Well you can move around the grid-like maze in a grid-like manner, no enemies yet, but I’m working on that right now.

The idea is that you go up the tower, as high as you can, collecting coins and treasure. At certain points you will be able to exit back to the main floor with all your loot. Dying however will send you back to the main floor without anything. at the shop you’ll be able to buy upgrades to help you out, but i’m still unsure of how that will work yet. At the moment i’m just making levels and adding new features when it’s necessary. It’s hard to add timing, dodging, enemy, etc. elements because of your character’s grid based movement:

for example: pressing right will jump your character 96 pixels to the right into the room to the right.

i guess i’ll just go with the flow and see what comes up!

the first floor

Tags: ld16, quest, tower

gasp! orange enemies!

well it’s safe to say i’m almost done, and with most of tomorrow ahead of me, it’s also pretty safe to say i will finish my game!

Progress:

since my first post, i have:

• finished all 15 levels
• added money/points (your points turn into money when you beat the last floor)
• added 5 types of enemies
• added FoW-ish stuff
• added a shop, with three (almost) purchasable items with descriptions and prices
• added saving and loading
• made it so you have to press space to go up a level when you’re at the staircase
• set up some variables for eventual game-modifiers
• added a treasure at the end of the last floor, each treasure will eventually allow you to unlock one of many game modifiers.
• Made the character move, instead of “teleport”, around the grid/rooms
• added lives/dying
• added menu+fancy cursor 😀

there’s probably more but that’s what comes to mind right now.

tomorrow i hope to finish up a few things and if i have time, maybe make some more detailed graphics

ive finally added achievements and music, all that is left (on my current to-do list atleast) is the treasures and the game modifiers they unlock. after that, i’ll probably just work on graphics

also, a bunch of screenshots for your viewing pleasure!

the updated hub

5 achievements to find

you = win!

just one of the levels

a fancy title screen

Well, finished my mini-miniLD game, which i made in about 3 hours… it’s so rushed, it doesn’t even have a name! i spent way to much time on initial graphics, and in the end didn’t have enough for stuff like menu graphics, which ended up being quite simplistic, I like how it came out though, especially the character’s walk cycle. And…. i just realized you can’t win the game… well i guess that’s something i need to fix… anyways, screenshot!

Yay for Jpegs!

oh, and a link to the other page thingy for this:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-16/?action=preview&uid=1548

so yeah! fun weekend

I’ve been waiting impatiently for a while now, lets hope we get a great theme! anyways, thought I’d post a pre-compo post! So i don’t really have much planned out, just going to wing-it as usual, but here’s an amazing list of what I’ll be using anyways:

• GameMaker8
• Audacity
• the GIMP
• possibly sfxr

so yeah, I’d post a pic of my workplace but me and my camera are having relationship issues, though I’ll probably post food photos and the like using my webcam. (It’s a bit of a challenge taking a photo of your computer with your computer). So yeah! best of luck to all and lets hope we have a good time!

got me some food! here it is! woohoo!

oh man pizza

and i craftily took a picture of my computer my placing a mirror on front of my webcam!

it never ends!

P.S.

that pizza is already half gone

Welp it’s been an hour of work already, and things are going rather smoothly. Have a screenshot:

OH MAN THE ISLAND

So anyways the idea is a sort of island-village Sim thing. basically here’s how things work so far:

Right clicking places a ground block, a ground block with nothing on top has grass grow on it, a ground block completely surrounded becomes a darker block! i’m currently working on the HUD (seen on top) and adding different types of blocks!

Didn’t get that much done this hour, enough for a screenshot though!

As you can see, the HUD is a little more complete, i’ll be working on it as i add more tiles. Speaking of tiles, i have two new ones. the tree tile, see in the HUD, which can be chopped down, and the super-rock at the bottom, which cannot be destroyed (i made those after i realised you could destroy the bottom layer of the island for profit and have an odd looking floating island). so yeah, next step is switching between different tiles to place, and then adding more tiles!

so i’m being forced by the authorities (my mom) to take an hour or so break, so i’m going to post this then take said break!

first of all, screeny:

so as you can see I’ve added one new tile, wood, which you get for chopping down trees, and you can also see how many tiles the game will have in total (9) on a side note, the scrolling between tiles actually works now, by using the scroll wheel! there are quite a few timing problems i’ll have to fix probably on day 2, like making trees grow slowly, so you can’t spam cut-grow trees for wood. ideally chopping the wood will take time too. but that’s all for later, for now, i’m off to read or something!

Well it’s technically day 2 right now, so i’m off for some sleeps! but before that, how about an update?

so as you can see there’s one major update; that little green guy, you spawn in a little house on a fairly desolate island. to the left are two more islands with different resources (you can swim between islands). you’ll also notice I got rid of beginning resources, and those extra little slots will be for items (ex: you need this item to mine stone, chop wood, etc.) I also added stone. you also can’t destroy blocks that are too far away from the character (64px to be exact) there’s a bug with that but I’ll fix it tomorrow. That’s about it 😛 also, I’ve uploaded the current version to media-fire, so feel free to check it out my progress here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?y2nndenddht

Plans for tomorrow:

• Stamina so getting to far away islands is harder
• fix odd bug with destroying blocks
• add 5 more tiles
• add items
• add a way to make items with your resources
• more islands
• a point to the game (a way to win?)
• day+night
• enemies of some sort

Good luck and Good night!

Got all of the tiles done finally! now i can move on to actual game mechanics and whatnot.

So as you can see, and as I’ve just said, all the tiles are there. (dirt,tree,wood,stone,sand,ladder,window,light,ore)

My next step will be fixing the destroying blocks bug, which i know how to do so now. then make items, and a way of sorts of getting all the tiles/items. A big problem I’m having is dealing with lag, so we’re back to the one small tree island for now. hopefully i’ll find a way to have multiple islands without lag before this is over!

got some stuff done since last time, not much, nothing visible, so no screenshot I’m afraid!

so now you can’t build blocks in the middle of the air, they need to be adjacent to other blocks (makes sense). I also fixed the bug i’ve been talking about. I have all the item sprites and i’m going to implement them right now!

currently my todo-list is:

• add items
• add a way to make items with your resources
• a point to the game (a way to win?)
• day+night
• enemies of some sort

so yeah!

Finally finished the items in ISLAND WORLD, have a screenshot!

So as you can see our little character man is telling us to press the spacebar, why is that? because we have enough resources to craft an Axe! the axe is one of the very many (6) items in the game, the axe, of course, allows you to chop down trees and collect wood! the items are:

• Dirt Pickaxe — mine stone
• Stone Pickaxe — mine ore
• Sword —  attack pirates
• Torch —  light up the darkness at night
• Spring — Jump 2x as high
• Axe — chop down trees

Brief descriptions of the items like i just gave are shown when you mouse over them. The character is even handier now too, not only does he tell you when you can craft something, he tells you to press R when you get stuck under a tree (they have gravity). the respawn point can be set with ENTER as well.  I’m also slowly adding on to the island towards the right, since i noticed more resources were needed, and to make the game longer, prices will be made higher, which means more island to exploit!

My next step is Pirates, i decided i had to use cliché island enemies, they’ll arrive by boat *hopefully* and attack during the night (which i will add after) the pirate ship will also be the only way to get Ladders, Lights, and Windows. you’ll have to *hopefully* sneak into their ship to do so.

Finally got pirates done! all the mechanics for night are in place, now i just need to make it switch from day to night. Have a screeny of the three things in the title!

So, some more info. There are 2 types of pirates, the orange ones, and the red ones. The orange pirates throw daggers at you when they’re right beside you, and the red ones throw bombs every now and again which destroy blocks. They both have a fancy AI for getting around the rugged terrain. Night time is a little laggy with all the dark tiles, but as you progress and get more light tiles it should get better.

So, all i have left now is:

• Day+Night timer and transitions
• actually getting hurt by pirates
• making pirates come out of the pirate cave at night
• making the inside of the pirate cave
• having you die when you fall out of the screen
• Having a consequence for dying
• Having a way to win

It seems like a lot, but most of it is small stuff. i should be finished most of it tonight then have time tomorrow for music and stuff.

also.

Pirate cave sealed at day, Pirate cave open at night

so yeah!

So i’ve finished up for tonight, i’ve made two more islands and a system to travel between them

When you switch maps you lose all your items, and your progress is lost on the one you were on. your trees and ore also go down to zero, but you get to keep all your other resources.

to-do tomorrow:

• Pirates spawning at night
• Pirate Cave
• no traveling at night
• some way of winning
• menu and stuff
• particle effects

The pirate cave will be another map on it’s own, full of tiles like ladders, lights, and windows. which will be only attainable in there. my plan is that the game ends when you’ve cleared up the pirate cave (of pirates) and gotten enough wood to build a boat, then you’ll sail back home and stuff!

Goodnight!

So i 100% finished the items now, you keep them from map to map and i actually fixed the torch (only works if you buy it) the spring (actually makes you jump higher) and the sword exists and kills pirates! I’ve also updated the HUD, you have 3 lives, and a health bar. that’s almost done, i just need to health bar to refill when you lose a life 😛

screenshot:

After finishing up the health stuff it’ll be time for pirate spawning!

Finished the first of the three pirate caves (each island will have a different one of course) screenshot:

And here’s another screenshot of me performing some extremely important bug-testing that just so happens to involve castles:

About the pirate caves: there’s a new pirate here, the Captain, he’s so manly, he has two eyepatches, and he summons lesser pirates. Basically the boss in the dungeon. has 25 health (goes down when in contact with sword, not per hit).  It’ll be the same boss for each cave, but the dungeon layout will be different!

This also brings me to storyline of sorts, Our character was dispatched by a government official over at Metropolisland to rid these islands of pirate scum! after clearing all 3 caves one will have the option to go back home and win the game! hopefully unlocking free mode (unlimited tiles) if i have the time. And of course i need to finish the menu and add Sfx and Music!

completely changed how you get to different islands, have a look!

The three islands! the red dots represent the landing area(?) to the island, clicking them takes you there, the skulls just “show” where the pirate caves are, the circles turn green and a red NO symbol appears on the skulls when you clear that island’s dungeon.

Next up on my todo list is a shop, health potions, health potions… more health potions. Once i’m done the rest of the menu stuff after that, I’ll take the rest of the time polishing it p and adding music!

finished my LD game: “Island World” go play it here!:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-17/?action=preview&uid=1548

hopefully it lives up to your expectations 😛

Well i certainly had a lot of fun last weekend, The theme was so-so, obviously created many similar games (i believe someone posted a list of all the games who’s names started with “island”, but i digress). I personally really liked the theme, if only because if it had been something else i would have never created the game i did. Now if you’ll bear with me, i’d like to share my thoughts about the voting:

It always seems like we get these generic themes (caverns, exploration, islands) and not many people are ever overly happy with them… so how do they win? Here’s my oppinion; other themes such as “continuous motion” are more personal; more likely to get a direct YES or NO. Themes like “islands” are much more open to lots of different genres and mechanics. When you’re going through the list of themes, you’re likely to be “continuous motion? what am i going to do with that? NO, PAG? awesome! YES, Islands? hmm… meh NONE”. and since it doesnt really have that much going against it since it’s so open, it’s mostly going to get a few YESs and mostly NONEs. Other themes will get lower because they already allow the voter to think about their game, most likely resulting in a lack of ideas for a game and a NO.

Now that that’s over with, how about i respond to some comments on my game?

It would be cool to have a speed adjuster that would allow me to speed up night and day even faster. asides for that I can’t think of anything else to add. Well made game fun to be able to collect power-ups and build your own world.

I understand that you’re wishing that days were longer and nights shorter, unfortunately an adjuster would make things much too easy and imbalance everything!

Fun game, i never understood how the underlying system for when you got what tool/weapon tought. The day/night cycle could be a bit shorter aswell. Really liked the intro!

I’ll make sure to shorten the cycles when i mess around with the game some more, as that’s two people now who comment on it, i never really had time for an actual description of how you get items.

Very interesting idea but somehow it was very hard for me to get into it. I didn’t understand when I earned a new tool (do you need to gather different tiles?)

Also, I have no idea how to fight back actually. I didn’t get the sword and don’t know what to collect for that. A bit more details in the intro would’ve helped a lot.

Yes, each item has different requirements for tiles, another thing on the to-do list: explain items more. Holding SHIFT brings out your sword, there’s a description of each item by mousing over them saying s0, but i realize i never told anyone that 😛

A clever little game with cute graphics and an amusing intro. Unfortunately, whenever nighttime rolled around and the screen got dark, performance for me dropped precipitously and the CPU spiked, which basically meant that when night approached I had to find a safe spot to stand and not move at all until morning. Which somewhat diminished my enjoyment, but overall it was still a good game. Rather difficult, but eventually you get the hang of it.

Yeah, hopefully i’ll be able to do some optimization of the darkness tiles when i go over the game again, i noticed it lagged quite a bit while programming it but due to the time constraint was forced to leave it be if i wanted to actually have an ending to the game.

I liked collecting different materials and making things.

When I got to a pirate lair, I killed everyone and nothing happened – I didn’t know what to do from there.

Also, when I got the sword I didn’t know how to use it. I assumed I had to click on the pirates. It was only later that I noticed the tooltip that said to use shift.

Apart from that, I thought this was great. Especially the little lantern.

Yes! somebody commented on the lantern 😀 once you’ve cleared the pirate cave you’re supposed to go to another island and clear the pirate cave there too. Sorry i didn’t put that in the instructions <_<

It was hard for me to figure out how to play at first. A tutorial would be great.

Hopefully I’ll be able to input an actual tutorial of sorts, the intro explanations were all i could do within the 48 hours!

So yeah! as you may have noticed, i’ve commented on an updated version of the game. i’m basically taking away everything except graphics and the engine, new story, stuffs, stuffs, and more stuffs that i can’t think of right now. but it should be fun!