Thanks to everyone who tried and commented on Outlawn -- the comments are very useful. I certainly agree that it lacks, and needs, a real game. I might try to add one for the pyggy competition -- not sure yet. (Maybe the current code will evolve into the level editor for that, as well as part of the engine.)

In the meantime, now that judging is over I can release a few minor bugfixes and new features that I added after judging started. So here is version 1.1 -- enjoy!

Notable additions and changes (see CHANGELOG and README for details):

• maximum timestep, and other provisions to mitigate physics bugs on slower machines
• shadows under balls (might require avbin to load a texture image, not sure)
• hills can be made taller, holes deeper
• 'C' and 'G' keys are now toggles -- no need to hold them down
• terrain heights and colors (and enemy balls) can be saved/loaded
• other minor bugfixes (e.g. in control of buddy balls), debug options, ui tweaks

This entry exceeded expectations: I didn't expect first place by a long shot. Thanks so much to everyone who played the game. Congratulations to the other high scorers! I'm especially surprised to do well because I found the individual competition particularly strong this time: pymike, syntaxglitch, cyhawk, and gcewing all made amazing entries. Be sure to check them out if you haven't yet. I don't think I'll be able to pull this off again, so I look forward to losing to them next time! :-)

I hope to work on this game some more! All further developments will appear on the Pyggy page.

Now for response to comments. First: bugs. It's apparently possible to lock up the game, which is something I never saw. The lesson here is: try as hard as you can to break your own game. Jam keys, click wildly everywhere, whatever it takes. Also, the game crashed for one person who must have had an older version of pygame; I used a feature new in 1.8.0. I'll be sure to make it check for the version and output a more helpful error.

Show covered area any time you click the 'Build Star Plant' wouldn't be better ?

That's how it is now. Maybe you meant, show it all the time? I'm not sure what's best.

I found it quite boring to be honest

Didn't seem to be an object to the game or any conflict.

it would have been nice to make more use out of things like the cannon

the (last?) level is too hard - The on ewith the UFO attacking your main-plant.

All true. I feel like I have a lot of work to do as far as the level design goes to make this a fun game. I hope to have some rich strategy by the time I'm done, but I think it's going to be a lot of work, as I said in my last diary entry.

Also, the autobuild type function for the starflowers was nice but it would have been good to have something similar for fertilizing.

Spot on. If you look in the code, you'll see that this was half-implemented and triaged.

fantastic ending

Nice ending

wonderful, except... the very end.

Ah great, I was adding the ending last-minute, and I'm glad I decided not to drop it. (You can tell the ending screen was shoddily drawn.) But I feel like the ending makes the whole rest of the story worthwhile. Plus, the title foreshadows it, if you know what "pan" means, and how often do you get to use foreshadowing in PyWeek? :-)

In response to all the positive comments: thank you! I'll leave it at that.

Thanks again to richard, the community, and all the judges! See you in PyWeek 9!

Well that was fun!
Lots of great entries and some good feedback (that we shall incorporate into a piggy build) The only disappointment I have is only getting 15 people to try our game...Ill have to figure out how to get more people interested enough..
Anyway, cant wait until next time!

Following is a quick walkthrough of the game, in case you get stuck at some point. Close your eyes now if you don't want the spoiler (select the text to reveal the spoiler).

1. Call your mum, by clicking on the phone, then on the photo on the kitchen counter.
2. Your boyfriend has now produced some keys, which you can use to unlock the kitchen cupboard.
3. Flush the pills you find in the cupboard down the sink.
4. The disappearance of your boyfriend means you can now examine a yearbook on the bookshelf.
5. Call your friend, by clicking on the phone, then on the yearbook.
6. Give the coat to your friend, by clicking on the coat, then on your friend.
7. Take the kite outside, by clicking on the kite, then through the door.

That's the end of our short (but hopefully puzzling) game! You can click past the final screen to play again if you like.

After seeing Woodwolf's trailer of Lawn Fairy I tried to make one too.

Watch it!

jimbob made a concept screenshot of what he thought the game should look like:

http://claw.omgcats.com/~myke/dump/bob/lawn-screenshot.png

guess that's what you normally do before the compo, heh. i might redo the game with this look, although it'll probably be in flash.

Sorry for re-posting this video. I just realized I added it as a message, instead of a Diary Entry... I just wanted to have everything together :)

I have been planning additions to Rose Ninja for Pyggy.

Here's what I've been thinking of doing:

-Completely redoing graphical assets (Making characters and terrain look better, mostly)
-Possible elimination of wall-jumping (It didn't really work all that well, so I may dump it, or at least make it less of a focus)
-Sloping terrain
-Proper backgrounds (Not just filled-in with blue)
-Multiple playable characters (Not sure how many)
-Multiple enemy types (Also not sure how many)
-More sophisticated enemy AI (Something that's a bit less ruthless)
-Additional tilesets (Such as a forest or cave tileset)
-Additional terrain types (Such as water and ladders)
-Bosses (Maybe 4 or 5 of them)
-A "Commander Keen"-style world map (With some added things, like battles with wandering enemies)
-An actual HUD (Rather than a bunch of text)
-A menu system
-Save-game support
-A level editor (That also edits maps)
-Music and sound (The former done in LMMS, the latter probably from FreeSound)
-Customizable controls and joypad support
-More efficient level loading (The current level loader is way too slow)
-Refined combat mechanics (It's good now, but I can make it better)


This is a tentative list, but I don't exactly have a busy schedule, so I should have lots of time each day to work on it.

Anyhoo, that's the list of features that I have planned for the Pyggy release of Rose Ninja.

If anyone has any suggestions (Other things to add, things to take off, ideas for characters or enemies), I'd love to hear them!

---Akake

Going straight to the point, I'd like more Pyweeks. :)

Actually, I kind of like having twice a year Pyweeks, my suggestion is a bit different. I don't participate in Ludum Dares very often and others may know better about this (please comment if you do), but I know they have mini-LDs, which are more relaxed, unofficial LDs, in lesser scale, with no theme voting (themes chosen by a person or maybe on a discussion on IRC, I'm not sure, and sometimes they're more experimental) and with fewer entries. Does the thought of mini-Pyweeks interest you? It's just a suggestion to have more Pyweeks; perhaps a mini-Pyweek every one or two months outside the main event. Someone more informed could tell us if mini-LDs work well and what problems they have, if they have any.

They would possibly be separated from the main site (mini.pyweek.org, maybe), because the idea of mini-Pyweeks would be a more relaxed, more experimental and more frequent Pyweek, which probably would mean lesser games not so good as the ones in real Pyweeks, and therefore it would be better to keep the games separate. As with Pyggy, someone else instead of Richard can be in charge of it so he doesn't need to spend much time on it. If there's interest and approval and the only thing we'd need is someone to work on it, I'd be up for it, but I don't mind if someone else wants to work on it.

I've noticed a few walkthroughs/playthroughs -- and so I thought I'd give a few hints for my own game.
Aafter discovering an ending, you should press 'escape' to quit. Then restart the game to play again. It will save the endings you've discovered and this will lead to other endings being unlocked.
Another quirk is that if you run the game and it exits by itself -- it prints a message to the console. After it exits - it fixes the problem by disabling a feature. You can then rerun the game to play it.

Hints and Walkthroughs

The Sign

Go up the sign and use it for a list of all unfinished endings.

"Clean Get Away" Ending

This is the main ending in the game, a complete walk-through follows.

Go to the shed and grab the screwdriver and boltcutters off the bench (use space).

Open the backdoor.

Go to the fridge and retrieve the stripey fruit.

Go up to the cat (but not too close) and give it the stripey fruit.

From the hallway go into the first room on the left and get the blue pill.

Go back outside and to the side of the house. Open the fuse box and turn the power off.

At this point someone is coming to turn it back on so you have to be quick -- run back into the kitchen.

When the message says its all clear, run into the hallway, then through the door at the top (the lounge room.)

Put the blue pill into the drink.

(Quickly) go back into the hallway and the second door on the left (bedroom)

When the message says its all clear, go back into the hallway.

After you hear a 'thud', go into the loungeroom -- the man has fallen asleep.

Get the soccer ball.

Get the keys off the man (spacebar twice)

Go out the front door.

What's in the desk in the bedroom?

A handgun.

How do I unlock the desk?

Finish the clean get away ending with the mans keys. The desk will be unlocked the next time you play.

How do I get the other endings?

The other endings are accessed by getting caught, mishandling animal waste, drinking a blue liquid, drinking a purple liquid, or killing someone.

How do I get the "speedy gonzalez" ending?

Retrieve the ball and escape in less than 53 seconds. It's definitely possible, I think maybe 45 seconds is the limit though. Hint: Drink a red liquid to run faster!