Well, let me add myself to the giant list of new folks for the upcoming LD #20.  I dropped by the IRC room last night and got some nice advice on useful tools and whatnot… thanks everyone.  A snag though!  I realized this morning that I’m actually moving that weekend!  This might not be as big a deal as it initially seems, though, as I’m only moving to the other side of the same building I’m already in, and I’m already pretty well packed up; it just means some valuable time is going to be eaten up by lugging boxes.  I still plan to compete! 

I plan on using a SDL-based sprite framework that I’ve been working on lately… right now it’s in an unusable state though (being moved from using SDL blitting to sprites as textures in OpenGL).  Assuming it’s fixed in time for the competition, I’ll post the code somewhere for y’all so that I’m within the rules and whatnot.

Uuuhh… yup!  Nice to meet you all!  Let’s have us some fun!

EDIT:  Aaand… that SDL->OpenGL conversion I mentioned?  I think I’ gonna abort it and instead move to SFML.  I’ve been reading about it some today and it really seems like the way to go.  There’re benefits to working with SDL and learning how things like blitting work, of course, but if the API for SFML is as much better than SDL as people are making it seem, it would really speed things up for me… in addition to saving me from having to link in extra libraries for some of the stuff I’m doing.  I’m pretty sure this is one of the useful things someone told me about last night on IRC, but I never managed to get around to looking at it at the time because I was too busy playing with bfxr!  I should have listened to y’all better!  Belated thanks!

Tags: 2D, bfxr, C++, intro, journal, LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, opengl, SDL, sfml

So… I don’t know what to do, and am looking for some advice from the LD community.  My original plan was to compete this weekend using a little SDL-based framework I’d been working on… it still needs some work to get things like sound going, though, and is a little clunky.  After looking at what a few other people were using, though, I found out about SFML and got really excited about using it instead of SDL, and went ahead and re-wrote most of my framework using SFML… only to realize that I was using an obsolete version (1.6), which doesn’t support a couple key things I want to be able to do.  I’ve tried for several days now to get cmake to run on my machine to be able to instal SFML 2.0, but it hasn’t worked for me at all, and I’m completely burned out on it:  I wanted to spend this week coding and warming up for the LD, but instead I wasted it on trying to install a dang library!  Now I don’t know what to do at all… I feel tired of dealing with these libraries… I could go back to my old framework, but I still haven’t added sound support to it, and at this point will probably not have time to do so.  Are there any other good options that I am just missing?  Is there an easier way to get SGML2 working?  Is there another C++ library I could quickly adapt to?  Or is Pygame simple enough that I can pick it up on the fly?  Any ideas are welcome!

Tags: help, journal

Alright, so I was ALREADY in (and even in the video, yay!), but the game has changed!  I’m throwing out my framework completely.  Yep.  And using a language and library I’ve NEVER USED BEFORE!!!  Python/Pygame.  Wish me luck?

Other software: bfxs and codemonkey’s music generator.

Hardware:  An old HP somesuchnumber desktop with an old GeForce8500 and only a single monitor   (Can’t chat while I’m working!)

Mushyware:  A pile of muffins and cookies.

Bubbleware: Generic, off-brand Dr. Pepper, and hopefully my girlfriend will bring me some energy drinks later tonight.

Where-ware:  Tallahassee, Florida… in the summer with no air conditioning.

Some people posted pictures of their workspace?  Here’s mine:

aaaand… that’s about it, I hope!  Good luck everyone!

So we’re about, what?  Six and a half hours into this thing… seems like about time for an update.  Python is going quite well!  I’m having no trouble picking up the syntax… and only a tiny bit of trouble remembering how to get my tabbing right.  Pygame, too, has been generally very intuitive.  I lost more than half an hour getting sound to work though… apparently Bxfr’s .wav exports cannot be directly pulled into pygame’s mixer, so I’ve got to run them through Audacity first.  It’s not a big deal at all… I just had to figure it out!

So right now, I’ve got a title screen and a sound effect… and a game idea!  Maybe that doesn’t seem like much, but I really feel like I’m moving along.  Let me stick a screenshot up of my title screen… it’s not impressive in any way:

And how does this game work?  What is my amazing idea?  Well… I’ll keep the details secret until I can show them visually, let’s just start by saying it’s a horizontal shooter (think R-Type), with an… interesting power-up system?  Yeah, that’ll have to do for now.  If you’re interested, keep tuned to my later updates!  HA!

Tags: LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, pygame, python

17 hours down, 31 to go!  How have things gone since my last update?  Well… it’s really hard to say.  I took about a 4 hour nap/sleep in the middle of the night, which was probably a good idea.  I’ve written about an additional 300-400 lines of code.  So far, though, I still have nothing to actually show beyond a (new, slightly improved) title screen.

I’ve set up the bulk of my procedural map generation system, which is probably the single largest piece of code for the game… so I’m probably actually quite far along… but so far I still have no art and have ability to actually put a dude on the screen and move him around.  That’s what I’m working on now; a little bit of artwork, and then I’ll be trying to move around a simple test screen before jumping him into the game-proper.

Energy wise I’m doing okay… very drowsy, but a steady stream of caffeine, sugar, and music are keeping me focused and on task.  I’ll probably end up having to take another nap this evening, though, especially if I plan on being up most/all the night.

Hopefully I’ll report back in another few hours with some screen shots, or possibly even gameplay video!

Tags: LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, pygame, python

It’s been many hours since my last update.  I haven’t slept in that time, and I’m far from my peak programming performance right now… but I’m still making progress.  I could actually show an underwhelming screen shot at this point, but I’d like to get just a little further before I do that, so that I’ve got a bit more substance.  Basically this update is just to show that I’m still alive and chugging along!  I promise my next post will have much more content, one way or another!

Tags: LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, pygame, python, sleep deprived

I can display (The first layer) of my dynamically/procedurally-generated level maps!  Still no collision detection going on… and I don’t have the art yet for the things to collide with anyway!  And the screen isn’t scrolling… but all of that feels very close now!  This was really the big step (I hope?)

I’m actually really impressed with how nice the terrain looks!  I had no way of knowing how it would look ahead of time, but the results are much better than I ever expected!  See for yourself!

Tags: LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, pygame, python, screenshot

Well… I can’t fight it any longer.  I’ve got to take a nap.  Hopefully ~3 hours will be enough to let me get up and go for the 12 I’ll have left to finish?  I’ve been continuing with the good progress though!  I’ve got scrolling ground and rocks spawning now.  Next step’ll be to add collisions with obstacles  and the edges of the screen.  Then it’ll be time for enemies and attacking!  Hooray!  (Oh, and the status bar thing) The end is getting towards being in sight!  I’ll post a video as soon as I can A: figure out how to and B: have enemies + combat.

Maybe I’ve already fallen asleep in my chair, and the progress is just a dream…

Tags: LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, progress update, pygame, python, sleep

Sorry, I can’t capture audio with what I’ve got right now… but you’re not missing much:

LD #20 Demo1

As you can see, I’ve got movement, scrolling, and collision pretty well covered… still need enemies, combat, status screen, NPCs, bonus items… oh, and the in-between scenes need more coding (the hard-coded levels)

Tags: LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, pygame, python, video

I’ve made a bit more progress:  I can shoot now!  And the shots will collide with things and react accordingly!  Now to add some things for them to collide with, eh?

LD #20 Demo2

Tags: LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, pygame, python, video

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!  THREE AND A HALF HOURS LEFT AND I’M NOWHERE NEAR DONE!  HEEEELLLPPPPP!!!!!

Tags: crunchtime, LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, panic

I GOT MY GAME SUBMITTED!  WOOHOO!!  I think it was technically 1 or 2 minutes late, but that’s because I was having upload troubles.  At any rate… I did it!  It’s not complete!  It’s not perfect!  It IS playable though!  I had to disable a couple half-finished things for the submission version, but there’s still enough there to see where I was going, I think.

Also, I’m entirely too exhausted.  And I have work in about 9 hours.  I’ve gotta go to bed, which sucks… I’d love to hang out with the festivities on IRC and here on the blagosphere.  Tomorrow, though, I’ll start looking at everyone’s stuff!  Good job, y’all!  It was an amazing experience for sure!

Tags: awesome, bats, dodongo, final, finally done, LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, pygame, python, screenshot, win, winner

So… life kicked my ass and I disappeared immediately after the last compo.  Suuuux.  I never got to judge anyone else’s entries, and never got to put mine in a state that others could easily get it working.  Ah well… I’m back again at least for the next week… and hopefully for a while after so I can contribute to judging this time!  We’ll see… -_-

Anyway, I’m gonna try to do some cleaning and completion on my entry from last time between now and next Friday and I’ll repost it so everyone can see… uh… how wonderful I am?  Hopefully this will also serve to reacquaint my brain with coding, since I haven’t done a single line in recent months.

Oh yes, as to technical details; I think it’ll be the same as what I ended up with last time.  Python, pygames, bfxr, mspaint, and gimp.  I’ll probably give a more contentful post next week and reiterate the details of my hardware and software setup.

I hope everyone else is doing well and getting hyped!

Tags: LD #21

So as I mentioned previously… I’m in!  However, it’s gonna be an uphill struggle.  I quit my job today!  Wuuut?  Yeah. I also had a CT scan yesterday?  I hope I don’t have deathitis.  All that aside though, my lack of time to prepare anything else has me using the same tools as last time; Python with pygame, bfxr, maybe that music script if I can find it again, MSPaint, Gimp, energy drinks, ibuprofen, attention-seeking cats, and dedication.

Just over 4 hours left, and I need to eat dinner and do some cleaning!  Good luck everyone, and hopefully my head will stop hurting enough soon that I can look at IRC without getting dizzy, in which case I’ll see you there!

Also:  Have a picture to brighten your day.

Tags: LD #21, pygame, python

Fell asleep… awake-ish now… still no idea for my game, but I did have some horrible nightmares about being stabbed in a subway?  Maybe I should make a game about that?  No.  I’m gonna do some stretches and see if any ideas pop out.

I finally know what I’m making!  First person to explain this image wins… a high-five!

Nobody replied to my last post (understandably, since we’re all so busy!), so no high fives were won!  Better luck next time!

Anyway, my game is an implementation of the viking board game Tablut!  See more info HERE!

Here’s my latest update:  Got the key artwork done, got the game board displaying and mouse input being recognized… now I need to make pieces movable, and perhaps add highlighting for possible moves and some sounds and movement animations.  Then I need win/loss conditions.  Then… the real fun begins, as I will attempt to make an AI player!  I have no idea how I’m going to do that yet… decision trees with some kind of mysterious weighting system.  Time shall tell?

SCREENSHOT!

Yes, you heard right, folks!  My game is a completely playable implementation of Tablut as of about 9 hours ago!  There’s a few minor things it doesn’t do (warn you for Check/Mate), and plenty of places that can be polished (Movement animations?)… but the game can indeed be played!  Currently, though, it only works as a 2-Player game.  My goal with the remaining ~15 hours is to implement a mildly competent AI system who can play as the Attack and/or the Defender, at your own choice.  Currently the AI moves at random until and unless it has a move that will allow it to win immediately, in which case it takes that move.  It’s not much, but it is indeed a start!  The visuals have changed just a little since my last update, so I’ll post a new screenshot as well:

Tags: AI, awesome, game, pygame, python, tablut, viking

Gettin’ that polish going!~  I’ve added a title screen, as well as a way to control if a Human or CPU controls each of the two sides.  Also my AI is getting smarter!  It’s still quite beatable; my search depth is… next to nothing really, so it only gets as far as predicting your next move and making some vaguely intelligent guesses as to what kinda of things improve its position.  I’ve still got about 6 hours though, and pretty much the only thing I’ve got left to do aside from AI improvements is adding some movement animations to help see what’s going on.  I’m actually at a point where I’m about to ask some IRC peoples to help me test.  If you’d like to help with that just let me know; I’m Luthwyhn in IRC.

Here’s a shot of my title screen!

I hope everyone else is getting done too!  I’ve been too busy to keep with with chat more than occasionally.  Keep up the good work, though!

Tags: AI, awesome, game, pygame, python, tablut, viking

Woohoo! Got it done and submitted on time! See my entry HERE!

This is my 2nd LD, and the first one that was really complete, so I’m quite proud of myself! I was going to do a full write-up, but I’m just too exhausted. Maybe tomorrow?

A few comments though:

The AI needs refinement. There’s only so much you can do under the time limit… and even less when you don’t actually know the game well enough to have a good strategy even for yourself, no less for a machine.

That said, the AI is pretty competent at Defending, despite sucking at Attacking.

I forgot all about running the whole screencap video thing this time! Eek!

Most of the sounds are me screaming or bashing things into my desk.

I am going to look into what it would take to refine this for an android/apple app!

Aaand… yeah! Good job everyone! I look forward to actually being able to participate in the judging this time; something I completely missed out on last time. Hundreds and hundreds of games to review! Eek! Too much fun!

Tags: awesome, complete, game, pygame, python, tablut, tallbutt, viking