first run

V

corruption

V

bloom & ssao

the wonders of graphics programming ;D

I was unfortunately unable to balance the game play as much as I would have liked. A few design choices earlier made doing it now a bit cumbersome. If only I had a few more hours..

I will be making the source available in the next couple of days along with a potential linux setup.

For now you can get it from the the entries page here.

This was a fun experience. Tiring, but fun. I originally entered to warm up for Pyweek, but I found it very fun, and will certainly enter in the next one. (And probably some Mini-LDs )

That said, I dreamed too big, and wasted alot of time.

I stuck with something I knew I could do for my core mechanics, however. In the end, I didn’t have time to put in terrain optimizations (Well, okay, I didn’t have the willpower), and my random world generator became to troublesome for the time-frame.

I’ve discovered a love for both C++ and top-down shooters this weekend, however. I certainly enjoy working with both, and will continue to do so.

Overall, it’s a game. It’s kinda fun, and has something of a challenge to it.

It’s not what I planned, but I’m happy with it.

What Went Right:

• I stuck to a set of mechanics I knew I could implement
• I used collision logic that I was familiar with
• I paid close attention to my pointers
• I decided to farm out request a Windows port from the community, in the topic PoV put up
• I never gave up. This was a first for me in a game development compo. Not having enough time to helped, though.

What Went Wrong:

• I was too ambitious for my lack of familiarity with my IDE, the language I used, and the library I used.
• I assumed I knew where the several segfault bugs I ran into were coming from, only to discover that the cause was something very simple that I’d overlooked.
• I had to hit the code with a hammer in a few places, and it shows.
• I underestimated the complexity of a random world generator, and didn’t leave anywhere near enough time for it.

I’m happy, though. I made a game in 48 hours. In C++. And straight SDL.

This has been the most fun I’ve had in some time! I look forward to the next one!

Here’s to having a good time, even when we don’t succeed.

—Mr. Dude

Well, it’s done! I’ve submitted. I started feeling time pressure a few hours ago, and I think I caught all the fatal errors anyways. There are certainly still some issues with the display, and the AI. (It’s quite presumptious to call it AI– there’s three scripted behaviors. One of them is ‘ask the random number generator where I should move’. You can play with the game to figure out the others or wait for a postmortem.

Of the things in my last post, the only thing I don’t think I really handled was a help system.. there are instructions, and slightly better instructions in the submission entry. A lot of the last minute stuff was a kludge though. This is my code in my Main class for handling a reset or restart:

case 8:
if (this.contains(GameOverScreen)) this.removeChild(GameOverScreen);
if (this.contains(CGame)) this.removeChild(CGame);
CGame = new CavernGame();
GameState = 5;
break;

Obviously that’s not an acceptable way to restart– CGame is a HUGE object by the time the game ends and restarting hangs my flash player for about 20 seconds. (I don’t have a profiler, but Windows Task Manager shows a 30Mb jump in flash players memory usage when that section of code is called) However– it does work. And it would take me more than the two hours and change left to find all the variables that need to be reset in CGame. I’m also tired, and I’m at the point where I’m afraid I might break something trying to add polish.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone elses work, but I’m going to get some rest first. I’ll leave you with a couple screen shots:

-TF

Well, this isn’t going to get finished in time, but I’m submitting what I’ve got, which isn’t much. It’s got music though.

[ entry page ]

Need sleep now.

Edit: I forgot to upload the source code. –> Get the source code here <–

I’ve done as much of Cavern Copter as I’m going to do. It’s now after 1am and I’m contemplating opening that bottle of Battle of Britain Ale that I promised myself before turning in for the night. Thankfully it’s a public holiday tomorrow, as I’m knackered.

There are still things that I would like to have accomplished:

• the scientists should drown when the water reaches their heads
• sound effects

Here are the download links:

• Download Cavern Copter for Windows
• Download Cavern Copter for Mac (Intel)
• Download Cavern Copter for Mac (PPC)
• Play online (Unity web player)

The helicopter speeds towards the first of many stranded scientists.

Congratulations to those who submitted something and better luck next time to those who didn’t.

Spent most of the day modeling and animating, and still only using my mock level.  Less than 3 hours left!

Oh man, took way too long!

So much went wrong… LOL, the caverns part had to be cut out to finish the game because it was taking too long to do the collision dectection and path ai.

Wrote some scrolling text routines that completely disappeared for some reason.

Overall though loved the experience. I think this is my most interesting entry ever.

Processing worked great. I really love how sturdy and well built the language and environment is. Reminded me of the quality of C# and visual studio.

Couldn’t get any decent sounds so left it out. Also, borrowed some code from a demo for flocking. It would have too me the whole 48 hours just to do that one part. Don’t feel too bad. Basically I started with nothing but the language otherwise.

Will add a domain with the game applet online later. I uploaded three version, one for each windows, mac and linux, all together in one compressed file. Java is required of course. Let me know how they work for you. Oh well, going in the pool now! Too much stress!!

Here is the final download file (in RAR format):

http://www.divshare.com/download/8333124-2e7

Here’s a final screenshot:

I’ve uploaded screenshots, videos to youtube and the final executable. If someone wants to host it I’ll be happy to remove rapidshare. I don’t know how stable rapidshare is, but I’m guessing it will stop after 50 or so downloads, even if I signed up with them… anyways here is the last of my foodphotos:

I’l be going through the timelapse videos tomorrow, cleaning it up and removing the parts where I cheat If anyone knows a good premiere-like video-editing freeware for windows xp, I would be a happy if you told me

Now it’s time to sleep. it’s 2.03 (am) local time, and I gotta be at work at 8. This monday (today that is) is going to be fun!

sorry, i’ve nothing worth showing this time..

some unexpected events yesterday took me a lot of time,
and today i also hadn’t enough concentration to code and rethink all the needed stuff.

next time maybe…

…

They chase you, and they look better at doing so than I would have thought. Now I have to implement player death.

Claustrophobia is actually a complete game.

You are trapped in a cave with no exits, there are immortal creatures surrounding you who wish to eat your flesh. You may choose to survive a little longer, by fending them off with your flaming torch, but you’re only prolonging the inevitable.

I find it quite scary.

I have it all finished to a degree I’m comfortable with, the only problem is creating an executable – it would probably take a good while to package, as I’d have to remove a lot of stuff from the graphics and sound code (which load in assets from Soundless Mountain – breaking the rules of the compo. even though they’re not used – it’s always fiddly and takes a few false starts – and it’s already past my bedtime!)

So, sorry to disappoint those who were interested. I’ll try and post the finished thing on my blog in a few days. Need to sleep now!

I had a major breakthrough when I figured out why my monsters were walking through walls, other monsters and the player.  I had an errant semicolon at the end of an if statement and though the logic was correctly false, the functions were still executing.  After removing that, things are looking much brighter.

But not that much brighter.  I still have a few more things to do before this passes as a game, and I still need to create other levels.  I suppose the other levels aren’t mandatory, as I can show a decent amount in just one level if I do it right.

Current item on the agenda is whips.  I’m trying to get them to affect their environment, and once that is done, I can move on to something else, most likely keys and doors.

No screenshot as it looks much like it did before.

Then I tried it with 2000 unit’s 1000 a side and it kind of went a bit slow, turn based strategy anyone! ;o)

But did uncover the fact the the unit’s are extremely dense, but then I made them!

Anyway need to add a carrier or three and some LC’s to ferry them to the beach!

3:26.10 – hmm might need lots more coffee!

Only a few hours left now, thought I’d take a quick break to post a screenshot.

I present…

Bat shooting a laser from its eyes.

Besides the eye-laser that bounces off walls, in this shot you can also see the newly-introduced flamethrowers.

I’ve reaaaally gotta make some actual levels, now – I’ve been using the same test one through-out this weekend. I’ve also got to create some critters (which will be shot with eye-lasers).

Alright, back to work!

Not that many hours left of the competition now…

Here is a recent screenshot of my little entry, Mr Monocle And His Marvelous Madcap Underground Race:

I got everything I planned implemented. Main menu, highscore, game over screen, items, enemies, a gentleman with a monocle on a penny-farthing, death, explosions, procedural generated music, sound effects.

What I need to do now is to playtest it a lot, fix all bugs I can find, finetune it, balance it, and, with some luck, at least try to redraw the sprites. I have had it on the TODO list since yesterday and I keep pushing it aside…

A surprsigingly-to-implement new feature, which makes the game actually hard to play:

Moving dinosaurs!

They walk along, and jump in a ridiculous fashion, without animation. But it’s late, and I’m tired, and this will probably have to do. Please, please test this and say how well it works so I can make any last-minute adjustments, that’d be swell.

Link: (Windows binary and source) http://atkinssj.nfshost.com/stuff/CaveOfDinos.zip

I finally fixed the memory leaks, implemented a decent aim-and shoot system but the “game” is still far from playable. I have no lust to continue left at this point, as it is already 2.00a.m. here. Good luck to you all.

Uh so I’ve been pretty tired this weekend, it’s been hard to code. I was slackin’ for most of the first day, and I’m about 12 hours behind because of some ridiculously stupid bugs.

But, alas, things have begun to come together. Hopefully I can finish a simple game in the next four hours. Here’s a screenshot of spooky cavern, a clone of the (not very fun) 2600 game Haunted House:

spooky caverns

thigns are still progressing well. I’m feeling the time pressure, but I think I’ll be fine for time.

Just need to add a really rough menu/howToPlay and then I’ll spend any remaining time prettying graphics.

As you can see, I’ve added missiles for difficulty and coins as something to collect.