tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64020843522880235282024-03-13T16:58:16.564+01:00Shigor's nestShigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-51631720297745281002013-05-13T23:07:00.002+02:002013-05-16T00:40:50.444+02:00Screaming Cubes!<h2>
Screaming Cubes</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/233892/5242-shot2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/233892/5242-shot2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Screaming cubes is a prototype for a space sim game. It was originally made in 48 hours for the Ludum Dare 26 game competition, but I already expanded the game a bit and I plan to work on it more in my spare time.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Player controls his own small fighter drone (which behaves more like a rocket hovercraft then a real space ship, but the game is much more playable this way) and his huge and powerful but slow mother-ship which serves as a mobile base where player can fix and upgrade his ship. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Currently the game takes place in a crater on an unknown planet littered with enemy bases and fighters. Destroying enemies is one way to get upgrades and ore and uranium needed by mother-ship for further upgrades and repairs. The other way is to select mining laser or cratering missiles and go search for the ore on the planet. When player get's bored with the current level, it's possible to leave the current location, return to orbital base and then select another mission. Game progress is currently saved ONLY on the orbit (so it can be played in the webplayer where saving huge amount of data for the level is not possible without creating a master server with account for each player).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There's a lot of things I'd like to add / change / improve in the game, currently the most important tasks are:</div>
<div>
a) moving from the flat artificially closed terrain to a fully 3D asteroids with a few kilometers diameter</div>
<div>
b) adding at least simple multiplayer, probably just a fight among two motherships on a planet.<br />
<br />
And of course there are tons of small bugs, AI is just a bit above nonexistent etc...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/BjQzbI3HFUc" target="_blank">Gameplay video</a></div>
<div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/Shigor/screaming-cubes" target="_blank">Current 1.1 version (KONGREGATE)</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19916467/ScreamingCubes/ScreamingCubes11.html" target="_blank">Current (1.1) web version</a> (DROPBOX hosted)</div>
<div>
<br />
<a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19916467/ScreamingCubes/ScreamingCubes11.zip" target="_blank">Current (1.1) windows version</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=5242" target="_blank">Ludum Dare competition entry page</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19916467/ScreamingCubes/WebPlayer.html" target="_blank">Original 48 hours version (unity web player required)</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19916467/ScreamingCubes/ScreamingCubes.zip" target="_blank">Original 48 hours version (Windows standalone version)</a><br />
<br />
Note, this post currently serves as a homepage for the game.</div>
Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-62661387087648233152012-04-26T23:12:00.002+02:002012-04-26T23:12:40.331+02:00GGJ game - Short CircuitI've completely forgotten to give a link to GGJ game I made with MyOwnClone (not mine, his). Not that anyone would mind since no one reads my blog anyway :)<br />
<br />
Here it is:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://globalgamejam.org/2012/short-circuit">http://globalgamejam.org/2012/short-circuit</a>Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-77378626767986832152012-04-26T23:10:00.002+02:002012-04-26T23:10:46.334+02:00LD23 - Tiny Inspiration post mortemI've attended yet another Ludum Dare, this time with the theme "Tiny World".<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">So, the time has come to write some post mortem (in not so hidden hope that my game will have a chance to mess with heads of more poor victims).</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/26/tiny-inspiration-postmortem/ondabed/" href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/26/tiny-inspiration-postmortem/ondabed/" rel="attachment wp-att-140603"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-140603" data-mce-src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Ondabed-300x251.jpg" height="251" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Ondabed-300x251.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="300" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Introducing Tiny Inspiration, adventure game about LD programmer who searches for inspiration in his dreams and finds himself tiny, on his own table. As you can see from the thumbnail, it's a bit (cough, cough) adult theme. Although no actual porn takes place, sex is what is this about. It was my intention to mess up a bit with people's head and since most of the people in LD are guys (sorry for you, girls, but unless I'm seriously mistaken, there's not much of you here... anyway if you drop me a comment declaring yourself a girl and demanding woman themed game next time, I'll consider it).</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Even before LD started I was thinking about maybe making and adventure game (doing two commercial right now so I got them stuck in my head now...). When the theme was announced (3 am of my time), I scratched my head and went to sleep, hoping for some inspiration. About the only dream I remember was really weird one with two headed redhead...</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Next morning (actually, more like noon) I went for brunch with my GF and started brainstorming. Soon enough I've scratched all other ideas (sperm racing game, battle bugs clone, Tron like shooter) and focused on the adventure. From the start I knew I wanted to have some sex hints there and that I want as many possibilities to finish the game as possible. With that came idea of giving player achievements and then that I should really try to rattle player's bones.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Originally I wanted to have three episodes with three screens each. First on the table, than among the bugs, and in the end having player to find love among amoebas and bacterias. Quickly found out that my ideas are just spilling too fast so I concentrated on the table. I started making design notes and quickly sketching screens.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/26/tiny-inspiration-postmortem/copsketch/" href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/26/tiny-inspiration-postmortem/copsketch/" rel="attachment wp-att-140605"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-140605" data-mce-src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/copsketch-300x212.jpg" height="212" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/copsketch-300x212.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="300" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I originally planned 8 game screens, one intro, one outro and one noninteractive in the middle. I had some ideas for more, but even than I was pretty sure it would be tight run against the time. Sketching was fast, each sketch took me about five minutes, so I was full of optimism!</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Then I fired up photoshop and picked tablet... and found out that I just really really suck. I have no problems with pencil, I'm even able to produce quite nice drawings, but tablet... horrible. Took me a too long time to finish first screen and then I started to cut corners so I can make it in time. I grossly underestimated how long it will take me just to redraw finished scanned sketch and add some colors :(</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
So I had to put out intro that was supposed to be a bit interactive, with player killing bad ideas (like sex, go to sleep) and promoting ideas like RPG, adventure etc. In the end Yoda was suppossed to show up (probably in a blond wig :D) and tell player INSPIRATION YOU'LL NOT FIND, IT WILL FIND YOU!</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Outro was also cut out, with protagonist girlfriend waking him up and asking him why he's sleeping on her dollhouse instead of making that stupid game. (And if player shaved himself in the game, she would have asked "and why have you shaven your beard, honey?").</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
And one of the game screen went out of the window too (Ken trying to enroll in french legion to show Barbie that he's man, fluffy dog doll, which could have been converted into dog disguise for more achievements, some other stuff).</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
So in the end, 8 screens, one of them almost without any interaction, few dozen active items, 11 achievements, and two goals, with 4 possible ways to reach it for each.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/26/tiny-inspiration-postmortem/tinymashup1/" href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/26/tiny-inspiration-postmortem/tinymashup1/" rel="attachment wp-att-140607"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-140607" data-mce-src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/TinyMashup1-550x412.jpg" height="412" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/TinyMashup1-550x412.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="550" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/26/tiny-inspiration-postmortem/tinymashup2/" href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/26/tiny-inspiration-postmortem/tinymashup2/" rel="attachment wp-att-140608"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-140608" data-mce-src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/TinyMashup2-550x412.jpg" height="412" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/TinyMashup2-550x412.jpg" style="border: 0px;" width="550" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
While doing all the art and exporting it out from photoshop I fired up Unity. I decided to use it again because a) I'm quite confident I can force it to do anything I want, although sometimes painfully for both of us, b) it gives me possibility to do web / flash version (I'm still mostly untouched by html5 and flash, so it's the only way I can make web games now), c) abusing full fledged 3d engine for a simple 2d "art" is amusing :)</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Putting items into screens, doing some basic scripts took me almost no time at all. About the only problem I had was stupid unity gui (last time fixes while trying to get flash version working introduced so stupid bugs in the inventory that I had to do quick bug elimination after compo) and flash export ignoring anonymous functions (had to rewrite them, luckily I had no time to implement some better dialogues anyway).</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I ended up with playable game about ten minutes before the end of the compo.... So ideas about some sounds, music (at least from autotracker) and having some interactive dialogues just went out the window :/</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
But I'm happy with the result anyway :)</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Procrastitracker stats (rounded):</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
12 hours photoshop</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
2 hours text editor (where I had my "game design document", seems too much)</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
4 hours Unity (creating screens, testing)</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
7 hours Monodevelop (writing scripts, debugging)</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
add about two hours for sketches / initial brainstorming on the paper, about hour for smoke breaks (that I use when I'm stuck and need to think out something through).</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Overall about 28 hours of real work... seems I wasted a lot of time by sleeping and eating and getting inspiration (ahem...). But that's the stats here.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Anyway, I had real fun making it and even more fun listening to comments of some of my friends :) (Too bad I hadn't implemented some server upload of stats). So I've mostly succeeded in my goals.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
If you hadn't played my game yet and you're willing to risk it even after reading through this... go ahead!</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Ludum Dare entry page</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5242" href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5242">http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5242</a></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Flash version</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/Tiny/TinyInspiration.html">http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/Tiny/TinyInspiration.html</a>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Unity version</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/Tiny/WebPlayer.html">http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/Tiny/WebPlayer.html</a>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
PC Windows version</div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/Tiny/TinyPC.zip</span></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<br /></div>Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-5938102055549640932012-01-27T12:58:00.001+01:002012-01-27T12:58:28.333+01:00Global Game Jame starting in 3.....Annual Global Game Jam, this time in Brno site, will start soon.<br />
<br />
Lords of the BSOD (containing me and one other guy, so we are legion) is prepared to create another jamming master piece!<br />
<br />
I've got the keyboard under my feet,<br />
I can code so high, I can trace so deep.<br />
But who do I see coming up in the stack,<br />
little green bug with the BSOD on his back...<br />
<br />
With the lords of the bsods you'll come and get around,<br />
with the lords of the bsods you'll come and get around,<br />
with the lords of the bsods you'll come and get around,<br />
with the lords of bsods go mad like a clown!Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-74927146938667845692012-01-11T04:20:00.004+01:002012-01-11T04:20:51.044+01:00Ludum Dare 22 Results...So results of Ludum Dare 22 are online... <div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And I'm quite happy with silver medal for humor and 11th position overall from about 200 jam entries (actually I've managed to keep quite high in all categories which is nice.). So I've got another goal for myself for the next LD: be better :D</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?uid=5242">Transdimensional moon rift on LD</a></div>Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-74863124771269003412011-12-26T15:06:00.000+01:002011-12-26T15:06:43.189+01:00Unity flash in a flash compo - challenge declinedThanks to some guy on Ludum Dare I found out about <a href="http://unity3d.com/unity/preview/contest">Unity Flash in a Flash contest</a>. I immediately thought, hey, them 20k dollarz would be nize! So I downloaded new 3.5 preview of Unity and started brainstorming. After sorting through few quite good ideas (which I thought I have chance to put together in two weeks and which could make pretty good and/or interesting game in the end) I fired up Unity and started checking the flash export...<br />
At first I tried to export TMDR I made last week for Ludum Dare... and found out that flash export isn't going to be easy at all. A lot of stuff doesn't even compile (I was afraid that reflection wouldn't work, but some stuff from generic collection is missing too (Queue doesn't exist at all, for some strange reason Dictionary doesn't have Count defined...).<br />
I ripped offending pieces from code and recompiled... It works! Well, sort of and very slowly... but it hangs after few seconds...<br />
<br />
After some tests and attempts to start directly on a prototype for "A different shade of gray" (my favorite brainstorm child for compo) I found out that character controllers are the culprit. Having more then one in a very simple scene will kill framerate (like totally) usually in few seconds. Extremely simple scene (few boxes), few char colliders means few seconds of existence. Seems physx rewritten in action script is not very stable beast. Strangely Angrybots (unity showcase/demo project) works even with (i think) char controllers... my guess is they debugged and fixed flash export just enough so angrybotz work.<br />
<br />
This was pretty big discouragement. I've made few attempts to find out if I could maybe fix this... after I made a VERY simple script which just spawns more char controllers on mouse click... I found out that after few spawns (using Instantiate from prefab) flash build hangs with just red "Null pointer!" written in the corner.<br />
Few more attempts to play with other stuff showed similar results... what works in unity might work in flash... for a while probably. And debugging using debug.log (which is usually only way to do some debugging in unity thanks to great stability of monodevelop) is even slower then normal because you have to wait for a long time for flash build...<br />
So no fancy 3d gameplay? I thought about going back to another idea and doing mostly 2d game, but if you want to make 2d games, working directly in a flash is better idea then hacking unity to do it too.<br />
Anyway I have my doubts about usefulness of flash export at all - flash is slowly declining after Steve Jobs said it's bad (one of the few things I ever agreed with him), unity web plugin has quite big penetration and it's rising (and whatever you do in unity, it will run much better / faster in unity web then in flash since action script was never fast and never will be).<br />
<br />
So in the end it seems that flash in a flash is more of betatesting/hoping and praying coding compo then game compo... And I decided to decline this challenge. Going to lan party like every year and have some fun playing games instead of trying to make them.<br />
<br />
My guess is that winner of this compo would be either someone insanely lucky / patient who puts together some nice game, or someone with a lot of nice 3d graphics without any gameplay :/<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-61444688670525023622011-12-24T00:02:00.001+01:002011-12-24T00:02:44.668+01:00TDMR Post Compo version<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/TDMR/TDMRExt.html">TMDR Extended post compo version</a> - now with savez and loadz. And Windows build.Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-6507037227839201702011-12-20T18:55:00.002+01:002011-12-20T18:59:16.869+01:00Transdimensional moon rift postmortem<a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/20/transdimensional-moon-rift-post-mortem/pirate/" rel="attachment wp-att-102207"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-102207" height="256" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Pirate.png" width="256" /></a>
<br />
So time for post-mortem is here...<br />
<br />
This time I've managed to create fullscale and mostly playable game (probably best I've done in 4 competions I've attended in last two years) which is even quite fun to play, so I'm pretty happy with myself, even if I had to move to the jam and use another 12 or so hours to finish it.<br />
<br />
It's an oldschool style FPV dungeon crawler with a goal to find your zombie kittens and be finally alone with them (and a big bag of brains), but rotten undead pirates ninja looted your kittens and you have to take them back. I even had time to do some leveling with three skills (ninja, pirate and undead) and tune up the game (not completely happy with it, it tends to be too easy later on, but since playthrough takes about half of hour I just had no time to do more testing.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/20/transdimensional-moon-rift-post-mortem/tdmrscreen1-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-102250"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-102250" height="224" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/TDMRScreen11-300x224.png" width="300" /></a>
<br />
<br />
<strong>What went well:</strong>
<br />
<em>Using Unity</em> (well mostly) instead of coding everything from scratch... after several months of using Unity fulltime I'm quite skilled with it and this time most of the things I hate about Unity wasn't issue, since I was doing PC / Web build. And web build is one of the things I like on unity (even if there's no linux player). (BTW web version of TDMR is just about 700 kbytes, while pc has 20 megs :/)
<br />
<br />
<em>Drawing 2D "art"</em> : I've spent just maybe two hours drawing all textures and sprites and skins for characters using tablet, Paint.Net and not giving a damn about how hurtful it will be for eyes of some more sensitive people :) I could have done something much better if I wanted... but it would took me at least day. And this way I can boast about having "style" :D
<br />
<br />
<em>Decision to use pirate/ninja/undead</em> - not exactly sure how I came to this connection (I think it's from some picture I've once seen, who's the bigger boss, pirate, ninja or zombie?), but i've mixed it together and in the end I have a lot of enemy types... easily made by combining three (well, four if you count ghost) base types- and I used it as a base for RPG system too.<br />
<a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/20/transdimensional-moon-rift-post-mortem/skeleton-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-102253"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-102253" height="150" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Skeleton-150x150.png" width="150" /></a><a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/20/transdimensional-moon-rift-post-mortem/ninja-3/" rel="attachment wp-att-102255"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-102255" height="150" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Ninja-150x150.png" width="150" /></a><a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/20/transdimensional-moon-rift-post-mortem/pirate-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-102256"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-102256" height="150" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Pirate1-150x150.png" width="150" /></a><a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/20/transdimensional-moon-rift-post-mortem/pirateninjaskeleton/" rel="attachment wp-att-102257"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-102257" height="150" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PirateNinjaSkeleton-150x150.png" width="150" /></a>
<br />
<br />
<em>Adding sounds</em>: with about hour to spare for submission I took my mike and audacity and made some sounds and "voiceovers", quickly patched it to the code and I'm quite happy with the result. Just too bad I hadn't time to sing some songs as background music (brains brains brains brains braaaaains, brains brains brains!)
<br />
<em>Keeping number of game elements in check</em> I made most of the things I wanted to have in the game with the exception of brain-o-matics for buying brains.
<br />
<br />
<strong>What went mostly ok:</strong>
<br />
<em>Most of the coding in unity</em>, although I've spent some time trying to debug few stupid bugs I made (and debugging is sadly one of the beefs I have with Unity - it works much better on WIN editor, but I'm so used to total instability on MAC and "printf" debugging that instead of firing up monodev debugger and hoping for best I've spent a lot of time by putting numerous Debug.Logs everywhere. Resulting code isn't even that ugly as usually is in my speed hacks... although I still hardcoded a lot of things without using some better design - if I ever try to use TDMR as a base for some more serious dungeon, I'll have to refactor at least half of it.
<br />
<br />
<em>Level design </em> Originally I wanted to have few more levels (but smaller), but in the end it's just one and I'm quite happy with it, it reminds me good old times with Beholder and Dungeon master, so it's definitely ok from my point of view :) I've originally considered doing rogue like randomly generated levels, but it's probably good I hadn't even attempted it.
<br />
<br />
<em>Playtesting and tuning up RPG system </em> - At one point I realized that I'm playing for fun, not for testing, which really gave my morale big push. Also my GF used as playtester liked it (she's as crazy about old RPG's as I am), so although it could use some more tuning with difficulty and some parameters, it's ok.
<br />
<br />
<em>Sleeping enough </em> I'm getting too old for non stop crushes and since I've ended one of the worst periods in my 10 year carrier as gamedev just before the start of the LD, I decided to take it easy. But in the end I had to move to Jam and use another 12 or so hours to finish it. I think I've spent about 30-40 hours total working on the TDMR.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>What went bad:</strong><br />
<em>Theme</em> I was really unhappy with the theme (once again)... I've spent some time racking my brains for ideas about using alone for something original AND fun to play, or something interesting to flex my code skills on... then I gave up. Since I've always wanted to make some oldschool FPS RPG (and never found enough time), I've decided to make it and force it somehow on the Alone theme... (from what I've seen from other submbissions, I wasn't the only one using this approach - some entries don't even try to use alone in any way).
<br />
<br />
<em>Idea about using animated chars instead static sprites</em> - near the end of the day one I had a stupid idea - why use simple static sprites if I'm using Unity? So I ventured to recreate my first characted (pirate ninja skeleton), put it on simple 2d mesh... then skin it and rig it to the bones. I've wasted a LOT of time on this, result is ugly (kinda hard with the texture I've started to do good mesh and skin it so it can move without serious distortion taking place), but I should have expected that - I have all the theoretical knowledge about this stuff, I wrote it from programmers point of view, but... using 3ds max for anything else then checking on some artists work, creating super simple meshes and importing/exporting here and there, is something I just don't have much experiences... Well, I now have some, but it took me too much time, especially considering results. But at least I've learned / practiced something new.<br />
<a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/12/20/transdimensional-moon-rift-post-mortem/pirateninjaskeletonbackup/" rel="attachment wp-att-102258"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-102258" height="150" src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/PirateNinjaSkeletonBackup-150x150.png" width="150" /></a><em>(First sprite I've made before switching to animated chars... it's static, but it looks better :/)</em>
<br />
<br />
So... I'm mostly happy with my entry (and hope someone will play it :), about the only thing I'm sad is that I hadn't time to implement save and load... never wanted to do it, other then maybe checkpoints on the level start, but since I had just one... Problem is that doing serialization in Unity for proper save / load is not that easy and it takes some time to do properly... time I knew I won't have.
<br />
<br />
<br />
Anyway, I'm glad I had time to participate in LD and looking forward for another one (and Global Game Jam next month). Although it can be brutal... it's fun :) (especially when compared to "normal" crunches on commercial stuff).
<br />
<a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=5242">My Ludum Dare entry page</a>
<br />
<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/TDMR/WebPlayer.html">Playable version (unity web player)</a>Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-28889840779950569122011-12-20T03:36:00.002+01:002011-12-20T03:36:46.470+01:00Transdimensional moon rift finished<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/TDMR/TDMRScreen1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/TDMR/TDMRScreen1.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Save your zombie kittens!</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Ludum Dare submission page: <a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=5242">http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=preview&uid=5242</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Direct link to web playable version: <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/TDMR/WebPlayer.html">http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19916467/TDMR/WebPlayer.html</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
This time I had to move submission to the jam since I wasn't able to do it properly in two days. Now it's quite finished... Crazy insane oldschool dungeon about saving your zombie kitties awaits anyone who's not afraid to damage his own brain with my art and sound effects :) </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-74267202150042449322011-12-18T05:01:00.001+01:002011-12-18T05:01:29.117+01:00day one update on LD48...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wfrURTE2RKM/Tu1lR6RtHyI/AAAAAAAAADg/D83yXMLvuM8/s1600/pirateninja2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wfrURTE2RKM/Tu1lR6RtHyI/AAAAAAAAADg/D83yXMLvuM8/s320/pirateninja2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Although it was really stupid idea trying to use animated characters… I’ve done it.<br />
Animation’s ugly, character can’t be moved that much without serious distortion taking place, but since it’s my first attempt to make animated “3d” character with skins and stuff, I consider it success.
So now I have map editor, some “textures”, few enemies, basics of step by step oldschool dungeon… I have to improve combat system, put together some more stuff (like doors and crates and loot, maybe even some extremely simple RPG system), either create few levels, or write generator, and I’m done. Probably not…
Going sleep anyway, I’m getting too old for this kind of nonstop stuff…Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-54998946428295374532011-12-17T21:44:00.004+01:002011-12-17T21:44:58.790+01:00Ludum Dare 22 - first glimpse of ultra odschool dungeon<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">So… some progress, level editor, some moving, first enemy… not yet sure what it’s going to be in the end except that it’s oldschool dungeon…</span>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yW3vYtzWNbE/Tuz-86NIuNI/AAAAAAAAADY/YAfWoOR9z3I/s1600/pirateninja.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yW3vYtzWNbE/Tuz-86NIuNI/AAAAAAAAADY/YAfWoOR9z3I/s320/pirateninja.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">Pirate Ninja Skeleton will be soon joined by other denizens of Transdimensional Moon Rift of Randomly teleportated instanity... Thinking about doing Zombie Warlock Squirrel next....</span>Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-9261713082510332582011-12-17T11:27:00.002+01:002011-12-17T11:30:38.605+01:00Ludum Dare 22<br />
Wake up from your asleep, we has arrived onto the future…<br />
and everything has become <strike>supersonic</strike>… alone.<br />
<br />
Time for Ludum Dare 22!<br />
So I’ve overslept a bit and now I’m raking my brain with enough coffee and doing wild brainstorms with myself… Alone’s quite generic theme, but it fits the idea of step by step dungeon I was thinking about making. I’ll try to make a list of few ideas and then it’s coding time, unless better idea forces inside my brain, dungeon master-ish game it’s going to be…<br />
<br />
Looking at the vote results I even managed to put together something resembling story Here it is, best my sleepy brain could put together.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
You’re all alone, fighting spawns of randomly generated evolution brought from parallel dimensions.<br />
You have to move through the forgotten places, abandoned long time ago, when desperate gamble shattered falling Moon to smaller pieces, but tunnels of old science base still remain and they’re full of the dire consequences of decayed technological dreams.<br />
To navigate underground you have to use nanotech-based time travel, teleportation and even self replication as these are only methods how to clean enough territory and fix enough machines to defeat the plans of surealistic antihero – mirrored reflection of shape shifting kitten.<br />Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-58002509655649010522011-10-22T21:49:00.002+02:002011-10-22T21:49:42.785+02:003 SteampunketeersNew version of Three Musketeers just hit our local cinema and it fulfilled all my expectations from the trailer... leave your brain at home and have some fun. Purists will be fuming about crime perpetrated on literal classic, but if you accept that there's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBv4AsGVDxw">a lot of ninjas in this movie</a> (these cardinals won't stand a chance!) and some steampunk-ish airships and flamethrowers and other stuff (and Mila Jovovich as Mylady), you'll have fun... I did :)<br />
<br />
Script actually takes a lot from the original book, in some cases more then other adaptations, but it concentrates on action fun and creates occasionally crazy mashup with elements taken from a lot of other modern action movies. And last scene of the movie filled me with anticipation (I'm a sucker for massive steampunk airship battles).Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-16138296076379168892011-09-20T09:10:00.000+02:002011-09-20T09:13:59.537+02:00Quantum Fear (mini game)So let's start with something worthy... I attended mini Ludum Dare 29 during the weekend (game making compo, do a game in 48 hours), with horror theme, and this time I was quite successful - I managed to do almost everything I wanted.<div><br /></div><div>Quantum Fear is a 3d first person short horror game, written in Unity (so it runs in web browser). <a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-29/?action=preview&uid=5242">Give it a try.</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6402084352288023528.post-68005201579996609172011-09-20T09:03:00.000+02:002011-09-20T09:05:11.543+02:00Let there be a blog!All right, so I've decided (finally) to start some semi-regular blogging... after several years of web silence :). Let's see how long it will take before I'll stop it :)Shigorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11618543208586828789noreply@blogger.com0