A solicitation for help.

I’m thinking about doing the upcoming MiniLD. Yay! And I’m thinking of doing it in Clojure, a language I barely know. Anybody experienced out there want to chat about Lisp gamedev? Hit me up at johnfn at gmail. I’m particularly interested in how game state is conventionally kept in what is almost uniformly a stateless language. But any other tips or clues would be greatly appreciated. Clojure is shockingly different from the other languages I’ve used.

Get ready, LDers! July’s MiniLD  is approaching!

I hope you guys aren’t tired from McFunkypants‘ awesome MiniLD #27. It was a really astonishing edition: there was thirty great entries! That was impressive. Congratulations to all of you, and special thanks for McFunkypants, who did a splending job organizing it! *thumbs up*

Well, the Ludum Dare #21 is coming next month, so I’ll give you guys a relaxing time to tune your programming skills and exercise your game design. The Mini LD #28 will officially start on Friday, July 30th at midnight GMT (that’s July 29th 7:00 PM EST). But to make sure everyone can join the fun and got enough time to work on your submissions, I’ll reveal the theme on July 23rd, also at midnight GMT. You can start once the theme is revealed if you want to, no pressure. Just have fun!

If you’re a newcomer and isn’t sure how to get started, try visiting the Tools page to get ready, and read the Sol’s LD Survival Guide. Also,  come chat with us on the #ludumdare IRC. Feel free to ask there for help if you’re confused.

As always, everyone is welcome to join! All platforms, programming languages and engines are accepted. You’re highly encouraged to share your source code, but this isn’t a requirement. I won’t be picky about assets either, as long as you have the rights to use it.

See you there!

Hello, strangers.

I’ve somehow stumbled across Ludum Dare and wonder how I’ve missed it for this long. I hope to participate in the next LD but I’ll definitely be giving the mini a go as I’m sure I’ll need the practice.

I’ve been inspired by the likes of Praetor and dock and since I love Ogre myself, I’m going to try to follow in their footsteps. I tried making a game in 6 hours to get a feel for the process – I actually managed to make something “playable,” though there was no concept of reward or punishment or even score.

Since I haven’t been in the compo before, I’ll be making a framework as I go. I’ll probably use:

• Ogre (and the examples framework)
• C++ (MSVC 2005)
• Bullet and btOgre
• An Ogre DotScene loader I got from the Ogre wiki
• FMOD or maybe openAL
• Blender 3d
• The Gimp

So far, I have a VERY simple, sloppy framework down. It’s not really meant for public compilation, there’s hard-coded paths and whatnot right now. Still, you can see it here. You can load a scene and run and jump around in it, FPS-style.

So, Is there anything cool about what I’m doing? I think so!

My thinking for this is that I need to mini-mini-minimize development time. Generally, it can take 60 seconds or more from the time I press ctrl-F5 to when I actually have everything loaded, physics initialized and can see results on my screen. I need to minimize that! To do this, I invented a methodology just for Ludum Dare that I’m calling, “Keep it running, stupid.”

Each component (player, Level, Enemy1, Enemy2, etc) gets its own project and is built as a .dll file. The main app, which is rarely rebuilt, is always running.

When I build a component, like my player .dll, I have a pre-link event that tells my main app to unload the .dll. I implement this as an AutoHotkey script. The .dll can serialize it’s data upon unloading, if I want. Then I have a post-build event to reload the .dll and bring my game in focus.

I only have this implemented with two .dll’s at the moment, Player and Scenery. Time will tell how much this actually helps me in the long run but for now, it’s VERY rewarding to make a change in code and be playing it two seconds after I press F7!

Hello everyone. Im 99 percent sure that I’ll be participating in this MiniLD. I just hope that the theme is easy to do in Game Maker…

Tags: ld, mini, shard123

I am totally entering the Mini LD.  I will be

using unity3D.

So…

I’ve hit a wall with C++/Ogre. It has just. Stopped. Being. Fun.

So, here’s what I’ll use instead:

• Language: ActionScript 3
• Compiler: Flex 4.5
• IDE: Geany
• Graphics: Inkscape
• Sounds: sfxr (AS3 port) + media.io (for MP3 conversion)
• Music: LMMS (If I get to it)

C++ is killing me. Large projects are killing me. I’ve had enough.

My Mini-LD game will be the start of a new kind of work for me. I will move toward making games that are deliberately simple. I want to make games that can be completed within one month. And then, well, complete them within one month.

I’m hoping that I can accomplish that.

My first project will be the Mini-LD game. I will continue to work on it until it is finished. I’m hoping to make either a top-down shooter or an RPG. We’ll see what I can fit into the theme.

Peace, love, and the simplest possible solution,

— Mr. Dude

Hello, my name is Mike.

I’ve been an SQA Analyst, hobbyist programmer and more recently a web developer/desktop support agent.

Games have always been a part of my life, and ever since I can remember (anything) I’ve wanted to make them.

I’ve initiated a few projects here and there which ultimately amounted to nothing. I’ve always shied away from creating my own art and have been shafted by really good artist friends that couldn’t get into it with the same intensity as me.

Hence, my decision to opt in to a mini compo. I will be creating everything by myself with the hope that last-minute panic will kick in by the end of Saturday and I’ll be able to make something memorable, or at least a good start to something I’m comfortable with working on in the long term.

I would like to thank the originators of this competition for an excuse to give my fiancee and family to take a weekend off for personal time to work on something I love, though my boss may not be so understanding.

Cheers,

 

Mike

I doubt I was the only one to break out in a small private karaoke concert when the MiniLD theme was announced. War followed by Cannon Fodder (in all fairness in this version by Press Play On tape). Closely behind followed Fortunate Son. Had this been a true LD these songs would be playing in non-stop repeat. Seeing as how I’ve got more than just the 48 hours, I fear for my sanity should I keep the music running.

Regardless, the music gripped me instantly and tossed me back to what I consider the epitome of W*A*R – Vietnam. The satire of Cannon Fodder and the udder foolishness expressed by both Edwin Starr and Credence Clearwater Revival (henseforth CCR) easily sets the stage for war gone wrong. Beyond this, I’ve had a notion of fiddling with games that work heavily with music. Trying to merge the two has given me three options:

1. Guitar Hero Vietnam (meh)
2. ReZ vietnam (still meh)
3. Compose-a-war (yeh!)

I’m going with the final one. In principle, I’m aiming for an RTS-puzzle hybrid that relies heavily on the rhythm of the music as queues to the player on how to react to enemy movements. This requires some intriguing features not innately accessible in the engine of choice, most notably a run-time dynamic music tracker. Fun fun!

Anyway, to summarize my tools du jour:

Language: AS3

Engine: Flashpunk (custom version integrating RichardMarks’ sound mixer and a few custom fixes)

Sound: sfxr

Music: Pure code (rhythms tested in Musagi and MODPlug Tracker, samples created with sfxr or my vocal cords)

Graphics: Paint.NET

Others: tellusLibsAS, a modest helper library publicly available on Github.

Break a leg, everyone!

Tags: as3, flash, music, sfxr

I am a programmer, so the hard part for me will be the graphics, sound and music this should be a fun and great learning experience.  This will be my first entry into LD.  I will probably play it safe and do a WAR FPS. below is my tools. I may edit this post later if i decide to use other tools for the audio section.

• Language: C#
• Engine: Unity3d
• IDE: Visual Studio
• Graphics: Inkscape/Blender
• Sounds: Fruity Loops
• Music: Fruity Loops

Good luck everyone else entering!!

Man, it’s been a while. Been caught up with school, so i couldn’t attend the last few LDs
That said, I have had the time to work on my skills a little, and have been working on a game in AS3, with the help of good (not so) ‘ol FlashPunk.
If any of you remember LD#18, i entered a game called “AfterDark” (you can find it HERE). Well, the entire game has been re-written in ActionScript since then, and this is the result:

Slight graphics upgrade since last time...

Also got a new name, and a new logo!

The game is still in sponsorship stage, but if you want, you can give it a go on FGL (you will require a developer/sponsor account) HERE

Well, this will be my very first Ludum Dare mini …

Might be the wrong timing, because my nephew is coming over the weekend of the mini, so I will have to spend some time with him on sunday. But being the age of under 2, he’ll have to take a nap and go to bed early.

Because I knew I didn’t have the time, I did *some* lines of code in the past, without entering the compo. Just to check if I  was up for it.

I still feel a bit worried about the whole thing (specialy time management, knowledge).

I do have a bit of a history with programming, from GameMaker to VB6/VB.net and Truevision3D. This compo I’ll be using:

• Language: Java
• Tech: LWJGL?
• IDE: Netbeans
• Graphics: GIMP

 

Now, more learning so that I’m ready for next weekend!

I’m making an RTS. The title is Warfare and it is about two nations (The “Northern Empire” and the “Southern Union”) who are fighting a war due to the fact that each thinks the other is evil. Really, that’s it. That’s all they need.

Each has nine units (3 infantry, 3 ground vehicles, 3 aircraft) that they share and three units (1 infantry, 1 ground vehicle, 1 aircraft) that are unique to them. Each also has a shared defense structure (a machine gun turret) and one that is unique to them. There are several other sorts of structures that both can build, as well.

For the Mini-LD, I’m hoping to have something with a skirmish mode and at least the common units between the factions. Well, here’s hoping anyway.

I’m going to be working on this thing after the Mini-LD and eventually posting it on Kongregate.

Peace, love, and armed conflict,

— Mr. Dude

Haven’t done one of these before, looking forward to it.  No ideas yet, but I’m enjoying the extra planning time.

I guess I announce what I’m using here?
FlashDevelop, Flixel, GraphicsGale, Paint.NET, either SFXR or BFXR

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 at 2:54 pm and is filed under MiniLD #28. 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.

This theme challenges me..

I’m having a hard time thinking about a proper game.

But I’ll possibly go with some sort of sefight thingy, if I can’t come up w/ anything better ^_.^

Gonna start up FamiTracker, and compose something ^_.^

– Folis

I’m going to enter this miniLD! (most likely)

I’ll be using Flash, making graphics with something, and probably simply ignoring sound effects

I already have a game in mind, and I hope I’ll be able to finish it. It’s called Warmonger. More on that later…

I might start early or go for more than 2 days, because I’m afraid I might not be able to finish quickly enough. And I plan to actually post about it this time around so expect posts soon and at some minimum frequency.

By the way, the theme is great.

—
Mikhail Rudoy

 

Ok, miniLD27 was a miserable fail for me due to starting new internship /w lot of work for school /w promise things for people I didn’t had the time to finish!

So new try for me and in order to have a better karma I chose to make a anti-war game.

 

 

So the tentative title is WarBeats and is hitting the borderline between games like Rez (where the music reacts to the player’s actions) and Guitar Hero (where timing is key to high scores).

I’ve narrowed down the actual design and working on putting the pieces together. Three to four weapons are used to destroy the same amount of enemy types. Firing and destroying generates musical queues, while the marching army generates a constant beat to the music. They fire automatically, my intention being that the rifle shots are the central melody of the composition. So, beat (marching), tune (rifles), incidental rhythm (player actions). It either becomes sweet music or bitter cacophony. I’m too far now to turn it any other way 😛

I’m piecing together standard parts right now, trying to ignore the really tough features. I’ve figured out a model for the music sequencer that should (hopefully) minimize delay between synchronized musical samples to a very small millisecond count, but coupling this with movement of spawned enemies to the rhythm is quite a different beast.

Fun fun.

Tags: as3, flash, screenshot

My framework is coming along pretty well. I now have the very basic beginnings of enemies. I’m just using Ogre’s built-in stuff for now (and perhaps for the mini). I can spawn multiple ninjas and have them stand around, randomly going through their three idle animations. If the player moves within range of them, they start slowly stalking the player.

The stalking behavior is because the only translatable animations for the ninja are “stealth” and “walk” and “walk” seems to be very carefree.

So, I can spawn a group of ninjas and make them stalk the player. It’s kinda creepy to be stalked by a bunch of ninja – but in a good way :). Next, I think I’ll make them attack. Then, I need to make them collide and be smarter – it looks trippy when they all bunch up.

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

So, there’s still not much but hey, you can run, jump and stuff can chase you!

 

This game is disturbing.  It is based on actual war stories I heard from my grandfather.  Could you make impossible choices in order to survive a real war?  I don’t have that much content yet, but as I can remember more by the deadline, I will add them.

The ending is deliberately anti-climactic, because the real victory is just to live and continue.

http://devinmoore.com/actualwar/devinswar.php

While writing this I’m sitting in Boise, ID and going back home to Norway Wednesday the 27th. after a month long summer exchange. So my plan is splitting the development schedule up into two: Trying to get the programming/scripting/technical whatever during flight, or more if I get the time. I will be traveling for 12+ hours, so I’m hoping to get a lot done during this (if I manage to stay awake). Then I will try getting some graphics and sound done as soon as possible when I get home if not also on the plane. It will only be me and Game Maker up there while programming, so no interwebs or other stuff to distract me.
I’ve also got an idea for some gameplay and theme, but I don’t wanna share too much now other than it will probably be in the anti-war category. Don’t know if it’s been done before, but temporary(?) title is MWWAT?, pronounced “uhm, what?” and short for “Modern Warfare With A Twist?”. Just because it was the first title I came up with and doesn’t fit my idea at all.

My next post will (hopefully) be as soon as I get hooked up to the web after I land. Maybe I’ll be the first in the world to release a Mile High Game?