I’ve had an idea floating around in my head for a long time, but it never really got flushed out. What I do know, is that I can easily merge that idea with this competitions theme, Alone. The character you play as is indeed alone in his/her own sense, and that is deeply vital to the story. Extremely vague I know

With that said, it’s time for me to finally build a prototype to a game idea I’ve had for awhile, and perhaps twist it a bit to fit this theme better. In fact, I wouldn’t use the word twist, I’d say I can finally flush out the story and elaborate finally. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

I’ve decided that I’d kick this Ludum Dare off by 2 hours of sober coding, followed by as much time as possible at Ballmer’s peak. So far, I’m a shot of 151 in, and a beer. Kegerator is running at full potential, wish me luck!

For more info on Ballmer’s Peak, – http://xkcd.com/323/

It’s 8:30 AM, and it’s time to call it quits. I drank 1 shot of 151, and 5 or 6 pints of beer. I attempted to hit Ballmer’s peak, but at this point, it’s unknown to me if I hit such a thing or not. I’m drunk, debugging is hard, but I can’t tell where exactly I am. I got character movement in, my idea done, and a clear idea of what I need to do tomorrow. Tomorrow shall be a sober day of extreme hardcore working. Until then, I sleep to regain energy, goodnight~

So last night, after about 3 hours of actual work on my game, I decided that I would drink and attempt to reach Ballmer’s Peak. This didn’t work out as well as I had wished, but it made from some fun times and crazy debugging. I had drunkenly wrote two update function in the same class, but only saw one, and was extremely confused for a good half hour or so. That being said, don’t drink while doing Ludum Dare unless you’re extremely skilled at getting just the right amount of drunk.

All in all, I was feeling a bit tense, and last night loosened me up. I’ve still got 24 hours, and I’m just now getting up (woke up at 5PM). I’m going to try and rough out the rest of the competition and really get something done in the next 24 hours. With that said, back to work!

Hey everyone, Porter here. I recently learned that Ludum Dare has a World Map that marks the physical location of all participants in the competition. I think this is pretty awesome, as it gives us some neat insight as to where our fellow developers reside in the real world. Such information could help spawn more real world meet ups, create new business opportunities, and even create some long lasting friendships with people who are currently strangers to us.

That being said, I’m requesting everyone who reads this to update the World Map with your physical location. If you’ve already done it before, update it again, as your location expires. Let’s see if we can break 1000 active people on the world map by the end of this jam!

Side note, I’m currently the only developer representing the state of Vermont in the US; the pressure is on~

The Idea

I’ve spent the last hour simply thinking, eating, and playing Tetris. After a good hour and a half, I’ve finally come up with the idea I’m going to run with.

I kept muttering the phrase “Survival of the Fittest” over and over, trying to come up with something (as it directly pertains to Darwin’s theory of evolution), and finally Googled the phrase to read up on it. After a bit of reading, I then transferred my thoughts to the phrase “Natural Selection”. After just a few minutes of thinking of this new phrase, an idea sparked.

Three random things joined forces in my head, and will be the foundation of this project.

• I’ve had the Hunger Games stuck in the back of my mind as of late, as it’s new on DVD.
• I’ve been thinking I wanted to do a platformer, and the NES game Shatterhand has been on my mind all day.
• Due to reading far too many political articles, and with some help from the Hunger Games, I’ve been thinking of government purposefully taking out powerful figures.

With all of the above combines, I turned the phrase “Natural Selection”, into “Unnatural Selection”, which will be the name of my game. The idea is simple, you’re a man of high skill and power, and for whatever reason, someone wants you dead. Rather than put a bullet in you, they’ve made a game out of your life, and you’ll have to fight for every last minute of it. You’ll be tossed into an ever-changing (dare I say evolving?!) arena, which will increase in difficulty as time progresses. As you survive, you’ll be met with new challenges, and the threat of death will rise by the minute. It’s not a matter of if you will die, but when.

Why It Works

I like this idea for a number of reasons. First, I’ve been working on a platformer framework for awhile now (which I’ll be using, and listing). Second, the game is arcade-style, which means it’s not overly ambitious, and I can just jump right in and get things done. Lastly, art assets will be minimal, and I’m no artists, so that means my chances of a completed project rise yet again.

 What I’ll Be Using

Platform – Flash
Programming – Flash Develop
Graphics – Photoshop
Audio – Bfxr / Audacity / Sonar 6 LE / My Korg X-50 Synth
Frameworks – FlashPunk / My Personal Platformer Boiler-Plate Code