Okay, I’m getting pretty deep into that Sunday-oh-crap-this-isn’t-really-a-game-yet-and-why-am-I-working-on-a-story-instead-of-code-ARRGGH point just now.

Having said that, feeling pretty pleased with this:

So things are going a lot better than they were before. Been managing some pretty solid work towards… something. Not entirely sure what it’s going to end up being like if I’m honest, but it’s starting to become fun to mess around in at least.

See latest build here http://jonathanwhiting.com/ld/25/build04.swf

All sorts of other (mostly exciting) bits of life have been getting in the way of my concentration a bit today. Feeling a little more sleepy/distracted than I’d really like to be.

Anyway, have been making some progress regardless. Check out this WIP build

So, woke up at 5am this morning, anxious to see what the theme was (I don’t recall getting this excited about Christmas); and it’s.. well it’s an interesting one. Looking forward to seeing what people do with it.

I have an idea that seems alright, but might be challenging in the deadline. It does at very least mean more AI work than I’m usually comfortable committing to in a single weekend.

Getting the ball rolling with some art though, not unhappy with what I have so far:

Spritesheet in progress.

Hello guys and girls. I missed the last LD, so I’m super excited that I get to be a part of this one. Had a bit of a case of the lurgy today, but thankfully it appears to be largely gone tonight.

Apparently this will by 8th time, been doing this a while, but it doesn’t get much easier.

My tools:

Language: as3
Framework: My hand-rolled basecode. It’s not big, or especially clever, but I like it.
Graphics: GIMP
Music: FL Studio
Sound: as3sfxr

Best of luck everyone, have a blast!

Well, I don’t seem to have been good about blogging as usual this LD. I have been getting stuck into my game though; just about to start my second day, yesterday went great!

I’m making a game where the entire world is just 9×9 tiles, but it everything shifts underneath you. It makes more sense when you see it happening (early build). It’s perhaps a little zelda like, with monsters, puzzles, and even bosses.

Looking forward to jumping back in. Have a good day y’all!

Yet another IN post..

This will be my, what, 7th Ludum Dare; so I guess I’m a bit of a veteran.

Well, I’ll be using:

Language: as3
Framework: Probably my hand-rolled basecode, but maybe Pixelizer or FlashPunk
Graphics: GIMP and Pyxel Edit
Music: FL Studio
Sound: as3sfxr and Audacity

I aim to livestream what I can at http://www.twitch.tv/whitingjp

Really looking forward to getting started (:

It’s been a long old slog to get here, but I’m finally getting stuck into the level design.

A hint that should have been pretty obvious: Rooms that the player can move means loooads of bug potential.

Anyway, just finished my first actual level (once you find the big orb you’re done). So that’s cool. Time to crank out some more.

Had a chance to improve the look a bit last night too, auto-tiling is amazing:

Spent the best part of today working on a single game mechanic. Proved a little more complicated to implement than I’d expected it to, but it was at least a pretty fun challenge.

It’s all hanging together now. See this teaser build to get a feel for what I’m trying to do.

Now I just need to do, well, everything else. Loads to go, but at least the big unknown is done.

Oh and yes, bonus food + desk photo. Had home made chilli for lunch

Okay, a fairly mixed start to this weekend for me.

Woke up early and excited, checked the theme (“Yeah, that’ll do”), came up with an idea and got cracking. All good.

I’m using FlashPunk, which is unusual for me; normally I use my own base code, but the features of FlashPunk drew me in. This was perhaps not a wise decision, I’ve wasted a whole bunch of my morning on problems that weren’t *that* bad, but weren’t familiar to me. The advantage of working on the same codebase again and again is you learn it’s quirks and solutions. I’m definitely not at that point with FlashPunk yet!

Ah well, I’m making progress anyway.

Need to get cracking on my core mechanics ASAP, and hope that FlashPunk’s features can win me back some of the time I’ve lost.

Back to work!

Hey there. I’m really happy it’s swung round to Ludum Dare time again. Love this stuff.

I’m going to be doing flash game stuff, either with FlashPunk, or else my custom base code thing. FlashPunk is probably better, but I’ve spent a lot more time with my home rolled basecode, so I’ll just have to see what I feel like tomorrow.

I seem to have done a fair handful of these now. In fact, this will by my 6th. They don’t get any less exciting, roll on the theme

So yeah, we’re pretty far into the competition now. Fortunately I’m pretty far into my entry too. I have a game!

The major surprise difficulty that I’ve been dealing with today is level design. Yeah, yeah, I know, most people struggle with level design. Typically though I love it, so it was strange to have it feeling like such a chore today. I think the downside to my somewhat unusual interaction between the player and the Antagonist is I’ve been having to solve completely alien (to me) level design problems. Ah well, I think I’m pretty much finished on that front now, which is a relief.

I’ve also sunk several hours into making a ‘nice’ ending for the game. Don’t really regret spending so long, with a theme like Escape the game end is intrinsically important. I can only hope the ending I settled on feels okay.

There’s still a fair few hours left, but I’ve an equally long to-do list, so I need to keep the pressure on for the moment. Real 90% complete, only 90% left to do stuff. Fortunately most of the rest isn’t *strictly* necessary, so at least I’m not feeling panicked.

I probably won’t manage another update before the end, so before I go I’d just like to wish everyone best of luck with their entries. Get it done!

So, back tracking a few hours. Didn’t want to waste too much time on my first (fresher) day, so for lunch I just quickly poached an egg. Was pretty excellent though.

Game is coming along pretty nicely. I’ve spent the last 3 or 4 hours tweaking things and doing some level design, trying to get a decent “first 30 seconds” together. Oh, and wasting more time doing rudimentary front-end work than I probably should have. Ah well, it’s all good.

Oh, and, yes.. New Build

Making much better progress than my protagonist:

New build

Feeling pretty hopeful that the mechanics I’m trying are going to work out pretty well. Loads of work to go, obviously, but it’s going well so far.

It was a long time ago, I’m actually getting ready for lunch now; but here’s what I had for breakfast.

BACON!

Work up at 5am. Like a kid on Christmas day I just couldn’t wait to get started. Ah well, it’s all good.

Fairly happy about the theme really, I’ve been wanting to do an escape game for a while now.

Problem: I’ve been wanting to do a 3d escape game.
Problem: There’s no way I’m setup to make a 3d game in 48 hours yet.
Solution: I’m going to try and make a 2d version of my idea. Not sure if this is going to work, but hey, might as well try.

Started off trying to get my art direction going a bit:

Now working on the code, check out my first build.

So, yeah. Three hours since I started, and going strong. Think it’s time to actually get up, shower, breakfast and stuff.

So yeah, yet another entrant. This’ll be my 5th LD; this time I’m feeling super hyped, like, even more than normal. I hope this is a good thing.

I’ve spent the past couple of evenings getting prepped. Updating my basecode, practising my weak spot (music), heck, I’ve even tidied my room; I just care that much.

I’m using Flex; GIMP; as3sfxr (or bfxr if I get my act together); FLStudio; Notepad++ and whatever else.

My base code is at http://jonathanwhiting.com/ld/21/base.zip. It does some basic entity, tile and sound management, and has the husk of a primitive front end system. If you wan’t a point of reference it’s probably pretty comparable to using FlashPunk of Flixel. If you’re not me it’ll be pretty terrible!

Wow, what a weekend. I think this must be the most intensive LD experience I’ve had so far (and I’ve had some fairly full on ones before). It’s been a fantastic experience as it always is, but it’s been especially good spending the time with the Cambridge collective, so a massive cheers to them.

I’m feeling completely fuse-blown now, but in the best sort of way. I’ll make a proper post-mortem later when I can think straight again. Looking forward to playing everyones games over the coming weeks.

So day two is firmly underway, and, whilst I wouldn’t say I was doing badly as such I still have one hell of a lot to do. Panic is starting to set in, but that’s fine, panic keeps you sharp, right?

14 hrs to go, and I still need to do most of the level design, add instructions, tweak and fix loads of stuff, add sound, add music, add a goal and y’know, actually finish the damn thing.

Better get back to it I guess, I’ll leave you with a (probably rather confusing) preview build, controls are directions and space (to pick things up).

Well, today certainly hasn’t been plain sailing. I struggled with the theme, I struggled with the phyics, and I’ve struggled all sorts of other miscellany too. I’d planned to be sunk deep into level design by now, but instead I’m only just about ready to begin that step. Today has been a looong day, and tommorow kind of looks set to feel even longer.

Not sure how/if this is all going to come together, I’ve bitten off a lot, tomorrow will tell if I can chew it. Ah well, hanging around with the Cambridge crowd is making it sociable and fun, so never mind

A great deal of the stuff I’ve been doing has been under the hood, rather than over, so I don’t have as much to show as I’d like yet. This should be a *small* taste of what I’ve been up to though:

Well, it’s begun. Spent four hours in a coach yesterday to get myself down to Cambridge, but it’s definitely feeling worth it hanging out with the rest of the LD’ers down here. We’ve got ten people at the moment, furiously tapping away, complaining about Unity obscurities, taking this piss out of Visual Studio and talking though game ideas. It’s pretty great

Wasn’t overly impressed with the theme when I woke up, it’s not so much that I think the theme is bad, more that I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do for it. I’ve settled on an idea now though, it might not be perfect, but it should do.

Burnt a good couple of hours working on physicsy things, I always feel a bit twitchy about doing that sort of thing, but it seems to be coming together okay so far. Now I just need to, y’know, make a game >_<

First Build