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Ingemar
20-01-2012, 08:48 AM
One week from now, the Global Game Jam takes place all over the world. Any PGD developer who will participate? Myself, I am hosting the local GGJ here in Link??ping, Sweden (most likely small, it is the first time). I can't hope for many FPC coders to show up here, though.

http://globalgamejam.org/

http://computer-graphics.se/gamejam/

Stoney
20-01-2012, 10:30 PM
I'm gonna be in Munich for Global Game Jam. I did the entry last year in FreePascal with my engine, I'm not quite certain if I'll use FreePascal this year as well, it depends on the team (I was the only coder in our team last year) and the game idea.

Ingemar
21-01-2012, 02:52 PM
I'm gonna be in Munich for Global Game Jam. I did the entry last year in FreePascal with my engine, I'm not quite certain if I'll use FreePascal this year as well, it depends on the team (I was the only coder in our team last year) and the game idea.
Nice! I thought I couldn't be the only one. What do you think about the Game Jams? What makes them work, what makes it a creative environment?

It will be the first time for me, so it is both exciting and a bit confusing. (I am responsible for booking but I co-host with people with multiple Game Jame experience.)

Stoney
22-01-2012, 03:31 PM
I'm a big fan of any game jams whatsoever. I think the advantage of real-life game jams (as opposed to virtual ones like Ludum Dare) is that to you are in team and there's a lot more pressure, you can't really afford to give up. Another factor is that you have to make decisions within a few minutes max and stick with them as you don't really have time to completely scrap ideas and start from scratch.

Ingemar
23-01-2012, 07:58 AM
Sounds like I am on the right track then. :) I have done small quick projects a few times before, usually with one more person (which I think is important, you need a discussion partner as well as someone that can take on some tasks that you don't have time for) but never with larger teams and not teams formed like in GGJ.

I am not sure what kind of team I will want, one where I do the programming or where someone else does, or I make a boardgame instead... but as long as I do something, I think it will be fun.

Ingemar
27-01-2012, 08:20 PM
Now I am at the Game Jam and I just don't know what to do. Without a single FPC (or similar) programmer around, I have nobody to code with. I won't code in C/C++ for fun, that simply isn't fun. The guy I hoped to work ideas with went home. :(

Ñuño Martínez
28-01-2012, 05:45 PM
I didn't know nothing about this Global Game Jam. But I don't understand: What does "not virtual" means?

Ingemar
28-01-2012, 08:36 PM
I didn't know nothing about this Global Game Jam. But I don't understand: What does "not virtual" means?

Groups physically in the same place.

But for me it isn't very fun. I just don't know if I care to finish. I did have a playtester today, that was fun, but otherwise I am all alone. Not much of a "jam" then. I could have joined a group that is doing one of the ideas we came up with in my brainstorm group, but then we would be three programmers, all with different languages, and... I think I would code past the others in no time. I could have finished that game in the first evening. (Hey, I use FPC! Much faster.) And that would just spoil the fun for the others. So... I went for other goals, alone. I made a partial prototype yesterday, but couldn't see the fun. Today I made a boardgame instead, a strategy game. It works, it was actually pretty fun in the playtesting. But what's the damn difference whether it ends up on the GGJ server or in my drawer? None that I can see. I'll bring it to a game convention instead.

Sorry if I sound negative, I am a bit tired.

Stoney
29-01-2012, 01:27 PM
We finished a game: http://globalgamejam.org/2012/dr-moebius-vs-world It's not in Pascal though, we used Game Maker (so indirectly Delphi for the Windows version ;) ). I did the art for the game. The game is actually quite hard (almost impossibly hard and very unforgiving), there is also a HTML5 version here: http://spellmaker.de/ggj/

@Ingemar: I don't think doing the jam alone is a good idea. Were there no graphics or sound guys or gals that you could help you out with your game?

Traveler
29-01-2012, 03:04 PM
That's a nice little game, Stoney. It's annoyingly hard, but at the time you still want to go on and try again, and again... and again.....




and again.....


good job!

Ingemar
29-01-2012, 09:01 PM
@Ingemar: I don't think doing the jam alone is a good idea. Were there no graphics or sound guys or gals that you could help you out with your game?
The few graphics&sound guys quickly dried up, since there were more programmers. That made the first evening pretty bad. Yesterday was better, thanks to a playtester showing up. And this third day got a bit better still and I ended up programming a simple game from scratch in the last 6 hours, with two more people helping with graphics and discussions! So in the end, the Game Jam result was one board game and one computer game, plus a graphics demo I made the first evening (but had no good game idea for).

So the real game jam was the last six hours due to the problem of forming teams with mostly programmers around.

Ingemar
29-01-2012, 09:24 PM
We finished a game: http://globalgamejam.org/2012/dr-moebius-vs-world It's not in Pascal though, we used Game Maker (so indirectly Delphi for the Windows version ;) ). I did the art for the game. The game is actually quite hard (almost impossibly hard and very unforgiving), there is also a HTML5 version here: http://spellmaker.de/ggj/

Looks nice. I wish it was in FPC, and for the Mac of course.

Super Vegeta
30-01-2012, 10:57 AM
Hey. I took part in a local edition in Krak??w, where I currently study. We did a game in C++, basing on Qt, using Chipmunk for physics, FMOD for sounds and drawing in OpenGL (http://globalgamejam.org/2012/panzer-sushi-knight). Since my C\Cpp is rather poor, I didn't really do a lot of coding - only some simple tasks, plus I took care of sounds. But other than that, the whole event was quite fun. It was nice getting to know all the people, plus the atmosphere was really cool.

Ha ha, yes. I thought to myself - for the next GGJ, could try making an engine in pas and then just use it to create something nice. :)

Ingemar
30-01-2012, 05:40 PM
Hey. I took part in a local edition in Krak??w, where I currently study. We did a game in C++, basing on Qt, using Chipmunk for physics, FMOD for sounds and drawing in OpenGL (http://globalgamejam.org/2012/panzer-sushi-knight). Since my C\Cpp is rather poor, I didn't really do a lot of coding - only some simple tasks, plus I took care of sounds. But other than that, the whole event was quite fun. It was nice getting to know all the people, plus the atmosphere was really cool.

Ha ha, yes. I thought to myself - for the next GGJ, could try making an engine in pas and then just use it to create something nice. :)
Isn't it a pity when PGD coders have to use C++ for GGJ? Or make graphics and sound when you want to code?

BTW, why did you need QT? Maybe there are windows and menus that I can't see in the screen shot? Those flames/lava effects look pretty nice, I suppose they are algorithmic?

Super Vegeta
30-01-2012, 10:36 PM
We used QT mainly because our team was kinda gathered from leftovers (we didn't know eachother before) and had an OS problem - we had two computers with Linux, two with 64b-Windows7 and one with WindowsXP, so we had to use something that was portable. Qt was proposed by one of the guys; we all agreed, as it is quite a big framework and offers a lot of features.

All gfx is done in OpenGL; I don't know it (that was also one of the reasons I didn't really have much to do... Gotta try learning after the exam session), so I can't really tell much. I think they are either shaded circles or circular sprites (with alpha decreasing from the center). As for their behaviour, all physics is done by the Chipmunk lib - in case of lava, it's simply a lot (1k when project begun, later reduced to 700-800 to combat lag) of equal-radius balls. If you were really curious, I think there is a .zip with sources attached.

Ingemar
31-01-2012, 12:57 PM
If you were really curious, I think there is a .zip with sources attached.
I am always curious, but a lot more curious when it is FPC code.

I was a bit surprised about Qt, since that is more for GUI than games AFAIK. SDL would have been more expected.

paul_nicholls
01-02-2012, 12:13 AM
I am always curious, but a lot more curious when it is FPC code.

I was a bit surprised about Qt, since that is more for GUI than games AFAIK. SDL would have been more expected.

I guess they needed a GUI too LOL

pstudio
01-02-2012, 04:00 AM
Just FYI Qt is more than just a GUI library. It includes OpenGl support, a cool 2d canvas system, a signal & slot system and a scripting system as well just to name some features. If you want to write a game in c++ Qt wouldn't be a bad way to go imo. I know Qt is known as a GUI library primarily, but it actually offers much more. I was impressed when I tried it out a few years back. Some of it features would be nice if they were included with Delphi/Lazarus.

paul_nicholls
01-02-2012, 04:13 AM
It's a shame that the Qt library is rather bloated, and a heavy download :)

Super Vegeta
01-02-2012, 11:26 AM
Yep, a full Qt for Windows pack is a 1.6GiB download. <rotfl>

paul_nicholls
01-02-2012, 11:28 AM
Yep, a full Qt for Windows pack is a 1.6GiB download. <rotfl>

haha! that's a 5 minute download.....kidding!! :D

Ingemar
03-02-2012, 08:47 PM
we used Game Maker (so indirectly Delphi for the Windows version ;) )
BTW, it should be indirectly FPC for other platforms.

Stoney
04-02-2012, 12:24 PM
BTW, it should be indirectly FPC for other platforms.
I know, but only for Mac, not the HTML5 version. :)


Looks nice. I wish it was in FPC, and for the Mac of course.
I'm actually thinking of doing this... or at least use the graphics for another FPC game project.

By the way, all graphics used in the jam are available on my page under the CC-BY-NC license: http://www.freeze-dev.com/2012/01/global-game-jam-2012-art-assets/
I also did a post-mortem about my experiences about this year's Global Game Jam: http://www.freeze-dev.com/2012/02/global-game-jam-2012-post-mortem/