Hey guys, this is my first time at making a game for a competition.

For anyone who cares, I will most likely be using Python with the module PyGame for the code, as well as Garageband and GIMP for my audio and graphics.

Also, I’m going to be using my 15-inch Sony Vaio laptop with a 27-inch LG monitor to give me more space to work on

Good luck everyone! 😉

–Topaz

Tags: ld23, pygame, python, topaz

I was originally aiming to go into the actual competition, but since I realised I could make the game so much better with the extra day, and because this is my first competition entry, I decided to enter the Jam.

Here are some screenshots from my final Beta testing version:

Level Selecter

Title Screen

Well, all in all I’d say that my first entry was a success! There was a few mishaps and perhaps some things I could improve on, but for a first programming competition attempt, I was surprised at how well the end result turned out. I have to say that Ludum Dare is a great thing, because I’ve started a a few “games” before but none of them ever ended up getting finished enough to be called games, but this was different. I think I can safely say that I made a “game” this weekend and I’m quite happy about it. I hope to participate in future LD48’s and I had a great time in this one!

Happy coding guys!

–Topaz

As the title suggests, I will be writing a postmortem soon. Just wanted to say that you still have a day to play my amazing game; now with an OSX version! This is my first fully complete game, and first Ludum Dare entry, so I would really appreciate it if a few more people rated my game:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=10594

Thank you all for your helpful comments and support 😀

And EDIT:

I have rated 106 entries, and that’s all I can do 😛

Here are some of my favorites:

So far, my favourite games are:

Burger Defender- Cool idea for a game

Bipolar- Really cool how you can have the drugs and change what everything looks like 

The Tiny World of Fiorella- Really good graphics and probably my favourite overall so far

SubAtomic- Absolutely hilarious! 

So I know that a lot of you guys played my game, “Tiny’s World” (the one with the mouse), and I know that many [all] of you, including me, experienced severe lag. Though I didn’t put this in the game info, that game was the first that I have ever written. I’m here to say that I realised why the lag was so unbelievably high and the framerate, so low. Basically, I have been placing (“blitting”, as PyGame calls it) images on the screen, when actually I should be blitting sprites as they are all constantly moving. To fix this, I changed the pixel format of all my images using Surface.convert_alpha() which converts the Surface (image) to a sprite form. When I changed all my regular game objects, I increased my framerate from 15 to 17 FPS. This was much to my disdain, as I expected more. But then, I proceeded to change my (moving) background images to sprites, and I managed to get the framerate to in excess of 100 FPS! 😀

What I’m here to say is, I love ALL you guys and the LD. Thanks to all you guys who run it and contribute it. And thank you for all those helpful (constructively criticising) comments you made about my game and for all the suggestions which I am currently working on adding into my game.

And by the way, I am working on a post compo version of my game and if anyone is interested in it. It wont lag [or will lag much, much less] and I will be adding features you have expressed your interesting in in your comments when you played it.

Thanks again for the LD, as I’m learning more and more about Python; both its strengths and weaknesses.

If you want to play the old version of my game (for the time being, before I upload a new version), it’s here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=10594

Hi guys, just wondering if there’s anyone with some spare time who could make me a few small images of a stickman. All I’m after is images that could be put to form an animation so it looks like the guy is walking. Size specifications would be around 150 pixels high, and this would be enough detail. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help

Hi guys, you may have heard before that I was writing a game on the federation of Australia for my SOSE/history assignment. Well, it’s done for the time being. Just wondering if anyone would be interested in testing it for me, that would be a great help. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Just so you know, it’s written in Python with PyGame, so if it’s too much trouble to install these, then don’t worry about it; I’m happy to hand my game in as-is. This runs on Windows 7, and from my experience in LD23, it should run on Linux (Debian, at least). I believe it’s possible to get both Python and PyGame for Macs so you can probably try it on them too if you have one.

If anyone is interested, I can try to compile an executable for Windows, but for the time being, it’s not one of my priorities.

Headphones or at least a way of hearing the sound is somewhat necessary for the end cut-scene.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/75311676/Race%20for%20Federation%201_6_1%20release%20minimal%20files.zip

– Topaz

Hi guys, I’m in for my second Ludum Dare. This time I’ll have a Graphics team to help me out, and I’ll be in the jam like last time. For anyone who suffered having to get Python and PyGame for my game that I made for the LD23, fear not, as I now have the ability to compile my programs for Windows users.

Can’t wait to play all the games that you guys make, see you at LD26!

— Topaz

Hi guys, some of you might remember about 6 months ago I said something about working on a game for my SOSE assignment. The assignment was pretty much meant to be a game (board game sorta thing) or any sort, and to include facts about the Federation of Australia in 1911. I’ve finally gotten around to compiling a .exe version for the Windows users so if you want to take a look, feedback would be nice.

Btw, this was submitted (to the teacher) a while ago, I’m just interested in what you guys think. And also, the game is pretty much the exact same copy as what I submitted, so that’s the finished product.

This may not be finished uploading, if it doesn’t work check back in an hour or so, I have fairly slow upload speeds.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/75311676/R_for_F.zip (~17MB)

–Topaz

9 hour mark, I think it’s going alright. The graphics are mostly placeholder, but there’s some good stuff in progress right now. As for the programming, it’s nothing special, just a level select screen (with one level to select) and a basic loop for where the first level will be. I’m out for the night, hopefully I can put in a whole day’s work tomorrow.

As you can see, nothing impressive as of yet.

— Topaz

Work is coming along nicely. Art is looking better, and new features are being progressively added.

Here are some new screenshots of the game and the main character.

The title screen

The tutorial level

Level select screen

Our main character

If you’re bored, and waiting for the winners to be announced, heart this post and be entertained for 2 seconds

So I was thinking of moving to OSX over my 2 year old Windows 7 laptop, and I was wondering if any Mac users are here who have had any experience with running Python on Mountain Lion. Specifically I would be interested to know what version of the OS you are running, and what graphical module you use (I use PyGame). Please don’t suggest I use Windows 8.

Thanks in advance

-Topaz

Hi guys,

So I was thinking of changing my default programming language to something web based, as it seems to be the most versatile and useful career opportunity I could pursue at this point. From what I’ve seen, a knowledge of HTML, CSS and maybe PHP and Javascript would be the most useful things to know in this regard.

I have a few questions which I’m sure some of you web developers here could answer if you have a chance:

HTML4 or HTML5? A tutorial site (I’m thinking w3schools at the moment)?

Also, my main question would be as to what development tool. I’d be mainly interested in something which can do most of what I’d need in terms of running it without me needing to constantly re-open the document, and could integrate fairly well with the language (such as, maybe, highlighting of keywords of the language?)

Thanks in advance

-Topaz