Unconvinced Pete: Ludum Dare LiveBlog

Welcome to my Ludum Dare LiveBlog, a record of the inevitable train wreck that is me and my friend Kieran’s attempt to participate in the Jam portion of this event. Join us as we try to make a computer game in under 72 hours, armed only with a few bits of paper, a pencil, some sellotape and a few computers loaded with suitable tools for the job. The latest updates will appear at the bottom as and when they come in, so bookmark the page and refresh to share and delight in our pain and misery. All times are in BST.

21/08/2010 00:06 : As I write this it is only 3 hours until the theme for this year’s competition is announced, the winner from this list. (Registration required).

We’re already tired and so the first challenge will be one of us staying up long enough to actually find out what the theme is, and then waking up early enough to make a decent start on it.

Wish us luck!

21/08/2010 03:07 : The theme is… Enemies As Weapons!

What could it mean? What game will we make? We have a minumum of ideas so far, and our sleep-deprived state can’t possible be helping. It’s time to sleep on this and then hit the ground running when we wake up. Who knows? Perhaps the idea will come to one of us in a dream.

21/08/2010 10:18 : Here is a hastily recorded audio update of our groggy thoughts after we wake up and get started for the day. I speak first, then Kieran.

21/08/2010 11:57 : We decided that the method by which we would misguide the stupid-but-violent Rorgers would be to have a happy little robot wandering around building misleading signs. Each sign will confuse them enough to go in the wrong direction for a while, but then they would figure it out and correct their path. I present to you the first visual image of the game, the sprite I drew for our happy little robot!

21/08/2010 17:12 : Here’s another audio update on our progress. We also thought you might like to see a nice little screenshot of some of our progress so far.

21/08/2010 17:39 : Funniest bug so far: our happy little robot is having some problems with our build queue. He’ll go and do his assigned orders and then he’ll run off into the wilderness never to be seen again. Possible causes:

• Workshy-ness?
• Variables failing to be unset
• ???

21/08/2010 20:41 : Progress is steady and we’re finally starting to have something to show for it. I am proud to present you with not only the first full (early) March of the Rorgers screenshot but the first bit of music that I wrote for when things are going calm and steady.

21/08/2010 21:51 : We’re having a problem at the moment where the Rorgers are ignoring our misleading signposts despite our best efforts. I repeat: THE MARCH OF THE RORGERS IS UNSTOPPABLE. EVACUATE AT ONCE.

21/08/2010 22:22 : The problem with the Rorgers has been resolved and they are now responding to the signs in the appropriate manner. There is hope for us after all! Now we’re going to take a brief break for food and such things.

22/08/2010 02:17 : In this final audio entry for the day, we collect our very tired thoughts about how things have gone so far and what we expect from tomorrow.

22/08/2010 10:40 : Work is well and truly underway for day two of this crazy experiment. Kieran is busy working on the combat mechanics, the Enemies As Weapons core of the game. I am creating some more sprites to populate the map before moving back to the music. Until then here is a list of programs we are using to make the game:

• Delphi 6 (coding)
• The Gimp, GrafX2, Paint (graphics)
• sfxr (sound effects)
• FamiTracker, Audacity (music)

22/08/2010 12:11 : Steady progress but as the game gets more complex, weirder and weirder issues start to crop up. To take your mind off this nightmare enjoy a sampling of the latest March of the Rorgers music that I just finished. Things are heatin’ up!

22/08/2010 18:47 : The past six or so hours have been a long, slow trawl towards getting the game into a playable state. At the moment, pretty much all the systems are in place but it’s a case of kicking them into a form that provides balanced gameplay.

While Kieran has been battling with the code, I’ve been working hard on the music, having created a final, last-stand style urgent piece and a game over thing.

Hopefully the next few hours will bring a lot of things together. While we’re on that, enjoy this video which should give you some idea of the game in motion.

22/08/2010 22:46 : We’ve been rather busy today, hence why updates haven’t been so regular. We’re hoping to give you an audio update of our progress soon since we’re very happy with what we’ve got so far. Until then enjoy this conversation from our latest test run and two brand new music tracks (the urgency theme and the game over theme) .

Me: Is that guy attacking the orb when it shouldn’t be?
Kieran: No, it’s fine.
Game: GAME OVER
Kieran: Oh.

23/08/2010 00:47 : Past midnight on Day 2 and we can honestly say we have a real, actual game. Hear our tired and (in my case) mildly disease ridden thoughts.

23/08/2010 18:18 : Kieran should be getting those finishing (for now) touches done on the game soon, and I’m going to be busy for a few hours, but after that we should have a link for you to download and play our game from. Until then, enjoy the title screen music that I completed this afternoon.

23/08/2010 23:55 : My throat feels nasty, I’m feeling unusually hot and the only reason I’m still up and not tucked up in bed with a thermometer hanging out of my mouth (which is what happens when you’re ill, I hear) is because this simply has to get done, and now. Only 3 hours remain, and only minutes of useful time. Kieran is in hot pursuit of a major bug that has been plaguing our minds for the last 24 hours,  whereby in certain situations the Rorgers ignore the signs when they shouldn’t. He thinks he might have it cornered and, if so, that’ll be pretty much the very last thing that’ll get fixed before we release this.

24/08/2010 00:59 : With two hours to spare, Surprised Man is very, very proud to present MARCH OF THE RORGERS! Just click the link that says ‘Windows’ to download.

Now, I die. But first, thanks for everyone’s encouragement throughout this, we really appreciate it and hope to do this again some time.