Success! Well, kind of? :)

The month is over and while I am far from having what would be called a complete (as in publishable) game, I am gonna declare NaGaDeMon won (at least more than lost ;))

All the basic features for core game play is done: The player is controlled by rotating the device (sometimes violently), there is a goal that needs to be reached before time runs out, there are enemies that eat some of your remaining time, and boosts that give you more time. The player also dies if losing control and bumping the head against the ground.

I have successfully deployed and played my game from start to end today, all five levels, dying sometimes, winning sometimes. Success!

But the main reason it's such a raging success is that I managed to do this, without spending insane amounts of time, and still: there's a big part of a game done, I've learnt a new environment and a new platform, I've re-learnt a lot of horrible trigonometry, made new friends and most importantly: remembered how fun it is to make games! There will be more.

Latest version: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14713777/GhoulsnWheels.apk

Here, have some screenshots, and then I'm gonna talk a bit about what more there is and what is missing:

Super simple intro level, meant to teach the absolute basics.

Suddenly, the goal is... where?

And tricksier still.

So, like I said, all the core features are there and it works. So what needs to be added?

Graphics


Obviously! All of it is ugly placeholder graphics, with programmer's animations. The player needs to be interesting and make cool moves, and everything else needs an artist's touch.

Sound


Also placeholders, though I start to like what Dennis has done for the soundtrack (the sound effects is all my fault!)

Fail


The game needs to taunt the failing player and there needs to be a death screen.

Win and Highscores


The game is designed so that you are supposed  reach the goal with as much time left as possible, meaning that avoiding the enemies and collecting a strategic amount of candles at the same time as reaching the goal will net you bigger scores. This should also be tied to a server, of course!

For the obsessive-compulsive player, a big hit! ;)

Levels!


These are just placeholders, although the first two-three levels now are at least sketches on how to ease a player that don't know what to expect into how to play the game (hopefully). The level editing works so the process is fast, but it still would take quite some tweaking and testing to make good levels, as usual.

Level select


Select level screen, and unlock levels.

Replays


Haven't tried this, but should be possible to save each game and have replays, thanks to Box2D being deterministic, meaning that the physics will repeat the same things given the same input - which is current gravity each frame. They could be played on the start screen, they could be replayed from a menu - and other players could download and watch your speed runs! (Much like N does it).

Tweak and optimize


Make everything better and faster. :) There should be a lot to do on that front.

Other polish


Such as a help screen, menu system, real splash screen, fonts and so on.

Conclusion


I think this could very well be turned into a real game, but then I would need to enlist some help with graphics and sound. I'd also say that taking some time making maybe 15 good levels with nice rounded corners is very doable. So, am I? Definitely maybe. ;) I'd like to see this game in a completed form, and at the very least I'm going to spend some more time tying it together.

Thank you NaGaDeMon! And thank you Bjarne for making me do it... See you again next year!