People by commando
This was my first Ludum Dare, and I must say I'm somewhat surprised that I got anything done given how busy this weekend has been.
In between studying for a philosophy test, practicing for a physics quiz, going to driving school, and going to an interview, I really only had around 8 hours to work on it. It will only last you 5 minutes, but I can guarantee that what you read in it will last you for a very long time. It only has one gameplay element (figure out the password), and the rest is a loose story. This was my first LD, and I realized how little I knew about programming, especially seeing what others have made.
I would appreciate any advice on more efficient or better programming methods (perhaps a generous soul would look at my poor, aching source code and tell me what I should have done instead?). Does anyone know a good way to map in java OTHER than defining rectangles where you can/can't go. Better question: can someone tell me that way? I'm sure I did a very poor job of it.
In perspective, though, I'm happy with it! I learned a lot about game programming, and I'm hoping to do much better next time. Thanks for giving it a look! I hope you try it and enjoy what little it has to offer. Have a nice day!
Controls:
Use arrow keys to navigate the menu, space to select/interact. Mouse is only used when entering the code in the first room.
In between studying for a philosophy test, practicing for a physics quiz, going to driving school, and going to an interview, I really only had around 8 hours to work on it. It will only last you 5 minutes, but I can guarantee that what you read in it will last you for a very long time. It only has one gameplay element (figure out the password), and the rest is a loose story. This was my first LD, and I realized how little I knew about programming, especially seeing what others have made.
I would appreciate any advice on more efficient or better programming methods (perhaps a generous soul would look at my poor, aching source code and tell me what I should have done instead?). Does anyone know a good way to map in java OTHER than defining rectangles where you can/can't go. Better question: can someone tell me that way? I'm sure I did a very poor job of it.
In perspective, though, I'm happy with it! I learned a lot about game programming, and I'm hoping to do much better next time. Thanks for giving it a look! I hope you try it and enjoy what little it has to offer. Have a nice day!
Controls:
Use arrow keys to navigate the menu, space to select/interact. Mouse is only used when entering the code in the first room.
Ratings
| Coolness | 75% | 2 |
| Overall | 2.31 | 511 |
| Audio | 1.06 | 590 |
| Community | 2.27 | 436 |
| Fun | 1.86 | 544 |
| Graphics | 1.62 | 654 |
| Humor | 1.40 | 524 |
| Innovation | 2.21 | 427 |
| Mood | 2.93 | 161 |
| Theme | 3.41 | 117 |
Also I liked the final shot. :P
Anyway, I think that you really get the theme and the mood right.
I find it very frustrating when playing a puzzle game and I don't even receive confirmation that an attempt is being recognised by the game
- Setup a list of rectangles where the player can't move instead of rectangles where he can move.
- Use the intersect()-method to check, if the player wants to move in a collision-rectangle.
- If he wants to move, set a temporary variable with the wanted position, check if there is no collision and then set the
player's real position to that (you did this right ^^)
- Every trial of moving you can check the player-rectangle against all collision rectangles: this method is okay and for
a 48 hour game there is no need to implement intelligent collision checking until the simplest way has a bad performance
or doesn't feel right.
- Now, you can add collision boxes for the table and other things.
- If you want to implement the interaction, you can setup a second rectangle for these objects which is bigger than
the collision rectangle. If the player intersects with it, there is a interaction possible with space-key (you did this
with a contains()-method, what is okay too).
Efficient collision checking is an interesting research field :) there are a lot of methods to do these checks in a efficient way.
If you want to go on for the next ludum dare, try to implement a line intersection check so you can let the player colliding with
a polygon.
And really important: Try to use the simplest way instead of wasting time for heavyweight collision checking algorithms.
Gebirgsbaerbel: I understand what you're saying, but notice how the game "narrator" explicitly notes that his method of escape - suicide - should not be chosen. He is implying that it represents a weakness, that a human should never resort to such measures, and that our hero in this case should certainly not do so.