After some conversation in the IRC channel (go there if you aren’t already there), I’m working on a simple game where you fly through a cave and avoid blowing yourself up…. but you control your ‘ship’ by changing the frequency of your voice.  Really it’s just a pink block right now but it will be cooler,  I hope, pitch control proof of concept is complete, just need to make the whole game part, minor detail:

Howdy! Looking forward to putting as much time as I can this weekend into a small game I’m working with Ren’Py, which is a first for me but it looks great. I think I’ll also be using the Dating Sim Engine framework, though the game definitely won’t be about dating or romance. My girlfriend has been playing a game that uses those dating sim mechanics (Matches & Matrimony) and they look like they could be a lot of fun in another kind of story as well.

I have a couple of story ideas, so I’m going to spend the rest of this evening sketching & see which one sticks first!

Well, for this MiniLD, my intention is to create a working dialogue engine and a working pseudo-3D overworld engine… in GM Lite! The story will probably involve schoolgirls killing zombies and monsters. From what I have done building base code while waiting for the LD to actually start, I have gotten a Ren’Py engine somewhat working, though it’s a bit disorganized and I have not yet gotten questions finished. I want there to be multiple endings that depend on the path you choose, and yes, shipping will be involved because I ship everything. (Linkxfloor FTW), and so for the engine I built a choose-your-own-adventure type story redirection system. It actually was really easy to do that, especially with how computers work rather than books. Anyway, I’ll will prolly post screens, but don’t be surprised if I don’t (I’m not good at doing stuff like that). At the end, however, I *will* post a time lapse, along with the finished blank dialogue engine and the game.

Fenyx

Yes, we’re finally finished! You can check out our game, the Struggle for Humanity under all entries for the MiniLD. Hope you enjoy it!

The last time I tried to participate in a Ludum Dare was like a year ago. Unfortunately a relative(not a close one) died and I had to be there to support my family, so I didn’t finish a thing. Anyways, this time I’m planing to make it to the very end >:D. I’ll be using as3/flixel, Paint.NET and milkytracker. I’m not sure about the last one, but if nothing works out I’ll use some samples. I don’t have anything planed so I’ll be writing some code for the dialogs. I think I can work something out…

For this miniLD I plan to program an RPG-style NPC dialogue system for my touch-screen Android phone as well as web and windows executable.

I already have a very basic proof-of-concept running on all three platforms.

For the art, I’ve prepared several Poser 2010 characters that I can render with various facial expressions.

I have a fighter, a cleric, a retired army general and a wise old alchemist, along with their “familiars” (magical talking animals).  You can see a screenshot of the cast in a previous post.

I think the animals will be more entertaining than the people, so the story will be seen from the perspective of a sarcastic orange shorthair exotic cat named Prince Charlemainge Powerpaws III (prince Charlie for short).

Tools:
- written in HTML and javascript
- windows .exe is just a wrapper for a xulrunner chromeless web browser
- web version is naturally just the HTML file itself
- android version is built using Phonegap (with a WebKit window)

Wish me luck!

I’ve been a long time observer of these Ludum Dare contests but have always happened upon them right as they are over.  This will be my first entry!

I am not comfortable doing an art and dialog-heavy RPG, so for the theme of “All Talk” I have decided to take a platformer and smash it down into a game about talking.  The idea is that instead of directly controlling a platformer character, you talk to one and convince it to do what you want.

The idea has evolved into a herding game of sorts.  You are character who is trying to convince all of the little peons to go to the right side of the screen.  There is apparently some great danger on the left side of the screen.  You are opposed by an adversary who is trying to convince all the peons to go to the left side of the screen where he is either trying to eat them or capture them or something like that.

So you are a single platformer character controlled with WASD, and when you are colliding with a peon, you can talk to it to convince it to either walk left, right, or jump by using the arrow keys.  If a peon is doing something you tell it to and collides with another peon, it will try to convince the other peon to do the same thing.  So everyone is talking to each other.  All Talk you might say.

To make it more interesting, each peon will have a rank (and probably some other attributes) that determine whether or not it succeeds in persuading.  The game will basically be an action game to see who can herd the peons to their side fastest.  I might even try to squeeze in a multiplayer where one player herds to the left and other to the right.

I am a big fan of Reddit rage comics, so all of the peons are various rage faces.

I am writing it in Javascript with the HTML5 canvas.  I have been needing to learn Javascript better for a long time and this gives me an opportunity to check out the new features of HTML5.  So far I am very impressed and am excited about the possibility to make browser games without any plugins at all.

Hopefully I get this done in time!

The game will live at least for now at http://lifelessboring.com/minild27 so give it a play if you are interested.  I will try to keep at least moderately playable versions on the live site.

Ren'Py rocks.

The author of Ren’Py (the best visual novel engine and the tool I recommend most enthusiastically for this weekend’s miniLD #27) has expressed support for Ludum Dare!  He is frantically working on bugfixes for a fresh new version of Ren’Py for you all to enjoy this weekend.

Be sure to check it out: this is a master work and a labour of love that has been constantly updated for over two years. http://www.renpy.org/why.html

I warmly encourage everyone to follow him on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/renpytom

Fat Farming Girl is now playable! It has lots of bugs, but I wanted to get some early feedback before submitting it for the competition:

Direct Download

Well I’ve gotten nowhere on the mini LD.  It’s been a pretty crazy couple of weeks.  I’ve had a multiplicity of things taking up my time in the evenings, some of that work bleeding over after 5pm.  And today a recurring eye injury cropped up again, forcing me to stay home from work, meaning I’ll be doing even more in the evenings.  I have a concept and a good codebase, but that’s it.  Seeing as the project is much too ambitious for just a weekend, I doubt I’ll have anything very presentable for the deadline.

On a brighter note, the get-together that I was planning actually happened!  Last Saturday a number of us met at a friends house and hung out and discussed our ideas.  I believe it was a profitable time, and it was definitely fun.  Although many of them won’t be joining this LD, we all shared projects that we wanted to work on and generally had a good time talking about game coding.  Some new ideas developed out of the mix.  We’ll be doing it again this coming Saturday, just in time to wrap up for the mini LD.

I was too lazy/stupid to make a timelapse, but at least I created some screenshots while I worked on my Ludum Dare #20 entry, “Tri”. And finally I uploaded them! Here they are.

As the this weekend approaches rapidly we’ve been really working on our game.  I’ve included a link to our new demo. We’ve added a ton of features, god powers, updated graphics, sound effects, and much more!

Play it now!  http://shard123games.weebly.com/

well, since this minild so closely aligns to the kind or game I’ve been working on lately (including the last full ludumdare), I’ve just got to give it a go.

I think I have a terrific idea for a dialogue based zombie thriller. It will be another chance to use all my audio equipment.

Basically you make contact over cb radio with a man in a neighboring city which is under seige from zombies. You have to use your general knowledge of zombies from books and movies to help the man make the right decisions so he can rescue his girlfriend and escape town.

It will be a first person affair in which you listen to him describe his situation and then you choose from a dialog tree on what to say to help him. In some cases you might lead him right to his demise.

To improve on my last game, the audio clips will be shorter. No more than a paragraph or two and there will be more interaction.

Let’s see how it goes!

I am happy to announce that we will be able to release this game on time! Yay!

So far, there are 5 possible endings. You can raise goats, cook different recipes, work for a farmer, play the piano, GOSSIP, steal husbands, kill your banker, pick cherries, and be happy!

Okay so this theme definitely won me over – I will be putting together a game for the latest MiniLD, and I’m looking forward to it! I considered one of the engines tailor-made for visual novels and the like, but have decided rather to stick with Flixel. I expect to do the vast majority of the development on the weekend of the 25th but I have started laying the foundations.

The game will simply focus around one conversation – a “chance encounter” made while commuting. The usual over-ambitious hope is to present the player with a slew of contextual questions and responses to use throughout the exchange; with your options, and their responses, being affected by the chemistry of the encounter.  By “slew” I’ll probably end up with three, but I’ll see how far I get! If all else fails I might just replace every button with JASON!

I'm on a train!

I’ve been working on a new game for Father’s Day! So far I’ve liked what I have done with the this game. This is my absolute first flash game I have ever made so please give me some slack. Here are the features: A splash screen to start of the game; In the game you evade “your children”,  I mean for a father, isn’t that what its all about? Anyways power up items will appear randomly (1/35) on the game. One of these items is mountain dew. This increases your speed because of the caffeine. Along with that, there is beer. When activated (move over the item) you turn into a drunk dad and your children start running away. When your drunk, if collide with your children, they disappear. Along with those power ups, there are timers for them. For example, when a beer power up appears there will be text in the lower right corner telling you how much time is left before the beer will disappear. Same goes for the mountain dew. Also there is a timer for when you are drunk telling you when it will wear off. If the children run into you….well… your just gonna have to find out.

I would like some people to test this new game and please send me feedback on how it could be better. Thank you so much!

The game is on my website at https://sites.google.com/site/snafugames/

Best day ever!

http://indiegames.com/2011/06/freeware_game_pick_questling_f.html

Voicebox is a very simple HTML example for RPG games that require voiceover dialogue. Instead of carefully recording all of your game’s speech, certain characters can be assigned an “alien tongue” that is made up of simple nonsense sounds. Much like in the original KOTOR adventure game by Bioware, important characters can be given proper English voiceovers while secondary characters or those you don’t have time to record dialogue for can simply play random snippets of silly “fake” speech like these. Believe it or not I recorded these myself using a microphone (in between bouts of laughter). Feel free to use these recordings in your game. Enjoy!

http://www.mcfunkypants.com/2011/voicebox-mp3/

So I’ll have to sit this one out, I guess.

Unfortunately I’m straddled with extra-work at my day-job this weekend, and I also should be working on this other game I’m supposed to be making for game-design-school.

So instead, here’s a gif I found on twitter.

-Matthew

I love cherries, so Fat Farming Girl has them now. You can collect them and make a pie, or sell them, or maybe give them away as a gift.