Cheers for the feedback! Yeah I'm really not proud of the network stuff (only in that we could show people could actually see each other in the same room across the LAN) - the code is a mess. I liked the autodiscovery part too, first one to start on the LAN is the server, everyone else then autoconnects as clients.
Yeah there are a LOT of things not right with it but we had to totally cut corners. I'd also farmed most of the gameplay elements off to two students, so when you read '22 mins remaining' on the clock and you realise you still have to integrate the sound system, you kinda accept some of the clunkier parts!
Funnily enough we started off with tile-based map and the artists promised nice blended tiles for terrain/environment. Then they dropped that, popped in a single full screen texture of a bedroom (?) and got one of the student programmers to upload it. It wasn't a very good image either, but then one of the artists left, the promise of better graphics (and more of them) never appeared, and the last artist went AWOL before the start of the final day.
So, artist-less and programmer strong, we fell back upon the tile map and drafted some quick 'programmer art' and somehow managed to win the day!
Overall it's GREAT fun - if you can attend one of these things I'm sure you won't regret it!
