Going to do my first ludum dare jam this weekend. Using Love2D. Been building up a code base for a couple weeks so I can get on with the actual game design rather than just solving coding problems.

I've done a bunch of other jams in the past that you can see on my site https://www.ashleypringle.ca/ but this is the first jam I've participated in in a while so I'm pretty excited!

It's been a while since I've done a game jam, which is a big part of my motivation for doing Ludum Dare, but it's not my only reason.

I've been working on a sort of game template in Love2D, laying down an organized code base so that when I want to make a game very quickly, like in a game jam, I can get started and have something running in as little time as possible. The idea is to have a consistent and easily reproduced structure for things like game states (intro, title screen, gameplay etc.) generalized entity controllers, level changes and game modes, map loading and generation from text or json files, etc.

Basically in this template I want to generalize and systematize any feature or mechanic that was a stumbling block too big to overcome in past jams so I don't have to keep redoing complex but menial things. I find this can often be the hardest part of game design, when you have a seemingly simple idea like "each level will have a different goal!" only to realize the very basic problem of "how do you even change levels without screwing everything up?" isn't so easy and you throw a quick hack together that barely works and also makes it almost impossible to expand the game further without a total code refactor.

Anyways, this template coding has been going very well, but I was getting a bit too deep into the weeds, grappling with potentially irrelevant "problems" and fiddling with code and data organization instead of working on useful features. Basically the classic programmer problem of focusing on non-issues instead of what matters. The best cure for this is almost always to make A Thing, and game jams are the best for that!

So far it's going great. I've already identified a bunch of issues with some code that I never would have noticed had I continued tinkering away, and my template is already much more usable and flexible already.

tldr: nothing beats making something to get you focused!

So first, my idea is battle royale plus arcade high score game. Basically a single player battle royale game with 100 characters running around trying to kill each other, but the score isn't based on kills ;)

For day one I've been working on generating buildings on the map which will contain weapons, items etc. like any battle royale game. It's going well, but I can immediately see one of the biggest difficulties is going to be pathfinding around and through those buildings. In the past I've always avoided pathfinding code by working around it or just avoiding it all together, but that seems like it won't be an option for this game. It's about time I learn some pathfinding anyways, so I'm up for the challenge.

Other than that I have a very complete idea for what the game will be, but I ahve quite a few features to implement. Hopefully I can get the core mechanics working!

I made a really significant decision yesterday and it took my game from "hm I don't know if this is possible" to "OHHHHHHHH ya" almost immediately.

I was wrestling with pathfinding, AI getting stuck on blocks and acting weird. I have a good idea of how to set up pathfinding that would work, but I knew I wouldn't have enough time. It was just too much new, unfamiliar coding.

So I did what is always the best choice: hacked in a very dumb solution. Instead of trying to make the enemies move around obstacles, I made it so that all walls are destructible and the enemies are always shooting, so if they get stuck on a wall they'll eventually just shoot their way out of it. I've used this trick in the past, specifically in a 7DRL jam game called Stay Strong. It worked then and it worked now! The Royale We is shaping up to be the chaotic mess of a game I wanted it to be!

Okay, I'm calling it, my dumb garbage game The Royale We is as done as it's going to get today. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/the-royale-we

Run around getting coinz and trying not to die. If you die, possess a body to get more coinz.

It only works with a gamepad, will add keyboard controls later.

If it crashes or anything please let me know! ty

I've been really busy since Ludum Dare 41 ended, but I've managed to update my game The Royale We so it actually works with keyboard and mouse. I also made some gameplay changes and added Hi-Scores.

It's a mix of battle royale and arcade Hi-Score. Run around grabbing coinz while everyone kills everyone else. When you die, turn into a ghost and possess another person so you can keep collecting coinz. You are ALWAYS the last one left standing.

You can check the code out here: https://github.com/arnodick/royalewe

My game The Royale We probably won't get enough votes to be rated, so rather than trying to drum up ratings I though I'd write a bit about the build script I came up with to help me speed things up during this jam. A big part of the reason why I participated in this jam was to smooth out some of the bumps in the process of coding and releasing a game with LOVE2D, and the build process is one of the more boring and tedious parts.

It's windows command/batch script and I'm quite happy with the results. Hopefully it could be helpful or educational to some people!

https://blog.ashleypringle.ca/post/173926169892/love2d-build-scripting