48-Hour Compo Timelog

16-04-2004 20:03 (-05h56m) Getting everything ready for the compo…

This time, I decided not to get a framework ready and work from the D3D9 framework… Still need to learn it before the compo.

Just downloaded the X file export for 3d Studio (in case the game is 3d), Adobe Audion 1.0 to edit some sound, and now it’s time to get the timelog and photlog ready… The screenshot on the right gets you there…

16-04-2004 21:09 (-04h50m) Ok, I’m as ready as I’m going to get; I think the D3D9 framework was a very bad idea… I’ll probably just mutilate the initialization code from it and then do the “engine” on top of it… It’s easier to adjust to the game I’ll do… and I’ve done that dozens of time already…

16-04-2004 21:25 (-04h34m) Just reminded myself of a small app I have here that’s cool for organizing my work… You can get the app here if you’re interested. This is a sample output.

17-04-2004 02:01 (00h01m) Ok, theme is out… INFECTION… This one is one of my LEAST favorites… Oh, well, I’m going to bed and think this over… In some hours I’ll start cranking…

17-04-2004 09:01 (0702m) Ok, just woke up… It’s time to think this through… I’ve been thinking on a lot of things, from an RTS, to an FPS, a puzzle game, even a sim game… But I need to reach a decision…

17-04-2004 10:44 (08h44m) Ok, I’ve got an idea… It’s kind of weak, but it was what I could think of… Basically, a virus goes around a tile-based level, turning the base ground tiles to infected state… When the level is all infected, he goes to the next level! Weeee! Must structure the project around what I have to code… To the right, you can see my brainstorming session and my gameplay analysis document…

17-04-2004 12:35 (10h35m) Finished base task list and finally got D3D9 initialized… cannibalizing the app-wizard code is harder than doing it from scratch (note to self, next time, do it like that!)… Now, for a sprite or something.

17-04-2004 13:20 (11h20m) Just finished drawing the first sprite (so I can test it on my sprite engine). Cute, isn’t it?! Man, I’m so untalented…

17-04-2004 14:14 (12h14m) Well, still no sprites (I’m implementing a batch mechanism so I won’t stumble on that later), but I have to go and have some lunch…

17-04-2004 15:21 (13h21m) This ain’t going ok… The screen at the right is my first attempt on placing the sprite I drawed on the screen… Something went wrong… Back to debugging…

17-04-2004 15:49 (13h50m) Ok, finally got my sprite rendering working, complete with alpha effects, batching, etc, etc… Now I have the tools to start the coding of the game proper… Most of the game I still don’t know how it is like, but hopefully, ideas will flow…

17-04-2004 16:32 (14h32m) Ok, got the tilemap working, with scrolling camera and all… Now, it’s finally time to get my main character drawn… I’ll try doing the sprites in 3d Studio Max, to see how it goes…

17-04-2004 17:17 (15h17m) Finished drawing Virgil, my main character… I’ve tried to do it using pre-rendered 3d models, but I couldn’t do them right, so I decided to unleash all my creative Photoshop power (which is very little… I’ll redo the graphics when the game is working).

17-04-2004 17:45 (15h46m) Got the character in game, and at least wiggling… Next step is too add camera focus on the character and get it moving with the keyboard (no keyboard support yet)

17-04-2004 17:59 (15h59m) Got camera control… Quite easy while doing 2d graphics with 3d technology… Just change the view matrix… Must add some culling to the tile map

17-04-2004 19:15 (17h15m) Got Virgil moving around, limited by the unpassable blocks and such… It also infects areas now, claiming them in the name of the spirit of infection! Now, I’m going to make Virgil fall in the holes… This will be cool…

17-04-2004 19:46 (17h46m) Virgil now falls… no screenshot (it’s hard taking a picture, since it takes so little time)… I’m thinking of adding a particle system now, just to see the effect of the fall… It will be fun…

17-04-2004 22:33 (20h33m) Yes! A particle system… and dinner, too… Eheheh… Well, particle systems rule, and they look great as special effects in my otherwise-poor graphic-wise game… Now, maybe I’ll draw an enemy or so, and then I’ll put him moving in the game… Have to think on how to make the level definition eat that…

17-04-2004 23:34 (21h35m) Ok, I’ve got the first enemies: meet STUPID, a kind of antibody… He just goes around the map, colliding with stuff and reversing the direction… But if he touches Virgil, well, it’s bye-bye… or else, it will be, after I code some more… I’m intending to add more baddies, like the seeker, and the cleaner, etc, but for now, I’ll get basic gameplay in, and then I’ll worry about those…

18-04-2004 00:08 (22h08m) Enemies kill Virgil, now… I’m going to think a little about what can Virgil do against the enemies… Something smart…

18-04-2004 01:51 (23h51m) Almost 24 hour and my game is almost similar to a game… Added power-ups (only one, for now, but it’s “extensible”), the missile (that collides with walls and kills the antibodies)…

And yes, I’m getting psycho with the particle systems… I can’t help it, they’re sooooooooooo cool! Eheheh… Well, it’s time to bed… Tomorrow, I’ll start adding the real GAME (victory conditions, etc)…

18-04-2004 10:02 (32h02m) Ok, 16 hours to deadline… I’m just going to have breakfast and then I’ll start coding the victory conditions… Just need to count the infected tiles vs. the uninfected tiles…. Still lots of work to do, and I still have loads of ideas for the game that I want to see… Music is worrying me…

18-04-2004 11:45 (33h45m) Time is running out, but I already have level structure in the game… Adding levels is just a question of editing text files… I think I’ll do the HUD next…

18-04-2004 12:49 (34h49m) This is going to be a race against time… as usual… I’ll feel bad if this game isn’t complete… it my best looking game in a 48-hour compo so far… Well, anyway, got the HUD working, life counting, Virgil respawning in the last hour… I think I’m going to finish wrapping this all up in the menus, game-over and the end screens… Must think on how to make that looking cool…

18-04-2004 13:34 (35h34m) Drawn the five backgrounds I need for the game, and added the title screen, the game over screen and the ending screen… Now, for the main menu…

18-04-2004 14:17 (36h17m) 12 hours to go, and flow control is implemented in my game, with main menu, et al… Need to add instructions, but I will only do that when I have more features… Maybe I’ll do reversing tiles now… I like that concept, it gives some strategy to the gameplay... And it will validate if the game code is solid and extendable…

As a note… My graphics are so ugly! They are… sick! That works ok with the theme, but still, I wish I could draw…

18-04-2004 14:56 (36h57m) 11 hours to go, and I have another kind of tile… It was hard putting this one in, because I had a bug in my renderer… had to put alpha-testing working, or else the enemies (which are rendered earlier) would obliterate parts of the tile when they went on top. Enabling alpha-test also improved some stuff visually (side-effect, but I’m not going to complaint!)… Next, I’ll take the chance that the CD that was playing just stopped, I’ll try to do the music for the game… Back in two hours or so…

18-04-2004 16:28 (38h28m) 10 hours, and I have two songs for the game, one for the several screens, the other for in-game playing… Now, let’s integrate FMOD with the “engine” to get some sound running…

18-04-2004 16:58 (38h58m) FMOD integrated, sound running in the game, weeee!

What shall I do next: more powerups, more enemies, more tiles or make some levels?

18-04-2004 18:02 (40h02m) 8 hours left and the base game is already done, with 5 (easy) levels… Now I can start adding the weapons, enemies and tilesets I really want… Maybe there’s time to re-do some graphics too! That would be excellent… There’s still the problem of the SFX, but I only want to work on that when I have all powerups, etc, implemented, so I don’t have to turn my stuff on again later… Although I can’t leave that for too late, since the compo finishes at 2am, my time… ☺

18-04-2004 18:41 (40h40m) Multi-layered infection complete… Another level…

18-04-2004 19:02 (41h02m) Meet ERRATIC, another enemy of Virgil… He’s more dangerous than STUPID, because he can change directions at will, and will do so lots of critical times…

18-04-2004 19:39 (41h39m) New weapon: Seeker Missile… I must say, I love this mutha! It’s so, so, so, cool, seeing it arching against the enemies! I’m making good time… maybe (just maybe) I’ll be able to add everything I want in this game! On the other hand… nah! ☺

18-04-2004 20:06 (42h06m) New enemy: the fierce tracker… this one hunts the player down… and you better have some weapons when he comes gunning for you! ☺

I’ve decided to spend more two hours adding gameplay features, then more 2 hours with sound effects, and finally 2 hours doing graphics and animations to enhance the look… Maybe add a background or so… Don’t know…

18-04-2004 21:09 (43h09m) Another powerup (extra-life) and another enemy… the enemy is the CLEANER, which goes around curing the infection… Very nasty one because of that… make sure to take him out! My SFX time is almost coming… Only three powerups remaining in my game design… Of course, I could always make more levels, but I’m not feeling up to it…

18-04-2004 21:51 (43h51m) Final powerup added… The shield… It’s very cool… In total, 12 levels in the game (some of them quite challenging)… I’m going to have dinner and then I’ll start with the sound effects… I’ll try to do that fast, so that I can take more time re-doing some graphics (and think of a groovy effect for the instruction… that would be cool!)

18-04-2004 22:56 (44h57m) Added all sounds… they came along quite nicely, considering they were all done with my voice, a cheap mike and NO processing… Now, I’ll check out what graphics are in more dire need of being remade… I’m a bit disappointed in the final size of my entry… I thought I was using little space, turns out my entry is 6.8 Mb in size (2.5 Mb compressed)… ☹ It’s going to happen the same as in previous time, nobody’s going to download my entry!

19-04-2004 00:46 (46h46m) The worse graphics have been taken care of… courtesy of 3d Studio… Instructions too… I kind of like them… Well… Since I still have one hour or so, I’m thinking of redesigning the “ground” tiles… make them more cell-like… I’ll save the existing one, and try it out, see how it goes…

19-04-2004 01:16 (47h23m) Ok, half an hour to go, and I’m all set… the new tileset worked great and I pretty happy about my entry… You can download it here, and the source is here (needs DX9 SDK and FMOD)… Tomorrow or so, I’ll write a postmortem or something like that…