We started the game last night and really haven’t made too much progress in the realm of programming but we have some of the artwork done.

The Game:  Though it currently lacks a name, our game is based on the work of Timothy Luke, a professor of political science at Virginia Tech (he also blew up the death star).  He argues that one of the key reasons why degradation of nature exists is because humans think that we live in our own separate bubble.  We think that the actions we take will have no impact on the world around us.  If all goes according to plan, the game will have a fully simulated planet (that includes the atmosphere, water currents, heat, pressure, wildlife, etc.) where every action impacts something else.  Your goal is to expand humanity to keep the happiness up while also juggling the impacts that you have on nature.

Language: Java (Specifically Java 2D)

Design Programs: Inkscape, Photoshop CS5, Paint.net

Number of Team Members: 2.  I’m doing artwork and Spaceman1701 is programming

Here’s a screenshot of my most recently finished asset:

Though we still lack the ability to calculate exactly how many pixels should be in each grid square for our circular planet, we can still keep working on the last few art assets we’ll need.  Most recently, we finished humans (which we somehow didn’t anticipate adding to the game) and foliage.  With any luck, all of these will be added to the game.  However, we all know that that may not happen.  No matter, such is the way of the Ludum Dare.

We finally got the atmosphere to not break the first law of thermodynamics.  It is now a closed system!  Now we move on to adding in the animal simulation and the gameplay itself.  We wish that we hadn’t chosen such an absurdly ambitious idea but at least we have 72 hours.  Good luck to everyone on their own projects, especially those of you trying to meet tonight’s deadline!

The lighter the red, the higher the pressure.

Since 50% of our programmers quit (one out of the two we had), we figured it’d be difficult to finish.  Last night, however, we saw that it was impossible so we played XCOM then went to sleep.  It’s too bad that we couldn’t finish the game (especially since this was my first LD) but two things came out of it.  We now have a bunch of vector art as well as a neat physics simulation that displays atmospheric pressure.

Totally forgot to do this.  I’m making some sort of platformer thing.  I described it to my friend as part Super Meat Boy, part Jetpack Joyride, and part TRON.  I’ll be making it in C# using Unity.  I’ll be using Photoshop CS5 (though I probably will get frustrated and return to Paint.NET) though I can see myself making all objects solid-colored rectangles.  I have done art for previous jams even though I can only make 3D models. This is my first compo so I hope that I finish!

Things are going quite well.  I finished the main gameplay mechanics and just have to do level design (and technically menus and sound design but I really don’t care about those).  I’m happy with what I have so far and just hope that I don’t get too distracted while working on the finishing touches.

Yep.  It was pretty fun making my first game.  This was my foray into real programming and I think that it went pretty well.  There is no sound, no UI, no score system, and no way to exit the game in full screen, but I’m pretty satisfied.  I learned a lot about problem solving and programming so I think it was a big success.  I’m also happy that I completed my first LD before my friend who has been starting the compos for over a year now.

I would greatly appreciate it if you would play my game and leave any feedback that you have.  It’s pretty short so it shouldn’t take too long.  All that I want to do is learn!

Between the 4 of us I feel like one of us would’ve posted but we’re all super lazy.  Anyway, we in.  We’re three programmers and one artist.  Out of the four of us, we have individually attempted 6 LD’s while only one has ever been completed.  Let’s go.

Engine: Unity C#

Art: Gimp, Paint.net, and Microsoft Paint

The first image of our game is the best thing you’ll ever see:

We have some good icons that I decided didn’t deserve to be in the image.  I didn’t want to punish our artist by putting those quality icons in the atrocity that is my HUD.  Movement is done.  Basic AI is done.  The HUD is mostly done but it won’t go on top of anything else and I don’t know why.  GUI work makes me want to kill someone.

The game itself is a rogue-like game that controls like a MOBA.  You fight waves of enemies and once an enemy dies, it drops an ability.  You can then stitch the remains of the enemy onto yourself and take its ability as a replacement for one of your current abilities.  It’s fairly morbid and we hoped that a cute art style would create a nice juxtaposition.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get that style to work super well.  Anyway, we’re all going to sleep.  With any luck, we can start producing mass amounts of abilities tomorrow and save polishing for Monday.