Pre-Ludum Dare Hype

Intro

So, tomorrow at 6 pm EDT begins the biggest game jam in the world.  This will mark the second game jam for Grease Fire Games.  However this time, I will be participating alone.  I think I will still participate in the Jam rather than the Compo though, because I want to flesh out some of my earlier prototypes I have been working on.

Goals

For this LD, I want to focus on finishing a prototype we have been working on here for a while.  Its a design for a isometric Tactics style roguelike, in the same vein as Spelunky where you progress through partially proc-gen'd levels, while at the same time there are bits and pieces which are familiar.  I also want each stage to provide a different feel, the same way Spelunky does.  However, the goal at the end is to build out the prototype which allows for at least 4 levels in one "stage" of the game series.

Design

As of now for design I'm pretty unsure of what style to follow for the setting/elements of the story.  I would like for the first chapter (1-*) to take place in a dungeon type area, with simple enemies and some chest objects which can be opened for loot between stages.  The design of the first level will be dungeonesque a-la undead asylum from Dark Souls.

I think that this would be pretty cool with some basic pixel-art enemies like slimes or other various dungeon crawling enemies.

Moving forward I would like to keep the style similar to this including a few other stops along the way for other chapters.  One I would like to be Classical-type with enemies being Roman-Legionaire-esque with some other types of greco-roman typed monsters.  However this faction/empire would be much more evil and supernatural.


This is some of the style of pixel art I would like to use as inspo for the classical architecture type stages.  I think that for the competition I will only be able to finish the dungeon levels but possibly moving forward I'll be able to implement some other styles of stage.




Plan

I will be kicking off my attempt at realizing this idea tomorrow night at 6 PM EDT and will be working nonstop until I can finish the project.  I plan to stream my attempt on Twitch for my friends to view and come in and out to watch the project take shape.  I will be completing this competition at a family members residence so that my dog can play outside the whole time I'm working.  I may even be working outside on the project weather permitting because I will be working off of wifi.  I plan to publicize all my code and the entire project at the end and hopefully if I like the project, I can transition the project into a mobile app.  Tune in this weekend, I will be maintaining progress here on the blog for the weekend and documenting my progress through a twitch stream/video post mortem.  Hope you enjoy!!

Comments

  1. Cayley HoyerSeptember 30, 2021 at 3:09 PM

    Can’t wait to see what you make of it!! Best of luck! Sounds super cool

    ReplyDelete
  2. thecoolestkidinmrBesler'sclassOctober 2, 2021 at 5:08 PM

    LD ROUND 2!!! Just out of curiosity why do you want it to be on mobile?

    ReplyDelete
  3. JPOctober 3, 2021 at 6:53 PM

    I would like to release to mobile because I think its an untapped market and the scope of my project is too small for a release on steam or some other game platform. Plus in mobile I can justify selling the app for $.99 and people will probably buy it bored on a busride to somewhere.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Post Ludum Dare BlogPost

Image
  SO.... What happened? Well, I successfully achieved what I was after with this Ludum Dare event.  I went in with the little bit of base code for a trpg and ended up with a product that I was pretty proud of.  I spent almost the entire first 2 days programming the complex turn based systems and the geometry challenges of working in a 2d isometric game scene.  It was difficult to be honest, but the programming challenge encompassed the first two days of the competition entirely.  Working until late at night usually around 3-4 am.  I would then get up early the next mornings, around 8 or 9 to begin working again.  I will be outlining everything that happened in this blog post so strap in it may be a long one.  I will try to provide pictures and documentation from that night as best as I can.  1OCT2021 - The Kickoff I began the competition by setting myself up at my fathers house on his farm to begin working promptly at 6:00pm.  I wanted to work outside so I set myself up on the patio wi
Read more

Barony: The Roguelike We All Should Love

Image
 Barony is kick-ass I have been playing this game a ton recently.  Just about 8 hours in the last 2 weeks.  Which is a lot of time for someone who works full time.  Dude the game is so complex and gives you that dungeon runner feeling every time.  As a kid who played diablo and TES games growing up, this shit just hits right. I don't have a formal review or anything for the game to put out as of now, but maybe I can deliberate and write more as I get further into the game.  I'm just not good enough yet to make it to the end. I'll include some images taken from the game.  If graphics are part of reasons that you play video games, then I would argue you should try to look past it and give it a try.  It's really pretty damn good. Speaking of being "good" at the game, this is truly a game that requires you to "get gud" in order to be even halfway effective.  I also think that this is a game where the developers thought about what kind of game they wanted
Read more

Solo Game Development + Travel

Image
I return at last      For those of you who know me, (which at this point is the majority of people who would stop to read this) then you know that I have been out of the country for approximately 3 months.  In this post I wish to share my experience of trying to upkeep a solo-run hobby game dev studio from abroad.  These days, I think that most young creatives have desires to travel and pursue their art, so I will share my experience to those who may be concerned about the possibilities and difficulties. The Premise, and What Happened..     So, I was travelling for work moving various locations with various amounts of Wi-Fi available to me.  This is due to a constant change of location and the nature of my day job.  I also neglected to pack my computer which has all of my projects and Unity installed on it (stupid I know).  This first point is a mistake that I know I will not make again, as I purchased a smaller, more lightweight, "drifter" laptop from which I was able to do
Read more