Not done one of these in a while due to a lack of free time, energy, or inspiration with the chosen themes.

The top themes in the previous voting rounds are fertile ground for imagination, so I’m going to have a crack at it this time!

I’ll be using sfxr for sound effects (if I get that far), photoshop for graphics, and my own very basic HTML5/javascript/canvas boilerplate which can be found at http://github.com/edwardoka/html5gameboilerplate/

Good luck, everyone!

I intend to declare my intention to declare my intention to intend my declaration to take part in this most esteemed competition.

Not partaken of any daring ludology in ages, and haven’t completed one since my 3-hour abomination in LD12:The Tower (yes, that long ago)

I’ll be looking to do something in either PHP or Node.js for the serverside logic and Javascript/Canvas for the clientside logic, depending upon theme and ideas.

As I predicted, I didn’t complete this game. Instead of trying to shoehorn some crappy mechanics into the engine with a couple of hours to go, I instead made some shiny assets which have absolutely no use whatsoever.

Anyway, true to my word, I’ve uploaded the fail version of it.

http://ed.onlinewar.org/viking-pre-test/www/

To scroll the display , use the numpad keys, but don’t go up or left at first (it can’t handle scrolling off the edge of the map)

Only tested in Firefox – requires HTML5 canvas element.

I’ll finish it!

There is no chance in hell that I can make a game out of this in the next 3 hours. Shame, really.

I’ll still post whatever I’ve done at the deadline, but just don’t expect the “final” tag on that post.

I’ve got an awful lot to do, but I’m confident of having /something/ out the door before the deadline.

My todo list for today (in order of priority):

- Improve map paging

- Biome parser

- Entity definitions

- Implement efficient scrolling

- AI

- Interface (at the moment there isn’t one, beyond keyboard)

- Create own tileset (I’m using the stock Dwarf Fortress one just now)

- Resizeable canvas/curses UI

- Resource management (food, grog, plunder)

- Crew management

- Weather / Day-Night cycle

- Dynamic vector field for wind direction

- Lose condition

- Town/Battle mode (separate game mode from the main “high seas” game. more traditionally roguelike – may not make the cut, which would be a shame if ship-to-ship combat was just like trad roguelikes but with blue tiles)

- Procedurally generated content (maps, biomes, entities, markov chains for town and people names)

Here’s where I’ve gotten to so far with “Viking”. I’m actually really very surprised by the size of the map I’ve been able to shoehorn into this thing without it complaining too much.

I’ve used a 600×600 version of the heightmap on this post to populate the world data, there is also a JSON file that contains entity definitions and locations and another image map that maps cells to biomes, but those aren’t hooked into it yet, hence why there’s only the four types of tile at present. If I have enough time, the image maps and entity JSON will be fed in by a PHP script that will do the procedural generation.

Next stop, bed.

Both of which are pretty derivative, it must be said;

- Pirates Roguelike

- Tactical turn based variant of carrier command

As the former would be a client-side javascript game, and the latter as a proper web app, there’s a lot of divergence in the development process.

While I vacillate, have the sum total of my island-based efforts so far.

Since I have partaken in several Dares Ludum, but so far have 0nly completed one contest – LD12 – with a risible 3 hour effort, I have decided that this time I am going to take it seriously, devote an entire weekend to it, and not cop out because I couldn’t think of an idea/couldn’t get to grips with the dev environment.

My tools will be wit, planning, and several foxes’ worth of cunning.

My base code will be my as yet-unreleased javascript curses-style renderer.

My game will, more than likely, be some form of roguelike.

Less than 3 hours to go and still nothing resembling interactivity.

Wizard needs sleep!

Well done to everyone who has finished, and good luck to those working up to the deadline.

Ed

Apologies for filename, I would have included the image in the page but it’s over 1.5mb big.

http://ed.onlinewar.org/exploratorium/holyshit.png

No sign of a game, or interaction. But on the plus side I now have a Procedurally Generated Galaxy with 6.2 million stars in.

Shame they’re all the same. Bloody stars, can’t trust any of them.

Procedural galaxy generation gone bad:

While writing the Elite-style procedural planet/star system generator for my entry, I was messing around with random strings, trying to come up with a system that provided pronounceable planet/star names.

The algorithm which I have used is in fact the same one that was used in Elite and Frontier, and it occasionally spits out a real word, or happily the odd bit of profanity.

I was a little worried when it gave me “quitbed”, though. I think it’s beginning to become sentient.

http://ed.onlinewar.org/exploratorium/foulmouth.php

Probably won’t get this entry finished.
Here’s a look-and-feel mockup though.

I’m so sorry.

Yo!

I shall partake this time round. Lessons learned from previous attempts were crystal clear; I should stick to what I’m good at. Well, I’m a web developer by trade, so instead of futzing about incompetently with triangles, I shall instead endeavour to create a web game, if I can come up with an appropriate idea for the theme

Tools:

PHP, Javascript, Eclipse PDT, Apache, GD Library, An Image Editor which may begin with the letter P

Pre-existing custom-built libraries:

Simplified MVC framework for PHP, with a single entry point for normal requests, Ajax requests, and scheduled cron tasks. I’ll share the code once the Model portion is not an unreadable mess.

Javascript library for handling Ajax requests.

A few custom JS widgets:

- Debugging console

- Wrapper for Canvas functionality

- Various interface bits and bobs

If realtime multiplayer interaction is appropriate, I may incorporate a Javascript/Flash socket bridge as long-polling over Ajax is a painful misery.

Good luck, everyone

Brrr. Roads, not my ideal theme by a long way.

I wont be able to start working on it until much later today, thanks to the joys of crunchmode overtime.

My guess is that I’ll do a prototypical sim city dealie in PHP/JS.

Well this will be my second full LD. I have learned many lessons from LD12, and will be applying them;

First of all, familiarity.

- I will only use techniques and concepts that I am already familiar with, rather than trying to combine learning and the time pressure, which caused me to explode spectacularly last time when Flex and I didn’t get on well at all. So I have decided this time to opt for PHP and Javascript as my game platform. I have no pre-written libraries though, although if pressed for time I might use a couple of PEAR extensions and JQuery.

Second of all, simplicity.

- I will only make a game that can be feasibly completed within 24 hours, and will then use any time left over to hone and improve it. Last time I tried to make something hugely ambitious and failed miserably with very little time left, and was forced down the route of starting from scratch and cranking out an ass-nasty flash “game” with 2 hours left. This is not full of win.

Third of all, prioritisation.

- Sleep when tired, eat when hungry, drink when thirsty. If something interminable is defying my attempts to resolve it, I will go away and do something else while my brain processes it, rather than wasting 7 hours trying to fix it (yes, AS3 XML handling and Flex SDK debugger I’m looking at you.)

Finally, have fun.

- Last time I didn’t enjoy most of my time on LD because I spent so long stuck on the one problem (loading assets from xml files), which is not fun. By going down the route of PHP and JS (Both really fun languages to mess around with, and flexible enough to have workarounds for most problems), this should hopefully stop me getting helplessly stuck at the bottom of problems.

Good luck to everyone!

I’ve just slept about seven hours longer than I intended to, and have awoken with the beginnings of a migraine, so shan’t be finishing my entry any time near the time limit. I’ll still finish it though.

Update 1:

I decided to go for option 1, the ultra-simple 3d modeller.

The other options didn’t set my “ooh shiny!” reflex ablaze, although they are probably significantly more doable in the time frame.

In the same vein as Ludum Dare I have given it a Latin name – Carpe Lutum (Seize the Clay).

I have put all the woes I had with Flex in LD12 behind me – i had so much trouble because I was trying to treat it like normal Flash, and it will resist you every step of the way if you try that. Use it like an app platform and it purrs like a kitten.

Here is a screenshot of my interface as of hour 5:

As LD12 was my first entry and I started with no tools or pre-conceptions (and failed quite spectacularly!) I have several smaller ideas which I can play about with instead of aiming for one big one.

Ideas:

- Ultra-ultra simple 3D Modeller for very low-poly models

- Asset Management and loader (Graphics, sound, models)

- Maths libraries (I suck at maths though)

- Multiplayer server? (already written the main guts of this in PHP, just need to get it finished and working)

- Tile/map editor for my RetroRemakes entry.