For this competition I decided to cover Py Mike’s ‘Pixelman 3′ game which I remember finding quite fun we when I played it for scoring. It’s basically the same game but with less minimal graphics and a few extra fiddles. You should note that I stole erm… copied erm… paid homage to the original levels by including them as levels 5 to 9, but I did write 4 new ones at the beginning so hopefully nobody will consider that cheating. (If you do then delete map5.txt, map6.txt, map7.txt, map8.txt and map9.txt from the maps directory and pretend I didn’t include them)

Requirement : python (2.4) + pygame (1.8 but it should work with 1.7)

Should run on all platforms

http://www.patenall.org.uk/temporary/LudumDare/MiniLD5/Pixelman3D.zip

Edited: Small change to fix an issue that caused it to crash on some versions of pygame

After spending many hours trying to get the player movement done, I eventually finished it and found that there was a serious problem with it. I’d tried to take a shortcut because of the limited time and handle collision detection and response for the X and Y axes separately but that doesn’t work. What tends to happen is that the player hits the ledge and shoots off sideways by a quarter of the tower. It’s not a particularly complex problem but it will take several hours to sort it out and debug it.

Unfortunately, I have a prior engagement for several hours tonight and a minor problem of getting up for work tomorrow so I don’t have enough time to fix it and actually put any game play in so I’m not going to kill myself trying. It was coming along well and actually looked like it would be a fun game so I might have a go at doing it properly (Including descent bounce physics) out of the comp.

Leaving with a final screen shot:

Though I’d post before I knock off for tonight. It’s you basic climb the tower knock off (I don’t know what the original is called and I don’t think I ever played it)

So far I have all the media assets (textures and sounds), the tower is drawn with our damsel in distress and the enemies but no ledges yet. You can fly the player about the tower (via invisible owls) but there is no other game play yet. Tomorrow I’m going to start with drawing the ledges from map files then onto player movement physics.

Finished at last and it’s actually a finished game. The EXE should work but it’s the first time I’ve used py2exe and had it work.
Instructions

Move around the mave avoiding your enemies or destroy them by crushing the block they are in before they hatch, pushing blocks over them or stunning them by pushing on the wall they are next to and walking over them.

The level ends when all your enemies are dead or you have pushed the three diamonds into a line for a bonus which is higher if they are not along the wall.

Controls

• Use the arrow keys to move
• Use the spacebar to break or push blocks
• Escape to quit

Requirements

Python and pygame

Screenshot 

Download 

Normal python zip (1.4MB)

Windows EXE (4.3MB)

Well, I’m calling it a night as its 11pm here and I swear that I’ve go down with what ever was going around the office. As to my entry it’s looking good as I have the main maze working, the player can wander around it and crush or push the blocks about as they should. Next are the enemies…

After 4 working hours (9½ hours in , damn timezones) I’ve got a plan, drawn all the graphical assets and produced a screen mock-up. The idea isn’t original, it’s actually a clone of a game I used to love playing, <bad Rolf Harris impersonation>Can you tell what it is yet?</bad Rolf Harris impersonation>

I’ve finally finished and it is actually a completed game (unlike normal where it’s missing a few vital things such as game play or sounds). It’s a python / pygame / pyOpenGL game but I haven’t managed to build a .exe version as there is some bizarreness with pyOpenGL and py2exe which it is far too late try and fix.

You can download it from http://www.patenall.org/temporary/LudumDare/ExoticInventory.zip, it was developed on Mac OS X but I’ve tested it on windows (while cursing py2exe out) and it appears to work

Notes:

Best method is to come along side a particle by looking at 90deg to you direction of travel and using shift + arrow keys. Then when you’re going at the same speed and are targeted on it shoot it several times.

To turn just use the arrows keys. If you hold shift you will accelerate in that direction so you can strafe. And oh yes, your shots have momentum and push you back when you fire.

Well, end of day 1 and I’ve quite a lot done but not as much as I had hoped. I have a game that allows the player to fly around a psychedelic tube controlled by the mouse and bounce off the walls. Currently, there is nothing else to do which is the next thing that I need to deal with.

The basic premiss is that you have having the weirdest day of your life. You’d just got a job at a research lab as an ‘Inventory Controller’, half way through the tour you were cold-clocked and when you woke up you found out that the ‘inventory’ you are to control is in the labs Synchrotron and consists of exotic elementary particles that they need shunted in to different storage rings.

Not the best match for the theme I’ll admit, but I thought that it was a really weird idea for a game so…