It’s been a while since I wrote one of these. Yet, I’m sure Eternal Seeker deserves it. So, I’m releasing a post-competition version of it along with this post; behold Eternal Seeker: Adagio for the Caverns of Doom!

New Additions:

-Quite different play styles for different classes (Assassin has a chance to assassinate, Barbarian is more resilient, Commander begins with a set of magical items, Dreamer is immune to traps)

-Potions: You can find and drink them

-Monsters: There are new monsters now

-Items: Added over 200 items; including  a unique magical armor.

-Descriptions: There are new area descriptions

Download:

http://trialofnight.googlepages.com/EternalSeekerAdagio.zip

Now for the post mortem itself:

What I Wanted and Accomplished:

I wanted to make a roguelike resembling Incursion, which features zombies who are able to cast spells. Knowing there had to be funny bugs, I gave every monster the ability to throw knives, and deliberately made sure they would sometimes get struck into each other (by partially restricting some of their movement abilities). The game, in the end, turned out to be quite fun; it’s always nice to get attention.

Where I Failed:

I wanted there to be NPC’s you can talk to, and some fixed city areas. However, time was scarce and I had things to do; some of these features I had to dismiss. However, I believe if I added these features, the game wouldn’t be as good.

How Should I Improve:

It’s the design that can turn a potentially bad game into a good one. Creativity is what matters most; and it is creativity I need to, somehow, learn. Well, I’m not sure if that’s easy to learn…

I finally finished my entry. If I get enough time, I may update it; but it’s polished and in a playable state right now. It’s also quite fun to see yourself die in horrible ways; even if you have the best weapon in the game (called “The Reaper +15″). You can find it in the submissions menu; http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-15/

Edit: There was a bug in the game in the Altar sequence. It’s fixed now.

Yay for food!

The game is nearing completion, by the way. All I have to do right now is to add all perks (there will be 10), story, concept art, music, sound effects, and help. It’ll be easy.

I was able to finish a beta for the day. It works; and better than what I expected!

http://trialofnight.googlepages.com/EternalSeekerBeta.zip

The game is getting better and is almost playable; the main issues being the number of enemies, and the popup of getting new items making your eyes uncomfortable (I won’t correct the a/an mistakes arising from adding random strings to strings, I don’t think they are important)

There will be four “backgrounds” to choose from: Gentleman Assassin, Modern Barbarian, Retired Commander and Glorious Dreamer. Right now, there are 3 item slots: Weapon, Armor, Finger. I will try to add more; as well as boss fights and a little bit of story. I will also implement a shop system, and maybe procedurally generated speeches for random NPC’s (they won’t make sense, but will be fun to read, maybe.)

1 hour in. I’ll be making a roguelike;  I have a procedural generation system right now, based on drawing L-shaped floor objects. There are also enemies and a working battle system, but no inventory and no working stats. I hope I will be able to finish this; I feel I am too ambitious.

It took me more than I had planned to finish the game, but it is done!

Music, ending, extras, all complete!

(Looks much better in full size)

Download Link 1: Download

Download Link 2: Download

I don’t seem to be able to upload it to the blog. It says “File type doesn’t meet security guidelines” even though it is a .zip file. I may need help on that issue.

Well, better than nothing!

Now all I need to do is to compose some music and add extras!

I hate tutorials.

I hate them.

But people seem to like tutorials. I need to convince them to play.

So I made a tutorial! How wonderful!

I guess I will need to redraw the sprites. If I get time, that is. I don’t really like them.

It’s still too early; but people may like it.

Link: Mirror 1

Description: Don’t forget to look at the picture to learn the controls, and rules.

11543 instance? WHY? WHY? I have no idea, but magma seems to create much more magma than it should.

Edit: Solved…

Whatever. This was what I was thinking of. I just don’t want to see a real wall advancing.

The game is mostly complete too.

OH MY GOD THAT’S MAGMA!

More soon.

Well, the game is, as a skeleton, complete. I think now it’s time to begin reiterating until I get something balanced and fun. But I doubt I will be spending much time on this one. Is it possible to participate with two games? I guess not.

I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast. Whatever.

I’ve been working on procedural generation and RPG’s for quite some time; and as such, I believe I will make a procedurally generated “Run Away!” RPG.

The rest is to come.

So, an another Ludum Dare. Ludum Dare 13 was great; and I am hoping for an another great competition. I will be using Game Maker (which I hate) again; for I think I won’t have much time to finish the game. Ah well, we will see…

I know that it is late for such a thing, but I still will give it a try.

It was my first Ludum Dare, as also was for many others. My first mistake was using only the first 24 hours of the contest to finish my game. That was because of the fact that the game got more and more detailed in time, and it began to get harder and harder to test the game, which ultimately resulted in me getting bored.

What did the design consist of:

A post apocalyptic world, the ability to build hotels, oil wells and gas stations, fighting different types of mutants and enemies, a story which allows the player to take two different paths, increasing difficulty, the ability to empower your gun and get more and more guards(which had a bug), gambling(which I ultimately removed) and random encounters.

What went wrong:

It was just me, I think. If I had used every bit of my 48 hours, this game would’ve had turned out to be great. But the changes in design and UI pretty much made the game unplayable except me. A programming error in guards which caused the game to crash when there were no enemies was the only critical programming error, I believe. The rest were just results of laziness. The tutorial also was incapable of teaching every aspect of the game.

There still is hope:

I am still developing the game and the engine further. This time, the game will take place in a low fantasy world. The map is now more detailed with randomly generated names, towns and quests, as well as loot. The boring battle part is also removed from the game, to be succeeded by a old prince of persia-like fighting system (I also plan to implement a guitar hero style swordfighting mode). It will eventually be released, though not in this year. It is to be named “Sanity’s Eclipse”.

Finally, my game is finished. If I had more time, I would’ve added a lot more stuff. But I am too tired of this game, so I am just going to release it now. If you have any problems, comment!

Made by: Game Maker 7.0

Difficulty: Depends on how you play.

Length: I never finished it, but should take 30 minutes-1 hour.

Screenshots:

A battle:

A screenshot of the map screen, taken from the beginning of the game.

Game:

http://host-a.net/kaderli/Lost%20Roads%20Release.zip

Source Code:

http://host-a.net/kaderli/Lost%20Roads%20Source.gmk

Development is going fine. Map travel and conquering areas by killing monsters to build roads is now complete; soon I will add the ability to build hotels, gas stations or oil wells.

Below is an old action screenshot with placeholder UI and graphics.

Hi everyone! This is the first time I am joining Ludum Dare. I will unfortunately use Game Maker since it is the only thing I know well. This said, I already have begun working on my game.

There is not even a road yet, but well, I am just beginning to work on it.