The game is now quite playable, with graphics, teams, an HUD and sounds. The main problem is that you still can’t die!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16895250/miniLD28/dinner%2030%20july.swf

I’m doing some progress on my little game for this MiniLD. The game is still a little bit rough around the edges, and there isn’t much gameplay there yet. You can try the game as it currently stands here:

http://www.vangen.org/javascript/global-warfare-compo/

I will work more on it tomorrow, adding some polish and sound effects. I would also like to add more gameplay elements into the game, but I don’t think I will get the time to do that within the timeframe of this competition. What this game needs is more weapon types and a research tree in order to give it a bit of tactical gameplay.

Quick update the ship is now a submarine after I added a Capsule shape and scaled it.  It has basic movemnt but trying to give it some floating bouyancy like physics.

Time for Tea!

Getting tired, have been working on this since morning (It’s 9:30pm here). I don’t think I can do much anymore today, but at least I’ve got the basic framework there and most of the gameplay elements too. So I’d call it a semi-success. Tomorrow is all about adding graphics, sounds and polishing it up.

Screenshot (not much to look at currently though :)):

Basic sub movement working with ‘bouyancy’ and fixed the problem of roll with a spring physics joint!  Not really great looking but prevents the sub from rolling over if you bump it into islands!

Progress Update…

Phase 1 – Mechanics and Gameplay – First 24 hours

1. Landscape Sea and Islands [Done 16:40]

Tea Break

2. Sub Movable [Done 19:45]
3. Marine Moving
4. Robots Moving
5. Shooting / Damage
6. Hubs / Decoding
7. Energy / Resources / Unlocks

Next up marine – may resemble green capsule!

Tags: unity

Decided at around 1pm today to do an entry for the mini! I have been meaning to make a version of rampart for iphone since a friend told me that my last LD reminded him of that game. So, I started on that, and then just went to a bbq for like 5 hours. While there I realized I would rather make crossfire for iphone, so now I am doing that!

Ha! If anything comes out of this, it will be amazing!

So, I’m going to join in on the MiniLD. I’ve been trying to brainstorm ideas and do a little art before the ‘Offical’ Start date but that’s it. Now I woke up to late, spent to much time doing other things and I’m not sure how much time I’m going to have. Yep, everything is off to a wonderful start. As for my tools.

Flashpunk and Actionscript 3
FlashDevelop
SFXR
Photoshop or Something for art (Not sure)

I have an idea, but I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to bring it to life. Wish me luck, and Good Luck to you!

Looks like I am really out of practice. Some bug stopped my progress for like 1.5 hours. All the bullets just wanted to fly the same direction. Finally I found the issue and now it looks as intended. But still I’m not beyond some demo state. Probably I should quit for today after over 15 hours being awake with a lot of coding (I know… I’m getting old).

Oh man, I just thought of a great variation for my idea, but I don’t think I have time to implement it. For now I think it’s best to stick to the plan. I thought of it because as part of the design, I made the game load in the formations from image files:

You can see in the top all of the image files which present the selectable unit formations. What would be cool is, if you had to create new formations during gameplay, where instead of me predefining them, the game is about finding a set of formations, or a single formation, that allows your units to beat the level. Anyway, I’ll see what happens when I add enemies.

Yep, I am following my old ways – implement just enough of a shell to provide the programmer in me lots of things to tinker with, and then delay adding the actual game by tinkering into eternity.

Finally made a google code project for it: http://code.google.com/p/mini-ld-28-unitformations/

ToDo:

* force self to make gameplay

* force self to make gameplay fun

* ???

* profit

The Sub can now launch Missiles and Marines in a forward direction fixed angle, but the Marines which were supposed to use the same control mechanic as the sub are going to take a little bit of work, they keep falling down and rolling about!

Small steps!

Tags: unity

I got some box2d going on, got a graphics pallete picked out, now just need to make the rest of the game!

One unfortunate thing (for LD) is that y’all won’t be able to play this, but I am going to try my best to get it ready for app store submission by compo end.

Oh, I guess I should also mention that I am using ofxBlud, my lua framework that I started building for LD19. To get it working you will also need openframeworks. HAHA! I AM THE WORST LD’R EVAR!

Woah, this weekend is full of things to do. I’ll try to make something playable this night, because war is such an inspiring theme that I’ve already come up with a few ideas, only a few minutes after having read the theme !

See you all on IRC (although it might not be such a good idea if I want to make something before the deadline 😛 ) !

Progress Update…

Swimming moving Marine (green blob) next to Submarine (black blob)!

Started –  15:41 UK 30/07/2011.

Phase 1 – Mechanics and Gameplay – First 24 hours

1. Landscape Sea and Islands [Done 16:40] 1 hour in

Tea Break

2. Sub Movable [Done 19:45] 4 hours in
3. Marine Moving  [Done 22:48] 7 hours in
4.  Turning Turrets and Moving Robots [Paused for sleep at 23:59 –  8 hours in]
5. Shooting / Damage
6. Hubs / Decoding
7. Energy / Resources / Unlocks

Next on the list is Robots and Turrets!

Tags: unity

I’m tired, sleepy and half-naked in the dark, so I guess I should call it a night, I’ve got the basic movement and gamplay done, tomorrow should be more than enough to get the other things done, hopefully.

Done:

– Navigation System
– Waypoints
– little dudes Animation
– Score
– Programmer art…etc

To Do:

– Units Attack System
– Add other units
– Improve Graphics
– SFX/Music
– Levels variation/progress..blah blah

I didn’t really have a goal set yesterday. I had a few ideas, but nothing concrete. Last night, an hour or two before I went to bed (which was about 2 hours before it started), I decided to create some sort of hacking game where you and a team of people have to achieve a specific end goal for your country before you hit a specific deadline or else. So a cyber war, basically. It would be a bit like uplink, but also quite different. I have a bunch of ideas for the end result, including a realtime office mode, multiple ways of dealing with things, and an interactive world where you are not alone. Lots of stuff, too much for one weekend, but it was fun to think about. Whether it’ll be fun to play, I don’t know, but still.

So today I worked on it for a bit. I’m creating it in WPF (which is .NET), because it’s GUI heavy and I know it well enough to get something done in it. I have a bunch of stuff done, but still a lot to do for it to be a proper game. I’ve created a nice little world, one which is filled with about 20.000 people (each with a name and email address, most with a job in the game world), a few hundred companies (with employees, admins and CEOs), each with one of a dozen server software packages for their websites, each with a dozen possible different versions. All of it randomly generated from lists of names. And you can bypass login screens of email services if they have crap security and you select the right options in the comboboxes, but that’s it.

I still need to do many things. For starters, it needs a goal. I also have to make the websites (they’re just empty templates, but I have to create the templates), some data to gather and abuse (like email addresses, source code, etc), create viruses and worms (to use on the email addresses), make hacking risky, simulate latency (if you want 7 proxies, go ahead, but don’t complain that it takes a minute to load a page), useful teammates, some sort of money system, digital (black) markets, botnets, more ways to hack, news, a living world, and lots of other things. Way too much for one weekend. But we’ll see how far I can get, and after it’s over I’ll decide if it’s worth continuing. 😀

The title says it all… or maybe not. Let me explain the basics of what I’m gonna work on: you have some sort of convoy to protect and it has to travel from point A to point B in a given time. To do this, you can only use two commands which affect the physics of an area: you attract or repulse the objects in that area (each having differents properties, such as weight, damage caused around it when destroyed, attraction/repulsion (pulses) or bonuses such as more shields for your convoy, extra time or even time freezing).

Let’s code !

This is my 4-hour late declaration of intent to join MiniLD 28 and also my first progress update.

I really don’t have time to participate this weekend, but the theme is just too awesome to pass up on!

I’m going to try to do a simple little tribute to The Ancient Art of War. I’m using AS3 & Flixel (for the first time) so please wish me luck – I’m going to need it!

Here’s an early screenshot:

Menu Screen

It’s not exactly fun, but that’s what the second 24 hours is for, amirite? I think my main problem is I got a bit carried away with how easy and fun it is for me as the developer to design all these crazy formations. Within the actual game, choosing from such a large selection just doesn’t work that well. I bound 4 very directional formations (basically lines facing in each cardinal direction) to wasd, with the other ones bound to the arrow keys. It’s not terrible, and I can pretty easily kill the two enemies that spawn.

I REALLY need to actually flesh out the level in some way that I can judge the controls and gameplay a bit better. But I guess this is still a pretty big milestone, so I’m happy!

Having reintroduced myself to EaselJS, I can join everyone’s exciting efforts with my second Mini Ludum Dare entry. Brace yourself for Wham Bam: Fighting the War of the Sexes in a Relationship-Restoring Educational Rhythm Game.

I put in about three hours of work so far (having foolishly ignored Sol’s advice on scheduling) but I have some very basic functionality to show for that short burst of activity.  If I can advance it to a state capable of keeping score and refactor out some proper MVC structure in the process, I might just leave myself time for minimal graphics and music.  Too bad that my schedule nearly killed this attempt in the cradle.  What time remains still leaves me plenty of opportunities to learn before the next full Ludum Dare, though, so the development continues.

Well, I guess I’ve made infinitely more progress than expected since I didn’t expect to work on this MiniLD project. That said I am disappointed with what very minimal progress and effort I’ve put in, given how excited I’ve been about this for the last two weeks.

I wasted time on a Splash Screen right from the start, then a quick “Play Game / Quit Game” Main Menu. My idea was to network a very simplistic game, but not sure if I’ll be able to do that. I have abstracted a ‘GamePlayer’ class for the option, and the game is turn-based. I just need to add the world, turns, and gameplay. Lets see if the steam will raise, I’m not nearly as hopeful as I was previously.