So here I am ready to add to the pool of “it’s my first LD” posts. Then I start scrolling through the things other people are working on… and woah. There’s the intimidation factor. Love it though. : )

I’m from a web dev background – okay that’s a lie. I’m from a communication studies background, but realized by my last year of school that I didn’t care for any of the career opportunities in my field, started taking some e-commerce electives and created an independent study in web-technologies. Long story short, I did some crappy jobs at ridiculously low rate, leveled up, and now do web-dev (almost exclusively back-end) full time.

I have not made a ‘game’ since we had to get those graphing calculators in highschool and they turned out to support BASIC like programming. I’ve talked about it a million times, but, well, I haven’t written a book yet either. ; p So I decided to do LD #24 to give myself some “sit down and do it” motivation. And also an “no see I have to work on this today, I’m doing this thing!” excuse. I’m thinking I’ll need more than a little practice time before that though.

Maybe I’ll have to do MiniLD #36 to get my feet wet.

So, with absolutely no work done on the first day, here I am evening of the second and I still have barely more than nothing. Just getting started.

I need a little info though. My game’s going to be based on reaction times, and for the sake of difficulty I need to get a feel for what the players average reaction times should look like.

If you’re game, go to PlusPresence.com/ludumdare/contrast.html

You’ll see a blank page. After a random amount of time (less than 15 seconds.) The word “Go!” will appear on screen in read letters. Press the space bar as fast as you can. It will tell you your reaction time. I’ll love you forever if you comment and share the result with me.

If you try it a few times, it’d be great if you could let me know what seems average or if you noticed yourself getting better with multiple tries. I’m assuming we get better with repeated attempts but don’t have a clue what the curve is like.

Thanks a bunch!

– Cody

Boy, I decided to the mini LD thinking it would be easier then the full on LD since I could just “work on it in my spare time” instead of dedicating 48 straight hours to it. But apparently if you don’t make time you’ll never have time… so I’ve touched this very little. : /

At the very least, the mechanics for the level are there, and it’s possible to win. Making new levels won’t be an issue as the only difference from one to the next is the skill of the enemy.

But the framework, selecting a level, choosing a character, choosing a difficulty session, and progression through all need to be built yet.

Also there’s not a single graphic yet.

And there’s no sound.

And that’s what I’m working on this evening. Sound. Any advice on how to handle sound in JS/Canvas games? I hear HTML5’s audio element is notorious for lag, and for a reaction time based game a late sound is much worse than no sound at all…

Man… So the deadline came and went and I didn’t finish. I learned a valuable lesson at least. One week is not a very long time if you don’t put your usual commitments on hold. When the big LD comes around, I will definitely not make the mistake of thinking I can do anything in my spare time. I’ve already warned my wife that I’ll be out of action for 48 hours. ; p

I also learned alot about how to manage sound in js/canvas games, and that the average reaction time for hitting the space bar when something appears on the screen is right around a third of a second.

Maybe I’ll post the game when it’s finished anyway, we’ll see.

For now I’ve got all these awesome submissions to play!! (I mean… um.. get my work done.. Yeah that..)