Joe The Alien Titlescreen

Hey guys!

I’m Robert and I live in Austria. This is my first LD I have participated and it went quite well I think. I read about the LD and decided spontaneously to give it a shot. I programmed 20 hours (nearly) nonstop and I think it was worth it. I know a 2,5D platformer isn’t the easiest game you can make but I love these kind of games and I wanted to make something with 3D graphics.

Originally the game was called “JoeTheAnt”… but I failed at modelling a reasonable ant, so I decided to make an alien out of the current “ant”. Luckily I made the model very early in development so it was no problem to change it. Then I implemented the key features: Map (drawing, loading, decoration, etc.) player (running, jumping, collision, …) , the enemies (the bug and the mushroom (in code it’s considered as an enemy because originally it was considered to be moving…) and some extra goodies (intro, outro, “tutorial” system, etc.). This took around 12 hours.

Then a strange bug occured… The game crashed with no pattern. It just crashed at a random position. The debugger didn’t help and so I was only able to remove code test… because there was no pattern it was just guessing… after 5 hours of trial and error I fixed the problem (I hope I fixed it…). Then I created the seven maps and tested them and the very last step was adding some (annoying) sounds and test it again. Yeah then I had the finished game and I uploaded it 6 hours before the 48h competition ends.

Which tools?

• GLBasic for programming
• Milkshape 3D for modelling
• Paint.NET and Photoshop for sprites and textures
• sfxr for sounds
• calc.exe for minor calculations

What went right?

• The key features were no problem, Got them working in a reasonable time
• Graphics – Not the best but I did my best. And I think for 20 hours it’s okay.
• The game is finished as it is – It has a beginning, ending, 7 maps and some “extras” I wanted (tutorial system, intro, etc.)
• I had no time issues

What went wrong?

• I should have planned a little bit more (planning took around 5 minutes…)
• Sound/Music effects are awful… I have to learn to do better.
• Some minor problems (bugs, focus on important features, …)

I hope you like it and give it a good rate  http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=11847

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 at 7:50 am and is filed under LD #23. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.