MegaGlest Forum

Off topic => Off topic => Topic started by: will on 12 January 2012, 20:39:10

Title: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 12 January 2012, 20:39:10

This April, the Ludum Dare (http://www.ludumdare.com/) competition celebrates its 10th Anniversary!

I encourage you all to go look at the various games entered in the 22nd (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-22/?action=top&cat=Overall) (its more than once-a-year) Ludum Dare that has just finished.

There is a solo mode, where you make your own game in a weekend from scratch.

And there is a team mode called "jam" - like musicians - that has three days.

Nearer April I'll remind the coders here to book some hobby time that weekend.

Now, more important is all of you who are not *yet* confident coders.

Ludum Dare is a really really great fun way towards becoming a confident coder, and taking part is a fun, self-rewarding challenge even if you aren't actually a coder.

If anyone wants to set themselves the target of entering Ludum Dare in April and wants to talk through and prepare and learn some basic programming, I'm sure they'll find a willing and helpful audience here on this forum.

Go for it!

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Psychedelic_hands on 14 January 2012, 02:41:57

(This thread name looks far too similar to my real life name  :P it took a few looks before I realised, it wasn't.... )

I'll look into this maybe, I started making a few cool console programs awhile back (though that was pretty difficult for me). I'm fairly scared of win32 programs or OpenGL haha. But I don't have much time lately.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 15 January 2012, 08:57:21

I'm planning to enter as a team member although final details still tbc.

To anyone looking for activities to pad their resume/cv, this sort of think can be bluffed to illustrate teamwork, problem solving, working to deadlines, mixing creative and technical considerations, even exprrience of some agile or lean dev practices if you can.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 15 January 2012, 09:16:06

There's plenty of time t *learn* how to program!

The first step is to pick a basic game - pacman, for instance - a decompose it, work out how it would work...

For example, mist games have a 'game loop':

1. Handle all user input events
2. Note the current time, relative to game start time
3. Work out new positions for everything that moves, based on the current game time
4. Draw everything on screen
5. Exit conditions met? (Victory, quit etc)  If so, exit loop
6. Else go to (1) again
2. Move all objects that move

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 19 January 2012, 08:55:55

[big]There's a "mini" LD this weekend - 21st and 22nd of January, 2012 - and we have a mini Glest team entering![/big]

Myself, Ishmaru and Mr War.

Blog http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/ <-- already a video of our preparation up

(click to show/hide)

[small]Anyone else wanting to contribute, especially created sound effects and testing (you'll need chrome beta with nacl enabled (go to about://flags, enable it, restart chrome)) welcome.
You can see my test page at http://www.discontinuity.info/~wil/willcity/milan.html - if you see a bit of landscape drawn, you have a working chrome setup.  Also, anyone good with mingw who can make windows native binaries is very useful help![/small]

Just this week LD had a special mini LD to protest SOPA/PIPA: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/sopajam/?action=preview (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/sopajam/?action=preview)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 20 January 2012, 11:43:38

There's a team room on IRC freenode #glest-mini-ld-31

You don't need an IRC client; you can go chat from your browser window: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=glest-mini-ld-31

All contribution and help testing during the weekend welcome!  We are starting roughly around mid-afternoon friday european time

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: ElimiNator on 20 January 2012, 17:24:06

If you need graphics for this game I could help. Or testing once its play able.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 22 January 2012, 17:57:54

progress as-of a few hrs ago. Of course this no-where near as cool as the finished product!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XcfVHUhWM0

Follow here http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 23 January 2012, 07:12:18

Hi

We finished! Well not everything we wanted to implement but we did manage to get a basic platform game together. All the models and backdrops are 3d but it won't show because the 3d shading was not implemented

Download and play here

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-31/?action=preview&uid=10313

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 23 January 2012, 12:24:50

Its too bad the game doesn't run to well on windows, (cant get it to run on any of my machines).

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 23 January 2012, 13:32:13

[big]UPDATE[/big] it works now?

Also, Google Chrome version works too?  The performance is shockingly slow; please everyone, if you can, run both the native version and the chrome version and report framerates for comparison.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-31/?action=preview&uid=10313 (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-31/?action=preview&uid=10313)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 23 January 2012, 13:55:32

Hey it works now! Framerate seems fine for me. Haven't checked chrome yet.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 23 January 2012, 18:24:13

Chrome loads for me but painfully slow

29 entries to the Mini-LD, I intend to play most of them.

In a few days we should do a debrief. Overall I think the result is something to be proud of, especially Will's coding. Writing any game in 48hrs is not trivial.

This game by someone else (jarnik) is very clever I think. http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-31/?action=preview&uid=1163

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 24 January 2012, 13:57:59

Chrome performance problems was a 5 minute fix on my side.

If you have previously tried the Chrome version, you'll have to clear your browser cache before playing again, else chrome will use the version it has already downloaded (ctrl-shift-del - clear cache; no need to clear history or anything else)

We're using github-pages for hosting, which isn't the fastest for the actual download at beginning of play.  Also, if we had control of the webserver, we could control whether chrome caches the program and artwork as aggressively as it does.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Psychedelic_hands on 25 January 2012, 01:26:58

I did play it, I liked it. Good job guys! Worked fine for me on windows 7.

Are you going to work on it much besides fixes? I'd love to see those shaders you were talking about. ;)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 25 January 2012, 11:16:40

Thanks man. Yeah it's not really a finished game, I think we might continue improving it as a learning ground for future ludum dares. Making a game from scratch is pretty challenging obviously. I think there's lots for the team to be proud of, not least that we worked as a team right up to the 13th rush to fix a couple of bugs.

The game has promise. All the backgrounds a 3d so with lighting it should look much more atmospheric than now. Plus other basic features like more levels, sound, better animations, GUI for health points etc.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 31 January 2012, 19:08:43

Can anyone look at the models in https://github.com/williame/ludum_dare_mini_31_fear/zipball/master and see if the tunnel sections have reasonable normals?

(My MG G3D viewer doesn't work, and I'm not on windows so can't try G3D Hack, but if anyone at all can take a glimpse at these tunnels I'd really appreciate it!  thx)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 31 January 2012, 22:09:07

Here's what the normals look like in G3DHack. No idea if this is how they should be, or how to change them in Blender - recalculating in Blender doesn't seem to change anything.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/ilx47o.jpg)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 1 February 2012, 07:51:58

For example, a problem is the strip to the right between two posts, that appears dark unless you are right in front of it.

(http://i.imgur.com/MfSRV.jpg)

The top is in-game (without torch lighting), below that is normals as seen from the light; beneath that is normals without light, and bottom is my attempt at a quick auto-normals script.

As can be seen, auto-normals are almost the same as baked in the model.  There, the problem is:

You are sharing your vertices between faces that are not axis-aligned.  If you have an acute angle between two faces, they cannot share a vertex because they need their own normals.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 3 February 2012, 02:55:22

Oh you haven't put up the version with light yet?

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 14 April 2012, 09:07:08

[big]WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS COMING WEEKEND 20th-23rd APRIL?[/big]

I know what you want to be doing: Ludum Dare!

The absolutely super coolest thing you can do is your own entry!  Go on, don't make excuses, enter!

(You could even enter a Glest Mod if you made it in the time scales as a Jam entry, I believe.  Check the rules.)

Also, as per the practice in January, there's going to be at least one community effort!

You are hereby cordially invited to partake in a community effort entry for the Ludum Dare 23 Game Jam.

Mr War and myself have already discussed a general game type and concept, but of course it'll need bending to the theme announced when the jam starts.

We particularly want help with the plot and narrative and extensive play testing right from very early in the development.

Please reply here so we can gauge engagement.

I've announced our intentions on the Ludum Dare site: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/14/glest-modding-community-are-jamming/

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 14 April 2012, 10:51:57

From what I read in the rules only one person is allow per team in the offical contests. Mini's are the exception.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 14 April 2012, 11:33:49

Yes there are two distinct catagories - we'll be entering the team contest, called the "jam".

So you're in, Ishmaru? :)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 15 April 2012, 19:19:53

I'm sorry but I don't have enough freetime that weekend...  :(

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: ElimiNator on 15 April 2012, 20:41:05

I might be able to help, what would you need me to do?

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 17 April 2012, 08:59:15

I'm very excited about this. Right now I'm confident we'll have a kick ass game that is bound to win!! But of course the reality will be mire challenging and when you try other entries it'll be like wow!!! How did they cone up with that?!?!!

 Ludum dare is great.

Eliminator. Play testing is probably main thing - right now we are thinking of only 2d graphics based on how fast I can churn stuff out, so less need on that side. Will is the coder and story writer.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: ElimiNator on 17 April 2012, 19:47:55

I could make 2D art as well if you want.

But is you don't need it I can just test for you.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: wciow on 17 April 2012, 20:30:32

Count me in for this weekend  :)

I can do 3d work or just help with ideas and play testing over the weekend.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: John.d.h on 18 April 2012, 05:06:57

Maybe if I didn't work weekends. :-\  I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with, though. :)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 19 April 2012, 21:46:59

The Ludum Dare keynote is now out: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23-keynote/

The contest starts - the topic announced - about 3am European time; a bit more Friday-evening-ish for Canadians, obviously.

So when, early Saturday morning but maybe already several hours wasted, us Europeans log in, we can all be in #glest-ludumdare on irc.freenode.net

Everyone meet there; wait around if the room is empty.

Brainstorming and chat will be a fun start to the task!

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 22 April 2012, 15:02:51

we've been busy. It's going ok. Look out for "The Small World of Professor Strange" on LD. The Theme we had to build for is "Tiny World"
(http://i41.tinypic.com/33z661e.jpg)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 22 April 2012, 22:38:08

progress report with video: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/21605511183/when-we-last-did-a-mini-ludum-dare-we-tried-to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfWjjoxjrSI

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 24 April 2012, 21:16:12

Drum roll please...

play the completed game on-line, it's free:

http://williame.github.com/ludum_dare_23_tiny_world/

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 26 April 2012, 03:23:09

Game looks + plays quite well! Programer at work mode is pretty genius though the greatest advantage would be in the illustrated mode as you could keep track of your rivals + see things in rooms that you may not know was there otherwise.

Good luck to you in contest!

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Coldfusionstorm on 26 April 2012, 15:19:36

The music is quite fitting, im not into games like this, but the start music fits the "mood" of the start area fine.

Title: LUDUM DARE 24 is happening now! We're entering!
Post by: will on 25 August 2012, 02:51:24

LUDUM DARE 24 is happening now!  We're entering!

Mr War and I, I mean.

The theme is Evolution.

We are on IRC on freenode.net in the room #ludumdare_glest - see you there!

Come join our team! :)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 28 August 2012, 19:55:09

Play the game here http://williame.github.com/ludum_dare_24_evolution/ - multiplayer space-fight

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 29 August 2012, 07:06:19

Mr War's post doesn't tell you how super-cool this is, but these pictures will:

Actual gameplay:

(http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/163678/10313-shot2.jpg)

The splash screen:

(http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/163678/10313-shot0.jpg)

And the ships:

(http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/163678/10313-shot1.jpg)

---

(just noticed there are *more* ships than those 6..)

_{Edit by Omega: Merged minute apart posts}

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Mr War on 29 August 2012, 19:15:13

Ishmaru's gameplay video (no sound). Wonder which glestians he shot down - but I bet it was me who got him!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGSGiY9sISs

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 30 August 2012, 23:26:25

Quote from: Mr War on 29 August 2012, 19:15:13

Ishmaru's gameplay video (no sound). Wonder which glestians he shot down - but I bet it was me who got him!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGSGiY9sISs

Ha ha, speaking of which, it would be nice to see which player flys which ship, so you could know who you shot down and who shot down you.

Its a fun game if you can get a group of friends 3 or more to play. There seems to be some issues with collisions but not to problematic. Good job guys!

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 31 August 2012, 10:11:10

yeah I decided not to model collision.  You can park intersecting with another player if they let you.

how could you fairly model collision?  if take points off, or take a life, how can you do it fairly?

if I can kill us both by ramming you, that's unfair.

so I just left it out.  There's a lot that got left out ;)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 31 August 2012, 16:25:24

Quote from: will on 31 August 2012, 10:11:10

yeah I decided not to model collision.  You can park intersecting with another player if they let you.

how could you fairly model collision?  if take points off, or take a life, how can you do it fairly?

if I can kill us both by ramming you, that's unfair.

so I just left it out.  There's a lot that got left out ;)

Fair enough but that wasn't the collisions I was referring to.

I meant between lasers and ships. Sometimes a shot will seem far off and somehow game will register it as a kill. Check out my "kill" in the  the vid after 1:35. My shot did not collide with the spacecraft yet it says "[player 12 leaves game, died, shot by player 1]" (me)   Could this a network lag issue and spacecraft was in a different place in server?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGSGiY9sISs

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 2 September 2012, 06:14:47

yes the hits on the models is approximated by spheres.  Sphere/ray intersection is simple and fast.  Each ship is a little sphere, and its the same size regardless of model.  All models are much the same size but there is variation, and none are spherical.  This means a head-on shot might look like it misses the model but actually there's a whole sphere of vulnerability.

Additionally, I picked the number at random and calibrated it by openning two browser windows and firing at ships from point blank range.  I could easily have set it too generous.

This is the (C++, but still) code for sphere/ray intersection; the only intersection simpler is sphere/sphere:
https://github.com/williame/GlestNG/blob/master/3d.cpp#L271

And here's the code for a triangle:
https://github.com/williame/GlestNG/blob/master/3d.cpp#L393

There's a lot more ops like dot-product in the triangle code and its just massively slower.  Additionally you have to test every triangle (until hit) in the model, and there are at least a few hundred of them.

The normal way you'd do things is to do sphere-sphere intersection of the ray/sphere, then if it hits its ray/sphere intersection properly, and then if that hits you check the individual triangles.  There are actually people who use simplified mesh hierarchies and spatial indices before checking the full mesh too.

I say all this because I find it an interesting subject.

It would be interesting to imagine what this game *could* be, with some polish...

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Ishmaru on 6 September 2012, 05:30:24

Just randomly checked out this and noticed that it is way better now. I would play if anyone is interested :)

I like the auto respawn added to game :)

I think the collision spheres are too big.  They seem good for wing span, but for above and below the ships its too big. Perhaps reduce it some to make it more even overall.

Its to bad that your project is getting judged on issues with lag caused by server, though I feel i have even better FPS than before. Its a fun game and a pretty ambitious one for a 72 hour game. 

Wish you the best of luck!

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: ElimiNator on 7 September 2012, 14:16:47

Quote from: Mr War on 28 August 2012, 19:55:09

Play the game here http://williame.github.com/ludum_dare_24_evolution/ - multiplayer space-fight

This just hangs at loading for me...

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 7 September 2012, 15:19:11

@Ishmaru

yes I agree with you.  I've just done proper hit-testing and its surprising me how fast it is.  Perfectly useable.

However, I can't change the submitted game like that.

the *next* game will obviously be slicker.  I think the next game is in February or so.

@ElimiNator

are you using chrome or firefox?  Does it show a splash screen?  Deos it say its connecting?  Does it say you have a problem with your webGL?  Are you using Linux or Windows?

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: ElimiNator on 8 September 2012, 16:04:41

I am using windows 7, It shows the splash, then fades to a grid box, on the top lefthand corner it says conecting. It stays like this for ever.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 9 September 2012, 20:43:43

hmm sounds like network problems your end e.g. routing/firewall/etc, Eliminator :(

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 8 December 2012, 10:36:12

[big]Ludum Dare 25[/big] is next weekend!  http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ [big]December 14th-17th, 2012[/big]

Of course a glest community team will be entering!  If you want to make a game with us, even if you cannot find a whole weekend of free time, you are most welcome!  And if you can be a play-tester for us, you are most welcome too!!

If you can think of any general game ideas, please list them here too!  Its great to have a few well-thought-out and varied game-ideas to work with when we hear what the theme is.

And, if you are near a "real world gathering" http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/11/13/real-world-ludum-dare-25-gatherings/ next weekend, you would love to contact the organisers so you can look in on them, or sit in there - even for just a short while - while you play-test or code with the glest community team!

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 14 August 2013, 15:17:36

Ludum Dare 27 (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/) is on the 23rd-26th August 2013!  That's next weekend, as I type this.  Its any day now, real soon!

Hobby Game Making needs You!  You are going to join in, right???  Book time now! :)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 28 August 2013, 08:11:42

For anyone interested, Mr War and myself made this: NSA's Where's Snowden? (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=10313)

(http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/273708/10313-shot0.jpg)

(http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/273708/10313-shot1.jpg)

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: tomreyn on 29 August 2013, 01:28:45

:) Awesome.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: GunChleoc on 10 September 2013, 07:19:27

Paper clip guy! Who doesn't hate the paper clip?  :O

The whole spying thing is pretty dire, so its good to have a laugh.

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 8 December 2013, 10:41:47

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/

Come on folks, you know you want to join in, right?

Stop wasting time this weekend, stop playing on your new xboxone/ps4, stop socialising with family, stop browsing reddit!  There are more important things to do:

LUDUM DARE December 13th-16th Weekend

Really, I want to see a bit moreinvolvement and fin from the Glest community! Artists needed, ideas needed, coders needed, play testers needed!  Everyone needed!!

Just reply here saying "I'm in! I'm excited!  Will spare x hours "

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: Omega on 9 December 2013, 09:54:18

Quote from: will on  8 December 2013, 10:41:47

Stop wasting time this weekend, stop playing on your new xboxone/ps4, stop socialising with family, stop browsing reddit!  There are more important things to do:

B-but exams, man... I'm interested in what you'll pump out this time, though

Title: Re: Ludum Dare
Post by: will on 18 December 2013, 06:24:43

Ursa Miner

(http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/compo2/308734/10313-shot0.png) (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=10313)

Fly around mining gemstones by flying through their centres.

Fire your vapouriser weapon to tunnel through rock and get at buried gemstones.

Here's how that's done (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/12/17/how-to-make-a-hole-in-a-mesh/):

(click to show/hide)

(http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/mesh1.png)

And don't run out of air!  Always get back to the airlock where you started in time :)

There were a staggering 2064 other games entered, including one by Notch.  You should have entered too!  Need I say more?