{"author_name":"Rastagong","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1367010360,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"46176","p_author":"Rastagong","p_authorkey":"3761","p_urlkey":"81837","p_title":"Well, here we are again","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1367010360","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"3761","us_name":"Rastagong","us_username":"rastagong","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"<p>Well, here we are again. Twice I entered the Ludum Dare, twice I failed. I first tried during the 20th edition (&#8220;It&#8217;s dangerous to go alone, take this&#8221;), but I wasn&#8217;t skilled enough, very slow and and couldn&#8217;t release a game before the deadline.I believe my second attempt was during the 23rd edition (&#8220;Tiny World&#8221;). I had joined the jam at the last minute, totally unprepared and with a WIP game engine, which prevented me to focus on the actual game. I left half-way through the competition.<\/p>\n <p>But it&#8217;s not the disappointment of failure that I remember the most. \u00a0To me, the Ludum Dare will always be an intense week-end during which anybody can free his or her creativity to make something awesome. \u00a0Whether we succeed or not, that doesn&#8217;t really matter after all. There&#8217; just so much to learn, so many people to discover, so many games to play.\u00a0That&#8217;s why I&#8217;m here again.<\/p>\n <p>I think I&#8217;m much better prepared now than ever:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>I&#8217;ll code with my\u00a0<strong>Narro Engine<\/strong>, a 2D\u00a0RPG engine built with love, Pygame and Python 3. And this time, I know it\u00a0<em>will<\/em>\u00a0fully work. I&#8217;ve been toying around with it for so long! No missing key feature to add, no more bugs to solve at the last minute. I can play music and sounds, design NPCs with complex behaviours, teleport the player to another map, write text, interact with the map. I&#8217;ll be able to focus on the contents. You can have a look at the source code on\u00a0<a title=\"GitHub Repo of the Narro Engine\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/Rastagong\/narro\">this GitHub repo<\/a>\u00a0(sorry, it&#8217;s written in French).<br \/>\n <em>Note<\/em>: there are no compiling instructions, no builds nor any example game for now. But I&#8217;ll make sure to fix that next week.<\/li>\n <li>I&#8217;ll design maps with the most powerful and map editor in this world:\u00a0<strong>Tiled<\/strong>. Seriously, if you&#8217;ve never tried your hand at it, <a title=\"Tiled, the most awesome map editor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mapeditor.org\">take a few minutes to discover this incredible tool<\/a>. It&#8217;s under active development, supported by a strong community and it has any feature you&#8217;ve ever dreamed of.<br \/>\n <em>Note:<\/em>I&#8217;ll have to convert the TMX files produced by Tiled to a custom format though. But I will soon a feature to load them directly into the Narro Engine.<br \/>\n <b><br \/>\n <\/b><\/li>\n <li>I&#8217;ll use\u00a0<strong>Paint.NET\u00a0<\/strong>to draw some pixel art. Beware, horribly childish graphics incoming.<\/li>\n <li>I&#8217;ll use\u00a0<b>Bfxr\u00a0<\/b>and\u00a0<b>PXTone,\u00a0<\/b>the music editing software written by Daisuke Amaya, the guy behind\u00a0<em>Cave Story<\/em>. Don&#8217;t expect anything but random noise produced with my unexistent musical talent.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Seems good, I&#8217;m ready.<\/p>","time":"April 26th, 2013 4:06 pm","title":"Well, here we are again"}