I’m fist-deep in the Director’s Cut for my LD21 entry (“and just like that“), and I just finished off some music for the challenge mode.

Check it out here (note that the first bit IS EXACTLY the original piano exercise sounding melody)

ELL DEE TWENTY ONE LET ME HEAR YOU SAY UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

This was my first LD proper since LD15 (which had a baker’s dozen entries (144)).  I love love love Ludum Dare as an event (it feels like THE WHOLE WORLD is building and learning and having fun together), and I’m pleasantly shocked to see 4x as many submissions just two years since my last one.  I promise to not let two years pass again my next one! I’ve always been building small games, but my spare time for a FULL WEEKEND of something has been so limited that it’s been challenging to get my Compo Wind back.  BUT HERE I AM!  Despite having a new baby in the house (my second kid), I was able to carve enough of a weekend away that I got a completed game done ON TIME WOOOOOOOYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHhhhwwwmmm.

I had an absolute blast building this little thing (here’s a link to rate it, bros!)

So v1 of my game was done at like 6pm EST on Sunday, 4 hours before the deadline, and I was shocked.  I actually got to submit before the site exploded!  Here’s my somewhat standard Post-Mortem-formatted Thingie!

What Went Right

• FLIXELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL is always fantastic to use.  I was there when @adamatomic put out the first release, and I’ve kept up with it since the beginning.  The version I use now is an ever so slightly modified version of 2.4.3 as well as the FlxBitmapFont add-on.  I had just used Flixel for something quick a few months ago when I quit my job at EA, and although I now use Push Button Engine on a daily basis for my Make Money Doing Things part of the day, I had to go back to my old friend.
• MUSIC / GARAGEBAND YEAH!  Part of my responsibilities at my new job include composing music, and it’s been great to keep that part of my life alive (a long, long time ago, I started college as a classical saxophone major).  I use logic for work, but I don’t have that at home so I booted up another tool that I’ve loved since v1.  I have a simple MIDI keyboard hooked up that I’ve used for years, and man nothing relaxes me more than getting to lay down some melodies.  I wanted the music in this game to be kind of sad, and kind of melancholy like the ticking of a clock (there’s a line in the dialogue that says “You’re only getting older.” and I really wanted to have that feeling of climbing some monotonous, mechanical wasteland).
• Tiled: simply the best map editor around.  For making maps in flixel I’ve used DAME in the past, and FLAN before it (I own a FLAN license!), but I really love the file-format for Tiled.  Even if as an editor it’s not as good as DAME for sidescrollers, I have to use it on a daily basis for building isometric maps (again at the Make Money Place) and I’ve grown super-used to it.  If you want to figure out how to load a Tiled map in flixel, there’s a really good example out there.
• I liked the story of the game, and I liked the setting, mood, and dialogue.  However…

What’s happening folks?  I have been out of the Ludum Proper since LD15, for which I submitted a game where you exploded bikini babes with spikes and hammers and things.  I was previously working all day and most nights making the very best football videogames you could possibly ever want (or from the perspective of the indie-game scene, I had a “day job” where I worked for some folks who you probably don’t like very much).  But a few months ago, some of my peers decided to try a startup, and I wanted in, and so I went.  When I left EA, I made two postcards, one of them an homage to the game that tipped me over the edge:

And one a motivational speech inspired by my friend Tim Rogers’ Bulletstorm review on Action Button Dot Net: doitmotherfucker.com

Since leaving EA I have been working on small games, and it has been glorious.  I compose music, I make art, I write dialogue, I help with marketing, and as always I write some white hot liquid code; it’s been wonderful.  And now I work somewhere that allows me to participate in things like Ludum Dare without a hundred thousand layers of red tape blocking the way.

I’ll be building something this time, despite having a new baby in the house!  My toolbox (which has several ORs depending on theme):

• art: photoshop OR tilestudio OR graphics gale
• music: garage band or milky tracker
• web: flashdevelop + flixel OR pushbuttonengine
• mobile: corona + lime

Looking forward to it!

I really, really, really shouldn’t be participating this weekend, as it’s my son’s first birthday and there are relatives from all over filling my househole.

But the theme!  It’s too good!  And worse, games with this theme will probably be LESS good if you just decide to release them later on, because they will require way too much explanation.

I don’t have a lot to show yet, just a title screen really.  I’m reading data from the wiki (specifically, from http://www.minild12.sophiehoulden.com/index.php?title=Special:Random ), but that’s not evident here.  Game will be a frantic shooter, I guess.  Probably smash TV style.  Also I looked on the rules wiki for “profanity” and I didn’t see anything preventing it!  So!

oh f stop sharing information title

I’ve updated the babe smashing hit game A CAVE FOR MY BIKINI BABES, making it now on v1.1.

PLAY IT HERE AND EARN HIGH SCORES!

Changelog:

• Added Mochi leaderboards!
• Slightly altered economy and item use counts!
• Fixed a bug that was preventing combo scores from counting (with the version I included in my LD submission, spikes were hands down the most efficient trap)!
• Capped the inventory for each trap at 20!
• Added a prep time of 15 seconds to the beginning of each level!
• Fixed a bug where you could get the player off the map!
• Altered enemy spawning and time limits slightly!
• Cop and babe walk speeds are now switched, to account for economy rebalancing!

My game is coming along! It’s a game where you throw bikini babes into a pit that you have filled with traps. Also there are police. And umm guts everywhere? Core mechanics are in place, going to try and write some music now so I can spend all day tomorrow adding features and polish.

Hey competitioneers I’m going to PARTICIPATE.

I’ll most likely be using Flash (using either APE or Flixel + Flan depending on the game idea), although there are a couple themes where I’d want 3D and would choose Unity. Going with those because they’re cross-platform and web-based which means GOOD TIMES FOR MORE PEOPLE.  I’ll be using Milkytracker to make my sounds and music.  Photoshop for the artsing.  This is my first time laughing in the face of God.

Also I love every one of you.