Spent about an hour or so getting the “music” correct… working out pretty well I think. Still not quite right… but very passable for 48 hours.
I believe the sound system is quite apparent in the following screenshot.
game is still missing the level of “fun” that I would like it to have… that will be my focus for the remainder of the day…
sell it to the butcher at the store….
My LD26 Entry is called #. It is a game about shooting squares. Get it now while it’s still full of those tasty bugs I haven’t found yet…
Tags: final, Kitch, LD#26, screenshot, xna
This was, as always, an absolute blast. I’ve had to miss the last two, due to commitments beyond my control, and last weekend I remembered just how much I’ve missed.
# is a game about shooting squares. That’s really all there is to it. Wait… and sometimes the squares grow back. And sometimes they shoot out at you. Oh… and there’s a piano.
The Theme
We all know the theme. My take on it was more of an aesthetic than a game play one. Soft colors, simple objects, piano music playing simple chords. I think it worked.
The Gameplay
# was a lot of fun to develop. I had the basic concept in my head prior to the theme being announced, but some of the big mechanics, basically the “layer” shifting and the audio component just sort of happened.
The layer thing was introduced as sort of a player control mechanic. It is really easy, as was pointed out, to beat the levels by holding the left arrow and space bar. The layers gave the lower squares a fighting chance to get established, as well as forced the player to do something than just “sit and spin”.
The balance however, was off a bit. I initially balanced the game, unaware of a bug that could would make the last square invincible to most, but not all bullets. This made the game considerably harder than it really was. When the bug was fixed… the game became super stupid easy.
I made corrections, but didn’t get a chance to get back in and really do the balance work the game deserved. You can eventually get yourself comfortable enough where it’s not frustrating, but probably not in the time the average person plays a LD entry. I tried to make the early levels as accessible as possible, then ramp up the difficulty rather quickly there toward the end for the more interested. Not as hard as pre-bug unfortunately… but a decent challenge if the dice don’t roll your way.
The Graphics
Like I mentioned before, I wanted to go clean and simple, and that’s what I did. Not really a lot to say about it, except I really like the green, and the purple. Red needs work.
The Audio
I’ve never been an “audio” guy, and this game has a lot of sound happening really fast, bullets flying, blocks breaking… I knew sounds generated by sfxr would have a high potential for ear bleeding (at least the ones I generate). As I was shifting through layers, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if the music chords changed when the layer did?
I jumped into the idea with absolutely no idea how I was going to accomplish it. I almost scrapped the whole thing entirely. I generated a lot of sound files, and tried to tweak them to work with the rapid pace, with ear splitting results. I did, somehow, manage found a bright piano sound that would pass, although not perfect.
What went right
What went wrong
Thank you all for your kind feedback. I look forward to playing some more games!
Thanks
Ross (Kitch)
Tags: postmortem, xna
Totally forgot that it was this weekend… but totally plan on being in, as I missed the last one 
Development : Haxe, or monogame… depending on my mood at the time.
Graphics : Photoshop or procedural… depending on my mood at the time.
Sound & Music : FLStudio, Audacity and bfxr… depending on my mood at the time.
Good luck to everyone! Look forward to playing your games!
4 hours in. Not a lot to show but showing it anyway.
This is turning out to be a lot more than I originally anticipated. Hoping the scope will reign itself in after a nights sleep.
Tags: firstscreenshot, screenshot
So, gameplay is fully implemented. Just need to add the music, then it’s all balancing and polish from here on out!
Oh.. and menus…
Oh.. and hi scores…
Oh.. and the stuff I’m going to want to redesign at about 11:00 tonight…
Oh.. and all the other stuff I’m forgetting about now…
Good part of the way in, and I have all my knobs and buttons working.
I think it’s all downhill from here… all that’s left is gameplay, sounds, menus, controls, fun, and music…
oh dear…
Tags: haXe, HaXeFlixel, Kitch
Finishing up. Just tweaking some vars and adding a bit of polish.
Even has a name, “Beat, Bop, Delicious!”
Its a sort of hectic button pushing / knob turning / slider sliding game. Little different than anything I’ve done so far, both in gameplay, and the fact that it can be played on the web.
Now just to finish up, and work on some items for my submission. Then a nap… a long nap..
Tags: flash, haXe, HaXeFlixel
Sell it to the butcher in the store… My LD 31 game, Beat Bop Delicious! is done and posted.
My submission page can be seen by clicking on this text.
My game can be played by clicking on this text.
Wow, that was a lot of fun. I was really nervous going into this one because
But, the Haxe and Haxeflixel documentation is outstanding, I did have a smart phone to browse documentation (a fun way to go about it if you’re bored) and some of the web based stuff from 1996 did carry on to today.
Hope my game is fun, and can’t wait to play yours!
Love,
Ross
Tags: done, haXe, HaXeFlixel, Time for a nap
Hi.
I made a gameplay video of my game Beat! Bop! Delicious! Because I have to beat the times posted in my comments section 
Click this text to play the game, and beat 3:00!
Thank you all for the games you have submitted. I’ve had a blast playing what you have created over the last two days! Can’t wait to play more!
Love,
Ross
I guess I should start out by saying that is my fourth Ludum Dare. I haven’t been able to participate in a while, for reasons, but I got the opportunity to participate in Ludum Dare #31.
If you are curious, my previous Ludum Dare entries were Voxterium (LD22), Mage Duel (LD23), and # (LD26).
My three previous Ludum Dare entries were all done in XNA. For my next “real” project, I wanted to get away from the XNA framework, and try something a little more… um… well… supported. Also, wanted to finally do a web game for this competition, to get rid of all the stigmas of running a windows only game that required a redistributable.
I decided to give Haxe a run, as it seemed to be pretty straight forward, and of course it’s cross platform features are extremely interesting. And, hey, making a game in 48 hours is a good way to learn a new language, right?
When the theme was announced, my mind was blank. After like an hour of pacing my office and staring at a blank screen, this one just sort of popped in there. No idea where it came from or why.
Having done this compo three times before, I had a pretty good idea of what pacing should be… but like the other LD’s I threw that to the wind. Taking into account I was learning a new programming language, I allotted more time for programming. That being the case, when I got into the programming part, HaxeFlixel was sooo easy to use, and so well documented (for this sort of game), that I felt like I could spend more time on the audio and graphics, and I did. Overall, the process went really well and I actually finished a couple hours early.
Targeting the web was kind of a cool experience as well. I was able to post early builds, and get feedback. This helped a lot with finding some glaring issues. One was a bad design decision with the second control (below), that would have been disastrous, had it not been pointed out to me early.
I would like to spend some time on a post-compo version. It doesn’t feel complete right now. Some games just feel like they deserve to be fleshed out.
I have received a number of good suggestions and insights on where this game could go, and I totally agree. I also have a lot of ideas I would have liked to implement.. but you know… time… It will also help me to get even more familiar with Haxe, as I believe it can be a great platform for my next game project.
Had a blast last weekend making the game, and have had a great time playing your games. Can’t wait to play more! I wish you all a great Ludum Dare!
Love,
Ross
Tags: haXe, HaXeFlixel, knobs and buttons and stuff, Music Game, postmortem
Over 125 people have played and rated Beat! Bop! Delicious! so far! Thank you very much!
What do you mean you haven’t played it yet?
Very excited to be in again. This is my 5th (non-consecutive) ludum dare over the last few years and really looking forward to it.
Tools planned for this expedition:
And to make things a little more interesting and fun, my son has decided he wants to take part this time as well. He didn’t want to work with me in the jam, he wanted to do the compo…
by himself…
in 48 hours…
by himself…
He’s 8…
So… we’ve been over this a number of times… a number of a number of times… and I’m convinced he understands exactly what this entails. I’ve seen him make games. So… at this point I see no point not to let him just go for it…
Tools he’ll be using for this expedition:
We’ll both be in the Compo, and right next to each other, and plan to stream all the shenanigans and goings on.
Good luck to everyone! And may the theme selected be the one you’re banking on!
Love,
Ross
The boy’s game is going well.. he’s added a lot more rain effects, and sound effects and is now working on animating his game over screen.
I’ve been stuck in “art” world for the whole time. Not even written a line of code. Really should probably get on that. Really should…
I’ve got some walking blue people though… that’s something.. right?
Now to get coding!
The father/son duo of kitch and meeps both have working games going, and less than one day in.
My working title is, “Thanks Guggle!” It’s a game about thwarting an alien invasion by hacking their popular search engine… unconventional. Got a fully working level in, so just need to concentrate on music, and more levels. 
My son’s unconventional weapon is a thunderstorm controlled by a bad meep, in which you must save the good meeps from lightning bolts. In the aptly named “Save Meeps from Thunderstorms”
Having a blast so far! Hope youall are as well!
The boy has transitioned to title and game over screen work. He’s so far ahead of me right now…
I need to send him to bed early tonight so I can play catch up
I’m starting to get mine together… got some coding for the basic levels done. And initial artwork is 80% done. Really need to get some serious coding in today
We’re done.
My son actually finished a while ago, but since we’ve established the precedent, i figred we should probably combine these posts as well. Wouldn’t want to cause a problem
It’s basically a big shiny wrapper around a trial and error game about taking down enemy spaceships with hacked google results. Heavily inspired by past ludum dare entries
It’s a scratch game about saving meeps from a thunderstorm controlled by an evil meep. He did it in scratch, and all by himself. He ran into some performance issues toward the end, but I’m proud of his effort.
We’re both looking forward to playing your awesome games!
