Game #1, Sokoban, required a nice scrolling tilemap, of infinite size. I spent a couple of days getting that all up and running, so that it'll do for other games, too.
But today, Game #2, Surprise!, required a different type of map.
Game #2 needs a wraparound map, so you can move from one side to the other, and carry on in a continuous loop.
This means that as well as drawing tiles where they're meant to be, on the DS's 512x512 pixel Background Layer, I also have to draw tiles...

Bug fixes already! Oh dear!
Sokoban had a bizarre map limit bug, whereby if you were off the left hand side of a small map, it freaked out, and the screen jiggled around like crazy..
..
oops!

I'm still building up the basic reusable map functions!
Had some crazy memory issues, yesterday, but everything seems ok, this morning, so it's time to move from silly map things, to actually building the game up.
Starting with a strange grouping of maptiles, I'm going to have to add crates, and a player, and get the movement up and running.
It should be pretty easy to do, though, as all the arts ready and waiting.

Yeah, I figured I'd forgotten a few things, and as Sokoban gets built up, slowly but surely, all the forgotten things are poking their heads out, waiting to be sorted.
Click inside for coder-heavy stuff.. or just grab Sokoban from earlier today and play that for a while!!

As mentioned the other day, whilst sorting out all the PRC2 stuff, I first created Sokoban for windows, using Blitz.
So here it is.
Nothing special.
<img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/soko.png">

Yesterday was spent getting Sokoban to work in BlitzBasic for Windows. It ended up reasonably well, but there's a few things that should be tweaked, including one persons complaint that bundling all 600+ levels into a single pack kinda kills the fun of it.. A dull trek through a long list of simple levels before you even touch on the slightly more difficult levels, does not a fun game make.
So, I'll split them back up into their seperate packs, and give folk a nice selectable menu system.

I'm yet to start coding anything gamewise, yet, but I've made my first start on the first game.
Gerinych over at GBATemp suggested a Sokoban clone.
Usually, I avoid Sokobans. They're kinda dull, generic and boring after 5 seconds, but there's something in Sokoban that's really useful right now.
Sokoban has a LOT of levels, and since one of the Socoder members (JL235) is making his own Sokoban clone, he knew where I'd find a whole big bunch of levels for it.
S...

This time around, every game will have it's own quickly made titlescreen.
Not wanting to spend too much time doing each one, I figured I'd get away with doing NES style titles. They're simple, but effective.
I'm deciding all this, now, because it's so much easier than having to frantically throw it all together, later on, with 10 or so games all needing to be worked out!
So, the style right now is, Title of game at the top, highscores below, and "Press Start" below tha...

For DS Development, I use PALib and DevKitPro.
DevKitPro compiles everything nicely for the DS, whilst PALib is a set of functions that makes everything nice and usable, as opposed be being a baffling chaotic mess!
However, if you try updating it, a whole fleet of incompatibilities arise, be it because of DevKitPro changing, or PALib. And, it's not just little things either. A simple PALib upgrade will mean that pretty much all of my old games start getting little breaks in them, and it...

A nice and simple game, this week.
<img src="https://agameaweek.com/completeB/2009/Storm_of_Idigidragon_20090224A.png">
Since I'm trying to decide what style Platdude Retro Collection 2 should have, I decided to try out a style in Blitz first, and see how it looks.
You might notice it's still a little Atari 2600.

I say "Project", but of course, being me, I mean projectS..
#1
PRC:2 - 0%
I'm restarting Platdude's Retro Collection from scratch, and building it up a bit bigger than last time, with nicer per-game spritesheets and things like that. Bigger = Better, usually.. .. I'll make sure that's true, don't worry!
So far the selection's getting too big for it's boots, and at current rate it'll take about 3 years to finish the project, so.. going to have to whittle it down, and remember the "K...

I'm ashamed of myself!
This site's meant to be a game a week. I'm meant to be challenging myself..
True... Making Alien Deathmatch 2 is a challenge all of it's own, but I was wanting my own special little site with it's own special little gimmick, and it'll all look a little bit worse for wear if I leave a second week without a new game...
So, let's have a rummage through Jay's directory of leftover bits, and see if we can come up with something special....

A quick update, albeit not a proper one..
If you download (URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/jnkplat08ds.zip">this new version) of JNKPlat, you can use the inbuilt editor to play around with all the nice new features I've been adding in, lately.
I've not really gotten around to building a bunch of levels, yet, though! So you'll have to wait for that.
I'll be posting a new version next week with some new packs of levels, and maybe even a bunch more new features, too!
Head inside ...

A game a week's going to be hard to keep going, so I'd like to have a nice bag of thoughts that I can pop into every now and then when the ideas start dropping off.
If you've a crazy zany game idea, now's your time to get it, if not made, then at least considered
Do keep in mind that "a game a week" pretty much reduces the complexity I can add to these things, so I'll be trying my best to simplify (See Platdude's Retro Collection!) any suggestions that ...

I'm not entirely sure who came up with this idea, but it's been roaming around the internet for the past few years.
This week's Wednesday Workshop #165 was to create a game using only one button.
So, Heck, why not!
??

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>.
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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" />

Those expecting another Saturday filled with happy retro memories have a long wait.
I took the week off!
Mostly because coding 18 games within 3 weeks takes quite a lot out of you, but also 'cos my DS finally gave up trying to hold onto the tiny shred of hinge it had remaining. (ie, it did that whole "R-trigger side snap" thing that DSLite's tend to do!)
During this week, though, I've been thinking about Galaga.
On the one hand, it'd be nice to make a tiny retro version of the Amiga...

Another week, another pile of retro-mania!
You get the idea by now, 6 extra games and the odd bugfix.
I had to redo a lot of Tetris, this week, since I'd ballsed up quite a bit of it last week! But it's all working rather well now, so you can happily settle down to a nice long game on Extreme modem and it'll now actually get faster as you head up the levels!
And the T shape's in it this week, too!
The Joust game's as good as it should be, without being much more. ...

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...

So, the first release has emerged, and I've changed the name of the collection.
It's no longer a Green Retro Collection, but instead a Platdude one.
Worry not, the games haven't changed. In fact I've even created a special page for it.
The (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?page_id=33">Platdude's Retro Collection) page lists EVERY game that's in the package.
So, that's the 6 that are in there right now, and also 2 in-development additional games that will be in the next release. I'll...

<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...

This page was updated Jan-2009
6 nice little games, all running happily on your DS.
There might be more releases in the future that I forget to add to this page, so keep your eye elsewhere on my site, just incase!

#1 - JNKPlat

JNKPlat, the DS edition was a souped up version of the classic JNKPlat games. It features "Amazing" animated graphics!