I don’t have a lot of time free this weekend, so I’m doing a split Saturday + Monday 48 hour block.

I’m thinking of prototyping a game I’ve wanted to develop for a while. The basic idea is that there are a number of attractive / repulsive balls in an environment. Each surface in the environment, as well as each ball, has a polarity (somewhat like gravity, or electrostatic charge). Like states repell, opposite states attract. A ball’s polarity can be flipped by pressing a corresponding key. We can’t move the balls directly, but by altering their polarity we can push or pull them using nearby objects.

Here’s my initial screen shot

Rythm patterns recognition works! It was a lot easier than I had expected. See in screenshot:

• Patterns are described as string, for instance “1121”, where numbers from 1 to 4 mean drums 1 to 4 (and also keys 1 to 4)
• The actual rythm is given by a list of numbers, given in beats. {0,1,2,3} means that the four notes of this pattern are played on  each beat. {0, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3} is a tad more funky
• If no notes are played in the two beats following the last note, it times out and the pattern is reseted.
• After each new note, we check if the current sequence matches a pattern, and then we check that the recorded times are close enough to the wanted times. If yes, the action is launched.

Note that this implies that no pattern can be the prefix of another one, and that no note in a pattern can be equal or longer than two beats.

Pom pom pom TADA pom!

I’ve don’t written any code yet. I’ve only made some artworks. My game will probably

be a simple plateformer in the halloween theme and  will look like this:

Concept art for mini-ld 16

This is like the fourth prototype I’ve worked on so far.  Things are going slowly today for me as I have been scattered between a few ideas while I hoped for one to spark my excitement.  I think I’ve finally got an idea I’m psyched about enough that I’m doing a bare bones playable version of.  Hoping the scope is right for the time remaining.  We shall see.

Tags: constraints, prototype, wip

No pictures, because nothing visually has changed, but I’ve got a playable demo of sorts now, so there’s that. I spent a few minutes with a microphone recording some (terrible quality) sounds and playing with windows sound recorder to get the effects, as they were, correct.

Current version of the game is here: http://thedaian.dreamhosters.com/miniLD16-midway.rar

Controls are: 1 and 2 move you left and right, respectively, and 3 will give you a burst of speed in the up/down directions. Escape will close the game. Eat the smaller squares by getting on top of them (the collision code is a bit off right now, so you mostly have to get on top of the upper left corner of another square to eat it). The screen is divided into sections, and each section will either let you move up or down. You can generally tell the direction based on the movements of other squares.

A few things that need to be added
-a proper win condition. (once you get big enough, there’s some graphics problems)
-particle effects or something to indicate where the barriers between up/down are
-a limit to your boost, recharging with time (that’s the plan for the red bar on the side)

Game is written in C++/SDL, and is feasibly playable on everything, but was compiled on a Windows XP machine.

Tags: #miniLD16

For my first Ludum Dare activities, I come to `Contstraints’.  I decided to make the control scheme restriction mirror something in the real world where it makes sense to control with numbers.  Such as flame throwers.  What’s a better use of a flame thrower than carrying you aloft in a wicker basket?  Nothing, that’s what.  So now we have Pyloon, the Python Ballooning Sim.  Most of the code is working, and the art is about how good I can make it (this was actually the hardest constraint — using seven discrete colors!), so I will now focus on trying to put together music and sound.  This will be hard as I do not have a mic.

Current look below More:

So now I have little guys. They execute the orders given with the different rythms. As of now, they can march forward, retreat, cover with shields, and attack. Arrows fly, spike guys charge. Of course there’s nothing to attack, but that is just detail.

Screenshots don’t really give a good idea, without the movement or the sound. But my video capture was awful, so no joy.

And sleep, for now.

Well, after quite some time in front of my computer I finally came to a playable demo where you can drive your tank through a 9-color landscape and fire you bullets as much as you want 😀 . Actually I used an indexed-colormap in gimp to convert a baked colormap in order to fit the color-constraint.

Control:

1-Left 3-right 8-forward 9-backward 0-fire

You can start the game from the website with java-webstart. Follow this link:

http://thomas.trocha.com/games/sheriff/sheriff.html

You will need java to start the game. (Just try what happens if you press the button! If it does not work, plz tell me your configuration…)

…but if they did, they wouldn’t break (like yours is about to)

play is here!

Tags: dinosaurs

Hey, wow, I finished my game for this Ludum Dare contest.

I have to say this is probably the best game I’ve made yet in a contest. It is actually pretty fun.

The name of the game is Doomsday Eve. It is a cross between Missile Command and these Chaining games that are common on the Internet. 

I will post a full post-mortem later, but I believe this game meets all of the constraints of this contest. 

It only uses the 9 colors. It is the correct resolution. The sounds I made using the vocoder on my MicroKorg (which basically means a Microphone with processing). The music is slightly less than 24 seconds.

Actually the input category I really didn’t meet I just realized. I don’t use any keys on the keyboard actually. Just the mouse and the mouse button. Oh well, this game would not have worked well on the keyboard at all.

Anyway, there is a java applet (JRE 1.6) you can play here:

 www.DoomsdayEve.com

 Thanks and let me know if you enjoy it!

But to fully enjoy the game (and it is worth it because it’s pretty fun), I suggest you just download the jar and run it fullscreen on your computer. Again you have to have JRE 1.6 installed on your windows/max/linux computer. 

Just double-click the jar and the game should start in fullscreen mode:

 Fullscreen Download Edition

 This was also by far the easiest time I’ve had of it. I only spent about 6 hours or so making the game. I wish every contest went like this one!

Here’s an experimental piece for the Mini Ludum #16. Right now there is no actual goal, but I’m liking how bizarre its becoming. I’m only using the 9 colors available, and I’m doing a really easy overlay to make it look cool.

http://cthulhu32.kraln.com/misc/LD16/CoastalBlues.2346.swf

Controls:
1 2 3 4 – Change Sin Wave Speed
7 8 9 0 – Move X value of Sin Wave

I wanted to finally post a link to a playable prototype of my flash game in progress.

Make sure to click on the flash game window to give it focus or the keys won’t work!

It uses all 8 control keys (1,2,3,4 & 7,8,9,0) and they are currently mapped to 8 random UFO actions right now.  WHY?  Because you are playing a slacker alien that wasn’t paying attention in your UFO Academy and now it is time for your 3 minute final exam to see if you graduate.  You slacked so much you have no clue how the crazy thing operates.  You’ll have access of four directions of movement, an energy shield, a death beam, and two different particle attacks.  You must try your best to figure out how to annihilate as many humans, cars, tanks, jets, and helicopters as you can to see if you pass.

Currently using boxes for object art, no collision detections or scoring yet, and I’ve only implemented humans, cars, and helicopters behaviors.  I’m quite happy with how they are moving around though.

Tags: aliens, constraints, MiniLD, progress, ufo

Here’s a screenshot of how the game will work in general. Two players, (I could do playing against a CPU for 1 player but being a huge NOOBhole limits my time immensely) they shoot at each other. Each has an amount of health and a powerup level. Both will be shown over each player’s side (when I get around to it). Only the player whose lasers match the color of the powerup can pick it up, and the other can shoot it to kill it before the owner can grab it. I haven’t figured out just how the powerup level matters yet, whether it’ll increase your main laser somehow per level or just add to unlocking a massive one-time use attack against the other player, like a HUGE laser or a wide spread or something. Anyway, check it out, suggestions are very welcome.

While this isn’t quite finished (no music, no scoring, no title/menu, no levels, needs more game logic & eye candy), I’m impressed with the progress I made with Flixel. This is also the first time I’ve really taken the ‘graphics first’ approach, and I’m happy with the way it panned out. The mockup screenshot I made about 24 hours ago looks (almost) exactly like the game.

You can play it in it’s current incomplete state here (requires Flash).

Tags: Flixel

Here’s a screenshot of my progress so far:

Also done some music bits. Most of the time has been spent working on things behind the scenes; mostly graphics processing stuff and sound mixing.

Had to disable fullscreen mode since SDL does something weird with the audio callback there (I need that to work for audio/visual synchronization, which I definitely want to do), but otherwise it actually works now. There’s even a simple level generator (wip), so for once I’m actually going to have some levels =)

If it gets done, that is. I kinda doubt this is going to be done before the deadline. Still have to add player and enemy characters, and interaction, and lots of other stuff, and I don’t know if I can do much more today. Still want to see how the game turns out though, so I’ll probably finish it sometime regardless.

Mr. Blocky. Control the evil blocks and reach the top.

Link to LD entry (with download)

Thanks for playing, feedback is wanted

Here is the latest flash build of my game (you have to click on the game before it will have key focus)

Starting to get collisions and scoring in.  Still need to implement time over conditions and enemy ramp up at various time points.  Need to get jets and tanks in now too.  You can get points now and be killed though.  Tons of balancing will have to be done once I get all the game elements in.  Oh and also hopefully add music, sounds, and more then rectangles for all the objects too! 9 hours left…

Tags: aliens, constraints, graduation, MiniLD, prototype, ufo, wip

My first mini ludum dare game is done! It’s a simple game where you guess the object being drawn on the screen. A single-player mode is available, but the game is most fun with another person. So download the game and then grab a friend, partner, neighbour, cat or priest!

Download What the Duck?! (48kb)

What the Duck?! menu screen

Drawing is not one of my talents...

I made this:

Rolo Bloco

It’s an epic depiction of a war between two tribes of alien creatures who live in the world that doesn’t resemble our own even a bit.

One is the tribe of Rolo, benevolent round creatures that tend to bounce from everything they see in a frolicking manner.

The others, Bloco are cold-blooded hard blocky entities, that seem to be addicted to crush evertything.

Lurk into the deep, vast world of Bloco Roco, use your imagination, meet the tribes, fight and cry with them. Do not miss this ultimately epic gaming experience.

Make critical decisions, be the first to act, show no hestitation nor fear. Choose your tribe and win them a bright and colourful future!
Enjoy the real-time battling with friends and family now!
(And the price is fine too)

Send troops of your favourite side using keys
1234 - for Bloco
7890 – for Rolo

Share the fun!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 6:11 pm and is filed under MiniLD #16. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

At this point, all I’m doing is refining graphics. It is essentially done.

It’s available
Here.

Hit the jump for video.