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.

As expected this participation didnt reach the end with an complete game, but at least I moved forward in some research was able to create some nice pieces that I believe I will use soon or later :

- store the user location and movement direction in a server
- make the server based on tomcat
- remove the inactive users from the list of current users
- make unity to send the current position and movement direction of an character
- receive on unity the result of http calls using POST

now my next steps will be :
- beased on the list of objects from the server, keep track of the necessary objects to create and show.

good luck all !
cheers

I believe a better name than post mortem would be lessons learned, so let’s see my lessons learned from the  competition. I would love to read this before the compo, as I can’t make the time go backawards, let try at least to help other newbies.
1. create the menu navigation at the start of the competition
As I was fighting agains some physics problems during the development process most of the menu was left behind. Then I realized 30 minutes to the end that my menu would be an image =) and a play button…

The lesson on this would be, use time in the middle of the nightmares to do these brainless activities, because what can go wrong while build a menu ? =)

2. draw in the paper build and color in the computer
That helped alot, I save my day manipulate the lines with inkscape, but … in order to slice images I have a nightmare with inkscape, go with Gimp works as a breeze

3. dont split images, let the engine split for you
ahhhh I spend some hours cutting images lol !!, could use something like http://love2d.org/docs/love_graphics_draws_1.html to draw a subsprite of the image …

4. make physics work for you
Oh Well after the physics hit me in the head, I learned some details and was able to make it work in a decent way, special note for the boats that hang around over the sea, for that I created a sequence of x,y that is the path to the boats, and I try to follow the path, I believe if I make the water line as an object and change its group to only colide with the boat would be the best to move the boat around.

5. clean the tables in one place only.
Not sure why, buit when I was removing items from my objects list in teh collision handler the LOVE was just crashing … workaroiund that I found : flag to items to be removed and remove in the update() method and one by one from each table, this is call at the end of the update() for each cleanable table :

[code]--- clean the tables
function cleanTable(table2Clean)

for n=1,table.getn(table2Clean),1 do
if table2Clean[n].dirty ~= nill then
table2Clean[n].poly:destroy()
table2Clean[n].body:destroy()
table.remove( table2Clean, n )
break
end
end
end
[/code]

and at the collision handler, I dont remove the pig from the list, just flag it
and I believe that this would be a nice way to animate the pig booom =)
by using a multistate, like alive/almost dead/dying/im outa here
would change the image section, or play an animation … and at the end remove from the list
that would be great …

[code]
function killThePig( id )

love.audio.play( audioCollision, 1 )
pigsKilled = pigsKilled +1

for n=1,table.getn(pigs),1 do
if pigs[n].poly:getData() == id then
pigs[n].dirty = true
break
end
end
end
[/code]

6. reusable files should be in a folder
I’m using for labels the .lua classes that I made called LOVEly-eyes, but I had this problem with the Text object that wasnt transparent … Oh well I went in the code changed the super class, Rectangle to handle this and the Text is transparent by default, cool, but but but … after that I just copied all the files from the LOVEly-eyes folder to my game folder … too bad because I copied a main.lua file together … If I wasnt using subversion would be a nightmare … now LOVELy-eyes are in a separated folder =)

7. use a version control system
I used subversion, saved me when I made an stupid folder copy … revert and just lost some minutes of work… bu remember keep on committing =)

8. put together a zip with everything
Better that just the .love file, create a package with the execs, the best would be create an installer.

9. level up level up !!!
people like rewards, so more than the score I should add level concept, just with faster attack of the pigs, or a different scenario with different speed .. hummmm that would be cool a .lua file for each level

10. collision has 2 sides … A and B
It took me some time to realize that A and B collision data, first they are the DATA from the polygon nothing else, just disconnected data, not a reference, not and pointer … hehehhe string data what makes very nice and unplugged from the code, and you have to test both sides, if wherever A colide on B and the oposite, this was my colision code

[code]function collision(a, b, c)

if string.starts(a, "pig") and string.starts(b, "battery") then
killThePig( a )
removeTheBattery( b )
elseif string.starts(b, "pig") and string.starts(a, "battery") then
killThePig( b )
removeTheBattery( a )
elseif a == DIODONTIDAE and string.starts(b, "food") then
eatFood( b )
elseif b == DIODONTIDAE and string.starts(a, "food") then
eatFood( a )
end

end

function string.starts(String,Start)
return string.sub(String,1,string.len(Start))==Start
end
[/code]

note that I used start() because I add the object id after the type, so I can grabb it from the list, something like “crap_2″, “crap_3″

11. scroll the view is possible Luke… use the force !
Ha ! not the force, at the end I solved the screen scrolling with a simple solution, calculated a shif from the main character and update this shift in the update() method and every single draw has this shift. So the camera is following the character, thats stays in the screen all the time, and to avoid the char to drop outside the world I add invisible walls on left and right side and check if the cameraX is in the possible range,

this in the start of the code

[code]
startCameraX = love.graphics.getWidth( ) / 2
startCameraY = 200

cameraX = -startCameraX
cameraXLimit = {}
cameraXLimit.start  = 0
cameraXLimit.finish = -2905
[/code]

+ cameraX on each draw
[code]
love.graphics.draw(diodontidae.image,
diodontidae.theChar:getX() + cameraX,
diodontidae.theChar:getY())

------ draw the batteries
for n=1,table.getn(batteries),1 do
love.graphics.draw(
imageBattery,
batteries[n].body:getX() + cameraX,
batteries[n].body:getY(),
batteries[n].body:getAngle() )
end
[/code]
this on the update()

[code]    cameraX = startCameraX - diodontidae.theChar:getX()

-- keep the camera in the boundaries
if cameraX > cameraXLimit.start then
cameraX = cameraXLimit.start
elseif cameraX < cameraXLimit.finish then
cameraX = cameraXLimit.finish
end
[/code]