I’ve been busy trying to incorporate all of your excellent feedback into a more fun game. My game, Escape Velocity, features a ship that has to tango with realistic gravity (scale notwithstanding) in order to accomplish its missions.

My latest attempt, which I’m calling v1.2, has the following added features over the compo version:

• Multiple ships (extra lives)
• Menu screen & multiple (easier) difficulties
• Added direction indicator for delivery zone.
• Added out-of-fuel indicator and reminder that F5 resets.
• Narrowed the rectangle your ship can move in before the screen scrolls (so you can better see what’s ahead).
• Added animation to target zone.

Before I discovered Ludum Dare, I was a programmer and a game enthusiast. Even though games were why I started programming, I would hesitate to use the term game programmer for myself because I’d never finished any games. I would make a lot of tech demos and the like: programs I’d made just for myself but abandoned well before they had any purpose outside of my own amusement. I think on some level, I never really thought one person could finish anything really cool that others could enjoy. At least, not without having tons of experience, time, industry connections, etc.

To say that this experience has been inspirational would be a huge understatement. This has been super-mega-awesome-bordering-on-religious-awakening-great. Ludum Dare 21 has been my own personal right-of-passage. I embarked on a great journey, saw a vision of Princess Peach eating Toad and returned to my community as a Game Developer.

Of course, we’ll ignore for now that there’s not much to my game. I want to keep up this can-do attitude and keep pushing my game further forward. That means I’ll need more honest feedback and constructive criticism. So if you haven’t played my game, please hook a brother up. If you have, please see if you like it more. After all, you haven’t played this game yet . Naturally, the compo version is still there too, in all it’s ugly glory with all it’s original assets.

Escape Velocity is now on Linux-64! Many, many open-sourced thanks go to JohanAR!

I used SDL and FMOD, if anyone else out there is feeling port-venturous. Maybe somebody with OS/X?

…That didn’t come out right.

Anyways, everyone who plays my game on my pc likes it, everyone who doesn’t, doesn’t. Conclusion: there’s a bug causing framerate-dependence. I think I’ve fixed it and my game is WAY more responsive and hence fun, even on this pc .

So, if you hated Escape Velocity, or if you just feel like a generally good bloke or lady, check out my new-and-bugfixed-(I-hope-)Escape Velocity!!

I used the extended submission time (I started very late) and made jam my game much better!

• Resampled my song so there’s one simple download
• Fixed a HUGE white-whale of a bug that was a show-stopper and took me over an hour to track down – and now I don’t remember what it was :/. LOL.
• Added another level and made some fuel tweaks to make the game more accessible and fun
• Cleaned up distribution zip (all media is in media folder )
• Made a slighty less cynical and more rewarding win screen

This game is FUN! At least, in my forgiving eyes it is . I submitted it less than 2 minutes before the final-finalest deadline and I just finished beating that version. I’m brimming with pride!

I’ve really enjoyed this whole experience and I want to thank the awesome people who put in extra work behind the scenes to make LD happen!

There’s a time-lapse (with plenty of time-lapses ) on the way but if you haven’t yet,

GO PLAY [Jedi's] ESCAPE VELOCITY!

Well, I finished my first jam game (Escape Velocity). I’m pretty damn happy with it too! My goal was not to make things “simple stupid,” but stupid simple. It worked like a charm . It’s funny because the gameplay is by-far the most fun of anything I’ve made – all from trying not to work too hard. Weird, huh?

Anywho, there’s only two levels and no score but I’m already addicted to my little game. Then again, I’m very, very biased . I would’ve liked to take more time on the music, and at least have an indicator for your ship’s delivery destination.

I wanted to have a small map popup before each level so you wouldn’t die right away but c’est la vie. I also realize, just now, that extra lives would be a good idea :/. Funny how that slipped my mind *shrugs*.

Also, I haven’t actually beat it yet but I’m pretty sure it’s doable (I haven’t had much time). I do know that the first level is doable, even with less fuel than I give you.

Why are you reading this? PLAY MY GAME!

I got a very late start and I’ve had a very relaxed attitude to boot, so I don’t have NEAR the quality many of you guys churned out! I think it’s cool though. My only goal is to make a game that’s fun to play, no matter how crude it is otherwise. I figure: this is my first ld; I’ve got nobody to impress.

I wanted to post up my tiny little WIP because I’m happy with it and I think it’s fun to play . It’s 1 level. No sound. All programmer art. .

My game is called Escape Velocity (which I thought was perfect until I saw how many others have that name ) and here’s the plot ripped from my readme:

You work for the cheapest interstellar delivery company in the galaxy. Your boss gives you so little fuel for each trip, you’re lucky not to slam into a planet or be lost careening into deep space! You know each delivery could be your last but you have to pay the rent .

You have to use the gravity of stars and planets to slingshot your way to the delivery zone!

Download it here.

I’ve had to finish up some work – and in fact, still have some – but I really want to compete! I’ve started over 24 hrs late, not sure if I’ll be submitting for ld or just going for the jam.

I tried my hand at the last mini; I went down in flames. Mostly because of real life bs but I realize even if I had the whole weekend, my plans just weren’t simple enough.

This time around, it’s gonna be simple, simple, simple!  I’m using SDL and Visual Studio 2005.

My game is called Escape Velocity. And yes, I thought of the name before anything else .

You play the role of an interstellar delivery boy. However, the company you work for is so freaking cheap that you’re not even given enough fuel for a round trip! You’ll have to use the gravity of Stars and planets to slingshot your way through space – without crashing or flying off into the void. The faster you make your delivery and the less fuel you use, the better your score.

Escape Velocity WIP

My framework is coming along pretty well. I now have the very basic beginnings of enemies. I’m just using Ogre’s built-in stuff for now (and perhaps for the mini). I can spawn multiple ninjas and have them stand around, randomly going through their three idle animations. If the player moves within range of them, they start slowly stalking the player.

The stalking behavior is because the only translatable animations for the ninja are “stealth” and “walk” and “walk” seems to be very carefree.

So, I can spawn a group of ninjas and make them stalk the player. It’s kinda creepy to be stalked by a bunch of ninja – but in a good way . Next, I think I’ll make them attack. Then, I need to make them collide and be smarter – it looks trippy when they all bunch up.

So, there’s still not much but hey, you can run, jump and stuff can chase you!

Hello, strangers.

I’ve somehow stumbled across Ludum Dare and wonder how I’ve missed it for this long. I hope to participate in the next LD but I’ll definitely be giving the mini a go as I’m sure I’ll need the practice.

I’ve been inspired by the likes of Praetor and dock and since I love Ogre myself, I’m going to try to follow in their footsteps. I tried making a game in 6 hours to get a feel for the process – I actually managed to make something “playable,” though there was no concept of reward or punishment or even score.

Since I haven’t been in the compo before, I’ll be making a framework as I go. I’ll probably use:

• Ogre (and the examples framework)
• C++ (MSVC 2005)
• Bullet and btOgre
• An Ogre DotScene loader I got from the Ogre wiki
• FMOD or maybe openAL
• Blender 3d
• The Gimp

So far, I have a VERY simple, sloppy framework down. It’s not really meant for public compilation, there’s hard-coded paths and whatnot right now. Still, you can see it here. You can load a scene and run and jump around in it, FPS-style.

So, Is there anything cool about what I’m doing? I think so!

My thinking for this is that I need to mini-mini-minimize development time. Generally, it can take 60 seconds or more from the time I press ctrl-F5 to when I actually have everything loaded, physics initialized and can see results on my screen. I need to minimize that! To do this, I invented a methodology just for Ludum Dare that I’m calling, “Keep it running, stupid.”

Each component (player, Level, Enemy1, Enemy2, etc) gets its own project and is built as a .dll file. The main app, which is rarely rebuilt, is always running.

When I build a component, like my player .dll, I have a pre-link event that tells my main app to unload the .dll. I implement this as an AutoHotkey script. The .dll can serialize it’s data upon unloading, if I want. Then I have a post-build event to reload the .dll and bring my game in focus.

I only have this implemented with two .dll’s at the moment, Player and Scenery. Time will tell how much this actually helps me in the long run but for now, it’s VERY rewarding to make a change in code and be playing it two seconds after I press F7!