I’m in, and I will most likely be using Unity3d this time around, thanks to the excellent people at unity allowing ludum dare peeps access to unity pro I hope to do better than last time. Good luck everybody

I’m in for my 2nd Ludum Dare

I will again be using C# & XNA. MS Paint and photoshop for graphics and bfxr for sound effects.

I have started work on a small library for my games and for Ludum Dare entries, and I call it MageLib, you can download the source at http://downloads.paradoxbang.com/MageLib/MageLib_pre_22.rar but it doesn’t contain much, just stuff for setting up resolution and a render target for a resolution independent game. I may expand on it over the weekend.

Follow me on twitter @black_mage_andy

Good luck all

So my game, Vector Dash is done ! I kept a diary over the past few days of what I was working on. Along with the time lapse which can be found on my page, it might give some insight into what was going through my head.

1 day 21 hours 3 minutes left

I decided to go with an asteroids style game. You are trapped in an alien planet or ship or something and you have to navigate your way out
without touching the walls (or else you die). Also I will probably put in some things to shoot.

So far I have a small red triangle that moves vaguely asteroids ship like. Next up is the 2d camera system so my game isn’t confined to the screen.

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8017/55861069.png

1 day 19 hours left

The 2d camera system is implemented, the player is now constrained to a textured level. Level texture tiling is not in place. Will decide later whether I want to do this or not, i’m not too sure. I am going to try and catch some z’s now and think about how I am going to implement the basic level format.

1 day 11 hours 14 minutes left

Just woke up. About to start work on the maze that the player is trapped within. Must get the core gameplay done within the next 12-16 hours or i’m dead.

1 day 10 hours 4 minutes left

Got level tile mapping in place and loading a layout of tiles from a bitmap produced in paint. Now for collisions

1 day 4 hours 10 minutes left

Lots done since last entry. Achieved :-

+ Title screen
+ Restart after shipwreck
+ Multiple Levels
+ Game End Screen
+ Collisions
+ Basic shooting

Will begin work on other game elements now, like the enemys

22 hours 32 minutes left

More achieved in the last six hours

+Particles
+Explosions
+Enemys
+Graphic improvement
+Global diffuse color
+Sound effects

Still lots to do. The next task is to fix the most annoying bug. The dodgy player / wall collision.

18 hours 54 minutes left

+ COLLISION BUG FIXED (WAHEY !)
+ Improved Title screen
+ Player / Turret collisions

I’m going to bed, will be prepared for final stretch tomorrow

8 hours 9 minutes 30 seconds left

Lots of updates

+ Revamped level design
+ Added level text
+ Improved visuals on the death message and level ended
+ Eated dinner

4 hours left

ALL FINISHED

I have uploaded the game, and published my entry as well as put the various videos on youtube. LD 48 #21 has produced the needed pressure to kick my butt into gear and i’m very proud of the end product.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-21/?action=preview&uid=4933

My game is that you are an asteroids style ship, that is trapped in an alien spaceship thing that has to escape. Hopefully will have things to shoot and some nice retro particle effects.

So, I have had a good sleep and I have implemented quite a lot of stuff.

+ Seamless scrolling level

+ Level loading from a bitmap

+ Asteroid style movement + collision

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/7701/13917477.png

I am still in Just finalizing my tool chain now. I decided to post again because  I didn’t really tell anybody what tools I was planning to use, so here goes

Coding: Visual Studio 2010

Graphics Engine: XNA 4.0

Graphics: Inkscape, TileStudio, Pro Motion (Depends what type of art I want) Maybe a bit of 3ds max 2012

Sound: SFXR, BFXR and Mario Composer thing

Thats pretty much it as far as I know. No doubt I will be scouring the internet for freeware apps over the next 2 days to save me coding stuff.

I have fixed my coffee machine and I am ready for my LD debut.

Follow me on twitter @black_mage_andy and I am known as black_mage on the IRC

Everybody have a good LD21 from me.

You can get Visual Studio Pro from microsofts website spark program thing. You don’t have to be a student or anything and you can get a 3 year licence for it.

 http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/

Good luck chaps

Er, this is my first blog in like…ever I am in for this competition thingymajig. I am going to fix my coffee machine and stock up on dorito’s. Good luck everybody!