So, I decided to create an account here and start a little game project. I had heard previously about ludum dare and their 3 days game developing compos and wanted to try. Then I discovered the October challenge which is much better with my limited time or laziness and I thought it would be a good motivation to start me with an android minigame and try the market. I don’t expect anything and the game might be simple and get no bucks (I am wondering if adds count or asking your friends to buy it count :). It’s just a nice opportunity to finally get into the thing and see how the android market works.

So, here I have a screenshot from an OpenGL ES1.1 test I have been working so far, a procedural landscape, and I’ve decided this will be the base for my game entry. I am thinking something along the lines of controlling a UFO that has to abduct cows or something

I just hope I won’t be lazy and update my posts with some progress soon..

I knew this would come. It’s an interesting theme that can be interpreted in various ways, it’s not restrictive really.

I already had an idea for this theme since yesterday, that might not be so hard to code in two days.

It all depends on my motivation, I haven’t done a ludum dare before, I have other more relaxed projects I would prefer to work on.

But this could be a beginning of a new engine I want to start making.

A bit late maybe, but I am not planning to go 24 hours (will go outside for food soon

Still, I think I could manage to make something simple that fits the theme.

I am starting with a C++ / SDL / OpenGL basic framework just with free mouselook.

I am thinking about some floating dude who shits bombs uncontrollably after every 10 seconds. And they explode every 10 seconds (or 5?). Still, don’t know how to evolve from there. Maybe monsters chasing you or having to destroy some blocks.

The updated source code will be here: https://bitbucket.org/Optimus6128/bombdabomb

Lot’s of time spent refactoring things and finding stupid bugs but at least this is a great opportunity to start the game engine I never did. It won’t be this grid and these circles, they are just a placeholder for the original meshes (which will still be procedural I guess). My player drops a bomb every 10 seconds and those enemies either move randomly or try to come closer to you. I have much more ideas that can be crammed into this, but I don’t even know if I will manage to make this look better.

I don’t know if I want to continue with this tonight. Too tired.

Have the bomb, explosion, enemies logic. They don’t affect each other yet. Still needs a revamp on graphics too. Not enough time, I am sooo slow. Going to bed..

And as always, the code is here.

https://bitbucket.org/Optimus6128/bombdabomb

I went out to the city for walk, food and relax. I only now came home. Might try to code as much as I can all night.

Or I could just go for the Jam.

Yet, I have made a timelapse video of my progress and a gameplay prototype. Particles give it some life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMUg93WU-8k

Aaghh, I need some time!!! Maybe tomorrow in the Jam I could change the graphics to something more presentable. But I don’t think I will be finishing this soon..

I am so happy to have finished something for my first Ludum Dare. I still need sleep from yesterday.

I hope this will give me an idea of what went right and what went wrong (I don’t know, probably nothing and how to work more productively for the next LD.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=17470

Today I will start playing and commenting the bunch of games (wow, they are too many!) after I return back from work.

Depends on theme, and circumstances. But most probably I’ll try something.

My dream for this compo, try some 2d this time. C++, SDL. Pixeling some oldschool stuff (last time I did this on Amstrad CPC)

Another plan, since I am using SDL, possibly will target the GCW Zero. PC version too of course, just make something targeted at 320*240 on PC (with scalers) and then compile a version for the console. A good chance for me to make something on GCW Zero.

It’s gonna be fun!

Sorry, obligatory meme

So, I was expecting it!

Now, for this theme I want to brainstorm. And I am late, I know, I woke up now (wouldn’t won’t to make an all nighter yesterday and be tired) and maybe I start up working on this late.

I had flashback of a Zelda screenshot in a shop with three items the first time I heard the theme. I could go for the first thing that comes into someone’s mind, like take only one weapon out of three, which would be still fun. But I want to explore a bit more. Maybe there are some more original ideas that are easy to implement. Maybe I will just do the usual thing when time is over and I don’t have something in mind. Time is short..

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 14th, 2013 at 4:43 am and is filed under LD #28. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No, screenshot, no nothing.

I changed the idea. I was thinking of a simple 2d game at first. Then I end up coding a voxel landscape from scratch. I could have taken an old one I have somewhere but I thought it was a good opportunity to code a better and possibly more optimized one. I like Ludum Dare because it kicks your ass back to coding, even if at the end you don’t finish anything, you remember how good the coding spirit feels.

So, why did I wanted that landscape? Ok,. I could have done it with simple 2d graphics but I am not good at. Procedural is the way! Anyway, I wanted it because my idea changed from the generic select only one gun (actually I was thinking about 1 from 4 coloured keys in a labyrinth) to something else. You are a paranormal investigator and you have to take your only shot (photo) of shy aliens and UFOs. You only get one photo shot, else you end up photoshopping UFOs for your magazine. When I make the voxel look not that bad, have move controls easy, get int0 photo mode where you just move the crosshair and UFOs fly fast around and you have to not fail capturing it once, it’s easy gameplay concept to code. I don’t know how fun it will be, we will see..

So yeah, back to code, not enough time left. I may be easily tempted to do anything else, so let’s finish this first.

Obligatory ugly screenshot 😛

I don’t know if I will ever finish this, possibly I am not going for the Jam because I am busy with other stuff tomorrow. But if I’ll finish it, it’s gonna be so ugly and simple. I know I can do more, I just need more time, no pressure (and I was lazy and unmotivated most of the time, didn’t worked fully). Maybe I’ll release it just for participation, I am always divided between releasing stuff just for that or no point to release something so unfinished.

Concept is, you only get one shot to photograph some fast moving UFOs. You move freely in this landscape, and move the camera crosshair with mouse.

Well, since I went to the cinema and came back tired and I don’t think what I have is gonna be good enough, I decided to let it go and just sleep.

Then there is the Jam but I have done it before and I will be busy tomorrow, so it’s probably not gonna happen.

But I have a good base for some things I wanted to code that I can reuse in other projects. I like such compos for that push they give you to start with something.

And I have to let go, many times before I released things even if they were not finished, just for the sake of releasing. I am happy I can decide otherwise sometimes.

Good luck to all of you and I am gonna try some of the games soon..

I don’t usually do this, but near the end I decided to abandon the old project and try my luck with unity in a single evening. As we started using Unity at work, I realized how much easier and fun it is than traditional hardcore coding. Meanwhile I had a simple idea that came into mind the same day while trying to code teleport portals at work . Only one portal leads to freedom, the rest lead to death. They are coloured and you get some random floating text telling which one to chose. Maybe if there is time, I can make successive levels (so you don’t just win the game with the first correct choice) and random death rooms where you teleport. Only in an evening after work, I am into something. I never expected it.

I made a simply game from scratch, in just one evening from 5pm till now. I was about to abandon my previous attempt (C++ voxelscape thing :P) and never try the Jam. But in a flip of mind I just gave it a try with Unity3D. I couldn’t believe I could do this simple fun (I hope) thing in 1/3rd of the regular deadline. I start love Unity3D and how much faster it makes to do stuff than oldschool programming (which I still give respexx though : )

So, anyway, just play or read more about it here http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=17470

Need to code again (instead of playing games)

Might do C++ and OpenGL, cause I need some good motivation to continue my engine. I want to make a proper scenegraph and maybe rewrite my deferred lighting algorithm, but how I will proceed depends on the theme.

I am already imagining ideas for some of the voted themes.

Sorry, didn’t even start this time.

I went for food with friends and then I was so full that I slept. Later the next day I decided time is not enough and wanted to work a bit in another more important coding project I have left for weeks.

I also didn’t have much inspiration from the theme. Well, since I wanted to avoid cave/undeground ideas (which can be inspiring though for games), for a while I thought of something beneath the surface of ice. Maybe seeing some beings below the ice (with translucent effect) and somehow command them to avoid things/fulfil tasks.

Kthxbye, and I might see the other submissions.

From single color blocks with default CPC palette and random pixels for sprite placeholder, to something that looks a bit better, not perfect but I am surprised I came so far. This a CPC+ project, which originally started as an attempt to make flappy bird for CPC+ (which I learn in some news someone already is working on). So, now this is Flappy UFO or something like that, and all I have now is a bouncing sprite that doesn’t collide, smooth scrolling background and raster sky colors (courtesy of CPC+ line interrupts magic!). Hopefully I will finish this tomorrow and it might even have gameplay if I am not too lazy.

Tags: CPC, MiniLD #52

I am surprised I reached it so far. The collision was something I was afraid because CPC+ hardware sprite do not have collision detection (like the C64). The screen is HW scrolled and I just render the new incoming tiles at the right side. So, I don’t have a full map to track which tiles are solid in comparison with the hardware sprite. But I did manage to keep track of floor/ceiling edges in an array and compare the Y coordinate of the UFO with these incoming data. And it worked perfectly, tweaked it even to be precise. I am so happy about that!

Then I am surprised how much easier my job was with some great CPC+ capabilities. Easily to setup raster with line interrupts (almost no need for perfect NOP synchronization). And then drop few more sprites for the energy bar and LVL number and they stay there and are even another layer to the scrolling background, with no crazy programming effort. I love the CPC+! If only the original CPC had the same hardware chip..

Another feature of the CPC+ is some DMA chip to transfer data fast to the sound chip, many times per second. I know it’s used to play sampled sound effects, I just don’t know how easy it will be to use it and there is not enough time. Maybe this will be the next I will try, also maybe make the passage more narrow every other level (right now just the colors are changing every time a level is passing), and maybe some score (I have a lot of hardware sprites to abuse) and in the future some enemies/bonus (I don’t think I’ll finish this now). At least now it’s playable enough, more than just a scrolling preview, you can loose and reset to the beginning, or pass levels.

Tags: CPC, MiniLD #52

At least my growing plant code is almost there. I just need to instantiate growing parts and leaves. The screen scrolls as you move up that’s why the upper left is empty. You control with two keys. I might add some background and incoming tiles you have to avoid or something. Don’t know where I am going with this, but at least I realize pico-8 is more fun and motivating for ludum dare events than all I have used before. But maybe it’s just a start, let’s see if I will catch up with regular compo instead of jam this time.