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Friday MusicAL Blog
22nd July 2016

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Developments


I think I'm scrapping the HERO project.
I've spent long enough trying to get the level generator to make a nice difficult set of levels, but everything it comes up with is either incredibly linear, or downright impossible.
I need to add more limits to the rule-set or something, but my mind's still too hot from this British Summer that I'm struggling to think straight.

Instead, I'll avoid it and probably inevitably forget all about it.
Like the JNKPool game..

Hmm..
Anyhoo, I instead started a generic Pengo style game.
I figured that would at least be something entertaining.

I'm currently trying to come up with a nice set of "newness", but time is limited and I'll probably just end up doing a generic uninspired clone, instead.

Daily Doodle : Watching Out for Rocks



Science Officer Platdude is on the look out for a certain kind of rock.
The ship's Warp Drive cannae function without it.

Misc..

Today's mail comes from Patreon subscriber Nz17

Why did you stop using BlitzMax?

Nz17



Between September and November 2011, I created the wonderful NeonPlat Adventures in BlitzMax.
I had a joy creating such a wonderfully large game, and all of the many elements made it feel more like a variety of different projects, rather than one long dull boring one.

Once released, I started work on the iOS version.
This meant line-by-line porting from BMax to Obj-C, as well as reworking the controls, fixing the entire scale of the game, and then there was the Calendar-based menu system.
On iOS you can't simply "Ignore" the fact that not everyone uses the same calendars.
From different month names to wildly different calendar structures, this wasn't easy.
To be fair, I actually managed (I think!) to get most of that working, albeit untested!

There was still, however, the fact that I had to port 50 enemy "ai" characters over to the new engine, and since I'd rescaled and tinkered with it all to fit onto the iPhone, I needed to rework every single character's movement.
It was a HUGE task.

In hindsight, It would've been easier if I stripped it all out and reworked it from scratch. I'm usually better at that.
But instead, I focused on each one individually, copied the code, converted the code, tweaked the code.
Bit by bit the game grew and grew, but after a good month or so, I realised I'd probably only done about 10 of the 50 characters, and the whole process was tiring and exhaustive.

In the end, I gave up trying.
Over the next couple of months, Jan and Feb 2012, I instead went back to AGameAWeek in BlitzMax, and also managed to create one iOS game a Month in ObjC.
Things were going well. All except the curious amount of migraines I was having.

Then this.

After that, I figured to hell with it all.
I've since stuck to Monkey, because Monkey lets me compile to three important targets.
HTML5 - Which runs on most systems, without me having to dodge Windows/MacOS License stuff, and the sheer insanity of Linux!
Android and iOS - Which lets me continue my Mobile quest for success
and of course OUYA (and/or Android TV) - Which lets me play on my telly

I very much see the Windows .exe's as more of a "It can, so I will" addition. It isn't something I tend to focus on, as much as I do the HTML5 editions of my games.
Which is odd, because it's not how I used to do things.

*shrugs*

At the end of the day,
Long story short.
I tend to use Monkey,
'cos I'm too lazy to port!!

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