I’ve got a solid concept, probably the fastest I’ve ever choosen an idea.  I’d would have been faster but I was messing with setting up a GitHub.com repository, which I have never done before: http://github.com/MrPhil/LD18

Concept Art for "Enemies as Weapons"

Sorry, my original submission had a start up bug that made it crash for everyone.  It was a quick fix and I’ve uploaded the corrected exe.  Try it now

I’ve submitted Island Airline I would have liked to get more game play in, but things took too long.  The good news, is my code base has grown, this is a solid start on a new game, and a lot of the work I did too today will help Iron Roads move forward too!

Island Airline Final

Quick chilli dinner before last sprint.. its going to be close!

Chili

As I head off to bed, I decided to finally revel what my project looks like.  I’m further along than I ever got with my last strategy game attempt, so this one might be playable before the deadline.

Island Airline Title Screen

Isand Ariline map screen

The API Reference for SDL.Net isn’t working.  I’ve googled like craZy and can’t find an alternate.  Anyone know where I can find an alternate?

With more speed!

Three people have already submit entries!  You better work faster!

I think I can call myself a veteran now as this will be my 5th Ludum Dare.  My best entry to date was LD12 Stacker by far.  My goal for LD17 is to surpass Stacker’s overall score of 2.3.

Tools:

• Visual Studio 2008
• SDL.Net
• My code from Stacker and a couple starter files: Program.cs and SplashScreen.cs
• Paint
• Ogmo Editor
• sfxr
• musagi
• Filezilla
• TortoiseSVN with Codesion (bending the rules there maybe?)
• Chronolapse this will be first for me
• Audacity, there’s always a first time
• My Desk

MrPhil's GameDev Station

• My motivator

I’m going to use .Net and SDL.Net and I’ve gotten the startup stuff written.  What boiler plate code would you recommend one create prior to the contest and publish as a library?

Ideas:

• Font system (bitmap or truetype)
• Level editor
• Code to read Ogmo Editor‘s project and level files
• Logging system
• Highscore system

Slowly an idea jelled for me.  It’s a sort of tactical battle game.  Here’s my concept drawing.  The only resource is time, as the better fighters take longer to generate.  The interesting part comes from the planning required because you have a build queue/factory of four guys, but can only place them in the order that they generate.  Naturally the strong guys take a lot longer to build.

I’ve ponding the constraints, but haven’t had that “I know” moment yet. At this point the input constraints seem the most limiting to me.

With 6.5 hours remaining I see no hope of finishing, much less ending up with a game that is fun.   Especially because I have a dinner party, so I can’t even use the full amount of time.  That’s my fault, I thought I could squeeze it in.  I’ll try to remember not to next time.  Maybe my idea was too big, but I also lost time because I was using a new technology (something I always do.)   So, I’m always building stuff from scratch and fighting with the tech’s esoteric unexpected differences (like HaXe switch statements not needing breaks, Uhggg.)  I was very happy with HaXe and think it is my new top choice for game making.  Now, I need to invest time building up a toolbox (toolkit) of code to use in the future.  I feel like I got further along than in past.  Even though my LD12 was an actual finished and fun game, I created way more functionality this time.  I think the planning and the hands-on prototype really help identify the tasks.  The hands-on prototype was a very interesting experience.  I am surprised by how hard it is to express a games rules.  I now desire a box full of game parts to play with in the future.  Not finishing is very unsatisfying,  but the silver lining is I learned a lot and that is really the whole point.

Thanks Ludum Dare! Special thanks to Mike Kasprzak (PoV)  Phil Hassey (philhassey)  Mike Hommel (Hamumu) and Seth Robinson (mrfun) for keeping the Ludum Dare gears running so smoothly.

Vegtable Korma for breakfast

I over slept and now I am doomed.