So, about a week or so ago, I left my computer to go eat lunch. Computer enters screensaver, I eat lunch, and I come back down, just in time to see my monitor completely frozen, with random dots appearing and flashing about near the top of my screen. Nothing was responding, so I did a force-restart so I could log on again.

Then, I did the same thing. Same things happens, but every once in a while it would also flash the whole computer a random color, usually a primary color, or any other combination of the 3 (red, green, blue).

The issue hasn’t resolved itself, unfortunately. I found out that it also does it whenever I try and run a video on iTunes, or use Hammer, except it automatically resets after a few minutes.

This is quite frustrating, seeing as I was going to try and use Unity for my contest entry, and how Unity, along with the other mentioned programs, would require quite a bit of “hardcore” rendering (my screensaver was 3D pipes, so maybe it has to do with 3D rendering).

Of course, it could all be for the better: I suck at Javascript, and I’m only getting 24 hours to work on it, not including various interuptions like sleep, food, and life in general, so working with what I’m used to (GameMaker) would probably be a good idea.

Anyhow, maybe next time I’ll use Unity (and fail :P).

EDIT: Just realised this means no Garrysmod.

D****t.

I mean, I kind of like it, but...

Tags: motivation

I’m ready to make some guesses plans about my game.

I’m going to try to make a super-simple Roguelike. I will use Python so that I have access to Tkinter, and also so that development goes reasonably quickly.

The dungeon will be randomly created, as is typical with the genre. The AI will be really simple due to time restraints.

I’ll figure the rest out when the theme is announced.

I’m looking forward to this. It’ll be nice to be able to participate in another compo.

Oh, NiallM, you have no idea how right you were.

Tags: motivation

I’m up and running for the LD this weekend. I’m going to use HaXe with FlashDevelop. I might also use Flixel but I will decide that later.

Cloud Game warmup mostly done.   You shoot the clouds.   I didn’t really have an idea, I just started coding..

I was going to do something where you were the God of REAL Twilight fans, and you had to make clouds to shield your followers from the sunlight…. But it seemed a but too involved.

Tags: clouds, warmup, xna

So I think I’ll finally get around to “competing” in one of these fancy pants competition doodads, rather than just enjoying the fruits of it. I’ve had very little sleep during the past couple of days due to a caffeine-fuelled three day lan party, but I think I can sustain myself for another 48h with some power naps and the like.

I think I’ll try to make a Flash game using haxe. My only real experience with this kind of thing is a couple of classic game clones (e.g. tetris, space invaders) so I’ll try to keep things pretty basic. I have a bit of an idea in mind anyway, just kind of hope the theme fits it.

As for graphics and sounds. I have Photoshop and a guitar and I’m not afraid to use them. Though when I do other people seem to be afraid of me…

So yeah, I suggested 3 themes for LD16.  I ‘accidentally’ suggested POWER OUTAGE CALAMITY in a comment on the main news page. I don’t count that one, because I never actually added it to the Wiki myself. It just kind of ended up there somehow.  I suggested UNWANTED POWERS which came out on top in the first round, which is pretty rad.

However… my favorite suggestion didn’t make the cut, and I can only weep for what could’ve been.

RIP, best theme ever.

(doubles as my workspace photo post. so ha!)

Tags: deskphoto, intuos, starman, wacom

Gonna pygame it up a notch. Plan to try testing out a ‘pygame_distribute’ prototype… to make generating pygame executables much easier.  Apart from that, there’s definitely going to be some particles.

Particles for the win! (PFTW)

‘Gentlemen start your engines’

So I’ve finished the improvements to Booon, the add-on library/mini-engine I’ve been using (thin layer on top of XNA). This version adds state control, simple collision detection, and improved audio support (with easy positional audio). The full source and example program are available from my compo site.

http://sites.google.com/site/haitaka/ludumdare16

Tags: tools, xna

Gawker for the mac is a nice free app for recording timelapse videos. It will record screenshots every X seconds, and then compile them into a MOV file.  I’m doing a test over several hours at the moment, but I think it will be fine.

Hey all! I plan on taking part using Torque3D. This is the first Ludum Dare I will have taken part in so it will be fun trying to keep up with the pace.

I’ve been following Ludum Dare for a couple years I guess, and now I’ve finally gotten an opportunity to participate! No more exams means that this time of year is available to throw down a weekend.

I plan on either using XNA or Flixel. I’m pretty good at either. We shall see.

I would prefer to do it in XNA, I have the most experience in it, but I worry that people won’t have the desire to make their computer XNA playable. Am I worrying too much?

I would like to make a time lapse video, but I don’t know which software is the best for windows.
I am excited!

I cleaned up my workspace in preparations for LD. If you think It’s a mess, you should have seen it before. 😀

Actually I should have posted a before and after image. I guess now all I can do is post a pre-compo and post-compo image of the desk. Should a good enough shocker as well.

Tags: messy, workspace

This was engraved above an ancient game of tic-tac-toe.

You are challenged to continue the tradition!

Well I have everything ready. A large supply of freshly squeezed orange juice, hypercam (which hopefully won’t destroy my processor), a baseball cap with a number 1 on it and a comfy, spinny chair.

This is my first time entering and it’s so exciting! I’m going to use game maker (since I haven’t got enough skill in c++ to produce something remotely presentable in 48 hours)  and if I have enough time, I’ll be able to create some nice music for the game on my keyboard.

Good luck to everyone participating!

I’m terrible when it comes to game making. But that doesn’t hinder me to join up anyway!

So. Here we… wait for the theme.

Hi everyone, I’m Sebastian, from argentina and this is my first LD ever 😛

I’m going to program my game with python + pygame and try to make it work in windows with py2exe…

I really have no experience in game programming so lets hope for the best 😛 (and hope that the theme is not twilight fandom too :P)