Ludum Dare #14

[Morre]

Ludum Dare 14, a 48-hour game programming competition, is coming up (next weekend, April 17-19):

http://www.ludumdare.com/

I'm planning to join if I can find the time. I hope to see some of you on the LD blog!

[kappa]

looks like good stuff, I'm also intending to enter this time round. let just hope it gets a good theme.

[Eli Delventhal]

I'm entering this one. 

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Markus_Persson]

I'm entering. =)

[Eli Delventhal]

I'm entering. =)

So much for me winning. 

[h3ckboy]

you guys are probably heading out soon, well GL !

[Eli Delventhal]

It starts in just over 4 hours. That's 8 PM PST.

[kappa]

its started and the Theme for the competition is "The Advancing Wall of Doom".

[Eli Delventhal]

And I changed my mind. I just moved and don't want to be inside all weekend. Oh well. I have a really cool game idea too.

[h3ckboy]

And I changed my mind. I just moved and don't want to be inside all weekend. Oh well. I have a really cool game idea too.

you probably missed some fun coding

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Eli Delventhal]

you probably missed some fun coding

I code (at least) 40 hours a week on games as it is. I haven't worked on my own game in months, because I just get burnt out.

[h3ckboy]

I guess that is probably a good reasont o skip.

[Eli Delventhal]

I lied. I spent about 8 out of the 48 hours making a game, that way I got the best of both worlds, although the game isn't very good because it needs a ton of balancing. I'm busy al today, so that's the final build.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2009/04/19/too-heavy-for-re-entry/

[Markus_Persson]

Done!


[size=20pt]Click to play![/size]

[Eli Delventhal]

Much, much, better than mine. 

[Alan_W]

<image>
Click to Play

Lovely.  Runs at 50Hz on Mac Powerbook A4. The animation when you get crushed is most amusing.  The squishing sound effect was great.

What are the keys to move the player? I thumped most of the keyboard!
I tried again and it worked this time - weird.  Happy now! - got to Level 5 but struggled to herd bunnies on to the carrots on time!

[Morre]

I'm also done! I'm not quite happy with the gameplay (it's a bit repetitive, I'm afraid), but I'm more or less happy with the visuals of it. I guess I prioritized wrong this time

Play the webstart version

The above version includes one missing line of code that was accidentally excluded from the final competition version (it shows the level screen between levels). The final competition version and a zip download can be found in the final game post.

Screenshot:

[brackeen]

Good job Markus and Morre, both games are pretty clever.

[Eli Delventhal]

Yours is also quite good, Morre. I found Markus's more fun but yours was more interesting and unique.

[ido]

Well, I'm quite new to both these and to java game development, but I've managed to finish a game too:

tametick.com/fwod/

-Ido

[h3ckboy]

did you guys sleep?

[Eli Delventhal]

did you guys sleep?

I didn't get much sleep the night I worked on it (I worked from 9 PM to 5 AM) but typically I don't bust my ass on these things... I get around 7 hours of sleep each night thereabouts. There are usually late nights but I rarely set my alarm in the morning. In my opinion it doesn't really make any sense to deprive yourself of sleep because you'll just end up getting nothing done as a result - brain frying. You can read a lot of peoples' dev blogs in LD and notice that. There is a direct correlation between people who say, "I stayed up all night coding" and "I couldn't get anything finished, my game sucks." Seriously, I think that's true. Obviously it's not always true, but more often than not it appears to be. They start going hard then they can't wrap it up. I'd guess that both Markus and Morre got a good amount of sleep.

[Morre]

Thanks, Demonpants and brackeen.

Regarding sleep: Yes, I slept about as long as I usually do.

[Markus_Persson]

did you guys sleep?

Yeah, I got about 14 hours of sleep the first two nights (the night leading into the compo, and the night in the middle of the compo)
However, I stayed up late on the last day and had work the next day, so I only got three-four hours of sleep before going to work on monday.

[h3ckboy]

I didn't get much sleep the night I worked on it (I worked from 9 PM to 5 AM) but typically I don't bust my ass on these things... I get around 7 hours of sleep each night thereabouts. There are usually late nights but I rarely set my alarm in the morning. In my opinion it doesn't really make any sense to deprive yourself of sleep because you'll just end up getting nothing done as a result - brain frying. You can read a lot of peoples' dev blogs in LD and notice that. There is a direct correlation between people who say, "I stayed up all night coding" and "I couldn't get anything finished, my game sucks." Seriously, I think that's true. Obviously it's not always true, but more often than not it appears to be. They start going hard then they can't wrap it up. I'd guess that both Markus and Morre got a good amount of sleep.

cause I was thinking, 48 hours, I would be REALLY tired.

[CommanderKeith]

Nice games markus and morre, impressive for such a short time. It's good the way you've both got lots of things moving and animating.

[h3ckboy]

did you guys draw all of that stuff. cause if so , you are pretty good artists.

[zammbi]

I lied. I spent about 8 out of the 48 hours making a game, that way I got the best of both worlds, although the game isn't very good because it needs a ton of balancing. I'm busy al today, so that's the final build.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2009/04/19/too-heavy-for-re-entry/

That game has the craziest sound effects heh. I must say its very good for 8 hours....

[Gudradain]

Did you had to make everything from scratch or you could use library or work you did in other game?

Btw is there a winner?

[Eli Delventhal]

Thanks, zammbi. Yeah Unity makes 3D a lot easier and I also know my way around the program very very well because my company was developing a game for it for a long time. As such I was able to take advantage of the already-in-there 3D scenegraph and the PhysX engine and spend more time on building levels and all that.

@Guadradain: I used Unity this time around which includes 3D, physics, a GUI editor, and a few other things. Imagine jME but also with a built-in editor. The last time I entered I used LWJGL and my own game library JPixel which I haven't released for public use because I'm too lazy to put in all the useful hooks.

@h3ckboy: Everything must be made from scratch by the coder within the 48 hours.