Ludum Dare 34 and a bit of a catchup
by
, 12-12-2015 at 11:45 AM (39998 Views)
Well, after a somewhat busy year, it's Christmas and I'm glad to see the site is till ticking over. Don't think I've not been checking up on the place, because I have.
A little explanation for my extended absence is in order I feel. As some of you know I was studying for a maths degree, but due to work commitments (and some other more fun things which I'll come onto in a moment) it's become abundantly clear this year that I just don't have the time to dedicate to study. So after another dismal module failure, I've decided to knock that on the head. It's been replaced however with a bit of a fitness regime as back in January in a moment of post Christmas madness I signed up to walk 40 miles to raise money for a national children's charity, so myself and 8 other colleagues started training for the walk which took place in July. The little spare time I had left was eaten with walking around the Leicestershire countryside to get fit and prepare.
The event itself was a bit of a bust for me as I picked up a calf strain about 10 miles in But the rest of the team went on to finish and we managed to raise nearly £2000 for a good cause
But the getting out and about in the countryside has spurred me on. I've bought myself a new mountain bike and I've organised a couple of trips down the river Wye. One in kayaks and another in two man canoes, both of which were amazing fun. Unfortunately though it's not all been good. A close friend was diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year and her treatment hasn't always gone according to plan resulting in lengthy hospital stays which have meant I've had to be available just in case her daughter, my best friend, needs assistance as she has her own problem which severely limits her mobility. So over the last 3 or 4 months I've been busy with that. Throw in a lot of sales activity at work and I've simply not had the time to do anything for the site or any of my other on-line activities.
I will admit, I've been a bit disappointed by how the community engine idea has died a death, and if I'm honest I was probably a bit naive in thinking that I could just provide facilities and the idea and let everyone run with it. These things take a lot of organising and as I've said, I've simply not had the time to do that. That doesn't mean I think the idea is a non-starter, I just think we may need to be more organised and structured (as some of you advised if I recall correctly). But more on that at some point in the future.
Now though... IT'S CHRISTMAS
And better than that it's Ludum Dare time. LD34 to be precise and the theme is Growing and/or Two button controls. And I'm in, with Delphi XE7 and ZenGL.
I have an idea, I'm getting the basics of the ZenGL sprite classes sorted (I'm learning it as I go, so that can't be good). I started at 2am (GMT) when the theme was announced, went to bed at 6:30am and now I'm going to be back to it as soon as I've done with this post. Here's a screenie from 4h 25min in... check out that classy programmer art
If you're taking part with and using Pascal... shall we start a thread somewhere?
Merry Christmas and Happy Jamming if you're in!