Joining my 9th Ludum Dare, it's been a while since I did one of these!

Tools

I'm using Rust and SDL2, with standard Linux stuff and my tool cpupaint [link expired] for asset creation.

I've just open sourced my basecode here: nanogame [link expired]

Progress

I've spent the morning assembling ideas.

My two candidates were "Deathray Paradise" (mad scientist RTS where every building corrupts the world and spawns nasties) and "Chaos Gardens" (gardening action game where plant interactions get messier as more plants grow).

I'm going with Chaos Gardens because the setting is less depressing and the design requires only a few systems to be playable. It also has plenty of scope for expansion.

Next Move

I've allocated now until lunch to finding ideas and scribbling concept art. I find it very helpful to have a clear idea of an end product when I sit down to code.

Progress

I'm a little worried I've spent too long faffing with concept art, but time will tell. My paltry 139 lines of code gives me character-vs-bitmap collision separation and a main loop.

I still haven't reached an art style I like, which is frustrating, but I think I've got a character design. The other area that worries me is coming up with interesting interactions between plants, which is the core of the game. My notes file has a list of crazy behaviours in it, but I'll need to try implementing them to know if they're viable.

Concept art from this morning:

Next Move

My next priority is to play with code for plants. I'm think I want some kind of l-system mesh generator and physics but I'll have to see how it plays out.

I've had a good night's sleep, now the panic sets in!

Progress

My l-system and character code are up and running, which means plants grow and players can jump about. I've spent most of the morning on even more faffing, but I think I've pinned down a visual style.

My main worry now is that I don't really know how the game mechanics should work, and there might not be enough time to write interesting plant interactions.

I'm definitely feeling the pressure.

Here's placeholder plant and placeholder character in placeholder land:

...and what I'd like placeholder land to turn into:

Next Move

I need to get some gameplay in so I can calm down, then the final art assets need making. If I've got time after that I'd like to play around with game mechanics a bit to make sure I've got something good.

All hands on deck, there's trouble brewing!

Progress

I've finally got some art in, plus foundations for game mechanics and particle effects. Unfortunately, I still don't have any real game behaviours and the plant in still a placeholder!

I really hope I can turn this around in the next couple of hours, this isn't where I wanted to be now.

Look, non-placeholder robot in non-placeholder land:

Next Move

I want some plant art in the hopes it'll look finished enough to calm my nerves. After that it's a mad sprint to get game logic working, and hope my systems code from yesterday is up to the job.

I think that's it.

Progress

I've got some simple plant behaviours, scoring, finished the graphics, and built a Windows binary.

I got distracted a couple of times playing the game, so I think it works! Thank goodness for that.

Here's some crazy exploding plants:

Next Move

Test the windows build and submit. Few!