Ludum Dare #23 (Back to live stream)

I am a bit disappointed with my overall #LD48 score though. At least I got got some good feedback.

Funny that my highest rated #LD48 category was graphics, which I thought were quite bad.

Post mortem of my #LD48 entry: http://t.co/VuFopTok

And that's me done for Ludum Dare #23. Celebrating with some strawberries and then sleep. Lots of sleep.

"Ineptia" is done. You can play it here: http://t.co/5yYTCPHr (and leave feedback for it here: http://t.co/Kn2sx1Tb;) ) #LD48

Finished product

Final, terrible product (view changes)

done. Or at least, as done as I can manage. Now time to package this thing.

it took 4 minutes. A horrible, horrible hacky approach but it worked. now to polish like a mad man

giving myself 30 minutes to fix the problem. current signs are not good. can't believe i got all this way and then screwed it up at the end.

Looks like the way I wrote the event handler means I can't clear events. Which means you can't play multiple levels. Only an hour to go, so not sure I'll have chance to fix it.

Swoosh! Down comes the axe on all those features!

Dinner done. Racing as fast as I can.

Pretty sure I won't get things finished in time. Shame, because I'm so close :(

Lots of polish, and then making some levels. Don't think I'll get everything I want done, but at least it will be (somewhat) playable.

Fingers are starting to ache now. Making great progress though.

Added rough scanning framework. Still needs to add to beastiary, but getting there. (view changes)

Added new components for AI. Added basic animal object. Added small amount of UI navigation (view changes)

I forgot how hard AI was.

It should be noted that I was working on the menu screens and some bug fixes between saying I'd make animals and actually doing it. It didn't take me over an hour to draw my terrible sprite :)

First animal sprite done. Now just to get the little fella running around

Time for some animals

Inventory component can now spawn whatever was inside upon destruction. (view changes)

11 hours to go. Oh dear.

Destroy all robots

Cleaned up action buttons (view changes)

The breakfast of champions: tea, frosted wheats and painkillers

Time for a cup of tea to get the brain started. Didn't get as much sleep as I had planned, but a walk in the cold rain this morning (thanks to the dog) was refreshing. The plan is to get AI done in the next hour or so and then add some features to make the theme a little clearer. Definitiley going to be a challenge.

Time for some sleep. Don't feel too tired, but want to be refreshed tomorrow so I can start polishing things and adding missions

Added a tiny bit of experimental stuff to test AI. It works. Which is nice (view changes)

Added a status window when hovering over enemies / objects (view changes)

Ok, enemies have health, crates 'splode and there's a little more polish on the interface. Can I sleep now?

Add a crate you can blow up. Lots of other features, but that's the most important. (view changes)

Just added the first destructible crate. It's officially a proper game now.

Finishing up some collision detection code. Ugly, but functional.

I think another 30 minutes and then I'm done for the night. I'd like to work longer, but I'm starting to make too many silly mistakes :(

Finally got a hint of gameplay. Really tired, but I'd like to get a tiny bit of AI done tonight #LD48

Player can now fire bullets, and enemies will be destroyed if they take enough damage (view changes)

Even better, because components can get other components that are attached to the same entity, it's almost trivial to add something like armour. Just check if the entity has an 'EquipmentComponent', and then query it for armour values.

I'm also quite glad I took the component-based approach this time around. It's made adding new behaviours a little more pleasant. For example, anything that can be damaged by bullets has a 'ShootableComponent' (will probably rename to 'BodyComponent' or something). This component can then work out how much damage was taken and if the parent should be destroyed or not.

Bullets now destroy things. This is getting interesting.

Everything is starting to get really kludgey too. Tempted to start refactoring, but this deadline is getting a little too close.

First bullet fired, but missed everything. Time to try again.

Can now target enemies. Time to shoot some bullets!

Getting very sleepy, but targeting is nearly done. So much for getting enemies all done today

Added range finding as well as an evil robot that does nothing (view changes)

Range finding

Having said that, it's not exactly an elegant solution. But hey, it works!

That wasn't so hard.

Trying to figure out a way to calculate weapon ranges to make a nice diamond. Haven't done that for a couple of years.

In case you hadn't guessed, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Do I want more tea? Yes. Yes I do.

Trying to come up with an idea for an enemy. At the moment it's a robot with angry eyebrows, which isn't exactly inspired.

Updated button graphics (view changes)

Halfway there. Got a sprite that can move and follow orders, but not much else. Optimism fading.

Refactoring took a little while, but made adding & updating existing commands a breeze. I regret nothing!

Added a handy indicator to show where the next move goes (view changes)

Dinner done. Next task is trying to clean up this code so I can add enemies

Time for dinner.

Time for a little bit of fresh air. Lots to do, but I'm starting to lose concentration.

Finally got the camera working properly. Now just need to add some queue limits and there might be the beginnings of something playable!

Robot can now walk and turn right. Code is getting super ugly to boot.

Time to get a proper movement queue working. Cautiously optimistic.

New #LD48 post: "Finally making some progress..." http://t.co/VmQe7sXH

One thing I've noticed doing these game jams is how quickly things can go from terrible to great and then back again #LD48

Basic movement queue

I think this calls for a screenshot

Added very, very basic movement (i.e. you can go forwards) (view changes)

Finally, mr robot is moving forwards! Now to get the rest of the movement system finished.

Flixel has path following built in, but every time I use it mr robot just goes flying. I also need a way to execute a queue of actions on multiple objects (player, enemies) at the same time, so rolling my own looks like the only option unfortunately.

This is one of those problems that has an obvious solution. I just haven't found it yet.

Looks like my approach to path following isn't going to work. Time to scratch my head and come up with a different way of doing it.

I still get surprised when I write code that works first time.

And I haven't really said what it's about either. I'd like to get the fundamentals playable by the end of the day, preferably before. Ideally I'd spend all tomorrow polishing things up (sounds, nicer art, fleshed out story), but we'll see how it goes.

Funny how the most activity for this project was right at the start. Need to get a move on.

Hmm, this AI is going to be interesting to code.

Time for another walk, but I'm slightly more optimistic now. Took a while to make sure the theme was part of the game, but I think I've got it now.

Ok mr robot, time for you to do your thing

Just realised my game story is quite similar to Silent Running http://t.co/XGnTIHVZ #LD48

Starting to flag a little, so time to shower. Got some ui done, but need to think for a bit to make it all work.

Lots of buttons. This is getting far too complicated.

There's a robot. He walks, although it looks like dancing. I really have no idea what I'm doing.

Little guy now animates and a little bit of ui (view changes)

Time to make this robot move

Loads a map and displays it. How exciting. (view changes)

Very first screen

Breakfast consumed. Time for work!

Time for breakfast!

And now the dog wants to go out. Perhaps a walk will freshen my poor brain.

Now have two grass tiles and a path to go with my robot. Still not sure about how things will turn out, but going for it anyway.

First sprite nearly done. It's a very badly drawn robot, but at least it's something.

No better ideas are coming, so I'll have to stick with what I've got. Now to make it playable (and fun)

12 hours in, and I've got nothing. What a great start! #LD48

Time for tea. Hopefully it will give me some ideas, otherwise this is going to be a very long day.

Was hoping I would be inspired in my sleep, but no such luck.

I think it might be time for bed. Got a good start on ideas and a decent plan of action for the morning.

Apparently I also need to work on my spelling too...

4 1/2 houes in, and already thinking of what I need to cut.

Tempted to head out to stock up on snacks, but on a roll with ideas.

This todo list is getting long...

Fixed typo in main Ineptia class (view changes)

Basic project with Flixel (view changes)

Idea get! Now to turn two pages of notes into something I can actually make.

I think I finally have a decent idea for #LD48. Now to make it small enough to make in 2 days.

Nearly two hours gone already and I've got nothing. Not a good sign.

I gained the knowledge of the lettuce. Apparently they don't know anything.

Readme + task list (view changes)

Eating lettuce to try and gain its powers

First cup of tea done. No solid ideas yet. This is proving to be more challenging than I expected, although my last game jam (with the theme 'energy') felt the same at the start. More brain energy needed!

No ideas so far, so now it's time for pen and paper

My usual tactic of doing image searches for the theme isn't really helping, but I wonder how many people will make games set in a terrarium...

The kettle is on for brew #1. Hope it will fill me with magical inspiration

Time to take the dog for a walk and come up with some ideas...

So the theme for #LD48 is "tiny world". I was hoping for artificial life, but at least this means I can get away with tiny sprites :)

Looking forward to #ld48 tomorrow. No idea what I'll make, but at least my live streaming page is working nicely.