I’m three hours in to my Scratch project for MiniLD 63, and it’s looking pretty good!

Yes, you heard that right. A scratch project that looks good.

AND YOU THOUGHT IT COULDN’T BE DONE.

Tags: ldjam, yolo

My first (real) LD! I’m thinking I’d like to make something in Javascript, but since I don’t know where to host stuff, I’ll probably end up using Scratch instead.

This is my first time making a game in Javascript, created with Phaser. Doesn’t look too bad so far.

The tiling was kind of a pain. Phaser has a built-in Tiled map reader, but there is no way to move the tiles around, so I had to manually display the tiles and stitch the collision of adjacent tiles together so you won’t get caught on the walls.

The good news is, wall-jumping works perfectly!

hypeLevel = alot; I'll probably use either Phaser or Unity, depending on the theme. For sound and graphics, I'll probably throw stuff together with Gimp and bfxr, and maybe bug my sister to make drawings.

...Although not hard enough that I can't do it, apparently. I started rather late, but I bet I can still make a cool thing.

*plays Super Mario Galaxy theme*

Additional sparklies have been added. The tricky part, however, is making it actually be a game.

(Edit: I liked that picture so much, it is now the cover image. Also I didn't want to risk uploading another image while the server was in purgatory.)

My game, Interplanetary, did pretty well for being my second game here. Unfortunately, I didn't rate enough games to get my game rated enough (final exams y'all), so I'm not on the leaderboard, but the ratings I did get were really good.

For my first game on Unity, the gameplay came out real nice. The graphics were fairly easy to do, but came out looking crisp and clean. I managed to get the core gravity mechanic working pretty quickly, although the controls were rather floaty. I'll make sure to work a little harder on finding a good setting for the controls if I make another platform game: My first game was too fast, and this one was too slow.

I wonder if I should do an actual title screen/main menu? It's probably not necessary, the "cold open" title screen saves the trouble of writing UI code and looks pretty cool.

Can't wait for next time!

This time, maybe I should add sound...

I completely forgot to participate last time! I should make a calendar entry or something.

I have a brand new Vive, so maybe I could make something with that? (Don't worry desktop players, if I do, I'll make a desktop-only build after the competition.) Of course, I've never programmed for VR before, and I probably won't be able to learn in 3 days. Still an option on the table, though. (Hmm, maybe turntable-style gameplay would be quick to make?)

There is one constantly changing level with floating islands. You are not the main character, you control the scenario instead. You start with nothing in a limited space, but it is constantly expanding. Death is useful, as it allows you to reclaim your single resource, your tiny machines which come in three colors. Everything is connected by them, and they take one minute to build, but they perform worse the more you have. You have to use them to venture into the unknown and repair the broken world.

Still considering concepts. Since I always take things at face value, my game will probably be an action game where progression requires voluntarily increasing the difficulty or something like that.

(Also, what's with the lava lamps? Am I missing something???)

I temporarily forgot how to program so I made a simple concept sketch. As you may notice I am not an artist.

It's basically going to be your standard VR shooter, but with some cool powerups and stuff.

We got rotating target thingies up in this biz. (Yes, I'll reduce the particles.)

This is my first 3D game, and also my first VR game! Most of the mechanics and textures and everythings are absent, but ya gotta start somewhere. The theme has also yet to present itself. The idea is that shooting these enemies gives you a variety of debuffs that you can clear by finishing the round quickly. I am way behind schedule, but hopefully I'll be able to still do stuff anyway.

There's still lots to do, namely:

• Main menu
• Level endings
• Rebalancing
• Powerdown indicator (placeholder at the top)
• Environment

Now those there are some icons.

Still need: Main Menu, Better font, Environment, Transitions for downgrade screen, Game over screen

A lot of people have posted about looking for VR games, but it turns out there's a super easy way to find them! Just go to Feedback Friends!

I discovered this about five seconds ago.

Note that not all of the games listed actually have VR, it just guesses which ones might.

I'll probably just make a tiny thing in Scratch or something. I don't know how much time I'll have, and I almost certainly won't be able to rate 20 games, but I'll try!

The ldjam website is pretty nice, but I always felt like there was something missing. I finally realized that thing was page numbers.

When I click on a game in the list, it opens in the same tab by default. But when I click the back arrow with infinite scrolling, it sends me all the way back to the top of the page. Also, when the games are on separate pages, it makes rating feel a little more manageable.

BringBackPageNumbers

This'll be a match-3 shooter. I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but it's too late now.