First LD? Okay, let’s do this!

Took me about one hour, but I have an idea now… Time to code!

I made a mockup of my game:

and now I have something like this (the map tiles are random, for testing)

I’m having some trouble building the map, though. My idea is to draw the map on a bitmap image and read each pixel, drawing different objects depending on the pixel’s color. Does anyone have any idea on how I can achieve this? (Using libgdx)

After some advice, I looked at Notch’s Ludum Dare entry “Prelude of the Chambered” and learned how to correctly process bitmap images the way I needed. I also implemented generic movement for characters, with the player being one of them.

To display the map, I’m simply getting the displayed area, looking up the map (stored as a bidimensional array) and drawing the squares as needed every frame. It’s not… exactly….efficient…but until I can find a faster way, it’s gonna be like that.

Now I’ll go do something else for awhile, maybe a nap, then I’ll implement collisions,shooting,health and enemies.

So during my nap i thought maybe the insanely minimal graphical style I had in mind would be a little confusing… So I detailed my mockup a little more. Still, I’m not sure which style to use, since I lose some of the “minimalism” using the new one.

The game is something similar to Zelda 1 stripped down to the bare bones.

So, Ludum Dare people, which one should I use?

This one? (the old one)

Or this one? (the new one)

Thanks for the help!

This is what I’ve got up to this point:

The player can move around and trees/water are impassable. The level is loaded from a bmp image.

Here’s the full plan for the game: it’s a Zelda-like stripped down to the bare bones. The player will be able to move around and shoot (“sword beam”) with a limited range.

The basic idea is “explore, get treasure, explore”. There will be dungeons and caves with enemies to be killed and treasure. As the player collects more coins, his attack’s range and power increases.

I’m not sure on what to do with health. I initially thought of doing a hunger bar, slowly depleting and recovered by enemy drops. After I thought of the coins, I thought of making each coin recover a little bit of like, in addition to increasing the player’s power slightly.

Another option is to add separated hp drops, but maybe that would make it too complicated for this theme.

tl;dr, the basic gameplay loop is:

explore->find treasure->get stronger->find more treasure.

Most game systems are already in place, I just need to implement level changing, enemy IA and a basic key system.

after that, make the levels, add sound and title screen/game over.

Is there any random music generator that lets me save the music it creates? I looked around on the tools, but found nothing…

Project status…less than ideal, but almost done. Can’t stop to eat, must finish on time.

Must  finish remaining maps, add a few more monsters. Still need an ending. Still, chances of it being done on time are high.

Must get back to work now.

Using libgdx, I expected to port my game to a web version when it was done. Apparently it isn’t that easy, so I’m abandoning it in favor of finishing the desktop version decently…

Less than 3 hours! x_x

…aaaand I just discovered a major memory leak problem that somehow escaped me before…with only 2 hours left…

A little late, but I already got the game conceptualized. Problem is, I don’t have a clue as to which engine/program I’m gonna use to make it.

I won’t need nothing too fancy, just some 2d graphics. If it’s some engine that easily supports tiles, even better.

Any ideas?

Decided to go with my old friend, Unity.

And that’s a placeholder pokemon sprite.

This is the first game that I (Paulo) make as a team with my girlfriend (Bianca)! I made the code, while she made the art.

The concept of the game is simple: you have to reach the end of the dungeon, fighting monsters and solving puzzles, but with a catch:

Cup, the hero of the game, has only one arm, so he can only hold one item!
The item you choose at the beginning of each stage will define how you progress through it, with every item having many uses.

Originally, we planed for many more items and stages, but, of course, that wasn’t possible. Currently, there are 2 short stages playable, showing everything we could make, in the time we had, even though it’s rough around the edges…
We are definitely going to improve this game later, though.

Probably very buggy, I’ll correct everything possible as soon as I can. Web version coming soon.

PLAY!

Well, I’m in for the Jam. My girlfriend is gonna help me, too.

I briefly considered using UE4, but I’ll keep using Unity for now,

Other tools to be decided, I need an idea first.

Game completely planned, with art on the way.

Meanwhile, I’m getting started with the gameplay. I’m glad I’m using Unity, at least I know how it works.

It’s about 3am now, and I’m declaring the day over. Not much to show graphically, but most of the basic systems are fully coded: movement, camera, attacking, damage…

2 days left, so far so good.