Tag Archives: Ludum Dare

Skate Knight Update

(Formerly Cardinal Cell)

Quick update for now:  Over the past month I’ve been getting a lot of base functionality in:

  • Dwarves knock enemies around in addition to stunning them.
  • Items and monsters are flung from the sides of the screen at Stage start.
  • Bonus gold is awarded for kill chains.
  • The gold collected is tallied at the end of a level and each survivor grants a gold bonus.
  • The player earns stars based on the amount of gold collected.
  • The moon arcs over the sky from the start to the end of the night, because that is the length of our hero’s prison sentence.
  • I can lay out a custom level for each individual venue, with 12 “hour” stages each now.  The player can select from a set in the main menu and try for a high score in each.

Forgive the temp sprites…  We’re still nailing the look.

Some work in progress

The Power of Art

I had a lot of fun last weekend with my game Cardinal Cell.  It was pretty fun in the end but it was ugly enough to make babies cry because I cobbled together the art on my own.  I could have maybe increased the quality another quarter-point on my own before finishing off the 48 hours…  I could have chosen a style.  I could have smoothed out the busy textures.  However, I was focused on closing the book with features-features-features.

I’m pretty confident that it was a mistake on my part…  while I go through other people’s games I constantly have to tell myself to not let an ugly game influence my assessment of its fun… or let a pretty game get away with dull gameplay.  Maybe it’s not fair, but that’s the way the world works.  Those of us with weaker art skills have a challenge to overcome.

Because the game looked so bad I did a quick reskin this weekend to use some pixel art and audio that I had handy.  I think the gameplay stands well on its own, but the revamp makes a difference in my opinion.  A friend offered up some real art and we’re going to rebrand it as…  wait for it… Skate Knight.

If you’re interested in seeing what a few hours of stock graphics and sounds can do for a game, check out the game on itch.io below.

 

Break for Ludum Dare 37

In a frenzied less-than-48 hours I cobbled together an entry into this weekend’s Ludum Dare.  I’d been wanting to play with the idea of fantasy battles using the mechanics of 2048.  The result isn’t pretty, but I do Ludum Dares primarily so I can doodle on an idea without giving a damn about how ugly it comes out. 🙂

CARDINAL CELL

After a night of heavy drinking in a foreign land, you are captured by local law enforcement and forced to stand trial for heinous crimes you have no memory of.   You are sentenced to 24 hours in the CARDINAL CELL. If you survive, you will be set free.   The help of your former drinking buddies is the only assistance you can hope for… because the Constable is rounding them up and throwing them in after you.

Click on the image to give it a shot and enjoy!  Maybe even throw me a vote… 😉

Ludum Dare 34: Complete… ish?

Over the past 48 hours I’ve been whipping up a silly game for Ludum Dare #34.  Whew, I’m beat!37354-shot0-1450062206The theme was “Growth” (there were two to choose from).  I was kicking around a weird idea about growing your magical influence by traversing ley lines around a map of a real metropolitan area.  You control a fanatic Cthulhu cult who wishes to bring the elder gods into the world.  A classic set of “adventurers” are set against you.

It was created in Unity 5.3.  All art and sound had to be generated in the 48-hour span by the single entrant (me).

You can play the game on a webpage following this link (sorry if Chrome loads more slowly than Firefox):

ClickToPlay

You can also download the standalone PC player by clicking the adventurer: Adventurer