Uhoh, here we go again! To be honest, I really wanted some time off. I planned to make a nice lengthy game, take my time, and maybe even finish off Patent Wars a bit, but as is usually the case.. I've written a game. Well, it's not really a game, it's more of a toy. A play thing, if you will. That's ready for release tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm once again looking at all the various tools. I'm happy with Blitz3D, with my 2D-in-3D engine, but damn, the lack of mod is annoying. BlitzMax still has...

The AGameAWeek 2008-2009 Retrospective

(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-one/">Part One), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-two/">Part Two), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-three/">Part Three), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-four/">Part Four), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-five/">Part Five)

The Home Stret...

The AGameAWeek 2008-2009 Retrospective

(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-one/">Part One), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-two/">Part Two), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-three/">Part Three), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-four/">Part Four), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-five/">Part Five)

Back to work

The AGameAWeek 2008-2009 Retrospective

(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-one/">Part One), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-two/">Part Two), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-three/">Part Three), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-four/">Part Four), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-five/">Part Five)

Alien Deat...

The AGameAWeek 2008-2009 Retrospective

(URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-one/">Part One), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-two/">Part Two), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-three/">Part Three), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-four/">Part Four), (URL "https://www.agameaweek.com/2009/08/agameaweek-2008-2009-part-five/">Part Five)

AGameAWeek...

I can't believe I've still not finished this yet! Seems that, no matter how much work I do on this game, it's still not quite done. This week, I finally decided on the complete "Not Chance" and "Not Community Chest" card selection. 12 of each, ready and waiting in the engine. Next, I added all those lovely patents. They're all in there, each one displaying on a nice little card, along with the creator's name. I haven't yet gotten around to actually printing the bulk of ...

I made a start on this game a few days ago, and things seem to be progressing at a decent enough rate. The basic gameplay engine is in there, now. The test level (200x50 blocks) loads, platdude can run around, grab onto bars, jump around and use ladders. He can also work plungers and have the blocks open and shut accordingly. So, that's all nice! You might notice that the graphics are looking remarkably similar to JNKPlatDS08. That's because they ARE those graphics! The engine loads t...

Occasionally, I like to jot down my current doings. It helps keep track of projects, and ideas, and sometimes getting a bit of feedback helps. So feel free to do that! 1. Java/MidletPascal Since I got my latest phone (an LGCookie) I decided to get back into Java coding... Except, without that horrible Java bit. So, whilst learning MidletPascal, I've released a few games, and also started to write a series of MidletPascal tutorials, too. So, there's that! I'm continuing to build up a fun...

OK, as I said earlier, I've been playing with the Skeleton stuff today. Whilst I was in there, I wondered how fun it might be if I added some kind of overriding features into my default engine. You might (or not) have noticed, but since Wednesday Workshop Week #1, I've been placing all my game's data into the System folder, then into it's own Weekly numbered folder within. If you get ALL my games (from the past couple of years), you can bundle them all together into the same folder. The root contains al...

OMG! The complaints are everywhere! I guess the general verdict is that my games are too hard. To be honest, I never thought of them as being "hard". I just kinda skip over the dull early parts, *ARRGGHH!! TUTORIALS!!!!* and get the player right into the game, instead. But folk are complaining. So a new plan of action must be decided. Today, I opened up my Skeleton frame doohickey, and decided to add a Game-And-Watch approach. The engine now has a simple "GameStyle" variable, right up top. Th...

With more tweaking than my head could stand, I finally got Game #2 wrapped up yesterday, so I'm finally starting on Game #3, today. As stated previously, Game #3 will be reusing quite a lot of the core engine that Game #2 used, so it should be short and sweet putting it all together, like some kind of coded jigsaw puzzle. Once that's done, Game #4's ready to get going (ie, I have a vague idea in my head!) and will also be coded in Blitz for this week's AGameAWeek, so watch out for that.....

My mum likes crosswords!!! And, heck. I like crosswords, too! Except, the trouble is, there's not really a decent crossword game on the DS. Don't get me wrong, there's a fair few games, and The Times (released this week) in particular, has a cracking selection of clues/answers, and some really nice layouts. In fact, it's really quite nice, and would be fantastic if the actual game UI wasn't so mind bogglingly bad. And, I'm not saying it's "A little bit bad.." I'm say...

( border="0"><tr><td>Blimey! What a year, eh! I decided to round off the year with a nice big, old fashioned list, with everything in it. Except this doesn't have everything in it, because I've forgotten to add the DS games.. I'll do that later!! (Took me about 3 hours to do this, so I'm not going to tweak it, now!!) Anyway, here's a nice great big list of every game (again, apart from the DS ones) that I made in 2008. It's quite a big list, too.. 31 Games. OK, so maybe not a ...

Another quicky, today.. In fact, it's a little later than usual, but that's only because I'd only just thought of it, this morning!! Panic coding at it's best.. Wheel of No Prizes sees you spin the wheel, guess the place name, Hangman style, and carry on as much as you can until you've run out of lives. Neat! <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/wheel.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/wheel_thumb.png"></a> Nice and simple stuff, but with obscure ...

If you're slightly above the age of people who are still meant to be pissing about playing silly games, like I am, you probably remember Gearworks, from the Amiga/C64 era. I don't know why, but the game suddenly popped into my head, this week. So I made a quicky clone. It's not perfect, there's loads missing, and there's no editor in sight, but as a testbed for my still growing 2D-in-3D engine, it does the job. <a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/gearworks.png"><img s...

In what can only be described as a complete disappointment, I've given up with BlitzMax. Technically, the engine's great, the language runs fast, and things are good. But.. It doesn't run on some systems.. And some of the features I'd really like to use run really stupidly slow on certain other systems. It's a big downer. And it's certainly most notable with Horizontal Shooter, and it's need to have a background that can be (shock horror) turned off! It'd be less annoying if the Slow systems were ...

This week's Wednesday Workshop <a href="https://socoder.net/index.php?topic=1206">#166</a> asked for us to create a game that uses lots of Balance. I couldn't come up with anything! So, instead, here's JNKPlat DS 08. <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/platds8_menu.png" align="right"> It's a complete restart of the engine, coded wholly from start, but using the old sprites so as to keep the good old fashioned style of the last one! (Although, had I redrawn the spr...

Puzzobomb, a mix of Puzznic and Bombs.. (For Jericho!) (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/puzzobomb_01.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/puzzobomb_01_thumb.png"> Starting with the (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/?p=54">Wednesday Workshop base) from the other day, I decided that yes, I would build it up a bit.   So, I opened up the Amstrad CPC game "Puzznix" which, since I was a kid, I'd always assumed to be "the original game".. Turns ...

I don't normally post individual Workshop entries. They're not usually good enough to make it to single-post-worthy status! This week's workshop is a Jericho-based "Explosive" challenge, and so I made a small puzzle game with Bombs. It's quite an interesting puzzle game. Take the basic rules of the classic Puzznix game, add bombs, and score it all on a Golf-style scorechart. The game looks quite nice, nicking the "chunky" block style from Blockman, and there's some half-assed soun...

For starters, let me just point out that Alien Deathmatch has still been slowly updating over the past couple of weeks. It's strange that a single game has taken up so much of my time. I guess that once you find the right type of game, you're more motivated than usual. Still, more weeks playing with 1 game = less time to get some actual new games coded. As such, there's not really been a whole lot to report over the past week or so. No new games, no new ideas, nothing. I had initially planned to do ...

Another week, another pile of retro-mania! You get the idea by now, 6 extra games and the odd bugfix. I had to redo a lot of Tetris, this week, since I'd ballsed up quite a bit of it last week! But it's all working rather well now, so you can happily settle down to a nice long game on Extreme modem and it'll now actually get faster as you head up the levels! And the T shape's in it this week, too! The Joust game's as good as it should be, without being much more. There's ...

And so it begins, the long boring task of making lots and lots of games I lie. It's not boring! <a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/col001.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/col001_thumb.png" align="left" /></a>Centipede took shape, gradually, over the course of a day. Most of the tweaking was in the main engine, as opposed to the game itself, since I had to be sure of all my different variables, and how all the pieces of the ...

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/mum_02.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/mum_02_thumb.png" /></a> I decided to do things the easiest way, code wise. To unlock the exit to a level, you need to open all the boxes within that level. Nice and simple. There are 10 level layouts currently in the game. I might add more, I'm not sure. So far the largest level only uses up about 1/16th of the available map size, but if I make them too big they get a little dull. So, 10 ...