I shall be making an attempt to build a game, for the first time.

Tools!

• Language: Clojure + ClojureScript (targeting Javascript)
• Engine: My brain and HTML Canvas…mainly canvas
• Libraries: probably at least Monet
• Music: I have no idea, whatever I can work out how to use
• Graphics: Pixen, Pixelmator, that sort of thing probably

I’m gonna have fun but since I’m breaking rule 1 – know the tools (I don’t know any possible tools) this is going to be intense.

Have fun everyone!

Here is my base code for Ludum Dare #24: https://github.com/wjlroe/base-code/tree/01-basic-cljs-setup

It’s just a basic scaffold for bootstrapping coding with ClojureScript (and the Google Closure Library). The main thing is the Foreman config that allows you to run “foreman start” and serve up the Javascript (which will be recompiled when you save ClojureScript files) with a simple web server.

I will be adding more code as time goes on, suggestions welcome.

So excited for everything to kick off now!

Tags: clojure, clojurescript

Angry God. So very very angry.

ZOMG I can’t quite believe I actually handed in a game (of sorts). Be kind to me people, this is my first game ever.

My submission

I really hope you all have the same sense of humour as I do, so I get some points!

I managed to get something ready for submission, just about! This was my 2nd Ludum Dare (previous one was “Evolution”). In both compos I used ClojureScript with just the Google Closure libraries (i.e. no game dev. frameworks). Last time I wasn’t particularly confident putting together things with ClojureScript (but I knew Clojure pretty well) but it was still the closest thing to “using what I know”. I aim to get up to speed with more game development stuff (libraries, graphics in general, even frameworks maybe) so that next time I have more tools at my disposal. I think ClojureScript is an awesome language for very rapidly growing code and for game jams I think it’s a good tool (when combined with the usual HTML5 things like Box2D and so on – those are things I need to work into the mix next time).

Last time I really enjoyed creating pixel art (in Pixen for the Mac – highly recommended). This time I didn’t have a clear idea about how things would look so I cobbled together some “art” and left it looking rather shabby. I figure that’s the charm of a game jam anyway.

Probably the element that frustrates me the most about building a game solo is not knowing how to put together any kind of music. I really wanna work on that for the next game jam also.

Well that was fun, now to assimilate more tools and techniques so next time  I’m slightly better.

Hope everybody had a good time and learned lots.

Tags: clojure, clojurescript, Pixen

This will be my 3rd Ludum Dare and I’ll be using the same tools as the last times – which means ClojureScript and whatever else wields before my will. I really wish I’d done some preparation.

Tags: clojurescript

I posted a postmortem for Ludum Dare 31 on my blog. Hope people find it interesting in some way.

Tags: compo, postmortem