Today I'm battling the forces of evil. Microsoft have "updated" my system so that all my games now run at about 1/3rd their normal speed. Thanks, Microsoft! You're AWESOME!!! ...

Hmm... <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Matrix-Blaster-Screenshot_28-Apr-2011_114930.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Matrix-Blaster-Screenshot_28-Apr-2011_114930-300x168.png" alt="" title="Matrix Blaster (Screenshot_28 Apr 2011_114930)" width="300" height="168" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1360" /></a>

1. I'm waiting for Puzzobomb to pop up on the App Store, assuming they like it, and let it up there! 2. NinjaDuck is slowly plodding away, but I have no idea what type of game it'll end up being. I mean, I have a vague idea! Obviously it'll be a platformer! But other than that.. *shrugs* 3. I thought about Y-Box, and how that'd be a nice game to have on my iPhing.. Then I started juggling some sprites, built a nice set of gfx, but then couldn't be bothered to code anything. 4. I made a wall......

I enjoyed my Month Off! I've written a lovely quickstart framework, I've built a game and a half, I've posted more Tube vids and Tweets in a month than any month previously, I've tried to keep up the blog, AND I even had time to relax!! A few games of GTA and Burnout meant my X360 was switched on for the first time in over a year! I've been playing YouDon'tKnowJack on the iPod (Highly recommended, even if it is Americanised questions), and listening to months worth of unlisten...

I was supposed to keep the posts flowing during my month off, but Lazy Jay took control for the past few days, it seems! No matter, here's what I've been doing.

If you're not too busy, Jay, why not try making another game!?

Still fiddling around with the basics of NinjaDuck iOS, and have actually done a whole lot of work since yesterday. Although, you still can't see any of it yet. I'm either going to have to set up a camera, or figure out a hacky way to do Accelerometer based gameplay in the Simulator. eeek! Yesterday Ninja Duck looked like this.. <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_0629.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_0629-300x200.png" al...

I'm thinking, I'm switching, I'm testing and tweaking, and nothing so far seems good. D'oh!! Barry Bee looks ok, but plays like a bag of crap. I'll leave it where it is, though. At some point in time, I might manage to make a playable game out of it. Not now though. Not in the mood!

You know when you're ready to buckle down and get some work done, and then something stupid comes along to mess up your plans? Toothache! <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_0619.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_0619-300x200.png" alt="" title="IMG_0619" width="300" height="200" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1334" /></a>

FAR too busy right now! What i'm trying to do today is to make a simple little game. If you've been following you'll know that I have some sort of oddball Bee game in mind, so I've shoved the bee, the particles and the background images in, I've got the basic movement sorted, and am trying to figure out how the game should work. Slow work!

I'm thinking along the lines of the good old EasyAmos, here! Although, whether mine is easier or not isn't for me to judge, is it!? <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/EasyCoco.png">

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" >

Well, that was a lovely little blip, there, wasn't it! I've written half-a-framework three times in a month! *sigh* It finally showed this week, when a crazy chaotic week of newness became a horribly pathetic week of giving up. No matter. I'll use this time to make things better. I've finally re-re-re-re-restarted my Cocos2D framework (another framework) and will be coming up with some kind of new-ness for the BlitzMax framework. .. yup, might as well stick with Blitz. Blitz wo...

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

Bad time to be swinging again, Jay...! 20x(640x32) images + 10x(64x64) images. That can just about struggle to run at about 22fps on an iPod Retina. Then you've got text to go over that, and another 10x(64x64) for badges.. It's just not happening.. No matter how I tweak it, rejig it, and compile and compile again, I just cannot get those numbers up. *sigh* And yet... That's exactly what SpikeDislike is, already. .... At 60fps. And SpikeDislike is the most piss easiest game ...

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

Coming soon : A whole new world! I finally made my choice, and it's GLBasic. Hopefully that choice doesn't come and bite me in the ass later. For now, I'm going to be rebuilding all that framework goodness. It'll probably take a couple of weeks to get everything going properly, so I think we might end up missing a few AGameAWeek's here and there. Hopefully you don't all mind. Meanwhile, I'm going to do a Final Six. Six little End-of-the-road games, that round off my ...