I think, i invested a bit to much time in my tile-shadow-compo shader, but now i can create 4096×4096 tile maps with realtime pixel shadows and i can zoom in and out without any performance issues.

 

 

…and here is the result:

An ARPG with a mole hero and different mole enemies, fight them all, to become the ruler of the underworld :D.

Main menu:

The game:

 

The ingame editor (new items and enemies can also be created via “.ini”-files.):

I worked alone on this game and my sleeping time was around 6h or so :D. 

Technical features: 
I implemented a tile-shader engine, which can show up to 4096×4096 tiles in realtime (zoom don’t effect performance). I also combined this shader with an 2d light raytracer to cast pixel shadows. 

Have fun!

 

So after days of sleep, i want to post my resume.

This was my first LD and i’m still exited, i have done a lot of stuff, but also wasted hours with some aspects of the game.

Good part:

I created a shader tilemap system, that allow me to show up to 4096×4096 tiles in real-time, so a zoom to the whole map don’t effect the performance. (The map in the game has only 256² tiles, but you can change this in the source code, if you want to try it out)

Afterwards i extended the engine with a 2d raytracer for light and shadow calculations (this was the risky part). And voila it looks very interesting.

Because the map data is saved as image and i don’t have many experiences with map generation, i added a map editor and integrated it into the game, too. This was easier as i thought, the only “time-eater” was the “tile-connection” algorithm, it produced many hard code.

It is also possible to create/modify content (enemies, items) via “.ini”-files. So everybody can easily expand the game, without watching in the code.

 

Bad part:

For the first time i created some music and i wasted to much time on finding a good/simple music program (yes i searched during the game jam ^^’). After all i came to the realization, that i don’t have any composing skills, so i tried out many generators and surprisingly i created some interesting loops, i combined them and changed the instruments via midi tool and in the end i created 3 titles, which do not sound so bad. But next time, i will be more experienced in this part.

I integrated to many game play elements (like items, enemies, stats) to late, so i lost much potential for the game. I integrated for example the item’s, 0.5h before LD ended. >.<

I love pixel art, but i’m not this talented yet, so i spend a lot of time in just a few sprites. For the future, i think i must find a simpler style to create more content.

 

Bad or Good part?!

I was sleeping about 6h the whole jam, this was interesting, but next time i think i will just better plan my game schedule.

 

Finally the Game:

The screenshots are “post game jam”, because i added a few new features afterwards, but you can play both versions :):

 

The in-game editor:

Game Jam entry:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=35550

 

Latest Version (0.2.0):

Win(32bit)

 

Have fun, and sorry for my bad English.