The trials of indie development.

I briefly mentioned this on my last post, but I have entered the Ludum Dare October Challenge, a 'contest' to development and release a game (kind-of-from-scratch) in one month and earn at least one dollar - donations, sales, ads, sponsorship, whatever. I say 'contest' because there isn't any prize and we are all rooting for each other as much as ourselves.

Myself, I am working on a TowerDefense/RPG sidescroller hybrid that I plan to release for donations before developing into a true XBLIG title. So far, I'm on version 0.3, which includes basic movement (left/right, jumping, sprinting), camera movement, and 'random' level generation... hopefully.

But whatever, it's not at the point where I can show it off yet. That's not why I'm here.

You might be thinking that it's a little ridiculous to try for such a complex game for my first project (this is my first project, btw). But technically, it will just be the first project I finish. Ever since I discovered XBLIG, which was probably 4ish years ago, it has been a goal of mine to get on the channel. It seemed far more accessible and easy (this was before I even knew about steam, and all other efforts [Flash, GameMaker, etc] had failed). Yeah... 4 years with nothing to show for it, except a mildly improved knowledge of coding (which I'm going to put to the test this month!) and game design.

The BS ends October 31st. I am sick of failure and the self-loathing it brings with it.

Anyways, I've written a set of milestones, Versions 0.1, 0.2, etc, all the way up to 1.0 (polish and release). I guess I'll copy them here:

DEADLINE: OCTOBER 31st

[ ] 0.0: fleshed out game concept

[x] 0.1: Player and Camera movement
[x] 0.2: Sprinting, randomized background rendering
[x] 0.3: Animation
[ ] 0.4: Boss movement
[ ] 0.5: Player weapon/s + boss health
[ ] 0.6: Boss weapon/s + player health
[ ] 0.7: Turrets and Traps
[ ] 0.8: Benches functionality
[ ] 0.9: Smaller enemies
[ ] 1.0: Polish and Release!~

Yeah, that's right, I don't have a fully fleshed out game concept yet. Fuck you, I do what I want.

Anyways, like I said, 1.0 will be available for free, but with a large and obnoxious "donate" button. Just kidding, it will only be large. This is the alpha (Oct 31st is the alpha release, no matter what), the beta (2.0) will add roleplaying elements and generally spruce things up, no idea when that will be out. I'll also release the source code with 2.0. After that I'll be adding local multiplayer n all that jazz for the XBLIG releases.

Anyways. Gotta draw some Halo fanart now. It's for a class.

Have fun and game on!

---

LOOK WHO CAME:

The Sama