Can't wait for the challenge! Right now it's at 23 hrs. 57 mins.
I'm super excited.

Oh yes, this is my first diary entry. Can you tell? :P

The theme Nine Times seems like an obscure concept at best. However, I've come up with how the theme is going to be incorporated, namely, there is a valuable resource, and you only have nine units of it. I suspect that this is going to be manifested in other's games, but what works, works.
Now all that remains is to think of a fun gameplay mechanic that uses this concept, and the *easy* part, making a game about it. :)

I've got plenty of ideas, per se: a shmup where you only have nine bullets, a platformer where you can only jump nine times, or a RPG where the battle calculations are influenced by 9*something.
Also a sailboat, but who knows how the theme can be incorporated into that.

I finally thought of a good idea. You're a cowboy and you have to bring down criminals in your Old West town. Or something like that. I'll probably make some sort of shmup. I'm really running out of time. (to think of a good idea)

Right now you're just a small 30x30 square jumping around a grass tile level.
You can shoot though. I want upgrading your gun to be a big part of the gameplay, so I might have some sort of parts system, and you get more parts from defeating enemies, or just find them in hard-to-reach places, sort of like Robot Wants or KOLM. Another thing I've implemented is that higher-capacity magazines are all multiples of 9. You start out with a magazine that can hold 9 bullets. Once you upgrade your gun this number jumps to 18, then 27, and so on.

What's a gun without something to shoot? That question is why I've decided to devote the rest of the challenge to putting as many enemies as possible into the game, including some bosses.
There will still be some platforming bits, though, unless I can get more than the 1 enemy I have right now.

I've spent most of the past few days implementing a sniper enemy. You can also sometimes jump on top of enemies to kill them if you're out of bullets, and you die if your HP is zero.

A new enemy type, the Mean Knight, has been added. This enemy chases you down if you're in range.
You also can't shoot him unless he's attacking you, or your bullets will bounce off his armor and come right back at you!
I showed my family and my mother thought it was a gorilla, so I guess it's back to the drawing board. (Literally)

My game is not nearly ready, and there's only a day and a half left in the challenge.
I'm going to make a mammoth effort today and tomorrow, and submit what I can.

TODO:

Today:

Write better HUD
Finish animation for Mean Knight
Make 4 more levels
Compose and record some music

Tomorrow:

Draw backgrounds
Make boss
Package and test game.

I'm not sure I can do all that, but it needs to be done. 

I've added MUCH better title screen and menu. Now to the rest of my todo list!
 

I finished the Mean Knight animations. Or rather, I drew a street thug and just called it the Mean Knight.
Evidently all my knights look like gorillas...

I also fixed the HUD and did a few other small things, like the ability to save your scores.

I must fight the urge to stop for today. The todo list must be fulfilled!

On we go!

*Phew* The game is at a stage of playability, and all bugs I can find have been fixed. I'm about to code freeze it once I get the sound error-checking in effect. Then there's testing and packaging to be done. The game still doesn't have a boss, but oh well. At least I finished something.

On we go.

Now we must wait and see what kind of score it gets.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read my ratings and reviews. I knew that my game would probably be much too difficult for everyone else (playing a game nonstop throughout a week will do that to you).
I also got one Did Not Work, unfortunately.

What I did right:
  Didn't spend all week trying to think of a theme. I came up with a few game ideas after the theme was announced, but Nine Times was my least favorite theme after Warm and Soft. I really didn't want to make a platformer because I'd never managed to get the physics working, but that's what I ended up making.
  Managed to get the engine done 2 days into the week. This really helped because I was free to add content and make levels for the rest of the week.
  Realized I couldn't do everything myself. I was heart set on composing music for my game, but alas, it was not to be. A day before the deadline I knew I wouldn't have time to compose music for my game, so I looked around the Internet and found some good creative commons licensed music.
  Made a legitimate title screen. This I think really helped because people didn't have to read the README to figure out how to play the game.
What I did wrong:
  Didn't include a tutorial. Just having a list of what each button does is not enough for any game. A lot of people couldn't figure out how to kill the thug or kill everything with a limited clip. Some people even said that they had to look at the code to figure out how to kill the thug.
  Didn't playtest the game on another computer. Thankfully no problems arose with this (I think).
  Didn't include customizable controls. Bad.
  Had a bad background. First, it wasn't a background at all, just a solid color. Plus, that solid color was grey. Ugh. I at least should have included a nice color if you're going to be looking at it for the whole game.
   Made it MUCH TOO HARD. Everything about my game was incredibly hard.

Now to respond to the comments:

The execution may feel a bit sloppy (movement is odd, I get stuck to walls sometimes), but I found this game more fun than I initially expected. Having nine bullets or nine hp doesn't add much to the game, though. I've enjoyed the variations in enemies and I think the levels are nicely done.  

Yeah, the movement was pretty fast. Midair wall detection was pretty glitchy too. Thanks for the comment on the variety of enemies (even though there's only 3, and spikes). I worked really hard on the enemies, and I think it shows.
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goal of the game is not clear (how to play instructions are ok, but knowing the keys to play does not mean that the goal is clear)
too difficult
Yep. There was no tutorial. Sorry. :(
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Got stuck on level 4.

That infamous street thug and his total lack of killability strikes again. Thanks for your time. :)
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Felt like a game that needed a bit more work on the game balance. The limited clip could be interesting, but too much of the game is just reflex tests, and there are no other options.

Well worded, and you are absolutely right.
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i opened the game and it crashed immediately after opening.

I'm sorry. Did you get a traceback?
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Had to read the code to figure out how to kill the "knight".

I really should have included hints...
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The bullets are almost invisible and it's really easy to get into a position where it's impossible to finish the game. I gave up when I ran into the "knight" and had to look at the code to find out how to damage him.

Ah, sorry, that knight has been nothing but trouble for everyone. Also, it was intentional that you would run out of bullets and have to restart, but it happens too much.

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Fun game! Perhaps a little fast, but that's just me. On an unrelated note, I found a bug: if the first time you load the game you exit before playing, then you can't play again :)

 

Great entry!

Thanks! Yes, I made it too fast. And yes, I know about that bug now. Thanks.

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Actually, this game has a lot of potential. Just add some polish to the highscore and menus and maybe some hints on how to kill the enemies (the one that looks like a zombie is kind of tricky). Ooh, and other weapons or weapon upgrades would be neat. Do not send the player back to the level select screen after dying - just restart the level. ;)

Yep, yup and yes. Thanks. :)

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A few more types of enemies and obstacles and a little more polishing and I think this would be a pretty cool game.

Thank you. It took me about a day to finish each enemy (2 days for the knight) but they were the soul of the game.

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kinda twitchy

Alot of people said this. Thanks for your time.

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really fun to play

I'm glad you liked it. :)

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I really like this game. I played all levels :-D A lot of fun.

Thanks. :-) I'm glad at least one person made it to level 9.

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classic game

That was the idea. Thank you!

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Clowns, Metal Gear Solid references and Street Thugs, oh my!

Heh, it was a pretty diverse group of baddies.

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It was kind of short, abrupt. I took a lot of damage from a single hit, and didn't understand some of the damage I took. I ran out of ammo before I really even did anything worthwhile. Was it meant more as a puzzle than an actioner?

It was meant to be short. I eventually gave up implementing scrolling and just made short, bite-sized levels. Getting hit was deliberately very damaging. I should have added more health, you're right.
I wanted conserving your bullets to be a puzzling component, but it was mostly meant to be a shooter.
I'm sorry if it wasn't fun for you.
Thanks for your comment anyway. :)
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I don't know what I'm supposed to do...

 

I liked all the menus, it was easy to try the game out. Thanks!
No, it wasn't very clear. Sorry. I'm happy it was easy for you to try it out. Thanks for commenting. :D

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Nice to see a good ol' fashioned platforming shooter. The physics felt a little frantic.

Old fashioned was one of the things I was going for. Thanks. :)

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too umbalanced, frustrating

I'm sorry. :(
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Controls are a little touchy for my liking, and it would be more convenient to use up arrow for jumping and space for shooting. Also I can't figure out how you're supposed to kill the guy on level 4.

You're right. I should have included customizable controls. As for the street thug, you're supposed to get close enough to him that he starts charging towards you. Only then will he take damage when you shoot him.
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That was pretty challenging. I liked the behavior of the thug once I figured it out. The controls seemed way too sensitive - I could run across the whole screen in like a second. And it was really hard to figure out how to conserve your bullets properly. It took me like 10 tries to beat the first level just because I kept running out of bullets!

I know; a ton of people had these problems. Thanks for your time anyway!
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Thanks again to everyone who played my game and reviewed it. I really enjoyed competing in Pyweek. I'll definitely be back for Pyweek #13. This was a great first for me. :D 

Also, congratulations to superjoe and Super Effective. Your games were awesome. :)