{"author_name":"Getterac7","cat":"LD  #18 - Enemies as Weapons - 2010","comments":[],"epoch":1282520220,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"69381","p_author":"Getterac7","p_authorkey":"82","p_urlkey":"105184","p_title":"The Final Countdown","p_cat":"LD  #18 - Enemies as Weapons - 2010","p_event":"LD18","p_time":"1282520220","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"82","us_name":"Getterac7","us_username":"wizkid8586","event_start":"1282262400","event_key":"4","event_name":"LD18"},"text":"<p>My last update before submissions are due.<\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_26248\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-26248\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/progress2-550x378.png\" alt=\"Working tile map\" width=\"550\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/progress2-300x206.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/progress2-550x378.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/progress2.png 698w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Working tile map<\/p><\/div>\n <p>This is my tile map that I got working last night.\u00a0 I can create new levels in TilED and easily import them into my game.<\/p>\n <div id=\"attachment_26258\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-26258\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/progress3-550x424.png\" alt=\"Collision boxes\" width=\"550\" height=\"424\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/progress3-300x231.png 300w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/progress3-550x424.png 550w, http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/progress3.png 808w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Collision boxes<\/p><\/div>\n <p>About 20 minutes ago I got the collision box generation working.\u00a0 You can sort of see how my tile graphics are designed in this shot.<\/p>\n <p>I obviously won&#8217;t have a working game done in the next 35 minutes, but it was a valiant effort I believe.\u00a0 What was missing before I would consider this a game:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Collision detection and response.<\/li>\n <li>Enemies with some basic pathfinding \/ AI.<\/li>\n <li>The main gameplay element: mind controlling the enemy.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Let me do a re-cap on what went right and what didn&#8217;t go according to plan:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>The Spartan framework along with Slick2D was great for getting a jump start on the simple stuff.\u00a0 In a few hours I had a game shell with splash screen, moving player, camera focus, and mouse rotation.<\/li>\n <li>TilED was great for designing levels.\u00a0 I had a basic arena map done in a matter of minutes.<\/li>\n <li>GraphicsGale saved me when GIMP was repeatedly crashing.<\/li>\n <li>I hadn&#8217;t thoroughly used the Spartan framework, so I was unsure how to go about creating new modules for game Entities (Actors).\u00a0 When it came time to add enemies and pathfinding, I was completely stumped.<\/li>\n <li>I hadn&#8217;t ever used Slick2d&#8217;s TilED loader before.\u00a0 It took me some time to figure out how to use and manipulate the tile map once I had it in my game.<\/li>\n <li>I hadn&#8217;t ever drawn tileset graphics before.\u00a0 I wasted a bunch of time drawing and redrawing tile graphics to get something usable.\u00a0 Also GIMP crashed on me quite a few times, ruining my work.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>The moral of the story seems to be: know your tools and libraries.\u00a0 Much time could have been saved if I didn&#8217;t need to fumble around with the tool or dig through the API docs.<\/p>\n <p>Maybe next time I will put together something playable!<\/p>\n \n <p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/journal\/\" rel=\"tag\">journal<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/tag\/screenshot\/\" rel=\"tag\">screenshot<\/a><\/p>","time":"August 22nd, 2010 6:37 pm","title":"The Final Countdown"}