Joined 4 years ago
I don't do gamejams, I am gamejams
I'm starting an hour early because I'm a dirty cheater. Current plan is to do a Game Boy entry…
For the last few days I've been putting together a little cross platform game engine. It's not at all ready for use but a good JAM will make the problems with it pretty obvious real fast, so that's my plan for the weekend - write game in unfinished engine.
Also if the theme is boring I will make a GIANT ROBOTS game regardless, thanks.
My current plan is to use the haxe programming language to create my kajam entry. In theory I can write a single codebase that can be compiled down to a headless (no graphics) server to run in the cloud, while having that same code be able to produce the playable version of the game. In order to get multiplayer support in the browser, I'll also be using websockets.
But more importantly I want to be able to quickly iterate on my entry during my free time, so I've set out to automate as much of the build and deployment workflow as possible. Nothing fancy, just a makefile that builds the server, deploys it to the remote server and launches it. I can then launch the client on my local machine and see messages passing between the server and client, which seems like a pretty important precursor to a remote multiplayer game. Testing with a local server on your development machine is OK but bypasses a lot of the issues that can occur with a 'real' server out on the interweb.
The test was successful but revealed that terminating the server on the remote server left a zombie process sitting on port 8000, which means that attempting to run the server again would fail as the port was unavailable. This behaviour didn't occur when hosting the server locally, so there's some instant proof that it's worth testing on as realistic a setup as possible. Hooray.
Checking out the prison cells
Meeting a doggo in a tunnel
Might have made a mess here
Meeting the staff and students in the re-education centre
A very blocky train at the yard
Added directional sprite support to my raycaster today, so now you can see FRIENDLY WORLD INHABITANTS from multiple directions
Welcome to the 7th Kajam!
From the 1st of April until the 28th of April, everyone is invited to create a game! There are only a couple of rules, covered here.
Details of the theme are in the announcement video above! I encourage you to make a game that can be played on genuine hardware of the era, but that's completely optional! Interpret the theme however you like, just remember to have fun.
Some suggested resources for anyone interested in making a game for genuine 1996 hardware:
Gameboy development
PlayStation 1 development
Tapegro: write DOS games in javascript!
Nintendo 64 SDK
Sega Saturn Jo-Engine
A few people have asked how to actually DO alakajam recently, particularly wanting to know how to submit their game, so here's a basic guide:
READY TO RACE. Actually I might have to work that weekend but I'm pulling out all the stops and doing whatever it is you do with the nitro to get everything done in advance.
Haven't decided what technology I'm going to use but I'm hoping to put together some basecode so I can get off to a 'ROLLING START'
My only tip to everyone is to have your development environment set up in advance to avoid any stress or chaos during the jam.
Finally, I'm looking forward to a fair, sporting and above all, FRIENDLY competition between the entrants with lots of cooperation and constructive feedback
Making some progress
Since the jam ended I've been stuck on 4kbps internet and haven't managed to play many entries because everyone uploaded huge, presumably AAA quality games filled with high res textures and lossless format six hour soundtracks. I'll keep trying to play more, but would really appreciate it if you could take five minutes to try my entry https://alakajam.com/2nd-alakajam/137/garden-of-statues
I'm sure on your fancy non throttled internet connection it'll be but the work of a moment to download and open the game. Please enjoy your time in the garden, because there's more to it than it may initially seem