“What happens when robots die?” “Is there life after bits?” “Do heaven and hell exist for robots?”
Second Hand will not give you answers to these questions, but you will have fun!
“What happens when robots die?” “Is there life after bits?” “Do heaven and hell exist for robots?”
Second Hand will not give you answers to these questions, but you will have fun!
Finally!!! After 72 hours of work (plus a few hours of sleep afterwards!),
I would like to present to you, Second Hand: Frankie’s Revenge
This is my first time Ludum Dare-ing. I have been putting off doing it because I never have un-interrupted time on weekends but this weekend I decided to go for it anyway. This game was made in the hours after my kids went to bed and any other little bits of time I could get together over the weekend, maybe 16 hours or so in total. I hit on the mechanic and theme I wanted to do pretty quickly on Friday night: my interpretation of an unconventional weapon was a suicide bombers bomb. Because I knew I wouldn’t have time to do sophisticated AI I decided to make the enemies robots which would make their slightly stupid behavior thematically appropriate. The AI could be improved a bit but for now it mostly works. The theme also supported my primitive art style which is made using basic primitives within the Unity editor. The main mechanic is avoiding coming into contact with the red awareness zones of the enemies while trying to get to the end of the level and blow up the enemy server. I leaned heavily on stuff Unity does easily out of the box for this, in this case Navigation. The flying and hovering enemy types each have nav mesh agent components attached and a script randomly assigns waypoints from an array. This causes them to path through the level randomly and adds some un-predictability. I also added some searchlight gun tower type enemies inside the ‘city block’ formations since running through them, where the hovering enemies couldn’t go, seemed to be a dominant strategy.
I created the audio using Logic which is mainly sounds made with Logic’s built in Sculpture synthesizer. I stuck to ominous drone sounds mostly. I wrote a minute long text which adds some additional context and had my girlfriend read it on mic, which I then processed and cut up a bit. I think it adds a lot to the vibe of the game and provides some useful expository narrative framework.
All in all I had a ton of fun doing this! I’m going to aim to continue to jam, even when limited for time, and try to block out a full weekend to get together with a team and attempt something more ambitious.
Here’s my entry: SKULL BOMB.
If you liked the game or just want to say hi I’m @mattmirrorfish on Twitter. Thanks for reading!
EDIT:
I got some great notes from people playing and rating my game which allowed me to make a few small tweaks, hopefully for the better before the cutoff. I found players didn’t know where to go so I made the final objective more visible, and had the players drop in from high up so they get an initial birds eye view of the level. I also moved an enemy that was sort of spawn camping the player in a really unfair way
Also, lot’s of people liked the voice over! I must say having a little bit of recorded audio in your game like that to add some story is a pretty cheap and easy way to add some production value. That is definitely the thing I spent the least time on (maybe 2 hours out of 16 to script, record, mix, edit and implement) but has gotten the most positive feedback. Definitely food for thought! Thanks very much to all the people giving comments on my game (and on everyone elses!) It feels great to be a part of a community of game creators like this.
Hello everyone!
Here’s our Entire Game in One Screen game. It’s a multiplayer top-down shooter about robots shooting one another at a train station. Trains pass by, giving cover, and dropping some of their powerful weaponry cargo.
You need two player to play it properly, and you can use controllers for maximun enjoyment.
It was our third Ludum Dare, the second with our awesome sound designer and composer Madcap. We’ve come a long way since our first and believe LudumDare to be one of the most important events in our learning process.
Team work really came together this time around, we had lists, everyone knew what to do, and we rested and ate well (our programmer even got to play Skyrim for the calm bits). Goes to show how effective organization can really change the way you go about a game jam.
An early implementation of the basic mechanics allowed us some time to pay attention to detail, and things show they’ve been made with care.
We’ve had a great time making it and hope you do too playing it.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=29557
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¡Hola a todos!
Aquí está nuestro juego entero en una sola pantalla. Es un juego multijugador shooter con cámara cenital. Va de robots envueltos en un tiroteo en medio de una estación de trenes. Los trenes pasan de largo, proporcionando cobertura y dejando caer parte de su cargamento de poderosas armas.
Se necesitan dos jugadores para jugarlo correctamente, y se pueden usar mandos para disfrutar al máximo.
Es nuestro tercer Ludum Dare, el segundo con nuestro increíble diseñador de sonido y músico Madcap. Hemos mejorado mucho desde nuestra primera vez y creemos que Ludum Dare es uno de los eventos más importantes en nuestro proceso de aprendizaje.
El trabajo en equipo se ha gestionado muy bien esta vez, teníamos listas, todo el mundo sabía lo que tenía que hacer, descansamos y comimos bien (nuestro programador incluso jugaba al Skyrim en ratitos de descanso). Ahí se nota cómo una buena organización puede cambiar la manera de tomarse una game jam.
Pudimos tener las mecánicas básicas de juego funcionando muy pronto, lo que nos dio tiempo para prestarle atención a los detalles, y en el resultado se nota que las cosas se han hecho con mimo.
Nos lo hemos pasado genial haciéndolo y esperamos que vosotros lo paséis igual jugándolo.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=29557
Perfect time to post, just after theme announcement! 😀
I think I’m gonna do a zombie game. I know what you’re thinking, been done a million times right?
ROBOTS. YOU MAEK THAEM. AND FARM. AND HAVE A KITTEH.
Then you fight some zombies. And survive. ALONE = LAST HUMAN ON EARTH.
the robots are moving !!!
see the demo : http://www.athanazio.com/ludumdare/ld18/version2010aug221537/index.html
move with the arrows, shoot with 1, move the head with up down.
next steps
- loose life and restart level
- end level and go to the menu
step 4 - recycle
ok - add the bullets counter
ok - reduce npc life to zero shooting
ok - show dead sprite
- recyle to energy
- recycle to bullets
- test yellow bullet to reduce speed
step 5 - levels please
- define levels map + npc positions
- code boss behavior for levels
- count the time used to finish each level
step 6 - polish
- add help screen
- add backgrund image to the levels
- mute music
Aloha … sleeppppyyy zzzzzz….
update on the task list:
Ok here are my plans:
- shoot, is a little weird ... when moving backards ... probably is the angle...
- show the bullet inventory
step 3 - there comes life
- add life bar to the alien
- add npc with life bar in map 1
- shoot the npc
step 4 - recycle
- add the bullets counter
- reduce npc life to zero shooting
- show dead sprite
- recyle to energy
- recycle to bullets
step 5 - levels please
- define levels map + npc positions
- code boss behavior for levels
- count the time used to finish each level
step 6 - polish
- add help screen
--- done
step 1 - navigation
ok - show splash
ok - show map selection
ok - select each map
ok - press Esc to end the map and go back to map selection
step 2 - movement
ok - build map based on string of heights
ok - build the char (do i need to animate the bottom of the alien ?)
ok - move the alien around the map
ok - make the jump of the alien
ok . control the height of the alien with the colision with the ground.
ok - add the head
ok - move the head
there is a demo online
http://www.athanazio.com/ludumdare/ld18/version2010aug220221/index.html
Ok here are my plans:
- add the head to the vehicle
- move the head
- shoot
- show the bullet inventory
step 3 - there comes life
- add life bar to the alien
- add npc with life bar in map 1
- shoot the npc
step 4 - recycle
- add the bullets counter
- reduce npc life to zero shooting
- show dead sprite
- recyle to energy
- recycle to bullets
step 5 - levels please
- define levels map + npc positions
- code boss behavior for levels
- count the time used to finish each level
step 6 - polish
- add help screen
already done ...
step 1 - navigation
ok - show splash
ok - show map selection
ok - select each map
ok - press Esc to end the map and go back to map selection
step 2 - movement
ok - build map based on string of heights
ok - build the char (do i need to animate the bottom of the alien ?)
ok - move the alien around the map
ok - make the jump of the alien
ok . control the height of the alien with the colision with the ground.
u can jump around the level with the vehicle use arrows left/right/up
http://www.athanazio.com/ludumdare/ld18/version2010aug220028/index.html
Ok here are my plans:
step 1 - navigation
- show splash
- show map selection
- select each map
- press Esc to end the map and go back to map selection
step 2 - movement
- build map based on string of heights
- build the char (do i need to animate the bottom of the alien ?)
- move the alien around the map
- make the jump of the alien
. control the height of the alien with the colision with the ground.
step 3 - there comes life
- add life bar to the alien
- add npc with life bar in map 1
- shoot the npc
step 4 - recycle
- add the bullets counter
- reduce npc life to zero shooting
- show dead sprite
- recyle to energy
- recycle to bullets
step 5 - levels please
- define levels map + npc positions
- code boss behavior for levels
- count the time used to finish each level
step 6 - polish
- add help screen
My ISP is killing me got an outage in the service since yesterday around 01:00AM !!!
during this time finished the concept and made the sprites for the game ! here are some drats that I used, and some final sprites … errr my daughters like then, this is a good signal, now is time to go deep in the code, I hope that FlashPunk help me
best regards from the little green man LOL
The idea is to control a robot that will look like a little tank, and collect energy and bullets by recycling from from the destroyed enemies, each map will have different types of enemies.
The controls will move to the sides, and control the direction of the weapon, the key E will collect energy from the dead enemy, and B to collect bullets.