I’ve begun my Ludum Dare attempt. The theme is 10 Seconds and I’m going to try to make a 2D platformer where the background, and some of the platforms, change every ten seconds.
I decided to abandon Slick2D, which it turns out is dead and most of the guides and tutorials are gone. Instead I’m going to try using LibGDX. They have a lot of documentation and tutorials, and even an example platformer based on one of Notch’s Ludum Dare entries. I’ll probably base my work on that, which I’m pretty sure is legal in the Ludum Dare rules because it’s publicly available.
I’ve already hit a problem, though. I installed Eclipse and I’m trying to install the Android Toolkit. Why would I do that, you wonder? Well, it’s neccesary for LibGDX, which can deploy to Android, and some other platforms. It seems sort of like HAXE, except with Java instead of ActionScript, so that’s neat.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as the instructions instructed. I think it might be because I wasn’t running Eclipse in Administrator mode, and it wanted to create some files in a protected directory. I’m trying to get it to make the files again but it’s not as easy as it sounds…
Easy solution; I’ve barely started, I’ll just reinstall Eclipse and do it again in administrator mode.
Well, that didn’t work. Shoot. Not sure what to do now…
Trying to use the SDK Manager. Geez, this thing is trying to create directories without permission too. Why do these programs expect carte-blanche when they don’t even try to boot in administrator mode, or ask permission or anything?
Geez, I’ve been trying to get this set up for a couple hours now and I still haven’t gotten it to show the “Welcome to Android Development” dialog it said to expect in the previous step.
Oh for goodness sake, now I can’t install the GWT Project plugin. This is why you’re supposed to get your tools ready before Ludum Dare. Geez. Well, I can’t say I didn’t TRY to get ready…
Geez Gravy, I don’t even know what to do at this stage… It says it can’t install the plugin and I don’t see any other options on the GWT Project page. I’m also uncomfortably warm.
It’s a wonder I’ve been having anxiety issues the last few days as I tried to prepare myself for Ludum Dare, and now that I’m actually doing it and encountering tremendous difficulty, I’m just plugging away.
Alright, nothing is working here. I think I’m going to take it from the top again. As soon as the more basic version of Eclipse finishes downloading, I’ll head out to another place towork, and to get lunch, because I’m too warm here and I need a change of scenery.