This is my first Ludum Dare, and I’m totally out of my league so I’m going to keep it simple. I’m going with an HTML 5 game, mostly in Javascript and playable from a browser. I’m liking the Crafty game library. I have this idea to make graphics creation faster by hand drawing them in ProCreate on the Ipad and then using Gimp or Photoshop to turn them into appropriately sized sprites. I haven’t tried it yet so I’m not sure how effective that will be. I’m pretty new to Javascript, so if I run into any insurmountable problems I might fall back on Java (my native language and do an applet instead.  I’m getting ready this week by testing out some of the Crafty features, stock-piling kit-kat bars, and lining up my 48 hour all-metal playlist!

Here’s the obligatory desk shot. Ok, I’m in the zone.

Over the weekend I worked out:

1. How to create the appearance of continuous platforms in a side-scroller. (Still having a little trouble running backwards though.)

2. How to change scenes and levels

3. How incredibly strange it feels to bind every object in a scene so that it moves when you press the arrow key, while the main character who’s supposed to be running forward isn’t really moving at all. I’m probably not doing it right. suggestions?

and 4. space (the key i want to make a “jump” key) is already used by the browser to automatically follow page links. It’s disconcerting to jump over an obstacle and end up on facebook I’m working on a way to disable that. I could use a different key for jump, but that just feels wrong. I bet someone else has run into this same problem?

I had this GREAT idea for “End of the World” but I really struggled to come up with a good idea when it turned out to be “You are the villain.” I don’t want to be a villain! So I got a bit of a late start. In the spirit of villainy I decided to go with the most evil, scary thing I could think of. CLOWNS! I have a real fear of clowns. With their creepy attention to children and their blatant attempts to deceive you with fake facial expressions.

The plan is to make a tower defense game where clowns kill bunnies. Why? Because clowns are evil, and bunnies are so cute and innocent.

I starting to sweat the time line. So far, I have some boxes that can follow a rail. Now I need to make a bunch of  defenses. This map will soon be filled with carnage. … poor bunnies.

Post Mortem

This was my first Ludum Dare and my first video game, so I’m pretty proud that it all came together in time.

What went right:

• preparation – I spent the week leading up to the competition working out common game mechanics from different kinds of games. I made boxes that shoot at other boxes, boxes that walk through side scrollers, and boxes that follow paths. It gave me some great algorithms I can reuse, and helped me learn the limitations and advantages of the game engine.
• whiteboarding – video game math can be really hard. Not only did it help to clearly define my problem and see it pictorally, but my kids drew smiley faces all over them which made it all seem less intimidating.
• Living across the street from a convenience store – seriously, if soda and candy weren’t less than a block away I don’t think I would have made it through this.

What went wrong:

• don’t guess the theme — It seemed like a lot of people thought it was going to be “end of the world” so I came up with this GREAT idea. And then, for the next few days I kept thinking about how to make this great idea even better. Then, when it wasn’t “end of the world” I felt like I couldn’t come up with an idea as good as the first one in such a short time, and I was really disappointed. In the end the game I made turned out to be just as much fun to make – but I wasted a few demoralized hours comparing it to the game I *thought* I was going to make and feeling like I fell short. 
• math – I was NOT prepared for how hard the math was going to be. If I do this again, there will be algebra, trig, and calculus textbook references on my desk. And possibly a math professor on standby. Actually, my first idea was to create a game where you ruin a fresca of Jesus by lobbing facial features at it and getting points if they remotely hit the right area, but they needed to travel in an arc that changed depending on your force and location. I spent all of Friday night trying to work out the math before I scrapped the idea and started over with a tower defense.
•  browsers and servers – So I’ve got less than 10 minutes to go, I get the final touches on the game, upload it to the website and viol-la! My boyfriends computer can’t play the sound, my kids’s clowns don’t shoot anything, and no one can load it in IE at all. As it turns out, IE will fail javascript that has extra commas on arrays when other browsers read it fine,  and firefox and IE will only play ogg sound files, and the hosting service I used CACHED the javascript for 4 hours!! So the changes I made didn’t reflect on any of our computers, and I had no idea at the time I submitted it what any of you would actually be seeing if you loaded it. If you’re making a browser-based game – leave 1 to 2 hours to work out server/browser cross compatibility issues.

All in all, I’m REALLY glad I did this. This really challenged me, and now I know what I’m made of

Hey everyone! I’m working on my first real game called Binge! and it’s almost finished. I’m just trying to work out a few bugs and I could use a little help with understanding how the browser handles resources with the Crafty engine. I use faucets and pipes to shoot streams of water around the screen that create barriers that block the avatar. The avatar is supposed to solve puzzles to get around them. It works great with just one or two faucets in a level. However, if I have more than a few of these faucets on the screen everything starts to really slow down. This causes the water droplets to spawn unevenly, with lots of space between some of them that the avatar can just walk right though.

Any advice on what is causing the slow down (too many things to draw on screen? too much memory used? too many entities trying to create simultaneously?)

The faucet entities call a component that has a timeout function that calls itself every 100 ms. The timeout function creates a water droplet entity that switches directions when it hits a pipe, and destroys itself when it goes off screen. The water droplet entity has a component that blocks the avatar from passing through it. Any better way to do this?

Thanks!

JMonkey, Photoshop, Blender.

Can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday

Am I the only one who’s really excited to finally have a couple of moving boxes on a flat plane?

Looking at everyone else’s screenshots I’m starting to feel a little behind the curve.

because it’s the day before a holiday and I didn’t feel like doing anything at work today. And also – because everyone else is doing it!  

     I’ve read the entire internet and I’m still haven’t figured this out. Can someone here help?

I want Santa to throw a snowball. So I create a snowball object and on each frame I update it’s position by adding the vector to the position to get the new position.
But vectors are always linear. I’m trying to think of some way to use the algebraic function for a parabola to get the ball to travel an arc path – but nothing I try works.

I *could* just do it with a bunch of if statements, like this:  (if snowball > starting positition + 10){ reverse y direction; }

But that gives me less of an arc and more of a sharp angle, plus – it’s not very elegant.

If angry birds and Bloons can do it, surely it’s not too hard, right?

UPDATE:

Thanks everyone for your help! I think I understand it a *little* better now. I had more control when I turned off the engine gravity and made gy myself. Here are two solutions that worked really well for me in case anyone has this same issue:

  In the second one, playing with the first three variables gives you different sizes and speeds of arc on your ball.

One of my professors rearranged my final exam date so I could do Ludum Dare! I didn’t even have to make up an excuse. I was like “Ludum Dare!” and he was like “Of course, I understand!”

So I’m totally in.

My tool stack:
Some kind of engine.
Definitely some photoshop (courtesy of my last job. screw you guys, i’m keeping yer photoshop).
Sound effects will probably be me making weird noises into my headset mic.

I’ve been sitting in this chair for like. .. 19 hours? omg.  Someone PLEASE send me your Spotify profile link. I need a new playlist because if Sound of Madness comes on again I’m going to scream. Look though! I made a thing.