Category: Linux Game Development

I woke up hours later than I wanted to, but that’s what you get when you spend the first night of Ludum Dare watching videos of games and playing other ones for inspiration . B-\

I had a simple breakfast:

Knowing that I want to participate in the Ludum Dare 2010 Swimsuit Calendar, I’ve been trying to lose weight. While I haven’t been pursuing my push ups routine in some time, I can still eat right. Go Lean with almond milk, 2 bananas, and a glass of good ol’ reliable orange juice start my morning right.

I came up with a few ideas for this theme:

• Spelunker clone
• Dig Dug clone
• Explore randomized caves
• Dig out your own cavernous bunker
• Use regular flooding in the cave in some way
• Alien cave explorer
• Gold/Tin/Mineral miner
• Hide from killers who are chasing you
• Cube farm caverns

I vaguely remembering a cave level from the NES game Thunderbirds, but I don’t want to fire it up and play through it to completion to find out if I am remembering it correctly. Maybe what I think I remember about it is better anyway. B-)

I have spent some time thinking about these ideas, and what got me most excited was one involving the driver of a tank in a cavern. Think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES, when you could drive around in the van, and imagine that you’re underground, searching for important items. The tank will protect you and can destroy things, but you need to get out of the tank every so often, leaving you vulnerable yet more maneuverable.

I’ll be prototyping some of these ideas on paper to see what is the most interesting.

Caverns, eh? I believe I actually voted for that one. I’m wondering if we’ll have at least one Spelunker clone in the running. It would probably be up for a Towlr award as well. B-)

I plan on starting my night by coming up with some ideas and prototyping the heck out of them. Good luck to everyone!

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.

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.

I had a good night’s sleep, got some coding in, and have decided on a plan of attack that should result in a completed game. But I have less than 7 hours left. It’s going to be tight.

First, I moved the laptop from the living room to my office. I had to clear a place for it on my desk, which meant moving papers and books to the coffee table in the living room, but what’s the point of having a dedicated work space if I don’t use it? It will be a lot easier to focus just by knowing I’m in a place to do just that.

Second, I showered. It’s almost subconscious, but knowing in the back of my mind that I hadn’t done so today is distracting.

Third, I had lunch:

That’s an awesome-tastic peanut butter and Nutella sandwich that I washed down with apple juice. Note the shout out to all LDers, everywhere, especially those who are essentially making an entire game in the last 7 hours of the competition. This sandwich was for you.

So, I’m clean, I’m full, and I’m in an environment conducive to hardcore concentration and hacking.

Now imagine I put on shades when I say, “Let’s do this” in as bad-ass a way as possible.

Let’s do this.

A friend of mine has come in from out of town for the night, so a few of us went to one of our favorite college spots: Allende Restaurant, or what I like to affectionately call Club Allende. They have the best burritos in Chicago!

I ordered a vegetarian burrito and horchata (rice water).

That burrito is going DOWN!

It seems that most of my pictures this competition are of the food I’ve been eating, so here’s picture of my “work environment”:

What you don’t see on the blanket to the left in the picture is my cat Diego. Gizmo was on the chair on the right. They wait until I write a line of code, and then they pounce. I should move this effort into my office for some privacy.

Speaking of code, I have about 13 hours left in the compo and almost no code. This is going to be either a lot of fun or a lot of pain. And I know I’m having lunch with my parents today, so that’s even less time. Wish me luck!