Hi All,

This is the first time I participate in LD48,  and I am having a lot of fun!

This is a first screenshot for my “Islands” game idea – called “Mauritius”, the small Indian Ocean Island that was home of the now extinct Dodo:

Mauritius Screenshot

In this game, you play a Dodo (probably the last Dodo). I hope to make it run away from all the things threatening to kill it, from hunters to cats to rats. I still don’t know exactly how it will be in the end, but we’ll see – being on an ISLAND will make escape for this flightless, swimless bird, very hard…

The game is written with C++, using ClanLib as a graphics library. Graphics are with Graphics Gale, Paint.net and Tiled for tile maps.

Anyway, thumbs up for everyone here – I’d be happy to hear your comments!

Thanks,

Daniel

Hi Everybody,

Since I had so much fun at this competition, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts in retrospect, 7 days after everything was done.

Basically, this will be a post-mortem of my game “Mauritius” along with random thoughts.

The Idea:

Upon finding out what the theme was, I started thinking quite a bit. I set myself a deadline of 6 hours into the competition to come up with an idea, and start working. To stimulate thinking, I opened up and read about Islands in Wikipedia, yielding all sorts of stupid ideas. I wasn’t sure if I was looking for a game in which islands are a game mechanic element, or merely a theme element. Needless to say, I went with the latter.

Reading about islands really stimulated me, and soon enough I had a bunch of random drawings on my desk, portraying various islands in all shapes and forms (including one on the back of a giant sea turtle, which was the runner up idea…). Finally, somehow I stumbled upon Mauritius and the story of the Dodo, and that was it.

Game Mechanics and Code:

Choosing a platformer/side-scroller was almost obvious for me, I have only recently went back to playing with game-programming, and anything more complex than that was out of the question.

I drew some sketches of what the game would look like, and didn’t really think of the details. I think this is the main flaw of my game, game mechanics are just too simple – I just didn’t have any good ideas regarding those, at least not ones I knew how to implement.

Code was written in C++ and ClanLib. I have been playing with both in the weeks before LD, just to make sure I remember how to wield this tool. I must say that 48h of coding really helps in MAKING THINGS WORK, without worrying about “But what if I want to add this feature?”. This really streamlined the whole experience, resulting in some ugly code, but at least a whole game. Definitely one of the best lessons leared – just code, damn it! don’t think about it.

Art:

The first thing I did is draw the Dodo sprites. I LOVE drawing sprites, and this one was especially fun. As a reference I searched for “Dodo” in google images, and just left the tab open while I draw the 32×32 pixels bird. Using GraphicGale’s onion skin really helped in making the animation better. The Portuguese hunter is a sprite I am particularly proud of – I drew using a random reference I found on google images (some 18th century etching), and for a 32×64 sprite I think it has nice details. I would have worked more on the animation though, but I didn’t have the time.

Tiles were drawn in a big frame in Paint.NET and later cut down to a tile set. I found this method good because it readily shows you how the tiles connect to each other. It’s the first time I made tiles for a side scroller of this kind, and it was FUN. Paint.NET, however, is really not an ideal tool for this – the grid is just not robust enough there, and handling 32×32 chunks is real cumbersome.

Music:

Music was whipped up very quickly – I used FruityLoops which I really like, and some samples I found on my hard-drive. I wanted something “Jungle” like, but not too happy, and I kinda like the result. Sounds effects were not really important, so I just went with “sfxr” and it did the job.

Random Thoughts:

Eli who introduced me to LD was very supportive, and having someone going through what you are, and sharing ideas, version, graphics and such was a great way to feel how you are coming along in the competition. I don’t think I would have finished anything there without him, so thanks dude!

In conclusion, I had an AWESOME time here at LD, and I am really looking forward for the next one. From what I’ve seen and rated so far, there are some REALLY good games here, so Kudos to all!

Thanks for reading,

Daniel

I was not at home until now – BUT NOW I AM.
I already have an idea, will start sketching things up soon – hope to have first screen shots in an hour or two…

Good luck to everyone participating!

Tags: late

Hi Everyone,

After a late start, this is the first screenshot of my upcoming game “HOME”:

The story is about a sole survivor in a spaceship floating in space, and he wants to go home. Weapons and shields are down after a hard battle, so all he has to defend himself with is a tractor-beam – which will allow the player to drag enemy ships/asteroids and throw them onto other enemies.

(Very) Basic physics are already there, as long with basic sprite drawing and handling – hope to get it all up and running in this retro, vectorized style.

Girlfriend has made Lasagne, so soon, eating!

Thanks! I’ll be happy to hear comments!

Daniel

Well, I am making progress.

Force fields are working, but gameplay is not much fun yet – I think I might need some spring physics… should be easy to incroporate. Here is a current screenshot, the yellow thing is the ship’s forcefield:

This is the Lasagne I had for lunch, and it gives me strength, thank you dear girlfriend!

In the meantime I made some music, it is atmospheric as I could make in 30 minutes, but it will work. I’ll upload it later…

Daniel

Got my collision detection to work – collision handling will be a bit harder than I thought, working on it…

Physics is still not perfect, but the code is not bad, I hope to get everything polished by tomorrow.

Here’s a screenshot, look at the shiny tractor beam!

I can’t seem to upload my music to here, so you will have to wait for the game.

Thanks!

Daniel

After a short breakfast (woke up WAY too late):

I added a starfield, fixed a lot of the physics stuff and collision handling and now – I will actually make it into a game:

My girlfriend had this idea that the player will need to collect stuff to fix his ship and go home, so I will do just that! You will have to collect 3 wrenches floating in space, and in the meantime, use the asteroids and spaceships to fight off enemies, I hope it will be fun, or at least, more fun than it is now…

Hope I will make it in time! Thanks for the comments!

Daniel

Well, game mechanics + effects are nearly complete.

Need to do scoring, dying, winning and title/ending screen. Need to add sounds as well.

I am going to make it!!

Here’s a current screenshot showing off asteroids, enemy ships, tractor beam and particles!

Good luck to everyone!

Daniel

Hey – just submitted HOME – my LD entry for this competition.

Here’s a link to it – don’t forget to vote!!!

Thanks everyone!

Daniel

Hi,

Since the competition is over (good luck jam people!) I thought I’d share some of the lessons I learned during the 48h in the making of HOME.

What went right:

1. I got a complete, working game. As someone who started many projects, but finished very few, this is the best thing about LD for me – I actually FORCE my self to finish this, and it rocks! It happened in LD17 as well, but this time was as good!

2. I think the style and general feel of the game is quite good, and as I intended. Everything runs fast and smooth, and has this vectorized look, which I like. Although I implemented this using sprites, it look quite crisp IMHO.

3. Music turned out to be atmospheric as I wanted it, maybe a bit boring, but it’s background anyway…

4. The code (available, of course) is surprisingly neat – it only started getting messy towards the end.

What went wrong:

1. Gameplay – I think the whole tractor beam mechanism is not fun enough, and not really necessary for finishing the game (although it helps) – this is both due to the physics code which should have been tweaked more, and possibly the general game idea.

2. The game is WAY too short, it’s not that easy (sometimes it is, depends on random values) but you can finish it in under 30 seconds if you’re lucky. not good.

3. No sounds effects! This is actually a technical issue, something weird with how clanlib handles sounds – I got the music to work after a LONG time, but sound effects were very problematic. ANYWAY – you can’t hear anything in space.

4. I wasted a lot of time of getting rigid body collisions (spheres, actually) which I didn’t use – it’s a shame really..

That’s it, I think.

You are welcome to play my game and of course, VOTE!

Can’t wait for the next LD!

Daniel

The game will be named “Caves of Mystery”.

You are a lone archeologist, trapped in the ancient caves of mystery – you need to find your way out, but you only have your trusty torch and a few balls of cotton dipped in gasoline – which you can throw to light up your way.

In each level you need to find your way out – but everything is dark, so use your fire balls wisely!

Hope no one made something similar in LD15 – I see it was about caverns (but I did not participate, nor did I see any game from it…).

Now, art and coding time!

Daniel

Well, after a slow start I now have a tile engine with light controls!

And of course – I made lunch a while ago:

Farfalle with aubergine, yoghurt, tahini and basil – yum!

Hope to have more things soon – sprites, gameplay and sound! stay tuned.

Good luck to everyone!

Daniel

Here’s the latest screenshot:

Collisions are working, also lighting – note the cool torch effect!

Had breakfast:

Now on to to some timestep issues, and actual gameplay!

Daniel

Hi everybody,

I thought I’d share some of my experiences from LD19 creating “Caves of Darkness”, what went wrong, what went right and so on…

What went right:

1. Design – for the first time ever, I thought of a game idea, and implemented all the necessary game mechanics! Here is an early sketch from the morning of the competition:

Those of you who played the game (And if you didn’t – please do it now! ) will note that the game and the sketch are pretty close, something I consider a success.

2. Graphics – I think the graphic style of the game went very well, I worked quite a bit on the lighting effects as they are a major part of the gameplay mechanics, and I think the result is decent!

3. Sound – although the music is not exactly as I wanted it to be (I wanted it to be a bit darker, and mellower) – I think it is not bad after all, and suits the game well.

4. Levels – another first for me – my code base actually supports adding new levels easily, loading them and the game elements from file. This is a HUGE step forward for me, as I really think this makes this thing a GAME and not just a sketch.

What went wrong:

1. Controls – a common problem I have on all of my LD entries – controls are a bit twitchy. Fine tuning the parameters is hard, and because it is based on a simple “physics” engine, it makes it even harder. I think this should be the main thing to rewrite towards next LD competition (or in general, for that matter).

2. Game Elements – this is probably because of lack of time, but I really wanted to have more gameplay elements – moving platforms, collapsing floors and more – maybe for the next LD I will be able to make those happen, now that the code-base is growing.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the result, and I had lots of fun participating.

So thanks, and if you haven’t played my game already – go, now! and vote!

Thanks,
Daniel

Tags: postmortem

OK, Hi!

I must say the theme is not 100% to my liking, but hey that’s what this is all about, no?

Anyhow – my idea is as follows: You are a warrior sent to a dangerous/scary mission, maybe to a forest or something like that. probably to kill a DRAGON.

Anyhow – it’s dangerous to go alone, so the village/town/kingdom wizard gives you this sidekick – a small creature that accompanies you, provides light and possibly some defense/offense capabilities.

The game will probably be an isometric platformer of some sort – but as I have never wrote one, it might be harder than I think!

Good luck to everyone!

Daniel

Here’s the main character of the game – our brave (lonely) warrior:

Pixel art style – pretty decent I think – will take a lot of time drawing all the angles with all the actions – but hey, it’ll be OK.

Will now draw side views and start some coding – Visual C++ here I come!

Daniel

A lovely avocado sandwich which was consumed!

Should keep me up and running while I start coding!

Daniel

Got the tile engine and character/enemy up and running!

You can now “attack” enemies, but it still doesn’t do anything interesting, it looks like this:

Tomorrow I will add real interactions + levels, monsters and winning losing conditions.

Plenty of work, not much time – let’s see how it goes!!

Daniel

My LD submission “Dragon Island” is finally submitted!

I ran a bit out of steam towards the end, but I am happy nevertheless – I’ll write a postmortem later on this week.

Hope you enjoy this, and good luck to everyone!

Daniel

Hi All,

It’s been almost two weeks since the competition, and I figured I’ll write a bit about my experience in creating Dragon Island.

What went right:

1. Graphics and tile engine: I am quite happy with how the graphics turned out, given the time limitation. Even more so, I am happy with my trusty tile engine which grows from LD to LD – this time I added “depth” sorting to allow for this “3d” look.
2. Music: I really like how the music turned out to be – after writing it I though it reminds me of a part of “Dune 2” music, but that was not intentional (although my sub-conscious probably is to blame…).

What went wrong:

1. Gameplay: I am actually disappointed that my gameplay didn’t go as planned. It is full of bugs, and controls are iffy. This seems to be a common problem with my games, but this time it was the worst – I think next time I will need to prototype the game play MUCH MUCH earlier on in the competition, and make it work first. Pretty graphics and nice music doesn’t help when the gameplay is flawed – we are making GAMES here.
2. Time management: I am not sure what happened this time, but I didn’t really manage my time well this time around – I got to the evening of Sunday with very few working elements, and needed to rush everything – usually I’m better at this.
3. Theme: I didn’t like the theme, and I didn’t even know the reference for it (Zelda, and/or the Meme). Well, I work with what I get – but I don’t like the silly themes, so it would seem.

I think that’s about it – thanks every one for a great competition and be sure to play and vote as much as you can (I am very busy these days, I just hope to rate the assigned games at least…). Go play!

Thanks,

Daniel