elbowroom

LD20

The idea fairy just came by 10h before ld ends

First post!

Hope this works

I’m starting to work on the game now :) I just found an idea I’m happy with that suits the theme

Good luck to everyone.

ER

Comments

Blodyavenger
01. May 2011 · 13:32 UTC
Good luck 😉

First compo for me..

I just made and submited a game to the public for the first time.

Yay! I managed to squeeze it in the last minute..

I am wondering if I submitted successfully and what is the new counter “one hour” ..

I’m really pleased even though I see some people have made really polished games cause I only had 7h for this.:)

Best of luck in the competition!

Best regards,

ER

You are welcome to play Red

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ Red- Flash game by ElbowRoom – I’m so glad I made this

Welcome, please check out the game. It is my first LD and first game out and I’m glad I managed to finish in time.

I’m happy to have joined this event. :)

I am really excited.

Good luck to everyone during the game rating phase.

Best regards,

ER

Ludum dare20 torrent – ?

I have been thinking about creating a torrent file for all the compo games for rating purposes..

Is that even legal? Is anyone already doing this? If anyone has details please share.

Thanks

ER

Comments

alexlarioza
03. May 2011 · 16:35 UTC
There was one last LD so I don’t think it would be a problem. After all, every game is open source. ;]
matthias_zarzecki
03. May 2011 · 17:27 UTC
The idea is good. Torrents area good choice.
04. May 2011 · 03:37 UTC
We are all sharing our games, so it wont be ilegal.. make sure you get seeders! 😉
Blodyavenger
04. May 2011 · 14:55 UTC
I can help ‘ya seed if you manage to get everything into torrent :)

Red – bug detection help!

Hi,

 

I heard some reviewers mention, there is a bug in my game Red that freezes the game after the objective is complete.

Please check the game if you have a sec and see if it freezer during the second level.

If the bug does happen, please comment and include the version of flash you have.

You can check here which version you have. Thanks

 

ER

Smashy smash!

Question: when does this mini-LD end?
Question2: Where do you post the game when it is ‘done’.
Thanks.

First, I have a few things to say:
Today I realized in a very painful way that I’ve been very  disorganized in the past.
I recently worked on a flash game for a teaching project I participate where University students teach programming in High School.
One of the AS3 classes I wrote for that project was what I call ‘art code’ that means code that can’t be replicated.. because the goal is artistic.
That specific code was used to generate random brick tiles for 2d games..
It seems that I have deleted it completely somehow.. is there no use crying oer spilled milk? Why do I unknowingly delete code I love?
:(
I hope to learn from this mistake and that I’ll be truly organized from now on. :)
(I have made this mistake many times before)

Themes I chose:

  • Descend
  • Demolish(?)
  • Destroy
  • Dirt

A: Name: Smashy smash!

B: Description:
You are an unseen force around a giant demolition (wrecking) ball  that is constantly chasing the ‘hero’ of the game.
Use the pointer to place dirt and alter the direction of the ball. (click on the platform to erect a ramp, in the air to create a floating block)

C: One mockup image:
One mockup image coming right up:

This is a picture of a big ball chasing a little man with big balls

smashy smash

 

 

D: Definition of Done:
A player can:

  1. Move the ball around, bouncing it from platforms to platform and switch directions.
  2. Lose if the timing of the jump is ‘lousy’ or if she did not switch direction in time.
  3. Win the game and get the hero. :) And smashy smash.

Features:

  1. It takes over a minute to win the game.
  2. The hero keeps running away and jumping around.
  3. It gets more challenging over time.
  4. There is a game over screen.

Comments

elbowroom
28. May 2011 · 13:45 UTC
Correction!

Smashy smash

I posted my game in the compo..

It is not complete..
More details in the compe page :)

smashy smash

LD21

Ludum 21- SpaceShift

I’m participating in the LD and hoping to finish in time with a playable game I decided to change my original plan and focus on a game that will be fun to make and most importantly enjoyable to play.
My inspiration is RogueLike games but I want something that is not turn based.
Good luck everyone.

Technical details:
I’m using FlashDev and AS3.

Progress report

Hello, this is the progress report on Astral Artifice, my ludum dare entry.
Yesterday I worked (and spent a lot of time) on creating a procedural space station map generator I call SpaceShift.
Here is an example.

Where we write stuff no one reads

I always wonder who reads these posts, there are so many and they keep coming in so I guess we might as well focus on the games..

However, I do feel that granted the premission I have a few things to write about Ludum Dare  21, My first LD was 20.
Unlike my first LD, this time I only completed nearly 20% of the features.
This Theme was actually one I wanted long before the LD21 and I ended up coming here unprepared to make an exquisite submission.

I spent the entire first day on perfecting the first feature that hardly affects gameplay(random maze) and only using one sample so the player doesn’t benefit from the variety of having a fresh new maze each time we play.

The game I wanted to create, a rougelike inspired shmup,  (Think Metroidvania meats Powder)where you play as a space traveller caught in a massive (not so) abandoned  space station looking for some spare parts to fix his rig and save some bucks.

Requires improvement:

The game was suppose to introduce the story to the player in game amongst other things, like powerups, enemies, bosses and traps, this feature will only be in a future version.

The good:

I learned something I should have known by now.
How to blit fast in AS3 which I never tried before.(I actually used shapes)
This was very refreshing and got me highly excited near the last hours.

What I learned:

I really should focus on making gameplay elements first.
Making and playing with the actual player experience is far more important than the technical aspects, cause if the game ends up not finished, I would like to think that people enjoyed my submission.
Otherwise it would be a technical demo competition and not a game making event correct.

Anyhow I’m sure tomorrow I’ll play all the great games and enjoy and start getting some code ready for the next LD.

Thanks for reading.

Comments

Petzi
22. Aug 2011 · 16:16 UTC
You were wondering who would read your post, well I happened to stumble upon it and did read it. I was also tempted to go for a maze-generator, as it would give the player lots of variety and replay value while taking away the player’s ability to learn the stage. Fortunately, through another project I’m working on I discovered that generation is often a huge pain to make, so after a bit of pondering I realized that it was a terrible idea. Even if the game had an infinity of levels, people usually don’t play Ludum Dare submissions more than once or twice.
vandriver
22. Aug 2011 · 16:42 UTC
A lot of us read these!
22. Aug 2011 · 16:56 UTC
If you’ve done randomly generated levels before, it doesn’t take too long as my LD entry has randomly generated levels. =] I usually take my further after the compo so I’m not too worried about people not playing through it enough.
22. Aug 2011 · 16:56 UTC
Heaps of people read these posts. I read a fair chuck as they scroll past, but rarely comment on them. It’s especially interesting seeing the postmortems – especially the things that almost everybody does wrong, repeatedly, even though we all know we should avoid them!
22. Aug 2011 · 17:32 UTC
Whenever I visit the site I skim through every single post on the front page, but I almost never bother commenting on them anyway, so don’t feel down if you think nobody’s reading..

Advantages in using an existing Library

Hi,

There is nothing like LD to clear up misconceptions and bring you up to speed:)
Since the a few LDs ago, seeing some brilliant games made in Flixel I’ve always wondered what are the advantages of using a Library like that?
(Please be patient, I was quite a noob at game making for the web, let alone a 48h competition)
After all, it seems that all the tools that are available in AS3 API, are sufficient to create great games quickly.
After this LD I finally understand, even though I do not use that library because I enjoy learning to make stuff myself, I now know why it is so great and helps a ton.

Here are some reason you would want to use Flixel instead of writing more code yourself:

  1. You can talk to people about something in Flixel, there is a community.
    Having conversations is beneficial to learning for beginners and advance users.
  2. You get every tool neatly organized and handily available during the competition when you really need.
    Doing well in the competition may require preparations and knowing Flixel well covers that.
    If you write the code, you still may need to organize it properly.
    You may have a ton of code but is it handily available?
  3. The tools are tested for bugs and they do what is expected.
    If you write it yourself, you still need to test for bugs and even if you do, one person testing in 48 hours or a few weeks does not match with ? thousands that are constantly testing it during the whole year.
    Having bug tested code saves you unwanted surprises.
  4. You get really high performance, this is something I did not know. These tools are tweaked for high peformance.
    I made a huge maze for the competition and I know Flixel handles tile based maps, however I did not know it does it really fast and takes advantage of the best ways this can be accomplished in AS3.
    I actually learned and used Bliting in AS3 for the first time this LD which was really exciting to me.
    Flixel would have done that for me and I wouldn’t even need to know it is doing it. The same principle is true about other tools. Flixel offers an answer to the need for speed. This is very important for games where low frame rate ruins the experience.
  5. Bottom line: If you understand how Flixel works, you can focus much more on the game instead of writing the “low lvl” functionality.
    Sure writing an engine is a wonderful learning experience but when you compete to make games, you can use this precious time to work on other aspects of the game itself.

 

So basically I’m not planning to use it but by I highly recommend it for most AS3 based game projects.:)
Now I finally know why. If you have any comments on the advantages of using Flixel please share.

 

 

Comments

marudziik
23. Aug 2011 · 18:30 UTC
There’s also an alternative – FlashPunk, which I was learning during the compo and it went quite good. Flixel is next on the list. :)

However, your question shouldn’t be really connected to the competition. Using libraries for making games is something necessary anyway. As in “it’s very nice that you want to do all the stuff by yourself, but inventing a wheel all over again is generally not the right thing to do” – at least if you want to finish any game at all.

LD22

Been busy but want to play

I have been pretty busy with University related stuff, interviews and work. But I feel that I have to make something for the LD :) hopefully it will be playable even though I only have about 3 hours to complete it.:)
I should keep it simple, lets hope it works out.

LD23

There is room for one more.

I will be joining this LD as well, I joined the last one but did not make it in time.. I ended up with a little cute game which I never uploaded.

 

This time I will make a game so small I will definitely make it in time.

 

Using my trust AS3 skills.. if I get time I’ll use sfxr or some other tool for audio and Acid Music if I feel generous for background music.

 

Prepare to see the smallest fun playable game ever made. Good luck to everyone.

 

This is ElbowRoom signing out.

omg – it already started!

I just woke up, I can’t believe it already started. I thought there was an hour left until it starts. woah

This is so exciting!

Good luck everyone.

 

Tiny World – hmm… I cannot argue it reminds me of ants.. wasn’t ants three LudumDares ago on “it’s dangerous to go alone, take this” ?

Not sure what I am making that could suit the tininess of the theme and the worldliness either.

I could make a huge world, how is that a game? I am going out to exercise on the beach, be back later after I clear my head.

Gameplay ideas

First I thought I’d use the theme as a game look making a RTS where different bacteria battle it out.
Then I thought of using it as a game atmosphere and background story, where you are a contraceptive inside the womb, fighting off sperm and such(but it’s been done to death)
Then I thought of it like a gameplay objective, a game where you shrink worlds in order to collect them and put them in a museum
Or a gameplay mechanic, where you shrink to get into places you can’t enter otherwise.

Not sure what I will go with yet.

Vegetable juice!

So I am done juicing
juicer
vegetables
Juicing in action
Juice is ready
And ready to go!

Getting ready to start programming

Desk is pretty clean and tidy:
programming desk
Check
Dogs are ready to playtest a masterpiece:
Dogs waiting anxiously to play Ludum Dare game
Check
Mockups and instructions ready:
Allow meteors to hit tiny world(bad)
Allow ships to fire proton beams at tiny world(bad)
Deflect metoer at ship(Great!)

Wow, I haven’t started programming today and half a day is already behind me.
Going to keep the graphics simple this time to concentrate most of my effort on completing a playable fun game that runs nice and smooth.
Good luck to everybody!

Comments

aus_mike
21. Apr 2012 · 09:25 UTC
What sort of a chain is that on the black dog?

Okay, time to get started with implementation

Game mockup:
battle scene

Stuff I need:

Collision space class :
Detecting collisions(pixel perfect)

World class :
Health bar
sprite
sprite + collision space mutates

Giant space paddle :
Movement
sprite

Meteors class:
Movement
Gravity
Sprite

Ships:
Movement
Attack
self sprites
attack sprites

Fleet: class
Manage ships

Game data editor
When do enemies come?
Where do they come from?

Scoring system:
Think about how to score the player

Any advice on collisions in AS3?

Hi,

I am not sure how I am going to go about collisions and physics this time around?

Right now, there are a few art assets I created and I would like to detect collisions by the pixel. (not by a rectangle)
Is there any quick to use API or library that does that for you?

Also, there are going to be physical collisions, ie meteor with meteor and meteor with paddle..
Any advice on a simple to use physics engine that could handle these?

So any help with detecting collisions and or implementing physics, would be brilliant!

Thanks in advance.
I am gonna catch some Z’s

I always get nervous in these competitions :) But I actually want to finish a complete game this time.

Comments

elbowroom
21. Apr 2012 · 15:31 UTC
ok duh, think I’m gonna use box2d flash, and to think I used to right physics code. 😮
elbowroom
22. Apr 2012 · 08:04 UTC
Thanks for the advice :) I am using b2d and it is amazing.

Update coming soon.