Timelapse of a game programmer

When you next play a flash game, send a little thought of thanks to the developer and all the work put into what you forget so quick.

Uploader info:
"This is a timelapse of me making Metagun, a game for Ludum Dare 18.
You can play the game here: http://www.mojang.com/compo/metagun/
The song is called Battery, and was made by me some nine years ago."
arghnesssays...

>> ^westy:

The charactor movment is horable and the art is terrable ,
the mechanic of shooting the tiny dudes is good though


You realise this game, the code and the art, audio assets etc. were all designed and created by a single person in 48 hours, which includes eating and sleeping, right?

The Ludum Dare competition entries are all based on themes. The developer doesn't even know what the theme is until the competition starts. The theme for this one (Ludum Dare 18) was "Enemies as Weapons". Some of the entries get carried forward in to bigger full-sized games but most are just fun proof of concept pieces showing the creativity that a lot of modern commercial games lack, albeit without the same presentation finesse.

I thought this game was great, with the different puzzles to solve with the gunners, the stacking of hats (reminded me of TF2!) and the different launchers.

eventualentropysays...

I wasn't expecting to play this game very long but ended up beating it. It was actually quite fun, hats off to the creator. Not sure what libraries/tools he used but pretty impressive for just a weekend - this is coming from someone that does this professionally

westysays...

>> ^arghness:

>> ^westy:
The charactor movment is horable and the art is terrable ,
the mechanic of shooting the tiny dudes is good though

You realise this game, the code and the art, audio assets etc. were all designed and created by a single person in 48 hours, which includes eating and sleeping, right?
The Ludum Dare competition entries are all based on themes. The developer doesn't even know what the theme is until the competition starts. The theme for this one (Ludum Dare 18) was "Enemies as Weapons". Some of the entries get carried forward in to bigger full-sized games but most are just fun proof of concept pieces showing the creativity that a lot of modern commercial games lack, albeit without the same presentation finesse.
I thought this game was great, with the different puzzles to solve with the gunners, the stacking of hats (reminded me of TF2!) and the different launchers.


yes I know it was made in a short peroid of time , IT still stands that charactor movment is bad , as well as the art work (evan for a 2day project) .

thats just a fact , The game dose have some intresting mechanics but the art and charactor movment is bad.

personaly if im setting out to make a game in 2 days i would do something more simple that i could exicute faster and to a higher quality level.

allso charactor movment is not something that takes allot of time to program ( if u know how to alredy do it)

westysays...

>> ^dannym3141:

>> ^westy:
The charactor movment is horable and the art is terrable ,
the mechanic of shooting the tiny dudes is good though

The speeling was harrofic adn the punctuation , washit/


thanks for that , but my piont is 100% valid and you obvously understood what i wrote so evan though the spelling was shit and the punctuatoin bad it still performed its function.

unlike with the game where charactor movment is arguably one of the most important aspcets of a platformer and manny would argue that the art is a key motivater to play the game or make it enjoyable. In short by having bad charactor movment and arguably bad art work the game is not performing its functoin.

I can do manny things in 48 hours , if im going to publish it on the internet im going to take the good and the bad criticisum.

~Im happy for this guy making a game and all , but when u compare this to stuff at demo sceen , or evan games i have seen made in 24 hour peroids its realy not impressive , ( i dont think the guy making the video was evan trying to be impresive he just put it up for the sake of it ) in the end what i said was correct so i dont see the issue with it

dannym3141says...

I think i was trying to do a sendup of an armchair critic attacking something she/he didn't really understand properly. I don't REALLY care about how you spell (why should i when you don't?). I think it's a good analogy for this guy's game. You put in as much effort as you're willing to in the time you've got. You sacrifice your spelling in order to get a point across in a short amount of time - just as this guy has to sacrifice certain gameplay elements to complete his vision in 48 hours. It's as much to do with sacrifice/time management as it is to do with "how the game plays".

You know that even a game as cosmetically simple as Braid doesn't get whipped up in 2 days by one person. It boggles my mind to think how he managed to do what he did in such a short spell of time. I dare say the game could have been improved with some 3d elements, correct lighting and shading, JRPG style zero-g hair waving and other such modern miracles, but it'd take a team of 100 people half a year to do something on that scale.

20 of that team would be an art department, another 20 motion capture, another 20 probably texture/modelling designers, and the remaining 40 would be programmers to bring it all together. And they'd all be working more or less at the same time - think of the man hours! If anyone even has the skill set to DO a final fantasy game on their own, it'd probably take them a decade or two.

I would love to see some better games done from the ground up in 24 hour periods. However that wouldn't make what this guy made any less of an achievement. I think people are taking issue with just that - it's not whether you think the game is worth playing in the modern game market, it's whether you think it was an impressive feat or not!

That's about the skinny for you, hope i've cleared it up.

thanks for that , but my piont is 100% valid and you obvously understood what i wrote so evan though the spelling was shit and the punctuatoin bad it still performed its function.

I can do manny things in 48 hours , if im going to publish it on the internet im going to take the good and the bad criticisum.


Is the rule that is has to take 48 hours of work before you allow bad criticism to go unnoticed, or was that just an accident? Feel free to criticise my comprehension of your comments without consequence - it nearly took me 48 hours.

KnivesOutsays...

Allow me to provide a template for any future Westy comments:

Everything sucks. Nothing is good enough. I have opinions.

Fuck up the spelling and you'll be good to go.

westysays...

>> ^dannym3141:

I think i was trying to do a sendup of an armchair critic attacking something she/he didn't really understand properly. I don't REALLY care about how you spell (why should i when you don't?). I think it's a good analogy for this guy's game. You put in as much effort as you're willing to in the time you've got. You sacrifice your spelling in order to get a point across in a short amount of time - just as this guy has to sacrifice certain gameplay elements to complete his vision in 48 hours. It's as much to do with sacrifice/time management as it is to do with "how the game plays".
You know that even a game as cosmetically simple as Braid doesn't get whipped up in 2 days by one person. It boggles my mind to think how he managed to do what he did in such a short spell of time. I dare say the game could have been improved with some 3d elements, correct lighting and shading, JRPG style zero-g hair waving and other such modern miracles, but it'd take a team of 100 people half a year to do something on that scale.
20 of that team would be an art department, another 20 motion capture, another 20 probably texture/modelling designers, and the remaining 40 would be programmers to bring it all together. And they'd all be working more or less at the same time - think of the man hours! If anyone even has the skill set to DO a final fantasy game on their own, it'd probably take them a decade or two.
I would love to see some better games done from the ground up in 24 hour periods. However that wouldn't make what this guy made any less of an achievement. I think people are taking issue with just that - it's not whether you think the game is worth playing in the modern game market, it's whether you think it was an impressive feat or not!
That's about the skinny for you, hope i've cleared it up.
thanks for that , but my piont is 100% valid and you obvously understood what i wrote so evan though the spelling was shit and the punctuatoin bad it still performed its function.
I can do manny things in 48 hours , if im going to publish it on the internet im going to take the good and the bad criticisum.

Is the rule that is has to take 48 hours of work before you allow bad criticism to go unnoticed, or was that just an accident? Feel free to criticise my comprehension of your comments without consequence - it nearly took me 48 hours.


I am a games developer , i know how long and how much time it takes to make games. when saying the art and charactor movment is bad that is within the context of spending 48 hours on a game.

having a nice art asthetic + solid charactor movment are not things that necaccerly would be impacted by a 48 hour development time.

you can work with the time frame you have and do art around that , for example if this guy had gone for realy realy LOfi graphics i think it would have been less work and looked far better.

as for player movment in flash there are plenty of scripts and methadoligies for knocking out Mario typ charactor movment within 30min.

allso i was very clear thst "the mechanic of shooting the tiny dudes is good though" and thats realy the core aspect of the game , my piont was that its a shame that the art and basic charactor movment were a total detrement to something that could have been alllot better with minimal effort and some slight changes.

westysays...

>> ^KnivesOut:

Allow me to provide a template for any future Westy comments:
Everything sucks. Nothing is good enough. I have opinions.
Fuck up the spelling and you'll be good to go.


1) There are manny things that i have said are good or i thought were realy good posts to the sift.

http://videosift.com/video/Just-try-to-look-away

http://videosift.com/video/David-Mitchell-chews-over-public-mastication

http://videosift.com/video/The-Perfect-Storm

http://videosift.com/video/The-Royal-Dancing-Queen

2) everyone has opinoins comment boxes are generaly used for that

3) It is very time consuming for me to spell check and correct evrything i write and its not something i enjoy doing , when i am writing on video sift its akin to say sumone riding a bike in the country side or something , you would be a anal nob to go on about how bad there techneek is when they r simply riding the bike for fun.

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