Alright, first Ludum Dare!

I’m thinking of taking the theme and applying it to “You only get one button.” I will have the player controlling his or her avatar, which can perform one of a number of actions by pressing the button in different rhythmic patterns. I haven’t decided if these patterns will be actual Morse code or not yet.

First I need to write a parser for the rhythms the player enters, and I’ll see where that gets me. Then, I can worry about what actions to make available, and how they are actually called.

Stuff I’m using:

Code

• Java
• LWJGL
• Slick2D

Art

• Gimp, probably

Music

• Reaper
• Various instruments
• A library of Drum samples from http://www.autodafe.net/samples/kontakt/gscw-drum-kit-for-kontakt.html

Here’s to neither crashing, nor burning. Good luck all.

I’ve been simultaneously brainstorming and writing an object that acts as both an input controller and a metronome. The status of my game: A black screen and a steady, angry, white noise “drum” beat. Neat

I’m thinking of basically using the single-button rhythmic input as a way of chaining actions together. For example, if I went with a side scrolling game, I could do something like

|         tap     |   tap tap   |       looong   | tap         |

would translate to

|step forward   |   attack   |   jump   |   step forward|

I still haven’t quite decided what I want the game to be outside of the input method. Side scrolling action platformer… top down puzzle… two person fighter… turn based rpg… so many choices! I can think of ways that this input method would be interesting for any of them, but I need a mechanic that will really pop out of one of these and give it the edge over the others, rather than feeling like it’s just in the way.

With that, I shall sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day!

The base mechanics are in place, so I needed to come up with what the actual premise of the game is, and to start making some actual assets.

When in doubt, go with a pun.

Top Heavy!!! … get it?

Things are starting to shape up. I spent a fair amout of time creating art and music today. I’m not that good at visual art, so I didn’t really get to make all that much. This is why I usually make abstract games. 😛 I like how the sound is going, though, and I went with this premise for my game because I wanted to focus more on audio the visuals anyway, so… mission accomplished?

Writing these posts right before I crash is a bad idea. I can’t sentences dunno how.

Anyway, here is an obligatory screenshot, since I haven’t posted one yet. Some disgusting mix of hand-scribblin’ and placeholder programmer art. 😀

(They’re coins.) (Maybe)

So my first Ludum Dare is officially under my belt. That was really fun, and I would definitely do it again.

I’ll post a better debriefing in time, particularly after I try to get my game ported to web. Until then, go here to try it out.

I’m looking forward to trying all of you games, and good luck to the jammers who are still going at it.