An update of what I’ve been doing since last Ludum Dare.

I moved to Victoria, B.C.  and now am much closer to the ‘dev scene’, which is cool.  This week I got my computer back and started poking around at HTML 5 Web API stuff.

My First HTML 5 Game

It uses the Web Socket interface for networking and Web GL via Three.js for graphics.   For networking I made a very simple system that transmits JSON messages over the network;  Just a quick, dirty solution that covers a lot of bases with little overhead.  I can always optimize it later.   For graphics I made a sort of height-map/voxel based geometry generator.  It took a lot of tries to get rid of geometry and texture seaming problems, but once I did it really started to look quite beautiful.

Another perk is that levels are super easy to draw and import into the game.

I learned a lot of things from how to manipulate geometry, load meshes, preload textures, texture arrays, creating geometry, how shaders work, optimizing the GPU pipeline, and of coarse how to implement the Web Socket protocol.

What really blows my mind is how easy it is to put HTML over-top of GPU-rendered canvas.  Good job web browsers.  Good job. This HTML 5 Web Api  thing is really coming along after all these years.

What is done so far.

• Preloader for models, textures, text files, json files, and sound files.
• Networking / communication
• Nice smooth collision detection
• Geometry from level data generator (voxel generator)
• Geometry art.
• Tank models
• Title screen and server/client flow.

What is left.

• Dead reckoning.
• Anti-cheat system.
• Chat & admin features.
• Shooting & exploding.
• Capture the flag
• Sign up
• Track stats

What inspired this?

I’ve been playing Tag-pro  and it reminded me of fun e-sport experiences from days past such as BZFlag, ARC, Subspace, and Uniball to name a few.   There’s a simplicity to these games that is zen-like.  You don’t program the tactics, you program the basic mechanics and the tactics and team play that emerge are always quite brilliant and in-depth.

This game is a lot like BZ Flag with some elements from tag-pro and ARC in there.

Making a pro-gamer game.

I’ve never been into the pro-gaming scene, so I thought I’d try to meet the challenge of making a game that can really satisfy the needs of a pro action gamer.

Simplicity is key.   There are so many demands beyond simple mechanics in pro games like stats and records; ranked tournaments; administration; forums; clans/guilds; and events.

How can I help

#1 Beta testing: If you would like to help me do some beta testing, find me on #LudumDare on Afternet.org

#2 If you have any other tips, hints, strategies or suggestion you think I might find useful, please reply to this post.

Thanks

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2014 at 9:22 am and is filed under MiniLD #50. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Ratchet and Clank demake is finally finished

You are Hatchet. The last of your kind. Robots want you to be the dead last of your kind. Survive as long as you can! Where’s Crank? He’s hitching a ride on your back. He does nothing except watch. Like the lazy robot he is.

Go take a look at the entry

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2014 at 12:32 pm and is filed under MiniLD #50. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Currently working on a Super Motherload DEMAKE and here is a yet-to-be finalized version of the main menu!

Have also been working on art assets and the core programming. Movement & Gravity has been created as well as a broken “mining system”.

I can’t believe I missed the MiniLD 50 announcement earlier! Demakes is such an exciting theme to work with. I would have loved to have jumped on the bandwagon weeks ago.

Luckily, it looks like submissions will be open for another day or so, so I decided to polish my collision detection and platformer skills and demake Gravity Rush, one of the PlayStation Vita’s most unique games.

I’ve decided the best way to go about this demake is to strip out everything except the gem collecting aspect. Collect enough gems and you’ll have the power to escape the map by flying (or rather, “falling”) upwards through a narrow vertical shaft. I got all of the gravity mechanics and collision detection in place this evening. The player can float in place, fall in any of four directions, and walk and jump normally on walls and ceilings, so long as the power bar isn’t depleted.

The art is placeholder-y right now, but here’s a gif of it in action, with the player’s sprite pointing the direction gravity is currently directed:

I work tomorrow, so I won’t have too much time before the deadline, but I have some of the world designed on paper, and if I can implement that, then I’ll try and make a nicer player sprite.

It’s been a while since LD#28 and I finally finished the post-compo version of my game. I’ve been planning to write here about it, but I wanted to do so after writing a postmortem… Well, since I don’t see myself writing it any time soon, here it is:

Click to play

If you remember this game, it was called “Two options…”. Quite a literal name, given the “story” in the game. But for this version, I’ve modified way too many things to call it the same way. Before, the game was about wanting to save both people at the end of the dungeon, though you could only save on (bad use of the theme, naming and idea overall…. =X).

Now, it’s a game about exploring a dungeon and finding the one treasure you want. You could try to get another treasure, but you’ll only be able to bring back one! (not quite the use of the theme, but much better than the previous one). Other then that, I also fixed many bugs: the graphics don’t turn into a ladder frame randomly, you stand atop ladders, spikes kill only from above, and many others I can’t remember anymore.

But most of all modifications, while this game had as few as 9 (or 10… I don’t remember really well) levels, this new version has 35 new levels! It’s something I’m really proud, since I’ve never made anything so big. Also, since many people said the game was hard (and a friend said the game could be harder)… I tried up the difficulty… quite a lot. XD There’s a death counter, which at first had only two digits… after testing with other people (and myself), I’ve changed to four digits (though no one needed more than three, so far). I tried to make it get harder slowly, though…

There are this many levels, now…

One thing that annoyed me a lot was the music. It was, as the ones from my entries since LD#26, way to generic… it didn’t feel right to me. Now the game has 9 (short) tracks and it sounds much better overall. There’s still room for improvement (like the intro and the second song), but I’m quite happy with how it sounds now.

I ended writing a sort of postmortem thing… cool! Thanks if you’ve read this far and, if you haven’t yet, way not give it a try?

(and if you did play it, feedback is always welcomed! I’m planning to expand it… sometime…)

Hey guys, had to pause development for a while because of school, but the submission deadline was extended (woohoo) so I could finish it off today.

I found demaking to be a really inspiring theme. Having so many ideas you’re not sure what to go with is always a nice problem to have! I went with Borderlands in the end. If you have a moment, please give it a go, or maybe watch the video instead/as well? 😀

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-50/?action=preview&uid=20818

Tags: MiniLD #50

With much luck I was able to submit my Entry yesterday.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-50/?action=preview&uid=26454 Here is the link

Under the roof of an old library I found what I believe to be the oldest game of the extinct mankind.
Er Aran – one of the many names which were given to this lost game over the centuries.
I recreated it, and although it is probably not how it looked more than five millenia ago, it is as close as it gets.

Hey guys, Currently I’m looking for help with a game I plan on making. I will be making the game in Game Maker Studio. I need some people to help. The work is voluntary, so their is no pay although it would be pretty cool if you could help me with the game. Idea for the game: The game is a 2D version of a game called DayZ which some of you may have heard of.

I need: An Artist(Someone to make the game textures and whatnot).
A sound guy(Someone to make the sounds for the game).
A programmer(Although not totally required, this would help).
Also last but not least someone with knowledge of shaders(This will help make the game look more fancy) 😀

I feel that this game would be good if I can get some people to help me with it. -James P.S. Comment below if you would like to take part in the project 😉

Thanks,

-James

I made a little #puzzlescript game for the miniLD 50:

Play GBSenku

It’s a peg solitaite game for the gameboy

Last LD, a lot of people were having trouble with getting motivated, including myself. I attributed this at the time to a strange lack of the usual pre-event hype. To prevent the same thing happening again, I have decided that the “I’m In” postings should commence as soon as possible. So here’s mine!

Hello, everyone! I feel like I’m meeting an old friend again already– not only because it’s been so long since I’ve had Twitter to talk about games with, but because it’s been even longer since I’ve had only Ludum Dare and no Twitter. Those were the days. I’ve been on hiatus from Twitter for a while, you see, and it’s been nice, but I do miss the spontaneous conversation.

Allow me to introduce myself, just because I can. I’m Tim, formerly Puzzlem00n until I recently decided that screen names are annoying, I’m 15, and I make games!~on occasion! Coincidentally, a couple days ago marked the two-year anniversary of the day I first joined this site and revealed myself to the internet. I’ve done five Ludums since then, and it would have been six, too, if it weren’t for that meddling motivation loss. I’ll get away with it this time!

Upon getting to know me, you’ll find that my general personality traits include: arbitrary loss of willpower, strange mixings of optimism and cynicism, no desire to understand low-level code concepts, ranting self-deprecatingly about life problems, switching interests from games to writing/animation/comics, not actually liking to play games, giving unneeded advice (OR SO YOU’LL SAY), and making lists. Other than all that, I’m told I’m pretty rad!

So what have I been doing lately, I’ll pretend your asking? Well, I’m trying to put together my personal website AND find a way to update it with content five or six days a week! See the extremely early WIP timbump.us, the greatest domain name ever conceived (world record pending).

The point is, I’m going to be doing this. And I mean I really am going to do this. And if I’m lucky, this is going to be the beginning of a new age of Tim.

Of course, that’s what I said back on New Years’… =)

(My toolset will be revealed semi-dramatically in my next post.)

Deals! Here is this LD’s list of offers, bargains and other things.

Development

• AGK App Game Kit – Cross Platform Game Development Suite – FREE (reg $59.99) for Ludum Dare! Add to cart, and use coupon code AGKLUDUMDARE1. Offer valid April 19th to 28th! NOTE: Be sure to Apply the offer, by clicking the Apply button.
• CraftStudio – Cooperative Game Making Platform – Free Weekend for Ludum Dare! Get access to all the premium features April 24th to 29th.
• GameCreator – Drag and Drop Web Game Creator – Access to most features including full analytics during Ludum Dare weekend and the 3 weeks of voting. Use the promo code: Ludumdare29 after registration.
• PlayCanvas – 3D Collaborative HTML5 game dev platform – Get a 12 month Pro account, worth $180, for free if you submit a game to Ludum Dare using the PlayCanvas development platform. Email support@playcanvas.com with your username and a link to your finished game.
• Loom SDK Turbo – Real Time Game Development Suite – Create an Account on loomsdk.com, then send an e-mail to Ben and ask about the Ludum Dare Promo to get 12 Months of Turbo for FREE.
• Atanua – Circuit logic simulator – For reals! Long time veteran and moderator Sol_HSA is offering a free license to anyone that makes a Ludum Dare game with his logic simulator. And you thought you were hardcore making your LD games in C or assembly. Think again! Use this temp license to try it: 105A081C2E0841D4F1B73738300061A2253A5A69688D48B4C537A2686173452EF266
• Unity Pro – A 30 day trial of Unity Pro is available using code T3-NZ3Z-HEZ7-UQYW-N2PW-WNSH (in case yours is expired, or such). 600 Activations Available. More details here.

Content Creation

• Pixexix Pro – Projection Painting Tool – Get Pixexix Pro for 66% off ($10), through April.
• AutoTileGen Pro – 2D Terrain Tileset Generator – Get AutoTileGen Pro for 50% off ($10). Available until the end of Ludum Dare. Use this link.
• Pickle Editor – Sprite and Animation Editor – $10 off (Reg $24.99) with coupon code LD29. Click here to add to cart.
• Voxatron – Cool Game with built-in Voxel Editor and Exporter – Free copy to any LD’er that wants to make Voxel Graphics. More details here.

Unity Asset Store

• Voxwell – Voxel World Editor – Contact @DarkMeatGames and let ’em know you’re interested a Free Copy for Ludum Dare.
• Scaffolding View Framework – Menu Editor – Free for Ludum Dare 29.

If you’d like to submit your own deal, you can post details and a link in the comments below, or send me an e-mail. Keep in mind I don’t have a lot of time, but if you need a confirmation or just to ping me once it’s posted, go ahead and mail me. When I have a chance I’ll add it to the list.

Also it MUST be relevant to what we do here (i.e. make games).

Hello

I did not make Dungeon Souls as i intended.
Instead i made a Metal Gear Solid Demake with sneaking and cardboard boxes.
Play it here

Post mortem:
It has bugs but i am finished anyway.

Cheers
Bitslap

Woo! So excited! My first Ludum Dare and I hope to do more. Good luck everyone.

-Oobie

So, I’ve done every main Ludum Dare since LD23! That’s 6 LD’s, and it means that this Ludum Dare will mark two years since my first one. Wow! You know, I like Minecraft (if not as much as I used to), but introducing me to this event is the best thing Notch ever did for me.

So – here are the tools I will be using!

• OS: Linux Mint 13. Because I don’t feel like updating.
• Platform: Haxe with OpenFL. I’ll be exporting to Flash, Windows, Linux, and hopefully even Mac just because it’s easy!
• Library: HaxePunk. I’ve been making a game with HaxePunk, and I love it.
• Image editor: Aseprite. I’ll probably use GIMP for some other stuff, too.
• Tilesetting: GoTile. I made this one! Hooray! I’m very proud of this, it’s a lot like a *coughcough*better*cough* version of AutoTileGen Free. More of feature, fewer of bug. It’s not as good as the paid version, though.
• Text Editor: Sublime Text 2. The shareware version that pops up a “buy me” window every few Ctrl+S’s. I feel guilty about not buying a license for my favorite text editor, but I can’t afford a text editor I already have for $70.
• Timelapse: I think gLapse this time. Partly because I’m so happy that it’s a program with better support for Linux than for Windows! Woohoo!
• Streaming: Castawesome. I’m glad I finally found a GUI program for streaming on Linux!
• Sound: sfxr and Audacity. My results in LD28 were shameful, but at least I got a decent score in audio thanks to SFXRdacity!

So, that’s it! I can’t wait for the highlight of my, um… triannuum to get started! Let’s all have fun this Ludum Dare! And try hovering over some (all) of those links, why don’t you?

Tags: im in

This Ludum Dare, I will be giving trophies to the winners of each category.

Which made me think, why not make it a regular thing? Why not automatically give people trophies if they win a category? So that people can see what other people won at a glance.

I think it’s a suggestion worth thinking about. I know it may take time to code but I think it’s a neat idea

They also look good. So, they will be a cool thing to have

These are the ones I have done so far:

 Innovation: A gear, because it is supposed to represent the inner workings of the code

Fun: Balloons and streamers! (Thanks to The4thCircle for the idea)

Theme: A star. Because, I thought that would represent it best

Graphics: A paint brush and pallet, obviously

Audio: A golden record

Humor: A jester’s hat (Thanks to PoV for the idea)

Mood: The iconic happy and sad face from theater

Overall: The Ludum Dare Joystick!

Community: A globe, because the community is worldwide

Coolness: Some cool shades (Thanks to Junber for the idea)

For each LD challenge, there will be a number on each trophy:

If it is a Jam category, it will have ‘Jam’ on it:

So what do you think? A cool idea? Could it be a permanent thing?

Plus, please message me or leave a comment if you have any suggestions!

Thanks

So, uh

I think we’re entering this time round as a team, which sounds all peachy, so expect something substantial. I’ve improved massively since LD27 (and let us not speak of my failed LD28 entry) so we hopefully shouldn’t give you something that looks and plays like a dream but slowly kills your eardrums.

Gonna see if I can get Ace (graphics) and Jello (programming) to give a shout-out too.

~MK/Emelia Kaylee

ENDING SOON! GO SLAUGHTER NOW!

With over 3000 themes suggested by the community, how do we make that more manageable? With this!

It’s like hot-or-not for Ludum Dare themes. Click the graphic above, and keep clicking until you can click no more! Every click helps, and we’ve got a lot more to filter than last time, so click more and click often!

Next week we kick off Warmup Weekend (April 19th-20th), and begin main Theme Voting. So tune in for that. Things are getting real here. I hope you like the new purple look too (might require a refresh). This is our first major event of 2014, and our 12th year running Ludum Dare. Lets make it a good year!

Special thanks again to Sorceress for preparing the theme list for me.

Here we go, year #2 of me doing Ludum Dare! I am pumped and excited for this year, as always, but I can’t decide what I am going to use…… hmmmmmmmmmm….

Okay, after much thought I have decided: I am going to use Unity because why not? I can use it to create a 3D/2D web game easily. So right of the bat I don’t have to worry about the engine too much and I can focus on the game play. I do have some experience with Unity but this will be a real test of my knowledge with Unity. I will probs use gimp as my image editor and one of the free sound effect creators for sound effects, and maybe garage band for the bg music. I don’t expect anything too amazing but I do expect something at least fun. Well, he we go guys, #29.

Hello guys, in the last two months I was learning the basics of C++ and now I think i can make a game with it.

Here is what I will be using:

Language: C++

Framework: SFML 2.1

IDE: Visual Studio 2013 Express Edition

Graphics: Paint.NET

Sound: SFXR

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2014 at 3:37 pm and is filed under LD #29. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Yea, that’s right. I livestream most things I do. Go take a look and get involved at MY TWITCH STREAM.