Ok, here is my current state:

The game is actually quite simple! On the left side you see the elements you should click on the screen. And since the time is running, do it as fast as possible.
Sounds simple and it is. I start with static elements. On the screenshot the elements rotate. I will make it more and more difficult. More Elements and different distractions.

That sould be “minimalistic” enough to fit the theme…. I will try to add some sort of server that will keep the scores. Hope to get that far, but I’m optimistic….

Later I will try to release the game on android and blackberry as well, as it makes more fun with a touch-device than using the mouse. At the moment I have some serious performance issues on android (argh)…but that will need to wait until the jam is finished.

Ahja, forgot to say: I’m in!

Well, even though I tried, I couldn’t resist to start creating something for the current MiniLD. Actually I started already on saturday in an on-off-manner since I didn’t had that much time this weekend (and also had to cripple my hands playing the marvelous SuperMeatboy ).

I’m creating a kind of Art-Game with adventure-elements about a topic that annoys me for quite a time (It has something to do with software. Good hint, right? ). I hope to be ready asap. Here some shots how it looks so far.:

This is the good guy, who is controlled by the player with his speech-bubble visible):

The bad guy:

The Judge:

Stay tuned…

Oh my, just out of curiosity if one or two games are already submitted I couldn’t believe to see 53(!) games!?!

Crazy people…. Ok, if you know you won’t have time today!? Hmm, seems that there are people that won’t neglect real live for LD? What is wrong with you

Ok, what I got so far?

• game-framework
• start levels! Woooohoo
• Every level gives dynamic options! Wohooo

Wow, that’s it? lol! From the beginning it was clear that I want to go for the Jam to have a bit more time…let’s see if the gameplay how I thought will work out…

Here a screenshot. Very chaotic of course:

Actually it is like every time, a month before LD I think I won’t participate because I have another project running and the history shows that doing a LD inbetween is most likely the death for the current project….

Ach, to make a long story short:”I’m in using gamekit/runtime using lua for multiplatform-dev win/lin/osx/android. All done in blender…”

Go “Chain Reaction” Go!

Again I realized how good it can be to just let LD be LD and go outside for a walk.

I planned the next steps and what I want to achieve for today.  What I got so far:

• blender setup for moddeling my world with texture-nodes for texture-splatting
• basic-script for linking process and defining different processes. Like do animation 1, then wait, then animation 2, and begin again…
• basic house (which will for sure stay like this)
• ground mesh for an character with rigging

You can see my basic-character sitting lazy on the mushroom-house while I’m trying to work….nenene

What I want to achieve till the end of this day:

• basic-animations: idle, walk, run
• basic-game-control: click to a point, walk there, click to an object, fire event or such…
• when I’m getting tired (actually I am already): create the characters: a guy, a girl and a bad guy
• start with doing some music-stuff with lmms

As I already said, I’m not sure if I can finish for the compo, but really want to finish at least for the jam….

Ok, here a first screenshot. I decided to create a little point&click-adventure. Actually not 100% sure about the controlls(EDIT: Maybe point&click!? ). The adventure will be set in a “tiny world” that consists of two houses a mountain, a waterfall, a river and two people I have first ideas about the story.

Even though I will give my best  I’m not sure if it will be possible to finish for the compo. Nevertheless I hope for a finished game at least for the jam.

By now I got some basic scripts done (yesterday) and made today my blender-setup creating the ground with texture-splatting, the first (mushroom)-house and a (not yet textured) bridge…

But now I take a “Bundesliga”-Football-Watching-Break

Finally I finished my Warmup-Game “Incredible Wizard Worms” – It is about two little guys that have to transport crates from the lowest to the uppest platform. Why wizards? Cause they use particles, wooooohoooooo *lol* Honestly no rocket-science,…

This Warmup was very important, I struggled at very basic things but solved most of it. I  put most of the elements in the game I might use upcoming LD and therefore feel well prepared!

So yes, I’m in. I will try to finish in 48h but won’t have a problem to go for the jam if I struggled somewhere. I’m using gamekit, blender,gimp and lmms. This is my gamekit-codebase I will base my LD-Entry on.

I can just encourage (as Grungi Ankhfire before) the unity people: Please release Windows-Standalone-Versions as well, so Linux-People can play their games using wine (at least try to).

Hola, just wanted to show you our result of the global game jam (cologne) to the theme ‘extinction’.

The game is called ‘Cure’ and your task is to kill viruses and bacteria inside your body. We used Unity3d to create this 2D game. Have a look and very much fun at the upcoming miniLD.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/SteveSDT/cure

Ok, I won’t finish! I’m quite satisfied with what I got so far. I have regions in that you die like fire/water, etc. After death you are respawned at the last savepoint. There are different regions your spring jumps different (red=higher). I implemented a mobile phone joystick that I’m quite happy with. I think I will finish a demo tomorrow and put it in a folder marked with “nice try”!

Here what I got:

Ok, actually I’m quite statisfied. Got my engine and blender->libgdx/box2d level/editor/pipeline running. Tomorrow I can concentrate on some gameplay elements. Everything is a bit slow! Have to think how to get this faster… Have a look in the video:

or if you want to you can try it on your android-phone (2.2). Here is the apk:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11752001/1871-TheBigFire.apk

Adios and cu tomorrow

Ok, here we go! My first post for miniLD#23! I choose the year 1871 and the game is about the great fire of chicago. You are (or let’s say will) control the Springman, the only guy who is able to jump over fire spots with springs under  your feet. Your task will be to save people somehow. Actually I didn’t think that far. When everything works I will create an android game out of this. At the moment you can just jump through a little level using box2d. Have a look

1871 – The Big Fire

After staying 2 weeks at home I finally came back to my office. And what was awaiting me? An XMas-Gift by Philhassey himselfs.

So, what was in the Box? A bottle of maple syrup, 5 packages ‘microwave pork rinds’ and a photo of himself and the cool goat that pulled his coach in the ld#17(?) keynote.

I’m quite curious about the microwave pork rind….

Thx a lot!!!

PS: Hope there will be an secret santa next year again! It was fun! Thx for organizing!

EDIT: I finnaly ate some Pork Rinds and I have to say it is really good! Wouldn’t have expected that way! ;D

Ok, finally I released the timelapse video for 2011 – Last Ride of the Discovery. I used windows video maker after trying lightworks which I could not make to load my videos!? So no cool overlays Maybe next time!

Here is the timelapse and don’t forget to have a look at the game itselfs.

Merry XMas everyone!!

PS: 248 Games is really lots of work! I’m voting like crazy and only got about 40 games (yet)! Ok still some time left!

After regaining some energy after that cool but exhausting weekend I finally realized that quite a lot of people don’t read the text of the tutorial and therefore don’t get all options how to play the level. We all have to vote for about 250 games so there is no time for a tutorial….and to be honest I would skip it as well! Nevertheless that prevents people from knowing that you can change planet- and orbit-size as well which is actually the most important part…

To make it a bit clearer I just made my very first screencast… ;D so have a look

How to survive Level 2

I was excited as always to participate in LD. After 2 years java I switched to Unity3d. But that didn’t prevent me from making the same mistakes as every time. I had an idea and started directly coding. Hey, it’s only 48h. No time to think ;D

As soon as I heard ‘Discovery‘ as theme I had the spaceship in mind. Spaceship -> Planets -> Gravity -> Resources . So that should be the four main points for my game. I wasn’t so sure how to handle. At first I wanted to let the player control the ship all the time but somehow that was no real fun and I couldn’t find a good setup. After 8h work I realized the ‘Keep it simple‘-Rule (that I seem to ignore quite often) so I decided to restart the project! So that you have only different parameters to setup like direction and speed of the ship and fields of gravity of the planets. That worked quite well, although you have to try and error at the beginning after a time you get a feeling on how to change the setup to control the ship. The one major problem is that simulation is much too slow. You see the result of your change much too late! I realized the problem but had no time to make a 1:1-simulator that fit. Too bad.

Nevertheless if you see what I have done in the last two years this is by far my most game like LD-Submission. So what are the next steps?

- Create a Timelapse

- Show a quick time simulation. Somehow this would make the other slow simulation senseless ;D But who cares. So I will include the ‘Evolution’-Theme (beside the ‘Discovery’ and ‘Title includes a Year’) to mutate my game until it is even better.

- Online Highscore

- Level-Editor

- Make it clearer what the goal is! As I showed the game two different people and noone took the time to read the shitty tutorial ;D I think that is common (I wouldn’t do it neither ;D )

Actually I don’t have too much time to make something for the jam! Hmm,…I have 4h! Let’s see if I can do something.

BTW: Here is the link! Play it

Actually I made the whole gameplay a bit more stable and now I will start with designing some levels. It will be for sure not so easy to explain the whole gameplay as somehow the game turns out to be not that easy. I think a playable tutorial would be best…Here a screenshot with new models and background. (That are small discovery-shuttles inside that particles..hardly to see (at the moment)  )

Just for the end of day 1 I made some sample assets. So here is my version of Discovery and a planet and first time ever: I made background-music

Ok, that’s it for day1. As summary it started as usual! 8h works -> restart -> …and then more concentrated works. Now let’s see how far I come. Mabye takeing the jam-option!? Cu tomorrow

It’s 3. Februar 2011 the discovery starts its last mission STS-133 . Commander Steven Lindsey see earth vanishing with discovery heading for its last ride in the universe…..

blablablabla Something happens => Wormhole => Millions of Light Years away, didn’t think too much about that (as I won’T have time for a story). You need to search all planets of the current solar system in order to get enough resources to jump to the next one. You can do following in order to control discovery’s path.

1) Starting direction (with an aiming utility (can’t be seen on the screenshot))

2) Start Speed

(actually that were the basic ones, followed by more advanced techniques in upcoming levels)

3) In(de)crease sphere of influence (the closer you are to the center of the planet the higher is the influence)

4) In(de)crease the size of the planet (a very new technique of relative scaling makes this possible )

Now, I make a break with coding and start with some asset-stuff before I go to bed.

Ok here’s a screen shot.

So, just to be complete, here my computer setup(yes, I know too much front light ;D ):

And since I’m quite excited about the upcoming LD I made a simple wallpaper for my desktop. If anyone interested:

1920×1200:

1680×1050

Still, 6:40h to go…