Over 125 people have played and rated Beat! Bop! Delicious! so far!  Thank you very much!

What do you mean you haven’t played it yet?

PLAY IT NOW

The Game

PLAY ME NOW!

The History

I guess I should start out by saying that is my fourth Ludum Dare. I haven’t been able to participate in a while, for reasons, but I got the opportunity to participate in Ludum Dare #31.

If you are curious, my previous Ludum Dare entries were Voxterium (LD22), Mage Duel (LD23), and # (LD26).

Preperation

My three previous Ludum Dare entries were all done in XNA. For my next “real” project, I wanted to get away from the XNA framework, and try something a little more… um… well… supported. Also, wanted to finally do a web game for this competition, to get rid of all the stigmas of running a windows only game that required a redistributable.

I decided to give Haxe a run, as it seemed to be pretty straight forward, and of course it’s cross platform features are extremely interesting. And, hey, making a game in 48 hours is a good way to learn a new language, right?

The Build

When the theme was announced, my mind was blank. After like an hour of pacing my office and staring at a blank screen, this one just sort of popped in there.  No idea where it came from or why.

Having done this compo three times before, I had a pretty good idea of what pacing should be… but like the other LD’s I threw that to the wind. Taking into account I was learning a new programming language, I allotted more time for programming. That being the case, when I got into the programming part, HaxeFlixel was sooo easy to use, and so well documented (for this sort of game), that I felt like I could spend more time on the audio and graphics, and I did. Overall, the process went really well and I actually finished a couple hours early.

Targeting the web was kind of a cool experience as well. I was able to post early builds, and get feedback. This helped a lot with finding some glaring issues. One was a bad design decision with the second control (below), that would have been disastrous, had it not been pointed out to me early.

What went right

• I think the game turned out pretty ok.
• I learned a lot about a new language.
• I made a web game!

What went wrong

• Some of the controls are awkward. Some extra time could have been spent on making them more intuitive.
• Would have liked to spend more time on the music

Plans for the Future

I would like to spend some time on a post-compo version. It doesn’t feel complete right now. Some games just feel like they deserve to be fleshed out.

I have received a number of good suggestions and insights on where this game could go, and I totally agree.  I also have a lot of ideas I would have liked to implement.. but you know… time… It will also help me to get even more familiar with Haxe, as I believe it can be a great platform for my next game project.

Conclusion

Had a blast last weekend making the game, and have had a great time playing your games. Can’t wait to play more! I wish you all a great Ludum Dare!

Love,
Ross

Hi.

I made a gameplay video of my game Beat! Bop! Delicious!  Because I have to beat the times posted in my comments section

Click this text to play the game, and beat 3:00!

Thank you all for the games you have submitted.  I’ve had a blast playing what you have created over the last two days!   Can’t wait to play more!

Love,

Ross

Sell it to the butcher in the store…  My LD 31 game, Beat Bop Delicious! is done and posted.

My submission page can be seen by clicking on this text.

My game can be played by clicking on this text.

Wow, that was a lot of fun.  I was really nervous going into this one because

• This was my first web game.
• This was my first non-tutorial following game with Haxe and Haxeflixel.
• The Internet people decided this would be the best weekend to pull their trucks into my neighborhood and tear stuff up.

But, the Haxe and Haxeflixel documentation is outstanding, I did have a smart phone to browse documentation (a fun way to go about it if you’re bored) and some of the web based stuff from 1996 did carry on to today.

Hope my game is fun, and can’t wait to play yours!

Love,

Ross

Good part of the way in, and I have all my knobs and buttons working.

I think it’s all downhill from here… all that’s left is gameplay, sounds, menus, controls, fun, and music…

oh dear…

Totally forgot that it was this weekend… but totally plan on being in, as I missed the last one

The Tools

Development         :  Haxe, or monogame… depending on my mood at the time.

Graphics                 :  Photoshop or procedural… depending on my mood at the time.

Sound  & Music     :  FLStudio, Audacity and bfxr… depending on my mood at the time.

Good luck to everyone!  Look forward to playing your games!

This was, as always, an absolute blast.  I’ve had to miss the last two, due to commitments beyond my control, and last weekend I remembered just how much I’ve missed.

# is a game about shooting squares.  That’s really all there is to it.  Wait… and sometimes the squares grow back. And sometimes they shoot out at you.  Oh… and there’s a piano.

The Theme

We all know the theme.  My take on it was more of an aesthetic than a game play one.  Soft colors, simple objects, piano music playing simple chords.  I think it worked.

The Gameplay

# was a lot of fun to develop.  I had the basic concept in my head prior to the theme being announced, but some of the big mechanics, basically the “layer” shifting and the audio component just sort of happened.

The layer thing was introduced as sort of a player control mechanic.  It is really easy, as was pointed out, to beat the levels by holding the left arrow and space bar.  The layers gave the lower squares a fighting chance to get established, as well as forced the player to do something than just “sit and spin”.

The balance however, was off a bit.  I initially balanced the game, unaware of a bug that could would make the last square invincible to most, but not all bullets.  This made the game considerably harder than it really was.   When the bug was fixed… the game became super stupid easy.

I made corrections, but didn’t get a chance to get back in and really do the balance work the game deserved.   You can eventually get yourself comfortable enough where it’s not frustrating, but probably not in the time the average person plays a LD entry.  I tried to make the early levels as accessible as possible, then ramp up the difficulty rather quickly there toward the end for the more interested.  Not as hard as pre-bug unfortunately… but a decent challenge if the dice don’t roll your way.

The Graphics

Like I mentioned before, I wanted to go clean and simple, and that’s what I did.  Not really a lot to say about it, except I really like the green, and the purple.  Red needs work.

The Audio

I’ve never been an “audio” guy, and this game has a lot of sound happening really fast, bullets flying, blocks breaking…   I knew sounds generated by sfxr would have a high potential for ear bleeding (at least the ones I generate).  As I was shifting through layers, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if the music chords changed when the layer did?

I jumped into the idea with absolutely no idea how I was going to accomplish it.  I almost scrapped the whole thing entirely.  I generated a lot of sound files, and tried to tweak them to work with the rapid pace, with ear splitting results.  I did, somehow, manage found a bright piano sound that would pass, although not perfect.

What went right

• Fun and easy to develop
• I believe there’s a solid concept in there somewhere.
•  Graphics / colors were nice and fitting
•  The audio idea worked.

What went wrong

• That stupid invincible square bug wasted a lot of time.
• Balancing issues, especially consistency.
• The Red Layer

Thank you all for your kind feedback.  I look forward to playing some more games!

Link To The Game

Thanks

Ross (Kitch)