Hi everyone, this is Terrabyte here (aka @terraby_t or terrabyte_aura), basically saying I’M IN!

This is my first solo Ludum Dare (I did a Mini LD with Puzzlem00n, and you can see the result here.), so this should be an interesting weekend! Anyway, as per the rules, I have to declare any of my personal code that I may use, so here is my Grid experimental LOVE engine. The code is hopeless, but it works, and allows you to easily manipulate grids as well as apply physics to the blocks with in them (ok, only gravity so far ). You can get it here as a .love with a demo here.

Also, you may find this blog useful: ideasquish. It’s got 20 posts worth of ideas for your personal enjoyment and usage, and that’s totally not biased! (ok, that’s a little biased, I co-write it )

And by the way, I will be using LOVE2D, Sunvox and GIMP/Inkscape/my whiteboard for this Ludum Dare.

Oh, and if in doubt, whiteboard.

Yours,

terraby_t

(this post is copied off my blog teralabs.wordpress.com)

Look, a new game! In this game you have to collect atoms which, when arranged correctly give you special powers! You’ve got to use these special powers to get out of a room within 10 seconds (the theme of LD27), or else you will perish! Also, your score is a shape, which is nice.

YOU CAN PLAY IT HERE. Also, please vote!

And now, for the postmortem-y bit, THE POSTMORTEM:

What happened

I made a game. On my own. This is my first game on my own! Yay, result!

What went well

I used a good, cross-platform and easy-to-use engine

LOVE2D is amazing, and was especially useful in the compo. It was very quick to set up and add to, and it told me exactly what had gone wrong if it had gone wrong.

I slept.

I didn’t get up at 3am to see the theme being revealed because I am a lazy bastard a person that cares about sleep and ended up working well when I was awake! Result!

I didn’t bother with my weak point, art.

I kept to multicoloured squares, and as a result had more time to be infuriated at code!

I made a level editor.

First off, level editors are awesome. Secondly, it helped me quickly make levels when I was running out of time, so yay for looking at the time!

I was reasonably good with time.

I didn’t spend five hours on the collision code. Instead, I complained about it and made the game top-down,  removing gravity and actually making it much better!

I had an idea beforehand.

See here.

I checked the calendar before the compo

I had a free weekend! Result!

What didn’t go well

I ONLY checked the calendar before the compo

Turns out we were meeting family on the Sunday, and it wasn’t on the calendar. Five hours were murdered that day.

I spent very little time on the content

I only spent a few hours on levels and menus, and the gameplay suffered because of that. Bah humbug.

Not much else really…

What went well because things didn’t go well

I composed the soundtrack on the train!

Yeah!!!

What didn’t go well because things went well because things didn’t go well

What I learned

How to organise my time and get on with it!