Yesterday was really slow, filled with headaches, tiredness and lack of inspiration. But at least I got a basic platformer engine running.

Today when I woke up I had an idea, hopefully I will have time to implement it. I’m using Pixelizer, a component based game framework for as3, which is a bit tricky as I have never used an entity system before. But I think the components can help a lot with the idea I have in mind.

A sprite for the player.

Woke up with a nasty headache, but after a nice walk and some breakfast it’s better. Hopefully I can manage to make an entry.

I’m going to try out the component based game framework Pixelizer by Johan Peitz.
For the graphics I will use Pyxel Edit (my pixel/tile graphics editor).
Sounds will be made using Sfxr/Bfxr.
If I have time for music it will be made in Ableton Live.

Pyxel Edit is a pixel art/tileset editor I put up an early version of before the last LD. It was rushed and pretty damn broken in many ways but people still seemed to find it useful.

All the positive feedback I got made me want to fix it so I decided to take the version down to do it right. I have been working on it since then, rewriting  a big part of the code base and adding a lot of features. There’s now also a site for the project at pyxeledit.com where you can download it.

It’s made in Adobe AIR so it runs on Win and Mac, not Linux, sorry. (I have been told it runs in WINE though)
There is also a captive runtime version at the site if you don’t want to install AIR.

I’d love to hear what you think, and if you have any suggestions for features or anything else (maybe I can add it before the next LD!).

http://pyxeledit.com

For completeness here is a post showing the finished game. In the end it became a mix of missile defence and an explorer platformer. I’m happy with the result!

Entry page: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=2311

I hope you like it.

Here is a playable of my game. I’m interested in any comments on how to make the gameplay better.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4785344/ludumdare/LD23/wip5/index.html (flash)

Got some music and sound in. Now I will work on the space command mode (!).

I do not know what I’m doing.

Don’t know really what will become of this, but here’s a screenshot.

I have released the current build of my pixel art tool PyxelEdit for use during Ludum Dare 23.

It has some special features that might come in handy for making pixel art and tiles.

Get it here:

http://danikgames.com/stuff/pyxeledit/

http://pyxeledit.com

A screenshot:

Here’s a video showing some of it’s features:

I accepted bach’s challenge and made a christmas version of my game. Enjoy!

You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSZJI-Q0t5Y

I didn’t get any immediate ideas, so I began by making the basis for a platformer with the theme in mind. Then it sort of evolved as I came up with things I thought would be cool to add.

The tools I used:

• Flashdevelop (IDE)
• Flashpunk (Game library)
• Photoshop
• Audition (sound editing)
• Cubase (music)
• Chronolapse (timelapse recording)

I decided early on to make it atmospherical, and I put a lot of focus on the effects, sounds, music and animation.

What went wrong:

My computer kept crashing throughout the weekend, I think it crashed 8 times in total, which was really annoying. Fortunately I didn’t loose much work.

I waited far too long to implement basic things like getting hurt, dieing and winning, which meant I had to rush that in in the last couple of hours. The basic gameplay challenge when fighting the ravens is not that hard or fun, I should have worked more on that, as well as added more kinds of enemies, and perhaps a boss. It would also make the game more fun if I added some sort of progression, like new abilities.

The story is intentionally vauge, but only because I didn’t have time to flesh it out. It might add to the mystery and mood, I’m not sure. I would really have liked to have time to add a proper ending.

If you miss one of the spheres, you have to go back and find it. I wanted to have some sort of checkpoint, where to pass you would need to complete the part of the game behind you, but I didn’t get around to it. This also means you can win the game in different places, which is maybe cool, but…

What went right:

I think the strongest part of the game is the atmosphere. The rain and lightning effects really add to the mood. I’m also happy with the graphics, and especially the animation, considering I haven’t done that much before. The music is simple but effective, I didn’t go crazy despite listening to it for 10 hours straight.

The player physics feel pretty good, although the attacking part can use some more work. I’m proud of the healing mechanic although it isn’t used to such a big extent.

The camera doesn’t follow the player all the time, instead it snaps to 32×24 tile screens. This was an experiment, and I think it turned out ok. Because the screens are predetermined, you have more control over the scenes the player will see, and can tailor each scene to look as best it can. Of course, it’s also a limitation, and can be irritating for the player when navigating small passages for example.

I made the level as one big png-image in photoshop, where each pixel corresponds to one 10×10 pix tile. This made it really easy to edit, and because it was one single big image, I could quickly see how the whole world looked together. In order to see where each screen in the game was positioned, I just filled the image with helper rectangles. It worked suprisingly well.
Here is the final world image scaled up a bit (Warning: SPOILERS!): world.png

The auto-tiling was a thing I threw together in a hackish manner, but it worked really well too, and supports additional tilesets easily given an offset to the base tile (solid tile).

Summary:

I’m happy with the result. The graphics are simple but effective, the atmosphere is good, sound and music works, the gameplay could be better but is ok, and it’s a completed game! I focused on stuff I usually don’t, and think I learned a whole lot. You can try it out here: PLAY!

Here is the entry page, go rate it.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=rate&uid=2311

Bonus:

Some concept art I made while trying to come up with an idea.

All that is left is content , and maybe climbing ability.

Click to play (flash): NOTE:Flashing lights, beware!

I have made lots of progress on my game, but I’m getting sleepy now. Must add enemies and a goal soon, and not obsess so much over small details. I’m really happy with the game so far though.

I added a rain effect, took far too long but I’m pretty happy with the result.

It’s starting to look a little better. I have finished animating the player, now I need to fix the tiling.

I slept far too late, and didn’t get any good ideas. But I settled for a platformer, and have tile loading and player physics working at least.

I’m using Flashpunk once again. I have had practically no time to prepare due to school, so I figured I’d settle with something familiar.

Timelapse video

Ludum Dare 21 – Coin Runner – Timelapse