polish polish polish polish polish polish polish polish test polish polish polish polish polish polish polish ....

I've just released a new version, with some bug fixes and new levels. Download from here:
solo_solo-so_long-v1.0-final.tar.gz

I've also renamed the game to:

So long, a love story

The game is using:

pyglet v1.1.1

cocos2d v0.3.0

pymunk v0.8

One more day to do this, and I'm yet again feeling like I'd rather put my head in a blender than code anything else today. If I was to tie up all loose ends and release this, it would be so devoid of fun and point that it'd probably hit bottom anyway. (I've already scrapped almost everything I wanted to do, and I doubt I could design and code sufficient text-based puzzles for the string rooms)

So, unless I post anything else, consider this entry dead. I just don't think it's worth finishing anymore, not for the end of this competition at least.

Hopefully in the future I'll have more free time, more drive, better programming skills (part of the problem with this was that I couldn't map the theme to a game design I could code), maybe a team, and a theme I can work with. The only reason I signed up for this at this time was because everyone was like "yes you can do it you idiot you're being dumb for not trying", oh well, I tried and predictably failed.

Sorry everyone x.x;;

I added some necessary features. I added credits and help menus, which help explain how the game follows the theme. Anyway, here's final release 1.2. I'll try not to add anymore releases unless it's really needed :-D

Precious few hours remain, and I'm writing a diary entry? what am i, crazy?

Um yeah, so we made some good progress last night. We're polishing it off, getting events to happen when they should, getting rid of the corner cases, and also i think i am hallucinating. there is a headless man in my livingroom selling pails to dozens of Grimaces, and they are scrutinizing the buckets for flaws in workmanship, and also volume. Volume is a very important criterion when buying a pail. mark my words.

We haven't gone to sleep. It feels so close to being good, and yet we keep running into problems. It's getting hard to see, but we're so close!

Showers, coffee, porridge, birds chirping... let's see what we can get done by the deadline!

m

I think the game is at the stage where it's playable now, even if it could do with a few minor changes such as being completely rewritten from scratch.

It's been a fun week and I think I've learned from it. I'm pretty inexperienced at programming and I only learned python a few weeks before the challenge so thats my excuse for the code being so awful. I did try to structure it well but my standards dropped as the challenge went on and I ended up writing quick fixes to problems rather than writing code thats clearer and easy to change :/

Hopefully I'll do a better job next year now that I'm a bit more familiar with python and pygame.

You can download the game here.

It hasn't been tested all that much so please let me know if it doesn't work properly so I can fix it before the deadline.

Here's the description from the readme:

DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME:

Due to a disagreement about ducks in the workplace, all the robots at the string factory have gone on strike. Until they are reprogrammed, it's up to you to ensure all the string is cut to the right length before there is a global shortage and the world descends into chaos!

Luckily, all the string made here is colour coordinated for some reason. Orange string is short and purple string is long. As you have more important things to do, you get your hardworking assistant to do it all for you. But little did you know that he suffered from a rare form of colourblindness which renders him unable to distinguish between any colours! When you return from your lunch break you find all the pieces of string are exactly the same length! That will teach you to slack off.

You thank your lucky stars that your assistant has cut all the pieces of string to the maximum length the factory sells and not an ångström shorter, giving you a chance to fix them yourself. Armed with your arm, which is actually a powerful laser, you must accurately cut the string to the correct length before you run out of time (you don't want to miss your bus home now, do you?)

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME:

Use the mouse to move the laser left and right. Clicking the mouse button will fire the laser, but be careful - if the length of a piece of string is incorrect, the world is doomed. Yo-yos will hit the ground, nobody will be able to tie their shoelaces, and cats, with nothing to distract them, will revert to their murderous nature and start hunting babies for fun. You cannot let this happen.

You can press escape to bring up the menu at any time. There are two types of game you can play: Normal and Endurance. In the normal game you must get through 15 levels of string cutting mayhem without using up your small supply of extra pieces of string. In endurance there is no spare string - the aim is to last as long as possible without making a single mistake.

Howdy ya'll, I fixed them bugs Cthulhu32 pointed out, and another weird one I ran into. Hopefully it's all bug free now! Hopefully, anyway... So here's the download link, and I hope ya'll have fun with it!

Requirements

• Python 2.5
• PyGame 1.8.1

(earlier versions may or may not work)

Has the Final Submission checkbox feature been removed? If so, you might want to remove the text referring to it in the File Upload page.

Made some more improvements to the character behaviour. The falling frame no longer flashes when walking down steps, and the character no longer steps onto the lowest step momentarily when walking away from in front of the steps.

Made some nice backgrounds for the menu screens, and found an appropriately themed font. Created some more decorations, and added a few more levels plus something to see at the end. It's looking pretty good!