Was a little nervous I wouldn’t be able to get next weekend off work, but finally found someone to cover me so I can take part! This will be my first LD, so I am super stoked! I don’t expect to score particularly well on my first time round, so I’m setting some realistic goals for myself.

Cross the finish line – I’ve seen quite a few scary stories regarding developers that have not finished their game within the allotted time. I will need to make this a high priority, as I’m renowned for being a slow worker, and I’m working in Java which isn’t exactly the fastest way to program a game imo.
Play that funky music – I’ve made two finished games in the past, both of which have included no sound at all. Creating music from scratch scares me, so learning it will be a challenge. I’m picking software that is completely new to me, and will hopefully be able to create some magical music that I can add to my LD entry.

[My Developer Arsenal]
Programing Language: Java
Development Framework: Libgdx
IDE: Eclipse
Graphics: GIMP
Tilemap Editor: Tiled
Sound Effects: sfxr
Music: LMMS

I’ve got a lot of preparation that I want to do; learning LMMS, learning how to do shaders in Libgdx and learning shortcuts for all my tools to speed up the process. Better get crackin!

So far my afternoon of programming has gone something like this:

try{

Do something

} catch (NullPointerException e){

I SAID DO SOMETHING DAMNIT

}

Ah well. At least I got graphics and all but I’ll post up something purdy once I have a properly functioning level!

Well after an absolute hell of a time debugging small problems with collision detection I decided to move on and carry on implementing the rest of the game. So far it looks good!

So what is the game’s story? Well I’ve made a platformer/shooter. Original I know, but I’ve actually never made one before, so it had to be done! The concept is you are a scavenger in a post apocolyptic world. The overworld is uninhabitable due to the resulting fallout after a worldwide zombie plague hit the country. To survive, you need to venture beneath the surface, to other bunkers to find food and supplies before you die of starvation! But beware, not all zombies were killed in the nuclear bombing…

Just finished off some basic zombie ai. Need to now get a death system working where they have a small chance to drop food for the player to collect. After that need to do transitioning to other rooms. Then the rest can be done tomorrow.

Just finished uploading the timelapse for my compo entry, Scavenger! A 5 minute video of me hacking away at java, mostly trying to resolve those damn NullPointerExceptions!

Check it out! http://youtu.be/gguROFlTzWM

Oh and why not play and comment on the game while you are at it? :)

Well while the going is quite slow, I’m making some real good progress on my now third Ludum Dare entry. Theme is “An Unconventional Weapon” so decided to make a starship that can only kill things by ramming them with your shields!
So far it looks just like an Asteroids clone, but I’m getting there! 😛 Time for some dinner then gonna sort collision detection and explosions.

Bit of a late start for us, but we finally have an idea for One Room, a basic design and development is just starting. Team is just myself on programming and my girlfriend on art. We both with have a fair bit of story writing to do as well, as we are making a branching story game!

TOOLS: Unity2D w/ Visual Studio + Resharper, GIMP, BFXR & LMMS.

LMMS is a bit ambitious as we will need some music better than the usual trash I churn out, but will see what happens there. May outsource music, may not. We will see! Also gonna chronolapse my dev from this point onward.

My awesome GF also has food provisions sorted. So we are all ready to rock! 😀

Making good progress so far! Made sure to keep the concept dead simple this jam and made all the systems although ugly, very simple. Most of that is because the whole game is basically a branching narrative game. All and all its been a good choice. Has been one of the less stressful jams I’ve done to date!

Concept: You are the last known surviving radio newscaster in a post apocalyptic world. With only a finite amount of fuel left for your generator, you must make the best of the power you have left to report only news you deem that is important… news that will have an impact on the surrounding world’s chance of survival.

Art is still in progress, but nearly there!
TODO:

Mandatory:
(o) Day transition
(o) Typing animation for story reporting
(o) The actual damn story tree…
(o) Audio. Really need decent music so may outsource it instead of making it myself.

Optional:
(o) UI for each news method (radio & magazine… email is already done but used by all three)
(o) Coloring the outside world depending on how well the player is doing.
(o) Intro & Outro

Note to self. If I ever make another branching story game… MAKE AN XML PARSER.
This is taking way too long to both write and debug…

Gonna be a bit of a dodgy attempt this time. I've decided to make a 3D game and I have no real prior 3D experience. First model is done however for my pseudo-tower defence low poly game. Now going away to a corporate bbq but then will be on later to continue while streaming!

Tools: Unity, Probuilder, Blender (if pro builder aint sufficient), GIMP (UI), bfxr & LMMS.

I lost 7 hours while away for company bbq. Way longer than I thought. However I have a plan for a minimum product... gonna get as much finished as possible tonight.

Oh and feel free to watch me dev! http://www.twitch.tv/nashdevsoft/

Great now that I have something to look at, I should really get round to doing some scripting O.o Dinner first though! Don't forget to eat folks! :D

So it has been a really short day one (only started really at 7PM), but have managed to get a little bit of art and a little bit of gameplay in. Still quite a few features to go in so it can be classed as a playable game from start to finish, but this gif should give you an idea of half of the gameplay :)

Been trying to finish some odd quirky bugs in code, but need to push on. All I need for a full game now is bullet shooting FX, an enemy model and winning/losing conditions.

Battery Charging:

Battery Usage:

Just realised ratings period is ending soon and I'm stuck at work :/ Would be lovely if some of you could help my game get to the required 20 ratings!

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/battery-defence