Hi,
This is my first LD and though I’ve started making a few video games I’m really trying to push to have this be the first one I finish.

since I have game maker I decided to use that and try to keep it simple…

I started today, the rts theme seems much harder then I was hoping for. I was really trying to make it as simple one objective with one mechanic as possible. But RTS in nature are huge… so I’m trying to make it close to real time. try to defeat the enemy ship before they can reload there cannons.

Finished:
title screen (spent about two hours on the art, temp titles etc made it in Vue 11.5 with the new rain particles, and I use modo for my modeling), it was more for me to wrap my head around what I was wanting to make, but probably a waste of time.

learned how to make some basic 2d pirate sprites and coded there death upon getting hit by random cannon balls.

I also worked on a “fog of war” but not sure I like it as it only works when your troops are in that arrea…

game design:
pretty much just a real time version of the old board game “Broadsides and boarding parties”  Your ship has been hit by the enemy’s cannons command your crew to fire back and or attack/defend as the enemy boards your ship.

Tomorrow hope to work on basic click command controls and pathing?

First a big thanks to all the guys that stream. even if our games are really different its great to see how you guys are doing it and I always learn something.

RTS has become a big challenge for me

worked on:
click to select unit/units
units move to location clicked with really basic pathing.
canons shoot canon balls and kill your units
enemy ai…. they randomly move and will fire at which ever of your units is closest.
instead of fog of war you only “see” what your units “see” walls block units line of sight.

not working:
I tried to make a click drag bounding box thing that didn’t work at all…
not sure if game maker was well suited for rts…

Ok basicly the goal is to kill the captin on the enemy ship before they kill yours!
and the game works there’s now a way to win!

added:
basic unit sprites
win and lose screens
captains on each ship
enemy captain shoots at your closest crew (need to limit his range)
death animations
random blood!!
Bigger ships
scroll screen with mouse… (I think I’d rather have a W.A.S.D control I’ll try to add that tomorrow)

Today’s fail:
tried to add some sound to the cannons and it really slowed down the playback to a slide show…

Game play ranged from supper easy to impossible… wish I could find a better balance

I really feel like I’m behind schedule and either I need to drop sound or drop all artwork or both and make the game better balanced! Any advice on where I should be at this point?

AK

this is my first game, first ludum dare and I’m doing it solo. There is so much to do!

1. how long should the games be? (right now I have  a very hard game but it only takes a couple min to play)
2. at what point do we panic?

worked on today
quickly made new gumby sprites in 3d in modo rendered them out and added them to game maker there animated but barely and look like there pirates on crack wearing onesies.
made some sounds .wav

I’m tempted to make more levels… that may be more important at this time then more graphics/sounds.

So after 7 days I have a game of sorts. Win Condition and 8 levels! of madness.

Things that went well:

Happy about the music I wrote for the main theme last night.
happy with my title screen
glad I made some more levels then one.
Play testing! I had two friends play it and that was a great learning experience.
Recording my own sword fighting folly(ok my gf helped luckily she didn’t hurt me)
Learning to analyze creative thoughts quicker, still have lots of room to grow.

Things that didn’t work out:
Enemy pathing AI etc (much harder then I thought)
Ballance? (I can beat the game but it’s pretty ridiculous for other people)

Graphics, really really wish I had more time or was just more efficient. I’m use to taking a day per frame of art… there was so much more I wanted to do.
Basic time management, I learned a lot but working solo on a project like this it was really eye opening.
waiting till the last day to make levels.
spending too much time on music/graphics all the things I really like.
animations that I can make quickly and not look like seizures.
Not sure if Game Maker is best for RTS

My biggest take away for me was the point after day one, when I had to drop all my cool Ideas and just try to make something that barley resembles a game.

Thank you to all the people that streamed and posted really was nice not to be alone doing this and I learned lots from you guys.

Windows: sorry about the exe file

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-44/?action=preview&uid=24829

what exact hours is the competition? this would be my first 48 hour ld… just hope I do better then my 7 day one.