Developments

OK, I *think* I managed to post Invisible Munky 2, correctly, to iTunes Connect!
Unfortunately, due to the world in which Apple operates, we're going to have to wait just over a week to know for sure, as we wait for it to get through the stringent Apple Review gubbins.
No doubt, even if it's as broken as Cardagain is, it'll still get through, so I'll be counting on the masses of Twitter-folk to let me know if it works on all the different types of devices that are ou...

Welcome to the Top 13 AGameAWeek Games of 2013
No other Top-10 lists appear to want to give any of my games any recognition at all, which kinda sucks since I've made a whole bunch of REALLY great games, this year! I don't even get a token "Made a shitload of games, this year" mention!
Sucks!!
So, sod them all, I'll make my own Top-10 list.

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.

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.

People keep asking about how I manage to code AGameAWeek, and one thing they all eventually pick up on is that I'm currently doing it all with Monkey.
(URL "https://monkeycoder.co.nz">Monkey) is a fantastic language which allows for all manner of different targets, and does a great job doing what it does.
It isn't perfect, and it's not for everyone, but it suits me down to the ground.
As with any development tool, it all comes down to preference, and whether or not you agree with the me...

As we head into July, I've decided to dig my heels in, and aim for another bigger project.
Much like April's "Stringy Things" month, this will probably take over the usual AGameAWeek schedule, resulting in a smaller number of releases over the course of the month.
.. hopefully, it doesn't run into a dead end, like Stringy Things did!
For this project, I'll be using TWO languages.

Although I am sort of planning things ahead of time, I'm not really doing a good job with the things I'm planning.
In the majority of cases, the better AGameAWeek games seem to be those spur of the moment games that I cobble together fairly quickly.
Anything over-planned seems to die a death, halfway through!
At the start of May, I planned to do two fairly large projects.

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_128.png" style="float:right;"> AGameAWeek Gold takes a trip through my archive of games, and plucks out any games that may have been previously released on this day in history.
Sometimes it finds recent games from the past few years of me doing AGameAWeek.
Other times, however, it finds really really really old games, from a time when the concept of doing a new game every week wasn't even a gleam in my eye!

Hardly the worlds most imaginative title for this week's game, and mostly a cop-out graphics wise, but I was trying out a gameplay style, so that's where most of the focus went.
Was it a success?
.. You decide!!

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_128.png" style="float:right;">AGameAWeek Gold peeps through the Jayenkai Archive to see what games I've previously released on this day in history.
Occasionally we'll pluck out some real gems.
Today's a cracker!
.. or rather, today's TWO crackers!!

In a change to our regularly scheduled April-Project, I've decided to stop pulling my hair out, and instead do something different.
Grrr..
What we're left with, however, is a nice happy little game for up to four players, so that's nice.

Over the past few weeks, a terrible issue has appeared, and it's been quite noticeable.
It's caused my Stringy Things project to get stuck, as well as creating multiple issues in lots of other places.
The problem is as follows..
Not all devices are the same!!!

Sad face.
I'm supposed to be adding a new word game, every week, but this week's <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/2013/04/the-past-few-days/">IGN Sillyness</a> resulted in me spending literally hours replying to a whole bunch of emails, and trying to keep tabs on everything as it all went a wee bit crazy.
To be fair, I could've just spent ten minutes replying to those, but I do like to waffle in my email replies!!
As a result, I didn't actually get around to much...

This week sees the addition of the "Racks" game into the mix.
The object is simply to see what words you can make from your rack.
Choose from the same number of time/word options as with Strings, then see if you can beat your highscore.
A simple game, with simple mechanics.

Get used to seeing this, as you're going to see a lot of it.
The other day I asked for opinions on what April might bring.
Three people chipped up.
One was over at Curly's World of Freeware, where Tormuse suggested I should go with the Word Games.

I haven't got any!
.. that's a lie..
I have about 3 big plans in mind, and I'm not sure which to go with.

OK, folk are getting intrigued as to how all of this is working, and how nice the Monkey language is to work with, so in the spirit of not being a complete and total git, here's the complete everything that there is so far..

The Download

Framework Downloads have been removed due to lack of updates!
I've also left the html5 build intact, so you can give it a little run if you don't have Monkey installed. (I think!)
Should be as simple as going into the .build folder, t...

Aaah, the joys of data compression!
OK, here's the complications with Monkey.
1. File Access is a little bit touch and go.
I've had a play with it, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

So, here we go again.
We're up to Year 5, and hopefully we'll get a full year out of it, this year (nnngh).
With Monkey, we get a chance to go back over our previous games, and remake them for a new audience, with iOS, Android and Browser based versions. I expect this will prove to be an exciting year.
Given that we can play at showing off, what games do you think would work best, and adapt well to the new touchy/mouse based gameplay options?
Or, what games could prove to be an obsc...

I should take solace in a couple of facts.
1. My iOS Apps have been selling oddly, this week.
Usually I sell about 1 copy of SpikeDislike, every day, but this week I seem to be getting oddities like Puzzobomb and StringyThings suddenly springing back to life.
.. sure it's still a max of 3 a day, total, but...

I've been very very sleepy today, so I had a nap!

AGameAWeek teaches us one thing.
Some games you win, some games you lose.
When you lose, there's not a lot you can do.
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on.

Have any thoughts? I'm a bit blank, this week.
But then I was blank last week, too, and that didn't turn out TOO badly.
(did it?!)

Stringy Things is out, for iPhone and iPod.
Slightly annoying that this didn't happen earlier.. That would've let me do a great big "First AGAW of the year, Second iPod release" thing, earlier.
No matter.
It's up, now!

This is it. End of the road for Jay's relaxation time!
Today's Tuesday, no game today, kinda, sort of..
Today I submitted Stringy Things (2 games) to the AppStore for review. That should be properly done by.. um.. about December, at current Review speed!
So, what about AGameAWeek?

A tragic tale of my own devising.
Stringy Things DS is incredibly playable.
Ask my mum.
She plays it ALL the time..