Hm, hm... first time at LD, and I'll try to show some of my project. It's a smallest strategy/tactics. Its style is about classic board games. It's being built from scratch with heavy using of asset generators - I've got a generator for planets, spaceships, space skyboxes etc... :)

You’re a captain of the best spaceship of Earth Defence Forces. One wrong Jump ago you found yourself in a great unknown galaxy. In the middle of Great War between… um, humans and humans?! Where did they came from in non-explored sectors?! Build an unstoppable army from scratch, turn the tides of war, solve the mistery of hidden civilizations, and… return home, at last.

Yeah, when you have to fulltime work on your weekend, it's difficult to get your project in time. But. Here is my a smooth movement system, which allows any of my crafts to reach any of points of battlefield in natural manner. Even when points are close and craft needs to make an ark movement It's not too difficult as it seems - just some sort of linear interpolation, but you need to tune your speed accordingly distance left. Small, simple and nice move :)

Making some icons for cameo panels. It should be scaled 10 times. Background would be replaced.

I've finished adding all ships to my game. So, weapon effects and explosions needs some tweaking, but that's it. You can move, you can shoot, you can know everything about ship, you can destroy your enemy and pass turn to him. It's already done. Needs to be done now: - 1) Primitive AI. Very simple. - 2) Beacon system. Each beacon is POI - could be captured, brings money to owner, and they are only place where units may be spawned. - 3) Hm, camera. I've got neat camera system, but it needs time to integrate it here. - 4) Ability system. It's not ready yet. Looks like it should be simplified or cut. No time. - 5) Generate some resources - backgrounds and planets. - 6) Sound and music. I've got some, but it's not much. - 7) Make missions. You can't play a game without missions, kinda :) - 8) Write some text for intermission screens. - 9) Make some menues. - 10) Pack and publish.

Looks like... not impossible, but that's a hard task. Wish me a good luck! :)

Result may be a bit buggy, I afraid. I've overestimated my power, ouch. But I'm not quiting :)

No going back at a time like this, guys.

Aaaa! Bugs everywhere! I'm not ready to fix'em all!

I don't think it will run normally - so much was made, so much has left unfinished. But my head is already heavy as stone, and hands have no power to press buttons. And... I have no more time left for fixes before upload. Files are loaded, so... let's go! (if I figured about submitting the right way)

Fixes will be tomorrow, and today is a day for sweet sleep :)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/lost-flagship

My game came at publishing hour totally messed up. Nothing worked as planned, half of sub-systems were left broken. It swarmed with bugs. But I'm not giving up. Today's fixes brought some sort of stability and order. I've made lots and lots fixes, and so on.

Yes, my eyes are red, and my spine just began making strange sounds - but my passion leads me further.

I'll fix all problems that I can.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/lost-flagship/

"Everything is broken - it's just about more or less".

My game looks like "more". First players have found lots of problems, starting from softlocks (enemy won't move, buy units or shoot for some reason) and ending unexpected behaviour.

Bugs are multiplying like Lernaean Hydra, and I'm just continuing to cut through them :)

At the beggining of this development I met a funny bug.

My AI is based on method from old-good Red Alert 2 - a task forces. If AI decided to do something, it would search for some pre-defined group of units nearby (for example, two tanks and some troops for small ground attack, or 1-3 flak units fo intercept your annoying plane). If there are no such units, AI will produce them or switch to another strategy. So, I've formed first task force from 4 destroyers (let's name them A, B, C and D). Big and nasty ships that looks like a prey bird:

Their task was simple - "look around, and if one of you has enemy within fire range - go and shoot him". And they've done their task very well. When enemy approached to destroyer A... three of his brother-in-arms looked at poor A, warmed their lasers, and shot him down in a second! I was shocked. Of course, problem was on definition of "him" - it wasn't about "enemy", but was "one of you". So, lots of problem are caused by very stupid overlooks.

Today's "bug of a day" is his small brother. Look at that simple attack algorithm: - Task force decides to attack. - Then they're finding the nearest enemy. - Then they're coming after the nearest enemy. - They're getting within fire range and shooting enemy.

Looks normal, right? But what happens at step 3? When you move to the target, target may retreat or simply move at point where none of your guns won't ever reach it. Other enemy may stand in your way. What'll happen next? Task force will try to destroy target, no matter what happens around it. One small error - and your AI will look like berserker maniac :)

Softlocks are more difficult. I still have not done with fixes, but "Softlock Watchdog" is not so bad as a temporal solution.

The worst problem is a loading. I'm still fighting with hanging that happens on some of the machines after tutorial level.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/lost-flagship

That was a very, very long road. But I managed to make it somehow. 3 days of making game - and a week of vicious bug-fixing. But today my game's got a big post-release fix.

You may call it a "Gold Edition". I've fixed tons of bugs, locks, AI errors. I've cut down parts that was considered to be too unfinished. Now game won't freeze or fall, enemy won't send their units our of map and won't steal your turns. If you start it, all parts will hold together until final scene with 99% probability.

*You may try it, Captian: * https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/lost-flagship