Ludum Dare 40 Devlog
The theme for LD40 was The more you have, the worse it is. After doing a really good job scoping my work for LD39, it was time to go crazy and attempt an RTS game from scratch in just a little over 48h. The game is called Mine Op 40, where you use drones to mine crystals before the enemies overwhelm you.
I got some good parts of it done, but I'm left with a laundry list of core features that I ran out of time for, like enemies that attack your base and building new structures. This one was marked Unfinished on ldjam.com.
Download for Linux and Windows on itch.io- Source code on GitHub
Idea#
I thought to make a game where you command drones to mine crystals on a faraway planet. The more resources you accumulate, the more enemies attack you and the more effort it takes to keep your mining operation going.
I think I just wanted to make my own StarCraft-inspired game, something I dreamed of doing ever since I played the original. Coincidentally, I recently stumbled on my old geometry set from school, looks like I was a fan.
How It Went#
Planning#
I broke down all my work with HacknPlan, and realized that even if my time estimates were perfect, there was no way I'd finish in the two days that were left. Looking back, I underestimated the time I'd need for each task by about 20-30% on average.
I kept going anyway, because I thought the idea had promise and I'd come back to it later (this would be the 6th prototype I'd like to come back to since this time last year, but who knows). I also ended up with some pathfinding and AI code that will go straight into my main project, so that's a plus.
Engine Improvements#
Game jams are great for spotting where your workflow and tech stack are lacking, for me this was mouse support. All the games I made in the past use keys and controllers, and my engine only had some rudimentary touchscreen code that was written for the GP2X Wiz back in 2010.
I rushed to make the mouse work in a maximized SDL2 window, but it's finicky and will need more work to feel right.
Screenshot Log#
