So… This is Ludum Dare, eh? So many devs, so little time! I just hope that I can rise to the occasion and actually create something worthwhile.  Now :

Photoshop? Check!

GameMaker? Check?

Goldwave? Check?

Coke, crisps and chocolate? Check!

Theme? Erm… One hour to go!

Yes, one hour to go before I start to code my first epic (!) Ludum Dare game and I am actually nervous! I’ve seen so many great things come out of this Jam in the past and some of my most respected internet friends are participating that I feel I the pressure to have to make something GOOD for this… especially as it’s a landmark 10th anniversary event. Nothing less than the best will do!!!

And on that note, I’m off to relax and chill for the next hour in preparation for the fun ahead… Good Luck everyone!

Oh hell! I was all set to start… I had my munchies, my soft drinks, my programs all fired up and oodles of ideas ready for whatever theme comes up! But I forgot one minor detail. I NEED TO SLEEP! So, straight after the theme was announced I crashed. Sound asleep until this very moment.

However it seems that it may have been a worthwhile investment as I have awoken with an interesting idea for the theme (no mean feat as this was one of the themes I disliked the most!) and far more energy to pursue the creation and developement of it than I had last night.

So, lets get to it and see if I can’t actually get something done and entered before the rest of my 48 hours (now only 42!) disappears!

Well, I’ve been hard at it now for over six hours straight and I’m quite pleased with the way things are going. I have designed a sweet little character sprite (no name yet!) :

and the main game engine ios about finished. I now have to decide whether to go for a random level generator or whether to plump for designed levels. Each has it´s own merits, as with a procedural approach I have to worry less about content and design, but it will require more programming, and with a straight levls approach it will need kless programming but much more design!!

Decisions, decisions! Actually, I may go for a mix of the two and try and have designed levels with random elements… Anyway, here’s a screen shot of my progress so far too :

First screen shot of the game

Yes, gravity sucks… At the moment it’s tucking so damn heavily at my eyelids that I am going to have to sleep for a few hours. I really don’t want to, but everything is fading into and out of focus and every second letter I type on the keyboard is wrong! So, time for bed!

However, Gravity Sucks is ALSO the name of my game for this tenth anniversary Ludum Dare… I now have the concept fully fleshed out and the engine polished and working smoothly. I have added the beginnings of a HUD and some enemies, and have been tweaking the procedural generation this last few hours too. Here’s how it currently looks :

It may look a little bland, but it’s really nice in motion and the 360º gravity is really fun as I have added screen wrapping to the left and right edges, which means that you can do a leap off the screen and then spin back in on the other side and that way reach an otherwise unaccessible tiny world. Oh, and the enemy alien is really cute when moving!

Now I’m off to bed to get some sleep (4 hours, no more!) and then when I get up I’ll start work on the front end menus, then pickups and more obstacles/enemies and finally difficulty grades. Phew! Hope I can get it all done  by the deadline!