<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Shift-Clues-Screenshot_17-Jan-2012_101836.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Shift-Clues-Screenshot_17-Jan-2012_101836-300x225.png" alt="" title="Shift Clues (Screenshot_17 Jan 2012_101836)" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2248" /></a>Sorry!! It's another uninteresting game this week, so apologies if you just plain hate it! It's not bad, it's just not goo...

So, I'm sitting there trying to get a nice GameCenter thing added to my new framework, and I figured that having to display people's names might very well require a bit of Unicode.. (Note : This is the reason my other iOS games don't have names on the highscore lists!) In Cocos, you can use 3 font styles.. one is a simple bitmap font (this one I can handle!) one is a complex bitmap font (with a required 50,000,000,000,000 images to handle all the possible languages!) and the third one uses ttf fonts. ...

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photo-11.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photo-11-300x200.png" alt="" title="photo (11)" width="300" height="200" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2241" /></a> Today, I'm continuing to build a framework for my iOS games. You might've noticed that I've started a buttload of iOS games, lately, and yet I haven't finished any of the things.. I've noticed that, too, and qui...

Tonight, I got home from work with a game idea in mind. Using my freshly reinstalled PC, I settled down for the first bit of coding on the thing, copied my FrameworkTemplate to a new folder, drew a couple of sprites, opened the code, built up a simple array/tilemap test engine, and then hit Build.. .. Aaah.. Seems my dev-environment isn't quite at 100% yet, because I coded the thing into a FrameworkTemplate from about a year ago, and all the nice new stuff is missing. *sigh* What a waste of an hou...

Another day, another install.. About 12 months ago, my bedroom PC basically crapped it's pants, and became an inexplicably unusable box that sat in the corner of the room. Knowing I'd need to format, I hunted for the Vista install disc, then remembered that.. A) Vista didn't bloody well come with one (Buying from Comet would've been handy, there!) and B) It'd been ages since I'd bought any blank DVDs Still, I had a Mac, so sod it!!

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The-Unijuggler-Screenshot_09-Jan-2012_215837.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The-Unijuggler-Screenshot_09-Jan-2012_215837-300x187.png" alt="" title="The Unijuggler (Screenshot_09 Jan 2012_215837)" width="300" height="187" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2229" /></a> A nice and simple "Highscore" game. Keep the Unijuggler's balls afloat, and if you're feeling lucky, you can try forgi...

I was absolutely shattered, when I got home from work last night. I tried to watch an episode of House, but gave up halfway, and zonked out by about 11'ish. Probably didn't do me much good, then, to have woken up at half one in the morning, and spent the next 4 hours coding away. whoops!

Not sure why, but I'm finding it difficult to get a start on things, this morning. Yesterday I managed to get a whole lot of stuff done, ranging from webby fixes, through to making a unicycle. Today, I'm loading up bits of source, staring at it, closing it, trying something else.. I've been doing this for about 49 minutes, according to my playlist's timer! I think I'll grab the 3DS and carry on attempting random Mario levels. Hopefully that'll go a little better. Coming Tuesday : A game with a u...

(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Rooty-Tooty-Shooty-Screenshot_04-Jan-2012_123616.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Rooty-Tooty-Shooty-Screenshot_04-Jan-2012_123616-300x225.png" alt="" title="Rooty Tooty Shooty (Screenshot_04 Jan 2012_123616)" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2218" />This game makes you want to cry... .. or not bother..

<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/AGameAWeek2012_large.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/AGameAWeek2012_large-300x300.png" alt="" title="AGameAWeek2012_large" width="300" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2214" /></a> I still haven't finished NeonPlat Adventures iOS yet, so I'm jumping between a whole lot of work at the moment. As a result, the first few AGameAWeek games aren't going to be the most work...

Welcome to 2012 ..or, more importantly.. Welcome to AGameAWeek, Year 4!! The games start, right here... in a couple of days! Tuesday morning. I'll have to add a small "Mac Warning" disclaimer, though, 'cos my Mac's still being twitchy since it's OSX Lion upgrade, and I never did get around to doing a quick test compile. no matter.. Either it works, or there's whinges! We'll have to wait and see.

Thankyou Santa!! My issue with Super Mario 3D Land isn't the fact that it's in 3D. My issue is with the fact that the gameplay's in 3D. See, to me, SuperMarioLand was always a stripped down barebones edition of what made Super Mario Brothers great. As you played through SuperMarioLand, you noticed all the shortcuts they took, like how the levels seemed to be on a bit of a loop, repeating in a strange fashion. The whole game was fashioned to ...

A warning for all, as we hit the christmas period. Be careful... The Mince Pies are very tempting!

(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/jnkplat_Xmas2011.jpeg"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/jnkplat_Xmas2011-300x193.jpg" alt="" title="jnkplat_Xmas2011" width="300" height="193" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2195" />Coming soon, as in probably tomorrow, or maybe Xmas morning!! This isn't a proper one. It's only a quick little Xmas minigame thing, but it'll be nice and properly playable, and have a bu...

Between insane neck issues, and crazy days trying to cram WAY too much stuff in before Xmas, I've not blogged much, this week. Last night, as it became increasingly apparent that there was no WAY I could cram it all in, before xmas, I decided to hell with it all.. This morning, I stop attempting to cram, and instead relaxed into something a little different.

So, um, yeah.. My neck's fucked again... ... I spent most of the past few weeks struggling on. My Xmas hols are due shortly, and I figured I should be able to last the short while, before giving up over Xmas and giving myself a well earned rest. .. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've attempted that before.. Long story short, plan didn't succeed, and I've been back in bed for a couple of days. dangit. All plans are off, and I'm resting. If you need a gam...

There are many many things breaking the calendar. The list is growing. Having finally got the whole Locale thing to work (switch phone to French, open game, calendar still in English, wtf!?) With enough tweaks, I was getting French calendar months, and all looked well. .. Except the "??" in d??cembre.. Because my font is lazy. ugh.. That'll be a lengthy fix! New Font functions ahoy!

It's been over a year since the Platdude Retro Advent Collection had a bizarre game with a ball and some spikes in it, and as much as I've attempted to get on with other games, that one little game keeps on getting dragged back out again! Last week, SpikeDislike won an IndieVisibility award, for being the best game to have with you on the toilet! This week, the guy who nominated it for that award has written a great big sprawling mass of text, all about SpikeDislike! (Link no longer available) ...

Before starting development on NeonPlat Adventures, I took great care to test all the alternatives. I'd read online about OSX Lion breaking Blitz, and people needing to fuck about with lots of settings and things. The scary part was that developing on Lion would probably break compatibility with Snow Leopard. As such, I made a few test engines, and got people with Lion to test my games, to be 100% sure that, if I stuck with Snow Leopard, my games would be 100% compatible with BOTH sets of users. ...

99% Bundle is no longer available <img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bundlelogo2-300x118.png" alt="" title="bundlelogo2" width="300" height="118" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2177" /> Today sees the release of @dedhedzed's wonderful 99% Bundle, a bringing together of 13 games by 13 developers, all banged into a handy bundle, and popped online for everybody to try. The bundle is FREE, and is hopefully there to reintr...

(URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/fuuuuuuu.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/fuuuuuuu-300x170.png" alt="" title="fuuuuuuu" width="300" height="170" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2171" /> Graphene. 'tis a nice theme! As Year 4 approaches, I figured it was time for a makeover. It's taken me from 10 at night until 4 in the morning, but I think I'm about 2/3rds of the way there! If anything's mi...

A lot of elements are currently coming together, and things are getting a little more chaotic than I'd like them to be around Xmas time. If the past 2 years of Xmas themed chaos (12 games of Xmas, Advent Collection) have taught me one thing, it's not to EVER plan anything around Xmas! Presents, family visits and the general filling of my face with Xmas cake, will usually get in the way of the coding time, and as such I decided not to push myself into anything moronic this year. I apologise if you're deep...

Can't seem to make a start on things, this morning. Woke up early, expecting the Window fitters to come and get that done. Didn't happen. Rescheduled for next week, which is probably too close to Xmas, so probably won't happen either.. .. I blame Comic Sans.

Yesterday was the #Indievisibility awards ceremony, which involved a bunch of indie guys, a pub, a brawl and a number of teabags. Awards were given for all manner of things.. Different genres, games with certain features and other seemingly random reasons. You can scan through a list of all the <a href="https://www.sizefivegames.com/2011/12/11/indievisibilty-end-of-year-awards-results/">Awards here,</a> and read all about the joys of the fight! Awesome!

When I was building the beta versions of NeonPlat Adventures, it always included a little readme file. The final release didn't have one, but I figured that was ok, because it was so simple it didn't really need one. The original readme was only really there to explain that beta peeps shouldn't mention the Calendar, and then I kinda rambled on a bit! Anyhoo, if you find yourself in desperate need of a readme file, this is it!

You know what's annoying? When you've been sitting, typing away for about an hour, then stop to make a brew, and suddenly realise how bloody cold it is! Somebody needs to invent some sort of keyboard with heated keys. That'd be great! .. A mouse would be cheaper, but I then only my right hand would be toasty warm. .. I'm not sure I want to go for the "Coding Gloves" thing!