Here’s the latest update for the Delivery Kid game that I started developing about a month ago for the MiniLD #65.  In this video, I talk about the latest changes and how I made the house and window models in Blender.

Download the game on Itch.io

I kind of made a game for the mini ld.  Guess you can go check it out?  It’s all very simple, so don’t expect a ton of game play from it.  It’s called “Dwarf in a Hole”.

I have the basic API and web front end done for players to create and join each other’s games. This uses Node + Express to host a RESTful API on the server and some basic JQuery stuff on the client. Communication during gameplay will take place using SockJS web sockets, which will hopefully be fast enough for decent gameplay (which probably won’t be that fast-paced for an RTS – space is big).

Would you like to play a game?

Hey its me Viper. I decided no AI for the invaders (I’m making a solar system sort of tower defense game)

I will be purely using commands to control them. I made a small animation for the Invaders that I’m proud of but theirs gonna be different kinds of invaders so I plan on making a different model for all of them with a different sort of animation. Working on adding all the different weapons on to the moon (that’s your base in the game.)Also trying to make it so the game remembers everything you have done in the past so you don’t put a building on top of another building and so on. Other then that I just wanted to say is that I’ve done 736 lines of code somebody told me that lines of code doesn’t matter. I am starting to agree with him. He said what the code dose is what really matters. For any one else that competing good luck and I hope you do well on this MiniLD.

(PS. I’m not going to spoil the whole game so don’t ask what the features are going to be!)

Hello, people.

While getting excited for LD35, and reminiscing over my previous experiences with Ludum dare jams, I wanted to share the story about my previous entry at LD33 – You are the monster.

Phase 1 – start with basic idea (Saturday morning – noon)

I always keep the scope small. One or two mechanics, make it playable and simple.
Starting from something simple, then add more stuff according to remaining time and energy.

On this LD, i had idea to start from the Space.
In the Space, there is that overwhelming feeling of unknown and infinite nothingness around you, so it’s perfect location for the spooky “You are the monster” game.
Since I didn’t want to go with aliens on the spaceship (too much cliche), I went with the planet.
Small rotating planet (The Little Prince style).
I always wanted to make game with rotating planet, so I used it here to make small and restricted environment for the game, surrounded by vast emptiness of space.

I downloaded moon texture from google, and added “Noise & scratches” from Standard Assects Effects, to boost spooky atmosphere.

So what more could be scary about planets and moons, and to keep it with theme?
I went through all sort of different things:

• Astronauts lost in space, you are the infected one
• Astronauts in exploring mission, you are monster that lives on planet
• You are astronaut exploring new worlds, and “cleaning” planets for colonization (you are monster because aliens living on the planet are peaceful)

Then while thinking about moon and scary scenarios, my brain got association of werewolf.

It’s general knowledge that werewolves transform to beast form when there is full moon.
So I asked myself, what would werewolf do on the moon itself, as it’s kind of always “full moon” there.
So I immediately decided that I wanted to do game about werewolf on the moon

Important thing about Ludum Dare is that you can do anything you want. It’s all for fun, no one will disqualify you, ban you or laugh at your game.
Maybe you even won’t fully finish the game (my LD28 game) or it’s going to be very simple (my LD32 game).
Just do it, have fun and make the damn game you want. It feels great!

Phase 2 – implementing mechanic (Saturday noon to late evening)

I then starting implementing mechanics ad-hoc.
Inspired by Werewolf/Mafia party game, I added hidden werewolf player and targets (civilians). You could transform to werewolf, and kill civilians.

To add challenge, I added some guards which can kill you if they catch while you are in transformed mode.
I added some naive behaviour for them, so if you are close to them, they start going your way. No memory, not calling backups or anything.
Instead of overcomplicating the guards behaviour, I focused on UI and particles for death (blood splatter), since I planned my time.
For UI, I used standard Unity NGUI, and free icons downloaded from some random sites.
For particles, I used some basic particle effect from Asset store (can’t remember exactly which one), and changed color and some basic properties so it looks more brutal.
I added that radial blurry screen effect from standard effects, when you are transformed, so it looks clear to player that he is in beast mode.

Important thing at LD (or any timed hackathon) is to prioritize.
Don’t overdo stuff, as nobody will expect perfectly engineered solution or complex stuff.
Just name it as a feature, and continue with other stuff. Make it playable

Phase 3 – Wrapping up (Sunday half of day)

I finished playable prototype, so wanted to invest some more time into effects and juiciness.
I used GoKit library for tweening, and added more natural movement to objects, added fading out of screens.
Game was a bit weird for new players, so I added some info notifications, to give some context to the game.
Guards were simple, but game was interesting with them, so I kept them that way.
Since I had more time and energy, I added more advanced guards that appear later in the game (when you kill at least half of the civilians), Inquisitors, which remain hidden unless you are close to them.
It added nice dose of challenge for better players, when “A new inquisitor appears!”.
I kept the “models” of the objects just cubes, because my 3d skills are zero, and decided to keep just the color as differentiator.

After that, i tested game for an hour, fixed some bugs, and decided it’s done.
Check the gameplay here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJlEyinlGw
Or try it from LD site.

The best thing is the feeling you get when you complete a playable game in a weekend.
It won’t be Assassin’s Creed.
Someone probably would not even call it a game.
But the most important thing is THAT YOU HAD A LOT OF FUN.

RTS WIP Screenshot 0

Made with Unity if I can get the basic game working the plan is to quickly release it as a basic RTS framework for people to extend and improve.

Aiming to have (for V 0.1):

• Basic RTS with simple UI.
• Combat.
• Resource Gathering.
• Building Factories, Troops, Gatherers, Tanks

Then continue working on my own variation.

Is there anything you would like to see added?

Click Here to go to Jext on GameJolt

Today marks the released of Build 110 for the Jext Game Engine and with it comes a neat feature
Per line coloring

What does this mean?
It means when you are making a game with Jext you can have each line be a completely different color to the next so that’s pretty cool
Its all included in the Documentation on GameJolt

In other news, Leave a comment down below on what you’d like to see me implement in future builds please

I plan to use my RTSBase that I have been working on for the last few months to build a space RTS. I’ve never done the multiplayer aspect within my RTSBase, so that will be entirely new, but that’s what makes this fun! I’ll be exporting to flash for client and nodejs for server unless something goes crazy! I’ll post updates each day as I can!

Tools:

Haxe/Haxeflixel with HaxeDevelop

CastleDB for Unit stats

MPHX to do the multiplayer

Gimp for 8 bit graphics

Java – Ascii  

I’ll be making an interplanetary war strategy game involving orbital mechanics.

I’m planning on using Phaser on the client side, using WebSockets to talk to a nodejs server. I’ve worked a little bit with WebSockets before for web frontend stuff, but this will be the first time I’ve tried doing a networked multiplayer game.

If networked multiplayer doesn’t work out, I do have a fallback plan to use the basic game mechanics for something that’s single player and more tycoon-like. Let’s see how this goes!

In the distant frozen tundra of Freez’Ur, 3 factions battle for supremacy. Chocolate, a warlike race, wishes to subjugate all with sheer numbers and brute force. Vanilla is a technological wonder, fighting with great war machines for the purpose of the advancement of their technology. Strawberry evolved closer to the source cream, and is in tune with nature. They wish to protect the valuable resource that provides everything with life.

It is a war that has raged for centuries. But now, they have met on the wrong battleground. Their war has awakened an ancient evil. Can they stand together and survive? Or will they die alone against the power of… The Neapolitan?

I find that this is my most used, most useful function: the simple box collision.

function isCol(thex,they, othx, othy, thel, theh, othl, othh){
return !(they+theh <= othy || they >= othy+othh || thex+thel <= othx || thex >= othx+othl);
}