Due to popular demand, I give you the ‘cat vend’ game theme song.  I threw it together for the game literally at the last moment, did it in one take per track via Audacity, and unfortunately quietly (screws up the sound) because it was early in the morning. The melody is Journey’s of course but there are actually a number of instrument and arrangement modifications so that it ‘goes to 11′.  I hardly ever do covers but it fit the theme so well, I had to do it.  I figured they wouldn’t mind since they apparently found their last singer on Youtube or some such thing doing covers of their songs. I should have some new actually good tracks coming soon for the ‘Adventures of Robin Hood’ album project since I’m finally on vacation.

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/zqvGdqSX/catvend.html

Here’s a brief synopsis of how “There’s Waldo” came to be.  Some LD guys and I were in a google hangout, and I bounced a bunch of ideas off of everyone, one real good one was a reimagining of “Where’s Waldo” with none of the people except Waldo, and when you click him, it says “there’s waldo” as if you didn’t know.  The game is completely defeated this way, but I think it says something about “alone” vs. “not alone”, besides being hilarious.  So anrdres and I bring you ‘There’s Waldo’, thanks to everyone who helped put this together so quickly and for the chat.

http://t.co/ciPUrpCo

Another idea we had was to make a big splash screen for a multiplayer game, and then have it say “couldn’t find friends to play with” and it just shows you sitting there at that screen.  I figured this was a modern way to show how alone affects gameplay in some games… if you can’t find anyone to play with, the game is totally useless.  Also batted around were things like playing a team sport as the only player on the field, the score still moves and you have the ball but that’s it.

Well I have run out of time for the competition, so I turned in cat vend.  I am very happy with the adhoc song I did this morning.  It’s a parody, yes, so I can’t take credit for the melody but I don’t think the band would be offended and I felt it fit with the spirit of LD to add that.  I think it helps play to the absurdity and humor I intended this time with my entry.  I wanted to make a claw game and the theme ended up being alone, so my first thought was to make a claw game with just one object left in it.  Then I figured why not have it be something that moves around, like a cat.  I really didn’t intend to make a “kitten” themed game, although there is a kitten hidden in my game aside from the cat.

http://www.devinmoore.com/catvend/appletholder.html

disclaimer: This game is not implying that a cat is being abused or that anyone should put a cat in a claw game, etc.

I have a ton of the control code and the actual vend machine digital outline done, the big obstacle is drawing in the cable for the vend claw in the right position on the sprite.

Mockups:

http://twitpic.com/7ugogr

The theme is alone, so I’m not sure how closely this matches, but the folks in the chat can attest that i did this after the theme came out. It’s a side view cat vending machine with just one cat left in it. when you try to pick him up with the claw (claw game style), he moves around, making it really hard. Screenshots pending probably tomorrow.

I figured this might be interesting to some people, to see how little time I project I will actually get to spend — hopefully this makes my entries make a little more sense.

1. design  Friday night max 2 hrs.  asset creation Saturday morning max 4 hrs.

2. asset creation / code development – saturday 11am-1pm, 3-5pm?

3. testing – either saturday 5-7pm and/or sunday morning 1-2 hrs.

4. release – saturday beta, sunday final for competition in morning.

Max total: design 2, development /asset creation 8, testing 4 = 14 hours.  Of course, this doesn’t count family time where I am thinking about what has to get done, just the actual max time I may be able to put hands to keyboard.

I should be able to make something this time, I am hoping for a significantly cool game i.e. something that 1-up’s Dream Escape.