TinyColony by aaronsnoswell
**NEW**: Windows build added!
You are a tiny any in a tiny world.
Defend your colony from the evil red ants! Collect food! Kill things!
Contact me if you would like to help get a Linux build up! The windows build was built on Windows 7, 64 bit, but should be compatible with 32 bit as far as I know. Your milage may vary - let me know if it works for you!
---
Development details:
This is my third Ludum Dare, and the first one I have finished. I wanted to use a C++ based game engine, as I am doing a technical job interview in the next few days where C++ is a assessed, and I haven't done any C++ in several years :)
So, that said, I used the Angel game prototyping engine (built for game jams like this). See (http://code.google.com/p/angel-engine/) I've never used it before, but it seems fairly well rounded. The docs are a little out of date though, so digging through source code was necessary. I built the game in 40hrs, finishing with 4hrs to spare.
GIMP was used for graphics, Xcode for programming (Angel engine needs XCode to build on Mac). I used SFXR for sound effects and the music was taken straight from the Angel engine demos.
I wanted to add more functionality: Rain that hurts ants, the ability to travel down the anthill and dig underground, random insect encounters and magnifying-glasses of death, more terrain types (rocks, grass etc) and also more AI functionality (ants will help other ants / communicate where food deposits are). All of these features got cut due to time :)
I'm super stoked to have actually finished this to a point where it works and is fun - a bit of a personal milestone for me :)
Things I learned:
* I HATE XCODE! SOOOO MUCH HATE!!! There were many occasions where a physical bug in Xcode itself would prevent me from being able to build my game. I would have to delete entire methods and re-type them before Xcode would link them correctly.
* Next time, I'll be using a JS-based html5 engine, so it's much easier for people to play and vote :)
* If your game engine supports a scripting language, such as Lua, use it. It will save you a lot of time.
You are a tiny any in a tiny world.
Defend your colony from the evil red ants! Collect food! Kill things!
Contact me if you would like to help get a Linux build up! The windows build was built on Windows 7, 64 bit, but should be compatible with 32 bit as far as I know. Your milage may vary - let me know if it works for you!
---
Development details:
This is my third Ludum Dare, and the first one I have finished. I wanted to use a C++ based game engine, as I am doing a technical job interview in the next few days where C++ is a assessed, and I haven't done any C++ in several years :)
So, that said, I used the Angel game prototyping engine (built for game jams like this). See (http://code.google.com/p/angel-engine/) I've never used it before, but it seems fairly well rounded. The docs are a little out of date though, so digging through source code was necessary. I built the game in 40hrs, finishing with 4hrs to spare.
GIMP was used for graphics, Xcode for programming (Angel engine needs XCode to build on Mac). I used SFXR for sound effects and the music was taken straight from the Angel engine demos.
I wanted to add more functionality: Rain that hurts ants, the ability to travel down the anthill and dig underground, random insect encounters and magnifying-glasses of death, more terrain types (rocks, grass etc) and also more AI functionality (ants will help other ants / communicate where food deposits are). All of these features got cut due to time :)
I'm super stoked to have actually finished this to a point where it works and is fun - a bit of a personal milestone for me :)
Things I learned:
* I HATE XCODE! SOOOO MUCH HATE!!! There were many occasions where a physical bug in Xcode itself would prevent me from being able to build my game. I would have to delete entire methods and re-type them before Xcode would link them correctly.
* Next time, I'll be using a JS-based html5 engine, so it's much easier for people to play and vote :)
* If your game engine supports a scripting language, such as Lua, use it. It will save you a lot of time.
Ratings
| Coolness | 71% | 3 |
| Overall | 3.44 | 166 |
| Audio | 3.13 | 172 |
| Fun | 3.56 | 78 |
| Graphics | 2.91 | 415 |
| Humor | 2.47 | 312 |
| Innovation | 3.16 | 330 |
| Mood | 3.07 | 221 |
| Theme | 3.75 | 86 |
Can you share a bit about the development? What tools/frameworks did you use? Where you familiar with them? How well did it work out?
Fun game here.
I won with only encountering 1 red ant, I must try again !
Or the Windows build, I guess ;)
I have always loved the fact of just controlling one player of a team, and the rest controlled by the AI. (Like in my game)
It could have been a bit more difficult.
Difficulty is way too easy. My blue ants crushed the reds in 2 minutes with me basically doing nothing at all.
Overall a great game!
Nice graphics and music, the leveling system was a good touch too.
I really enjoyed being an ant :D
it induced some "hey, don't hit my buddy!" feeling - being like a big brother for all the ants, which got even better since the player becomes bigger and stronger as the game progresses
*ahem*
And the game was pretty good too!