Ludum Dare #27 (Back to live stream)

Splodey Boats is all done and submitted. Post mortem to follow once I get some sleep.

Sonar at Night

Sunset

Title Screen

Might add a few more varied sounds if time permits, but otherwise it's finished.

Logo is done, sounds are done, high scores are done. I think it's done.

Level data all done. Probably won't paly it all the way through, but at least there's some content now.

Just enough time to set up all the level data, and then make a nicer logo.

All of the obvious bugs are gone. And I finally made the player explosion interesting.

Running out of steam now. Time to squash the last few bugs, and then it's art time.

Full game over cycle is now done, and there's even a high score table (or there will be)

Break over. Of course, now I realise that there's no game over or success screen. Whoops.

I'm still a little surprised it went as smoothly as it did.

After that, it's just a case of adding some levels (all via data, thankfully) and then making it look less rubbish.

Going to take a shot break, and then work on getting rid of the last few bugs.

All the features I originally wanted are in, plus quite a few more. Lots of places that could use polishing, but the core is there.

Still want to make the player explosion a little more interesting, but it works for now.

Damage is done. Ship now smokes when hit with missiles or mines. Too many hits and it sinks.

I'm not even sure it needs ship damage, but the whole '1 hit and then die' thing seems a bit harsh.

Only 30 minutes left before my self-imposed feature freeze. Going to see if I can get one more task done (ship damage) and then it's bug fixes and polish only.

Added daylight, sunset and night time settings. Sonar is now only used at night, which works better from a gameplay point of view.

Up to milestone 13 now. Breaking things down helps a lot, as does the motivation from getting things ticked off.

This time around I split all the tasks into milestones, rather than going from just a giant list. It's worked out pretty well so far.

Desktop: 2014-04-27 18:20:33

Added some basic sonar stuff. Just need to update the graphics to match the night time theme.

Time to start on the last large feature. After this it's mostly all polish and gameplay tweaks.

Down to 6 major items left on the list. Including one rather large feature that I really should have done earlier.

Hooray! Time to start cutting features!

Powerups are all done now. 8 in total, although they're nothing too fancy.

And NOW I'm starting to panic a little...

5 powerups so far. Now for the tricky ones.

Time for some powerups

Going to give myself a feature cut-off of 4pm. After that, nothing but polish, bug testing and balancing.

Also added the ability to destroy missiles with a charge.

Improved the scoring so there's a bonus for destroying multiple submarines with a single depth charge.

Also added some cleanup code to detonate missiles / mines when the level is complete, so that the player isn't destroyed during the celebration.

There's now a plane that flies over and drops mines. Mines have a time limit before exploding, and can also be collided with.

Next feature on the list: mines

Missiles now sink the player when they reach the surface, and the boat will sink. It's all very boring though... Needs some more explosions or something.

Submarines can now launch missiles, and when they reach the surface they explode and send up some water spray.

Got a list of about 20 things I want to get done before submitting. After that it's all polish.

Normally by this stage I'm panicking about getting everything finished, but it looks like this time I can just work on all the extra features I'd like.

I'm not sure if I aimed too small this time, or if practice just made me better.

At the moment things are pretty much done. There's a full game loop, and each level is generated from content. There's also animation, particles and scoring.

15 hours to go. This should be interesting.

Time for bed now, and then up early tomorrow to get things polished and refined.

Halfway through the compo. Pretty pleased with how much I've got done so far.

So far the game looks exactly how I wanted it to in my initial sketches, which is something of a first.

Full loop is now in. Missions can be won or failed, and the player is awarded bonus points for finishing quickly.

Food eaten and ready to go. Aiming to add a proper start/play/end mission structure before bed.

Now it's time for some food.

Just added some fishies. Splode them and you lose points.

Fishies

To compare: by this time at LD27 I'd quit, and at LD23 I'd only just got player movement done.

So far I'm really pleased with how things are going. To be honest I've slacked off a fair bit today, but progress hasn't suffered.

Next step is to polish up the main gameplay loop, and then start adding some extra bits and pieces (powerups, craftier enemies etc).

Everything is mostly playable now. There are a few edge-cases that need cleaning up, but otherwise there's some actual gameplay there.

Desktop: 2014-04-26 21:44:06

Desktop: 2014-04-26 21:18:41

Enemy spawning now works, and levels can be won and lost.

Added some basic level data. Now time to get the winning conditions working.

Game now has some (very basic) scoring.

Lots of submarines

Ripping out all the test code and making things data driven. Makes it much easier to create new levels without having to come up with extra content.

Time to add some gameplay...

It's amazing how just a few little touches here and there (like particles) have helped make the gameplay feel better.

Time to take a break for some food. Making good progress so far.

Making things sink.

The depth charges now send off little bubbles as they sink. Maybe not the best use of time, but it looks neat.

Finally added some splosions. They make everything better.

Going a little slower than I would like. Main loop is all up and running, but needs more...fun.

Tea + jelly beans = game development energy. I hope.

Desktop: 2014-04-26 14:28:01

First ever screen

Got a title screen and an actual bit of game. Lots more to do, but making progress.

Breakfast has been consumed. Time to get the main play state up and running.

Got a very rough idea of how the game should look. Not complicating the art style this time, so I'm confident I can actually draw it.

Feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep. Now time to get to work!

Time to get some sleep. Feeling pretty good about where things are at and what I need to do.

I think I have an idea. Not a very original one, but I think I can work with it.

Desktop: 2014-04-26 01:37:47

Current ideas range from the over-complicated to 'some guy in a diving suit'.

Coming up with a few ideas. Having to constantly remind myself that I only have 48 hours to make something.

First thing that made me think of was the sea. Must try harder.

Five minutes to go...