This is my first LD. I’ve been following the competitions for awhile but have never had the proper conjunction of available time and theme. But this time I’m going to give it a shot. So in the spirit of the thing, here’s my “desk.”

My "desk", as it were

I do most of my programming on the couch or in bed. Sad but true. I know this isn’t a team competition, but that’s my assistant there on the armrest. Don’t worry, he doesn’t contribute much anyway.

My producer likes to oversee the coding process. Apparently he finds it boring.

So for tools I’ll be using:

Language: HTML5/Canvas, Javascript, PHP, CSS

Libraries: jQuery and probably some isometric tile code I’ve been working on. I’ll be sure to share it as well.

IDE: Notepad++

Art: Paint.net. Maybe using photos

Sound: Not really sure. I might be able to knock something up in Garageband using my guitars and some of the built-in stuff. The HTML5 audio API isn’t well established yet, though.

Hardware: The laptop is a Dell Inspiron running Windows Vista. I’ll test on most major browsers. I’ll also test on a Mac Mini running OSX on several different browsers. If I get ambitious I may try it on iPhone.

OK, off to think.

OK. First check-in of my first LD!

My game will be a browser-based game (that was a given since that’s what I do). The basic idea is that your character is a wizard who travels around a 2-D isometric world and explores dungeons to find the lost spells of the Ancients. This is going to be a non-combat game. Your magic allows you to circumvent the various obstacles in the dungeons. When you get to the end you’ll discover more spells that can help you in other dungeons. I’m not quite clear on the “end,” but right now I’m thinking the overall goal is to make it through the dungeons to discover the Ultimate Spell or something. I’ll plotify it along the way. If I have time, I think I’ll do some stats that other players can see and take advantage of being web-based.

All I have done so far is one tile and the tile template. Using quick ugly art right now, but I have a few ideas for nicer art I’ll play with tomorrow.

An extremely modest beginning

I wish I had something to show, but right now I’m neck-deep in Javascript. I’m building an isometric tile engine for the HTML canvas element. This is something I’ve worked on before, so I’ve got some bits and pieces laying around, but now I’m sort of pulling it all together to get a scrolling map going ASAP.

The basic idea is to load resource images into the DOM then use them as you normally would in a tile engine. So I copy a rectangular region from the resource image onto the canvas, wash-rinse-repeat. Since it’s isometric, I’m working with squashed diamond shapes. For this implementation I’m using tiles that are 300 x 150 pixels. Every other row has to be offset by a half-tile so they tile up nicely. Anyway, this is all probably stuff you know.

I’m working on a few interesting bits with canvas. One is shadows, which I’ve got some prototype code for and will probably use. With that I copy the sprites in a translucent black and then apply a matrix when copying them onto the map so they’re skewed properly. I’d like to figure out a good way to blur them too, but may not get to that. Another thing I want to experiment with here is particles. I might try using the mousewheel for zooming in and out a bit, but that will be a Sunday thing, I reckon. I have the concept worked out in my head, but we’ll see.

As for the game itself, I’m planning to sleep on it and see what details may emerge.

Resting already? Yeah. Doesn’t look like much, but here’s what I got:

Starting to tile

What we have here is one isometric tile being, um, tiled in an HTML canvas element. Now I rest and dream of discovery.

OK, been up for an hour or so. I’ve got tiling and scrolling working properly. This seems to be a terribly modest accomplishment compared to others, but then I AM a newbie at this. It will be embarrassing though if the extent of my game is the ability to move around a map. Although I just thought of a way to at least make it fit the theme…

Anyway, here’s what I got, placeholder tiles and all. They’re just there to help be gauge the scrolling, which of course you can’t see. Right now it’s keyboard driven, but will have mouse, too. The displayable area is calculated based on the dimensions of the current browser window. At some point I’ll want to make it re-calculate when the window is resized.

Tiling and pixel-based scrolling in HTML canvas

General plans:

• Take a shower and think through the actual game mechanics.
• Dry off and put on some proper clothes.
• Create some quick sprites and implement placeable objects.
• Get a main character animating as the screen moves around.
• Implement collision code.
• Eat some food and post some food pics that don’t look disgusting.

That should bring me to early afternoon at which point I may need to run out and pick up some supplies. I’m thinking about making my tiles and sprites by photographing objects made from construction paper. Should be odd if I can pull it off. If not there’s always Paint.net

Cupcake with marshmallows and a peppermint stick

So I met my goal of getting placeable objects into the game “early afternoon” (12:26 here in Eastern USA). Now to wire up collision.

A lonely tree

Wow. This is my first LD and I’m finding myself running out of steam already! On the positive side, I’m figuring out some techniques that I haven’t played with before. And I’ll have something finished by hour 48, but now I’m not sure it’s going to be anything fun. Still, it’s cool to see everyone’s progress over time.

Well, I like where I was going with my previous idea, but it’s clear I’ll never finish in time. So I’m going to put it aside and work on a new idea that should be dead simple to code and fun to boot: a Memory-type game in which you match up great discoveries and inventions with what they’re good for. But all tongue-in-cheek. Each level will get progressively harder and I’ll do an on-line highscore list. Still working in Javascript and PHP. I have less than 6.5 h0urs!

Well, I’ve finished my first LD Compo. It was pretty grueling, fun, and ultimately I did get something finished. If I’d had the idea earlier, it might even have been something fun. My original, now abandoned project, will be picked up again tomorrow and will be something I’ll work on over the next few weeks. Hopefully it will turn into something fun.

In the meantime, I hope that if you try “Great Discoveries in Human History” you’ll find something amusing in it. I’ve been blown away by everyone’s entries and I can’t wait to try them all! Here’s my last screenshot…

GDHH is a memory/matching game with a tongue-in-cheek view of history

You click on a tile to reveal it. Click on a second tile to see if they match. If so, you score a point and the tiles are removed. The extra trick here is that you have to match the discovery or invention with its benefit to humanity (or the problem it solves). These are from a decidedly modern American’s perspective. It’s built in some fairly vanilla Javascript with help from a server-side PHP script. Oh and jQuery/jQuery-UI. This may be the ugliest code I’ve spit out, but it’s done! Also I had no time after coming up with all the discoveries to work on art, so y0u get black and white. FYI, there’s 71 pairs of discoveries and benefits in all.

Good luck to everyone!