I was too tired after submitting last night to write a summary, but here goes…

What I used:

• FlashDevelop
• Flixel
• Box2D for rope physics
• Reason
• Photoshop
• SFXR

Flixel turned out to be  a pretty good option for this type of game. I had some basic platforming going in minutes, and even though most of the first day was spent implementing the rope mechanic, I got more done on Sunday than I expected- largely because Flixel made development easier.

I ended up using the map editor DAME (http://dambots.com/dame-editor/), which I would also recommend. It has a few quirks (and I was a bit nervous about how I was using it to structure levels; basically each one being a “group” that was shown while I edited it, and hidden if I was editing another one), but it worked through to the end without any real problems.

For some things, I found the AS3-generation to greatly simplify my code: for example, when creating a “LevelExit” sprite, I simply created a property on the sprite type called “targetLevel”, which I would set to “Tutorial”, or “Level3”, or whatever. Then in DAME I set the sprite’s constructor field to “new LevelExit(%xpos%, %ypos%, %prop:targetLevel%)”, and in AS3 I created my LevelExit object to do something like… “playState.level = new targetLevel();”, and it would create a new instance of the target level. I’ve got no idea if this is a standard way to use Flixel/DAME/etc., but it felt pretty neat to me. Pity the rest of my submitted code is so shocking, hah!

I realized that creating sprite animation in Photoshop is *much* easier if you use layer groups. Once I had the body part groups (“head”, “torso”, “left hand” etc.) set up, and realized that you just need to right-click on the group and “Duplicate Group” for each new animation frame, I was actually really enjoying the process. Select layer, Ctrl-T (for free transform), move pivot, rotate body part. Repeat.

Box2D was relatively straight-forward to implement, although I couldn’t get the debug-view (with all the rigid bodies overlaid on top) working with Flixel as smoothly as I wanted. I ended up with a hacky solution, which at least allowed me to see where my rope rigid bodies were going wrong. It felt right at home amongst the rest of the hacks, so it stayed.

Unfortunately, it appears that I’ve made the game a bit too difficult. At least from the comments on my entry, it seems that people aren’t getting to end, which is a pity… I spent hours on that end cutscene! ;). I should probably release an easier version.

Alright, that’s me done – hopefully see everyone at LD21.