Sheep & Crates timelog
(All times in GMT-1)
Nov 9, 10:50 Off to a bad start - no internet! Turns out its the loose cable modem cable again.
Nov 9, 11:00 Taped up the cable and I'm on track! Off to Ludum Dare I go... and it's Construction/Destruction! Yay! Heaven and Hell didn't make it though, drat. But I guess sheep aren't so bad either. =)
Off to the file area to check out what the log files look like. Took this one from Gaiiden (cheers). Too bad I haven't got a camera, it's fun to see what it looks like over at your places. I say hello to Christoffer (drZool). He seems to be away from the puter, though.
I came up with a decent constr/deconstr idea the other day, but with no sheep involved. Those won't be hard to get in, though. I'll have a thinker about it over breakfast.
Nov 9, 11:53 Right, I'll try to go about this in a semi-structured manner. I've made some sketches, which perhaps I'll scan later. I usually start off with doing lots of graphics, then grow tired and quit halfway. To avoid this, I've made this rough plan:
- Basic engine with dummy graphics for one player (the finished game will be two-player) - controls, level/building logic, scoring
- Two player logic, powerups, playtesting to trim in values
- Graphics (I'll draw in ToonBoom and import it as flash sprites. Plan B, if that gets too heavy, I'll make bitmap sprites instead)
- Sounds
- Splash screen/menu
- Some music
- Experiment with adding some physics
Yeah, that's about it. Time to get to work!
Nov 9, 12:24 Got together the dummy graphics, and uploaded it to show you the general idea: two sheep maneuvering grip claws to stack boxes. Completed stacks award points and powerups, some of which allows you to pick boxes from the other player's stack (yup, this is where the deconstruction comes in).
Nov 9, 12:45 Damn, my Lingo is rusty! Oh well, hopefully it'll all come back as I go...
Nov 9, 14:34 Getting warmed up now. Controls and basic vehicle physics nearly finished. Too easy to get stuck working on it, gotta move on...
Nov 9, 14:52 Brakes and engine in order. Time to move on to the claw...
Nov 9, 15:05 Getting on fine with the claw, and have come up with the basic approach for the boxes. Sister called, she's in town and coming to visit. Guess I'll have to tidy up a bit.
Nov 9, 16:31 Sister stays for a bit, so it looks like it'll be a while before I start again.
Nov 9, 19:12 On the road again, bapp-bapp-bapp-bapp
Nov 9, 20:44 First test version ready to go! The claw is still a bit buggy - it doesn't drop every time. What the heck, I upload it anyway.
Nov 9, 20:57 Umm... looks like Ludum doesn't accept dcr:s. Either that, or it's really, really slow.
Nov 9, 21:25 This is getting weirder. The dcr is up, but only in my own file list. Got the claw bug though.
Nov 10, 00:19 Alright, two sheep stacking boxes! Coupla glitches in the collisions, but nothing I can't handle. Did a tune too, in a miditracker called Midget 3.5b. Don't know if I'll use it.
Nov 10, 01:37 Fixed most of the collision glitches, just "air-to-air" collisions remain. I think that's the last thing I'll fix before going to bed.
Nov 10, 02:04 Fixed some more collision problems, but didn't get the air-to-air bug. Guess it'll go better after a good night's sleep.
Nov 10, 12:38 Gooooooood morning Ludum Dare! I think it went really well yesterday, in spite of lots of interruptions. Things always take more time than expected though, so I still have a bunch of work left. Real graphics, home-made sfx to replace the stolen samples in the alpha, and general finalification are on the agenda for today. And, I now know how to fix that bug.
The biggest worry I have now, is that since the core stacking mechanics worked out so well, the focus of the game will have to be more action-oriented than I first imagined. This is of course good too, but I originally intended to emphasize tactic decisions as to what to build and when to go for powerups versus when to gather points. So basically, I have to simplify the core concept a bit. Perhaps it'll be just "Stack crates. First to a certain height wins".
I also have a bad itch in my grpahics finger, which I'll probably succumb to sooner than planned.
Nov 10, 20:05 Bit sloppy on the logging, now. Anyway, I made some graphics which I'm pretty pleased with. As expected, flash sprites were too heavy, so I had to export them in png. Sent out the alpha version to a couple of friends and got some bug reports and suggestions - hope that's ok, I haven't read any rules against it.
So, time to speed things up - I still haven't come up with a better goal, so I'll implement that to get something finished. I'll record some sounds now...
Nov 10, 20:54 My mic's no good, so I made some synth noises in Sound Forge. They suck, but what the hey.
Nov 10, 23:33 Now I have a speedup! But still no goal. Now that there's the powerup, I guess there's some tactics in not picking up a crate that's on top of one, because that would give the other player a very large (temporary) advantage, so I'll just go with the "stackem first"-approach. My girlfriend's making me some coffee so I can hack it the final lap...
Nov 11, 01:33 It's getting warmer. Found some more collision bugs, and optimised collision detection a bit (it sure as hell is needed - this will probably be painfully slow on an older puter). Added dropzones and height markers, which hopefully makes the object of the game obvious. Now all I have to do is program the definition of a win.
Nov 11, 02:55 Finally done! An embarrasing bug in the intro/title section, but at least its up. Good night!
Nov 11, 03:03 Noticed and fixed another bug with invisible crates. It'll be there in the post-competition cleanup release.