Woke up an hour ago, theme is evolution… OK !
It’s my first LD and quiet a personal challenge.
Language: AS3
IDE: FlashDevelop
Graphics: GIMP/Inkscape
Audio: Reason, Audacity (if I’ve got time)
It’s breakfast time, let’s eat some evolution tree.
The game idea is fully grown, the easiest part of the project is done and it’s looking like this:
Cubism Forever
As usual, I lost a bit of time on silly errors but now begin the interesting part: the creation of the “Lovis“
The actual physics is still perfectible, but the essential is present. If I got some extra-time tomorrow (Sweet dreams…) I will try to improve it.
Now it’s time to create all the “evolution” part of the game. I aim to a playable prototype this evening, allowing me then to concentrate on graphics and sounds tomorrow.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49521293/LD48/LD24/LD24-02.html
Yesterday when I stopped, everything was messy, physics was broken, the ToDo list was so full, sleeping was the unique option.
This Morning, physics is up again, and I’ve got a tactic schedule in order to obtain something which should look like a game (from a simple perspective).
I’m pleased to introduce some lovis to you :
Finally, it’s finished.
There is still a couple of bugs, no time for a descent music (so no audio at all), and a lot of ideas are missing. But the game is finished, playable, and if you are a bit insane it could also be interesting.
This first LD was instructive, it’s really a good exercise. I hope it will help me to improve (in every fields).
Saturday 25th of August, 07:30 am GMT+2
“The theme of the LD24 is Evolution. Do I have any idea that could fit with this theme ? Let think about it… Alright, this can do the trick.
Let’s create a one stage game where the player will have to recreate itself using four gates acting as transforming functions on a global shape. The results of these evolutions will turn into bad elements or good elements, they will then start to interact and help/annoy the player.”
This is how start my first LD. Nothing was planned. I started from scratch and my only goal was to achieved a game in 48H, no matters the sacrifices I’ve to do.
The first day, I aimed to obtain a running prototype, with quiet everything operational letting the second day for graphical interface, graphics, and sounds. The movement engine went quiet well even if it’s structure was the messiest and the less optimized ever. But Running for time, I’ve decided that “if it works, it fits“. It was important to have an idea of the nature of the evolution. Then I started to work on the transforming functions. A clue point was that the same function will not have the same effect it’s used in first or in last. Since Characters would have complex forms, a pixel perfect collision was required. Everything was running fine since I changed the form of the characters by evolution. All the collisions were broken. My goal to have a playable prototype to the end of day one was clearly compromised. Then I’ve decided that it was better to sleep well and to be ready to fight on the second day.
On day 2, everything remains to done. Not really awaken, I fixed the collision detection. It was just a “silly” problem of localisation. Let’s see if I can give some AI to the NPC. Oh no, I don’t have the time if I want to have a complete game with some kind of a structure. The last part went well, I did some poor graphics (but I can’t do better, so no regrets). However, the impossibility to wrote a small tune and add some SFX was quiet frustrating. But once again I had to decided what was my priority.
The game is playable. It has, I guess, a certain coherence, and also some nasty bugs due to omissions in the control of speeds. Along these two days, I did well to aim at the project priorities (I wasn’t aware to have this capacity), but most of the problems I came across were due to a lack of organization in the code design.
This first LD was really rewarding.
Hi,
I’m a bit late, but since I can do nothing without a good night of sleep, it was out of the question to wake up at 0300 (GMT+1).
This will be my second LD and the last one before the end of the year.
I’m using:
Language: AS3
IDE: FlashDevelop
Graphics: GIMP/Inkscape
Audio: Reason, Audacity
I’ m aiming for a fully finished game this time.
Have fun everyone.
Waow, I definitively not pick the easiest of my ideas. I hope it will not prevent me from finishing it.
I struggled few hours with stupid problems (it always a nice idea to try new things during a game jam) but the biggest part of my “villain engine” is now done.
I’m definitively aiming for a final prototype to be working this evening.
Red dots are so mean…
After an afternoon of work, things seem to move on pretty well, at least regarding the schedule I planned this morning.
The hero (which is, in our perspective, the bad guy since we are the villain) is now present, it has a quiet dumb AI and some awful weapon but everything should improve tomorrow.
In order to have a playable prototype, it misses collisions (which will be basic), and a bit more of variety for the dots the player will control.
But now it’s time to go outside and breathe some frozen air and make some physical exercises at the supermarket.
I love geometric assets…
Since I must sleep as much as a koala, I definitely need to go to bed.
First day went well, the engine is ok (apart for a ghost key issue, problem of deactivation), and the gameplay is almost done. I will be able to do some arts tomorrow (and test my new pixelizer class) and some music for sure.
During the first hours, I thought this project was far too ambitious but it seems I succeed to tackle or to bypass most of the difficulties.
For those who are working now, have fun !
This game really need some art.
Hello minimalistic adventurers,
Minimalism is a tough one.
After few hours of brainstorming, I finally got a concept for a small strategy game. I guess the AI will be the hardest part.
Let’s start writing some code.
As usual, my tools are :
Language: AS3
IDE: FlashDevelop
Graphics: GIMP/Inkscape (if needed)
Audio: Reason, Audacity
Well, I can’t say I was really inspired by the theme, but after a few hours of thinking I had to start working on something.
18 hours left, and my strategy game is working. But it requires two human players (or a player with dual personality). Before working on some sound and polishing I will give a try to an AI scheme I though during the night.
Rectangles, colors, energy, the perfect mashup for a strategy game
This was my 3rd participation to the Ludum Dare, and until the end I wasn’t sure to submit something. Here are the key points of this weekend.
Background: On Friday I published a game called Laitida, and I don’t know how it is for you, but finishing a project always put me down. So I wasn’t really motivated before the compo started.
Theme: Waow! Minimalism, this was a tough one. I know nothing about minimalism in graphical art, surely a bit more in music, but I didn’t feel like I was able to make a good music game in one week end. I wanted to use minimalism on an artistic point of view but also regarding the gameplay.
Lacking ideas, I finally googled “minimalism art”, and the first result was a Piet Mondrian’s frame. I guess Mondrian inspired a lot of participants this week end, which is funny when Mondrian seems to not even be a minimalist. Anyway, this separation of colors made me think of a battlefield with units, warzones, fortifications. The idea seemed a good one.
Can you see the battlefield ?
From scratch: Maybe one day, I will learn to be a good developer and stop wanting to write every single line of code. Writing everything gives you a complete freedom, but what a lack of time when you have to code GUI. Another advantage is that you think differently, you don’t ask yourself “what can I do with those tools?”, but “how can I shape my tools to do what I want?”. The problem is that you’re quickly trapped in unstable solution if you didn’t anticipate problems.
That’s what happened to me. I lost two hours trying to write an algorithm which should give me the resulting rectangles of the intersection of two rectangles (btw if someone has a solution, please tell me, I’m still looking for). I had to change a bit the gameplay since I wasn’t able to find an efficient solution.
A.I.: At the end of the first day, my prototype was ready and working, but only for two human players. I know that people usually don’t have the opportunity to play a game for two players, I definitively had to write an AI, even stupid, but something the lonely player could interact with. On Sunday, I started working on it, and I spent 6 hours. It was way too much. I should have stopped before, but a lot of small errors I made, resulted in a non working AI. Still in the compo version, the AI is buggy but at least, it acts like an opponent.
Tutorial: Even if the game is pretty simple, the rules are not straight forward, and without any explanations people doesn’t catch it. Hence the tutorial was an obligation. Therefore I decided to use the remaining time to work on this important point and sacrifice all other ideas.
M.I.A.: Since I lost a lot of time on the AI and I decided to choose the tutorial over the rest, some points are missing. I wanted to enhance the graphics, use some small animations to facilitate the understanding of the action, allow the player to save a picture of the final battlefield as a resulting minimalist frame, and finally add some ambient minimalist soundtrack.
Play Drimonna, a minimalist strategy game.
tl;dr: I wasn’t really in the mood for this LD. I got inspired by Mondrian and decide to make a minimalist strategy game. I lost ~10 hours over 23, on algorithm issues. I finally decided to prioritize the tutorial over polishing, sounds and extra features. As usual LD was a great experience which taught me a lot.
Tags: post-mortem
One year since my first LD, and I’m already nostalgic.
To celebrate, I’m definitively in, with a small change. I’m switching from AS3 to Haxe3/OpenFL.
Language: Haxe3
Framework: OpenFL
IDE: FlashDevelop
Graphics: Code (GIMP/Inkscape if needed)
Audio: Reason, Soundforge
Timelapse: Chronolapse
Have fun this weekend, everyone !
It took me less than 10 seconds to start panicking since I hadn’t got any idea popping this morning.
Hopefully, after some breakfast and a little brainstorming, that’s it. I have a simple gameplay and even a small plot.
I will start by a small prototype, just to be sure the gp isn’t too lame.
Ok, it’s time to work on this LD27!
Time flies, this morning ended so fast. I feel like I’ve done nothing even if:
– the core mechanic is done, now I have to design levels (never done something like this before).
– some graphical features are on their good way.
– I had lunch.
There is so much to do, but till then, here is a picture of the main character:
Click me to see some action
Finally, Atomic Time Raiders is alive.
I wanted to make a simple puzzle game to have time to polish it, but it seems that planning to have extra time is something ridiculous in a LD 😀
Even if the result is far from what I had in mind, I think it’s pretty complete (compared to my past entries).
Ok, I go to sleep, tomorrow will start a nice day of testing (maybe your game).
the name remains the same…
Here is the game: Atomic Time Raiders
100 games rated already,
here is a personal selection of games you should play if it’s not already done:
Compo
Jam
I’m in!
Language: Haxe
Framework: OpenFL
IDE: FlashDevelop
Graphics: Code (GIMP/Inkscape if needed)
Audio: Reason, Soundforge
Timelapse: Chronolapse
basecode: here
Have a tour in my tool gallery ;D
Happy LD everyone !
I’m a lot sleepy, and this is not helping to get motivation or inspiration.
Lifting packages as a drone.
I got an interpretation for the theme, and I’m working on a prototype.
The biggest part of the work remains to be done, so let’s see how it evolves.