Had a little list of stuff i needed to get ready before the weekend. Didn’t get to most of it but that’s ok…

I’ve got an older post about tips for LD48 Survival that I think is mostly still true. I’ve changed my option about 2D vs. 3D, I think the real key is to let your gameplay dictate 2D vs. 3D, not your tools or engine. I made plenty of LD games (like Glacier and Crossroads) that would have worked better as 2D, but I’ve made others (like the long lost TIE) that made good use of it. If you’re going 3D, don’t make a 2D board with a little bit of perspective, use that 3D for all it’s worth.

The one thing I did set up was my music kit. The iPhone is a fantastic music instrument with apps like DopplerPad, ThumbJam (is the bomb), EyDy Looper, etc.. I’ll use that along with my guitar, and trusty old Adrenaline effect processor, and other random noisemaking techniques. I’ll assemble it all with an older version of n-Track because I haven’t upgraded it in half a decade but it still works. I might throw in some Milkytracker if the style demands it. I’m a terrible musician but I have fun with it, so your ears can look forward to suffering at my expense. I’ve always run out of time to make music/sound for my game, this time I’m going to make it a priority.

This time, I picked 3 unusual goals (“finish a game” is sort of implied here) to push myself a little bit:

• Have music/sound for the game.
• Do something unusual with the setting (i.e. no dungeons, zombies, spaceships or other familiar tropes)
• Establish a distinct and personal visual style

The nice thing about these goals, other than the music, is that they are more about the decision making rather than adding work. We’ll see how it goes.

Looking forward to this a lot. I think every one of the themes on the final list would make for an awesome contest.

And for the record, the tools I’ll be using will be SDL, OpenGL, Pro-Motion, Photoshop, OGMO or TileStudio, Blender if 3D, maybe other stuff.

Good luck everybody!