Sleepy time.

Almost all the gameplay is working. After that, polish!

Here’s a new screenshot. The environment needs work still to make the characters stand out etc.

And here are some sprites :

Count me in. Well, maybe. I still have to see what I’m doing this weekend, and whether I feel up to it.

Anyway, hello! My name is Andrew G. Crowell (Overkill in some places, @Bananattack on Twitter). I want to try and use my game engine, Plum, to make a 2D desktop game of some variety for Ludum Dare. It is intended for people to write games in Lua. There is a C++ engine doing the heavy lifting, but it tries to expose as much high-level control as possible. Additionally, the engine backend is entirely comprised of permissively licensed, cross-platform open-source C++ components, making it ideal for game dev in theory — it’s a work in progress, but it has a 2D hardware-accelerated graphics, audio, input, timing, the stuff you need. I have only built a Windows version so far, but the platform stuff is built atop cross-platform libraries and otherwise mostly-platform-independent code. So it should be portable without too many gripes in the future when it looks stable enough. Documentation is also forthcoming.

I guess when the theme comes out and the weekend gets closer, I will have a better idea of what’s going on.

Engine: Plum – http://github.com/Bananattack/Plum
Graphics: Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop or Graphics Gale
Sounds: sfxr/bfxr/sndrec32
Music: Modplug/Sound Club/sndrec32 — uhhh I don’t really know (I suck at music composition)
Timelapse: Chronolapse

I voted. Did you? Let me influence your decisions (although, not really). Can’t wait for the results! And hopefully make some games if this weekend isn’t ultra busy.

So, as Ludum Dare approaches, I decided that no matter what the theme, I am probably making a visual novel. And I’m probably writing the player for HTML5.

It will use a domain specific language, the most recent braindump of which is here https://github.com/Bananattack/proze/wiki/Script-Syntax but I’ll share how it looks at the time of this writing as well:

Comments

• # this is a comment

Declarations

• event name, where name is the name of the event being declared.
• var name value, where name is the name of a variable to declare, and value is the literal integer value it will take on before script is started.
• image name path, where name is the name of an image to declare, and path is where the resource can be found.

Commands

• say text, where text is a body of text to display on the screen.
• wait amount, where amount is a value indicating the number of frames to wait.
• go event, where event is the name of an event to jump to.
• go event condition, where event is the name of an event to jump to if a condition is met, and condition is <, >=, <> or =, acting on the result of the last compare instruction.
• compare ls rs, where ls and rs are values to compare to each other.
• set variable value, where variable is the name of an existing variable and value is the new value it will take on
• add variable value, where variable is the name of an existing variable and value is the amount to add.
• sub variable value, where variable is the name of an existing variable and value is the amount to subtract.
• min variable value, where variable is the name of an existing variable, and min( variable, value) is the the value it will take on.
• max variable value, where variable is the name of an existing variable, and max( variable, value) is the the value it will take on.
• fg image, where image is the name of the foreground image to use.
• bg image, where image is the name of the background image to use.
• ask question
  • event text
  • …
  • end, a collection of choices the user can make, with question being some text presented to the user. For each option, there is an eventnaming where to go if that choice is made, and text being the option displayed in-game.

Values

For commands that take “values” without further clarification, these may either be literal integers like 123 or names of existing variables like hitpoints.

—

ANYWAY, I made a proof-of-concept in Plum (my Lua game engine) last night just to see if it was plausible, but it was far from being usable. I want to start from scratch in JS during the contest. Then once the player is fleshed out, I can write the majority of the game in my scripting language. Let’s how things go!

OKAY. It’s onnnnnnn~

Let’s create a minimalist-themed visual novel somehow.

It works! I have a visual novel system! Now I just need to supply game content. Lots of game content.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/prealphanotagameyet/index.html

(NOTE THIS IS A LINK TO AN EXAMPLE AND WILL NOT BE A LINK TO THE COMPLETED GAME I HOPE)

The script for that example looks like this:

“Proze” Visual Novel System

var x 3
 image bg1 poops.png
 image fg1 scribble.png

event loop
 bg bg1
 fg fg1
 say Hello world
 wait 50
 sub x 1
 compare 0 x
 go loop <
 fg bg1

ask are you ready for this dog
 yes yes
 no no
 end

event no
 say nooooo
 go done

event yes
 say yesssss
 go done
 event done

And that’s it for now! Stay tuned for actual game content later!

Yeah, I think I’m done with my previous idea. It is apparent that I am bored with the visual novel stuff, on to a new game, summarized by these tweets on my twitter (@Bananattack):

• a game about a monster in underwear, in search of pants
• the minimal aspects of clothing acquisition in a dystopian world
• maybe sometimes the monster poops on stuff but then it is okay again

I will return to using Plum, my Lua-based game engine, and make a really awful exploratory adventure game, embracing absurd minimalism.

So here is my new game idea. I’ve had my timelapse off the entire day because I haven’t actually been doing any programming or development yet. Just recording some sounds, and I scribbled this drawing that summarizes the game concept

(click to see bigger version)

Idea

You are continually on a search for pants. You need to collect the pants and then immediately run away from the enemies that come after you, to progress to the next level (which is actually the same level, but with minor random mutations to increase its difficulty). The levels are constructed such that it should always be possible to navigate, even if there are walls — since you can dig through walls. And to prevent you from spending too much time planning, there’ll be a time limit. If you take too long, the pants disappear and you need to run off the level, you don’t get any points.

Sound Effects

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/COLLECTTHEPANTS.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/RUNAWAY.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/TIMESUP.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/GAMEOVER.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/DUCKS.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/COLLECT.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/OW.wav

Soundtrack

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/soundtrack.wav

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD26/pantsquest/SUSPENSE.wav

Hi, my name is Andy (@Bananattack on Twitter). I am entering Ludum Dare, probably.

For my game development, I will likely use Plum. Plum is my 2D desktop Lua game engine, it’s permissively licensed and rad (and so are all of its dependencies), and nearing a release. It has 2D rendering (OpenGL 3.2 core profile under the hood), hardware images/software canvases (.png, .gif, .jpeg, .bmp, .pcx, etc), audio (.ogg and a bajillion tracker formats thanks to libmodplug), tilemaps, sprites, multiple resizable windows, “fake” fullscreen (big borderless window), timing, keyboard, mouse, joysticks, files.

https://github.com/Bananattack/Plum

The code itself is cross-platform C++11 and should port without problems later, but I’ve only compiled for Windows lately, hopefully. A Linux port shouldn’t be too hard (and it used to compile on Ubuntu), but all of the build stuff for it was killed after I stopped maintaining it and it fell way behind — I want to bring it back sometime soon. I’d love to have people audit my code and help me port it to Linux/Mac. The Windows build is a single exe that bundles all of its dependencies statically, and I hope that other platform builds can be equally self-contained. This is my goal soon, and hopefully it will be of use for jamming games quickly during Ludum Dare.

Also, I have a few ideas for LD games, not even knowing the theme yet, that I might try and fit if they still apply. I leave things that vague though. I want to actually finish an LD entry. Maybe this time!

Hey, this is Andy. Just a quick update to my previous post. I voted:

There are a few themes that I voted down that are actually okayish, but there are plenty of themes I really don’t want, like “Survival” or “Death is Useful”. I want to make something pretty chill and non-violent and that does not involve zombies or platforming. I have a few vague ideas about what I want, I’ve just got to actually got to toss them out when it’s time.

I also found a Line In cable! So I can record junk from my Korg Microstation or my cheap Casio PT-1 knockoff without much effort (maybe Sound Recorder). I’m pretty happy about this.

Here is my desk.

I might do a Twitch stream, I’m not sure though. I’ll at least do timelapse probably, if I end up actually working on something. I probably will avoid posting again here till a bit after the compo starts (since the server tends to croak during that time) so catch you in a few! And maybe look for updates on Twitter (@Bananattack) instead.

Hi, this is Andy (@Bananattack on Twitter). I was making some game stuff for Ludum Dare 27 entry, haven’t touched on the specifics of the “10 seconds” theme yet.

Here is some art:

Here is a screenshot:

This is the full map so far.

This is some audio:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD27/intro.ogg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72165/JAMS/LD27/event.ogg

That’s all I’ve got for now! Okay, gonna try and sleep soon.

It’s a team effort this time around with 5 of us entering the jam. Dave, Dave, Angie, Ryan and myself.

We’re still on the fence about what we’re actually making but here are some early concepts of what may possibly happen.

Some progress…

Our team has finally submitted our game Evolve to the Jam.

We didn’t get to do everything we wanted with it, but that’s expected.

You can check it out here

So this was my first Ludum Dare.  And what an experience it was…

Luckily, I was on a team of five very talented people, two of whom were LD veterans.  Below is a quick recap of the weekend covering the highs, the lows, and everything in between.

Here is what we ended up with:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=3223

And here is how we began…

Day 0 – Friday night

After work we head out for dinner as a group to brainstorm ideas based on the newly announced theme.  We continue to brainstorm afterwards, listing concepts, themes, mechanics, etc. that we all like, but we have trouble nailing it down to a single idea.

We agree on a basic underwater setting – from there, to gather further inspiration, we each split to work on our own prototypes/concepts to see where our imaginations can take us.  We reconvene a couple of hours later – we have the beginnings of our character and some very rough swim controls…things slowly start to take shape.

By the end of the night we have a good idea of how we want the swim mechanic to work, the look of our new character, and a comp for direction on the environment.  We split for the night – sleep is important and we wanted to let the new ideas simmer over night.

Day 1 – Go time

Saturday morning (or afternoon for some of us ;)) we reconvene and continue work:  finalize the swim mechanics, flush our character design/monster design, begin animation, stub out the level.  From there we worked out the mechanics one step at a time – collectables that level up the character, two gained abilities chosen from a brainstormed list, etc.  By Saturday night we knew what we were building and where we wanted it to go – but there was still so much to do.

Day 2 – Is it Sunday already?

Sunday is a bit of the blur (despite sleep being important it was proving more elusive than planned).  The game was starting to look great, but the gameplay was lacking.  Improvements to the monster fish made the game start to feel like a game.  Later in the day the shockwave ability went in and things started to come together.  When audio went in, it made the game a whole new experience – adding that creepy vibe and really selling it.  We worked until 3am Monday morning frantically polishing every last bit we could.  We were able to stub out a rough intro sequence and a finale sequence by the end, and we wired up the UI for a more polished experience.

Day 3 – Game day

We all work full time, and Monday was a work day.  We fixed a couple of minor bugs before work and then a few more at lunch.  Send the game out to the office for feedback, spend an hour fixing major problems, and then submit.  We’re done!

Lessons Learned

First, if at all possible work in the same location.  We all work in the same office and we were able to gather and work there for the majority of the project.  It is impossible to overstate how much of an impact this had on the project.  We were immediately able to hash out new ideas or brainstorm to solve challenges as they arose.  It was a great way to work and I highly recommend it when possible.

That said, the biggest take away from this experience for me was that you don’t really need a fully flushed out idea to begin game development.  When we started working Friday night the only bit we had figured out was that the game would be underwater.  The rest came throughout the process, little pieces at a time.  It wasn’t until late Saturday that we really had most of the idea figured out.  Don’t wait until you have the perfect idea to make a game…start making one and see where it takes you.  Often the most fun and enjoyable parts of a game were mistakes or accidents that happened along the way.

Summary

Monday evening and all day Tuesday I had this really strange feeling overcome me – it almost felt like we had been working for months on this project and were just now resurfacing.  Another team member described the feeling as almost like being hung over.  Ludum Dare was an amazing experience, and one I hope to repeat someday.