Update, September 2016: Check out the final result here!

Time is ticking! So Ludum Dare have announced the theme as “Ancient Technology”. There is SO much to do here. This is a great theme with loads of potential, and it’s very easy to get carried away and bite off more than you can chew.

We’ve seen some really cool, and varied, interpretations of ancient technology so far – get ready for more embedded tweets than a Buzzfeed article.

the adventures of coggy for #ldjam pic.twitter.com/66W0ZF6xT1

— Daniel Linssen ? (@managore) August 27, 2016

What's this strange piece of ancient technology doing here? #LDJAM #LD36 pic.twitter.com/JFDPPaAWLD

— Livio De La Cruz (@LivioDeLaCruz) August 28, 2016

Or, even searching for ancient technology:

Extreme drilling to find the Ancient Technology! #LDJAM #ludumdare #GamebossJAM #gamedev pic.twitter.com/BtxY8ZGCf0

— Gabriel | Jaun (@Galbix) August 28, 2016

It’s a simple wave-after-wave concept set in a colosseum. We decided to tackle 3D as we noticed most of the game jams were 2D-based pixel platformers. And you know what? There’s a good reason for this. 3D stuff packed into a game jam isn’t easy, but it’s certainly fun.

AI's not quite working as planned #LDJAM pic.twitter.com/RtxOr1mhu4

— Adam Whiteside (@adamside) August 28, 2016

It’s really cool to see some others have gone for the colosseum setting too. A word I still am unable to spell without Googling.

I may have spent a little too much time adding a touch of gore to pixelated sprites. Oops. #LudumDare #LD36 #LDJam pic.twitter.com/JuyfKAEhm4

— Jorge M. Carvalho ? Play Woofice Chair! (@JorgeGameDev) August 27, 2016

While Adam has been working on getting the models ready and the game mechanics, I’ve been working on learning how to texture 3D models for the first time. There was a great reaily available colosseum on the Unity Asset Store – but it was low-poly, and untextured.

ok let's take a few steps back #ldjam pic.twitter.com/57J9glkbYw

— Vicky but Spooky ? (@NinjaPotts) August 27, 2016

Finally, after hours of working out how to use Blender and add UV maps to things, I had made us a textured colosseum!

Several hours & YouTube tutorials later… we have a textured colluseum! Mmmm sandy #LDJAM pic.twitter.com/EVaGX4DY8Y

— Vicky but Spooky ? (@NinjaPotts) August 28, 2016

So, enough procrastinating writing blog posts – let’s get stuck back in for Day 2. At least, we think it’s day two, our sleeping patterns are essentially inverted.