I’ve been waiting for it sooooo loooong and it has finally happend! We’ve just released Ghostly Me – post-compo version of my MiniLD #36 game which was originally called Eruption. It’s free as I promised, and you can play it on Newgrounds. I’ll be happy to get your comments, thanks!

Also, cupquake made a lets-play video for the game and she’s really cute, I had a lot of fun watching it.

But close enough!

Certainly didnt get around to a few major features that Id really hoped for (like being able to steal a car – kinda important in a game that references Grand Theft Auto)

But I’m certainly happy with what I did get done over the weekend. ‘Super Theft Auto’ is a good start for an interesting little mini game.

You can play the current version of the game at the following link after installing the plugin (links/instructions are on the page- the only major OS not supported is OSX):

[LINK] (youll also find it on the CharityGameJam games submission screen of course)

Theres also a link on the page to a .blend download of the setup for the computer VideoTexture scene, youll need Blender 2.64a if you want to mess around with it.

Features:

• A game within a game – You start in a 3D world with a 3D computer, the (kinda) NES style game plays on the screen of the Funkytron computer (press space to zoom in and focus on the screen to actually see what youre doing)
• Large city area to explore (sadly only on foot at this stage)
• Pedestrians wander around the city (they make good target practice)
• Cars driving around (rare and very basic implementation)
• Gun ammunition to pick up
• Basic scoring system (you can score points for killing people)

Either way, this was a fun miniLD to participate in, was great to see the charity fundraising goals surpassed! (for a second time) Now I look forward to playing some of the other games

Fatality!

got this game done just at the deadline, and overlooked a very simple error that caused me to stress for the last 5 hours lol, figured it out, and have the game submitted! enjoy, and I look forward to checking out everyones games!

Controls:

Arrow keys,

*Wanted to use gamepad, but unfortunately my usb gamepad wouldn;t work with chrome

Play Lock N Key!

I have version 0.5c of ‘Super Theft Auto’ now available for public testing/playing/things.

The title screen!

The game is my take on having a game like GTA2 on the NES (or at least a 3D Funkytron console) I havent really kept as close to the NES specs as I would have liked, but I think its turning out ok so far, its been a lot of fun to work on if anything.

Theres not much to the gameplay. I still need to add some major features in. But theres some initial pedestrians now, a title screen, various other much needed improvements – I can see this actually being a game sometime in the near future. I really need to add the car system in though, the map is quite large (spent too much time working on that tonight). Its too much to explore fully on foot.

Ludum Dare tip #9354 – Dont attempt to build a city

You can find the game embedded in this page – [LINK]

Youll need to install the ‘Burster’ web plugin to use it (unfortunately Mac is not supported), but Linix and Windows (64&32bit) will both run it fine. The plugin is a ~26mb download, and is easy to install. Theres instructions & links to download it on the page I made for the game.

Feedback would be great, I know theres not much of a game, but Ill take any crits or suggestions. Also knowing if the Burster plugin install is a smooth process for you would be great as well. I hate having to install a plugin to play a game as much as the next person, but Ive tried to make the page as helpful as possible.

v0.5c in action

Anyway, its past 2am where I live, and Ive been running on 2-3 hours sleep all day (was a bit night saturday night). Im starting to see random flickers/objects in my vision, so a good indicator to get sleep I believe! Plus programming in this state is so slow and frustrating Id be better off sleeping.

Im not sure how much Ill be able to get done in the final hours tomorrow, but I hope to at least implement a few more crucial features (like death and a points systems) – We will see!

Missed posting at the 24 hour mark! ~19 hours to go, close enough.

Making some more progress, but the past few hours have been slow and problematic. I ran into one large problem, which was a kind of ‘grey’ area cause by modules/functions Ive never used in combination before (not sure if anyone has tbh). The main problem came down to the default use of ‘mipmaps’ in the BGE and Blender itself. Basically, mipmapping doesnt work well with sprites. It ‘blends’ the pixels of textures and the results are blurry, ugly sprites for super low-resolution stuff, ie the image below shows the effect:

Mipmapping (fuzzy) vs disabled Mipmapping (sharp)

This is fine in Blender itself, you can simply globally disable mipmapping, problem solved. But the issue existed when I then tried to run the game in the Burster plugin (for web-browser play), mipmapping was on by default – and theres NO way to turn it off. So the all-important browser version of the game was completely fuzzy.

My initial idea was to completely redesign the ‘architecture’ of the game. Splitting the Scene into two independent scenes, one for the 3D computer area, one for the mini-game area being projected onto the screen. I wasnt even sure if the VideoTexture module would work between scenes (which is the only reason why I didnt setup the game like this initially), but after a bit of hair-pulling coding I managed to get it sorted. I then applied a pixelated shader, which was applied to the mini-game scene so it would be pixelated, even though mipmapping was permanently enabled.

The new problem: The shader was applied to the scene, but the VideoTexture plugin wasnt ‘seeing’ the now pixelated version of the level, so the screen was still blurry even though almost everything was running exactly as Id planned.

After some more hair-pulling moments, another much simpler solution came to mind, all I had to do was increase the texture size to sharpen the pixel edges (compromising with slightly larger file-sizes). Major derp moment. This solution took 5 minutes to implement (thankful this is still early on and I dont have hundreds of textures to edit) whereas the previous failed method took almost 2 hours. Gah! At least the scenes are better organised now, the ‘architecture’ of the game is much more solid so its not a complete loss…

Either way, I just need to sort out a sprite animation issue and I’ll have a playable demo up and running for people to try out.

Damn Mipmaps…..

Heres a look at the shader too, it worked pretty well and I’ll probably use it in future projects. You can see it in the background scene, a kind of ‘distant city’ view which is the current WIP city for the game. I wont be using anything like this in final game now (happened completely by accident) but I thought it looked a bit interesting.

Distant city with pixelated shader effect

Im about done for today’s work on the game. Made some progress, theres a player sprite which runs around, and a basic environment (road with buildings either side and an intersection) along with some cars that randomly spawn and can drive into you (blood splatter included), now I have other things to tend to

A friend of mine might be getting involved with the game while I’m away for the next 10-20 hours, so progress might be made (hes been working on music for it today). Then tomorrow will be time to sit down and start finishing things! Ive purposefully aimed pretty low with this game, I’ll just get as much done as possible and enjoy it.

Either way, the game Ive been wanting to make for this is effectively ’GrandTheftAuto re-imagined for the NES’. I hope to have at least 1 gun, cars to drive/steal, blood to splatter and sidewalks to drive down, maybe even some simple kinds of missions. We’ll see!

Some screens:

Car driving past

Might also mention, I 3D’ized the gamepad texture recently released as well, so now theres 2 controllers in the scene (which adds to it nicely I think!)

Was into the idea of this Charity Jam right from the moment I first heard of it. Maybe its the awesome theme, maybe its the fact that its for charity (which already doubled the initial funding goal) – Just noticed McFunkypants has increased the funding goal because of this, good move

Either way, I’ve gone ahead and started my day by donating, every bit helps, so I suggest anyone who is able to donate.. To donate!

Now for the game jam side of things. I like the idea of the template, but wanted to use the BGE (Blenders Game Engine) for this LD (as I do for most Ludum Dares), so yesterday I thought Id come up with my own 3D template, you can see the end result below.

Turn table of 3D Funkytron

*Edit* Removed gif, was unoptimized and bugging out my browser, click the pic above to see it^

This version was more of a ‘proof of concept’ for myself, as I wasnt sure how well the screen projection would work (if at all). So yes, that game you see on the screen you *can play*. Its effectively a 3D game, looking like a 2D game, projected onto the flat 2D screen of a 3D Funkytron in a 3D game world <- this is the kind of thing I think up when I say to myself “lets keep this miniLD nice and simple!”     -_-’

Everything worked as I wanted though, VideoTexture (the BGE module responsible for projecting that realtime display onto the Funkytron screen) works wonders.  Then, to further complicate everything, I decided it would be a good idea to use the Burster plugin with this game. For those who dont know BGE too well, or havent heard of Burster, its effectively a web plugin which lets you use run your BGE games in-browser. It complicates things because Burster has a bunch of restrictions, mainly on what python functions/modules you can use. A bunch of them are blocked for security reasons.

Thankfully, it works, so you can play this template version right now! Controls for the game, along with instructions and links to download burster are all on this page - http://www.delta-edge.com.au/GameTest/game_test.html

Feedback on if this works for you would be great! Also just basic feedback on how annoying/easy it is to download/install Burster and get the plugin running would also be handy. Thinking of using this plugin for future Ludum Dares depending on how it goes for this one.

The only downside to Burster is no Mac support, but 32/64bit Linux & Windows are both supported.

Also, as with any Ludum Dare, I’ll be providing the source code/files for the project, starting with the template (would be great to see others using this!)

Template download: http://www.mediafire.com/?qkfr3ijlfoqwkqz (Youll need Blender 2.64a to open the .blend file and edit the game) – This game is using the Blender Game Engine (BGE)

Download template^

Template scene setup

So thats all for now. The LD starts in <1min, so I have a game to make! I’ve got a friends going-away party happening tonight, so Ill really only have the next few hours and the final 24 hours to work on a game, most of today Ill be afk. And Ill post about what type of game Im planning later as well!

I finally uploaded my entry for the Mini Ludum Dare #37 – it’s a 3D model viewer with a game-y museum atmosphere. I reused the music my brother made for “The Sun Is Deadly”, and the texture are all created with images from cgtextures.com.

The Modeleum is pretty empty right now, I only uploaded three characters I made some time ago. They are in the “Characters” section. You can submit your own 3D models (OBJ format, if there are textures they must be JPG or PNG ).

It’s a not-game about the future of videogames, and the core of what videogames are, and such. Play it. Think about it. The meaning is up to you.

I ended up spending way too much time on it than I wanted, especially as I have serious exams coming up, but I’m pretty happy with the result. Especially graphics. Check out that dithering, man. Dithering. Woah.

Click here to Download Roof Jumper!

Thanks again Olav for the awesome dare minild!

As every Jam i’ve done, and often heard said: I didn’t get to finish it as much as I had wanted, but I learned alot.

Spent 6-8 hours over the course of two days, puttin things here and there, had a blast with designing something as simple as possible, with self imposed dares.

I DARED to :

-Compose a simple platformer where you only run and jump

-Use a very minmal pallete of 4-5 colors.

-used only 2 different platform objects.

-implement a secret cheat code. (“SREBMUN”)

-disregard deadlines, and make the game a day late, and
release it two days late.

-Collaborate with good friend @KhyleDean

-Use Music I didn’t make myself for a change.

Had a Blast with it, and learned lots of new stuff, and more importantly, got an idea of what I need to learn, and what I want to learn.
Thanks again for runnin the comp,and thanks for all the people participating,
always lookin to the next one.
-ZakChaos

It’s done!! You can now blast away at monsters with an infinite number of randomly generated guns to your heart’s content. (The guns can do some pretty interesting things, if I say so myself).

Can you beat my highscore?

     Guns Rule      

Well, I’m in. Here’s my doodle:

I’ve got a basic idea for a game. It may even involve hexes!

So here it is… “Saving his code” 2d mini platform game. I managed to cut my ideas and move on. I had a lot of gameplay features, but it would take a lot of time, that i don’t have right now.

MY ENTRY

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The secret phrase is...

MiniLD #27 is officially a go!

The SECRET PHRASE is:
“I think we can work something out…”

All games that include this phrase will be awarded a golden Ludum Dare achievement trophy that will appear on their profile page. Good luck and have fun!

Happy summer vacation, everyone!  Are you ready for June’s Ludum Dare miniLD game jam? This month’s mini will be held on the weekend of the 25th. I think you will love the theme. It is sure to get people talking… due to popular request I’m releasing the theme early so people on vacation can dive right in and get started early.

The theme is: ALL TALK - conversation trees and dialogue choices.

On Friday June 24 at 4pm PST (midnight GMT) a secret phrase will be announced. Your entry must contain this phrase in the dialogue!

This month’s MiniLD #27 is designed to be fun, low-stress, and relaxed. Perfect for vacationers. The rules this time are going to be very chill: you can use any game engine you like, premade art, and people are welcome to form teams. Instead of crunch-time cramming, you are allowed to start now and work up to midnight on Sunday June 26th. There will be no disqualifications whatsoever. The only rule is that there are no rules. Take your time – use whatever tools you like – just have fun!

Crimson Gem Saga

Ren'Py

June’s “all talk” theme is perfect for plot-heavy, deep philosophical discussions between the player and a cast of NPCs.

Ideal for z-machine text adventures using Inform7, ultra modern HTML5 literary gaming powered by engines such as Undum or the Choice of Games engine. There’s also RPGmaker and Doglion’s RPG engine.

I recommend the ever fantastic Ren’Py visual novel engine.  A complete sample Ren’Py game source code is available here to help you learn.

If you are using Flashpunk, I recommend using Draknek’s upgrade which has an amazing text engine.

Another fantastic engine you might enjoy working with is Jake Elliot’s Visual Novel engine from this game that uses Flixel.

I’ll be creating my own HTML engine for this, using pre-rendered 3d avatars. Since we don’t have to care about tech or rendering performance, HTML5 is the perfect choice since it is great for low-power mobile devices. Heck, you could write your game using youtube, regular html4 or even hypercard.

L.A. Noire

Fire Emblem

Think NPCs, CYOA, multiple choice, text, plot, voiceovers, speech synthesis, prose, humour, conflict, debate, love.

Make a murder mystery or a political scandal. A dating simulator or a talk show. A news report or a bedtime story. A love story or a heart-wrenching breakup. Beat poetry or freestyle hip-hop. Whispers or screams. Secret school flirtations or code-words between spies.  Hardcore RPG, Ren-py visual novel or pure text IF (interactive fiction), the choice is yours.

No matter what the genre – from AAA rpgs and shooters to puzzle games and everything in between, virtually every videogame ever made uses dialogue to progress the plot. Repetitive battles and grinding are sometimes seen as mere filler between the NPC dialogue and missions.  Which is more exciting? Killing your thousandth giant rat or encountering the next major NPC who gives you a quest?

Fallout 3

Alpha Protocol

This low-stress, relaxed rules MiniLD is a fun way to get away from worrying about framerate, animation or incredible 3d graphics and instead focus on the plot. The characters. The story. The soul.

Perhaps you will invent an epic storyline and a cast of interesting characters that are so cool they make it into your next action title! For now, just remember: focus on dialogue and characterization. On personal conflict, emotions and tough decisions.

Valkyria Chronicles

Final Fantasy II

Will this be a fun breather between more intense programming projects? Will your game be easier to program than something more graphics-heavy? Will it be deeper than your last brainless shooter? More artistic? Less work? More original? Discuss.

Read this wonderful article for ideas: [part1] [part2] [part3]

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Ok, I’ve gotten things done! Feels good.

The character now moves correctly and can shoot laser beams. (Thanks to HyrdroKirby in #pygame and cafesofie in #ludumdare)
I’ve also given the clouds a thicker border to make them look *nicer*
Here’s what it looks like:

Laser beams!

Too bad it only gets a terrible 16-26FPS.
I’ll have to optimize it somehow. The code is extremely rubbish at the moment.
Next up: citizens and tanks.

A long time ago in a not so far away land called MiniLD#20 I attempted to make a game. It was called Conquer The Planet and it completely failed. This time, hopefully, it won’t. The theme was greed, which I’m still going for, but I’m screwing the “only one of an object rule” because that’ll add a whole ‘nother level of complexity I don’t want to deal with.

Here’s the original concept idea if you’re interested: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2010/07/16/my-brilliant-idea/
As for the game code, I’m too embarrassed to show anything from that.

Wish me luck! (and follow my progress and give me inspiration and motivation and stuff!)

You can play this game in your browser (warning: sounds will play)

Concept:
It’s time for your final exam to graduate from your UFO school. Only problem is you were a complete slacker. You have no idea how to fly your ship. You have 3 minutes to impress your commander by destroying as many humans, cars, helicopters, tanks and jets as you can–or suffer the consequences!

All you can remember is to use the keys 1,2,3,4 and 7,8,9,0

Tools used:
* Coded in ActionScript 3.0 using the Flash CS4 IDE and using my mouth and microphone and Audacity to process the sound effects. I composed the music loop in Reason.

Here is the latest flash build of my game (you have to click on the game before it will have key focus)

Starting to get collisions and scoring in.  Still need to implement time over conditions and enemy ramp up at various time points.  Need to get jets and tanks in now too.  You can get points now and be killed though.  Tons of balancing will have to be done once I get all the game elements in.  Oh and also hopefully add music, sounds, and more then rectangles for all the objects too! 9 hours left…

I wanted to finally post a link to a playable prototype of my flash game in progress.

Make sure to click on the flash game window to give it focus or the keys won’t work!

It uses all 8 control keys (1,2,3,4 & 7,8,9,0) and they are currently mapped to 8 random UFO actions right now.  WHY?  Because you are playing a slacker alien that wasn’t paying attention in your UFO Academy and now it is time for your 3 minute final exam to see if you graduate.  You slacked so much you have no clue how the crazy thing operates.  You’ll have access of four directions of movement, an energy shield, a death beam, and two different particle attacks.  You must try your best to figure out how to annihilate as many humans, cars, tanks, jets, and helicopters as you can to see if you pass.

Currently using boxes for object art, no collision detections or scoring yet, and I’ve only implemented humans, cars, and helicopters behaviors.  I’m quite happy with how they are moving around though.

Mini LD 16 is fast approaching!

It will kick off this Friday, February 19th at 9pm EST (GMT – 5)

The theme of this competition is Constraints.

Major goal:

• To explore what game designs we are able to create given a certain set of arbitrary constraints

Minor goals:

• To have the games share a common control scheme
• To have the games share aspects of look and feel
• To have total designer freedom of genre and topic

I won’t be announcing the final constraints until this Friday at 9pm EST but I’d like to provide a teaser of some of the things you may encounter.

Possible constraints:

• Must work with a specific color palette
• Limited to specific control inputs/keys
• Music length limits (looping allowed)
• Numbers of sound effects
• Specific screen dimensions
• Sprite or game object size requirements
• Background graphics
• Text limits
• Levels / Waves / Rounds requirements

As I mentioned in my minor goals above–I have no intention of specifically limiting the topic or genre of the game you create. I want there to be at least that one axis of complete freedom for the designer as they work within the constraints.  I’m looking forward to this weekend–see you all soon!

EDIT: 9 pm Constraints posted