I’m not sure myself.
Still, it does something…
http://www.mostlyharmless.co.uk/LudumDare/OntologyRecapitulatesPhylology/V2/MonkeyGame.html
(well, it does if you get the link to work – better paste it to my entry page)
Oh, and compose music.
This ‘solo’ thing is quite the limitation. I can’t even choose a complimentary colour palette.
Bedtime, more tomorrow.
http://www.mostlyharmless.co.uk/LudumDare/OntologyRecapitulatesPhylology/V3/MonkeyGame.html
Oh, and the three ideas I had this morning I’ve got the title from one and the design from another…
Learned:
– My designs are rather too cold and serious, which is odd as I’m anything but.
– Monkey is great for small projects, but development slows as the game gets more complex. Eventually it will annoy me to the point of no continue.
– The Monkey text-editor is not great (keyboard shortcut inconsistencies, no auto-complete, no jump to definition/use). A tweaked to Slickedit or Notepad++ would be better. Switching between mouse/keyboard is killing my speed.
– It’s also lacking in a couple of respects: No function to seed the random number generator properly (seriously!); No direct font support (even bitmap fonts)
– Goodness only knows how you’re supposed to debug a program that’s translated into another language before running.
– Some elements are rather cryptic (eg. the size of pane used for a browser game can be changed, but not obviously)
– I keep sticking ‘;’ on the end of lines, and am unable to keep to aConsistent variable_naming ConventionFor MORE_THAN one line
Confirmed:
– I can make a working game in 48 hours (or 24 come to that)
– Not having to include multiple libraries, SDK setup parameters, include paths, runtime-library dependencies etc. etc. just to get the screen displayed is bliss
– I can’t do art or music, at least not quickly enough, so I should avoid both and spend my time on programming/design/writing
– Iterative development is great – the faster the interation the better
– Seeing things on the screen quickly, and seeing changes straight away is marvellous
– Rapid compilation is essential (sub 2-seconds, ideally sub 1-second).
– Refactoring is still useful, even in short development cycles (although tool support helps)
– Testing a game with lots of randomness, less so
– UI is still a time-sucking pain-in-the-arse
– Harry Hill is very funny
– Almond croissants and coffee for breakfast in the sunshine is lovely
– WordPress’ photo import is awful
Need to expand the range of mutation options, remove the debugging text and make free movement more robotron-style, but it’s actually playable.
Lawks!
http://www.mostlyharmless.co.uk/LudumDare/OntologyRecapitulatesPhylology/V4/MonkeyGame.html
Not all I’d like, obviously, but enough.
Would have like to have changed the game more:
– catch and/or shoot enemies
– scrolling over a larger area
– background scenery/obstacles
– a score, perhaps
– sound effects
But overall, not too bad. And the night is young.
G’night all!