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The Drowning Man

And I’m done, with just over an hour to spare! The Drowning Man is trapped beneath the ice of a frozen river. You must help him swim to safety, avoiding the nasty looking fish and floating debris. Guide him to the holes in the ice to help him survive.

Artwork

Below are some sketches for character designs. Now to Gimp to see if I can reproduce them for the game.

Almost there...

In the end I ditched the whackamole idea and restarted with the trapped under ice idea. I’ve got the game play in place, I need to do some proper graphics and animation and get some music written.

Programmer Graphics

Artwork is really not my strong suit so I usually try and do something interesting with chalks and pens to get me away from the computer. But first, some basic graphics so I can get the game play working.

No Ludum Idea

So, beneath the surface. My initial idea was someone swimming under a frozen lake. It would be an overhead 2D shooter, similar to Galaxian, where you would fend off fish and swim for air holes. This might be a bit too depressing as you’re constantly struggling just to breathe.

Ludum Dare Theme

This theme has just been announced and it’s Beneath the Surface. It wasn’t one I voted for and I’m not entirely sure what to do with it. My initial thought is someone trapped under ice but I don’t know how I can make that into a game just yet.

Ludum Dare Tech

I’m using this Ludum Dare as an opportunity to try out some new technology. I’m going to use Phaser for development along with Browserify and possibly Yeoman for various package management. All that requires Node to be installed, which I don’t have on my main development machine so that’s first.

Dilemma

After spending the morning coding and getting to grips with Phaser I’m now starting to think my original idea of someone trapped under ice may be easier to achieve, given the time frame. Not sure whether to start over or push through with whackamole.