Seems that, as I panic to generate content for the SoCoder Advent of Creativity, my goto thing to create is additional games for Foldapuz!

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I added yet another game to the Fold, last night. Multi Box

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As I struggle to decide on what to do about a Xmas launch, I'm jumping about from unfinished projects, half started ones, and then things like Foldapuz which will never be complete, as it's just another great big pile of games!

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"Create a Horizontal Shooter".. That was the compo rules for The Horizontal Shooter compo, over at SHMUP-Dev.. Or at least I think it was there.

I started this entry in January 2006. I know this because the game has a directory numbered 031..Since starting Wed.Workshop I've been numbering all my dev-dirs according to the number of that week's workshop!


Why I never finished it, I don't know.
Maybe I grew bored of it. Or maybe I realised it really wasn't that much of a challenge.

Whatever the case, tonight I decided to spruce it up a little.. So I added in a few sound effects, tweaked the settings a bit, and then added in a tune I found in my huge Chiptune directory.

So, Enjoy!
Mouse controlled, shoot the right, guard the left. Catch bullets in your trail!

Oh, and watch you don't fall off the edges since there's no edge detection! Nice and slow!

For those interested, the chiptune is "chromag-shock_therapy23.xm"

Which project?
The one I started yesterday, obviously!!

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Yesterday's new Foldapuz addition went alarmingly smoothly.
.. I should've known that wasn't a good sign.

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Otakupunk's sent a lovely set of Xmas Themed levels for JNKPlat.
Be sure to give them a whirl!

You can grab JNKPlat 2018 here
You might also like to grab the complete level file from the Level Database, too. Simply pop it in the same folder as the exe, or if you're playing on 3DS, dump it into the agawsave folder.

I spent about 80% of yesterday choosing a font!

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The triangles weren't too hard to get up and running yesterday, so I also took time to make a completely random letter grid.

The letter grid doesn't really have any specific solution due to it being entirely random, but you're supposed to play it like you would a game of Boggle.. Trying to find words with letters that join up.

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I spent near enough all day, yesterday, fighting the fight with Emscripten.

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I spent most of yesterday struggling to get the Pixelart2STL tool to have a lovely 3D WebGL representation of the model, so that I can then upgrade the tool to allow for monochrome extruded models like the original .exe does.



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Tools

This is a list of the tools that I use when creating AGameAWeek.
Tool list last update : March 12th 2016
(If this is terribly outdated, let me know!!)

Coding

Currently I do all my coding using the Monkey-X language, from Blitz Research.
The language is one that I'm incredibly familiar with, since I've tended to stick to the Blitz range of languages for well over a decade. Blitz2D, Blitz3D and BlitzMax have accompanied me through the years, and I'm happy to continue using Monkey-X, the latest in the range.
Monkey-X allows me to write-once, and target lots of current-gen devices, from Android to iOS, as well as desktops. It can even compile to HTML5, so is really handy for rapid development, and testing all kinds of things.
The language isn't foolproof, though. Generating art and other such file-access based things can be tricky, so I also have Blitz3D and BlitzMax both installed on my system for doing the odd "quick tool" development.

Over the years, I've dipped my toes into many other languages. I've created iOS games with Cocos2D, made J2ME games in MidletPascal and Nintendo DS Homebrew using PALib. These languages are all fine and dandy, but nowadays Monkey lets me write-once, and I've gotten very lazy letting it do that! Having to write a game specifically for one device seems a bit of a waste.

I've also attempted several test things in "Pro" languages like XNA and Unity, but in most of those cases I found the "professional" level of doing things tended to take far too long. Adding assets were a 10-step process, and when you're trying to do things at the rate of AGameAWeek, even a ten step job can feel like too much work!
Blitz/Monkey lets me stick a file in a folder and then immediately use it, rather than having to import it, assign it attributes, and all the other things that "pro" tools tend to make me have to do before I can get a sprite on the screen.

In addition to using the Blitz/Monkey languages, I always install Programmers Notepad 2 which I find handy for all manner of hacking and scripting. I also tend to write my websites using this, so if anything seems somewhat hobbled together, it's usually because I've handcoded the whole lot from scratch!!

Art

My current art kit consists of three main programs.
On the iPad, I use the app Sprite Something. It took me a while to get used to the way it works, but I'm now well and truly comfortable with the way it works.
Over the past couple of years, Sprite Something has been the main tool I use to draw my art, be it game logos, sprites, backgrounds, or even my daily platdude pixelarts.

On the PC I tend to use Paintshop Pro X7, which I usually use to organise the sprites I've drawn using Sprite Something, or to enlarge logos and add effects and the like.

Once the sprites are organised onto Spritesheets, I then use my own slicer tool (written in BlitzMax) to take the sprites, remove any Magenta to make them transparent, and rescale them to more usable spritesheet sizes.

SFX

Sound effects are cobbled together from all kinds of places, but recently I find myself using bfxr for most things.
I then tend to use CoolEdit Pro to tweak the sounds to exactly how I want them.
Occasionally I'll use FLStudio to generate more specific sounds and jingles, but for the majority of tasks, bfxr's perfectly fine.

Music

I used to use FLStudio to do a lot of my music, but then in Jan 2014, KORG launched their wonderful Gadget app on iOS.
Since that appeared, I've barely opened FLStudio at all, except for the odd sound effect work.

KORG Gadget does everything I need when doing AGameAWeek soundtracks, and that's good enough for me!

James "Jayenkai" Gamble is a coder who likes to code!

Having attempted and failed at both GCSE and ALevel computing, mostly due to becoming overwhelmingly bored at their idea of computing (Punched cards, Binary and How to Use a Wordprocessor!), I inevitably gave up on the idea of "computing" as a career.

Coding is my hobby.
I enjoy the freeform nature of my hobby, and will continue with it until I become bored with it!
I create because I enjoy creating, and if anyone happens to enjoy the results, then that's all good.

Contact

Email : Jayenkai@Gmail.com
Twitter : @Jayenkai
Facebook : Jayenkai
GooglePlus : +James Gamble (I tend not to use this, anymore.. Does anyone?!)

Health / The Brain Tumour!!

In March 2012, I was rushed into hospital with a fairly large cyst/tumour in my head.
After several months stuck in hospital with tubes trickling ooze from the inside of my brain, and generally vomiting every single day, for months, I was eventually let out.
Since then I've had to tackle sickness, nausea and a terrible amount of issues with my balance, a combination of which have caused me to be pretty much entirely housebound.
Booo!

I occasionally blog about my health status.. If you're interested, you can find a selection of them here. But I try not to keep banging on about it!!

If you've any health related questions, feel free to ask me via twitter/email.