{"author_name":"wbobeirne","cat":"LD #21","comments":[],"epoch":1313697780,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"65085","p_author":"wbobeirne","p_authorkey":"5193","p_urlkey":"100881","p_title":"First year, I\u2019m in!","p_cat":"LD #21","p_event":"LD21","p_time":"1313697780","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"5193","us_name":"wbobeirne","us_username":"wbobeirne","event_start":"1313712000","event_key":"7","event_name":"LD21"},"text":"<p>While eventually I\u2019m going to have to wake up and smell the money, game development has always been my greatest interest. Whenever I\u2019m learning a new programming concept or language, my mind inevitably goes to, \u201cHow could I use that in a game?\u201d I\u2019d like to be naive and think that that will always be how I\u2019ll learn.<\/p>\n <p>Earlier this week, a post popped up on Reddit&#8217;s \/r\/gamedev.\u00a048 hours of non-stop game development! I was intrigued, I\u2019d heard the name from earlier competitions, but didn\u2019t quite have the skills to enter. After a few side projects of my own though, I feel I could crank a game out in 48 hours. So there you have it, I\u2019m in. Let\u2019s get down to the details, shall we?<\/p>\n <h2>The Setup<\/h2>\n <p>As you can see below, there are 2 major components to my setup. You\u2019ve got my desk:<\/p>\n <p><img src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/B5SNI.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n <p>Which is rocking my newly purchased second monitor, and will shortly be flooded with carbonated beverages and various microwavable meals. And you\u2019ve got the whiteboard:<\/p>\n <p><img src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/feKdf.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n <p>All the cool kids have whiteboards, so I needed one too.<\/p>\n <h2>The Tools<\/h2>\n <p>A bad blacksmith blames his tools, so let me get this out of the way. All of the following tools I\u2019ll be using are bad:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Microsoft\u2019s XNA 4.0 (C#) or libgdx (Java)<\/li>\n <li>Paint.net<\/li>\n <li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.drpetter.se\/project_sfxr.html\">Sfxr<\/a><\/li>\n <li><a href=\"http:\/\/msm.runhello.com\/?p=396\">Drumcircle<\/a><\/li>\n <li>Audacity<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>XNA and libgdx are very similar game libraries that I\u2019m somewhat familiar with. I\u2019d say XNA is way more robust, but libgdx has easy Android porting options and is cross platform. Depending on the complexity of the game I dream up after we find out what the theme is, I\u2019ll decide. I\u2019d love to be able to take this 48 hour game and turn it in to a legitimate Android game, but even if I decide to do it in XNA, porting to Windows Phone 7 is an option. On the audio side of things, I\u2019ve decided on Sfxr and Drumcircle. Sfxr was created by a Ludum Dare-er, for Ludum Dare-ers. It\u2019s an awesome tool to crank out vintage style game sounds. Drumcircle is similar, but meant for game loops. I\u2019ve never used Drumcircle before, but I\u2019ve tinkered with it a bit and it seems like it\u2019ll do the trick. Audacity will simply be used to touch up the audio if I need to.<\/p>\n <p>Over the next few days, I\u2019ll try to make a few blog posts on <a href=\"http:\/\/wbobeirne.github.com\/\">my website<\/a>, as well as gripe on my newly created\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/wbobeirne\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0about the development process.<\/p>\n <p>Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone!<\/p>","time":"August 18th, 2011 3:03 pm","title":"First year, I\u2019m in!"}