Ludum Dare 26

Sadly, another LD has drawn to an end. I'll be back with a detailed post mortem in a few days but until then, you can try out my game, Spellflinger, here.

What have I been doing?

Terri has gotten quite busy with work and as a result, we haven't made any progress on the game. For those of you who don't know, Terri is the artistic counterpart of Big Bad Wofl. In the previous post I mentioned that we hit a stumbling block and to move on we need to rethink a few things.

In the interim, I have been preparing for Ludum Dare by speedcoding small games in Unity. Here's a screenshot of a tower defense type game I'm working on at the moment:

This is how my games look when Terri doesn't do the art...

I also realized that I haven't told you all about my other website yet. I started a website to showcase devblogs as I realize how much time people put into writing their blogs. Go have a look:

Ludum Dare 25: Post Mortem

Play Dig-Dug Dungeon Here!

Link to Ludum Dare Entry

Wow, what a weekend.

I came down with an unpronounceable disease on Friday (turns out it's kidney infection) and feared for the worst but since I couldn't see myself missing out on LD, I pushed through. By Saturday, thanks to some amazing medicine that not only takes away the kidney infection but mysteriously makes me extremely hungry too, I was feeling much better.

This was my 4th Ludum and most likely my most memorable one. When I saw the theme was 'You are the Villain' I was a bit disappointed, it being the topic I had wanted the least to win. But, I decided on a Dungeon Keeper clone and within an hour I was enjoying myself immensely.

I got in about 16 hours of solid programming on Saturday and was very satisfied with what I was able to achieve. It was my first time making a game of this scale in JavaScript and I was enjoying the experience very much.

Then came Sunday.

Everything started going wrong. This was largely due to the fact that the limited processing power of the JS engine was wreaking havoc on my AI code. 20 Minions running around in a labyrinth of tunnels? No thank you! I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to fix it and only after hours and hours of testing and fiddling did I find a solution. By that time I was pretty annoyed and disheartened. I started thinking about how the game looks crap and isn't any fun to play.

I wanted to give up but knew that I would regret it. So I started implementing tiny little things that made the game more fun. Made some sprites for the minions. Added little sounds to events. Wrote a message system that gives you hints on how to play and other random information. I also gave the minions the ability to say random things (mostly moaning about their pathetic little lives of servitude) and suddenly, the game took on a whole new meaning. Instead of meaningless digging through tunnels, the game was now about this little Reaper dude oppressing minions and smiting heroes. It became a little world, not just a few little blocks on the screen.

So far, I've been getting some great comments on my game. Here are a few of them:

This gets its high rating from me, not from innovation (DK), but from awesome music and the funny things the minions say, and the fact that it's a fully functioning RTS in 48 hours!
This is surely how DK would have looked on the C64 ;)

wow wow wow WOW WOW WOW I WANT MOAR.
ADD A KICKSTARTER AND I WILL GIVE YOU MY MONEY :)
5 stars

"Oh you are a cruel master!"
Loved this game!

AWESOME GAME! I love this. At first I almost gave up because I couldn't figure it out, but once I did, I loved it. This deserves a full release.....make it happen!

And lastly, some screenshots:

Ludum Dare: 13 hours

I've implemented a whole bunch of little enhancements (mostly performance) and fixed a few bugs. Your dungeon now features a boss-dude that will stay in the middle of your dungeon. Protect him!

Something that adds a lot of depth to the gameplay is the fog of war that nearly made me rip out my hair trying to implement effectively.

You can also pick your minions up now and throw them somewhere where they will be more useful. Lazy buggers!

Ludum Dare: 11 hours

I have passed the first tiredness barrier (the next one should come up in 4-5 hours) and as such I am working at 2x speed. That, or everything is just going by very slowly.

I've added a new type of mine-able tile called the Jewel tile. It gives you much more gold than normal gold tiles. Also, all mobs now have fancy HP bars so you know when you're about to die. HP recharges if the mob isn't in combat.

Ludum Dare: 9 hours

Starting to get a bit tired now. I've done quite a bit in the last two hours.

• Minimap is rendered cleaner
• Mobs appear on the minimap
• Heroes now spawn randomly in your dungeon (light blue mobs)
• You can now also build walls
• Added functionality to create new minions for gold

Ludum Dare: 7 Hours

I've finally managed to fix a bug in the AI that was annoying me very much. Now I need to do some code refactoring as I'm getting sick of having to spend half of my time scrolling through code files.

I've made the gold shinier, added a minimap and made a bunch of performance enhancements.

Ludum Dare 25: 5 Hours

It's good to be taking part in LD again and even though my least favorite theme won, I'm having fun.

I'm making a type of Dungeon Keeper clone in JavaScript. Here are my progress shots for 1, 3 and 5 hours.

Basic Map Generation and Room Placement

Single Minion AI implemented

Multi Minion AI implemented and the ability to mine Gold

Ludum Dare 23: Post-Mortem

Today seems to be one for productivity; two of the blogs that I follow finally have updates (Rylod and Cult) so I feel rather compelled to do the same. Before I can tell you what I've been busy with however, I think it wise to bring some closure to my Ludum game and what better way to do that, than to write up a post-mortem.

The weeks leading up to LD
About two weeks before LD started, I created a modified version of my Voxel Editor capable of creating 2D sprites. I limited sprite resolution to 8x8 due to my lack of artistic skill but the decision led to some other problems (more on that later).

The editor caters for different frames (standing, walking and attacking).

After I was happy with the editor, I created another modified version of it that could be used for creating maps. I kept the file format for both very simple, only serializing the color data into huge char arrays which in effect, actually just makes these editors paint tools.

The first level of my LD game. Note the frowney face near the top as well as the artistic manner in which the unibrow  forms a part of a much friendlier happy face at the top.

The advent of LD23
A good friend of mine (also a fellow indie dev) slept over at my house for the duration of the competition. We did the same last year and I found it quite motivating to have someone sitting beside me, partaking in the same hardships, penury and strife as me.

I got up at around 05:30 (Due to our time zone, LD started at 03:00) and jumped straight into producing some content. Last year, my entry lacked quite a lot of variety so I decided to start on that this time around. I spent around 3 hours creating sprites (82 frames of them I believe - since an actor consists of 6 frames).

What went wrong
I'll try to keep the lists short so it can be easily read (and perhaps applied to your own entry next time).

• I didn't sort out all my errands before the weekend.
• I found it hard to create unique sprites with only 8x8 pixels (Think Realm of the Mad god).
• I spent too much time on content and not enough on a proper combat system.
• Didn't set aside enough time for sound effects and music.

What went right

• I slept less than last time. I was so focussed on my code that I could hardly fall asleep when I finally got into bed. Not extremely healthy, but it worked.
• I knew my tools very well and was comfortable with my environment.
• Working 'with' someone was a great motivator. Even though we were each working on our own games; when you get the feeling that you want to stop, think about what that would do to the other person's motivation.

Ultimately, I had a lot of fun doing LD. Unlike last time, I started looking forward to the next one almost the next day. If you didn't take part I can strongly recommend that you do so next time. This was only my second time but I don't see myself ever breaking this particular habit.

Thanks for reading. Check back soon for a post on what I've been working on these last few weeks.

Hello Day 2!

After an inadequate amount of sleep, I started working on the inventory system. It isn't completely done yet, but it looks pretty cool:

LD23: 12 Hours

This will probably be my last update for today. I've finished the UI I've been working on and it seems to work well enough. I'll leave breaking it in wonderful new ways up to you guys.

Will be turning in for the night soon. For those of you still working; keep fighting the good fight!

LD23: X Hours?

Things are starting to go more smoothly now. Working on actual game mechanics. The game isn't playable yet, but it's getting there rather quickly now. I've implemented the team management screen:

LD23: 7 Hours

Just another quick update. Things are starting to look up. Still have all the UIs and AI to do though :s

LD23: 6 Hours

Due to some unforeseen circumstances I am running a tiny bit behind schedule. But not to worry, who needs sleep?

Here's a quick update with some screenshots. Good luck fellow Ludum Darers!

LD22 Post-Mortem

With a total of 38 hours spent on my entry, I can say that I'm moderately pleased with the result.

What I'll do different next time:

• Continuously test on a different computer (without VS, awesome GPU and a lower resolution)
• Implement Menus first
• Set aside more time for optimization
• Spend more time on game balance and content

The end result isn't very fun to play but at least it's bug free, which for a rapidly developed c++ game I am impressed with.

Here's a screenshot of the final product and if you should feel like it, you can download it here.

23 Hours into LD22

Pathfinding is working (roughly). I decided I didn't have enough time to implement A* and rather went for Wofl* (It's more syrupy). I also did a few textures and overall, it's starting to look less crappy. Next up; menus!

20 Hours into LD22

I woke up with the knowledge that there just isn't enough time. That said, I'm busy implementing AI and need to get back to it.

Screeny of walls:

17 Hours into LD22

I'm spent. This brainmachine can't do any more of the typey-typey.

Tasks for tomorrow (shudder):

• Render a back cave wall
• Shadow casting
• Fix a few small bugs
• AI
• Collision Detection
• Create Content (New items, mobs, weapons)
• Create Art (Textures, Music, Sounds)
• Create Menu and other UI features

To those of you pushing on, good luck!

15 Hours into LD22

Only 4 issues to go for the day (unless I stumble across more). Here's a screeny of my progress:

12+ Hours into LD22

I knew this was going to be hard but I didn't take into account how easily I get bored of things. Staying focused is becoming a struggle. Still not much to show but I fixed tons of bugs and enhanced the dialog system.

Still left to do (before tomorrow):

• Fix algorithm to calculate position of popup dialog bubbles (3D to 2D conversion)
• Weird spiky FPS issue (keeps jumping between 150 and 180)
• Collision detection on 'Level Advance Holes'
• Holes are currently black boxes instead of being cut out of the ground
• Still need to render a wall at the back of the cave
• Mobs and items can generate on top of one another
• Shadow casting