Game at 38hs. 10 to go!

After 38hs, I have something actually resembling a game. Wakka Wakka Wakka sounds are in! Even though the AI is pretty dumb, the game provides a decent challenge. If you could try it and let me know what you think regarding difficulty levels and controls, I would be eternally grateful! Also tell me what you think of the sounds!

• Fat Jar (ALL PLATFORMS)
• Applet (Not working for some reason)

Now where do we go from here? First I need to fix the shitty (literally!) intro screen, and also add a high score screen (including music for both – the game screen sounds fine as is). After that, some way to ramp up the difficulty (speed up pacman, increase power pellet time, different maps?). If there is enough time after that, I will try to fix the Java applet, that somehow stopped working after I added sounds to the game :-(. IF, very IF there is still any time left, I will try to put into the AI. But that is not likely.

Tags: java, pacman, progress, prototype, screenshot

5 hours before the deadline, but I have to work tomorrow, and I didn’t get any sleep yet (5AM now). *Sigh*

Well, the game is mechanically done, and I think I did a nice job graphically as well. I added some music to the opening and closing screens. It is autotracker music, but much, much better than nothing. The opening screen has a small animation, I hope you like it!

There is a bunch of stuff that I wanted to make in this game, but didn’t had the time to. A better coder than me could probably have done these on time too. But so far, I’m happy with my entry.

Now it is time to sleep a little, and get ready for the rating marathon! Whee!

Go play my game

Tags: java, pacman, submission

80 games rated!

This time, I want to highlight some really unique games that I have played so far. These games go the extra mile to be a little bit different, bringing something new to the LD environment. Watch and learn!

• Super Escape – by Saspiron



This game can best be described as a “Turn based platformer”. You control a character with your mouse, as he walks and jumps through very fast traps. Thing is: if you don’t move your mouse, the traps won’t move either! Great concept, some nasty bugs.

• Red Legion – by DeathBySnail



Normally I don’t like “story” games, but this one is great. Not only it has an interesting, funny story, but it also managed to include a typing based fighting mechanics that is actually relevant to the storytelling.

• Burglary – by Tobias Wehrum



Burglary is a sneaking-and-lighting game with two interesting twists: You control the light level, and a very interesting unlocking minigame. The difficulty of the unlocking game is based on the current light level, so you have to balance how much you see the world, how easy the lock-unlock is, and how easy it is for your enemies to notice you.

• Ante-christmas – by nSun



This game does a great job at replicating those old liquid display “game and watch” series. Not only on the graphics, but also on the play style, and the overall feel. If you are older than 20, prepare to be awash by the nostalgia.

• Space Greed – by lotusgame



A multiplayer game with two games in one: The game is a top down shoot them up, but you also get to build your own base, which will be the game stage for other players. The idea is quite fun, but balance isn’t quite there yet: It is pretty hard to get money to build up your own base – so it gets old rather fast.

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Hope you liked the reviews. I will take an extended break for the new Years, and I will be back to rate more games after the 5th! I hope I can break the 100 barrier!

In the meanwhile, please read my previous review posts:

• Review List 1: Good use of the Theme
• Review List 2: Awesome Graphics
• Review List 3: Fun games

And if you could also rate my own game, that would be great:

Tags: innovative, rating, reviews

Hello LD’ers!

So. Ludum Dare this weekend.

And my girlfriend decides to debut her new band on Sunday. On a town two hours away by train!

So I’m looking at a 4 hour downtime in the commute… In order to not waste this time completely, I was thinking that maybe I could work on the art of my game while on the train.

So any suggestions for a pixel art or sprite editor that works well on an Android Tablet?

(Any other suggestions on LD-related things I could do while stuck on a train for 4 hours welcome!)

Thanks!

Tags: android, help, tools, train

Time for my 5th LD!

This time I’m going back to my origins, and trying to use a library I’ve never really touched before: LibGDX!

I was planning to delay my “I’m in” post until after I had some time to play around with the library, but work got in the way… I’ve managed at least to complete a very simple tutorial, and make sure I could deploy a Desktop and an Android version, so no worries, you WILL be able to play whatever mediocre thing I end up making 😀

Here is the toolchain:

IDE: ADT-Eclipse pack;
Code: LibGDX, versioning with git
Graphics: GIMP, inkscape + {sprite generator, sprite maker, isoPix} (android Apps)
Sounds: bfxr, autotracker, and possibly MuseScore

A word on the android apps: I will have to spend 4 hours on a train, and did some searching on the Playstore for sequencing and drawing apps. I couldn’t find any decent sequencing program, but the three apps mentioned above are quite decent. “Sprite Generator” generates random sprites that could be used as base, or as enemies in a simple shooter. Sprite makes allows the drawing of a simple array of images, and isoPix is a pretty decent image editor. None of these replaces GIMP+Inkscape (maybe Sprite generator does), but they are good in a pinch if you are away from your desktop for an extended period of time.

GLHF everyone!

Tags: android, java, libgdx, toolchain

After thinking a bit more about ideas for the Theme, I decided to go with a very simple gameplay mechanic:

You are a fair king, who decided to divide the land between two warring lords. You drag your mouse (or your finger) to draw a line on the land. The goal of the game is to, simply, try to divide the valuable land as closely between the two lords as possible.

This might look trivial, and maybe it is, but now I have plenty of time for polish, music, and a number of levels. If I have the time, I might add an extra mechanic or two to the game.

You can try it here:
Java (all platforms) – Android (a bit slow)

And the code is here:
Git Repository

Tags: android, java, libgdx, prototype, screenshot

That is a hard theme… but using the good, old “think of 5 ideas, throw them away, and pick the 6th”, I think I got something.

I have this notion that “theme” is something your game should move around, not just the window dressing. Using “minimalist art and sound” is something that went out of the window right away.

So what can we do? Minimalistic gameplay… another quick idea is a “1 button game”. That might be fun, but I decided to think about things a little bit more.

How about a game where “minimalism” is the goal? A game where “less is more”? (Strip poker? Lol, kidding) – Hmmm, I work a lot with “minimization functions”. Not the same thing as minimalism, but close.

Most “puzzle” games are about putting pieces together to form a system. How about the opposite? A puzzle game where you have a very complex system, and you need to take as many pieces from it as possible, while still allowing it to work.

Now we got something! Of course, creating rules for such a different puzzle game might be a bit complicated. I will give myself one hour to think about it, and if it doesn’t work, I might just go with a 1-button action game anyway.

Cheers!

Thinking about the theme

Tags: idea, minimalism, Planning, theme

After 13 hours, I polished the code of my game a lot, changing the “game” class so that multiple level files can be loaded, multiple colors can be used to compare the “sharing” level, and so that flood fill can be done asynchronously. It is still a bit ugly, but at least now the game is quite responsible on android too.

The Fair King – Title Screen

Now I need to get some sleep. There is still a lot of stuff on the pipeline though: Scoring a level, moving from one level to the next, and lots of bells and whistles like winning and losing animations, fades-in and out, music, sound effects etc.

Levels and Polish will make or break this game, which makes me kinda scared about the reaction. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow!

You can play the current version here:
Desktop (windows, Linux, Mac)
Android

Tags: java, libgdx, refactorization, screenshot

Finally got all the essential functionalities in, and my game is basically playable!

Clear the stage by dividing the colors by as close as 50% as possible

There are 14 levels — on each level you need to draw a line that divides each non-black/white color into exactly half (you can miss by 5% and still clear the stage). At this moment, you can play all the stages.

Now it is time for me to add more polish:
* Music and sound effects
* A level selection screen
* An “about” screen
* Some more cleaning up and improving of the game screen

Please do try and let me know if you have any feedback! These last 12 hours are the best time to fix problems on the game that I can’t find by myself!

Linux/Win/Mac Version: http://claus.castelodelego.org/games/ld26/FairKing.jar
Android Version: http://claus.castelodelego.org/games/ld26/FairKing.apk
Source: https://github.com/caranha/ludum26

Thanks!

(EDIT: some people on Macs have had problem to make it run. If you can give me some info, that would be wonderful)

Tags: android, beta, java, libgdx, playtest

Finally! I have posted my game

I’m kinda sleepwalking and can’t think straight… but I *think* everything is all right. I’ve spend the last 6 or so hours polishing and adding levels. There were still a few things I wanted to add to the game, but it is mostly completed as I imagined.

Making mobile games is kinda fun! libGdx has some very strange bugs and pitfalls, but I will let that for the postMortem.

As for now – I will go get some sleep, and you will go play my game 😀

Tags: android, java, libgdx, puzzle, submitted

I have finally uploaded a time lapse video for my LD26 entry, “The Fair King”. Feel free to watch it here!

Clear the stage by dividing the colors by as close as 50% as possible

For me, Ludum Dare is a chance for me to try something that is out of my usual reality. Game making, art creating, very short deadlines. In keeping with this spirit, I decided that I should move myself outside of my comfort zone, and try a brand new game engine, and a brand new platform. I decided to use libGDX for the first time, and make a game aimed towards the Android platform.

I know that it is not best practice to try out new libraries in the 48 hours alloted by LD, but I wanted this to be a learning experience, so I went ahead with it anyway. Here is the usual “what went well” and “what went poorly” breakdown:

What went well:

• Think 5 ideas, pick the 6th: My game idea became simpler each iteration, until I had an idea simple enough that I could implement in a day.
• Porting to android: LibGDX made porting to android really simple, and it motivates you having your game on a mobile platform
• Image levels: Levels in my game can be stored as images. I used Isopix to work on puzzle levels while I was in the train.
• Version management with Git: I had to rollback the game a few times when I tried to add some functionalities, and Git made it really simple.

What went poorly:

• LibGDX is quirky: You have to use power of 2 textures for portability, the font class is a mess, and different drawing models use y-positive or y-negative axis.
• I’m tired of autotracker: but I haven’t yet learned to properly use any sequencing software for linux. I want to fix this by next LD.
• No playtesting: means that I missed some pretty obvious interface mistakes. For example, I should throw away invalid moves, instead of showing an obvious “lose” screen for these, also it is not obvious where you should begin the line from.

It was fun, and I’m happy with the result. Please give me your opinions here.

Tags: android, interface, java, libgdx, postmortem, puzzle

Just throwing a question for everyone out there. I have my own answer, but I was wondering if it is the right one afterall.

How do you rate mood? Can you give some examples of high mood and low mood games?

Cheers!

Tags: mood, Pool, question, rating

So… about one month and a half after the end of LD26, I have started working on a post-compo version of my game. I finished a first version of my post-compo, but I can’t find the “edit my entry” button.

So, is it possible to edit entry pages after the compo is finished to add information about a post-compo version? Am I missing something really obvious here?

Thanks!

Tags: help, post-compo

So, I’m working on the post-compo version of my LD26 game: The Fair King.

One of the problems I’m trying to solve is that the game’s fonts look really shitty on android. Take a look at the original version, linked above, for the desktop and then take a look at the new android version here.

All the fonts in the game look flimsy and ugly, even when I tried to make them bolder (in the “Help” pages). The fonts look much better in my computer.

Does anyone have some suggestion on how I can improve this?

Thanks a lot!

Tags: android, font, help

Argh, life got in the way, and just now I had time to write an “I’m in” post. I’ve been participating since LD24, and this time it won’t be different. The timezone for LD is just perfect for me: The compo starts 10:00AM my time on Saturday (Tokyo) and goes until 10:00AM Monday – Already took the day off work that day ;-).

The only snag will be a school event that will take 3-4 hours Saturday afternoon. I will try to use that time to do some game designing.

Anyway, tool call:

Coding: Java+libGDX, the goal is to make a game playable on android and the desktop. I might drop android or add html5 depending on the theme and the design. Using Eclipse+ADT as my IDE.

Graphics: Gimp + Inkscape + my handy WACOM tablet. If the game design calls for it I might use a cool android-based random sprite generator that I found these days.

Sounds: BFXR + possibly a voice synthesizer.

Music: Probably I’m just going to go with Autotracker , even though I can now recognize an autotracker-bu generated song by smell 😛 If I have the time and inclination I might try to compose something using the dozens upon dozens of trackers that I have tested over the months, but every time I’ve tried to do so it ended in utter disaster

Here is my base code (right now it is just some empty classes for handling state changing and asset loading). Good Luck and have fun everyone!

Tags: android, autotracker, bfxr, GIMP, inkscape, java, libgdx, tools

Yay, managed to submit my entry! … barely. Please play it here.

Samurai Cafe Screenshot

This time around, I only had a satisfactory prototype at the 40 hour mark. I barely had time to create the Menu/Game Over/Help/About screens, and a lot of very interesting eye-candy I was planning for the game had to be cut (or at least postponed to post-compo version).

This was because of a bad mix of work on weekends + me thinking about the code from the wrong direction. Once I managed to fix both of these, I had already used a very large chunk of time.

But I think the end result was quite fun. And I even managed to get some friends to play test my game and find some bugs. Now is your turn!

Congratulations to all of you for finishing another LD!

Tags: android, java, libgdx

With more than 1500 games + work, I have given up the idea of playing even a significant part of these games. So, if we can’t go for quantity, we go for quality, right?

This LD, my plan is to do a Mini-LP of every game I rate! These videos will be recorded as I play each game the very first time, so all the bugs, surprises, emotions and annoyances will be there :-).

If you want to see my video reviews, just go to this Youtube playlist.

IF you want me to review your game, just leave a comment! I will do what I can (time restrictions pending).

Tags: review, reviews, video review

I know that it is possible, because I have seen other posts with embedded videos. But whenever I copy the embed text from youtube into the edit post window, the text disappears when I save draft or try to preview.

I have gone as far as trying to copy the html code directly from a post with a video in it, but the end result was the same.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks!

EDIT: Thank you all for the help, it seems that I only need to copy the video link in text form to get the embed automagically. Personally, I think this is a bad solution – what if I DO want just the text link out there? Anyway. Now I know.

Tags: help, video

So, this Ludum Dare, I have decided to do most of my reviews as Video Revews. It is a slow-going process, but I’ve managed to make 26 videos so far. Here are some of my favorites (click on the name to play the game):

Ecostar vs Aeronox – Awesome ‘schmup, with a changing seasons mechanic:

Lost in the Darkness – A 2D “maze” game, where the maze boundaries change every 10s:

Anachroma – A very unique “survive the boss” game. Great difficulty.

Entropy – 2D platformer with great production value.

Forward Motion – A very charming 2D puzzle platformer.

If you want to see more videos, please check my entire playlist! It was very fun to make those videos, and I’ve learned quite a few things in the process. Pointers and suggestions are welcome.

If you want me to make a video of your game, I’d be happy to. Please leave a message at my game’s page for that 😉

Tags: reviews, video

“You only get one” is not a bad theme at all.

I spent one hour thinking about the different ways that I could tackle this theme, and had quite a few ideas. One thing that came up almost immediately was a “shoot them up” where you only get one upgrade – every level you must choose which upgrade you are going to use for that level.

Now, that seems such an obvious Idea, that I tried to think a few others before setting.

Something that also came up was a “dating simulator” – You only get one also fits very well with that. The problem is that dating simulators depend too much on their art and content to be fun, and that is something that I know I can’t do well in just a weekend. After playing with the idea for a while, I soon tossed it out.

Another idea that came up was “EXTREME GEOCACHING” – basically a dungeon game where you have to find a hidden item, and you can get the help of one friend, who will give you some sort of power. Then I realized that this is just a more complicated version of the first idea (one power), and a variation of my first LD game to boot. To the trash!

Another idea is some variation of “You only get one (try)” – but that seems even more obvious than the first idea, and no good implementation comes to mind.

So I’m going to go with the Shoot Them Up thing. If the idea is not unique, how can I make it an awesome game?

One word: DINOSAURS!

Tags: dinosaurs, shooter, theme