I get to this point once every few months, and .. well.. here we are again!

A few things are getting me here, this time around.
Let's list the reasons, then think of some solutions..
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1. Graphical resolutions.
It's apparent that most visitors to this site are STILL using 1024x768 resolution. With that in mind I've kept to a standard 800x600 res, so that everyone can happily play my games in a window, and not have the window too big for the screen.
Things are nice like that.

But when you've a 1920x1200 screen, you might not want a piddly little 800x600 window on there.
That's blindingly obvious, but really tricky to cater for when you're making a game with 32x32 pixel sprites.. If that!! Heck, I mostly use 16x16!!

It'd be nice to cater for higher resolutions.


2. Screw the badges, they ain't happening!
It was nice in Blockman Gets, but other than that they've had no purpose.

I should probably also scrap the whole "%AppData%/AGameAWeek" folder thing.
Sure it's nice to not have to keep typing your name in, but when virus checkers start assuming you're hoarding people's personal data (OMG! YOUR SCOREBOARD NAME!!!!) and begin to flag your games as highrisk security issues... Well, it's probably a good idea to start removing nice features like that..
feckin' virus checkers.. ffs..


3. Multiple Systems
Oh, come on.. I really oughta be doing that by now, right?!
Sure, folk know going in that owning a Mac or Linux system will limit their gaming, but that shouldn't be the reason why people can't play the hundreds of games I have to offer.
I should probably do something about that.
... But without having to pay for a Mac!!

And then there's the whole Porting thing, where I keep taking time out to make Phone and DS games. They're completely different, resolution wise, and it'd be nice to come up with some sort of framework that could cope with that. Even if I do still have to recode the games, they should be able to use the same assets. Right!?


So, three pretty important points there. But what to do?
What options are out there?
What can I really attempt to do about it?


1. Resolution Scaling
Whatever I use should be super-scalable.
But not in a 3D sense.
I want to be able to make a game in, perhaps a slightly higher resolution (say 1280x960) and then have it nicely scale to whatever the player's using.
I'm thinking something that scales per-pixel, to give a nice crisp clear image, or if the real resolution is smaller, gives it a neat anti-aliasing to whatever the player wants.
Maybe.. *shrugs*

2. Clean Sprites
If you've zoomed in to my recent games, you'll notice that pretty much everything has horrible nasty anti-aliased artifacts.
Eeeeuwww..
This is mostly because I'm using the 3D-in-2D engine.
It's a lovely way to get lots onscreen, with rotations, scalings, transparencies and colorisations.
But, damn, that leaves nasty stuff all over the place.
Seems a waste to spend hours drawing nice pixels, only to end up having them splodged into nastyness at the end.


3. Portability
It seems blindingly obvious that C would be the language of choice, but with so many engines to choose from, and the incredible lists of incompatibilities, there's a whole host of "aftermarket" issues to worry about.

I don't want to be working on game #330, and suddenly have someone crop up with a weird bug on their system for game #310.. That's why I've been using Blitz this whole time. You can kind of forget about all the background stuff, and just get on with doing things.


So, thoughts.
What have you tried, what works, and what doesn't.
Let's see if we can come up with a nice super language which does all of the above, without being insane!

And, yes, I guess I am considering Flash again. Seems kinda obvious, really, since it does indeed tend to "Just work". *sigh*