LD8.5 was my first game competition so I learned alot about unmanageable 1500 line functions. I had a few empty source files all nicely laid out, but I still managed to dump everything into 2 files. The themes were “Moon” and “Anti-Text”. So I decided to make a tower defense game based on the moon, and the enemies were letters A-Z. There are only 2 tower types, but there are a few things that can be upgraded like “damage”, “speed” and “distance”. All of the upgrades are fairly self explanatory. I used visual studio c++ 2005 express and photoshop to build the game. I used a modified version of nehe’s startup code and i wrote a small png image loader, the rest was done over the 48hr period.

The gameplay is quite simple if you played a TD game before. Click on the tower you want to buy and place it on the map. You can also use the 1-2 number keys as shortcuts. To upgrade a tower, just click on a tower and buy the upgrade. Try making it to the end, you cant. have fun!

Download [Windows 481kb] [Time-Lapse Video 5.43mb]

Tags: final

This is about as clean as it gets. Note the xbox360 controller and plenty of reference reading material xD.

Tags: deskphoto

This idea might suck, but I think I have it worked out so that its going to be fun.  Anyways its basicly a lunar lander type of game, but the trick is you have to pickup objects and the objects can be connected to other objects.  Each object can have its own mass and size wich effects your ship quite alot as the objects swing all over the place.  Your job is to keep the objects under control as you make your way through the level.  I was thinking about also adding the ability to do things in the level that have chain reactions using physics like opening doors by dropping something on a platform etc.

Heres a crappy drawing of what i have in mind. =/

After 2 hours thinking of an idea, and 2 hours of screwing with pyode I think im going to bed. I do have part of the physics working at the moment. Tomorrow I will try fleshing out the physics stuff completly and screw with collision detection. I hope to get the core of the game mechanic done tomorrow basically, and after that I want to work on level design, UI and the other stuff that really doesn’t matter xD.

Alright, I haven’t even made any real game-play with 19 hours to go.  Ive been screwing with ODE for the last 12 hours straight or so, and I have got it working perfect I believe.  Now I have to dump the messy code into something 1/2 usable so I can make a crude map format for levels.  We will see :'(

you guys are soo lucky to see this picture. I shortly raped this after taking it. 😀

Tags: foodphoto

well, I have started working on gameplay stuff.  I figured out how to make levels with trimeshes, but its going to take some more work to get it textured and have full scrolling.  The ship now has working landing gear and I can connect bodies to the ship and fly around nicely!  So all thats left really is flesh out the level format.

The objective of the game will be will have carry any items in the map to a location to drop it off and land successfully.  The trick is that these items can swing and can cause a chain reaction which can make you crash.  I was even thinking about adding motors to items when you pick them up so it can get really nutty.  I know its not really fitting with the theme as best I would want, but oh well…the game should be fun anyways.

Wow I am wicked tired right now, but I want to finish the game really bad.  I haven’t slept in 25 hours so far.  With 8 hours to go, i think I will make it.  I changed my mind about the game-play.

There is a base camp on the moon that needs supplies, and if you don’t deliver the correct packages on time the base camp instability will go down.  I guess ill have to finish it to see how it plays out.

The game is finally done, and just in time.  I made some basic instructions when starting the game.  I am sure everyone can figure out what each crate is and where to land for fuel xD.  I dont know if this game will be fitting the theme very well, but I never programed in python and this is my first time using a physics library.  Considering everything, I think the game is not bad.  Hope whoever plays it has fun.

The game requires python 2.5, pygame, pyopengl, pyode.  I will make a binary later on, but for now this is my final entry.

DOWNLOAD THE GAME 700KB

Tags: final

Finally I built a binary of the game with py2exe. I had trouble with pyopengl since it used a .egg file. I dont know how it was fixed, but Samiljan supplied me with a modified source code file for pyopengl and it works now. A few words to py2exe authors: include .egg support.

I was tempted to add game pad support, add sound and tweak the game play more. I dont think thats fair though =p

download – binary executable for windows
download – multi-platform source and art files

Tags: py2exe, update

This will be my 3rd ld I will enter in. I plan on using the torque engine this time around. Hopefully that will result in something that is actually fun to play this time AND have good graphics. I decided I wanted to concentrate on creating pure game play and making the game pretty instead of screwing around with just getting stuff to work like physics libraries (grrr pyode). Hopefully my 2 weeks of learning torque is enough :D.

GL all

I have been trying to get this small library working all day. It uses the python/c api. I am compiling the extension with mingw using the sdl and sdl_image libraries. I will add to this library as the weekend goes along as I need to. I am still not sure if ill use this library. It depends on the theme which will be announced in like 5 seconds. kthxbai.

pynitro v0.1 – its very basic right now. Just posted this to prove I couldnt possibly make a game from this yet, lol.

Well, sitting during breakfast. I have a decent idea for a game. I already have a crappy piece of artwork done with my wacom for the background. The game will be an economy simulator, but in this game you might have starve, kill and put people in slave labor to get the economy growing profitably. I might add other ai players that try doing the same, and you try beating them. Its gonna be top-down 2d, the “workers” will be tiny pixels i think, but they will have a large array of variables that could kill them. Basicly, you work your people to death just enough so not alot of them die, or you have a good reproduction rate vs die rate.

food.

Tags: foodphoto

ok. I haven’t spent much time today as I should have on the game. Instead I raced online in the fsr league today on Bahrain (http://www.formula-simracing.net) and got 7th place, yay.

I am gonna get the ball rolling tonight on getting the graphics done and basic design document im gonna follow for tommarows crunch. Meanwhile…

Tags: foodphoto

Ok, I am quite disapointed in myself. I wanted to have a fairly complete game, but I ended up screwing myself again like last time. I have a design document that outlines the entire game if anyone wants to know what I really wanted to make.

Becides that, what you CAN do in the game is create an apartment and create workers. I wanted to at least get the factories into the game, but I ran out of time.

I guess my entry can be known now as a minimalist rts. Its just a framework for one. 😀

download – windows binary + source code
design document -what I intended to create

april 21 1:30pm EST: I added the “.pyd” file so people can run the python source files with only python 2.5 installed. I am going to be making a playable version of this game this week, and I might compile a linux binary of my extension so linux users can run the game.

Tags: final

Tags: motivation

seconds before starting ld12, my desk

Tags: deskphoto

looking at the crap in the irc channel and trying to think of an idea for the theme while eating my tuna salad.  So far nothing really…

Tags: foodphoto

Ok, wtf I cant think of anything good it seems.

so the lame idea that I do have is you have to drop crates off the building at the owl that comes near the building.  i have no idea why an owl would come near a building and why it wouldn’t just fly to it, but whatever.  ill probably change the building into something that makes more sense like a tree with an owls nest that has gold in it.

so the thing is there will be a power bar that will determine the force to launch the crate off the building and you have to hit the dam bird really hard to push him back.

its not really too late to switch to something else like a suicide game?  lol

I should mention first that today is my 24th birthday !

I am starting a bit late.  I had a problem with my computer and had to format.

This time I am using the Ogre3D engine.  Language will be C++.  My game idea to start with will be a frogger style game, except your a human.  It will be 3D.  All art assets will be made from scratch using gimp and blender.

I do already have a stripped down framework to run the Ogre engine.  Its maybe 500 lines of code to just startup the core Ogre system and run a game loop.

I also recently got a new desk.  I thought it might of been too big, but apparently I already managed to use all of it.

Food for today consists of apple pie, orange and birthday cake.

Tags: deskphoto, food