So I have my game idea.

It’s a platformer where the gimmick is that you get a single ability in each level and it can only be used once.

That’s right! You will have one of a few different abilities in each level, but you can only use it once! 😀

I’m going to use a GameBoy-like style for the graphics along with a GameBoy palette that I got from the internet. (I’d link to it, but I honestly forget where I got it from. 😛 )

So there’s a thing. It’s almost 2:30 AM where I am and I’ll be getting to work at around 4:00 AM.

Peace, love, and high hopes,

– Henry

Wow, LD already? I lost track of time!

Well, I’m definitely in for this one. I’m pretty sure I missed one or two LDs, but this time I’m in!

Here are my tools:

• OpenFL/Flash – Platform
• HaxePunk – Library
• GIMP or Inkscape – Graphics
• bfxr – Sound
• FlashDevelop – IDE

I’m not sure what kind of game I’ll make. Perhaps a shmup or something simple like that.

I’m very, very excited! I just found out that LD is starting tonight! Like, I found out a few minutes before I’m writing this. Did I mention that I lost track of time?

Well, I’m in. Let’s do this! LEEEERRROOYYY JEENKIINNSSS!!! (It’s an old joke, but I like it.)

I had an interesting time this LD. I made two demos of different games and completed neither.

First, “Catch the Apples” was a remake of one of the microgames from the original WarioWare, but expanded into its own game. For reasons that should be obvious, this turned out to not really be worth the kind of lovely art I had in mind for it.

The other game was “Plink”, a shmup with geometric graphics and very simple gameplay. I wound up running into my natural weekend laziness and then technical problems (my laptop has been freezing randomly lately ) so I couldn’t finish it in time for the jam.

I gained something, though. I gained the knowledge that I can get something working, and that doing so is the most important part of this process. I have a habit of getting lost in boilerplate and features that I don’t need yet. Part of that is a tendency to put off making artwork. I’m starting to make artwork much more promptly and actually get the thing working in a timely manner now.

I have a game in the works which I will sell on Flash Game License. I’m more confident than ever that I can finish since I’ve been reminded that I can actually make a working game.

I might have failed to finish this LD, but I got the knowledge that I can actually do this. I proved to myself that this doesn’t have to be a pipe dream.

I wish I had finished, of course. However, I can finish my current project instead. It’s a pretty nice project that will hopefully work out well for me.

Peace, love, and hope,

– Henry

I have had HaxePunk recommended to me by a few people here and there, and now that I’ve done enough to get it (seemingly) working, it seems like I should use it.

So, I’m going back to my roots of having no idea what I’m doing.

That’s right! I’m going in with minimal experience. Ludum Dare is at its best (for me at least) as a trial-by-fire. The struggle of learning under that kind of pressure keeps it fun for me.

I’m not completely without knowledge, though. I’ve done plenty of things with FlashPunk (which HaxePunk is a port of) and I’ve used Haxe a little bit before (though it’s certainly been a while since I last used it), so I kind of have some idea. Kind of.

As for the type of game…

I want to make a shmup. I love shmups. They are probably my favorite genre of game. Kenta Cho’s shmups are some of my favorites. I also like Danmaku (aka “bullet hell”) shmups since they are nice and challenging. I also love to destroy lots of stuff, and shmups are generally pretty good for that. 😀

So, with all that said…

– Henry

(Edit: Put some tags on this post, that’s all.)

Y’know, Flixel hasn’t updated in quite a while. It seems kinda dead.

I’m thinking of using Axel instead.

I’m going to be playing with Unity in the coming days, but I definitely don’t think that I can do something with it in the 72h of the jam.

So… yeah, I’m switching to Axel.

I also might use Gimp for my graphics since I can’t get anti-aliasing to work in Stage3D so my vector art looks really bad when it rotates. After all, when you export an SVG into a PNG, you end up with a raster image with smoothing baked into it, not a vector image in PNG format.

Anyway, good luck to all entrants!

Also, potato is not a good theme. Just wanted to point that out.

I’ve calmed down a bit since my last post and have decided to amend my rules slightly.

Firstly, I’m going to lengthen my time limit for my games. I’ve realized that six hours isn’t enough to do most ideas justice, so I’m going to give myself twelve hours instead. I know that’s kind of wimping out of doing this “hardcore style”, but I have realized that I would definitely burn myself out if I tried to do six-hour sprints.

Also, I will settle for one game each day, since twelve hours is only enough for that if I sleep during each night. This means that I’ll have at most three or four games for this weekend. I think I can live with that.

That being said, the games will still be submitted to Kongregate and I’ll still provide updates on each game’s progress.

I’m not too ashamed about backing down from some of the extreme things with this self-challenge. I think it’s better for me to be more reasonable than for me to wear myself out before LD even starts.

Okay, maybe not too hardcore

– Henry

So, warmup weekend, eh? It’s that time of three-times-a-year again, everybody!

So let’s see here…

I know what I can do! I can try to make lots of games really quickly and put them on Kongregate!

I once made a game in six hours, after all. Hell, I once made a game in less than that! I can do this!

So here’s the plan for me:

• Make multiple games each day
• Each game must take at most six hours to make
• Between games, I will take an hour-long break and will make a progress post with links to some of the games
• Most games will be submitted to Kongregate
• I will keep a separate count for games completed and games submitted to Kongregate and will post both numbers in progress posts
• I will start at noon EDT (4PM GMT) on Friday, April 19
• I will stop when I feel like it and not a moment sooner

Going in hardcore style, yo!

– Henry

My Mini-LD game is one that I started but never finished.

It was a one-button game titled “Foxy Ninja”, which I’m renaming to “Mini Ninja”.

In it, you play as a ninja who has to perform various tasks to infiltrate a castle and kill the samurai that killed your master.

The game will feature the following player actions:

• Walking and jumping
• Walking and sprinting
• Walking and stopping
• Charged-up jumping
• Throwing shurikens (ninja throwing stars)
• A final boss fight

It will feature the following obstacles:

• Holes in the floor
• Spike floors
• Retracting blade traps
• Laser traps
• TNT boxes
• Enemy ninjas
• Final boss

I will post more about this as I go and will be uploading it as a demo (and eventually a finished game) on Flash Game License as I progress.

I’m finally getting somewhere. There’s a bunch of underlying structure code (for example, parts being attached to each other) that isn’t visible in this screenshot and I’m going to come up with a better background than the default Unity background color, but it’s a thing. On the screen. 😀

Wow, this is going pretty slowly. Hahaha!

I have two sprite sheets done for the boss. One is for the body parts and one is for the weapon parts.

Body parts for the bosses.

Weapon parts for the bosses.

The red weapons always aim toward the player (which is AI-controlled), the orange weapons aim toward the mouse pointer, and the yellow weapons stay at a fixed angle. That should make managing the weapons fairly easy.

The boss (which you control) will move automatically back and forth, leaving you to focus on the weapons.

I have some in a Unity project, but I’m taking a break right now. Next, I’ll get a boss thing assembled and working!