So this is Ludum Dare huh?
I’ll be working together with a friend, it’s our first time participating in a Game Jam.
We’ve got a pretty solid (Hopefully) game concept already and we’ll most likely be writing the game in XNA.
Good luck to everyone and have fun! 😀
17 Hours into the project and I haven’t gotten any code done other than setting up the XNA project.
We decided to hit the hay early yesterday.
Well on the bright side we have the artistic design pretty much nailed down and we got the gameplay figured out.
We’ve decided to make a game called Unexpected Security.
It’s about a robber who decides to break into the biggest bank in the country, unfortunately for him he is met with security systems he did not expect.
You have 10 seconds to get to the money bag and then back to the exit, if you fail the alarm will sound and you’ll be arrested. There will be guards patrolling and laser activated traps.
You can pickup and drop the money bag whenever you want (There will be a reason for this which I will talk about later) and you can only carry one item at a time (You’ll have items such as bombs that will help you clear a path to the exit).
The levels will be randomly generated and the game will run in an “Endless Mode” where you continue to play until you’ve failed a certain amount of times, at which point your final score will be tallied.
The graphics shown here are subject to change.
That’s all for now.
I hope it’s going well for all you other folks out there!
This took way more time than it had to but since I’ve never (EVER) parsed an XML file before (total noob, right?) it took longer than expected.
It works now though.
I’m using the Tiled level editor for the first time and it works great!
Now I can finally start writing the actual game, yay! 😀
My awesome artist friend has worked more on the animations and he’s made graphics for some of the traps and items.
Looks great, right!
Just a quick update from us 
Hope it’s still going well for all of you (I imaging some of the people working solo are starting to feel the pressure :P)
I’ve hit a few speed bumps lately though I’m starting to see progress.
Most of the core code is in place so that I can now freely work on the game.
On the graphics side we now have the animations for the main character.
There will also be a vault door in the bank which can be seen below.
Hoping we can make it in time.. Starting to feel the pressure myself 😛
This is what I’ve got now. (I have more level segments but they are not being loaded at the moment).
Click the image to play the gif.
I’m being held back because I can’t seem to get a dynamic typecast working.
I’M PANICKING!
Here’s a gif of the current stage of the game.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4243608/wip01.gif
Now you may be asking yourself.. Where’s the gameplay?
It’ll come eventually.. I just hope I can get it done in time.
I never thought I would get the game to a playable stage 😛
Our game Unexpected Security is now submitted!
You can find it here!
We would greatly appreciate if you go play it and leave us a rating and perhaps some feedback
Thank you and thank you Ludum Dare!
It has been a blast!
So our first Ludum Dare is over.
Firstly I would like to share the timelapse I’ve recorded with you all (There’s a bit of gameplay at the end of it).
The game can be found here:
www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=25133
Now onto the pros and cons.
The pros:
– I learned a few new things along the way.
– I have a much better understanding of developing with XNA now.
– We ended up with a game that could turn into something fun with alittle more work.
– It was a blast!
– Posting these blogs and talking to new people doing the weekend was fun.
– Playing other peoples games and seeing new interesting concepts.
– Getting feedback on our own game of course.
The cons:
– I should probably have prepared some of the basic and core code before the contest started as I spend way too much time doing that once the theme was announced.
– Partly because of the previous I didn’t get to implement all the stuff we had planned.
– I ran into a few problems along the way (Some easy to fix, others were just bizarre).
I now know what to do and what to avoid for next time and I’m definitely going to participate in the next Ludum Dare!
I will not continue to play all the awesome games that’s been submitted!
Thank you!
