For last couple of days I was working to have Tiled work as 3D map editor. I’m pretty much finished, the only thing left is to have particle system support, which shouldn’t be a hassle.
Right now I can create a map in Tiled, and based on two json files (one for tileset definition, second for entity definition)  I can create maps with multiple stacking levels, spawn points, triggers, 3D decorations, and configurable entities also with full physics. So not bad for a week of after hours work Now only some minor details left (like the particle effect and changing the scripting mechanism) and fixing my broken animation editor which has been non functional and waiting for some debugging love for the last 6 to 8 months.

Map in Tiled

 Visualization in game (yup debug textures and meshes :P)

Just to abide to the rules I declare I will use my library on top of jMonkeyEngine 3.0. It is based a bit on my framework, which I used in previous LDs. The library features map loading, animated model loading, Groovy script loading, app state management, auto support mechanism and some other stuff. The code is on Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/paj-framework/

Well this time I failed to create a game in 48 hours… Although I tried to prepare, too many things went wrong. By Sunday evening I was so far behind I accepted defeat. I mean I could create some kind of a game, something far away from what I have planned… But my heart wouldn’t be in it, so I decided to let go.

What went wrong?

1. My map management library works fine, on which I have placed big bets for this compo. However creating assets from total scratch takes ages. I was hoping to have basic testing map assets in 2h. It took me almost 12… 12 hours!

2. It would seem that a physics control intended for walking characters in jMonkeyEnigine does not handle collisions between them (WTF?). So I spend a couple of hours trying to find a solution, unsuccessfully.

3. My model editor had still more bugs, that I couldn’t find earlier. Which essentially made it impossible for me to create animated models for the game. I had to improvise, so I took Blender and started experimenting with skeletal animation there. The problem is I am a total Blender noob. I had to learn from scratch which took a couple of hours.

4. After I finally created the animation in Blender exporters and importers failed me. Both the Ogre exporter for Blender and Blender importer for jMonkeyEngine couldn’t handle my modest animation.

By 22:00 on Sunday (5 hours till deadline) I got a test map, a not fully functional control mechanism, a animated model which imports into the game, but without textures and no more energy an patience left…

Conclusions? Test your tools extensively beforehand!

I was so enthusiastic about jME 3.0. However after this weekend my faith in the engine got strained. I’m doing some more research and maybe I have to do some more reading to be able to prepare and import assets correctly. However if it’s not the case I will have to consider switching (again). But to what? Unity would be nice, but it’s a no go until it’s possible to develop under Linux. CrystalSpace, Ogre, I tried them and didn’t like them all that much… I could return to my framework, but I’m so tired of writing tools and libraries I want finally to focus on making a game…

Anyway, what I have done this weekend is thankfully not a waste. I learned doing animations in Blender which is something of an achievement, I found some more bugs in my code I intend to reuse, I figured some ways to improve the tools I use also I learned more about my engine of choice but most of all I decided to continue developing the game I have imagined for the compo. It won’t be a big project, I want to complete it in a month or two… So maybe before the next LD I will have something to show.

I’ve been working on Zaria for the last couple of months. The idea is to field test it during Ludum Dare. It’s still far from perfect, but I think it is stable enough at this point.

What is Zaria? In short it is a set of extensions to the jMonkeyEngine 3.0. The repo is here: http://sourceforge.net/p/zaria/code/HEAD/tree/

Whatever the theme will be I’ll try to make a 3D RPG.

My toolset:

• Language: Java
• Engine: jMonkeyEnigne 3.0 + Zaria
• IDE: jMonkey SDK
• Level editing: Tiled, jEdit
• Modelling/Animation: Blender , Wings 3D
• Sound/Music: BFXR, Audacity
• Textures: Gimp, Bryce 7

This is probably the dullest “I’m in.” post ever. But it is 5:07 AM here, and at this hour I’m as witty as punctured tire.

So the theme startled me. I have now an idea and a rough design, but… it was a struggle. We’ll see where this will take me. For now: FOOD!

I managed to get a test map rendered. My toolchain might have been more effective, but I’ll work on that after the compo. The load times are so fart decent. I’m off to create first animated assets

The game is faaaaar from what I have initially envisioned. I wanted to redo the character model and animations because this is the quick mockup I did yesterday but no time for that. I have 3 hours to create AI, add some sound and to make this actually playable…

Damn I tired… I finished. I really did. I can even say this is my best LD entry to date. Although as I always bit much more than I could swallow. After all I was trying to make an open world RPG in 48h. It didn’t turn out that way, but it turned out… somehow

Anyway I don’t think I really tackled the Minimalism theme very well. In a way a post apocalyptic wasteland is minimalistic. However the game turned out a bit trippy. And hellishly slow.

There is A LOT I regert I couldn’t finish. The interesting thing is that this time most of the time I was spending working with the resources, not coding. That’s good in a way. It means that my tools are decent. However decent or not I do have a lot of bugs to fix, have a serious look at performance, a start working on the level editor, I mean Tiled can get me only so far.  If I had a dedicated editor I would have done much, much more this weekend.

Anyway I hope you will like: The Islander

I was browsing through the games and started wondering what is the popularity of various game development frameworks.

So I made quick poll: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6RXTKBY I’d be great if you could answer, it’s just this one question

If you think some major framework is missing from the list let me know.

[EDIT]

The “Other” option should now work fine.