Even if I like the theme, I lost too much time to build the platform engine and I don’t think I will be able to finish with only 12h left… Here’s what I did until now.

Just randomly generated music by playing around in Wolfram Tones (http://tones.wolfram.com/) until I got something suitable.

Fed the generated midi through GXSCC (http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-SanJose/8700/P/GsorigE.htm) to export a wave with a more retro feel instead of ear shattering 1995 midi.

Used Audacity to encode .wav into a .ogg.

The Result:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2797357/music_slow.ogg

Wow! easy random filler music!

Now to hook up some SDL_mixer or some such so it can be heard in-game.

Haven’t been keeping up with updates as much as I should, so here’s a bit of concept I have on hand after my miserable failure of my first creation. Things are going well, just need to refine what I’ve got a bit before I forget and get lumped with too many things.

Ain’t he darlin’?

Curse you sleep, why must you be so addictive?

Anyway, with only 17 hours left, I have what looks like a happily very undeveloped game. After 31 hours, I have:

• An engine, which works nicely, has all the features I want in, and makes adding new enemies, weapons and levels a breeze.
• 3 enemies
• 2 weapons (owch)
• Some graphics which are probably the best I’ve ever made for a game

Still left to do:

• 3 more enemies
• MOAR GUNS!!!!11!!
• Sounds ‘n’ music (I have the music for the game stuck in my head, and I haven’t even started recording yet :P)
• Menus, different levels

It’s gonna be close.

Okay, so progress is going slow, and I’m a bit sleepy. I implemented basic movement and rain particle system in my game. Getting animations to work in FlashPunk was sort of a pain at first, because I hadn’t realized I needed fractional animation framerate to get things to display at a reasonable speed. But it makes sense.

And played around with emitters to make the rain system. It also occasionally flashes lightning on random intervals. It was pretty fun.

But yeah, I think I might do a bit more setup work for the game’s engine, and call it a night. I’m getting sort of exhausted.

I overslept and lost 3 more hours than I wanted and now there are only 18 hours left. Some time will be cut here and there and I’ll be able to get out of 18 horus as much as possible. So, let’s look at the TO-DO-PLAN:

– Flame system (where fire grow larger when you pick coal and vice versa)
– Lightning
– Character animations
– Twisted beigns of the crypts
– Some additional mechanics for the gameplay
– Maps
– Dialog sequences
– Main menu
– If I’ll have some extra time then polishing comes at the end

That’s it, lots of stuff and only 18 hours. Let’s get to work gang! 😀

Tags: plan

And there’s 17 hours to go. Oh dear.

Here’s the list of stuff I need to do left and to be tackled in this order:

1. Implement gradual damage that slowly heals so death isn’t so abrupt.
2. Add elevators.
3. Tweak partner flight-path.
4. Implement one-way platforms that damage you if you walk the wrong way.
5. Add spawn points.
6. Add simple enemies. Ground based and air based should be fine.
7. Remove unfun elements like long drops if you fudge a jump.
8. Add quips and quip triggers.
9. Add cutscenes and dialogue boxes.
10. Add a better UI that indicates status of buddy and player health.
11. All graphical assets. (aaaaaa)
12. All sounds.
13. A piece of music.
14. Add a boss fight, time permitting.

Expect items to be cut from this list as time goes on.

It’s the morning of the second day so I’ve got 17 straight hours to finish this thing (at 3am local time). It feels like I don’t have nearly as much done as I’d hoped.

Done:

• Skeleton menus
• Player movement
• Npcs
• Conversations
• Companion code
• Rooms

Obviously all of those aren’t final, but it’s a decent start I guess. On the todo list is:

• 4 different enemies
• 3 different companions
• 3 different companion effects
• Healing and dying
• Room props
• Design world

That’s quite a lot to be getting on with. Best get going!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I really pulled all my weight this time; The game has 7 tracks made with pxtone, which is a first for any game I’ve made ever. SO YEAH, I’m happy.

Now … time to relax.

I can display (The first layer) of my dynamically/procedurally-generated level maps!  Still no collision detection going on… and I don’t have the art yet for the things to collide with anyway!  And the screen isn’t scrolling… but all of that feels very close now!  This was really the big step (I hope?)

I’m actually really impressed with how nice the terrain looks!  I had no way of knowing how it would look ahead of time, but the results are much better than I ever expected!  See for yourself!

Tags: LD #20 - It's Dangerous to go Alone! Take This!, pygame, python, screenshot

actually,i planned to got to bed at 2, and continue a few hours later. bam. overslept of course :/

this is my breakfast/lunch/don’t care. omelette and a mix of chili

creating levels for now

And by basic, I mean very basic.  I’ve had a pretty productive day, though I really thought I would be much further along by this point.

The concept is an arena shooter meets zelda-esq adventure, with a Sci-Fi setting.  I have the basics of the game mechanics built, but that’s about it.  It’s almost all squares and flixel default graphics currently.

Click here to play the prototype.

It’s bed time.  There is lots to do tomorrow.

• Multiple level support
• Dialog interface
• Upgrades and items
• Art
• Story
• Sound
• and much more…

We will see how far I get.

About 2:10am and I am wide awake, but having trouble focusing attention on important tasks, like adding more to the game. Once a game is working the temptation to tune it becomes overwhelming… arrrrgg…

Mmm, at least I can have some Coke + Vanilla Ice Cream in the mean time.

awaiting sugar buzz

The simplest demonstration of how viewing the alternate dimension can alter the environment. Those stairs don’t exist without that window (and that pillar still exists without it).

Two builder are in an empty level (1 inlet and outlet), each can be directed to move and build pipes the force the liquids from A to B.

The actual connecting of the built pipes is still rubbish and the interface is way too clicky, but in terms of the Alone side, its fundementally working, just needs puzzles and things to do.

Better piping, more intuitive ways of building the pipes is my next big thing, then a real puzzle level, then I’ll start on the Take This mechanic.

Eventually, I managed to photoshop something which fits my idea.

Weapon dispenser

Now I “just” have to finish the game, I guess. ^_^’

Early art work. This is almost enough for me to start programming with. I have the explosion animation done as well but need a snake and a badger. So far everything is going pretty fast considering I have not used tho wacom at a desktop in a while as I had to reconfigure the tablet properties haha.

Current Check List:

• Art
  • Building
    • Damage
    • Death
  • Guy
    • Fire
    • Death: Fall
    • Move
    • Reload
  • Badger
    • Move
    • Death: Fall
    • Death: Explosion
• Sound
  • Explosion
  • Shooting
  • Building DMG
  • Repair
  • Beaver Spawn
  • Beaver Death
  • Snake Spawn
  • Music Loop
• Programming
  • Instantize MNS Framework
  • Movement
    • Badger
    • Guy
    • Snake
  • Shooting
    • Ammo
  • Collision
  • Point system

So I got to the second day and a working piece of “thing” but it looks like I’m going to be unable to finish. Many real life issues have arisen (mainly focused around the proximity of exams) and I feel it’s probably best for my future If I spend this time focusing on those. It was fun for the time I was competing but I guess I couldn’t keep that part of my brain telling me to go study looked away.

Good luck to everyone else who is competing!

(click to download current binary build in a zip; windows only, sorry linux/mac guys)

Technical hurdles are cleared, from here it’s mostly content, just need to sketch out some levels, make some sounds, and title/credits screens. If I have time after that, I may add music and an intro cutscene, then it’s just more levels.

Ok, I’m awake! It’s probably about time I wrote an update. I’ve ended up making a rope-swinging game, where the rope is the “take this” object. I spent a fair chunk of yesterday getting the rope functionality in, so unfortunately the rest of the game’s progress is lagging a bit… hopefully I can fix that today.

Some things that currently work:

• Death, when you fall into lava
• A few sound fx
• Bubbly lava particles
• The rope can only be thrown at the light-coloured blocks

My current to-do list:

• New player sprite, with animations
• Enemies
• Intro sequence, to tie in the theme
• Traps
• Different types of blocks (?)

Ok, back to work!