I wanted to let all of my fellow LDers know about the turn-based strategy game for Windows Phone 7 that I developed recently, called Verterum. The game is designed to be easy to learn, but to have some interesting strategy too. Check it out, tell your friends! Here’s a screenshot of the game in action:

Simple interface, fun strategy

Developing the game with XNA and the other Windows Phone APIs was definitely a learning experience for me, as I had barely touched it before. Despite that, I’m happy to inform you that developing the game with XNA was very smooth. It’s geared very nicely toward getting started with some basic development, so it’s great for prototyping. Getting into more advanced graphics techniques gets a bit more complicated, but I can’t speak to that since I didn’t work with it much for this game. Overall, I had fun with it.

Also, if I have time, I might make something for the upcoming competition. I may have a few things going on over the weekend, but we’ll see. If I do, I’ll likely use my framework (OpenGL, SDL, C/C++), or possibly XNA. Go Ludum Dare!

My entry for Ludum Dare 19, Strange Lands, is complete! Here’s a hint: in the game, the land is strange.

I knew you would guess it. It’s a turn-based strategy game, but the twist is that the player has no idea where the enemy is, and is clueless about the layout of the landscape. That’s where the discovery comes in. The levels are automatically generated, and the player competes against an AI opponent.

Happy Ludum Dare everybody, I look forward to playing all the games!

I’ve made some more progress, but unfortunately I had to battle with a vicious bug that cost me a bit more of my precious time. Bugs aside, though, I have this pretty screenshot to show you:

My awesome game of discovery is coming along nicely, and completely secret per my usual Ludum Dare fashion. I’ll give terribly tantalizing hints soon, honest!

Also, uh oh, Spaghetti (not o’s). But for real, it was delicious.

Delicious and Nutritious!

So I came up with a somewhat interesting idea for my game, and I decided to go with that, since I’m already a little behind. First, here’s a little screenshot of what’s going on so far:

Something's going on here

Also, as promised, I’ve written one (albeit small) function with my LOLCODE C/C++ header. Behold:
VOID ShortestPaths WIF GameNode POINTY startNode DONE
HAI
NUMBR i R 0 K
IM IN YR LOOP
IZ i BIGRLIEK numNodes ORLY
YARLY
OKBYE
KTHX
nodes WHICH i OKAI PRT dist R -1 K
i UPD K
KTHX
startNode LOOK dist R 0 K
startNode LOOK parent R NULL K

RecursiveRelax WIF startNode KDONE
KTHXBYE

Of course, I couldn’t do all this without a hearty breakfast…

Well, back to work. Happy Ludum Dare 19!

I’m back for another crack at Ludum Dare! I’ll be using C/C++, SDL, OpenGL and my framework again, but this time, I’ll also be using this. I’ve decided I want to write at least one function in my code with LOLCODE. This should be good. I’ll let you know how it goes As far as applications go, I’ll be using MSVC++, GIMP, and Musagi, at least. Also…

LET’S GO GOOD THEMES, LET’S GO!

Happy Ludum Dare!

… sorta.

My game submission for Ludum Dare 18 is called Bouncing Bellyfloppers. The object of the game is to constantly and creatively rearrange trampolines to reflect bellyflopping obese guys back at the helicopters from whence they came. You know you want to play it. It looks a little like this:

One thing I learned during my development for this competition is that my own framework is rather limited. It’s pretty good for 2D games, but as soon as I considered doing something 3D, I found that it would take quite a bit of time to implement, and time is short. Hopefully I can implement some basic model loading and such before the next Ludum Dare rolls around. I was happy that I picked an idea that allowed plenty reasonable time to create, though.

It really took me a while to come up with an idea for a game that I thought was worth making. “Enemies as weapons” is not an ideal theme. Nonetheless, I’m making good progress now that I’ve decided on a reasonable and doable concept. It’s got it all… helicopters, belly flops, and trampolines. Wait, what?

Yes. All of those, and more. Maybe a visual aid would be helpful.

I’ll let you make of that what you will… for now. I will also make you all very hungry by showing you what I had for dinner in order to sustain myself during this quite difficult and daring among competitions!

Deeleeeecious.

You got many of your main food groups (sorta?), with such great foods as noodles, salad with Caesar salad dressing, and a delicious homemade garlic pesto on rolls. Just what I need to keep working on my project. Onward and upward!

“Enemies as weapons,” eh? Definitely not my first choice, but I think there’s some potential for creativity and fun there. I also anticipate a lot of very similar games, unfortunately, because there are a few very obvious game ideas in it, but we’ll see. I think I have my (relatively non-obvious) idea about nailed down. This should be good.

But I can’t start a Ludum Dare without proper nourishment!

You know it.

That dinner of champions awesomely consists of homemade P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef, Caesar salad, a yummy dinner roll, and delicious fruit punch soda. Now, to get to work. I’ve got a lot to do… By the way, I’m going to be using some base code from my previous LD attempts, which, to be fair, can be found here.

Vote Dreams!

Seriously, it’s right up there with the best themes I’ve ever seen proposed for Ludum Dare. Props to whoever came up with it. There’s quite a bit of room for interpretation and definitely a lot of potential for gameplay ideas and mechanics. The artistic freedom given here is also noteworthy. I haven’t really felt much reason to make a post about other themes I thought would be good, but this one really deserves it.

(more…)

Ludum Dare 18 is on its way, and if all goes well, I’ll be participating once again! I’ll likely be using my SDL, OpenGL, C/C++ framework like I normally do. Depending on what kind of idea I come up with, I may use my very own Canyon Terrain Editor beta 2, and (if I feel particularly adventurous) possibly my LOLCODE C++ Header. Now all I have to be concerned with is whether or not there will be a decent theme… vote wisely, my friends! Let’s make this a great one!

Huzzah! I’ve completed my real-time strategy game of sorts, and I just officially submitted it for the Ludum Dare 17 competition! The object of my game, Artillery Isles, is to destroy the enemy’s island encampments before he destroys yours. It’s a fast-paced strategy match of launching missiles at the enemy’s base or at his incoming rockets, redirecting rockets in flight, repairing buildings and expanding to new islands!

It’s better in action, but here’s how it looks:

Toward the end of a match. He's a goner.

Have fun, and good luck in the judging! I had a great time again this time around, and I look forward to trying out all the other island games for LD17!

Things are moving right along. More game functionality has been completed, as well as sound effects and some handy graphics enhancements. I hope to get things nicely polished up tomorrow, but I’m pretty happy with how I’ve progressed so far.

Dinner is a pretty important meal too. Ludum Dare is a pretty intense process, so I needed something hearty:

Mmm, good.

I’m liking some of the other entries I’ve been seeing too. They look promising, and I’m looking forward to trying them out. But for now, I’m going to get some sleep.

Oh no, looks like diplomatic efforts have failed. Not that there were any real efforts to begin with, because people seem to like blowing stuff up. I’m not sure what the deal is…

This should be good.

There is now a decent computer player to fight against, and the core functionality is working just fine. Coming right along.

After scrapping my original game idea, I’ve come up with something that’s a lot more feasible. I also think it will be a lot of fun to play, so that’s a plus. Progress has already been made, and here’s what have so far:

There be islands, my man! I have a pretty good idea of how I’m going to progress from here, so progress ought to remain steady for a while, which is a good thing. Now, onto food photos!

As we all know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day…

You know it!

Oops, spilled some juice!

Uh oh...

I made some progress on my submission last night, but it’s looking like I’m going to scrap that idea. I did get some reusable code out of it like a level loading function, though, so all is not lost. Here’s a little shot of what I had working:

Now I just got to get myself an idea that fits and is reasonable for me to get done in time… I’m leaning toward something grid or tile based. We’ll see.

I’m going to do my best to participate in Ludum Dare 17 this weekend. Many of the remaining themes look promising, and I think I’ll be able to make the time. Ludum Dare is always fun, and, though I’ve never been to TOJam, I’m thinking LD is superior… of course. Chances are good that I’ll be using C++, SDL, and OpenGL, as well as my little framework again, though there is a slight possibility that I may also use my LOLCODE header. That would be epic fun, and maybe a little bit scary.

I made it! I wasn’t sure I would be able to participate in this Ludum Dare, and I did have to cut my development time, but I’m pleased that I was able to make a realistic, scaled back project with the time I had. I give you: In The Field!

In The Field gives the player the challenge of finding the end point in a large level. The catch is, the player can’t see areas of the level until he has explored there. There are also randomly placed red fields of death that will destroy the player should he wander into too heavy a level of red. What you end up with is a maze that you can’t see, trying to get to a goal of unknown position. The levels are procedurally generated, so you can play as long as you want.

You can get the game (for Windows) here. Have fun!