Been doing these a few times but never posted about it here! Maybe that’s why I’ve failed. Not this time, hopefully!
I’m running Python with Pyglet. So far I’ve got my idea down and work is going unusually smooth.
Here’s what I have so far, I haven’t yet completely nailed the mechanics but it’s going to be something.
Yeah, it’s ugly. Art comes tomorrow/later today if I have time after work.
Alright! After many tries partaking in LDs, I finally managed to post an entry in time. It sure was …interesting. Not a lot I could use later codewise but as an experience it was fun. If anything, I realized I need to code more to keep in practice!
Escape… is my cleverly named title, here’s a screenshot of the final thing. It’s …something. I’m not quite sure what.
If you haven’t, check my game out in here! It’s bound to get lost among the 599 we got!
Some of my ramblings about the project to follow..
This is the first time I’ve managed to enter an entry to the compo – I’ve tried several times but due to mix of IRL stuff happening and just generally not being able to pull it off I haven’t finished an entry before. I did have to go to work on Saturday this time as well which cost me some time, but hey, can’t help it.
At first my game was going to be something completely different and a lot more gamey, with some puzzley-platforming elements. The thing was, in secret I’ve been working on a platform game and quickly discovered I was doing pretty much the same thing I already had – just from scratch. Repeating the same work I’d already done didn’t feel right to me in a sense, so I decided to scrap the idea and take into a different direction. Plus I knew if I wanted to take it further, I’d have to start building tools and soon all my time would’ve been used on that! Or tweaking collisions.
Instead of focusing on the gameplay, I stripped all the gameplay elements to a minimalistic core and focused on writing – however much there is of it -, art and sound. My intention was to also make something I could release quickly, though in the end, that proved not to be the case as much as I initially thought!
I had bounced the theme Escape around in my head and had a concept about a guy locked in his room in deep depression. Dunno where it came from, but there you have it. At first, the idea had some grim turns with suicidal implications but I thought taking it that route might be going too far. Instead, I wanted to portray the idea of seeking help.
Basically, the intention is to get the protagonist out of his room. The game has two phases, dark and light. Dark phase is meant to represent the protagonists current “true” state of mind, where the whole world is bleak and dark and in this phase, escaping from the room is actually impossible, as the character is unable to function normally. Every action takes an extra effort. The way I went about this was implementing a hidden meter which increases every time you try to use an item until the main character finds it in him to pull through the action. At first even moving was implemented by forcing the player to tap move buttons while in the dark phase instead of letting them be held, but during playtesting I soon found it a bit annoying so for my own sanity I just made the PC move at half speed while in the dark phase. The protagonist’s fears manifest as monsters which attack him raising his anxiety, if he stays put. So he has to keep moving to stay functioning, which is one of the concepts I wanted to explore a bit. If he chooses to stay, eventually the monsters of his mind overwhelm him again.
The one way out is by grabbing the healing item, which calms the protagonists inner turmoil, his anxiety level resets and his view of the world shifts more to a normal one. This is represented in the world by the world outside the windows turning light blue instead of black, and black clouds turning white. Now he’s able to open the door and leave his room. But I wanted to portray that while he’s out, he’s not okay really… yet. The sky’s still cloudy with no sun to be seen. Also the song that plays as the screen fades out is slightly distorted.
Holy crap reading what I wrote I do sound like an art douche, goddamnit.
There are some things I didn’t get to implement. I planned to make the house represent the main protagonists level of anxiety, with walls pounding and moving in a heartbeat like fashion in the dark world – accelerating as the anxiety levels climbed. My intention was to present the house in more of an organic manner that way while also solving another problem – lack of any on screen indicators for anything. I didn’t want to make a HUD or any indicators for the fact that it would make my game more game-like.
I also initially had a bit more interaction in my game but took nearly all of it out due to my implementation not really liking having too many objects which would overlap in x-dimension. Also, no indicators for what you’d be interacting with, again. A problem I didn’t get to solve in time.
I think the game is a tad too obscure or artsy to really get into. It certainly is not fun, but it’s not intended to be.
I also got a bit sick during the LD, so there’s that!
My code is awful. No surprise there! During the second day I really just decided to do some pretty ugly stuff, just to get it done and over with. Oh well!
I got it done! Hell yeah!
I managed to implement most things I wanted to. I have an actual soundtrack. I have hand drawn animations. I have hand drawn graphics. Those are the things I set to do, those are things I did. Quality is another matter!
If I choose to go back to this thing, first thing is to clean up the code. Then I’m going to implement rest of the features I missed and maybe even some gameplay. Sky’s the limit. Well, Skyrim’s the limit. Once that bastard is released I’m unable to do any actual work…
Other than that, I’m going to be working on some fun things. I have my github at github.com/shinD and my webpage at digitalcheeseplate.com or conspiravision.net and if I get something released, those are the places to find about them!
Tags: postmortem
Mini-LD happening, starting now. I might’ve done little bit of work earlier …but let’s keep that just between you and me, alright!
Here’s a little screen.
So, I didn’t manage to produce a finished game within the timeframe of 48 hours. In that sense, this miniLD was a “fail” for me.
I did however manage to make something which I think has some potential. I think I’ll carry it over to October and thought that while it’s not ready to submit, I’d drop what I have here. Try it out, it has issues and there are no winning/losing states, no animations, but tell me what you think, how the controls feel and whatever, that’d be a help going forward with this project!
Comment here or send your thoughts via twitter!
See ya in October Challenge!
Heya, I’ll be doing the Challenge as well!
Since I don’t want to spend my time writing, I’m going to just talk to myself on video. I’ll post them here and at my website so you can join the fun. Here’s the first one!
Here’s a new video! Some new features! Still bare & incomplete!
Had to spend most of the day at work today, so kinda late actual start for me.
Got my beer, Aventinus Weizen Eisbock, got my IDE, Flashdevelop and got the Flashpunk ready. Let’s see if we get anywhere.
Doing some progress! A preview of my class structure.
Heya folks.
I wasn’t planning on participating on this LD really since I really didn’t think I had time. Work, you know. And a little bit of Diablo 3.
However, come Sunday I thought what the hell, I’ll whip something out. A prototype, a proof of concept. I mean, it’s the 10th anniversary of LD!
So I did.
I’m calling it Downsize the World! Basically, the economy has hit so hard the gods are no longer able to run the world. Costs have to be cut. Thus, you’re given the mission to Downsize the World into tinier, more efficient entity!
It’s very rough, but maybe someone will find it amusing or get something out of it.
Made in Flash! Go here to find it!
Unless something weird happens. Gonna use Unity/Flash/Python. Haven’t decided yet which.
Meanwhile…
Something’s happening. I’m not sure where I’m going with this yet, but I do have a “tree” generator & particles.
Also, some food. Tofu burgers with some basic salad, Karelian pies & chorizo! Almost veggie! Made a bunch of these tofu burgers in preparation, nice and spicy, herby flavour.
Next up some coffee and on we go.
46 some hours and we – me and my kitten – are done! Despite him occasionally laying on my keyboard and shutting down my displays by leaning onto the buttons, I have a game.
It’s been a blast and hopefully it shows, this is no doubt my most complete entry so far. Let’s keep it going.
Here’s the World Tree
PR mode on The World Tree is a platforming adventure in a mystical setting. You, as the spirit of unevolved lands, must face dangers of Deconstruction as you collect the six artifacts required to evolve the World Tree in to its true state as the focus of all evolution!
And here’s my kitten buddy.
See you at LD25!
Hi, I kinda didn’t get around the Blogosphere that much this time, but I did stuff. Here’s Goatstar, it’s a video game.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=5550
This is a picture of the said video game Goatstar, just to give an idea.
Doing some Unity. Simple idea. We’ll see how it’ll work and how far I’ll get, since “sadly” Dragon’s Maze prereleases are also happening this weekend and I like card games, so signed up for those. There’s always the night to dev though.
You know how it goes. You think, this time everything will go smooth, it’ll be slick as hell, just bang out a game add polish, it’ll be alright. And then something goes a bit awry, it might be the tiniest thing, but that’s enough to mess up your flow. It can be something like changing your coding style just a bit.
Never try to change your style in the middle of a Jam.
Alright, Factory Hero is my game. It’s available here, go check it out!
When I saw the theme, few things came to mind. “This theme sucks” was obviously the first one, as per course for Ludum Dare cause that’s the way it works around here. Second one was to hop on to Wikipedia for all definitions of seconds, see what I could twist the words into. I was into an idea of operating a second-hand store, but realized the amount of content I would need to create would probably be a bit too much.
Factory assembly line came up next, and it was pretty okay. It was simple, but you could do some stuff with it if need be. Theme comes to play as well, 10 seconds per item to assemble. Add multiple lines, annoying bosses that creep up on you, that could work alright! I had ideas like headphones that play music which in turn slow down the time, but if your boss sees you, it’s a penalty. I set out for a somewhat soviet-ish style for the graphics, this was not going to be a fun place to work.
So I set out with one line, which eventually became three lines. Day 1 went pretty well, I got most of the basic stuff out of the way, my gameplay logic was coming together, I had some art and sound. I had ideas. It was looking good for day 2.
Day 2 I woke up, had some breakfast, sat down to work. What the hell, I have no idea what any of this was supposed to do. You see, I had decided to adjust my coding style just a tiniest bit to – you know – broaden my horizons. It’s not important what I did, but what matters is I didn’t know how to read my code anymore. Well, crap. It was just huge plate of spaghetti and I had no clue how things flowed anymore.
10 hours left? That’s plenty, time to scrap it all, aside from some window- & resource-stuff. Do it the old-fashioned way. Three lines scaled back to one, all extra stuff was out. Now it was just one line, basic assembly. In hindsight, three lines would’ve probably been too much, so really it all worked out. Anyway, I cranked it out, though it did get a bit hectic when the final hours were ticking by, but there it was finally, playable and completeable to a degree. It even had some style and direction! Oh yeah, around here LDs end at 4am, so I was feeling pretty spent.
Man, packaging python stuff is such a pain when you’re doing it 4 in the morning.
In any case, it was fun. I had a moment of doubt there, but in the end I had something that I was ok with, and I felt what I had was better than what I did last time, and it was not as much of a pain to get there than last time. That’s pretty much what I try to go for and what LD is about, so I rate this weekend a success.