Blogs

To Ludum Dare or not to Ludum Dare

by Anne Ryynänen

Ludum Dare is a competition, held three times a year, in which game developers all over the world aim to make a game fitting a given theme. The challenge is that you only have two days to finish your game and you get to know the theme of the game right before your 48 hours start. Avid game makers and game changers as we are, many ludocraftees have participated in the competition over the years (with Teemu Väisänen from our art team winning the whole thing a while back with his game Superdimensional. The latest Ludum Dare was held in April with the theme Shapeshift. Heikki Törmälä from our coding team braved the challenge. He shared his process in what it takes to make a game in 48 hours. There are some tips in there for the would-be Ludum Dare contestant and game developer in general.

Summertime Clashing – 5 Pro Tips for Winning in Clash Royale

by Anne Ryynänen

It might seem weird that we would write an entire text about the best methods to win at a game that isn’t even made by us. However, when you make games for a living, it’s important to play games made by other people to gain perspective on your own work. This is also a view our CEO encourages, for example in this article. Sorry it’s in Finnish only. Besides, LudoCraft is big on games that celebrate collaboration, so Supercell’s Clash Royale makes sense in that regard, too. But what have we learned from our fierce adventures with Clash Royale?

Sound of Silly

by Johannes Kuipers

When people ask what I do for a living precisely, I usually say I make sound effects for video games. That’s not the truth though, it’s a just convenient answer and not a lie. I do tech support. And video shooting plus editing. Occasionally script writing. I think I once wrote few lines of code that actually survived to a shipping product. And I make sound effects, too. Sound effects take the most time, so I’ve chosen that as my default answer.

I once made a sound for something that was essentially a thinly veiled bouncing boob joke. My first attempt was a sort of ”sproing” sound. The client did not feel that was what they were after and I got the feedback ”The sound should be more round and organic.” That’s the art school way of saying: ”Not good enough. Try again.” My second, more wobbly, attempt sold the joke.

Games at Tromsø Film Festival Thoughts on Design and Play

by Tomi Thurlin

This year at the 26th Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) digital games were present in a form of a seminar called Film 2.0 – Games People Play. I had the honor to speak at the seminar. I arrived to Tromsø on the last day of polar night and left a few days later with many experiences richer. It became clear to me, once again, that play is the key to successful design.

The first night there I came across with a performance of improvised piano music. The music was played on top of silent movies played from YouTube and picked randomly by the audience. Right away when the first image came to view the performer was playing tunes. He improvised his playing as the movie unfolded. The audience could shout stop whenever they liked. He would then stop playing and a new topic would be chosen. This was an interesting way to bring play into a performance. A second example of play molding performance and content was soon to follow.

Liitutaulusta peliin

by Tony Manninen

Millainen on luokkahuone, jossa opettajan jälkeen paras pedagoginen väline on liitutaulu? Vaikea kuvitella nykyaikana. Vaikka taulu onkin säilyttänyt asemansa helppona esitys- ja jäsennysjärjestelmänä, niin luokkahuoneeseen on saapunut monia moderneja välineitä.

Kaikille noille välineille on yhteistä se, että oppimistilanne on vahvasti opettajavetoista. Jos opettaja osaa pistää itsensä mielenkiintoisella tavalla likoon, niin oppimishetki on antoisa. Jos taas opettajalla on vähän huonompi energiataso, niin jäljelle jää pelkkää turhaumaa. Opettajan persoonan vaikutus oppilaan motivaatioon on selkeästi se merkittävin seikka.