Not a game yet, but after 4 hours, I have an idea down and the main mechanic implemented.

Funny thing is, I was thinking about this game for the whole week. I was lucky that the theme fits the idea that I want to implement so perfectly.

So the idea is this: a top-down action game. Normal stuff: walls, enemies that shoot you, weapons. I was thinking about something a bit like the air combat of Xenonauts.

But here is the twist: the rooms and dungeons that you fight in are generated randomly, based on your geocoordinates! Is the current level too easy? Go to a nearby coffee shop and see if you can find something better. Need a green key? Somewhere in the way between your house and your supermarket, there may be a dungeon containing it.

Your world and the game world, connected.

Now to make that game happen!

This was a fun Ludum Dare. I think I really nailed the theme with my game, “Layers”. A few people were having difficulty playing the game, so I decided to make a video to give an introduction to it. I also tacked the timelapse at the end of the video:

Have fun!

Please play and leave a comment for layers. I am planning on making a video of some of my favorite entries in a week or two, once works lets up a bit.

Have fun!

To all new and old participants using Unity:

Congratulations on finishing your game! Please remember that Unity can make
Native binaries for Mac and Linux! It is just a click away:

File > Buildsettings > PC, mac and linux standalone > target platform > build.

Don’t make Just a web version, many browser/system combinations don’t play very well with Unity’s web Plug-in.

Thank you, and hope to play your games soon!

(This is a reminder from a message that I posted last LD)

Welcome to Layers!

Layers is my long-desired QiX clone. I hope the relation with the theme is pretty obvious once you start playing. The game is basically feature-complete now, except for sound. The input method can use some work as well.

You can get the game here:
https://github.com/caranha/LD29/releases/tag/Prototype2

The game plays a little better on Touch surfaces than it does on PC, but it is quite playable in both platforms.

Please let me know what you think!

Finally, I got the “main” gameplay loop working! I still need a bunch of stuff in the game lifecycle (such as loading levels, menus, game over, etc), but the game is at a point where it is possible to at least test the input.

What game? I am making a QiX clone – I think that the QiX mechanic (you have to cut away the play area) is very closely tied with this theme.

Have a screenshot:

If you want to try it out, you can find the binaries (for desktop and android devices) here:
https://github.com/caranha/LD29/releases

Thank you!

After a bunch of problems, I finally managed to get the very basic mechanics of my game down. Here is a screenshot:

There is still a lot to do before this can become a game, but I’m happy that I’m finally getting into my rhythm. I’m not completely sure if my control scheme is good, so I need to put out a prototype as soon as possible.

Back to coding!

AAARgh. When updating libGDX from 0.9.9, I also had to update eclipse in order to install Gradle and Android support.

Problem is: the new Eclipse is losing the context menu intermittently: mouse right click will just stop working from time to time, with no apparent reason (no error messages, nothing).

If anyone has any idea on how to solve this, I would be very thankful. It is really a bother trying to work like this, and I can’t get my project to trivially work in former versions…

Thanks for any help!

One hour for LD to start. The lucky thing about living at GMT+9 is that the start of the compo sits nicely at 10AM. I can wait for the theme announcement, and then take a shower while thinking about what the game should be.

I’m spending the last few minutes preparing my environment: setting up the screenshots for the time lapse, organizing my windows and desktops, and cleaning out my house a little bit.

As usual, my setup is something like this:

• Programming Language: Java+LibGDX: LibGDX turned 1.0.0, I haven’t played with it since last LD, but as far as I can tell, everything still works in mostly the same way that I’m used to. The wikis have much more information. There is this new build system, Gradle, which I’m still not quite familiar with, but I figured out how to build and package my game.
• Environment: Kubuntu+Eclipse: I have updated to the latest version of eclipse (Kepler), which seems to hang out and eat the context menu from time to time. That is not so good and I hope it doesn’t happen this weekend.
• Art and sounds: Badly drawn art on a tablet + Gimp/Inkscape. Sounds will probably be BFXR + Autotracker. Again.
• Hosting: My source and releases will be posted on this github repository: https://github.com/caranha/LD29

Good luck and good times for everyone out there!

Many people complained that the bullets in my game were too hard to see. So I’ve uploaded a new version to fix that!

Other small fixes include a much better control scheme on Android and some re-balancing to make the difficulty curve more approachable. Please try it out and let me know how you like it!

Play and rate Dinosaur Rush here!