Hello all,

I’m new to LD and have never done it before However I took part in the GGJ09 (and shall be taking part in GGJ10) I look forward to hoping this is a fun event. I have asda pizza (make your own pizza is way better than dominos!) lined up for all in my flat taking part, along with cookies and all sorts. Haven’t decided yet on what I’m going to make my game in, all I know is I’m going to regret having to go to work on the Monday as I’ll be shattered >.<

To be honest for theme I would love to do the greek mythology one, however there are a lot of awesome themes which I would equally enjoy to do.

Shall download an irc client tonight, looking forward to it 😀

I wish everyone yummy bad for you food and lots of game making.

Catherine.

Tags: motivation

Well after spending a short time putting up my new chair that can about an hour ago I’ve now got it set up and am working at a more comfortable chair

And here is what my current whiteboxing is looking like

It’s extremely early and basic.

Tags: progress

Progression…is slow

Another screenshot of what’s going on, looks quite similar to before but I’ve done a fair bit of work that I’m happy with

And now it’s pizza time

Tags: food, progression

Finally finished my game, now it’s time for bed!

Rex’s Junk Hunt

Better not fall asleep at work tomorrow! and I better wake up in the morning O_o

I look forward to playing everyones game, and even though mine is simple I hope people enjoy it

There are a few problems with my game which I didn’t have time to fix, which is a shame, (but I’m not a coder so it was hard :() although I intend to try and work on it more and make it a more lenghty game in the future

Catherine.

Tags: final, journal

So I thought I’d write up a post-mortem on my game, so I’ll just outline the key points which I have come up with.

What went well

• The art – I’m quite happy with the images I created for it, it could have been a little better in some cases, but I’m quite fond of it.
•  The audio – A lot of people have commented on how the audio is cute, or funny, the voice of my boyfriend proved rather successful for Rex the dinosaur.
•  The menus – I quite like the colour scheme of the menus, although looking at it now it’s very Bonsai Barber. However there aren’t many clicks needed and it’s easy to navigate around so I’m happy with that.
•  All the little bits and bobs – I love that in the last remaining 5 minutes I managed to pull together an icon file along with all the other little touches that makes it feel a little more finished.

What went wrong

•  Not being a coder – I was limited in what I could make, so I thought making a seek n’ solve game would be easy. However I was wrong as it was a lot harder than I thought.
• The pop-ups saying you found an item – I had to keep these in to have it work properly.
•  The fact that it repeats items and never ends – I couldn’t figure out how to get my game to work the way I really wanted it, sadly this is the huge downside of the game, showing no progression or reward.
• Items staying there – Yes I realise they still stay there for everyone that seems to point that out, I couldn’t make them disappear and also because the game doesn’t work how it should, so no need to point out something I already know please. I know this means it shows know progression for the player, why else would I add the quit button, it was the only way I could make the game end.
• Not enough images – For the game to work really well I’d have to of increased the number of images by about 500% as this would then add the complexity needed for the game, and then the gameplay would be down to the placement of the items.
• The controls – Having right click as a drag button would not be the first thing  a player would think of, I could have fixed this many ways, either by telling the player when they start the game in a pop-up with arrows or something, or the better way. By having items over the edge of what is visible on the right side of the screen, then encouraging the player to look. However if the player reads the instructions they shouldn’t encounter this problem.
• Zelda – Unfortunately The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks came out so I had to stop myself from playing it all the time, although I did play it a bit over the weekend at times.
• Sleep – On the Friday night I didn’t actually stay awake for the theme to be announced, and had a large amount of sleep, although this was mainly down to having a long day at work, doing food shopping and my podcast in the evening. So I was quite tired, and I had about 4-6 hours each night, so that knocked a fair bit off my development time. However if I had less sleep I’d not work as well as my brain wouldn’t function properly.

What I would improve

• More images – I would add a large amount of images to populate the space and make Rex’s living room more junk filled, originally the game was two times the size it is currently, unfortunately I didn’t have the time to make enough, but now that I can improve on the game in my spare time I will attempt to create more assets to populate the space.
• Learn a bit more code – It was pretty much the first time I’d really made something on my own in Game Maker, which was so vey hard, I am a designer, however not a designer in any way of programming. I hope to try working on my programming skills a little, not that it’s really essential for my job, but it’s always good to know a little of everything.

Final thoughts

•  I intend to work on the version and perhaps make a version 2, when I do it’ll be posted up on my blog
• I’m extremely happy with the outcome of the game, not being a programmer, I made something that i feel was a little successful. I know of its failings, and I hope to work on them so it can then become a better play experience.

You can give Rex’s Junk Hunt a try if you want, don’t expect an completely engaging gameplay experience though

Tags: final, postmortem

Once again I am taking part in Ludum Dare, had a tough decision this year as I could have gone to a discussion on Alan Wake and met Sam Lake, however that was cancelled due to travel issues (plus I chose to go with Ludum Dare when deciding anyway).

So I’ve started my day with an awesome breakfast

Beans on Toast (apologies for the low res image, having internet issues so i had to keep it small)

I have an idea for my game, just gotta start getting it altogether now, I would mention it, but I want to keep it a surprise Hopefully nobody else will be using my idea, keep it nice and original, that is as long as I can finish it in time

Oh yeah and I’m using Game Maker, as I can hardly code.

Tags: beans on toast, ideas, islands, LD17

So I finally finished my game, Attack of the Canvey Island Monster, which is now all sumbitted and tested, so hopefully nobody will have issues with it.

Enjoy

Title screen for my game :)

Oh and I by no means believe in all the cryptozoology stuff, just felt like a nice way to use the theme

This was my second go at entering Ludum Dare, and I’m happy that I’m 2/2 in terms of finishing games (4/4 if you include the GGJ :))

Oh yeah and it was made in Game Maker, as I’m not a coder, so nobody be mean cos I don’t have the awesome coding skills that all you other guys and girls have

Now I’m off to sleep as I have to get up for work in three hours

Tags: finished, happy

So it’s that time of the year again for another Ludum Dare this will be my third time entering, and I’m extremely looking forward to this month’s LD, I was going to attend Gamescom which would have knocked a day off my creating, however I changed my mind and instead am devoting time to other things while I’m on my last week of holiday

What a great way to start work next Monday after finishing a nice long LD :).

I’m Catherine by the way, I love taking part in 48 hour game making sessions and I will most probably be using GameMaker (because I am not a hard coder and I’m a designer) hopefully I’ll create something cute and different this time round, can’t wait to hear what the theme is

And I look forward to seeing what everyone else creates!

Tags: LD #18 - Enemies as Weapons - 2010

So I was awake at 3am or whatever it was when the theme was announced, once I found out I then fell asleep on the sofa, and a few hours later mooched off to bed, now after a few hours of being up and thinking I’ve got some ideas from the theme of ‘enemies as weapons’ but nothing set in stone as of yet which I have to try and do asap and then start working on it, and to get my brain working I’m having some yummy breakfast

yummy

Hopefully once I’ve chosen an idea shortly I’ll do some mockups and pop them up here

So I had my late lunch a couple of hours ago which was a yummy Tesco cheese baton, covered in marmite, cheese spread or plum jam, so very yummy :).

 The game’s coming along ok I suppose, the screenshot is very basic, as everything needs a lot of work still.

Hoping to get a lot finished by the end of the day so there’s only art stuff to do tomorrow, currently waiting for dinner to cook, which of course shall have a picture posted shortly

So I had my yummy dinner of homemade wedges, little cheeseburger and salad which was yummy of course

I had fun watching Archimedes defy gravity by hanging on with his tiny feet

And I’ve been toying about with the main menu, however this is totally work in progress

Got a few more hours of work in me at least, so I hope to get as much done as possible

So having quite a late breakfast this morning, I woke up hours ago but I had to do a load of housework so got that sorted now I can get back onto working (although I did a little earlier as well)

Yummy bowl of fruit and yoghurt again, although only raspberries and blueberries today, didn’t feel like a peach as well, maybe I’ll have one later

Here’s to some good hours of work

So I managed to get around the big issue I was having with my game *yay* so now I think it’s just polishing up everything art wise and recording some sfx and making some music!

I’m having a late lunch, but then my breakfast was around lunch time anyway but my teeth have been hurting like crazy, I’ve got a couple being sensitive and playing up, and it’s not helping with my concentration, hope they feel better soon Hopefully the cheesy beans will get my mind off them

Tags: food

So decided to have a little snack of some yummy mushrooms, they were great

Then had to record my weekly podcast, and now I’m back onto working on the art for my game, it’s going alright

I guess that looks a little weird though

Bac-Attack is a little action based game, where you assume the role of a virally infected bacterium, and you have the ability to spread your virus among the healthy bacteria, from simply coming in contact with them helps spread the virus which can then spread even further.

So your main enemy is the antibacterial spray which a clean freak is spraying in order to make sure their house is clean, now be careful not to get in the line of the spray as it’s deadly to bacteria, which generally results in your demise.

Healthy bacteria also harms you when coming in contact with it, only slightly though as they aren’t a major threat, also when hurt you will slowly regenerate your health back. 

So LD18 is now my 3rd Ludum Dare that I’ve taken part with and I swear it’s my best yet, it’s the most finished a game I’ve developed has been (excluding games I make outside of LD of course) and for that I’m happy. Of course there are lots of things I would change now looking at the game, but that will always happen when working on a game, especially when in a little time frame.

I made the game in Game Maker 8 as some may have guessed, I’m not an excellent coder like most of you on here, but I love the fact that I can take part in this competition thanks to Game Maker, games are my life and I’m happy I can spend spare time making games in 48 hours.

I will be writing up a post mortem for the LD blog, which I will attempt to write in my little spare time that I’m not at work.

I hope you enjoy my game, and I look forward to playing everyone else’s games!

Tags: bac-attack

I believe I’ve nailed my idea As usual I’m trying to keep it nice and simple. Which is a shame as I had some really great ideas, but I wouldn’t be able to pull them off. So hopefully I’ll create something quite polished and nice this time round, even if it is quite simple

Tags: ld #19

While waiting for the Tesco man to deliver this week’s food (was at the cinema watching Tron last night so couldn’t do the shopping) and hoping he doesn’t get stuck in the snow I thought I’d have the only breakfast type thing I could find. Especially as I was starving hungry, which Nigella on the TV isn’t helping with while she’s making a yummy cake.

Game is coming along ok, I’m worried maybe it’s a little too simple, but I’ll keep on with it

Can’t wait for dinner of some take-away variety, although worried nowhere will be delivering

Tags: food

Happy that the Tesco shop just arrived and I just got my new Spanish hot chocolate, it’s just as nice as the Italian stuff I’d gotten a while back. So now I can warm up with some gorgeous hot chocolate with some marshmallows while I do some enemy paths

Tags: food

And now a late lunch of some garlic and coriander naan pizzas while trying to get these paths working properly still

Tags: food

Duck and Hoisin sauce pizza with curly fries and garlic bread along with some yummy apple and elderflower juice

Finally got the collision working how I wanted, although now I’ve gotta make sure the collision then works the same for the opponents AI too. Really need to get started on the graphics for the game though.

Tags: food