---
title: 'Ludum Dare 46: Jamming with friends'
description: Recapping the development of *Micromanaged Mike*
date: 2020-04-20
tags:
- gamejam
- ldjam
- javascript
- project
redirect_from:
- /post/ebsdjtd9/
- /ebsdjtd9/
aliases:
- /blog/2020/04/20/ludumdare46
- /blog/ludumdare46
extra:
  js_import:
    - https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
  excerpt: A look back at the development of Micromanaged Mike
---

Over the past weekend I teamed up with @rsninja722, @wm-c, @exvacuum, @marshmarlow, and our friends Sally and Matt to participate in the [LudumDare46](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46) game jam. This post will outline the game development process.

## Day 0

----

Starting at 20:30 Friday night, we all anxiously awaited this jam's theme to be released.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The theme for Ludum Dare 46 is...<br><br>Keep it alive<a href="https://t.co/APmeEhwjEp">https://t.co/APmeEhwjEp</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LDJAM?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LDJAM</a> <a href="https://t.co/bzNYi2zlDG">pic.twitter.com/bzNYi2zlDG</a></p>&mdash; Ludum Dare (@ludumdare) <a href="https://twitter.com/ludumdare/status/1251314489934446593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2020</a></blockquote>

..and so we started.

Day 0 was spend on three tasks:
 - Deciding the story for our game
 - Allocating tasks
 - Building a software framework for the game

We decided to program our game in JavaScript (but not without an argument about types) because that is @rsninja722's primary language, and we can use his JS game engine, [game.js](https://github.com/rsninja722/game.js). On top of that, we also decided to use [SASS](https://sass-lang.com/) for styling, and I designed [a CSS injector](https://github.com/rsninja722/LudumDare46/blob/master/docs/assets/js/injection/cssinjector.js) that allows us to share variables between JS and SASS.

After task allocation, I took on the job of handling sounds and sound loading for the game. I decided to start work on that during day 1, due to homework.

*The game's progress at the end of Day 0 can be found at commit [0b4a1cd](https://github.com/rsninja722/LudumDare46/tree/0b4a1cdb92e62ff0f9453f6f169f641dd82e8f09)*


## Day 1

----

Day 1 started with @exvacuum developing a heartrate monitor system for the game:

![Heartrate monitor](/images/posts/ludum-dare-46/ld46-heartrate.png)

*Demo image showing off his algorithm*

His progress was documented [on his YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqcbO8x0evY).

I also started out by writing a sound system that uses audio channels to separate sounds. This system pre-caches all sounds while the game loads. Unfortunately, after getting my branch merged into master, I noticed a few bugs:
 - When queueing audio, the 2 most recent requests are always ignored
 - Some browsers do not allow me to play multiple audio streams at the same time

Due to these issues, I decided to rewrite the audio backend to use [Howler.js](https://howlerjs.com/). I streamed this rewrite [on Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/595864066). The Howler rewrite was very painless, and made a much nicer interface for playing audio assets.

```javascript
// The old way
globalSoundContext.playSound(globalSoundContext.channels.bgm, soundAssets.debug_ding);

// The new way
soundAssets.debug_ding.play();
```

This rewrite also added integration with the volume control sliders in the game settings menu:

![Settings menu](/images/posts/ludum-dare-46/ld46-settings-screen.png)

*Audio Settings screen*

Later on in the day, a basic HUD was designed to incorporate the game elements. A bug was also discovered that causes Firefox-based clients to not render the background fill. We decided to replace the background fill with an image later.

![V1 HUD](/images/posts/ludum-dare-46/ld46-hud-v1.png)

*V1 of the game HUD*

While developing the sound backend, and tweaking UI, I added sound assets for heartbeats, and footsteps. World assets were also added, and the walking system was improved.

![World Mockup](/images/posts/ludum-dare-46/ld46-world-assets-v1.png)

*The game with basic world assets loaded*

@wm-c and @rsninja722 also spent time developing the game's tutorial mode.

*The game's progress at the end of Day 1 can be found at commit [84d8438](https://github.com/rsninja722/LudumDare46/tree/84d843880f052fd274d2d14036220e6b591e9ec3)*

## Day 2 & 3

----


Day 2 started with a new background asset, and a new HUD design:

![Background](/images/posts/ludum-dare-46/ld46-new-game-bg.png)

*The game's new background*

![HUD](/images/posts/ludum-dare-46/ld46-hud-v2.png)

*The game's new HUD* 

@rsninja722 also got to work on updating the game's collisions based on the new assets, while I added more sounds to the game (again, streaming this process [on Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/596589171)).

From then on, development time was just spent tweaking things such as:
 - A Chrome sound bug
 - A transition bug when moving from the loading screen to tutorial
 - Some collision bugs
 - Adding a new credits screen

*The game's progress at the end of Day 2 can be found at commit [b9d758f](https://github.com/rsninja722/LudumDare46/tree/b9d758f4172f2ca251da6f60af713888ef28b5fe)*

## The Game

Micromanaged Mike is free to play on [@rsninj722's website](https://rsninja.dev/LudumDare46/).

![Game screenshot](/images/posts/ludum-dare-46/ld46-final.png)

*Final game screenshot*