Even though I haven’t had much time today, I have still come quite a long way with my game.

Screenshot!

I have basic platforming controls and the main game mechanic working, as well as some spikes that kill you.

Feeling really good about this game so far.

Next weekend, I will try to participate in Ludum Dare. I have a few things to attend that will probably take up most of the weekend, but i hope to have time to make a little game in a couple of hours.

Either way, I will probably be making a warmup game this weekend.

I am never sure of what tools to use for the compo, as it very much depends on the game, so here is a big list of things i might use:

• FlashDevelop
• FlashPunk
• SFXR
• BFXR
• Paint.NET
• GIMP
• Unity
• Blender
• Audacity
• an MP3 converter
• LMMS
• Hexels
• Ogmo
• GameMaker: Studio
• Twine
• Voxatron

Looking forward to making some games.

Last weekend i created a game called “Villainous Dungeons” for the 48h compo. You can play/rate the game here.

What went right:

• Tools. I used FlashPunk to make the game. This turned out to be much more useful than i first thought it would be. I have been jamming a lot with FlashPunk over the last few months and I have become very familiar with it. This made coding stuff much faster than i first thought it would be.
• Idea. This is the first LD (that i have finished) where I had an idea for a game, where the gameplay really fit the theme. It wasn’t very hard to code either (this was why i failed the last LD). It was also an idea that i could pull off in the time that i had.
• Sound. Even though the sounds are just SFXR sounds, I think that i used sound the sound really well. A sound is played when you select a guard. Different sound play depending on weather the hero or one of the guards were hit.
• Time. I did spend the time i had quite efficiently. I didn’t spend too much time on animation or drawing. I had a train trip on Sunday where I also got a bit done.

What went wrong:

• Time. I had a few Christmasy things to attend over the weekend, so i barely had time to make games.
• Playtesting. The game wasn’t really playable until the very end of the compo. This meant that i couldn’t tweak the gameplay as I was making the game.
• Controls. The thing most people seem to dislike about the game is that the controls are kinda tricky. I am not really happy with them either. Even I have a hard time playing some of the levels.
• Level design. The levels were designed in the middle of the night on the last day of the compo. I was so tired that i started to feel sick this is why there are only 4 levels in the game.
• Graphics. The graphics is are really ugly pieces of programmer art. This is especially terrible because  I know i can do better than that.

What i learned:

• Sound. As i mentioned before I think that i used sound really well in the game. I have never really used sound as part of the game design before, but i think it worked really well.
• moveBy(). This is such a useful function and I never knew it existed until last weekend. The function moves the entity by whatever you set it to and does all of the wall-collisions for you. Before this i used a really clumsy set of for loops to do my moving/wall-collision.
• Get it playable. Next time I do a game  jam I will focus on getting it playable fast, rather than spending a long time programming the  individual parts of the game.

Overall I am pretty happy with the game. With the amount of time I had, I am pretty amazed that i could even finish the game in time.

Bye!

First screenshot:

still haven’t designed any levels. Other than that the code is very close to being done and i only need a few more graphics.

I also jammed on a train today. That was pretty fun.

I will be participating in the Ludum Dare 25 compo.

Things i will probably be using:

• FlashDevelop as my IDE
• FlashPunk as my engine
• Paint.NET for graphics
• sfxr for sound
• LMMS for music (if i have time for that)
• An mp3 converter for converting the WAV files that sfxr exports to mp3s that can be used in flash

I might use unity instead of FlashPunk if i want to do 3d, but that is very unlikely.

Looking forward forward to the 15th.

Bye!

Progress!

The idea is that you go through little rooms filled with monsters. When all the monsters are dead, you go through the purple portal thing. Each room is chosen randomly. So far there are only 2 rooms, but more will be added soon. Each room has a random color, and a random type of enemy. There is still a long way to go, but i think this is a good start.

And now for the experiment!

Flashdevelop generates an html file which contains the game. This file is hosted in a public dropbox folder.  This means that you can play the game as it is being updated. Every time i compile the game, this link gets updated.

I would love to know what people think of this idea.

Bye!

http://youtu.be/UbUrvcaDbmM?hd=1

What you just saw was me making my ld23 entry. Now i will write about the experience!

What went right:

The game was made in java. I was thinking of using unity at one point, but i realized that i was much more familiar with java and all of its APIs.

I was really happy with the animation as well. I do think i spent too long on it, but it did look very smooth.

What went wrong:

Time. I had very little time Sunday and thus couldn’t get much done there. I ended up working until 2 am and was ultimately not very happy with the final product.

Art. Colors were pretty awful. Since then i learned about how important a good palette is.

Engine. The engine i used was created in 48 during the compo. This was good because i was very comfortable with it, but i spent too much time optimizing and fixing crashes. Next time i will probably use FlashPunk.

The game can be played here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=7228

Bye!

… so i thought i would post a screenshot on the progress i made since last update.

Screenshot:

As you can see the game  will contain a floating island (maybe more). The screenshot is zoomed all the way out so the final game is not going to look this bad. Also the level is WIP so it will look different.

Finally, I have background tiles and animation now (you cant see the animation on the screenshot, as it is an image).

Goodnight everyone!

Hello! I made some progress!

Here is a new screenshot:

Here is the first build: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28886348/games/ludum%20dare%2023/index.html

If you have got the time please give it a go and give some feedback. Currently the only thing i have done is collision and physics, so there isn’t much to show.

Thanks for reading/playing! Bye!

Made some progress! sort of… (still doing much better than last time)

I am in! Last time i failed, but this time i actually have a vague idea, of what i am doing!

I will be using java for code, paint.net for pixels, sfxr for sounds and iNudge for the music (if i get the time).

Looking forward to making/playing some games!

EDIT: I may switch to unity, due to me discovering how awesome it is! In that case i will be using sculptris or blender for 3d stuff.

I am going to give it a try. This will be my first LD so i dont know if i can finish anything. I will try though.

I will be using java for code, paint.net for graphics and sfxr, lmms and audacity for sound/music.

I might also use the ogmo editor, if it fits the theme and if i can get it to work with java.