Ludum Dare » TimWintle

Infection Fighter – Final (I think)

TimWintle — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:21:50 +0000

I’m fairly sure this is going to be the final version of my game “Infection Fighter” – I could carry on tweaking the gameplay forever – it’s too easy to win right now, but I think I’m more likely to decide on the best way of fixing that after the competition.

I haven’t finished packaging the windows version into an exe (and I probably won’t be able to find enough time as I’ve got to make up for spending most of my weekend coding), so windows users will need to have python and Pygame to run it – like the rest of us

You can get it here. (69Kb)

Infection Fighter – Demo/Code

TimWintle — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:32:46 +0000

I thought I’d post the game in it’s current state as I’m heading for more sleep – I’ve updated the physics a bit and tweaked the game logic, but I have to make it tougher, save the scores to a file, add some kind of game-over screen, and dig out an old windows box to see if I can remember how to make an exe from python (py2exe?).

[same screenshot as before - except with lives]

Feel free to have a play and comment – You’ll need python and PyGame – then just run main.py

You can download it here…

It’s a simple idea, but I hope it’s fun (I’ll make it tougher to play by the end).

Infection Fighter – back to work

TimWintle — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:31:30 +0000

I got back to work about two hours ago (although I did stay up for an extra hour or two last night after saying I would sleep), and the game is coming along quite well.

Most importantly, I have managed to add some of the extra gameplay ideas I had yesterday. The gameplay is now some kind of mix of asteroids and puzzle bobble – with an infection theme, and in glorious monochrome…

I’ve also added a score (as you can see in the screenshot), and some basic sound effects – my musical skills are best described as NULL, so I’m not sure I’m going to add much more, but perhaps I’ll generate something with DrPetter’s sfxr if I think it’ll fit in (I found the debian/ubuntu binary package here if anyone’s looking for one as I’m getting unmet dependency problems installing libgtk to compile from source at the mo.)

Still to do – lives, deaths, writing the score to the file, and some better physics – but it’s come along.

Infection Fighter – Last update today

TimWintle — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:39:20 +0000

This is the state I’m leaving “infection fighter” in before getting some sleep (it’s 3 am here) – the basic code is done and thoroughly bug-checked, and it’s currently working very similarly to asteroids – although I’ve got a few ideas to spice the game up a bit that I hope might work really well …

The player is the cell in the middle (or at least that’s supposed to be a cell in the centre), and you can tell the rotation by seeing where the nucleus is facing. The pill on the right has just been fired.

I’ve got a prior engagement tomorrow (hence deciding to make such a simple game – and needing sleep), but hopefully I’ll have time to add at least some of the features I’m planning, try my hand at recording some sound effects and tie up the bits like scores and lives. And even if I don’t have time to do all of it – judging by the amount of time I’ve been wasting playing it it could be really addictive.

Generally my Ludum Dare experience is a lot of fun so far!

Infection Fighter – progress so far

TimWintle — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:03:30 +0000

Right, so I’ve got my first few sprites done (two dangerous bugs, and the medicine that is going to be your weapon against them). I know technically this is more like “toxin fighter”with the chemical warnings, but after a whole load of attempts at drawing bugs I decided to go with things I could draw…

I’ve only added the basic code – collision detection etc. – but I’m quite proud of the graphics (I can normally draw graphics about as well as I can ride a unicycle). I guess the “monochrome” theme has been a blessing – it definitely makes sure the colour(s) match.

Now I’m going to start working on the gameplay a bit more – the simplest way would be to go with a space-shooter type game, but that’s a bit unimaginative. On the other hand, at least I know that would be fun, so if I can’t come up with an addictive idea I might resort to that.

MiniLD #6 – My first challenge

TimWintle — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:36:29 +0000

I’ve decided to have a go at the MiniLD – this will be my first 48hour challenge, so my main aim is simply to have a working game at the end of it, and I’m not aiming too high.

I’ve chosen the theme “infection”, and I’m going to be working in Python with PyGame.

The idea I think I will go with is very simple – you play the part of some kind of medicine fighting off infections by zapping them somehow (I still have to work that bit out… I’ll see how the graphics turn out)