Bleten's Time log

Nov 9, 11:22 not long before the comp starts now. There is a feeling of sheep insanity in the irc channel. Baaaaaaaaaaa!

new Sheep() -> lamb.

That one is mine. Funny eh? sheep + programming jokes together at last.

Nov 9, 11:45 Just remembered I was going to do a windows version at the same time this time.

pygame is allready on there luckily. Think I'll set up cvs now, and get the pygame2exe script working.

about 15 minutes left before it starts!!!

Nov 9, 11:56 VNC is slowwwwwwww off my laptop. even though it's on a 10 mbit network.

Nov 9, 12:15 Theme was announced, and it is Cosmetic: sheep, Theme: construction/deconstruction.

Nov 9, 12:41 I have begun tracing/copying sheep images. fun!!! BAAaaaAAAAAaa!

http://ludumdare.com/user/214/early_sheep_work.jpg

Nov 9, 12:58 still drawing a sheep title screen. Hopefully a cool idea for a game will come to me soon. hrmm...

Nov 9, 13:10 I'm stagnating... can't think of a good idea. Instead I'll make the best god ddamned title screen, with animations and everything.

Nov 9, 13:40 recorded some baaaaaaaaaa! noises. Did a little more on my title screen. I'm starting to like the title screen a little better now. It's looking kinda evil ;)

Nov 9, 14:02 Plugged my keyboard in to my mike jack. I need to set the input gain for both of them differently. to get rid of hissing. Seems if I bash my keyboard it distorts when running into my computer. Need to set the volume down on the keyboard I think.

I'm going to do a happy/evil intro. Where there is a cute picture of sheep, with white background, and some happy music playing. Then the background will go black and the music will change to a heavy semi-evil tune.

Nov 9, 15:02 DAMN!!! audacity is a pos. It won't record now.

It's the only soft I know of that seems useable too.

Nov 9, 15:15 Debian is missing alot of the music programs floating around. GSMP looks nice, so I'm compiling that now.

Nov 9, 16:14 I take my harsh words about audacity back. it was the heat fucking up my sound card. Damn sun.

Ok. Lets see if I can record the tunes for this intro.

Nov 9, 16:28 Sheep building and smashing... hrmmm make an interesting two player game.

each player is a sheep who has to make something, and smash the other guys.

mmmm. poo on the ground, and grass grows. eat grass. Could be good.

might draw up a quick sketch of it...

Nov 9, 16:54 figured out how to do a few cool things with the gimp. still no sketch though...

maybe a top down view would be cool? Naaa.

let me try both...

Nov 9, 17:11 With side view I can make bigger sheep characters.

I could still allow movement up.

Maybe I could scale the bitmaps?

I'll try a straight 2d version first. easier. With eat, poo, and walk movements.

ps. I want to get something finished for this comp. so the simpler the better.

Nov 9, 17:42 break time. not getting much done.

Nov 9, 18:13 got a prototype sketch done here: http://ludumdare.com/user/214/me_sheeps.jpg

tired now. probably should take a break...

Nov 9, 18:58 Time to code this thing now. Think I'll do the intro later.

what I need todo:
- make fast 'programmer art' sheep, grass anims.
- decide on the background grid size. for scalling the sheep.
- need coordinates on the x,y for a 640x480 screen for each place.
- So a mapping between the logical grid, and the screen space.
- Also a mapping of which places should have the sprites scalled by what ammount.

• make a list with stats for grass in each sector of the logical game grid.

Nov 9, 19:07 Was thinking about getting some caffiene products. I could go later(24 hour store nearby).

Nov 9, 19:25 Just did a basic sheep anim, with walk, eat, and poop. each two frames, and stick figures.

Nov 9, 19:56 wasted time reading slashdot whilst I had a tootch ache.

Now to do the other crappy anims :)

Nov 9, 20:23 didn't do any anims. went to get drinks instead. doh.

Nov 9, 21:11 Drew a grid, and a grass anim with four frames. With progressively more grass in each.

Time to write down the coordinates of the center for each grid position.

I'm not making the same mistake I made in warten and making code to do it :) That took up a huge chunk of my time(about 10 hours). I'll do it manually this time(only 4 * 8). and the gimp makes it easy.

Nov 9, 21:36 Ok did all the pixels. If I wrote code it would have taken longer, but then I could have changed the grid size at will, with only having to change the background graphic.

I think it's a good size anyway.

Nov 9, 21:41 Time to state assumptions, write another todo list.

what I have:
- part of a splash screen/intro screen.
- a couple of baaaaaaaa noises.
- part of a song.
- 'programmer art' sheep, grass, and grid.
- middle of grid pixel mapping to logical game map.

what I need todo in approximately the order:

1) make a list with stats for grass in each sector of the logical game grid.
- should be a list with one of 0,1,2,3,4 in it.
- Will start off with all at 0?? or maybe some at 1?

2) decide on how to win the game!!!!! oops forgot this one.
Maybe after certain percentage of the grass is grown the best sheep wins.
After certain time has past??
Also will it be a 2 player only game? or one player?

3) update scripts to copy some of the new directories into the correct place.

4) get the image loading code loading my animations.

5) Mapping of which places should have the sprites scalled by what ammount.

6) think about how input will work, abstract 'actions' so that a computer player, and human players can play.

Nov 9, 21:55 Still thinking about what I have todo. I think that will be enough to do for now. Let me guess how long it will take todo with 2 minutes between each one:

1) 5 minutes(22:07).
2) 5 minutes(22:14).
3) 10 minutes(22:26).
4) 15 minutes(22:43).
5) 40 minutes(23:25).
6) 10 minutes(23:37).

Nov 9, 22:06 the times are allready out by 5 minutes, getting drink.

What about more than two players? Only two for now. Would be cool for a net worked game.

Nov 9, 22:12 done grass. next how to win game.

I think the grass leader at the end of 2,5, or 10 minutes would be cool.

2) done.

Nov 9, 22:15 starting 3) update scripts to copy some of the new directories into the correct place.

Nov 9, 22:23 script needed no changing, but I read kuro5hin.org instead. oops ;) Fingers are hurting from typing. Perhaps I should stop? I'll just finish this todo list.

4) get the image loading code loading my animations.

Nov 9, 23:00 Damn gimp segfaulting on split images sometimes.

Going to try updating to 1.3 eek. if that fails, maybe I'll get out gdb or write my own exporter... noooooooo!

Nov 9, 23:07 downloading gimp 1.3 now. please work. Onto the next todo item. err the next, next one. Have to export the images before I can do 5.

6) think about how input will work, abstract 'actions' so that a computer player, and human players can play.

ok... what actions are there. there will be more, but:
- move(direction),
- eat,
- poop.

That's about it I guess.

Also need 'actions' which fail. eg attempted move, but it's blocked.

Actions could also not work because there can only be so many done in a certain time period.

So there should be some state classes for 'actions', which each of the actions called will get a return value(mostly pass/fail).

Nov 9, 23:34 Feck gimp1.3 doesn't have the split to frames thing.

Nov 9, 23:59 damn. figured out the gimp crashing thing. the video plugin has a limit on path size. static buffer.

That took almost an hour from me... hrmm.

very tired now. like to continue, but going slow anyway. probably better to rest. I'll nap for a bit, and see how I feel.

Nov 10, 00:14 basic animations are working.

http://ludumdare.com/user/214/displaying_animations.jpg

I'm really going to sleep now. even though I'm excited at the progress. good to go to sleep on a good note ;)