It took a few tries in Motion to upload to YouTube properly, but without further ado, here’s my timelapse for the creation of The Travel Section, with a postmortem after the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhNemclQU7s

So, what went right:

• Sticking to UIKit was a great idea, as it let me visually design my interface and make sure it was going to come out right on the first try.
• SpriteSomething on iPad was super-useful for making pixel art.

And of course, what went wrong:

• I totally misused UIStoryboard in my first pass of the app. If I had done just a touch more reading before I started, I wouldn’t have lost five or so hours near the end of the compo.
• CoreAnimation isn’t for games. I had four or five hours to make my minigames near the end, and if I had stuck to basic NSTimer and manual animation at the start, I probably could have done three or four of them in the time it took me to do just one on the second try.

So, that was my Ludum Dare 22! It was a tough experience, taught me a lot, and was quite a bit of fun. Hope you enjoy the game, if you happen to put it on your iPhone/iPod!

Yes…! I had to stitch up a few unfinished things, but the app was completed and uploaded during Submission Hour.

If you have an iPhone, iPod touch, or can use the iPhone Simulator, give it a whirl:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=rate&uid=4720

The game can now be played all the way through, and either won or lost. All the character stats, money, and objectives are achievable. Here’s a screenshot of the “daily summary” that tracks your progress:

I’ve lost quite a bit of time to the creation of stat tables for the various activities one can do in my game. Since I’m using real world locations and MKMapView, hopefully my progress will speed up now that the tables are mostly implemented.

Spent some time making a nice, responsive character creator.


Next up is finishing the different sprites, then creating the mini games that our lone reporter will be dealing with!

11″ MacBook Air, first-gen iPad, fourth-gen iPod touch, and a Dell UltraSharp display. Timelapse is being recorded onto a Seagate USB drive.

Hello Ludum Dare, I’m in!

I’ve done game jams in the past, and watched the last miniLD with envy, so I’m going to see about taking part in LD #22.

Platform: iPhone.
Code: iPhone SDK, Objective-C.
Graphics: SpriteSomething (on iPad), Pixelmator. (SketchUp if I need 3D graphics.)
Audio: GarageBand (iPad/Mac), Audacity, sfxr.