Developments

Yesterday I loaded up JMTrackr for the first time in .. a LONG time! I spent most of the day creating a new set of instruments for the engine, and ensuring everything still sounded .."Not awful" After that, I fiddled with the engine a bit, and am now midway through trying to figure out a way to auto-generate Monkey-Code which includes a multitude of different choons, all in one neat little bundle. ( width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RQP8L_fdX_E" frame...

Developments

Yesterday's task was to get basically collectables, items, that kind of thing to work properly. I haven't yet added the whole lot, but thought that one useful "collectable" might be a checkpoint. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TOm4G0M6BSI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> A simple looking flag, which lights up and animates when touched, and is your respawn point should you die. .. Of course, in the ...

Developments

Uhoh! Forgot about colours!!! That's going to make NeonPlat Adventures particularly tricky, should I want to include an HTML5 edition. .. and, of course, I DO want to include an HTML5 edition, so I guess I'm going to have to retackle the whole "multicoloured scenery" issue. And so I spent most of yesterday drawing some basic template scenery and getting it all ready. I added a whole new section to my re-renderer engine, and now it's spitting out high quality assets in 9 differ...

Developments

Drawing silly pixelart characters is one thing. Having to animate a horse!? That's a whole other thing!!! Over the past week, I've animated a cat, a dog, and now a horse, too. I'll admit that, having animated the horse and got it into the engine, I then closed the laptop and opted to play games for most of the rest of the day, instead. Animating really takes it out of you, even if it was only 6 entire frames of animation!! I just don't have the stamina for animating. It wea...

Developments

Yesterday was mostly musical, as I tweaked a couple of ALChoons to fit the new themes, rerendered them, and then compressed them into the game. With all five new themes now having choons, I suppose I should really get those new challenges worked into the engine, eh!? Oddly, rather than thinking about gameplay styles, I've found myself doodling another new theme, and am already planning the next one in my head, too. Hmm.. That's no good! Must concentrate, and get the important ...

One month, Three games!? Sure, why not!! It might not be "AGameAWeek" but getting 3 games onto iOS in a month is still a pretty decent achievement, especially when they're all nice and big. As you might know, my old MacMini (from 2010) was starting to rot away due to lack of use. This month, knowing that SpikeDislike3 was due to arrive, I attempted a quick test compile, and.. well.. it didn't go very well. So, out with the old, and in with a brand new MacMini. Further compiles were quick and pai...

Developments

A somewhat eventful day, yesterday, but one that took WAY too long!! As I finished off the last of the levels, and got the game working toa moderately lovely standard, I figured I might as well start throwing bits and pieces into iTunes. I've still got a number of days until Invisible Munky (hopefully) passes AppleReview, so I can relax and take my time with all the iTunesConnect gubbins. Starting with the the description, the screenshots, the icon, I continued on and decided to ...

Developments

Lots of background work, yesterday, as I continued to work on the menu system. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_023.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_023.png" alt="SD3_023" width="640" height="480" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4641" /> The two circles on the right currently show the topmost highscore of the level selected, as well as the last score. Now you c...

Developments

Yesterday was most definitely a day of two halves. In the morning, the world was colourful and happy. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_018.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_018-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_018" width="604" height="352" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4635" /> But by the evening, they'd gotten all dull, worn out and grey. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com...

Developments

Yesterday, I made this! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_016.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_016-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_016" width="660" height="385" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4623" /> Taking sprites, sounds and music from (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/GameList.php?ShowJust=350">Invisible Munky 2), I quickly cobbled together a SpikeDislike2 theme, and re...

Developments

My first session of yesterday was spent fixing up the issues I had with the little fishy theme. I started by stripping out the fish, and replacing it with an Octopus, which although fundamentally the same sort of thing, looked a bit less weird when bouncing along the floor in the standard SpikeDislike style! So that turned out nicely. After that I tweaked a bit more of the standard engine, which is growing features every time I touch the thing, and fiddled about with a bit more m...

Developments

Yesterday I started a new theme. A road, some sand, some water, stars, moon and some boats. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_012.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_012-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_012" width="660" height="385" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4615" /> In terms of effort, it wasn't exactly a difficult theme to create, but along the way I stumbled over a l...

Developments

Yesterday, I completely rejigged the "Bounce" of SpikeDislike. Originally, the bounce was a simple Sine-wave, and has in fact been this in EVERY version of SpikeDislike, but this time I'm hoping to add a couple of new elements which have required a minor tweak in the usual ball bouncing mechanic. This isn't something to be taken lightly, as I had to be absolutely sure that the end result still "felt" like Classic SpikeDislike. At the moment it's a teensy bit floaty compared with ...

Developments

Yesterday I found myself trying out a variety of themes, to figure out what does and doesn't work in the new engine. Here's a brief selection of those tested. (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_GfxD.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_GfxD-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_GfxD" width="660" height="385" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4591" /> Lava/Rock (URL "https://AGameAW...

Developments

Yesterday I decided to try out something a little unusual for me. I attempted THREE DEE!!! Not "proper" 3D, of course. I'm too lazy for that! Instead, I took the 2D game engine, added a Skew function to tilt everything at an angle, then plonked the standard graphics over the top. I wasn't expecting the result to be playable, but oddly enough, it's absolutely 100% normal. In fact, since the engine sticks to the original 2D principles, the game's entirely playable like this, and...

Developments

Yesterday I settled into "Music Mode", where I can generally whip out an AL CHOON for whatever purpose. Unfortunately, after a good two hours of twiddling dials and buttons in Korg Gadget (iPad only) I came out with absolutely nothing decent whatsoever. Ashamed that I'd wasted a good amount of time pretty much doing nothing, I instead decided to load up some old Choons, and see if they worked within the new SpikeDislike3 engine. Good news! SpikeDislike3 will have music!! On t...

Developments

Continuing with the new edition of SpikeDislike, and I'm still adding basic elements into the engine. I've a whole lot of work to do on the game, including all the graphical styles and things like that, but for now I'm happy that it's totting up the combos in the way it should be. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YIwcx9Gcbfs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> Scoring and Death are now both firmly inside...

Developments

Yesterday, I took the phrase "Sleepy Sunday" and worked the heck out it. My cat woke me up at 6:15am, and I managed to stay mostly awake until just after 9, when I realised I was too tired to code, and instead went for a nap.. .. A long nap!! I also had a second nap later in the day, too. Ooops! I suppose when you have little/nothing else to do, especially on a Sunday, that there's no harm in having a short nap. But when you have TWO naps, and they're not exactly short ones, y...

Welcome to the new daily blog section of AGameAWeek.com. I could do with reorganising the layout of the site, if I'm honest!

Yesterday

Yesterday I did a few odd little bits and pieces. I got "bombs" to work in the new engine, and managed to get a feel for the game. So far, so good. I think! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/410_001.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/410_001-300x225.png" alt="410_001" width="300" height="225" class="...

Another big gap, as I try to figure out what's happening next. I figured you guys oughta be kept up to date with current goings on, in the world of AGameAWeek, so here's a rough bit of blogging so that you can vaguely assume you know what's going on! Current projects are.. 1. Kee Bo Ard Go Deep Another sequel in the Kee Bo Ard collection. I've so far built a fairly capable engine, but am struggling to decide exactly what I'd like to do with it. I've got the game up to a "You can complete a level" po...

I say "slow", but of course, I mean "Slow in the realm of AGameAWeek!" I've been working on Invisible Munky 2 for nearly THREE WEEKS, now! Blimey, that went fast! I'm currently working on building levels, and trying to keep the momentum of the game flowing in a decent manner. I'm also trying to add a decent mix of music, but it's all kinda samey. I might have to head in a completely different melodical direction, or something. *shrugs* Not sure! Anyway, the game currently contains 9 levels, and the...