I’m hoping to be in (given that I don’t have important revision to do…), as it’ll be my first! I’ve never actually finished a game I’ve started, so this is an extremely good opportunity for me to prove to myself I can.

Language/IDE: Game Maker 8 Pro

Libraries: None most likely

Graphics: Pyxel Edit (or Built-in GM8 sprite editor (or even GIMP))

Audio: FL Studio 10 and/or Audacity

Other: Livestreaming @480p with OBS, Timelapse somehow.

PS. I made a Tower Defense game as part of the warmup – Maybe that’s worth checking out?

It’s 3 am, I have school to attend later, currently struggling to keep my eyes open. In other words, I’m screwed.
As much as you may see it in “survival guides”, tips and tricks, etc. This is a nice warning to get you well prepared for the weekend:

GET YOUR WELL NEEDED SLEEP!

And don’t do a stupid.

It will help, I promise! (Considering this is my first LD…)

So as many people have said (I quote from Wikipedia): “The term “minimalist” is often applied colloquially to designate anything that is spare or stripped to its essentials.”
I thought, why not make a game where you have to pickup/remove as many objects from the map as fast as possible, making the map minimal? Hey, sounds like Katamari!

You can play it (veeery work in progress-y) here

Work in Progress Screenie:

As much as I would have liked to make it 3D, I haven’t had time to learn Unity (o.e.) – Maybe next time!

Hey, if you come to my livestream, I’ve got Never Gonna Give You Up on loop!!

^ ^ ^
RICK ASTLEY ON LOOP 😀

Tags: rick astley

I think I’ve had enough for one day! Busy day tomorrow

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 27th, 2013 at 5:58 pm and is filed under LD #26. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It’s been a long-ish day (feels kinda normal to me, sat at my computer all day…) and I’ve discovered that Twitch stopped streaming after about 10 hours (?) – But hey, I’ve been saving locally too. Also, I’ve never made a level before that’s as big as 4096×2048!

So far, this is what I’ve got to show you all as my 12 hour progress update (it’s more like 14 hours, but I’ve had breaks in between)

TODO:

• Bottom text should not be animated (and moved slightly lower)
• Particles 😀
• Improved sprites and a background too (parallax always looks nice)
• Sounds/Music, it’s so boring without it :c
• Main Menu, “Map Selection” much improved, Introduction/Storyline
• Everything else.

You can play the current version I’m working on here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36378797/LD/minimalism_wip.exe

Now, I’m not French, but I know enough to say I’m finished!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=20850

Now I just have to render the timelapse (all 32,000 images ;_;) and upload the gameplay video! Huzzah!

As my first attempt at a Ludum Dare compo, I honestly never thought I’d actually finish the game!

Here is my main menu – I don’t actually need it, it’s just so that the intro doesn’t start straight away:

If you think this is good, my level design is absolutely horrendous! The best designed level is actually the tutorial level, and after that are only two other levels ._.

Also, the music would work absolutely wonderfully, if Game Maker’s audio engine wasn’t so annoying and stupid… It’s too late to go and add an external sound thingy now, so it’ll have to do :c

As I promised not so long ago, I’d have a gameplay video up!
You can play it here
…or if you’re too lazy to have a go, here is a full walkthough:

I think I’ll be going to bed now – It’s almost 3 and I have to wake up in 4 hours to go to school…

Here is where I’ll be working, and where I’m normally sat for at least 8 hours every day…

As you can see, I’ve got my webcam set up so you can see not only my screen, but the desk area too! (The TV on the left will be used for the livestream preview and chat, so it’s away from where I’m working)

PS. HELP, I’m so under prepared, I haven’t made a game in ages, and I haven’t had any practice time! But everything should be OK. Also, I reeeeally need to get a mouse mat…

http://twitch.tv/TomboFry is here if you’re interested! Thanks! 😀

Welp, the compo starts at 2 am this time rather than 3, and I’m just about to sleep, so I’ll be more behind than last time. However I know what to expect this time, I’m so glad I joined the LD community when I did, it’s great, all of it!

In addition to the tools I’ll be using, I’ve got a little app called Trello for both the browser and my android phone, to keep track of stuff that might need adding and updating, but you’ve probably heard of it before…

How could I forget?! I don’t have to make the music on FL Studio alone, I forgot I can play the guitar for perhaps a different atmosphere. We’ll see. Who knows what will await us in a short while?

Anyway, good night, you should get one too 😉

So far I’ve been working on this game for 11 hours, 30 minutes (almost exactly). This is what I’ve produced. Keep in mind the commentary was read from a script and it sounds stupid :L

The art/graphics will hopefully be a little different other than solid colours, but for now it’s fine! Tomorrow all I want to focus on is content and art (including music).

I’ll be back to livestreaming soon hopefully, just having a short break from coding anything…

PS. Here’s my todo list

Play the post-compo version here!

Just a quick post to say “Escape the Underground” has a post-compo version released, based on Jools64 and N0_Named_Guy’s feedback.

Added:

• Subtitles to introduction (removed voice over, it was rather annoying)
• Death counter
• Feedback when the stompy thing hits you
• Level starts when you press a key, instead of straight away

Fixed:

• Checkpoint spawning in ground sometimes
• Factory levels slightly more difficult

In future versions, I’ll be adding loads of cool stuff, including gamepad support, key configuration, difficulty levels (make it easier for noobs :P), easier to control, variable jumping, and fancy menu backgrounds.

Thanks for playing, and if you haven’t already, please rate my game? I will get round to rating a lot more games soon!

Hey, I’m in once again! I took part in Ludum Dare 26 and 27, making Barren Universe and Escape the Underground. This time round I’d really like to make a different style of game…

This time I’ll be using:

• Game Maker Studio Professional: Thanks to YoYoGames who gave it away for free at one point! A fine piece of software, and this time, it’ll allow me to produce a game for both PC AND Mac. Huzzah! (However, I may still use GM8Pro, as I’m not completely used to how it works slightly differently…)
• FL Studio 10: It’s served me well since I got it, and I intend to continue using it for this LD as well. My tunes are even better than the last two times, so be on the look out for it!
• GIMP, Pyxel, Illustrator CS6: GIMP is great because it’s free and personally I find it better than Photoshop, however Illustrator will definitely be used for art outside of the game (eg. Banners, Thumbnail images, etc). Pyxel is great for tilesets, and I will use it again like the last two times.
• Git[hub]: Not sure if I’m going to, but with Game Maker Studio I might try and use Github this time around. I’ve never used it before, but on the other hand my account is kinda empty… We’ll see.

I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to mention that I’ve recently released a chiptune album, called “Growing Darkness” that you might like. Instead of making games like I should’ve been, I made a whole bunch of music instead. It’s only £3, which is quite the bargain!

Good luck everyone, and have fun!

So far, it’s been 4 hours, and I’ve done what I thought was a fair amount, but it’s not, really.

The player can walk, there’s water, and mountains, but that’s it…

I’m too focused on the art… D:

But hey, my source code is available at GitHub if you want. (Requires Game Maker Studio)

EDIT: If you’re interested, streaming here

The theme really isn’t working for me. Plus I’ve had problems with Game Maker Studio, some obscure bug where if I change the order of the objects on the left panel (that are not even in the room) it messes up how the code runs, so I had to switch to Game Maker 8 half way through, losing loads of time.

However, this is what I had so far. I would definitely like to continue making this game, just not for this Ludum Dare…

Also, if you want the source code (has both GMS and GM8 source, but AFAIK the GMS code doesn’t work), you can find it here

Supporting up to 4 players, you have a pistol and you must kill everyone around you to win. Probably sounds like a lot of games :L

Enjoy a low fps gif of what’s in progress (keeping in mind I started from scratch this morning…)

So, after giving up last night, still wanting to enter, I decided to go easy on the game, and make a much simpler game.

Split screen, anyone? (plus placeholder art (apart from players))

Except of course, I only have half the time to make the game… Eeek!

Tis looking smexy my friends! (lava just needs changing a bit)

Hopefully, I’ll get some light from these torches too! Then we’re almost done

EDIT: Get feedback while you can! I got feedback from my sister & her boyfriend, we all played it together and had loads of fun, now I know what I need to add/change before it’s too late

It’s been a little while since the actual competition weekend, but I’ve finally gotten the timelapse made.

Play/rate Dungeon Darkness here

or watch the timelapse below:

(Apologies, as it starts about 1 hour into development, plus there’s no audio)

Post-mortem coming soon!

Hey guys, I’ve been taking part in the Ludum Dare competitions since April last year, and it would be an honour to take part for another year!

This time, I’ll be switching up my tools. Last year I primarily used Game Maker 8 on Windows, however I’ve recently turned to free solutions instead:

• IDE: Sublime Text 3
• Framework: HaxeFlixel (Haxe/OpenFL/Flixel). Definitely check it out if you haven’t already. It’s absolutely fantastic! (apparently they’ll be supporting consoles soon, that’s awesome!)
• Art/Asset creation: GIMP
• elementary OS. It’s a free Linux operating system based on Ubuntu. It looks amazing, and it’s lightning fast. Not sure about livestreaming with it though. We’ll see, I’ll do some tests soon.
• As for music, I’ll switch over to Windows 7 half way through to use FL Studio.

The game I make will be uploaded to Itch.io, GameJolt, IndieDB, and the Google Play Store (see point below)

Expect the game I make to be released on all desktop operating systems (either Flash or native compilations), and Android Phones and Tablets. I will likely design the game with phones in mind.

Good luck everybody!

Tags: android, Flixel, HaXeFlixel, ld29