


Need pygame and all dependencies.
  pygame.org

when have all those run
python warten.py

there is no graphics!

keys are
change modes:
  keypad 0 - test
  keypad . - walk
  keypad enter - whack!

Description of game: aliens are after your baby.  You need to escape from
  them.  But you were blinded, and you only have your sense of hearing. Luckily
  you also have a stick!  You can use it to avoid obstacles, danger.  But also
  to hit aliens with *grin*

  The only way out is by a windy narrow mountain ridge.  Behind you are the 
  aliens.  You must sucessfully negotiate your way accross the narrow passage.


Mechanics of game: Uses stereo sound to give people warning.  Sound queues for 
  everything.  Ask player to close their eyes for extra effect.
  
  Player must navigate around the world.  Try and escape and protect your baby!









Saturday 13:00

Trying a mostly sound based game here.


game topic is:

'A guardian game. Protect!'


Dictionary definition:
Middle English garde, from Middle French, from Old French, from garder to guard, defend, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wartEn to watch, take care


Going to play pool now.  think more about the game there.
-----------------------------------------------


16:16

After a couple of beers I get back from the bar(which has a bowling alley next to it).

Pool gave me some ideas about guardianship.  In pool one tactic is to try and guard against a person sinking their balls, whilst at the same time sinking yours.

Anyway, time to record some sounds.  Think I'll wing the game.

mmm this coffee tastes good.

Probably had too much beer to code straight away, so sounds it is.

Still not sure If I'll use opengl, or pygame.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday 16:54

Got my mike set up, my keyboard working(a cheap casio), and my didge cleared of spiders.

I've still no concrete idea for a game, but eh who cares.

Audacity the sound recording program is too slow.  I'm trying to compile it again with better optimisations with debian.

Thought I'd drop in on the irc char whilst I'm waiting for compiles.


Saturday 17:07
oh well, compile failed.  the source is also behind in versions so I guess I'll have to stick with the current version.

Coffee time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

17:36.
did a little recording.  haven't kept anything yet.

Read an article on a new anti-sleep drug.  Sounds good, well better than caffeine in that there seems to be less side effects.

On to recording.  Will try and make a didge track with some space noises from the keyboard.  May make some small individual noises with my didge too.

Ok I'm going to have 20 different strange didge noises.  Should be a challenge.

I'll do five then time for some food.



=-------------------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 18:07:41 EST 2002

stupid Audacity.  just made me loose ten minutes of sound making by crashing.  damn.  


Got a couple of sounds.  Need three more.  Going to record a long session and hope audacity doesn't crash.


---------------------------------------------
 Jul 13 18:22:28 EST 2002

Searching for another decent program to record with.  seems dselect is broken damn.  a friend had his break the other day, so I know the fix it seems.

I've decided to call my game 'wartEn'.  Sounds like a cool name.


----------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 18:35:51 EST 2002

Given up searching for another program.  Audacity it is!
I'm hungry, so I need to record more sounds.


----------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 18:58:33 EST 2002

Finished my 6! didge sounds.  Did a long one and one with some effects.  The rest were short ones.

Next I think I'm going to make some different noises by hitting things, and speaking into the mike.  I guess eight of these sounds.

After that I'll try and make a loopable track with the long didge sound, and some casio space-pad noises, and some stick tapping.

Now for some food.


-------------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 19:52:52 EST 2002

Finished eating, mmm indian food.

Was going to record some more sounds, but I feel a little full after food to do anything energetic.


Might think about a game idea some more...  hrmmm.

Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Bingo!

No can't play now, must think of idea.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
Nothing yet.

Was thinking of having a didge + space-pad sound track,
 The player would be asked to close their eyes, with their hands on some keys.
 The sound would play over and over(random different samples of didge mixing in).
 
 Then the player would have to listen for sounds.
  whispers "I'm comming to get you my pressssious."

hrmmm, maybe a bilbo in the dark type game.  That could be interesting.


For graphics, I could do vague shapes moving in the dark.

How will my didge sounds work into that idea?


-------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 20:04:21 EST 2002

It wouldn't be bilbo in the dark.  It would have to be something else.

*illume thinks of a story line...*


You're dreaming, trying to guard something.

what is it?

a ring? no not a ring.  be original man!

How about your own dream?
  no way.  boring, and too fucking abstract.  kind of like quaternions. 
    'what do you mean fourth dimention!  imaginary, complex numbers uh huh...
     ok bub time for the funny farm'.

Carrying a baby(?) in the dark.  You're traveling accross a rocky bridge.  
Each side of the bridge is a steep drop.  The bridge is only a foot or two wide.
It winds it's way forwards, so you have to watch your step.

You have a stick in one hand, in order to feel your way accross this bridge.

You must guard the baby.  Aliens(?) are chasing you, so you must be quick.


---------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 20:18:21 EST 2002

Sounds like it could be an idea...  3d sound would help a lot for this...
Reading up on openal, as it was said that it could be used.

---------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 20:40:59 EST 2002


Seems openal for python has not been updated since 2000, and openal itself is widely reported as buggy.

hrmm.  I could make the game go from left to right.  ie 2d sound.  That may work.

Need to think about this some more.


Think I'll record some more sounds, and then set up a frame work with pygame.  Not sure if I'll user pyopengl yet.  The space requirements for the game may mean I can't use it...  although they do say I can use over 4.5 MB if I email the guy.  Perhaps I could say: 'Required to play: python, pygame(and all dependencies), plus pyopengl'  Here are the links to install them.  Then I wouldn't need to bother with making an exe.


ok, taking time away from computer to think about this some more...



---------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 21:46:49 EST 2002

Watched the bill, and made a cuppa tea ;)

The episode was about a coppa protecting his daughter, who he doesn't really know.  She's in with a bad crowd.  Dealing drugs, and stealing stuff.

P2E is in the pygame chatroom.  Time to test out the sound playing stuff, so I can ask him questions if there are problems.

------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 21:52:34 EST 2002

Damn.  Flatmate got home, and is singing, and playing guitar.  badly.

Won't be able to record any more sounds tonight I think.



--------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 22:05:34 EST 2002


Setting up my pygame code.  I've got a main loop done.

Added in some opengl code.  Began a model class to draw models with... 
but...

I need to get models into my program somehow...

I could write a milkshape loader.  without the skeletons and the rest, just for the verts...  probably take to long...  Also I'd need to use a windows machine with milkshape.

OR!!!

I could make the game screen very simple.  So far I want to have a road going accross the screen, and some bright lights/fading lights for when the player gets light shinned in their eyes.


---------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 22:39:50 EST 2002

I have my program running.  I have an opengl hardware accelerated, double buffered, 1361 fps, blue screen :)

Talked to P2E, who is at the H2K2 con.  H2K2 is the 2002 Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference, a gathering for hackers of all types. 

Turns out that sndarray is my friend.  A new feature in pygame 1.5.  Need to get pygame 1.5 and compile it from source, as debian does not have it yet.  Hopefully the sdl libraries I have work ok(as they do not meet minimum version numbers).

There is supposedly stereo panning in it.  Which is what I'll need.

Starting to get tired.  Not sure if I should cafeine up, and keep going or get some rest...

I've figured an easy way to draw the bridge...  which I don't really need to draw(as you'll be blind).  Could use beziers, or GL_LINES I guess.



'Your sound card works perfectly.'  'left left left... er I meant right! right!'


--------------------------------
Sat Jul 13 23:26:13 EST 2002


Had a shower.  feeling quite tired.  Got new pygame version.  feeling tired.

Might play around with the sound stuff, so I know it works.

Then sleep :)


---------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 00:19:13 EST 2002

Damn!  pygame does not support loading .ogg and .mp3 as sound objects.  The music object can only have one playing at a time.  So I'll have to give them a converter.

This converts to wav format.
ogg123 -d wav -f didge_long_no_timing2.wav didge_long_no_timing.ogg

Need a link to a windows, linux, mac version of this ogg tool.

---------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 00:37:37 EST 2002

Very tired now.

Will figure out how to change the volume of left and right, then sleep.


--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 01:11:25 EST 2002

Figured out how to set the left, and right sound for Sounds.

Yah!

There are 8 channels to play with.  need a class which checks to see 
  which of the four for each side are being used, and uses another.


Time to restate goals and assumptions in full.

Name of game: wartEn.
Libraries used: pygame(all dependencies), pyopengl.
Description of game: aliens are after your baby.  You need to escape from
  them.  But you were blinded, and you only have your sense of hearing. Luckily
  you also have a stick!  You can use it to avoid obstacles, danger.  But also
  to hit aliens with *grin*

  The only way out is by a windy narrow mountain ridge.  Behind you are the 
  aliens.  You must sucessfully negotiate your way accross the narrow passage.


Mechanics of game: Uses stereo sound to give people warning.  Sound queues for 
  everything.  Ask player to close their eyes for extra effect.
  
  Player must navigate around the world.  Using queues from the commentator.
  The main game will be tapping to see if there is a place to stand under foot.
  Fending off aliens as they get too close.


Flow of game.

  Blinding scene.

  Commentry about mountain ridge.

  Finding way accross ridge.

  'my precsiousss...' when aliens get close.

  Fighting off aliens.

  End sequence...(haven't figured out yet).


How is stereo going to work for the tapping part?
  As I only have left and right.  
  Could be going diagonly left, right, or forward.
  Both sides of headphones/speakers could be forward.


Might be able to do 3d sounds with a mike.  Just make the noise relative to the mike.  Doesn't work, with this mike anyway.

maybe try out fmod, or openal for 3d sounds ;)  nah this will do.


-----------------------------
Sun Jul 14 01:36:17 EST 2002

Ok, time for sleep for sure now.

------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 10:18:19 EST 2002

Wake up.  My throat sore, swollen.



--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 11:01:00 EST 2002

Had some tea, and toast.  throat was ok for a while, but is sore again.  may make for a painful time recording sounds.

--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 11:21:17 EST 2002

Got a response from ShreadWheat on sound stuff.  Gave me some ideas for the game.

Think I'll need to limit the size of the sounds some.
  Maybe just a couple of didge sounds, do the looping myself.
  Also the space pad can be done seperately.

Or I could do a full mix and save it as a .ogg


Think I'll just use small wav's.  Will be the least hastle.
  but .ogg's are ten times smaller :)

Ok.  I'm going to do small sounds, and mix them myself.  Then I'll put a ogg2wav executable for on the install.


--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 13:05:09 EST 2002


<illume> geoffh: is it ok to say 'my game needs these libraries that you can download the installers from these links'?
--> chris_ (~dildo@ip102-210.introweb.nl) has joined #ludumdare
<chris_> whoppa, back after 4 hours of sleep
<illume> 4 hours! eek
<geoffh> illume - what libraries?
<illume> pygame, it's dependencies, and pyopengl
<Wormtongue> im back   ready to fix the "game doesnt run" problem now   :)
<geoffh> as long as the sites are always up, yeah.  but the game itself needs to run without it
<chris_> 4 = enough 2 days
<geoffh> you need to build EXE/ELFs for things to run on their own
<geoffh> otherwise, you will probably get like 2 people able to play your game
<-- MattB has quit (need to reboot)
<geoffh> well, maybe 5.
<illume> I'm using python, which makes that a bit hard
<illume> oh well
<geoffh> no its not
<chris_> hehe
<geoffh> py2exe
<chris_> no, idd
--> ^JuLyAnA^ (GraZi@200227194036-dial-user-UOL.acessonet.com.br) has joined #ludumdare
<geoffh> it builds you an exe in a snap
<illume> never used that.  guess I'll give it a go
<chris_> but we'll always have next week
<geoffh> its easy
<illume> ok :)
<geoffh> you just run it in your dir, and it builds it for you


Almost got my sound class working.  Now to move onto some game play.

Caffeine total: 
  yesterday: 4 cups tea, 4 mugs coffee
  today:     1 cup tea, 1 mug coffee



--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 13:56:04 EST 2002

Just wasted time really.

Made a function which gets the names of all the .wavs in the sound/ dir.
  Makes it easy to play them.

Need to think about the game now...

Decide on what to do next...

ok.

Think I'll do the tapping part next.  That is make a gameboard which represents
the bridge.

I could do that with a small image.  Where each pixel equals a part of the path.


-----------------------------
Sun Jul 14 14:09:58 EST 2002

then I could take this image and make it a 3d array.  Sounding better all the time.

Each pixel color could have a different meaning.

pygame is handy.  I'm using the image as an array for the path through my game
  each pixel is a path.  the different colors will mean different things happen on them


One color for:
  fall off mountain.
  path(nothing special).
  path(alien).
  path(escape).


Maybe I could also have pixels also mean to load a different set of sounds.


How am I going to remember which colors are which?
  make an image with a legend.
    - so I have a block of each color, and it's meaning written next to it.
      - or could use the gimp layers.

------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 14:27:53 EST 2002


Use the gimp layers with seperate colors and a description of what they do.

Better, use a bunch of one pixel .png's the name is the description, 
  the color in there is the pixel.


<illume> what is a good sound to represent a stick flying through the air?
<illume> was thinking 'schwoosh.  hrrmm nothing there'



TODO:
  Make the basic pixel types.
  Make the sounds for the basic types.


How am I going to make this playable more than once?
  Could use different images to represent the paths.
  Could introduce some randomness to it??

How big is the map going to be?
  If I make it a state machine, it doesn't really matter.


How are the chasing aliens going to chase?
  - follow exactly the path of the person.

How am I going to introduce drama into it?
  - not sure, need to make the basic game and build on it!


--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 14:31:17 EST 2002

Time to work on it!!



<ivan> it's already doing graphics for the shot
<ivan> needs MAJOR work though
<ivan> writing games requires way too much logic
<illume> true
<illume> reducing the amount of logic needed is the trick I think
<illume> or making an easy way to code the logic


Need some munchies...

------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 14:47:32 EST 2002

Got munchies.

Starting to write the map code.


How to find the starting position?
  - loop through the map looking for the starting pixel color?

Making maps with the colors in seperate images won't be too bad with the gimp.
Have the different colors up the top in seperate windows.


----------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 17:13:00 EST 2002

Recorded a few sounds of my flatmate earlier.
Still working on the pixel def, map loader code.
  got the pixel defs loaded into dicts, so I can get the name from a color.

Now I need to do the map loading.  Then I can kind of start an actual playable
 game(even though it will be crap).  That is after making a simple state 
 machine.  Can't wait :)


Time for shower :) oh no! just realised someone reading this will be able to figure out how little I showered during this thing ;)


--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 17:30:52 EST 2002

Ok time to do that map loader.


--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 17:37:50 EST 2002
for real this time.  no really.


--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 17:54:19 EST 2002

map loader is done, and have done a number of pixel defs for the basic path parts.  Also done a basic map.  hrmmm taking a screeny of my workspaces... BOO!
ludumdare.com rules! (do I get extra points for that)

--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 18:16:34 EST 2002

ha ha ha no one liked my crappy screenies.  oh well :)

What to do now...

Try and get a basic game going.  hrmm. cold... jumper needed.

Have some keys for forward, diagonal up left, diagonal up right.
A state machine which looks at the current pixel, and where the person wants 
  to test.

I could make it a fast pace game by having a big map.  The person would need
  to quickly test the area to walk, then walk.

Need different keys to test, and walk....
  or should I make it shift+key == test.  what about whacking enemies?
  behind keys will always wack.

Could have a modal interface.


press enter to go into whacking mode.
press keypad del to go into walk mode.
press keypad 0 to enter test ground mode.

Could have multiple sets of keys for the change mode.


Need a timer see how quickly the person is moving.
And a list to keep track of the movement of the player.

Ok, now for making a movement class.


-----------------------------
Sun Jul 14 19:01:59 EST 2002

Didn't start on a movement class.  thought I'd need a map.  maps are good ;)
A Map class now loads a map, and can get info like the startpos.

Need to add a GetEndPos method, and maybe some others.
  GetAlienPositions() ??

oh GetMovablePositions() would be useful.



------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 19:27:16 EST 2002


------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 19:53:29 EST 2002

My contribution to ascii art.
The matrix for finding the diagonals.

        # search up, down, left right pixels, and the diagonals.
	#eg 
	#
	# (14,29)|(15,29)|(16,29)   (-1,-1)|(0,-1)|(1,-1)
	# -----------------------   -----------------------
	# (14,30)|(15,30)|(16,30)   (-1,0) |(0,0) |(1,0)
	# -----------------------   -----------------------
	# (14,31)|(15,31)|(16,31)   (-1,1) |(0,1) |(1,1)
	#

--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 20:57:19 EST 2002

Had some dinner, watched a little tv.  Wasted time basically.

Real tired now.  Could have a rest for twenty minutes and then start.


------------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 22:27:49 EST 2002

Rested up and had some tea.

My bogun flatmate, and his bogun friends are making a racket.  Guess I can
 record didge noises at 3am after all ;)

ok... what to do...

Guess I'll work on the movement class now.


-----------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 22:42:02 EST 2002
Was going to have the aliens follow the players path...
maybe I could do something differently.
  Maybe I could place them two of three moves behind the player.


Then if a player is near an alien they should hear some sound(and alien approaching sound)

Player movement speed should be limited.

Can aliens fly?

----------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 22:57:04 EST 2002

Ok.  done a timer.

going to limit how fast the person can move I guess.

First to get a basic version working.
Just navigating the map.

Maybe the aliens could be on timers too.
  when a timer runs out the alien moves forward.


Think about later



--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 23:34:25 EST 2002

weeeeeee! more ascii art.

	    elif event.key in [K_KP1, K_KP2, K_KP3, 
	                       K_KP4,        K_KP6, 
			       K_KP7, K_KP8, K_KP9]



Probably need a timer class on the alien.  for if it is on the players square
  for long enough.


I'm close to being able to move around on the map.
  damn I'm a slow coder, compared to others :)




--------------------------------
Sun Jul 14 23:55:48 EST 2002

Yah my whacking works.  er my mode switching, and keyboard directions.

------------------------------
Mon Jul 15 01:00:01 EST 2002

I woke ten minutes ago, and got myself a feed.
feel kindof refreshed. *shrug*

Now what was I up to...

Need to do something based on the key press.



------------------------------
Mon Jul 15 02:14:13 EST 2002

Got my key presses printing stuff out.

Now to make the player move.
  Need to keep a timer somewhere which limits how fast that 
    the player can move.  Will have to do something similar for whacking.


Might have a seperate map for positions of the aliens.
  Not sure.
  
  Could have the aliens on timers, meaning that they can't move until the timer
    runs out.  Then each tick I could make them go closer to the players pos.

Maybe I should have an Ai class.  
  which has things like:
    if player.CanAction("move"): 
        player.Action_move(move_to_pos)

  I'd need to pass where for the move one.

---------------------------
Mon Jul 15 02:24:07 EST 2002

getting tired again.

Wonder if I should have a constant walking sound going.
Only when testing do I stop the walking sound.
  - no as they will make small steps.


Maybe I could get some cords/jeans rubbing together sounds for walking.  Combined with foot steps.  Also maybe I need some wind swirling noises, as it is up on a cliff.


Think I will have Ai objects.
  The players one will control whether it has enough time to move, 
    and what sounds it can make.

If I used the event system, it might make talking to Ais easier.
  To later for that.  don't have much time left.




<illume> geoffh: Think I'm going to have an option to download a bigger sound pak ingame :)  It'll ask the user at start up if that is ok, and try to download.
<geoffh> man,  5.5 hours of sleeep do not feel like enough
<geoffh> illume - k


Should set a limit on the amount of time I use on the game, before I have to make an exe.

About nine hours left.  But then it will be 12pm and I'll have to have been at work.  want to take the day off, but can't really as need to be there.  damn!

Might be able to get to work around 11.  30 mins to get ready makes it 10:30.

Will take at least an hour to make the exe.  So 9:30am is the stop and make exe time.

3 hours sleep between now(2:30am) and 9:30  Leaves me with about 3.5 hours.

damn not enough time.

sleep now, for 30 mins.  then I'll think about it.

=------------------------------
Mon Jul 15 08:23:51 EST 2002

ha ha ha .  fell asleep.
Guess I'm going into work late.

Time for some quick coding.  may be able to get something playable entered.

------------------------------
Mon Jul 15 08:37:27 EST 2002
did an ai class with timers for whacking,testing, walking.



------------------------------
Mon Jul 15 09:04:09 EST 2002

Can almost finish the game!

No aliens yet, and no sounds... oh well.

Time to make the end place walkable.

--------------------------------
Mon Jul 15 09:51:27 EST 2002

made a couple of sounds.

the end is now walkable.

still don't have any 
  alien sounds.  
    - 'my precsious'
  falling off cliff sounds.
    - 'wahhhhhhhh!'



and I haven't put them into the game.


--------------------------------
Mon Jul 15 10:19:07 EST 2002

got one hour left.
 
Need to change the sound for nothing there to only use the voice part sparingly.

time for a quick cuppa, then back into it.

won't have time for an exe.

Mon Jul 15 10:26:05 EST 2002
back. 50 mins.

Mon Jul 15 10:37:18 EST 2002
  done wahhhh!

Mon Jul 15 11:03:52 EST 2002
 done alien killing.


  Need to do winning now, and loosing.


11mins left.
