A more accurate title would be "Just like Windows Vista, here's a list of things I told you I'd be putting in, but haven't yet bothered to, so will be missing when I release the game.."
Except I'm one person, and have spent four weeks doing this.. Not 100 people working for 4 years...
...
*sigh* Vista sucks..

I'm quite happy with the level compression, now. Things are nice and trim, and everything's fitting into a small enough area.
So, today I'm thinking about how the server should work.. Note, I've not added the server yet, but I'm definitely getting prepared! What I've decided to do is implement an Author name and Level name directly into the checksum.
This way, when the server checks your game for new levels, it can automatically dig out the new stuff, and it'll know...

<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ad2_shot009b.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ad2_shot009b_thumb.png"></a>
An editor!
Today, I finally got around to making the editor. Starting nice and easily, I'll be adding bits and pieces as I go, so that .. hopefully.. when you get hold of it, it's not as empty as it currently is!

If you're slightly above the age of people who are still meant to be pissing about playing silly games, like I am, you probably remember Gearworks, from the Amiga/C64 era.
I don't know why, but the game suddenly popped into my head, this week.
So I made a quicky clone.
It's not perfect, there's loads missing, and there's no editor in sight, but as a testbed for my still growing 2D-in-3D engine, it does the job.
<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/gearworks.p...

Dum-dum-durrrr..
Over at Socoder, someone (Naming no names.. he knows who he is..) figured out that the encryption on my Highscore system wasn't exactly the most foolproof of encryptions, and that it's fairly easy to hack in a few fake scores.
Can't have that!
So I worked my arse off, early this week, and a new encryption method has been successfully trialled and put into place. It's no super-amazing method either, but it oughta do for a while.
The extra workload has meant that I mi...

Due to all manner of obscure things happening this week (A HD Crash being one of them..) this week's effort isn't anywhere near as good as last week's!!
Still, a game's a game, even without a titlescreen, music, sound, an ending, scores, or anything else like that..
..
*cough*

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 ...

This week's Wednesday Workshop <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?topic=1206">#166</a> asked for us to create a game that uses lots of Balance.
I couldn't come up with anything!
So, instead, here's JNKPlat DS 08.
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/platds8_menu.png" align="right">
It's a complete restart of the engine, coded wholly from start, but using the old sprites so as to keep the good old fashioned style of the last one! (Although, had...

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...

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...

This month, Socoder are having a "Make a game with Pickups" challenge.
It took me a bit of a while to decide what game to do, but I think I've finally settled on one.
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/mum_01.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/mum_01_thumb.png" /></a>
Greenie - The Eccentric Egyptologist.. Named so it fits alongside Greenie - The Helecopter Hero.
It's a remake of Oh Mummy but with a couple of tweaks here and there, including th...

Yesterday whilst browsing through Google Analytics, I stumbled upon a website for the magazine WebUser. They'd sent 3 people to my site, from <a href="https://www.webuser.co.uk/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/363213/Main/363213/">this</a> webpage.
It seems that on page 40 of their latest issue (Issue 169), they'd included a link to Horizontal Shooter! With no description of that page available online, I knew my only choice was to pop out and buy a copy.
They gave me a parag...

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,...

Over the year, I've started a whole big bunch of games. Occasionally I finish a few! Here's some of the ones that involve Monkeys!
A mini competition was announced over at BlitzCoder. Create a game using no more than 150 lines of code. I created a silly game featuring a spinning set of monkeys, flying through a multicoloured tunnel. You had to shoot the monkeys. This became Space Monkeys 1
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/shots/sm1.jpg"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/shots/...

I get bored. I get bored a lot. Especially when working on large projects. It's nice to occasionally have some weird random thing to do.
That's why I set up the Wednesday Workshop.
A weekly challenge. Make a game based upon a given theme, or task. Everyone who enters gets put through for a vote. But it's not really about the winning. It's about having something to do when you're bored. And .. I get bored a lot!
Click <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?a=13&...

Platdude. A 16 pixel, 3 color character. Deftly defying the world of 3D models and amazing realism, in favour of good old fashioned gameplay.
Over the years, Platdude has been in plenty of games.. Here's an approximate history of Platdude, along with Downloads where appropriate. (Or skip to the bottom for the latest stuff!)