Yeah, so far I just got a window to appear. And I apparently forgot to add some way for the game to know that you are closing it, so I had to kill -9 the program. Yeesh.
Category: Game Design
After a quick shower, breakfast!
A banana, some cereal with almond milk, and a peanut butter and raisin and pickle sandwich. I washed all that down with a glass of orange juice (not pictured):
Now back to the competition!
After spending the evening trying to figure out what to do, I went to sleep.
Some of my ideas:
- Ikebana (thanks, Mandy!)
- Avoid the Ball
- Avoid the Walls
- One Shot Space Invaders
The first one involves the Japanese art of flower arrangement, and it would seem on paper to make a good game, but I am not sure how I would go about making it in 48 hours. The last one is the idea that instead of having unlimited shots to kill Space Invaders, you get only one. You have to depend on a chain reaction explosion to kill them all, so it would be more like a puzzle game. The middle two seem the easiest to make, so I might stick with them since I need to spend a bit more time just getting my code base working than most of the other contestants.
It seems that minimalist games can sometimes be very complex things to create.
I’ll take a quick shower and have some breakfast, and then it is back into the thick of things.
I will be participating in my first Ludum Dare competition. From the FAQ:
The last time I participated in something like this was June 2005’s Game in a Day, which didn’t go as well as I expected, but I was warned properly. Still, it was fun, and I learned a lot.
The theme for LD #11 won’t be announced until later tonight, when the contest begins. Then I’ll have 48 hours to come up with a design and make a game. There are a few guides out there, such as sol_HSA‘s and MrFun‘s. Generally, to prepare for a grueling 48 hour contest, I need sleep, food, and prepared tools.
The latter is where I think I might falter. In the past few months, I’ve learned that continuing to use the Kyra Sprite Library is more of a detriment than a help. I would rather not use it for newer projects, and if I am not going to use it, I can use libSDL directly. Kyra provided a lot of functionality, such as loading sprites with named animations, dirty rectangle updates, and collision detection. I intend to go without it, especially since I would like the game to be ported to Windows much more easily, and Kyra is giving me enough headaches trying to port it to older Linux-based distros. Since I am not using Kyra, I am worried that I will spend more time trying to implement technical details than making a game. Game in a Day kind of went like that for me, and so I think this time I shouldn’t worry about a complex design. And I should make sure that any simple designs are actually, truly simple.
Other preparations for this weekend include buying kitty litter, cleaning my apartment, and buying groceries.
Keep an eye on my LD blog posts. I will try to cross-post.
Good luck to all of the LD #11 participants!
[tags] game development, video games, competition, contest, ludum dare, tools [/tags]
Thanks to David Edery, I learned about an article on Gamasutra about fixing online gaming idiocy.
Bill Fulton wrote about the problems with griefers as well as people who are just plain rude.
Why do I care? Some gamers might be thinking “If he’s so thin-skinned that he can’t take the online banter, maybe he shouldn’t play online.” Unfortunately, many people do just that — they stop playing online.
…
Because the online behavior of our customers is dramatically reducing our sales, and continues to stunt the growth of our industry. Non-gamers simply don’t love games enough to put up with the crap they get online. The reason they would consider playing online is to have fun with other people — and right now, playing games online with strangers rarely delivers that for anyone outside the hardcore demographic.
If you’re not familiar with griefers, read Wired’s Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers, the Sociopaths of the Virtual World, as well as The Escapist’s 19th issue, Griefer Nation.
If you are familiar with griefers or at least the problems they can cause your online game, you might wonder what can be done about it. You don’t even need to have an MMO to deal with such issues. If your game includes a high score list that automatically gets published to a website, you may find your list the victim of griefers. A recent posting on PuppyGames.net puts future troublemakers on notice:
Now hear this: the online hiscores table is viewed by children and we’re really not going to accept any more of this stuff any longer. You will find yourself banned permanently (and all of your hiscores deleted permanently too) if you abuse the facility.
Fulton argued that yes, it is possible to solve this problem by designing the social environment and culture. He talked about changes that were made to Shadowrun to discourage griefing, and I think it is an encouraging article.
[tags] video games, business, griefing, game development, game design [/tags]
Thanks to the Game Development Society of DeVry DuPage, the video recap of the Chicago Game Developer Gathering is up, so if you missed the event, you can now un-miss it.
It is split into 10 separate videos, and you can see the first one below. I hope a single video can be released as well.
Wow, I sound weird. Maybe I should join Toastmasters.
The Chicago Game Developer Gathering has posted pictures and a recap of the event. There is also a new web forum.
UPDATE 4/1/2008
The forum, pictures and recap are live! We are wrapping up some editing of the video footage and will be posting that soon as well.
The forums already have a few threads in them, including links to games people want feedback on, info on how to start your own business, and a notice about a LAN party coming up.
Check all of it out at Chicago Game Developer Gathering website.
[tags] video games, game development, indie, business [/tags]
Last night’s panel was fun, and I think everyone got a lot out of it. My throat is a bit sore from doing so much talking. I think everyone should be glad the time was limited because I felt like I could have kept talking about video games and the business of making them for much longer.
It’s exciting to see so many students interested in game development as a career. When I was going to college, the game development curriculum was just getting launched, and game development was kind of the black sheep of software development. The feeling I always got was “You COULD work in games, but you can also get a REAL job”. Sure, some of my friends knew how cool it could be, but most people didn’t think of making video games as any more of a job than doodling in a notebook. Being interested in game development, I let it become nothing more than a hobby for a long time. At this event, you could feel the enthusiasm in the room after the formal panel was finished. These were people who wanted to make games.
The panel participants covered a wide range of topics. We touched on business, legal, and accounting concerns, such as what business entity to form and the importance of copyright, trademark, and patent laws. We talked about targeting niche markets and how to sell games to them. We talked about the problems with the video game industry as a whole, gender inclusive game design and development, and the market for people who don’t know that they play video games or might like to do so.
I learned later that the supposedly mundane topics focusing on legal and business matters were the most interesting to the students. I think this is great news. When I was first thinking about getting into the video game industry, I assumed I would have to work for a company like Nintendo. Later I figured I’d work at Midway or Konami (they used to have an office outside of Chicago). It was only recently that I realized that I could start my own company, and here was a room full of people who are contemplating doing so!
Since this event was such a success, it looks like the Chicago Game Developer Gathering will be a regular meetup. I think Chicago game developers need more opportunities to connect with each other. San Diego and San Francisco have healthy and active IGDA chapters, but Chicago’s game companies have always seemed unfriendly and less open. Hopefully the CGDG can help Chicago be the game development hub it can be.
This post is a reminder that the Chicago Game Developer Gathering is tonight. The panel of indie developers will discuss what it takes to start (and run) a business, how they create games, and what lessons they can share.
I’ll be joined on the panel with Mike Boeh of Retro64, Shawn Recinto of Immersive Realms, and Chauncy Hollingsworth of Zephyr Syndicate. When I participated in the conference call to talk about the panel, it’s obvious that everyone is excited about this event.
Hopefully you’re one of the many people who have registered for it, and I hope to see you there! If you’re not one of those people, I was told that there will be notes and photos up within a few days, and a video should be up a week or so later.
[tags]indie, video games, business[/tags]
I’m currently fighting off a cold, and everyone knows how miserable it is to be sick.
What is surprising is how hard it is to resist creating something even though you should be resting. When you’re sick is the worst time to forget to eat a meal because you’re so engrossed in your work.
Even so, I wouldn’t trade this for the world. B-)