You Cannot Kill It, Only Outrun It

Tags: motivational

I was going to do a video blog about this, but I’ll do that… later.

Here’s my idea: Guy the Sword Guy was out on an adventure (He likes to have adventures, which is why he became a Sword Guy), and his ship wrecked on a Great Big Rock.

Guy came to on the shores of a tiny island that wasn’t on any map. In fact, when he looked around, Guy saw that the island was in mid-air. Now, being a Sword Guy, Guy gets pretty hungry. Doubly so because of the harrowing experience that had brought him to this strange place.

Guy pulled himself together, got up, and explored a bit. It really was a tiny island. However, he found food growing on the trees. In fact, he found cheese, ham, and donuts growing on the trees!

Guy greedily devoured a great deal of food before stopping to think about how to get home. He missed his girlfriend Matilda, his brother Patrick, and his dog Grendel.

Guy explored a bit more and found what looked like a magic gate. However, it wasn’t turned on. A bit more exploring yielded a key, which Guy insterted into the side of the gate. The gate then turned on, and Guy stepped through, figuring that the trees on the island would run out of goodies eventually anyway.

Thus, our hero’s adventure begins!

Again, the video blog will wait for when I’m not so groggy, and possibly even then only once I’ve got something worth vlogging about.

Lunch for the Discerning Fruit Lover

I had fruit for lunch!

The juice is pretty good, but it’s all about the whole fruit.

The apple was very juicy and got all over my hands, and the orange left me downright wet.

Juicy, wet, sticky fruit FTW 😀

Right, now to make some artwork!

I’ve decided to adjust my idea somewhat.

Instead of floating islands with meat and cheese growing on the trees, I’ve decided on plain islands with fruit growing on the trees.

The fruit will have magical-type properties that affect your characteristics, and possibly some that give you special abilities If I Have Time.

Also, he now has a hammer instead of a sword. Swords are overdone.

I’ve gotten a bunch of sprites of this Guy:

Our Dashing Hero

I also had a some cereal:

Chocolate and Banana Nut Cheerios in one bowl

Now, data loader, then test, then terrain tiles. YOW! 😀

After having spent most of the development time on my game, I realized that I’d been making the same game over and over again, and got very tired of it. My game was yet another crappy sidescrolling platformer, and I got very tired of it.

So… I threw in the towel, but didn’t tell anyone ’till now because I needed the time to relax. It hurt giving up yet again, but I just couldn’t stand to work on my idea anymore.

See ya next month for the Mini-LD, though. I’ll try to do something new and weird, because I can’t stand the idea of doing another platformer.

Here’s hoping…

–Mr.Dude

I’ve recently begun learning Lua and playing with the LOVE game engine.

I’m making a space shooter, and I have a screenshot of what I’ve got so far:

I’ve decided to blog about my progress with my game “Cherry”.

Today, I added missiles and particle effects for the ship’s boosters and the missiles.

Here’s a screenie:

Aren't particle effects pretty? :D

Anyone who’d like to try it can pick up a copy here.

(Note: Currently, you need Löve to play. Once I’ve got something I’m comfortable calling a game, I’ll start posting downloads that include the engine)

Cherry finally has AI baddies!

The latest demo includes 2 AI-controlled baddies that you can fight. There isn’t any combat (Or even projectile culling), so all you can do is knock each other around for now. Also, projectiles gradually pile up, so the performance will drop as you play. This will, as I’m sure anyone can imagine, be fixed probably in the next demo. It’s not a huge hit, though.

You may have to fly around a little bit before the baddies find you, though.

Here’s a screenie:

Those two guys will try to hurt you, but can't kill you yet

If you would like, you can pick up a copy of the .love file here.

I’ve added projectile culling, and projectiles also die when they hit things.

I’ve put that into a demo, which you can grab here.

Cherry now has combat! Yeah! Baddies will die if you kill them. You’ll die, though, if they kill you. As you kill them, more will spawn.

Here’s a screenie:

You can finally kill stuff!

Anyone who would like the .love file (Which requires that you have Love2D installed) can find it here, and those who would like the Windows version (Which includes the Windows version of Love2D) can find that here.

Note that Windows users should drag “Cherry-0.1.0.love” onto “love.exe” to run it. Just thought I’d mention that!

Controls are:
Arrows: Move
Z: Fire Gun
X: Fire Missile
A: Use Brakes
S: Use Turbo

I’ve decided to stop cluttering up this blog with updates on my work, so I’ve set up my own blog on Blogspot.

Just thought anyone who was following Cherry should know.

I plan to:

• Use a robot as a protagonist in a way that is meaningful (IE: Not just a humanoid robot, but something like a tank or a spider-thang)
• Make a shooter with funky weapons of some sort
• Use Lua and Love2D
• Use an unusual setting via unusual level design

The rest depends on the theme.

I will be beginning at 23:00 GMT.

My concept is that of a shoot-em-up with short, procedural levels. The concept obeys the theme by making the levels in a factory, albeit one in the code.

The player will take the form of one of a handful of robots that each move in different ways, and the baddies will also take a handful of different forms.

The game will use Gameboy-style pixel art.

There is no story. I can’t think of one.

Here’s hoping…

I’m using a dot matrix display for Gunner Robo Pocket

My images will be text files, where each character is a pixel. A “.” is a “white” pixel, a “#” is a “black” pixel, and anything else is not part of the image. By “white” I mean the background color, and by “black” I mean the color of an activated pixel.

Things are coming along fairly nicely, and I’m happy with my progress. Now, I need some images to test my dot matrix display with…

I’ve got a good feeling about this one… (Not that that’s stopped failure in the past…)

—Mr.Dude

After the hell that Lua has put me through today, I’ve decided that I absolutely hate it. I’m going to be porting what I have of Gunner Robo Pocket to Python/Pygame. I will need someone to do a py2exe port, but I really think that I’d be better off doing that than torturing myself with Lua any longer.

That said, there is next to zero chance that I will finish on time now. Because of that, I am tentatively giving up this Mini-LD, or at least asking that the expectations be lowered.

That said, I’ll be posting about further updates here until the Mini-LD is over, then on my blog. (Which is syndicated on /planet)

— Mr.Dude

I drank a crapload of tea this morning, and am quite excitable right now. I’ve been working on some sprites, but it’s only about 10:00 AM here in Mittenland.

As I’ve said before (quite a few times), Gunner Robo Pocket is now a personal project of mine. I will hopefully, again, have something done by Monday afternoon.

Wow… I just can’t seem to get a game done in an LD… Hm…

Ah well, at least I’ve got a fun idea out of this one.

— Mr. Dude

I’m in for Mini-LD #20.

I’ll be using Python/Pygame, first of all. I plan to do at least 1 unfamiliar thing this weekend, but I haven’t decided what that will be.

My current thought is to make a game in a genre I haven’t used for a (completed) game before. I’ve also though about using techniques that I haven’t used before.

My strategy this time is to try to keep the thing playable as much as possible. Roll out an initial demo as quickly as possible and work to a playable version as quickly as possible when new features are implemented. That will hopefully keep me from stalling like I usually do.

I’m really eager for this. I’ve been chipping away at several large projects, and a small game should be a nice break from that.

I’m ready, and just as optimistic as I tend to be. I’m hoping this one works out okay…

— Mr. Dude

I have to admit, I’m stumped.

Using the theme, rule, and alt-theme, the only game that comes to mind is trying to catch as many different fish as possible.

Taking out the alt-theme (It’s optional!), my pool of ideas doesn’t widen significantly.

Because every entity and terrain piece would have to be unique, I’d need loads of artwork to do something satisfactory, as well as some code that I wouldn’t be happy with.

I may be withdrawing from this one right at the start. I really don’t like the theme, and I really hate the alt-rule. Sorry folks, but I’m wanting to sit this one out. We’ll see how I feel after breakfast.

I’ve decided on what I’d like to do.

I will make a game within the time limit, but I will not be submitting it as it will not use the theme, rule, or alt-theme. I’m not a fan of the theme as such, I don’t like the rule, and I’m not fond of the alt-theme. Complain.

Instead, I will be making a game of my choosing within the time limit.

I haven’t decided what it will be yet, but I’m leaning toward a platformer. A short platformer. We shall see.

— Mr. Dude

Here’s my idea, and it actually works within the them.

Let me set the scene for you:

Two buddies, Ken Rondle and Ken Koratsu are returning to their apartment with a super-large Pizza from the Pizza Hovel up the street.

However, the manager of that shop knew that both Ken and Ken are martial artists, and thus stuck a medium meat gluttons’ pizza in the box for them to fight over.

And fight over it they shall!

You take the role of Ken Koratsu as he tries to win the second pizza, even if that means beating the hell out of his best friend! (Though this is nothing new for them, they often fight over food. Not the end of the friendship or anything)