Alright so i’ve been working on my title “Infected” for a few hours. Honestly i had 2 different game ideas. I preferred my 1st one but it would take way too long for 48 hours.

Instead i chose my second one, “Infected”. It’s HOPEFULLY faster to develope than my original idea… but we will see.

I am not an artist and so far i’ve spent a lot of time on the art style, trying to figure out some things. I have to say i’m very happy with where it is at now, or at least which direction it takes.

I wasn’t sure about one thing though. It’s hard to see but in the background you can see some clouds. Those are slightly animated using a simplexnoise. I downloaded that file from here: http://code.google.com/p/simplexnoise/

Not sure if this is against the rules or not, as i think it counts as base code/library, but let me know if i’m wrong! Don’t wanna get disqualified

Anyway, i have a Unity webplayer demo available that i will keep updating constantly. It might destroy some older PC’s considering how many effects i’m using right now, but i will trim it down and optimize it soon!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1658875/Infected/WebPlayer/WebPlayer.html

Controls: 

W/A/S/D = Move

Mouse to look around

1 and 2 to change between Neutral and Aggressive mode

Alright after 12 hours and a good 8 hour “nap”, i have some progress to post!

Again, i spent a lot of time on “artsy” stuff which is why i haven’t gotten much gameplay done, but it does keep me motivated and inspired for more things.

However i implemented my first enemy the Anti Virus Type 1. Right now it just hovers around and will move towards you when you get in range. It also changes it’s glow to red and becomes more active/faster so you know what’s up.

I really like this little bugger. But of course you need some way of defending yourself! So i worked on the visuals for guns. I implemented 2 so far, a normal straight forward laser, and homing lasers! That’s right. They are not locking a dynamic target yet but they look nice 😀

Basically when you shoot, lasers come out of all 8 corners and fly towards your target in a somewhat smooth transition

Lastly but not least, i added my first game element into the game, the “Node”. You, the virus, has to get to those nodes and infect them.

At first they are deactivated, but once you manage to infect them, you turn them on and let them help you by weakening defenses and gathering some data. With data you can then duplicate yourself and leave a mini virus behind that will farm data for you constantly over time from those nodes.

Offline state

Online state

Another thing i am proud of are my clouds. It’s a minor thing, but it adds to the atmosphere.

What i did is following, i created a very simple edgy polygon shape for the base cloud.

Then at runtime i create four on top of each other, each slightly bigger than the previous one.

At the beginning, i shift every vertex slightly to give it a little bit of variety to it’s previous clouds and then when the game is playing, i constantly move the vertices slowly using simplex noise.

This way it looks very soft and smooth and as if the clouds would spread out over time. They will always stay around their start position though so they can’t just drift off.

Again, the latest version can be found here:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1658875/Infected/WebPlayer/WebPlayer.html

Controls are the same as before with some additions:

1 – change to neutral mode (only visually right now)

2 – change to aggressive mode (only visually right now)

Left Mouse button – Shoot homing lasers

The tower becomes activate automatically right now after 3 seconds. I will add the “infecting” mechanic very soon!

Alright, 5 hours left and i know i won’t be done in time, but hey, that’s ok! This weekend was a lot of fun and i will continue to work on my game afterwards 😀

And i’m really looking forward to testplay other project, i saw so many amazing ones!

So things that changed since last post:

– I added the third and last mode, green, which let’s you move a lot quicker but you have no guns and you’ll get more damage. Good for traveling though

– I added a new building, the HardDrive! When you hack the harddrive, you get +1 to our max trojan capabilities.

Hacking the hard drive

– Added Trojans! You can place trojans now on nodes to tell them which one they should harvest. Nodes give Data over time which will be used for new skills. Once you assigned a trojan to a node, it will gather data and bring it over to it’s hard drive.

Unlocked hard drive with floating Trojan

Placing Trojan

– You need to unlock buildings first before hacking them! Any building that is grayed out is inactive.

As always, current build can be found here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1658875/Infected/WebPlayer/WebPlayer.html

I participated in the previous Ludum Dare with my game “Infected” and it was a lot of fun and a great experience for myself.

Last time i didn’t have a lot of time so i had to submit my game to the Jam. I hope this time it will be better and i can get it done in time for the comp!

I’m really looking forward to #26 of this fantastic event and am excited to see everyone’s contributions!

Like last year, tools i will be using for this LD:

• Unity Engine on Windows
• Unity Standard Package for Shaders and other quick artsy stuff
• MonoDevelop for my C# mess
• Photoshop for 2D art
• Cinema 4D for something that looks like models
• My Brain for stuff

Also, like last year, i will be streaming the whole event at www.twitch.tv/seriouscreeper

Thanks and good luck everyone!

Alright time for a little update, containing a webplayer build!

I finally started to work on the actual game – to be precise, the first level.

Turns out, creating levels for this game takes a looong time.

Not only do i finally have to come up with puzzles, but since levels are made out of lots of blocks, it takes quite some time to place them. I do like adding details as well, just some eye candy things. But it’s really time consuming.

I am aware that this is a bigger project, at least if i want to include all the features i planned. However, for this comp, i am focusing on a short introduction playthrough. The game will teach you the mechanics i have so far and how to use them, and eventually throw you into one or two levels where you have to make use of them.

It’s gonna be difficult to introduce the Silence in this game too, but i will try.

Sadly i lost a lot of time today with real life things, so i don’t know if i can get everything in, but i will try!

If you are curious and want to try it yourself, go here: [WEBPLAYER]

Controls:

WASD – Move

Mouse – Look Around

(Right now you can press F to swap worlds but this feature is not suppose to be in the level later on, but you can play with it non the less. I reccomend trying it without first though).

NOTE: There is nothing after the blue part so far!

Now i noticed that jumping is the hardest part so far. I didn’t want the player to have full air control, so i tried to come up with something that will keep your velocity, but you can slightly counter balance it.

This is working but only if you already have a velocit and not by much.

I think i will enable air control again, just to make it not feel unfair. Controls are very important, they must feel right.

Hope you enjoy anyway!

I participated in LD 25 and 26, but had to skip the two afterwards.

No more skipping, no more excuses, no more unexpected world saving activities – it’s time to Ludum Dare again! Like a lot of people here, i will be livestreaming once again:

Tools i am going to use:

– Unity

– Audacity

– Photoshop

– Cinema 4D

Have fun everyone!

Brainstorming and coming up with an idea is usually one of the hardest part of Ludum Dare. But once i get something, i’m usually very excited to get started.

After nearly 2 hours thinking about something, i think i found something i’m happy with! Like always, it’s way too ambitious, but that’s kinda part of the fun and challenge – try to pick the most important features to make this project playable and fun.

I never played many roguelike games in my life but for whatever reason i’m super excited right now to work on one, so i decided to go with it!

It’s gonna have a somewhat different twist to it which i hope will be fun enough for people to play it, but we will see.

Let’s start coding o/

So i’ve been mostly working on the level generator so far. It’s very basic but it works, so that’s good!

I also started adding enemies (pink squares for now), a fog of war sort of thing, light (not used in the screenshot though) and you can go up/down floors.

When going up and down floors, it saves the enemies progress as well. So you can come back to a previous floor and the enemies will be exactly where they were when you left the floor.

As mentioned in my previous update, i never really played Roguelike games (except for Rogue Legacy, which is considered a Rogue-lite game). But man it’s fun to work on this!

The next big steps would be inventory, items and stats such as health, speed, attack range, etc.

I know this is ambitious and way too much work, but it’s fun to work on nonetheless

Only 18 hours left but i think my project is coming along nicely! I wasn’t expecting to get this much done by now.

Some progress shot:

Stuff that works:

– Random dungeons

– Turn based movement

– Combat

– Item drops

– Inventory system with equipping/unequipping items

– The enemy that slowly crawls from the depth to the surface

– The infection it causes while doing so

But there is still a lot left to do, so i should probably go back to work!

Also still streaming all of this: http://www.twitch.tv/seriouscreeper

And i’m glad it is \o/

I got most of the things i wanted into the game and i fixed most of the bugs i could find.

This was my 3rd Ludum Dare project and probably the most successful (for me) one. It’s also the biggest Ludum Dare project i worked on so far.

PLAY CONTAGION

Surprisingly, i didn’t run into too much trouble. A few issues here and there but nothing that would take up hours to fix. The last 2 ludum dare projects gave me more trouble. So i’m really happy about that.

Hope you guys enjoy it and let me know what you think!

This is my 4th Ludum Dare and at first i wasn’t really sure if i wanted to join or not.

I’ve not been in the best mood for a while (silly depression stuff) but Ludum Dare is something i usually look forward to. However, i really didn’t feel like i would be able to create a game out of a random theme this time.

So instead of doing what i usually do, joining the comp and create everything within 48 hours, i will join the jam as a single person. This gives me the option to be somewhat less picky about the theme and i can also use some existing assets.

The reason why i do this is because recently i’ve been wanting to work on something Cyberpunk-y, like Deus Ex. Now of course that’s a incredible huge project and i don’t plan to every get close to anything like Deus Ex, but i like the stealth and game mechanics of games like this and never really tried working on similiar things myself.

So i’m gonna use this weekend to get my mojo back (at least a little bit) by working on a project like this, hoping it will somehow fit into the theme still, but even if it not, that’s okay.

Ludum Dare is always very casual but this time around it’s gonna be extremely casual for me.

Time to go buy lots of junkfood and energy drinks (fine, and some veggies).

EDIT:
I forgot to add some info about my setup 😛

As usual, my tools will be Unity, Photoshop, Cinema 4D and some web based sfx generators.
If you wanna watch me work on this, make sure to follow me on twitch.tv/seriouscreeper.

Good luck everyone!

So after a few hours i managed to get the graphic style i wanted and finished some of the features, including:

• Playermovement (walk, sprint, crouch, jump)
• Climbing ladders
• Cameras
• Simple enemy movement

Controls:

• WASD – Walking
• Shift – Sprinting (uses up sprint meter)
• C – Crouch
• Space – Jump

Playable version can be found here:

Unity Web Demo

Keep in mind that this one will get more and more features as i’m updating it. Chances are that the build might have a new bug that wasn’t there before. Just try again later in that case

Hey guys,

i just woke up from my first sleeping break. Those are really important, don’t try to stay up as long as possible! If you are tired, you won’t do nearly as good as going to get some rest.

Anyway, i’ve finished a couple more features and i’m planning on finishing all of them today, so that i can use tomorrow for level design, audio, tweaks, etc.

One of the most difficult features so far was the item highlighting. It’s not that difficult if you know what to do, but it involved some vector math that was over my head for 5am. But we figured it out on my livestream and it’s working great!

Thanks to all the people who joined my livestream. It’s awesome to see that people are so interested in game design, and all of them were so nice and helpful.

Webdemo can be found in my previous post: Web Demo

And as always, i will be live at www.twitch.tv/seriouscreeper!

This will be my 5th time at Ludum Dare and this time i am going to group up with a friend who is also a coder (@XekeDeath).

So expect a lot of amazing programmer art 😛

Tools i will be using are as usual:

• Unity 3D (4.6 Pro)
• Photoshop CS
• Cinema 4D
• Visual Studio 2013 Community

I also will be livestreaming it again over at twitch.tv/seriouscreeper

Good luck and have fun!

Xeke and i made quite a bit of progress in the first day.

First let me tell and show you what the game is about: The idea is that the player starts in a ever expanding maze and has to fight monsters and pickup items, as long as he can. The twist is, everytime a room gets created, the camera zooms out to make sure that ever single room is displayed all the time. So eventually your character will become really tiny and it will be harder for you to navigate. On top of that, the rooms slowly disappear as well.

I worked on the room generating system (and the snowman) while Xeke worked on the character (kinda looks like gordon freeman) and the player controls and items.

Been streaming over at twitch.tv/seriouscreeper if you want to follow our progress

Project is slowly coming together! Xeke is doing awesome work on the combat and animations and i’ve been tweaking some colors and UI animations here and there. We also have a game over high score screen now!

Still streaming over at twitch.tv/seriouscreeper

Following up on my previous post, i finally got some more time and especially motivation to sit down and keep working on some stuff.

First thing i did is finishing the beanstalk growth code. Even if i don’t finish this project, the code for this can be so useful for other projects i wanna work on, it can be used for all kinds of trails, footprints, etc.

The other thing i did is trying to find an art style i’m happy with. In the previous post i showed a vine that used some handpainted textures (drawn by me so not really that great but it did the job), which i kinda like but that would mean the rest of the game has to follow a similiar style (unless you wanna clash it).

I used to do some vector art for my game projects and decided to go back “to my roots” and use it in this project as well. It’s easy for me, it’s fast and i like the look of it.

Last thing i did is turning my Pete character from pixel art into the same vector style and make him run along the vine. Calculating this stuff took me a bit longer than expected but it’s working great so far!

Time for more/any gameplay. After that is in, i will work more on the visuals, add cherry blossoms to the stalk, better background, etc.

Alright so i didn’t have enough time this weekend to submit to the compo, but that’s okay.

At least i will be able to complete it in time for the Jam deadline.

The gameplay is done, i need to add some menus (intro/score), sound and music and maybe a small intro if time allows it.

Couple of othe refinements as well, such as screenshake when getting hit.

Here is a new update of the gameplay:

Finally finished my little game “Pete and the Beanstalk”. Didn’t make it to the compo so i had to submit it to the jam, but hey it’s done and that’s what counts the most (IMO).

If you wanna give it a shot, it’s over here: 

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=14950

I didn't participate in the last 3 Ludum Dares due to lack of time so it's about time i participate again. As usual i'll be using Unity (C#) and either Photoshop or PyxelEdit to make art (if you can call what i am doing "art").

I'm also gonna be livestreaming the process again over at both http://www.twitch.tv/seriouscreeper and http://www.beam.pro/seriouscreeper.

All my other Ludum Dare projects: http://ludumdare.com/compo/author/kiyaku/#hidepopup

Good luck everyone and may the theme not suck!