{"author_name": "Tom Rijnbeek", "cat": "LD #29", "comments": [], "epoch": 1398519240, "likes": 1, "metadata": {"p_key": "31886", "p_author": "Tom Rijnbeek", "p_authorkey": "504904", "p_urlkey": "67385", "p_title": "Progress!", "p_cat": "LD #29", "p_event": "LD29", "p_time": "1398519240", "p_likes": "1", "p_comments": "0", "p_status": "UPD5", "us_key": "504904", "us_name": "Tom Rijnbeek", "us_username": "Tom Rijnbeek", "event_start": "1398384000", "event_key": "22", "event_name": "LD29"}, "text": "<p>After long considerations, I decided to go with MonoGame after all. I have worked with XNA for about two years, because it is the main tool of the studies, but I dropped it when I figured out it is too much of a hassle to distribute. MonoGame was still in its early stages back then, but it has grown to work quite alright now and I am pretty sure it will be alright for this project.</p>\n <p>My game will be a puzzle game, which means level design will be a huge part of it. That is a decision I made beforehand, but it is something that will make this project not too easy. The gameplay mechanics will stay quite simple, though I have some really cool ideas to make some tough puzzles. Actually coming up with a format to create and load my levels might be a challenge as well. I looking into Tiled, but I am not entirely sure if it fits my uses. Right now levels are loaded from plaintext, but that will not be sufficient later, when things have to be more connected. I might go with manually writing JSON, as I do that a lot for other projects as well, but I might also look into some other tools as well.</p>\n <p>Here is the current work in process. It is not a lot and really simple, but it already contains the core mechanics of the game. Graphics is going to turn out to be a real challenge, because pixel graphics have never really been my thing, but we will see what I can make from it.</p>\n <p>Right now it&#8217;s time to take a break, eat some food and clear my mind. After dinner I will get back and continue streaming as well, so make sure to check that out if you want to see what this screenshot is all about!</p>\n <p><a href=\"http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/12.png\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-345668\" src=\"http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/12-300x300.png\" alt=\"Cireon - Work in progress #1\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/12-150x150.png 150w, http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/12-300x300.png 300w, http://ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/12.png 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" /></a></p>\n <p>&nbsp;</p>", "time": "April 26th, 2014 8:34 am", "title": "Progress!"}