So I’m traveling again during Ludum Dare and will have limited time to participate but I’m hoping to put something together.  I figured since I have limited time I would actually get my workflow set up and get ready to go before the event so I didn’t spend an hour getting things ready like I normally do.  I figured I’d put together what I’m doing in case it would help anyone else out.  Also, if anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them.  I always like seeing how everyone else sets up their workflows, so here’s mine.

The tools:

Engine: Phaser.io

Language: Javascript

Platform: Browser (HTML5)

IDE: Atom (Ok, it’s not an IDE, and only a text editor, but still)

Graphics: GraphicsGale

Music: LMMS

Phaser.io and Atom are new to me, so I spent some time figuring out an easy way to develop, iterate, and test.  Here’s how I’ve got things set up:

Atom Setup:

I created a bunch of Atom snippets for some of the commonly used statements that I always forget the format of.  Not having an IDE means no code completion so this is extra important.

Atom snippets for some commonly used statements

Now I can just type p + the command I want and it Atom builds the statement for me and I just have to fill in the variables.  I’m sure this will save me a bunch of time looking up syntax.

Phaser setup:

I created a basic template for Phaser games that I copied into a fresh directory.  I created a couple of states (Preload, Menu, and Play) so I didn’t forget any of them.  I also made sure to have the Phaser examples and Spriter project available for quick reference so I can look stuff up without leaving my editor and going to the web.

Testing:

I also learned that Python has a simple web server built into it, so I created a quick script to navigate to my LD38 directory and start the web server.  This is much simpler than setting up a local Apache instance or pushing to the web for testing.

A quick jump over to the browser and navigating to localhost:8000 and I’m good to go.  

Source Control and Repository setup:

This time I set up my Github repo in advance and created the remote connection in advance so I’m not Googling how to do it during the submission hour like I normally am.  If you want the boilerplate code it is up there now: Github repo

Deploying:

I also took the time to set up a spot on my website for my in process or finished game.  I use Joomla to publish to the rest of the site but that takes time.  This is quick and dirty with a simple index.html.  I also set up FileZilla to connect automatically so now I can one-click publish.  http://codingadventure.net/games/LD38/

So that’s it.  Pretty simple but should stay out of my way and just work.  If anyone has any suggestions let me know!

Tags: LD38, workflow