Theme is "Mad Science". Dam... Tough one...

I spent half-day trying to think of idea for this challenge. Below is what I have managed to think of. It is going to be RTS.

Main problems:

- I need art. I am doing solo, so I need to paint them myself.
- AI. I need to make computer play RTS against human. I have never done that before.
- Fight field. Should I make it with squares? Should I make it with hexagons? Decisions, decisions. And implementation...
- Time limit. Maybe this is too much for me?


Type

RTS (Similar to Heroes of M&M fighting mode)


Plot

Angry Ninjas and Santa Clauses suddenly came from another dimension. They attacked our planet. These sneaky killers... It must be stopped!

The most respective scientists have been summoned to solve unsolvable puzzle: "How to stop this madness?". After a lot lot calculations only one solutions was proposed.

The only hope for humanity is to construct robotized army of dinosaurs. You will be general who will lead this army to defend our planet. You are our only hope!

Ok... Ok...

I was half-drunk of thought about me being such a genius last night. Idea about ninjas and Santa Clauses was epic - nobody can argue that. But today while I was trying to paint characters and I understood that I there is no way am not going to make it in time. So goodby my dear robotized dinosaurs...

Instead I am going to do a stupid game about protons and electrons. Player will need to construct atom with different count of protons and electrons. And shoot that atom into enemies (red rectangles). Direction of movement will be affected by negative and positive fields (Left '-' and right '+').

Art is almost ready (I don't like the color of electrons):

I was planing to do this entry with kivy. The main problem - I have never tried kivy before...
So, today I have wasted a lot of time and finally jump ship to pyglet.
What is done:
- pyglet + pymunk

... It renders some graphics and it has some interaction (via keyboard), so by definition it is a game. Very, very, very bad game, but game nonetheless...
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnnT01pHrjU
Repository: https://bitbucket.org/petraszd/pyweek-14

I have added enemies. I need to slow every movement and reduce enemy generation rate.

Currently gameplay and game feel sucks... But I believe I can fix it (at least a little bit) just with reducing speed. I think It could introduce some tactical gameplay aspect.

I will try to test this hypothesis tomorrow, because tonight my eyes are closing down as I write this.

Video WIP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLZ6kkB5qPQ

One day to go. Another coding during the night session... Warm rain outside really helps to feel the melancholic vibe...

I need to add music, sound fx, menus, scores etc. In short: it needs polishing, but it looks that I will manage to make something of it. It feels that it may become half-decent small game.

I have added free subparticles (Electrons (-) and Protons (+)) - it somehow makes gameplay more chaotic (mad?) and more fun (at least for me).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tlixmHjz0Q

It is all over. It was nice trip this pyweek. I hope my game will not crash and all of You will going to find none of bugs I probably have left in my code.

Video preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tlixmHjz0Q
Source code: https://bitbucket.org/petraszd/pyweek-14

Earlier this day I was walking down the room, flexing my biceps and half-screaming: "I am god of python!"... Because for a while I was co-winner of this pyweek... Thanks for misunderstanding in calculations...

Realization that I am at third place was best ego reducing therapy in last year, I think...

And third place is wonderful too. I remember playing "Mechanism" or "The FInal Huzzah" and thinking: "damn -- my game sucks...".


Things I have learned:

- I not am a god of python...
- Art is important
- The only things I can paint are simple geometric figures
- Music is important
- Do not fear to erase all progress and start over (Dinosaurs and Santa Clauses...)
- It is sad but it is safer (less DNW) to make game with pygame than with pyglet
- pyglet is still awesome
- I have trick you (players) with best scores to think my game is better than it is...


Future:

I need to go mobile for sure. Controls are perfect for touch screen. I need to port this game to android and maybe HTML5. I have no mac or idevice -- so no iOS port.