I'm thinking along the lines of the good old EasyAmos, here! Although, whether mine is easier or not isn't for me to judge, is it!? <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/EasyCoco.png">

Add a simple pause menu. That was task number one, this morning, on a 5 item tasklist. The stupid menu took 5 hours! FIVE!!

For those struggling in the future... "[CCDirector sharedDirector] deviceOrientation]" Doesn't. but "[UIDevice currentDevice] orientation]" Does..

Today, another one of those mindbogglingly annoying issues that stops you, makes you scratch your head, then makes you go "Well sod that then!" and enjoy the sun for a bit. I'll do this again, tomorrow!

(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_0593.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_0593-300x200.png" alt="" title="IMG_0593" width="300" height="200" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1314" /> Is Barry The Spelling Bee going to be the star of my next iOS game?!

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.

Today I've been continuing to fiddle about with all the framework's drawing methods. The engine seems rather fickle, and will sometimes do a bunch of big sprites, and other times do a buttload of tiny ones. I've currently got the settings to a nice middleground. It can handle quite a bit, so long as you don't give it mountains of giant sprites to contend with!! <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/photo-1.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/u...

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! What this IS going to be, is a small request to the people who crack my game. This isn't a whinge for money. This isn't a bitch about the rights/wrongs. But it

<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/HammerTime.png" >

Well, that was a lovely little blip, there, wasn't it! I've written half-a-framework three times in a month! *sigh* It finally showed this week, when a crazy chaotic week of newness became a horribly pathetic week of giving up. No matter. I'll use this time to make things better. I've finally re-re-re-re-restarted my Cocos2D framework (another framework) and will be coming up with some kind of new-ness for the BlitzMax framework. .. yup, might as well stick with Blitz. Blitz wo...

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

Bad time to be swinging again, Jay...! 20x(640x32) images + 10x(64x64) images. That can just about struggle to run at about 22fps on an iPod Retina. Then you've got text to go over that, and another 10x(64x64) for badges.. It's just not happening.. No matter how I tweak it, rejig it, and compile and compile again, I just cannot get those numbers up. *sigh* And yet... That's exactly what SpikeDislike is, already. .... At 60fps. And SpikeDislike is the most piss easiest game ...

1. No sound pitch. Jinkies Munkies, What the Funkies!?!? Simplest example. You know in Horizontal Shooter, when your weapon goes "SQQEUUUUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!".. Can't do that.. It's gotta go "beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep" Regular bullets will go "Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat" instead of "bang-bing-bada-pow-pip-pat-pap-bang" Imagine SpikeDislike without it constantly getting higher and higher, as you up the combo. .. Pants.. And, even worse, every sound needs it's own set of buffers. So if I ch...

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/photo.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/photo.png" alt="" title="photo" width="320" height="480" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1285" /></a> hmmm....

I think I'll either be limiting myself to 100 sprites/60fps, or 200 sprites/30fps, for iPhing games. ... That's quite a lot, though! Pics below

Coming soon : A whole new world! I finally made my choice, and it's GLBasic. Hopefully that choice doesn't come and bite me in the ass later. For now, I'm going to be rebuilding all that framework goodness. It'll probably take a couple of weeks to get everything going properly, so I think we might end up missing a few AGameAWeek's here and there. Hopefully you don't all mind. Meanwhile, I'm going to do a Final Six. Six little End-of-the-road games, that round off my ...

<img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/byemunky.png">

About 40-odd times I've decided "Right, let's give GLBasic a try!!" This morning, I was finally ready to actually do that! ... And then, right out of the blue, and totally co-incidentally, a twitter conversation began with <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Indie_DIJ">@Indie_DIJ</a> about that very language. He's uncertain whether his next GLBasic project should be aimed at iPhone or iPad. ... hmmm... Should that be a decision? ..? Apparently GLBasic has issues here. You...

Silly me put the name "Chicky Crosses the Road" into a variable, then forgot to put the variable on the titlescreen! D'oh! sod it.. Live and Learn!

I have a game! It's written in <del>Munky</del> Monkey! But... Am I ready to buy the language yet? hmmm.. I'm going to give this an extra week. Next week's game (if I can do it in time) will be done using the GLBasic demo. I'll spend a week, get the framework half-done, throw in a cheap-ass game, and post the result. Then I'll decide. maybe.. Will it be Monkey, or will it be GLBasic? Find out, Soon! Tomorrow : A cheap-ass frogger clone!

A few hours with Monkey today. A game idea was planned (finally!) and attempted, but I realised I had rotation issues. Tried and tried to get the rotate and scaling working together with numerous results. One time the sprites were rotating away from their midpoints, another they were scaling all over the place, and on and on it went.. After a while everything seemed sorted. Then I clicked to a different resolution, and it all went to hell again. BAH!!!! No matter, try again tomorrow. Meanwhi...

Sometimes, things that happen at the other side of the world, still make you change your habits. AGameAWeek returns next week.

<a href="https://agameaweek.spreadshirt.co.uk/stroke-my-munky-A10741539/customize/color/4">I just thought of a really good game..</a> but... .. Not entirely sure how doable it'd be. .. hmm.. another time perhaps.. Anyhoo, Monkey. So far so good. A .. "nice".. looking frontend, with a quick top-10 list, and a swooshy menu. It'll get fixed up as time goes by, but for now I'm going to push on and try to build a quick test game. Since Monkey can cope with Web/Desktop/Mobile ...

Take one part Asteroids, and mix in... um.. .. hmm... <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/complete/TinyAss_20110308_Logo_thumb.png">

Another day pondering about the should/shouldn't monkey issue. Another day wondering if I shouldn't just be writing a game.. I should be focusing on the important bits, but instead, my minds contemplating what could be. We're in March. Last March, I was using my brand new framework, creating lovely big character sprites, and making fancy colourful Mario styled games. This week, monochrome Asteroids. Hmmmm... So, perhaps the color thing isn't actually that big of a deal, then...

Oh, Mark.. What have you done! I was happily coding away at AGameAWeek, and now I'm stuck in this odd Will I/Won't I scenario, unsure as to what to do next.. I spent a few hours playing with Monkey again, Yesterday, and am still unsure which is the better path. Monkey has no recolouring for sprites. That's a pretty big deal, and is a bit of a biggy when your onscreen text is sprites. No sprite colors means one text color. Even my Tandy TRS 80 could do more than one text color!! But right ...