Ludum Dare 30 Part 3: Things I'm Wishing I Had...

I can't actually say morale is low at Chez Durbin, because, despite some things that are going to be annoying as hell to sort out, we're on track for a simple game, at the least. So let's talk about wishful thinking. Both in the sense of "If wishes were fishes, we'd never starve", and "Gee, Wouldn't it be nice if..."

First off, the cutting. Any Ludum Dare involves some cutting, and this was no exception. I started with a high-falutin' idea (which, on reflection, wasn't workable in the scope of the 48H, and hard to handle writing wise outside), which, in the first twelve hours, was cut down to a shootmans game. This, in turn, was cut down, because I am no quick spriter (nor, when I don't sketch beforehand, am I very good at it), and so shootmans, in turn, got cut.

Right now, though, I have something I can show, although it won't be pretty, and will be kludgy as hell. The game is simple: Duder McMann has entered the Winchester Mystery House in search of food, but the trapped and vengeful ghosts of ex-Winchester customers want him to stay awhile... stay forever. So, here's the current state of things.

I Have

1. Duder McMann and Ghost(s). Neither can handle wall-sliding very well currently.
2. A set of wall tiles. I need at least 1 more to fit the theme even vaguely.
3. A background that becomes slightly less eye-searing every time I look at it, and will also need to be added to.

I Don't Have

1. The aforementioned wall tiles, spare backgrounds, and floors. Those aren't too bad.
2. A set of rooms, and a script to teleport between them under certain circumstances.
3. That wall-sliding script implemented yet.
4. Any AI for the Ghosts (2 basic AI planned)
5. A menu.
6. A title splash.
7. Rebindable keys.
8. Food icons.
9. A GUI.
10. A thing that I want to add, hopefully tomorrow. It's an easter egg.
11. Any audio.

Of these things, I can probably mostly skip the GUI. A life counter, a food counter, done. The Audio, similarly, I can mostly skip. A simple tune, a couple of noises, and that'll do. I knew, coming into it, that my game wasn't going to be great. A title splash is fairly simple, and the basic AI code and wall-sliding potentially aren't too bad. Rebindable keys is going to be a slight pain, the tiles aren't too problematic. Although placing them is proving to be a pain in the ass, I should have found something for that.

Hey, I fixed the ti-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

But, while GMS has saved me some time in terms of basic tiling (If I change the snap, it should, theoretically, make the tiling easier), there are certain quirks of the way it handles things that I've found I'm not overly fond of. The previously discussed lack of wall-sliding. The way it handles directional sprites (or rather... doesn't really... Seriously, YoYo, this is a thing that happens in nearly every game ever, even simple platformers and shooters.)

Basically, what I'm saying is, I definitely won't have time for polish, but it will at least sort of work. Not actually bad. Not great, slightly worse than I was expecting to do. But not. Actually. Bad.

Happyface!