In the exciting development of  ”Kitty vs the Pigeons” we now have a basic background and kitty can move left and right.

As the screenshows, I’d only just downloaded haxe, flashdevelop and chronolapse, and have lots of html5/haxe windows open so I can pick it up asap. Though basic it captures the feel I wanted.

Next drop I will provide a first ‘playable’, though likely will just be very badly playable.

Hmmm wasn’t what I was expecting, but I’m going to use minimalism as an excuse to go back to a simpler age of games, where the plots (as such as they were) were minimal and so were the controls but the fun factor was still fun.

So far the working title is “Kitty vs Evil Pigeons” and is a 2D scroller thingy-me-mob… haxe targeting javascript are the chosen tools, no frameworks etc. all created from scratch for that proper minimalist feel. Chronolapse is running and I have a red rectangle on the screen.

Let loose the dogs of Ludum Dare!

Timelapse

Higher quality timelapse: http://youtu.be/F5NzjTvu7YY

Weird res, due to sometimes on desktop + air device to an iPad and sometimes on a laptop RDP’ed into the desktop.

Man its seemed longer!

Another one bites the dust, i’m afraid…

Don’t use untried middleware, I added several peices of the engine recently which I’d never used in anger and its showed, simple AI tooks ages as the new interaction and systems I’d used which should have made it easier, didn’t due to lack of experience and now hit a similar issue with some effects to mark various spells.

Work out how to win/lose early… When I thought up the idea (you have to convert the villagers to worship you, so your not alone) I never really thought to hard on win/lose, the obvious “have another god competing” clearly would need a lot of AI which just wasn’t going to happen. I never quite found a substitute, I added a mechanic that your so hidous that if your followers see you, the laugh and stop following you but thats not enough.

Game design and implementation are a muscle, they need practise. All of us who have entered Ludum Dare are like Olympic athletes, you have to practice, exercise, lose sometime but dust off and go again.

This is my third time, and both this time and the last one I didn’t finish however I can feel I’m getting better at designing at speed to unknown ideas, but still I have to learn to design something I can finish in time.

NEXT TIME Ludum Dare NEXT TIME!

And one (unused action shot!)

Slimer on a stick of fire

Not much progress, as trying to get my AI to do what I want it too, has been erm challenging. Oddly its not the complex stuff, just doing anything, this is large part due to not knowing the AI system at all and it not working the way I expected it too. Still my AI needs are low, so hopefully I can get there.

More worryingly the block in AI, has meant I haven’t got to any influencing spells yets, which is the entire mechanic… ho hum…

Least this isn’t something like a Ludum Dare with only a dozen hours left, right!!

What?! It is?! *PANIC*

Giants

Some villagers to convince they should worship you, slightly harder when they are big enough to stamp on you and suish you!

But size doesn’t matter right?

P.S. And no villagers aren’t meant to have rocket lauchers…

Deano

More work on the map, added a village some roads and changed the sea/beach area. Also has the Gui WIP and a course a tentacle!

The map TBH is too big, too much walking towards your target, but its does invoke the feeling of lonliness, you feel far from the company of the villagers which fits the theme so I’ve decided to leave it in. Means the initial play impact might get some people to switch off before anything happens but a theme is a theme!

Last night I got stuck on a bug, whilst upgrading of my player functions which stopped the player from spawning. After much hours I gave up and slept, to be honest I would have gone to sleep earlier but was watching “To the Devil A Daughter” so keep poking at the bug whilst watching that.

After sleep, 10 minutes and the bug was obvious and easily fixed.

I also did some design scribbles last night, which even trying to be a pared down as possible still seems ALOT. But thats always the way I guess.

I wrote my intro text as well

“Once I ruled worlds, entire dimensions and all my subjects worshipped me as the god I am! But I have been entombed here under the ocean for eons, ALONE with no slaves or worshippers!
A god with out followers is a pitiful creature, barely even alive just like those humans I sometimes sense, if I had even a few worshippers may powers would return and I should subjugate the world and reclaim my rightful  place.
Some humans are living near my resting place, they are close enough that my powers just reach, I will make them bow down before me and I shall feed and become strong!”

I suspect some will think the theme link is tenous, but to me it fitted and popped quickly to mind. A lonely old one is a sad old one!

As no interesting pics due to the bug to go with this post, I shall give you a picture of this post, as a picture in this post…

Inception in you LD blog post

Tentacles in my game? Its more commen than you think!

Its a tentacle!, honest its meant to have a few friends but they are stumbingly not showing up to the party, so for now I’m going it alone and on to the main game mechanic, which is Followers, because an elder god, feels lonely without a few friendly sacrifices!

After a couple billion years in the deep sea, even an evil creature from another dimension will stoop to Facebook!

So I’ve knocked up a quick landscape for which some action to happen, not even great but throwing in some stock T3D/AFX textures and skys, bit of sculpting.

Most of the time was getting the sea portion right, the player starts inthe sea and progressing onto land.

Need to read up on T3D ground cover as I managed to do nothing with it for 5 minues + I need to go hunt from some stock textures and/or create some!

Think I might need to break out the art package (oh noes!) and get some tentacle goodness in there. 3DCoat I think should do that quite well. Though I might leave animation for another hour…

Deano

I decided to have a go, wasn’t sure originally as I have another thing I want to work on but decided a break to something completely different and small, should be fun and interesting and think I have an idea that fits the theme.

Engine: Torque3D 1.2 + AFX2 + GMK + GuideBot (All available from GarageGames.com)

Art Packages: LW 10.1 + 3DCoat + Daz3D 4 Pro + Photoshop Elements 6 + Paint.NET + iPad photoshop

IDE: Visual Studio 11 Preview + Torsion

Sounds: Not yet decided

Background Music : Spotify and currently Paul Hartnoll – The Ideal Condition

Timelapse : Chronolapse

Main worry is actually finishing something…

Let the fun/pain begin!

Deano

I’d like to be in, but not sure I will so I could be out.

Not sure which engine, might use Torque3D, or my own (either my C++ or Haxe one) if I go Jam or might just go from scratch.

So erm, possible the most rubbish I’m In blog post EVAR!.

Managed to get a simple cutscene text intro in before work started, but for now onto the day job. Will try and get a puzzle in after work and submit the smallest game EVAR! for the jam.

Pic of Dollface giving you some bad news!

Health decided that last night was mostly a bust

With work today, I’ve only got a few hours this morning and tonight, to get it finished and slightly worrying I’ve yet to actually get anything game like in there.

So not really good going :-/

However I’m actually fairly happy with what I’ve developed, so if nothing else it will come back for the next Ludum or mini or maybe just worked on regardless and I still hope to submit something even if just one puzzle room.

Skel and Dollface are both in now, so just to get Dollface to tell you whats going on and then implement the first puzzle game, its designed and tbh probably far too easy. But without much time to tune it, i’m just hoping to have at least something game-like.

At the very least, its very pretty for a few days work and tbh shows that even indie titles using cheap off the shelf art, can look pretty good even for the art-talentless like me

Skel as I call her, is now moving around the map, doing some A* and playing some directional anims.

The A* is pretty rough and boxy, and the anims states don’t have transition or loop etc. Oh and the Idle doesn’t play half the time its meant to but still it will do for now.

Onto Doll NPC to give you the basic overview and first up two missions, one a ground puzzle, the other is looking a little more action orientated

When I started this ludum dare, I choose to do the opposite my last entry, rather than a compo all from scratch pure gameplay entry. To do a entry with fairly high production values but a more known story driven gameplay for the Jam.

Warning contains a picture of a naked woman!! *Correction its a naked man, don’t you hate when you make that mistake :O*

(more…)

Few artifacts of the process I use to generate the art but looks pretty nice, its all actually tiles, autogenerated from a 3D scene.

Now to get some player animation frames and get some basic interaction going, then place my first NPC to explain whats going on.

Been getting some art ready (damn interchange format!), fiddling some basic materials and lighting, so figured I might as well use LW to make a title screen, as thats the key to any game!

As I’m jamming, i’ve spend the first hour since waking just thinking about the idea and setting up a project, checked the art path etc.

Lightwave 10.1 used with a script to cut a 3D model into tiles for the isometric renderer
Haxe and FlashDevelop the lingo and IDE
Existing frameworkd (closed source at the mo) being tested

Now to go from vague thoughts to a full idea and get into it proper.

2nd Dare, this time going for the Jam.

2 of us working on it, Debs and Deano. Both design, I’m code, she’s art.

Using own Haxe built 2D engine, that I’ve been working on, and a Ludum Dare is a great way to see if its ready.