It’s that time again! Every four months I participate in Ludumdare, which is a 48 hour game making challenge. You make the whole game from scratch over the weekend, only learning the theme on Saturday morning. I’ll be doing my entry at CB2Bistro with many other Cambridge and UK people.

My goals this time are to make something a little more polished, with title screen, music, sound effects and everything in place. I’m giving myself strict time limits so that I don’t spend too long on graphics, design, or let any one task harm the project. Thankfully my new laptop is much nicer to develop on, so I should be comfortable. Also: No penguins!!!

Here are the tools I’ll be using:

• Engine: Unity, with Monodevelop IDE.
• Libraries: iTween for lerping
• Graphics: Photoshop, 3DSMax
• Audio: SFXR, Garageband, Audacity.

Previous Ludumdare entries:

After more than twenty years of pining, I finally broke down and bought a PC-Engine! I’ve lusted after this beautiful little console since the eighties, but I’ve never had a good reason to buy one.  In particular, I especially love the aesthetic of the original Japanese PCE and the tiny ‘hu cards’, so I decided to commit to just getting Japanese games and avoiding all the CD-ROM and USA/TurboGrafx games. Look how tiny it is! I’m excited!

This is actually my first 8-bit console!! I’ve never personally owned one! The closest I came was my sister owning a NES, which stayed in her bedroom, but I got to play. I also had quality time with Master System, but that’s about it! (I have a rich history of 8-bit computer ownership too, but that’s something else…)  I actually paid a bit extra to get this with an RGB Scart output mod, rather than the regular RF output, and it looks great on my TV.

So far the only game I have is Dragon Spirit, a delightful shmup featuring cute dragons and heavy anime trappings on the box art. I generally prefer shmups to get away from spaceships and ‘vector/retro’ styling, so this is right up my street. It’s tough though!  I’ve ordered a few more PC Engine games, which should arrive in the coming weeks. :3

Of course, now I want to fly to Japan, trawl through Super Potato and buy a bunch of 100 yen hucards that I can’t identify. Anyone want to send me any? XD

This week I’m participating in the RPGDX  7-day RPG challenge.  I have until the end of Sunday to make an RPG on the theme of ‘Alternate History’, or at least do my best! I’ve never done one of their challenges before, but I felt like doing something fresh before getting back on with my main projects, and this gives me a chance to try out some new methods.

This is the star of my RPG. As yet nameless, the game is about a time traveling photographer. She travels back in time to take photos, and then influences time through their exposure. For instance, I’m wondering whether she can stop animals from becoming extinct through creating awareness.

Of course, what I actually manage is another matter entirely. I’ve not yet finished the3D model for the character, so I need to wrap that up today.  I decided to write a list of primary goals, so that if I achieve some of these I’ll feel like the challenge was a success:

• Make a nice 3D character with textures. Low poly Dreamcast/PSone style.
• Animate the character with walk, attack, etc.
• Have facial expressions and animations for talking, taking damage, etc.
• Make a 3D environment with textures that doesn’t look like ass. Similarly, quite low poly.
• Textures should be neatly assigned, using proper UV unwrapping.
• Dialogue  system, using the conversation parsing system that I’ve been playing with for a while, but never applied to anything.
• Basic inventory system.  Some basic stats, like HP and Gold.

I’d also like to create some NPCs, and have something that can be played from start to finish in some limited form, but I’ll have to see how things progress. I’m going to heading to CB2 for Friendship Club, but I will probably head there early and really knuckle down.

This blog entry is brought to you by Starbucks, and a very tasty muffin. It’s 09:00, but I woke up around 06:30 and decided to walk into town. This year I’ve been working hard to spend more time appreciating the city I live in, which is one of the reasons I was keen to have a good and portable laptop, and I love to wake up early on a Saturday and make the most of my weekend.  Generally I try to have real weekends, which can be hard to do if you’re an indie, as your free time and work time can blend into one another.

One thing about being indie or freelance is that you can fall into a negative spiral of panic and exhaustion.  You feel pressure to create something amazing, finish it, sell it, make money. If a project is going badly, then you are faced with a few decisions. Do you work harder; ie. work evenings and weekends, to compensate?  Do you scrap the project, cut your losses, and start on something new? Then you’ve lost the chunk of time and money you invested into the previous project.  In theory, you ought not to let it bother you, but there’s a lot of pressure to succeed. On top of this there is pressure with regards to the projects you choose and their apparent profitability – certain genres are easier to sell than others, for example.

I took a break from game development over the last few weeks. I felt I needed a ‘holiday’, but actually what I needed was just some time to step back and consider all of my projects. Fortunately a couple of illustration jobs popped up, so I worked on those instead. Those were a lot of hard work, but it kept me from worrying about code or game design, and it also reminded me to be appreciative of my independence.

I’m now back to work and very motivated. I’ve taken the pressure off myself somewhat, and I’m focusing on smaller goals, rather than always worrying so much about the ultimate aim for each project.

RPGDX have a week long ‘make an RPG’ challenge starting on Monday, which I’m thinking about doing, but I’m undecided.  I might use it as an excuse to make some cute RPG artwork if nothing else, even if it doesn’t go anywhere. I’ve been itching to make some nice 3D game art recently, after all. I’ll be sure to post updates.