Thursday, April 28, 2011

Ludum Dare 20

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Ludum Dare is ready to start.. sign up, partecipate to theme vote and make a game :D

Like in LD19, my tools:
  • flashpunk
  • flashdevelop
  • flash player 10

With 48 hours I want to learn from past mistakes:
  • 6 hours, not bad! Not a rush, but have all stuff working is a little tricky sometimes,
  • 48 hours contest doesn't mean 48 hours of real-developing-time !
  • next LD I need two day free, not just one,
  • game sucks on graphics and sound and gameplay, but I've tried to build all and I like the experience!
  • guys on Ludum Dare are incredible, watch out of game list.. tomorrow will be full of great games,
  • Flashpunk is incredible easy to use, all code where I need it, and Motion is beautiful!
  • I don't know why I like these little letters around screen :D

Friday, April 22, 2011

Importance of speed in game developement

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Imagine a world like this: you have an idea and istantly this idea come into pieces in front of you, on your screen. Mind-reading? Maybe.
But in this blog I want to discuss something important in many ways: how to do not waste time? How to let your time to be important, productive and more more important, get videogames done?
Videogames is just an example, for sure, but I think is something we can understand: you must have one intuition for your gameplay, maybe some images moving on screen and some level of interaction. But many times I've been around with ideas.. but no real example on screen. This kind of activity is named prototyping and in important in many works even in hobby videogame-making.
So when I've read this article, my mind starts to thinking: "find the fun as quick as possible", wow, this is important, really.
Many hours wasted to understand low level engines, when most important in a videogame is gameplay: I can't simply have a professional graphic on my side, so my games can only (after few examples of just copy well established gameplay) innovate, try to find new mechanics and/or fun.
So my idea is: create quick example of little mechanics, try to fix bugs on code and then merge together to make a bigger game. Pretty fun, yeah?
But where to start? From scratch! Don't make so much sense, right?

My idea is to have some little example of strange mechanics: like jump/jump higher and higher, speed, orbit around a point and so on.

Any other ideas?

Revenge of the Titans source code released!

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Revenge of the Titans is cool game made with Java, with a great great gameplay and finally source code has been released.. just download it and learn from it!!!

All information here :D

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Retro graphic style

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I agree with this article: success of Minecraft or Revenge of Titans is inspiring in terms of what indie could do for gamers. Make better games not in term of graphics (Dwarf Fortress anyone?), but in terms of gameplay.
As gamer, what I'm looking for are new kind of gameplay elements, good story.
As developer, I'll try to do it but I don't have time (it's only a hobby) or resource to make better graphics.
A point of success of retro graphic style games it's interface: all must be easy to learn and to master, a lesson that many indies out there don't have clear in mind (Dwarf Fortress again). Gameplay is great, but what about a good, easy to use interface?

What do you think about it?