With more tweaking than my head could stand, I finally got Game #2 wrapped up yesterday, so I'm finally starting on Game #3, today.
As stated previously, Game #3 will be reusing quite a lot of the core engine that Game #2 used, so it should be short and sweet putting it all together, like some kind of coded jigsaw puzzle.
Once that's done, Game #4's ready to get going (ie, I have a vague idea in my head!) and will also be coded in Blitz for this week's AGameAWeek, so watch out fo...

My mum likes crosswords!!!
And, heck. I like crosswords, too!
Except, the trouble is, there's not really a decent crossword game on the DS.
Don't get me wrong, there's a fair few games, and The Times (released this week) in particular, has a cracking selection of clues/answers, and some really nice layouts.

( border="0"><tr><td>Blimey!
What a year, eh!
I decided to round off the year with a nice big, old fashioned list, with everything in it.
Except this doesn't have everything in it, because I've forgotten to add the DS games.. I'll do that later!! (Took me about 3 hours to do this, so I'm not going to tweak it, now!!)

Another quicky, today.. In fact, it's a little later than usual, but that's only because I'd only just thought of it, this morning!! Panic coding at it's best..
Wheel of No Prizes sees you spin the wheel, guess the place name, Hangman style, and carry on as much as you can until you've run out of lives.
Neat!
<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/wheel.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/wheel_thumb.png"></a>
Nice and simple stuff, but...

If you're slightly above the age of people who are still meant to be pissing about playing silly games, like I am, you probably remember Gearworks, from the Amiga/C64 era.
I don't know why, but the game suddenly popped into my head, this week.
So I made a quicky clone.
It's not perfect, there's loads missing, and there's no editor in sight, but as a testbed for my still growing 2D-in-3D engine, it does the job.
<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/gearworks.p...

In what can only be described as a complete disappointment, I've given up with BlitzMax.
Technically, the engine's great, the language runs fast, and things are good.
But.. It doesn't run on some systems..
And some of the features I'd really like to use run really stupidly slow on certain other systems.

This week's Wednesday Workshop <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?topic=1206">#166</a> asked for us to create a game that uses lots of Balance.
I couldn't come up with anything!
So, instead, here's JNKPlat DS 08.
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/platds8_menu.png" align="right">
It's a complete restart of the engine, coded wholly from start, but using the old sprites so as to keep the good old fashioned style of the last one! (Although, had...

Puzzobomb, a mix of Puzznic and Bombs.. (For Jericho!)
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/puzzobomb_01.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/puzzobomb_01_thumb.png">
Starting with the (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=54">Wednesday Workshop base) from the other day, I decided that yes, I would build it up a bit.
 
So, I opened up the Amstrad CPC game "Puzznix" which, since I was a kid, I'd always assumed to be "the orig...

I don't normally post individual Workshop entries. They're not usually good enough to make it to single-post-worthy status!
This week's workshop is a Jericho-based "Explosive" challenge, and so I made a small puzzle game with Bombs.
It's quite an interesting puzzle game.
Take the basic rules of the classic Puzznix game, add bombs, and score it all on a Golf-style scorechart.
The game looks quite nice, nicking the "chunky" block style from Blockman, and there's so...

For starters, let me just point out that Alien Deathmatch has still been slowly updating over the past couple of weeks. It's strange that a single game has taken up so much of my time. I guess that once you find the right type of game, you're more motivated than usual.
Still, more weeks playing with 1 game = less time to get some actual new games coded.
As such, there's not really been a whole lot to report over the past week or so.
No new games, no new ideas, nothing.
I had initia...

Another week, another pile of retro-mania!
You get the idea by now, 6 extra games and the odd bugfix.
I had to redo a lot of Tetris, this week, since I'd ballsed up quite a bit of it last week! But it's all working rather well now, so you can happily settle down to a nice long game on Extreme modem and it'll now actually get faster as you head up the levels!
And the T shape's in it this week, too!
The Joust game's as good as it should be, without being much more. ...

And so it begins, the long boring task of making lots and lots of games
I lie. It's not boring!
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/col001.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/col001_thumb.png" align="left" /></a>Centipede took shape, gradually, over the course of a day. Most of the tweaking was in the main engine, as opposed to the game itself, since I had to be sure of all my different variables, and how all the pieces...

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/mum_02.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/mum_02_thumb.png" /></a>
I decided to do things the easiest way, code wise. To unlock the exit to a level, you need to open all the boxes within that level. Nice and simple.
There are 10 level layouts currently in the game. I might add more, I'm not sure. So far the largest level only uses up about 1/16th of the available map size, but if I make them too big they get a little dull...

I decided to start a Dev diary here, for all my DS Developing. I figured people would eventually stumble across it, and start reading away at all the fun coding. Either that, or they'll completely ignore these bits, and just download the Experimental stuff like they usually do.
Either way, this is going to be a part dev-diary, part progress report, and part release schedule for all things DS.
I currently have 4 DS Projects on the go. They are Stringy Things, JNKPlat, An Alien Breed type clone,...

Nothing special this week. If you knew me at the time I did Green's Tiny Collection, then you've no doubt seen this game.
<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/shots/bouncer1.png">
I thought I'd post it, though, to remind myself of what a great idea it once was.
Keep control of both Platdude and his football.

Week 22 of the Wednesday Workshop was <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?a=12&w=22">Racing</a> week.
The first game I attempted was a UFO Fly game, the game you see entered.. But after I'd done that, I attempted a couple more engines.
#1 was a mess, and never really got anywhere. It was a nice graphical effect, but nothing more than that.
#2 however, was a Ball Bouncing AI Racing grand prix game!
Here it is, as it sits on my hard drive. Unlike last week I ha...

Over the year, I've started a whole big bunch of games. Occasionally I finish a few! Here's some of the ones that involve Monkeys!
A mini competition was announced over at BlitzCoder. Create a game using no more than 150 lines of code. I created a silly game featuring a spinning set of monkeys, flying through a multicoloured tunnel. You had to shoot the monkeys. This became Space Monkeys 1
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/shots/sm1.jpg"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/shots/...

Platdude. A 16 pixel, 3 color character. Deftly defying the world of 3D models and amazing realism, in favour of good old fashioned gameplay.
Over the years, Platdude has been in plenty of games.. Here's an approximate history of Platdude, along with Downloads where appropriate. (Or skip to the bottom for the latest stuff!)