GBGamesThanks to @juggernautco, I learned about A Message for 2K Australia, the best resignation letter from an indie game developer ever. Apparently from the creator of ROM Check Fail and Fishie Fishie, it’s a fantastic way to tell your day job that you’re moving on.
Good luck, Farbs!
Congratulations go to mrfun, dessgeega, and rob for their top three placement overall!
I managed to pull my second gold medal out of the Food category, and I seemed to have a respectable showing in the Journal category as well. As expected, I did pretty badly in the remaining categories, although it seems some people liked the graphics, even if there wasn’t much to see. B-)
To see the full set of rankings for all categories, check out the Ludum Dare website.
I was looking for a persistent browser-based game (PBBG) I could play for a few minutes per day, something involved but that wouldn’t require much in the way of a time commitment.
The week before I was talking to some coworkers at the Day Job about World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
I remembered a game I had looked into some time ago called Urban Dead. It’s a text-based zombie MMO. You can choose between being a survivor or a zombie, and the setting is the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. Every character in the game is controlled by a real player. There are NO non-player characters in the game! Thousands of people are actively playing it, and the world seems fairly expansive. The wiki seems to be as much a part of the game as anything else, and it seems that the players have really put a lot of effort into mapping out the suburbs, detailing items and weapons, and helping new players get acclimated to the game.
I chose to be a survivor, and there are various classes I could choose as well. Instead of being a soldier or a scientist or a police officer, any of which have some useful skills, I chose to be a plain ol’ Consumer. My only skill in the game at the start: when I loot a mall, I can pick the store instead of letting it be random chance.
So why be a Consumer? I thought it was more realistic. I’ll play the role of an everyday civilian who finds himself in the middle of a nightmare world in which zombies walk the earth. And it seems I’m not alone, since a large number of people also pick that class, even though the Urban Dead wiki indicates that it is a “broken” class. Essentially, I’ve just made it very hard for myself to gain experience and level up.
But I’m already having fun, even with my limited abilities. In fact, even more fun is that I’ve decided to document my adventure. I created a new blog, GBGames’ Urban Dead Blog, and it’s been enjoyable telling my character’s story from his point of view. I hope it entertains you as well.
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 117.5 (current year) = 693.5 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
Not too much to report this past week, although I did manage to get a little development in. Not as much as I would like, but it also feels rather aimless right now.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 116.5 (current year) = 692.5 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
Besides working on getting a Win32 build of my LD#14 entry, I spent some time working on standard, boilerplate code that I usually find myself needing. Having that code would have made some of my LD work move along much faster. The more code like this I can throw together in a unit-tested library, the better off I’ll be.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 115 (current year) = 691 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
Most of my hours this week were for Ludum Dare #14. I didn’t keep an accurate count of the time I spent working, but aside from most of the last seven hours of the competition, I believe I can only claim about 5 more hours. I’ll err on the side of less and say 10 hours total was spent the entire weekend trying to make a game. I did spend some time during the week working on a separate project, but not too much.
It was my fourth LD, and my worst, but I accomplished some things in this project that I haven’t done in others. For instance, instead of hard-coding a level or randomizing its contents, I created a simple file loader. I also created a simple IMGUI button, which I had never done before. It worked nicely, but it was too bad it didn’t do anything in the game other than switch to the other player’s turn.
I liked the idea I was working on, and I would still like to see my game to completion. Now that I don’t have a dedicated 48 hours in front of me, progress might be slower, but I’d like to see what I can accomplish by the weekend.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
It’s not very exciting, so I made it short.
Linux binary: 2MB
Ok, so this isn’t even close to a finished game, so you don’t have to play it to know that. However, I might still be able to pull a medal out of the food compo, so I’m submitting.
This is the first LD I wasn’t able to get game play in by the deadline. This project is a long way off from being something that could even resemble fun.
Well, unless you like clicking a box with a check mark in it and knowing that underneath the scenes, it is now the next player’s turn. B-)
Here are screen shots of the project as it stands at the deadline:
As some of the IRC members noted, the attempt was still beneficial. I learned a lot this time around, and I’m better at game development for it.
I’ve been hard at work, and I’ve been making some decent progress. I can load the level and render it, so that’s good. I have a basic economy that updates based on income, but I don’t have a way to spend it yet or a way to let you know how much you’ve hoarded.
Unfortunately, I ran into the problem of handling the GUI. I want to know when the player has clicked a button, and even though I read up on IMGUI techniques beforehand, I forgot to use them! Suddenly I found myself with code that I needed to gut because it doesn’t work. IMGUI is simple, but there’s only so much time left in the compo.
So let’s eat. I baked one of my favorite LD staples: vegan pizza!
Eating it in sandwich form is much more efficient:
I also made some oatmeal and cranberry cookies:
Just finished:
“What an incredible smell you’ve discovered!”
Back to GUI code. Hopefully I’ll get something resembling game play soon. Why does it always happen at the end of the compo? Sheesh.