My game after 24hrs!

After 24hs, I managed to mostly complete my game engine. There are a few features missing, but I got all the mechanisms that I need to make my game:

• Controls are all in.
• Victory and Defeat conditions are in.
• Level Selection and Unlocking are in.
• Reading levels from text files is in.
• Placeholder graphics and animations are in.

This means that tomorrow I can mostly concentrate on adding levels to make the game fun/challenging, and adding bells and whistles like images and sounds. I feel hopeful that, for someone who has never made a video game before, I will not embarrass myself

My code, on the other had, is a complete mess. Hardcoded stuff all around, hacks to make the player and the world talk to each other. Very few comments. Objects and world tiles mashed together. Ugh Ugh. I must say that these first 24hrs of LD were great for me to learn some lessons in programming.

Anyway, here is the game. There is no content, but you can get a feel of how it works. You are an explorer, who has to find your way out of mazes. You can do it by yourself, or help people stuck in the maze. Some of them will give you powers, but they will also get in your way, and eat your food. Sometimes it is better to go alone…

Maze Explorers!

PS: If anyone could give me some hints of what exactly I should put in my manifest to make java skip all (or some) of those nasty warnings, I would be very very happy

Unfortunately, lacking any of the graphics, sounds, or narrative kind of reveals my game to have precious little game in it. Here’s hoping the rest adds something it’s missing right now, or I can think of a neat and quickly implemented little mechanic to spice things up a little.

You can get access to the prototype HERE!

Basic idea is a risk/reward mechanic overtop of a basic mouse skills game. The player decides how much/where they want to suck from the body parts. Those arm hairs wiggle around. The more the player sucks the more erratic they move but I’ll likely increase a score multiplier. So the idea would simply be to guide your mosquito to the body part areas you want to get blood from and then escape without getting slapped.

Here is the current earliest test prototype showing what I got finished in my first two hours here. I’m using Flash CS5.5 and ActionScript 3.0.

Prototype number 1, playable in your browser. With music and a couple of teaser levels.

In this game, you entice block things to destroy each other, without destroying you. Use the arrow keys to move, and press Space to restart a level (which is sometimes necessary).

Enjoy, and please share your impressions!

Sincerely,
Hamburger

This is my second playable Flash prototype.

Try to draw the enemy spikes and red seeker boxes into the yellow mines for points. If you hit anything on screen you will take damage. Your energy recharges over time. If you lose all your energy it is game over.

Managed to catch about five hours of sleep–my regular nightly amount for most LDs.

I was thinking–if timelapses are fun after the compo to watch they are certainly fun to watch during a break while the compo is going right?

Before I head over to the Portsmouth NH Ludum Dare meetup I figured I’d render out the timelapse of me creating my first playable prototype (always an important milestone for me) in the first four hours of the competition.

Not sure if you can embed videos here so here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lR4MMAiA9s

This is my first playable prototype. This represents a little under four hours of work in Flash.

Try to draw the enemy orange spikes and red seeker boxes into the yellow circles for points by using your pink pentagon to lure the enemy in. If you hit the enemies you lose points. Basic proof of concept at this point is finished.

It is 2am here and I think I’m quite happy with what I’ve got down for the first evening to sleep on. I’ll be meeting up with 3 other LDers tomorrow over in Portsmouth New Hampshire to continue the game dev in the fun company of others. Sleep now!

Got a basic palette picked out and started throwing things into the flash editor and so here is mockup number 2. This is going to be what the first playable prototype will look like as I seek to get a playable game ASAP. Then it will be time to swap out all these simple shapes for final art once it is tuned and fun.

The 5 sided shape is the player, the circles are the collectible targets (only score when enemies hit them), the pink squares are seeker enemies (think homing missiles) and the orange spikes are proximity shooting spikes that launch in a straight path.

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…

This is like the fourth prototype I’ve worked on so far.  Things are going slowly today for me as I have been scattered between a few ideas while I hoped for one to spark my excitement.  I think I’ve finally got an idea I’m psyched about enough that I’m doing a bare bones playable version of.  Hoping the scope is right for the time remaining.  We shall see.

For anyone who feels like playing a very unfinished game, here’s the state of mine as of last night. The beginnings of the gameplay are there: notice now as you switch between your senses, sometimes you experience portions of the outside world. That’s what the deathbed experience is all about.

I have like 10 things on my list for the next 12 hours, so I better get to work.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY THE WORK IN PROGRESS IN YOUR BROWSER.

As you can see, this is still a toy. When it becomes a game with a backstory, you’ll probably have to kill some guys and rescue others. There’ll be some sound and graphics too, hopefully.

You can test and comment on the prototype:
Download fidaner-LD14-prototype1 (Windows)

Keys:
Enter – Restart
LMB – Put wall
RMB – Delete wall
MMB – Put agent

I’m open to new ideas too.

A mysterious screenshot of my cryptozoology game..   Time to go to bed.