(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">

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

(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...

OK, I'll admit it, I'm enjoying the OUYA.
You can keep up with (URL "https://www.ouyalytics.com/developer/Jayenkai/">all my OUYA games here). There's currently 5 of them, and there's oodles more to come!
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/icona.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/icona-150x150.png" alt="" title="icona" width="150" height="150" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-3272" /> ...

This month is all about NeonPlat Extreme, as I slowly bulk up a minimalistic game with tons of brand new features!
Woot!
To celebrate, here's a lovely great big wallpaper!
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Wallpaper_Neovember.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Wallpaper_Neovember-1024x1024.png" alt="" title="Wallpaper_Neovember" width="590" height="590" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-3252" />
Click for massively overs...

Welcome to Neovember, the month of NeonPlat, where I take the original NeonPlat Raw engine, and gradually upgrade it, adding new gameplay elements, features and modes.
By the end of Neovember, we'll have a lovely big Extreme version of NeonPlat, and we can all sit around and play it for days/weeks/months at a time!
In this first week, I've decided to tackle the task of bringing over the NeonPlat Adventures enemies, and popping them into the new gane.
So far I've managed the first 35 enemie...

Right, time for a new plan.
The last plan fell apart, and I'm struggling to come up with new games that work with all the possible targets, nicely.
Grrr!
So, instead, I've opted to do something that I initially planned to do months and months ago.

Yesterday saw the launch of BlastTrax on OUYA.
Since I've yet to figure out all that nasty Tax gubbins (I know, I know!!... eventually!!) I've not yet managed to add any IAP stuff to any of my games.
Since an OUYA game is freely available as a download, and then the .apk gets reproduced all over the entire internet via robot-spammy-feed sites, you either have to do 100% free, or buttloads of IAP stuff. There's no mid-point, no way to create a "Demo vs Full version", or anything else like that.<...

(URL "https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/blasttrax/id689619329?mt=8">BlastTrax is currently (27th October 2013) free on the iOS AppStore)
I really do find myself in a bit of a baffled state over this one.
As the AGameAWeek guy, I'm certainly used to shrugging off failed releases, and in many ways this one should be exactly the same.
This is simply one of many releases that I've made this year, and over the course of the year, pretty much all the games have had a day or two of interest, and...

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...

Late last night, NeonPlat Raw appeared on the OUYA Dashboard for the very first time.
This is kind of a big deal, in that it's the first time one of my games has officially been released on an actual physical home-console.
True, it's not a "PROPER" console, but .. Hey, it's a box with a controller that plugs into my telly.
And it's got my games on it!

Want a nice free game to play on your tiny OUYA console?!
How about NeonPlat Raw?!
Since I'm still learning the OUYA ropes, and still trying to figure everything out, I've not yet got my whole OUYA-Dev-Account stuff fully sorted. (erk, Tax forms!!?)
So, in the meantime, we'll have to resort to throwing random crap online for free!

Yet again, my lack of forward planning has resulted in me coding myself into an awkward corner. This time with NeonPlat.
NeonPlat 1 & 2 occurred on the PC. NeoPlat exists on the DS and is features entirely different gameplay mechanics. NeonPlat Adventures takes things even further! NeonPlat Classic is on iOS and uses Tilt controls.. And then there's NeonPlat Raw on Android/Windows which uses touch/key controls, but has no moving platforms.
There's a whole lot of variety for a single game!

1I had planned to make a semi-sequel to NeonPlat, this week.
I'm not really sure why that didn't happen!
Instead, we have a nice swimming floating game, which is in no way inspired by the diving in Animal Crossing..
... AT ALL!!!!

I wanted to have made a nice big super-sized sequel, this week, but I got sidetracked.
For starters, I played a lot of Animal Crossing, so there's that!!
But that wasn't all, as this week's game took an alarming amount of time to settle into a groove.
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ssa3.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ssa3-300x225.png" alt="" title="ssa" width="300" height="225" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-2981" />...

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_128.png" style="float:right;">AGameAWeek Gold looks back on this day in history, and trawls through the Jayenkai Archive to see if I've previously released any interesting games, today, in the past.
It's like playing around with a time machine, but without the risk of destroying the entire universe, simply because you happened to sneeze near a butterfly, or something!
Today, we find two great classics.

The Amiga was nearing the end of its life cycle and my local Game store was slowly getting rid of its Amiga stuff. It was sad to find all your favourite games crammed into that little corner of the store where only the geekiest kids would huddle.
Then one day, I spotted a bright blue stripy box.
"Blitz 2.0!???
Oooh!

For the past couple of years, my birthday has been "SpikeDislike Freebie Day".
This year, that's not going to happen
The final version of SpikeDislike2 is REALLY close, but not quite close enough. SpikeDislike will be made free for a few days when SpikeDislike2 is released, in a couple of weeks time.
Meanwhile, though, my first iOS Monkey game has managed to blunder it's way through Apple's review team, and is all nice and active on th...