Though I’ve been watching Ludam Dare for a few years, this is the first one I’m entering.
Long time developer, first time game coder.
Really interested in seeing if I can get a multiplayer game up – something simple.
I’ll be using:
Language: Java
Library: Slick2D
Sound: Audacity
IDE: Eclipse
Graphics: Paint.net
I’m really looking forward to it too!
So,
We’re in – but as a family team this time – game jam.
So, we’ll be using:
Language: Java
Library: Slick2D
Sound: Audacity
IDE: Eclipse
Graphics: Paint.net
We’re doing this as a family, so we’ll be splitting up tasks in terms of coding, game design, game story, and graphics.
Last time, we finished the game, but we couldn’t get the java ant file figured out in order to build the jar and post it online. We forgot to figure that out before we started! (duh).
So, we’ll hopefully have a full web build – and really looking forward to it.
Propolis Start Screen
So,
We’re doing the jam – as a family, which is really interesting.
We spent a couple of hours going through different ideas for the theme of ‘Tiny Worlds’ – and the one that we thought would have the greatest latitude for us would be to be playing as a bee.
So, here’s what we have so far.
The title is Propolis. Which I think is really cool. Propolis is made out of the resin that the bees use to line the hive.
The kids worked on the images – and they came out really cool.
My wife is building the story and working on the levels.
I’ve finished writing the main code base (with lots and lots of help from the forums for Slick2d).
We stayed up pretty late last night (like 3 am) – woke up late today – got some nice pastries – and are ready to start fresh!
So,
Things are starting to come together now.
We’ve got a lot more of the backgrounds, tiles, and animations for the characters.
It’s very modular now as well, so we can start just adding levels, items, pickups, etc. with very little little change in the code.
Now, we need to work on the game play mechanics as well as music and then just build out lots and lots of levels!
We’re pretty beat since we stayed up so late last night, we’ll probably only make it another hour or so, but really looking forward to some polish tomorrow.
So, for the jam – we’re still going.
It’s been hard but very rewarding.
Today we finished up lots more code, starting in earnest on the levels, made more of the animated characters, wrote the story and dialog pieces, and did the music.
Very big day.
We’re all wiped out, bags under our eyes, but it’s been rewarding.
Tomorrow is a work day for me, but I think I’ll try to spend some time on the polish. Everyone else can work on it though.
We’re pushing through into the home stretch!
So,
We got up a little late (being that we’re all basically night owls) – just now finished our breakfast and getting going.
Lots of great ideas flowing already.
Base code is happening, sprites and pictures are starting to emerge, and a great story idea is coming our way as well.
But, most importantly, here’s a picture of our breakfast. 😉
Evolution Breakfast
Still making progress.
Switching to GameMaker from Java seems to have aided in allowing us to build more functionality easier.
We’ve got a really good base down to start adding sprints, game play elements, music, and story.
No screen shots ready yet, so please enjoy pictures of our lunch/dinner 😉
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So,
Our first day down – we’re pretty happy with where we are.
Like I said earlier, using GameMaker has seriously simplified a lot of our coding.
Our goal is to do 4 levels – evolving the player from Stone Age to Futuristic. We’re really excited about it.
Our engine is pretty close to finished. Combat is a little funky and inventory isn’t very dynamic yet, but that will come in the next day or so (we’re doing the Jam – so we have some more time).
Tomorrow is definitely content day – we want lots and lots of content for this one.
No pictures of food tonight!
See you all tomorrow.
So,
We’ve been up for a couple of hours already – had some yummy good breakfast (obligatory picture below) – and made our plan for the day.
Today is mostly content, some game play tweaks, and refinement of all. We know that we’ll totally need all the Jam days to get through this.
So, our breakfast and our work space pictures below.
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Our first song done – a mellow, flute playing, cave dwelling, evolutionary song…
Finally finished – we’re all exhausted – the kids already went to bed – we’ve just fished off the build and put our entry in.
It was a great time – we did much better than last time. I think it was the experience of doing it before as well as the change of tools to GameMaker Studio – this helped a ton.
I think next time we’ll get a copy for everyone and set up a team environment.
There are still lots of bugs and unfinished pieces, but we still feel good about it.
Please have a play and let us know what you think.
Thanks – it’s been a blast!
