I didn’t get my game finished in time; I simply bit off more than I could chew.

I tried to do Star Kittens. And while I did get most of the basics in there (you can dig out terrain using your sculler droids and then tag it as certain rooms) in the end I didn’t have time to write the AI for the kittens – even as simple as it would have been.

And the real problem was that I didn’t get a chance to post here or on the Ludum Dare site with a lot of updates or progress reports – I was too busy trying to make the impossible.

But I did make a timelapse!

Caverns! I love it! Let’s rock!

If you’re thinking about participating, you might want to read these survival guides (of varying degrees of seriousness).

Sol_HSA’s Ludum Dare Survival Guide
MrFun’s Survival Guide
GBGames’ Survival Tips

Also, make sure you make an account on the WordPress blog so you can post in-progress reports and screenshots. As well as what you’re eating (hey, there’s a “food” category; if you can’t win with your game you can win with your delectable recipes).

And finally, you must join us on IRC!

Um…I don’t mean “must” as in “you can’t enter unless you do”; I just mean “must” as in “you’ll miss out on half the fun”.

See you guys in three hours!

Yep, “Kittens” scored a miserable -82. The winners of Round 2 were Connections, Clouds, Evolution and (with a score of 0) Glow in the Dark. I’m still leaning towards Burrowing, since I know just what kind of game I’d make with that one.

Thankfully, “Educational” ended up at the bottom of the list, with a score of -82.

Unfortunately, “Ages 5 and Up” ended up not much higher, with a -71.

The winners from Round 1 were: Burrowing, Caverns, Castle, Cold and Frozen, Winds and (just barely) Recycling. Not bad.

I’m disappointed to discover that “Kittens”, which is in the current round of voting, is one of the classic “joke” themes that never win.

Thanks to subscribing to a convenient mailing list I actually know about Ludum Dare 15 before it starts! Incredibar! Will I be competing?

Hmmm…I think it may depend on the theme. There are some real gems in there but also some real turkeys…if “Educational” wins I’m not going to bother. On the other hand, “Ages 5 and Up” sounds fun, as do “Castles”, “Caverns” and “Flying Dragons” (heck, you could combine all three).

I think I need to refine my working platform a bit and write some tools in order to be ready to meet the deadline; of course DrPetter‘s Musagi, SFXR and CherryBrush tools are indispensible for creating content quickly. Now, if only I knew how to use them better…

Edit: It looks like DrPetter’s site is down for the count (it was a university site) but most of this stuff is available at the TIGSource links provided.