It’s been a tough last 24 hours for me. Tough enough that I reached a level of frustration where quitting seemed like a viable option.

Then I walked away for a little bit and calmed down some. Every time I’d hit a problem, it wouldn’t just break code, it would break it spectacularly, introducing a wave of more bugs.

Getting pep talks from my wife helped. She is an athlete, whereas I’m not. Which is why I loved the idea of Ludum Dare. I could see this as a competition with others, but to me I’m really competing with myself. So after many hours of trying to solve what should have been an utterly trivial problem, banging of head on the wall, and going out for a milkshake, I think the biggest and worst problems are behind me. I hope I don’t fall down that rabbit hole again. At this point I’m going to go with submitting what I have as part of the Jam instead of the compo. It’s not that I don’t think I can, but having those extra hours to make up for slipping on the ice will really help. That and I’m using public domain art since I can’t draw worth spit. And here’s where I am now. Doesn’t look like a lot, but it’s finally working!

The first working screenshot. No name yet.

The first level, or at least the framework of it in Tiled.