Little Ember over on the Monkey forums, has released his first Android game, and it's free, so o/ yeay o/
A nice classic retro Space Invaders styled shoot-em-up, with lovely LED styled graphics, and lots of lovely shooty bang noises
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/unnamed.jpg"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/unnamed-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="unnamed" width="300" height="225" class="alignnone siz...

For the past few years, I've been building and rebuilding a silly little experimental shooter thing called "Horizontal Shooter"
The basic gist is that it's a bog standard horizontal shooter, but with a weird control scheme, and a tail to catch things in.
I also tend to use Horizontal Shooter as a simple testbed, to see what a language can/can't achieve in the realms of simplistic blurry lovelyness.
This time around, since we're also focusing on mobile devices, I've decided to flip things a...

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_128.png" style="float:right;"> AGameAWeek Gold takes a trip through my archive of games, and plucks out any games that may have been previously released on this day in history.
Sometimes it finds recent games from the past few years of me doing AGameAWeek.
Other times, however, it finds really really really old games, from a time when the concept of doing a new game every week wasn't even a gleam in my eye!

SpikeDislike2 has just had a nice big update on the iOS AppStore, and I'm now thinking about what to add next, so I figured I'd make a nice rambling blog about it.
That's what this is!!
You can buy (URL "https://itunes.apple.com/app/id604867277">SpikeDislike2 in the AppStore)! It's nice and cheap, and full of lovely juicy stuff!

A somewhat simple remake, this week, as I couldn't even be bothered to add anything new into the mix.
To be honest, this is one of those "Desperately trying to keep up a rate of AGameAWeek" games!
It's fun, though, and now works lovely on an Android device (assuming your Android device of choice plays nicely with it!)

Coders Tool Ahead
I don't know why I only just realised this, but I don't think I ever posted my Bitmap Font Creator, to go with the Monkey Framework!
whoops!
Anyway, here's that.

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_128.png" style="float:right;">AGameAWeek Gold looks back on this day in history, and plucks out any and all games that I've previously released on this day.
It's a fun, adventurous, and seemingly random trip through the Jayenkai Archives.
Join us, as we test really old games to see if they still run on our modern systems!

For the next few days, until April 16th 2013, Sheep Goes Left will be half-price, over at the <a href="https://bit.ly/SheepGoesLeft">iOS AppStore</a>.
To celebrate this random decision, here's...

A Brief'ish History of Sheep Goes Left

After SpikeDislike was released, one of the AppStore reviewers complained that there's no way to save your progress, and that the infinitely continuing level was an issue because there are no checkpoints, and no ending.
...

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_128.png" style="float:right;">Sometimes I'll have an idea early on in the week. I'll take my time, and build up a wonderful game, spending the full week making it nice and presentable.
Other times, it'll be a rush job, and I'll instead make the entire game over the space of a weekend.
.. or less!

Many many many many many people have asked me how on earth I manage to cram game making into the space of a single week.
Ironically, most of those people seem to have forgotten that they, themselves, have previously taken part in Ludum Dare "Make a game in only 48 hours" style competitions.
Hmm..!
Anyway, today's rambling waffling blog is about the steps I take to ensure I can achieve AGameAWeek.

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_256.png" style="float:right;">As we continue through our adventures of old crappy games, we'll occasionally trip over the odd one or two that wasn't even part of AGameAWeek.
In fact, today's game-from-the-archive outdates AGameAWeek by a good few years.
Good grief, this game's actually nine years old!
*tests the game*
And it still works!

Before anyone complains, no, this is not a game!
This week's release is a "Utility!" ooooh!
Don't worry, I won't be making a habit out of this.
To be honest, I was kinda expecting to be able to half-ass a game, this week, but I've spent so much time on this, that I just didn't get around to it.

<img src="https://socoder.net/AGAWGold_256.png" style="float:right;">Oooooh!!!
When I went to add an AGameAWeek Gold function to my Archive's Admin page, I purposely decided not to add any sort of "Look Ahead" function.
I knew it'd be as much fun for me, as it is for you, to find out what today's AGameAWeek Gold is!
Just a week in, and I'm finding myself waking up in the morning just to click to my admin page, to see if we've got a good game today!!

Don't worry, it's not Unijuggler again!!
Yesterday I started my first "bigger" project of the year. These are the games that I know are going to take a little more than the usual week to complete.
Well, I say that, but I've actually managed to achieve a staggering amount of work in the space of only two days!
<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/SpikeDislike2Menu.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/SpikeDislike2Menu_thumb.png"></a>
The game i...

OK, folk are getting intrigued as to how all of this is working, and how nice the Monkey language is to work with, so in the spirit of not being a complete and total git, here's the complete everything that there is so far..

The Download

Framework Downloads have been removed due to lack of updates!
I've also left the html5 build intact, so you can give it a little run if you don't have Monkey installed. (I think!)
Should be as simple as going into the .build folder, t...

Already!?
Who saw this coming?!
I sure as hell didn't!!
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/shootybangbang.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/shootybangbang-300x228.png" alt="" title="shootybangbang" width="300" height="228" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-2486" /></a>

Today I took some time to build a Bitmap Font Creator, and a way to implement them into the new Monkey framework. It didn't actually take as long as I was expecting, but there was one marginal stumbling block along the way.
<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/text.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/text_thumb.png"></a>
I had originally intended to have all the character widths outputted to nice data files, so that the fonts would be nice and neat when displaye...

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

This is an emergency post.
The future of AGameAWeek may be in jeopardy.
Everything hinges on the decision I make within the next few hours.
Do I do the Board Game thing, or do I do the Pancake thing?

Korodny
Just finished the game, so I'm here to say *Thank you* for some real good entertainment.
A couple of things I noticed:
Loved the game concept, and the visual design is spot on for that kind of game. Unfortunately, sound doesn't work on Ubuntu 11.10.
It's a shame that the progress isn't properly recorded: The game should automatically offer me to play at the 'highest' levelset and the highest starting point I reached in my last session...

This is the plan.
Week 1
This Friday I'm launching Beta2, so I have until Friday to add an alarming number of things.
I thought I was on track, but then realised I needed...

Every character, when caught in a bubble and collected, can be "worn" like a "hat".
(They don't look like hats, but that's what I started calling them, and that's what I'll continue to call them!)
Each hat will give the NeonPlat a special skill, allowing him to do all manner of wonderous things.
The run through so far includes ball throwing, ice throwing, flower throwing, drop through the floors, hop in the air, shield, and many more.
Today, I added "Multiplier x2" an...

Hello developer,
We added your games to our website.
You can find the entries on <a href="https://html5games.de"> - and vote for it .
In return we would love a backlink from you.

<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

I've been very very sleepy today, so I had a nap!