Developments

Yesterday I tackled something different.
For a while, I've been wondering if I should attempt to create a larger PixelArf site to accommodate everybody's entries.
I started by creating a barebones webpage with a couple of scrolling sections and a little bit of AJAX to hold it all together.

Developments

Yesterday, I finally got around to animating that cat and dog that I've been putting off for a good number of days.
I knew what I had to draw, but .. Animating?! Eeek!! And so the poor cat and dog remained undrawn, until yesterday when I practically forced myself into doing it.
And, I must admit, they turned out rather nice!

Developments

.. Did I do ANYTHING yesterday?!
I'm really struggling to come up with anything that I actually did.
Urm..

Developments

RAWR!!!
Wednesday went swimmingly well, with all the pieces falling into place, and everything being awesome and cool.
It stands to reason, then, that my Thursday didn't go quite as well.

Developments

Yesterday, someone new registered on my home village's website (LittleLever.info)
They, of course, instantly forgot their password, so used the "I forgot my password" button to find it out.
At this point I should probably explain why I've mentioned this..!
About a year ago, the original owner of LittleLever.info gave up paying for a site that never had any visitors. He stopped payments, and the site fell into disrepair before eventually getting pulled down com...

Since I'm spacing out my dev-time, I should hopefully have more time to do Dev-Diary type posts, as the games progress.
Hopefully, this will give you a little more insight into the sort of decision making that goes into AGameAWeek. I'll also try to take the time to add odd bits and pieces of craptastic-useless-trivia whenever I get the chance.
As frequent players will have noticed, I've been using a strange secondary numbering system for a long while. (Check out the Windows-Downloads to see th...

A couple of months ago, I mentioned this game in passing..
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/2009/08/y2w2-tetripong/">TetriPong)
And immediately started looking into remaking it.
It was just after I'd released ChuckABall, was midway through BounceABall, and considered this as a possible extra "ABall" game to fit alongside them.

I only went and bought a new laptop!!
I need to, not only get this new laptop up to my usual Dev-Kit standards, I also need to format, clean up, and "un-developer-ify" my old laptop, so I can hand it down to my sister.
This'll probably fill up most of my weekend, so the chances of my getting a game done by Tuesday are looking pretty slim.
I'll keep you informed, and post some nice pics and things, later, when I'm sat waiting for the other laptop to format and reinstall Windows!

One of the hardest things in the world of AGameAWeek is when you take time off.
The past week has been chaotic at home, and things got a bit down in the realm of the real-world. As such, I opted to take the week off from AGameAWeek, mostly because my mind wasn't in the right place to be designing fun little games.
The week off left me a little bored, and as is usually the case when in that mindset, I started to look back through the past few weeks and dig through the stats.
One of the most...

BlastTraxFAQs

What's with the track?

BlastTrax was originally devised as a classic Retro-styled GrandPrix-like racing game, with weapons.
You would drive through the course, shoot the other drivers, and make your way through to the end.

As we continue our trip down memory lane, I'm starting to head off into odd new directions.
This week, I'm remaking a game that I made for DS, but never got around to doing a proper fully fledged Windows edition of.
Obviously, though, a game full of Sprite-Rips isn't going to cut it in Apple's AppStore. .. Actually, given how fucking often those things somehow manage to get approved, I probably could, but let's not chance it!
Instead of ripping old sprites from Arcade ...

The Amiga was nearing the end of its life cycle and my local Game store was slowly getting rid of its Amiga stuff. It was sad to find all your favourite games crammed into that little corner of the store where only the geekiest kids would huddle.
Then one day, I spotted a bright blue stripy box.
"Blitz 2.0!???
Oooh!

A random oddball thought, resulted in this.
Drawn entirely using SpriteSomething on an iPad. .. Yes, I actually sat here and draw all those numbers! ... Bored? You bet!!
<img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/Spike2.png">
The rules are simple.

So, here we go again.
We're up to Year 5, and hopefully we'll get a full year out of it, this year (nnngh).
With Monkey, we get a chance to go back over our previous games, and remake them for a new audience, with iOS, Android and Browser based versions. I expect this will prove to be an exciting year.
Given that we can play at showing off, what games do you think would work best, and adapt well to the new touchy/mouse based gameplay options?
Or, what games could prove to be an obsc...

I'm rummaging through my hard drive, and what do I spot?
System Defender!!!
An unfinished piece of crap that I abandoned early on.
...

At the moment, I'm sending occasional beta editions of NeonPlat Adventures to two people.
One is AuthenticKaizen (/PixelProspector).
He got instant beta-status, because he started the whole NeonPlat thing.
This is all his fault!!

<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/platneonplat.png" alt="" title="platneonplat" width="128" height="64" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1847" />
Platdude vs NeonPlat

Today I'm focussing my blog on iOS trials and tribulations. The basic steps of designing a game when working with iOS.
These are pretty simple things, and should be apparent, but .. having played a fair number of iOS games.. they're not always done!
Note, this isn't really about my actual development, as such, more the train of thought that generates the end result.
In a future bloggy thing, I might focus more on the what/where, than the how/why that this does. Let me know if ...

I'd love to, but considering it's taken me about 6 months to get around to fixing Ubuntu (just starting, may not go well!!) the chances of me fixing my DSBrew stuff is pretty darned minimal.
Sorry!

Or rather, Curse You, stupid USB drive that killed about 4 hours of my work at 3am on Monday morning..
Although, If that hadn't have happened, I'd probably still be way way behind.
I had in mind, as I sat to code tonight, that I only (only!!) needed to add the weapons.
But, as I sit here at midnight, that's not really it, is it...

54 games. Last year I only managed about 30-odd, so I think that's pretty good going.
Sure, it might not have truely actually been A Game "Per" Week, but I did at least keep the ratio up.
If I hadn't taken the time out to build the framework, I probably would've actually achieved the target a little better
The stats show I was pretty much on top of things up until that point, but then things got slower and slower until my buffer zone was all dried up.
Anyhoo, this is a n...

A tragic tale of my own devising.
Stringy Things DS is incredibly playable.
Ask my mum.
She plays it ALL the time..

Not sure...
Today should be iPhinging day, but instead I'm faffing around with NeonPlat some more, and adding some nice fun little elements.
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/NeonPlat2_Plus.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/NeonPlat2_Plus-300x187.png" alt="" title="NeonPlat2_Plus" width="300" height="187" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-652" />
Smashing!.. is nicer than it was, I'v...

With all the Mac stuff, I've not had a chance to do a new game.
NOOoooooo!!!!!!
I suppose I could rush something in the next 24 hours, but I'm much rather be playing with those extra trimming, and getting things a little nicer.

First off, Gravity Bombs. Not touched it yet, but it definitely needs at least one tweak. .. the Mac's "Superior" (bah) Magic Mouse has a lot going for it, but it also has an inability to right click whilst holding down the left mouse button. Which is prett...

Awww
This week I've been ill, and between website tweaks, and lying in bed half-dead, I've not really had time to get anything done.
This morning, I managed to wake up, and was bright and alert.
I figured it was probably a good chance to get something done, so I grabbed the half-assed sprites, popped them into an engine, and got them running in a right facing direction.
Adding random pipes, and the ability to jump over them, I'd made a 1980's...

AGameAWeek 2010 - Game Number One!
We'll call this a test game, because the whole framework thing still isn't quite up to scratch, with all kinds of missing features!
Plus I've put in LOADS of little quirks, things that should be quick have been made extra lengthy, and there's a bunch of redundancy.. This is half-done on purpose so that I can see what the available systems can and can't cope with.
Hopefully we'll find that they can!!
<a href="https://AGameA...

That went as well as could be expected. Xmas intervened, family issues cropped up, all manner of snow based issues, and I pretty much rushed through the last 4 or 5 of those!
Not that it was entirely noticeable. I happen to think the last two were cracking games.
But which were your favourites?
Three Hens a-Laying seemed remake-able, could be something more interest.