For DS Development, I use PALib and DevKitPro. DevKitPro compiles everything nicely for the DS, whilst PALib is a set of functions that makes everything nice and usable, as opposed be being a baffling chaotic mess! However, if you try updating it, a whole fleet of incompatibilities arise, be it because of DevKitPro changing, or PALib. And, it's not just little things either. A simple PALib upgrade will mean that pretty much all of my old games start getting little breaks in them, and it's a ...

A nice and simple game, this week. <img src="https://agameaweek.com/completeB/2009/Storm_of_Idigidragon_20090224A.png"> Since I'm trying to decide what style Platdude Retro Collection 2 should have, I decided to try out a style in Blitz first, and see how it looks. You might notice it's still a little Atari 2600. .. I'm not sure if I'll stick with that. But I do like the nice big chunky sprites, and the whole thing feels much more retro than PRC did, originally.. So.. I dunno...

I say "Project", but of course, being me, I mean projectS.. #1 PRC:2 - 0% I'm restarting Platdude's Retro Collection from scratch, and building it up a bit bigger than last time, with nicer per-game spritesheets and things like that. Bigger = Better, usually.. .. I'll make sure that's true, don't worry! So far the selection's getting too big for it's boots, and at current rate it'll take about 3 years to finish the project, so.. going to have to whittle it down, and remember the "Keep it Simple" r...

You can <a href="https://agameaweek.com/?Game=165">Download JXW here</a> This one's for me!! If other folk enjoy it, then so be it, but I made this for myself because I was getting really ticked off by the lack of decent crossword games* on the DS. There's 3479 crosswords in the game. Each one's selectable from the very uninteresting title screen, and playable whenever you want. Pick a level, play it, done. If you want to save midway, hit start to return to the menu, th...

My mum likes crosswords!!! And, heck. I like crosswords, too! Except, the trouble is, there's not really a decent crossword game on the DS. Don't get me wrong, there's a fair few games, and The Times (released this week) in particular, has a cracking selection of clues/answers, and some really nice layouts. In fact, it's really quite nice, and would be fantastic if the actual game UI wasn't so mind bogglingly bad. And, I'm not saying it's "A little bit bad.." I'm say...

Doing your homework on the back of the bus.. A crazy week of illness, busyness, and a party, have meant that this week's game had to be done.. .. um.. today! And, as you could probably guess. I ain't got Jack! There's still a game, though! Take a look inside to see what it is..

I've taken onboard a few of AuthenticKaizen's suggestions, and there's now a slightly better edition of Disasteroids available. <a href="https://agameaweek.com/?Game=33">Same download link, right here</a> The game's pretty much the same as it was on Tuesday, except with a few added powerups to play around with. There's also (I forgot to mention this anywhere, but it's in there!!) a "Chill" mode. Hit Tab to start the game, and you play without those little white cr...

This week's Wednesday Workshop <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?topic=1414">#186</a> was to create a nice Asteroids game. As I started creating it, I was planning a nice Horizontal Shooter-esque game, with powerups and all kinds of crazyness. But I ran out of steam midway. A shame.. <img src="https://agameaweek.com/completeB/2009/Disasteroids_20090203A.png"> BUT. It's still a nice swooshy game, with fancy particles, and nice explosions. It's mouse controlled, l...

This week, I've been working on an Asteroids game. On Thursday, it was a bog standard Asteroids game, that seriously needed updating. On Friday, I changed the controls to mouse. The game plays like a cross between Asteroids and Horizontal Shooter. On Sunday, I tweaked the controls further, and added particles. And today, I spent some time tweaking the difficulty. At this point, the gameplay's "OK". It's not amazing. And, I think because of that, I've kind of stalled. Right now, the...

Much as expected, this week's AGameAWeek has become a Vib Ribbon style game. To be honest, I had this idea for a moment, last week, whilst doing the Go Left game. The idea stayed in my head for about a minute, before vanishing. But having finally gotten around to playing Vib Ribbon, this week, I figured it was time to put the plan into action, and with a nice time-saving addition (the graphics!) I managed to get it done in time. So here's J-Walker. <a href="https://agameaweek.com/complet...

I've had it in my desk's cupboard for years. I bought the game not long after my original Playstation broke, thinking I'd pick up a PSX cheap somewhere.. I never did. And, I never bought a PS2, or a PSP, or PS3, or anything else that could play it. Over the years, I've tried it on Various emulators, only to have them spit it out, and die.. And yet I kept it, hoping to eventually play it some day. Yesterday I finally DID! And it's a cracking game. A wonderful piece of music based gaming, all nice a...

Every so often, I like to rant here, for no real reason. Today, whilst playing Burnout 3 on my Xbox Classic, the whole "Customisable Soundtracks on the X360" issue appeared once again, so I figured I should rant about it. See, on Burnout XBox, you used the game to pick the soundtrack, and then that played it in the background. But, it ALSO stopped the music when you crashed, turned down the music when there was information to be told, and other useful things. But, for some really bizarre inexplicable ...

I've had a couple of emails about the donate button already, so thought I should clarify why it's there. I write a game a week.. Sometimes they're good, sometimes their rubbish, and sometimes they're really fun, playable, and can keep you playing for a good few hours. I can do this, because I have a lot of free time. And by "a lot of free time", I mean A LOT of free time. The webhost is pretty much minimal cost (GoDaddy), the programming languages range from 0 cost (DS/XNA) to very mi...

A short and sweet game, this week. Would've been more (extra graphical niceness) but I ran out of time! Aw well.. Here's the basic form. <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/184_go_left.gif"> Rules : Go Left, avoid spinning spiky things. There's 13 levels, and then it wraps back to level 3 but faster, and then continues to wrap, getting faster and faster all the time.. Infinite lives, so if you're really bored you can just keep going and going and going! Maybe! Yo...

I'm not sure if you figured it out from the picture I posted the other day, but it seems that the project I'm currently working on in XNA will turn out to be Centipong. To be honest, I wasn't actually planning to do Centipong! I was actually just shoving in a basic sprite, and getting it bobbing around on the screen, in order to duplicate my basic "Blitz 2D-in-3D" command set within the XNA environment. So far that's working out rather well, and I've near enough created a nice littl...

I've said on other forums that this year will be my Xbox Live year. That I'd take the time to learn how XNA should work, and eventually build things up so they work nice and happily. Unfortunately, my coding's stuck in the 80's&90's, and I can't get out of my "horrible" Basic habits. Well, other folk call them "Horrible" habits, but honestly, I just see most Basic commands as common sense. I'd much rather write If Keydown(1) Then End than I would write If (GamePad.GetState(...