A Pro/Con list might've helped beforehand!!! Fuck it, 70 quid down the drain.. carry on.

No normal AGameAWeek this Tuesday, but worry not, there's still some games to be played! <img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/xmasxompo_480.png">

A game cram packed into the space of only a day! <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Space_Clusters_20101026_Logo_thumb.png">

54 games. Last year I only managed about 30-odd, so I think that's pretty good going. Sure, it might not have truely actually been A Game "Per" Week, but I did at least keep the ratio up. If I hadn't taken the time out to build the framework, I probably would've actually achieved the target a little better The stats show I was pretty much on top of things up until that point, but then things got slower and slower until my buffer zone was all dried up. Anyhoo, this is a nice big lengthy re...

54 games. Last year I only managed about 30-odd, so I think that's pretty good going. Sure, it might not have truely actually been A Game "Per" Week, but I did at least keep the ratio up. If I hadn't taken the time out to build the framework, I probably would've actually achieved the target a little better The stats show I was pretty much on top of things up until that point, but then things got slower and slower until my buffer zone was all dried up. Anyhoo, this is a nice big lengthy re...

54 games. Last year I only managed about 30-odd, so I think that's pretty good going. Sure, it might not have truely actually been A Game "Per" Week, but I did at least keep the ratio up. If I hadn't taken the time out to build the framework, I probably would've actually achieved the target a little better The stats show I was pretty much on top of things up until that point, but then things got slower and slower until my buffer zone was all dried up. Anyhoo, this is a nice big lengthy re...

Cracking game, this week! What started out as an unknown game, quickly became fantastically playable. A remake of the little WarioWare UFO Spike thing that I made last week, only with more spike things than is probably sane! In the end, the game's turned out quite a lot like a Geometry Wars clone. I wasn't expecting that, but there it is! Two fire buttons, Z for left fire, X for right fire. I wonder how long it'll take for people to realise that, without me having written it anywher...

Oh, blimey, what happened to my game!?! Playing about with super smashy explodey effects, led to the inevitable conclusion that enemy bullets would be completely un-noticable. Dang.. So, rather than add any enemy, I stuck with the spinny things from the WarioWare game. This in turn led to me making them move slowly towards you, and then it all went a bit chaotic from that point on. <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/246-UFO246_bigshot.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/246-...

Very rarely do I get feedback direct, other than from the few of you who seem to hang around here a lot, but there is feedback out there.. if you really hunt for it! This past couple of weeks have, as per usual, been all about the Two-Button-Jump. "OMG! Two!? WTF!" and so on. I can deal with those complaints, I've heard them many a time before, and even added the extra one-button rubbishy mode to help those who can't shut up about it. It's annoying, but what the hey. *fingers in ears* "La, La, La, ...

Blocks and Spikes are in the engine now, as are the default sound effects! Seems a bit of a long time for Blocks and Spikes, but those Blocks are always more complicated than they oughta be! Work is coming along at the regular rate, but I'm now starting to think about the frontend of the game. Not entirely sure what I'll be doing for it. I might try to replicate the DS's menu screen, since that seemed to work out nicely. We'll have to wait and see!! Tuesday, if I can get it don...

I haven't really been updating this like I oughta be, so here's the "So Far" Day one (Tuesday 30th March 2010) Make it Big Decided to go with the "upped size" style, so set about redrawing all the old background tiles at a higher resolution. I considered making 50-odd brick tiles, and give them all a slight texture, but figured that'd kill your memory, so instead created an overlay texture that would be added to the screen once the game's done it's frame drawing....

This week, Munky in a Mario Costume. Next week, possibly Blockman in a Mario Costume. Third week, I should probably do Greenie in a Mario Costume, but that's more 'cos he'd look funny, than for any gameplay reasons! That brings us to April, and with my head spinning with ideas about "The BIG JNKPlat game", I'm not sure if I really want to attempt that.

Audio! As you probably noticed, the past 100-or-so of my games have had a rather generic set of numbered sound effects, ranging 001 -> xyz.wav Today I decided that I might as well make that a more permanent feature, so super-BlitzMax-engine now includes quick "LoadSFX" and "PlaySFX" functions that will work solely with those files. Neat! Music will still probably be handled separately, since I'm still not quite sure what I'm doing with those, yet. Either way, there's a specific 256...

For something that just looks like this.. <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/bmaxtesting_game.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/bmaxtesting_game_thumb.png"></a> .. I have actually but a heck of a lot of work into the framework, so far! Take a peek inside to find out some nice nuggets of info, and take a look at the future of AGameAWeek!! (It's a bit wordy, mind!!)

Sometimes you have really productive days. Occasionally, though, those really productive days seem to drag on and on, and not actually produce much at all! Here's what I've done today. 1. We're up to 5 skins, since I added a plain rock+lava one. Plenty of graphical variety, but only as much as it's still a bunch of squares making up a maze! 2. Added the nice filter down level drop effect back into the game. It's a nice enough effect. No need to jazz it up, nor remove it. It ...

Many many years ago (about 20?!) I played a game called Painter on a mate's BBC Micro. Haven't played the thing since, but what the hey, here's the "Done in a day" remake! I had intended to do a bigger project, and in fact that project is nearly done, but the lack of time made me postpone the larger project for a week, while it all gets done. So, quicky game this week. <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/Painter.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/Painter_thumb.png"&...

Microbes is (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=203">here) : Capital letters don't work in the URL, but RetroGamer uses them anyway.. WebUser Magazine have a rather interesting idea. Each issue, they make a list of all the links included in that issue, and post it onto their forum. Lazy folk who can't be arsed to type can then go to that post on the forum and use that as they flick through the magazine. I honestly think it's a fantastic idea. Not only...

The AGameAWeek 2008-2009 Retrospective

(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-one/">Part One), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-two/">Part Two), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-three/">Part Three), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-four/">Part Four), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-five/">Part Five)

The Home Stret...

The AGameAWeek 2008-2009 Retrospective

(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-one/">Part One), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-two/">Part Two), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-three/">Part Three), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-four/">Part Four), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-five/">Part Five)

10 weeks, 3 DS...

The AGameAWeek 2008-2009 Retrospective

(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-one/">Part One), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-two/">Part Two), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-three/">Part Three), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-four/">Part Four), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-five/">Part Five)

Alien Deat...

The AGameAWeek 2008-2009 Retrospective

(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-one/">Part One), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-two/">Part Two), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-three/">Part Three), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-four/">Part Four), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-five/">Part Five)

AGameAWeek...

I've about 20-odd projects on the go, this week, so you'll have to excuse the lack of blog entries, and even a decent AGameAWeek game. Most of this week was spent trying to roll a dice! (die, whatever) I figured that, with 4 frames per roll, I'd need around about 200+ frames of animation. I tried to work out all the animations, and it drove me crazy! Then I rested, and eventually worked out a way to do it, without bothering to animate it, which was a lot simpler to do. .. Then the game i...

I'm a calm person. I will happily settle with what I've got, and be glad that I have it. I don't own a copy of Flash, I can't afford it, and I'm not going to steal it. So I carry on making games in Blitz, and whatever else I can get my hands on. So, with my £100 Phone, from LG, (The KP500 'Cookie') I started to write games using the freely available MidletPascal. It's a wonderful piece of software, and it does many great things.

Is that title subtle enough for Google, d'you think? This week, I've been getting to grips with MidletPascal, and dodging it's annoying mid-compile crashes, in a vague attempt to get some games onto my phone. Sorry folks, this week's AGameAWeek is entirely Java based. Boooo!! Or at least, unless you have a decent phone, anyway! <img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/cookiea.png">

I'm taking a day off from H~S~R today, thinking ahead for next weeks game, which may/may not be a word game.. not sure.. Anyhoo, there are bugs, and Swarmer found a couple, so head inside to have a good read about 'em.

It's been 30 weeks since I last tackled Horizontal Shooter. The last time, I used BlitzMax. It was wonderful, and gave me all manner of nice swirly effects for those lovely background lines. Mmm.. Until it came to running it on other systems, whereby a huge amount of incompatibilities arose, and the game kinda fell on it's arse and died. Oh dear. 30 weeks on, let's give it another go!

This time around, every game will have it's own quickly made titlescreen. Not wanting to spend too much time doing each one, I figured I'd get away with doing NES style titles. They're simple, but effective. I'm deciding all this, now, because it's so much easier than having to frantically throw it all together, later on, with 10 or so games all needing to be worked out! So, the style right now is, Title of game at the top, highscores below, and "Press Start" below that. Nothing...