Chicken rolls for lunch! Game is going a bit slowly, but I’m slowly checking off my list of mechanics I want available, then I’ll be able to build the game based upon what works.

I have a procedurally generated hex map. I’m not entirely sure where to go from here, though I’d like (for starters) a less organic-looking map. The plan is to drop the player into this world (cavern? déjà vu…), fill it with fog, and let them loose with limited vision range and line-of-sight. I’ve never done either of these things before, so I’m looking forward to figuring them out. Vision is easy, I think — cover the map with an additive-blended mask — but I’ve no idea how to go about implementing line-of-sight. Wish me luck

See? Hex map.

This is all in python, by the way. In case you were interested. Same basecode as before, caveat bugfixes, etc — I’m not entirely displeased with this progress, because I’ve only been awake for a few hours. Damn you, 2am compo time. Damn you.

Also, my camera is on loan for the weekend so I’m afraid I can’t participate in the great parallel foodie blog. Tragedy.

Just got base code working, with a tilemap rendered, and a water effect (basically the UVs of the water sprite changes according to wind direction, and the red and green components color are changing over time (to seem like waves are going up and down)).

Also got some reef things that will serve as boundaries and hazards… I can get any kind of density, according to the area’s ammount of water and such.

I’m going to add what will be the basis of my island building routine, which is a padding system which will see if any neighbour is of a certain type and grow around it with another type (for example, to make isolated reefs transform into barriers, or to grow sand around the island core).

First of all, though, take a look at what people’s been building and eat some of the banana bread I’ve just baked!

I’ll let the pictures (and captions) speak for themself…

food and candy

lunch

cookies!

Tags: foodphoto, progress

So my husband (JonnyD) has an important final he need to study for this weekend and can’t participate…  So I’ve decided to try quench his LD thirst and let him watch me program.  It feels like a good time to try, we just brought our computer back into usefulness (after 6 years of neglect), so I’m looking forward to testing it’s power.  My entry isn’t going to be great…  Time is going to be a big factor.  Most of the programs aren’t installed on the computer, the speakers don’t work yet, tablet’s not hooked up and it’s been a few years since I’ve made a full game, so I’m gonna be real slow.   Plus I have two kids climbing on me at any given moment.

So I’ll be using c++ with:

OpenGl

SDL (or Glut if learning that fails miserably) and SDL standard library

NFont

3Ds Max 10

Gimp/Photoshop Elements (depending on which get installed first)

I’m thinking of doing something mostly about  the feel of an environment with not much gameplay elements.  I’m mostly a graphics person anyway.  I hope I can get something good done!

Took me way too long to build and sculpt her, and there is so much left to be done but I better get back to the actual ‘game’ thing huh?

the build is after the more

[WP_UnityObject src=”http://www.sophiehoulden.com/randomstuff/ludum/mars03.unity3d” width=”560″ height=”420″/]

IF YOU WANT TO GO FAST YOU GOTTA HOLD SPACE NOW ^_^

Tags: mars, PCG, unity

The crab and rice fought bravely but in the end I am the winner.

My webcam is horrible.

OK, I’ve figured out the basics of Flash and got a title screen and basic buttons/sound playing working.

Brie, cranberry, and chicken ciabatta. Mmm.

I remembered, just before I took the first bite, that my phone is more than just a device for playing Galcon. Lunch was a pair of brie, cranberry, and chicken ciabatta sandwiches — and I moved a Hobgoblin into the fridge, so I get to follow up this foodie binge with a bit of excellent beer. Celebratory, you ask?

No, just tasty.

Progress proceeds apace: no new screenshots, because nothing new is going on in the visual department. Lots of map-related mechanics in place, though — and I’m about twelve minutes away from having walking entities in the world. All right!

Things are looking increasingly roguelike on this end, which is nice in the sense that I finally have a direction. But a bit problematic in the ever-going-to-finish department, I’m afraid…

Tags: foodphoto

Lambdas of hills and ypsilons of mountains. Basic map is generated randomly.

Tags: progress, screenshot

Progress is going well.  I have movement, lighting, and some early sound all working well.

Controls instructions and playable after the jump.

The controls are:

W and S- Forward and Backward

A / S- Tip counter-clockwise / Clockwise

Directional keys – turn and look

[WP_UnityObject src=”http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3472941/ocean.unity3d” width=”560″ height=”420″/]

I’ve made some progress. I have a little fox that walks around on a window.

Well, he glides, because I don’t have the code that animates him done yet, but still!

The only problem I’m having is that pygame locks up if I try to use Python’s exit function after pygame has registered an event. That is, unless the first event it recieves is either the close button on the window or the escape key. (Both of which, as you can probably imagine, are supposed to stop the game)

I’ll be uploading a demo to my googlecode page once I’ve gotten the thing to quit when it’s supposed to.

— Mr.Dude

First fase of area generation is done…

The system is very simple, yet effective… It creates a seed from the current position in the “area grid”, and uses that to build the area…

Areas can have between 0 and 3 islands, and they are generated by starting a “squigly” of rock (mountain). Then I grow that with layers of mountain, grass and finally sand to reach the final island. The results are pretty good for such a simple algorithm…

Next step, add the boat to the mix, with simple movement controls…

Been working pretty much nonstop (other than meals) since the beginning of the compo, and this is all I have:

A colony ship and 2 fighter escorts strike out to colonize a barren planet.

Right now I have basic unit selection and movement, as well as the resource model. I don’t yet have a way to produce more units – by right, I should be able to click on the planet and these buttons “Build Fighter” and “Build Colony Ship” would pop up. But not yet. Also, there is a nominal enemy faction but I haven’t modelled any of their ships (may just do a colour swap) and they have no AI yet.

Also, I need to implement mousewheel zooming so you can get a better look at the pretty models.

But mostly I need a miracle.

Am going to sleep now…

Tired. Sleep deprived because I had to get up early in the morning (was other stuff). Hands. shaking. Fooooooood. Spent too much time for the shitty background. Meh

Food: rice + beef. Keeps stomach full

Deep Field

Ok, so lets go with something a bit more complex than I was thinking last night. Because I had a brainwave. Oasis + Weird Worlds! Colonize your star cluster while exploring. Build a civilization in 15 minutes.

Major actions: Colonize solar systems, explore and collect artifacts or scientific knowledge. Almost every action gives points and also improves your abilities. You have a limited amount of time. Might make so that there are different size clusters, but probably it’ll just be set at a number of turns that will make the game last ~ 15 minutes. The game makes you more powerful on an exponential curve. Definitely a lot of luck involved. Wonder if I should add leaderboards…

Major components:

Exploration screen – On this screen the player uses the mouse to designate new star systems for his ship to travel to. This is also the screen where he decides to activate actions like colonizing a star system, exploring, or harvesting resources.

Exploring: Will allow you to collect alien artifacts, catalogue scientific advances, etc. These will all give points, and some may also improve your ships’ capabilities.

Harvesting Resources: Play a minigame where you fly your ship into a dangerous situation. Resources are used to colonize systems.

Colonizing: Colonize a solar system. It will grow over time, trade with neighbors, and research. Trade/Growth give points, research improves your ship’s abilities.

Minigames: (Minigames will be VERY fast. Like Wario Ware fast. 20 seconds as an absolute maximum.)

Sun Diver – In the sun diver minigame, the player uses the mouse to control his ship as it collects plasma from the sun. This minigame will give you energy.

Mining Asteroids – In this minigame, the player uses the mouse to control his ship to move to specific asteroids in an asteroid field and harvest them. Gives minerals.

Mining Gas Giants – In this minigame, the player controls his ship as it drops down to a gas giant and shoots a pipe into it to suck up gasses. Gives gas.

Colonize – In this minigame, the player controls his ship as it lands on the planet and drops off the colonization materials.

Losing minigames will waste time and resources, but will never kill you or anything.

Building your civilization.

Star systems are colonized by spending a certain amount of resources, depending on what type of system it is. Each will require energy, gas, and minerals, but different ones will require different amounts.

Once a system is colonized, it starts generating points. If systems are close enough together, they’ll connect with trade routes. Trade routes increase point generation. Systems will also research, which will increase your ships’ abilities.

Stuff to do:

– Get new version of flixel running (maybe it was a bad idea to go with a new version…)

– Make exploration screen. Make ship that can be moved around by clicking on stuff with mouse. Build basic events that it can run when you reach places.

– Build progression for civilization a la star systems that grow and trade.

– Build sun diver minigame.

– Build asteroid harvester minigame.

– Build gas giant harvester minigame.

– Hook in upgradeable stuff – speed, strength, etc.

– Come up with research and artifacts that improve your ships’ abilities.

– Graphics whenever you need them, unless you use square placeholders. NEVER actually draw something with the purpose of being placeholder. It’ll stay.

– Sound

– Music if you have time. Prolly not though.

Yes, the most incredible graphics you will ever lay eyes on are right here.

All the time up until now I had no Idea what to do, the theme was nothing I’ve tackled before, I even was gonna call it quits since nothing came to my mind, but people on IRC were supportive enough to convince me not to.
Still, 6 hours of work did nothing to me, only as I sad back and made a quick back for my game an Idea sparked.

I’m gonna make a game about just getting out there and having fun, enjoying the marvel of nature, and discovering far more than you’d want to.
An exploration side view platformer.

~Spliter

I have my first demo ready! It’s not much, but it’s something!

Pick up a copy here, if you like!

The error I was having earlier seemed to be with the mixer. Apparently, I was giving the mixer too small of a buffer. Mrf.

—Mr.Dude