…that the real Advancing Wall of Doom would be the 121 entries to attempt to rate and leave feedback on in 2 weeks!

As I was thinking about how to schedule this into the next two weeks I thought up some rough stats based on how past compo playing/rating has gone:

• You should play and rate 8.6 games per day of the two weeks if you want to hit the deadline.
• If you assume an  average handling time per game of 3 minutes you are looking at 6 hours of just getting the games to the point where you are playing them.
• If you assume an average playing time per game of 2 minutes you are looking at 4 hours of total play time to get through all the entries.
• Given the average handling and playing times above you could earmark about 45 minutes of LD time per day for two weeks to finish on time.

Phew.. well, I better get cracking.  I must admit I haven’t had much of a chance to play more than a few so far.  The rating and feedback is so important though.  I know I really appreciate the time people put into playing and leaving thoughts on my game so I try and do the same.

Great compo everyone!  I can’t wait to see what everyone created…

FLEEDOM FLIES - by HybridMind - April 17th-19th, 2009
Created from scratch for Ludum Dare 14’s 48hr game competition

Story:

An unstoppable armada of alien warships is approaching your doomed homeworld. Your only hope is to see how many of your race’s precious colony ships you can save! Flee through the armada for freedom, your fleet flies for it’s lives!

Controls:

• Use the arrow keys to move
• Use Z/A/Y to contract your fleet’s ship spacing
• Use X/S to expand your fleet’s ship spacing

How to Play:

The more expanded your fleet the larger your score multiplier!  Watch out though as this will make you more vulnerable sometimes.  To score high you will need to balance when you contract and expand with how you move through the alien armada.

• Also features Online Leaderboards for some friendly competition!

Tools used:

• Coded in ActionScript 3.0 using the Flash CS4 IDE and using Dr. Petter’s sfxr for sound effects.
• MochiAds Leadboard v3.0 API used
• Greensock TweenEngine Lib used

Got Feedback?

Leave a comment below or in the voting feedback area, or email me at dave [at] hybridmind.com

I’ll be working on this game some more so any thoughts or suggestions will be taken into consideration for the post-compo version!  Thanks for playing and I hope you have a good time with it!

Files:

PLAY THE FINAL VERSION HERE IN YOUR BROWSER!

NOTE: If it seems slow or laggy, Flash can sometimes have issues when you view it with your browser.  I recommend downloading one of the links below to play on your desktop for maximum performance!

WINDOWS EXE HERE

SWF FILE HERE (Right-Click Save-As)

SOURCE AND ASSETS HERE

Hey all.. I realized I had forgotten to post a lib I wanted to ask about using that is related to online high score ability in a flash game.  Would just want to know peoples thoughts about using it for this compo.. or other compos if deemed too late.

Link to mochi leaderboards api docs

Link to mochi api v3.0 (as2/as3)

Basically it’s just a 2 line call someone can drop into their flash project that enables online leaderboards via mochi.  You don’t have to use their ad network or anything but it would easily support the ability for people to see others scores in my game.

Anyway.. thoughts?  Too late for this time perhaps..? but what about future compos?  It isn’t really game code per se.. but it does give a game an advantage in that online leaderboards often lead to more competition with the score motivated players.

[ PLAY CURRENT BUILD IN BROWSER HERE ]

Well.. grabbed some sleep last night.  Just played my game this morning to see how I felt about it’s progress and direction.  Time to make the short list of goals that is so important in these compos to trying and pull off a playable and hopefully fun game in time.

I find a good trick to use is decide what makes the compo version versus what I’ll save for a post-compo version.  I’ve been pretty good about actually doing a post compo version lately that I’m not too worried that I’m using it as a fake crutch.  You can learn so much from a rapid prototype like this that it is still worth it to finish a reduced yet playable game for many reasons.

Anyway, knowing that some of my favorite features will likely still see the light of day makes me more willing to cut them for the compo version.

It is with that in mind that I am thinking about the following design decisions:

Compo Version Features:

1) One formation only of your fleet ships… the long and lean horizontal one.  This is because I am not sure if I’ll have time to code enough of what I want to justify the other formations right now.  I may have to focus on just making this a fun space avoider with the twist of having multiple lives / health built into the number of your fleet ships remaining as you fly along.  As long as 1 ship makes it you have been considered to win in that you’ve saved some of your race’s people.  The more ships you save the larger the score multiplier probably.

2) Probably not going to implement player ships fighting the enemy armada of doom.  I’m really trying to focus on not making this a shmup but rather sticking to the fact that these are light and nimble colony transport ships that are trying to get the hell away from their doomed planet / advancing wall of the enemy armada.

3) I think that since I have a simple but functional way to hand code in all the enemy ship placements and movement speeds I have the ability to build an exciting armada progression that will have some fun surprises and such along the way for the player to fly through.

4) I am worried that since these compos don’t afford much optimization time I may end up making a version that in order to look as cool as I want will likely suffer performance wise on slower computers.  I may have to go the route of a simple button to: “play high quality” and “play low quality” to turn down all the beam / particle effects I want to use.  I think that is a fine compo compromise.

Of the 16 hours remaining I fear I may have some domestic duties to attend to as well unfortunately… laundry and the ilk.

Oh well.. it’s crunch time here at LD so good luck everyone!

Play in yo browser here…

Yeah– I’m excited.. so far… OK.. the two largest ships fire these purple beam weapons.  The largest ship with the chance of firing 2 of them.. the second largest ship firing one.

I also have doubled the level length but that will change as well eventually.. I just wanted a larger amount of ships to fly through.

Also.. I made it so if your fleet touches any of the screen boundaries.. they asplode.  Ideally… this wouldn’t be the case.. but after fighting collision detection logic (it is complicated due to fleet coords/ tweening patterns etc..) there were so many ways to rig the system to get your ships to hide.. that I just made them asplode…

Anyway— Beam weapons give you a tiny bit of warning via visual clue.. think any robotech episode when they are firing the reflex weapon.. there is always that .35 of a second where you can get out of the colorful path before you are so many cinders.

So.. recap: running into screen boundaries.. capital ships.. or giant purple lasers will kill your little ships..

Let me know if the effects are killing anyones computers yet.. i’ve done 0 optimizations.. (hey.. its LD)

So, I have another playable build of my work in progress available.

Play it here in your favorite browser

It now has an enemy ship wave manager so I can build out the Wall of Doom(tm) that you must escape through to rescue the last of your race.

I also took a suggestion to map the fleet pattern echeleons to the Z/X/C/V keys.. four patterns in all.

Give it a whirl if you’d like as I’d love to hear any feedback.  I’m trying to get absolutely as much of the gameplay done before screwing around with any graphics this time.  I think it is actually progressing really well for once!

The game just ends right now when all the enemy ships go by.  Also.. if you lose all your ships you have to refresh your browser to continue!

I think I’ve just spent the last 3-4 hours completly rewriting my fleet movement/tweening code like 4 times and back again.. and have FINALLY solved my #$^$!@ engineering problem…. arg.

Need a break now… but the good news is I finally have smooth movement of the fleet in all directions and it doesn’t matter how many echeleon patterns you are shifting through…. it is all fine dandy.

Don’t ya love programming? 

Current build playable here in your browser

Working title is Fleedom. Wanted to handle what I felt would be one of the most challenging parts of my game design which was making a fleet of small ships that you could toggle through various flight patterns while moving.

Got a decent enough working version now.  Z/X toggles next/previous fleet pattern.  Arrow keys move.

Here is the background on my current game’s design

So.. finally got an idea I feel like running with on this theme:

First, the mockup!

(Click image to view larger)

Anyway.. the simple concept is you are controlling a fleet of the last ships of your race.  You are fleeing your planet as an alien armada of doom approaches.  You will be able to move your fleet up/down/left/right and there will also be a key that lets you toggle the density/pattern of your fleet.  Think of it as able to expand or contract.

You will move through the armada avoiding colliding with capital ships and what will surely be horrendous energy weapons fire as they attempt to anihilate your race.

You must get a least ONE of your ships through the armada to win.  The more ships you get through the larger your bonus at the end for saving a larger gene pool of your race…

Simple idea, hopefully the scope will be one of which I can get a fun, playable game out of before the deadline is up…

…sleep. Though before that I felt like doing a little drawing to get the subconscious primed on the theme before sleep.  Here’s a quick 3 minute sketch of a possible doomy world:

play it here…

Since there is some confusion.. this is an actual flash game I coded as a warm up in the 2 hours leading up to LD14 theme announcement.  It isn’t just a screenshot.. :)   When the game loads, click in the screen and use your keyboard to win!

just to let anyone who feels like warming up for the main compo with a little towlr action and who wasn’t hanging in IRC.. there is a little towlr precompo going on… you’ve been warned. 

and for those of you who have been spared from towlr so far… here is the link: http://www.towlr.com

so I put ludum dare in your ludum dare so you can dare while you ludum.

But seriously folks.. I’m glad this theme ending up in the final round is likely a glitch.. but a cruel glitch at that!

I am pretty sure I’m going to make a go of LD14 this weekend.  I will be voting in the theme rounds all week long and take a look Friday to see the theme that is picked.  I will make up my mind then for sure.  Why the hesitation?  Well, I have a lot of things I’m already working on game wise so I have to make sure working on ANOTHER game is the best use of my energy… ;)  I do love the LD compos though.. it’s what got me back into game programming again so it will always have a lot of pull on my heart.  It is just so much fun as many of you know to participate in this event.

As far as programming tech and libraries go I will be making a change for the first time in all my LD experience!  Previously I was rocking the Ruby language and using the excellent Gosu game dev library (which I still highly recommend!)

This time I’ll be using Flash / ActionScript 3.0.  I have spent the past couple months learning ActionScript (first used AS2 for one game) and then another game I did in AS3 to work on my knowledge in that.  Plus I’ve cranked through a couple really great books I picked up that I also highly recommend to anyone looking to make the leap.  Essential ActionScript 3.0 (O’Reilly), ActionScript 3.0 Animation (Keith Peters), and Flash CS4 Professional  (Katherine Ulrich). The Kongregate Shootorials were also a great place to start for AS2 and they have an AS3 version of the finished tutorial to learn from the code (it is well commented.)  I learn good from books so I had to grab a few to help out.  Anyway, I’ve been having a blast with Flash / ActionScript!

I’ve been very impressed by how quickly you can rough out a game prototype using the Flash authoring tool and some simple ActionScript classes.  I used to think that I’d be hard pressed to find as rapid a dev environment than what I was already using with Ruby / Gosu but all I can say is DAMN.. flash is fast. 

Plus, the added benefit of having both rapid playable cross platform versions for compo feedback as well as not worrying about the various builds after the compo and I think it builds a strong case as rapid prototyping tool geared for quick compos like this one.

Tool Set I want to use:

Flash / ActionScript 3.0

Libraries I want to use (if this seems ok par the rules?):

GreenSock’s tweening engine TweenMax / TweenLite

Looking forward to a great theme and a great compo everyone, take care!

This could only bring madness… or terror… or both!

Short Fuse + The Hairy Chestival.

I’m going for it!  This is rough mockup to get the idea down but basically instead of the old miner carrying the leaky powderkeg.. we have our miner taking up a different profession.  That’s right, he’s using the lawnmower (or is that chestmower?) from The Hairy Chestival.. only problem is that the lawnmower is leaking fuel like there’s no peak oil!  You have to mow down the dry grass (or is that… hair?) before the spark ignites your fuel mixture.  Oh yeah, for some reason the field is littered with explosive barrels that you can’t run into but that you have to destroy.  There will also be a fuel meter on the lawnmower that will run out I think as well (like the button to discard the powderkeg in Short Fuse.  I still have to work out exactly what the rewards are (do you really need one in a game so ludicrous?  ;)  ) and what the dangers are.  But, I have high hopes for this.. hehe.  I’ll be using Flash.  Either AS2 or AS3.. jury is still out for this mini-LD.

I love the theme of the mash up and am scouring the archive grid looking at old thumbnails.  I’m trying to find a concept that won’t be too ambitious at all.  The reason?  Because this weekend I will make some progress towards learning AS3 I hope.  I have my Essential ActionScript 3.0 book handy.  I have my Flash CS4 Professional book handy.  I have healthy snacks…  I have angry chihuahuas.. (well not really, but my wife and I are picking up a new puppy tomorrow!  Shiba Inu mix, not chihuahua I’m afraid.) 

I have already made 1 Flash AS2 game so far but know nothing about actually using the Flash tool for making animations and such things.  I also “know” AS2 in that sense that I’ve been programming in other languages a long time and can now brute force any kind of ugly code into working but I’m far from the land of knowing best practices so far!  I really want to push on past AS2 though.

I think it would be fun to find a mash-up game that will ideally not be too large in scope that will allow me to get to know the Flash authoring tool and AS3.  It does mean I have to make some more progress in the AS book.

Only time will tell what will happen.  Epic Fail?  We shall see! 

Well after an incredible amount of work I have finally released my first Flash / ActionScript 2.0 game! You can play it here if you’d like. I hope it is cool to post here because it is relevant in that the original game play idea came from my Cryptid Puzzle Challenge entry in the Mini-Ludum Dare #7 competition back at the beginning of the month.  I also wanted to really share it all with my buds here at Ludum Dare! 

TurnStyle is a unique visual and memory based puzzle game where each of the 15 puzzles are original illustrations that follow a complete story arc over the duration of the game.

Every puzzle is made up of individual pieces which have been randomly rotated so that they are scrambled each time. You must work quickly and efficiently to rotate the individual pieces into the proper alignment before the timer runs out.

There are easy, medium, and hard difficulty puzzles mainly guided by the amount of individual image pieces that make up each puzzle and the way that I break up the images into pieces.

Personal best records are stored locally for score and rotation count per puzzle. Global high scores may be submitted to the Mochi Leaderboards at any puzzle progress screen. You are able to retry a level if the time runs out.

I haven’t submitted it to any portals or whatnot yet so it is living at it’s mochi-ads home right now.  I’m using their encryption, version control platform, advert api, and leaderboards/facebook api.  Seems pretty easy to setup.

I will try to post more about my adventure in creating this game and learning Flash over at my personal site but for now this is finished!

here’s some screenshots of some fun creatures I created using hamburger’s Cryptidia entry:

First, the program asked me to create something huggable…

Next, it commanded I draw something “you could put a beard on” and that it also need “ripped abs” .. these suggestions are hilarious.

Well.. my devil walks upon a table, a stick and something that looks like 1/3rd of an utter.  I like his arms.. heh.

Anyway– I definitely enjoy these drawing type programs.. thanks hamburger!

Hey folks- finished my game:

• Windows build
• Mac build
• Source (linux build instructions in readme, requires Gosu available from RubyGems)

CONCEPT:

You’ve received 4 scrambled images of possible cryptids:

Use your Crypto-Computer ™ to unscramble them!

You have 1 minute to complete your task before the
evidence is lost forever.  You will receive a
30 second bonus for each cryptid you discover.

Each cryptid image is made up of 4 individual pieces.
Unscramble each cryptid by clicking on the numbered boxes
to rotate a distinct piece of the puzzle image.

* Left mouse button for clockwise rotation.
* Right mouse button for counter-clockwise rotation.

Enjoy!

Here is a current screenshot from my simple cryptozoology puzzle game.  It is coming along fairly well schedule wise.  I have 3 of 4 crpytid puzzles completed and just need to draw one more so that is good.  I still need sounds and maybe score a little game soundtrack for it too later.  Need a menu, perhaps highscores just for practice coding that and still searching for a title I like.

I’m glad that I finally picked a game scope that allowed me to have something playable early on and really gave me time for polish, tuning, and asset creation.  As this is my 4th LD (2 full, 2 mini) maybe I’m FINALLY learning something about scope.  ;)  If anything, I probably went too far on the side of simple but we shall see.

I decided to participate after all.  I think I began around 8pm EST.

A mysterious screenshot of my cryptozoology game.. ;)  Time to go to bed.

Here is the final mini-ld #6 version of Monorail for windows.

STORY:

You are the Hero trying to reach the head of a runaway train to get to the locomotive.  You start at the caboose and work your way along fighting off the bad guys who have taken the train over. You have to be careful not to fall off the train cars or get swept off the left side of the screen with a disconnecting train car.  Also, don’t get shot!  You can get hit 3 times before you die.

CONTROLS:

Use left/right/up arrow keys to move and jump, spacebar to shoot

Use Gamepad stick and button 1 to jump, button 2 to shoot.

BUGS / FEEDBACK:

I’d love to hear any bug reports or feedback as I’ll be developing this game for a while longer still.  I listen to all suggestions and do work on these projects long after the compo deadline.  I will likely post an updated version before too long that is post-compo.

THOUGHTS:

This was my 3rd attempt at the 48hr competition format.  I think I am fairly pleased with the results.  I love how these competitions really let you bootstrap a concept in a really short amount of time.  I spent 35hrs of the past 48hrs working on this game!  While some people might not ever get why anyone would want to ‘work’ so hard on their weekend– it is SO worth it! 

Well.. my working title is evolving a little from “Monochrome Train”.   Anyway, here is the update:

I have been working like mad during this miniLD#6.  I worked 12 hours on Friday, 17 hours yesterday, and now I have a little over 5hours left to at least wrap up the gameplay.  At this point I’m going into triage mode again like many LD format competitions force us.  In a last minute rabid attempt to cram and adjust all the critical features that will turn a project from a demo into a  game.  This being my third LD type event I have yet to feel that I’ve suceeded within the timeframe.  Not sure this time will be any different yet but at least a big difference is that this time I have been able to play my game a LOT more during creation.  Probably to the detriment of the timeline a little.  I guess that is a good sign though.  Anyway, 8am EST is almost here and that is when my crunch time begins.  I have made a critical todo list to accomplish during this time and we’ll see how it goes!

CRUNCH LIST:

• score file handling to support matrins compo requirements
• detecting most primitive form of ‘you win’ condition when reaching locomotive at head of train
• enemies - spawning, moving, fighting, dieing, dodging (of some type)
• simple player / enemy animations for the logic I have coded so far (right now there is no animation)
• simple event sounds
• tiny train like soundtrack loop (update: DONE @ 9am)
• how to page?  I am confused on this because due to the matrin framework requirement– I was planning on using his idea of the 400×400 image in his framework to provide how tos… but I also want people to be able to know how to play if they just download this level from the blog without the loading framework.. so there is the connundrum of sorts.
• animations for train wheels and locomotive parts and steam cloud

Current screen shot above and current windows build here.  Use arrow keys (left/right/up) to move or gamepad stick with button 1 to jump.

Seeya all on the other side!

If you look closely.. you see the hero of the monochrome train!

I have now added three train car types of various heights.  You can now fall off or in between cars and die.  The train cars detach from the train when they hit the left side of the screen.  The velocity of the car is transfered to the hero so he drifts with them correctly.  He can now jump between all the cars with the jump from lowest car to highest being possible but tricky.  The game is over if you fall off and die or if you get swept off to the left of the screen.   You are supposed to advance to the head of the train but there are no enemies yet or win condition.  Only death…. and that is not handled gracefully.. if you ‘die’ the game ends abruptly.

For the brave, here is the current windows build exe.

Use arrow keys to move left, right, and jump! ESC to quit.