Hi! I’m Folmer and together with ambushsabre I made NICE SHOOT, an arena shooter/platformer with semi-randomized levels and evolving weaponry.

This is how life works.

Ambushsabre did the coding while I did the graphics. The concept and design came from us both. I don’t want to call this post a proper post-mortem, because there’s so much more I want to write about my LD experience.  I will say that it’s been a lot of fun and I’m extremely happy with the game we made!

What went right? 

I made a ridiculous amount of sprites.

What went wrong?

I made a ridiculous amount of sprites.

Fig.1: A sampling of enemy sprites. There are more in the game, and there’s a final boss that makes all of these dudes look like chumps.

Fig.2: This is what a fully evolved Poison Bullet looks like. There are 4 other bullet types that all have their own properties and unique animations so I guess you’ll just have to play the game all the way through at least 5 times!

(Fun fact: There are 120 frames of bullet animations in total)

Ok so that’s NICE SHOOT, I hope you guys like it!

We have a name! And a good amount of game!

… and a ton of work left to do.

But, all in all? Going pretty ok. Hopefully I can get the last few art assets done tonight, focus on balancing the gameplay mechanic tomorrow morning, and finally, SFX and music.

(Also, in case you really were wondering: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huoheian )

I wasn’t going to do a post-compo version until the judging period was over, but the feedback is overwhelming and I want people to enjoy playing what the game could’ve been (playtesting y’all, 48 hour time limit is no excuse for skimping on it), so I whipped up a lil’ edited version that addresses the biggest flaw of the game, which is being able to stand in the middle forever and just shoot at the doors.

Huoheian Post-Compfaux edition

(it’s probably too hard now but challenging gameplay beats the pants off of boring gameplay. A real post-compo version will come later)

Enjoy!

Hey everyone! For no reason whatsoever, you should probably make a tower defense game for LD27!

Pledge your loyalty to the movement

<3

So, the first day went reasonably well, although it took me way too many false starts and I switched art styles / color palettes / layouts like 50 times, so a lot of lost time there.

My biggest advantages so far have been the fact that I decided early on I was going to make a Tower Defense game (which rapidly turned into a movement of grotesque proportions in the form of #LDTD) and the 10 Seconds theme, which fits nicely with an idea I as already playing with; making the tower a lighthouse.

The idea is that every wave (lol) consists of various sea creatures that try to tear down your lighthouse, but before every wave the beacon will shine for 10 seconds, which draws various boats to the island (above, where a bunch of empty space is) and the player can grab whatever items are on the boats, rafts, subs, whatever, to place on the island to defend themselves. After 10 seconds the light goes out, new creeps spawn, and hopefully you survive.

Yeah I finally named the thing (basically to force myself into making a title screen). I need more dang time to finish this so now it’s a jam thing.

Good progress today, in the last couple of hours of implementing assets I finished earlier today the whole thing really started coming together.

Animations are weak but I don’t have time to put too much effort into those. It is what it is.

Stuff that works:

-Creeps spawn and move towards the lighthouse

-The lighthouse beacon shines (in a rainbow-ish manner for no reason)

– the 10 second countdown looks pretty neat

– Dolphins appear (had to ditch boats, no time to design em) during the 10 seconds the beacon shines, carrying turrets / helpful items for the player to grab and place into the foxholes

– Turrets shoot and have explosions, particles etc.

-Also I made a song and a title screen so that stuff is done

I’m super tired.

#LDTD

… is finished.

As much as it could be finished anyway. There are sadly no sound effects. Or balancing. Or the level of polish it really required.

But it’s playable and I gave it all I got.

#LDTD represent!

Good times.

Expect hella tweets.

And I’m done.

Not the most stressful LD for me on a physical level, but emotionally it’s been weird and messy.

I made a game in which I talk to the kid I was growing up. I’m not going to keep repeating the story over and over so just read the about thingy in the game itself

Good night and good luck to those still going. <3