inspired by PoV’s posting of this:

I created this pelly (admittedly useless as an award):

I guess people are posting tools lists… so I shall join in!

I used MSVC 6 (yes, 6!  Not 2006 or whatever), The Gimp, and SFXr.  Chatzilla for a whole lot of IRC action.  Probably Notepad for the readme. The library I used was PTK for graphics, input, and sound.  I made the font with Bitmap Font Builder.  I tried to use Musagi to make music, but failed.

And that’s that!

My lunch is actually the red cup (apple juice again, remember the empty fridge?), and the thai peanut plastic tray.  The rest is breakfast mess and wife’s salad-based lunch bits.  And assorted other junk that’s sitting around the kitchen island.

This is it! Pretty darn complete. Download here: shortfuse.zip (1.1mb)

I tried making music, and that was a bad idea, so I didn’t put it in. Love those SFXr sounds, though!

Note: If it runs way too slow, or just if you prefer, you can use the command line argument “opengl” to run it in openGL instead of directX.

Looks like 7.5 hours to go, and I have what could be done.  I definitely want to add a bunch more levels, and maybe music… I’m going to try out Musagi a bit!  But other than that, we’re done.  Fully functional menu and instructions screens, all the gameplay is in and whatnot.  High scores are a go.  Here’s the menu:

Eat ‘em and weep, boys.  That’s homemade belgian waffles.  And a rose!  Actually, pen that looks like a rose.  Hmm, the colors didn’t come out right in this picture… Dadgum lack of sunlight.  Maybe I should’ve tried turning on a light.

Things are really about done here.  Tomorrow is going to be all about making levels, the main menu, and polish.  I think it will be relatively fun, depending on how the levels are done.  You can now both win and lose, the former of which is shown here:

There are 15/14 barrels done because the barrel you carry is currently extra to the count (you can set it down any time, which is an important part of the strategy and a very important part of not exploding), which I think will change right this second.

I have extraneous ideas for other things levels could include, like rockets that shoot off elsewhere when lit, but I’ll probably not bother.  Just polish this up and ship!

A classic combination served by Ukrainian chefs – delicately braised french bread with butter sauce and fresh fruit compote, and puffed maize drizzled with Romany salt and a light cow’s milk cream blend. Paired with this we have Crystal Geyser grapeless unfermented chardonnay.

Lots of visual progress, a little bit of real progress.  All new pixely graphics all around, and a new HUD at the bottom.  The game automatically zooms the display in to cover the portion of the map that actually has stuff in it, so instead of scrolling, it just gives you a wider view on larger levels.  That’s good because you need ot know the whole layout to make your plans.  This zoom feature is currently very questionable, I seem to have to manually tweak exactly where it goes, depending on the level layout, so I’m missing something there, but it mainly worksish.

Currently, you can’t win or lose, but if you could be killed, boy would it be hard.  Thinking ahead is a must, and it all goes quite fast.  Each level has a percentage required to complete it, and you also need to stay alive, and the main gist is to get the best score you can, provided you blow up enough and avoid dying.

Now there are sounds courtesy of SFXr (just the fuse burning and explosions, at the moment, but that’s really all that can HAPPEN at the moment), and your fuse burns, and if it goes next to a barrel, the barrel blows up.  The barrel explosions chain to neighbors.  There are also a few assorted items visible on the screen – x2 and x4 score multipliers, and gold.  The gold and multipliers are intended to entice you into taking risks you shouldn’t.

Still all temp art, but I suspect the flame particles will stay like this.  They shoot up super vertically, looks like the barrels are practically launching into orbit.  Initially an accident, now a favorite feature.  I’m going to do art now, because I need to have the style down before I do the font stuff, which I feel is sort of next on the list.  The core gameplay is done, you just can’t lose.  And since this is a game of score, I need to get that score tracking up so I know what is happening there!  Art’s definitely the biggest portion of what’s left, so let’s get on it.

It’s day 2, and this is one big big hearty meal.  Luckily, I have assistance in eating it.

I was going to arrange it all pretty, but I figured I had to capture the moment while it existed.  This is my piggy plate, which my wife gave me as a joke, since I have issues with different foods touching (but not nearly the issues she claims.  Still, I like the piggy plate!).  Gardenburger, fries, and apple juice.  The latest issue of Game Developer arrived today and is in that pile there.  I didn’t renew my subscription about 2 years ago when they last asked, they just keep sending it.

Gameplay!  Nothing explodes, but your gunpowder fuse burns after you as you run.

Fully functional level editor!  Lets you draw the map, and saves and loads.  And check out that hardcore artwork!!  Hopefully I will update that later…

Like so many, I have a random screen of tiles up and running now.  Guess I’ll make the editor, because this game will NOT work with random levels!  Well… hmm.  Better not.

I’m not vegan, I just like Silk better than milk.   It’s saturday morning, time to start crankinating!  I am going to make the stupid prospector game.

I got nothing but ideas… Well, I also have a black screen that you can press ESC to exit.  But anyway, none of the ideas are really kicking it.  The most unique one, but one I am not at all sure I want to do, is something like this: You’re a old prospector type guy, carrying a keg of gunpowder.  It has a hole, as they always do, so you leave a trail behind.  You’re in a place filled with explosives.  After a set time, the end of your fuse lights and begins chasing after you.  It blows up any explosives it gets near, and of course if it gets to you, it blows you up too.  You can put the keg down any time, so the goal is A> blow stuff up without getting killed (put the keg down and hide before the flame gets to you), and B> blow up as much stuff as possible.

The chain reaction is that obviously all the explosives blow up other explosivs near them.  So the strategy is in putting your fuse down well without getting blown up along the way.  Seems kinda fun, but I don’t know about actually making it… well, after writing it, it’s strongly considered.

Other ideas include a Bangaio-style shooter where guys who explode blow up other guys near them, so you want to cluster them up and destroy them.  Also, a guy with a chain who smashes enemies, sending them flying into other enemies for a chain-based chain reaction (but chain physics scares me).  Another is  something along the lines of pool, shoot out a ball that hits enemies, and they go flying and hit other enemies.

But behind all that stuff is the idea that I kinda wanted to make a turn-based thing, like a board game or card game.  I don’t know, though.  So many ideas, so little interest in them… maybe the prospector thing.

(topped with a santa hat you can’t really see)

Because of that, I had to move to the living room.  So my new desk pic is:

Much assorted junk on the table including Wiimote and Gamecube controller.  PS2 controller on floor.  Just kidding about the cat – Huzzah always sits on my lap, it did not make me move.  Though it often makes my legs fall asleep.

Here is the Hamumu Fridge:

Yep, nothing in there at all. One tofu block, apple and orange juice, and a box of plain rice leftover from Thai.  And whipped cream.  It’s just depressing.

Hamumu desk.  Items for wrapping presents (in Figi’s catalogs) are to the left of the mousepad (high school yearbook), along with my cell phone.  The actual computer is the laptop on the right, which is also doubling as my “stuff to file” box, since I moved that off my desk after the 45th time the cats dumped it over.  Guido is under the monitor.