{"author_name":"TyrusPeace","cat":"LD #21","comments":[],"epoch":1314149040,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"63660","p_author":"TyrusPeace","p_authorkey":"5305","p_urlkey":"99445","p_title":"Run Run Robot: Run Run Game Dev","p_cat":"LD #21","p_event":"LD21","p_time":"1314149040","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"5305","us_name":"TyrusPeace","us_username":"tyruspeace","event_start":"1313712000","event_key":"7","event_name":"LD21"},"text":"

\"Yay.\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We did it! \u00a0Three days, one game. \u00a0Hooray! \u00a0There were some scary last minute bits due to out of date drivers on a testing machine, but everything came together and Run Run Robot<\/strong>\u00a0got released. \u00a0You can check out our game here<\/a> or read on for my clumsy summary of the development process.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Process:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We used L\u00d6VE<\/a>\u00a0as our game engine and wrote our game logic in Lua. \u00a0I did a lot of art and direction, but the vast majority of code was pumped out by the heroic and capable\u00a0Brian<\/a> and Eric<\/a>. \u00a0Art was done in the copy of Photoshop Elements that came with my Wacom.<\/p>\n

We used Mercurial<\/a> and the excellent Bitbucket<\/a> for our version control. \u00a0I’ve previously only used Mercurial for individual projects, but I have to say that having multiple people work on the same project on this time scale meant a lot<\/em>\u00a0of merges. \u00a0I hope I was doing something wrong, because I don’t want Mercurial to be that hard.<\/p>\n

Day 0:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The topic was announced at 7PM our time, so our first day of work was just discussion, design, concept art, sleep. \u00a0Designing and talking over IM was a pain in the ass. \u00a0We’ll try to meet in person next time, or at least have a shared whiteboard and voice chat online somewhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian wrote animation loading code, made a random level\/enemy spitter-outer and handled our basic collision code in top notch time while Eric wrote most of our weapon\/shooting code and added the boss. \u00a0I painted all of the level graphics and player animations. \u00a0Lame croppings of the original concept art were used for the initial boss and enemy graphics. \u00a0Our animation loading code uses individual PNGs instead of strips, which seemed totally worth the performance hit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 2:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Powerups, health, tons of discussion and tweaking to make the game as fun and playable as we could manage while still keeping it a little too hard. \u00a0I drew the boss animations and finished up the win\/lose screens. \u00a0I’m pretty new to 2D animation in general, but this watercolory style of animation was especially new to me. \u00a0I enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

Eric also took it upon himself to sneak a Jedi mode into the game, which was way<\/em>\u00a0too cool to hide behind the Konami code as originally intended :). \u00a0The only way to kill the boss is to reflect his own shots back at him with a light saber. \u00a0I suck at it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 3:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was Monday! \u00a0We had to go to work :(. \u00a0During our lunch breaks and after work we fixed a couple crucial bugs, added more instructions and added a life bar to the boss so the player can know just how close he is to winning. \u00a0We also made Jedi mode easier to get to as a rather good last minute decision.<\/p>\n

Submission time was mostly composed of Eric screaming at me to redraw the victory screen for Jedi mode to have a light saber in it and me insisting that we just didn’t have the time. \u00a0“WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DRAW HIM IN THAT POSE??!” he shouted, fists clenched to heaven. \u00a0The cries shall haunt me forever.<\/p>\n

The victory screen really does<\/em>\u00a0look like he should be holding a light saber. \u00a0Sigh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can view Run Run Robot’s Ludum Dare page here.<\/a><\/p>","time":"August 23rd, 2011 8:24 pm","title":"Run Run Robot: Run Run Game Dev"}