Developments

Oh dear.. I only managed about half-a-game yesterday. It started off well, but as I needed more and more art assets, I kinda got lazy, drifted off, and then started playing Words With Friends instead of drawing sprites. Whoops! That's not helping the limited schedule, much. Hopefully I can get the game finished, today, and maybe even move on to the next one. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/414_014.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-conten...

Developments

It's about time I started to retweak all those PlayJam games. Although they're suitably working as they are, they all need a little rejigging for the newer system. It seems the new PlayJam device is having trouble with one of my reused menu sound effects.. The tiny "blip" sound effect is less than 1kb, at only 772 bytes. It appears (And I really hope I tracked this down, correctly!) that the newer PlayJam device (FlarePlay) is having trouble with this particular sound effect. S...

Developments

Three hundred, what? Three Hundred (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/Pixelart.php">Daily Platdude Pixelarts,) of course! Three hundred!?! When I started that, at the beginning of the year, I didn't expect to have managed to do 300 of the bloomin' things. And now here we are 300 later, and I'm wondering what'll happen next year. Will I continue to doodle daily, or will I stop on Dec 31st? I'm not sure. Drawing a daily doodle is certainly taking time out of my day, but it's n...

Developments

I Think... *think* that I've finally got all my Multiplayer Controller code working in a suitable manner, for OUYA, Forge, GameStick and Flare, all from the same code. Unfortunately, my Archos GameStick is STILL bugging out. For some bizarre reason, it seems to feed the digital controls as Port One and the analogue controls as Port Two, which would explain why I'm always having to redefine the controls on the bloody thing. But, so far so good, and everything seems to be flowing ...

Developments

I spent most of yesterday trying to get a lot of broken things to work, but nothing seemed to happen. Still no progress on the NextGen-PlayJam device, which is still crashing like a crazy driver. Still no progress on getting all of my audio to play on the LastGen-PlayJam device, which seems to ignore every 10th-or-so PlaySound command. Still no progress on getting the controls working on my Archos Gamepad, which is driving me up the wall. Android wasn't designed to be this fla...

First thing's first, please be aware that I'm not compiling with sales in mind. With sales/IAPs, you'll need to do all manner of extra stuff like managing purchasable items and ensuring your code handles them correctly. This might break if you have IAPs!!! Untested!!! 1. Select OUYA target, and compile. 2. Head into build_folder/android_ouya/res/drawable-xhdpi Here you'll find the regular icon, and the OUYA Dashboard icon. Replace/doodle as necessary. 3. Compile again. 4. Head into build_fo...

Developments

RAWR! Last night I tried combining multiple controllers into one, which I mostly assumed would fail spectacularly, and indeed it did! The experiment was part of my efforts to get that bloomin' Archos Gamepad to work, but annoyingly trying to combine controllers 1 and 2 (Where controller 1 is the digital buttons, and controller 2 is for some reason the analogue sticks) only resulted in me being given lots of fake controller inputs, leading to the analogue sticks doing all manner ...

Developments

I've never had to properly debug an Android device, before, so yesterday's attempts were new ground for me. Usually when one of my games break, I can easily repeat the break, and figure out exactly why it's happening, but feedback from PlayJam over my games crashing on their latest device, have had me somewhat baffled. There doesn't seem to be a specific point where they're crashing, or rather, there's no reason for them to be crashing where they are, as other Android devices carr...

Developments

Did I miss a day?! Yeah, I basically didn't want to make a "Still full of flu!" post, so.. I didn't! Anyhoo, back to coding, and Karl's Tiny Adventure (which is next on the fixup list) has a bit of a bug in it, when played on the GameStick. The music is hopping and skipping about like some sort of broken record. I'm really not sure why that's happening, but today I'll be trawling through my timing code to see if I can figure it out. I imagine it might be that it's heavily ...

Developments

I got a new "Timer or Event" bar under the score, in NeonPlat's Cosmic Adventure, which either displays a depleting timer for things like Shields and Speedups, or a set of blocks when displaying weapons and whatnot. It's a fairly simply little bar, and isn't much to write home about, but there it is! Meanwhile I'm also finding (or rather, other people are finding..) a weird quirk with some of my older games, on some Android devices. It seems that upon first load, the games occa...

Developments

The first of my games finally passed through PlayJam/GameStick review, yesterday. (Good to know that ONLY took 5 days, even though I was on "the fast track"!! Compare that to the fact that OUYA's reviewed all 5 of the games I've so far uploaded!) A very thorough review, where the only complaints were as follows. 1. If you pause the game, go into the menu, turn off the music, then turn it back on, it doesn't actually restart until you've quit the game. This has been a "feat...

Developments

Yesterday, I finally (*finally!!*) got around to adding a life display to NeonPlat Adventures 2! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/NPA2_017.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/NPA2_017-1024x597.png" alt="NPA2_017" width="604" height="352" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-5060" /> There they are at the top, between the score and the "coin" count. Two little NeonPlats doing ...

Developments

Bah, things are always more complicated, aren't they? When I first started doing OUYA games, I would happily throw up the .apk's without any Certificates or Signing, because realistically they're freeware, so who cares.. Right!? Plus.. "It's easier this way, just throw them up.. when are you ever going to update them, anyway!?!?!?" Well, as per usual, that's come back to bite me in the arse. I can't update those, because since creating them I've bought a new laptop, upgrade...

Super Mario Maker!

After waiting until 3:30 in the afternoon, the game finally showed up. Bah, humbug! If you'd like to play some of my oddities, I am (of course) Jayenkai in the Miiverse doohickey. I *think* it's that easy, anyway. Not sure!

Developments

...Waiting for the game to turn up gave me plenty of time to add a level ending to my levels, which takes the form of a lovely swirly line which teleports you off to the next level. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www....

Developments

Yesterday I posted a test version of NeonPlat Adventure 2 over on the OUYA Forum, where people could download and test the game, to see how it is in it's current state. Of the two commenters so far, I don't think either of them actually have tried it out, yet, which is a shame because in the world of AGameAWeek, I'm going to be ploughing ahead, and any issues they come up with will probably be out of date by the time they tell me about them! (This is why AGameAWeek is usually done...

Developments

The music engine is now in place, and I've converted a bunch of melodies from AL's recent "Liquid" AL Bum. Thrown into the engine, they're sounding melodically "OK~ish", but those instruments aren't working out, at all. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8opq1w_qZx4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> Today I'll be experimenting with oodles of different instrument types to see what sort of sounds work best...

Developments

Yesterday I started to put some effort into the "Pre-Game AI Player" stuff. It's going to be a lot more complicated than I'd thought, but I'll try my best to get it working. I basically need to create a computer player that runs through the level, ensuring that you can at least reach the end without dying. Along the way, he'll generate a path which I'll use to plant various objects like the Checkpoint flags, and perhaps some evil objects to get in your way. This won't, of cours...

Developments

Last night I added some blocks to the Level Generator, which of course then required me to faff about adding extra rules to the player, and the baddies, and the other objects, to ensure they collide "roughly" correctly with the tilemap. It didn't take too long to get the basics in, but having to essentially rewrite the rules for half-a-dozen different object types meant for a long and complex bit of work. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DHRCs3Md1To"...

Developments

Motivation seems to have taken a bit of a nosedive, this week. I think the lack of SpikeDislike3 sales is starting to get to me, as every time I open the folder, I spend about 10 minutes staring at the code before closing it up again. I feel like moving on to something else. Maybe that'll help kick me back into gear again. But what project to tackle? I'm not sure. My head doesn't even seem to want to consider anything else, right now. Bah, humbug.. I'm not a fan of the...

The Upgrade

Yesterday's blog was about an upgrade, and that's pretty much what today's is, too! Windows 10. Initial thoughts Everything is very very very very very very very very white. Even window titlebars are white. It's like someone figured out that White Emulsion is cheapest in bulk, so bought enough to cover the planet. It's THAT white! In fact, there's too much white, and the amount of white with light-grey is really hurting my eyes. I'm having ...

Developments

Not a very productive day, yesterday, if I'm honest. I continued to play about with that Lester&Ralph theme, but I'm hitting the same roadblock as the last time, with the Sheep Goes Right theme, in that the characters run at the same constant speed so the entire point of the Combo system is completely ruined. I'm not sure what I can add to mix it up, and am desperately playing with all manner of elements to see if I can find that one little thing that suddenly makes sense. Hmmm.....

Developments

Yesterday my new NAS turned up. I bought a Western Digital "My Cloud", and instantly disabled the My Cloud gubbins. An NAS is enough. I don't leave the house enough to warrant external access! So it all got setup, and then I did some quick file-access tests. The thing is roughly 3 or 4 times faster than my previous Buffalo Linkstation is, so it should make backing up of files a lot quicker, as well as those occasions when I copy a folder from the PC to the NAS, then to the Ma...

Developments

Yesterday's first task was, of course, to add the Basketball Hoop back into SpikeDislike3. The mechanic works the same.. Be "roughly" within the right area, and go down through the hoop to score. If you go up through the hoop, you lose your combo. It sure is evil, this Basketball game! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SD3_041.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SD3_041-1024x709.png" alt="SD3_041" width="604" height="418"...

Developments

Still working on getting SoCoder back to full strength, but things are slightly easier now that GoDaddy have finally uploaded that damned backup that I asked for, about 3 days ago. *tsk* Now it's a case of shuffling file about, and making some nice strengthy tweaks to the site. *sigh* So, last night I opened up SpikeDislike's code properly for the first time in about a week. Over the past week I've been battling server outages, and the whole Android issue, so I haven't really...

Developments

(URL "https://socoder.net">Socoder.net) It's been about 36 hours since I asked GoDaddy to upload a server backup, and STILL they haven't done it. Grrr. I've been told it can take up to 72 hours, which, given I only asked for a backup from the day before, shouldn't have been that hard of a task. In fact, if this fails, and I end up needing "the day before", by the time the upload has happened, I'll have missed the window to make use of it, because the 7-day rotation will h...

Developments

.. Did I do ANYTHING yesterday?! I'm really struggling to come up with anything that I actually did. Urm.. .. Oh, I did spend some time playing about with my telly. Trying out different "Smart" features, and trying to get the GameStick plugged in. Unfortunately, the GameStick didn't actually fit, because I've already plugged 101,000 computers and consoles into the back of the thing! I've had to order a HDMI switch thing, and will be plugging it into there, but that won't be...

Developments

After a game's release, half the fun is watching the aftermath, and scrawling the internet for comments. On this occasion, however, I pretty much know what's coming. Invisible Munky 2 isn't a game that I'm expecting to be popular, or fondly remembered, (it hasn't thus far, anyway..) so any comments and feedback will be minimal. And yet I wait, and I watch, and I hunt the net to try to find ANYTHING to do with the game. But. Nope. The WorldWide Web has fallen mostly silen...