I was planning on posting this 2 hours ago, but it took a little longer than I expected to get it working. This is the 2 hallways and parlour, generated differently each time. A number of rooms branch off the hallways (not visible here), in one of which the murder takes place.
I’m devoting the next few hours to implementing the timeline – sorting out who goes where, when.
Despite many distractions, I now have a castle map that you can walk around in. Monsters spawn and will chase you (but don’t hurt you yet). You can outrun monsters and they’ll lose aggro.
Now I need treasures and puzzles. Puzzles will require a tag system and frankly that scares me. I now have 22:30 left…can I finish in time?! Tune in for the exciting conclusion! (Excitement not guaranteed.)
Tags: screenshot
It’s toast. Oh, and here’s some candy:
But it’s really from last night.
Tags: breakfast, candy, foodphoto, sandwiches, toast
After laziness and distraction, I’ve finally got enough of the game coded for a screenshot:
Right now it’s just some nodes pushing around signals when you click on them. Eventually I’m going to add nodes which take different actions when hit with signals, and build some puzzle elements. Tonight, I’d like to get the tech side of things done, so I can focus on design tomorrow.
Tags: screenshot
So I spent all of Saturday making Kirby-esque gameboy style graphics, which I have a feeling was a mistake as I’m going to have to code all of the game in one day and I’m still all too green with python. Oh well, hopefully something comes out of it and at least I have the graphics pretty much done for what I have in mind. And no, it’s not really going to be a platformer and no, that’s not an alien (it’s a grasshopper I swear). If low-res 4-shade black and white graphics isn’t minimalist enough I plan on it being a one-button affair. Here’s hoping I get this done tomorrow!
Tags: grasshopper, journal, leap, screenshot
Well, I’m back a couple hours later than I thought I might be (go figure..) 😉 But, I did snag one great picture of copious amounts of dead thing grilling over a backyard fire at a friend’s house.
Anyway, I’m back and checking out all the posts and happenings I missed while most of you were still coding away today! Gotta get back on the coding horse if I’m gonna pull this thing off tomorrow, still a lot to do!
Well, I’ve basically completed my game, though I want to add some “minimal” background music as it is a thinking/puzzle game. It’s turned out to be a little more interesting than I first thought, which is, of course, good.
However, after initial feedback from my Dad and girlfriend, I’ve had to try and make it a little clearer about what you’re supposed to accomplish. Which I think warrants an easy/hard mode toggle as the “clear” method makes the game a lot simpler.
Think that’s all for now. Probably going to go to bed soon and work on the music a bit tomorrow, maybe. Of course, ate the staple of pizza for dinner, but it was also for other reasons beyond my control…
Ahhhh! After playing with weapon-less AI for so long it is as drastic change to have them actually shooting back now! I didn’t initially intend for this to be a hardcore shooting experience, but I’m liking it so far so that might be the final product…
I ironed out a LOT of bugs over the last few hours, and I’m making headway into the deeper gameplay I didn’t know if I would have time for. Exciting! I’ll probably leave sound and music out and blame it on my desire to keep it one single file. This will give me lots more time to work on the game. I’ll likely work on some music and sound after the compo (and without the 48 hour creation restriction) and roll them into the game later on.
Tags: journal
Well, I’m definitely going to have trouble finishing this thing in time. I have already thrown out the idea of any graphics or sounds. The fact is though I think the game now fits the theme really well. It looks like that old game hack or rogue you may have played years ago. I’m using characters for graphics. My game is much much simpler and smaller though.
Getting a rpg done in this amount of time is all about finding shortcuts and simplying things as much as possible. So far I like the direction it’s going. I think it might be a fun game. Whether I have time to finish it or even balance it at all is a another matter.
In any case, I’ll have something for people to try at least.
Ok here is my first release!
It is a java applet so it should simply play in the browser if you go here
Instructions:
You are the blue block, dodge the red blocks using the arrow keys. Control the green block with the mouse. Left click fires a yellow block to help deflect red blocks.
Howdy! This is my first LD. I’ve tried to compete before, but it has never worked out. My entry is a MUD written as a facebook app. I’ve always been a fan of MUDs in general and I figured a MUD would fit the theme pretty well.
I’m not as far along as I would like to be, but it is a lot further that I thought I would have gotten. So far you can walk around, talk, and act like you are going to attack somebody. Tomorrow I plan on finishing up combat, polishing up the interface a bit and adding a lot more content. Now it is time for some sleep!
Tags: journal, screenshot
04-19-2008 11:30PM EST
Hey all, I am JamesDM. I have never coded a line in my life. I have however worked with NegativeGeForce for quite a while, learning the ins and outs of game design. Through NGF I heard about Ludum Dare and decided I would give it a shot. I am downloading Python as I write this and will make an attempt to learn basic python, write and code a text adventure game before the deadline. This leaves me about 22.5 hours to complete this. Hopefully I can make the deadline and I hope to learn a thing or two and hopefully have alot of fun.
04-19-2008 11:59PM EST
Python is installed and I just finished skimming the documentation. I also outlined my game and have started working on the storyline.
04-20-2008 12:58AM EST
I’m still tossing around some ideas of how to use the minimalist theme to its full potential for this project. I went over some basic code with NGF and he helped me with some basic examples. Also, Dinner time…
And pre-game desk.
I realized that I could spend a lot of time optimizing the monster flocking behavior… or I could just remove it entirely to save CPU because the player hardly gets to observe it. Now the monsters just wander aimlessly and chase the player when they see him. It hardly impacts gameplay, except that it runs more smoothly.
As for the rest of the game, I drew bad pixel art and threw together some bad sounds for whenever the player collides with a monster or when a character bumps into the edge of the arena. Now, just as soon as I make the monsters actually kill the player, I’ll have a full game.
Tags: Omnihunter
Well, I’m not quite happy with my music loop yet, but it’s close. I’m using Musagi to generate my music. It’s a very useful little tool, though it has a bit of a learning curve. Need to dig out my three button mouse for it though tomorrow.
I’ve also used his Sfxr program as mentioned in a prior post for my sound effects. Along with a base of Python + PyGame for my programming. It’s 361 lines of codes and few external files for the images, sounds, and music track. I’m pretty sure I’m all done now, but I’m going to get some sleep, work out my music a bit more tomorrow, and I’ll post my final version then.
In the meantime feel free to listen to my first complete attempt at Musagi here (ogg). And the screen shot of my updated menu with updated instructions:
Things are getting out of hand… There is a helper python script that scans a directory (such as your iTunes directory) for mp3 files, reads the ID3 tags, and makes an index for the game to use. So if you have some mp3’s lying around, you should have plenty of content. It should come as no surprise that it’s a rhythm game.
I’ve got the bare beginnings of the gameplay done. “Focus” was the title for the old, complicated idea. The new one is…. well, different. And still secret. But much more minimal.
So I’ve spent almost 2/3rds of the time on the title screen… now onto gameplay…
I finally implemented the enhanced collision detection which determines who wins a fight when the player and a monster overlap. It took me a lot longer than expected– two hours– but now that that’s done, all I have left to do is polish off the game.
No screenshot in this post, because the only changes are visible in motion.
Tags: Omnihunter
Idea is ready.
Opengl code for graphics is ready (i do windows .exe totally in linux ).
Time to sleep now, when i wake up i just implement the idea and be happy about it, maybe even add sounds if time permits
Hopefully catching some zzz’s will heal up cold I caught just in time for LD11…
Wish me luck, if I succed you will have a kick-ass game
this is my first screen shot. that is not game yet.
i only use pygame, and next i make gameplay part.
umm… i need more time
Description:
One of many robots standing in a steamy room assembling devices you suddenly drop your tools and walk away from your bench.
Who are? Why are here? Where are you going?
Without help of any kind you’ll have to figure out how to survive in this strange mechanical world. Your best clues are the ominous messages over the intercom from “The Master”.
Intrigued? Of course you are! I can’t give away any more than that, as part of the fun is starting completely ‘in the dark’ and figuring out what is going on, without text/story, etc.
I was messing around with resolutions and everything is working smoothly, so if you happen to have a 1920X120
monitor you’re in luck, as it will allow you to view more play area at once.
Well, I’m hitting the sack now.
I’ll have a few hours before the deadline after waking up to fight with musagi and see if I can get some music going. G’night.
PS: You might think I was trying to do some kind of visual minimalist thing but uh.. that’s just how bad I draw.
Description:
One of many robots standing in a steamy room assembling devices you suddenly drop your tools and walk away from your bench.
Who are? Why are here? Where are you going?
Without help of any kind you’ll have to figure out how to survive in this strange mechanical world. Your best clues are the ominous messages over the intercom from “The Master”.
Intrigued? Of course you are! I can’t give away any more than that, as part of the fun is starting completely ‘in the dark’ and figuring out what is going on, without text/story, etc.
I was messing around with resolutions and everything is working smoothly, so if you happen to have a 1920X120
monitor you’re in luck, as it will allow you to view more play area at once.
Well, I’m hitting the sack now.
I’ll have a few hours before the deadline after waking up to fight with musagi and see if I can get some music going. G’night.
PS: You might think I was trying to do some kind of visual minimalist thing but uh.. that’s just how bad I draw.
Tonight a social obligation cut into precious coding time. This did involve dinner at an Indian restaurant though.
Tags: foodphoto
04-20-2008 3:19AM EST
I am spending way too much time fleshing out this story, I just keep going deeper and deeper. I have so much that I want to write but not nearly enough time, especially since I still have to actually write the game…
04-20-2008 5:06AM EST
I am about half way through writing the storyline and have started actually putting it into the game. I have a good start going. I have room to room movement(although a very basic and no-frills system right now), a help system that lists all commands and an inventory system. It is time for bed, Hopefully come crunch time I can refine it down and finish the story in time. *fingers crossed* Goodnight Everyone!
<3
Today’s breakfast was minimal:
That’s orange juice with extra pulp right there. Mmm, hmm!
Tags: foodphoto
So this is the whole journey of PepsiCo. for its touring of Pepsi Blue. Why does it go from New York to end in Utah? I don’t know, but it does. (That’s right, there are ten levels! I can almost beat the last one without the cheat.) Please pretend the yellowish mass looks like the continental USA.
Tags: screenshot
Well, I’ve accomplished a LOT tonight, but I wish I had done more. I’m not that tired, but I’m starting to make stupid mistakes, so I’m going to turn in and catch a few Zs before the big push tomorrow. As of this moment I have about 16 and a half hours left. I’ll probably sleep for 4-6, leaving me about 10 hours of solid coding to finish the game. Yikes. I still have 2 major gameplay items I want to add, and I have a couple other things I need to put in to give it that rushed-polish-feel. Worst case I will have to cut those gameplay parts out — the game is still fun, but they will really push it over the top.
We will see how people like my approach to minimalist. Hopefully it will get scored well, but I suspect that people are going to vote it down because of lack of sfx, music, and graphics anyway. Crossing my fingers for good votes.
Until tomorrow: adieu
Tags: journal
Last night I was able to spend about six hours on my game. This time I want to make a Flash game, so everyone can run it directly in their browsers. I’m programming it in haXe:
It’s going slowly, since I haven’t used haXe for quite a while.
This morning I had breakfast and went to the neighborhood fair which is held every year here. In half an hour I have to leave for a concert in Wageningen. I hope to still be able to make some kind of playable game when I’m back.
Ok, I’m going to sleep but I thought I would reveal a sneak peek at the new direction I’m going. I think it’s going to be awesome. The only question is will I finish on time???
So, I’ve been pretty quiet on IRC … because I’ve been coding and making sounds flat chat.
Here’s a screenshot of Level 5 in my game, Mondrian.
I still have TODO list to work through before I release the final:
)Tags: screenshot
I’ve been pretty secretive, not wanting to show off my tech, but it’s occurred to me that it doesn’t really matter that much; So, here’s the current status of my game:
I’m very happy with the tech, it’s performing admirably with even dozens of sprites on my system – I’m basicly making an asteroids game, but I think this counts as minimal (it’s so minimal it doesn’t even have a background, ha!) – Just finished the majority of the asteroid code (creation / movement / collision), and I’m now going on to make a ship and a way to shoot. Which I expect won’t take too long. I’m expecting to complete sound effects but I don’t think I’ll get to music.
2:10 AM 4/20/2008 – Read Seth Robinson’s blog and discovered Ludumdare competition was going on. The theme this year is “minimalism”. Perfect! I’ve had some ideas for games with that theme for a while now, and this is the perfect motivation. Contest started on Friday, and ends “today” at 7pm, so I’ve got some catching up to do.
Heres a first look at MiniMall.
It’s a SimThemesque game of making a mall and the various types of shops in it, and managing and making the most money you can from the mini-malists running around inside it.
Currently have male and female mini-malists, and their buying behaviour differs. Chick logic is hard to figure out!
And a general update photo of Triorph and Surrealix and I as we get on into our evening here.
Tags: coalition, LD11 - Minimalist
I finally settled on a name. Since this game is based on one of my past projects, a roguelike called “The Hunter”, I kept thinking of corny names like “Hunter 2D” for its contiguous 2d coordinate system, and “Hunter 360” for 360 degrees of freedom. Yuck. Finally I came up with “Omnihunter” for an omni-directional version of The Hunter.
As for the polish I added since my last post, it was mostly a hour worth of minor bug fixes, and I replaced the alligator graphic with a rat because it matches the monsters’ movement pattern better. Here’s what it looks like:
It’s very… minimal. There’s a lot more I could have done with this game, like adding more types of monsters, give the player a choice of weaponry, make the monsters spawn out of things that the player can destroy, add walls and turn the environment into a labyrinth, add animations… even make the rats spontaneously combust. Overall, though, I’m pleased with how it turned out. It’s nice to see my entire development cycle outlined in my posts, and for my idea to have become a reality in about a day. Plus, I have fun playing my game, and I think other people will too.
According to my posts, it looks like I have spent around 9-10 hours of work on this project over the course of 26 hours. Somehow I think it should have taken me less time than that, seeing as it’s a very simple game, but I finished a project for once, and I have plenty of time to spare. Better that than not finishing in time.
Download the game here: http://www.mediafire.com/?xcmndkznj4n
EDIT: On second thought, there were still a few changes I wanted to make. I’m really cutting it close with only 17 minutes left. Download the updated version here: http://www.mediafire.com/?jdmmi1k5e7y
Dependencies:
Tools used:
Tags: final, Omnihunter, opengl, pygame, python
The house is now generated, both graphically and topologically (so characters no longer teleport between rooms on opposite sides of the house).
One worry I have is that these short ‘whodunnits’ are going to prove too difficult or unintuitive for most people to solve. I guess it’s a very specific target audience.
A pleasant surprise … I had this made for me.
What is it about me doing LD that makes my girlfriend want to cook so much !
Tags: foodphoto
(cross-posting from my blog until I can figure out how to get syndication working.)
Okay, I’m registered. Now to start with some inspiration. Way back when Resident Evil 2 came out for the PS1, my friends and I loved it, and played it to death. There were two things that we were particularly fond of. First off, the voice “acting” was excellent. And by “excellent”, I mean perfect for the B-movie motif of a modern zombie movie (er… videogame with extensive cut scenes). The awkward pauses in dialog were further exacerbated by the long loading time for the PS1 to read the sound files off the disk. This, combined with the awkward hand-gesture animations made for some moments that would have made Ed Wood proud. For example the classic, “Stop!… don’t open… that door!” from from the first Resident Evil game. Or one of the initial exposition dialogs from the sequel:
Marvin:
About two months ago…there was this incident… involving zombies…
in a mansion… located in the outskirts of this city.
Chris… and the other STARS members discovered that…
…
…
(sinister voice) Umbrella…
was behind everything.
…
They risked their lives to reveal the truth.
But, no one… believed them.
Not long after that… (with emphasis) all this… started to happen.
But I digress… Our second favorite thing about the game was its constant confirmationitis.
“There is a key here, would you like to take it? (yes/no)”
“There is a lever here, would you like to use it? (yes/no)”
“There is a switch here, would you like to switch it? (yes/no)”
Based on this, we devised the obvious logical extension of the series. At the time, we called it “Resident Evil 3”, but actually “Resident Evil 0” might have been more appropriate. Considering both those title have since been taken, and reconsidering our design of the game, I think this is probably the most apt title:
That screenshot is pretty much the entire extent of the game. Choosing “No” would send you to a Game Over screen. Choosing “Yes” would send you to an identical Game Over screen, which we called “the good ending”. Depending on how long you took to answer “Yes”, and how many times you had to switch the cursor between the two choices, the game awarded you a rank, from D to A. If you chose “Yes” really quickly… I’m talking within a matter of minutes, you’d attain the coveted ‘S’ rank. Achieving the S rank unlocked a bonus part of the game, which played exactly the same as the original, but the menu was blue instead of green. If you beat the “blue version” with an S rank, you unlock the “red version”, and so on…
Tags: inspiration, journal
I have gameplay now:
Er, you can’t tell from the screenshot, but the small square is your mouse cursor. The large square that is the same color is the goal. There are as many obstacles as the level number, so level #5 will have five obstacles.
The rectangles are obstacles you need to avoid to get to the goal. If you touch an obstacle, you go back to the beginning. They vary in size, so sometimes a single pixel can trip you up. Be careful!
Tags: screenshot
OK. I’ve written a columns-like game. Columns to begin with is very minimal. I had this idea of a little improvement (or weirdification) that one could rotate it around. Which I tested.
See? It’s not so useful though. Thinking maybe it’s better to just reduce it to actual columns, then at least innovation is minimal! But would feel a bit cheaty.
Got to fix score viewer and game over thingy, so I’ll have some time to ponder it.
Tags: colors, columns, journal, screenshot
Here’s another screenshot of my game, which I’m still calling Tiny Skater I guess. This is the fifth level in the game. The other levels aren’t this big. This one’s a bit of a mess to tell you the truth. The minimal game mechanics kinda make it hard to have interesting level designs. I think I have an idea for one more.
Tags: bad pun, levels, screenshot, tiny skater
Woke up today, ate some food:
Got some cola here too, but unfortunately the floor decided to take a sizeable portion of it.
Anyway, I finally got the engine done now! No new screenshot since it looks the same as before, but now I can easily add screens simply by making a new png for the graphics and a lua script to link it to stuff. Time for content creation..
Also, maybe some sound. I’ve got some samples that would be perfect for ambience, but I probably can’t use those since they weren’t created during the compo (or by me, even). Guess I’ll have to try to make something.
Tags: foodphoto
10:51
Woke up to find out my comp had bluescreened, how annoying. And no, I didn’t leave my game running for the night!
13:00
Defined base of enemy script and enemy movement systems and made some first proof-of-concept protos of them.
15:29
Tweaked way too long trying some different material choices for bullets and still settling for a really simple one. Firing, bullet movement and collision detection with enemies is now done. Now it’s time for a small break to eat something, and then I’ll work on constructing enemy script from level data.
16:52
Actually I once more had to enhance the route system to ease the content creation a bit. Let’s see if I can now add more enemies. Screenshot from level editing.
I have a main menu:
And gameplay:
I need sound effects, but I have made a game for Ludum Dare!
Tags: screenshot
Game is progressing, but very slowly.. Spending too much time fiddling with details.
I ate some stuff again in the hope that some energy will be beneficial:
Also ate a banana earlier. It’s important that you know these things.
Tags: foodphoto
I’d decided before the competition got under way that I wasn’t going to be have time to actually compete, and that I was going to use the weekend as an opportunity to get back up to speed with C++ after a break of around 10 years, but with the theme being “minimalism” it was just too tempting to give it a go.
I certainly wasn’t going to have enough time to put together a decent original game in the 8 hours or so I could reasonably expect to have, and if I was going to do minimalism properly, the .EXE should be as small as possible and require no external libraries, and ideally no external resources either.
I came up with two ideas which I thought would fit the bill:
I opted for the second idea as it was a game I played to death back in the day, and promptly spent 5 hours last night (going to bed at 4.30am) arsing around sketching on graph paper and putting together simple animations using OpenGL primitives. Still, I now have all the graphics I’m going to need generated in code, plus a basic framework handling game state and properly timed animation. All that’s left is writing the actual game, but I’m hoping that I’ll get 5 or 6 hours tonight which should be enough for something this simple.
After feeding it through UPX my current .EXE comes in at 13k (down from around 27k uncompressed) which I’m quite happy with, as it’s just game logic which needs to be added. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to submit something which is playable and finished at a basic level in under 15k.
I’m only just back in now after being out since first thing this morning and have a pile of urgent things to do before I’ll have chance to do any more coding, but will try and get a screenshot or two posted up before I head back out.
Minimalist game. Few pixels. Few words.
Windows, run executable. Ignore errors. They claim fatality. They lie.
Others, need python, pygame. Run python main.py
Tags: final
Here’s my final submission of Mondrian.
The game is heavily inspired by the visual art of Piet Mondrian, and while he wasn’t strictly a Minimalist (apparently he was a Neo-Plasticist), his works look pretty minimal to me. It also has a minimal ambient soundtrack.
You can download it here [Mondrian_by_pansapiens_LD11.zip] (runs on Windows and Linux).
Read the README in the zip. Esstentially, you just click the mouse and press ‘r’ to restart a level.
Here’s the screenshot:
Don’t let it fool you … it looks (and sounds) much prettier when in motion.
There are ten levels. I think it can be completed, but the last few levels are hard (or impossible :P). It could do with some better levels … there is an in built level editor (using the commandline switch -e). Send me some better levels !
Tools used:
Python (2.5), Pygame (1.8), Rabbyt (0.8.1) (and it’s dependency, PyOpenGL)
Played with Pyglet but hacked that code out and didn’t use it in the end.
Gvim and Eric as IDEs, SVN and Trac for source control.
The GIMP for image editing, LMMS (using the BitInvader softsynth) for sound. Sounds trimmed using Rezound, encoded with oggenc. My Ensoniq Mirage was used as a controller keyboard (should have just sampled it).
All put together on Ubuntu Linux, Hardy Heron Beta with a flaky Pulseaudio server that wasted my time (should have never upgraded before the official release date :/ ). Windows version compiled with PyMike’s PySetup.py, on Windows XP running in a VirtualBox VM. Briefly tested on Vista.
Big thanks to my girlfriend for cooking all weekend.
Now it’s sleepytime.
Tags: final
17:28
Yay, first enemies spawning from the level data. Now it’s about
time to make even some simple movement logic for them!
Okay, this time I really think I’m done. I added an intro and an outro, fixed some bugs, and changed the way scoring works, and tweaked gameplay a little bit. I also added a windows executable. Cheers! 😀
Source: Download (55 KB)
Windows: Download (3 MB)
Well, I’m back up and starting to wake up.. (mmm coffee) I was too tired last night to tag the evening with a journal update as to progress of MinMo so I think I’ll do that now as I recollect my thoughts and tasks for the day.
I managed to get about 3-4 hrs of code in last night during which I got the block classes correctly picking new heights, updating to the new heights etc. It looks really neat in motion and there is something about it’s minimalism that I do like.
I got the player char position to be updated as the blocks rise and fall and started working on more advanced collision detection. I need the char to correctly get stuck in the block valleys and be able to move left and right only when their block is above neighboring blocks. Sounds simple enough right? 😉
I managed to piece something together that was crudely working after fighting through some annoying bugs but basically hit a wall of tiredness where I was causing more harm than good. So, I went to bed hoping to refactor a bit better / clearer algorithm in the morning and then hopefully add a few more elements to make this thing a ‘game’ and maybe even slightly ‘fun’. I still have hope even though there is less than 10 hrs left in the compo.
Yep, that’s a shot of gameplay! Hey, it’s supposed to be minimalist.
you may download the intense thrills of Still Pond: stillpond.zip (2MB)
It is for windows and includes source code. Developed using PTK, and I think I did things in the semi-proper way, shouldn’t be too tough to recompile for Mac. There are two exes, a windowed and a fullscreen, but on my computer the fullscreen one constantly minimizes itself, which is beyond annoying. I consider the windowed version official, but if the fullscreen one works for you, it is better for the gameplay.
Tags: final, leaf, minimalist, pond, still
Well, I think I’m done… it’s rather a lot more minimal than I’d hoped, not been feeling too well this weekend, so decided to stop early. I’d hoped to make better use of Chipmunk and put in ropes/chains and other fun stuff, and some hazards – but kept getting too distracted playing it / building levels (it’s got a built-in level editor, if you press E in-game, but it’s a bit arkward to use, and I didn’t get round to writing any instructions…)
Final(ish) version is here…
http://www.bluescrn.net/LD48/LD48-11-bluescrn.zip
Well, so much for those 14+ hours I was going to have. A mere 5 left to go.
The PC Engine Duo (TurboGrafx-16 + CD) I picked up yesterday has been nothing but trouble. Didn’t come with a video cable, which was fine. So I took a couple hours to build one. No problem.
But immediately following building the cable, I go see if I can at least power the system on. Oh wait! The system doesn’t power on! Splendid!
So one thing lead to another. I discovered the power connector was bad, only passing one signal through it. No problem. Any easy fix. Dropped a new connector in it’s place, being sure to compensate for tip change on the power supply. A bunch of triple/quadruple checks later, poundings of the run button, still nothing.
Checked the board for bad caps. I can’t find a single leak anywhere. I did discover evidence that somebody else has been inside this system before. Grumble.
So anyways, this has been keeping me angry and occupied. Hangry perhaps too. So hangry, I didn’t photograph my lunch/breakfast. 
I’m done fudging with it for now, as I wait to be authorized in a community where I can hopefully ask some questions.
Bleah.
As part of my game, I needed some way to show damage to the player (and, damage to the monster, as well). The method I used to render text was semi-hacked together yesterday, and it had a few problems that made it hard to really do what I wanted. What I wanted (and what I now have), is to have the damage float up from a point on screen. After some amount of re-writing, and some terrible bugs that nearly stopped me in full, I’ve got a better text rendering function.
Now to fix it so that you can’t gain health by fighting the monster once you’ve above a certain level. Hopefully, I’ll find time to get some actual graphics going, and maybe fix up the formulas so the game is a challenge, as well as fun.
I had a little less sausage and biscuits this time for breakfast this morning. The glass of grapefruit juice looks brown because I added some brown sugar to cut through the acid.
The scope of my project is too big for the time remaining. I keep getting bogged down in the internals of the user interface and little time has gone into the game play. So even though it feels like I’m wasting time, I’m brainstorming solutions.
Here is new screen shot. Not a lot has changed, but believe me a lot has changed in the code.
Tags: foodphoto, screenshot
We are officially on the final stretch. 10 hours to go, loads to do. For breakfast today I made kolaches by rolling up cheesy breakfast sausages in croissant dough with some provolone. It sounds iffy, but it is in fact AMAZING and I suggest you try it. I had 8 to start with, but the camera didn’t save the picture or something and I had already eaten a few when I re-took this one. That is one of two big-rig amps on the right, and a clementine I stole from my roommate decorating the center.
Also, the jug. I thought I would get through more water, but whatev. I guess there are still 10 hours of nervous drinking to go, but I’ll probably be hammering caffeinated soda and/or gatorade instead.
Tags: foodphoto
Here’s my 10 hours entry: Col-4. It’s based on Columns, with the biggest difference being that you can swap the upper part of the playing field. This isn’t really so useful, but it can serves as a few extra lives, or half-lives, rather.
I didn’t much like the theme in the end, and that was why I didn’t start on an entry until today (well, partly — I couldn’t come up with a fun idea). And even then, I did a minimal effort. For matching the theme, there’s lots of minimalism. Columns to begin with is a very minimal game. Then I added minimal innovation that had minimal usefulness. Improvement in fun over the original is extremely minimal (probably negative). Readme is pretty minimal too. Features in game are minimal. Graphics are minimal.
Line up three or more blocks in same color to get points and remove blocks. Left/Right/Down keys to move moving block. Space to drop it. Up to rotate colors. A/D to swap upper part. Esc to quit.
Windows binary and source. Compiling for GNU/Linux shouldn’t require more than a small effort, but I’m not sure it would be worth even that.
Tags: blocks, C++, colors, columns, final, GLFW, screenshot, Windows
Well, at least breakfast doesn’t need working collision code to be yummy. I’m thankful for the small things ya know? 😉
I ate this while detailing out new collision code algorithms for MinMo on a notepad. Then, I went for a brief bike ride around the neighborhood while thinking about them. Time to implement!
Tags: breakfast, collision, eggs, foodphoto, journal, sunday
Here it is screen shot and my final entry – Won’t have any free time this afternoon.
http://www.twobrotherssoftware.com/ld48/mike/PaperScissorsRock.zip
Run it using java -jar PaperScissorsRock.jar
In the dist directory.
Source code is in there, I used Netbeans 6.0 and the whole directory can be used as a project.
I didn’t have the time this competition truly deserved but still it was nice to be in one – I was in LD6
Thought minimal game – wrote 6AI’s and the system picks which one works best against you.
I enjoyed it – thanks and I look forward to seeing whatever feed back I do get
Tags: final
Well, after waking up and just drinking some juice, I fixed my music song and tweaked the difficulty levels a bit. So, Framed! is complete!
It’s pretty exciting. I think I’ll make an installer later and post it permanently on my website. For now here are the links for downloading:
Framed! v1.1 Final: (windows) (src)
The windows version was tested on XP on two separate machines, let me know if there’s any trouble. The source requires Python 2.4 or Python 2.5 and PyGame 1.7.1. Enjoy!
You can see a recap of my progress log, after the break.
04/20/08 – 12:30 PM – Framed v1.1 Released
* Easy and Hard Modes Difficulty Difference
04/20/08 – 2:30 AM – Framed v1.1 Pre-release
* Contains Easy and Hard Modes (Visual Difference)
* Has Background Music Track
04/19/08 – 11:45 PM – Framed v1.0
* Game Complete
* Win/Lose Screens Added
04/19/08 – 7:00 PM – Framed v0.9
* Game Mechanics Completed
* Title Screen
04/19/08 – 4:00 PM – Framed v0.5
* Perfect Frame Field Generation Algorithm
* Game Mechanics Devised
* Frame Opening/Closing Animation Added
* Sounds Added
* Framed Named
04/19/08 – 12:50 AM – Framed v0.1
* Initial Frame Field Generation Algorithm
04/18/08 – 11:32 PM EST – Initial Concept
And with this I upload my final version of my entry. It’s quite a minimalist game, I wish I had more time to work on it, but real life is also demanding me to keep my time spent minimalist. So, with a minimalist post, I will wrap up the competition.
You can download the game at:
http://www.deepflame.nl/ld11/Deepflame-Brainwave.rar
The controls are quite simple, up and down to move the brainwave pulse up and down, and the right button to speed up the activity scrolling.
Happy playing,
– Deepflame
Tags: final
All items aren’t yet functional, but I’m getting there.
The gameplay is pretty much set, now it’s only hack ‘n slash for the menus and content. Exciting…
I have added an AI into this game, its very aggressive, and it kinda gets to *cheat* as well (can instantly change its angle, i may change this later but for now its better). It sometimes gets caught trying to maneuvre between planets. I just made screencaptures of my game, but am feeling sleepy and its too difficult to make a movie out of them. Anyway i’ve decided to post at least one of them here.
Particles follow gravity paths just like most of the other stuff does, looks pretty cool. Tomorrow morning, going to add configuration files, sound, and maybe a menu.. so i’ll see you all when i get up (probably only gonna get 3 hours of sleep :S)
19:45
Made some subtle differences to enemy spawn/movement behaviors.
20:09
Now it is finally starting to resemble a game… only if there would be more stuff in the level.
So, after some sleep last night I have finally finished a good working pass on all the character vs moving blocks collision tests. Had a few bugs / kinks to work out that I introduced due to tiredness last night. Now everything seems stable and falling seems to work good enough for now. Plus, the characters position correctly updates as the blocks move up and down and the character can now fall down and meet a moving block without problems. Plus, thanks to the new algorithms I should be able to implement similar ones for any other objects / obstacles / enemies I manage to implement in next 8 hrs or so! 😉
win32 available here for anyone curious as to its workings / progress.
No entry from me this time around ): but I couldn’t resist at least designing a game for this theme. You can play it in the comment section! (well, not really). This one is a game about minimalism, rather than being minimalist.
You get 2 points for drawing a correctly guessed image with the smallest number of pixels (each object is drawn by more than one player), and 1 point for guessing someone else’s.
Examples:
Tiny Hawk final release (194k)
Update: Tiny Hawk Windows executable (3.07M)
I think I’m done now. The game is six levels long, has sound effects and music, and is all sorts of awesome, naturally. 😉
Have at it, but be gentle.
Tags: final, skating, tiny hawk, tiny skater
Hi again all,
haven’t made many blog updates since last post, but this is mainly because I haven’t worked on the project much. The game is done now though; I think the dev time took something like 3-5h total (trying to keep it minimal).
Grab the game and its source from the games website.
In Typoworm you try to fly the worm for as long as possible. You give the worm boost upwards by typing the text on screen. Wrong text will be penalized. The game requires .NET 2.0 to play (and maybe a Windows PC) and C# + MSVC 2008 to compile.
Tags: final
A few days ago my laptop got violently attacked by all sorts of bloatware. I’m guessing it was due to some IE hole or something, oh well. Anyway, it inspired this game. You get to destroy bloatware – yay!
Download for windows or get the source svn://www.imitationpickles.org/ld11/trunk/
Oh, and you can get all kinds of crazy combos if you don’t miss any boxes and are really fast. So get playing! Made with python / pygame as per usual.
Tags: adware, bloatware, bsod, dlls, final, pygame, spyware, win32, Windows
But I will eat some food while I am there.
Dessert was a bit better, especially those Nutella-filled spiral thingies:
I’m back, and I have a few hours to add sound and upload a completed entry.
Happy birthday, Nana!
Tags: foodphoto
Did Viridian bite off more than he can chew again? OF COURSE HE DID!
Frankly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish. Using treasures in rooms requires a tag system and I don’t know if I can finish one and get all the tags on the map and debug them in eight hours. At the very least, I should have a complete game where you run around killing monsters and getting treasures…but I wanted so much more.
Well, the family ate all the eggs before I got to them, so I had mini-wheats instead.
More of the blueberry/banana smoothie as well, and some toast.
I actually ate a couple of hours ago, I just didn’t get around to posting until now =). Only ~8 hours to go, gotta make the most of it!
Tags: foodphoto
Phew. I just got the “AI” system I’ve been working on the last hours to work at least a decently. The enemy ships don’t move totally random anymore, they try to line up so they can hit your ships at least. It’s still really stupid though, especially when close to the screen edges but it’s as good as I’ll bother to make it I think.
I’ve also implemented levels and game-over conditions, a shop where you buy new ships between the levels and done tons of bugfixes/speedups since yesterday. There is still one really annoying bug where the sprites sometimes doesn’t get cleared completely and leave one or two lingering pixels, but I’m sure I’ll figure that out soon.
After that there is mostly fine polishing left to do, the shop screen is very, very minimalistic right now, to the point of not making any sense, the interface graphics could also need some love and after that it’s on to game balancing.
According to my To Do list, I’ve been late for the last four checkpoints, now lagging 44 minutes behind… panic panic panic! …actually I already ruled music out in favor of more levels.
If anyone wants to play a two-level demo version, it’s here. Instructions are given in the first level briefing, but of course there’s minimal need for them.
And for the record, here’s my breakfast and lunch:
Nom!
A great achievement for the time available. I never realised that Ruby would have the speed necessary for games programming.I am resisting the strong urge to throw in the towel. I’ve yanked a bunch of complicated graphics and GUI stuff out. I’ve gone completely text based which helps with the deadline and actually goes with the theme! I now call my game BATTLE MAGIC!
Tags: screenshot
Well, didn’t really have time for LD, but I scribbled together a minimalist text adventure in 2 or 3 hours
It requires pygame and pyopengl to run if you still want to look at it..
final entry zip (.py files, had no time for py2exe)
Tags: final
You are on a mission, decontaminate that oil! Instructions are in game. The name Exxon comes from a oils spill disaster in the USA.
Download in following flavours:
Flash 0.2MB – Requires Flash 9 installed
Windows Executable 1.5MB
Macintosh Executable 3.9MB
Running the game in a browser is possible, but cripples the framerate. I recommend running the executables or running the swf in flash player 9 not in a browser.
Edit:
There are two modes: Level mode and Free mode. Click: “Click to play” for level mode. And 600,1200 or 2400 for Free mode, where the numbers are how many oil spills there are. Note, if you by any chance run the game in the browser, the Level mode might not work and falls back to Free mode 600. If you see a lot of (N)’s around, you are in free mode. Go back (Esc) and click “Click to play” again for Level mode. (Xml loading issue)
Edit2: Those on Vista could not run the game in level mode. It turns out that running it in a browser worked. http://enedahl.com/ld11/final/exxon.swf
Same as the exe but online, will hurt perfomance though… keep the window small for better fps.
Tags: 2D, boat, final, flash, minimalist, nitro, oil, topdown
04-20-2008 12:15PM EST
Just woke up, time for some breakfast and with under 10 hours left it’s time to get cracking… I feel like I will be able to complete all my goals for this project before the deadline and I’m really starting to understand python.
04-20-2008 2:53PM EST
Finally worked out some of the kinks in the movement system, now movement is controlled by typing cardinal directions instead of room numbers. I’m working on adding functionality to the rest of the commands such as “Look Around” and “Examine”. Back to the notepad!
Also… Food update!
Copious amounts of Rice Crispies and 355ml of Red Bull. 😀
What can I say… bad weekend!
I pretty much missed the contest so here is a three hour bare bones end of the world game. As minmial as you get really.
Tags: final
Here is the link for the final version, instructions included: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonny.jones/housebuilder/minimalist_house_builder_final.zip
Can I use an existing screenshot that I’ve uploaded before?
Tags: final
miniPals is a minimalistic co-operative platformer. It features 7 levels of fun! 2nd player requires a joystick (sorry team)
Keep in mind that even though this is a co-op platformer, you can still enjoy it by yourself!
controls:
z – use power
x – switch player (1P mode only)
left & right arrows – move
check the README.txt for more information!
screenshots:
win32 download with source: http://fydo.net/programming/fydo-miniPals-LD11.zip
Tags: co-op, final, LD11 - Minimalist, minimalistic, miniPals, platform, platformer
I’ve added a hints mechanism that pops up at the bottom of the screen giving gameplay tips as you play. It randomly shows a tip every 15 seconds, and only shows each time twice.
I also added a stats system, which you can view on the pause screen or when you lose. They don’t get you anything, but it is fun to see the breakdown of how everything went.
Tags: journal
Ha. I was not really that serious with this entry. But minimalism to the extreme!
Source and win32 binaries from here. Source also here.
You play with only space key and try to match the size of the red gate with the white rectangle. I scored 16 with the original window size, and 25 when maximized. =)
Tags: final
I figure 48 hours is too much. So I started an hour ago.
Final version is avaible here: Python source
Needs python and pygame installed.
They are avaible from here: Python PyGame
Tags: final, Ludum Dare 11, parkball, pygame, python
also, if possible, please add a py2exe version of your game (this can be done after the compo)
21:00
Level creation and tweaking takes so much time.. Time to take a break and eat something. Then I’ll probably fix in some audio stuff and perhaps score/damage counting or something.
22:03
Fixed the tune a bit. Music is now playing and samples are played as well.
23:00
Title screen and its camera movement is now done. Score counter is still missing and the level still needs a lot of work.
I’ve finished most of the code, and I have some basic sound effects, created with sfxr. The game’s formulas are working, as well. Now, I just need to make the game look pretty, since it’s currently a mostly blank screen of one color, and some bare bones text, and icons. Time to add actual monster graphics, and a background for the battle.
If there’s time, I’ll allow players to choose a bonus on leveling up, and add in a few more features. Right now, I just want to make the game prettier.
