Having slept on the problem, I think I’ve come up with an idea that’s not too terrible. Evo-Poker! Kind of a cross between video poker and the wonderful evolution card game Quirks.

I was hoping to try my hand at a Flash game, but it looks like I’ll be using Adventure Game Studio instead. Oh well.

The real fun is going to be juggling the game with actual paying work that I also need to complete over the weekend! So if I drop out, you’ll know why.

…and nothing’s actually written yet. I spent the afternoon doing my real job, but I was thinking about how to make the climate-change part of my game work, which I expect to be the hardest part.  So now this evening I’ll see if my idea can actually be made to work. The idea is this: The climate is always changing, with only brief periods of stability. You have an animal (species) consisting of a head, body, front limbs, and back limbs, all drawn from a pool of assorted real animals — for instance, a bear head, lizard body, eagle wings, and deer back legs. Each body part is better or worse in different climates. For each body part, you can hold on to what you’ve got, or dump it and hope to draw something better (like video poker).

I think I spent too much time yesterday on artwork. Oh well, too late now.

The structure is more or less set up now. Today I’ll have to do some actual programming.

Here’s sort of a screenshot. I haven’t added the buttons yet, so it’s 100% non-interactive!

I CAN’T MAKE ANYTHING CLICK ON ANYTHING!

This morning I said to myself, “I’ll start with this bit, it’s easy, it’ll take about ten minutes.” It’s been six hours so far and it’s still not working.

If this keeps up I’ll have to drop out. AARRRGGGHH!!!

Yesterday’s technical glitch* just ate up too much time. I’ve still got the bulk of the gameplay and artwork to do, and it’s just not possible to do it all in the time allotted. Especially with a sick husband and work deadlines thrown in.

But I still like the idea, and I’m going to keep working at it. And when I’ve finished it, I’m going to drag it round here and make you all look at it, so there.

I had loads of fun (mostly) and learned a lot, so next time will be even better. And I also learned how to get a Gravatar for my posts! Hooray!

Good luck and a doff of the hat to everybody who managed / will manage to finish.

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* EDIT: Technical glitch is still there. I think I’m right to bow out. My whole game is based on clicking buttons, and at the moment it’s impossible to click a button. The game looks pretty nice, but is completely non-interactive.

“Pre” because the game isn’t actually finished yet…

This was only the second LD I’ve made an attempt at, and as such I think I did fairly well even though I couldn’t produce a submission in time. I still really like my idea, and fully intend to finish it.

I suppose the biggest lesson learned is that I really should know my programming system BEFORE the timer starts ticking, instead of assuming I’ll pick it up fast enough as I go along. That’s a good lesson. Hope I remember it.

One excellent decision I made was to keep my basic idea small and relatively simple, something that actually had a hope of getting itself completed in the allotted time. That’s well worth remembering. Another thing worth remembering is to come up with a halfway decent idea as quickly as possible, and then stick with it, instead of wasting time waiting for a lightning bolt of supreme inspiration. (I need to apply that to my writing.)

I also learned quite a lot about AGS programming, so that was good too. The really biggest A-number-one thing I learned here was related to the reason I ran out of time. I was stuck — absolutely dead stuck — for a day and a half because of a programming error. It turned out to be a mistake so stupidly basic that I’m too embarrassed to say precisely what it was. Eventually some nice folks at the AGS technical forum pointed it out. (Thanks, guys!) But by then it was too late to put the rest of the game together in time. So that’s definitely one mistake I’ll never make again.

Thanks to all the great people here who posted such entertaining updates — and especially to the OVER 1400 PEOPLE (!!!) who managed to put together a whole working game and submit it in time! I doff my hat in humble awe.

Looking forward to trying my hand at the next Mini!

This weekend is looking absolutely stacked with real-world work, but I’m trying to clear enough space to have a bash. I’ve got no ideas yet, but have thought of a title too good to ignore.

So… I can’t promise I’ll try. But I’ll try to try.

The real world is just too intrusive this weekend. Actual paying jobs and their deadlines have to come first.

Still, the Potato Challenge, combined with the Kitten Challenge from last year or whenever it was, means that I’ve got an idea to try in a few weeks when I might have some time to think more about it. “Mew Mew and Spuddy”, anyone?

Good luck to everybody!