What I did this weekend!

So, I’ve been working on numerous projects lately.  The upcoming Frostval releases and next week’s CMC are two I can talk about, and there are several more.  I’ve been so busy, in fact, that I’ve missed a good part of the Holiday season and didn’t get shopping for presents until far, far too late in the game.  Good thing for express shipping!  

So what did I do the last weekend before I leave the Underground Lab for first my homelands in PA then the great city of Chicago to meet Alina’s family for the first time?  Finish up some project or another to get ahead for the busy week to come?  Wrap presents?

I made a game in 48 hours.  From scratch.  With no help.  Artix and I entered a competition whose goal is to create an entire game in 48 hours based on a theme (DISCOVERY) provided at the start. 

Why would I ever do that?  For fun. 

Sometimes I have a weird idea of fun.

But sometimes, with the massive todo list I have, it’s nice to take a step back and produce something self-contained that isn’t just a piece of what feels like an unfinishable puzzle. 

So Friday Night at 9pm, after I finished the DF Release, I ran home, set up at my home desktop and started to work in a caffeine induced fervor.  Which was considerably more helpful then Artix’s caffeine deprived fever, which he realized he had only just before the competition started.

So the weekend was full of half-started ideas and rapid coding for those of you who follow my Twitter, you got to see all of it in an incredibly fun live stream of my desktop, as well as got to play the different versions along the way.

48 hours after we started, we both have not unredeemable games for submission.

Play My Entry:

CMT : Code Monky* Trials

Play Artix’s Entry:

Doom Cauldron

I also produced a cute little monkey.  I’m no artist, but I like the little guy, even if (according to Alina’s helpful photoshop along the way) he ate my face. 

* Hey, it was something like 4am Saturday night when I made the title menu… I like it enough to keep the typo.

Overall, it was a really fun experience, and I'm glad I had those of you who watched the process to cheer me on! It was great reading your comments and feedback on Twitter and in chat.  If you've got an idea for a game, competitions like this are a great way to make yourself sit down and produce something playable.

Alina just IM'd me this to add in, because she is procrastinating making the database entries for the surprise shop tomorrow.**

Codemonkey got up, got coffee, codemonkey went to work.
Codemonkey made a new videogame, codemonkey didn't shirk!
Codemonkey had many players cheering him on, they gave him much support.
Codemonkey wants to say thank YOU, for helping to see him THROUGH,
Codemonkey thanks you. 
Codemonkey thanks you!

** Whoops! Not a surprise anymore, I guess. Oh well.  You won't know what it's for until tomorrow! :D