<a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=164">Wednesday Workshop #164</a> suggested we should make a game using vector graphics. I took this opportunity to remake the fantastic Dos game, Boogaloopers!
Move the ship around with your mouse, and trap enemy within it's trail. Nice and simple gameplay-wise, but a complete git to get working code-wise! Not only did I have to figure out the points that the mouse crossed the trail, but then do that whole polygon-shrinking t...

This week, Socoder's <a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=163">Wednesday Workshop (#163)</a> challenge was to create a game with Money in it.
I initially was going to create a top-down dungeon romp, but as the plan grew and grew in scale, I scrapped it and just ended up making a nice quick platformer instead!
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<img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/163_mr_money_grabber.gif">
Mr Money Grabber features you rushing through the level coll...

<a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=162">Wednesday Workshop #162</a> asked for folk to create a game with a big-ass timer.
My entry was simple.
Open a vault, Grab the loot, Run for your life, Drive to escape, have a gunfight, sorted!
All with a timer in the corner, and all played with the mouse.

I tried to keep a blog. It didn't work.
It's no surprise, though. I've never been one to keep a working active blog.
No matter, I'll try something else.
Welcome to A Game A Week.com

Puzzobomb, a mix of Puzznic and Bombs.. (For Jericho!)
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/puzzobomb_01.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/puzzobomb_01_thumb.png">
Starting with the (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=54">Wednesday Workshop base) from the other day, I decided that yes, I would build it up a bit.
 
So, I opened up the Amstrad CPC game "Puzznix" which, since I was a kid, I'd always assumed to be "the orig...

I don't normally post individual Workshop entries. They're not usually good enough to make it to single-post-worthy status!
This week's workshop is a Jericho-based "Explosive" challenge, and so I made a small puzzle game with Bombs.
It's quite an interesting puzzle game.
Take the basic rules of the classic Puzznix game, add bombs, and score it all on a Golf-style scorechart.
The game looks quite nice, nicking the "chunky" block style from Blockman, and there's so...

For starters, let me just point out that Alien Deathmatch has still been slowly updating over the past couple of weeks. It's strange that a single game has taken up so much of my time. I guess that once you find the right type of game, you're more motivated than usual.
Still, more weeks playing with 1 game = less time to get some actual new games coded.
As such, there's not really been a whole lot to report over the past week or so.
No new games, no new ideas, nothing.
I had initia...

Last year I drew some graphics!
A set of sprites and background tiles for a DS game based on the classic Alien Breed on the Amiga.
The plan fell apart soon after.
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/adlogo.png">

Not as many fun little games, this time around, but weeks 61 through 90 brought about a few changes.
For starters, Coders Workshop closed down in week 64, which meant the whole Wed.Workshop thing was without a home. Consequently, I spent most of this period building up the whole Socoder website.. from scratch.. in notepad..
<img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/065/cw.gif"> <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/084/rolly.gif">
It took a while!
So, I missed a ...

Imagine if all your favourite Arcade games were in fact Slot Machine games.
Arcade Slots reproduces a handful of games in this style. With games ranging from Frogger to Hogan's Alley, there's plenty to keep your playing.
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/arcadeslots.zip">Download Arcade Slots</a>.
<table border="0" valign="top">
<tr><td valign="top"><a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/as_pac.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/d...

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Windows

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(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/?p=70"><img src="https://jnk.homedns.org/hs2_thumb.png" height="90" width="120" />
H~S<br>Horizontal Shooter)<br>
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=65"><img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/165/cowbell_hero.gif" height="90" width="120" />

If Centipong was a simplistic looking game with added 3D, Blockman would be the exact opposite. With levels so colourful they'd poke your eyes out, Blockman comes hopping along to rescue all the Blocklets.
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_01.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_01_thumb.png"></a><a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_02.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_02_thumb.png"></a>
It'...

All of this Game Collection stuff reminds me of something.. It's time for another pack of Workshop games, methinks.
Every week at Socoder.net, there's a little game-making challenge. Create a game with the theme suggested. This collection features all of my entries from weeks 31 to 60. (11th Jan - 2nd August 2006)
As with the last pack, some of these are good games, some are ok games, and most are just experimental pap!
<img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/032/piperunners.gif"...

A week later, and I've insanely coded a whole new bunch of games!
The Donkey Kong thing didn't work out, and is so mind-numbingly dull it hasn't yet ended up in the Garbage heap. But not to worry, Racer's in there.. So that'll be keep you occupied!
I managed to fix up the Dot Popping game, so that's back in the main menus, and I also added a few others, including Pong and Tetris, since the commenters below seemed to really want to have a decent Tetris game. For referenc...

If you're following development of Platdude's Retro Collection hoping for a new batch of great games, then you're in luck! TWO great games have been added, TWO rubbishy games have been added, and ONE more game is being worked on right now, as I type this..
Games 1 and 2 are listed in the official page, the Missile Command and Extract games. Nice, simple, retro, fast and fun.
Game 3 was also simple and fast. It's the usual "Things pop up, then you tap them. You get a minute, s...

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/colbox_800.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/colbox_400.png"/></a>
Platdude's Retro Collection was first released in November 2007. Each new release will contain a handful of new games.
How many will there be in the end? Who can say!
The latest release, <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/col018.zip">Download Here</a>, contains 18 games from the list below.
Note : If you'd like to play, but don...

Having started and given up on a fair few projects over the past couple of weeks, I've decided to go back to basics. It's time to bring return to the 8-bit Tiny collection, and get things started once and for all.
So today I got working on a base program that can use a series of includes to incorporate a bunch of games. I've designed a neat collection of generic looking graphics, and started listing games that may or may not be included. I'll try to make all the games as Repeat-Play-...

Retro Remakes are holding a Top Down 2D Dungeon challenge.
Socoder are holding a Remake a Workshop Game challenge.
In a way, these two coincide, since I'd already decided to remake Greenie's Gameboy
(URL "https://socoder.net/index.php?a=15&e=94"><img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/023/greenie.gif" align="right" />

Most of my remakes seem to fall into a single category, in that they all tend to feature my character Greenie.
To be honest, I'm not sure why I started doing this. It was never something I planned, it just kind of happened that way!
Still, here's a whole page dedicated to that stupid bumbling idiot!

Green's 8-bit Tiny Collection

BlitzCoder, 2005. The 8-bit compo asked us to create games in a 8-bit style. No more than 20 sprites, all of which were 2 colors, and 8x8 p...

A list of games you can download, and play in Windows. Most systems can suitably handle most of these games, so no need to worry if you've a slow machine.
To help neaten things up, I've moved all my main Platdude games to their own (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?page_id=2">JNKPlat) page.
The (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?page_id=28">Greenie) page has become home to some of my Remakes.
You can find the best of my (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?page_id=4">Wednesday Workshop) entries,...

I decided to start a Dev diary here, for all my DS Developing. I figured people would eventually stumble across it, and start reading away at all the fun coding. Either that, or they'll completely ignore these bits, and just download the Experimental stuff like they usually do.
Either way, this is going to be a part dev-diary, part progress report, and part release schedule for all things DS.
I currently have 4 DS Projects on the go. They are Stringy Things, JNKPlat, An Alien Breed type clone,...

This week, an In-Progress experiment.
Use the flash thing on the top right of the site. Doodle yourself a little image, then click "New" which will not only start you off again, but also save the icon to a file on my site.
In the next few days I'll be collecting all the icons (and moderating them!) and then placing them into future games. They'll be used in plenty of ways, from Picross puzzles, to odd little incidental imagery.
Hopefully I'll be able to collect a fair few of them, and I'...

Week 22 of the Wednesday Workshop was <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?a=12&w=22">Racing</a> week.
The first game I attempted was a UFO Fly game, the game you see entered.. But after I'd done that, I attempted a couple more engines.
#1 was a mess, and never really got anywhere. It was a nice graphical effect, but nothing more than that.
#2 however, was a Ball Bouncing AI Racing grand prix game!
Here it is, as it sits on my hard drive. Unlike last week I ha...

"Create a Horizontal Shooter".. That was the compo rules for The Horizontal Shooter compo, over at SHMUP-Dev.. Or at least I think it was there.
I started this entry in January 2006. I know this because the game has a directory numbered 031..Since starting Wed.Workshop I've been numbering all my dev-dirs according to the number of that week's workshop!
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/shots/exp-hs.png">
Why I never finished it, I don't know.
Maybe I grew bored of i...

Sometimes you forget about games!
I worked on this game for a while, back in early 2003. The idea was to nick the whole Pokemon idea, and create a bizarre Coding based adventure game.
So, I nicked the graphics, too!
<img src="shots/exp-code.png">

While I was playing Ultima Online a lot, I decided to do a silly Ultima based comic. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it took ages to cut out and manage each of the panels of a comic, in order to make the pages look good.
As I always say, "A simple idea can always be made easier if you use Blitz to do all the boring work for you." It's a long saying, but it fits.
Hyper Llama Man lasted for 6 pages.. Not a long time, but at least I managed to pull myself away from Ultima!
T...