Brainstorming Thread Sticky

A topic by Internet Janitor created Aug 29, 2022 Views: 468 Replies: 10

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Internet JanitorHostSubmitted2 years ago(+2)

October looms in your future. It's time to start thinking about what kind of program you're going to write. Having a case of programmer's-block? Let's brainstorm! Have you considered:

A demake of- or tribute to- your favorite indie title?
A graphical demo that focuses on technical virtuosity instead of gameplay?
A narrative experience based on your favorite aspects of the month of October, the number 8, or the RCA 1802 processor?

...or something else entirely?

Tobias V. Langhoff2 years ago(+4)

I still haven't made an XO-CHIP game, so I'm thinking of maybe doing that!

slarfybart2 years ago(+4)

Long time lurker and first time game jam participant here! Going to start with a Chip 8 game entry - love the simplicity and legacy of this platform!

Any advice to share with this noob on successfully completing my first Octo Jam?

Internet JanitorHostSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Welcome!

Off the top of my head, a few suggestions:

Familiarize yourself with a development workflow ahead of time. For small projects, the web-based version of Octo is very easy to dive into. For a bigger project, you might want to try c-octo, which can be used from the command line in combination with your favorite code editor. The Octo github page has links to community-created Octo syntax highlighting profiles for Sublime, Emacs, Vim, Atom, and VSCode.
Try making something really simple as a warmup before the jam, like moving some shapes around on the screen.
There are a bunch of programming tips, tricks, and hazards to avoid in the Octo FAQ- I'd recommend giving it a read.
Don't wait until the last minute to submit! Putting together a nice itch page for your game can take some time, and it's no fun spending the final hours of October 31st in a panic. Posting a rough WIP earlier on can save you some serious stress and allow you to get valuable feedback from players before the final submission date. If you completely finish your idea with plenty of time left on the clock, you can always starting tinkering with a second submission...

LOUAT2 years ago

yooooooooooo

LOUAT2 years ago

what is the idea of the game

TimendusSubmitted2 years ago(+2)

I'll be working on a cool collaboration with Kouzeru! Hope I manage to pull off my part. No spoilers though 😄

KouzerumatsukiteSubmitted2 years ago(+2)

Yo, some ideas:

1. Chess game (I'm not up to this, but somebody else can do this one), and maybe with AI for the next level of this hahaha

2. Scrolling platformer, any kind of platformer, but scrolls, would make use of XO-CHIP features for smoother scrolls however

3. Nobody tried Tetris with standard rules here yet (and I'm not up to this)

4. Some sort of complex program that makes use of high level of abstractions, for this case, I'm go with raytracing.

5. Music program (I'll elaborate this later)

Internet JanitorHostSubmitted2 years ago(+2)

Many years ago I contributed some pixel art to an SCHIP chess game that was never completed. These tiles are free for the taking if they spark anyone's imagination:

I think a 1- or 2-ply search algorithm for the AI would be doable, and provide a reasonably satisfying opponent. There's also 1K ZX Chess and Nanochess as reference material.

TimendusSubmitted2 years ago(+2)

Cool! I was thinking about writing a chess game for this Octojam, but when I looked into the AI part I quickly realised that that's a bit too much for me to do in a couple of days or so. So no chess game for me this year.

I did however design these four colour hires chess pieces. Board is 64x64 pixels, squares are 8x8. So yeah, same here, if anyone feels like using these, go ahead :) An acknowledgement of my work would be appreciated, but otherwise feel free to do as you please.

Josh Goebel2 years ago

That chess mockup is awesome.

itch.io

Octojam 9

Brainstorming Thread Sticky