I run an online game-jam event called Ludum Dare, and this past weekend I got together with a friend (Derek Laufman of Halfbot) and we made a game. What did we make? A platformer about size.
The game was created over a period 72 hours. Somehow, amazing to me, we managed to pull it together despite our responsibilities.
- Me running the event (Ludum Dare)
- Family gathering at my brothers I attended on the Saturday
- Car appointment on Monday
- Derek taking care of his baby
Fortunately, running Ludum Dare is only busy for me before the event, and at submission time (two of them, 3-5 hours each). During the event I’m free to sit down and do whatever I want. This weekend was the Diablo 3 beta test, and if I was a lesser man, I’d have played that. Fortunately for me, Derek came to me a couple weeks ago and suggested we make a game together, I said yes, and the rest is history.
It’s totally silly, but I’m actually proud of the fact that I managed to attend the family gathering and the car appointment. Stupid me, I could have actually cancelled/rescheduled the appointment for Tuesday or Wednesday, but I decided to go ahead with it anyway. The car appointment was my yearly service for my smartcar, and I ended up staying in the neighborhood of the dealership for about 5 hours of that day. Working on my Ludum Dare game on my laptop, I had WIFI at the dealership, and also McDonalds, where I parked myself for a couple hours. To be honest, this was probably the first time I seriously “Coffee Shop Developed”, and where I actually got some serious work done. It was fun, because it was out of the ordinary. 🙂
Anyways, that’s enough back story. Lets get nerdy.