Well, I think I have my basic idea drawn up. You’re a small mining drone of some kind, orbitting around the sun. You fire charges into the sun that blows out valuable plasma, which you collect in your ship. But you have to let it cool down a little bit before you gather it, otherwise it’ll eat away at your (constantly dwindling) shielding. Three buttons — speed up, slow down, and fire charge. You speed up and slow down at an angle perpendicular to gravity, and because you’re orbiting, speeding up makes you move up (away from the sun), and slowing down makes you move down (closer to the sun). If you touch the sun, you take damage very very quickly, but closer is also safer (other than hitting the sun) and richer, since the best plasma is the plasma that’s been blasted away from the sun, and cooled down as it drifts closer back down to the sun. If you collect no plasma whatsoever, your drone will be destroyed in two minutes, but every bit of plasma you collect (even that which has cooled down) reduces your shielding a small amount. Your job is to find the best middle ground between staying alive longer and collecting more plasma.

Now I’m going to play some Left 4 Dead while I think about more specifics.

I wasn’t going to start until tomorrow but I had nothing to do so I decided to implement a small tech test to see if what I wanted to do was at all doable in Flash. Space is filled with planetary bodies, starts and what not and it’s up to the player to feed the suns and make them grow to encompass each other (or something). Anyway, it’s all implemented with bloobs using flash’s bitmap routines. It looks a little something like this:

Oh and the color will definately change!

Right, so I’ve got my first few sprites done (two dangerous bugs, and the medicine that is going to be your weapon against them). I know technically this is more like “toxin fighter”with the chemical warnings, but after a whole load of attempts at drawing bugs I decided to go with things I could draw…

I’ve only added the basic code – collision detection etc. – but I’m quite proud of the graphics (I can normally draw graphics about as well as I can ride a unicycle). I guess the “monochrome” theme has been a blessing – it definitely makes sure the colour(s) match.

Now I’m going to start working on the gameplay a bit more – the simplest way would be to go with a space-shooter type game, but that’s a bit unimaginative. On the other hand, at least I know that would be fun, so if I can’t come up with an addictive idea I might resort to that.

I’ve been laying down the code since my last post and I already have a screenshot to post.  Basically the traincars currently come flying out of the left and head to the right past the various cactus, rocks and other western detritus that I will hopefully add for ambience.  I’m really liking the look of it so far.

Now, I have to code a player cam to track the train cars through the world coords.. fun fun!

I have chosen the theme Balloon!. I think my color is going to be yellow. I’m itching to start coding even though I’m not supposed to yet. Normally I use C++ and SDL, but I’m considering using Flash as its capabilites might be better suitied to my project, though I’m not sure how to go about it.

If I do use C++ and SDL I’ll use my special library, which I am releasing right now here, if it’s not too late to be official. Please respond if you know for a fact this is valid or invalid! This is my own library, PlatyGame version something or other.

EDIT: I just realized this, apparently the compo already started.

Ok, so I’ve got an idea for a lil game that I’ll whip up tomorrow. It’s going to use The Tower secondary theme and will be brought to you by the color Pink.

I’ll be using my usual c++ with allegro.

I’ve decided to have a go at the MiniLD – this will be my first 48hour challenge, so my main aim is simply to have a working game at the end of it, and I’m not aiming too high.

I’ve chosen the theme “infection”, and I’m going to be working in Python with PyGame.

The idea I think I will go with is very simple – you play the part of some kind of medicine fighting off infections by zapping them somehow (I still have to work that bit out… I’ll see how the graphics turn out)

I have picked ‘Trains’ as my secondary theme for this Mini LD #6.  “Monochrome” is the primary required theme of the contest.  Instead of making a full game for this competition Matrin has tasked us with a limit to make the game a single-level.  Everyone who submits a game will have their game be one of the levels in a game “wrapper” that will join them all together.  The common theme being monochrome.

I want to create a game that will be of limited scope yet still fun and not too small.  I am trying to work out what size the level should be of my monochrome train game.

My current idea is a kind of 2d platformer that takes place running along a moving train.  You will have to watch out for tunnels and obstacles that would sweep you off the train if you are on top of a train car.  You will have to move quick enough that you aren’t on train cars that will become disconnected and drift backwards after a time.  I’m going to impose a time limit through the fact that if you don’t reach the train engine in time to stop it you will die due to train crash.  You will start at the end of the train on the caboose and have to work your way along.  I may make it old west themed as well.  You will have to fight off bandits on your way to pull the brake at the front of the train.  Perhaps I’ll have a minimap at the top that will show the trains progress on the level so you can know how close you are till the end instead of just time limit.

I’ll be using Ruby / Gosu gamedev library again for this competition.

Here is initial mockup:

I have added a score limit to the rules. You are only allowed to give a max of 1000 points in your game.

I will participate to this new challenge. The main theme is “monochrome” and I have choose the second theme “build the level you play”.
My idea ? A background in green (yes, it is really beautifull, the green) and a small character who need to go in a goal.
With your mouse you can make a segment which is dark. The character can move on this, but he is few lazy, and stupid, like a lemming. But be carrefull, segments become gradually light and when the segment has the background’s color, it disappear ! So if are not attentive, he will fall and, if this fall is too long, you loose ! So, I must begin the code …

The themes for miniLd #6 are up. Link

Have fun.

Here is a link to the wiki entry for MiniLD6, where you can see the start time, read the rules, select themes,…

Please leave comments if you think i missed something, or if things are unclear.

Some of you probably want to see the framework that I planed for MiniLD#6 collab competition. Well, here are the first screen shots.

The framework is made in python 2.6 and pygame, I have learned how to do it from keeyai’s CGL, but I haven’t used any code from it, because I found it too well crafted for it’s own purpose, and not flexible enough to use it for my framework.

The current framework source can be downloaded here, under Download, and more screen shots can be found under Glog. ( I know the site is an ugly mess, I am going to get to that).

I hope a lot of you like the MiniLD idea, and a lot of you decide to enter. It will be fully opened, so even if your game won’t run with my framework, you are welcome to pick out one of the themes for yourself.

For a simple explanation of the compo rules, look at older post.

Hey hey,

This isn’t Ludum Dare news per se, but I figure it’s right up everyone’s alley.  I’ve been asked by the organizers to let you know about Global Game Jam, taking place on January 30th 2009.

http://www.globalgamejam.com

Unlike Ludum Dare, this is an actual event taking place in 49 (currently) locations all around the world.  RSVP, show up, meet some new people, form a team, and build something in a weekend.  True to the spirit of the compo.

Thanks,

Mike Kasprzak (PoV)

PS: Mini LD #6 is next weekend, hosted by matrin

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2008/12/21/minild6-collab/

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2008/12/22/minild-6/

Be there!