Finally got around to compiling the timelapse for my compo entry Pyramid. Time spent watching the Dreamhack Open Starcraft action not included >_>

(Mostly lifted from my blog here)

I’ve threatened to make a roguelike a couple of times before. In fact one previous effort got quite far before I abandoned it. So what better time to finally get one out of my system than a game jam about minimalism? Roguelikes have always gone for a minimalist graphical approach anyway, right?

My fourth game of the year, then, is Pyramid: a minimalistic roguelike. Things went quite well on balance: I actually went with my first idea, which is often a bad move but it allowed me to get good and focused early on. The pyramid motif comes from the level progression: level 1 is merely 2×2 squares, and indeed looks very minimalistic! Each subsequent level expands the size of the layout by 1 in both directions. Gradually a vision fog comes into play more and wandering spirits (the coloured blocks) appear and will attack you without a second though.

I’m quite pleased with the clean visual style. It certainly helped having the simple graphics (although getting that highlight on the top and right edges of the squares took far more investigating than it ever should have… there’s always something).

Undoubtedly there are bugs – the occasional incompletable levels are a frustration (and the reason a reset feature was added). It’s also too hard, really. But generally from this one I have no regrets, and look forward to trying something entirely different next time out!

Play “Pyramid” here

And I almost forgot – I’ll stick a timelapse of development up soon but I just haven’t got around to compiling it yet. Busy busy…

My rogelikelike is coming together somewhat, got a few different enemy types in now. I can’t deny the theme is really helping with that. I haven’t drawn a single walk-cycle and for that I am truly grateful. Also starting to wind my twisted narrative theme into it. SPIRITS.

To do: bit more interface, weapons, couple more enemies, sound/music, bit of polish if time!

I’ve settled on making some sort of abstract roguelike-like. Here we see the player, an enemy, and the exit to the level below.

Movement and progression through levels is in, and not a lot else. Hopefully a resistance to adding graphic detail thanks to the theme will give me a better chance at making something of the rest of the game. And also the Dreamhack Open has finished now, that’s going to help…

I will be entering the grand old Ludum Dare compo for the 8th time this weekend. I had an unexpectedly good run out last time winning the mood category and I’m willing to have another go at making something hilarious/upsetting (theme-depending).

I’m also a bit devastated at the low placing of potato in the votes. Shaaame.

My little memory lane: entries from LD 18 through to now

I expect I’ll be using Flixel one more time, though the itch to try something else exists I’m pretty sure I’ve left it too late

Good luck all, see you on Twitter/IRC!

Hey I bundled together my weekend timelapse for my point-and-feel-bad game Harold is an Executioner, see below. Note quite how much time is spent faffing around with art! And any plays and feedback are much appreciated!

Entry page here

Harold is now available to execution all over the place, and oh look if it isn’t a goat…

Play here if you like! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=1626

AAAAAAAAAA okay got that out of the way, progress is steady. The executioner, under your direction, will leave for work, go kill a dude then come back to bed. Plenty more stuff needed in-between but a game loop is finally emerging…

Time to stick some food in the oven. Screenshots for your troubles:

I totally said I wasn’t going to enter this weekend but I’m going to do my best to work around social obligation and get something done for this very interesting theme!

So here’s my initial concept: you are an executioner. Each day you get out of bed, go to work and as commanded, kill people in cold blood. Will you mercilessly perfect your murderous art, for which you will be rewarded by the City? Or is there another way…

It’s rather dark, so hopefully I get time to flesh it out and do it justice. And I’m using Flixel for this once again. Good luck everyone!

Hey so I finished my not-game about picking constellations in the sky last night! It’s only a small thing but I’m quite pleased with it. Explore an accurate representation of the night sky while listening into a couple’s idle conversation, you dirty voyeur you.

Click to go to the entry page

Needs more stars…

I almost didn’t enter but I really wanted to do this theme so I’m going ahead with my (not) game which has you identifying constellations in a star-filled sky. Possibly with a meta-narrative thing going along with it. Will be a bit dry otherwise.

Play/rate Mutation Flight!

A quick post to recognise I completed the compo again! I’m not sure exactly what went wrong this weekend but my progress on Saturday particularly was not great. Don’t want to make excuses but I do have a bunch of distractions going on at the minute.

Anyway, I still managed to make this little arcadey shooter! It’s a bit slow to get going but the bullets will start to fly the deeper you go. As I tweeted, I feel good to have got this game out of me so I can push on to greater things in future! Oh and here is my timelapse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMRe6MzKSTg

Congrats to everyone completing, some amazing efforts once again.

Edit: Struggling with embedding the vid, don’t know why

After a somewhat troubled first day of diminishing progress, I have most of the mechanics in place for my quite simple concept in the hopes of heaping on juicy polish tomorrow! Well once I’ve got shooting, enemies, any semblance of level design/audio… you know, just a few small things. I would describe it as… a bit like asteroids in single-screen rooms with things to collect where your ship periodically has a litter of ill-fated triplets of which only one can survive.

I’m in.

I will very soon be going through the horrors of moving flat but you better believe I’m delaying the move so I can hang on to my current set-up long enough to Dare my face off. I have entered numerous times before, but that’s the past – this will be my best 48-hour game EVAR. Maybe. I’ll certainly try.

Expecting I’ll stick to Flixel for this. Looking forward to it!

Hello! Well, there’s a lot of games this time huh! And one of them is my 5th entry, a game I called “Jack”.

This time I went wild and made… a pixel-arted platformer! So cliché, I know, but it’s actually the first game of this kind I’ve personally put out there. The theme “Tiny World” once again didn’t fill me with delight, but here’s what I came up with: giants are threatening the Tiny Kingdom beneath them and you, as Jack, must defeat them! Obviously this is deriving from Jack the Giant Killer/Jack and the Beanstalk etc. It has a silly sense of humour, no less than 3 pieces of music I somehow found time to compose and can be finished in less than a minute.

You can play and rate it here

And here’s that timelapse!

So my interpretation of “tiny world” has led me to a loose re-imagining of the subset of folk tales involving a chap named Jack and various giants. Jack and his entire tiny world are under threat from The Big Ones and their odorous stomping feet. The doom of his kingdom seems inevitable…!

…But first I have a lot of work to do on Day 2, of course. It just wouldn’t be Ludum Dare if I was having it easy.

10th anniversary? Of course I’m in! And this will be my… 5th entry into the main compo.

I’ve umm-ed and arr-ed about my choice of framework for a while. But being the anniversary and everything, I’m going to take it back to where I started with Flixel and make something awesome in an environment I’m comfortable in. Yeah!

So in summary:

• Code: Flixel, FlashDevelop
• Art: GIMP
• Audio: FL Studio (and maybe bfxr)

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-31/?action=preview&uid=1626

Thanks to my friend @Funktimus_Prime for the genius title “Three Colours: DEATH”! Have at it!

I’m controversially trying to make a game that is at once capable of inducing fear, yet also incredibly colourful… I have to say I’ve really been enjoying messing around with this idea. It’s a sort of reality-screwing first-person puzzler (Portal – also Narbacular Drop actually – is an influence). It’s all about the colours…

Here’s my timelapse, complete with faffing around in Unity like a noob:

I wrote some thoughts about my weekend on my blog, but generally: very happy with how I managed to get to grips with Unity, and very much looking forward to using it again in future. As for the game… I hope people see where I was going with it, even if it is a little unfriendly to the player! But overall another great Ludum Dare weekend (that’s 5 now :O).

Edit: Oh yeah, the game page is over here! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=rate&uid=1626