Developments

Yesterday I planned to do one thing, but ended up doing something completely different! I'm not entirely sure why, but it might've had something to do with me listening to an 80s compilation at the time. WARNING : Listening to music can seriously damage your planned development schedule! Suffice to say, my 80s themed theme now looks much more 80s themed, and I even created a silly "thing" for no good reason. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_Together....

Developments

Lots of background work, yesterday, as I continued to work on the menu system. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_023.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_023.png" alt="SD3_023" width="640" height="480" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4641" /> The two circles on the right currently show the topmost highscore of the level selected, as well as the last score. Now you c...

Developments

I spent some time, yesterday, playing around with the menu system for SpikeDislike3. It's starting to look fairly usable, now, with it's little bouncing "Next Level" thing, and all the spikes and stars in the right places. I still need to add some sort of boundary to the left, so that the "Infinity" levels are more apparent, but for the most part, the menu is nice enough, and actually functions the way it's supposed to! ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/em...

Developments

Yesterday was most definitely a day of two halves. In the morning, the world was colourful and happy. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_018.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_018-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_018" width="604" height="352" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4635" /> But by the evening, they'd gotten all dull, worn out and grey. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com...

Developments

Ho, Ho, Ho!! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_017.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_017-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_017" width="604" height="352" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4631" /> I don't know why this theme popped into my head, last night, but there it is! A wonderfully festive xmassy theme. Will this be part of the regular game, or will it only turn up at Xm...

Developments

Yesterday, I made this! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_016.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_016-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_016" width="660" height="385" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4623" /> Taking sprites, sounds and music from (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/GameList.php?ShowJust=350">Invisible Munky 2), I quickly cobbled together a SpikeDislike2 theme, and re...

Developments

My first session of yesterday was spent fixing up the issues I had with the little fishy theme. I started by stripping out the fish, and replacing it with an Octopus, which although fundamentally the same sort of thing, looked a bit less weird when bouncing along the floor in the standard SpikeDislike style! So that turned out nicely. After that I tweaked a bit more of the standard engine, which is growing features every time I touch the thing, and fiddled about with a bit more m...

Developments

Yesterday I created an underwater theme. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_015.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_015-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_015" width="660" height="385" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4618" /> As good as this theme is, I'm not *quite* happy with it, mostly because the visual of a fish "bouncing" doesn't really look all that normal!! Today I'm goi...

Developments

Yesterday I started a new theme. A road, some sand, some water, stars, moon and some boats. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_012.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_012-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_012" width="660" height="385" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4615" /> In terms of effort, it wasn't exactly a difficult theme to create, but along the way I stumbled over a l...

Developments

Yesterday I took some time to create a Choon to go along with the dark lava theme, and although it wasn't exactly what I aimed for, it does fit the gameplay reasonably well. ( width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/205161863&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true">

Developments

Not a whole lot of news from yesterday, but that was mostly due to me not being in a coding mood. Instead, I did at least manage to create the following ALChoon. ( width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/204825992&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true">>...

Developments

Yesterday I found myself trying out a variety of themes, to figure out what does and doesn't work in the new engine. Here's a brief selection of those tested. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_GfxD.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_GfxD-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_GfxD" width="660" height="385" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4591" /> Lava/Rock (URL "https://AGameAW...

Developments

Not much! Or, at least, nothing I can show off just yet. I'm struggling to design decent looking new themes, whilst trying to stay clear of repeating what was in SD2. Which is a lot.. Meaning I've made my job much much harder!!! Meanwhile, I'm still fiddling about with layers. They "sometimes" work, but occasionally get in the way of the raw gameplay, which is BAD!! Going to have to put a lot of planning into exactly what sort of foreground elements may or may not work for the...

Developments

Not a lot of progress, yesterday. A LOT of stuff happened, but nothing substantial enough that I can show it off! I started adding background layers to SpikeDislike3, but at the minute it's all nasty looking temporary art. I'm quite surprised, however, that it worked as well as it did in the Faux-3D mode. Mmm.. Parallax! It took a LOT of effort to get the new elements in place, and I'm hoping that the iPhings (at least) can cope with everything that's going on. Seriously, th...

Developments

Yesterday I decided to try out something a little unusual for me. I attempted THREE DEE!!! Not "proper" 3D, of course. I'm too lazy for that! Instead, I took the 2D game engine, added a Skew function to tilt everything at an angle, then plonked the standard graphics over the top. I wasn't expecting the result to be playable, but oddly enough, it's absolutely 100% normal. In fact, since the engine sticks to the original 2D principles, the game's entirely playable like this, and...

Developments

I spent a lot of yesterday faffing about with the "Start" screen of SpikeDislike3. At first I intended to have a giant spike be in the center of the screen, and in fact that's what happened for quite a while, but .. I'm not sure why, but I decided to switch to circles instead. Reusing my generic stripy circle from my basic menu meant I didn't have to redraw anything, and the new "Start" screen looks rather neat. .. or at least, for something I've done, it does! I spent some t...

Developments

Yesterday I settled into "Music Mode", where I can generally whip out an AL CHOON for whatever purpose. Unfortunately, after a good two hours of twiddling dials and buttons in Korg Gadget (iPad only) I came out with absolutely nothing decent whatsoever. Ashamed that I'd wasted a good amount of time pretty much doing nothing, I instead decided to load up some old Choons, and see if they worked within the new SpikeDislike3 engine. Good news! SpikeDislike3 will have music!! On t...

Developments

Continuing with the new edition of SpikeDislike, and I'm still adding basic elements into the engine. I've a whole lot of work to do on the game, including all the graphical styles and things like that, but for now I'm happy that it's totting up the combos in the way it should be. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YIwcx9Gcbfs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> Scoring and Death are now both firmly inside...

Developments

Yesterday was spent fixing up little things in SpikeDislike3. I got Predetermined Layouts working, but still haven't bothered to implement any sort of collision detection! Still, you can now start a round, have it spawn the spikes in the same place, and then exit back to the menu. Having the spikes show up in the same place, is of course super important in SpikeDislike, as you learn the layouts of the level, and try not to die for ages and ages. I'll have to add a couple of ra...

Developments

So, after yesterday's realisation that the StarFlips game wasn't going anywhere, I opted to head back to "Larger Project" and see if I could get any more done on it. Whether I continue with Larger Project, or instead switch to a smaller intermediate project, will be dependent on how much happens between now and.. Um.. Unspecified date! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SD3_003.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SD3_003-...

Developments

My laptop's been running slow, sluggish, juddery and .. generally BAD, since some time yesterday, and as much as I hunt the system, I'm struggling to find the reason why. I think it might have something to do with Windows noticing the Mac on the network, and freaking out, thinking it's going to be replaced! .. Acting all slow and useless isn't going to get you extra loving, Windows! Learn how to show off your skills, and act like a proper computer!! Even as I type today's blo...

Developments

Yesterday, I took the phrase "Sleepy Sunday" and worked the heck out it. My cat woke me up at 6:15am, and I managed to stay mostly awake until just after 9, when I realised I was too tired to code, and instead went for a nap.. .. A long nap!! I also had a second nap later in the day, too. Ooops! I suppose when you have little/nothing else to do, especially on a Sunday, that there's no harm in having a short nap. But when you have TWO naps, and they're not exactly short ones, y...

Developments

Not a lot of coding got done, yesterday. I continued to fiddle with the new sprites, and got enemies spawning in the level, but then I started thinking about iOS again. For the past year I've been focussing on OUYA. I've been making all my games controller happy, and as a result, have been neglecting touchscreen controls. I'm not sure why, probably all the AppleWatch stuff that's currently flooding my Twitter feed, but I'm finding myself somewhat nostalgic for the times that I s...

Developments

Not an awful lot of stuff got done, yesterday, as I was having a bit of an off-day! Ho hum.. They're frequent, so expect a fair number of Daily Blogs to be of the "Couldn't do anything!" variety. Still, I did bother to grab the iPad, load up Sprite Something, and doodle some sprites for the new game. I drew a ship, a number of weapons, and some enemies, before heading over to Windows and getting them all integrated into the game. It didn't take very long at all, but it does inde...

Another big gap, as I try to figure out what's happening next. I figured you guys oughta be kept up to date with current goings on, in the world of AGameAWeek, so here's a rough bit of blogging so that you can vaguely assume you know what's going on! Current projects are.. 1. Kee Bo Ard Go Deep Another sequel in the Kee Bo Ard collection. I've so far built a fairly capable engine, but am struggling to decide exactly what I'd like to do with it. I've got the game up to a "You can complete a level" po...

Since 2014, I've been using the wonderful KORG Gadget app on iPad to create most of my ingame music. Each week or so, I make a new silly tune, and upload it to Soundcloud where people get to hear it, and then eventually the tracks get dumped into my various games, willy nilly. As a way to keep track of my tunes (since there's so many of them) I've recently taken to naming each album a single word title, and then giving each track an alphabetical name.. So, first track is "Album A", then Album B, Album ...