This week's Wednesday Workshop <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?topic=1206">#166</a> asked for us to create a game that uses lots of Balance. I couldn't come up with anything! So, instead, here's JNKPlat DS 08. <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/platds8_menu.png" align="right"> It's a complete restart of the engine, coded wholly from start, but using the old sprites so as to keep the good old fashioned style of the last one! (Although, had I redrawn the spr...

I'm not entirely sure who came up with this idea, but it's been roaming around the internet for the past few years. This week's Wednesday Workshop #165 was to create a game using only one button. So, Heck, why not! ?? I grabbed the generic Cowbell Hero logo from the net. I'm still not sure who originally designed it, but there it is. In went Platdude, and a few silly songs, and then a few extra songs from the folk at ModArchive.com, and within just a few days the job was done. ?? <...

This week's game will not include Super Online Highscore functions. The way it works makes it impossible to stop people from cheating. Ho hum..   In the meantime, here's a couple of bonus games.  

Space Loops

<img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/164/space_loops.gif"> This is last week's WW entry. Nice as it is, it now also includes online highscores. Right click on the titlescreen to update them. Type on the titlescreen to change your name. Sorted! Now try to bea...

I'm not the type of person who usually does a lot of things! For starters, you'll probably notice that 99% of my games are locked to the refresh rate of your screen. If your screen's higher than 60hz, my games will run all that much faster. The reason for that is that all my systems are set at 60, and.. to be honest, I tend to forget that other people's aren't! Whenever a game relies 100% on framerates and specific timings, I'll more than likely bother to sort that out, but usually I'm onto the next gam...

<a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=164">Wednesday Workshop #164</a> suggested we should make a game using vector graphics. I took this opportunity to remake the fantastic Dos game, Boogaloopers! Move the ship around with your mouse, and trap enemy within it's trail. Nice and simple gameplay-wise, but a complete git to get working code-wise! Not only did I have to figure out the points that the mouse crossed the trail, but then do that whole polygon-shrinking thin...

This week, Socoder's <a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=163">Wednesday Workshop (#163)</a> challenge was to create a game with Money in it. I initially was going to create a top-down dungeon romp, but as the plan grew and grew in scale, I scrapped it and just ended up making a nice quick platformer instead! ?? <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/163_mr_money_grabber.gif"> Mr Money Grabber features you rushing through the level collecting all the coins...

<a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=162">Wednesday Workshop #162</a> asked for folk to create a game with a big-ass timer. My entry was simple. Open a vault, Grab the loot, Run for your life, Drive to escape, have a gunfight, sorted! All with a timer in the corner, and all played with the mouse. <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/162_the_heist.gif"> The game's mostly all Left clicks, but the short driving scene requires you to right click occasionall...

I tried to keep a blog. It didn't work. It's no surprise, though. I've never been one to keep a working active blog. No matter, I'll try something else. Welcome to A Game A Week.com I'm pretty much already producing games at a fast enough pace, what with the Wednesday Workshop and all. So I figured I might as well get a bit of publicity out of it by adding a nice shiny noticeable domain name! Will it work? We'll have to wait and see. Here's the ...

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/media/puzzobomb_webuser_189_med.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/media/puzzobomb_webuser_189_med_thumb.png"></a> Puzzobomb gets a place in WebUser, issue 189. That's exactly 20 issues after Horizontal Shooter was in. And, if you're counting, it's exactly 2 pages earlier.. I've been bumped up to page 38, now! Woot. 2 pages in 20 issues.. Hmm.. By issue 549 I should be on the front page! Woohoo! That's only 13 years away!

Puzzobomb rears it's head once again, this time in a Junior capacity. Puzzobomb Jr DS is basically just Puzznic! But, hey, there's nothing wrong with that! Just because the titular "Bomb" is completely missing, doesn't mean the game's not fun. And with over 2000 levels to work your way through, you'll be playing away for quite a while.. .. Or giving up! This game might end up with lots of extras, some time in the future. For now, though, it's just a big collection of leve...

Tomb Raider meets Pitfall! <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/crofty1.png"> Retro Raider took a few days to get into a decent build, and then over the course of a few weeks I added lots of extra little chunky bits. <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/crofty2.png"> Recently I've been tweaking it even more. There's now a handful of levels, a few collectables, doors, keys, and even a little Ghost Replay/Time Trial mode. <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/crofty3...

Puzzobomb, a mix of Puzznic and Bombs.. (For Jericho!) (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/puzzobomb_01.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/puzzobomb_01_thumb.png"> Starting with the (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=54">Wednesday Workshop base) from the other day, I decided that yes, I would build it up a bit.   So, I opened up the Amstrad CPC game "Puzznix" which, since I was a kid, I'd always assumed to be "the original game".. Turns ...

I don't normally post individual Workshop entries. They're not usually good enough to make it to single-post-worthy status! This week's workshop is a Jericho-based "Explosive" challenge, and so I made a small puzzle game with Bombs. It's quite an interesting puzzle game. Take the basic rules of the classic Puzznix game, add bombs, and score it all on a Golf-style scorechart. The game looks quite nice, nicking the "chunky" block style from Blockman, and there's some half-assed soun...

Last month I got my Samsung U600 phone. On Sunday I decided to get Java installed, and give it a go. Today, I'm releasing Centipong Jr. ?? <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/javadev/centi001.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/javadev/centi001_thumb.png"></a> ?? You should know how the game goes, but this one's lacking in a few features. 1. It's not got any audio, 'cos I haven't figured out how to do that yet! 2. There's no Levels structure, just more and mor...

For starters, let me just point out that Alien Deathmatch has still been slowly updating over the past couple of weeks. It's strange that a single game has taken up so much of my time. I guess that once you find the right type of game, you're more motivated than usual. Still, more weeks playing with 1 game = less time to get some actual new games coded. As such, there's not really been a whole lot to report over the past week or so. No new games, no new ideas, nothing. I had initially planned to do ...

Last year I drew some graphics! A set of sprites and background tiles for a DS game based on the classic Alien Breed on the Amiga. The plan fell apart soon after. <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/adlogo.png"> Last week I decided to resurrect it on the PC. Sorry! This is another none-DS game, folks!

Not as many fun little games, this time around, but weeks 61 through 90 brought about a few changes. For starters, Coders Workshop closed down in week 64, which meant the whole Wed.Workshop thing was without a home. Consequently, I spent most of this period building up the whole Socoder website.. from scratch.. in notepad.. <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/065/cw.gif"> <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/084/rolly.gif"> It took a while! So, I missed a few workshops! As s...

Imagine if all your favourite Arcade games were in fact Slot Machine games. Arcade Slots reproduces a handful of games in this style. With games ranging from Frogger to Hogan's Alley, there's plenty to keep your playing. <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/arcadeslots.zip">Download Arcade Slots</a>. <table border="0" valign="top"> <tr><td valign="top"><a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/as_pac.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/as_pac_thum...

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Windows

<br> (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/?p=70"><img src="https://jnk.homedns.org/hs2_thumb.png" height="90" width="120" /> H~S<br>Horizontal Shooter)<br> (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=65"><img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/165/cowbell_hero.gif" height="90" width="120" /> Cowbell Hero) <br> (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=56"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/crofty2.png" height="90" width="120" /> Retro ...

If Centipong was a simplistic looking game with added 3D, Blockman would be the exact opposite. With levels so colourful they'd poke your eyes out, Blockman comes hopping along to rescue all the Blocklets. <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_01.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_01_thumb.png"></a><a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_02.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_02_thumb.png"></a> It's a rather...

Over the past few days, I've been building up Centipong bit by bit, and it's now become a much nicer game to play. There's levels to beat, pickups to collect, and more centipede pods than you can shake a paddle at! If you enjoyed the previous version, give the new version a try. You'll love it! <a href="https://agameaweek.com/?Game=72">Download it here</a> : Slowly getting bigger! Just over 2Mb

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.

The DrunkenCoders Christmas Compo finishes tonight. I bothered to enter the new JNKPlat Xmas Special (You can download that (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/jnkplatv0_2.zip">here)) but it's nothing too special.. So, this morning, at around 8am, I decided to get my arse in gear and actually make something nice and snowy for the compo. Around 5 hours later, give or take, and (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/snowman.zip">Snowman Attack) is the result. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/snowatta...

<em>Note : This is much more Game-Specific than my regular posts!</em> Bombliss is one of my favourite alternate Tetris games. It has all the playability of the original Tetris, and it also has bombs, and chain reactions and things, too. Last night, I opened up the Tetris sourcecode for the Retro Collection, and started hacking away for it's Xtra Mode. (renamed so it looked more obvious on the menu) For reference, to start a Xtra Mode game, either hit X to start the game instead of A.....

The whole Gabby Gets a Turkey (logo on last week's post) game is being scrapped due to bizarre scale issues!? A white cat in white snow is a nice idea, except when you realise that a 16x16 pixel head is going to need a huge non-existant body behind it!? The whole thing just felt really odd, and I decided to just scrap it instead. I know that the Drunken Coders people hate entries that are "X game + Xmassy theme added on later", and I came up with the Gabby game so's it definitely didn't feel like a tac...

Those expecting another Saturday filled with happy retro memories have a long wait. I took the week off! Mostly because coding 18 games within 3 weeks takes quite a lot out of you, but also 'cos my DS finally gave up trying to hold onto the tiny shred of hinge it had remaining. (ie, it did that whole "R-trigger side snap" thing that DSLite's tend to do!) During this week, though, I've been thinking about Galaga. On the one hand, it'd be nice to make a tiny retro version of the Amiga classic "Deluxe G...

Another week, another pile of retro-mania! You get the idea by now, 6 extra games and the odd bugfix. I had to redo a lot of Tetris, this week, since I'd ballsed up quite a bit of it last week! But it's all working rather well now, so you can happily settle down to a nice long game on Extreme modem and it'll now actually get faster as you head up the levels! And the T shape's in it this week, too! The Joust game's as good as it should be, without being much more. There's ...