{"author_name":"magneus","cat":"LD #18 - Enemies as Weapons - 2010","comments":[{"author_name":"pubby8","time":"August 21, 2010 1:48 pm","epoch":1282416480,"text":"I am unfamiliar with ludum dare.","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1282415700,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"69747","p_author":"magneus","p_authorkey":"2624","p_urlkey":"105552","p_title":"Ludum Dare \u2013 Breaking Ground","p_cat":"LD #18 - Enemies as Weapons - 2010","p_event":"LD18","p_time":"1282415700","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"1","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"2624","us_name":"magneus","us_username":"magneus","event_start":"1282262400","event_key":"4","event_name":"LD18"},"text":"
For those of you unfamiliar with Ludum Dare<\/a>, it’s a 48-hour game development competition. This is
the 18th event, and it began last night at 10PM. Check them out.\n

Sadly, this week isn’t optimal for me, since I’m haggard from a poor
sleep cycle and overwork. The new iPad gig has been much more
responsibility than I anticipated.\n

My devotion to duty won out. Ludum Dare only comes three times a year.
I’ve missed the last two. I couldn’t allow that to happen again. I’ve
never written a game before and I love the insanity of putting
together something on such a tight time frame.\n

After the starting gun, I spent last night mainly brainstorming and
doodling, after the announcement of the theme “Enemies as Weapons.”
I’m putting together something akin to Bomberman meets Super Mario 2.
But it’s a little more complicated than that. More on that later.\n

I’m targeting HTML5 and the canvas element. The prospect of having a
game run on virtually every modern platform (including iOS, Android,
WebOS), universally available through the Internet really spoke to me.
Native code tends to be very tricky to distribute and support. I’m not
a big fan of Adobe Flash, otherwise that would be a natural option.
It’s refreshing to have a new option in the form of HTML5 and canvas.\n

Javascript is the language of the web browser, and as such, I have no
choice but to use it. Javascript is an interesting language with a
colorful history. Some hate it, others love it. It’s been referred to
as “The World’s most misunderstood programming language.” Short
version: it was put together on a short time frame at Netscape. It was
not meant to get so big so quickly. It did. (There are some awesome,
redeeming features in the language, but most people don’t like to talk
about them.)\n

Recap of the difficulties: I’ve never written anything of note in
Javascript. I’ve never really worked with HTML5. I’ve never written a
game before. I’m still exhausted, even after a full night’s sleep. It
will be a fun weekend. Luckily, I’m a bit of a masochist.\n

To make my life easier, I sought some help.\n

To guide my hand as I use Javascript in a major project for the first
time, I have a copy of Javascript guru Douglas Crockford’s JavaScript: The Good Parts<\/a>\"\". The book is actually quite small (which
tells you something about the language :), and it came highly
recommend. I’m about halfway through. I’ll let you know how it is once
I’m done.\n

I also stumbled across the Akihabara library<\/a>, which seems to be a very well-put-together
piece of software. Check out some of the samples on the website to get
a feel for how nifty it is. I thought that Solitude<\/em> was
particularly awesome. Hopefully this will save me some grief in
putting together my game.\n

Did I mention I have to make artwork and sound, too?\n

Wish me luck.<\/div>","time":"August 21st, 2010 1:35 pm","title":"Ludum Dare \u2013 Breaking Ground"}