The Almighty Spectrum

The Almighty Spectrum is a 2d platformish game about returning color to the world!

This was my fist Ludum Dare, and I didn't quite know what to expect. I really enjoyed it, and am very pleased with how my entry turned out.

Miraculously, I managed to scope it perfectly for the time constraints, and was able to get everything in and working just how I wanted. (Although some areas of the code definitely reflect the crunch).

I spent the week brainstorming the themes, and otherwise prepping to compete. Then, an hour before the Compo started, my hard drive failed! I thought I was out of luck, but managed to get a little bit done on my laptop while my desktop restored from backup. About 4 hours into the competition, it was ready to go, but I had already gone to bed.

I've never animated before, and was really nervous about it -- I knew that if I wasn't able to create some decent art, I'd lose my motivation really quickly! But my wizard turned out pretty well on my first try, and set me off to a good start!

After animating my wizard, I hadn't quite nailed down any gameplay ideas, and just decided to get him on the screen and walking around. Too lazy to animate the camera, I just had him walk back and forth across the screen. This turned out to be a huge inspiration, and I ended up using it in the finished game.

Leftover from the "Four Elements" theme, I ran with the idea for the wizard to be a master of the "Color" element. I had pictured a gray, drab world, which the wizard was to colorize during his adventures, a la Epic Mickey. I quickly realized I didn't have enough time to create a bunch of shaders, and scoped it down to its final iteration.

Overall, I really enjoyed my first Ludum Dare! I'm excited to rate other games, receive feedback, and try again next time!