My game, Biovolve is now finished! It’s my first full game using Stencyl, and I think it went well!

View the entry here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=7468

Play it on the Stencyl Arcade here: http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/14360

Or be kind and play it on Kongregate here: http://www.kongregate.com/games/cryptixdev/biovolve (Please rate!)

Game Update!

I’ve finished 18 levels so far, fixed a lot of bugs and changed the sprites slightly.

I’ve changed my mind about the total levels, I will now do 20 instead of 27 as planned. Because I can polish the game much more.

Here’s a screenshot of my favourite level:

And you can play it here: http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/14336

Today has been a very very productive day for me. Here is what i have completed so far:

• Platform with Player physics/movement
• Animated tiles
• Music
• Sound FX (Some)
• Sprites
• Tileset
• Splash Screen
• Player evolutions
• Different Obstacles
• 9 Levels

So you can see I got quite a bit done.

Tomorrow hopefully I will finish off the levels (I plan to have 27), do some titles and endings. Then focus on writing a description, making a trailer, etc. And maybe upload it to Kongregate as well.

Here’s a preview of the first levels

Play the game here: http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/14336

Here’s a little video of the first 6 levels:

I’ve finished the “starter” levels, that is one level for each 3 evolutions. now i’m working on extending the next levels and making them more complex, then maybe adding some different ones in together.

Here’s another preview:

I’ve completed the first functional level! The second level is nearly done as well.

But i’m going through the beginning levels introducing different features, and once i feel i have enough variety. I will make more complex levels and maybe integrate Kongregate api

Here is Level 1:

and Level 2:

I’ve got the basic evolution types working now, its very simple but im not doing any complex this time round. I’m keeping it simple, and focussing on getting the style right.

Biovolve Preview

Check out a little .mov of the animations in my game

I’ve finished my first few hours of fun to get myself started for tomorrow! I have a basic idea, sprites, and working on expanding the tilemap.

I have mud, grass, water and fire. But all with different shading options, and shapes, etc.

Here’s a demo level with water:

Here is a preview of fire:

Ive got a nice little basic level now!

For this Ludum Dare, I have decided to steal my girlfriends breakfast bar. I hope she isn’t hungry for the next 48 hours!

So, yeah. I’m in!

I don’t have a clue what tools/devices/anything i will be using, I will figure that all out today. I will need to pick between Java, Lua, and a few others. I could even  use Stencyl! which may look like its for beginners, but it can produce good games!

So thats it, I’m out!

I’ve got a fair bit done today! ALl the tiles loads properly, I’ve added music, some sounds, tile collisions, and the bit that took a while: more levels!

I’ve now refactored my code so that nothing is level-specific, and to add a new level all i need to do is load up Tiled and create a new map!

Of course there’s quite a bit left, but at least its a playable game.

Here’s some screenshots:

Here’s a quick video, mainly to show you the music i just quickly done.

View here.

I’ve now got the basics working!
I’ve loaded a tilemap, also done the basic tiles.
I’ve got a player moving around the screen, and he can collide with things, and also i’ve set up a function to extract the tile ids from the .tmx file so that i can index them by doing this
closedDarkDoor = map.tileLayers.id.tileData[1][3]
so that makes it a lot easier for collisions and interacting with tiles!

Here’s another preview

I’m starting to actually build my game now after a tiny sleep, I’m not going to say much about it as it will most likely change soon, but its set to be a mini adventure.
here’s a screen shot of me testing the tiles (it’s not meant to look good yet)

I am definitely in for this one!

I will most likely be using LOVE2D or Stencyl, I haven’t really decided yet.

The graphics will be made in Photoshop, sounds in BFXR and music probably garage band or maybe LSDJ depends on what style it is.

Okay, it’s been a while since Ludlum dare and I thought I may as well do one of these as I have some time on my hands.

So here is what I think of my game :

Graphics
I thought graphics were the strongest part of the game as they were the parts I spent most time perfecting (to my style). It may be really common to have that style of tiles or whatever but I really wanted to have a go at creating a low-res game and I thought they were okay at the end.

If I had more time though, I would of spent even more time on the graphics. I would of probably made the tiles 16×16 so I could add more detail in and maybe add more effects.

Gameplay
The gameplay was bearable in my mind, it wasn’t too complex(well I don’t think so), and I didn’t try and make it really hard for the player either. But I have a long way to go with gameplay ideas, as this is my first ever game, so it won’t be great.

I had this idea in mind a few hours into the competition and just sort of went with it, and I hope people liked it as I did. But I do think over time, I will understand more about game design and level design so they will get better in the future.

Sound
The sounds in the game were pretty much rushed because I wanted them in the game, but didn’t have enough time to perfect them. This also goes with the music, if I done it again I would of spent maybe an hour longer on this to make sure it suited the mood.

Cross Compatibility
I thought I had this under control, as I knew LOVE2D would work on Mac, Windows and Linux. But for some reason when I was compiling some windows users were having trouble playing. As far as I could tell from researching the problems it was to do with old integrated graphics and some could be probably fixed by updating the drivers. But oh well, maybe next time I’ll properly test an engine before I do another 48hour competition.

Overall
Mainly, I think the game went well because as I said it is my first game and to me any good comment makes it worthwhile. I did it to try and help me learn LOVE2D better and it did! The idea of Ludum Dare is very effective and helped me more in them 2 days more than my whole time with the engine.

So that’s what I think of my game,and maybe if you haven’t checked it out yourself you can do a quick play now?

Play Here.

I’ve finally finished my game!

I’m quite proud as It’s my first game ever! let alone being a new language to learn.

Check the entry page out here

Or if you’re too lazy to click on a link, here are some screenshots: