{"author_name":"mklee","cat":"LD #15 - Caverns - 2009","comments":[],"epoch":1251683220,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"72565","p_author":"mklee","p_authorkey":"781","p_urlkey":"108387","p_title":"Falling further and further down the rabbit hole","p_cat":"LD #15 - Caverns - 2009","p_event":"LD15","p_time":"1251683220","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"781","us_name":"mklee","us_username":"mklee","event_start":"1251417600","event_key":"1","event_name":"LD15"},"text":"<p><img alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/ludoko.com\/games\/intothepit\/pr.jpg\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"360\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n <p>So I&#8217;m pretty happy to finally post my first ever completed entry for Ludum Dare. <strong>Check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/ludum-dare-15\/?action=preview&amp;uid=781\">Into the Pit: The Endless Caverns<\/a> here!<\/strong><\/p>\n <p>It&#8217;s a game heavily-inspired\/influenced\/ripped off from level 2 of Battletoads for the NES (which was one of the more sane levels in that game). You basically go around avoiding spikes\/traps and killing bats with a simple dash attack. Like Battletoads you can juggle the bats for extra points and to regain health. The game goes on forever until you die. Right now there&#8217;s plenty of chance of that due to the lack of end stage balancing since I ran out of time near the end and wanted to get things like menus done.<\/p>\n <p>This time around my goal was over the first 24 hours to come up with a fully-playable prototype and to spend the last 24 hours adding graphics, audio, and polish. Surprisingly enough that actually held true for the most part. I managed to come up with the basic game late last night and I spend most of today on things like finer gameplay details and working on sprites and sounds. You may notice my explorer sprite is a little too close to comfort to a certain famous indie game character. Forgive me for that, I really suck at pixel art and being derivative was the best I could do.<\/p>\n <p>One thing I&#8217;m actually really pleased with is how at the very end (literally the last 2 hours) a more ominous feel entered into the game. On a whim I added in some rumbling sounds that I looped continuously on the menu screen. Combined with screen shaking I really dug the &#8220;collapsing cavern&#8221; atmosphere that was being generated so I ran with that. If I had a little more time I would have liked to have added touches like falling debris and other signs of collapse.<\/p>\n <p>Regardless I hope people enjoy it. Have fun and feel free to criticize and comment.<\/p>\n <p>Note: It was made using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flixel.org\/\">Flixel<\/a> which I understand is perfectly fine for this competition. And I can safely say that without Flixel there&#8217;s no chance in hell I would have had anything completed.<\/p>","time":"August 30th, 2009 8:47 pm","title":"Falling further and further down the rabbit hole"}