Not quite the first gamedev jam ever, but the first Ludum Dare Jam I've finally signed in for! Will be working on PICO-8 or LÖVE2D, to be decided in... a few hours. :P
Thinking of doing some sort of tower defense/power grid based strategy game. I think that really can work with the themes I've voted for. :D
12 hours in and I have finally agreed with myself on a concrete design. I suppose that happens when you work alone and haven't a lot of LDJam experience. :P
So, switching the power mechanics from the grid itself (in a power grid puzzle fashion) to the player itself, as a character that needs to recharge every so often or else... they lose. Just that. So time and resources are of essence, and it's also a tower defense. Because there has to be a sense of threat, and in this case it's creeps coming after your charging station. :P
A hybrid of Rymdkapsel and Pikmin, basically. And with vector graphics. More on vector graphics later!
Ok, my game is... slowly coming along, although I wouldn't quite believe it'll be all ready and pretty in 11 hours. This was not a good weekend to try and make one game in 48 hours, I suppose...
But more to the point of what I said I'd work with: vector graphics. It's one thing that I can't overcome in Unity, the lack of a proper tool for simple vector drawing. And it's one thing that I do enjoy a lot about working in LÖVE2D: making vector graphics. Even if just for UI, but I do enjoy greatly!
And it looks nice, because, well, vectors can be scaled and deformed without losing resolution. You probably know that so it's obvious, but... well, it's a fact. And that makes it a great tool for prototyping. :D
Ok, enough about graphics. Next post (in a few hours) a little bit about basic RTS movement and gradients.
Hoping to finish this basic gameplay in time. 11 hours should do...
Meanwhile, here are some creeps moving and avoiding a tower by means of very basic gradient-based navigation :V
I can't believe it's been 4 Ludum Dares since the last time :open_mouth:
Anyway, this theme has me thinking on many many many ways a game can be made with sacrifices as part of its core... I've thought about making a Lemmings-like game where sacrificing units is necessary to open the path to the end... I've thought about a visual novel with an emphasis on resource management and deciding who gets to live through the end... I've thought about a game in which food and fuel are the same resource and rationing the resource pool is necessary in order to both escape and survive.
And, in the end, I'm going for a tower defense where resources are farmed not from killing enemies, but from literally farming towers. Which is great, because in general farming/planting mechanics do attract me in a game. :smile:
Well, time to fire the LÖVE development environment and get this game going!
Well, for a tower defense I guess a lot of things are already established: the towers are there, and they defend :V
They also grow, but I'll have to setup another screencap to demo that... and add more effects and HUD elements to make things clear, and actually make the HUD for the player to add towers and sacrifice them for resources, too...
...That sounds like a lot, but I think with the progress done up to now, it'll be done in time! :D
Today I had to go work so... well, there went like 12 hours :stuckouttongue:
Now I'm almost finishing up, setting up the last sprites and doing just a bit of tuning so the game will probably feel nice to play.
It'll probably be a mess, but I'll write a nice manual to go with it. :V
The time is almost upon us and seemingly the most probable theme is about the night.
Appropriate. :P
(Hyped and waiting, let's do this!)
