Something's been annoying me, lately. I've known what it is, but no matter how I wrangle the numbers in my head, it just doesn't seem to work out. So, apologies to all, but I'm going to have that well earned rest, whether my schedule accepts it or not..

This week, I started a game on a grid. It started well enough, with a lovely grid-doodling method making nice colourful griddy squares, and a simple circle on the top for the player. Then I got to the point where I had to do character movement, and my head just kinda went "Ugh.. I just can't be arsed!!" (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NoGoA.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NoGoA-300x236.png" alt="" title="NoGoA" width="300" height="236" clas...

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...

As we continue on our short Advent based journey, I'm having a bit of fun making silly little non-games for a change. It's been a while since I allowed myself to do such simplistic games, and I'm even finding myself coding them in the small hours of the night. eg, since 10pm, when I got home from work tonight, I've done the following.. 1. Watched an episode of Corner Gas whilst eating my tea/supper. (still watching repeats of that!! Doesn't get old!) 2. Made a game. 3. Watched tonight's Merlin. 4....

In windows, to add a tab to the left of 3 or 4 lines, I've settled into the habit of doing either one of two things.. 1. Up, Home, Tab, Up, Home, Tab, Up, Home, Tab, Up, Home, Tab. Which goes up per line, heads to the far left, then places a tab. or 2. Select all lines, hit Tab. Which adds a tab to all the lines. On a Mac, my fingers are exercised a little more thoroughly...

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...

Tuesday, Fred the Parachuting Flea. Needs a few "I didn't get that!!!?" kinda tweaks, but it otherwise working nicely.. If I drop dead tomorrow, at least the game's ready for release

This one didn't really turn out, so well. It's a nice nature based bee game, with lovely floaty music, and some words. <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Barry_The_Spelling_Bee_20100629A.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Barry_The_Spelling_Bee_20100629A_thumb.png"></a> You hit Tab to highlight the flower/bee, type it's unscrambled word into Barry's Belly, then hit return. Rinse, Repeat <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Barry_The_Spell...

I don't usually repost this here, but. What the hey!<br> <br> (URL "https://groups.google.com/group/socoder-newsletter">Sign up, it's fun, and weekly, and written!!)<br> <br>

Socoder Newsletter

<br> <br> "Best viewed in Peiplum"<br> #045 - 5th March 2010<br> <br> <big> Print</big><br> Hello all<br> <br> The worst thing about writing AGameAWeek is that<br> horr...

Oh dear, I'm WAY behind, this week. I spent most of yesterday doing odd little bits of behind-the-scene Socoder stuff, so I'm a wee bit behind. Then, today, something that should've been a 10 minute job ended up taking AGES to do! I hate things like that! Not to worry, though. Our main character is drawn, and he now has a fantastic Mario costume to wear. He's even been given the name "Ace Paceman", by Spinal, over at Socoder. Because, for one reason or another, he never really had on...

legoman4032 asked in the Youtube comments if I had mp3's. Who am I to argue.. Extended, via the basic use of a repeaty bit in the middle, but in an instrumental stylee! Karaoke!! Sing along! You know the words! and, so it doesn't feel left out.. The original remix from last February (2009), with a bit that's not from "Devil in the Dark", and is instead from "Elementary, My Dear Data" (I think), and that I couldn't be bothered to hunt down to cut the video from, so ended u...

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...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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">...

Blimey, Blockman got big! 5Mb!! FIVE!! That's not like me! But with over 350 great big (for me!) 64x64 pixel sprites, the game was bound to get a little bit bigger than usual. Oh, and a bitmap font, too! I've really gone all out, this week! <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Blockman_Gets_More_20091103B.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/Blockman_Gets_More_20091103B_thumb.png"></a> To be fair, it's taken about 2 weeks to get this all done, but I ...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Socoder Newsletter -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-      "GET IT OUT OF MY EYE!"           #025 - 16th October 2009                      <form method="get" action="https://groups.google.com/group/socoder-newsletter/boxsubscribe" target=_blank style="background-color: #ffc; width: 320px; padding: 2p...

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...

First things first, here's this week's AGameAWeek game. I've done a few dozen "Get the Greens" before, so I figured I'd keep this one short. Simply put, get the greens, and avoid the holes. No enemy this time, just you and the floor, so if you're nice and gentle you could probably get quite far through and score a decent score. As it stands, my highscore is currently 15 points. .. So, not a super-high-scoring game, but definitely one you could beat me at! Since I've made...

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!

<img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/onlinegets.png"> That there's the first official online highscore! o/ YEAY! o/ But, boo that I had to manually copy and paste bits of text to get the level into the database in the first place!! I'm now working on getting the whole upload/download thing working again. Shouldn't take too long, but I think I'll have to discard the whole "Bag" idea. As much fun as it is to have a constant supply of new levels, it means you won't be able ...

A sequel/repeat this week, as the <a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=167">Wednesday Workshop #167</a> asked us to create a game with 2 main characters. At first I considered doing a Bill and Ted game, but couldn't think of a decent gameplay element other than "Move the blocks".. That'd be a most excellent waste of the characters. So I resurrected Bibbleman and Bobbleman, and just used them instead. Still the same game, mind.. So if you're worried that ...

What happens when you take 2 classic Atari 2600 games, and stick them together? Centipong mixes Centipede and Pong to create a really weird almost-psychedelic game. Smash the ball at the Centipede repeatedly.

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/colbox_800.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/colbox_400.png"/></a> Platdude's Retro Collection was first released in November 2007. Each new release will contain a handful of new games. How many will there be in the end? Who can say! The latest release, <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/col018.zip">Download Here</a>, contains 18 games from the list below. Note : If you'd like to play, but don't own a DS,...

Having started and given up on a fair few projects over the past couple of weeks, I've decided to go back to basics. It's time to bring return to the 8-bit Tiny collection, and get things started once and for all. So today I got working on a base program that can use a series of includes to incorporate a bunch of games. I've designed a neat collection of generic looking graphics, and started listing games that may or may not be included. I'll try to make all the games as Repeat-Play-abl...

I get bored. I get bored a lot. Especially when working on large projects. It's nice to occasionally have some weird random thing to do. That's why I set up the Wednesday Workshop. A weekly challenge. Make a game based upon a given theme, or task. Everyone who enters gets put through for a vote. But it's not really about the winning. It's about having something to do when you're bored. And .. I get bored a lot! Click <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?a=13&user=Jaye...