Well here we go: the game is unfinished, I’m tired and need to get up early tomorrow.

About three hours ago pretty much everything I tried constantly failed to work the way I wanted so I broke down and borrowed some code from one of my other games. Since 10 minutes ago everything is working pretty well, but I’m still missing one core feature as well as some music and lots of optimization (i.e. bug-fixing).

Meaning: compo’s done (failed). Good luck to all remaining contestants!

But the jam is on! I will finish the game tomorrow as a jam entry.

Another night to dream for all villains out there. Here’s a last screenshot for today:

Time to admit defeat, I’m not going to make it.

The major reason was I gave myself too much tech to write. In fact, if I’m going to be honest, I prefer tech writing to game writing (I’m not a fan of things like Unity, I think they hide too much away, so you end up learning the tool, not the method). The minor reason is that I wasn’t mad keen on the theme. I had two themes from the final round on my “Please don’t let these win” list, and one of them did. Ah well, better luck next time.

If you’re interested, the concept for “Hell is Other People’s Bullets” was that you would control the enemies in a vertical shmup in a similar manner to an RTS game. Things would be pretty frantic as, of course, the AI-controlled player could one-hit-kill most of your units. The beauty of the idea was that level design was more-or-less not required (however, I can see that seriously affecting the longevity of the game). And naturally the end-of-level boss would be the Enormous Mutant Star Goat from H2G2.

I got as far as having the player dodge bullets in a reasonably convincing manner, but I wasted too much time finding a bug that turned out to be caused by passing by reference rather than value (showing my Javascript inexperience there). I flat-out won’t have time to finish any graphics or music to my satisfaction, so I think it’s best I leave it while I’ve still got some Sunday left. I shall remember to have less coding to do next time.

However, that’s not to say I didn’t achieve the goal I set myself. I learnt Javascript, and I found a lot of the pitfalls inherent in web programming. I’m going to carry on with this framework for the next LD. I want to sort out proper pixel collision and look more into database access so I can have data files other than textures.

I’m reasonably happy, and now I’m going to do some gardening.

This time we were not able to finish the game, but we do learn some important lessons :

1. make agreements with the team, believe on me : personal events during the ludum dare can ruin your tighty schedule, so before start make sure everybody involved is in the same pace, and with the calendar free.

2. practice the basics of the technology some days before, even knowing Unity3D, as it’s not my daily basis tool some basic activities took more than expected.

3. react fast, as we had some changes in the people involved in the project, instead of creating useless code while waiting for the artist, I should change the game plan and go with something that could be done with my own artistic resources.

4. share results on facebook is not that hard check on this https://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/games/getting-started/

5. define as a team what will be the folder names for the game assets in unity, so when the export package all over the place madness start, you don’t loose precious time reorganizing files, materials all over the project.

6. don’t make reusable code for ludumdare make straight forward code, and then after the ludum dare, find some time to refactor and reuse wherever you like.

cheers.

Hi Everyone,

This is only my second Ludum Dare, and I’m dropping out.

When I found out the theme was evolution I was really enthusiastic as I had a number of ideas for it. So I started and got a good way into the base coding, before I finalised my idea.

It wasn’t until,a couple of hours ago that I realised I had to rework some things….this is where I started downhill. As I’ve been working, different ideas and code snippets have been building in my head. So right now, it feels like a burden just to start writing code again.

As much as I would like to continue with this project, I’m going to have to pull out here. I’ll keep it as something to do sometime, but not for the contest.

Before I attempt another Ludum Dare I’m going to have to practice a bit more with the structure of a game, and also with the OpenGL side of things (planning to learn during LD is NOT a wise option)

I do feel disappointed with myself, but I know I’ll just get frustrated if I continue

See you next time

So, I did not complete anything for this Ludum Dare.  Maybe next time.

What Went Wrong

• Could not come up with a good idea for the theme
• Sick with a persistent headache all weekend
• Debugging quirks in Unity took longer than expected

What Went Right

• I liked what I made
• The character controls feel good
• The animation is kind of nice
• I think it could have been kind of fun if I had a few more days

Play The Unfinished, Unsubmitted “Game” Here

I knew in the back of my mind that I was not 100% committed to Ludum Dare this time. I knew I was unprepared, as I said in my “I’m in” post. I decided to join in far to late, without any warm-up, and in a language have not used in any real projects before. All I can say is… What was I thinking!

LD48 is not forgiving in nature. If you aren’t committed and ready, then your butt will be kicked! I am not saying that it is a total loss. Quite the opposite!

The main reason I gave it a go was because I hadn’t before. Every time, I would say “Oh, I am not really prepared, I will just do the next one, and be ready!” The problem with that is that I had no idea what “prepared” was. So this time I made the snap decision (2 hours before the theme announcement) to give it a go just to get a taste.

So I gave up with about 14 hours on the clock, and decided to go to bed instead. I will still carry on with my game, and develop it as a prototype further. But it just wont be for Ludum Dare.

So I think by next time, I will be ready, and will know a bit more what to expect. I get an idea of how long 48 hours actually is, and will maybe use a language/platform I have lots of experience in.

In the end I spent too much time researching possible engines and didn’t get anything finished. A lot of time was wasted trying to figure out how to make Slick2d work in an applet. But really I didn’t have a game to applet…ize.

Game Name: Kitten Alone

Language: Java

Libraries: LWJGL, Slick2d, MarteEngine

Completion: 10%

I ran out of time leading up to the event to do the kind of self-education that would have made this possible. My current plan is to continue working on the game (and changing the title…) so next event I’ll have a better idea what I’m doing. And if for some reason my Java skills aren’t up to snuff by the next Jam, I may need to make the next entry in Basic. Or ActionScript 2.

Yep Ive bombed out. Got to the point at 4am last night where I realised I more than likely wouldnt have a game worth submitting by todays deadline.

So thats a bit dissapointing. But it was still a good experience. Im determined to work on everything that let me down for this LD (ie time managment, planning and doing things which are too complex) in preparation for the next LD.

Slight malfunction with the space station

So yeh, I at least have a brand new game concept developed, with a great story I want to tell, so Ill more than likely get serious about these leftovers from my LD attempt of a game and make it into something better and an actual game.

I look forward to playing a bunch of games over the next week or so however, to see what all of you successful LD guys have come up with, let the voting commence and Ill be seeing you all again for LD23 in a couple of months

-ADEdge

So, My first attempt at Game programming coincided with Ludum Dare #22….Which also coincided with me moving back home from university for Christmas….overall -> massive challenge

My breakdown of events:

1. I haven’t produced anything worth submitting – only got much of the backbone finished
2. I have learnt a lot about the workings of C++ and the SDL library
3. I managed to produced my very first makefile to automate building and debugging
4. I have a basis for a game I have wanted to make for a while
5. I might still have some time to finish in time for the Jam Deadline

I was going to do a more adventure type game.

Now, feces to that. It’s time for a TOWER DEFENSE GAME. TOTALLY ORIGINAL.

Now here’s what our main character was going to look like. I know, it’s utter crap, but it still took me like an hour.

I’m so good.

Didn’t finish. I’m just too tired right now, and it’s nowhere near done. Thats what you get for slacking off I guess…

Things that went well:
* Forming idea’s

Things that didn’t go well:
* Always putting my idea’s in and wasting time instead of working on the core game
* Internet on computer
* Notch livestream

Overall a great experience. I feel ready for december. I’ll try not to get distracted as easily.

share: http://uploading.com/files/c6859f6b/WhaleEscape.zip/
movement = arrowkeys
rest = R
if Stamina = 0, you need 20 rests. (should have lowered, didn’t… méh)

Turn based gameplay, but with buttonbashing, feels reamtime-ish

TimeLapse day 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ8XI1YOXMY

TimeLapse day 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjmUgS86rW8

Yep, I’m a-goin’ for it. However, I’m breaking the rules in two important ways:
1) I’m blithely ignoring the theme and doing double zombie rainbows instead (see my comments in the announce thread for why fear really needs more time to do it justice).
2) instead of 48 hours of calendar time, I’m doing 48 hours of compute time.

I am timelapsing this, and there is a clock visible in the display to accurately assess how long it takes. I’ll be pausing the clock when I’m not at my station (due to shopping, being stuck at my day job, etc).

As usual, I’ll be working in Allegro 4.4, and possibly AllegroGL, with GIMP, Milkshape, MilkyTracker and SFXR rounding out the tool suite.

I have some vague bullet hell ideas, and some kawaii/moe chibi zombie girls bouncing about in my head – should be fun!

I have my monitors configured so that my second monitor is to the upper left of my primary monitor. But when it takes screenshots in dual monitor mode, it acts as if the second monitor is on the right, so I just get a screenshot of my screen plus an extra 1600×1200 black area to the right.

Is there any solution or do I need to move my monitor to the right side?

Wish I would’ve tried this a week ago.

Or alternatively, is there a better timelapse capture program that can handle this situation?

So close. I was so close to having a finished product. I will finish it tommorrow, and write a post-mortem

What almost was (today, anyway)

… isn’t much different from the end of Saturday, I think.

I wasn’t taking this contest seriously, expecting most of my time to be used up. What I did have left I did very little with. Mostly today I just drew a floating island and added them in. So in 2 days I’ve almost made the overworld.

Link again is here. I’m not submitting as it isn’t a game. But it’s been fun, and I’m looking forward to wasting a couple of weeks playing other people’s entries.

and failed miserably. Just wanted to take a break from Unity and all that fancy 3d. But, it was fun to mess around TADS3 for a bit. There’s a few things you can do in the game, but nothing too interesting. Will probably come back to TADS3 one day and make a proper text adventure. Now to finish my real entry.

windows build + tads3 source code

Well I think its safe to say I have totally mucked up my game. After getting some sleep and finishing my maths exams today I played through the game. I was horrified at the number of mistakes and errors there were. I also realised that I spelled the name of the game wrong when I submitted it. But I’ve learned some new things so that’s the good thing.

One question though. After you have submitted your entry are you allowed to fix errors and stuff in it? I don’t really want to fix anything (what’s done is done). I’m just stupidly curious.

P.S Maybe I’ll get the worst game award.

I have been fruitlessly mucking about with random level generation and bumping into SIGFPEs and infinite loops. It seems to not fail now, however it doesn’t do what I want it to either. Here, have a nice picture!

Ooh, isn't it pretty?

It should be linking all the rooms up, however I have done far too much complication to my code without really thinking and it now scares me. I think I really need to rip it out and rewrite it so I know what it does. *sigh*

I AM NOT GOOD WITH COMPUTER

This is the first LD I wasn’t able to get game play in by the deadline. This project is a long way off from being something that could even resemble fun.

Well, unless you like clicking a box with a check mark in it and knowing that underneath the scenes, it is now the next player’s turn. B-)

Here are screen shots of the project as it stands at the deadline:

As some of the IRC members noted, the attempt was still beneficial. I learned a lot this time around, and I’m better at game development for it.

Well, I fail .. but here’s my concept art:

So the concept was you have your PixelSlaves build your PixelTower .. and you could whip / feed / water them, and give them more straw and mud to build your PixelTower.  But, I’m not really sure if this game idea is in good taste, nor am I sure if it would really work out to be fun anyways.  So I think I’ll leave the experience to your imagination.

I’m also a bit distracted by my iphone Galcon project, so I’ll be working on that a bit, but I’ll still hang out for the LD festivities today   I might even bring in a surprise!!!