{"author_name":"fruitfly","cat":"LD #24","comments":[],"epoch":1345929660,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"53078","p_author":"fruitfly","p_authorkey":"10227","p_urlkey":"88780","p_title":"Day 1: Summary","p_cat":"LD #24","p_event":"LD24","p_time":"1345929660","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"10227","us_name":"fruitfly","us_username":"38leinad","event_start":"1345766400","event_key":"12","event_name":"LD24"},"text":"

Day 1 with 19 hours of coding (including some breaks in between) is coming to an end. As usual, I did not progress as far as I would have liked, but it is definitely better than in previous LDs; at least technology-wise. Even though I did not prepare anything, I was able to build a full raycasting-based software renderer on this day. I wanted to replicated the feel and art-style of a Wolfenstein 3D-like game. The idea was\/is that this will allow even fairly limited pixel-art to look nice and retro. So, more time coding, less time spent in Paint.NET. And I like the idea of pushing each pixel on the screen myself and having full control. I have already discovered some nice visual effects by accident.<\/p>\n

The software renderer was actually the main thing I was working on today and I had some occasion of thinking to drop out. The simple case of rendering one quadrant of the the map correctly was done after a few hours. The funny part started with the edge cases and making the code work for all four quadrants of the players facing direction.
\n I actually had looked up a tutorial about raycasting before the LD, but did not use it extensively. I wanted to judge my understanding of the problem and I am quiet happy with how it turned out. Especially, I am surprise how fast the implementation is running (>1200 frames per seconds) considering that I did not do any optimization and bit-shifting tricks. It is all floating-point operations which is slower in general, but helps the understanding of the code.<\/p>\n

Even though the attached screenshot looks fine, I still have some glitch in the texture-mapping for the walls. This will be the first thing to get fixed tomorrow morning. As it is quiet late already I rather spent the time on some art and the bitmap font. I noticed hours ago that bug-free coding is not happening anymore today…<\/p>\n

What else? I did not spent much time to think about the actual game mechanics and story, yet. I hope something will pop up over night; if not, it will become a standard shoot-em up.<\/p>\n

What’s on the agenda for tomorrow? A lot:
\n – Soundtrack and game sounds
\n – Artwork: textures, sprites
\n – Speaking about sprites: The renderer still needs support for the character sprites. But it should be “easily” possible to reuse the wall-code for that purpose.
\n – Enemies and Game mechanics: Still not sure about the actual goal of the game, so not sure what the enemies\/characters will do. A theme like “Evolution” actually dictates to build something heavily AI-focus. But, I haven’t been doing AI since university and I don’t want to open up another can of worms in the last hours I have left.
\n – Menu system and Highscore board; I like Highscore boards \":-)\"
\n – If i have lots and lots of time, I would like to extend the renderer to also support textured floors. Up to now, it just a color-filled rectangle at the bottom half of the screen, simulating the floor.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah: As I was spending the last hours on art-work, the logo for the game is done. You see it on the screenshot. I don’t have time to waste on redoing the logo, so
\n “Shit! It’s Evolving” it is. No idea yet “what” is evolving, though…<\/p>\n

Good night!<\/p>\n

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Some random walls and a textured block. Doesn’t look that fancy for 19 hours of work…<\/p><\/div>","time":"August 25th, 2012 4:21 pm","title":"Day 1: Summary"}