My preconceived ideas for this PyWeek were a platform game of some sort or a sprite related experience. Couldn't fit anything along those lines into the theme so a clean slate - more in the spirit of PyWeek I suppose :-) 

A few Googles on the theme led to Mars which seems a common destination for this PyWeek. I put together a skeleton app then started work on a landscape generator just to get busy - midpoint displacement etc etc. I had hoped an idea would have popped into my head. Nothing. So kept busy with some graphical bits and bobs. Combining the sky effect with a pseudo 3d drawing of the landscape seemed to work so I tried having a character in there and added a few movement keys. It worked and the green block can walk on Mars though not quite as bouncy as John Carter.

So day one over and I don't know where this game is going but actually feels much more immersive and interactive than my last effort. Marscraft? :-)

At first I thought today was a bit of a washout for progress but turns out not too bad for a Monday if all the little fragments are combined. I read up on Mars on Wikipedia, toyed with a bit animation for a bug creature (no screenshot), added some more movement to the player and created a scalable tripod bad guy (who looks like a table!). Biggest job was adding the front and left faces to the blocks forming the surface and getting them drawn fast and in the right order (right to left, back to front etc).

Still not sure on gameplay or even what the hero will look like but there's time. :-)

Hopefully I can shake off this cold and have a good session tomorrow!

A quick diary entry tonight... Started off fixing the rendering so that the player (green thing) was drawn at the right time to appear 'behind' objects. Tweaked the terrain colours then started on tonight's main task of putting the 'demo' code into the real game structure. Player now has health and can pick up objects - currently only a health boost. To finish off, I quickly added a ray gun (purple rectangle).

May not get much done tomorrow other than ideas whilst cycling the commute :-) Need some goals for the game... Maybe the trip to Mars wasn't the only One Way Trip!!

Probably less than 2 hours coding today but that was expected. Not many visible changes for the daily screenshot but there are multiple first aid boxes today! Some behind the scenes work organising the code and getting the Health bar set up. Code is a little messy in places and my variable names are really bad.

Spent some time on firing - thought of doing just a flashing beam but a travelling bullet is more visual. Difficulty in this game is making it move when the player moves e.g. a shot going right will move back the player moves SE. Turns out it was not too hard.

One little bonus today was I found I was updating at 4FPS. Changed that and my bullets flew a lot faster!! Tomorrow will be shooting in multiple directions and having something to shoot at.

Still not clear on the games ultimate goal - thinking about it...

Today was graphics day! Not heaps of time but hey that's PyWeek... Screenshot shows the unfinished Martians and the orange dash on the right is the players shot disappearing off screen. Also improved the title screen with a giant version of the player. Currently the player has 2 states of standing and a raised arm to fire right. Should get onto the other directions tomorrow once collision detection is take care of. Big question - how many tentacles should a martian have? Anything more than 3 and I think they will look like trees :-)

Overall a fairly good night on the game considering the (worthy) distractions and lingering cold. Started off with a little more work on the main character so they face 4 directions and are able to fire the ray gun in 4 directions. Moved that back to a beam weapon - just being realistic about time on that one. The Martians were tweaked and there is a horizontal 'dead' version of them too.

Plans for tomorrow are to get the ray gun to kill the upright Martians, making the Martians move and harm the player somehow. Add the tentacles too. Would be good to get the tripods in there - maybe just for show. 

Sound is the last bit - have a title screen track downloaded that suits it well. If all that is complete - perhaps add something more than survival as a goal.

First screenshot is the title screen work in progress and the second is in game. Hope I feel better tomorrow and have a good last session :-)

It's all over! Finishing up early - feeling rather lousy with this cold so want to relax :-)

It's been interesting. it's been fun. Learn't a good deal. Game is playable though there's not much to do other than rack up a big high score. Some good ideas not realised. There's some useful bits of code, which could rescued from the of lines and lines of code jam rush-jobs and used in other projects. Hit some horrible bugs which required real perseverance to resolve today. Was nice developing in Linux using Geany and Python 3.

Will upload tomorrow. Well done to all those who took part! Off for a celebratory cider :-)