Unless Lumbergh asks me to work that weekend, I'm officially plan free!

Most likely will be using Unity with C# for the game. Could be compo but honestly I liked the last one where I did the jam and was able to take my time a bit.

As some others, I'm struggling with this theme mostly because the the whole point of the theme would make any game unplayable in my mind. I know that's not actually the case but that's the mind block I keep running into. I've basically set aside about 24 hours to work on my entry, so time is a huge factor!

Current line of thinking:

1) Real Time Sim + Text Based Game Input

2) Basically your sim says "We need more food" and you type "Buy Food" <enter> and then it adds food to your stockpile.

3) Resource management would be key

4) There'd be a real UI but for resources but all resource management would be text based.

5) On paper this doesn't look bad but in practice I suspect it'll be boring.

Hopefully I don't have to scrap this idea as well.

Well on paper this game looks like it should be easy enough but as we all know, what is on paper is rarely what we end up implementing. I've spent the last 4 hours creating the UI in Unity for a text based game. At this point I realize I should have just written this game in C# only but too late to do that now.

I could provide a screen shot but it really wouldn't show much. Basically I have a black screen with green text. There is a user input for text and a readout of text showing what the player did and what the SIM is telling the player. There'll be stats that are always on screen to give the player basic info such as how much of a resource they have versus what Sims are requesting, etc...

The game will work on a time limit as I don't want to have to code up some other sort of end game. I figure at the end of the time limit I'll come up with a way to calculate a score based on the resource balance. Due to time, this may be a Jam entry but should qualify for a compo if I can find time to finish before then.

I feel like I'm going to need to take vacation time just to recoup from this weekend and I'm only a day in :)

Probably out, my allotted time for this Compo has expired and other responsibilities beckon. With any luck I'll find some time to finish this as a Jam entry but right now I can't say for sure. I haven't made it far but here is a quick video of what I have:

https://youtu.be/zH1lShkieYc

Seriously, at least a quarter of them have been Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy related. On top of that, most are the same, didn't duplicates get removed previously?

I usually struggle with the idea portion but this time the them was generic enough (which I love) that I can fit an idea I've had for a while into the theme.

That's the good news. The bad news is time, was planning to devote myself this weekend to this but probably isn't going to happen. Such is life I suppose.

I'm using Unity for the engine. C# for code. Likely use Bosca Ceoil for sound. Paint.NET probably for art. Aiming for a Compo entry but might end up being Jam due to time.

Hope this goes well!

Hopefully I don't lose electricity! Lights flashing and battery backup keeps kicking in. Not good timing for that.

Lots of progress last night. Want to put together a small video or gif but probably not worth the time. I'm basically making a game similar to something I use to play on my old Commodore 64. Maybe you remember it, it was something like a burning building and babies (i think) were being thrown out the windows and you had to capture them with a trampoline and direct them to an ambulance for safety.

I'm skipping the bouncy part. The building isn't burning either. Instead, it is a building where scientific research is being done on monkeys. They monkeys get lose and start wrecking havoc on the building throwing science out the window :)

You'll have a truck (or something, it's a square right now) that moves around to catch the science being thrown out. But as you capture them, you'll get heavy and not able to move as fast and eventually run out of space to capture any more. Before this happens, you must take the science back to the building's garage where it'll get stored safely until the monkeys on the upper floor are put back in their cages.

Any science you don't catch will get deducted from your overall retrieval score in some fashion. In the end, the goal will be to balance how much science you can capture quickly and return to the building without missing too much science being thrown out. Not 100% of the end game yet. Maybe once you've collected enough science to know how to subdue the monkeys or something the game will be over. Or maybe it'll be an infinite game play ordeal where you can't particularly win but you can definitely lose.

https://youtu.be/nyxDpv0EYyU

This is just a demo/prototype of my LD42 entry at about 5 hours worth of work and 23ish hours into the jam.

Note that graphics are hopefully placeholders, we'll see. The player is a truck. The idea is that this is a scientific research facility and the monkey test subjects have broken free. They are throwing science out the window (research, experiments, etc) and you have to catch them before they are ruined. The player changes from green to red as it reaches capacity (each science unit has its own weight). Once totally full (or very nearly) it will turn black. You must deliver your load before you can capture any more. Do this by backing into the garage.

No idea what my end game is yet. Possibly just allow play forever unless you miss too many items or something like that. The theme of running out of space is represented by the truck load getting full.

Units you miss subtract from your score and some value less than their point value.

Must Have TODO's: - Needs a lose condition - Needs sound - Instructions / Startup screen

Nice To Have TODO's: - Graphics update. - Power-ups such as speed boost or auto-empty? - Slow the truck down the more full it is that way you have a reason to deliver before full.

Graphically I had to change something. I thought about embracing the Atari look up I just couldn't get it right enough to look so bad that it was good. So I went with my standard crappy clipart-esk art for now. It still stinks but better than it was:

Think I'm done for tonight. I got about 9 hours total into the game so far which is more than I thought I'd manage! Here is to hoping I can get some sound in tomorrow, a start screen, and then maybe add some nice to haves.

And I'm done: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/$100227 HTML5 version of the game will be compiled soon but needed to get this upload. Windows EXE is on DropBox, never used it before hope it works, Google was giving me issues.

Best to play the game full screen.

I completely forgot LD was this weekend and thus have no time set aside for it. That said, if the theme sparks some creativity in me, then I'm In. Maybe I could make it a #10MinuteGame.

Kudos to whoever thought up the theme because I think we are going to see some great entries. Unfortunately I'm out. I actually have a great idea for a game but I'm going to hold it in reserve and hope I can tie it to a future theme. As it is, real life is getting in the way. Best of luck to everyone.

Should be able to get a few hours in for LD, these always seem to fall during the busy times for me any more.

We'll see if time agrees with me but so far I have about an hour work in and think I can probably dedicate another 4 or 5 hours to the building something.

So far not much to show, but the basic idea is that the player will be a slot machine. A slot machine that can move around, because of course it can. The "enemies" will be gamblers of various types, such as a Lucky Old Lady, Drunk Guy, Average Joe, High Roller, etc... Each will have varying stats that determine their luck, bankroll, etc...

The idea will be that as a slot machine you have a limited amount of coins you can pay out, when you pay out completely you die. You can shoot coins at gamblers you don't want to take a pull on your lever because the risk of them of winning is too high so you fire coins at them to try to get them to just walk away, there by hopefully spending less coins than they might have won. On the flip side, you might want the high roller to take a pull because he'll put more coins in you that maybe you'd pay out.

So basically a risk/reward scenario like all games. I have no idea if this will be fun but I won't have time to change my mind so it is this or nothing, wish me luck!

Well I only got about 6 hours to build a game and I had to cut a ton of things I wanted to do but in the end I have a playable game that I'm mildly happy with. Certainly not the best thing I've ever done, it is pretty generic, but you know what it isn't the worst thing ever either. Windows version is up, HTML5 version will be loaded later.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/$143367

Title says it all! HTML5 Version of "Unbalanced Silly Slot Game" Now Available. It is on Itch.Io, checkout my entry page to find it.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/unbalanced-silly-slot-game

After some feedback, I've added more of a description of the game to the entry page so it is a little easier to tell what is happening in the game.

Check it out here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/unbalanced-silly-slot-game

This theme seems like it should be really easy (and it is) but I hate everything about it. Every single game is built on this theme, you start with nothing and gain things as you go. I don't want to do that, I need something more creative/abstract to do with this theme.

Am I complaining? A bit perhaps. I have lots of ideas but they are just games, they're not centered on this theme and I really want to do something that builds on the theme.

-End of rant

EDIT: Complaining is all it took… I have an idea but it may be too ambitious. We’ll see.

Needed a bit of a break from code so here is a progress update...

Current plan is a typing style game. You will be a Wizard/Mage who has lost their spell book and you only know the spells of "Nothing", "Blank", "Null", "Empty", etc... A few different variations on "nothing". These spells will always be will you and will deal the least damage.

In some shape or form, I'll have enemies walking toward you. You'll be attempting to destroy them with your nothing spells to begin with but after a couple kills you'll find spell book pages so you can learn better spells. The more complicated the word, the more damage it'll d or something like that. I have some ideas for combos and bonuses but will see if I have time.

I'm toying with limited use spells as well to try to add a bit of strategy to the game. I'm thinking a fixed position for the player, or perhaps the player will auto move around based on enemy positions in some fashion. Targeting will all be done based on the closest enemy.

Not sure yet how I'll present the spells the player knows so there is an easy reference but it'll be there in some fashion.

Anyway, enough babble from this exhausted programmer. After a full day of real world coding and a few hours tonight on the jam, my eyes feel like jelly. Time for some sleep.

Well I've used all the allocated time I had and progress, while steady, is not sufficient to call it a game. I sort of like where I'm going with it so if I can find some additional time it might end up being a Jam entry rather than compo.

Good luck to everyone, hopefully you time manage better than I do at these things!