Developments

Yesterday I got a rejection email from "OUYA" to say that my references to "OUYA" in the game The Final Warrior on "OUYA" was enough to get it rejected from being on "OUYA".
It seems that now that OUYA are no longer OUYA, and are now instead "Razer/Cortex", and as a result I need to stop making so many references to OUYA in my OUYA games.
.. Or something to that effect.
Changes have been made and the game re-uploaded, and hopefully the new edition will be pass...

Developments

It's about time I started to retweak all those PlayJam games.
Although they're suitably working as they are, they all need a little rejigging for the newer system.
It seems the new PlayJam device is having trouble with one of my reused menu sound effects..
The tiny "blip" sound effect is less than 1kb, at only 772 bytes. It appears (And I really hope I tracked this down, correctly!) that the newer PlayJam device (FlarePlay) is having trouble with this particul...

Developments

Another day fiddling with the base code for my NewYA Monkey-X target.
Most of the issues that the FlarePlay is bringing up appear to be related to the fact that the devkit they're using is leaving multitasking games running in the background, thus it all eventually clogs up.
The actual retail unit instead does what OUYA/GameStick normally does, and closes all apps before launching the next.
As a result, *most* of the problems they were having seem to vanish whe...

Developments

I won't make you put up with the current horror show of the game's ingame music generator thing. I managed to get it "working" last night, but the difference between "working" and "not sounding like shit" are somewhat lengthy.
Instead, here's a video of the game with just the sound effects added in, and I'm sure you'll agree, it's quite an improvement.
( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6nHCA81tDEE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Developments

I think we can now safely say that SpikeDislike3's been a bit of a wet duck. I expected more from it, and I really did enjoy making it, but .. Meh, whatever.. It's hard to get noticed in this great big crazy world of ours.
I'd expect myself to be a little more disappointed by this scenario, but oddly I instead find myself thinking "OK, Now What!?"
I guess that doing AGameAWeek for so long has taught me that, whenever something doesn't work, there's still something e...

Developments

Still working on getting SoCoder back to full strength, but things are slightly easier now that GoDaddy have finally uploaded that damned backup that I asked for, about 3 days ago.
*tsk*
Now it's a case of shuffling file about, and making some nice strengthy tweaks to the site.

Developments

One of the new themes sees me playing a bit more with Monkey's Skewing. The Transform and Matrix commands let you do some weird things with sprites. I never bothered to use them in the past because it's generally hard to pull off a good effect with them, that doesn't just look like you're pissing about with fancy effects! But during SpikeDislike3 I decided to experiment with it a little.
You can see it used best in the Pseudo-3D theme. No 3D is used, and only simple ske...

Developments

Aaah, iTunesConnect.
When Invisible Munky 2 launched, the other day, I noticed something odd in my iTunesConnect pages.
Where there's usually a "Request Promo Codes" link, there was none.

Developments

Yesterday, I completely rejigged the "Bounce" of SpikeDislike.
Originally, the bounce was a simple Sine-wave, and has in fact been this in EVERY version of SpikeDislike, but this time I'm hoping to add a couple of new elements which have required a minor tweak in the usual ball bouncing mechanic.
This isn't something to be taken lightly, as I had to be absolutely sure that the end result still "felt" like Classic SpikeDislike.
At the moment it's a teensy bit fl...

Developments

Yesterday I decided to try out something a little unusual for me. I attempted THREE DEE!!!
Not "proper" 3D, of course. I'm too lazy for that!
Instead, I took the 2D game engine, added a Skew function to tilt everything at an angle, then plonked the standard graphics over the top.
I wasn't expecting the result to be playable, but oddly enough, it's absolutely 100% normal. In fact, since the engine sticks to the original 2D principles, the game's entirely play...

Developments

My laptop's been running slow, sluggish, juddery and .. generally BAD, since some time yesterday, and as much as I hunt the system, I'm struggling to find the reason why.
I think it might have something to do with Windows noticing the Mac on the network, and freaking out, thinking it's going to be replaced!
.. Acting all slow and useless isn't going to get you extra loving, Windows! Learn how to show off your skills, and act like a proper computer!!
Even as I...

Last week saw the two year anniversary of (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/2012/08/home-again-home-again-jiggity-jig/">this post), where I waffled and rambled on about my health condition. Mum suggested it was about time to write an update, so this is that!
Two years on, and although I'm marginally better, I'm still somewhat stuck in a fairly similar position.

A quest through the stars, as you beam your crew down to the planet, wander through the perilous path, and blast off in a rocket!
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Space_Rocket_Adventurers_20140819A_thumb.png"> <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Space_Rocket_Adventurers_20140819B_thumb.png">

OK, I think I've worked out most of the kinks in my papercraft arcade machine. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/2014/07/got-paper/">Previously...)
There are still a few niggly bits, most notably that top bit, where you can't quite wrestle it into place without getting gobs of glue everywhere.. And there are oodles of little white gaps everywhere, which I really oughta sort out, but if I'm honest, that's probably more down to my crappy hand-eye co-ordination at the minute. (Shaky hands makes for terri...

Occasionally, I base games upon crazy bits of coding that seem fun to play with. Sometimes games can form from odd little artistic doodles that look strange and unusual. Other times, I'll start with a sound effect, or a piece of music, and allow it to fester away until a game has emerged.
This week is different..
This week, the game's idea came solely from the stupid mock game title that randomly popped into my head.
*shrugs*
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Alien_Spind...

You wait months for a new AGameAWeek iOS game, and then two come along at once!
Apologies that these weren't posted some time last week, but they've been sat in "Waiting for Review" status for AGES!! Much, much longer than the regular "7 days" wait.

This time last year, I reattempted the game Microbes, but it didn't really work out as well as I'd hoped for. This year, I opted to give it another go, and have mixed in oodles of lovely glowyness! Seems to have done the trick!
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Disc_Blaster_20140311A_thumb.png"> <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Disc_Blaster_20140311B_thumb.png">

When I first bought my iPad, I never imagined the amount of "work" that I'd end up doing on the thing.
The fact is, it's SO much easier to have your iPad on hand, than it is a giant laptop.
That's not to say I don't use my laptop. It's pretty much an essential part of AGameAWeek. You can't exactly do your coding on iOS, so the laptop is there for the majority of the things I do, but over the course of the last year-or-so, I've found myself doing smaller bit-tasks on my iPad.
I figured I ...

I don't normally do "Postmortem" type blog posts, but figured I might as well start.
Not sure whether this will become a regular thing, or not, but I thought it'd be nice to keep track of what happens after I post each game.
In future I might leave it until a good few days have passed, but the world of AGameAWeek tends to flow fairly rapidly. We'll have to judge it as it happens.
Anyway, welcome to the newest section of AGameAWeek, where I take a look at the stats and things, to help figu...

A brand new site has just been launched.
Interview an Indie does exactly what it says on the tin.
Blog creator (URL "https://Twitter.com/g_unitt">George Unitt) sends email questionnaires to indies, and posts the replies
Simple and effective!

Forewarning : I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to finish off this week's game in time!
For one thing, it feels like it should be a little more complex than it currently is. Loads of extra stuff could be added, but I probably don't have the time to add it all in.
Secondly, however, is the current issue I'm having, health-wise. All of 2012's nastyness has left me slightly off-balance, and kinda queazy a bit. For the most part, I'm managing quite well, but this week's game..
(URL "htt...

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.

The internet is a place for trolls and complainers (like me!) who like to gripe at every opportunity.
For the most part, we tend to ignore these types, which generally means that comments sections have become largely ignored.
Here at AGameAWeek, the opposite has happened. There are apparently no trolls daring enough to even attempt to play my games! I seem to have scared most of them away.
As a result, there are no trollers or complainers here, and since those are the types that make up ...

Since I just answered this on the Monkey Forums, and created a nice little image to illustrate it, I thought it might be useful to repost my description here.
Here's roughly how I achieved the Glow effect on NeonPlat.
First, draw your sprite in a RAW form, then make a copy, make it bolder, then blur it all up a bit.
Finally, load both the RAW and the BLUR into your game, draw the Raw first, then draw the blur over the top.
It really is a simple effect, and depending on how large your...

Rather than have a bunch of different posts all over the place, as usually seems to be the case here, I thought I'd create a game-specific page and dump all the reviews onto it.
<img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/BlastTrax_Logo.png">
BlastTrax seems to be gaining a teensy bit of attention, although exactly how much of that is due to one particular reviewer bombarding me with his over-excitement, thus making it feel like there's a bunch of excitement when in fact it's only his...

@Madgarden's wonderful little retro shooter has finally been released to iOS, this week, so that's getting the Weekend Retreat treatment!
It makes quite a change from AGameAWeek's fast pacing and insane difficulty levels, as you leisurely float from side to side, gently blasting away at the bad guys!

Every Single Week

Not Good Advice

The following is not advice, and should not be taken as such.
People often ask me how I manage to do AGameAWeek. Particularly, how I manage to cram everything into a single week, and then somehow manage to do exactly the same thing every other week, without going crazy.
What follows might possibly help you understand a little more of what goes on in the world of AGameAWeek. Or it might just be a whole bunch of rambling waffling text.