Hi,

Since the competition is over (good luck jam people!) I thought I’d share some of the lessons I learned during the 48h in the making of HOME.

What went right:

1. I got a complete, working game. As someone who started many projects, but finished very few, this is the best thing about LD for me – I actually FORCE my self to finish this, and it rocks! It happened in LD17 as well, but this time was as good!

2. I think the style and general feel of the game is quite good, and as I intended. Everything runs fast and smooth, and has this vectorized look, which I like. Although I implemented this using sprites, it look quite crisp IMHO.

3. Music turned out to be atmospheric as I wanted it, maybe a bit boring, but it’s background anyway…

4. The code (available, of course) is surprisingly neat – it only started getting messy towards the end.

What went wrong:

1. Gameplay – I think the whole tractor beam mechanism is not fun enough, and not really necessary for finishing the game (although it helps) – this is both due to the physics code which should have been tweaked more, and possibly the general game idea.

2. The game is WAY too short, it’s not that easy (sometimes it is, depends on random values) but you can finish it in under 30 seconds if you’re lucky. not good.

3. No sounds effects! This is actually a technical issue, something weird with how clanlib handles sounds – I got the music to work after a LONG time, but sound effects were very problematic. ANYWAY – you can’t hear anything in space.

4. I wasted a lot of time of getting rigid body collisions (spheres, actually) which I didn’t use – it’s a shame really..

That’s it, I think.

You are welcome to play my game and of course, VOTE!

Can’t wait for the next LD!

Daniel

Hey – just submitted HOME – my LD entry for this competition.

Here’s a link to it – don’t forget to vote!!!

Thanks everyone!

Daniel

Well, game mechanics + effects are nearly complete.

Need to do scoring, dying, winning and title/ending screen. Need to add sounds as well.

I am going to make it!!

Here’s a current screenshot showing off asteroids, enemy ships, tractor beam and particles!

Good luck to everyone!

Daniel

After a short breakfast (woke up WAY too late):

I added a starfield, fixed a lot of the physics stuff and collision handling and now – I will actually make it into a game:

My girlfriend had this idea that the player will need to collect stuff to fix his ship and go home, so I will do just that! You will have to collect 3 wrenches floating in space, and in the meantime, use the asteroids and spaceships to fight off enemies, I hope it will be fun, or at least, more fun than it is now…

Hope I will make it in time! Thanks for the comments!

Daniel

Got my collision detection to work – collision handling will be a bit harder than I thought, working on it…

Physics is still not perfect, but the code is not bad, I hope to get everything polished by tomorrow.

Here’s a screenshot, look at the shiny tractor beam!

I can’t seem to upload my music to here, so you will have to wait for the game.

Thanks!

Daniel

Well, I am making progress.

Force fields are working, but gameplay is not much fun yet – I think I might need some spring physics… should be easy to incroporate. Here is a current screenshot, the yellow thing is the ship’s forcefield:

This is the Lasagne I had for lunch, and it gives me strength, thank you dear girlfriend!

In the meantime I made some music, it is atmospheric as I could make in 30 minutes, but it will work. I’ll upload it later…

Daniel

Hi Everyone,

After a late start, this is the first screenshot of my upcoming game “HOME”:

The story is about a sole survivor in a spaceship floating in space, and he wants to go home. Weapons and shields are down after a hard battle, so all he has to defend himself with is a tractor-beam – which will allow the player to drag enemy ships/asteroids and throw them onto other enemies.

(Very) Basic physics are already there, as long with basic sprite drawing and handling – hope to get it all up and running in this retro, vectorized style.

Girlfriend has made Lasagne, so soon, eating!

Thanks! I’ll be happy to hear comments!

Daniel

I was not at home until now – BUT NOW I AM.
I already have an idea, will start sketching things up soon – hope to have first screen shots in an hour or two…

Good luck to everyone participating!