I’ve been following Ludum Dare for a couple years I guess, and now I’ve finally gotten an opportunity to participate! No more exams means that this time of year is available to throw down a weekend.

I plan on either using XNA or Flixel. I’m pretty good at either. We shall see.

I would prefer to do it in XNA, I have the most experience in it, but I worry that people won’t have the desire to make their computer XNA playable. Am I worrying too much?

I would like to make a time lapse video, but I don’t know which software is the best for windows.
I am excited!

Alright!  Exploration! I’m ready!

Civ clone? could be cool

Fog of War? Yeah maybe!

I’ve found a camera I can use, just a warning,  because of an unmentioned  issue involving a cat,  it only takes pictures with a ‘bloom’ filter on it.  Pics after the split.

Desktop!

Desktop! Don’t mind the mess!

Provisions!

Provisions!

Whew, after fighting some weird bugs and getting used to Flash Develop a little more I’ve made this:

http://www.ericmcquiggan.com/Gameuploads/ludumdare/LudumDare48.swf

The plan is you are a prospector on an island trying to find things of value to sell back to the local colony.  There is a still a bunch more to add,  my tiles are easily extend-able to different land types .

But for now, sleep.

I think I’ve done alright so far for my first attempt, I have a tiling game world, you can run around and EXPLORE.  Exploration removes the Fog of War. Every island is procedurally generated when you start the game, check out rivers and forests!

http://www.ericmcquiggan.com/Gameuploads/ludumdare/LudumDare48.swf
Use your WASD keys!

Wowzers, that was quite the ride! I’m proud of what I was able to do. Even though it’s not much of a game, but its kinda fun.

Play it HERE:  http://www.ericmcquiggan.com/Gameuploads/ludumdare/LudumDare48.swf

Controls Below

W/A/S/D to move around

E  Builds improvements (lumberyard on forests, farm on grasslands, mine on mountains)

R to build Roads

T to build boat houses, you can use a boat house as a town.

You have to connect your improvements with roads.
Wagons run if you connect roads up, you get gold when your wagons are running!
I’m compiling a Timelapse and I want to fraps together some game play footage.

TimeLapse Vid

Hey Crew! I did it, I got through a Ludum Dare! I’ve been wanting to get into one of these for at least a year and a half, I didn’t have the chance, mostly because they happen right in exam season, but I done graduated!

The theme of “Exploration”, which isn’t much of stretch for Video games. It got my imagination rolling though. One thing that my mind grabbed on was Lewis and Clarke, probably because I listened to a pod-cast on the death of Meriwether Lewis on the way home on Friday. I wanted to make a game with some historical roots, other thoughts are a ‘space exploration’ or something more abstract. But my mind kept returning to the idea of the famous western explorers and their adventures.

I set the game on an island because thats an easy way to create hard boundaries. I wanted you to be able to find new and interesting flora and fauna, name them, and sell them to distant aristocracy for exorbitant prices. But I could only manage the unfettered expansion of your settlements into the island itself, turning its tranquil simplicity into a criss-crossed bustling seaport.

I named it after the first lyrical part of my favourite Decemberists Song “The Island”. The idea of an untamed island untouched by human hand, explorer expeditions venturing into its untamed wilds, finding riches to bring back to the empire. That idealistic Romantic idea struck me and I ran with it.

-I like it!          – I am proud of what I made, and it’s fun in a relaxing way.

-World Generator     – I wrote this in the first half, I’m really happy with how the forests came out, they feel really organic, the scalability is excellent as well.

-Wagons and roads    – The most interesting part! I’m really happy that the roads run and can check their distance from a dock or town, I also like that the wagons follow their paths correctly. If I had another hour, I would’ve made the wagons adjust their path if a faster one becomes available.

-Flixel rocks socks  – I feel more confident in my flash game crafting then before!

-I am excited for more game making! – Got me out of a funk I’ve been in a while.

What went wrong

-Inconsistent Art  – I tried out a couple different things. So the character is an bizarrely coloured and abstract, the sea is WTF, and the rest is stylistically ripped from the first 2 Civilizations.

-Shallow game-play – There isn’t any challenge, and there isn’t much to do.

-No sound!         – This is really lame, I just ran out of time.

– Ran out of time  – I didn’t really plan on what I wanted to do, I winged it from start to finish, I came up with the ideas and came up with too many, got stuck doing things that I should’ve not attempted. Oh well!

The Game:
http://www.ericmcquiggan.com/Gameuploads/ludumdare/LudumDare48.swf

Controls

W/A/S/D – Movement
E – Build Improvement
R – Build Road
T – Build Dock

Here are some concept art for my mini LD 16
They use most of the colours but not all yet!
When I started I really wanted to do something with parallax and a train. I’m still working out the plan for what the game-play will be.

Pics after break

Daytime

Nighttime

Tags: MiniLD #16

It’s done!
It’s a bit further then my last attempt, I hope it’s interesting!

Controls, use the numbers to select a car, press the same number a second time, after a brief delay, to drop the object. Try to fill all the cars!

http://www.ericmcquiggan.com/Gameuploads/ludumdare/LDMini16.swf