This will be my first LD, and unfortunately I’m quite busy this weekend with a ton of school stuff. I’m hoping for this to be more of a massive learning experience than anything else, and I’m looking forward to learning A LOT about java (I’m only semi-proficient) and useful tools.

I’m also trying programming on my Arch system for the first time (using Eclipse – not experienced with that IDE at all as I’ve always used JCreator on Windows), so I’ll see how that works out. Anyway, however this goes, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun.

I tried to install glapse (I’m on Arch by the way), but I got stuck because my mirror (waterloo) doesn’t have ffmpeg, and I’m too lazy to manually download it or to change my mirror to find it. Oh well, maybe next time. I got sfxr though, so if I need sounds I’ll use that.

EDIT: Just saw the convenient scrot script, will use that!

EDIT EDIT: Aaargh! Waterloo doesn’t have mencoder to combine the screenshots into a timelapse!

WOOOOOOOOO!

Presenting: my very first Ludum Dare submission!!11!

Please check it out! I only had like 8 hours to work on it, and I’m not experienced at all at game programming, so it’s not much at all. Still, it’s the fruit of a learning experience I enjoyed immensely. I can’t wait for the next LD.

Actually, I can. I need to learn a lot before then.

Anyway, here’s my game:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=7995

This is going to be either my third or fourth attempt at a ludum dare. I’ve only finished one, LD22, but with a new code base (which I will provide here) I hope to make this my second completed compo.

I’ve never had the patience for software architecture, nor the skills for art, so this time around I’m going to experiment with a purely text based game. A bit dull, I know, and it really minimizes the amount of programming involved but I figure baby steps are the best move when programming isn’t my primary field of expertise. With that in mind I’ve written an engine in python that substantially simplifies the process via a fairly straightforward overhead. It will allow me to focus primarily on storywriting. Maybe for the next competition I’ll create version two, with more interactivity and features. Who knows.

Anyway, as per the rules I will provide the codebase now. I haven’t put it on a git yet (I don’t really have a functioning repository at the moment) so I’ve just shoved it into my dropbox. You can download the source here.

Hope everyone has a good competition with lots of fun!