Worked a little later than planned, so I’m already behind a bit.  I don’t even know what tools I’ll be using! (Except, if it’s in JavaScript and uses mazes, I may re-use some of maze generator code I had written a little while ago.)  Been trying to come up with ideas for the theme for almost an hour now, I think I’ll thumb through some of the other posts.

Originally I was going to make a Compo entry, but I think I'll take the extra time the jam affords and work some more on the programmer-art assets and adding little things that'll (hopefully) make this minigame a little more fun to play.

I spent waaaaaay too much time on getting proper input mapping working... but hey, you can play with a keyboard, controller or a mouse (soon).

Been a while since I've participated in an LD. Should be a nice change of pace.

I couldn't decide what I wanted to keep alive for the longest time. Then it hit me when I was out for a late night walk looking at the city lights from the bridge. Hope. You've gotta lead this poor spirit through the dark to an exit of light. Certain obstacles will affect their emotional state. I'm going to try to make it so that even when they lose all hope you can continue playing... if you're patient.

Next up is creating the tile map and control mechanisms. Then code up how they respond (or don't respond) depending on state.

I probably should have removed some of the debugging marks for the map before taking the screenshot.

Now I need to implement the win condition - maybe with stats for those that like to challenge themselves and randomized map generation. With any luck I'll have a submission-ready point soon. And then it'll be time for tweaks-'till-the-last-minute to try to make it more fun.

I started late and have an already compressed timeline, but decided I'd try to make a simple 3D game. It'll be my first 3D game.

Even screencapped a video of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9lmB6X4WWI

Woo! Things are coming together! Been playing around with positional audio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQPY9eAbSJk

That said... I really love LabChirp but it's constantly crashing on me. For those familiar with it, I'm wondering if there are similarly flexible alternatives that run well on Linux. (Or if I need a specific mono package to avoid GDI+ crashes.)

Of course, I find the level design bugs after I submit. (Some serious shortcuts in two levels because I wasn't paying attention) Oh well! Past deadline, so a problem for past me to not solve.

This one has a soundtrack, created by our robot overlords. :D

I involve my family in LD rather frequently. In fact this particular tester had an entry in LD48! She wanted to play through my game, she got rather frustrated. However, she stuck through to the end and cleared the game despite my many many offers for level skips. It was an animated play session and so I decided to put together a highlight reel of incredibly random insults flung at T-712. (With permission of course.)

https://youtu.be/Y17WvYNuobw

Managed to finish right at the compo deadline. Part of the final rush though was that I spent far longer on assets than I had originally planned on.

In particular, music.

Took a much needed break from coding, and then proceeded to sink 5 hours into it without even realizing. I'm not any good at it, but it was fun and that was a problem. And that's despite my heavily-automated process of using tools to generate MIDIs -> fiddle with, modify, or rearrange tracks -> repeat until find something I can listen to on loop without going insane.

Anyone have tips for noticing 'this is taking too long' while in the middle of something instead of immediately after having taken too long? Would timers work?

The maps are a little sparse as I've not yet made the enemy spawners or exit marker, but I have a proper procedural map generator in place now. (Zoomed out to see a small map. Each room is one camera-size area.)

I decided not to use a music generator, and now I have a crime against music for my game! Hooray!

https://youtu.be/xRUFzr7MbCA

I'm kinda curious what motivates people join these. (Partly prompted by my own resolve to join despite a Splatfest being held on the same weekend and 5 hours of work eating a chunk of Friday's hours. Next weekend promises to be brutal.)

Do you aim for top rankings? Exploring ideas outside of the doldrums of work? Learning? The intrinsic thrill of rushing against a deadline?

For me, it's rushing a deadline. To say I completed a project - not necessarily a good one - but completed by the strictest deadline. LD50 was partly written while at an Italian restaurant with "a laptop that looks like its 50 years old" according to the kids present.

As per usual I've started the compo late. But hey, a few hours in and I have mapping and movement done with some sprites.

Now to add some fire. (Like, literal fire, this mushroom dungeon harvest won't be a walk in the park for Mimi.)

Brain fog cost me a solid hour figuring out why they just would not spread. Signals require a listener. Go figure.

I'll probably do a jam entry instead of compo since I still haven't really started beyond some keyboard controls and we're already over half way through the compo, time-wise. Led to an interesting question though - when you've got designers' block (or whatever you wanna call it) How do you deal with the lack of motivation to start?

I plan to download some stuff I'll need and disable my Internet for a bit to prevent distractions.

Silly post for silly morning. Since I'm usually doing my ratings last minute (a spree is planned for this weekend), I usually pick entries from the Danger Zone. Mostly as a karmic debt thing - I'm usually hanging there myself close to the ratings deadline.

And for years, every time I do, I am reminded of the song "Danger Zone" and it practically plays in my head. :D

Anybody else? I'm totally down to hear about other weird rating habits y'all feel like sharing.

Unlike this time last time in the compo, I actually have an idea of what I want to do. May I direct your attention to this excellently drawn chart:

Rails bullet hell with constrained movement where you take damage if you leave the safe path plotted out.

However, ideas can be a dangerous thing. I thought "If I make a Halloween game, my computer should be in Halloween mood." This is a dangerous rabbit-hole to go down.

In summary, I wasted two hours I could have spent working on the game, making a Halloween Windows XP theme for IceWM. Why do I do this to myself? I do not know. I share this so that you may laugh at my stupidity with me.

I'm probably gonna end up doing a jam entry instead of compo since I'm pretty far behind, but I've got animated a character, finished the bullet system (though I need to spawn the enemies to fire said bullets) and the level's procedurally generated pipe to limit Kelly's movement space is all done.

I know I should be polishing up the game loop logic before drawin' but I couldn't not draw and animate these little enemies.

Maybe I should switch between the stuff I wanna do and the stuff I gotta do to keep myself motivated?