Time for some thoughts. Check them out below the cut.

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H’okay, here’s the timelapse.

Music by me.

Also, if you tried (and failed) to run the newer Win32 version I uploaded this afternoon, I redid the changes with py2exe and it should all be working properly now. Linking with pygame.mixer.music turned out to be a matter of sending the correct options flag to py2exe. You can get it here.

Demonic Tower - Source and Win32 Binary - fixed!

I’ve made a bugfix release that fixes a fatal error. I’ll leave the previous versions up (see my last post), in case you want to see it as I submitted it, but everyone should play this version as there is a nasty crash that happens only when you pick up a certain card on a certain level. I also got the music to link correctly, and the package now works with the Compo Game Loader. No gameplay was impacted.

Enjoy!

New hotness:

Demonic Tower - Bugfix Release (Source and Win32 EXE)

Old and busted:

Demonic Tower - Source Package (.zip)
Demonic Tower - Windows Executable (No Music) (.zip)

This works fine in Linux, just run main-linux.py (or remove the SDL sound driver directive).

You’ll need PyGame and PGU to run it.

I couldn’t get the Windows exe to compile with music, so rather than fighting with it, I just took it out. Everything works fine when running the project itself, but when I compile the exe with py2exe, I get: AttributeError: ‘module’ object has no attribute ‘music’. The mp3 file is still in there (/jams/theme.mp3), so if you want to hear some horribly mastered, feel free to play it in Winamp while you play the game

Yes, I am aware that the connections to the theme are tenuous since The Tower is simply one card of 77 in the tarot, but I wanted to do something different. I was going to make it a plot point, but testing all the cards took a really long time…

Bugs: Enemies can’t move to the right edge of the screen (past row 10).
I’ve been able to have the same card in hand twice (The Empress).
Music doesn’t play in the Windows executable.

Go here for the bugfix release.

Only a few cards left to code now, and we also have this:

Here’s a bit of what I’ve been eating. The first dish, believe it or not, is Maruchan Ramen Noodles. I prepared them Thai style, stir-fried with chicken, cole-slaw mix, peanut butter and a chili-garlic sauce. It was my first try at this recipe and it was delicious.

The second dish is what I am eating right now: Chicken and Artichoke Casserole. Probably my favorite dinner right now, short of Paella. So delicious; and easy to make.

Both were prepared by me.

I’ve decided to call the game “Demonic Tower”.

A lot of progress has been made since last time, although it is not all evident. Enemies and combat have been added. The game is entirely playable although there is no animation, so it is somewhat boring to play as it is just a sequence of hitting OK and attacking, and you can’t really see the results of combat (other than watching imps dissapear after they’re dead). I’ve got all of the combat animations drawn and my next project is going to be health bars and combat animations.

I also recorded some sound effects and wrote a few little musical loops for the game.

What remains:

• Code rest of cards
• Combat/movement animations
• Targeting selection
• Sound
• Music
• Event dialogue/animations

Now it’s time to take a break to go cook some. Food pictures later.

Just a quick screenshot before I’m back to work.

A lot of the progress on the game isn’t visible, because the cards aren’t showing up on the screen. They are, however, being shuffled and dealt, and the programming for most of the Minor Arcana is done (those are the suit cards for those of you not familiar with the Tarot). A lot of the stat work is also done. No enemies yet.

Screeny:

Also, from what I understand, I am NOT allowed to scan in pictures of the Rider-Waite tarot, or use any public domain Tarot images, so I am probably going to either mspaint the card art or, if I get ambitious, break out oil paints.

More screenshots when I get cards showing up on the screen proper and playable.

Tonight has not been a good night for technical things; nevertheless, I am making good progress, even though my game idea is enormous.

I am making a strategy RPG based on the Tarot. What does that have to do with The Tower, you say? Well, it’s one of the Major Arcana, and it has a place in the plot I’m thinking of, if I end up getting that far. Game details below the cut.
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Name: destroysound
Language: Python
Libraries: PyGame, PGU, perhaps a physics engine if I am so inclined.

I will be webcamming the whole nasty affair for purposes of posterity. Below the cut we have my live feed.

Refresh for the latest.

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Well, I didn’t get to do some of the cool stuff I wanted to (no music, boss battles, or moving platforms), but here is my final submission. I’ll update this post with screenshots in a few minutes.

It has three levels, plus a trainer level. Cutscenes were written during a caffiene overdose late last night. Overall, it’s pretty fun. The last level was created to be insanely hard. If anyone beats it, let me know

Die Hurr - Python Source (requires PyGame and PGU)
Die Hurr - Win32 Executable

Edit: Okay, I beat it with three lives. It was taking me 5 or so. Still, it is pretty darn hard.

This is my first of hopefully many LD submissions, and I decided to take on the king of all action movies, Die Hard. I instantly thought of Contra (for the NES) for some reason, and I had planned on making this a vanishing-point psudeo-3d-in-2d style game (like the Contra base stages), but it’s turned into a vertical twitch scroller. Controls are mouse-and-keyboard; you control the crosshairs with the mouse, while moving with the arrow pad. Since I suck at spriting, the John McClane sprite bears some resemblence to the Contra characters as I redrew them.

The game will feature multiple stages with (hopefully) humorous cutscenes between each. The level files have a simple flat file format, so making custom levels would be possible. There is also a rudimentary particle engine.

Yes, there will be unicorns.

Back to the grind!