Okay, so this is my first Ludum Dare, and I’m really just thinking this up as I’m writing it.

First, I’m thinking I need a monster. I might go with a literal monster instead of some deep metaphorical human being a monster deep down kinda stuff. I’m thinking orange and furry. With big teeth. Not sure if I should go with a painterly style for it or pixel art. Pixel art will probably be easier. I’ve got my mind set on 2D, but I’m not sure what genre to go with. Maybe some sort of inverted tower defense? I’m thinking it should probably be something that lends itself to the “You are the monster”, as opposed to just a platformer or something with a monster skin.

I feel like I’ve got some stuff to think about, and I’m gonna go make some assets and throw a few more ideas around. I’m pretty excited. Good luck to all, and stay tuned.

-zagony

After my nonsensical nonsense in my last post, I’ve completely changed direction and I’m getting things figured out. I’ve got a pretty solid grip on the concept of what I want my game to be. Hopefully I’m sharing more milestones and roadblocks soon.

-zagony

Because timezones are convenient, it’s 1am now, so I might go to bed. I’ve made a huge lot of progress. Pac-man runs around, trying to collect dots whilst avoiding the ghost (the player), and the ghost is fully controllable. On track to get this thing finished.

Started adding some UI. Pac-man can eat the energizer and the player will turn blue and move slower, and Pac-man’s AI will change to try and eat the player. Next up I need to add in the conditions for winning and losing, which will probably be a headache (but a fun one none the less!)

-zagony

Coders don’t change lightbulbs; they program around them.

So as it turns out, something in my pathfinding makes things figure out that they should be going up when it would be better for them to go down, and vice versa.
The solution- don’t touch the pathfinding code, but if it tells you to go up, go down instead. Work lazier smarter, not harder.

-zagony

EDIT: That is not a solution. Unless running through walls at T intersections is desirable (which it isn’t). The problem turned out to be me using pythag wrong, and having x^2 * y^2, instead of x^2 + y^2. BUT IT IS FIXED NOW AND I HAVE A GAME TO MAKE. AWAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

–ZAGONY

Link to my game

I finished my game and uploaded it last night, but I’m only just realising that oft got to say anything about it in a post.

For my first Ludum Dare, I built ‘Pac-Ghost’, a variation on the classic pac-man formula, where you play as the ghost instead of as pac-man himself. I had a blast making it, and you’ll definitely be seeing me again next dare!

I’m pleasantly surprised with the amount of polish I was able to get onto the game. It plays pretty well as far as balance goes as well, but I did not have time to implement any sort of scoring system. I was unfortunately limited with the time I could spend on the game, because here in Australia,it is currently Monday morning, and I have to be at school, which really left me with only about 36 hours, but I still managed to make something I can be proud of.

Till next time,
-zagony

This is my second Ludum Dare, and I couldn’t be more excited.

I’m doing the compo again, and my main focus is growing, and I’ve chosen to do a platformer with a twist. I’ve started working on one of the player sprites, and its coming together quite quickly. I’m really excited to see what everyone else comes up with.

Also double dibs the title “GrowBot”.

Good luck and have fun!
-zagony

I had to start a couple of hours late, but I’m in now, and I’ve started building a game! I’m doing a platformer, and this time I’m trying to put some effort into making sure the player doesn’t feel floaty like my last game. I have doors and buttons all dynamic and rigged up, and I’m happy with how I’m going.

Tools used so far:
Unity
Photoshop
Visual Studio

Happy Luduming!

I started a little late, but overall I’m pretty pleased with my progress today. I have 5 levels of my game finished. It’s a puzzle platformer where using your Shift-Re (pronounced Shift-Ray), you can change the form of various objects e.g. turn an anvil into a cardboard box so you can push it around, then change it back so you can jump off it etc.

The art is coming along, though I don’t have a player sprite yet, as it will be the hardest to draw and I don’t have a tablet (all been mouse drawn so far.) Here are a couple of screenshots of a level:

I’m gonna hit the hay, but I’ll see you all again tomorrow!