Hey, I’m Dexter, moderate time lurker first ludum Dare…er (dareist? dareketeer?)

I’ll (most likely) be using flashdevelop, paint.net and sfxr.

I’m in!

Hmm,

Won’t lie, I’m finding this theme pretty tough :/

I figured a nights sleep may provide some inspiration. I’ve brainstormed a few ideas, whiped up a few bits of pixel art and pieced together a basic isometric engine.

(So lonely)

I’m still not sure what I’m going to make (not terribly keen on any of my ideas so far) but I had to do something.

Right now it looks like it may be an rpg/visual novel, though I seriously doubt I could complete such a thing in the timefame.

Welp, back to work!

Dexter

Making steady progress:

The plan then (for the moment at least) is a visual novel hopefully with some meaningful player input/decisions, though story has never been my strong suit :S

But hey, it’s suppost to be a challenge!

Dexter

Things are progressing well enough: I’ve got a basic isometric word up and running (with only a few known bugs :/ ) and soon the dialogue system will be completed.

Feels good man.

Our hero(?) finds himself at a crossroads.

Still only the vaguest idea of a story, but the plan is to just keep adding the features in hopes that sometime in the final 24 hours inspiration will strike and I’ll find my inner Steven King.

I never said it wa a good plan.

Dexter

Turning in for the night.
Hopefully after a sleep I’ll have the inspiration I need to turn what I have into something resembling a game :S

For anyone who’s interested:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6663023/dex/alone/index.html

Dexter

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6663023/dex/alone/index.html

Less than 12 hours to go and, while I have something, I don’t think you could call it a game

Finally settled on a title though, and it even vaguly fits with the main mechanic :3

“You Are (Not) Alone”

For those interested you can preview/play at:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6663023/dex/alone/yana.html

It’s as I feared though, my lack of writing skill and the tight deadline meant that I wasn’t likely to finish a visual novel style game

Well, I’ll keep plugging away until the deadline, and maybe, hopefully, I can at least make a fun/interesting toy!

Dexter

So…

from the start I didn’t have high hopes about completing the design I went with, and for the last few hours I’ve just been in a ‘just get enough stuff in there to show the intention’ kinda blitz.

But you knw what? Everything’s come together so well in these last few hours I’m in danger of actually haveing a game on my hands :3

(You WISH you were alone!)

4 hours to go: Let’s do this!

Dexter

This’ll be my second LD, hoping to do better this time

Been looking forward to this since the last one.

Well, good luck everyone!

Edit:

Should probably say what I’ll be using. Most likely:

– Flash develop

– Paint.net

– sfxr/bfxr/musagi

– Notepad++

Right, after staying up for the theme (not sooper thrilled btw ), brainstorming a few ideas and a decent amount of sleep it’s time to get started!

Got what I think is a pretty good idea, been a while since I tried to make a platformer though :S

Well, here goes!

Dexter

Right, first 2 hours are done:

Got my idea, got my first characters and just working to get them into a world.

I wasn’t keen on the theme (again) this year but I’m pretty happy/excited about this idea, don’t want to give away the hook yet though 😉

Dexter

Well, A little over half a day in and a little more than 6 hours work from me and viola:

Can you guess what it is yet?

Pretty happy with movement, jumping and aiming, still have to do the levels and shooting and then hopefully have time to dump a few tons of polish for a change

Dexter

12 Hours:

Congratulations Doc, it’s a shrink ray!!  😀

Pretty pleased with how things are progressing. That’s ‘the hook’ pretty much done.

Need to add enemy AI, level design and appropriately spiffy sfx, necessary screens and then I can spend some time really polishing!

Dexter

Half way point and I’m pretty happy. Finally have a title too:

“Congratulations Doc, it’s a Shrink Ray!”

There’s a test build online at:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6663023/dex/LD23/cdiasr.html

The bit’s are there but I still need to weave it all into a story so it’s just a fun toy at the moment but let me know what you think.

Time to grab a few zzzz, then it’s back to work!

Dexter

Hour 40ish and feelin fine:

Finally got the comicy style shinking effect I wanted 😀

Pretty much everything I’d planned for is done.  Some of it’s a bit rough so I’ve plenty to still polish, the main problems at the moment are my inabilty to draw any more objects for level design and the sucky ‘boss’ fight.

Dexter

New build available:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6663023/dex/LD23/cdiasr.html

There’s a few known bugs/incomplete features there and work will no doubt continue up till the deadline but let me know what you think

Dexter

Well, the game’s in the bag and after a good nights sleep thought I’d do a submission/postmortem post for myself and anyone who’s interested (and to hopefully drum up some interest )

Submission:
Congratulations Doc, it’s a Shrink Ray!

A platformer shooter where you play as a scientist forced to defend his latest greatest invention from the evil ninja army!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=8352

Post mortem:

What went right
– The basic platformer physics were completed quickly and I came up with a level format that allowed me to define the level completely (with the exception of the enemies) in terms of platforms (including the backgrounds). This kept things moving at a good pace.
– The shrinking and ray gun effects. I was lucky to have been tackling problems like this recently for another project so it was all fresh in my mind (probably a large part of the reason I had the inspiration in the first place I guess). Resizing the characters to arbritrary scales was the easy part, but I really wanted a comic book style shrinking effect (you know, the blurred/faded cascading outline thing) and while it’s not as detailed as I’d hoped I did manage in the last few hours to get an effect close enough that I’m pretty happy with.
– Time management. I didn’t really have a plan but I feel I did prioritize well in terms of functionality, producing a game that wa playable (and fun, in my opinion) as soon as possible and adding features righ up to the last few hours.

What went wrong
– Anything that required artistic skill 😉 …except the main character, I’m really happy with how he turned out. I wanted the game to appear to have a little depth rather than be a totally flat platformer and, while when it works I think it looks good, it really caused me problems trying to create art assets to fit with the style/perspective (Most notably – cars. I really wanted a vehicle or two in the outside section but was completely unable to produce one).
– Enemy AI is practically non existent, they just run straight at you jumping occasionally. I don’t think I was ever going to get a good pathfinding system in there in the time but I would have liked to spice it up a bit to stop them being defeated by the simplist of obstacles.
– Enemy variety. Don’t get me wrong, I like ninjas, but when you’re killing nothing but ninjas all day every day some of the magic is lost. The one other enemy type in game was a pretty poor and ill concieved attempt but I left him in there anyway. I would have really liked to add attack dogs but my artistic skills were no where near up to it.
– Level… design I guess would be one word for it. Beyond the starting lab I didn’t plan out any more locations/setting and just stitched together whatever I was able to think of and produce images for.
– Ending. Well, the lack of it anyway. Similar to level design I didn’t have much of a story in mind so I’d never really planned for an ending, it just stops dead.

All in all great fun and I feel a pretty successful challenge. It’s been years since I tried to make a platformer and wa a nice change of pace. Looking forward to judging everyone elses entries now (and seeing how mine is judged :S )

Dexter

(Hopefully) Signing up for my 3rd Ludum Dare.

Not sure what stack I might use, Likely either:

Flash/Flashdevelop or C#/XNA/Visual studio

With Paint.Net, Audacity, Bfxr, Musagi, Notepad++

First update and screeny:

Just a quick glance at the front page of posts tells me that quite a few people had similar ideas though :S

Well, regardless, I’m pretty happy with my idea and hopefully the story/setup and game mechanics are enough to hold it’s own

Dexter

After a couple of hours sleep to recharge and mull over ideas things are still moving at a decent pace 😀

Pretty much 0 noticible difference between 6hr and 12hr screenshots but there’s plenty ‘under the hood’

Camera controls and basic pathfinding are in and I have a name/title screen!

Next up is the basic AI and player controls, then story and then content, content, polish, polish!!!

Dexter

Update:

Finally got something new to show. There’s been constant work on AI, actions, equipment etc but none of that translates well to screenshots, but finally got the basics of those done and added a bit to the UI

Still got a looooot of stuffs I want to get in there before the end like story intro, sounds, proper level generato and hopefully have time to add more content.

Dexter