At this point, I’m rather inclined to make a sidescrolling brawler sort of game. Engine should be fairly simple, so I don’t get bogged down in physics stuff, and I can focus on getting the core gameplay elements into a satisfying state. The ‘take this’ part of the equation can be acquirable weapons of various practicality.

So, last time I made a total Zelda ripoff, and so I want to do something different. Random thoughts:

• A dating sim. At the start of the game, you get a wooden sword. “Hit them with sword” is ALWAYS a conversation option.
• You’re a Kobold. You have a stick.
• A game about giving advice?
• You’re an old man in a cave. You need to keep an endless stream of adventurers supplied with starting equipment.

I am SO in. As per usual, tools and basecode and stuff:

Language: Processing
Framework: My own, available here
Sound: sfxr and Audacity
Music: Famitracker and/or PXTone
Graphics: GIMP, or more likely circles and lines
Food: All breakfast, all the time

I’ve been continuing to add new features and secrets to my game after the Jam version. For those of you who are fans, I encourage you to check out the latest version here.

Still missing bosses, but at least I have additional enemies and weapons.

Music, sound, shrubbery, dummy enemies. A lot to do in the next three hours. Check progress here.

Behold a very lonely procedural world full of very empty procedural dungeons.

Oh, and hold Space to get through the emptiness faster.

What sort of game is this, anyway?

As of yet, I have still not discovered what my game is about. If anyone else has any insights, please let me know.

Please find enclosed my formal declaration of stuff:

Game Title: “Circus Peanuts”
Language: Processing
Framework: My own, available here
Sound: sfxr and Audacity
Music: Famitracker and/or PXTone
Graphics: GIMP if anything
Food: Whatever I’ve got on hand, supplemented with the local convenience store and Voodoo Doughnut.
Desk: thusly
Morale: Kobolds

Hopefully the theme decision will cooperate with me.

So, as some of you may know already, I create and post a new game every week on my website, based on titles provided by people who donate to my site. Last Ludum Dare, I suspended my name/donation thing. But this time, my donation queue is currently empty and non-suspended, which means that the top donation before Sunday Dec. 12th, 11:59pm determines the title of my Ludum Dare game. (And anyone who gets outbid still gets their title used for subsequent games!)

This is going to be exciting and/or terrifying.

Got the game finished, complete with enemies that actually shoot. Check it out. I didn’t have quite as much time as I would’ve liked to tune the difficulty curve, but it seems to be close enough to what it ought to be.

Scoring and difficulty progression done. Almost there…

Two hours to go, and I have added background music and eye candy. Still no scoring or enemy bullets.

I really need to work on setting priorities.

Improved grabbing, added sounds, enemies turn red when they’re damaged. All in all some decent progress.

All right, 7 hours left. Finally, this is the kind of pressure that I can work under.

5 hours remaining. Need to implement scoring, write music, and add more enemy types.

Implemented enemy grabbing, flinging, and damaging. Now we’re actually getting somewhere. Still debating how exactly bullets are going to work.

Starting to implement enemy behavior. Not a lot of progress, but it’s something.

This is actually going to be an actual game with actual gameplay, I promise.

So I’ve been slacking off brainstorming design ideas for a while now, and have settled on something like a fast-paced arena shooter. And a title. Right now I have tentative player movement implemented, and… that’s about it.

I’ve got some ideas coming together of specific mechanics I want to play with. My inclination is to wrap those in an action/platformer game, but platformer engines with good solid physics are kind of a pain to write. Maybe it’ll turn into more of a beat-em-up.