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5th November 2013
This month is all about NeonPlat Extreme, as I slowly bulk up a minimalistic game with tons of brand new features!
Woot!
To celebrate, here's a lovely great big wallpaper!
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Wallpaper_Neovember.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Wallpaper_Neovember-1024x1024.png" alt="" title="Wallpaper_Neovember" width="590" height="590" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-3252" />
Click for massively oversized version (32...
Views 33, Upvotes 10
Daily Blog
5th November 2013
Welcome to Neovember, the month of NeonPlat, where I take the original NeonPlat Raw engine, and gradually upgrade it, adding new gameplay elements, features and modes.
By the end of Neovember, we'll have a lovely big Extreme version of NeonPlat, and we can all sit around and play it for days/weeks/months at a time!
In this first week, I've decided to tackle the task of bringing over the NeonPlat Adventures enemies, and popping them into the new gane.
So far I've managed the first 35 enemies, ranging ...
Views 33, Upvotes 10
Daily Blog
Neovember?!
Blog
1st November 2013
Right, time for a new plan.
The last plan fell apart, and I'm struggling to come up with new games that work with all the possible targets, nicely.
Grrr!
So, instead, I've opted to do something that I initially planned to do months and months ago.
When I created "NeonPlat Raw" back in June, I purposely gave it the name "Raw" so that a future (premium?) expansion could be called "Extreme!"
For Extreme, I'm thinking something along the lines of how NeonPlat 2 was a HUGE leap from NeonPlat 1. Different...
Views 28, Upvotes 11
Daily Blog
Plans Abandoned
Blog
30th October 2013
During most of October I've been building up a lovely little "Compendium".
The idea was to make a collection of 25 little games, and pop it up as a sort of Advent Calendar type thing, but without it being thematically Christmassy, so that you could happily enjoy it at any time of the year.
It's been about 2 or 3 weeks since I started the project.
I got a lovely menu system working, and managed to fit all the usual scoreboard/icon/etc elements in.
Then I started making games.
.. and that's when the ...
Views 26, Upvotes 7
Daily Blog
BlastTrax on OUYA
Blog
29th October 2013
Yesterday saw the launch of BlastTrax on OUYA.
Since I've yet to figure out all that nasty Tax gubbins (I know, I know!!... eventually!!) I've not yet managed to add any IAP stuff to any of my games.
Since an OUYA game is freely available as a download, and then the .apk gets reproduced all over the entire internet via robot-spammy-feed sites, you either have to do 100% free, or buttloads of IAP stuff. There's no mid-point, no way to create a "Demo vs Full version", or anything else like that.
Since...
Views 36, Upvotes 11
Daily Blog
28th October 2013
The internet is a place for trolls and complainers (like me!) who like to gripe at every opportunity.
For the most part, we tend to ignore these types, which generally means that comments sections have become largely ignored.
Here at AGameAWeek, the opposite has happened. There are apparently no trolls daring enough to even attempt to play my games! I seem to have scared most of them away.
As a result, there are no trollers or complainers here, and since those are the types that make up the 99% of the ...
Views 30, Upvotes 9
Daily Blog
BlastTrax *sigh*
Blog
27th October 2013
(URL "https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/blasttrax/id689619329?mt=8">BlastTrax is currently (27th October 2013) free on the iOS AppStore)
I really do find myself in a bit of a baffled state over this one.
As the AGameAWeek guy, I'm certainly used to shrugging off failed releases, and in many ways this one should be exactly the same.
This is simply one of many releases that I've made this year, and over the course of the year, pretty much all the games have had a day or two of interest, and then quickly...
Views 44, Upvotes 12
Daily Blog
26th October 2013
Over the course of the past 5 weeks, BlastTrax has sold 16 copies.
SIXTEEN....
That's just bloody well shit...
I've made the game free for a couple of days. Grab it while you can, and don't expect any more damn updates.
Sod that shit!
(URL "https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/blasttrax/id689619329?mt=8">Grab it Here)
Views 29, Upvotes 6
Daily Blog
BlastTrax : Maps
Blog
22nd October 2013
Do you need maps for BlastTrax!?
..
...
No..
You don't!
Still, here they are!
(URL "https://googledrive.com/host/0B-wPKt_YBHKfeU9JdkFCdWQwUVk/maps.htm">BlastTrax : Maps)
There's a map for each of the first 15 levels of each of the 9 gamemodes in the current (V1.1) edition of the game.
They're bloody useless, but there they are!
Enjoy looking at the squiggles!!
Views 88, Upvotes 8
Daily Blog
How To : Glow
Blog
21st October 2013
Since I just answered this on the Monkey Forums, and created a nice little image to illustrate it, I thought it might be useful to repost my description here.
Here's roughly how I achieved the Glow effect on NeonPlat.
First, draw your sprite in a RAW form, then make a copy, make it bolder, then blur it all up a bit.
Finally, load both the RAW and the BLUR into your game, draw the Raw first, then draw the blur over the top.
It really is a simple effect, and depending on how large your blur-sprites ar...
Views 25, Upvotes 9
Daily Blog
20th October 2013
So, I finally got an OUYA, and managed to get my first game into the OUYA store after a bit of tweaking.
Time to update my Framework!
The Download(URL "https://socoder.net/monkey/Framework_13_10_20.zip">Jayenkai's Monkey Framework, as of 20th October 2013) | (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/2013/10/monkey-skeleton-13_10_20/">Blog Post)Older versions(URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/Monkey_Framework_2013_06_13.zip">Jayenkai's Monkey Framework, as ...Views 57, Upvotes 14
Daily Blog
17th October 2013
Late last night, NeonPlat Raw appeared on the OUYA Dashboard for the very first time.
This is kind of a big deal, in that it's the first time one of my games has officially been released on an actual physical home-console.
True, it's not a "PROPER" console, but .. Hey, it's a box with a controller that plugs into my telly.
And it's got my games on it!
So, Hell yeah, It's proper enough to me!!
If you have an OUYA, you can grab (URL "https://www.ouya.tv/game/NeonPlat-Raw">NeonPlat Raw) for it.
It's...
Views 38, Upvotes 11
Daily Blog
14th October 2013
I've built a nice editor, and have started making some levels, so it's time to figure out exactly how I'm going to layout the level structure, exactly how the scoring will be figured out, how level progression will be stored, and all sorts of other little complicated bits and pieces.
There's a lot of work to do.
In the meantime, I thought it might be nice for folk to have a little play of the game, as it currently stands, so I've built an early "First 10" level demo thing.
You can (URL "https://socod...
Views 18, Upvotes 6
Daily Blog
13th October 2013
I can't exactly say I've been enjoying the time off..
To be honest, 95% of September was spent working on the big BlastTrax update, and so far most of October has been similarly working on Sheep Goes Right.
It's actually a heck of a lot of stuff to cram into such a short amount of time, and it's been so much effort that I've been neglecting AGameAWeek.
But.. You know.. They're both nice big games, and they're both sort of worth the effort. Or at least, I think so, anyway!
Meanwhile I've gone and boug...
Views 42, Upvotes 11
Daily Blog
11th October 2013
Want a nice free game to play on your tiny OUYA console?!
How about NeonPlat Raw?!
Since I'm still learning the OUYA ropes, and still trying to figure everything out, I've not yet got my whole OUYA-Dev-Account stuff fully sorted. (erk, Tax forms!!?)
So, in the meantime, we'll have to resort to throwing random crap online for free!
o/yeayo/
(URL "https://socoder.net/NeonPlatRaw_OUYATest.apk">NeonPlat Raw : OUYA Test (.apk : Grab it on your OUYA!))<img src="https://AGameAWeek.co...Views 27, Upvotes 8
Daily Blog
Karl's OUYA Test
Blog
11th October 2013
Bah, humbug..
So, as I test out the many OUYA bits and pieces, I'm stumbling upon the many do's and don't's.
Apparently, one of the don't's is "Don't attempt to read data from images".
..
Karl's OUYA Test shows exactly why we shouldn't do that.
This test is as broken as it is on some other Android devices.
If you've an OUYA, you can give this game a whirl.
It's tricky, and somewhat impossible on most of the levels, due to the complex/brokenness of the levels being stored as images. Which is a sh...
Views 43, Upvotes 6
Daily Blog
First OUYA Test
Blog
11th October 2013
Do you have an OUYA?
Would you like to see my Monkey Framework running on your telly!?!
It's nothing amazing, and is entirely developer-test-functionality-stuff as opposed to being something that you can actually play with, but if you'd like to give it a whirl, you can download the .apk file right here.
(URL "https://socoder.net/JaysButtonTest_ouya.apk">
Views 26, Upvotes 6
Daily Blog
Jay's Button Test
Blog
10th October 2013
Testing time, again.
Today, I purchased 2 very different, yet entirely similar devices.
First, a wire. Very cheap!
It allows me to plug an X360 controller into my Nexus7 device, and use it as an ingame controller, but only on games which support it.
( width="480" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RoRpCm0UJhM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>
 >
Second, an OUYA. Nicely cheap!
It allows me to plop Android games on it, and assuming they're develo...
Views 56, Upvotes 7
Daily Blog
8th October 2013
Sorry folks, I appear to have gotten bogged down with Sheep Goes Right.
Although I figured it'd be a nice simple little project that I could work on "behind the scenes", it's once again proved that I never can plan ahead!!
Sheep Goes Right has now become a much bigger project, and as I'm currently working on a way to make level building easier, I'm having to deal with all the testing that goes with it.
I'd forgotten how much time proper level building actually takes up!!
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/w...
Views 32, Upvotes 9
Daily Blog
2nd October 2013
I finally wrangled my way through "the big update" over the course of two nights..
Day one was having to upgrade to Mountain Lion (I was in hospital when it came out, and hadn't bothered to upgrade since).. This was swiftly* followed by installing XCode5.
The reason for all this, is that iOS7 devices need XCode5, and XCode5 needs Mountain Lion. It's Apple's special way of making sure all us developers constantly upgrade everything!
* Given that my Mac is at the exact opposite side of the house as my...
Views 23, Upvotes 8
Daily Blog
29th September 2013
September's over, and I've had a lot of fun bulking up BlastTrax, and playing GTAV!
The plan was, come October, I'd get straight back to business.
I'd upload BlastTrax's big update, and then start doing AGameAWeek again.
The reality is slightly different, for two main reasons.
One, as per usual, is "Bloody Apple, Grrr!!!"
Because iOS 7 is now "out there" and is the main OS on all my iOS devices, it means I can no longer quickly compile things easily for iOS6 for test purposes, which means I need ...
Views 43, Upvotes 8
Daily Blog
27th September 2013
I've no idea how far I'll manage to get with this game, and currently only have the main sprite, and logo drawn.
That's pretty much the entire extent of this game, so far!
But I'll carry on, and see how far I can get with it.
Since I have such wonderfully high-resolution assets, though, I decided to make a lovely little wallpaper with them.
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/sgr_logo.jpg"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/sgr_logo-1024x1024.jpg" a...
Views 19, Upvotes 6
Daily Blog
26th September 2013
September is nearly over, and I've played a good six or seven hours of GTAV.
Hmm..
Anyhoo, I've been working away at BlastTrax and have done quite a fair amount of work on the thing.
I should be uploading the new edition to Apple in the next couple of days, (I have to faff about updating my MacMini first, though) so watch out for that appearing on your iPhing in the next week or so.
After that it's time to get back into the AGameAWeek swing of things, and I'm tempted to do another slightly larger pr...
Views 21, Upvotes 8
Daily Blog
16th September 2013
People keep asking about how I manage to code AGameAWeek, and one thing they all eventually pick up on is that I'm currently doing it all with Monkey.
(URL "https://monkeycoder.co.nz">Monkey) is a fantastic language which allows for all manner of different targets, and does a great job doing what it does.
It isn't perfect, and it's not for everyone, but it suits me down to the ground.
As with any development tool, it all comes down to preference, and whether or not you agree with the methodology o...
Views 69, Upvotes 10
Daily Blog
10th September 2013
I'm taking a slight break from my usual AGameAWeek schedule.
Over the course of September, I'll be spending extra time building up a super awesome edition of BlastTrax, whilst also taking the time to enjoy GTAV properly!
Hurray for games!
Meanwhile, I'm digging through my archive of old forgotten gems, and plucking out anything that isn't yet part of my Archive for reasons of terribleness, or general forgetfulness!
Views 146, Upvotes 20
Release
JuNKPile : Topplers
Blog
3rd September 2013
Just because I'm taking September off from my regular AGameAWeek schedule, doesn't mean there won't be fun times ahead! I've decided to keep you entertained with a few oddities that have collected on my hard drive for the past decade or so, but have mostly been unpublished due to being "a bit shit", or me having lost their sourcecode.
These are games that I've always considered to be part of my archive, but for various reasons I've never actually bothered to add to the thing.
Games that I occasionally ...
Views 155, Upvotes 25
Release
2nd September 2013
To mark five whole years since (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/2013/09/agameaweek-gold-jnkplat-ds-08/">the release of the greatest JNKPlat game, EVER), I've decided to do a JNKPlat themed desktop this month.
Nice and simple!
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/out.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/out-1024x1024.png" alt="" title="out" width="590" height="590" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-3142" />
Click for MASSIVE!) (Only 2048x2048,...
Views 34, Upvotes 9
Daily Blog
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