Last week, there was no AGameAWeek. It was the clown's fault.. .. stupid clown.. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/iTunesArtwork.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/iTunesArtwork-300x300.png" alt="" title="iTunesArtwork" width="300" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2288" />With my newer shinier iOS Framework running the way it was more-or-less supposed to be, I decided to take a week ...

News, today, of a new Sitcom under development at HBO. <a href="https://www.deadline.com/2012/01/sundance-hbo-and-scott-rudin-to-turn-docu-indie-game-into-series/">HBO are converting Indie Game The Movie into a sitcom!</a> A sitcom based on a bunch of videogame developers? How on earth would THAT work!?!

Bah.. I knew that'd happen.. As soon as AGameAWeek kicked back into action, the "Daily Blog" would take a bit of a fall. I'm trying to keep up, though! Honest!!

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photo-11.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photo-11-300x200.png" alt="" title="photo (11)" width="300" height="200" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2241" /></a> Today, I'm continuing to build a framework for my iOS games. You might've noticed that I've started a buttload of iOS games, lately, and yet I haven't finished any of the things.. I've noticed that, too, and qui...

Another day, another install.. About 12 months ago, my bedroom PC basically crapped it's pants, and became an inexplicably unusable box that sat in the corner of the room. Knowing I'd need to format, I hunted for the Vista install disc, then remembered that.. A) Vista didn't bloody well come with one (Buying from Comet would've been handy, there!) and B) It'd been ages since I'd bought any blank DVDs Still, I had a Mac, so sod it!!

Welcome to 2012 ..or, more importantly.. Welcome to AGameAWeek, Year 4!! The games start, right here... in a couple of days! Tuesday morning. I'll have to add a small "Mac Warning" disclaimer, though, 'cos my Mac's still being twitchy since it's OSX Lion upgrade, and I never did get around to doing a quick test compile. no matter.. Either it works, or there's whinges! We'll have to wait and see.

Thankyou Santa!! My issue with Super Mario 3D Land isn't the fact that it's in 3D. My issue is with the fact that the gameplay's in 3D. See, to me, SuperMarioLand was always a stripped down barebones edition of what made Super Mario Brothers great. As you played through SuperMarioLand, you noticed all the shortcuts they took, like how the levels seemed to be on a bit of a loop, repeating in a strange fashion. The whole game was fashioned to ...

Between insane neck issues, and crazy days trying to cram WAY too much stuff in before Xmas, I've not blogged much, this week. Last night, as it became increasingly apparent that there was no WAY I could cram it all in, before xmas, I decided to hell with it all.. This morning, I stop attempting to cram, and instead relaxed into something a little different.

There are many many things breaking the calendar. The list is growing. Having finally got the whole Locale thing to work (switch phone to French, open game, calendar still in English, wtf!?) With enough tweaks, I was getting French calendar months, and all looked well. .. Except the "??" in d??cembre.. Because my font is lazy. ugh.. That'll be a lengthy fix! New Font functions ahoy!

It's been over a year since the Platdude Retro Advent Collection had a bizarre game with a ball and some spikes in it, and as much as I've attempted to get on with other games, that one little game keeps on getting dragged back out again! Last week, SpikeDislike won an IndieVisibility award, for being the best game to have with you on the toilet! This week, the guy who nominated it for that award has written a great big sprawling mass of text, all about SpikeDislike! (Link no longer available) ...

Before starting development on NeonPlat Adventures, I took great care to test all the alternatives. I'd read online about OSX Lion breaking Blitz, and people needing to fuck about with lots of settings and things. The scary part was that developing on Lion would probably break compatibility with Snow Leopard. As such, I made a few test engines, and got people with Lion to test my games, to be 100% sure that, if I stuck with Snow Leopard, my games would be 100% compatible with BOTH sets of users. ...

(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/fuuuuuuu.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/fuuuuuuu-300x170.png" alt="" title="fuuuuuuu" width="300" height="170" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2171" /> Graphene. 'tis a nice theme! As Year 4 approaches, I figured it was time for a makeover. It's taken me from 10 at night until 4 in the morning, but I think I'm about 2/3rds of the way there! If anything's mi...

A lot of elements are currently coming together, and things are getting a little more chaotic than I'd like them to be around Xmas time. If the past 2 years of Xmas themed chaos (12 games of Xmas, Advent Collection) have taught me one thing, it's not to EVER plan anything around Xmas! Presents, family visits and the general filling of my face with Xmas cake, will usually get in the way of the coding time, and as such I decided not to push myself into anything moronic this year. I apologise if you're deep...

Can't seem to make a start on things, this morning. Woke up early, expecting the Window fitters to come and get that done. Didn't happen. Rescheduled for next week, which is probably too close to Xmas, so probably won't happen either.. .. I blame Comic Sans.

When I was building the beta versions of NeonPlat Adventures, it always included a little readme file. The final release didn't have one, but I figured that was ok, because it was so simple it didn't really need one. The original readme was only really there to explain that beta peeps shouldn't mention the Calendar, and then I kinda rambled on a bit! Anyhoo, if you find yourself in desperate need of a readme file, this is it!

1. Socoder Newsletter 2. NeonPlat Adventures iOS 3. That 4-pack thing I started ages ago, and still haven't finished yet. (Yeah, so much for the "make 4 quicky games" plan, there, Jay!) 4. I'm apparently not doing an Advent Calendar this year. Either that or I'm going to be really really late with it!!! 5. Xmassy Spike Dislike!? 6. Probably should start JNKPlat 2012 at some point, since I've said I'm aiming for April 16th. 7. Get Monkey, Get Learning, Get building a new Framework...

You can't possibly complain that this game is evil and sadistic! It's just a happy happy game, with instructions permanently written, right at the top!! Who could possibly complain!!!?

PlayMyCode no longer works

The following blog post contains words, which are built up using various letters. You are expected to read the words in the correct order, moving your eyes from left to right to read each line, and then moving on to the left hand side of the next line. Continue in this method until you have read all of the words of this blog post, and are <em>happy</em> with your understanding...

<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/mmpdm/heres_the_deal_reddit_year_2012_one_man_365_games/">One man, 365 games</a> Luckily, he decided against that, and has now shifted gears to a much more manageable 52 games a year, or AGameAWeek if you will. As I always say, I'll wish you all the best on your quest. It's a toughy. You have a life, and unlike me, you probably also have one of those "Social Life" thingies! These tend to get in the way. As does enjoying yourself.

Korodny Just finished the game, so I'm here to say *Thank you* for some real good entertainment. A couple of things I noticed: Loved the game concept, and the visual design is spot on for that kind of game. Unfortunately, sound doesn't work on Ubuntu 11.10. It's a shame that the progress isn't properly recorded: The game should automatically offer me to play at the 'highest' levelset and the highest starting point I reached in my last session. Having to write ...

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... it helps! and it's odd! 2. My daily analytics stats have doubled. Of course, I should probably also point out that for the past two months, my lack of AGameAWeek has caused the stats to halv...

<a href="https://gfbrobot.com/2011/11/16/interview-with-neonplat-adventures-jayenkai/">Interview with NeonPlat Adventure's Jayenkai</a> A nice big interview, randomly waffling on and on, in that strange unplanned way that I do! Thanks to darthvid who sent all those questions over the other morning. A nice surprise to wake up to! Kinda makes me want to do more of the same.. <a href="https://www.formspring.me/Jayenkai">Jayenkai on Formspring!</a> Ask away.. I'll ...

When I coded my BlitzMax edition of NeonPlat Adventures (Still online, still free, still available, still awesome, still getting the odd blog post on sites!) I threw things in, wherever they seemed appropriate. I coded randomly, as I usually do. I didn't worry about memory issues. I didn't even give a munky about how many sprites were hurtling all over the screen. (My 2-year-old framework takes care of that.. Hit F12 for your system's stats.) As I attempt my conversion to iOS, I DO have...

Hurray! Everyone can play NeonPlat Adventures. Look at it go!!! Weee!!!

<a href="https://bit.ly/NeonPlat_Adventures">NeonPlat Adventures : Available now for Windows, Linux and MacOSX</a> Inside, a list of all the features I had or hadn't planned, and why they are/aren't in there!

Tomorrow's the day you all get to play! Had a last minute email, last night, from Shadow1w2, filled with some really nice ideas that would be great to implement. Thing is, we've hit the point of no return. I'm off to work all day, and tomorrow's the release. So. dangit.. no time to fiddle. (I now remember why AGameAWeek is usually a Tuesday release!!) <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/NeonPlat-Adventures-Screenshot_12-Nov-2011_130918.png"><img sr...

Today's long, long, long day of development was 100% iOS related. Having put it off entirely yesterday, I figured I'd better port that level builder doohickey. I opened TextEdit on the Mac, copied the level builder function from BlitzMax, and set about converting it, line by line, to something that XCode would compile for iOS. 800 lines of code, an estimate of "should only take a few hours, surely!" and then a completely exhausted Jay who just about managed to get the thing working 8 hours late...