PyWeek - Universe Factory 11
AwardsRatings (show detail)Fun: 4.5 Production: 4.4 Innovation: 3.9 Respondents: 25 |
| Files: | Uploader | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| lepidopterist-final2.zip — final | 7.18 Mbytes | Cosmologicon | 2010/08/28 22:52 |
| Second final submission | |||
| lepidopterist-final1.zip — final | 7.18 Mbytes | Cosmologicon | 2010/08/28 19:05 |
| First final submission | |||
| screenshot-final.png | 142.75 Kbytes | Cosmologicon | 2010/08/28 19:04 |
| screenshot (final) | |||
| lepidopterist-pre2.zip | 306.91 Kbytes | Cosmologicon | 2010/08/24 03:06 |
| as of Monday night | |||
| screenshot.png | 234.57 Kbytes | Cosmologicon | 2010/08/24 03:05 |
| screenshot monday night | |||
| lepidopterist-screenshot.png | 15.82 Kbytes | Cosmologicon | 2010/08/22 20:07 |
| screenshot 1 day in | |||
| lepidopterist-pre1.zip | 600.82 Kbytes | Cosmologicon | 2010/08/22 17:25 |
| 18 hours in | |||
| lepidopterist-pre0.zip | 446.64 Kbytes | Cosmologicon | 2010/08/22 03:47 |
| 3.5 hours in | |||
Tuesday 16 November, 2010
[ Cosmologicon @ 16:39 ] Mortimer the Lepidopterist: Windows version
Finally available on my website! Enjoy!
Monday 30 August, 2010
[ Cosmologicon @ 04:20 ] Mortimer the Lepidopterist: postmortem
This was the closest I've come to completing my game idea for Pyweek, so I feel pretty good about that. In retrospect, it's easy to see why I was able to finish: by underestimating the amount of time I would have.
I was busy this week: packing Tuesday, moving Wednesday, then staying at a friend's house with just my netbook. Also I flew across the country Friday to attend a wedding on Saturday. I knew all this would happen at the beginning of the week, so naturally I had low expectations for getting anything done. That, combined with the fact that "caught" was the only theme I didn't have a good idea for, meant I picked something unambitious. I was able to get 95% of the game mechanics done by Tuesday.
It turns out that I was able to work on the game despite being on the road, and this let me add polish to the game for the last two-thirds of the competition. I think this ratio of one-third core mechanics to two-thirds polish was about right for me.
What did I learn this time around? Not a lot. However, I did stumble upon a solution to a problem I've had before. This game has a lot of text popping up on the screen, way more than any game I've done before (Sorry I don't have a scanner right now, but here's a photograph of my notes):
So, how do I write my label class so that I can ask for a label appearing 20 pixels from the bottom right of the screen that stays for the entire game, and also ask for a label appearing 100 pixels below the center that appears for 1.2 seconds, rises 10 pixels, and then disappears, playing a sound? And of course they have different fonts, font sizes, and colors. Usually when confronted with this problem I try to create a good, extensible constructor with tons of optional arguments that cover every possible need. This time around, I said "screw it" and did something quick and dirty.
Every type of label in that picture is a different class that inherits from the base class and overrides one or more of several static variables and methods: the variable "expiring" determines whether it disappears, the method "duration" determines how long it lasts, and the method "position(self, surf)" sets its position in terms of the surface. So I don't ask for a Label that appears in a certain place for a certain time; instead I ask for a ComboBonusIndicator, and all the specifics are contained in that class. It worked really well. I plan to do it like this from now on.
So, I feel like I figured something out. Whenever I do this, more experienced game makers explain either that this is obvious and everyone does it like this, or it's flawed and there's a good reason nobody does it like this. We'll see, but I know it worked for me. :)
Thanks richard, for another great competition! Good luck to everyone in judging!
Saturday 28 August, 2010
[ Cosmologicon @ 19:07 ] First final submission
I wanted to upload something in the middle of the week, but the game has been in various states of not-working, so I never got around to it. Oh well, there's still time for feedback now. If anyone finds any major bugs that I can fix, I can still upload a revised version. Enjoy!
Mortimer the Lepidopterist (first final submission)
Tuesday 24 August, 2010
[ Cosmologicon @ 03:11 ] Catch as catch can
It's going all right so far, but I'm going to be pressed for time later in the week, so I might need to start thinking about cutting planned features soon. Still, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get something playable before long, so that's good.
New version
Controls:
nab: space
leap: up
twirl: space+up
Sunday 22 August, 2010
[ Cosmologicon @ 03:52 ] Our intrepid hero
Well, I wanted to upload something on the first night, so here it is. I didn't want to make the same mistake I've made in the past, of using placeholder art for the main character and only replacing it at the last minute. So, I started with the main character this time. Also, I have no idea where I'm going with this game, so killing a couple hours with Gimp seemed like the way to go.
As you can tell, this is going to be a highly intense, thrilling, action-packed game!