It’s about that time once more!

I’ve taken a little bit of a break from game development for the past few months.  Maybe it was burnout, maybe it was idea block, maybe it was the desire to do something different – who can tell.  What I know now is this: the LD competitions are incredibly motivating, and therefore think it’s time to dive back in!  Last time around I learned a lot about developing games, especially on a short time schedule, so this time I want to apply that knowledge and make a better product.  My game last time turned out very good – UNLEASHED! Son of Kracken – so I’ll be sticking to the tools and frameworks I used for that.

This time around I want to focus even more on planning, setting up some deadlines and deliverables, and documentation.  I like the feeling it gives me – setting up some boundaries and constraints lends focus to my work process and ultimately improves the delivered product.  I also want to be more transparent – this time try to set up a live stream, as well as a time-lapse.  That way I have a record of the process and something else to show to others.

I think I’ll be keeping up the new tradition as well: going to a movie Friday evening.  Last LD I went to see the Hobbit, learned of the theme in the middle of the movie, and came up with my idea on the ride home.  I’d like to replicate that again – I’m going to go see Oblivion and see where it takes me.  Always good to have some inspiration!

As far as tools and platform are concerned, I’m going to stick with ImpactJS on a web platform.  I love the portability and ease of test and deploy.  I just hit ‘save’ and then am able to test the product.  Easy peasy.  I also enjoy the Weltmeister level editor.

Code: JavaScript – ImpactJS.
IDE: Notepad++
Graphics: Paint.NET
SFX: BFXR and maybe some MIDI music

Best of luck to all the entries!