Here’s a map:

Good luck everyone!

I’m checking in.

The goal here is to go beyond the theme. I’ll see what I can do.

I’ve abandoned Blender. I may return.

I’ll probably roll-my-own with C and OpenGL.

Currently, I’m on the keyboard making background music.

No screen shots yet.

Good luck people!

Charles K.

This screenshot shows the results of a random map tile generator. It’s being used for a city, so the center is complete, and it has been weighted around the center. Removal of the islands will have to wait.

More work to do.

You are the Cyberpunk!

You must run, sneak, and battle your way out of the city.

Good Luck Punk!

I put a twist on the theme and passed the responsibility on to the players. There are secondary screens in the game — in the form of computer terminals, databanks, and automated kiosks located throughout the city. These additional screens are useful for info, maps, and hacking, but there is a utility cost for their use. If the player decides to use these screens it will cost the player time, money, and might even alert the authorities to the player’s current location. A veteran player or an achievement hunter might try to play the ‘Entire Game on One Screen’…

Unfortunately, this game was too big for a 48 hour game jam. But I did manage to create some very cool stuff!

Random Map Generator

Here’s a sample from the city’s random map generator that I programmed:

Randomly generated city map.

The randomly generated city streets include intersections, dead ends, and open spaces. It’s a mix of organized city planning and general chaos. It creates a very maze-like map with enough twists and turns to confound players.

The algorithm also tries to remove remote islands (red Xs), but as you can see, it still needs work. Overall, I’m very happy with this — it can be used for other games to generate cities, dungeons, and maybe even railroads. But as useful as this tool is, I went down the rabbit hole on this one. Working it out took up most of my time.

The aim was for re-playability, but with only 48 hours, I should have just quickly made a single map.

3-D Figures

For the enemies (and citizens), I did some 3d modelling.

Basic human figure:

Human Figure in Blender. Approx. 1 hr.

This one’s a security droid:

Robo-Mountie in Blender. Approx. 10 min. ‘Dead or Alive, eh?’

There was no way that I was going to rig these figures in time. But for the basic shapes, it was a good start.

Background Music

Early on, for both inspiration and to get a sense of the game’s mood, I sat down and made some music. This theme song still needs some work, but I like it so far:

This cyberpunk game didn’t get finished. I obviously took on too much for a 48 hour game jam. However, with a very useful map generator, I still consider it a technical success.

I did have fun, and I’m looking forward to playing those games that did get finished.

Keep Jamming!

Checking in for the Compo.

I’m going to try and stick to this schedule:

• 6 hours — planning and design
• 12 hours — asset creation
• 24 hours — programming
• 6 hours — cleanup

As for tools, I’ll wait until I determine the game I make.

TRIBUTE

It is the Age of Legends… and you are the darkest legend of  all.

A monster of nightmares and myth, you are terrible to behold. Your powers are unsurpassed. Your network of spies, minions, and servants all do your bidding.

From the tiniest village to the mightiest castle, the people tremble at your might. But beware, great heroes in search of fame and fortune seek to end your tyranny.

Terrorize the land in your quest to amass a horde of treasure and spread your legend.

Here is your Tribute…

In Tribute, you play as a great monster (Dragon, Giant, Swamp Creature, or Witch) terrorizing the populace. Your goal is to build your wealth and legendary status. This can be done by attacking settlements, kidnapping princesses, negotiating treaties, or simply demanding tribute.

Along the way, you get hungry and have to eat livestock or villagers. There are also heroes questing across the land and they will come to end your reign of terror.

The planning phase is complete, and I have settled on what’s basically a single-unit RP strategy game (if that’s even possible). The first prototype screen is done. It has Stat bars on top, a regional map in the middle, and Action buttons on the bottom. Each of the four Action Groups has a variety of available actions.

I’ve worked out the mechanics. It definitely seems doable. I am however, an 1.5 hours behind schedule. The next 12 hours will be spent creating assets.

Good Luck Everyone!

Charles K.

“Tribute” is coming along. Assets are getting into the game as they arrive. Unfortunately, this pass will not permit much polish. The action-group scroll menus are working and looking nice. Add a few helmets and skulls, and game is starting to look like a website from 1998. Maybe we could revive the old webrings?

In “Tribute”, Players get 2 actions a turn (month). These actions are selected from the action scrolls along the bottom of the screen. There are plenty of options. And with these, I’ve discovered some interesting scenarios.

Each region displays its food and wealth. But you might see a bug here — the RNG has the Farmland producing 3 Food, while the Swamp produces 6. That needs fixing.

Also, I still need to consider how to display a region’s terror level (if at all). There are also additional icons for the Player’s monster, the Player’s monster’s lair, traveling NPCs, armies, etc.

And to keep things simple, I’m doing this in HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript.

I did get a few hours of much needed sleep. But my schedule is off now.

The first 6 hours of design took 7.5 hours.

The scheduled 12 hours of asset creation is still in progress and is currently at 13+ hours.

The 24 hours of programming and 6 hours of cleanup will require a review. There’s about 28 hours left, so I’m still confident that this can be done.

Good Luck Everyone,
Charles K.

With 19 hours left in the Compo, I am about to start work on core gameplay. There is still a lot to do, but I’m in a better position now.

The Action [Strategy > Move] was more complicated than I envisioned, but it is done. The code is hairy, but it can handle a variety situations and is robust enough to endure bad input (like ‘moving’ to your current region). Complicating this are flying monsters (Dragon, maybe Witch), that can move 2 regions per action.

I’ve also added temporary Lair (blank triangular blob) and Player icons.

It is time to move on. The rest of the actions won’t be too complex (I hope). The ‘Tyranny’ group and remaining ‘Strategy’ actions are fairly straightforward. The Kidnap/Random toggle will be interesting. Most of the ‘Supremacy’ actions will be a challenge. I may drop Research. Blight will be a magic spell instead.

However, it’s the NPC relations and random events that will be the most challenging. There’s a lot going on there.

All-in-all, this is the ‘meat’ of the game and I look forward to making it happen.

The original schedule that I had planned on is now off the table. I’m programming and adding assets as needed.

To Do List:

1. Finish Actions
2. Message/Dialog Boxes.
3. Monster and Lair sub-screens
4. Battle screen
5. Top Bar
6. Random Events
7. Ally/Enemy relations.
8. Monster select/creation

Good Luck Everyone!

Charles K.

The deadline is approaching. Five hours remain.

I’m closing in on completion. This is going to be close. I’ve scrapped a few features (diplomacy, magic). But most systems are in place.

I just added the Monster Lair sub-screen. Mostly for a simple inventory. Also added the Witch’s Scry ability.

Back to work!

Good Luck Everyone,

Charles K.

An hour to go and I’m still working on it. It’s close. It still might happen.

I have the Battle System in place. A few more things to finish there. Then random events and win/loss conditions.

Here’s a sample battle with the Giant and his bandits vs. the Local Hero Boy and his pitchfork mob:

Good Luck to All!

Charles K.

Of Unknown Origin…

A routine mining operation in a remote solar system is interrupted when a silent mysterious spacecraft is discovered. Not a derelict, the enormous ancient spacecraft remains intact and dormant. Impervious to sensors, the vessel refuses to yield its secrets.

Why is this spacecraft here? What purpose does it serve? Who or what could be on board? 

With a mind on profit and adventure, you cautiously approach and board the cavernous hulk.

I’ve got a busy weekend, and I’m already off to a late start, but I would like to try out a few ideas that I’ve been kicking around.

This will be a 3D maze with a few twists. Hopefully I will be able to make some decent progress.

Tools: Blender, Photoshop/Gimp

Language: C

Good Luck to all!

CK

I’m in.

Land lines are an ancient technology. If I can remember how they work, I can probably make a game. The telephone game? Only time will tell.

I’ll probably just use HTML and JavaScript.

Good luck to all!

Introducing Ramming Speed!

A top-down RTS game of ancient naval battles.

Board the Triremes!

The game viewer layout is beginning to take shape. The map is on the left, the control panel is on the right. It has potential.

Originally, I thought that ship health status could be displayed directly on each ship on the map. But looking at it now, that might not be a great idea. With icons of this size, the user would either have to zoom in to each ship (which I’m not coding), or view a selected ship in the control panel (much easier).

The ship is of approximate scale (7m wide, 30m long). However, the indicators are getting cluttered. The rowers are represented by the outer circles, the archers by the top mid-bar, marines, by the bottom mid-bar, and the rudders by the two trailing bars.

This could be simplified, or just better organized. One improvement will remove the rower dots and instead represent the number of useful rowers by their oars (which need to be added anyhow). A loss of rowers is reflected in a loss of oars. It won’t matter if the rower died from an arrow, or lost his oar in a crash. Either way, that rower is ineffectual. This of course, brings up another problem of reorganizing the port and starboard rowers for equilibrium.

I just learned/remembered that Glut for OSX has been deprecated in favor of native windows (retina display, and all that). So my plan to quickly render 2D textures in OpenGL has been scrapped. This game will be done in HTML/CSS/JS.

Now I need my beauty sleep. Just a nap, really. Later.

The player’s trireme is now moving and the control panel is starting to take shape.

With under 3 hours remaining, a lot of features will be cut. This version will just be two triremes facing off in PvE.

As many of you know, steering an ancient trireme could be at times… difficult.

With not one, but two rudders, and a whopping 180 oars in the water, things can get complicated.

This video demonstrates the skills required to successfully steer a trireme.

As you can see, the rudder is broken. And I will spend the next 20 hours or so fixing it.

Just finishing up Ramming Speed! I’ll use the next hour to upload.

RAMMING SPEED!

Ramming Speed! isn’t complete yet. But you can sail around the map. When the enemy reaches the southern edge of the map, the game ends.

It was a slow start, but I’ve got a really cool little demo here. I will definitely expand and improve upon this.

See you next time!

CK

Hello One Roomers,

I’m off to a late start, and can’t fully commit to the 48 hours, but I’ll do what I can. The game I intend to make is based on an idea that I’ve had for a while. This jam will be an opportunity to prototype it.

Concept:

A ruined space station has been overrun by a horde of mindless baddies, and you must keep at least one room secure as your crew explores the structure to discover the mystery behind the station’s fate.

Gameplay is a lot like Duskers. Here also, atmosphere is important, but I’m not sure of much of that I will be able to communicate. Getting the puzzles and strategy correct will be key.

Tools:

Basic Web tech: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, plus image editing software (PS, Paint.net, etc.).

GLHF!

CK

I’ve gotten some character portraits done fairly quickly. I’m just grabbing Creative Commons art and pixelating it.

Here’s Crazy Lady and Suspicious General:

Turn back while you still can!

CK