Got the firmware updated!

Let's code a really simple Tennis/Ping Pong game, shall we?

As much as I love making gambling games (after all, my IRL name is actually James Gamble) I've tried to steer away from them for the past decade or so.

Yesterday was a day of nothingness.

A blank slate, this morning, as I try to come up with a Shoebox game to do.
I did consider getting back to finishing off The Quest, but every time I look at the code, the whole thing seems to be larger in scope than I ever imagined it might be.

A decade is over, and what have I done?
373 games, created a new blogging script for here, rewritten the Socoder forum, started a few new sites and more!
Oh, and a brain tumour!
It's been a wild and crazy decade, and over the next few days I'll be looking back at the best (and worst) games from the decade.

SpriteSomething's working on my iPad again. (Thank fuuuu)

"Homepath" is seemingly working well enough, but today I'd like to try adding a few extra additions into the gameplay, to make the levels a little more complex.

I know what game I'd like to make for this week's Browsercade, and my mind's jumping at the chance to see how it plays, but any time I sit at the keyboard, things take a downward turn.
I don't think my mind's up to it.
And with 3 weeks worth of 4 games a week, who could really blame it.
Tonight, then, I'm going to cabbage out and watch a film or something, and not worry about this week's Browsercade game.
I've already written a Foldapuz game, and may s...

Blimey, General thoughts!
Usually I don't get a chance to look at the ins and outs of the general frameworks and such, once I've started using them.
But the new Javascript-based frameworks allow for realtime tweaking, and also fixing old broken things along the way, too.
Cool!!

Shoebox Stats
Cards : 3
Words : 3
Board : 2

Anonymous Jean-Michel Jarre Fan

says..
Suggestion: when the cards are shuffled, add a longer pause to give players a chance to learn the new config. As it stands the cards flip over way too quick to remember what was where.

Alan continues...
Have you tried Inkscape?
Nope!

@RSKGames

I was very lucky that in my first game I did not get into any snake tiles and got the help of one ladder tile to reach near the end zone much before the AI.
Yup, this is a game 100% down to luck.
I'd like to perhaps remove the sheer-luck, by making the moves maybe Card based, or something? Not quite sure how well that would work, and it honestly wouldn't be "Snakes and Ladders" anymore.
So.. Perhaps another type of board game in the future?

I spent most of last night trying various microphone tweaks in order to get just the right sound.

During the course of making Shoebox of Games, I'm sure there'll be plenty of feedback.
If you want to get a mention, you can send feedback either in the comments, via Twitter, via email, or any other method you can think of that includes me receiving the feedback!
You can Play Shoebox of Games here.

And we're already halfway through!!

It's been a long long time since I did a bog standard Snake clone, and yesterday's code session reminded me of just how utterly simplistic a snake clone can be.
Today I'll be making the tail follow the player, as it currently doesn't clear out as it goes, making things much harder for the player. Once that works, I'll be adding more tail-pieces as the player eats more, and then coming up with a soundtrack that matches the presentation of the game.

100 NOW compilations, and what do we get?!
Track Listing
That's a bit of a shit selection, isn't it..?
I mean, I can understand why they did that. Every NOW needs to have modern tracks, and this one additionally has to celebrate the past.

It seems that if you have a .php file inside a folder, then it gets its own error_log file, meaning all this time I've been having a little error log grow inside an old abandoned folder, because I forgot it had a broken .php file in there!
.. Oops!!

I've found a number of minor issues with Micro Clampett, like how I'd forgotten to add the Music Volume setting to the Music Channel. D'oh!
My mind seems to be enjoying doing all these little fixes a lot more than working on actual games, at the moment, so I'm just going to keep doing that until I get bored!!!
We'll hold off Franken-Hopper until next week, and hopefully I'll come up with a more interesting gameplay style for it.
At the minute he can definitely hop,...

Yeay!
Thanks to all for testing.
Rychan - I see the hitbox detection has been improved somewhat also which is cool
A little more forgiving, this time. The original game was a little "too" mean when it came to bird vs flame hits!

If you're a frequent visitor, you've probably noticed the occasional MySQL "Too many connections" error cropping up on the site.

I give up.
Over the past 30-odd hours, I've tried a boatload of languages, and although all seem capable in their own particular ways, none of them seem to do everything that I need them to do.
I'm still annoyed that GLBasic doesn't do sound-pitching.
Seriously, WTF?!

Don't panic!!

Over the past 3 or 4 weeks, I've been slowly getting back into the swing of doing iOS games.
Two releases so far, (Quadoban and Letter Lattice) and today's AGameAWeek (Bugsplodings) has just, within the past hour or so, been uploaded for Apple Review.
I thought I should write a blog about why these three have been created, and also explain why I've not yet gone "FULL PROMO!!!" about the games.
(Warning : Long waffling post!)