Detect Effect” and the “Contrast Stretch Effect” components in that order to the camera. The screenshot above was the parameters I’ve used.
Step 5: Add real-time shadows
Change the “Shadow Type” under the directional light to “Hard Shadows.” The screenshot above were the parameters I’ve used.
Results
Just add a few more elements with their own materials, and Voilà!
You can download and import the Unity package I’ve created with the same scene above.
Praises for The Sentient Cube!
There’s been several praises for The Sentient Cube!
Indie Statik
Only the length of The Sentient Cube reveals that it is a Ludum Dare game. It’s about ten minutes total, but the developer’s claim that The Sentient Cube combines the gameplay of Katamari Damacy and Crazy Taxi is justified. In other words: YOU NEED TO PLAY IT RIGHT FREAKING NOW.
Katamari is the biggest point of reference for The Sentient Cube, and the timer and different route choices are the subtle results of the Crazy Taxi influence. Each object that gloms[sic.] onto the original cube affects the overall movement of the Death Ball in different ways. You can actually roll over rockets, which add strong momentum to whatever part of the Death Ball they are attached to, as you might imagine. The physics of the spheres, cubes, cones and rockets that attach themselves to your Death Ball are the defining feature of The Sentient Cube’s gameplay. Eventually, your Ball will end up flying crazily up into space, as you try to wrangle it toward the goal like a cowboy herding a single misshapen blob of a cow.
Blogger Chaser324 on Giant Bomb
The developer of this game describes it as combining “Katamari Damacy and Crazy Taxi” which is a pretty accurate comparison. The Sentient Cube puts you in control of the eponymous polygon and challenges you to roll up other objects in an increasingly larger mound and get your ball of junk into a goal within a time limit. The physics based gameplay and the camera control can at times spiral out of control to a point where it goes from entertaining to hair-pulling frustration, but I still managed to reach the ending without failing a level.
Thanasis on Game Connect
The Sentient Cube…is an action-puzzle game that combines Antichamber-like graphics, and feels like a mix of Katamari Damacy and Crazy Taxi in terms of gameplay. You play as a blue, sticky cube that can roll into other objects smaller than itself to grow bigger. By increasing the cube’s size, the cube can reach to the Goal with more ease. Scattered around the level are various physics-changing items and power-ups.
Thanks for all the compliments!