No need for a screenshot tonight, as there's not really anything worth looking at! Everything I did today was invisible background coding stuff! So nothing fancy to look at, but still some nice new things. I started off by squeezing the whole pixel by pixel arena out into a great big map array. I'm hoping (!) that it'll make things that bit more precise once I start adding in some walls (probably tomorrow) Basically, rather than having the player walk past/into/occasionally through blocks o...

All games must start somewhere, and Alien Deathmatch 2 starts right here! <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ad2_shot001.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ad2_shot001_thumb.png"></a> This isn't the most entertaining shot I've ever posted, but it does show that work has now actually begun on the sequel.

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 with obscure ...

..I got an X360, and I've really been playing the heck out of it, lately. It's fun! I'm worried it'll RROD at any minute, but while it's still going, it's still fun. And last week I bought Geometry Wars 2, for 800 points, as well as Geometry Wars 1 for 400 points. Lovely stuff. Except, there's something annoyingly wrong with GW2. It's all nice and glowy, but the "lovely glow" is also really really annoyingly blurry... I bought a VGA adaptor for the console, and have it hooked up so that everything'...

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.png"><img s...

Having headed back to Blitz3D (from BlitzMax, with it's annoying incompatibilities) I decided to make something quick and easy to test it out. Snake! With a 1 minute timer on it. Get all the points you can, as fast as you can. <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/snake.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/snake_thumb.png"></a> The online scoreboards are in, and .. um.. that's about it. You can <a href="https://agameaweek.com/?Game=44">Download Snake Here&l...

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. It's a big downer. And it's certainly most notable with Horizontal Shooter, and it's need to have a background that can be (shock horror) turned off! It'd be less annoying if the Slow systems were ...

This week's Wednesday Workshop <a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=173">#173</a> was a redoing of an old one. Wednesday Workshop 1 asked us to make games using only 5 objects onscreen. Rather than doing that, I opted to take my original 5 object game, and remake it, turning it into a slightly more interesting game. It's still not anything amazing, but at least it's something! <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ballup.png"><img src="https://s...

This week I decided to remake Centipong, this time for the DS. It's pretty much the same as it's always been, except now it's portable, stylus playable, and has the pickups unlike the Mobile edition. It's not all 100% yet, though.. More to come, and plenty of tweaking to be made. <img src="https://agameaweek.com/completeB/2008/Centipong_20081202A_thumbb.png"> In the meantime, you can <a href="https://agameaweek.com/?Game=40">Download Centipong DS here</a>, and get kic...

I spent most of this week rebuilding a few of my older games with the new Highscore stuff, so there's a couple of nice new-ish games to play. First off, we've the 3rd version of Horizontal Shooter.. <a href="https://agameaweek.com/?Game=49">Get it here</a>. It's pretty much the same as ever, but with Mr Scouter from the original, thrown back in for good luck. The new highscore method should help ward off nasty hackers from the scoreboard system.. Or at least for a little while...

Dum-dum-durrrr.. Over at Socoder, someone (Naming no names.. he knows who he is..) figured out that the encryption on my Highscore system wasn't exactly the most foolproof of encryptions, and that it's fairly easy to hack in a few fake scores. Can't have that! So I worked my arse off, early this week, and a new encryption method has been successfully trialled and put into place. It's no super-amazing method either, but it oughta do for a while. The extra workload has meant that I might not get time...

This week, I haven't entered the Wednesday Workshop. Instead I had a try at the Monthly one (#013), which asked us to create a game with lots of guns, and bullets and shootyness. Since I'd already done a decent enough shooter the other day (H~S) I decided to try my hand at something a little different. <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/sheriffmunky.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/sheriffmunky_thumb.png"></a>

Due to all manner of obscure things happening this week (A HD Crash being one of them..) this week's effort isn't anywhere near as good as last week's!! Still, a game's a game, even without a titlescreen, music, sound, an ending, scores, or anything else like that.. .. *cough* ... <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/169_afros_chair.gif"> A guy called Afro, over at Socoder had modelled a few little 3D objects. We all decided that the aim of this week's Wednesday Wor...

A while ago, I made <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=14">this</a>. Horizontal Shooter. Fly about, shoot the bad guys, guard the good guys. A nice enough game, lovely lines all over, but somehow lacking in something extra. This week.. I added something extra!

A quick update, albeit not a proper one.. If you download (URL "https://socoder.net/uploads/1/jnkplat08ds.zip">this new version) of JNKPlat, you can use the inbuilt editor to play around with all the nice new features I've been adding in, lately. I've not really gotten around to building a bunch of levels, yet, though! So you'll have to wait for that. I'll be posting a new version next week with some new packs of levels, and maybe even a bunch more new features, too! Head inside to find the list...

A sequel/repeat this week, as the <a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=167">Wednesday Workshop #167</a> asked us to create a game with 2 main characters. At first I considered doing a Bill and Ted game, but couldn't think of a decent gameplay element other than "Move the blocks".. That'd be a most excellent waste of the characters. So I resurrected Bibbleman and Bobbleman, and just used them instead. Still the same game, mind.. So if you're worried that ...

A game a week's going to be hard to keep going, so I'd like to have a nice bag of thoughts that I can pop into every now and then when the ideas start dropping off. If you've a crazy zany game idea, now's your time to get it, if not made, then at least considered Do keep in mind that "a game a week" pretty much reduces the complexity I can add to these things, so I'll be trying my best to simplify (See Platdude's Retro Collection!) any suggestions that come m...

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 I redrawn the spr...

I'm not entirely sure who came up with this idea, but it's been roaming around the internet for the past few years. This week's Wednesday Workshop #165 was to create a game using only one button. So, Heck, why not! ?? I grabbed the generic Cowbell Hero logo from the net. I'm still not sure who originally designed it, but there it is. In went Platdude, and a few silly songs, and then a few extra songs from the folk at ModArchive.com, and within just a few days the job was done. ?? <...

This week's game will not include Super Online Highscore functions. The way it works makes it impossible to stop people from cheating. Ho hum..   In the meantime, here's a couple of bonus games.  

Space Loops

<img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/164/space_loops.gif"> This is last week's WW entry. Nice as it is, it now also includes online highscores. Right click on the titlescreen to update them. Type on the titlescreen to change your name. Sorted! Now try to bea...

I'm not the type of person who usually does a lot of things! For starters, you'll probably notice that 99% of my games are locked to the refresh rate of your screen. If your screen's higher than 60hz, my games will run all that much faster. The reason for that is that all my systems are set at 60, and.. to be honest, I tend to forget that other people's aren't! Whenever a game relies 100% on framerates and specific timings, I'll more than likely bother to sort that out, but usually I'm onto the next gam...

<a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=164">Wednesday Workshop #164</a> suggested we should make a game using vector graphics. I took this opportunity to remake the fantastic Dos game, Boogaloopers! Move the ship around with your mouse, and trap enemy within it's trail. Nice and simple gameplay-wise, but a complete git to get working code-wise! Not only did I have to figure out the points that the mouse crossed the trail, but then do that whole polygon-shrinking thin...

This week, Socoder's <a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=163">Wednesday Workshop (#163)</a> challenge was to create a game with Money in it. I initially was going to create a top-down dungeon romp, but as the plan grew and grew in scale, I scrapped it and just ended up making a nice quick platformer instead! ?? <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/163_mr_money_grabber.gif"> Mr Money Grabber features you rushing through the level collecting all the coins...

<a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=162">Wednesday Workshop #162</a> asked for folk to create a game with a big-ass timer. My entry was simple. Open a vault, Grab the loot, Run for your life, Drive to escape, have a gunfight, sorted! All with a timer in the corner, and all played with the mouse. <img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/162_the_heist.gif"> The game's mostly all Left clicks, but the short driving scene requires you to right click occasionall...

I tried to keep a blog. It didn't work. It's no surprise, though. I've never been one to keep a working active blog. No matter, I'll try something else. Welcome to A Game A Week.com I'm pretty much already producing games at a fast enough pace, what with the Wednesday Workshop and all. So I figured I might as well get a bit of publicity out of it by adding a nice shiny noticeable domain name! Will it work? We'll have to wait and see. Here's the ...

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/media/puzzobomb_webuser_189_med.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/media/puzzobomb_webuser_189_med_thumb.png"></a> Puzzobomb gets a place in WebUser, issue 189. That's exactly 20 issues after Horizontal Shooter was in. And, if you're counting, it's exactly 2 pages earlier.. I've been bumped up to page 38, now! Woot. 2 pages in 20 issues.. Hmm.. By issue 549 I should be on the front page! Woohoo! That's only 13 years away!

Puzzobomb rears it's head once again, this time in a Junior capacity. Puzzobomb Jr DS is basically just Puzznic! But, hey, there's nothing wrong with that! Just because the titular "Bomb" is completely missing, doesn't mean the game's not fun. And with over 2000 levels to work your way through, you'll be playing away for quite a while.. .. Or giving up! This game might end up with lots of extras, some time in the future. For now, though, it's just a big collection of leve...