So after my first (almost) 30 days of learning lisp, I have a playable game. The gameplay is a cross between tower defense and orbient. You control a planet-base (the core) in the center of the screen. This core comes equipped with one weapon, the core-blast. Enemies are generated at the edge of the screen, in the spawning-belt, and are drawn toward your core by gravity. When enemies collide with the core, the core looses life. Life is displayed as a green outline around the core and when your core is out of life, it explodes. When an enemy dies, which happens either by colliding with your core, being hit by a blast or being thrown past the spawning belt, you gain resources. Resources are displayed by purple boxes in the upper left. You can spend these resources on extra cores and weapons in the weapon-store, which is displayed in the upper right. Below is a screen shot of the game in action.
A lot of work still remains to be done, but I hit the 30 day deadline with this first draft. Luckily, the contest hosts have extended the due date to August 10th. By then I plan to fix some bugs, add more weapons, enemies, a game-over screen and do some optimization. I feel accomplished after learning lisp, though I know I’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg and have found my new favorite language. To the hosts of the competition, thanks! You guys have made me a better programer.
The source to the game is here and you can download and build the game as you please. Send me a message with your thoughts on my game or my code!