Digital Adventures

On development projects and whatnot.

Done!

Here's my entry on the Ludum Dare site:

As a lone pixel that gains consciousness in a user's display, you try to make through the graphical mazes until the end. Pull is a puzzle game with 28 levels, all solvable. :) This is my first LD Compo entry. Tried before but ended up with no time to work on it. x.x Didn't have much time for this so had to do this quickly as well. :P

Controls:

  • Arrow Keys - Move 
  • Space - Grab 
  • R - Reset level 
  • Y - Start over from the first level 
  • M - Toggle Music On/Off 
  • N - Toggle Sound Effects On/Off 

Links: Windows | OS/X | Love/Source | Source (Repository)

I probably missed the opportunity to explore the theme a bit more. I wanted to add some dialogue or level text to give some story into it but I don't have enough time to do it.

Other than that, I'm quite happy with the final product. I thought of adding more mechanics such as portals, enemies and other forms of traps but after doing some level design, the idea seemed to be able to stand on its own without being too trivial.

After this, I might port this game on other platforms with more levels and additional mechanics. One thing I probably need to work on is the difficulty. It's quite hard to test a puzzle game when you're the one making the puzzles and after a while, all puzzles get really easy.

Hmm...Playstation Suite? :D

(download)

Repo is up!

Just uploaded the project source code on bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/goofydelinquent/ld23 :P I might be rewriting quite a bit so I thought that it's about time I had something to revert to in case things get messed up. Not sure yet though, might work with what I have first, and add them up in future versions instead.

Quick notes in case you look at the source code:

  • crate.lua is unused. 
  • I'm embarrassed by the string comparisons since they are icky but hey, it's something hacked away in a short time! Might fix it later, but for now, it works. >:)
  • Accidentally uploaded the audio loop. Hahaha! I guess that's ok...right?

For documentation's sake, here's how my workspace looks at the moment:

  • Notepad++ to code with
  • Command prompt for running the game
  • TortoiseHg Workbench for source control
  • GraphicsGale FreeEdition for level design

Workspace

Only twenty hours to go and I don't intend on consuming all that time. I have to get to work early tomorrow!

Nighty night!

It's 1:41 am. Time for bed.

I probably could have done more today, but I took a few naps, went to the mall...well, generally other things that doesn't involve the game. Hahaha!

Before signing off for tonight, here's what I have so far (yes, it's downloadable!), and what's still missing:

  • Tutorial text
  • More levels (current game ends at level 7 and level 8 is just a repeat of level 7. Whoops!)
  • Level counter
  • Sound effects

Since there's no tutorial text (and controls display on the right side) just yet, here are the controls:

  • Arrow keys = move
  • Spacebar = grab
  • R =  reset

Thinking of adding teleporters and some animation on different tiles for polish. I guess that will have to wait...

DotA 2. Diablo 3 beta. Oh, how they taunt me! x.x

 

11:13 am edit : Ok, I think I forgot to package the DLLs...updated the download. :P

Pixel World Progress!

Still no name for the game. Hahaha!

Progress is slow today. Not as much as I wanted and so I'll probably have to work on it tomorrow as well.

My idea so far:

  • Tiny World of Pixels!
  • Puzzle game
  • Black "pixel" need to push them pixels!
  • Pixels can be grabbed from all sides
  • Pixels can't be pushed forward (try not to get trapped!)

No need for screenshots for now since it's pretty much a bunch of squares and a rectangular map.

Here's what I have so far:

  • Bounded player movement
  • Interactable map
  • Grabbable crates

Currently working on the maps. I decided to use 25x17 pixel maps where image data will be converted to game objects. At the moment of writing, I can already read pixel data from an image. Still need to work on the values I will be assigning the objects, actually creating the map, and rebuilding it in-game.

A few more TODOs of mine in case I forget:

  • Display controls
  • Tutorial levels
  • Credits screen

Onwards!

LD23: Maybe this time...

Last time, I was stalled by distractions and whatnot, this time it's no different. PS Suite open beta, Diablo III open beta, other MMO events...

Maybe I can work something out. I dont' know. We'll see.

I decided to try out LÖVE, since I've done work on Lua before and after trying out LÖVE for short while, it seems to get the job done quickly.

The theme this time around is Tiny World and I'm still looking for ideas. I tried to work on some music to get me inspired and this is what I got. I'll be needing my audio cable to record this, but I can't find it. Probably going to go out after lunch to get a new one. :\

Jetpack Art & Spam

I'm thinking of redoing the art for Jetpack. Well, it was programmer art to begin with, but I'm thinking of moving the art style in a completely different direction. I forsee it taking a lot of time though, so I'll probably need to use a lot of placeholder art before I put too much effort making the assets.

On another note. GAAAH! Spam everywhere on my site. So much for allowing anonymous comments. This is why we can't have nice things. 

I guess I need to work on the spam filter. Also, I wonder why I'm not getting email notifications from the comments. Hmm...

Time and Inchworm

Gah, why do all these things pop up whenever there's an LD?

I don't have enough time to finish the Ludum Dare at the moment within the timeframe. I'll still finish the game for experience sake.

Maybe next time...

--

I tried to make use of my time outside the house by making sprite sheets on my DSi using Inchworm Animation. It's a really nice app. It's priced at 500 DSi Points and has a full palatte, layers, animation, export (still or animated), ...and add to the use of the DSi touch screen+stylus, we have a winner! The animation could be exported as a BMP image sequence or SWF. I haven't tried SWF, so I can't say much about it.

I had some troubule with exporting my animation into BMP as my computer couldn't read the image file. It just so happens that if the canvas dimensions/borders have negative values, it'll have some trouble exporting. Good thing there's a grab tool that helps you place the images into the right place so that they can be exported correctly.

--

Some updates:

  • Thinking of making it a side-scroller with less of a focus on exploration. 
  • More focus will be placed on platforming and puzzles.
  • Since I'll be giving myself more time, I'll be making this my first Flixel game.
  • The game still has no title. Hmm...