As week one rapidly approaches, and I'm posting less and less, it's probably apparent that I'm knee deep in the middle of a mega-coding frenzy.
Or, if that's not apparent, let it be known.. I'm knee deep in the middle of a mega-coding frenzy!!
Over the past week or so, I've overhauled quite a few features of my framework, including getting things prepared for OUYA, with controller additions and things like that. I've learned quite a few little bits and pieces about controllers over the last few...

(URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/image-28-12-13-02-53-30.jpg"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/image-28-12-13-02-53-30_thumb.jpg">
Hmmm....

NeonPlat Extreme appears to be following the same path as BlastTrax, and gaining a nice bit of attention.
Knowing my luck, this will probably result in an equally similar amount of sales. ie, bog all!!
Folk seem to love my games, but getting them to try them is a bitch!!!
You can (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/GameList.php?ShowJust=311">Download NeonPlat Extreme here) for all kinds of devices!

This week, Platdude gets his first real outing for about 3 and a half years!!
Poor fella's been cooped up for so long, he's started to go a bit doolally!
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/GameList.php?ShowJust=312"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/JNKPlat_-_Xmas_2013_20131219B_thumb.png">

Welcome to the Top 13 AGameAWeek Games of 2013
No other Top-10 lists appear to want to give any of my games any recognition at all, which kinda sucks since I've made a whole bunch of REALLY great games, this year! I don't even get a token "Made a shitload of games, this year" mention!
Sucks!!
So, sod them all, I'll make my own Top-10 list.

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_128.png" style="float:left;"> AGameAWeek Gold looks back at some of the best, and worst, games that have been previously released on this day in history.
Today's game from the archive is a lovely little arena battler, with lots of weapons and things to shoot!

(URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/Accumulative_Stats_15_Dec_2013.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/Accumulative_Stats_15_Dec_2013_thumb.png">

Over on the Monkey forum, a discussion about level data set me off thinking about making this post.
Whenever I put levels into my games, I tried to keep them as small as I possibly can. I've been doing it this way for years, and always figured it's nice to compress my data into something that's easily shareable.
.. True, I rarely ever get around to actually making these things easily shareable, but for the most part I try to keep things as minimal as possible.

NeonPlat Extreme sees most of the elements of the NeonPlat series of games, all cobbled together into one great big lump sum.
There's lots of fun little things to play around with, and for the most part it's the same single-screen platforming action you've come to expect.
( width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/D1dkbggU6kU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>>
NeonPlat Extreme is now available on iOS, Android, OUYA and Windows!

(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Flakes1.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Flakes1.png" alt="" title="Flakes" width="512" height="512" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3364" />
Today, I realised I could do with some proper little snowflakes, for use as particles, and started trawling the net.
.. Then I went.. "hmmm... Might as well make a generator.."
And then I did..

(URL ...

I formally give you, and everyone else, permission to make videos of you playing my games, and then shoving those videos onto YouTube or Vimeo or whatever else you'd like to put them on.
I'd prefer to hear some commentary over my games, so I can watch them and enjoy the silliness of seeing people rant and shout, as they lose life after life in my ludicrously difficult games.
I would prefer if you didn't add any additional music to my games, but then YouTube will probably kick your arse for doing...

Sheep Goes Right, or at least a minor version of it, is now (URL "https://www.ouya.tv/game/Sheep-Goes-Right/">available on OUYA.)
It isn't finished. There's a lot more of it that I've made, and a lot more I've yet to add, but something annoying has happened in the past few days.
(URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/image-10-12-13-09-34-51.jpg"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/image-10-12-13-09-34-51_thumb.jpg">

The aim for December is to make a nice little test version of JNKPlat, and see what devices it does, or doesn't work well on.
I'm going to try my best to make Touchscreen controls work with the game, but after years of trying various methods, that's probably not going to work out.
Either way, no matter what happens, by the end of the month there'll be a brand new mini-adventure for Platdude, in keeping with his Puzzle/Platform stylings.
The Windows and OUYA editions should be fine, but And...

The Windows edition of NeonPlat Extreme has just been updated, and hopefully everything works properly, this time.
Gamepad support should work properly.. Although it's still refusing to work on my laptop, it is at least working for other testers, so .. um.. I'll just assume it's working fine!!
Music's in.. Was it in, last time? I can't remember!
There's also a few other nips and tucks, and other little tweaks, to help keep the game running smoothly.

The OUYA edition of our great big Neovember game is now available in the OUYA Sandbox.
You can grab it from the discovery doohickey. Simply search for "NeonPlat" and you'll find it.
The Windows edition will be updated at some point in the next few days, and I'll be hopefully submitting the iOS edition to Apple some time later today. There's still lots of little tweaks to do for the touchscreen controls, but otherwise it's all running nicely.
*phew* So much to do! Crazy times ahead!!

My first experience

Me and Spinal were discussing OUYA. He'd just bought one, and was trying to get Monkey to work with it.
I dared to mention OUYA in a tweet, and so was instantly followed by OUYAForum's tweetbot, @OUYAForum_com
"Nnngh. A generic bloody tweetbot. Can't these companies behave properly?" I thought, and I otherwise ignored it and carried on.

Last March I was taken into hospital with a brain tumor. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/2012/08/home-again-home-again-jiggity-jig/">There's a lengthy blog about that, here.)
Since then, although I'm "mentally" fine, I'm all sorts of physically screwed up!
I can barely stand in one spot without wobbling about, and trying to have a short stroll outside is somewhat chaotic.
In general I tend to stumble around, and can barely look around me, so have to always have someone with me incase I ra...

Yet another case of AGameAWeek Gold being strangely interconnected with other events in my life!!
Today, I posted about Star Trek Pong 3 earlier today, and it got me thinking about the even older Amiga edition.
Curiously, I also recently purchased a USB Capture device for my PC. I wanted to output all my consoles and computers through my PC's monitor. It has a HDMI port, but a Scart->HDMI device seemed a little pricey.
Being the cheapskate that I am, I instead settled for a Capture de...

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_128.png" style="float:right;">AGameAWeek Gold is our occasional glance through the archive, to pluck out some of the great games that I've created over the many years that I've been doing this.
Along the way we'll discover some great gems that I'd forgotten about, or occasionally the odd bit of garbage that I'm frankly happy to have forgot about!
Today, we take a look at a strange little Pong game!

Awww..
Nuts.
Today was supposed to be the great big release day, but annoyingly, one or two annoying issues have annoyingly cropped up.
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/NeonPlat_Extreme_20131126B.png">

Nah, not quite.
But for a fair bulk of this year, I did manage to keep up the rate.
2013's not been too bad, considering..
Towards the end of January, I finished off my new Monkey Framework, and set about coding with that.

It feels like AGES since I last posted a Sheep Goes Right test.
In fact, it's been just over a month.
October 14th was the last version, and today I'm posting a second test release.
This time, I'm releasing an APK for OUYA.

In the third of our NeonPlat Extreme tests for Neovember, we're playing against giant enemies!
Each of the "Bosses" requires three hits to kill.
Nothing massive, nothing awesome, just a screen full of great big bad guys.
You can (URL "https://socoder.net/monkey/NPETest3/MonkeyGame.html">Play NeonPlat Extreme : Test Three : Bosses) in your browser.

Karl's Tiny Adventure was created way, way, way back in March of this year.
You can (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/GameList.php?ShowJust=288">Play Karl's Tiny Adventure here).
The game was my first true test of proper "Image Data Loading", and my first proper lesson in Android Fragmentation.
Annoyingly, because different Android devices operate in slightly different ways, the Image Data Loading wasn't occurring in an accurate manner, and as a result, the level data was getting all screwed...

Neovember is a month in which I'm taking the engine from NeonPlat Raw, and playing about with it to create a bunch of different gameplay styles.
Once we're done, I'll bundle everything back into a package, and pop it up on all the different systems.
This week's experimental gameplay mode comes courtesy of Blockman. Not the hungry-pellet-eating version of Blockman, the classic platforming/collection form.
You start the game as you normally would, with you, some balls, and some bad guys.

This is a quick and simple tool to take OUYA.tv's "Unique Download.csv" file, and convert it to a raw .html file, which you can either look at and admire, or upload to a server for other folk to equally look at and admire.
This tool is only useful for folk who A) Have an OUYA dev account, and B) Know WTF it is!!!
You can (URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/OUYAStatConverter.zip">Download OUYA Stats Converter here)
You can (URL "https://socoder.net/OUYAStats.html">see...

(URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/NeonPlat_Editions..jpg"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/NeonPlat_Editions._thumb.jpg">
Click for MASSSIIIIVVVE)
Haze inquired as to why there's no NeonPlat Raw on iOS. The answer is simply because, a full year earlier, iOS got it's own special little NeonPlat.
In February 2012 (Just before my whole hospital saga!) I released NeonPlat on iOS. It featured tilt-controls, and 3 difficulty levels, and stands out as it's own special little v...