Finished the basic level system. Next, the entity system (organisms, white blood cells, etc), and after that, DNA and evolutions! And yes, I haven’t done all the textures yet.

The player starts at the entry wound and must first make their way into the bloodstream. From there, they must navigate through blood vessels, making their way to the heart. Before they can reach the heart, they must destroy several nerves protecting it from intrusions.

The heart is heavily defended and they must destroy it to complete the game. The player can choose from a number of paths, and they can go back and complete all of them to collect additional DNA.

DNA can be used to evolve cells into better versions.

Final Idea: Tower Offense

The player controls rogue cells which must make their way to the heart. The player can only control when the cells are released into the bloodstream, and evolve the cells from collected DNA. DNA can be found occasionally, and can also be collected from neutralized white blood cells.

Rogue Cells:

Bacteria – high speed, low firepower, low protection
Parasite – a cell which can latch on to white blood cells and destroy them from the inside. They can be destroyed by nearby white blood cells. medium speed, no firepower, low protection
Tumor – a cell which moves slowly but has high protection from white blood cells and protects any cells behind it. low speed, no firepower, high protection
Virus – a cell which breaks into two Virus Spawn when attacked. medium speed, medium firepower, no protection
Virus Spawn – medium speed, medium firepower, low protection

We’re in! Again!

Last time we took part – back in LD22 – things didn’t go too well. We didn’t have any experience working to such a short deadline so we spent loads of time trying to nail the design, the art and the music, and almost none of the time actually making the game!

We’re a little bit more prepared this time – or at least, we’d like to think we are – so we’re aiming to finish something this time. We’re planning to use either Flash (to target the largest audience), C# with XNA (we already know how to use this) or C++ with OpenGL (we know this too and can make it cross-platform).

So, we haven’t come that far in our Ludum Dare entry. But we still have a whole day to try and finish it, as we are entering the Jam which lasts 72 hours. There is actually a lot of programming still to be done, and all the core features of the game aren’t yet implemented. But we won’t cut stuff out of the design; we will attempt to get it done by tomorrow, and if we fail – well, we got something useful out of Ludum Dare. A game design. And we can continue working on it and polishing it, then release it as a proper game.

NOTE: The screenshot above is stretched by WordPress or the LD site. It isn’t actually like that.

David,

Timster Studios – Director of Development.

Not a game engine in the way that Source 2 and CryEngine 3 are. Just the game engine that will run our game, making it much easier to actually implement the game. So, so far we have the concept done, design done, music done, and now the game engine done. All that’s left is artwork, game prototype, testing, and the final game.

David,

Timster Studios – Director of Development.

http://soundcloud.com/dajfarrell/david-prison-break

So we have a piece of music to use in the game now. And a fair bit of the actual programming is done also. This stuff is trickier than we anticipated though – that is, staying focused on the work to get it completed over a short time period.

More yet to come.

David,

Timster Studios – Director of Development.

So, after a long night of sleep, we began figuring out the dynamics of the game. And now we have a basic design done. It still needs some more work, but we have enough to start implementing the game now. Let Stage 3 – Implementation begin!

David,

Timster Studios – Director of Development.

Well, I compiled a list of ideas for games based on the theme (Alone). And then shortened that list to two ideas. And then decided to combine the two ideas, sort of. So now we have a concept for a game which will require the player to think. And if we get it right, players will have different emotions at the end of the game, depending on how they play, or how aware they are during the game. I’d love to say more, but we want to keep it to ourselves for now. It will make the game more enjoyable to play, and hopefully players will want to play it more than once.

David,

Timster Studios – Director of Development.

We’re in!

Timster Studios is ready and waiting for the Ludum Dare Jam (just the two of us!). We have no idea what the theme will be yet, but whatever it is, we will give it our best. And maybe I will enter the Ludum Dare Compo myself, depending on the theme, and the ETA to completion of the Jam entry. Either way, we hope to bring a/some great game(s) to Ludum Dare this weekend!

David,

Timster Studios – Director of Development.