My first time and I’m gonna think about my idea for the game as i wont have as much time as i would over the weekend to actually do this. So i wont be able to start for another 14hrs at least 
. Hopefully my game can be simplistic to make but have something that’s a different approach to the theme that others won’t have… hopefully
(image is squeezed in the website)
I only started working on this 7hrs ago (on my own). I got a tile engine going and menu screens are working but need polish. need to add more feature yet
I don’t want to reveal how i will implement the theme yet
Still don’t have a name for this platformer i made in xna.
So far i only have:
movable tiles
spikes
Coins
I planned on having more but the time goes by fast.
The art is inspired by the geometrical shapes of 80’s retro futurism.
So how am i approaching the theme, well then..
Every 10 seconds something random happens that will make your platforming tougher. such as the screen flipping upside down or flipping the x-axis, I don’t want to spoil all of the features.
named my game”There’s a hook”
There’s a hook. I’m going to enter the jam now because i just don’t have enough time to finish it, without it being rushed and having small bugs. So i will have it nicely polished.. hopefully
Made a new hud and overlays,. Also i made this Midground image in blender , hopefully i will get time tomorrow im implement it. now time to sleep.
My game is tough just beat all of 10 levels with over 80 deaths! (enlarge image to see) Turned out similar to super meat boy, now i have to upload the files
Just submitted my game and here’show to play:
You must reach the teleporter to the next level, sounds simple. But something random happens every ten seconds that will make the game easier or harder (mainly harder).
Featuring 10 levels
This won’t be the end of There’s a hook, hopefully it will get launched on desura in a few months. There was loads of feature I wanted to add but left too late, I explain below
Software used:
programming: C#/xna (visual studio 2010)
graphics: Gimp
music: abundant-music.com
Day 1
So I live in gmt +0 so uk time but i live in Ireland. I sayed up until 2am to see the theme and then couldn’t sleep until 6am because my sleep pattern was messed up. I then had to get up at 9am with only 3 hours sleep and milk cows, then off to see my brother do a triathlon. He did 750m swim, 10km cycle and 5km run in 79mins and came 10th overall (fast). So I had to start ludum dare 14hrs late (4pm). I wanted to do a platformer because i had never made one before. So i build a working tile engine in about 5 hours and had to milk cows in between. This day was getting tough. I thought a 2D platformer was kind of boring and i had no idea how i would implement my theme. So i decided to have a 3D looking tile. Shown below was my first prototype compared to my final one.,and the last one is what I’m working on atm to make it look fancier in the final version. I also spent ages making a funny looking character and a good walk cycle. The level art was inspired by 80’s retro futurism. I ended my night at 6am
Day 2
Got up at 9am again to milk cows. Still the gameplay seemed boring nothing could kill me so i had to add spikes and falling off the map and for a in game reward I also added coins. I wanted to add moving tiles, boy was this a bit of a challenge. it took me far too long to get this. The problem I had was when a tile changed direction that it would display in front or behind other tiles. I got it working enough to be happy with. A couple of thing that aren’t perfect say if 2 moving tiles collide the layers of display don’t work correctly, so i had to leave that out. During the day i came up with the idea to implement the theme. I would have a random event every 10 second that would either make the game harder or easier. I had used a matrix transform camera so it was easy for my to change the camera in game and used this for half of the random events. I noticed i only had 1 hours left and I only had 2 random events working and no levels designed. At the last few minutes i started panic as i got 2 bugs one fairly major and where the player and camera would started to shake. I then just said i would enter the jam. Went to sleep at about 3am.
Day 3
I got up at 4am, a well needed rest. I was planning on polishing my art work but never got around most of it, i got a nice new hud and overlay messages (enlarge image above). I also made a nice menu and title screen. So in the last 4hrs left or so left i designed 10 levels, added music sounds, the ability to double jump and a new jump animation. Designing the levels were a piece of cake all i had to do was edit a text file. It took me longer to beat the levels than actually make them 😛 . Submitted it 10mins early and only just about. I came up with a name in literally 2mins and i thought it fitted perfect as coincidentally i had my character have one hand as a hook. (Gameplay in link below)
Feedback
The biggest thing that almost everyone commented about was the camera turning upside down as one of the random event. It made it too hard. There was a small problem with the random events. They are supposed to last 10-30secs. When a event would be set to inactive it still had a good change it would be picked in succession so it would continue for longer. Also there was only 4 different events and only 1 that made the game easier. I think it was penalizing players too much for being bad at the game by constantly making it harder. I will take all this into account when making the full game. Please have a look and rate of my game it would be really appreciated.
Created a page for the game which will be developed further
http://www.indiedb.com/games/theres-a-hook
so i used abundant-music.com to generate music and found it hard to find a good midi converter, in the end i used cowon media center. But i wanted to have 8bit sound origionally but as i said it was hard to find a good midi converter that wasn’t a trial version or some other catch.
Today I found GXSCC is a japanese software in english, but does the job asides from the odd crash, but for a simple conversion its perfect and i would recommend it for future use, especially in future ludum dares
link: http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-SanJose/8700/P/GsorigE.htm
my ludum dare entry
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=27122
There’s a hook was my ludum dare entry here a link to play it
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=27122
summary of ludum dare version: platformer where something random happens every 10 seconds
I now have an update on the game with some images at the games indieDb page
http://www.indiedb.com/games/theres-a-hook
There is also an article which is in a queue to be authorized so you may not be able to see it yet.
Alot has changed in the past 10 days or so of this game. In the full game the random events will be optional. I think that people who want a challenge or for the fun of it can turn on the random events. Also alot more events are being added along with the several new blocks an textures added already.
play ludum dare version here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=27122
I’m finishing a game I made in ludum dare 27 called “there’s a hook”. The new version has completely new levels, textures, obstacles,mechanics, music and sounds. So basically huge changes. Looking back on my old code, it was terrible most of it ended up in one class being almost 1000 lines. I’m taking feedback from the ludum dare into consideration alot, such as being too hard, hard to understand how to progress further and completely removing the stupid effects which distracted the player. Not sure what to call this version yet
Blue Bloke Turbo, previously called There’s a hook is now finished and free.
More screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/7zDcg
Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rfgsbms064v01ct/Blue%20Bloke%20Turbo.zip
I’m finished my exams on saturday evening, so i will only have 24-30 hours or so to make my entry. Also I’m going to try to use unity 2D, haven’t even installed unity yet. I’m too busy with college, if learning unity doesn’t work out I’ll resort back to xna.
using: gimp, unity, sfxr, abundant-music.com
Ludum dare 27
Here my game from ludum dare 27, releasing in a couple weeks on desura. demo of final game link below
ok so i tried to learn untiy and make a game within 2-3 days. That didn’t go as planned. So no I’m resorting back to xna and making a simple game quickly. Also my old idea didn’t have good implementation of the theme
After starting from scratch again I managed to finish my game in less than 24hrs (with a nights sleep). You have to dodge and destroy asteroids with just one bullet. Each wave of asteroids has one which can be destoryed. If you blow it up you get your bullet back.
Features:
Randomly generated asteroids
Randomly generated Sound effects
Multiplier Scoring based on velocity and position on screen
Link: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=27122
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwWMSyL0E_M&feature=youtu.be
game: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=27122
I’m currently trying to remake the game in unity 2d so it will be playable on multiple platforms including the web.
I me made the game in Unity2D and added a whole lot of new features and better controls. Try it out https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7343751/Asteroid%20Bust%20webplayer/Asteroid%20Bust%20webplayer.html
Ludum dare entry:
Now:
Link to entry (windows):
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=27122
Yeah it’s Doge! There’s a conspiracy that antivirus companies are the ones who create viruses to make you buy their software. You are Doge hired by an antivirus company to install a virus on the NSA’s quantum computer. The gameplay is somewhat like megaman. I don’t think I will get it all finished, or even what I hoped to get finished by the deadline. All I have so far is the basic mechanics and only 1 type of enemy.
Tools: Unity 2D, Gimp, sfxr (haven’t even got around to audio)