Last night I decided to use my own codebase instead of FlixelNME, after trying to fix a little problem for several hours (startIndex of a tilemap not working properly).

Today I was away most of the day, but managed to get something ready just in time. There is just one level and I didn’t have time for character animation.

The nice thing about NME is that you can compile it for different targets, so you can play this game in Flash, html5, Windows and even Android (not really playable, since you need to press keys to move, still it works!).

I really didn’t like the theme. Anyway, this game is about a lonely kitten, who needs to find it’s way back to home.

• Play Kitty (Flash version)

And here is the timelapse video: LD22 Time Lapse

I don’t know what to make yet, but setup some basic things and now have some scrolling tiles in Flixel with Haxe.

It’s very late now, so I’m off to bed.

I’m in for the LD, but (again) have a concert on Sunday. I still hope to get something finished, but I might end up going for the jam.

My tools:

• programming: haXe with NME (either with my own code base or with HaxeFlixel)
• graphics: Tile Studio, PhotoImpact, Inkscape, Photoshop Elements, GIMP (and perhaps my Random Art Evolver?)
• sound editing: Nero Wave Studio, bladeenc, Audacity
• music: MilkyTracker, NoteWorthy Composer
• instruments: electric piano (Yamaha Clavinova), cello, double bass, guitar (and perhaps samples from all kinds of instruments available at the concert?)
• recording sound samples:  ZOOM H2 audio recorder
• time lapse video: ETL and Virtualdub
• time logging: ManicTime
• chat: FireFox with ChatZilla

I wasn’t able to finish anything for LD21, in the end I started all over for the jam, but didn’t get that finished either. Last week I spent some more time on it and now it is finally ready: Asteroid Escape.

In this game, you are exploring caves in an asteroid when suddenly lava starts to rise, which you have to escape.

In total I spent about 34 hours on this, but spread out over several days. I used haXe and my own base code and Random Art Evolver. There are 7 levels.

• Play: http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/flash/asteroid-escape/ (Flash)

In case anyone is using Tile Studio with Flixel, this might be useful. I added an option to always start with a transparent tile at the beginning of the exported tileset: !StartWithEmptyTile, since Flixel insists that the drawable tiles start from a certain index.

For some reason I haven’t been able to log into SourceForge for a while, but there is a new executable here: http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/ld/ts.exe (if you don’t already have Tile Studio, first unpack the zip from http://tilestudio.sf.net and then replace the executable with this one).

I gave up at about 2 am last night, after spending way too long trying to get Flixel to do what I wanted it to. Also I ran into a bug in the haXe compiler which made generated as3 code impossible to compile. If I had known about the extra time, I would probably have been able to make something. I might still do something for the jam using some existing code from an old LD or so.

I’m using my Random Art Evolver with some GameArt functions to evolve textures and a tileset.

Yesterday I didn’t have any time to work on LD, I had an orchestra rehearsal day and a concert in the evening, we played Dvorak 8.

This morning I was too tired to get up really early. So I’m going to start now.

This time I’ll be gone for most of Saturday, but there still should be enough time to make something.

My tools:

• programming: either haXe (with my own code base), AS3 (with Flixel) or perhaps Monkey
• graphics: Tile Studio, PhotoImpact, Inkscape, project dogwaffle, Photoshop Elements, GIMP (and perhaps my Random Art Evolver?)
• sound editing: Nero Wave Studio, bladeenc, Audacity
• music: MilkyTracker, NoteWorthy Composer
• instruments: electric piano (Yamaha Clavinova), cello, double bass, guitar
• recording sound samples:  ZOOM H2 audio recorder
• time lapse video: ETL and Virtualdub
• time logging: ManicTime
• chat: FireFox with ChatZilla

Today it is Queens Day (Koninginnedag) in Holland, which is traditionally celebrated by everyone selling their old stuff in huge flea markets. I spent most of the morning walking around in this huge park, where it seemed like half of the city’s population was present.

Then I went to Amsterdam, where my cousins had their birthday party.

Now I’m back home and I’ve had dinner, it’s time to start working for LD!

I hope to be able to make something for LD #20. This Saturday, it’s Queens Day, and I have two birthdays to attend. On Sunday I’ll have an orchestra rehearsal day, so I’ll have to work at night (or go for the Jam).

Anyway, I’ll probably use (some of) the following tools:

• programming: either haXe (with my own code base), AS3 (with Flixel) or Monkey (recently bought it, but haven’t used it yet, should be interesting!)
• graphics: Tile Studio, ULead PhotoImpact, Inkscape, Photoshop Elements, GIMP (and perhaps my Random Art Evolver?)
• sound editing: Nero Wave Studio, bladeenc, Audacity
• music: MilkyTracker, NoteWorthy Composer
• instruments: keyboard, cello, double bass, guitar
• recording sound samples:  ZOOM H2 audio recorder
• time lapse video: ETL.exe and Virtualdub
• time logging: ManicTime
• chatting: FireFox with ChatZilla

I wasn’t home much during the weekend due to concerts, and the time I was at home I didn’t manage to do anything for LD, other than thinking about what to make. I wasn’t happy with the theme at all, it’s way too broad (like most of the themes recently). In fact, half of my previous LD entries could fit the theme discovery in some way.

This weekend I have three concerts, one tomorrow and two on Sunday. I have to travel a long time through the snow to get there, I think I’ll have only about 10 – 12 hours to work on LD. I might decide to go with the jam like last time, but I’d really prefer to get something playable done during the normal LD.

Anyway, this is my desk:

I’m probably making something for Flash with Haxe, using my Haxe Base Code (new version 1.6), but maybe I’ll use Flixel instead or perhaps do something with a physics or 3D library.

If I can think of something very simple, I might try to make in in html5 (also using Haxe, but with jeash).

My tools:

• Coding: FlashDevelop, Haxe (or perhaps Blitz3D, BlitzMax, Delphi, Visual Studio)
• Graphics: Tile Studio, ULead PhotoImpact, Inkscape, Photoshop
• Sound: Nero Wave Studio, audacity
• Music: MilkyTracker, NoteWorthy Composer
• Timelapse: ETL and VirtualDub
• Internet: Firefox with ChatZilla

Good luck everyone!

I’m not really doing the mini-LD, but I am working on a new version of one of my LD games, Cave Miner from LD 15 (Caverns). I’ve already spent several weeks working on it and here is what it looks like now:

Most notably, I’ve added a lighting/shadow system. I also changed the gold into crystals and added some statistics at the top. It also has some sounds now (using sfxr).

There is still a lot to do: power ups, enemies, level exit, health system, light battery system, doors, keys, switches, teleport, elevators, more decoration and probably something with little bombs and destroyable blocks. And then of course a lot more levels, music, a title screen, menus, high scores, etc.

I finished my game last night and submitted it to MochiAds. Unfortunately, I’m still waiting for it to get approved (I hadn’t thought about this being a weekend, so far my experience was that games get approved within a couple of hours). So I probably won’t make the $1 before the end of October…

Anyway, you can play the game here: Zwarte Piet (flash)

I was planning to make my first Android game for the October challenge, but I need more time for that.

So instead I’m now porting another old game to Flash: Zwarte Piet. So far, I’ve got the first level coming along nicely. It shouldn’t be too hard to finish this game, submit it to Mochiads and still make at least $1.00 before the end of October!

Here is a little program I’ve been playing around with (inspired by the theme Evolution, which didn’t make it again):

• Random Art Evolver (Flash)

This program generates random images based on a code (which is shown at the bottom) and mutates them. When you click on one of the images, you’ll see it in full size at the right and all images will start to evolve from that point on. If none of those get any better, you can restart the same code by clicking on the large image.

Once you have found an image you want to use for something, you could capture the screen and save it somewhere as a bitmap, but the idea is to simply save the code and use a function to generate the image at any time.

The library is for haXe, it generates a BitmapData from a given String. It shouldn’t be too hard to port it to as3 as well.

Enjoy!

I’m glad with the JAM, I might even get something playable done this time!

Things aren’t going as fast as I had hoped and it doesn’t look like I can finish my game in the next hours, so I’m going for the jam! (Should have made that decision earlier, then I wouldn’t have had to code that basic platform stuff again…)

Last night I played a concert with a symphony orchestra at a “street festival” in Wageningen. There was a wind orchestra that played after us who didn’t have any basses, so we played along with them as well. I was home at 1.30 am and was very tired. Now I’ve slept well and I’m ready to start working!