First Screen Shots!   Not much to look at yet, but I have a strong base for 3 hours of work.   Now, to Dlrrp.

Anyway, I predict that I will spend my time mostly working on my ‘Engine’ code, ‘Revolution’.  Here is the URL inscase you’re interested: http://proactiveapathy.com/gitweb/?p=revolution.git;a=summary .  Here’s a description of what I want to include: https://sites.google.com/site/turevolutionengine/  I’ll probably end up Jamming it; but in case I don’t this is my ‘basecode’ deceleration.

Anyway, I’m not sure which way I’m going to go with this.  So I’m just going to list out the possibilities where i might go, to cover any declaration of source code requirements.

I might do XNA. This has been my standby for the last few years.

• I tend to use past LD entries as base code.   My LD17 that never finished is King’s Islands.   My LD16 was Adventure Quest.
• I like various parts of Nuclex Framework (Seriously, if you do C# / XNA, they have some damn cool stuff), and I’ve used the MarkovNameGenerator before.

I might work on my engine, and try and make something with it while I improve it.  It’s terribly primitive right now.  The site for it is here.  You can download the source code from there.   If nothing else, it’s a decent direct x setup.  This uses C++ and python.  THis is likely to be a jammed project, especially if I find myself ungripped by the theme.

I might do an Web-based MMO Strategy Game.  I’ve been using AJAX & Java at work a lot, and I could couple that with HTML 5 to make a pretty convincing real-time browser thing.

I have an awesome kids game idea. If nothing else, I may work on my kids game idea.

Other then that, it’s the usual chronolapse / paint.NET, Blender (maybe)

So, if we review Ludum Dare voting since we have converted to the +1/0/-1 system, we see some trends:

• The winners are always one of the top two themes from a previous round.
• 70% of them have been first place.

So what does that mean for this time…

Here are the two two themes in each of the rounds, ranked in order of score:

1. [+58] Technology out of place in Time (Or Anachronism)  (1st place Round 4)
2. [+52] Enemies as Weapons (1st place Round 1)
3. [+51] Cooperation (1st place Round 3)
4. [+50] Evolution (2nd place Round 1)
5. [+36] Rain (2nd place Round 3)
6. [+32] Hidden Depths (2nd place Round 4)
7. [+23] Claustrophobia (1st place Round 2)
8. [+18] Cloning (2nd place Round 2)

From this we can observe certain facts:

• About 300 or so people voted.   We will use this number for percentages.
• First off, obviously Round 2 sucked.   There were 3rd and 4th places in other rounds that outscored our two candidates from Round 2, so we can probably count them out.
• Evolution very often has a strong showing in the preliminary rounds, and then drops out at the end.  Plus it is believed that the world might end if the Ludum Dare theme is Evolution
• If we discount Evolution, there’s a 15 point gap between 3rd and 5th.  15 people is about 5% of the population, which would be a pretty big swing.

From this, we can pretty safely predict that Anachronism, Cooperation, or Enemies as Weapons will come out on top.

I’m going to do XNA, using C#, VS2008 (or 2010, but probably 2008).

I tend to use past LD entries as basecode.   My LD17 that never finished is King’s Islands.   My LD16 was Adventure Quest.

I like various parts of Nuclex Framework (Seriously, if you do C# / XNA, they have some damn cool stuff), and I’ve used the MarkovNameGenerator before.

Other then that, it’s the usual chronolapse / paint.NET, Blender (maybe)

Here’s some islands to enjoy:

Kinda basic now, but I wan to concentrate on gameplay this time instead of spending the first 24 hours on rendering, like last time.

• Visual Studio 2008
• XNA 3.1
• C#
• Blender
• Paint.net
• sfxr
• Something else?

Also, My desk:

Daughter optional.

1. Go to http://sites.google.com/
2. Sign in with your Google ID.  (If you don’t have one, you will have to create one.)
3. Click on ‘Create Site’
4. You can pick a template at this stage if you like.  Or you can select Blank Template.
5. Make sure that you have selected that the whole world can see the site.

You will get a nice site.  The project template one is kind of nice, if a bit noisy.

In order to upload files, log into your site.

1. In the upper right hand corner you will see ‘More actions’  Click this, then click ‘Manage site’
2. On the right hand side, select ‘Attachments’
   You might see some files here if you didn’t select a blank template.
3. Click ‘Upload’ at the top or bottom.
4. Find your file on your computer, and click ‘Upload’  (Uploading to the top level is fine)

After the file is uploaded, you can construct a URL to it like so:

http://sites.google.com/site/<your site name>/<your file name>

Here is an example:

http://sites.google.com/site/ld17utena/BrendanSpeer1-2.png

Links you here.

What I’m going to write here is a lot my opinion, but is also collected and paraphrased from what I have heard other people said.

Ludum Dare is a community of Independent and Hobbyist Game Programmers

I think the community that surrounds Ludum Dare is one of the most important things about us.   Several of our members have used designs or even experience gained here to launch successful Indie Game Programmer careers.  And everyone here is excited about programming, and willing to talk shop almost all day.  Personally, I think Ludum Dare exceeds places like Gamasutra and Gamedev.net because here you know who can bring the goods, and who’s just pretending.

Ludum Dare provides an experience for learning game programming from many experts; and metering one’s own programming against a vast array of talent.

One of the things I see people often talk about is that Ludum Dare is for learning, for getting better.   I think the sharing of source code, and the encouragement of development journals enhances this a lot.   Also, I know I use it to judge what I can do vs. what others can go.   I also get an opportunity to have people comment on my designs and labor in a constructive way so that I get better.   Finally I do get a score where I can see where I rank in the categories I was concentrating on.  This is a great judge of where I am, and where I can go.

Ludum Dare is about the rush and community of hundreds of game designers working at the same time in a short amount of time to create new games.

It’s fun to know that there’s hundreds of people working at the same goal along side you.  Not only does it force me to put aside a weekend and just work on my programming, I also get the encouragement of my peers once I hit that first wall of ‘I’ll never have anything good!’

This is just what I think and what I’ve observed. Feel free to comment on anything I’ve missed or gotten wrong below.

And a drink…

PER PIXEL DIFFUSE POINT LIGHTING….

Yeah

So… This will be fun to watch, probably!

Hopefully I can find some gameplay to implement…..

Here’s Thursday Dinner if Chili (and Beer).

Then tonight was Fancy Franks.  It’s like Hot Dog Casserole.   You make What is basically cornbread, then you but hot dogs in, fill with cream cheese, cover in mustard, katsup, bacon, and cheese, then bake.   It’s yum!

And here’s my probable workspace.   I have a real computer in the other room with a ream graphics card in it, but we’ll see what happens.

Cloud Game warmup mostly done.   You shoot the clouds.   I didn’t really have an idea, I just started coding..

I was going to do something where you were the God of REAL Twilight fans, and you had to make clouds to shield your followers from the sunlight…. But it seemed a but too involved.