I got a review!

My Ludum Dare game was mentioned in a review:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/28/some-very-polished-love/

[quote]Tiny World Cardgame — Card games are something we don’t often see in LD, which makes this game already worthy a look. It also features an awesome and very professional looking tutorial, and the ability to assemble your own deck. The rules for the card game itself are pretty simple, but allow for a lot of variation.[/quote]

Link to my game: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5150

A Game is Born!

It's called Tiny World because I am very bad at naming things.

Here's another screenshot:

Links to the game:

Windows: http://www.thecatsweb.com/games/Tiny%20World-win32.zip
Mac: http://www.thecatsweb.com/games/Tiny%20World-mac.zip
Linux: http://www.thecatsweb.com/games/Tiny%20World-linux-x86.tar.bz2
All: http://www.thecatsweb.com/games/Tiny%20World-all.zip

Still to do:
- add tournament play
- create tutorial
- write story
- finish art for cards


EDIT: GRRRRRRrrrrr CamStudio was lying about recording. No Timelapse this time

Susan

I can have the computer play itself

I created the graphics for the cards and have the programming so that the computer can play itself. The computer is REALLY bad. The strategy is modular so I am going to run some computer "tournaments" to see who wins.

Screenshot:

I'll upload a video of the computer playing itself once I give it a better strategy.

Susan

I got the cards framework working in Ren'Py

Not much to look at yet.  The player cards will be on the left and the computer's cards on the right.
Right now all you can do is drag cars to the discard pile. :)

Susan

Tiny World is the Theme

The theme for the 23rd Ludum Dare has been announced:

Tiny World

This gives me a couple of ideas:

- miniaturizing into a world

- a card game called Tiny World with cute fairies and stuff

- a story about people who keep running into each other

Susan

Ludum Dare Weekend!

I'm getting very excited about Ludum Dare weekend.  Only hours away!

I am most likely going to make a game in Ren'Py.  I am now to the point that I can usually do what I want in Ren'Py.  I might go with Inform 7 if the theme just begs for an IF style game.

Things I might do:
- go around town photographing things for the VN
- make a collectible card game in Ren'Py
- make a multi-timeline story

Susan

IFs I've played recently that I have enjoyed

I was writing this as a reply to a comment made by @Obsura, but I thought it might do better as a full post.

IFs I've played recently that I have enjoyed

Photopia by Adam Cadre
Author site: http://adamcadre.ac/if.html
Play Online: http://adamcadre.ac/if/photopia.html

Well worth downloading and playing offline just to get the graphics.

This one was a game changer for me.  It is a story that can only be told in IF but goes beyond what I'd read before.

Read the PHAQ after you play: http://adamcadre.ac/content/phaq.txt


Lost Pig by GRUNK as told to Admiral Jota
Play Online: http://www.grunk.org/lostpig/

This one is short and fun and hits all the things I like in an IF.  I never sat around trying to figure out what I was supposed to do.  The puzzles were clever and well thought out.




Violet by Jeremy Freese
IFDB page: http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=4glrrfh7wrp9zz7b
Play Online: http://iplayif.com/?story=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ifarchive.org%2Fif-archive%2Fgames%2Fzcode%2FViolet.zblorb

This one is SOOOOOO funny.  I love Violet's voice.  It took me a bit to get into the swing of the game. It is like a ridiculous movie where things just get stranger and stranger.  Not your typical IF.


The Play by Deirdra Kiai
Play Online: http://www.deirdrakiai.com/theplay/

This is more CYOA than IF.  It uses the Undum engine.  It is a story with surprising depth. Like a CYOA, you make choices as the story progresses.  Like an IF, you can pause and look at something with greater detail.



Please note: I have played some recently that I did not enjoy so much.  Most of them I was sitting around trying to figure out WTF I was supposed to do.  They were like a really bad role-playing session were the GM doesn't let you see your character sheet then opens with: "You are in a blank room, what do you do?"  I know nothing of the game world and nothing about my characters motivations.  My standard reaction now is "I sit down and knit." And proceed to Live-Action Role-playing by actually pulling out my knitting.

PS: Knitting at actual LARPs is really rather fun. NPCs that were a half my age couldn't understand why I didn't want to run around in the woods in the rain and would rather sit in the "Inn" and knit.

Well, my warm up weekend isn't going so well.

I've started my game and have the main locations mapped out including some awesome code for telescoping hallways thanks to the wonderful people at http://www.intfiction.org/forum/.

I have discovered something.  I don't like writing description. This is my failing when writing novels.  I'm great at ideas, ok at plot, meh at dialogue (*), and lousy at descriptions.  I think that's why I went into Ren'Py and Comics.

I will carry on.

Maybe I can team up with someone you likes writing purple prose. Between us we will be able to create a full story.

But that's not why I'm behind.  I'm behind because I started playing Visual Novels and Interactive Fiction instead of working. *DOH* It is now almost 4 a.m. ...

(I also procrastinated by cleaning the bedroom.  You know it's bad when you procrastinate by cleaning.)

Tomorrow I have some backgrounds to do for LemmaTV http://www.lemmatv.com/

Susan

(*) Strangely enough, as soon as I introduce a talking cat into my story -- I have no problem creating dialogue for him.

Ludum Dare Warmup Weekend

Ludum Dare is next weekend! Woo hoo!

This weekend I am going to spend porting my Ren'Py game from LD#21 into Inform7.

I don't know if I'll use Inform 7 for my Ludum Dare entry.  One of the things I have going for me is that I am a programmer that can draw and play music. I should check out the multimedia capabilities of Inform7

• Ludum Dare: http://ludumdare.com/compo/
• Game: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=11583
• Ren'Py: http://www.renpy.org
• Inform7: http://inform7.com/

Mark Twain Quotes

Quotes by Mark Twain:

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't."

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way."

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them."

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."

Source: http://www.mtwain.com