I spent most of yesterday struggling to put together a SoCoder Newsletter for this week, since I'd mostly neglected it due to watching all the E3 stuff. Meanwhile the gamedev is pretty much in the same situation it was on Tuesday, so I really need to focus on that, today.

Don't you love it when, after a recent Update, Windows always opens the browser up. You always expect the page it leads you to will be full of actual information about what the windows update just did. .. But, no. It never does. It's always the exact same generic "Windows Help" page that tell you absolutely nothing. After this morning's update, I could barely read the generic Windows Help page, because my laptop's screen was too dark. Hmm...

Man, I hate writing platform game collision code! Those darn diagonals always freak out..

Last month, I subscribed to the ZenPop Ramen selection. The box appears, then over the coming weeks, I review each of the noodles. Last month's collection can be found in this SoCoder Thread, but I figured it might be something entertaining to crosspost here, too. Do let me know if you hate this idea!!

I didn't get an awful lot of gameplay implemented into this week's game, yesterday, but the basic bits and pieces are in the engine. I've decided another remake's in order, and am focusing on NeoPlat. Not NeonPlat, the happy neon Desktop game, but NeoPlatDS, the little Original DS game about landing on floors, or something!!

I've often wondered about stats like this, so today I built a quick little took to make a little stat list for me. (55%) 499 3DSBrew (17%) 158 Windows (14%) 132 Linux (11%) 106 MacOSX Downloads (since May 1st) of games created using my new C++ Framework.

That's the end of my "Week Off" Let's have a look at what I accomplished.

As each game gets posted, the feedback occurs. Let's take a look at the feedback from Blockman Gets Retro! You can Download Blockman Gets Retro here.

RSKGames

Overview: While last years Blockman game was a platformer this year's Blockman game is back to the roots maze puzzle game where the player has to traverse the maze, eat the required quantity of yellow dots to cross each of the levels. Blockman cannot move backwards and cannot traverse a path already traveled unless there is a ...

I've been focusing on JNKPlat much more than I should've, this week, and neglecting to get the Metal part of the framework up and running. That'll be today's task. Because I REALLY need to do that!

JNKPlat 2018

A new JNKPlat 2018 adventure is in the works.

Maybe I'm coding this wrong, but I swear I'm doing everything the way I'm supposed to!!

Saturday. My "week-off" is nearly over. As I look back at what I've achieved this week, I'm somewhat astounded by how little I've managed to get functioning correctly.

At the same time as I'm trying to get the Mac/iOS Metal stuff to work, I'm also trying out lots of techniques for tilemaps on 3DS.

...you must first, Break EVERYTHING!!!

Yesterday was all about planning, as I took a few important steps towards recoding the framework to work with Metal. Lots of little chunks of ideas, setting aside methods and preparing to sit and do the coding. The intention was to get everything ready and then spend last night actually sat at the Mac getting things up and running. I was ready to get going, so headed upstairs for "Evening Session" coding time, and then...

Today I'm going to reattempt the "Draw tiles to a buffer, draw the buffer" stuff.

I spent quite a while, today, trying to come up with a nice fast tilemap technique for 3DS. On the Desktop edition, I can draw to a buffer, then draw the buffer to the screen, but due to memory limitations, that's not quite as easy to do on the 3DS. I've tackled a few different ways, already, but none of them seem to be helping in the speed department. Essentially, I'm getting about 30fps out of a screen full of 8x8 tiles, which is absolutely horrendous when you consider that I used to be...

God damnit, Apple..

I'd love to tackle a new Alien Deathmatch sort of game, but I'm not really sure which way to take it.

Blockman returns in this super-retro dot-munching remake.

<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/452912940&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe>

I've got a quick pathfinder working on Blockman Gets "Something", now, so all levels should be bearable, with targets that make sense and are indeed possible. Might be insanely hard to find that path, but I'm fairly confident that it's working the way it oughta be.

I spent most of yesterday trying, over and over, to get the regular standard mode to feel right. After hours (literally hours!) of playtesting, I'm fairly sure now that the basic levels are at least mostly beatable.

I spent ages yesterday finding the right balance. Playing Blockman Gets and Blockman Gets More, there's a distinct feeling that something's missing from More.

A rather productive day, today, as most of the audio got finished off, the level creation worked out well, and 3DS controller tests now feel much more comfortable. I'm now trying to come up with interesting concepts that might expand the basic game, but as usual I'm worried that doing so might break the very logic of the game. I'll really need to think hard about what does and doesn't work in the game, and might even split it into its own "arcade mode", rather than break the main game...

I mostly switched off, yesterday.