{"author_name":"Czepta","cat":"LD #28","comments":[],"epoch":1387526460,"likes":3,"metadata":{"p_key":"34183","p_author":"Czepta","p_authorkey":"29051","p_urlkey":"69729","p_title":"Road To Zion Part 01","p_cat":"LD #28","p_event":"LD28","p_time":"1387526460","p_likes":"3","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"29051","us_name":"Czepta","us_username":"czepta","event_start":"1386892800","event_key":"20","event_name":"LD28"},"text":"

My goal for the jam was to simply participate and try to complete the most basic thing possible. I had not yet made any finished games and am still learning programming so I knew finishing a game of any kind was going to be a challenge.<\/p>\n

DAY 01:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Jam started at around 2pm on Saturday (I am in New Zealand) and I got started at around 4:30pm as I had been at a Gnostic meetup for most of the day. The theme was announced and it was an ambiguous one:<\/p>\n

‘You only get one’<\/p>\n

My initial Idea came fast – within the first 10 minutes of starting: An atmospheric auto-runner with a Rastafarian theme. I quickly sketched out how the game would look:<\/p>\n

\"concept\"<\/p>\n

I envisioned an epic widescreen slo-motion shot of a tiny character running across the screen with a trailing Ethiopian flag behind him and holding a crucifix scepter and crown. Most things I make have pyramids so a chucked a few of them in there to create a psychedelic African landscape. The specifics of what would happen in the game other than running was still a mystery but I decided to just dive into Gamemaker and start creating it.<\/p>\n

I started in Gamemaker by just getting some blocks moving. I created the ground object and built a crude level including the pyramids.<\/p>\n

\"spr_block_0\" – Ground Object<\/p>\n

Next I programmed another block that would be the character. This was relatively easy as I have been doing alot of this already in my Shark Slam game and all I really needed to add was a jump button and some gravity and collision detection. When the character was moving sufficiently I added in some temporary graphics for the sky and made a rising sun.<\/p>\n

\"spr_sun_0\"– Rising Sun<\/p>\n

I made most of the graphics in Gamemaker and with the mouse. I thought I might go back later and do some better ones but decided to finish the game first and do it only if I had time. Although part of me was really interested in achieving an abstract beauty by just using really raw pixel art.<\/p>\n

Next I spent way too long trying to get the aspect ratio right. I wasn’t fully conversed with how Gamemaker’s view system worked and ended up with some warped screens. I noticed most of my problem was due to an optical illusion that made my square character look squashed as it fell out of the sky. This caused me a lot of headaches until I realized it was correct after all.<\/p>\n

Once the aspect ratio was sorted I moved onto the next crucial component – the drifting flag. At this point I was starting to get tired as I had had and early morning. I got a particle system going for the flag but it wasn’t working correctly. I was trying to get it to look like it was waving in the wind and also had physics for when the player moved. This turned out to be a major pain. I tried for about 2 hours to get it working how I wanted but it just wasn’t happening. I was getting really tired and frustrated and suddenly felt a panic coming over me. I felt like I was going to fail and wouldn’t be able to finish anything in 48hours. I had a feeling like I really hadn’t learned anything this year and I was useless and this jam was really showing my how incompetent I really was. I wanted to give up. I wanted to quit.<\/p>\n

I went to bed defeated.<\/p>\n

To be continued tomorrow…<\/p>\n

Check out the final game here: http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-28\/?action=preview&uid=29051<\/a><\/p>","time":"December 20th, 2013 3:01 am","title":"Road To Zion Part 01"}