Developments

I've never had to properly debug an Android device, before, so yesterday's attempts were new ground for me. Usually when one of my games break, I can easily repeat the break, and figure out exactly why it's happening, but feedback from PlayJam over my games crashing on their latest device, have had me somewhat baffled. There doesn't seem to be a specific point where they're crashing, or rather, there's no reason for them to be crashing where they are, as other Android devices carr...

Developments

Getting close to the end of my first run through all the OUYA games. Only (Only?!) another 15 or so games to go, and we'll have a complete OUYA collection. So far there's been no major issues, but since I'm nearing the end of the list, there are a few kinks that need ironed out. For starters, I need to stress test my multiplayer code. JNKBombers, Neon Bike Challenge and NeonPlat Extreme all include varying degrees of Multiplayer interaction. Previously, if a certain controller ...

Developments

All of this New-OUYA recompiling and fixing has certainly taken it's toll on NeonPlat. The game should've easily been finished by now, but instead I'm still working on enemy placements and trying to come up with Hats, which is still fairly early days in the world of NeonPlat.. *sigh* Yesterday I finished off Karl's Tiny Adventure and got it uploaded to both GameStick and OUYA. The OUYA one will be the better edition, since it includes the music. Worryingly, NeonPlat's Cosmic Ad...

Developments

I've spent more than enough time on Karl's Tiny Adventure. It's time to stop trying to fix the issue and just get the damn game uploaded. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do two distinct editions. One for OUYA/Etc and one specifically for GameStick. The GameStick edition will have the music disabled. Why? Because apparently the GameStick doesn't like playing audio. I mean, it does, it just doesn't always play what you ask it, when you ask it to. For 99.9% of cases, it'l...

Developments

Guess what I tried doing, last night...? If you read the title of this blog entry, and know how smooth and silky my current Dev-Kit is, you've probably guessed "A quick iOS Compile", and, of course, you'd be right! I'm currently midway through attempting to get a Free "LITE" edition of SpikeDislike3 onto the App Store. 50 levels, no GameCenter, and a big old "Full Edition!" link right at the top of the menu. That part was easy. Then I copied the folder over to the Mac.. ....

Developments

I got a new "Timer or Event" bar under the score, in NeonPlat's Cosmic Adventure, which either displays a depleting timer for things like Shields and Speedups, or a set of blocks when displaying weapons and whatnot. It's a fairly simply little bar, and isn't much to write home about, but there it is! Meanwhile I'm also finding (or rather, other people are finding..) a weird quirk with some of my older games, on some Android devices. It seems that upon first load, the games occa...

Developments

The first of my games finally passed through PlayJam/GameStick review, yesterday. (Good to know that ONLY took 5 days, even though I was on "the fast track"!! Compare that to the fact that OUYA's reviewed all 5 of the games I've so far uploaded!) A very thorough review, where the only complaints were as follows. 1. If you pause the game, go into the menu, turn off the music, then turn it back on, it doesn't actually restart until you've quit the game. This has been a "feat...

Developments

I'm seriously struggling to remember what all I did, yesterday! I oughta keep a note of these things. I know I uploaded another game to OUYA and PlayJam, and I also know I spent a good hour or so tweaking NeonPlat Adventures 2.. .. But I can't, for the life of me, remember what it was that I actually did!! I blame the cat, who woke me up far too early, which led to a day of messing about and not really accomplishing much, before finally heading back to bed for a "short nap"...

Developments

So, with all my games now missing from OUYA, it's time to start popping them all back on again. One by one, I'm opening old code, fixing up any issues, and getting the games updated to the newer framework. The new controller code is a piece of piss, since I did all that work in the Monkey Target part of Monkey. Essentially, I need only hit the recompile button, and the new controller code magically fits itself into the game. The tricky part is adding a "Quit Game" menu item to...

Developments

Yesterday was spent doing four tasks. 1. Converting recent ALChoons to work with NeonPlat's ingame music engine. Not all of them were a success, mind! Some of the more frantic choons ended up being a bit of a mess, so have been scrapped. 2. Recreating some of the "Hat" powerups from NeonPlat Adventures 1. I've now turned all 6 of the turret enemies into "8 bullets" hats. I'm not sure how to display "bullets remaining", as at the moment, the character's looking a bit .. um.. ...

Developments

Bah, things are always more complicated, aren't they? When I first started doing OUYA games, I would happily throw up the .apk's without any Certificates or Signing, because realistically they're freeware, so who cares.. Right!? Plus.. "It's easier this way, just throw them up.. when are you ever going to update them, anyway!?!?!?" Well, as per usual, that's come back to bite me in the arse. I can't update those, because since creating them I've bought a new laptop, upgrade...

Developments

All the main pieces of the menu system are now in place. Or at the very least, you can now start the bloomin' game again!! ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aIRvCm9JEl0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> Pick a World, pick a Zone, start the game, get through or die, complete levels to unlock more worlds, rinse, repeat! The basics are in. The generator's generating, the levels are selectable, and that's...

Developments

( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z95Cn1S9d78" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> Yesterday was spent tweaking various difficulty settings. There are 11 (0-10) available difficulties being coded into the level generator, and this video shows what happens at Level 3. Level 0 is easiest, with fewer easier to manage baddies, whilst level 10 is full of spikes and nasty Duck-Turrets. Today I'm going to be tweak...

Developments

With the music engine at a workable stage, it's time to start adding some extra danger into the game. Starting with Duck Turrets, and Jack's movements, I'm slowly starting to make the entire game a little harder. I'll also be trying to come up with a bunch of map-based obstacles to get in the way of the player, too. Basically, this is the bit that involves a lot of little tweaks, building up to a nice big fuller adventure, and sees me having to try to separate things, so that eac...

Developments

Aaah, Spikes! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/NPA2_010.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/NPA2_010.png" alt="NPA2_010" width="704" height="200" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5006" /> A common feature in videogames since the early days, and one of the great standards of Dislike! Touch a spike, and you instantly respawn at your last checkpoint. .. Like, Instantly!! Toda...

Developments

Yesterday I started to put some effort into the "Pre-Game AI Player" stuff. It's going to be a lot more complicated than I'd thought, but I'll try my best to get it working. I basically need to create a computer player that runs through the level, ensuring that you can at least reach the end without dying. Along the way, he'll generate a path which I'll use to plant various objects like the Checkpoint flags, and perhaps some evil objects to get in your way. This won't, of cours...

Developments

I tried doing some music, last night, but everything I attempted turned out terribly. I guess my spurt of musical talent has run out, for now! Aw well, at least I can concentrate on getting my game done, instead. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d0aJDTgu71k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> Yesterday I tackled Object vs Object collisions so that thrown weapons could interact with enemies and vice vers...

Developments

Jumped back and forth through a couple of things, yesterday, but mostly spent more time working on the level builder. Things are starting to look a little more varied, and thankfully the addition of vertical scrolling has added a little bit more. I'm currently worried about making sure the levels are completable, as I haven't yet added an AI player run-through of the level, to ensure it's at least playable. I'll have to do that next, I suppose. In the meantime, I've been ensurin...

Developments

Last night I added some blocks to the Level Generator, which of course then required me to faff about adding extra rules to the player, and the baddies, and the other objects, to ensure they collide "roughly" correctly with the tilemap. It didn't take too long to get the basics in, but having to essentially rewrite the rules for half-a-dozen different object types meant for a long and complex bit of work. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DHRCs3Md1To"...

Developments

Nothing much worth reporting again, today. I've still been fiddling about with characters some more, and playing around with their various physics. I really oughta be working on the level structure a little, so I might stop faffing about with characters and instead focus on the look of the levels a little more. All the pieces are currently coming together to create something a little less special than the original, so hopefully I can find something magical along the way that brig...