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AGameAWards 2020 Blog
19th December 2020
Over the course of 2020, I've created a LOT of games. (113!?)
In this post, I pick my personal favourites that I've made this year, for each of the four places that I've been juggling making games for.
If you have your own favourites, let me know in the comments, or bombard me with tweets telling me how wrong I am!

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Foldapuz



The Foldapuz.com generator creates printable sheets of pen and paper puzzles. You can fold the sheet of puzzles up into a neat pocked puzzle booklet, should that be the sort of thing you'd like to do! Otherwise, you can play the puzzles on paper, or similarly scribble answers on your mobile/tablet using the Unfolded browser edition.
Although the puzzles can each have a particular solution, I try to make the puzzles be as open-ended as I can. The puzzles are as wide and varied as I can make them, but due to the nature of pen and paper puzzles, an awful lot of them end up being a grid with numbers on!

Best Foldapuz Game of 2020


Five Blocks



The first Foldapuz game of the year turned out to be my particular favourite.
Use the numbers around the edge to determine which of the shapes should be filled. Each figure being the number of cells on that row or column that is filled in.
There's something really satisfying about scribble-filling the different shapes which makes this game fun to play!

Runner Uppers


Letters Apart sees you having to place letters into the grid, but ensuring none of them touch sequential letters.
Multipies has you trying to find multiples of all the piece. Each of the four outer numbers are the same in each pie, but have been multiplied by the central figure. Use multiplication and division to try and solve all the numbers in each pie.
Phonecall retrains you in a skill you've already forgotten. Make words from the letters on the digits of a phone number!

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Shoebox Of Games



The Shoebox Of Games is a website where I place videogames that work best with touchscreen/mouse inputs, as opposed to keyboard/gamepad inputs.
As such, these games work well on Mobile devices, and are at their best when played on a Tablet with all the extra space.
Either way, the games will happily run on Desktop, Mobile or Tablet, as long as you've a decent browser to play them in.

Best Shoebox Game of 2020


All Cued Up



Definitely my favourite of the year, but then it's the last game I made, so that's probably why it's sticking in my mind.
The game (finally) makes use of that JNKPool code that I coded *years* ago, and although I could probably do with finishing off a proper Pool game, this one's a nice intermediary step.
Hit balls towards the "Jack", and score based on how close you get. You can hit opponents balls out of the way, or inadvertantly make things worse for yourself by hitting the Jack by mistake.
A fun "Bowling" style game, for all the family!

Runner Uppers

Handlink is a puzzle game making use of Al's Handlink from Quantum Leap! Light up five of the sections using the side-numbers as guides. This game is based on the Foldapuz game, Five Blocks, but oddly didn't end up as playable as the original pen and paper game!
Poker Points is a decent enough game. I was trying to make something to go alongside Dice Rolls (Yahtzee), but it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. .. Or, rather, Yahtzee is infinitely better!
Working Gears is a clone of GearWorks which.. Works, I guess. But it seems to be lacking something to make it special. I'm not sure what that is!

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Browsercade



To accompany the Shoebox of Games, I created Browsercade.com. These games are more arcadey, so will require the use of either a keyboard or a game controller to play at their best.
There are technically touchscreen controls available, but after remaking those half-a-dozen times, I'm still not quite happy with them!
If you can sync a gamepad up to your tablet, that's a great way to play the games.
Or stick to PC/Mac and load up the games in your browser.

Best Browsercade Game of 2020


Kabooma Looma



What happens if you take the normal gameplay of BoulderDash, but tweak it with extra gravity, turning the game into a platformer instead of a top-down maze game?
This!
Looma has to drop bombs to explode the scenery, causing cascades galore, whilst gathering up as many gems as is possible.
If Looma reaches the bottom of the level, a whole new level is spawned, and Looma gets to Kabooma some more!

Runner Uppers


Greenie's Heroic Adventure sees a return to the 8-bit stylings of the classic Atari/C64 HERO game. Guide Greenie through the procedurally generated caverns, destroy rocks, avoid bats and save your Floppy Disks!
Take This Torch is a decent enough romping dungeon-adventure engine, but is a little lacking in variety, and gets repetitive quite easily.
Destination Starship is a similar romping game, this time with an intrepid starship crew member, desperately trying to return to their ship. Phasers, powerups and teleporters, but I think I made the levels a bit too big for their own good! A rather slow-paced game.

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SmileBASIC



SmileBASIC is a wonderful language available on the Nintendo Switch, in the eShop.
Once you have a copy, you can create your own games, and share them with others.
For 75 weeks in a row, I managed to create a new game on the system, and upload them for all to play.

Best SmileBASIC Game of 2020


Meteor Defender



Battle against the onslaught of meteors, with only your trusty blaster by your side.
A mini-remake of the wonderful Super Obliteration from the Amiga, this game sees you running, jumping, and blasting your way to safety.

Making so many browser games that require multiple controller configurations, I've had to avoid making games that use "twin-stick" control schemes.
Being able to make these on the Switch has been SO much fun, and I've found a few new favourites along the way!

Additionally


Both Kabooma Looma and Greenie's Heroic Adventure are available for SmileBASIC on the Switch!

Runner Uppers


Bugspin has the player as a little bug, trying to keep its family in check, as they all make their way over a series of giant spinning fans.
Nautical Disks is a slower game, where you need to guide a submarine through a treacherous underwater seascape, to gather up the floppy disks.
Release is a fast paced reaction game, where you need to hold and release the triggers to help the wandering Walkers get to their home. .. Or squish them, along the way!

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Bonus Award



SpikeDislike Dot Com!



As well as all of the above, I also attempted to respawn SpikeDislike as a browser game.
It actually worked pretty well, but in amongst all the time I've spent making the other 100-or-so games this year, I haven't spent nearly enough time working on the game.
The engine does work, though, and there are four "styles" that you can play in.
I should definitely make more, though!

You can Play SpikeDislike here!
I'll try to make it bigger, next year. .. If I can find the time.

Runner Upper


The Testcard Generator generates recreations of classic TV Testcards. There's currently a selection of old BBC testcards, but hopefully I can expand it to include other styles.

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Year End


I've made a lot of games, this year, and I'm quite content with all of the content that I've made.
Again, if you've any particular favourites from the year that I've not mentioned, pop them into the comments below, and I'll make a "Player Thoughts" post on the subject, later.
I hope you've enjoyed this year's creations.

Here's hoping next year can be just as preductive!
*cheers*!
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