I’m in for LD21!

It might not be my best effort, given as I’m starting a new job this week and I might be exhausted by the weekend, but I’m still going to give it my best!

I’ll be using Flixel as my library of choice, using DAME as a map editor, Photoshop for graphics, BFXR for sounds and, in the unlikely possibility of getting done fast enough, SunVox for some music.

Prepare for the competition!

EDIT: I just realised I sent a video in for the keynote speech under the name of “Cirr”. It’s another nick I use, just a shortened form of Cirrial. Don’t worry, Cirr is still me!

Tags: flash, flex, Flixel, LD21, LD21 Im In

43 hours remaining and I did not expect the theme to be escape.

I’ll be back after an hour’s walk with ideas. I already have some, but so far it’s looking pretty much like a Metroid knock-off with self-replicating enemies. Let’s hope I come up with something A) more original and B) less huge in scope before I get back!

I might even be planning stuff out on graph paper so we’ll see if I have time to get that scanned in to post up or not. It’s quicker than faffing about with a tablet, really.

See you later!

Tags: Flixel, is that really the time, morning, waking up

It’s only been eight hours into the compo (aaaagh) but I finally have my ideas selected and filled reams of paper with the planning I’ll need to carry it out. One of the things I quickly learned in LD20 was the value of planning when I ran out of plan and had to waste precious hours coming up with new plans.

I’d scan in my planning documents to show everyone, but I feel like that’d ruin the surprise, so here’s a vague and cryptic micro-pitch of the game idea. You’re some weird alien thing (a reoccuring theme in my works, I realise) on a space station trying to escape, and the only other thing I’ll mention is that this would have probably worked for the theme of Enemies as Weapons just as well.

Time to start frantically coding!

Tags: alien, cliches everywhere, Flixel, space station

Aaagh! After spending two hours figuring out that the IDE was loading in an older form of the SWF than the current one, this is all I have after 6 conscious hours of work! D:

At least I do have a solid plan of action for the rest of the hours, though.

There’s a ways to go yet.

Tags: Flixel, goddamn IDEs, intellij

Whoops, forgot to make this post. Seemed like I’d done it already! Oh well.

I intend to make a game using Flixel, a free opensource framework built on top of the Flex framework (so a Flash game, basically, look at all those words starting with f). My IDE of choice is IntelliJ. I will be using Photoshop for pixel art graphics because I am apparently a masochist (it’s a great program, but there’s a very small selection of decent pixel level art tools on OS X), and if I get as far as sound and music, I will be using BFXR for sounds and SunVox for music.

I’m not 100% well while typing this, due to the high concentrations of the winter lurgy, but let’s hope I don’t go down ill any further by the time the weekend gets here. I’ll be entering anyway, illness be damned!

Well, by some miracle I haven’t slept way past my alarm and into the early hours of the afternoon. As I feared, I am not 100% in terms of health. Fortunately, I am at least over 80% in terms of health so this thing can still happen! Just need some caffeine and I can start talking a walk to develop my ideas. I have a couple of ideas already, so we’ll see how they go!

Tags: awake, Flixel

Unfortunately, it’s on paper and I don’t have a scanner, but…

This game is looking to perhaps be my shortest most unambitious project yet, which gives it a damn good chance of reaching polish levels far more quickly. It’s probably going to take five minutes to play, but that was true of Throwbots and it was still at least an entertaining five minutes (or so I heard, anyway).

It all dwells on being trapped in a facility and depending on a very, very finite resource with an unlimited amount of things that drain this resource.

Unfortunately, this resource is basically the player character’s lifeforce. And once it’s gone, that’s it. Game over.

It might work, it might not. Onto prototyping the mechanics!

Tags: Flixel, Planning

Thus ends the first 22 hours of Ludum Dare 22 for me. It’s almost like I timed this! (no I didn’t)

Unfortunately, lacking any of the graphics, sounds, or narrative kind of reveals my game to have precious little game in it. Here’s hoping the rest adds something it’s missing right now, or I can think of a neat and quickly implemented little mechanic to spice things up a little.

You can get access to the prototype HERE!

Tags: as3, demo, Flixel, prototype

My entry, Blue Moon, is now submitted! Sorry for the lack of updates, but due to illness I’ve had to devote all my energy to getting something finished.

See it HERE!

Left it a little later than usual but, eh, what can you do. Hi! I’m Cirrial, more frequently known around the internets as Cirr. I’m not exactly a known name to many, but this is a special Ludum Dare to me as it is to the community in general. While for the wider community at large this marks the 10th year anniversary, this for me marks the one year anniversary since I decided “Oh, why the hell not, then” and took the plunge into this wonderful competition.

My personal challenge to myself, should you be interested, is to not make a platformer for the fourth time running. For too long it has been something of a crutch to fall back on the good old well-established grammar of the 2D platformer. I am, however, keeping my toolset as before. I will leave it to next LD to go truly out there.

Tools:

• Framework/Libraries: Flixel on top of Flex (I know, I know, Flash, but it’s really good for rapid development like this!)
• IDE: IntelliJ IDEA
• Level Editor: DAME, if appropriate
• Graphics: Any combination of Graphics Gale, Paint.NET and SAI Paint Tool, depending on requirements
• Sounds: BFXR, because it’s SFXR but better
• Music: SunVox, if I have the time
• Screen capturing: Chronolapse
• Streaming: Livestream Procaster

I believe this covers most of it. See you during the compo!

Tags: 2D, as3, flash, Flixel, ld23

About one hour and forty five minutes later than I would have liked, but, hey, what can you do? Figured getting some good sleep was better than rushing up and being bleary and empty-headed for nearly two hours anyway. So as an update, have my command and control centre. I need to go eat and think of some ideas, fast.

It took longer than I will consciously remember to get these things set up properly.

Best of luck to you all, and I’m going to go attend to my food-related needs now!

Tags: flash, Flixel, ld23

Well, it was going fine until I went down ill last night. That’s sort of happened before but it hasn’t also taken my drive and stamina away with it. That, and I wasn’t really feeling my idea at all this time. I’m not blaming the theme, just my idea was far too huge in scope and I can’t cut anything down any further without having no game left.

Next time shall be different! For August, I intend to go for the jam, if I can get a free Monday. It will let me come up with slightly more ambitious designs AND use some of my pre-existing assets and such, as well as get some help from outside.

Still, three out of four compos since I entered isn’t too bad, I guess.

Tags: flash, Flixel, ld23

Hi! I’ve entered a few Ludum Dares before (none this year due to illness and deadlines, ugh) and this time last year I made Blue Moon, one of my most well received games in general.

I’m going to use the following tools, and aiming for the compo. But it is the end of the year, when burnout is high and holidays creep ever closer, so perhaps I might go for the jam this time.

• Flixel
• IntelliJ IDE
• DAME for level editing if I really, really have to
• SAI for illustrations
• PyxelEdit/Photoshop, the former I don’t know as well and the latter I do
• Sunvox for music
• BFXR for sound

That covers everything, I think! See you then!

Tags: bfxr, DAME, Flixel, intellij, photoshop, pyxeledit, sai, SunVox

Well, damn. No ideas for this theme.

Gonna need to take a looong walk to think of anything this time.

Just not feeling it.

When I first entered Ludum Dare, it was April of 2011. 2011 was a good year for making games for me. Throwbots, Aphelion Incident and Blue Moon were my creations for 2011, and I still feel that for all their flaws they are still reasonably solid entries.

2012 was not so good. This time last year I came down ill. In August I was busy with preparations for an academic conference. In December? In December, my only excuse was absolutely hating the theme. (If “You Are Your Enemy” wins I will go mad. MAD)

Let’s hope things go better this time around!

IDE: IntelliJ

Library: Flixel

Map/Level Editor: DAME

Image Editor: Photoshop/GraphicsGale/Paint Tool SAI

Sound Generator: BFXR

Music Editor: SunVox

Timelapse: Chronolapse

Streaming: Open Broadcaster Software

Tags: bfxr, DAME, flash, Flixel, graphicsgale, intellij, LD#26, paint tool sai, photoshop, potato, sai, SunVox

Okay, I’m awake. The theme really feels like carte blanche to do whatever I feel like as long as the end result is mostly tiny boxes. Mmph. There’ve been better themes before, that’s for sure. But if that is the theme, I will at least try to aim towards it. At least this is a nice excuse to spend more time coding and less time drawing.

Tags: LD#26, minimalism, potato

of which I dearly hope will change

You are some kind of bug alien queen thing. You need to make more bugs to protect you from a horde of… (rolls dice) snake aliens. Why this? Well, before I drew up any plans, I managed to make these my bonus objectives for this compo through various conversations with people (which I am sticking to with more gusto than the theme, apparently):

• No blue colour anywhere
• Use the colour red
• Insert potato into game
• Non-humanoid characters

Have some totally illegible scribbles (and angry rants) on graph paper! I’ll update everyone with more progress when it has been made.

…I forgot to add potato. Well, I’m sure I’ll find a way to add potato down the line.

Tags: Flixel, LD#26, Planning, plans, potato

It’s been over twelve hours and I’ve only now finally managed to get a working A* pathfinding thing in Flixel.

…I do not have high hopes.

Tags: aaaaaaa, as3, flash, Flixel

Things I achieved on day one:

• Wasting the entire day on broken pathfinding code I realised I wouldn’t really need to use

Things left to do:

• All the rest of the game code
• All the graphics
• All the sound

Panic mode: yes.

Potato inclusion: unlikely. :C

…there’s always plan B if I really can’t finish what I’m working on in time.

Tags: flash, Flixel, LD#26