Almost there. It’s becoming a fairly simple but addictive arcade-style game where you try to keep the enemy population from becoming too specialized at killing you. No levels or anything, you just try to survive as long as you can while it gradually gets harder. I already feel sorry for you guys for having to play this without a proper tutorial/manual.

Now to get rid of the rest of that placeholder art.

Well I’m starting to get the “wiring” mechanic in place in addition to basic enemy evolution, and it’s becoming close to a playable game. Maybe next up is the “currency” using killed enemies’ genes – towers can hold a limited amount of genes, and not every tower can use every gene, so you have to do some swapping micromanagement while defending. I’d like to think I’m on schedule at this point, but the incomprehensible last day bugs have proven me wrong in earlier LDs. If I do have spare time, I’ll definitely spend it on tweaking the mechanics and adding polish in the presentation.

But even though it’s a bit derpy, I just swear I won’t write another pathfinding algorithm for this game. No. I refuse. I even crossed my arms.

A tower defense where your enemies constantly observe your strength and make it your weakness. Enemies grow resistant to turret types that kill them, so your task is to keep the board evolving all the time.

If that’s too many words for you, just watch this pretty picture (animated .gif of it in action): http://i.imgur.com/FkZNS.gif

(Of course, I sped up mutation quite a lot just for the sake of this 10-second .gif; things would get pretty hectic if your turrets were eaten at that pace right away.)

You see how there’s no green enemies at the start, but they gradually become more common once the other enemies get killed by green turrets. Green enemies cannot be harmed by green turrets, so the tables get turned, and a smart player will quickly start building red/blue turrets, to which the enemies start growing resistant again…

Well, that’s the basic idea, but it gets more complicated with upgrades, color-specific bonuses, and an electronic wiring system you use to “juggle” active turrets (supposed to be your primary way of interaction and it’s not even shown here).

This one’s not too difficult coding-wise, so hopefully I can focus on the actual game design instead of endless physics/AI bugs.

Kaiji has finally pinpointed his game idea and relayed some placeholder art on the screen! The towers, enemies, and basic user input are functional!

DAGA! SHIKASHI!

The two core mechanics, related to evolution and electricity, are yet nowhere to be seen! He must have at least their prototypes finished today to stay on schedule!

Will he succeed?!?!?!??! Or will Ludum Dare swallow him whole?!?! Will there be setbacks or jetpacks on his path?!!!?! THIS IS FAINARU BOSSU!!!!!!!!

RUDUMU DEERU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*gong*

*ending theme*

I resisted the urge to make a typical Jiggawatt game (you know, a puzzle-platformer with one central gimmick), and came up with something more original instead. It’s going to be some sort of abstract arcade coffee break strategy game about survival of the fittest.

<marquee>oridjinal content plz do not steal!!!!</marquee>

Is the theme really ‘evolution’? You guys did the right thing for once, I may only need to give you a light paddlin’.

So yeah, I’m sick of making platformers and this is a great opportunity for a strategy/god game. Macromanagement’s all the rage nowadays. Preferably a game where you don’t touch the playing field at all (as in, not click on individual units), only give some overarching commands.

However, all my ideas so far lend to micromanagement, so this’ll be interesting.

I’m looking forward to surprising myself again.

It wouldn’t be much of a Ludum Dare without Jiggawatt. Featuring for the 4th time:

•  The power of Python, Pygame, and Py2exe
• Autistic blog updates and IRC conversations
• A mental breakdown followed by a restart about halfway through
• Eventually, some kind of a depressing puzzle/platformer experiment that nobody can finish

 >1 hour left

>gamebreaking bug still unfixed

But I still don’t think it’s possible to record a video flawlessly.

Downsize spoiler

About time I got py2exe to work. Help yourselves.

Edit: about time I got links to work too

You know how I am; I can’t just doze off with unfinished business lying around. The best I could do was to upload the source.

Downsize

So I’ve finished a neat little game. But of course it can’t end there: I’m having problems packaging it, and even after I get that fixed, I won’t be able to upload anything with my emergency mobile connection.

Facing the reality of the situation, for now I’ll just raise my hands up, then put them back down so I could get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll play a game called “test the judges’ tolerance for retrospective compo submissions”.

What do you know, a game about collapsing worlds is falling apart. Seems like I’ve reached what I call the middle age crisis of LD. Despite the slight flaw that nothing works anymore, it’s got some neat stripped-down gameplay. Two different enemies, two different tiles, removing which is the primary way of interaction.

It’s just that there isn’t much content, but then again, that’s almost expected with all the minute-long prototypes you see in LD. Since my goal was (and still is) to make a minimalistic game where all the juice in the gameplay is squeezed out, each level teaches some new mechanic with the help of very brief messages. I guess I should just stop comparing this to my previous entry and be content with the fact that 90% of you are going to make such terrible games that mine will seem good in comparison.

So bugfixing, more levels and a bit of audio is just about all I can do at this point. Also, if I want to participate in the compo, I’m going to have to make special arrangements about submitting my game tomorrow. I hope it’s fine as long as I finish before 4 AM, I’m sure I’ve seen people do that before.

For once, I wanted to make an arcade style LD game instead of another one of my depressing experimental puzzle-platformers.

A tiny world. A shrinking world. A world you’re meant to take apart while its inhabitants try to stop you. I enjoy that stream-of-consciousness mode LD puts you in. But seriously these themes just keep getting worse, and despite being popular enough to win over a hundred other choices, I never actually see anyone say they like them.

I like to think of it as some sort of violent chess game where your goal is to break every tile in the board. The basic gameplay is working, and I’m just trying not to drown in secondary details again. There’s quite a bit of puzzling involved; for example, the basic creep can place tiles, and you can’t remove a tile from directly beneath it. However, once it’s built a tile, it’s already made up its mind about stepping on it next turn, so that’s where you’ll pull the curtain from under its feet. (This is like an AI glitch incorporated to the gameplay.)

I’m short on time and still not completely sure where I’m going with the level design and such. And whether I should jam to get the most satisfying outcome. But it seems like I’ll end up with some kind of a game again.

Oohkay, so the stars are perfectly aligned against me this LD, heh. Long story short, I’m occupied during the weekend and I’ll only have a stable internet connection 4 hours after the compo’s over. I might have to jam and not be able to participate in the social side of things, but I’m going to make a game regardless.

There are many possible answers, even some impossible ones, but only one’s accurate.

I’m ridding myself of perfectionism.

Every time I start a project, I get stuck at worrying over every detail obsessively, to the point where the actual progress suffers. Ludum Dare with its strict time limit forces you to cut down on excess and only bring the meat to the table.

You can’t just wait for inspiration to strike out of nowhere. Inspiration comes when you’re actually doing and refining things. I was in a dead end in the night of day 1, but now I have a game I’m happy with. Perfectionism at its best is quality control for things you’ve already created, not a toll that blocks you from creating because “it won’t be good enough”. And LD always gets me in that sort of flow.

Also,

I told you it’s possible.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=5551

Right, I got something done after all. And it feels good. Both the result and the process, that is.

Been quite a rollercoaster again. A highly recommended experience. I’ll write a more detailed analysis after I get some sleep.

May contain kittens. But much more too.

My ony technical problem right now is that the player has Parkinson’s. The bubble is really bouncy and sensitive and I can’t get the physics right so he’d stay still when needed.

Well, that, and even after my optimization, the framerate bounces up and down a lot. Wonder what’s up with that, there’s no heavy math going on. I’m just going to pretend the problem’s just on my end and ignore it until everyone starts whining about it post-release, shattering my optimistic mood.

Besides coding, I’m messing around with visual styles, looking for something simplistic and readable, as well as creating more levels. Always more levels. Even when there’s all the levels. A level editor would be fine so I could indeed include all of them, but I don’t think there’s time.

I know you can do better than this

I think I’m going to have something to submit after all.

Namely, a tricky Marble Madness sort of game (but not really) about a boy in a plastic bubble who’s developed psychokinetic powers to draw borders for use as platforms and shields against enemies.