With you final entry for MiniLD #6 i would like to ask you to also define which file you want to use as the score file. I forgot to mention this in the rules, sorry.

Tags: score file

And with a great success. With 11 finished entries, more than I could hope for. I will pack the games in a package and post a download link around 18.1. The games run on windows, and should also run on linux (some with wine). They mostly make use of python and pygame, so that will probably be a requirement to run the finished bundle.

Thanks for perticipating, finishing an entry or just hanging around. It was great. 😀

Tags: over, success

This is how it turned out. For anyone who hadn’t played the games from the last miniLD, or if you missed any or just want to play all of them over again, here they are, all bundled together in a neet package. You need python 2.6 and pygame to run on windows, plus wine for running on linux.

link

Enjoy.

PS: It’s still buggy.

Tags: collab, compilation, final, framework

shall advance to the bathroom, avoiding any confrantation with the walls. Swift doom is lurking in the shadows here. I hope my antics will give me enough of a boost, to spawn some ideas.

Tags: good morning, ideas, lack of, wordplay

Title for my miniLD11 entry. I decided to take make a sandbox type game of an actual sandbox. After the first day, I haven’t put much work into it, but I have a sandbox i can display and I can shovel the sand around.

Todo:

*Add phisic to the sand, making it collapse when a pile is too big.

*Add bucket with water. Wet sand has better building propreties ( I guess 😛 )

*Add some candy like music.

*Figure out some king of gameplay. :S

Tags: screenshot, TODO

I’m a little late with my final post. I finished early yesterday, I didn’t know what to do with my sandbox program. I went for a swim, thinking I might get a good idea, sadly that wasn’t the case. So this morning I decided to post this unfinished game area thingy.

linux build

windows build

source

The linux build need SDL and SDL_image libraries.

I tried making a windows build, but I only tested it in wine, so I am not sure it will work.

The source is all in one file, only ~500 line of code.

Maybe make a sand castle or two and post the pictures. 😛

Tags: final, sandbox, sandcastle

First of, this theme is awesome and I hope for justas awesome entries. 😀

Game Design

For my entry, I’m going for a (RT)Strategy game. Here is some concept art:

In the game you will control a subterranian civilization, which evolved eyes, that can only see a single color on the spectrum. You will have the basic RTS objects: towers to expand your teritory ( emmit the light you can see), units, which will emmit a dim light, when out of the towers range, building that will function only inside the range of the towers, some for traning troops, some for housing, some for gaining monochrome energy. Every object you see distincly in your color.

You will battle other civilization such as yourself, who are able to detect a different color. All of your enemies will appear black or very dim and will not be distingushable from one another. So if you are a yellow civilization, and have green and red opponents, you can tell them appart.

The basic goal will be to destoy your enemies/neighbours by destroing their main tower. I was also thinking of doing something with the entrance of the cavern, maybe a goal or bonus for the team that has control of it. One  idea was to have the you gain the color of the opponent you conquer, till you eventually see all the colors and can go outside in the light world.

The game seem to be carying some racial message with it or at least it has potential for it.

Technical stuff

platform: Linux for development, Windows build after the compo, this time maybe even OSX

programming language: c++

libraries: SDL for graphics, input and sound. Do i need anything else? O_o

drawing: GIMP

recording sounds: Audacity

sound and music: Hohner BBassV with Digitech BP50 multi affect and 60watt Vision AMP . I hope my music skills don’t let me down.

TODO list for first day:

So how much can I actually get done in the first day? I think this should be a realistic goal:

* resource manager: sound, graphics,…

* tile engine for the map

* create the cave

* implement ligh sources

*create the towers

* mouse input and HUD

*some background music

I think that would be about half. I hope I am not underestimating any part I left for day two (AI or troop control maybe?). If my goal are realistic, I think I can actually make a good game this time round. 😀

Well good luck to you all.

Tags: game design, libraries, technical, TODO list

Darn, I have fallen way behind in my schedule. Haven’t done half of the things I set out to do the first day. Oh well, at least I got to my first screen shot. Allthough it is techically just one picture blited to the screen, all the logic to blit all the objects I want is allready there. At least I got something.

Next up are ligh emiting objects and some kind of resource object.

Tags: behind, first screen

So i added some puddles to the mix. They will act as farms for you civilization. Also made some music for the background, but you can’t see that on the screenshot. What you can see is, that my game si cruising along at a comfortable speed of 30FPS.

Next I will do the color filter, that will make you see only your objects, all the opponents are going to be black. I didn’t really know how to do that effectively. Parthon suggested I do a bitwise AND filter. I will use that, but It will limit me to three colors for nations: red,green and blue. But it will give me more color freedom for certain objects. Thank you Parthon.

But first: lunch.

Tags: checkpoint

Completed the filter,  also added the main tower object. I made the map brighter, the dark color was really hard on the eyes, once I implemented the color filter. I also have a normal tower and a factory done, now I need a HUD/GUI to make them buildable.

I find the green color relaxing. Now I’m off to play some basketball, I’ll be back in ~2h and see if I can still make a game of this.

I’d like to say I went down with a glorious ring of the clock, as the time ran out. But if I were to burn through the night, chuging something that would resemble coffee jello I would surely be out for the better part of tommorow. And I just can’t afford that. I guess this LD is just not to be.

I need to prepare myself better next time. My game this time had some potential, It wasn’t jsut some lame ass idea I usually go with. But I spent almost no time on it the first day, just enough to get my framework up. And today I bravely took on my herculean task thinking I could still salvage it, and at least make it playable. But I have failed again.

Next time I need better preperations all around. Just a good idea or refeined game engine just don’t work out. You need the package. So until next time, I will either finish up my SDL framework or learn some other killer framework or game engine. I will also buy a box of energy drinks and burn through saturday and sunday. I will find a peacefull spot, where I won’t be distracted by every little event. I will try to take monday off, so I can charge to the finish line, and more importantly, have a day dedicated to sleep. Also I will prepare for any other possible scenario, that could prevent me from finishing a kick ass game ( mother nature will not have the best of me!).

Tags: give up

To prepare for LudumDare 16, I have made a TODO list.
1.) get back on IRC (it’s not LD without it)
2.) salvage some old code (I have a c++/SDL game framework lying around somewhere, just need to detach it from an older project)
3.) do some prep code, tools
I know exactly what kind of game mechanic I will be going for (probably not :P), so I’m going to try to do some tools, that might come handy. Of course, they will be available to everyone prior to the start of the competition, along with the framework (if I can find it, and patch it up).

Tags: prep

… already.

Instead of C++ and SDL I will use Java and its standard library. No pre-written frameworks, all from scratch.

I will also use Gimp and maybe Inkscape for graphics. Not sure about the sounds yet, might use DrPeter’s sfxr.

Tags: plans

I cleaned up my workspace in preparations for LD. If you think It’s a mess, you should have seen it before. 😀

Actually I should have posted a before and after image. I guess now all I can do is post a pre-compo and post-compo image of the desk. Should a good enough shocker as well.

Tags: messy, workspace

Already a bunch of screenshots, meanwhile I can even get Java up and running (should have looked that up before the compo). Kinda ridiculous. 😛

Right now I’m looking into using Slick as a game lib. I have the most problems with input right now. Once I get that sorted, I should be able to get something together. :S

But first: breakfast.

Tags: falling behind, java input, Slick

Although I am a bit late with it, I have a good feeling about this one. Most of my game mechanic is finished. On the picture you can see the graph of paths drawn out, red paths are active, blue are passive, and are activated, when you reach certain action nodes in the graph. You can see an action node, under the mouse, indicated by a spinning red circle. The filled red circle is you player, who travels over active paths. You can send him to an action node, by clicking on it. He will find the shortest way and follow it, until he reaches that node.

Now I need to replace the black background with scenery, red circle with a sprite, create animations for action nodes and some sounds all wrapped up as a neat puzzle. Right now I hope I can get one level together, after that the menu, and then maybe another level (my head is in the clouds).

Tags: black, graph, java, pathfinding, screenshot

Haha, first level done. Well not really. This is just an image. I will draw this on the background, and add some nifty objects over it. But I guess this is it for day 1.

Still have a good felling about this one. I am gonna make it. 😀

Tags: day 1, level 1, number 1

We are getting there, I hope. This little bugger took me a good 3 hours of work, but he is walking around and happily humping air, when there is nothing else to do. (Yeah, the idle animation sequence didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted it too).
For a puzzle game, I have an alarming puzzle deficiency. Looks like I won’t be able to put together more than 1 level, but already It seems this game’s quality is far beyond my usual entry (if I get one together).
Also I would need some nature themed sounds for this thing. :S

I submitted my game, although not completely finished, but I lost sight of my goal. So I’ll recap and try to figure out where it went wrong. I also have a timelapse in the making, so I’ll post that next week as well. Good luck to everyone that still working hard on their submissions.

Tags: finished

Since tenacity is an important quality, I am back for another round of LD.

The tools I’ll be using:
QT4 library : lets see if it has everything that game development needs. I know how to use 2D drawing methods and openGL, I’m not sure about the sound support.
QTCreator : the official QT IDE, so far has served me well. This is the main reason I am going with QT, although I could use any other c++ lib in it. I love it.
Gimp,Inkscape : graphic tools of choice.
Blender : I might decide to go 3D with this game, haven’t decided yet. Might use blender, maybe just for 2D renders.
LMMS : linux multimedia studio, will be using it for music composing. Any other sound recording will probably be done by some generic sound recorder tool.

Now I have to prepare my timelapse script, last time I took way to many screen shots, ended up with a few hours of footage. Also need to do some shopping and prepare my work environment before the compo. Can’t wait.

Tags: blender, GIMP, inkscape, LMMS, QT4, qtCreator