Last week, there was no AGameAWeek.
It was the clown's fault..
.. stupid clown..
(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/iTunesArtwork.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/iTunesArtwork-300x300.png" alt="" title="iTunesArtwork" width="300" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2288" />With my newer shinier iOS Framework running the way it was more-or-less supposed to be, I decided to...

Bah.. I knew that'd happen..
As soon as AGameAWeek kicked back into action, the "Daily Blog" would take a bit of a fall.
I'm trying to keep up, though! Honest!!

It's been over a year since the Platdude Retro Advent Collection had a bizarre game with a ball and some spikes in it, and as much as I've attempted to get on with other games, that one little game keeps on getting dragged back out again!
Last week, SpikeDislike won an IndieVisibility award, for being the best game to have with you on the toilet!
This week, the guy who nominated it for that award has written a great big sprawling mass of text, all about SpikeDislike! (Link no longer avai...

Yesterday was the #Indievisibility awards ceremony, which involved a bunch of indie guys, a pub, a brawl and a number of teabags.
Awards were given for all manner of things.. Different genres, games with certain features and other seemingly random reasons.
You can scan through a list of all the <a href="https://www.sizefivegames.com/2011/12/11/indievisibilty-end-of-year-awards-results/">Awards here,</a> and read all about the joys of the fight!
Awesome!

The following blog post contains words, which are built up using various letters.
You are expected to read the words in the correct order, moving your eyes from left to right to read each line, and then moving on to the left hand side of the next line.
Continue in this method until you have read all of the words of this blog post, and are <em>happy</em> with your und...

I should take solace in a couple of facts.
1. My iOS Apps have been selling oddly, this week.
Usually I sell about 1 copy of SpikeDislike, every day, but this week I seem to be getting oddities like Puzzobomb and StringyThings suddenly springing back to life.
.. sure it's still a max of 3 a day, total, but...

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!!

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

It's a great week for disliking spikes!!
There's plenty of free spikes, all over the place!

You could say I crapped out, and gave up.
I aimed for 52. I aimed for a 2nd whole year's worth of games, within a startlingly short amount of time.
..
But I probably would've managed it..

February.
The iOS edition of SpikeDislike was kicking arse, the WiLMa edition was doing well, and the PlayMyCode edition was being played quite a bit, too.
What else could SpikeDislike be ported to?!

Too tired..
Instead, I've been working on Sheep Goes Left DS, which is proving 17,000,000,000% more popular than it's iOS rival.
Quite why, I don't know, but the fact that it's being mentioned quite a bit is a good sign.

I tried, today, but I just wasn't quite into it once the game started to build up.
Today's unfinished game, Unknown.....!

PlayMyCode games no longer work

<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/pmc_unknown-300x193.png">

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

Spent some time today doing a bunch of little tweaky things.
First off, late last night, I started on reformatting SpikeDislike's GameCenter code, to make it a bit more universal, and easy to plop into other games.
Took about an hour to get everything working nicely, integrated into Daisy Chains, and get the highscores up and running.
woot!

(Apologies, it's a bit "half-asleep/randomly ranty/jumping through topics/freeflow" today!!)
As an iDev guy, I get 50 codes per Update for all my games. I can hand these out to reviewers or folk I know.
Handy.
So, off they go, sent out, willy nilly, to all the reviewers/people I can find, and see where it takes me.

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 ...

AGameAWeek teaches us one thing.
Some games you win, some games you lose.
When you lose, there's not a lot you can do.
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on.

Today I've a few more PR'y bits and pieces for the Sheep Goes Left iOS thing to contend with. This is the WORST bit of iOS dev. Although.. to be honest, I didn't do ANYTHING for SpikeDislike.
SpikeDislike just kinda took off on it's own, so the fact that sheepy isn't is.. well..
.. bah.
Screw it, carry on.

A demo!!?!?!!?!?!
With all the freeware that's on here, the years of making freeware, and the fact that I've only ever made games for the fun of making the games, it's pretty damn unthinkable that one of my games might actually be a demo!
But that's how it's going to be for this one.
I like this game.

Bonus iOS Game!
<a href="https://bit.ly/SheepGoesLeft">For iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad</a> (£1.19/$1.99/equiv.)

Got an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad?

I might skip another AGAW, this week, sorry!
I have a half-game play-thing half done, but I've just started another one of those spur-of-the-moment things that might take over my entire weekend.
.. again..
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/logo.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/logo.png" alt="" title="logo" width="320" height="160" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1414" /></a>

Blimey, haven't done one of these for a while!
Any game ideas, slap 'em in the comments!

I've got a whole month to do a framework, so apparently that means I'm going to be a lazy git who does sod all, then crams the whole framework into the last day!
.. Well, hopefully not, but I did manage to cram in a couple of hours of Burnout, yesterday!
Been a long while since I sat and played a game for that long.

This isn't going to be a "You thieving bunch of bastards" post.
I know this goes on. There's no point trying to stop it.
Unless Apple want to show me a list of who did and didn't buy my app, there's sod all I can do about it.
I can only urge people to bother to buy my game. Because it's really fucking good!

A Pro/Con list might've helped beforehand!!!
Fuck it, 70 quid down the drain..
carry on.