The Basic Engine is done! Tomorrow graphics and gameplay! Now I’m going to sleep! (4:50 am here T_T)

>Play the game here<

First of all I’ve got to say that I’ve just been programming since December, so…almost 5 months! That’s nothing compared with the time most of you have been programming, so I’m still a noob!:D That was obviously my first LD.  My Language of choice is Java with the Slick2D library, I love it!

When the final round of themes started, I wrote some ideas for every theme, just for have something to start with.
Before the theme was announced I was so excited and started coding something, just a test for maybe upload it as a warmup, but I forgot to upload it, so…finally nothing. I just want the Ld to start, I was so excited!
Then, the theme was announced at 3:00 am and I have to choose between stay coding all night long or go to sleep and wake up early. I gave myself 1 hour to think about it. I check the ideas I wrote for the game: City simulator. NO WAY! Why I wrote thaat!? And started thinking something new. I just knew that I won’t do a platformer, just because I don’t know to do it..yet.
Some ideas came to my mind…I started coding and came up with this:

A little rectangle moving in a screen. I thought what could I do with that and random maps and resources gathering was the first I thought. I surrendered on resources gathering..so complicated for me. Started doing random maps but can’t find any objective for the game yet. Then I started adding graphics:

Later I made an enemy that follows you when you get closer and it harm you ! That’s Nice! Then I add npcs that follow you too, but don’t harm you. Then, some ideas were floating in my head and decided to do it simple: Save the npcs from being killed by the enemies! I placed some trees on the map, a few enemies, and a few npcs…but it didn’t feel complete…it have to be some way to let the npcs be safe. I thought about it and I draw and program a house, the objective was simple: take all the npcs to the house without dying:

From that point, having an objective, everything went so fluid. I started drawing sprites and I amazed myself, I came up with that lovely sprites:

 
Then I decided to make just one map but make it hardcore! Just because the way I wrote the code was a mess and I should rewrote a lot again…and no time for doing that. I kept working on it until last minute, It still have bugs, like collisions and animations..but I’m so so so so happy with the work done.

WHAT WENT RIGHT:

• I knew the tools I was using, so no problems when coding, or drawing or making music.
• I Came with a basic engine in a short time.
• I had a TODO list and wrote everything I just need. And it was very helpful.
• I LOVE THE ART I MADE.
• The music aswell.
• I was enjoying and having fun with what I was doing and i think that’s very important .

WHAT WENT WRONG:

• I’m just a learner, so there are a lot of things I do that surely have a better and faster way to be done.
• Friday I only slept for 4h, Saturday 6h…so I worked on the game for 38h that’s a lot!>.<
• Some bugs that I wasn’t able to fix.

And a fun fact: There are 10 npcs…but there are 11 houses!! I realized today! That’s why I should’ve sleep more ! xD

Finally, I must say that LD was an amazing experience and, I will participate on the next LD for sure! And please, play my game/rate/comment! I will to try to do the same with yours, sure! Thanks everybody who have played and rated !Keep doing games!

David.

Here is my game, please rate and comment! I’ll do a post-mortem later!

It’s quite difficult to beat the game..but keep trying!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=10692

Here another pic:

TODO list:

• Level desing
• Draw a few extra tiles(water, waterfall,mountain), and the Pigz animation
• Sword engine for kill the Pigz and win the game!
• Try to fix the overlapping sprites(if i’ve time)
• Polish some things

And here a screenshoot:

I’m so tired, it’s 5:50 am and last night I only sleep for 3 hours, tonight I’m gonna sleep a little more! :3

I don’t have name for the game yet, but I can explain you what the objective  is: The tiny world where you live is being attacked by the creatures known as Pigz, help all the citizens to go home and  take the Pigz away from the world! I will only do one level, so the game will be  tiny too! And here a pic with the sprites recently made I think I’m gonna re-do the tree..I don’t like it at all. But it’ll be tomorrow! Have fun guys!~

This is going great:

I made this:

hello world

C’mon guys! This is gonna be awesome!

My desktop right now, I’m ready for everything:

Hi, I’ve been following LD during the last year and  I’d always thought: wow, one day I’ll join, this is so amazing! I’d always liked games, but also create music and art, so game making is the perfect combination for me!:D  Since I started to get interested  about game programming I’ve tested a lot of engines and languages but finally I came up with java and I liked it a lot. I’ve been programming since the beginning of this year and I think I’m ready, let’s do this!

RECAP:

• Language: Java
• IDE: Eclipse
• Library: Slick2D
• Art: Paint.NET
• Sounds: BFXR
• Music: LSDJ or/and Ableton Live

Good luck everybody! And the most important thing: HAVE FUN!