So it's that time of the semester again. Treeforms playing with their Pandas, eugmans (eugmen? :P) making blocks, and the screams of "Rah rah Pyweek!".

I have the habit (well, since last Pyweek :P) of writing my goals for the Pyweek before it starts, so here it goes.

• Simplicity and minimalism: Last Pyweek I had to postpone some real life work and, at least for me, making a game in a week takes a lot of effort. So the idea is not work too hard this time. I'll aim for a simple game, even though it probably means I'll get a lower rating. I'm already antecipating some real life work so I can have a more free schedule for next week.


• More planning: Planning is always good. :) I'll try to put the most I can on paper before touching the code. I have a bit of an habit to plan as I code.


• Have fun: As always. :)

Not many goals, but there it is. I'm not aiming for sound and music, though if I have the time I'll add them, and maybe give Dr. Petter's sfxr a try. I also wanted to say good luck to everyone, may the Force be with you, etc etc. :)

I said before that my goal was simplicity, but I'm already thinking of an idea that's not very easy to implement. Maybe I can find a way to make it simpler...

This time I'm thinking of something puzzle-ish involving robots. Despite its complexity, I have an idea I kinda like, though I might drop it if I think of something more interesting. (I do have a certain tendency of working on ideas similar to other people's ideas, but I'm hoping this one is reasonably unique. :P)

Well, there's still some time left today to design. Good luck everyone. :)

So I think I have a title compatible with my idea. I like it, but if I find something better, I'm switching, of course. So far, not much work has been done on the code.

So, yeah... even robots have bad dreams.

I challenge you to name as much famous games as you can that has robots in it. :)

I'll start off with some old ones: Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, pretty much every Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Battletoads, TMNT (those pesky things with that shocking whip thing). I know there's a lot more, but I'll let you continue. :)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to touch the game neither yesterday nor today, but I might have an hour or two in the end of the day today (just need to finish something else that just came up... gah).

And I am also starting to realize I don't know how to make my idea fun.

On other better news, thankfully I have a few hours of free time for Pyweek tomorrow. I'll use whatever free time I get today to chew some more on the idea and get back to coding tomorrow. There will be a game (I hope). :)

I thought I'd have some free time today, but I wasn't even able to touch the game today due to an unexpected problem. Sometimes I think the world is conspiring against me not to do Pyweek; so far I have only had one day. Therefore, there has been a change of plans.

1. Take over the world.
2. Finish Pyweek.

Now, seriously, tomorrow it's unlikely that I have much time, so I have only Friday and 3/4ths of Saturday left (if I manage to upload at the last minute, with servers down and all), and I still have a few things to do on these two days that unfortunately can't be postponed. So I've decided to scrap half my idea and start over with something simpler, so I can at least finish something. Unfortunately that means scrapping 3/4th of my (one day) work so far, but I think it's necessary.

Oh well. At least I haven't given up. Yet. (And also I need to stop whining, but I suppose that's what diaries are for. :))

Unfortunately I don't think there will be time for me to finish my entry. The game is about 70% of something playable (pretty much all graphics are done, there is a working level editor and half a gameplay, but no levels), but I won't be able to finish it in time, especially because I have stuff I need to finish today. I don't think this was a total loss, because I got to play around with pyglet. The problem was that I had a busy week and little time for Pyweek, not to mention having to rewrite the idea in the middle and consequently scrapping what I had.

Basically the idea of the game was to make one or more robots reach an exit, forcing them to move by making them be afraid of or be attracted to certain objects (they all share the same fears, so you can influence a robot to move by making another one afraid... well, it's hard to explain, but I think it could've worked).

Well, see you next Pyweek. Good luck with your entries.

Well, I thought I had given up, but I managed to finish something playable, and even make 10 (!) levels. :) It's buggy and all, but it's playable.

I'd also like to say that I won't be around for the next two weeks, therefore I won't be able to judge. So, happy judging!

Well, I was away for two weeks so I wasn't able to judge any of your games, but later I'll look at whatever looks interesting to me. There are some that really look nice.

A very short postmortem for my game. I had said that my three goals were simplicity, planning, and having fun. I failed on the first two due to enthusiasm, but I had fun, even though I almost gave up on the game. :P That week in particular was a mess regarding my free time for Pyweek, so, coupled with my slow game coding (slowly improving though), I ended up with a game that was very rushed and quite buggy. But I'm happy I ended up with a game, and even more happy that some people liked it. :) Ratings-wise I fell quite a lot, but I expected that.

This is actually the first Pyweek game I kinda want to rewrite, since I feel the idea has some potential and this version is way too rushed (ugh, I did some things in the code that hurt to type :P). It's not too likely, though, but I'll let you know if I do.

Thanks to Richard for hosting Pyweek once more, and see you all next Pyweek! Congratulations to the winners!

Reply to comments below, as usual.

---
I didn't get the concept.

Due to rushing, the game ended a bit unpolished and without enough help. Sorry.

Nice idea, but it should have been developed a little further. The user interface is kind of messy.

I couldn't agree more. :)

Good puzzler, solid construction. I got stuck, which is always a good sign with a puzzle game. :)

Thanks. :) I have no clue how hard the game is, I rushed the levels too.

Nicely done with the game! I'm impressed at the behavior and the puzzle design - it's very very good!

Thanks! The level design was a bit rushed actually, but I'm glad you liked it.

Very nice concept, loved the wifi idea! Some cool sound and music, and maybe bonus points or something for alternate solutions, and of course more levels, would make this game shine. Oh and add a tutorial :) Bug: can place more than one item on a square, if that is done it can't be erased.

Thanks, yeah, sound/music and extra features would be great, especially a tutorial. Would have put them if I had the time. Thanks for the bug report too.

Hmmm

Hmmm.

Seemed like a great concept, but the bugs were a bit much.

I'm glad you like the concept. If I had the time I would've fixed the bugs.

Nice little puzzle game - an interesting change from the usual PyWeek fare. Sadly, it ends just as it's getting interesting. Some more levels, and a little more polish and you'd have a real winner here.

Yay, someone who wants more. :)

Nice challenging puzzles! The last (real) level had me stumped for quite a while!

Thanks.

The idea is nice, and the robot is cute. The puzzles/levels get a bit repetitve, so the scor in fun is lower than it could be. But nice work

Yes, if I ever remake the game, I'll definitely add more features to make the levels more interesting.

I don't understund the game

Yeah, a tutorial would have been nice.

Cool concept

Thanks.

Bad.

Sorry.

nice idea, somewhat buggy gameplay, as you said yourself. one bug to fix: placing an item (kitty) on other (zappers), makes the other item disappear.

Thanks for the bug report.

It was great! Good gameplay and fun concept. I didn't run into any bugs (I avoided doubling things up, as suggested) and played it for a lot longer than I expected. Great work.

Thanks. :)

This game needs some spice!

I agree with that. Maybe in a future version.

Nice puzzle mechanic, good-looking implementation.

Good-looking implementation? Um, you won't want to look at the code. :P

I like it. Too bad you couldn't quit finish it. :)

Yeah, too bad. :)

I couldn't beat the first level. I did it exactly as you said in the readme, and he would never fall in love with the boot. Interesting idea, although seems very unrobotish.

That's odd. Maybe the level at that point was a bit bugged, the solution would have been to restart the level.