Hi, this is my second Ludum Dare.

I will be making the same mistake I did the first time and use a framework/engine I’m not very familiar with. The thing is I’m trying to get a hold of C++ and STL. I’m hoping to get better by trying to apply what I learned so far. Also it is a great motivation knowing that there are hundreds of other people working on similar stuff, it is significantly better than working on your own – isolated.

I had a second motive (which I won’t be able to fulfill it seems) which was to show the world how good a 2D top-down game engine Zod Engine is. It looks like it is just the remake of the old Bitmap Brothers strategy game Z but once you check out the code you see a competent 2D game engine which can be used for any kind of top-down game, from Diablo style point&click RPGs to old-skool shoot’em ups. Well, I hope to write longer on Zod Engine and make this engine known to a larger audience later (it has been around for so long but I don’t know any projects utilizing it). You can check it out yourself at http://zod.sourceforge.net/ now.

One problem is getting the game Z out of Zod Engine. I guess I will have to shutdown most of the features. It can be argued if the code is really a framework/engine or a working game but I guess once you delete the files involving Z and write a new main.cpp file you can still run it.

So as I said I will be using Zod Engine which in turn uses SDL. I will be coding in C++ using Eclipse environment.

Also my brother promised to supply me with necessary 2D sprites, may be he’ll even do some music/sfx if he has time. I hope he’ll help with the design too. He says he will use Photoshop for graphics and FL Studio for any music or sfx.

So as I said my first priority is to get better at C++ and have fun at the same time. I’d really wish to make something good using Zod Engine. But even if I can’t, you now know there is a capable 2D game engine out there.

Have fun everyone.