I heard about the Ludum Dare competition from the gaming community NeoGAF. Making a game in 48 hours sounds like a lot of fun, so I’m in. If this goes well, I’d love to join in future ones.

I have not 100% decided on my technology yet. I know for sure that I will either use Game Maker (the GML language) or Java + Slick2D + LWJGL.

If I use Game Maker, which I am more familiar with, I will be able to create a more complex game in a short amount of time, maybe even with Internet capability. The drawback: Windows only.

If I use Java and Slick2D, it will take me longer to write the game. I will use code I wrote prior. Some of it is modified Slick2D code, and some of it is basically base code for any game. The source and a readme are provided here:

http://www.esnips.com/doc/2781cd0d-c7f6-47dd-a003-d8fdc9adad36/WWYDTgamebase

This will be Windows + Linux, because for some reason, it can’t run in Mac OS 10.5 (which I tested it on).

Edit: I should probably add that I will use FL Studio for sound effects and music. Maybe sfxr, but it’s sometimes very obvious when a game uses it, so I don’t know. I’m also eyeing Musagi and pxtone. For graphics, I’ll use Photoshop and maybe Flipnote Studio.

Since this is my first Ludum Dare, and I’m not too confident in my skills, I won’t do a time lapse. I may blog about my progress, though.

…you know it’s probably a fun idea. 😛

My idea: A game where you are constantly running away from someone shooting at you, and you need to dodge the bullets and junk on the ground. There wil hopefully be some rhythm based stuff in it, too.

The graphics were done in like 5 minutes in MS Paint, but anyway, a screenshot:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/?attachment_id=62854

I don’t actually know how to attach the image to the post, so I’m hoping this works…

I’ve decided to change the direction of my game, from an overhead game to a side-scrolling game. Hopefully I won’t do this too often, but hey, it’s still early.

Now the annoying part: reusing my amazing, hastily written, undocumented rhythm game code…

By the way, I am using Game Maker, not Java. If I’m feeling good, I’ll port it to Java, or create a Java version for the Jam instead of the Compo.

I vowed that I would take part in Ludum Dare this time, but it totally slipped my mind! I was preparing to go to the bed for the night, and then I checked the libGDX blog. It was thanks to that post that I learned Ludum Dare had begun. At that time, eight hours have elapsed. Eight hours doesn’t sound too much, but considering that it’s 1/6th of the whole compo, that’s a pretty big chunk…

So I dropped everything and started planning. So below is everything I’ve done in the 5 hours since then.

A few parts of my plan:

1) I am using Java and libGDX. I have a little framework I created built on top of libgdx for my own game projects, but I’m not going to use that. It was pretty much created when I was more inexperienced, and I can whip up something a bit better quickly now.

2) I am creating graphics using Colors! 3D on the 3DS and animations using Flipnote Studio on the DSi. Also, Photoshop, The Gimp, and whatever else I feel like using spur of the moment.

3) I am creating music and SFX with FL Studio using sounds from Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra and/or BIT BOY (a VSTi).

I ran through a few game ideas in my head, and if I can’t think of something better before I start coding, then I will just use the idea based around picking up bombs and tossing them to a hole within 10 seconds, or else the bombs will explode.

I still don’t have the idea fully realized, and I am unsure about it, but I know it will be a top-down game. (It works well because my current game project is a top-down game.) At least with the perspective in mind, I was able to start creating the graphics. I am spending way too much time on the main character. I drew the animations in Flipnote Studio on the DSi XL, then I am drawing each frame on my 3DS using Colors! 3D. I am no amazing artist, but my next posts will show my weird toolchain in more detail.

So I am really sleepy and apologize for a post that’s rushed, not edited, incoherent, and written in Sleepyvision™. I’ll get some sleep, then see if I can finally finish this Ludum Dare challenge.

Hopefully I’ll write more soon!

After starting Ludum Dare eight hours late, I worked on one character sprite. All of this time, I was working on just one sprite. Warning: Terribad graphics ahead!

All I stood firm on was the fact that the game would be a top-down game. So I created an 8-way character with three walking frames in each direction. First, I drew a rough animation on my DSi using Flipnote Studio (free and really awesome!). It took about an hour, and the results were:

The rough animation from Flipnote Studio on the DSi.

After that, I went to my 3DS and fired up Colors! 3D. Using Colors! 3D, I took a photograph of each frame from the DSi Flipnote Studio, and I used that photo as a background for drawing each sprite. I colored it in with the worst colors imaginable. The resulting sprite sheet has been scaled to 1024×1024 and looks like:

The resulting sprite sheet. I did not see it animated yet. For this blog post, I scaled it down to 384×384.

I did not think at all about what the character was going to be like, but I started drawing with these desires in mind:

1) I wanted a chibi character because it would fit the perspective well. I was not intending for it to be a child, but it kind of came with the chibi. That failed because when I scaled the image to fit into a POT box, stretching the character to 128×256, the proportions became more normal…

2) For some reason, I wanted twin pigtails similar to Meredy from Tales of Eternia. That made the character look distinctive… and also a girl.

3) I wanted to make the character have purple/red skin so she’s not similar to any nationality. (I didn’t want her to be white because pretty much every game character is white, and I didn’t want her to be black because I’m black and didn’t want to create someone in my image at this time.) But that too failed, and she’s dark skinned anyway. Oddly, that adds another similarity to Meredy…

Ugh… So much time spent on drawing the character, which sucks anyway, and now I’m spending time writing about her. I must move on to coding now!