So yeah, it’s done. Play it here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/sopajam/?action=preview&uid=5267

Remember: SOPA is no one’s friend!

The title says it all. Before starting my SOPA/PIPA protest game, I decided to release a new version of EpiCat.

Play it here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27464471/EpiCat/EpiCat-1.1.0.swf

It’s mostly art improvements, with some bug fixes, a new enemy, and gameplay balancing. Please let me know what you think!

Things still to do:

• Add music
• Add more enemies
• (Maybe) Add a better intro to tell the story

Well, I suppose I should do a postmortem! This will be short, don’t worry.

I made a space shooter. Yes, I know, it doesn’t really incorporate the theme too much, but the player is alone against all the alien ships…

The Good:

• It’s finished
• I’m really happy with most of the art
• It has sound effects
• The gameplay is pretty solid, in my opinion
• The game will keep going as long as you can

The Bad:

• It has no background music
• It could have used a little more polish
• Some artwork isn’t very good

The Ugly:

• Life got in the way of improving it
• I slept a little too much

If you haven’t played it yet, you can check it out here: Clicky

I’ve been improving the graphics a little, and will add background music and more enemy types soon. Thanks for reading this postmortem.

Well, I finished. EpiCat is submitted.

You can play it here, now with sounds (but no music)! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=5267

That’s right, no music. Maybe in the “Super Special Gold Platinum Diamond Plutonium Director’s Cut” edition

24 hours gone. Wow.

I managed to add collisions with the enemy ships themselves, and tweaked a few things since my last update post. No screenshot now, but many more more will come later.

I’ve gotten a lot farther since last night. The randomly appearing boss works, explosions work, I’ve tweaked a bunch of things, and had dinner!

MMMMMMMM. Check out that seafood.

More will come later. For now, I think I’ll take a quick break.

My game is officially known as “EpiCat”. Why is it official just now? Because I started the title screen!

So far so good. Before I get a couple hours of sleep, here is a new screenshot:

Good night and good luck everyone.

A cat in a spaceship. What more needs to be said?

Here it is:

And some food, sideways because my iPod camera does that. :p

Really, it did. It’s actually pretty close to playable, if you don’t mind losing even when you obviously won. I’ll try to finish it sometime, because I thought it had a great idea, but for now, I’m just thankful for the little bit of practice before the real compo.

I made an “I’m in!” video a couple weeks ago, but I figured with 6 days left, I should probably make a post as well.

• I’ll be using Flash, FlashPunk, and FlashDevelop for the actual coding.

(I will also use some of my own pre-made functions for FlashPunk: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27464471/JacicCommon.as

It’s really only one (working) function right now, which may or may not have been done previously in FP. Feel free to use it.)

• GIMP and Graphics Gale for the ‘art’.

• Possibly sfxr for the music/blips.

• And of course, caffeine for the energy!

I’ll also be doing the warmup. My idea is a game in which the player moves bits (1′s and 0′s) into order to form a byte of a specified value.

Good luck and have fun everyone!

I uploaded my “I’m in” video, and had to practically shout to be heard.

Anyway, I figured now would be a good time to start (continue?) improving my code base and getting set up.

38 days to go!

I just got back from a short trip to find…the 0h game jam starts (for most people it seems) in a few hours. Even though the US doesn’t have Daylight Savings until November 6th, I’ve decided to start tomorrow. Actually, early Monday morning. In any case, it will be just over 24 hours from now.

Sorry I couldn’t do it with the rest of you, but it’s late here and I have (important) stuff to do early tomorrow.

I wish everyone luck!

EDIT: Whatever. Since I’m feeling sick and since most other North Americans seem to be jamming on the 6th (when our clocks change), I’ve decided to wait until then as well.

I’ll see you then!

I thought I wouldn’t make it but I did. With 4 days to spare, no less.

Deface is a free game; my goal was/is to make the $1 from ad revenue.

Here is the submission page: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/october-challenge-2011/?action=preview&uid=5267

And here is a link directly to it’s home on Kongregate: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Jacic/deface

It’s been quite awhile since I posted an update, so here I am!

I have added backgrounds to the title and other screens:

The Title

No, that’s not a face in the center, although it does look like one. (It’s graffiti, so I can pretend I can draw well

Here is a picture of the gameplay:

Giving Liberty a 'stache

I’ve also added (basic, not quite finished) scoring, added help and credits text, and fixed a few things that I wasn’t happy with before.

Next up:

- Music

- Kongregate API

- Final tweaks/polish

For those who don’t know, I’m making a graffiti game called Deface. The goal is to spraypaint various buildings and monuments in an attempt at a highscore.

As you can see from the above picture, I have a (mostly finished) title screen. The menu completely works, and I’ve added all the colors of spraypaint that I want to have for now. The actual spraying of the paint even works, with three different nozzle sizes.

My next item of business will be to add images of buildings, etc to paint.

I’ve been thinking: Why did I decide to start a new game instead of improving on an old one? Why did I decide to make the new game in a language I rarely use, using a library I’ve never used before?

Answer: For the challenge! I decided to use FlashPunk, and put my game up on Kongregate to try to get the & through ad revenue.

I’ve got very little done, but here’s the basic idea: You will be presented with various building/landmarks/monuments, and will have a short amount of time to deface them with spraypaint. As of now, drawing works, and so does switching nozzle sizes of the can. That’s about it. :p

…almost nothing. I will be using FlashPunk for my game (yes, I decided to start a new one), and will try to get the $1 via Kongregate ads.

As for the game itself, I have a few pieces of an idea, and that’s it. I’ll post more when I’ve done more.

And I just said them. Here are some more words for you: I’m in.

I have no idea what I’ll be making, or for what platform, but I’m not going to let that stop me!

Right now I am thinking about making a flash game and getting the $1 via Kongregate ads, but I’m not sure how much it it possible to get like this. Does anyone else have experience with Kongregate and their ad revenue? I would be grateful for any pointers/tips.

Good luck and may the Source be with you!