…what more can I say. This is the second time I am participating in the 48h compo. The last competition was in the midst of my bachelor thesis, so I had to set some priorities. This time, though, nothing can interfere with Ludum Dare

My first attempt on my own was LD number 26, which resulted in a very small, very shallow and very easy adventure: Minimalist.

I encountered two main problems when creating this game:

1. I wasted too much time doing nothing.
2. I spent a huge amount of time creating some kind of framework for my game (which was nice but unnecessary).

I used Java, the Lightweight Java Game Library and Slick2D. But on top of that I created some kind of scene graph (greatly inspired by Unity I have to admit), which took a ridiculous amount of time: All in all I spent more time making the framework than creating the game itself. Which resulted in a far too short game.

The good thing is: In the meantime I put my whole work from Minimalist into something you might call a game library. Or something. If you’re interested you can find the jar file here (or check the source, which probably is of more help). I don’t assume that this could be helpful to anybody, since it’s not very well documented (at least not yet, shame on me) and could have been done better. Also, the very idea of it depending on both LWJGL and Slick2D is ridiculous.

My overall goal is to create a solid java library which I can enhance everytime I am making a game, and this is just the first version. I am planning some sort of level format, a level editor maybe, some classes for particle effects, etc etc. Many might say that there are far better solutions than my little pitiful library, and I totally agree. But it’s fun to make, and I somehow got used to Java and LWJGL.

So these are the tools I am going to use this time:

• IDE | eclipse
• Language | Java
• Framework | LWJGL, Slick2D, Lludus (my own creation)
• Graphics | GIMP
• Music, Sound effects | Cubase

I guess that’s all there is to say.

Good luck and have fun everyone!