We’ll see how this goes and I probably won’t finish anyway.  Techs to be decided after theme posting but will be likely in the set of Python (Pygame/Flask/etc), Go, Javascript (jQuery/Bootstrap/maybe one other non-game library I’ve been tinkering with), Java, Gimp, Inkscape, lmms, inudge, and/or sfxr, possibly other tools as needed, but plan to try to stick to basics as much as possible (who doesn’t?).

(Though maybe I should consider it karmic prescience that my first attempt to post this “I’m in” was met with internal server errors… )

So, Minimalism…

Here is some whiteboarding that led me to Pixel Dust as the game of choice:

Set up a GAE account at http://pixel-dust.appspot.com

Also have GIT repo at https://github.com/swizzcheez/pixel-dust

Now we can get to the basic stuff…

Well, got to a point where I can see a puzzle player and interact a bit.  The code will need rework in the morning tho.  Ugh.

Here’s a very rudimentary test that’s live (so that milestone is complete):

http://pixel-dust.appspot.com/puzzle/TEST/square/player

To play the game, select a color then click quadrants of the square.  It works like “Mastermind” — when hovering, the green number is right, orange is correct color but in wrong position, red is just plain wrong (background black is never a goal color).

As each level is completed, a new independent set of squares is put in its place.  Once all pixels have been solved the player gets a “congrats” message (better things to come time permitting).

The test case is intentionally very primitive — real puzzles would have more than two colors and be larger.

Lots still to be done, but feel free to comment on how it went for you (especially Mac folks — I can’t test for that at all).

Most importantly, is this any fun or just tedious?

Ok, I’m as done as I’m going to get (maybe some IE tweaking later).

Here it is:

http://pixel-dust.appspot.com

It’s a cross between Nonograms and Mastermind.  Not going to be my favorite game, but at least it’s the first one I finished.

Source code on github: https://github.com/swizzcheez/pixel-dust

Screenshot:

PS: In case it isn’t clear how this is “minimal” — I don’t know how much more minimal I can get than a game about putting color blocks on a canvas.  😉

Also, IE9 kind-of runs.  Firefox, Chrome seem to fare well on Linux and Windows.  I still can’t tell if Macs will work (don’t have one to test with).

PPS: Tools I ended up using:

• Flask (Python)
• Google App Engine
• Bootstrap/jQuery w/Custom Theme
• Color plugin to jQuery

I think that was it.  The rest was hand-rolled.

Other than obvious typos or adjustments to the platforms available, how much tweaking is allowed?  For example, in Pixel Dust, I had to make a number of guesses related to the scoring.  How many points to take per second, how much to give on completed puzzles, etc.  It’s pretty clear those need dialed in, but should I wait for all voting to complete before doing that?

Also, what about UI adjustments?  A few folks commented that certain parts weren’t clear.  I wouldn’t mind adjusting the look to aid playability, but again I’m not sure if that goes against the spirit of the compo.

So, what sort of things do you do post-release?  Do you find that affects the scores at all?

Well, this has been a great ride.  Pixel Dust was a great first (complete-able) LD and the following are some notes, especially to myself, for the next round:

• Do not bother with an editor (yes, there is one, but it’s obfuscated).  Use static, static, static files or better yet internal data structures instead.  PD started with internal data only but ended up wasting time with an editor half-way through — though it reused a lot of the code from the player.
  
  
• Focus on instructions and user hand-holding more.  PD has them, but they could have used a lot more attention.  In fact, in future make sure to write them as early on as possible (after getting some prototype working) as a test of the game design.
• Don’t add scoring/win condition stuff too close to the end of the project.  One reason PD is so unbeatable on some screens is partially due to a bug whose fix I’m holding until after the LD compo.  That bug stems from trying to add a scoring mechanic right at the end of development.  Try to get all game-mechanic related stuff done by the mid-way checkpoint.
• More UI drawings should be made immediately following basic analysis.
• Save more time for “flair”.  A simple score update animation would have made a world of difference — we’ll see after the post-compo update.  also animations relating to the “dust” in Pixel Dust might have been good.
• Spend more time on the release message.  Just copying the journal doesn’t cut it.
• Possibly be more willing to adjust issues after the compo.  The rules for this are a bit hazy, but I’m thinking I could have fixed my scoring bug following submission.
• Get all hosting/repo stuff out of the way ahead of time.
• Need to add a place to gather issues right on the web interface (even if a link back to github).
• GAE was a mixed bag.  Got things going quickly, but did have to spend a little time working through GAE issues/idiosyncrasies as well (especially in the process of storing/retrieving boards from the DB — see point 1 though).

Some things that worked well:

• Brainstorming/analysis phase — that first 1-2 hours of analyzing the options was a clear help.
• HTML — worked fine for this type of project and make most of it cross-compatible.  I suspect that faster games might require too much tuning though to keep fast.
• Web server from the start — if using HTML, why not?
• Use of TODO file instead of standard bug/issue tracker to develop initial features.  This ties the results nicely with the version control and is very quick to manage.  Consider adding a trigger to make sure the file changes on every merge, especially to master.
• Avoiding graphics saved a lot of time, but that was partially because of the theme.  May not be so lucky next time, but definitely avoiding making pictures is a time saver.
• Making the site look and feel flow reasonably well with the game.

And most importantly — make sure to have fun; if you don’t, likely no one else will either!

And I did with Pixel Dust.  Hopefully others will too as the post-compo updates are deployed.

Until there’s a theme, there’s not much more to say.

Likely architecture again is HTML5/JS/Flask.  Maybe some Go?  A touch of Java?  Who knows… 8)

It’s gonna be a busy weekend so we’ll see how much time I have for this…

Depending on theme and mood, probably web based so:

• Flask/python
• Bootstrap/JQuery
• DB layer (if needed) might be rethinkdb… I kinda want to give that a go.
• Gimp/Inkscape for gfx
• sfxr, whatever I can dig up for sound/music (if I get that far)

Of course, depending on the idea I go with, I may chuck all that and do something in a completely different platform altogether (Java/Android or Go or who knows)…

It’s going to be an awfully nice weekend to be hacking inside… I’ll probably decide after we get a theme.

Not sure of tech but set up the site repo.   The pre-ld stuff will be here: https://github.com/swizzcheez/ld29/tree/pre-ld-setup

I’ll move the tag if I need to add any more base libraries, etc. to deal with deployment to Google Cloud.  (Not libraries for whatever game will come.)  It’s pretty bare bones.  Just getting bootstrap/jQuery and some basic Flask template skeletons together and making sure it all works nicely.

Currently planning to use:

• Bootstrap/jQuery
• Flask (though I may switch to Go)
• Possibly LimeJS (or other similar JS game engine)
• Google Cloud/AppEngine

We’ll see…

Okay, it’s up from possibly to probably.

My starting codebase is at https://github.com/swizzcheez/ld29/tree/pre-ld-setup (slight tweaks may yet occur, but that tag will show what I started with).

My code will be here https://github.com/swizzcheez/ld29/tree/master

And my product will be here http://swizzcheez-ld29-new.appspot.com/

(and possibly elsewhere if I decide to get a domain name for it)

BTW, my last entry (from last year’s minimalism) is here in case anyone wants a blast from the past…

No idea what I’ll do exactly.  Depending on the idea any or all of:

• Python
• Go
• Java
• jQuery
• Angular
• Bootstrap
• Mongo
• Rethinkdb
• Gimp
• Inkscape
• Some audio tool
• Maybe a music tool

But, almost certainly Docker will be in the mix…

GitHub page

Wife’s birthday is tomorrow so I’m going to be a day out of luck on this one.  Whatever it is, it’s going to have to be super-duper quick to put together.

Probables: AngularJS, Python/Flask, bsfx, one of the standard music tools maybe, lots of caffeine.

Also: maybe a free font tool, music generator, tile set stuff, etc.

Ok, so snowman’s out.  But single screen … maybe what I was thinking will still work.

So, what is the natural enemy of the snowman?  Obviously, it’s the snow blower.  So, I’m thinking some sort of quickie Pac-mazy style game where the player is driving the snow blower being pursued by snowmen out to make sure the snow doesn’t get cleared.  Or something like that.

Anyway, single maze, collect/remove snow.  Snowmen chasers.  Maybe some power-ups.

Gonna be a short night…

Plan to use Flask, bootstrap, Angular, some standard audio generator, gimp/inkscape if needed.  Docker for publication, but not sure where yet (probably AWS).

Starting point includes a half-baked, may-not-even use ng sprite library I’ve been tinkering with off and on and some basic docker/web stuff.

https://github.com/swizzcheez/ld32/tree/warmup

Changed directions 8 hours ago when I realized what I wanted to do was going to be even less fun than what I came up with…

C’est la vis — at least something got submitted this time.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=16129

http://formulablaster.com/game#/playing

Not sure about anything yet, platform-wise.  Might update after ideating a bit.

Got an idea, don't know about how much time I'll have to work on it.

Been trying to figure out where the upload/embed thing is on the my game page based on https://ludumdare.com/resources/guides/embedding/ but that seems to be nowhere.

Also, why do all of the rules go to 404 these days? https://ludumdare.com/rules/