I'm doing the Jam. This should be interesting. I'm probably terribly unprepared and getting involved on a total whim. But see, I realized something:

Even if I end up making the crappiest game that barely even functions, I'm going to learn something new while doing this.

I've had a very productive Day One. When I heard the theme name, I got ideas pretty quickly, and I started developing something on a space station. Okay, it's going to be extremely primitive, and that's OKAY! So far I have a map designed, I have movement controls working (including SHIFT to RUN), and big plans for tomorrow.

Been hard at work on my Jam game which is still untitled. I didn't post anything yesterday cause I worked all day.

COMPLETE: * Space station is fully mapped. Shuttle and player spawn location are in place. * AlienWrithingMassOfOrganisms spawns properly, always off-screen, and only on valid tiles * It also spreads gradually over time, and new instances can appear off-screen * Colliding with AlienWrithingMassOfOrganisms is deadly * Doors can be welded shut and bashed open with proper collisions set. * You can RUN with SHIFT!

KNOWN ISSUES: * AlienWrithingMassOfOrganisms does not interact with doors properly. It currently acts like they're walls, always. It should remove opened or busted doors, and it should attempt to bash down sealed doors. It needs to also not kill itself as it tries to do this.

TO DO: * Collectables still need to be implemented fully. Will create a new tile that can be placed on the map in places to act as a spawn location for items. * UI for welding fuel, shuttle energy, and carried power cell needs to be constructed. * Need sound (plus mute key) * Needs title screen & controls overview screen * Complete the win condition: adding enough power cells to the shuttle

So much progress. Got a basic HUD working. Collectibles are placed and function properly, including being able to fuel your shuttle and your welder. Just about everything works.

Except one of the primary mechanics of the game: the enemy entity having interaction with doors! Something is eluding me. It just ignores the doors entirely and spreads right through them. Been working at this one for so long...

Thank goodness I'm doing LDJam and not LDCompo.

Turns out the vast majority of problems with my enemy objects boiled down to either one of two issues:

1) Object maintenance wasn't working properly when they were off-screen. Changing it so they always update even when not visible on the screen solved massive performance issues, which really surprised me.

2) Collisions with walls weren't happening properly because collisions rely on movement. There's no movement occurring when an instance is created in a space. It's only when the object instance tries to move that collision is checked for.

So from here on out, I just need to make sure the enemy can properly work on bashing down a door instead of dying. Once that's done, it's just a matter of inserting sounds, a title screen, a game over screen, and a victory screen. I think that will take care of the rest.

My game, Stash, is coming along very well. I completed the game logic in 24 hours. Since then I've been working on little tweaks, adjustments, and improvements. I tried making my own music, but without having much practice at this point, I decided not to worry about it. I found a pretty great music randomizer though, and I'll be using that.

Tomorrow is probably going to be a big Graphics Day. But for now, here's what the game looks like.

As you see below, you're filling up the spaces with objects of varying sizes and values. Your goal is to get the highest total value you can manage before your minute is up. Aim for a score of 5,000 in a casual playthrough, or 6,000 for the hardcore.

Stash has a redesigned playing field. It actually looks like you're putting stuff in your Bag of Holding now! It also has music and sound effects, and that cute little effect where squares get highlighted to show where you're gonna place a thing!

PUMPED! This is my fifth Ludum Dare! My first two Ludum Dares, I made my game in Stencyl. The next two I used GameMaker Studio 2. This time? This time it's Unity. I'm gonna stop being scared of it and dive in! And I'm gonna make the crappiest little game ever and it's going to rule because it's MINE and it EXISTS! YEAH!

I am inexperienced in Unity. I knew this going into this project. I disregarded everyone's advice to avoid learning new tools going into a Ludum Dare. Why? Because I learn VERY well in this sort of environment. This kind of pressure seems to help me stay focused.

So I whipped up a player sprite with full movement animations in one hour. Then... I spent the next five and a half hours in Unity getting it to move and animate properly. But, in the end, I pulled it off, and I'm thrilled! I'm also really fatigued, and it's bedtime.

The most interesting challenged I faced with this little dude is how to determine which direction he should face when moving diagonally. Originally he was defaulting to whatever the highest priority facing on the list was, which generally meant he would always face up or down when going diagonal. Then I took care of that, but he would instead start rapidly flickering between the vertical and horizontal animations when going diagonally.

In the end, I set it so his direction only changes when he is only moving along one axis. If you're moving right, then start moving diagonally up or down, you keep facing right. If you're moving down, and you start going diagonally left or right, you still face down. Perfect.

But what if you start going diagonally at the same time? The character was having an awkward moonwalking effect when doing that. Ah, gotcha. Now I can choose which direction to prioritize! Here it now defaults to horizontal facing.

Still have one little issue: the sprites on my sprite sheet are too close together, so sometimes, due to the way Unity is scaling my sprites, I'm getting little black lines above his head that look like the bottom of his feet. Whoops. That should be an easy enough fix, but I'll deal with that tomorrow.

I guess tomorrow I also need to start making the game itself. Oh shoot, let's not forget that part.

Unity is much more powerful than engines I've used before.

Unity is much more complicated than engines I've used before.

I have resigned myself to not having anything to submit tomorrow, and I need to keep in mind that it's okay. Everything I've done this weekend so far will help me out in the future, and I will be much better prepared for next time.

Fact is, even though I've had to learn a lot in a short time, I still pushed myself harder than I do when it's not Ludum Dare time. That matters.