Well, almost three hours after start, ive made some good progress with my game:

Its a weird mix of a platformer and an arena shooter.. well see how the idea turns out.. The style, as some of you might notice, is a bit inspired in FlashPunk (even if the game itself is made with GameMaker).
The gameplay is not even close of being done, only the platform engine, and a bit of a preview of the enemies.

im going to bead im tired and i need to sleep on the idea i have 😀
g-night every one!

This time, I decided to start with the title screen! No, the title isn’t final. :p
Well I’ve decided to only use up to three colors per graphic, so this is what the game will look like all the way through. I’ll make it look better tomorrow, hopefully.

Tags: friday, title screen

It’s only 1 AM, but having never programmed a basic platformer before, my meager attempt to get jumping has failed miserably for the past 2 hours or so. I should probably finalize an idea first. All of them are probably unoriginal, though I have a few scenarios I think are interesting. I think that’s what I’ll do. I keep of thinking of ideas and then settle on making the game on the most interesting one, not necessarily the one I think I can get done on time. How else am I supposed to improve if I don’t push myself? For, now, G’night!

Awoke at 3.10am GMT (BST).

Perfect, as the compo had started but 10 minutes ago!

The theme: ENEMIES AS WEAPONS! Not my personal choice but..

I decided on a platformer. A no-ladders type of tile-based engine.

After a nice conversation with someone from #ludumdare, I decided the end-of-level aim is to get to from start point to a door. And something about (maybe) background interaction.

So setting is in the desert perhaps.. inside of large “ruined” structures, which would account for complex/strange levels. Fixed screen.. will save time on having to set up a scroll, etc.

I’ve designed the enemy sprite.. which you get to incapacitate, then pick up. You can throw the enemies at other enemies, which will make possible taking out more than one at a time.

If I sound vague, I’m actually hiding the main “secret” of game-play for now. Sure, I haven’t started coding yet. Was too busy faffing around looking for people to “jam” with.

Anyway time for some breakfast and then we are all GO!

Here’s the player playing gm-prac01.vgm and *looping* it.

http://pubacc.wilcox-tech.com/~greaser/stuff/ld18/gm-d001.jar

Now I need to get VDP emulation working.

Putting the finishing touches on the intro, in which you:
A.) “Talk” to god
B.) Watch a cruise ship get destroyed by a gigantic tentacle

First Demo Screenshot

So I’ve got the player movement down (WASD and MOUSE), and a stationary enemy that randomly shoots at you. Left clicking lets the player boost temporarily and creates a ghost trail that changes the direction of bullets that pass through it to the direction of the player. So basically you are invincible and can manipulate bullets when boosting, but are vulnerable when in normal mode. I think I’ll include a simple level up system to increase the size and length of the ghost boost as you progress. Gotta fix my wall collisions first though…

Tags: juhkystar

After thinking long and hard, I got an idea which should be fun, complicated, and sure to never be done in time! The reason I say this is it’s because it’s a fighting game, which includes a lot of animation, different characters, stages, and complicated computer AI. I decided to go with a somewhat sloppy old-school art style, which hopefully and up looking both good and not take much time to create. Screenshot for the curious:

Progress

Development is coming along at a speedy rate, what you can see here at the moment is a nearly complete assault system with those little robots quickly spawning only to blow up on the defenses, depleting the top bar.

Yummy cereal + chocomilk

I’ve been brainstorming ideas for the first 3.5 hours.  I decided to go with Idea #3 (Mind Control).

Basic game will be a top-down arena shooter.  Player can mind control one nearby enemy at a time, but the catch is that the player can’t move while doing mind control.  Will hopefully make for some interesting hit-and-run gameplay.

Tags: journal

I’m a bit late with the intent declaration, but meh, I’m late with the start, too.

I have to run a zillion errands tomorrow, so at least some of the work will be done on this:

As for the theme, I was hoping for double rainbow zombies, but I do have some ideas for using enemies as weapons. I’m planning to work until 4:30 (GMT-8), we’ll see how that goes…

Tags: desk

So, I’ve noticed you can bump up your devspeed if you do one thing at the time. For example.

1) Figure out your general idea
2) Try to make most of your sprites
3) Start on your gamelogic

Instead of:

1) Figure out your general idea
2) Make one sprite
3) Code the gamelogic for that sprite
4) Goto #2

This is also true with sounds, try to do/generate them all at one point instead of constantly switching between your code, your sprite editor and your sound software.

And here’s my first screenshot:

I spent a terrifyingly long time doing basic systems stuff, but finally I’m starting to make tangible progress. Currently there are a movable player and a camera which tracks said player. There are also a set of entities scattered around the landscape. These entities are patiently waiting until they gain the ability to meander about under their own steam.

Since ippa mentioned it, here is the flow I am following

1) Figure out your general idea
2) Try to make most of your sprites
3) Start on your gamelogic

I have the idea worked out, I have all my sprites worked out and the rest of the “art” can be done in code and hopefully I will be on game logic very soon, just have some stuff to think about before hand

Good luck to everyone!

its fun what you can do with 3 rounded rectangles, 1 ellipse and 4 calligraphy strokes in inkscape, add a little bump map in the gimp and BAM decent looking critter

Tags: progress

I have a basic tile editor, tile drawing, character walking about and a 4 direction walk cycle.

Probably the worst walkcycle I’ve ever drawn but whatever.

I’ve got some ideas coming together of specific mechanics I want to play with. My inclination is to wrap those in an action/platformer game, but platformer engines with good solid physics are kind of a pain to write. Maybe it’ll turn into more of a beat-em-up.

This is my first playable prototype. This represents a little under four hours of work in Flash.

Try to draw the enemy orange spikes and red seeker boxes into the yellow circles for points by using your pink pentagon to lure the enemy in. If you hit the enemies you lose points. Basic proof of concept at this point is finished.

It is 2am here and I think I’m quite happy with what I’ve got down for the first evening to sleep on. I’ll be meeting up with 3 other LDers tomorrow over in Portsmouth New Hampshire to continue the game dev in the fun company of others. Sleep now!

Tags: firstday, flash, friday, playable, prototype, screenshot

Well… I’ve got a concept.  Basic game logic is under-way.  Plan is to develop a fully functional game before working on graphics and audio.

Right now I’m just posting bare source.  Binaries will come tomorrow.

http://github.com/acdimalev/acdimalev-competition-ludumdare18

I don’t know why I am tired, but it gets bloody hot in the morning out here, so I guess it is really for the best.  Catch you all in five hours!