Throwing in the Towel

There's too much to do and I'm still too sick. I got a lava wave chasing the player and a timer for the score in but for some reason the player sticks to the platforms if I use precise collision checking or any other sprite than the ones I originally put in. I'm cranky and tired and really sad I didn't complete a game this time around.

Some Progress

After a nice long nap, the likes of which only being sick can bring, I've sat down and made a little more progress. I put in a long flat platform to start the player on. I kept having to start the game and jump immediately which is super annoying. I also put my floor pieces in a queue. That way when one piece (the head) leaves the room it will choose the next piece (they're all the same right now) based on what kind of piece the tail is. Then it'll make it, enqueue it, dequeue itself, and destroy itself. Now as I think about it I could also just change the sprite of the head, change the position to the end of the line, dequeue it, and then enqueue it again. I think that will be less memory intensive but I'm not sure. Anyway, here's a screen shot. of the game so far.

Progress Despite Initial Bugs

Here's a quick update on my progress for what I'm calling "sick jam." I changed the seamless floor to a series of platforms which is masking my initial bug. I added a player that jumps, can move a bit in the view, won't go out of the room to the right (the direction you're running), can collide with the side of the platforms and be moved to the left and fall, and is destroyed when leaves the room.
I don't think there's much else to do. I need to make the 'game over' screen but the conditions for losing are there, make a platform generation algorithm (even just a simple one), a timer, menus, a top score screen (something I didn't get to implement last week during the Bacon Jam), and then art and sound. This will be a test to see if I found my sound issues. If not, well, I'll have to keep troubleshooting. I'll have screen shots with my next update.

First Goal Bugs

I'm already experiencing bugs with making a floor that moves left at a constant speed. Unfortunately it seems like I can't make it seamless at high speeds. Even at low speeds it proves to be a difficult process. For some reason it's about 1 or 2 pixels off in it's placement for every other piece of floor. I think I'm gonna just change the design a bit and not make a seamless floor. I'll make them a series of platforms to mask the bug. Here's a screen shot of what I'm talking about.

So as an aside I had this type of problem with a game I made for class before. What we figured out was that because the speed was, let's say 10 pixels, the game would update and everything would jump ten pixels and then the piece would be created which would create a 10 pixels seam. The next piece to be created would be 10 pixels off as well but because the previous piece was already 10 pixels off it would fit seamlessly. It would keep happening over and over for every other piece. We found that creating the pieces 10 pixels off from the original position fixed the problem. Not so this time. I tried it and it seems to just not work. It's a shame but given the limited time of a jam I think changing the design would make it better and easier.

Goals and Assets

Here's my goals and assets list. Actually, the following scan represents all the design I did for this particular game. It's a laughably simple design.

Sick Jam

I just woke up which means I got a whopping 12 hours of sleep. I feel a little better but not by much. It's times like these I wish I had a laptop capable of development so I could lay on the couch and jam. Instead I'm chilling at my desk in my uncomfortable little chair with my green tea and blanket. So, here goes my first game jam whilst being sick.
I've never made an endless runner before but I believe the concept is simple enough. Generate blocks of terrain/obstacles and move them at a constant speed to the left to simulate moving right, have an avatar that looks like he's always running, and use a timer to track score. I'd like to make the terrain dynamically generate but we'll see how far I get. I still need to make my list of goals and assets.
Keep an eye out for updates.

Tag 4 Begins and I'm Sick

So the themes for The Arbitrary Game Jam #4 have been announced and last night I got sick. I'm still sick. It sucks. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to complete my game or even get half way but I'm gonna try my best.
The theme that called to me was Lava. I've always wanted to make an endless runner and his is my chance to rapidly prototype one. Guess what you'll be running away from? That's right, lava. I will be using game maker again and who knows about the art, I'm sick. I was gonna start tonight but I'm too tired and weak. I'm just gonna try and get some sleep and hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

On a side note... These past couple of weeks and some weeks in the future have been filled with game jamming weekends. As a result, my postmortem analysis for each jam will be posted later than I want. I still haven't finished my postmortem from TAG #3 and then I have Bacon Jam postmortem and then this one. Just FYI for anyone that might be reading these.