itch.io

Programmer for that section here: If it ends abruptly, that means I forgot to put the “to be continued” screen in! Thanks for letting us know! I don’t think it will update for the jam, but we’ll fix that when we can!

Things I liked

• REALLY captured that fantasy game vibe
• Melodies were clear and easy to understand overall
• The abandoned continent theme has a really unnerving chord progression. Good job with the dissonance there
• Battle theme was nice and driving

Things I liked less

• Battle theme could’ve used more going on in terms of percussion in my mind. That would REALLY sell that chugging string rhythm.

Things I enjoyed

• String and Piano samples appear to be fairly high quality, so good choice with those!
• The whole thing gives an interesting feeling of stillness, I think this is because of the instruments chosen? The long reverb also helps.

Things I didn’t enjoy

• The interactions between the piano and the strings were kind of nonexistent, most of the time it seemed like they were playing the same instrument.
• Melody meanders and twists in ways that I can’t really follow/remember. I had a music teacher who once told me “you can think of music as a pattern that changes over time”, so keeping that in mind would probably help your music overall.

From reading your description it looks like you’re just starting out in music, so sorry if I was harsh! You did good for where you’re at, so keep trucking along!

I really enjoyed the melody and use of the progression! Also, did I hear a mellotron flute in the second half? Love it when people use those.

Things I enjoyed!

• The pitch bending melody is a fun touch.
• Melody is fairly strong.
• I like the harmony acceleration at 0:56! Really any time the song gains some energy is when it shines for me.
• Really cute re-use of the main melody. Could easily work as a bunch of loops over the same stage.

Things I enjoyed less

• The song takes a while to pick up, which is fine overall, but there’s a lot of silence in the first 40 seconds, which almost made me tune out until the piano came in.
• I didn’t really notice any percussion in the early bits, which isn’t the worst, but that could’ve been an interesting solution to the emptiness of the first 1/4 of the song.

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Heya! I'm Arachnibot. I'm a jack of all trades, and I study game design and development.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

Yep! I didn't finish, but this time I'm gonna focus on keeping my scope down and not giving up!

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

I'm in love with good JRPGS and twin stick shooters, but I have a very large soft spot for indie games with good pixel art. My favorite games include Undertale, Pocket Rumble, Breath of the Wild, Nuclear Throne, and Persona 5

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

I've been making games for a long time (started around 2013), didn't really finish one until the 2016 MFGJ, but ohhh boy was that an amazing experience!

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

Out of all the skills I've started learning, I love making music the most!

6. What are your goals for this game jam?

I'm aiming to try to finish a small RPG this time, and  I REALLY wanna get better at writing dialogue for games.

For returning jammers:

7. Any advice to new participants?

Keep your scope small. I think it's really important to expect a tutorial level or two at most, and just build from there. Also

8. What can the admins do to improve your jam experience?

Honestly the only thing I'd like is more advice for how to request feedback. I often feel isolated when I work solo, and I think once I get through the feeling of intimidation I'll be much more productive!

9. What are some of the past works you've made for the jam? Show off your favorites!

https://gbindahouse.itch.io/bellerophon (I was the coder + sound designer + secondary artist)

https://dotoriii.itch.io/my-demon-date (I was the programmer + sound designer + secondary musician)

Hey I'm Arachnibot. I'm a jack of all trades (code, pixel art, music), and I'm looking for a partner or two for this event!

I am a jack of all trades looking for a team to join

1) Introduction:

I'm Arachnibot. I live in the U.S. Eastern Timezone. I work in a variety of roles. I wrote about myself in the introduction thread, so check that out if you want.

2) Skills:

• Programming
• Pixel art
• Basic pixel animations
• Music
• Sound Effects

3) Programs/Languages:

• GameMaker Studio (1 & 2)
• Paint Tool SAI
• FL Studio
• A million pieces of freeware for various bits of gamedev.

4) Portfolio:

• https://arachnibot.github.io/

5) Contact:

• My email is arachnibot@gmail.com
• I'll be using the game jam discord for the entirety of the jam.

6) Other:

I prefer to work in small teams (no more than 4 people including me). I also prefer to work on action games.

1. Hey there, I'm Arachnibot! I make things and am bad at writing about myself.
2. funny enough, this is my third time participating in this jam (and hopefully my second time finishing). Hopefully this time I can plan out my time a bit better, and not spend the last day scrambling to make levels.
3. I have a massive variety of favorite games, but I have a particular soft spot for Indie games with good pixel art. I adore games like Undertale, Nuclear Throne, OneShot, and Hyper Light Drifter just as much as I adore games like Dark Souls and Splatoon.
4. I worked on a game called Bellerophon for the last jam. I've also created dozens of unreleased prototypes.
5. Making things!
6. I'd say the biggest piece of advice I have is to make sure you have a rough plan of the things you want to make during the jam. The planning doc we had for Bellerophon was invaluable in helping me and my partner know which way to progress. With that in mind, think small, and expect even that to be too big. Bellerophon's Design doc was several pages, and we didn't end up making 80% of the ideas on it.

Yeah, turning the value down is totally a possibility. Thanks for the advice!

Day 4 Progress(7/12/16):

Today we've done a ton of changes, some subtle, some less subtle.

first off, we've added a menu system! It's pretty rudimentary right now, but it'll get jazzed up later. We've upgraded the phalanx behavior as well, they now drift around screen, as well as lead the pot shots they take on the player.

We've also upgraded the behavior on the pterippi. It now drifts around and shoots randomly. Luneria also gave it a snazzy new sprite!
The last change isn't quite ready to show, but our next major enemy is a work in progress.

Day 3 Progress(7/11/16):

Hey, sorry we're late with this! I don't really have any pretty gifs to compensate, but I'll just give you guys a small list of what we did on day 3.
⦁ Added scrolling camera.
⦁ Fixed a bug with the scrolling camera (this took us fair while to solve).
⦁ Added the pterippi, our basic "popcorn" enemy.

Day 2 Progress(7/10/16):

Before we start, I just wanted to note that the "ghost ships" that are being shown in the gifs are just compression artifacts. There's no specters in this game!
Today we've added a few new things, but only one is really worth a gif: The Xiphos saber.

If the fire button is tapped while an enemy or enemy bullet is near, the Xiphos saber will activate, and sweep in a 180 degree arc in front of the player, destroying all incoming bullets and enemies instantly. This is a powerful tool for most players, but it requires precise timing to use.
The other things we've added include:

• A new player sprite was created by the team's new artist. My pal, Luneria.
• The player can no longer escape the borders of the play area.
• Speaking of which, we added borders to the play area. These mainly serve as decoration and user interface.

That about wraps up today's progress.

I'd add https://zackbellgames.com/ to the list of tutorials (particularly the "Creating a Platformer" series), he's got some great stuff for intermediate programmers. It isn't suited to 100% beginners though

http://diestware.tumblr.com/ Also has some good tutorials. Be warned though, his code isn't always clean.

Introduction:
Hey, I'm Arachnibot. Me and my partner gbindahouse (Greg Baxter) are working on a shmup based off of the Greek myth of Bellerophon flying Pegasus to Mount Olympus. It's all being done in GameMaker: Studio, and we're hoping to have bullet hell elements at certain points. The game will be at least one stage, maybe more if we end up having time.

Let me know if the images below are broken. I may not have inserted them properly

Day 1 Progress (7/9/16):
We've added a few enemies, and ported over some code from an earlier project of mine.
There are three types of enemies in this screenshot:

The Kopis will come onscreen, rotate towards the player, and charge them with immense speed.

The Phalanx is surrounded by a variety of orbiting shields. it isn't particularly dangerous without them though, and the shields self destruct without something to protect

The Turret is, well, a turret. It aims at the player and fires a small stream of bullets at them every so often.

I'll throw some stuff into this thread. I might post and/or edit to add more later, but for now, I've got my two most recommended tools.

• Pxtone is a fantastic toolset for making music, totally free too.
• Synth1 is also a fantastic free VST. Most of my songs use it in some degree or other. The site is in Japanese, but the synth itself isn't.

Hey there, I'm Arachnibot. I make thing and suck at writing about myself. If you don't know me, I participated in the previous jam, but I didn't finish. I'm thinking that I should fix that this time by planning more and aiming even smaller.

My favorite games include Undertale, Dark Souls, Hyper Light Drifter, Splatoon, Overwatch, Pokemon, OneShot, and a million more.

I don't have any real game dev experience. Well, not unless you count the heaps of half-started prototypes I've made.

If I were to pick a passion, it would be making music. I'm not a fantastic composer, but I'd say it's my greatest skill.

My goals for the jam are to:

• Finish the game (on time if possible).
• Create at least 3 different enemy types.
• Add a simple boss fight.

I'm hoping that having access to more resources will allow me to complete these goals. Good luck to everyone!