The great big 1.5 update of SpikeDislike2 is now available from the Android or iOS App Stores.

This version brings the HUGE end mode, Choose Your Own Dislike, which features all those lovely options that the original game had, along with a couple of new ones.

SpikeDislike2 v1.5 is available for iOS and Android. If you've already got it on your device, visit the store to check for updates.

I've enjoyed the development of SpikeDislike2!

What started, originally, as a simple minigame in an Advent Calender quickly took on a life of it's own, and the iOS version became a favourite for those who bothered to look beyond it's crappy graphics.

But with an overly complex option screen gave a multitude of different scoreboards, and although that worked in a pre-GameCenter world, the second I came to integrate GameCenter, the whole project suddenly hit a wall.
How could I cram all those options into GameCenter's limited scoreboard methods?

The answer was, of course, that I couldn't. And so SpikeDislike slowed to a crawl, as new ideas simply couldn't be fitted into the chaotic sprawling mess of icons that was the menu system.
It had started so well, but GameCenter broke my game.

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Throughout the rest of 2011, I continued to come up with wild, crazy ideas and new ways to play SpikeDislike, but nothing could be fit into the game without a drastic overhaul of the frontend.

Instead, in early 2012, I decided that I'd go a completely different route, and create a sequel.
SpikeDislike2 would strip away the options, and concentrate on "Game Modes", with each having it's own GameCenter board.
Once I'd added enough different modes, I could bolt a large sprawling menu system onto the end, and have that separate from GameCenter.

.... and that was the plan.


So, why didn't it happen in 2012? That's a bit of a long story, involving me, a hospital, and a brain tumor!

Suffice to say, through the rest of 2012, I wasn't in a particularly programmer mood!

2013 rolled around, and I started the year by switching to a new programming language, Monkey, which allowed me to write games for multiple systems, in a nice swift manner.

Since I was starting things afresh, and learning how this new language worked, I thought that a nice simple test game might be SpikeDislike.
I cobbled together the basics in a few hours, and it proved to be surprisingly smoother than the original. I took this as a sign that I probably ought to continue, and build this into a proper sequel.
Having had plenty of time to think about what all could go into SpikeDislike2, I started simple, rebuilding classic themes and tweaking the gameplay to suit them.
The basketball finally got it's hoops, the Sheep got to leap, and the NyanCat mode was AWESOME!!!
Instead of going for a "Quest" method of unlocking, I settled on an ingame credit system, and I even bothered to introduce lives! What a crazy concept for SpikeDislike.

Over the past few months, I've added more and more themes, bit by bit, and have now finally filled up my allocated 20 GameMode slots.. (A simple self-imposed limitation created by the fact that my "MenuButtons.png" is sized to hold only 20 icons! Easily tweakable if necessary.)

GameModes have been filled as random ideas have popped into my head, and are based on all manner of things, from old AGameAWeek games, to a theme based on a Leaderboard Highscore Hoarder! There's even a couple of themes suggested by @Spinal_Cord! Thanks again for those, Spinal!

I'd always intended that final slot to be "Choose Your Own Dislike". I figured that it'd be nice to have all those options available, with all the different modes.
It opens things up in nice new directions, and even includes the nice "Play and Pass" mode that I'd always intended to add to the original, two years earlier.

It's nice to have finally added all this craziness into a single project, and.. strangely.. not have it all be overly complex, either.
The thing is one long menu. You pick, you play.. there's no crazy option screens, or anything.

So.. The question is..
Is this the end of the road, for SpikeDislike2?

Well, this is definitely everything that I'd planned. .. more or less..
There's one Game Mode that's not in here, which I couldn't find a nice control scheme for, without resorting to the oldskool favourite of having a silly power-bar on the screen, rapidly pulsing up and down... tap at the right time..
I didn't like the idea of that, so the mode's not appeared.

In addition, it'd be nice to bring back Challenge Mode, and perhaps the idea of a Quest Mode, too, but both of those require much more work than simple additional themes. They're larger tasks, and will take considerably more time.
.. Plus, I'm not sure the Quest Mode would even work, anymore. Some of the Game Modes are a little "too" different! They don't exactly blend together too well.

Challenge Mode would be nice, but would require lots of level planning, and that takes time.
But, hey, if people want it, I guess I should get to work on it!

Other than that, I think I'm pretty much done with this project.
It was fun to work on, it was great to see other people enjoying it, and in the end, it's still a fantastic example of gameplay over graphics. It's sales figures are also a great example of people being put off by crap graphics
*shrugs* What can you do!!?

Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Let me know if you've enjoyed the game, and if you think I can add anything else.
Be sure to tell all your friends and help spread the word that the graphics aren't always the important bit!

SpikeDislike2
"Everybody Likes SpikeDislike"
Available now, for iOS and Android

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*NyanCat was replaced with Barry the Bee, because PRGuitarMan told me I couldn't use NyanCat without a license, and I'm too lazy to be faffing about with a license..