Spring RTS Engine

Ludum Dare entry: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-3 ... &uid=52862
Rapid download:

pr-downloader area17:test "Area 17 - v01"

Latest github release: https://github.com/SpringCabal/Area-17/releases/latest



Much like the previous Ludum Dare, we'll participate in Ludum Dare 33 too!
It's about to take place in one month time, so I'd like to start organizing teams and stuff.

Ludum Dare 33 Game Jam
Date: August 21st-24th (72h duration)
Rules: http://ludumdare.com/compo/rules/
Theme voting: http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/07/20/l ... ions-open/
Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vs1 ... 2XKIw/edit
Review stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNGe4KTdVN4
LD33 prep: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33682&p=572234#p572094

I'll be leading a team and I'm asking people to join. To apply post here or contact me via PM. A key characteristic I'm looking for is the ability to work well in a team, and have some game development skills that can be applied (coding, gfx, sound, etc.). I don't plan to be anyone's boss, but rather coordinate development as I'm most likely to work with Scened which will combine all game parts, therefore being self-sufficient is a desired trait (it worked rather well last time imo). We'll have a prep weekend one or two weeks before so don't worry if you are unexperienced. Additionally don't assume you're unloved (@Forb) until you try.

We'll take the game jam option which frees us from making the art, but we'll probably choose to do it ourselves anyway so we can compete in the Graphics category. This time hopefully get a higher "Fun" rating . Previous entry can be seen at: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-3 ... &uid=52862

Well that falls within my holiday so... I am available

I will be stuck in transit on almost all of 21st, but if i understand correctly, the actual start date is 04:00 22'nd by my local clock, which will leave just enough time to participate in the initial planning and then collide with bed.

TL:DR; i'm in

Also on holiday for me - which in my case means I'm not available! Sorry.

About the time, it should start at 3:00 AM CEST or 1:00 AM GMT on Saturday, 21st 22nd. It lasts until 3:00AM (4:00AM for packaging/submission) CEST on Monday.
That's 10AM start time for me so I'll be there, but I'd like to have as many people as possible present so we can make the major game design choices together.
Normally it's OK if you can't attend all three days, the only request I have is that people update their availability during the compo so we know if, when and who will implement a given feature.
So far I have Anarchid, Flozi, Forb (still a maybe) and myself. We can do with a few more, but I think this is enough to have all major game development aspects covered (audio might be lacking so we might end using 3rd party sources).

I want us to do a prep weekend (Saturday and Sunday) -> are people available on the 14th/15th? It's completely OK if you are time limited, but I'd still want to practice the whole procedure like we'll do it in the compo (google docs for project planning, mumble, github for code and issues/development, game packaging, etc.).

Regarding project preparation, I want to write up an analytics tool using Lua sockets that would allow us to get an idea how far people got in our game. For those purposes I think it would be nice if engine could expose via Lua some of the information (e.g. system specs) available in the infolog.txt.

I'd also like to make a request to engine devs to provide us with the information on which engine version they think would be best for the compo itself (this can wait until the compo, but I'd like to try it out during the prep weekend as well).

Which part of the engine is getting tech shoved this time?

I figured I would have the audio portion covered. Should be pretty simple. I was under the impression that you guys aren't exactly audio engineers and I have quite a load of experience in that area, so I think we'll probably be good. Once can only hope

Forb it's not simple at all.
If you want your game to be rated in the audio category you can't use any existing sound effects -> you have to record everything during the event.
You may use samples for music though.

It's possible to still get a high overall score while just using existing audio. That said, I'm appreciative of anyone who's willing to do it.
Here's an example of a game with a high rating (#5) http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-3 ... &uid=11713 that had great Audio which fits well despite not making it themselves.

What is the planned concept and topic this time?

hokomoko wrote:Forb it's not simple at all.
If you want your game to be rated in the audio category you can't use any existing sound effects -> you have to record everything during the event.
You may use samples for music though.

I am aware of that You haven't been around long enough to know my background with audio/music. It's fairly extensive. FWIW, most of the sound effects used for games,in particular, are synthesized from scratch, not recorded and then post processed.

I am talking about creating the audio from scratch. I can even do music as well. It's a little harder now that I don't have the keyboard/synth setup that I once had, but it's doable.

All that said, lets see what the theme is first before we jump off the deep end.

I want us to do a prep weekend (Saturday and Sunday) -> are people available on the 14th/15th?

I'll be suffering a major internet disruption from 14th to 21nd.

Regarding project preparation, I want to write up an analytics tool using Lua sockets that would allow us to get an idea how far people got in our game. For those purposes I think it would be nice if engine could expose via Lua some of the information (e.g. system specs) available in the infolog.txt.

Wow, that's actually a great and unprecedented idea. Shatter the dominant paradigm *before* even starting the LD.

Saturday, 21st

PicassoCT wrote:What is the planned concept and topic this time?

Much like the last time, the topic won't be known until the competition starts. LD is currently in the process of taking theme submissions and one week before the competition voting on the best theme will begin.
For the prep weekend, we'll probably randomly pick a theme that was in the top 10 in one of the previous voting rounds.

Anarchid wrote:

I want us to do a prep weekend (Saturday and Sunday) -> are people available on the 14th/15th?

I'll be suffering a major internet disruption from 14th to 21nd.

How does the 8th/9th sound then to everyone?

Anarchid wrote:

Saturday, 21st

Damn timezones. Fixed.

I'm tentatively OK with 8th.

Forboding Angel wrote:I am aware of that You haven't been around long enough to know my background with audio/music. It's fairly extensive. FWIW, most of the sound effects used for games,in particular, are synthesized from scratch, not recorded and then post processed.

I am talking about creating the audio from scratch. I can even do music as well. It's a little harder now that I don't have the keyboard/synth setup that I once had, but it's doable.

All that said, lets see what the theme is first before we jump off the deep end.

Oh, super cool then!
That means I won't even feel bad if I don't participate

I'm not entirely sure though, it depends whether I participate alone this time.

hokomoko wrote:Oh, super cool then!
That means I won't even feel bad if I don't participate

I'm not entirely sure though, it depends whether I participate alone this time.

You're more than welcome to join of course, but I can understand why someone might want to do it alone.
That said, you're probably not "crazy" enough to solo with Spring :p

gajop wrote:You're more than welcome to join of course, but I can understand why someone might want to do it alone.
That said, you're probably not "crazy" enough to solo with Spring :p

You've just described my thoughts word for word :)

hokomoko wrote: Oh, super cool then!
That means I won't even feel bad if I don't participate

But tbh I'd rather you did :-D

Prep weekend will be held this weekend.
We'll start at 23:00 CEST, Friday 7th, and we'll work until 24:00 CEST, Sunday 9th, at which point we'll have the game packaged and ready.
The purpose of this is to practice for the actual competition, so we'll try to mimic it as much as possible by using the same tools and workflow (Github, Google Docs, Mumble, Chili, Scened, blender2lus, etc.).
Just before starting, we'll also pick a theme by randomly choosing from one of the previous top ones (2-20) available at: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ld32-theme-v ... nd-5-of-5/ .
I'll make the required skeleton repos before we start and add them here: https://github.com/SpringCabal/

I'd like everyone to post their attendance availability for this.

My availability on this weekend will be somewhat sporadic. I can participate, but not at full thrust.

I'll output a more detailed schedule of my availability once the smoke clears.