This is my first LD! I am really, really excited!

Tools being used:

– Javascript/HTML

– Basecode that I’ve been refining this week; it’s mostly a simple physics engine that works with the HTML5 Canvas

– The Akihabara game engine if needed by my game design; I’d rather make a simpler game using only my basecode

– GIMP for image editing

– Real life and a sound recorder for sound effects, if needed; I’m not actually a big fan of sound/music in games, so I’ll keep it minimal

– Wikipedia’s random article link for inspiration!

When I saw the theme yesterday, I was somewhat disappointed. Having the player be the antagonist in some way just isn’t inspiring to me. And I was looking forward to making some sort of physics or abstract-puzzle game, rather than a character/story-based game.

Beforehand, I did think of a mechanic for the “You are the Villain” theme. But when it came to premise or objective, I was empty-handed.

But it’s okay! I found a satisfying premise!

Current version: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/107314069/LD25/v0.1/index.htm

A bunch of kids (the red guys) have been playing among themselves… but none of them wants to be the villain in their make-believe games.

You, a grown-up, enter stage left. How fortuitous! The kids quickly recruit you, before running off to hide. (It’s like when they say, “tag, you’re it!”)

YOUR GOAL: You have Important Business to attend to. Get past the kids’ make-believe playground (the black area), with all your Official Grown-Up Items intact and ready to deliver to your Big Important Boss (who will be somewhere on the right).

To do (in this order):

1. HIGH PRIORITY: flesh out the gameplay

The vague idea involves having the kids repeatedly insist that the player chase them. If the player ignores them and simply goes rightward towards the goal, then the kids will sneak up and steal the player’s Official Grown-Up Items. (Then, if the player tries to approach the Big Important Boss, he’ll be turned away.)

Also, the gameplay should actually be affected by the grown-up becoming the villain. He shouldn’t simply be the “victim” of the kids’ mischief – that is not very villain-y!

2. Give the kids behaviors that implement the gameplay (they already have rudimentary ones)

3. Add the “Big Important Boss” and the items that the player must carry across the screen

4. Fix miscellaneous things in the code (e.g. display the people in the correct order, clean up animation code, etc)

5. Add title screen, instructions, ending(s), etc. (Get a better name!)

6. If time: tweak movement parameters, refine art

Art

Hahaha.

I’ll probably change those weird wings and claws. I want to give him fangs, too. But this is good enough for now.

Anyway, I’m having fun. I’m really pleased with the  code, even though it’s crude and inefficient – it’s really easy to make the characters run around in the manner I want them to. And I’m glad that I got past the theme.

OK, back to the villain-izing!

This is my 3rd Ludum Dare, so hopefully I will be able to crank out something with substance! I think I’d better do the jam, since I’ll be at a music rehearsal on Friday evening.

GOAL 1: Don’t get hung up over the theme! I’ve had trouble with that in the past, especially in my first LD (the . Whatever it turns out to be, I’ll roll with it and try not to find the perfect interpretation.

GOAL 2: Don’t come up with a totally new idea 1 hour before submission time, which is what happened last LD. While it was gratifying to actually finish it, it’s probably not a good habit to get into!

GOAL 3: Be aware of my process during the jam, and write a postmortem afterward.

Languages/tools:

– Javascript… again. It’s not my favorite medium, but web games are cross-platform, and I like that. Plus, I’ve built up a somewhat usable library/engine, which I’m comfortable using as basecode. It can be accessed here.

– GIMP for art

– I’ll probably ignore sound. But if I don’t, I might generate a tune with a little Python script, or record the noise of a carrot snapping, or something like that.

– Github for source control

– Notepad++ for IDE

– The patterns on my desk for inspiration. (And perhaps friends, family, and Wikipedia as well.)

For some reason I can’t get my screenshot inserted into this post. I know I’ve been able to do it in the past. Dunno.

In any case if anyone is interested the screenshot is here. Player tries to get the ball from point A to point B in EXACTLY TEN SECONDS. Player accomplishes this by putting things down that will guide the ball to the path. So far, the player can just place a lame bouncy wall, though.

So, progress. The goals I decided on were…

1. To not get hung up on the theme. SUCCESS! Got a solid idea, basic basic basic functionality is implemented.

2. To not change ideas 1 hr before submission time. So far, so good…

3. To be aware of game-making process. Uhhh, to be honest I’ve just been going as fast as I can and not really thinking about it. But anyway I’m writing this post, so that counts.

I am going to add goal 4: MAKE THE GAME FUN. So far it is not fun yet. Also, goal 5: DON’T OVERCODE. I took too long to code that toolbox thing. Well, at least it will be easier to add more tools. And: goal 5.5: DON”T SET TOO MANY GOALS. Hahaha.

Okay, that is all. Goodnight and good luck to everyone.

Enough progress has been made that I have achieved a high score. Made it from point A to point B in exactly 9.921 seconds. Yay! Goal is to get exactly 10 seconds. The faded dots are the ball’s path, at each second.

Of course the game will be changing a lot, so my score will be void. Oh well, I’ll have to replay it with the new and improved toolbox tools. But first I have to make the toolbox tools, of course.

Screenshot so far:

I’ve definitely played games that had levels. But this is the first level system I’ve done. (Er… this is just the 3rd or so game I’ve done, and the others were rather levelless.) Since I’m using a bare-bones engine written from scratch, it feels VERY laborious. This afternoon I took a little too much time coding text. So, yeah, I have no idea what I’m doing and just figuring stuff out as I go! Whee!

Meanwhile, I deleted about half my code so that I could pursue a slightly different, and more fun, game mechanics. But the concept is still the same: get the ball from point A to point B in exactly 10 seconds. Now, the player moves the ball directly, and has to get past obstacles and such. On the plus side, I’m pretty excited about the new and improved concept. There will be cool obstacles – more cool than that swamp in level 2. (I hope!)

A: My really bad attempt to humorize my “I’m in” post!

So! I gave myself a goal, and if I finished it, I’d let myself do Ludum Dare. Well, I just finished it. So I’m in for the 48 hour compo!

Tools: Javascript. Someday I’ll get out of this Javascript rut. It’s a nice rut to be stuck in because HTML is sort of platform independent.

Here is my basecode (zipped files). It’s basically a game loop with objects that update & draw on each frame, with a couple bells and whistles.

I use GIMP for image-related stuff.

I have never included sound in a game. Usually I don’t like sound in games – too distracting! But I realize that people like sound, so I’m going to try to incorporate something this time. I might record some stuff and use PreloadJS and SoundJS to incorporate it.

OK, let’s get developing!

It doesn’t look like much, but thanks to the last few hours of hacky coding, those circles DO go around those tracks, and they DO transfer onto the linear track at the appropriate time, at the appropriate speed, just as one would expect!

And just like last LD I’m starting to have color anxiety. Well, at least it’s not turning out to have barf-themed colors. Dunno what was going through my mind last time.

Now the player can click near where the tracks join to allow the circles to go between tracks… exciting!

Permanent link to this version:
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/107314069/games/ld28/loops_v1/loops.htm

Whew! Another Ludum Dare game finished! Maybe I should have called it “knots of fate” :

Here’s the link: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=18295

With the title, I was thinking of the greek fates (Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos) who measured people’s lives by spinning thread. But that doesn’t really come across in the game itself because I didn’t get around to implementing all the features which I had in mind (which is on par for the course in LD).

I think this game mechanic has a lot of potential – I had fun thinking of levels! It lends itself to puzzles that are mazelike but which mess with your head a little bit.

Fun fact: all through the code, the little avatar circles are called “trains” and the paths are called “tracks.” The game concept evolved and my variable names never caught up.

So, my goal at the beginning of the weekend was to include sound. Didn’t happen. But this is definitely the most polished game I’ve ever submitted, so I’m happy with it. Plus, the soundtrack I really wanted to include would not have been original content: Arvo Pärt’s sublime Spiegel im Spiegel. I had to take a break on Saturday to go play this piece at a memorial service, so I had it stuck in my head the whole weekend. But this is a game I really want to keep working on, so I’ll probably include it or a similar-sounding minor version to give it more gravitas.

Another feature to be added in a later version: roles for the different avatars. At the moment there’s no difference between them except for their color. This will probably disappoint some players – alas!

Can’t wait to see what other people came up with!

Well I was planning on NOT doing Ludum Dare, because I’m in an orchestra which has a concert this weekend, so a bunch of time will be spent on dress rehearsal + concert… but I saw the theme and I can’t resist. So I MIGHT do a really small game for the compo. Probably in HTML/Javascript. But in any case, since I don’t feel the pressure to get moving and keep on schedule, I’m going to take some time to do some in-depth theme brainstorming, even if I don’t end up making a game!

Here are some quick thoughts off the top of my head. By the way, I don’t mind if anyone uses this for inspiration!

Beneath the surface

Beneath A surface

Beneath which surface?

Beneath the surface of… what?

Beneath multiple surfaces. Many layers deep.

Beneath surface #1.

Beneath surface #42.

Who is beneath the surface?

What is beneath the surface?

Are we GOING beneath the surface?

Are we COMING FROM beneath the surface?

Are we trapped beneath the surface?

Are we avoiding the surface? Because of what’s beneath it?

Or maybe we are irresistably drawn to the area beneath the surface?

Beneath the SURF!

Surfaces are boundaries, of course. Are we allowed to go beneath the surface?

Can we puncture the surface? Or smash it? Or… smudge chocolate on it?

What does the stuff above the surface look like, for entities who are beneath it? (I’ve heard that precipitation sounds extremely noisy to fishes underwater. But I can’t remember where I heard that. Don’t quote me.)

Why do I keep thinking of the ocean surface? You can go beneath the surface of the earth on dry ground.

Can you go “beneath the surface” in outer space???

Do you have to have a gravitational field in order to go “beneath” something?

And why do I keep thinking of a geographical surface? People can have emotions and stuff beneath the surface.

OK that’s all for now.

I’m in for the jam! Will post my stuff when I get home.

That probably gives a good idea of the tools I’m using.

And my pile of junk boilerplate code is here!

A: Coming up with overly complex game ideas and taking cool pictures through my microscope

Aiming for very simple but polished. Happy with it so far. But there’s a lot still on the plate: finishing the view of the two planets on in the upper right, explaining what’s going on to the player, telling the player what the win condition is (and checking for it), tuning the input/output calculations, and maybe adding another graphical view (of the wormhole between the planets) in the upper left corner. Also, the two input values are pretty meaningless so far – just random numbers. I’ll make-sense-ify them if there’s time. The view of the wormhole will help clarify things.

My local incarnation of the snowman greets you warmly coldly.

For better or worse, I’ll throw my hat in and make a game in 48 hours for the compo. Obligatory list of tools/boilerplate code forthcoming.

Also, based on the URL of this post, it appears that this is the 2921st post today titled “I’m in” or a near variant. Wow!

Follow up to my previous post – here are my tools!

Framework: Phaser.js – I’m still learning it! If I chicken out, I’ll fall back on my boilerplate Javascript code which can be found here
Graphics: GIMP, or just random geometrical shapes
Sound: BFXR if I get around to it (I’ve never done sound before – I want to change that).

GOAL: completed game; sharpened decision-making skills.

Super excited.

PSA: it is possible to eat healthy during Ludum Dare. (And allowed, too!)

Well, I don’t really have time for full LD this weekend, but since I love it, I’ll just hedge my bets in case I want to spend a few hours making a super simple game. If that’s the case, it’ll be quick and dirty javascript, no base code, open source libraries if needed, and again it will be super simple.

Good luck to all!

I’m in this weekend after a ~2 year hiatus! Quite excited!

Tools:

Framework – Phaser/Javascript

Graphics – Gimp

Sound if I get around to it – sfxr, MuseScore