>>>EARN Viz BY POSTING IN THIS THREAD<<<
*read further down this post for details

What is Ludum Dare all about? In case you don't want to click the link, there are two events going at once.
-/compo-
One person has 48hours to develop a complete and functional game from scratch. That means all graphics, sounds, music and codes are created within that 48 hour window.
-/jam-
This one is a team event where multiple people partner to create a game and have 72 hours to do so. The rules vary for both events.

In case you hadn't figured it out yet I'm competing in the /compo event.

Starting tonight, Friday August 22, 2014 at 11:00PM (Vizzed server time), the winning theme in final round of the theme voting will be announced and it will be go time for me. In case you're curious, here is a screen shot of the themes in the final round and how I voted.



Many of the thousands of people that compete in this will either use a blogging site like wordpress and some will even stream themselves on Twitch to record the progress of their creation. Because I decided to do this at the last minute and don't have time to set anything like that up, I'll be blogging my progress in this forum. That is where you, the vigilant and friendly Vizzed community, can help me keep the blog going. Unless I'm mistaken, even though this sub-forum is for "blogs", I still don't have the ability to double post because I'm not a mod. Let me try to verify that...

Local Mods : In this "blogs" sub-forum do I have the ability to double post? Probably not. If not, don't you mods think I should have that ability in ONLY THIS of all sub-forums? Keep that in mind at the next 'da lodge' staff meeting, will ya?

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN EARN THE BIG VIZ'S -
Favorite this thread now. If a post of MINE and MINE ONLY is the last one in this thread with no other posts after it and you "bump" the thread thus allowing me to make another blog post (because we've already established that I probably can't double post), at the beginning of next week (August 25 - 31, 2014), I'll send you 500 Viz for EACH time that you helped me to be able to post in my own thread again. I want to give an example just so it is (hopefully) clear -

My post
next comes your post - you earn 500 Viz
then another person posts - he earns 0 Viz, but I appreciate the interest in my blog
I post again
then some other person posts - they earn 500 Viz
I post again and on and on, get it?

Also, keep in mind that I won't actually be holding conversation with anyone - I'll only be posting updates on my progress. So, you could ask me a million questions and you won't get an answer to any of them till next week some time. I just won't have the time to be all sociable during that 48 hours. Have convo's with each other if you like though. It's also imperative that you keep in mind that I won't be spell checking any of my posts and proof-reading will be scaled to a minimum, so if they aren't up to my usual quality I hope you'll understand.

MORE ABOUT MY THOUGHTS ON COMPETING
There are some game genres that I will completely avoid like RPG, first-person shooter, visual novel and text adventure. Genres that are more likely are maze, platform, third-person shooter and tower defense. Some of the remaining dozen or so are possible but unlikely.

With regards to the software and programs I'll be using, I have some decent experience with Paint.net and Audacity but everything else I have only downloaded or bookmarked and viewed tutorials on youtube about them (example 1) (example 2) or fiddled with them for a brief time. I guess Stencyl is the exception to that last statement, I've made 2 of their "Crash Course" games and it was really fun and challenging.

I'm really stoked about this website called inudge. Here is some awesome music that I created from scratch on the first try. It still needs some tweaking and to be run through Audacity... too bad I can't use it in the /compo but I'm confident that I'll come up with something else.

WHAT ARE MY CHANCES OF COMPLETING AND WINNING THE /COMPO?
-completing-
I'm shooting for completion but realistically my chances of having a presentable and functioning game are probably less than 50%. Even if I don't finish it in the 48, I plan on completing it ASAP and making it playable via a link in this thread or maybe a new thread (It'll be a flash game).
-winning-
ROFL - I consider this practicing a craft that I wish to become a master at. I think a newbie winning against guys that have years of experience is laughable. TOP 100 maybe, but even that's just wishful thinking.

Lastly,
WHAT KIND OF HARDWARE AM I RUNNING?
Don't laugh.

Windows Vista Home Basic
Service Pack 2
Dell Inspiron 1521 Laptop
AMD Turion 64x2 Mobile Technology TL-50 1.60 GHz
1.00 GB RAM
32-bit Operating System

I've also got an Android 4.3 Jellybean tablet at my disposal. Maybe I might watch a youtube tutorial while I work? Don't know if it'll come in handy yet...

I guess that's about it for now. Oh wait, something to think about now that you've read all of this. It would be really cool to do a /jam with some other people at LD31 in December, anyone interested in learning this stuff? It would be maybe a three person team skyping(?). One person for graphics, one for code and one for music or some other variation. Just a thought.

I'm going to make a thread in the Vizzed Market advertising Viz for help in this thread and I'm also going to summon my friends that I trust unconditionally.

Singelli :
tgags123 :
Mistress : (Double summon, cause she's the local mod here )
Sword legion : You guys got my back on this right?

Summoning the rest of my -ACTIVE IN THE LAST 48 HOURS- friends cause friends help each other, right? If you're not on the list you can still help and/or be my friend. (oh please, no epic summon failures?)

A user of this :
Razor-987 :
supersonic44 :
mourinhosgum :
EideticMemory :
Elrinn:
kramer4077 :
mohammedroxx3 :
SunflowerGaming :
jonathanzygorodi :
RMJtheReploid:
Awesome-Kid :

and
Davideo7 : just because I think he might like this.

You never even mentioned what the game was about, bro. What in the world is your game about? 

thephantombrain : Who will you be teaming up with? Do you have an idea?

thephantombrain :
All posters post post

thephantombrain :

Good luck with that man. I wish you the best of EVERYTHING.

The theme is CONNECTED WORLDS. Can't say that I'm real enthused about it. Think I would've preferred "alchemy" or "chaos" or something but I'll deal. Also, apparently I miscalulated the start time by 2-1/2 hours

My gameplan = brainstorm till I have a working concept then begin designing graphics 10 hours + or -. Wish me luck guys. (Really wanna read your guy's posts but I can't get sidetracked).

On a plus side, I did figure out how to create an .mp3 from inudge before I went to bed by using Audacity!

Later.

supernerd117 : he's going for
compo, so it's a solo quest...

thephantombrain :

Good luck with that.

I would really like you to show me how to use some of these tools sometime.

once again, I say, good luck thephantom, take care!

OK, after much pacing and brainstorming I settled on a maze game. In theory it'll consist of 5 levels with one that repeats 6 times. So a maze game that has 10 stages and I've tentatively named it "The Adventures of Captain Scientist".

I'm off to Stencyl to experiment with tilesets and their physics.

thephantombrain : a maze game? Hmm... When it is ready to be tested, I am more than willing to give a hand at doing so. I have been waiting for a decent maze game for awhile to come out, but every time I hear about one and try it out, it's crap. 

Unfortunately, you can't double post in the blog subforum. Not unless you're an elite+, anyways. I can PM David about having the idea to be able to double post only on this subforum, regardless of user rank, so that blogs can occur in single threads more often. For now, though, I (or anyone who is elite or staff) can help you get around the "no double-posting" rule for the sake of blogging.

Of course I'll have your back. You know I think you're a genius anyways.    I'm excited to see what you produce. I've never been any good at learning advanced coding, so I'm entirely proud of you!  I think it's awesome that you're joining this competition as a way to push yourself, and I know you'll do just great.  

Captain Scientist, huh?  

After over 12 hour of work on some pretty good looking tilesets / actors, It makes me sad to report that Inkscape and Stencyl do not work well with one another. No matter what I try the .svg graphics will not conform to the tileset grids in Stencyl. I read a forum post somewhere else about how vectog graphics do not transfer well to pixels.

I might have been able to work around that but Inkscape will also NOT allow me to make OR Stencyl can't see that the background is transparent.

I'm afraid I have to back to the drawing board and the only other graphics program that I told Ludum Dare about is Paint.net. So, finding some miracle graphics software is out of the question. (It says in the rules that you have to identify all software that you'll be using before the /compo starts)

Going back to the drawing board = I'm not giving up yet even though my chances of completing probably just dropped into a negative percent.

Anyways, here is a screen showing some of my hard word that is now useless.

Sorry to hear about the tile set issue. That's really got to suck.

I hope you'll be able to find your way around this, best of luck!

Zelfore : You're awesome!

I needed a break... I've pushing for what feels like a long time and I'm still bogged down in graphics but the good news is that I figured out how to make Inkscape "Export Bitmaps". I have 3 more "actors" yet to make. One of them will probably require 4 frames to animate and the other two will only require ... 2 frames per? Don't know yet.

I now have 11 actors, 2 backgrounds and 1 scene on the dashboard of Stencyl. I'd say MAYBE another 2 hours for the graphics that remain. That would leave me with something like 14 hours to get ALL the codes working with minimal bugs, get music and sounds and then export it.

I'm confident about the audio but the other stuff is probably gonna be what kills me. I don't really have very much experience wit the Stencyl behaviors and event, etc. Also, I'd have to figure out how Ludum Dare wants me to send the source code.

Let's just see what happens -

Sounds like you will need somebody to test the final product a little bit before you submit it. I volunteer. When will you need me to be of availability? 

Finally finished the graphics, then tried to switch to coding but soon into it found that I couldn't keep my eyes open - kept nodding off - I'm gonna have to close my eyes for a bit. I'm approaching 36 hours awake.

Honestly, I got through a very sharp learning curve in Inkscape and have some fun animations to show for it. --- I would say great graphics but I've been peeking at other peoples blogs a little bit and WOW, I can't wait to play the games these guys have made. If you've been helping me here and haven't looked back at the LD website, I suggest you check it out. There are even already some games finished and ready to be played.

I'm looking forward to tackling the learning curve in Stencyl but at this point I would say that it's Highly unlikely I'll have the time nor the drive to be successful in the next 13? hours.

Really wish I had a picture of actual gameplay to post here - oh wells!



OK, eyes closing whether I want them to or not...

Woohoo! I hope you're able to make it through it all. Keep up the good work!

supernerd117 : Thanks for bumping, just woke up and I'm getting around. Woke up with a one track mind... GAME!

I may not finish in 7 hours 29 minutes and 13 seconds but I should have at least something executable done.

Now back to the START SCREEN and short intro.

What a challenge!

I'm excited to see what you're able to come up with in the time left.

Good luck!