1. What OS are you using? (Windows / Linux – Include which version if you so desire but it is not necessary)
2. Are you using 32Bit or 64Bit? (This is the biggy)

The only button that works is the spacebar.

It’s very short, but I thought it was pretty cool. Good production quality. I spent most of the time on the art and physics, I did it all from scratch.

Written in C++ using SFML2.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=rate&uid=6035

Check it out, play it please, let me know what you think

I also have a lack of ideas, that sucks too. I’ve finished all the mechanics and music scares me.

Timelapse for day 1. Time for sleep now. A day of music and polish tomorrow. It’s nearly done!

My last entry did surprisingly well, taken it was my first time, but due to hectic times at work (we just released new game this Wednesday) I haven’t been able to finish the post-compo version (but its still coming and is actually progressing somewhat steadily, even if slowly… very very slowly!).

I will likely use C++/SDL/OpenGL again, even though I kind of promised myself that I’d use some other language (with GC(!)), but really don’t want to move too far out of my comfort zone while having such limited time. BlitzMax will be my backup tool if I happen to go nerd-rage over silly memory management issues again.

For “art” its the usual GIMP, TuxGuitar and SFXR.

I will probably end up using the same glitchy “framework” I used last time which I wrote a while back Link but I’ll try to get something more usable ready by the next weekend.

Edit: Given my recent drooling over oldskool games I might be using my “retro framework” which i unfourtanetly was unable to finish before LD, but guess its a good way to “beta” test it . Source available in here

This is the first time I enter a Ludum Dare challenge, and boy am I anxious. I earn my living working as a Game Designer for Gameloft (been doing so for a year), but since I got my job, I haven’t been able to finish any personal projects/games. Ludum Dare represents, a great opportunity to boost my moral, as well as a personal challenge, so I’ll be looking forward to it.

As for the tools I will be using, guess I’ll stick to what I know best:

Language: C++ with the aid of DarkGDK.

Audio library of choice: Irrklang.

3D Graphics: Milkshape3D

2D Graphics: Paint.NET.

Level editor: Mapscape.

My work station contains a Desktop Computer (development), and an old Acer Aspire 5050 laptop for debugging, and keeping in touch with everyone on IRC/Twitter. Honestly, all I want out of this challenge is to finish something in this short period of time, and as a newcomer to it, I’m a little worried. I’m happy to meet and “compete” with all of you.

Language: C# using XNA

Platform: Windows (I use XP still, btw)

I plan to make the sound effects myself with a mic and sound editor, so my game will either have bad sound effects or literal onomatopoeia ones like “bang”.

What went right

I spent some time coming up with a couple of interesting(ish) ideas, but ended up throwing them out before settling on what became Cosmic Heist. When I designed the game that actually ended up being made, I actually cut out tons of things, and cut even more as I developed it. This is one area that I really want to improve (I, like many others, am horrible at the “cutting things until it’s right” part), and I feel I made some good progress during this compo. I was able to reject tons of ideas, some good, some bad, but all non-essential.

I had a decent personal code base to start from, and already knew all about the language, libraries, and tools I used beforehand, so I was able to jump right in.

I left some time for play-testing and bug fixing/tweaking near the end, but ended up not needing very much of it. The game was small and simple enough that it wasn’t too buggy by the end, and my wife and I tested it some as I worked on it anyway. However, I would definitely leave this buffer time again anyway, because it really kept things stress-free.

The menus ended up looking/working/sounding great, and I added a cool animated menu background near the end that I really liked. I’ll probably use some of the work that went into that stuff off into the future in other projects.

The music turned out to not suck as much as I thought it would. That was actually my highest-scoring area in the competition, and I am still somewhat unsure what to make of that. This was my first time really making any music, and I don’t really have experience playing/reading/etc. music either. But it doesn’t sound too bad, so I am counting that as a nice success.

The controls are really fluid, and are my favorite part of the whole thing by far. The way you control the ship is great, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I actually didn’t spend much time tweaking that, and by implementing everything I needed for it, I had a whole system for various enemy ship movements, too.

What went wrong

The player’s ship is a bit oddly shaped. This makes it hard to see where you are going. I didn’t realize this at all (duh! isn’t it obvious! the ship points in the direction I drew it to point!) until people began commenting on it. Certainly something that would need to be fixed.

Some people kept looking for the shoot button. I didn’t make it very obvious (at all) that there is no shooting in the game. You just pilot your ship, and enemy ships try to plow into you.

There were a couple of features I wanted to get in, but had to cut due to time constraints. I wanted enemy ships to shoot at you, and every level was supposed to start at a shipyard, from which you had just stolen a ship.

There might be a problem with the Linux build of the game, as one person mentioned they couldn’t get it to run. Unfortunately, it runs fine for me, but I only have two machines to test it on, and they are both almost identical in both hardware and software. If anyone has or can test the game on Linux and tell me if it a) explodes, b)doesn’t run at all, or c) runs fine, I would greatly appreciate it.

Conclusion

All in all, as I said, I was very pleased with the outcome, and I even got some people to play my game, so that was really exciting. I hadn’t ever participated or followed LD until now, so I didn’t have any idea what to expect. I honestly didn’t think anyone would even see my game! Thanks to everyone who rated mine. One thing that I regret is that I didn’t have time to rate any games myself. I did play a few, and they were all great. Next time, I want to set aside some time to rate a good number of games.

Links

Ludum Dare entry

Cosmic Heist on Cheese and Bacon (my website)

Cosmic Heist on Google Project Hosting (MIT License)

While the game is nothing to write home about I reached my goal and finished a “game” in time from scratch (with almost 8 hours remaining on the clock) so I’m rather happy.
Had great time and will definitely enter again, most likely with more ambitious game designs =).

Cant wait to try out all the great looking games!

Oh and the game can be fetched from: here
(windows and Linux version available)

The obligatory desk photo:

My desk - Windows laptop with the code on, Mac mini with the social networks and the entertainment

And a screenshot of my code so far:

Some of my code - in my puzzle escape game thingy, there are 6 chambers you must get through. This is the code that loads the chamber graphics.

I’m coding in XNA. I’ll learn Flash one of these days. Or Java.

So we’re getting somewhere. See you on the other side.

I’ll be using:

Language: C++

Libraries: SDL (for window management/input/audio/etc…), and OpenGL.

Any textures will probably be made with The GIMP, if I find the time to make any.

Sound effects: sfxr (if I get around to that.)

Right now gLapse is churning away at turning almost 1500 jpgs into a movie.

So far I’ve got OpenGL rendering, and input being processed, as well as movement through my 3D world, and “moving” platforms. Next up is to master the physics of falling onto said platforms, additional game mechanics, and resources. But, it’s late and I should have been sleeping over an hour ago, so I’m calling it a night. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll post my time-lapse so far. Good night!

Escape as theme gave kazillions of ideas, but most of them were just simply out of reach in such a short time span. In the end I decided to go with simple puzzler as it seemed like concept I can actually finish and could be enjoyable.

On actual progress I’ve coded some of the basic logic and the “engine” can load maps from external files. In hindsight I probably should’ve slept few hours more as the first hours of coding was just pain and I made more typos than actual code =).

Here’s a screenie what I actually have on the screen so far… nothing much, but the underlying code is flexible enough so adding new kinds of objects is quick and painless:

screenie1

And something I’ve made about the theme:

Good Luck Everyone!!

I was thinking of possibly using C#/XNA, but I recently decided I will be coding in C++ instead. As a result, I’ll be using a new framework I started writing only a couple of days ago, and a bunch of other libraries of which I have little or no experience using. So the goal is to keep it simple. In a short moment we’ll all know the theme, at which point I can start pondering on the gameplay. Lots of improv (and learning) ahead!

Libraries used: SFML, OpenGL, boost, Eigen, and possibly lots more.

You can find the source code here: https://bitbucket.org/Trancelucid/ludum-dare

I will be using C++ with Ogre. Assets will be made with Blender and Photoshop.

This will be my first LD since LD18 so I hope to finish something this time, and get sound in which I have never managed before.