Hey everyone!

I realise there’s less than 24 hours to go and I haven’t written up a post, so I thought I’d show you what I’m up to.

After a lot of brainstorming, I eventually took inspiration from The Omega Man (which I’ve never seen, but I’ve seen the Simpsons spoof!), and have started on what I guess is a survival horror/match-em-up cross.

It’s still early days, and I’m still using a lot of placeholder art, but there’s some pathfinding in place, line-of-sight and turn-based things, and game overs. Still need to program in the mission objectives, enemy spwaning and things, and see if it all comes together!

So for this my first Ludum Dare compo, 16 hour and a half hours or so left and very little in the way of progress. Yeah I definitely won’t be finished without some miracle code. And a substantial jolt of energy.

I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was, that’s for sure. Not giving up yet and hopefully will have something to show for my time spent. I was able at the very least, to come up with a game idea, work out tons of design notes for a promising framework which I will definitely improve upon before the next compo and have it released and ready to go.

But there is still time for me to at get something done, so wish me luck.

G’Night all see you in 4 hours hopefully.

Tags: 4 hours sleep, sleep, sleeptime

I’ve finally got all the gameplay programming and assets done. Tested everything and it play pretty well, just need to code the boss to launch out a bullet storm, polish up the menu screens and I should be all set to upload. Latest video below.

Dino Pilot – Part 4

Stuff left to do:
finish random keys/doors generation
menu and may be something else, but I will not tell you, it is a SECRET! 😀

Crafting menu now shows all items that you can currently craft with your current items / tools / crafting station.

Ok there is only one item to craft so far… but hey it’s all setup for future items anyways.

I also made it so you can activate on the ground anywhere and it will tell you the time when you look and let you access crafting menu without a station (for basic crafting recipes). There is also the issue of not knowing what resources you are using when crafting stuff…  I don’t think I’m going to worry about that right this moment though.. as I wan’t to get some more content into the game.

It’s almost 5 am. I need some sleep. I’m working on getting the allies working since the game is next to impossible if you go alone. 😛

The cool part is that you can fight with Punches or Special attacks (that use Special points) and the bad guys can fight back.

Title Screen

If you hit a cactus, you will explode.

All the code I wrote has now been refactored. I appear to be getting the hang of the Python way of doing things. The levels are no longer hard coded, and obstacles can be placed in the maps which cause the player to explode on impact.

A third level has now been added, based in space, where you must find water for your hungover kitten friends. Other than the scoring system, everything engine-wise seems to be complete.

The code is now available in a Git repository at: https://github.com/irl/Kitten-s-Missions

Previous update: http://irl.motd.org/2011/12/ludum-dare-22/

(sorry for my bad english)
Someone blame me because  I have not write a post:
Well, just a screenshot, it’s ok?
…48 hours it’s too short for a long text…

Have fun everyone…

I don’t intend to go without sleep, so I consider this the half-way point. Its about 10:00 am GMT, so I need to get back into it!

I’ve run with the loneliness/sadness connotations of ‘Alone’ and made a side-scrolling Philosophy-em-up platformer. Just one level so far, and theres no win condition yet. The idea is that you are a philosopher and must overcome your own self-doubt.

The central mechanic is that there are two levels overlaid on top of each other, that phase in/out depending on your level of existential doubt. If you feel secure in your beliefs then you see/collide with the normal material world, but if you slip into existential crisis then you see only a world of sadness and woe. You’ll need both in order to complete each level.

The enemies are bystanders that shoot asinine banalities at you, and swirling clouds of tumultuous uncertainty.

Feeling confident and cautiously optimistic. I got a lot done yesterday, and so I’m hopeful I’ll have something at least vaguely playable by 2am! Now back to CB2 to rejoin the super-awesome Cambridge indies.

Good luck all.

Overslept a bit, but sleep brought new ideas

Just hope I have time to finish this!

Less posting, more hacking.

/Hannes

I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished very much today… so I’m going to take the time to list what I’ve done. Maybe that will remind me.

1. Finished the zoom feature (in and out via mouse wheel)
2. Added HUD
3. Added health / health bar
4. Added health regeneration via pickups
5. Added 5 additional inventory items along with HUD/counters
6. Added important set piece
7. Created Day/Night system (10 RL minutes = 24 hrs in game)
8. Created dynamic lighting for night
9. Constructed particle system
10. Changed tree / rock sprites to be more cohesive with the rest of the tiles / objects
11. Converted resource-hogging objects to static tiles
12. Tweaked player collision system
13. Adjusted layering system

I still have a LONG way to go if I’m going to implement all of the features on my design doc… especially if I’m going to make time for music/sfx… which is a MUST, imo. So here’s what I have left to do on the design doc…

1. Create at LEAST 12 more inventory objects (code + sprite + counters + player variables)
2. Create stamina system
3. Create tool system (hammer, axe, fishing pole, etc)
4. Create crafting system
5.  Create randomly respawning resources for DAY+1 events
6. Create title screen
7. Create death/lose scenario
8. Create winning scenario
9. Draw a very crucial set piece
10. Create SFX / Music
11. Tie it all together with a story sequence?

Yeah… that ain’t happenin’. I need to find out what features to cut and FAST. Tomorrow needs to be an incredibly productive day if I’m actually going to pull this off. I’ve never really ‘finished’ a Ludum Dare before… all of my games end up as tech demos or incomplete nothingness with no end / purpose. I want this to be different.

I will leave you with the latest screenshot from my game, AB-ALONE

Tags: progress update, saturday, screenshot

I’m on the verge of giving up becuase I haven’t made much progress yet and I don’t think my idea is very fun How can you help? Go to http://elucidatedbinary.com/ld22/ in Firefox (no music) or Chrome (will have music) and test my game for me. Controls are arrow keys + space. The original idea was that the player would have to wait for gravity to invert (which happens periodically) then try and jump to the next platform. I’m not convinced that it’s fun though

Try it out and leave a some feedback in the comments for me? Thanks!

Play the game here :

Windows : http://niu.uz/ld22/build/sol.zip

Love2d : http://niu.uz/ld22/build/lastbuild.love

Follow progress at http://niu.uz/ld22

The one day that I have spent working on my game has been practically wasted as I encountered an annoying Java bug in my engine. I will therefore have to put in a lot of work today if I plan to get this game finished on time; my concept isn’t too difficult and so it shouldn’t take too long to code and create graphics for and add a simple story that I have visualised.

Things look bad, no matter, I’m still determined to complete this game within the remaining time.

Still aiming for the 48 hour deadline, which gives me about 16 left, but no code to speak of since I hated everything I wrote yesterday. I will however default to the jam if it looks like I’m going to fail here

Should be fun

Yeah, at this point, I think I have the narrative down.

Meet L’Joe:

L'Joe here is the hero of our game, here to be the last defence against the evil shadow monsters and the traitorous light monsters. Or something.

L’Joe here has been locked in his basement by his parents (They weren’t really aware of this at the time – busy, you know, preparing.) as they went and caught their plane to Hawaii for a vactation.
Therefore, the basement, below:

So...This is the general level. Lights are at 50 degrees off so that they look like the hitbox is *actually* correct - I think technically it's based off of 0 degrees, but this looks better overall.

Only one level at the moment (And two level of lights, so I have to fix that once L’Joe there is in the game), but L’Joe is stuck here, and isn’t about to try and get out, however. Plenty of food stored below, I guess.

L’Joe is imaginative though, and so with his trusty red phaser (Don’t think Star Trek “Switch to stun” phaser, Think Men In Black 3 “mind-wiper” phaser [Speaking of… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyaFEBI_L24 ]) is out to vanquish them.

So…the enemies are imaginary (Although I really hope to actually have them in the game), and his Phaser will shoot out red shockwaves in the direction he’s facing.

Pretty much it. Hope to actually get the functionality working (Player first, along with ground detection and jumping – then enemy spawning and hit detection, finally going for phazer attacking. Up until then, it’s all in his imagination. <_< Oh, except for the whole “locked in a basement” part. That actually happened.), then possibly move to a title screen, as I mentioned in a previous post, where the character, after you select play, will walk and jump over the start text, use the phazer to destroy an enemy, then walk over the edge of the screen, flip a switch (Making the rest of the screen go dark) , then walks off.

That would be optimistic though. Probably just him walking around (No animation, even, I’m willing to bet).

Still enjoyed what I did this competition though (Namely, how to go full AS3.0 and make it work. Well, I imagine technically the .swf isn’t AS3.0 since there’s the main frame code there, but good enough for me at this moment.).

Last night I got stuck on a bug, whilst upgrading of my player functions which stopped the player from spawning. After much hours I gave up and slept, to be honest I would have gone to sleep earlier but was watching “To the Devil A Daughter” so keep poking at the bug whilst watching that.

After sleep, 10 minutes and the bug was obvious and easily fixed.

I also did some design scribbles last night, which even trying to be a pared down as possible still seems ALOT. But thats always the way I guess.

I wrote my intro text as well

“Once I ruled worlds, entire dimensions and all my subjects worshipped me as the god I am! But I have been entombed here under the ocean for eons, ALONE with no slaves or worshippers!
A god with out followers is a pitiful creature, barely even alive just like those humans I sometimes sense, if I had even a few worshippers may powers would return and I should subjugate the world and reclaim my rightful  place.
Some humans are living near my resting place, they are close enough that my powers just reach, I will make them bow down before me and I shall feed and become strong!”

I suspect some will think the theme link is tenous, but to me it fitted and popped quickly to mind. A lonely old one is a sad old one!

As no interesting pics due to the bug to go with this post, I shall give you a picture of this post, as a picture in this post…

Inception in you LD blog post

That’s it, I have to leave the competition. Somehow I didn’t manage to come up with anything fun. I guess I need to recharge my batteries. Next time I shall try again!

Alone with sharks!

Luckily for our deep sea tourist those sharks don’t have a brain yet…

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 18th, 2011 at 8:22 am and is filed under LD #22. 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.

I think I’m going to have something to submit after all.

Namely, a tricky Marble Madness sort of game (but not really) about a boy in a plastic bubble who’s developed psychokinetic powers to draw borders for use as platforms and shields against enemies.