As most seem obligated to say, I’m a first-timer to this competion actually, well, attempting it. Let’s see if 27 is my lucky number, eh? //Has all these weird blackjack references for the next one when this one is barely underway–//

I had a fairly good idea what the final theme was going to be from the get-go. All the comments seemed pointed that way so I had no problem thinking up my concept. Actually exciting it? Well~ that’s going to be another story all together. Not to mention I’m not doing a traditional game in the sense that it’s a Visual Novel rather than a point n’ click or some other variety of that. A visual novel being just as the title implies with the added cool points/gaming aspect if being able to affect the outcome via choices.

I’ve decided to approach the theme with an odd but, hopefully atleast, enjoyable plot. A young ambiguously-female narrator must descend through the levels of the after life. Which are more like whitewashed rooms… With nothing in them… Because she’s in a purgatory of sorts. Follow me, it gets bet–… Moving on! Along the way, as soon as she enters the next level, she encounters a set of choices in he first second that directly affect the sequence of events, what she/he encounters, etc., etc. She has ten of these. So original, I know! All this while trying to block out the mental terrorist know only as the Star Prince which quids her along the way. He seems to be some sort of time-keeper, guardian or wandering lunatic in a cape an spandex. Who knows, that’s for she/he to find out. Does the genre seem clear enough by know? It sounds pretty grandiose in scale/story complexity but it really isn’t. Either you unlock a new item in the room and have the big revel, stay a’cruise the sarcasm boat and restart or simple anger the Prince enough that it’s off with your head!

I’m going to try and stay on top of things and speed write my way through tonight and the early morn’. 6,000 words is my cap with a minimum of 2,500. Once that’s out of the way it’s one to drawing the only sprite and maybe some proof reading. Then my times going to be dedicated in chunks between staying alive and programming, programming, programming! With the programming half of my team a no-go I’ll have to make use of my limited knowledge if Ren’py by myself. And also trying to navigate the closing flood gates which will be my mind and eyelids by then. Which will shortly short circuit once I get past the most basic if basics.

Progress is steady so far. 200 words in. Now I’m off to jam in another 500 or so in 30 minutes or less. Here’s a handy dandy, snafu of the outline while I’m at it!

Wish me luck!

Bun Out!

Tags: 10 seconds, 2013, LD #27, Ren'Py, Visual Novel, VN

Whoop, whoop! Over four hours in and it’s a few minutes away from midnight. I have yet to name this project but its going better than expected so far. As you can see my cutting edge, camera phone has shine that the only sprite is in progress! Now to just get it looking good, scanned and colored. If I have time(which I highly doubt) I’ll think about adding a sprite for not-so-vaguely-female-anymore narrator, too.

What’s going well//
– Cranked out two chapters including the little mini-prolouge
– Started work on Micah’s sprite
– Incorporated the theme “10 Seconds”
– Planned out the entire game and listed proto. choices for now

What’s not going so well//
– Staying up
– Cohesiveness and not-so-completely-random-intergration of the plot
– Staying up
– Finding screens to type on bigger that 3-inches
– Staying up
– Editing and keeping my spelling somewhat in line with the English language
– Staying up

Well, off to write some more! I want to get atleast five chapters done by tomorrow and than start work on the BGs and spirte. That and get this muddled fiasco into a working, somewhat plausible, storyline.

Bun out!

Tags: 2013, LD #27, Ren'Py, Visual Novel

As the night turned day drags on, so does the length of my titles…

Well, I’m heading off to bed at a good place! I’ve set some more realistic constraints on myself, got work done and finally incorporated everything into something workable.

The game, still not named yet, will now consist of the following:
1). 2 Spirtes
2). 3 Rooms not including The White Room
3). 3 10-Mississppi-second events
4). 3 Choices
5). Around 3,000~4,000 words
6). (5) possible endings; includes sudden-death ones

The music, SFX and possible GUI will be free resource. And, seeing as I’m defiantly jamming this one, I’ll be using some pre-existing code of mine. The art in the form of big pictures and the like is still up in the air and, I’m dreading trying to code even this with my sub-par skills… But I’ll do my best anyway!

This game will be a hybrid VN now too as it will contain timed events but will mostly be text-based aside from that. 10 rooms of the afterlife was way too ambitious plot and code wise already >>” I’m using Micah’s flippant personality to give myself some lee-way and start the plot of at a different place.

Speaking of plot and characters, I finally have some! The two main characters are now Stalarra-Micahla. He goes by Micah and he’s an angel tasked with helping lost souls get to their final resting place*. Darla, our resident Dorothy, is one such soul who’d been making her way through purgatory fine till she got to the “Former Life Reflections” phase. Realizing how meaningless and pitiful it was, she’s holed herself up in a blank slate room and refuses to advance. Until Micah stirs some trouble, pulls some strings and forces her through the last levels to learn the Eternal Virtues and somehow execute them in fun and exciting ways… All in under ten seconds.

I’ll be looking over my post (hopefully) on my computer tomorrow and will spell check and all that good stuff then! For now, I must sleep before I crash for real now!

I leave you with the opening blurb right after you click the start button. It’s rough but eh, it’s 2 AM and I don’t care.

I’ll be programming the preliminary stuff tomorrow so I’ll screen shot it then. This will also include sketches that don’t look like they were taken with night vision and properly scanned instead haha!

Bun Out!
*Not Final Destination I assure you. I don’t want to be sued~

//Dying ain’t easy.
Living just as hard.
Nothing comes for free, everyone has to work hard.
But just existing?
Breathing, eating and sleeping the days away?
Toiling and widing away your youth for what?
No one lives forever no matter how invincible, the dog days of summer make one believe….
That is so.
To the contray.
Life is just one meaningless loop or so they say.
But if a dull life is bad and an intangaible afterlife an even grimer prospect…
Then there isn’t nothing worse than ending up in neither or.
Stuck.
Stuck.
I’m stuck with no way out of here.
Repenting day after day after day–
For what!?
Bloated sense of purpose, mindless games to pass the time?
I don’t have a clue but I can tell you something.
It becomes somewhat of a hassle.
Boring more simply put.
I’d rater watch paint dry but, that seems to be the case already.
Locked up in an all white room all by my lonesome.
That’s what I get for being over zealous.
I wanted to ‘level up’ like it was some sort of game trying to get out from this afterlife.
But reality hit me like a cold splash of water.
Ain’t a got dang thing to do but wait…
And wait…
And wait.
Till now.
The sound of the bell a’ringing, something big is happening, I just hope it ain’t got nothing to do with that idiot of a gaurdien angel again!!//

Tags: 2013, LD #27, Ren'Py, Visual Novel, VN

Well after a rest-ful few hours its back to the cutting board! I have my computer open at the moment so no more 3-inch screens for me. I’m going to try and get some of the framework for the game done today and text for the second room complete. That’ll leave me with two to go. Will post again shortly, now to write/program/do everything!

Tags: 2013, LD27, Ren'Py, Visual Novel, VN

A title appears! Get ^^

A lot of progress has been made! All the needed assets for music, BGs and SFXs has been collected and or drawn. The story is near completion and i’m doing the script for it side by side. Ren’Py is wonking out on me,
when it comes to changing the screen size but that’ll be dealt with in time.

Otherwise things are going goood~
Here are some neat-o tracks I’ve found to keep me pumped and a logo concepts.
See which ones you like… or not.

http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/957628/fiji-original-mix?sid=album-112614

Bun Out!

Tags: 2013, LD #27, Ren'Py, Visual Novel, VN

Everything is going well! With school and sleep ready to eat away my time tomorrow, I’m at a good place right now! I’m preparing a small demo/just make sure it doesn’t crash like crazy tonight for the public. I’m currently coding, writing and drawing some assets all at once so no time to post much. My biggest worry now (aside from coding the timed events and web version) is actually getting the art done. The backgrounds are all free resource along with the music and SFX, but I currently only have skecths for the spirtes and event pictures >>”

I think I was so worried about coding that I neglected my usual duty, making art haha!

Bun Out!

Tags: 2013, LD #27, Ren'Py, Visual Novel, VN

Celebratory pizza anyone? I’m feeling oh, so, good having finished my first jam! The finished product isn’t the best by a long shot but, hey, I made it! You made it! Everyone who made it gets a slice ^^ Heck, even if you didn’t make it, here’s a slice for attempting this madness.

Sunshine or, in my case, freak storms in life and in nature, aside,… it was a wild and fun–fun–fun, ride!

Here’s the link: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=27229

Please do check it out if you can and see if it suddenly crashes or not so I can get on that! It’s my first VN project I’ve released into the web and I programmed it alone (Is a artist and sub-par-writer under pressure here usually) so, do excuse me if it’s just one, big, bug!

I dared and won! Now to sleep, eat and get back to my schooling. *stuffs face and hands y’all some*

Bun is out right before the count! Well, until the morning when she fixes all the mistakes.

Tags: 2013, complete, LD27, Ren'Py, THE WHiTE ROOM, Visual Novel, VN

Version 1.1 is up! The bugs should be fixed… i’ll upload a 1.3 after school just in case though.
The link: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=27229

Short and sweet PM here we go!

What went well:
Coding: Actually figured most of it out on my own!
Finishing: I got it in on time!
Collecting assets: Got a lot of SFX, Music, etc. packed in there!
Story length goal: Topped my max word count!

What didn’t go so well:
Art: I was so focused on coding that I neglected this.
Theme: Though it’s there, I feel I could have done so much more with it.
Plot pacing and general cohesion: It’s a bit more than a little random at times. And I had to keep cutting to keep my thoughts in order.
Coding: Dear good God it’s still a little wacky for some stuff and it generally had me in fits.

The Link.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=27229

Minor bug fixes, etc.

My earnest advice and goal for next time is to have a working demo BEFORE the time limit is up! This way I don’t cause so many inconveniences when I have to keep re-uploading. Hope you check it out! Report any problems and i’ll get on it asap. I run on a windows so if one appears on another system, do let me know so I can run some scans

Have a smiling Darla while your at it.

Bun Out!

Tags: 2013, LD #27, THE WHiTE ROOM, Visual Novel, VN

Can’t wait to play all these shark themed games! I wonder if anyone will make one that’s not a great white? Or not have a physical shark at all…? Who knows, I’m more worried about making one myself haha. And seeing as Jaws scarred me for life, it’ll be an interesting ride ^^

Tags: mini ld, Mini LD #46, sharkjam

So we’re doing it! I’ve finished the outline and started a sprite for this thing. As always, because my mind loves to over complicate everything, this game will feature real sharks and metaphorical ones legasp! Will be using Ren’Py and yup. Now to sleep and get back up to write-edit-draw-cry-collect-program not in that order of course ^^

Title: FINS

Synopsis: It’s 2046 in an average coastal town, and Anna-Marie thought she’d be spending her break partying it up in warmer waters. But, instead, she finds herself in a den full of cold-blooded lunatics. Because of one, minor, slip up involving letting her best friend alter a grade, resulting in her owing him big time for it… Anna-Marie has to dig up some dirt on the local big bad business in town if she doesn’t want her professor blowing a gasket. The only problem is that snooping around in a major corporations graveyard is never a good idea, and when she stumbles upon some very big and very, very illegal information, Anna needs to think fast unless she wants to end up sleeping with the fishes!

Characters:

Anna-Marie Gutierrez: A young freshman in college overwhelmed, under-employed and suffering from a severe case of apathy. Due to an ‘incident’ involving her best friend fudging a grade for her, she has to uncover dirt on Tributary Inc. and finds herself way over her head.
Logan Cho: The resident all-around activist and genius in the making, he’s passionate about uncovering all the dirty deets on Tributary Inc. and publishing them up anywhere and everywhere he can.
Experiment F-2V or Fien: A highly, highly illegal Splice Anna-Marie encounters while uncovering the Inc.’s secrets. Splice being a slang term for humans genetically crossed with another species. In his case, you guessed it, a shark.
Big White: A local loan shark and small town gangster, that is working in step with Tributary Inc. to cover up what they don’t want to be known to the public. Is harassing the Gutierrez family over past due loan payments.
Tributary Inc.: A shadowy, international organization that participates in some highly unconventional activity behind the mask of a family-friendly corporation.

Tags: FINS, interactive fiction, mini ld, Mini LD #46, Ren'Py, sharkjam, text adventure, Visual Novel, VN

So Ludum Dare 31 has kicked off and I’m excited to see what we can pull off Things are heating up over here~ First time I did Ludum I flew solo and it resulted in a horrible first game but, a game nonetheless. Couldn’t finish the mini-jam theme about sharks a while back, so hopefully this will be my second successful dare.

This time I’m working in a team and am excited. Our concept so far is a little firelight that uses a “blink” like ability to illuminate a small circle of light around them. My sketches so far are of genie like characters and mustached flames. I’m not sure if we’re going to make it a single screen going vertically or not. Our team leader says he drew inspiration from “Unfinished Swan” so we’ll see where this goes Goodnight for now!

Tags: #LD31 #LDJAM #LudumDare #GameDev #IndieDev, fire

Our team leader made some images to brainstorm! The blocks are pulled from the web though. We’re gonna go with the little blue fire light theme. I’m working on making the flame and sketching some potential enemies. I named the little dude Fia for now. Maybe little water pockets with water tentacles jutting out? Maybe little tornadoes? Adding narrative? Who knows, it all depends on the animator/programmer haha!

Tags: #LD31 #LDJAM #LudumDare #GameDev #IndieDev, fire, illumination, light

Made an ornament for my mini-tree. Thought it might console Unicode snowman people haha

I’m wrapping up my first night of jamming with some pictures. We’ve settled on three levels, two types of enemies, and our main characters design. Night all!

We were able to finish our game in time 😀 Do check it out! After some much needed relaxation, I’ll be sure to rate and play a whole lot of games!! Good luck those still working, condolences to those who dropped, and a high five to those who made it~ Night all.

Tags: #LD31 #LDJAM #LudumDare #GameDev #IndieDev, Ex Nihilo

Fiah would like to thank those who got him back home! So far we’ve received a lot of useful feedback and I think y’all for playing/rating. As always, comment with your own game and I’ll be happy to return the favor if I can run it!

Seeing as I served  as minor role in a bigger team for once, I’ll make a mini assessment of what I contributed!

Good:

1. I provided the majority of the ideas behind the game
2. Got the art done early
3. Stayed in touch

Bad:

1. My art still needs a lot of improvement, especially when it comes to shading and the like.
2. I could have designed the enemies better. We wanted to keep it on a smaller scale but, if we get the chance to, I’d love to execute some of my bigger ideas for new levels.
3. I could have made an effort to make more art in general but didn’t.

Could Have Been Better:

1. Communicate… Communication. Communication! Not really any ones fault but, seeing as only one of my team members spoke any English, it was hard for me to know what was going and and when to do what needed to be done
2. Play testing. Not really my “duty” but, I should have communicated that the controls were a little wonky before uploading. I tend to keep trying till I beat my own games, then forget minor things like this or the need for a quick restart as I can clear it in under a minute now >>”
3. Panic near the end. As always, I overlooked something minor and almost missed the submission window. Thankfully the team leaders friend saved us haha!

Hope to jam with these guys again soon. Thanks LD community for another great year!

Tags: #gamedev #ld31 #art #ld48 #jam #game, #LD31 #LDJAM #LudumDare #GameDev #OneScreen, Ex Nihilo

Till show time. Excited to jam again with the other guys. Tiny self portrait to get ready for sketching haha

First ideas! Brainstorming with the rest of the team soon. I anticipate a lot of funny, weird, entries this go around!

Tags: art, ld32, ldjam, notes, sketch

From newest to oldest sketch. Our weapon, an enchanted mirror. Still working on the theme but it won’t involve cute dear!

Tags: animals, armor, art, bow, cute, female, Knights, ld32, ldjam, mirror, Shield, sketch, unconventional weapon

Menus and sprites coming along!

Tags: 2D, art, game, jam, ld32, ldjam, logos, Ludum Dare, menus, unity