Some fun in WebGL

Been experimenting with OpenGL in the form of WebGL, it only makes sense after upgrading from basic 2D graphics to rotatable sprites in the last Ludum Dare that I would now make the important step to full 3D :P

Ludum Dare 33: Swarmlord!

Its been two weeks since the competition and I didn't post my completed game here. Still need to work on getting things done promptly clearly :/

As for the contest itself it went really well and I was able to submit a team effort this time!

The entry is a real time strategy game where you play as a space monster. Looks like my last post here the embed link still works but the game is displayed at a much nicer size on the Ludum Dare entry page (linked through the banner)

I also documented the whole development process on the website which can be seen by checking my profile on the site: link

Ludum Dare 33

A new ludum dare has begun and I'm taking part again :D

Been looking at how to have programs hosted through google drive and then embedded onto webpages. Experimenting with that below:


Awesome, it just works! :D Source code for what I end up making will be on Github like last time:

github.com/AlexMulkerrin/LudumDare33

Javascript Text Editor

Many of my coding project have been Javascript based for the simple fact that nothing is better for click and play function and ease of source code sharing. One thing it lacks though is easy file read/write access. This is for the extremely sensible reason of not allowing any arbitrary script edit the contents of your hard-drive when you load a page, that would be chaos!

Files can be saved and loaded by the user though so with significant help from the example script on the blog This Could Be Better I've made a proof-of-concept file loader and editor. This opens up all kinds of exciting prospects for projects which are more than little toys. There are several things I experimented with in Java which would benefit from such functionality if ported to Javascript. :D

Javascript Text Editor
File : Save as :

I could even write code in this browser based editor :3

blah I really need to post something

proper blog post goes here later...

I guess I've been looking into circuit design after having fun with Infinifactory as of late. Might end up coding a logic simulator/ cellular automata thing?

Ludum Dare Retrospective

Ludum Dare 32 ended on the 17th of April. I did compete and coded up a storm over the weekend. It was a huge amount of fun and I am very glad to have taken part. I haven't been doing much programming recently; stress and anxiety making me dysfunctional. And it slipped my mind to post a link to my entry here.

A little god game called Nature's Assault:

More details are on the Ludum Dare submission page along with links to play it and see the source code.

One of my favourite parts of this event was getting to use Java to make a proper windowed program. It may be because I have spent nearly all my life using computers with Windows on them but the windowed interface with buttons and re-sizable windows will always feel nice to me :3

Happily I was able to implement proper gameplay along with the fun algorithms. It meant that people actually tried playing it. I got a lot of feedback on it and want to spend time improving it. I will now have time to do so now.

It is silly how delayed me posting this was, still its good to get something online so that I can get into good habits. Worst case scenario I'll be posting some old programming projects next Friday.

Upcoming Ludum Dare

Having a break from being at University has been very nice, I've spent a lot of time experimenting with Java. Made quite a cool tool for designing villages which gives you a metric of how many people the built houses and farmland could support. Mouse input is very similar to how its done in Javascript. I also found out that the Java pseudo-random number generator is very easy to use. Now my terrain maps can be remade by using the same seed value :)

Created a byte-glyph alphabet as well, with 256 symbols it can encode English letters, numbers and keywords too. Got it looking like an alien text editor at the moment:

Probably going to include that as secret runes to decipher if I ever make a game with written text in it. I am almost tempted to start using it as the font for my computer's terminal. It would be a real trip to log into a computer system and see that :D

I also explored options for 3D rendering in Java, looks a bit easier than what I was doing by hand in Javascript previously, I don't think I uploaded that stuff though. 3D models would look good as an animated image so I might produce one of those soon.

What I am most excited programming-wise is the 32nd Ludum Dare programming contest happening next Friday. It happens a few times every year and I have always been interested in it. For various reasons I haven't sat down and actually taken part in it though. This time round I am much more experienced and have a pretty empty schedule. No matter what the final theme I'll find a way to bring procedural generation and simulation toys into it!