So, today I wrote a basic minimal Framework in PetItC4 with simple enough functionality, but hopefully enough to allow for lots of variety in future projects. I've added a basic DrawImg thing, along with my usual set of SetCol, SetAlpha, SetSize and SetRot commands. I've created a sprite loop to draw sprites when required, and blank out any unused sprites at the end of the loop. I DID originally try adding a SPCLR (clear all sprites) at the top of the loop, but that flickered horribly. You'...

WAAARRRNIIIIIIING If you set up a Japanese account to download Petit Switch, be absolutely sure that you continue to use the Japanese account when coding your game. DON'T do what I did, and go "Well, it works in my Jayenkai account.. I'll carry on with that" Because, when you go to upload your finished game, you hit a great big wall.. The account you bought it with gets (I think) 10 "Upload" slots. You can "purchase Slots" for other users.. .. Except my default account can't do tha...

Today marks the initial Japanese release of Petit Computer for Switch (PetC4) and .. well, I'm a coding addict, so you know I HAVE to at least get SpikeDislike up and running. There's a few stumbling blocks.. well, one, really, and that is that I don't know any Japanese whatsoever. If you'd like to download my various PetitSwitch games, head to this page for the codes

And so, the Quest begins.

I've added "Laps" to Mancala in the ShoeBox, but ... crikey, is it hard to keep track of! AL is utterly baffled by this new style of play, so don't expect him to be a great challenge. If I can find a good method of play, I'll work that into AL's brain, but for the minute, he's a bit dumb in this mode. .. To be fair, so am I, and the Laps mode ends up being a game of Pot Luck! You can Play Mancala in the Shoebox, in the "One on One" section. The Laps setting is in the Rules.

Crikey, RSKGames has already sent his Player Thoughts.. Guess I'd better hurry up and get those last few tweaks in place..

@RSKGames

I have never played this game before so it was fresh and fun for me. After 2 defeats and some reading of the rules I got the hang of it and was able to beat the AI few times.

Mancala is now in the Shoebox! You can Play Mancala in the "One On One" section of the Shoebox.

Spent a couple of hours, late last night, trying to find the best rules to give AL when playing Mancala.

I asked @CraigGrannell last night if the "swoopy" menus were a bit too much for his motion sickness issues, and he replied that it was.. For me, a bit, yeah. I thought as much when I added those Tap Swoopy things, but it's good to get a little confirmation.

A simple crossword clone, with a slightly different scoring mechanism. You can Play Crossword Golf in the Shoebox, next to the standard Crosswords game, in the Word games!

Alan Suggests..

While I'm thinking about it, one nice-to-have feature for Crossword Game would be ''shuffle my rack''. Sure, ok, why not!

Yesterday seemed to escape from me.

Record time for player feedback! Let's have a nosey. You can Play Shuffled Tracks in the Extras section of the Shoebox.

RSKGames

Played ''Shuffled Tracks'' and was quite surprised to find such a polished game done in 2 days. You'd be surprised.. ... The game was almost ready to go, yesterday!! Most of today's coding session was spent fixing up the generator to make the levels more difficult.

Yesterday, I opened up the Crossword Code to start work on the other reuses of the game, and sat staring at the screen for around about half an hour.

I've a couple of planned games to do that shouldn't take too long at all.

A nice big chunk of feedback from Alan this morning, on the new Crossword Game, so let's dig through his thoughts. You can Play the Crossword Game in the Shoebox under Word Games.

Alan

Fun. I beat AL 356-147 Yeah, AL's not hard to beat, right now! I need to get him to plan out Premium Tiles a little better, to bulk up his scores a bit.

Crossword Game v1 is now uploaded. You can Play Crossword Game in the Shoebox, where you'll find it under Word Games.

Little bugs all over, but definitely a productive day.

Right, today I need to figure out how to do the blanks. I'll probably need to use an extra chunk of array to draw them separate from the rest of the board. Draw plain blanks, then plop letters on top. I might even make them Font-based, rather than Tile-based.

Alan continues..

You probably have read up on these things already, but just in case you weren't sure, a ''trie'' is not a ''tree'', it's its own thing

1. The "Swap Letters" dialogue. A secondary rack that pops up and lets you move letters into the Swap-Rack, before hitting the "Yep, swap!" button and having them be swapped, whilst you miss a turn.

Alan asks..

What's the general outline of your current approach? The general method is as such. 1. The AI randomly picks a spot on the board, and scans to check that a word will fit in the space provided. It looks for a space that will fit about 3 or 4 letters and will connect to at least one other tile on the board.

Massive enhancements, tonight, as the Crossword Game's brain gets a little shove in the right direction.

I might need to rejig the way the WordList is held, to make AL's job a little bit easier.