Developments

In the past couple of nights, I've begun to work on AL's new AL Bum, and have decided that it's going to be titled "Liquid" As per the past few AL Bums, each track will have a different ALphabetical title, from A-Z, but this time with the added benefit of all the tracks being vegetables. Why? Because I'm rubbish at coming up with names for songs, and this is a lazy way to do it! ( width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="...

Developments

Yesterday, I finally got around to animating that cat and dog that I've been putting off for a good number of days. I knew what I had to draw, but .. Animating?! Eeek!! And so the poor cat and dog remained undrawn, until yesterday when I practically forced myself into doing it. And, I must admit, they turned out rather nice! Now I just have to decide on a nice background for them, draw some obstacles, and figure out the best scoring method. ( src="https://vine.co/v/erVZAOM5QU...

Developments

App : SpikeDislike3 Status : Waiting for Review (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SD3_15Wait.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SD3_15Wait.png" alt="SD3_15Wait" width="223" height="270" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4848" /> Give it the obligatory 10 day wait, and you should be playing the 5 new themes in portrait mode without parallax scrolling! (or however you choose ...

Developments

I finally rejigged those basketball-reflections, so they look much better now. Hurray! ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AVwlN0kRMdw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> There we go! Much better!! So, with those done, I turned to the last remaining themes where I have to somehow come up with imaginative ideas for those challenges, too. I've got absolutely nothing in mind for them, and spent a good few ho...

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 ...

Developments

As is the case throughout the majority of the past week, yesterday was spent mostly fiddling with my website. There are still a few minor errors cropping up on the error logs, but nothing worth hassling about. Little quirks like temporary variable usage, an old BASIC habit that refuses to go away.. If I want to disable a huge chunk of code, I tend to throw in something like "If (Aliens=Attack)" which does of course disable that section of code.. .. Yeah, I know, bad habit! Espec...

Developments

OK, so GoDaddy restored the backup, and I've spent the past 24 hours doing backups and fixes and all manner of server-based garbage. I'll be watching the stats over the next few days, keeping tabs on the databases, and ensuring nothing like that happens again. Grrr. You can read the (URL "https://socoder.net/index.php?topic=4833&viewpost=47700#47700">Waffley post here, if you're interested..) I'm still tweaking, but I'm ready to get back to Spike Dislike, except my mind's t...

Developments

I really should be getting back to Boxsplosions, but watching SpikeDislike3's journey through the AppStore has been so much fun!! Yesterday, (URL "https://twitter.com/craiggrannell">@CraigGrannell) posted a glowing review over at (URL "https://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/SpikeDislike3/review.asp?c=66176">PocketGamer.co.uk) (URL "https://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/SpikeDislike3/review.asp?c=66176"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/SD3_Po...

Developments

By now I should be mostly done with Boxsplosions, but unfortunately, and yet again, I've found myself wasting the day away doing not much more than SpikeDislike3 things! .. and a lot of that has been playing! Alarmingly, Rychan has been reaching amazing heights on the GameCenter scoreboards, easily slaughtering most of my best scores. Of course, I'm all too aware that people are much better at SpikeDislike than I am, but to see such HUGE scores shows just how compelling the gam...

Developments

HURRAY! After 20 (TWENTY!) days in review, SpikeDislike3 is finally available on iOS! o/yeayo/ And it's about damn time, too. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KnfnkRnT2Ag" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> Feel the full dislike, as you bounce your way through the 15 different themes, and 150 levels of spikes! You can buy the complete SpikeDislike3 (URL "https://itunes.apple.com/app/spikedislike3/...

Developments

I'm still fiddling about with the level generator for the new Boxsplosions game. Currently it's coming up with either of two level styles. Either the arena a HUGE and has one or two targets to hit, thus leading to a huge chasm where not much happens, or it's generating a teensy tiny level that's completely flooded with millions of little bloody targets, which completely kills any sort of gameplay mechanic. It's going to be hard to get it to balance that out, without ending up wit...

Developments

Further rejections, this month, as a game gets rejected from yet another format. I'm not going to give them the publicity of a good rant, but suffice to say they rejected Invisible Munky 2 because, within the End Credits, I bothered to thank the people at OUYAForum.com, who helped me when I needed to test the game's physics. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y-Oi5a8TTuU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> ...

Developments

Hurray! Another week, another iOS release. This week, ChuckABall shows up in the AppStore, and people go CRAZY for it!! .. ... Probably not, but they should, because it's an awesome game. Lovely and simple, and great for that 10 second wait that you just can't stand waiting through. Jump in, play a level (or ten), jump out. It does exactly what you need from a game of it's type. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iDJjJXOBGxs" frameborder="0" al...

Developments

Yesterday's doings. Boxsploding I continued work on Boxsplosions, and got a nice new control scheme up and running for touchscreens. I might have to zoom out a little bit, though, as you can currently only see an area of about 8x8 tiles, whereas the whole arena is 128x128!! Today I'm going to be playing with the actual Splosions, and seeing if the gameplay matches the previous edition, or whether it all needs to be rethought and reimagined.. Hmm...

Developments

A whole lot of yesterday seemed to vanish just as much as the day before.. I now realise, of course, why this is.. I recently started playing the iOS game "Fallout Shelter", which is a spin-off of the Fallout franchise, in which you need to build, organise and maintain a fallout shelter. The game works a lot like Sim-Tower, and is "Free to Play", but not in a terribly horrific "F2P/IAP" style. It's fair, and it's nicely balanced. The IAPs are there if you want them, but skill ...

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

So, I suppose I'm making a new version of Boxsplodings, then.. I spent most of yesterday coming up with a nice Arena-Generator. It took a while to get the feel "just right", but it seems to be coming up with nice enough shapes. You can see some of the generated shapes in (URL "https://twitter.com/Jayenkai/status/610214745283653634">this Vine). So, assuming that's the levels, what of the splodings..? That'll be today's task. Trying to find something that doesn't end up being...

Developments

Aaah, iTunesConnect. When Invisible Munky 2 launched, the other day, I noticed something odd in my iTunesConnect pages. Where there's usually a "Request Promo Codes" link, there was none. Basically, I can't give away Promo Codes for my iOS games, because I can't bloomin' well get any codes in the first place. I was baffled, and tried many things to get them back, including emailing and chatting with Apple themselves about the situation. After a good number of hours, they don't ...

Developments

For my NEXT iOS Release, I present All New ChuckABall. Completely reskinned with a fantastic new set of sounds and music. The game's taken a bit of a leap from horribly gnatty test game, to slightly less horribly gnatty test game. Huzzah!! ( width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e44cLNMqFTw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> I think you'll all agree that the above looks infinitely better than this.. ( w...

Developments

So.. GooglePlay... I vowed never to return, but am already being bombarded by people meithering about the Android version of SpikeDislike3. The Story So Far Jayenkai created SpikeDislike2, and figured it'd be nice to get that onto GooglePlay. Jayenkai learned the ropes, filled the forms, and got SD2 onto GooglePlay. iOS Edition sold about 1500 copies. GooglePlay edition sold about 50. For the sake of my own sanity, it's best not to ask how many people on Android pirated t...

Developments

If there's one thing I hate, it's waiting for stuff!! I'm a very impatient person, and have gotten used to things moving along at a fast AGameAWeek-like pace. I now have TWO games, waiting for Apple Review, and quite frankly it's doing my head in! All this waiting. I can't hack it!!! I'm now pondering what my next project's going to be. Should I continue on this Gap-Year thing, and make something else that's way bigger than normal? Or should I do a couple of quicky AGameAWe...

Developments

A busy day, yesterday, as I set about building more of those Mission/Level things for SpikeDislike3. I've now got marginally different Mission modes for 10 of the 13 themes, although "Super X!" seems to appear a fair number of times! With only 3 more sets of levels to create, I'm pretty much nearing the end of development, although there's a bunch more extra bits that I might end up throwing in. Anyway, I figured now's about as good a time as any, to give you an idea of my targ...

Developments

Guess who forgot to hit the "Submit for Review" button on Invisible Munky 2!!? That's right!! I blame Apple.. It used to be that you'd have to have iTunesConnect open at the same time as Application Loader, and juggle the two until it did what you wanted to. Recently, though, they've completely overhauled iTunesConnect, and I found myself doing 99% of the tasks via the Windows Laptop. By the time it came to uploading the release, I was using the Mac, and stupidly forgot all a...

Developments

A quick video.. ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SUFKcQothYI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>> About a week ago, I booted up the MacMini to test compile SpikeDislike3 onto my iPad. I was SHOCKED by how poor the functionality of the MacMini was. Slow, unresponsive, and certainly not what you'd call "Useful" in any way shape or form. I guess that's what happens when you buy a Mac Mini in 2010, and only e...

Developments

Yesterday I started playing about with all the different gameplay styles that'll make up the majority of the levels in SpikeDislike3. If you're keeping track, you'll remember that WAY WAY way way way back in (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/GameList.php?ShowJust=221">SpikeDislike 1) (Made in 2011, still works on most/all iOS devices!) there was a nice little Challenge mode to keep you entertained. Unfortunately, it didn't have a whole lot of levels. 36 levels were more or less all...

Developments

Just when you think you're done with your menu system, you suddenly realise you've not got any options on the titlescreen! Whoops! (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_024.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SD3_024-1024x597.png" alt="SD3_024" width="604" height="352" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-4649" /> An hour or so later, and I'd half-wrangled old code with new, t...

Developments

I spent some time, yesterday, playing around with the menu system for SpikeDislike3. It's starting to look fairly usable, now, with it's little bouncing "Next Level" thing, and all the spikes and stars in the right places. I still need to add some sort of boundary to the left, so that the "Infinity" levels are more apparent, but for the most part, the menu is nice enough, and actually functions the way it's supposed to! ( width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/em...