
tonic's timelog
Ludum Dare 48hr game dev compo
October 2004

All times in this timelog are in time zone of Finland (GMT+2).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday

12:00	Woke up and checked the theme - which was "Random". I had hoped
	that it would be the "1 Button". Compo has already been running
	for about 8 hours at this point, I think.

13:30	Haven't started yet - had some breakfast, washed some dishes
	etc. while thinking a bit about the theme and ideas for it.

16:00   Have been constructing some base framework and doing a little bit
        of research regarding randomness. I still haven't exactly sticked
        to a specific theme, but I think I'll write some diffusion limited
        aggregation growth thingy and see if I can develop that further
        into some kind of game.

17:15   Just uploaded my first screenshot to the compo system. Might be
        smallest so far (412 bytes png file).. So I have a simple DLA
        "plant" growth done, trying to find acceptable size and parameters
        for it so that my game wouldn't hopefully need too much CPU.

19:00   Drank some coffee and took my wife to some party, having again a
        slight pause with development.

20:30   Optimized the DLA stuff a bit.. the thing still isn't much to
        look at. But I feel that I'm slowly beginning to figure out the
        gameplay. Have not implemented anything related to that yet,
        though.

22:00   No any gameplay yet, have been wasting time on graphics output
        quality, although it would be probably better to do that later
        than now. Well, at least I got first nice screenshot out of the
        growing thing.

Sunday

01:00   I think I have now decided mostly on what the gameplay will be,
        but there's still nothing playable. Just realized that it has been
        quite a while since I last ate something and I'm not feeling very
        well because of that, so I guess it's time to have a pause.

01:37   Got random colors working for the growing thing. Time to send
        another screenshots to the compo system.. :)

03:58   First signs of gameplay. Got branch removal system somewhat working
        although I feel it still needs some work. Time to get some sleep
        as well.

13:20   Should finally get back to work now.

14:45   Made an aiming helper to the game and then I watched an episode of
        Simpsons from TV.

16:56   Gameplay tuning, added score and remover display. Starting to
        feel a bit hungry now, so maybe it's time to feed me.

18:33   Made some background music and added it to the game.

19:36   Got level changing done, time for a coffee pause.

21:17   Trying to tweak gameplay to remove stagnant phase in playing each
        level. Trying a bit different game mechanics leads to extended
        time tuning the gameplay - should have started that earlier. :)

23:00   Had again a pause in development. I think I'll start doing final
        small tunings I still want to do before wrapping up the game and
        submitting to the compo. :)

23:42   Sound effects done. :) Somehow they really affect how fun the
        game feels, although part of that must be from the late gameplay
        tunings as well.

Monday

01:50   Added level done & game over -screens. Time for some final testing
        and then I'll call it finished for now. There's a few ideas left
        unimplemented, but I'll leave them for possible future improvement.

02:30   After a final session of gameplay testing and small tuning with it,
        I declare it finished!
