Hello, strangers.

I’ve somehow stumbled across Ludum Dare and wonder how I’ve missed it for this long. I hope to participate in the next LD but I’ll definitely be giving the mini a go as I’m sure I’ll need the practice.

I’ve been inspired by the likes of Praetor and dock and since I love Ogre myself, I’m going to try to follow in their footsteps. I tried making a game in 6 hours to get a feel for the process – I actually managed to make something “playable,” though there was no concept of reward or punishment or even score.

Since I haven’t been in the compo before, I’ll be making a framework as I go. I’ll probably use:

• Ogre (and the examples framework)
• C++ (MSVC 2005)
• Bullet and btOgre
• An Ogre DotScene loader I got from the Ogre wiki
• FMOD or maybe openAL
• Blender 3d
• The Gimp

So far, I have a VERY simple, sloppy framework down. It’s not really meant for public compilation, there’s hard-coded paths and whatnot right now. Still, you can see it here. You can load a scene and run and jump around in it, FPS-style.

So, Is there anything cool about what I’m doing? I think so!

My thinking for this is that I need to mini-mini-minimize development time. Generally, it can take 60 seconds or more from the time I press ctrl-F5 to when I actually have everything loaded, physics initialized and can see results on my screen. I need to minimize that! To do this, I invented a methodology just for Ludum Dare that I’m calling, “Keep it running, stupid.”

Each component (player, Level, Enemy1, Enemy2, etc) gets its own project and is built as a .dll file. The main app, which is rarely rebuilt, is always running.

When I build a component, like my player .dll, I have a pre-link event that tells my main app to unload the .dll. I implement this as an AutoHotkey script. The .dll can serialize it’s data upon unloading, if I want. Then I have a post-build event to reload the .dll and bring my game in focus.

I only have this implemented with two .dll’s at the moment, Player and Scenery. Time will tell how much this actually helps me in the long run but for now, it’s VERY rewarding to make a change in code and be playing it two seconds after I press F7!

My framework is coming along pretty well. I now have the very basic beginnings of enemies. I’m just using Ogre’s built-in stuff for now (and perhaps for the mini). I can spawn multiple ninjas and have them stand around, randomly going through their three idle animations. If the player moves within range of them, they start slowly stalking the player.

The stalking behavior is because the only translatable animations for the ninja are “stealth” and “walk” and “walk” seems to be very carefree.

So, I can spawn a group of ninjas and make them stalk the player. It’s kinda creepy to be stalked by a bunch of ninja – but in a good way :). Next, I think I’ll make them attack. Then, I need to make them collide and be smarter – it looks trippy when they all bunch up.

So, there’s still not much but hey, you can run, jump and stuff can chase you!

Walking Ninjas

I would like to take a second to talk about a pet peeve I’ve always had with 3d games, and it’s something that I still see in modern games like Fallout: New Vegas (and probably MANY more).

What I’m talking about is when a character walks but their feet don’t make frictional contact with the ground, instead, their feet slide in relation to the ground when they walk. I hate that.

Here’s a rough overview of how to fix it:

Pick a bone to be fixed in the scene. I usually go with the lowest foot. Next, perform a frame of animation and see how much that bone moved. Translate the character the opposite of this bone’s movement, moving the player and leaving the bone fixed in the scene.

Here’s a video showing off the walking, with spheres drawn at the fixed bone. It’s MJPEG. (the low FPS is because I’m using the app itself to dump its screen contents).

I have a demo of this with my framework here (binaries and source). I spent a lot of time revamping my framework; others should be able to build it now. The code of interest is in CNinja::doFrame(). You can also enable the feet balls in CNinja::Spawn().

I’ve had to finish up some work – and in fact, still have some – but I really want to compete! I’ve started over 24 hrs late, not sure if I’ll be submitting for ld or just going for the jam.

I tried my hand at the last mini; I went down in flames. Mostly because of real life bs but I realize even if I had the whole weekend, my plans just weren’t simple enough.

This time around, it’s gonna be simple, simple, simple!  I’m using SDL and Visual Studio 2005.

My game is called Escape Velocity. And yes, I thought of the name before anything else ;).

You play the role of an interstellar delivery boy. However, the company you work for is so freaking cheap that you’re not even given enough fuel for a round trip! You’ll have to use the gravity of Stars and planets to slingshot your way through space – without crashing or flying off into the void. The faster you make your delivery and the less fuel you use, the better your score.

Escape Velocity WIP

I got a very late start and I’ve had a very relaxed attitude to boot, so I don’t have NEAR the quality many of you guys churned out! I think it’s cool though. My only goal is to make a game that’s fun to play, no matter how crude it is otherwise. I figure: this is my first ld; I’ve got nobody to impress.

I wanted to post up my tiny little WIP because I’m happy with it and I think it’s fun to play :). It’s 1 level. No sound. All programmer art. :).

My game is called Escape Velocity (which I thought was perfect until I saw how many others have that name 😛 ) and here’s the plot ripped from my readme:

You work for the cheapest interstellar delivery company in the galaxy. Your boss gives you so little fuel for each trip, you’re lucky not to slam into a planet or be lost careening into deep space! You know each delivery could be your last but you have to pay the rent :(.

You have to use the gravity of stars and planets to slingshot your way to the delivery zone!

Download it here.

Well, I finished my first jam game (Escape Velocity). I’m pretty damn happy with it too! My goal was not to make things “simple stupid,” but stupid simple. It worked like a charm :). It’s funny because the gameplay is by-far the most fun of anything I’ve made – all from trying not to work too hard. Weird, huh?

Anywho, there’s only two levels and no score but I’m already addicted to my little game. Then again, I’m very, very biased ;). I would’ve liked to take more time on the music, and at least have an indicator for your ship’s delivery destination.

I wanted to have a small map popup before each level so you wouldn’t die right away but c’est la vie. I also realize, just now, that extra lives would be a good idea :/. Funny how that slipped my mind *shrugs*.

Also, I haven’t actually beat it yet but I’m pretty sure it’s doable (I haven’t had much time). I do know that the first level is doable, even with less fuel than I give you.

Why are you reading this? PLAY MY GAME!

I used the extended submission time (I started very late) and made jam my game much better!

• Resampled my song so there’s one simple download
• Fixed a HUGE white-whale of a bug that was a show-stopper and took me over an hour to track down – and now I don’t remember what it was :/. LOL.
• Added another level and made some fuel tweaks to make the game more accessible and fun
• Cleaned up distribution zip (all media is in media folder )
• Made a slighty less cynical and more rewarding win screen

This game is FUN! At least, in my forgiving eyes it is ;). I submitted it less than 2 minutes before the final-finalest deadline and I just finished beating that version. I’m brimming with pride!

I’ve really enjoyed this whole experience and I want to thank the awesome people who put in extra work behind the scenes to make LD happen!

There’s a time-lapse (with plenty of time-lapses 😉 ) on the way but if you haven’t yet,

GO PLAY [Jedi’s] ESCAPE VELOCITY!

…That didn’t come out right.

Anyways, everyone who plays my game on my pc likes it, everyone who doesn’t, doesn’t. Conclusion: there’s a bug causing framerate-dependence. I think I’ve fixed it and my game is WAY more responsive and hence fun, even on this pc :).

So, if you hated Escape Velocity, or if you just feel like a generally good bloke or lady, check out my new-and-bugfixed-(I-hope-)Escape Velocity!!

Escape Velocity is now on Linux-64! Many, many open-sourced thanks go to JohanAR!

I used SDL and FMOD, if anyone else out there is feeling port-venturous. Maybe somebody with OS/X? 😀

Starting now, ending by the end of the month, GMT…

I’m glad I thought to stumble across here when I did; this is a perfect opportunity for me to do two things I’ve been threatening to. One is to learn Unity. The other is to make a game I’ve been meaning to. It’s based on one of my friend’s ideas, and another friend’s drawings.

Here are some selections of drawings for the idea, “A game where you shoot frogs:”

The idea is that you are a policefrog who has to shoot criminal frogs while avoiding civilian frogs. It’s going to be a first-person rail shooter. You will be stationary at each level and perhaps, can strafe a tiny bit (but basically, your movement and view will be extremely restricted).

I’m going to try to learn Unity as I go this time around – a tricky prospect, I know. My plan is to have the core game mechanics down in 48 hours. If not, I’ll ditch Unity and fall back on the familiar territory of Ogre 3D.

I want the game to have 2.5D graphics – with creatures made from 3d collections of cut-out paper drawings. This was my plan for this game even before I read the theme here. My hope is that it makes for a charming, humorous look, especially when the hand-drawn guts start flying!

I’m not sure how much color I will want. I think I’m going to play it by ear. I’ll post some other parameters I’m working in later :).

I’ve been making progress here and there on my mini ld entry, learning Unity as I go. I would say that I’m super happy with my progress, except that today is March 31. I guess I’d call what we have now an “early alpha.”

The enemies don’t even move properly yet – let alone fight back – but you can shoot them and they explode into guts! More importantly, it’s now at that special point where the developers love to play around with it over and over, and an actual game is right around the corner :).

Anywho, I’ve been having fun with it. I had a couple of artist friends hanging out last night and they gave me some awesome artwork to use! I’ve been up since then adding it…

I’m hoping we’ll kick it out like that again today, so maybe you guys can check out what we have so far and leave some words of encouragement?

Game (Unity web player):

http://sites.google.com/site/ajedisjourney/frog-splatter

Screen:

P. s. Lest you think this game is about the senseless slaughter of innocent creatures, it’s not. You play the role of a frog who is a hero in his society:

( …in the shower. And she specifically told him not to! )

 
We are throwing our hats in for the Jam! “We,” meaning Brandon Wallace, myself and hopefully, a lot more of my artistic friends that I’ve convinced to pop by (and I don’t yet know if they want to be mentioned by name).

omg, OMG, OMG! Less than 10 hours!!! I’m so excited, I can’t piss my pants enough!

This will be my 2nd Dare, the first time out I made Escape Velocity. It ranked 61/90 for the jam, so, I’m hoping to kick that score’s ass! This team has also had some practice with the last mini-ld. Although we didn’t finish, check-out FrogSplat to get a peek at our style.

What will we be employing for the jam, you ask? Good question! I know how much you care 😉

• unity, togetherness  I think it’s awesome that so many of us here are embracing unity as a sort of theme-within-a-theme! My team will also sing songs about unity in the key of C# and we will probably read aloud some ancient poetry about unity written in Javaskrit.

• A blender Mixed drinks will entice some of the more “artistic” types to hang around.
• www.paint.net     I haven’t visited this site yet, but I understand it’s the best for simple bitmap editing!
• If I have time to go to the Wal-Mart, I’ll pick up an iNudge, autotracker-bu, maybe an sfxr and some other odds and ends.

p.s. Idling on #ludumdare until I timeout == Community!!!

I’d say we’re kicking some decent ass this far in!

Here’s some early concept work:

Here’s our (non-interactive) game thus far (click to play):

We rewarded ourselves with some tasty sushi. I thought to take this picture just in time, while we could still spell “LD” 😉

Tags: foodphoto

We continue to make progress on our game, which is shaping up to be of the missile defense type.

Here’s another bit of concept art:

The (somewhat psychedelic) idea here is that you’re so small, someone’s trying to wipe you out with medicine…

Here’s some more progress on the actual game. Click to see it. It still isn’t interactive on the level of a game yet [glad we’re in the jam!] but you can tell it’s coming along…

I’ve done very little actual coding work since the last update. Less than 10 lines, easily. However, it made such a huge difference that I wanted to post some more progress!

First, let me throw in some more early-concept artwork, as is my custom after having some bona-fide artists on board:

Here’s the updated game that let’s you shoot the pills out of the sky. There’s also a game over condition but no win condition or score yet…

p.s. You change the 3d-target depth with the scroll wheel. Holding Shift changes it faster.

… It’s right! In the nick of time, we submitted our game for the jam! We focus heavily on the mood and artwork on this one… check it out!

(timelapse is on the way…)

P.s. Did I forget to mention that our game features what might just be the most epic cutscene in LD history?

Oh boy, where to start?

Well, I guess an image and a link is good:

Note that there’s a HUGE WALL o’ TEXT here and an even bigger wall on my submission page but you shouldn’t need to read any of it.

Like I say over there, my very-lofty intention was to make a raw, wild world that users would build from the inside out. A wild land into which a community could band together and start making goals and rules for itself. Admittedly, it has a long ways to go, yet. I’m drawing on many inspirations here; I feel like I have to give a nod to jplur right off the bat.

I’m abondoning the 48-hour framework in hopes that this can maybe, possibly, be lovingly crafted and molded into something that will complete the October challenge. I’m favoring a direct-to-the-public, pay-what-you-will approach (because I hate ads).

For LD24, I wasn’t really able to participate during the actual competition, which really pissed me off at the time. I decided to just post up what I had and dedicate myself to perfecting the post-compo version. Something really interesting happened during this process – I was able to actually respond to feedback and shape my game from something that was getting pretty bad reviews, to something that people seemed to actually enjoy playing!

This is a big deal for me, because it’s the first time people seemed to really understand and enjoy my gameplay. Yay!

So, with the hopes of being able to complete the October challenge, I’m trying to take receiving and implementing feedback to the next level, because the player is always right!

Players can press ‘b’ and leave feedback from right within the game. It’s totally anonymous, too. This is in contrast to the feedback you get on the LD site, which is almost always positive. (LD IS essentially a popularity contest, after all)

Only positive comments are really not helpful, so I wanted to give players a totally anonymous way to slam my not-game if they don’t like it. Because I will need to know if nobody likes it!!!

In addition to incorporating feedback, I’m hoping to incorporate anything else that lets players change their environment and experience, especially things which will give a sense of “multi-user continuity.”

I want it to be a multiplayer experience, even though, let’s face it, you probably won’t run into many other players at this point. To that end, I’m going to add a bulletin board in the game and — I need to think of some other things as well.

Well, what you waiting for?

How committed am I to LD25? How many other things are on my mind?

Is there anyone else, living or dead with the same commitment to their goal?

Yes. This Guy:

That is a male of the genus Latrodectus, and he’s about to get him some, at great personal risk.

That male spider is me. And the sex he’s about to have with that big-assed black widow? That’s me and my friends Jamming-out an awesome game this time around.

I hope you each find your own resolve, and if you’d like, your own deadly-sex analogy.

Good Luck! 😀

So, after about four hours of brainstorming, I had one and only one, SIMPLE idea for a game involving the theme. And that’s to make some kind of hentai game, one of the really reprehensible ones. If you are a minor or are at work, stop reading now. If you don’t know, now might be a good time to read up on hentai games before clicking further:

Just to be very clear, this is meant to be parody. It’s meant to be funny, because it’s insanely offensive and yet, insanely innocuous because of the cubey, simplified style. For me, it was art that demanded to be made, despite what I wanted.

It’s possible that now I can move on to a better idea; I’m looking for some feedback.

If I make this, the story would either lean far to the rape side of things, or at least give the player the option. I want it to be as offensive as possible but again, using just cubes and such. One story / title I was thinking of was “Disfigured Squid-People from Space Need Love Too!” Remember, this is parody, I want it to be over-the-top or there’s little point in doing it, IMHO.

Play it here

And if that’s not creepy enough for you,

Here it is with a Mr. Bean face (will probably take this down post-compo, not sure about the Copyright on this one)

My question is, does anyone “get” this? Should I keep making it or abandon it for something children can play?