EDIT:  Seems like I forgot to put the Readme in the win32 version zip. Whoops. Quick reupload.

Ok, the .exe file included in my upload didn’t work it seems, I’m not on a Windows desktop while developing, so I didn’t have time to try the compiled version during the compo. But I’m pretty darn sure I have a working version now. I updated the Final-post with a download link but here it is again

download(win32)

The fonts gets a bit messed up in the win version for some reason but It’ll have to do. Changing things more than getting it to compile after the compo would be cheating, right?

After 48 hours of hard work I present to you all:

SPACEBATTLE! (Least original name in the universe, I know…)

download (python sources) (requires python, pygame and numarray installed)

download (win32) (edit: now contains readme as it should)

The archive contains both source and a win32 exe (Which will hopefully work)

EDIT: The exe in the archive didn’t work. I’ve recompiled it and uploaded a separate win32 version. The fonts are slightly messed up in the win32 version compared with running from sources but it works.

if you have a better server and can host it for me, please tell me in the comments.

The player controls a group of ships that try to shoot down the opposing ships. The controll is done entierly with the mouse.

Both the graphics and control scheme can be concidered minimalistic I hope. At least that’s what I was going for.

Here are the final screenies:

Lots of ships shooting each other up.

The shop between levels where you buy new ships.

The intro sequence.

There is a readme file in the archive with info about controls and stuff.

The game was made with python + pygame (also requires numarray) and absolutely everything else was created from scratch.

Big thanks to:

• Jach for helpingwith the win32 compile
• DrPetter for sfxr
• Jenny, my lovely GF for not going crazy with me.

Phew. I just got the “AI” system I’ve been working on the last hours to work at least a decently. The enemy ships don’t move totally random anymore, they try to line up so they can hit your ships at least. It’s still really stupid though, especially when close to the screen edges but it’s as good as I’ll bother to make it I think.

I’ve also implemented levels and game-over conditions, a shop where you buy new ships between the levels and done tons of bugfixes/speedups since yesterday. There is still one really annoying bug where the sprites sometimes doesn’t get cleared completely and leave one or two lingering pixels, but I’m sure I’ll figure that out soon.

After that there is mostly fine polishing left to do, the shop screen is very, very minimalistic right now, to the point of not making any sense, the interface graphics could also need some love and after that it’s on to game balancing.

Well, there is definitly a game here now.  It’s my take on a minimalist space battle.

The ships move around and will automatically shoot if they see an enemy in their weapon arc. The player controls the red shipsby clicking on one, holding down the mouse and moving it left or right, this determins if the ship will go forward, turn constantly to the right or the left. The mousewheel controls the speed of ships under the pointer and right click will activate some special function on the different ships.

The game can be paused at any time and orders can be changed while paused. Not sure if I’ll keep that feature though.

TODO for tomorrow:

• At least some kind of AI for the opponent,  at the moment they just go forward or in circles.
• Levels, Goals, Score, Structure of the game
• Some more graphical special effects
• Sound
• Music?
• Possibly more types of ships. There are three at the moment

Oh well. I’m happy with what I’ve done today given the distractions, pauses, and so on. I can’t wait to see what kind of insanities everyone has made when I wake up tomorrow.

My triangles and stuffs are moving almost the way they should, they leave almost pretty trails after them and they shoot at the other sides thingies if they are inside their fireing arc.

Now lets let the player control the units a little.

Well, I finally got an idea and started coding. I’m nowhere near having a working game, but the basic gameloop is there and most of the basic classes exist in at least skeletal form.

Primary TODO:
Make some simple graphics so I can start to test stuff.
Start to handle user input properly
Interaction between the Triangles and other guys
Interface of some kind.

I just woke up and checked the theme.

Out of all the themes in the final round minimalist was probably the only one that didn’t imediately give me any ideas for a game. (Ok, that and bumber cars) Oh well, I guess I’ll go make some coffee/breakfast and hope to come up with something within the hour or so.

 Being located in Sweden means more than just meatballs, ABBA and random polar bears in the streets. It also means that for me the competition starts at 04.00 in the middle in the night.  So therefor I wont join in on the fun until around 8 or so, that is 4 h after the competition starts.

I’ll probably wake up in the middle of the night and no be able to not rush to the computer and check the theme.

 I’ve been meaning to give Ludum Dare a try for quite some time, but the last three compos were all set in weekend when I was very busy. But this time I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to participate unless something huge earth-shattering happens.

Some quick words about me: 25 yrs young, math student (+ some comp. sci.), swedish, TERRIBLE artist/musician, decent programmer.

I’ll probably use Python + pygame, since that’s what I have most experience with when it comes to graphics, I looked a bit at rubygame as well since I’ve been wanting to try ruby for something bigger for a while, but I realized I didn’t have time to learn a new library before the compo starts.

This’ll be so much fun, I can hardly wait.