Add a simple pause menu. That was task number one, this morning, on a 5 item tasklist. The stupid menu took 5 hours! FIVE!!

For those struggling in the future... "[CCDirector sharedDirector] deviceOrientation]" Doesn't. but "[UIDevice currentDevice] orientation]" Does..

Today, another one of those mindbogglingly annoying issues that stops you, makes you scratch your head, then makes you go "Well sod that then!" and enjoy the sun for a bit. I'll do this again, tomorrow!

(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_0593.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_0593-300x200.png" alt="" title="IMG_0593" width="300" height="200" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1314" /> Is Barry The Spelling Bee going to be the star of my next iOS game?!

I've got a whole month to do a framework, so apparently that means I'm going to be a lazy git who does sod all, then crams the whole framework into the last day! .. Well, hopefully not, but I did manage to cram in a couple of hours of Burnout, yesterday! Been a long while since I sat and played a game for that long.

Today I've been continuing to fiddle about with all the framework's drawing methods. The engine seems rather fickle, and will sometimes do a bunch of big sprites, and other times do a buttload of tiny ones. I've currently got the settings to a nice middleground. It can handle quite a bit, so long as you don't give it mountains of giant sprites to contend with!! <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/photo-1.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/u...

This isn't going to be a "You thieving bunch of bastards" post. I know this goes on. There's no point trying to stop it. Unless Apple want to show me a list of who did and didn't buy my app, there's sod all I can do about it. I can only urge people to bother to buy my game. Because it's really fucking good! What this IS going to be, is a small request to the people who crack my game. This isn't a whinge for money. This isn't a bitch about the rights/wrongs. But it

<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/HammerTime.png" >

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

1. No sound pitch. Jinkies Munkies, What the Funkies!?!? Simplest example. You know in Horizontal Shooter, when your weapon goes "SQQEUUUUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!".. Can't do that.. It's gotta go "beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep" Regular bullets will go "Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat" instead of "bang-bing-bada-pow-pip-pat-pap-bang" Imagine SpikeDislike without it constantly getting higher and higher, as you up the combo. .. Pants.. And, even worse, every sound needs it's own set of buffers. So if I ch...

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/photo.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/photo.png" alt="" title="photo" width="320" height="480" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1285" /></a> hmmm....

I think I'll either be limiting myself to 100 sprites/60fps, or 200 sprites/30fps, for iPhing games. ... That's quite a lot, though! Pics below

<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/byemunky.png">

Silly me put the name "Chicky Crosses the Road" into a variable, then forgot to put the variable on the titlescreen! D'oh! sod it.. Live and Learn!

Take one part Asteroids, and mix in... um.. .. hmm... <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/TinyAss_20110308_Logo_thumb.png">

Oh, Mark.. What have you done! I was happily coding away at AGameAWeek, and now I'm stuck in this odd Will I/Won't I scenario, unsure as to what to do next.. I spent a few hours playing with Monkey again, Yesterday, and am still unsure which is the better path. Monkey has no recolouring for sprites. That's a pretty big deal, and is a bit of a biggy when your onscreen text is sprites. No sprite colors means one text color. Even my Tandy TRS 80 could do more than one text color!! But right ...

This week saw the launch of "<a href="https://monkeycoder.co.nz/">Monkey</a>", the next-generation of BlitzBasic. <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/monkey1.png" alt="" title="monkey1" width="332" height="56" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1233" />

I've written that as "Mr Spike" about 30-odd times, this week. *sigh* Really have to start a new iPhing game, some time! <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Mr_Swing_20110301_Logo_thumb.png">

<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Horizontal_Shooter_Gen4_20110222_Logo_thumb.png"> <a href="https://bit.ly/HSG-CWF_p">Captain Wants Freedom</a>

Forget Cassette 50, that's gone, bubye now! 4 rubbish semi-planned games is far too much garbage for one coder to take. Let's instead return to our semi-rubbish unplanned games. They worked better! Sometimes. I asked on Twitter what I should do, the other day, and the first response was a vertical shooter. Okeydokey! Bits and pieces are coming together, art wise, and I'll start coding the thing over the weekend. Hurray for unplanned chaos! Although it'll be Horizontal.... I should point that o...

This week I remade Fantasy Center. It didn't turn out well, I lost heart, and I have now, in fact, lost faith in the whole Cassette 50 project. All these games really are a big bag of crap!

Back at school I used to randomly write thoughts into my jotter. Not school-based stuff, of course. I was an idea-filled coder, back then! Lately, the ideas are few and far between, as anyone who's been following AGameAWeek lately has noticed. My "Waffle" was general thoughts about gui layouts, game thoughts, and then anything else that randomly appeared along the way. I'm starting to think that it might be a good idea to restart that old habit.

Note : PlayMyCode is no longer available A slight change this week. I was planning to do AGameAWeek as usual, but was somewhat thrown off course by a request to make games, instead! <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/PMC3.png">

This week there shall be no AGameAWeek.

The game that keeps on going, even though it's just a ball and some spikes! <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/795/dislike.jpg"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/795/dislike_thumb.jpg"></a>

Yesterday, Rob from RetroRemakes asked if he could do a spritesheet for Spike Dislike. After a lot of back and forth, I decided to write a how-to, so any future requests could go a little bit smoother! Here's some info on how to make 'em, alongside a bunch of all-important rules.

A nice slow paced shooter this week. Poor old CPC Basic couldn't really handle bullet-hell type games. Well, ok, maybe it could if you really really tried, and came up with a scrolling ascii grid of bullets, but for the most part it just wasn't happening. Instead, Cassette 50 creators had to rely on other ideas. Like trying to kill you with your own desire to kill!! <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Inferno_20110125_Logo_thumb.png">