So, an admission: I first heard about this contest yesterday. Or rather, at about 4am this morning. I don’t see this as a problem, really — just think of me as sort of fresh. Anyway, I made a deal with myself: if I woke up this morning and the theme looked good, I’d do it. I mean…why not?

I awoke; the theme is roads. I am in.

Pending unprecedented tool failure or attack by giant anti-Japanese robots I’ll be using Ruby, RubyGame, and SDL. Design-wise, 2D is definitely a possibility. In fact, it’s the only possibility.

Finally, dynamic map generation + clickable objects. The final game is (hopefully) going to be a business/trading sim, where you control a trucking company — the interface is supposed to be a road atlas. Maybe tomorrow I’ll figure out how to make more squiggly roads. Right now, though, it generates a map with random cities & roads, and lets you click on cities to find out what they produce & demand. Screenshot (!):

Tags: screenshot

A progress report, full of blood, glory, and beautiful trigonometry. I now have some semblance of game state; the game keeps track of how much cash the player has, and you can buy new trucks (if you have the cash) and set up routes between cities. And, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the trucks will actually point the right way as they travel. Grr.

I’m starting to worry about the game idea, though. It won’t be fun unless it’s precisely balanced, and I almost certainly don’t have time to do that here. Oh well, no time left to start over (again)!

Also, I’m really digging the sheer variety of games, designs, and skill levels that’s already emerging in people’s screenshots and status reports. This is fantastic, and really, really exciting. Way more so than I expected.

No, it isn’t time for sausage — it’s time to celebrate, because I’ve got all the essentials for the game. You can add and modify truck routes, trucks do their own pathfinding to determine the cheapest route between cities, the player gets a notification every time a profit is made or lost. I still wish my damn roads weren’t straight (it’s like playing the game on some sort of ideal atlas, which isn’t quite what I was going for. Oh well. Starting the game takes you through a logical series of windows (splash screen, text introduction, main screen) and clicking widgets does pretty much what you’d expect. Hooray!

Also, there’s music now — four short tracks I mixed together in GarageBand. Before 6:13pm today I’d never even opened GarageBand. This is a testament to the easy-to-use Apple philosophy, I guess. Now if I only had any hope of porting my RubyGame/SDL app onto OS X. Yeah, right.

I am now officially spending more time playing than working. Maybe this is a good sign, since I do in fact have something to play, but I feel like I ought to be spending this time better. I am finding and fixing bugs, which is nice — but the bugs are really annoying me, because every time I fix one I have to start my game over.

Prices now change intermittenly, and random events (mostly dealing with the actions of your redneck brother) occur every 1-3 game days. I still need some sort of ratings screen for when you retire (and, probably, a better way to retire other than pressing ESC) so that it feels like you’re achieving something. Otherwise, it really is just playing around in a big sandbox with a lousy economy.

My music is really starting to get on my nerves, too. I’m not sure if making more is the solution, though. I mean, I made this stuff, and it’s really starting to irk me. I think I just fundamentally hate the artist.

Also, I am so not making a business sim for the next LD. Maybe a puzzle game, or something arcade-y. Nothing with this many internal mechanics, that’s for sure.

I’m done, it’s finished. At least, it’s finished enough. Interstate Trucking is a business simulation game, where you take the helm of a small shipping company. Buy new trucks, expand your shipping routes, and try to keep your balance in the green in face of a changing economy, fluctuating gas prices, and a younger brother who simply cannot stay married.

Download Interstate Trucking for Windows.

This was my first time participating in Ludum Dare, and I’m quite proud to have come up with an entry. I fully expected to be one of those folks who gave up halfway through Saturday night. Next time around I will almost certainly be back!

If I’d had more time I’d have improved the economy — right now nothing the player does has any effect on the world. It would be nicer if prices increased steadily in general, but decreased each time you delivered a particular good, forcing players to constantly adapt to the changing economy. Beyond that, I really wanted a second, competing shipping company, but it was simply too much to do in time. Instead, I chose to polish what I had, and I’m quite pleased with the outcome. I’m not going to win (who even likes business sims anymore?) but I do feel like Interstate Trucking is at least a decent first effort. Next time, folks. Next time.

The game is written in Ruby, on Linux, using Rubygame/SDL. The Windows exe is courtesy of the excellent tar2rubyscript and rubyscript2exe tools (I’ll package up Linux and possibly Mac builds tomorrow). I used Photoshop, The GIMP, and Inkscape for the graphics (again, such as they are) and GarageBand (along with Audacity) for the music and (single) sound effect.

Tags: business, final, interstate, trucking, Windows

Just wanted to point out to all who tried to play Interstate Trucking last night that I’ve fixed a major bug, and the game is now much less crash-tastic. I know, I know — I should really write the exception handling code during the contest, but in my defense, I introduced this bug while hacking together the last-minute Windows port, not in the original Linux version. Also, the source code is now online as well.

Please download the Windows or Linux version and give Interstate Trucking a try!

So I just can’t let this go — I had so much fun during LD #13 that I really don’t want to stop working on this project. I’ve posted an updated version of Interstate Trucking, with multiple difficulty levels, a dynamic economy, more random events, and several crash-averting bugfixes. If you’re interested, or thought that the contest version had even the slightest potential, please check it out! Hooray!

The contest version, of course, is still available for download at the same site. Just be sure to get the ‘Ludum Dare’ version, and not the updated one!

Progress, ho! First screenshot of tHMSBiHMZQ; an isometric adventure game.With fruit! Built in Python/Pygame instead of Ruby this time. Shaking things up a bit — but not too much.

I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with this, but getting there is sure going to be fun. I’m aiming a little higher than normal, to see if I can cram in a bigger game in 48 hours. This is about 6 hours in.

Tags: early, isometric, screenshot

Nothing earthshaking or groundbreaking from me this compo, I’m afraid. Progress is happening, and I’m adding useful stuff to the engine — fog of exploration, embarking/debarking, and dialog! — but don’t expect anything innovative.

Current state of tHMSBiHMZQ:

Woohoo, MiniLD. Not only is this an awesome if somewhat self-referential theme, it’s looking like I might finish an entry — something which I haven’t done in a while. Too long to admit. Ah, well. Like I said, it’s looking good.

I spent the first six or so hours of the Compo (at least, those for which I was at home!) playing old LD entries that I’d never gotten around to playing for one reason or another. Turbulent Lake is a mash-up of Hamumu’s sublime Still Pond, with all of the humorous juxtaposition replaced by flaccid meta-jokes. What can I say. The pretty is really starting to shape up, though.

It’s 10:30am here, folks — I think it’s time to go to bed, and leave the serious content creation for another day. Keep the pythons curling while I’m away.

Well, this is a new one. I’m finished, or as finished as I’m going to get. I chose to build a game where the primary (indeed, only) mode of interaction is movin the mouse around and frantically clicking — and apparently something I did yesterday set of my carpal tunnel something awful. I can no longer play what I’m writing! Oh noes! Ah, well…At least it’s feature-complete, if somewhat lacking in content.

Download Turbulent Lake for Windows

Game is a mash up of Hamumu’s Still Pond, and some, err, other stuff. Yeah. If you find it frustrating, press spacebar to toggle ‘wimp mode’. Makes things easier.

Wimp.

Tags: carpal tunnel, final, hamumu, mash-up, mashup

Tags: LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009, motivation

Not about to miss out on a real compo, not when I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. Doches is in, though I’m still undecided on what I’ll use. First time around was Ruby, second was Python. I had pretty good success just diving in and learning python last time; thinking about doing the same for flash. Or maybe Objective-C. Who knows. Really, I guess it depends on how much I like the theme.

And come-hell-or-high-water I’m doing all the extraneous stuff this time, too. I’m doing this compo right: motivational posters, journal, food. Everything that goes into my stomach this weekend is going to be photographed and blogged in real time. You heard it here first, folks.

Also, I’m responsible for the twitterbot in #ludumdare. If it annoys you, complain to me!

Tags: LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009, motivation

Tags: LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009, motivation

As though this weekend weren’t going to be masochistic enough, I whipped out a hour-and-a-half warmup Towlr. Download Towld, written in python+pygame+chipmunk.

Sources tomorrow.

Tags: LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009, towlr, warmup

First meal of the compo. I’m saving off eating it until 4am (start time here), so as to actually eat it during the compo. That’s right. While the rest of you are thinking about themes, I’ll be eating goat cheese, drinking Guinness, and thinking about themes.

Though I’ve already demolished the Cadbury’s. Sigh.

Tags: food, LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009

Man, it’s too early for this. Morning apple pastries, with apple juice for fuel. Apparently I’m going for the GBGames style of LD nourishment this time around.

Did some concept art last night, which I really don’t remember — things got a little bleary around 5am. Still no good ideas, so I guess I’ll just go with a dumb one. Hey, you work with what you got.

Tags: food, LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009

I am so very uninspired this weekend — it looks like I’m going to fall on that (trusty) old standby, the sidescrolling platformer. Having some fun playing around with the visual style, though.

Wait — you don’t see the game in that screenshot? It’s right there! No? Aww, comon:

Yeah, you can really see where my priorities lie. Or at least my ability to prioritize.

Anyway, it’s a wall. It’ll kill…anything on the stage. Too bad the stage is empty. Sigh.

Tags: LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009, screenshot, SSSP