My first LD.

Going to be using either XNA or Unity, depending on the theme and how much I want to 3D model.

Although if I end up doing the jam instead of the main compo, it’ll definately be in Unity.

Just got back from a run to the store to grab some of my guilty-pleasures.

My laptop is powered up and ready, I got a thing of cookies, a keg glass of water (yes, a keg glass), and a plethora of writing implements and paper for planning.

LETS DO THIS!

Been working for just over an hour. Writing this blog post in order to vent a little.

Basically, my idea is unifying three of my concepts. I’m putting it down here since, as much as I trust all of you, don’t want anyone stealing it.

INTERNETS IS PROOF.

Anyway, my idea compiles three of my brainstorming ideas. A: Use the escape button. B: Escape from a Spaceship. And C: Escape Velocity. I was actually thinking about creating some sort of spaceship launching game, similar to hedgehog launch or the like, but I decided against it. Going for something original.

So, basically, you’re going to be stuck in a spaceship, which has been damaged, potentially in a space battle or something. Your enemies have left you for dead, and you’re the only one alive in the crew (or you and your friends are, if I implement multiplayer eventually). So, the goal is to repair your ship’s engines so you can fire them up and achieve ESCAPE VELOCITY, (see what I did thar), so you don’t burn up/get crushed to death in the gas giants atmosphere.

Gameplay will consist of problem solving and resource collection in order to repair the engines (and additional subsystems that can slow your descent/increase your maximum tolerance). Once the engines are repaired, the game will end. Eventually an extension might be made where you attempt to reach escape velocity as fast as possible with the most systems repaired as you can, or maybe your initial attackers come back so the last part becomes a mini-game where you attempt to pilot your damaged ship and keep it from being killed. Maybe you have to risk falling a little longer to get defensive systems on line or something.

Anyway should get back to work, updates later.

Ok, heres Escape Velocity as of current. Movement is in and non-buggy. The map is loading correctly from a file. Colliding tiles are un-enterable. Going to start implementing the interfaces for fixing the various parts and such now. Once thats done, I’m probably going to update the graphics, and I’ll see what time I have left in the day at that point.

Just over 12 hours to go.

I have an eventful day yesterday. At first thoughts, I feel like I got really little done, which is true. Most of yesterday was spent building up the engine. And now I’m in a place which allows me to add new game features with a handful of lines of code and some text files.

On my plate for this morning is: A mapping API, a HUD to show you status info about the ship (basically just the time until you die), and change my drawing code for my subsystems so it allows me to use a broken model. Also, depending on the time, I’m going to animate the tileset globally, as a short of cheap way to add lighting effects, and make the lights on the components look cooler.

Just finished the level generator for Escape Velocity. It now takes me 30 minutes to make a decent level, compared to the several it had taken previously. Just working on the tutorial level so theres for sure something to play before I move on to add the doors and sounds. My goal is to have atleast 5 playable levels included with my submission. If I get those done, I’ll spruce up the level generator and set it up so you can place subsystems.

So, my todo list right now:

4 more levels

Sounds

Doors/Keycards

Animation

Ok, I’m not really giving up. I’m at the point where I’m happy with the game and I know theres gameplay that I could edge out of it. However, due to growing frustration with it, I need to take a break longer than both the game proper and the jam have provided. I’ll definately be in for the next jam, and I’ll be sure to continue working on this game once my brain cools down.

Just a note about the level editor. I don’t have the paitence to add the planned ShipComponent adding functionality at this time, so if you for some reason feel crazy enough to create a level, use the existing level as an example. You’ll need to manually append a underscore and the locations of the components for it to work. Infact, at this point, you can pretty much mess with the game to any extent, since its all really just a framework manipulating the assets, allowing them to be interchangable.

Yay for modability I guess!