The "properties" file format I used for Tiny Parallel Worlds was enough for the 48-hour game competition, but for the sequel I need to be able to do more.

I've come up with a (probably un-original) file format which is basically a heirachical properties file, using indentation for relationships. I call it...

TOML
(Tom's Ordinary Markup Language)

Here'se a taste:

house
 window
  width=100
  height=90
 door
  colour=green
  handle
   material=metal
 roof
  colour=red
 chimney

So far I have a Parser to read it, and a Transformer to transform the nodes back into a file. The last step is to write some sort of Evaluator to evaluate certain expressions (similar to XML's XPath).

Because of the simple nature of this format, its easy to code myself, and really easy to read.

Why not XML?

XML has a header, nodes, attributes, namespaces, and text all in between. It's full of garbage slashes, quotations, and especially end tags. I don't need those things, so I'm doing my own thing

Why not YAML?

To be honest, i thought it was the solution to all of my problems, but after reading up on it, it seems to have similar issues as XML... I just want plain old nodes, with a key and possibly a value

So now that the file format is almost out of the way, next up is loading a level from it!

Wow, this Ludum Dare competition was great fun. The community is so amazing and supportive, and I love seeing what other people do with the theme.

This time I exceeded my expectations, and got in the top 10% for both the "Fun" and "Overall" category

The original game wasn't very long, and I've had some great feedback.

Here's someof those comments:

Here are the features I intend to add:

1. Larger levels (only slightly) 128x128 instead of 100x100
2. More levels
3. A better story
4. Better definition of solid surfaces (see concept)
5. A New name (maybe)
6. Better sounds
7. Some sort of music
8. No dangerous fire in the red guy's home
9. Checkpoints/ Savegames
10. A nicer menu
11. More hints 
12. Additional mechanics (explained below)

In the original game there were 3 basic mechanics

• Door-and-Key
  The whale needed krill, the doors and gates needed keys, the trees needed an axe
• Gear
  The fire armour was the only gear in the game, require to walk through fire
• Zombies
  Very basic NPCs that walked back and forth

Right now I'm planning to add these:

• Items and Sockets
  Things that need to be picked up and placed at a certain point to trigger something. These points should be clearly marked
• Optional Signs
  The 'signs' in the original were a bit annoying. The optional ones might only pop up one, and have a key to read them again
• Combat
  This would be an addition to the gear. e.g. a sword could kill zombies
• Improved water mechanics
  In the original, water was really just a giant ladder. An floating, and an oxygen meter could make it more challenging
• Moving Platforms
  Everybody likes moving platforms

Here's a screenshot showing the art style, and a possible knight & princess storyline (with a twist of course)

Here's the timelapse video i recorded while working on my entry. The screenshots were taken every 2 seconds, which adds up to 24430 frames and over 4.5GB of jpegs (and some pngs)

I'd put annotations throughout the video, but I'm lazy, so I just did a few at the start

My Ludum Dare 48-hour game competition entry was a pixel platformer. This technique allowed me to rapidly create unique levels that would otherwise require some sort of map editor.

Each level was 100x100 pixels, but magnified 4x so that it would better fill the screen. The levels are made up of 3 different layers:

• The background (top third of the image)
• The foreground (middle third)
• And the "hardness" layer (the bottom third)

The player is drawn between the background and foreground layers, and the sprites would either be drawn between these layers too, or in front of everything. The hardness layer uses 3 different colours to specify what sort of pixel it is:

• Black - solid, used in walls, floors and ceilings
• Grey - semi solid, used in ladders, some floors near stairs, and water
  You can walk on or through it, or press jump to move upwards, and you press down to move down
• Any other colour - not solid

There is the possiblitity of adding more types such as "destructable", water, slippery or lava, but i did not have enough time to implement them during the competition.

Each time the player would move, the game gets the colours of the pixels behind the player's new position, and it determines whether or not the player can move that way. This could potentially be used for NPCs as well (the zombie didn't do this)

The Ludum Dare competition entries closed just a few days ago, and now its time for testing!

It's great to see how others interpret the theme "Tiny World", and what type of art style they go with.

I've tested 8 games so far and am enjoying it

You can join in on the playing and rating by signing up (you need an account) on http://www.ludumdare.com

Play it Here

Or rate for it here (I think)

I’m halfway through, and here’s what I’ve got so far:

Tiny, isn’t it? Don’t worry, you’ll be able to upsize it.

This time I decided to go with a Java Applet, rather than asking users to download a jar. I’ve got to have it tested on other computers this time, as my last entry had a few deployment problems.

I’ve got myengine running nicely, and the actual level mapped out on paper (it looks like there will be 9 tiny worlds). I think I’m up to where i want to be with this one, including the 12 hours i’ll miss while sleeping Sunday night/ working Monday morning (Australia time)

I purchased a new SSD (120GB Intel) and HDD (2TB WD) the other day, which called for a fresh install of Windows 7

I thought it might be interesting to share the order in which I installed applications

1. Google Chrome
2. AMD Video Drivers
3. Java Runtime Environment
4. Minecraft
5. Adobe PDF Reader
6. Notepad ++
7. Paint.NET
8. IntelliJ IDEA

I also plan to install a Linux distro, but I haven't yet chosen one

I decided to have a quick practise for Ludum Dare. The plan is to release it as an applet, but also available in a jar.

I didn't have time to applet-i-fy it in the last competition, which made it slightly harder for users to play (there was also a bug in it)

Here's a quick idea i put together: