Uhoh, titlescreen's still not quite done, yet! With a game to release on Tuesday that's yet to be thought of, never mind started, I'm really cutting it a bit fine, here! If a game doesn't appear on Tuesday, this is the reason why!! I've yet to do the following. 1. Scores 2. Menu 3. Badges 4. Score History and there's the whole Music thing that I started on Saturday, but kinda only half did before giving up on it. Oh dear.. Doesn't matter, it's not really a pro...

<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/argh.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/argh_thumb.png" style="float:right"></a> Because there may or may not have been resulting copyright issues, I've left this post on the backburner until the magazine went off the shop shelves. Usually I'd happily scan in a bit of a page if my games are mentioned, but this time it's a whole entire page, and that's a completely different kettle of fish. (Although, to be fair, I've wr...

As well as all the 12 Games of Xmas (starting Friday) I've finally got around to opening up BlitzMax, and getting that whole new system going. Plenty to do, and it'll probably kill the whole point of my Xmas Week Off, but no matter.. Lots to do, let's hop to it. First up, I want everyone who can be bothered to try this out. It's a couple of little programs that stress tests your system, and tries to draw as many things onscreen at once as it possibly can. Or, at least, as fast as BlitzMax can!! Ru...

Christmas is literally just a week away, and things must be done. 'tis the season to be busy, and all. Meanwhile things are still kinda messed up, and I'm still awaiting that blinkin' Router. Probably should've just gone into town and picked one up.. It's been 5 days since Play.com sent it out, and still no sign of it. Hopefully it doesn't end up taking 2 months like the PC did!! Meanwhile, I've started on a rather lengthy project, and am hoping to get it done in time for Xmas day. The project kinda...

This week has taken many twists and turns. I started off making a nice game with a snowman, then that turned into a game with Greenie, then the new PC turned up and I spend a day or two playing with that but the whole network's down, and now I'm waiting on a new Router being delivered! blimey! Meanwhile it's a chore getting from one system to the other, and that means I'm relying on a slightly-dodgy-not-quite-Win7-compatible edition Paintshop Pro 7 and a slightly-dodgy-not-quite-Win7-co...

Absolute chaos at the house of Jay, this week. First up, good news, that new PC I ordered MONTHS AGO (October 19th) has finally turned up.. *sigh* Annoyingly Windows 7 - 64bit refuses to work with either of the two USB->Ethernet connectors that I own, which basically means my entire network is now in a total mess. The new PC is lovely, and will do many things nicely, except that I can't access ANY of my stuff from the other PC. No coding templates, no music, no sound, not even a Platdude anywhere...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Socoder Newsletter -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-      "Bonus Round"           #031 - 27th November 2009                      <form method="get" action="https://groups.google.com/group/socoder-newsletter/boxsubscribe" target=_blank style="background-color: #ffc; width: 320px; padding: 2px 4px">...

This week, I've decided to try something a wee bit different. If you're a fan of previous AGameAWeek games, you'll notice that I'm more than a little crap at designing levels. It's a slight issue, but one that I've never bothered to care about. Usually, any games that NEED levels will include a built in level editor. And folk who like the games will spend minutes trying to make one, and that'll be half the fun. The trouble with this theory, of course, is that half the ti...

A nice and simple game, this week, inspired by this week's Wednesday Workshop (#224) Board Game challenge. Rather than having plain Questions and Answers, I've taken all the results from Socoder's daily polls, and rounded them up into the game. Can you select the option that the most people at Socoder did?! <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Guesstimates_20091027A.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Guesstimates_20091027A_thumb.png"></a> Pick the best to ...

This week, due to popular demand, Blockman's Getting More. As you may have read, I attempted a new art style (fweeDee!!) last week, which really didn't work out at all. So, this week I'm aiming for the Pseudo popped-out-a-bit art style, and all seems happy in the world of Blockman. <img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/blockmangetsmoreb.png">

Prepare for disappointment! This week's been a bit of a disaster, really. I started with Arcade Slots, and actually managed to get quite far into it, but eventually realised there wasn't anything new to add to the mix. So that got scrapped. After that came a brand new Blockman graphic style, which was far too angled, and resulted in the maze being completely obscured. No good! So, after those two, you'd think I'd suddenly come up gold. Third time lucky, right? Nope. <a hr...

If you're currently coping with a bad bout of depression, it's probably not a great idea to download this week's AGameAWeek game, because.. quite frankly.. it sucks! As I type this, the game currently consists of a badly drawn dog, a badly drawn bit of grass, and a few badly drawn birds. I've hit a dead end as far as this game goes. I also hit a dead end with Arcade Slots, and I even hit a major blockage with Blockman Gets More. All in all, this week has sucked! I've got practically nothing imagina...

Ok, let's try that Munky thing again, shall we!? I've scrapped the "Portal" style stuff, and am instead focusing on a Munky Blocks styled affair. Munky's Block seems an apt title, so we'll stick with that. Currently I have only 1 setpiece, and 1 silly simple test level. Woo! <img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/munkysblock.png"> But the engine's up and running, and Munky's hopping around about the same as he did in the last game. So, yeah, things are definitely ...

And so another week trundles by. I had hoped to finish off the ever elusive games, this week, (the RPG and the Patent Wars), but that doesn't appear to be happening at all. Oh well. If they happen, they happen. If not, carry on. Instead I started a whole new game on Friday morning. <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Blockman_Gets_20090929A.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Blockman_Gets_20090929A_thumb.png"></a>

This week's Wednesday Workshop suggests we should make a Pacman game. I've already done "Blockman Forever" this year, so I'm going to avoid retreading old ground. Instead I'm going the Puzzle route. Already I've got a lovely little set of graphics going, and am obviously reusing Blockman because.. .. well, why not!!! A few mazes are set up, ready to go, as well as the first of the neat little puzzle mechanics... I'm now trying to come up with a nice batch of extra puzzle e...

Trying to add puzzle elements into a shoot-em-up never seems to work out as well as the idea in your head. I should know that by now! And yet, this week, that's what I tried to do. <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Webdings_Fighter_20090922A.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Webdings_Fighter_20090922A_thumb.png"></a>

I'm sat here at 11pm on Sunday night, trying to think of a game for Tuesday. It's not happening.. I've spent all week long adding games to the archive. That's to say, I've spent all week playing all my old games, and having a whale of a time.. I guess that has a disadvantage, being that I haven't coded jack all, all week. Oh well. We can miss one, right? Just means I need to make up for it next week. Can't have the ratio dropping!

If you've been keeping track, you'll have probably noticed an ever increasing number in the folders of my games. These are the weeks of the Wednesday Workshop, and as you trace through my games, you'll see a whole lot of matches between the WW and the game's basic idea. WW is fantastic for ideas, but sometimes things don't quite work out. Take this image, from a basic engine, all the way back in week #142.. (That's 76 weeks ago!) (URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/Incomplete.png"><img src="ht...

I'd better get this game done, this week! It's getting a wee bit unruley. I need to pull in the ideas a bit and just get the game finalised. Today I've been playing with the map again. (URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/superQuestMap.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/superQuestMap_thumb.png">

The ball from Pong, the gameplay from Tetris. The name seemed blindingly obvious to me. But over the course of the past few days, I've received an inordinate number of complaints about the name. It should be Breakout, it should be Asteroid, what!?

It's been a couple of weeks since I added the new Suggestion box, up there at the top right of the site. Let's take a peek at what ideas we've got.. Tuesday 28th of July 2009 08:10:03 PM Name : CodersRule Idea : make a shopping game! Not too sure about that one, CR. It'd probably end up as one of those "Thought it'd be good, turned out not to be" ideas. The Tamagotchi DS games spring to mind.. Thursday 30th of July 2009 06:06:45 AM Name : Cormac Idea : Some form of simple, yet entert...

With the nice big experimental writeup complete, I figured we'd get a boost in visitors. Want to see the results?!! See inside!!

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)

Back to work

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...