I decided to go the route of artsy experience rather than action packed thriller in “Platformer: An Exploration of Minimalism.”  After all, I am a better writer than I am a programmer.  Here’s to more entries than ever before!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=8522

Doesn’t look very minimalistic?  Don’t worry.  I’m getting to that.

I gotta admit… at first my heart sank.  I was thinking “thousands of people are doing minimalism… I wonder how many red squares I’m gonna be moving around a white background?”  But then I went and did some Google searches and found some really interesting things about minimalism as a lifestyle, rather than just an art movement.  I think I may be able to produce my greatest game yet.

Here’s a great read that may help some people get started doing some interesting things with a deceptively simple theme:  http://exilelifestyle.com/minimalism-explained/

Just one last post before we get rolling.  My usual computer is on the fritz, so I’ll be working on my old one, no biggie.  All the themes this time ’round are looking really great.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so confident in my ability to perform, regardless of which theme is voted in!  The enthusiasm I’m feeling now is on par with right before my first compo! Here’s to the best LD48 yet, and long live the theme!

In the previous event, my weekend was so busy that I didn’t have any time to make a game.  I guess that just means that I’ll have to put in twice as much effort as normal this time!  For this, my fifth event and fourth completion, I’m not changing anything up as far as resources go.

• Multimedia Fusion 2 – A highly underrated RAD program, perfect for this event.
• Audacity – My audio software of choice.
• Random stuff lying around my room – Items of choice for producing quality in-game sound.
• MS Paint – The software of choice for producing kindergarten-quality in-game artwork.
• Garage Band (maybe) – I’m working on a Macbook Pro that runs Windows, so I can use Mac OS X programs.
• Anything else that I think of before the event – I’ll probably get this out in another post.

As always, good luck to all competitors, particularly new ones, and long live the theme!

I started and even had an idea and everything, but my weekend was so busy that I had no time to work on it, even for the jam.  *Groan* it looks like “Super Evil Soviet Goat Commies vs. The Moon” will have to wait.

After consulting with my artist (who I am capable of interacting with only through text for tonight) we came up with the epic idea that… well if I told you now it would ruin the surprise.  But it involves space rockets, which are always fun.

Well, this is my 4th one in a row so I don’t wanna miss it, but I have a really busy weekend, so it would be kinda hard to fit it in.  I’m thinking of letting some friends help me out with the stuff, and not having to submit til Monday and being able to use sounds and graphics that I’ve already made would be helpful.  Resources are:

Multimedia Fusion 2, cause it’s super fast and easy to use.

Audacity, for making and editing new sound stuff.

Some old sounds and music that I’ve already made, because I’m pretty sure jam rules permit that.

Long live the theme!

Hm… I felt like my performance was stunted to some degree, in part due to stress with the LD weekend having been the last weekend before school started, and in part due to my crippling addiction to British sketch comedy.  As for the game itself, I’ve been more creative, but the programming actually worked out pretty close to the way I wanted it to.  Here’s the link, so you can see what I mean.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=8522

The Title Screen

PRIMORDIAL SMACKDOWN.

Just some gameplay.

Programmer art!  And lots more fun than it looks.

The upgrade screen. Why are you interested in this?

And this is the very morbid upgrade screen, in which you must choose which of your children don’t die.  Who ever said evolution was nice?

…but Primordial Smackdown is going great.  Almost done.   It isn’t my best work, but it should be alright.  Currently, you have to evolve between levels by selecting one of 3 offspring, each of which has a random combination of increased or decreased attack defense or vision.

… I thought it was a joke.  I mean, it was almost a running gag how evolution would never be the theme.But I’ll make the best of it with my new game… PRIMORDIAL SMACKDOWN.  It has RPG and RTS elements, and takes place in the primordial sea.  And the lines going through it is cause of my timelapse.  YUP ALWAYS PROFESSIONAL

So… the only preexisting library that I plan on using is my collection of sound effects and “music” that I made myself.  I think that there may be a couple that I downloaded, but I know for a fact that the’re public domain.  Good luck and long live the theme!

This is my third time around.  My second was an improvement over my first, so I’m hoping to keep that up, but I’ve hardly programmed at all since then.  I’ll try to post more frequently this time since I barely posted at all last time.  Here’s to another great LD48!

Oh, and I’m still using mmf2,  paint, etc.  I should do more custom music though…

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=8522

287th overall… yah that’s pretty bad but I was up against some FIERCE competition.  I’m satisfied with my own work.  I’m particularly proud of of the fact that the platforming engine came right out of my head on the spot, first 2 hours.  And I did WAY  better then last time.  As for things that went wrong… I had a downright humiliating screen falling off bug in the first version.  Something that should not have happened with my level of experience.  I also admit that the physics were broken.  Everyone did great, so I’ll see you in winter.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=8522

I’m confident that this is the easiest (but also probably the most polished) game that I’ve ever published.  It’s also really short so if you download it you’ll probably be able to get all the way through.  Enjoy!

Let’s see… it’s almost done.  The theme is expressed primarily through the story, although the actual game world is pretty small.  It’ll be easier then most of the games that I’ve made, but that’s not saying much.  Today is sound effects day so…

LET’S MAKE SOME NOISE!

With the  compo starting later tonieght I decided that my original I’m In post wasn’t good enough and so I would make another with an updated list of resources.

• Multimedia Fusion 2
• Microsoft Paint (Maybe)
• Audacity
• Garage Band (Big Maybe)
• My own (limited) artistic skill and scanner.

So that about does it.  I’ve learned alot about how to do the code and the creativity right this time, so I look forward to seeing hundreds (hopefully thousands) of entries, most of which will be better then mine.  It’s fantastic to see so many first timers.

I’m hoping that the theme will lend itself well to a multiplayer component, but then again all you need is some creativity to make it work.

Oh and I may use some prerecorded sounds, and my intro screen, but other then that everything will be original.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23-warmup/?action=preview&uid=8522

This was a pain.  I eventually decided to just scrap the 1 player vs. computer mode, because it was too problematic, but the AI code is still in there, just inaccessible.  I may reupload it with sound, but til then, I need a break.

So… I really just want to do this without making the rookie mistakes that I did last time.

I’m just using Multimedia Fusion 2 for code and graphics.

For music & sound I’m allowing myself garageband and audacity, seeing as how I have access to both MacOS and Windows.