Well, I’m still surprised at how much I managed to get done today. With only around 10 hours of time actually spent programming.

Path retracking was rather easy, though doing it during waves turned out to be harder.

Finally I managed to get that working though, so now it feels quite a lot like an actual game;

I also sat down and started working on the main bass track for the game, so for once it will hopefully have hand composed music too.

Tomorrow comes UI, Music, and some progression mechanics.

Probably art too, though I’m starting to fear I won’t have enough time for that.

Tags: 2D, C++, progress, screenshot

Just realized I’ve forgotten to post my “I’m In” post for this Ludum Dare compo.

So here it is; I’m in for another 48 hours of frantic coding and drawing, probably not going to try as hard to music this time as that didn’t work out very well last LD.

My tools will be; C++, SFML, Angelscript, linked together with CMake and programmed mostly on Visual Studio 2015. With some side-additions of GIMP, maybe Blender, and possibly LMMS too.

You’ll be able to watch me stream most of the time at http://twitch.tv/ananace if you’d like, I try to answer questions and keep up to track with the chat while working.

Sadly I haven’t gotten my proposed multiplayer part working yet, so probably not going to go that route for this LD, but we’ll just have to see.

I hope that you’ll all have a fun time during the coming days, I’m certainly going to try.

// Ace

Tags: im in

So, I decided to tackle one of the game ideas I originally didn’t plan on doing – changed my mind after some quick prototyping.

Behold, rythm-based two controller input;

You’re controlling a robot, which will have certain tasks to accomplish on each level. Your method of control are through word/nibble/4-bit commands that you enter with zeroes and ones. As you progress through the levels you’ll unlock/learn more opcodes and will also get level specific versions where you control different robots that have very specific tasks.

The current list of base opcodes – what will be the base OS of all robots – fill the 1 and 2 bit commands through the following list;

• 0 – Full stop
• 1 – Full speed forwards
• 00 – Half speed forwards
• 01 – 90-degree turn left
• 10 – 90-degree turn right
• 11 – Half speed backwards

Three bit opcodes will probably be the ones you unlock/learn during the campaign, with four bit codes being specific to certain robots or certain levels, but we’ll see what I decide on when I get there.

You can find the source code on my GitHub and there’s a prototype uploaded for those who want to try it without having to compile it themselves. Windows only at the moment, but the code should work on Linux as well, I just haven’t sat down to make sure about that for a while so I can’t promise anything.

Also, fully scriptable and hot-reloadable. Going to make heavy use of that now that I have to make all the levels;

All in all, I’m very pleased with my progress, and I hope to be able to finish up at least a basic campaign before the deadline, as well as some basic menus and tutorials.

I certainly hope you’ve been having as fun as me so far too.

// Alexander “Ace” Olofsson

Tags: 2D, Angelscript, C++, progress

So, I’ve started lining everything of mine up for the coming Ludum Dare this weekend, sadly I mistimed some other things so I haven’t actually had time to do my usual shtick and write up a simple C++ framework. Instead I’ve spent some time cleaning and polishing away a few pieces from another game project I’ve been working on, to end up back at a possible framework for use here.

Hopefully I’ll even have time to finish and test the multiplayer components of the framework, so I can try doing simple multiplayer as well.

The Tools I’ll be using – like always – are;

• Programming/development
  • Visual Studio 2015 on Windows.
  • GCC 4.6 / 5.0 and LLVM/Clang 3.4 on Linux.
  • Git – you’ll be able to follow the project on GitHub.
  • SFML – going to use their as-of-yet unreleased Git version, really want access to a few of the features in there.
  • Angelscript – I just love this script language.
• Arts and such
  • GIMP.
  • LMMS.
• Stream-related
  • OBS-Studio.
  • foobar2000 – I’ve dug through and built a list of songs that Twitch should like too.
  • My own stream overlay software, which lacks too much UI/UX for me to consider releasing yet.
  • My own timelapse capturing software (made in C#, source is available).

I hope the rest of you are going to have fun, because I’m certainly planning to.

And hopefully games will happen too.

Tags: C++, compo, im in, tools

So, completely forgot to do the usual courtesy blogs about tools, battlestations, food, etc. Figured I should at least make a progress post so that people know that I’m here.

Had some trouble thinking of a good idea for this theme, or at least an idea that I would be able to get to a playable state inside the hours of free time I have during this weekend.

Been woefully unprepared for the current compo, using C++ as usual after all and didn’t have time to build a proper framework for the game, so none of the fancy ideas I had at first – scripted objects, entity-component system for everything, etc.

Doing my best though, and after one day – ~5-6 hours – of coding I at least have an idea and something that looks like an unfinished game.

One Room, suspended in the void of creation.

Your job will, as an innkeeper, be to keep your patrons watered and happy. Giving them the drinks they ask for and not taking long enough for the patrons to leave.

Every served drink will earn you some tips, you’ll also get a base salary for every day you manage. Beware that any mistakes you make will be taken from your salary, so try to avoid making them.

Hoping to get the missing pieces of the game done today, at least to the point where it can be considered a game. It will all be streamed of course and available on twitch under https://twitch.tv/ananace.

Tags: 2D, C++, compo, progress, screenshot