Escape from the frame is, well, unfinished.  The four levels I have all work reasonably, but they’re not to the quality I would like them to be.  Perhaps that’s the status of a 48-hour compo, but I see others whose games I would be satisfied with…  At least I did build something playable.  That’s the main goal of this, no?

Get Escape from the Frame at: http://www.cavein.org/~chris/code/escape or from the links in my entry page (which go to the same places)

For Escape from the Frame, I started out with too large of a goal.  I wanted a mini-game mash-up, but the games ended up more frustrating and less fun.  I also ran out of good health Saturday even/night, so some of my brainstorming/developing time got lost.

Things I’ve learned from this compo:  start simple, but not too simple.  Gravity is a harsh mistress.  Spend more time on gameplay, less time on achieving stable orbit for the actors.  The trip to the brewpub was a godsend, and should be repeated next time.  Sleep just enough, not too little, not too much.  You can’t draw, vitae.  You can’t music, vitae.  Try using generators for such things better.  Generic tools can combine in wonderful ways.  MacBook Pro is a fun machine to tool around on, and will probably serve as a main box soon.  And much much more…

Progress to date: I’ve got four ‘levels’, each with different gameplay.  I’ve got programmer art, but this is a solo competition, so that’s the best I can do.  I haven’t tested it on other people to see if it’s fun, so apologies if it causes traumatic hair loss.

What I still need to do: test the game would be nice.  Add in wall-o-text screens that are probably the best part of the game.  Package for various platforms.

See below for a screenshot of the hardest level to code, the Solar System (with only one planet, due to the size of the window and sprites)

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little bit of art before it’s time for all good vitaes to come to the aid of their parties. Or go to sleep. or aid their parties while asleep! Dream Power!

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No art yet, so no screenshot (infact, all I have at the moment is a blank white frame).

Theme: Escape.  What are you escaping?  The Frame!  How do you escape the Frame?  it depends on what the Frame is!  Too ambitious?  most likely.  Too obvious?  yes.  So much what I’m going to attempt?  absolutely.

Though I have no art, take a look at my beautiful desk!

red vitae needs compo badly! Hopefully I’ll be able to make something worthwhile this time… my few attempts at LD’s and miniLD’s haven’t been wonderful. We’ll see what actual worktime brings the vitae. I’ll be checking the theme over a pint, then hitting the compy when I get home.

My toolset:
Language: Python
Library: pygame
SFX & Music: nada (I have no audio talent)
Graphics: KolourPaint (yes, I use KDE), possibly poorly hand-drawn art?
Text Editing: vim (syntax highlighting, autoindent, what else do I need?)
Target Platform: linux, with hopeful port to win32 and possibly (but don’t bet on it) to OS X
Fuel: coffee, coffee, and more delicious black coffee

So, three hours in, I am tired.  Even though I’m on the left coast of the Americas.  That’s what I get for weird sleep schedules.  Anyway, I thought I’d share my current progress.  I’ve decided to try a Cave Flying game—I’ve a few ideas on ways to tie in the theme besided the title text.  Look below for details and a screen… (more…)

I, vitae, intend to enter into LD48 19 — or rather the jam. If my previous attempt (18) was any indication, I need more time than I allotted myself. The technologies I intend to use:

Hardware: FrankenPC — everything modern as of 14 months ago and Netbook
IDE: vim
Technology: SDL
Language: either C++ and Autotools or Python, depending on my ambition
Asset Creation: GIMP and maybe Audacity
Genre: Depends on theme, perhaps a shmup
Sustenance: Ritz crackers and `Cellar’ red wine

Wenemies is as finished as it will ever be in this compo.  Perhaps later, when I have more time and less Carpal Tunnel, I will update it.

View the Entry Page, watch a short gameplay video, visit the project’s spartan Website, or watch the Time-Lapse Video.

Evaluation: The idea for the game shaped up during the course of programming.  I had wanted to spend an entire night just thinking about the concept, then come up with a better game; my restlessness however took over, and I began coding almost immediately.  I’m certain the simpleness of the concept shows this.  I also had a long day of fighting in the mix, so my time was limited, especially as I was out of shape and therefore unable to continue that night.  In the future, I must clear my weekend entirely.  Pygame was a pleasure to work with, especially for a 2-d game such as this, and I will either expand my skills on this for the next compo, or attempt an understanding of Ruby or Scheme.  Learning packaging was non-trivial, but necessary, and I have a Windows version available as a result.  All in all, I did okay—I could have done better, but I did complete something.

and I’ve got something playable. We’ll see how it shaped up in the next day…

screenie

So, some cosmetic issues have been decided, but not gameplay.  Is it a maze?  a shmup?  a Streets of Rage clone?  I don’t know! Be forewarned that Vites is hand-drawing, something he hasn’t done since grade school.

Vites is going to attempt to compete in the Compo, and failing that in the Jam.  Vites will now share his development setup.

Editor: vim

Version Control: git

Language: python

Framework: pygame

Graphics: GIMP

Sound: sound??

Time Lapse: scrot

Desk:

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The time has come for my first LD compo.  Life and time constraints made things more difficult, but I did get a few hours to create art/code before the end of the compo (technically, it’s not over, but I don’t know what to refine within an hour).  Sound turned out to be harder than I thought, and was scrapped (I didn’t use SFXR, and my music loop is 0 seconds, so I meet the constraints).  In this compo, I learned how to create a scrolling, collidable image, as well as how to use pygame.mask collision detection.

Pyloon is a very casual, slow-going game.  It does eventually become impossible to continue, though; this is the area that could use the most tuning.

A .zip file containing a windows executable and needed data files can be found here, as well as a python ‘egg’ and the source code.

Screenshot beneath More:

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For my first Ludum Dare activities, I come to `Contstraints’.  I decided to make the control scheme restriction mirror something in the real world where it makes sense to control with numbers.  Such as flame throwers.  What’s a better use of a flame thrower than carrying you aloft in a wicker basket?  Nothing, that’s what.  So now we have Pyloon, the Python Ballooning Sim.  Most of the code is working, and the art is about how good I can make it (this was actually the hardest constraint — using seven discrete colors!), so I will now focus on trying to put together music and sound.  This will be hard as I do not have a mic.

Current look below More: (more…)