I’ve decided on what I’m going to do. The project I have in mind is one of two that I still have code to after my switch to Fedora. (Lots of long-abandoned stuff that I didn’t back up)

There is one thing. This thing, I’ve wanted to make it. I’ve wanted to make it since I played it on my TI calculator in high school. I’ve started, restarted, and started again. I’ve wanted and wanted. Want want want. Er… Sorry.

I am going to pick up my old Alien Breed clone and try to get it working, try to get it presentable. Try to, some day, get it finished. For the Mini-LD, I’ll settle for “working”.

I’m… Debating about starting early. But that wouldn’t be nearly as fun. You know what, I can wait. I’ve got something else to work on to tide me over.

Until then, Flash Breed can wait. I’ll post more details on the 26th.

Finally, closure. Closure closure closure. I’ll have my Alien Breed clone. I’m so, so happy.

Okay, I’m a fan of this Mini-LD theme now. Because I get closure. It’s not going to haunt me anymore. I’m… Getting way too emotional over this. But I get to have that finished and done with.

To ending the guilt, fulfilling a promise, and to making an old dream happen!

— Mr. Dude

Definitely one of the cooler things that have cropped up lately are the gatherings during Ludum Dare events (Cambridge Indies, you guys rock). We definitely want to encourage more of you to do this.

So to help facilitate that, go add yourself to the map.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/world-map/

If you see many people near you, it might be worth trying to organize something. This could easily get out of hand, so post a reply ONLY if you see some people near you. Try to include a list of nearby larger cities, so to make searching for your proposed event easier. If you’ve found a few people and are ready to start discussing a venue, start new topic and I’ll link it up here.

Or if anybody has a better way to randomly organize many little gatherings (with almost no effort from me), let me know.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 19th, 2010 at 11:39 pm and is filed under LD #19 - Discovery - 2010. 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.

I need your help populating the site with information!

We’re trying to obsolete some aspects of the wiki, by centralizing important information here on the site (ludumdare.com/compo/).

To start, I need someone to take over maintenance (and construction, heh), of these pages: The prior competition lists.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild/

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludumdare/ (feel free to completely redo this)

If you need some information, the wiki can be found here.

I’d like to eventually put someone else in charge of the MiniLD’s: creating the submission pages, coordinating with hosts, etc. Lets get these pages cleaned up first, and then we’ll talk.

Thanks!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 20th, 2010 at 12:13 am and is filed under LD #19 - Discovery - 2010. 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.

Hi there! Long time no post eh?

Still, I am here with an idea. I’ll post the full idea and details later as I get them. But the idea is this.

A couple of weeks ago, I thought of all the indie news I see and hear and I realized something. I have not (or may have not paid attention to see) seen anything from my local area. Granted, I’m in a small little town in the middle of no-where, but still. There has got to be some other indie devs in my area. Right? Right? So, I had this thought.

Why not make a shout out to the depths of the internet of where I reach and see if anybody wants to meet for a cup of coffee or two and a jam session? So, that’s what I’m doing. I want to find out if there’s any, any other indie developers within my local area. Which includes my home state of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. Missourians are welcome too. Even though I live about 2 hours from St. Louis.

While I’m not expecting somebody from 150-200 miles away to get here in Fairfield Illinois, I’m hoping that there’s at least one or two other local developers. I mean, haven’t you ever found yourself wondering if there were other indie developers in your area? Well, I don’t want to wonder anymore. I’m actually hoping to meet at least just one other indie dev. Do any of you live near here and want to meet up? Please let me know!

I’ll post more details later, but, that’s pretty much the idea.

Well, I certainly didn’t make the in October deadline, but I’m proud to announce that Endeavor has gotten a primary sponsorship from Newgrounds!

This was my first game put up for sponsorship, and it was a great experience. I got some great advice about Flash Game License from this site, including HybridMind’s suggestion to email sponsors directly, linking them to the FGL page. That’s how I got my Newgrounds bid, which was for twice as much as the highest bid before I sent any emails!

Since finalizing the sponsorship, I’ve gotten to work with the Newgrounds API, and have enjoyed integrating 12 medals into the game.

Endeavor will be released December 1st, exactly 2 months from the beginning of the challenge =D

Date: December 10th

Start Time: 12:00 pm (central standard time, that’s where illinois is in right?)

Location:

Jemini Coffee House & Bookstore
112 East Main Street
Fairfield, IL 62837
(618) 842-6333

(if closed, at the local college library)

Requirements:

Yourself, a laptop if you have one (or other mobile device to make games), name tag

Agenda: say hi, talk about indie games, work on ludum dare prototypes, coffee, leave at or slightly before close, maybe a flixel workshop

And if I’m the only one there? Well, I always like coffee so I’ll have a cup or two and program a little bit.

Laters!

(oh, and the google map is wrong, I’m actually just east of leo french park. But there’s the internet  for ya)

Work, school, and personal studies are keeping me from what I really want to do. See you in about 9 months.

Cancer Wars v0.1 – The Movie of the Game

Cancer Wars v0.1

2D Cure-Em-Up – Battle for inner space against slimy green nasties to cure cute patients using Nano Technology circa 2099.

Built using the Unity game engine, free to play online at http://CancerWarsGame.org.

A bit late for the last LD challege, and following the trend of DonationWare with 50% going to charty and 50% going to further development!

I don’t think it will be the next minecraft but fingers crossed…

Please try it and let me know what you think… and remeber to donate to charity!

More about the build process on my blog here

Kind Regards
Al
Arowx.com

Will be up when I get it.  At least I tried right? I got a new idea. Gimme some time and I’ll post it.

I’m trying to get set up on here to take part in Ludum Dare 19 in December. Quite excited to finally take part… Like everyone that posts on here for the first time, I’ve been following them for quite a while and finally decided to just do it.

I’m feeling a bit dumb though because I can’t figure out how to set my profile image on here.

KoryWazHere_ProfileImage?

I’m also not sure if I’m using the blog correctly, I will in future keep posts relevant to the games I’m actually making. Are there any rules for posting? If so, it would be very helpful if someone could point me to them 😀

Update: Now using http://www.gravatar.com/ for my profile image – thanks pekuja

Tags: Indie Profile Image N00b noob

Why hello there! … wait…

So, I decided to take a chance in LD#19. I did one of the previous ones (LD#a-number-to-me-currently-unknown – theme: remake), but kinda failed. I wanted to make a Lode Runner remake, kinda newish tilish and stylish, but for some reason … I got bored by making a remake of it :D. Anyway – I hope this time the theme will be something very interesting.

It should be a good side project from my every day (and night) project… Because making an mmo is hard 😀 (MOAR INFO AT MAH DEV_BLOG)

Yah… What can I write here…

Also – I might be doing some exrepiments here, so ingore them.

Tags: introduction, motivation

I’ve decided that my Alien Breed clone isn’t what I want to do.

Instead, I’m going to revisit an idea that I’ve tried, abandoned, tried, abandoned, and such so many times that I ultimately gave up.

I’m not sure that it counts, as I don’t have any of the code or assets left, and will be using a different library anyway (Was using Python/Pygame, will use C++/OGRE), but that’s what I’m doing.

I hope to have at least two characters and some actual fighting happening. Still, no promises. I will prioritize playability over having two characters. (Meaning that the game may consist of one character with two skins)

Here’s hoping!

— Mr. Dude

I think I’ve finally got an idea for a Mini-LD game that I’m actually excited about making.

I want to revisit my first LD entry. Which was also my first non-trivial C++ program. And my first top-down run and gun.

I’m going to start over. I’ve long since lost the original sources anyway, and I want to write it properly. I’m going to use SFML instead of SDL. I’m going to cross-compile it myself if I can manage to. I am going to make proper graphics a proper level generator.

I will be submitting my Mini-LD version on the deadline, but I absolutely intend to finish this, even if it takes beyond the time limit.

Here’s hoping, anyway…

— Mr.Dude

Well, I thought I’d post here as well.

Chat meet-up details coming soonish.

Not quite what I was hoping for. But it’s something.

I’ve decided to interpret the time limit as “Begin on the 26th and work for 48 hours”, so I will start at 3:00PM EST (8:00PM UTC) and will work until that same time on the 28th.

I’ve decided on my game, as well. It was my first LD entry, and my first major C++ program.

Since I’m posting so much, I’m going to be putting breaks in for the time being.

More about the game and my plans after the break.

The game was titled “Byte Vs. GNOME”, and it was a top-down run and gun shooter. It starred a tiny robot fighting gnomes that were gigantic compared to her.

The game featured vector graphics with a weird LCD-ish color scheme, and was rushed in a major way toward the end. The competition version of the game had one enemy, and would segfault when that enemy was destroyed.

This time around, I actually know how to use C++. This time around, I will make actual graphics. This time around, I might actually work on it beyond the Mini-LD.

And this time around, I will not wax romantic about other programming languages to implement it in. I will not (As I seem to do) change ideas half-way through. I will not fail. Or at least, I won’t fail completely.

My goal is to get the thing playable. That’s all I absolutely need.

If I can fit it to the theme of the LD, I may re-use it as my jam game. Not sure just yet. Regardless, I’m really excited to see it again.

I’m currently writing a preliminary design document. This is going to be awesome.

I’ll be writing out my plan for generating my levels, as I’m ultimately going to generate them procedurally. I won’t likely be using it for the Mini-LD version, but I’m going to use it eventually.

That will probably be my next post. I’m mostly trying to amuse myself while I wait.

That said, for tonight I’ve got a little bit of homework and some designs to write out.

Peace out, and here’s hoping.

— Mr. Dude

Good morning sports fans!

So I decided since I was sick during the last LD I would make up for it by taking part in the Mini LD, try and do something I haven’t done before, yata yata.

With that in mind, my game is going to be a remake of my first LD entry, Island Construction Malfunction:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-17/?action=preview&uid=1865

I’m going to be using FlashPunk, which I have been learning to use a few days ago hehe, so that is my own little personal challenge.

I’m not sure how much of the game I will end up improving, hopefully I can get more levels in or work in the mechanics a bit better, so I guess we will see how it goes!

Benn

First of all, I should make it clear that an elderly close relative of mine is in the final stages of cancer, so I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to spend on this. Also, I’ve been working on Kobo II (a new sound engine, actually) rather than thinking about the MiniLD, and I pretty much decided what to work on while writing this.

First, I was thinking I’d “just” add sound and a level editor to Fixed Rate Pig, which may seem closer to a finished game at first sight – but thinking more carefully about it, it feels like Project Spitfire is practically as close, and more deserving of an update, as it’s practically dead in it’s current state: a windowed mode Win16 hack of a port with no sound.

Thing is, most of the engine code has actually been ported already; the core of the Kobo Deluxe sprite engine is actually a port of the one from Project Spitfire, and the “speaker” sound hack plays the original sounds from the DOS version. I’ll probably use OpenGL for smooth scrolling (it’s a pretty fast scroller, so it’ll look horrible at low frame rates…), and I might rip the map editor from my “smoothscroll” SDL example. Massive code reuse, that is! Hopefully…

Not expecting to do any significant work on the actual game or anything during the weekend; just bringing it back to life, so I can play around with it and see if I get inspired or something. If nothing else, it could make another programming example for people to play around with – and perhaps a way for me to show that I can occasionally write a few lines of working C code. 😉

Incredibly old site with info, screenshots and Win16 download can be found here:
http://olofson.net/spitfire/

Wow… Just realized the original DOS version is 15 years old now. Maybe it’s time to, like, finish it one of these years…? 😀

PreScriptum: I am NOTIFYING the site administrator – “WordPress 3.0.1 is available!”

As you can see, I’ve decided to enter MiniLD #22 – revisiting an old idea. What is that old idea? I’ve chosen (you Pikachu!) my previous AND unsuccessful entry, to MiniLD #15 – Old game CLONE. It’s the Code Runner.

Something actually surprised me – my old notes with ideas and concept were easy to find thanks to my superior organization skills (yah, sure). It makes the whole thing easier to do, and I know what did I plan to do with these pictures. I present an excerpt of these notes to you: (after the advertisement break)

Theme: Clone
Cloned game: Lode Runner
Clone name: Code Runner

—

General:
– Two players (co-op and battle)
– Playfield = 21×15 = 21*30 x 15*30 = 630×450 (640 x 480 = display, small space on left and right + small HUD)

Player can:
– walk L and R = L and R arrows
– climb ladders = U and D arrows
– jump from ladders = L and R arrows
– hand-walk bars = L and R arrows
– drop from bars = D arrow
– dig soft terrain = Z (left) and C (right)
– collect an item = X
– use an item = S

Player cannot:
– jump

Player has:
– one inventory slot for item (initially empty, empties over levels)
– unlimited inventory for bombs (initially 0, empties over levels)
– three lifes on beginning – each level = new life

Player’s goal:
– get into the finish
– player must collect all glitches and bugs
– bugs are like glitches, but they must be cornered, otherwise they always run away
– a bug can also be killed by an enclosing soft terrain
– however, it climbs out after 5 seconds

Player’s enemies:
– virusmonk
— a small humanoid always aiming towards player
— when it touches player, he losts a life and level starts from beginning
— when it falls into a hole in soft terrain, it will stay there for 10 seconds
— if the soft terrain closes while a virusmonk is inside, the virusmonk will be killed
— a killed virusmonk will always restart after 2 seconds in one of the start points

– memory dumpers
— a closing and opening pillar, 3 squares high
— if a player is smashed by it, he losts a life and levels starts again
— virusmonks will only pass underneath it when there is no other way
— if a timefield is around, only the lowest square counts

– dangerous terrain
— cannot be destroyed
— will kill a player if he stands on it
— virusmonks will be also killed

Terrains:
– soft
— can be destroyed by player
— if destroyed, it replenishes after 15 seconds

– hard
— cannot be destroyed

Items:
– bomb
— timed – explodes 4 seconds after being set
— has a radius of 3×3 sqaure, bomb being in center
— anything in the radius will be killed, including the player and virusmonks
— digs soft terrain

– big bomb
— same as bomb, but a radius of 5×5 square

– key (red, green, blue)
— opens colored doors

– trojan virus
— when used, plants a trojan horse next to the player (must face the right direction)
— horse will stay alive for 20 seconds
— all virusmonks will be attracted towards the horse
— when a virusmonk touches the horse, it dies
— after the 20 seconds, the horse blows like a regular bomb
— the horse will stay on the platform it was planted on, going only forward
— when it touches end of a platform, it turns around

– time bomb
— when used, around the player will be created a “time field”
— time field is a 3×3 square
— time field will always move so that player is in its center
— the whole playfield’s time will be stopped, except just the time field
— timebomb will last for 30 seconds

Tilesets:
– USB port
-o- background = big “USB ships” arriving and departing slowly
-x- soft terrain = desk contacts
-x- hard terrain = metal
-x- dangerous terrain = none

– Cable
-o- background = cables running quickly through the screen
-o- soft terrain = rubber closed cables
-o- hard terrain = enclosed cables
-o- dangerous terrain = open contact
-o- special = some levels are timed, player can’t fall down and has to survive

– …

That is it. The “…” in the and is actually there, because I planned to make more terrains… Also – the “-o-” and “-x-” near the terrain type means I’ve made the image. However, I am going to redo the graphics… I originally made them pixel…ly and all, to give them a LITTLE bit of retro look… But Now (GET THE REFERENCE?! AHAHAHAHAHA… HAHA… ha… what?) I am thinking of actually making them vector…ish. Right…ish.

Oh yeah and the software I will use for this is going to be Flash+AS3.0 combo. Why?

1. I am good in AS3.0
2. I am good in AS3.0
3. I am good in AS3.0
4. I like cross-platform stuff, and it can even be running in browser
5. I like the IDE for coding
6. I like the IDE for drawing
7. I am good in AS3.0
8. I have a dog

There you have it, eight completely logical reasons.

Ok, let’s start. Also, some self-motivation:

1337 TIME

O yah I am using Mac.

PostScriptum: I hate WordPress’ editor. So buggy.

Tags: motivation, redone, screenshot, start

Well, I have a lot of half-finished or unfinished projects, so choosing from them took me a while but I finally decided on my LD #17 entry “A Practical Survival Guide for Robots”: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-17/?uid=321.

The plan is to make this game available on the Intel AppUp Store and probably the Mac App Store afterwards. (For free of course, I personally don’t think that anyone would buy this game if it would be a commercial product.)

What is the current status?

Since LD #17 I’ve been working on the game every now and then. So what exactly changed since LD #17?

• Rewrote the texture loader (The game is now fully working on Intel GMA 950 and similar Intel integrated chipset graphics)
• Rewrote major parts of the engine (With the might of inline the engine feels now about 2 – 3 times faster than before )
• The robot is now moving much faster (and since I implemented a delta time function in my engine, it’s moving at the same speed on all computers)
• The game is now resolution independent up to Full-HD (1920×1080 pixels): While the title screen image will be scaled, you just see more of the game world on higher resolutions than 1024×600 pixels.
• There are now always four islands at the starting point with a few resources to get you started
• Better alternation of day and night (instead of just getting darker, there is slight red-ish coloring in the evening and yellow-/orange-ish coloring in the morning)

Here is a screenshot of the current status (from last Screenshot Saturday):

What is planned?

• Originally, game tips and trivia have been displayed in the bottom bar as “Did you know?”. I intend to split that up. Signs in the game world will show game tips and the trivia will be labeled “Fun Facts”. (I already began this task, but I’m not done with that yet.)
• Chatting with aliens
• Trading with aliens (New items or boosters for collected scrap)
• New items: Flashlight (lets you stay awake longer), Compass (shows the way to your spaceship and nearby scrap), bigger reservoir (which can hold more energy and fuel)
• Energy, fuel and speed boosters
• Particle effects if you pick up energy, fuel or use boosters
• Better camera management
• One more thing that is bothering me that the game takes a while (about 20 – 30 secs) to load on netbooks but I’m not really sure how to fix that.

I’m going to be working on this strange game I was working on a few months back called ‘D2 – 1′. It was originally meant to be a side scrolling Beat’em up but I’m going to turn it into an RPG. I got bored while making it and never got back to work on it.

Heres a screen shot.

yeah....

Rather bland, but it’s 1D.

EDIT: Current Version: http://www.mediafire.com/?8348mapozjmbp99 It requires Open Frameworks.

-bear