I’m feeling pretty tired, so i’m not sure i’ll add much more. I’ll try though.

To be on the safe side here’s a pre final version. The gameplay is there, as are 8 stages of bombing goodnees and a editor.

The link for the pre-final version is http://www.georg-rottensteiner.de/files/Tower%20Collapse.zip. Anything else will be polish from now on.

Edit: Modified the zip file, this is now a newer version. Removed the final tag.

Second day. Today morning i decided to get the usual annoying stuff done like proper menu screen, editor and general GUI. With most of that finished i can go to add more stages and refine constants to squeeze at least a bit of fun out of it.

Here’s the probably final menu screen.

Looks like i’m not the only one with the problem:

I have a working prototype but the game is not inherently fun. Dang. It does make kinda fun blowing up the building though. So far you can set up the bombs and some protection and need to get a certain percentage of the Tower razed. Right now there’s not too much challenge in there. I’ll have to find something tomorrow (i hope to dream the solution up during the night).

I’m leaving the level design for tomorrow as well. At least i have half the menu system going, so the drag part is mostly done. This leaves lots of time for late bug inducing

And here we go with some demolishing action. You can switch from build mode to action mode and watch the whole building collapse. Or not.

Adding particles was a good idea, it makes it look quite nice pretty easily. And it’ll probably add for another game element: Try not to break too much from the nearby buildings.

I can’t work the full 48 hours (family time!) but i’ll try to get a half decent game finished though. Anyway it looks i’m at stage based design again. Looks like i’ll never get rid of that

Whoever’s idea it was to put the Save/Publish buttons on the right side has some weird ideas. Do not listen to him/her again.

Ok, i think i will enter. Tower is not one of the themes i voted for but whatever

Interestingly we had the same topic a while ago on the 3h Gamedev.Net compo.

This time i’m trying for a demolish-the-tower-with-as-little-as-possible-money-used. And probably some more stuff if i can get a decent damage routine going.

For now i’m still partially using some art from my LD#10 entry, but they’ll be replaced eventually. The goal is to get a working prototype as soon as possible.

Now before everyone’s going into hibernation again here’s a small Post Mortem for Chain Reaction.

First i was not sure i was actually going to enter. I’ve partitiated in a few Ludum Dare’s before, but usually only when i could really use the full time. This year round that was not the case. I didn’t even reserve some extra timeout from the family.

Still, once the theme was up i couldn’t help it. I strived for a rather simple game (simple as in simple to make) since any greater planning would go down the drain anyway. I’m rather glad how it worked out. My entry is not particularely innovative but things fell into place pretty nicely.

What went right:

• Having the general gameplay up and running as the first step

This is actually the most important part for these kind of competitions. If you have a flaw in your gameplay design you still have time to refine it. It’s no use having nice technical gimmicks all around when the gameplay is crap.

• A working editor

If a game is level based it’s one of the rather convenient things to have. Sure, with the given time nothing stops you to hardcode level data or even store it in some text file. Once you have an editor you can churn out levels at an alarming rate. And it’s a nice polish plus for the final version.

•  Sound effect (thanks to DrPetters awesome tool)

Usually one of my bad points. It’s easy to use a microphone and grunt/hiss/snarl some stuff but it also sounds exactly that way. DrPetters tool is a most awesome help as you can experiment and modify in just a few clicks.

What went wrong:

• Innovation? We don’t need to stinkin’ innovation!

Not thinking too much about what to do i was glancing over the first shots of the other competitors. Lerc’s shot looked very nice and i thought about these circles being bombs. I’m glad that the gameplay came out very different though.

As usual after a bit of playtesting i happened upon one crash bug. Yelp.

Fixed the bug and added yet another level. So it’s 15 now.

The new version is uploaded; i’ll remove the final tag from the older entry.

Click here to get it.

 Tools used:

• DrPetters über-awesome sfxr tool
• my own crappy paint app
• Visual Studio 2003

So this looks like my final game. My wife’s got that look so i doubt i’ll work on it anymore

Link removed. The final can be found in my latest blog entry.

It’s not the most innovative but it has been fun. It sports 14 levels, sounds due to DrPetters awesome sound effect tool and ugly pixel art by myself truly.

Position bombs and use the chain reaction of exploding bombs to fulfill your goals:

Either bomb open all diamond devices or push all target balls (with an X) onto any goal area (or both).

Do not forget, that you can go back and reposition bombs for another attempt. And another. And another.

An editor is included, which lets you build your own nasty contraptions.

There source comes with a Visual Studio 2003 solution file. It’s not the cleanest code, esp. the resource loading is an ugly hack.

The game itself requires any Windows since Windows 95, DirectX 8.1 and shouldn’t need any other DLLs beside the one i included.

You want a screenshot? Ok:

Woke up this morning after some nice sleep.

I added the solve code, menu screens, tuned up the editor and level names. It’s always nice to have that simple stuff out of the way in the middle, since in the end you always need to tune things a bit. The simple stuff usually takes quite some time, so don’t leave it for the last minutes!

I see that my game is not that chain reactionary, but it’s playable and i can spend most of the day coming up with levels and maybe some new elements.

Nice stuff is coming up from you guys (and gals). Hope to see a lot of finished entries!

Yawwwwwwn…

Started to add sounds, DrPetter needs to auto-win this competition singlehandedly for his awesome sound effect tool. I can’t thank you enough for this one.

Now beside chain-exploding bombs there’s also an objective of the form “bomb-the-ball-into-the-goal”.

Innovation, where hast thou gone to?

Still, i’m happy with my programmer art and it’ll look like i can deliver an albeit simple but finished entry. Yay!

Sleepy good nighty night.

This is it probably for today, i’m going to a restaurant with wife and kid, empty their buffet and then waltz to bed

Anyway, there is sort of a chain reaction going on, i decided to add another element, so you get a real goal. Any gameplay fun seems to be decided by level design. Again. Dang!

At least i’ve put an editor inside

Looks like i can actually get something done. I won’t be able to use anything near to 48h so i aim for something simple.

Some of the game tech is already working so i can think up some nasty contraptions to stop the player. The basic goal looks like you need to get all diamonds. But before you can pick them you need to bomb their cover off. You can place non-timed bombs which need to be activated by the editor placed time bombs.

The story: What story? It’s bombs, it’s chain reactions, and it has shiny things. There is no story.

I’m yet to decide if i’ll enter.  If a good idea hits me in the next hour i’ll probably do.

Somehow i see bombs. Ticky Ticky time bombs.

Now that i pixelled up some items i think i do have to enter….

Yes, i am aware, it looks a lot like Lercs. And it inspired me to this. I hope that’s ok and it looks we’re going different directions anyway.

Your name is not of importance. Your mission is simple:
Top secret data has been separated and hidden in several countries. Break into the buildings and retrieve the secret data. The data is usually kept in a green cabinet. You must not be detected. Go inside unseen and find the cabinet. Once a guard sees something suspicious like a light which doesn’t belong or hears a sound he will start the alarm. Once the alarm is on you cannot escape. We will have to deny any knowledge.
As usual for those competitions the complete source code comes with the game.

This game is a little real time strategy game. A body has been attacked by viruses. It’s on you to fight back the intruder. Only armed with an antidote you have to revert ill cells and defeat attacking viruses. Simple graphic and funny sounds helped the game to get rank 24 out of 66.

Oh no! All your pocket money fell down the sewer! What now?

Just flip out your favourite magnet, tie it on a yarn and try to retrieve all your coins. The coins are attracted by the magnet. Wouldn’t it be easy to have common sewers like everybody else…

Can you retrieve all your money?
One rule of the contest is to give away the sourcecode. It’s inside the .zip with the binaries.

Duh, forgot the link:Click me!

This is my final release for the LD Test 2000 compo, the topic this time: C64