Well, this is my first post, so, ‘Hello, everybody!’ I finally decided to actually participate in LD instead of just watch it and I’ve been getting myself ready for it.

Here’s what I have so far:

• I’m going to give HTML5 canvas a shot, since I wanted to use this LD to learn something new, but know enough javascript that it’s not a crazy risk (probably).
• I think I’ve finally settled on using the NetBeans IDE after having tried a bunch of other stuff. It’s not really meant for simple HTML and javascript, but you can sort of trick it into working. It’s auto-complete and syntax highlighting are great!
• I’m building out some basic javascript support libraries. So far I have basic input handling, sprite preloading, ticking and simple drawing.
• I tried to set up a basic schedule. I think reasonably I can expect to work 10 hours a day, since I’m not a college student anymore. An hour or two for design, 8 hours of engine and mechanics, 5 hours of feature completeness, 5 hours of bug fixing and polish. I’ll be curious to see how fast this dissolves into ‘just go as fast as you can’.
• I ordered a fancy pants ergonomic keyboard. I just can’t spend hours typing on those standard things without my hands falling apart, so this ought to help me even physically make it to the finish line.

My background is programming, so I’m a bit worried about the art. I’ve watched a lot of the time lapse and seen plenty of folks spend hours and hours on the art and end up short on the code. I think I’ll probably have the opposite problem.

I wonder what percentage of first timers actually manage to finish…