Here I am for the first time! I’m very thrilled about the competition and there are only 4 hours left before lones wolves spread across the field

My humble 48-hours-workplace

Tools of trade:
– C++  /  SDL (openGL)
– GraphicGale
– Photoshop
– Sfxr
– Inudge for music

Preparations:
– Framework ready
– Food is in the stockpile
– Coffee is waiting to be prepared
– All I need is few hours of sleep (since competition start at 4:00 AM for me)

Excitment found suitable place in me! Good luck everyone 😉

I’m glad current theme was chosen for the competition. Great idea already flows around and I only hope that this goal is not too big for 48 hours competition. Currently working on quickly made map editor – I’ll need it for sure!

Ok, 2 hours passed and I’m done with map editor – now I have to start working on actual game. We’ll see how sweaty is it going to be at this part I’ll write something more about details of my game later but so far I can only say that it won’t involve any killing around so let’s hope I can still bring lots of fun.

Map editor done with saving and loading maps

With map editor done, I started to work on the game itself. So far I have scrolling map done (optimized map render) and character is moving independant from scrolling (red circle) – so far so good.

Game will be top down or maybe under small angle – I can’t wait to start working on graphics but I have to do programming first, Yaaaarn….

More than 9 hours passed and I’m still working on my project. Honestly, everything goes better than I anticipated! Only thing that went wrong is my time lap which won’t be avaliable because software keeps crushing and I’ve lost 3 hours on start but I took 2nd option and recorded everything with fraps so far – I’ll make “visual-game-lap” from start to the end.

Next to that, name for my game has been chosen – Courier of the Crypts!
ou’ll be playing young courier that is delivering letters around the kingdom. One day, he gets a letter from the old man addressed to the “Keeper of the Crypts”. This old man warns young boy that “It’s dangerous to go alone!” and then he gives you a special torch whose flame only burns using magic coal. You’ll be wondering around the labyrinths of the crypt until you find the keeper but be aware, your torch must burn with strong fire or you’ll become pray of twisted beigns that are hiding in the dark corners.

what I have so far

Facts:
– 9 hours of work
– 2 hours of sleep last night
– Lots of coffee drank
– Map editor done
– Basic graphics done
– Moving character around is working perfectly

There is a lot of work ahead of me but it won’t be a problem except if my body cuts me off lacking some serious rest. Oh well… For now, I’ve prepared some pasta with tuna in vegetable sauce and if anyone else is eating right now then good apettite 😉

my lunch

It seems everyone is working realy hard on their projects and that’s the true spirit! I can’t wait to try some other projects at the end but for now, I have to concentrate on my piece first. Good luck everyone and have all the fun you can!
PS: Wish some luck to me as well, I’ll need it!

I woke up 16 hours ago and now is a good time to afford some diner. I feel bad for last few hours because I was looking for simple yet efficient way to implement lighting in my game but no success except one tutorial which will help but not today. I’ll make that tomorrow for today, I have next plans:

– Make nice torch particle system
– Pickups
– Some cheap monsters
– Maybe some additional mechanics

After that, I’ll find suitable place in my bed

classic pizza with very spicy peppers + beer

I’ve done simple particle system for the torch which looks a bit weird in game but since I have everything implemented it won’t be hard to make small changes to the system (just in case of spare time). HUD – Torch bar has been updated with the bar and now I only have to make that bar become smaller while torch is burning. Another thing I’ve decided to add is “Sprint” which will make the torch glow with even stronger flame but torch bar will lower faster because of that.

I overslept and lost 3 more hours than I wanted and now there are only 18 hours left. Some time will be cut here and there and I’ll be able to get out of 18 horus as much as possible. So, let’s look at the TO-DO-PLAN:

– Flame system (where fire grow larger when you pick coal and vice versa)
– Lightning
– Character animations
– Twisted beigns of the crypts
– Some additional mechanics for the gameplay
– Maps
– Dialog sequences
– Main menu
– If I’ll have some extra time then polishing comes at the end

That’s it, lots of stuff and only 18 hours. Let’s get to work gang! 😀

Tags: plan

I’ve made it! Without bigger tricks or complexes protagonist’s torch is spreading the light around. Next step is to balance light radius with torch bar and then – Character animation 😀

I’ll put some life into the courier doll

Game character (courier) no longer floats over the ground like a magician, now he finaly found a use of his legs! Now I venture onwards to the twisted beigns for which I don’t know exactly how should they act…some of them will be afraid of the fire and some won’t be,that’s all I know, haha.

Time won’t stop even if I wish. Minutes and hours are passing by like snowflakes in heavy snow storm but there is progress! I’ve done quite some stuff in last few hours if I can boast. Enemies are implemented, lighting system updated and some additional graphics done. I want to make more than 2 enemies at the moment but I’m afraid 9 hours will turn around like nothing and that’s why I have to concentrate on most important stuff – dying, completing a map and most of all main menu.

Tags: TODO

Yep, I was quite productive but still I had to cut few features off and I’m afraid that game won’t be as fun as I thought at the start. I have to work on the main menu now and dialogs in game which is the most boring part for me. I have roughly 6 hours left and I’m tired to death but I’ll make it yep!

as simple as it can get in that time

few toasts to fill my stomach emptiness until the end

Tags: foodshot, screenshot menu

This is how my level selection will look like – if doors are closed, you can’t eneter that map otherwise you can. And there will be player’s image infront of the crypt that is currently selected, others will be dark / half invisible.

Tags: level selection

There will be only 5 maps in the game sadly because “TO-DO” list still contains music, sfx and in game dialogs. 3 of 5 maps are done, working on 4th at the moment.

lots of clicking and dragging

Tags: making maps

sneak peak

Tags: theme

There it is, end of the competition and my submision is among the others! I’m filled with happines since this was my first “make a game” competition and I had doubts about completing a whole game in only 48 hours. It was nice to see how active was everyone and helpful in the same time. Impressions about this Ludum Dare are unspeakable!

Congratiulations to everyone that made it to the end, we’ve done it! 😀

It’s time to gather all the moments of the last two days in a short yet interesting post mortem. So much happened in these days that it’s kinda hard to decide which are worth mentioning the most. I better start with quick reconstruction of both days.

Ludum Dare – Day 1

Competition started at 4:00AM (here in Slovenia). I fell to sleep at 1:00 AM and woke up at 3:30 AM then I’ve prepared some coffee and soon after that, theme was announced! “It’s Dangerous to go alone! Take this”…what to do now. Idea shouldn’t be too complex yet fun and I took my cup with a coffee and lit a cigarete. While I was watching the trees in the dark that crazy idea got over me – Darkness, light, creepy, item, old man = Lead a character trough a dark place and let him have a torch from an old man. That’s it, plan was made and ready to be excecuted!

First I drew my humble design document with character vizuality, hud elements, goals, plans, how will the map look like and that kind of stuff. All that on a single page to keep it simple, and I was ready.

Development in order (1st day):
– Map editor (drawing, loading and saving maps)
– Game engine (loading maps and support sidescrolling)
– Player (red dot on start)
– Collision detection
– Some graphics
– Particle system
– Lighting (which wasn’t successful on the first day)
– More graphics

Lunch: Pasta with tuna
Dinner: Pizza with pepperoni
Coffee drank: 4 – 6 cups

Day was over and I went to bed around 1:00 AM planning to wake up at 6:00 AM. At that time I went over the day at myself and there was satisfaction because I made a lot of things. So I fell asleep…

Ludum Dare – Day 2

Plans didn’t work out. I overslept  from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM and I got nervous and went back into action with cup of coffee next to me. I’ve made a quick ToDo list for more organized work and clocked started to run like crazy – it didn’t stop.

Development in order (2nd day):
– Flame system (flame bar getting lower and coal refuellig the torch)
– Lighting (I still had problems but it was implemented afterall)
– Character animations
– Enemies and their fear before the flame
– More tiles
– Death/victory condition
– Main menu and level selection
– Making maps
– Story dialogs (for beginning and ending)
– Adding 1 single SFX for picking up coal and lame repeating music (I can’t do music, don’t judge!)
– Entry was submitted 30 seconds before the end.

Lunch: Pasta again
Dinner: Toasts with cheese, tuna and pomodori
Coffee drank: 4 – 6 cups

Clock pointer said “It’s over” and I made a toast to the victory! It was over, I was among other strong souls that have made it to the end. I did something like that for the first time, game in 48 hours even if I had some doubts on start. I believed in my game concept and at the end, I had that realized even if it didn’t include all features. Ludum Dare chat was full of joy and I stayed around for a bit more and went to bed later at the dawn.

What went well

First of all, I’m glad that idea was born few minutes after the announcment which was huge advantage. Trough the competition I wasn’t distracted much and I just kept doing my work. Experience from the past helped me a lot because few things took me less time than I predicted. Overall, I think two main factors were idea at the start and experience from the past.

What went wrong

First problem that I’ve encountered were lights. I’ve never done fake lighting in 2D world before and so I was trying different stuff and functions without success. I’ve lost nearly 4 hours at that part if not more – I’ll have to concentrate on that part now. Maybe I did set my goals too high because some features were cut off and those that are in the game right now are bugged or poorly done (or at least some of them). Music is another weak factor. I’m artist and programmer but I can’t do music so I’ve tried to make something with Inudge but I’ve encountered problem to record from my speakers (records were too silent) and so the lame piece of music was born! (If you try the game out, you’ll know what I’m talking about). Next time I have to prepare my framework properly to save some time and I shouldn’t be learning new stuff at the competition.

Conclusion

It was first “Make a game” competition for me and it was exciting, especialy when I saw all the people working on their projects and in the same time together as a community. It’s obvious that we’re not here to win but to participate and have fun at what we like to do the most in our lifes.

I invite you to try my game out and rank it if you will
[ RATE GAME |  DOWNLOAD GAME ]

Tags: postmortem

Courrier of the Crypts will have tough time delivering the letter this time!

I’ve never made a single buck with game development so far and the October challange is going to be a new experience for me. On Ludum Dare compo #20, I’ve made this Courier of the Crypts game that had only 5 maps which were boring, with no hard puzzles or anything else so I’ve decided to start working on the remake of this game, which will feautre more mechanics, new graphic style (as you can see on the picture) and whole bunch of interesting maps. Goal isto earn that 1$ at the end and have another polished, fun and finished game.

If you wish to know more about future of the young courrier, follow the path into the dungeon (which is nothing more than my blog ^^ )

Here I come!

Small gfx teaser for my October Challenge project Courier of the Crypts (CotC) . Yeah, main element (lighting) is missing here but what I want to show are the new tiles. Do you like ’em? Yes, no? I want to hear more 😀

Soon, I’ll post game feautres and differences between old (LD#20 version) and new, upcoming one so stay tuned!

Tags: Cotc

Hey! I’ve decided to start a diary on my blog (which is, by the way, just a cool name for some boring blog posts). Nah, just kidding. Someone could find them interesting . I’ll write diary pages regulary about the development (drawing, programming, marketing, etc.) and how everything goes. There will be fresh screenshots and videos with each post so it’s worth following if you like what you see below. Regards!

Image from the Diary

Tags: Cotc, diary