I’ve uploaded the timelapse of the making of my game DTTR, which can be found here:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-37/?action=preview&uid=27519

Hype!!

Tools I'll definitely be using: - GameMaker: Studio - Aseprite - Freemind - Chronolapse

Tools I Might be using: - Tiled - sfxr - Audacity - Sunvox - Bosca Ceoil - Texture Font Generator

Best of luck everybody!!

This is a good theme and I'm already getting some ideas!

Tools I'll definitely be using: - GameMaker: Studio - Aseprite - Freemind - Chronolapse

Tools I might be using: - Audacity - sfxr - Tiled - Sunvox - Bosca Ceoil

I've got ideas in my head and a fake DOS-Style display so I'm feeling pretty good! It'll be nice once the site handles page images but until then here's a link to what I've got so far. :desktop:

http://puu.sh/vsgBk/3b795700cb.gif

A little past the 10 hour mark and I'm relatively happy where my renderer is and my command line interface is able to process some rudimentary commands (clear and connect so far). Have a gif.

http://puu.sh/vsquP/18be12647e.gif

https://s1.webmshare.com/zWQVz.webm

I'm beginning to become concerned at how far into the Jam I am with no real "game" yet. I've got a lot of "system" though. My plan is if I can set the system to be as simple to make content for as possible, then I can just cram out content for it once it all works.

I've taken a step back from the ANSI levels themselves to work on website front-ends which you'd use when you're not "hacking" them. Terminals are basically a collection of 3-4 scripts, onConnect, onInteraction, onDisconnect, and an option perFrame, which are all triggered by the main console, so for any terminal i can just hand write them for the particular system and put them into the template.

Once I'm entirely set on this system (which is pretty close) I'm going to move back towards the actually hacking section, mainly being able to load the small world each terminal contains (hopefully from an external source so i dont have to build the levels directly into the objects), being able to move about and interact within them, and having them have meaning outside of their world in a larger scale.

https://twitter.com/Flatgub/status/855890612666617856

The small virtual worlds that terminals have are actually "real" now, in the sense that you can move around in them and not pass through walls, however, they're a pain in the butt to map out by hand due to how they're comprised

http://puu.sh/vsSx4/97a73c7173.png

So I'm considering taking a break to create an editor for them so i can better work with them, but i'm already low on hours and I don t wanna have to go into the jam if I can avoid it.

https://s1.webmshare.com/rZngQ.webm

Just implemented popups for note reading and potential story telling, and so to take a break from the harder implementations I decided to go back and do an audio pass, you can never have enough PC speaker beeps.

Building the editor for these little areas directly into the game itself was probably the best idea I've had so far. I can design both the stages and set up interactive tiles using a rudimentary instruction set, complete with conditional instruction jumping.

in an attempt to have to implement as few instruction codes as possible for my tile logic, I've been trying to come up with compound solutions for things like condition blocks with what I already have, Its been somewhat challenging.

I've finally achieved my goal for this logic system I was working on.

All the interactivity in the above gif (the toggle doors, the colour changing, the popup) is powered by this amount of logic code which i write in the editor and is saved directly into the level!

Although not the nicest thing to work with in terms of readability, it drastically reduces the amount of work i have to do per "world" as i can write all its custom behavioural stuff into the level and not clutter the project with scripts.

Due to poor time management there's no way I'm going to be happy with what i'm left with in 4 and a half hours time, so instead I'm going to do something I've never done, and enter the JAM instead. I'm going to keep being strict with the everything from scratch rule, but I just need more time to get the most content out. Also tutorial writing:

I'm definitely in some sort of gray area in terms of my game being accurate to real life in some senses and smudged beyond recognition in others.

I wanted to have a 2 hour nap so I set my phone and laptop to have alarms, and instead I slept for 11 hours because when they went off I somehow got out of bed and turned them both off in my sleep and returned to bed.

I REAAALLLY wish I didn't miss those 11 hours, as I'm DESPERATELY needing them now. My game is going to have to be incredibly truncated and basically more like a shareware demo (sort of fitting) in order for it to fit the second deadline...

But at least I've been making progress...

ITS SUBMITTED!!!

Think of this as a sort of shareware demo thing.

Everything after the tutorial is locked off because I ran out of time, but its a demonstration of what the system I build is capable of.

I'm definitely going to work on this more outside of ludum dare because I had great fun making it and it'd be a waste to have spent ~60 making a system with the intent of being easily expandable, and then not using it. (Also it gives me something to tweet about)

PLAY IT HERE:

:desktop: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/retrohacker-1993 :desktop:

So it turns out there was a fatal error in my game that wasn't occurring on my build until after i'd submitted it which would crash the game on the first attempt to $INTERFACE!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/$18697

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFmhJYUOco8

The timelapse for RETROHACKER 1993 is online now so you can watch it, and If you'd like to play what little content there is, you can do that here:

My game has had its 4th patch of game breaking bugs being squashed. I find it so strange that everything worked perfectly until I uploaded the game and then it suddenly broke completely and utterly.

Anyway, As far as I'm aware this fixes all the known crashes and I cannot cause any more bugs, so if you had issues with it before, I'd request you try it again.

Now that ratings exist, Come play my demo of a game and rate/comment there so I can play yours too!

Play it here!!

Seeming that everybody else is doing it, I figured i'd do it to!

Oh and here's my game if you'd wanna play it: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/retrohacker-1993