Today I've been continuing to fiddle about with all the framework's drawing methods.
The engine seems rather fickle, and will sometimes do a bunch of big sprites, and other times do a buttload of tiny ones.
I've currently got the settings to a nice middleground.
It can handle quite a bit, so long as you don't give it mountains of giant sprites to contend with!!


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This isn't going to be a "You thieving bunch of bastards" post.
I know this goes on. There's no point trying to stop it.
Unless Apple want to show me a list of who did and didn't buy my app, there's sod all I can do about it.
I can only urge people to bother to buy my game. Because it's really fucking good!

What this IS going to be, is a small request to the people who crack my game.
This isn't a whinge for money.
This isn't a bitch about the rights/wrongs.
But it is about the player...

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Well, that was a lovely little blip, there, wasn't it!

I've written half-a-framework three times in a month!
*sigh*

It finally showed this week, when a crazy chaotic week of newness became a horribly pathetic week of giving up.
No matter.
I'll use this time to make things better.

I've finally re-re-re-re-restarted my Cocos2D framework (another framework) and will be coming up with some kind of new-ness for the BlitzMax framework.
.. yup, might as well stick with Blitz.
Blitz works, Blitz is happy, Sod it..

Stick with what you know.

Next week, new game!


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Jay = BlitzMax + Cocos2D

A Pro/Con list might've helped beforehand!!!

Fuck it, 70 quid down the drain..
carry on.

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Bad time to be swinging again, Jay...!

20x(640x32) images + 10x(64x64) images.
That can just about struggle to run at about 22fps on an iPod Retina.

Then you've got text to go over that, and another 10x(64x64) for badges..

It's just not happening..
No matter how I tweak it, rejig it, and compile and compile again, I just cannot get those numbers up.

*sigh*

And yet... That's exactly what SpikeDislike is, already.
.... At 60fps.

And SpikeDislike is the most piss easiest game I can think of!!!

Jayenkai : He uses BlitzMax, Cocos2D, and has just wasted £70odd on a language he'll never use.

1. No sound pitch.
Jinkies Munkies, What the Funkies!?!?

Simplest example.
You know in Horizontal Shooter, when your weapon goes "SQQEUUUUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"..
Can't do that..
It's gotta go "beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep"

Regular bullets will go "Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat" instead of "bang-bing-bada-pow-pip-pat-pap-bang"

Imagine SpikeDislike without it constantly getting higher and higher, as you up the combo.

.. Pants..

And, even worse, every sound needs it's own set of buffers. So if I choose to have 10 different combo sounds, I need 10 smegging buffers to go with 'em.. and that's if I only want 1 of each playing at a time!
GAH!!!

This is very very dissapointing.
Probably should've tested the sound before I bought it.
damnit..

But wait.... there's more!!!
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hmmm....
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I think I'll either be limiting myself to 100 sprites/60fps, or 200 sprites/30fps, for iPhing games.
...
That's quite a lot, though!

Pics below
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Coming soon : A whole new world!

I finally made my choice, and it's GLBasic.
Hopefully that choice doesn't come and bite me in the ass later.

For now, I'm going to be rebuilding all that framework goodness.
It'll probably take a couple of weeks to get everything going properly, so I think we might end up missing a few AGameAWeek's here and there. Hopefully you don't all mind.

Meanwhile, I'm going to do a Final Six.
Six little End-of-the-road games, that round off my time spent with Blitz.

We'll see how well that turns out..!

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About 40-odd times I've decided "Right, let's give GLBasic a try!!"
This morning, I was finally ready to actually do that!

...
And then, right out of the blue, and totally co-incidentally, a twitter conversation began with @Indie_DIJ about that very language.
He's uncertain whether his next GLBasic project should be aimed at iPhone or iPad.
...
hmmm...
Should that be a decision?

..?

Apparently GLBasic has issues here.
You need to pick. You can't have both.
I'm not 100% sure how Monkey handles that, but given how my multi-res test demo worked out, I'd imagine that I don't have to preselect the settings.
I prefer the user, or the device to pick.

I'm stopping my GLBasic learning right here.

If the user can't pick it, then that's me out.
Unless someone's willing to show me a GLBasic Window game, where the user can, INGAME, select different resolutions, then I'm done with it.

...
Guess I'm getting a monkey, then.

Silly me put the name "Chicky Crosses the Road" into a variable, then forgot to put the variable on the titlescreen!
D'oh!
sod it..

Live and Learn!
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I have a game!
It's written in Munky Monkey!
But... Am I ready to buy the language yet?

hmmm..

I'm going to give this an extra week.

Next week's game (if I can do it in time) will be done using the GLBasic demo.
I'll spend a week, get the framework half-done, throw in a cheap-ass game, and post the result.

Then I'll decide.
maybe..

Will it be Monkey, or will it be GLBasic?
Find out, Soon!

Tomorrow : A cheap-ass frogger clone!

A few hours with Monkey today.

A game idea was planned (finally!) and attempted, but I realised I had rotation issues.
Tried and tried to get the rotate and scaling working together with numerous results.
One time the sprites were rotating away from their midpoints, another they were scaling all over the place, and on and on it went..
After a while everything seemed sorted.
Then I clicked to a different resolution, and it all went to hell again.

BAH!!!!

No matter, try again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, this is Chrome.


This is Firefox...


And this is IE...


Is all this worth it?!
Find out on Tuesday, when I may or may not release a game in my older BlitzMax framework!!!

Sometimes, things that happen at the other side of the world, still make you change your habits.

AGameAWeek returns next week.

I just thought of a really good game..
but... .. Not entirely sure how doable it'd be.
.. hmm.. another time perhaps..

Anyhoo, Monkey.
So far so good.
A .. "nice".. looking frontend, with a quick top-10 list, and a swooshy menu.

It'll get fixed up as time goes by, but for now I'm going to push on and try to build a quick test game.
Since Monkey can cope with Web/Desktop/Mobile systems, I need to consider different input methods.
I'm currently thinking that focussing on the Web version might be better.
Imagine it's a Flash game, code with a mouse pointer in mind, then strap on extras later.
So, Keyboard for the desktop edition, and multi-touch/accelerometer for mobile get added only once the game initially works..

Whether that'll work out, I'm not sure.
The idea of making AGameAWeek with only a mouse pointer is a little unnerving.
I do like my tappitytap frantic games.

Perhaps, instead, I might do each game as it comes, and only try porting it if it works well enough.
I'm not entirely sure, at this point, to be honest.

In fact, I'm still not 100% on the whole Monkey thing, yet.
It's raising. I'm probably up to about the 90's, now, but there are still niggling little things.

I can, from what I can see, only save one line of text.
foook!
For the current framework, that line of text is 30 highscores and 10 settings, all seperated by |'s,
It happily works for now, but for level editing, that'll be a bitch!

Seems that Mark might be forcing me to upgrade my server.
...
FFSMark, I'm not made of money!!

Take one part Asteroids, and mix in... um..
..
hmm...


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Another day pondering about the should/shouldn't monkey issue.
Another day wondering if I shouldn't just be writing a game..

I should be focusing on the important bits, but instead, my minds contemplating what could be.

We're in March.
Last March, I was using my brand new framework, creating lovely big character sprites, and making fancy colourful Mario styled games.

This week, monochrome Asteroids.

Hmmmm...

So, perhaps the color thing isn't actually that big of a deal, then? Maybe I'm worrying about something that I shouldn't.

I can code without recolouring sprites. I've got enough stupid little random get-out clauses to make games which look oddly similar!
I can manage that, can't I?

...

And then we move on to April.
I said that April would be JNKPlat month.
I wonder if that would be done in this new Monkey language?
What exactly will I be using, in a month's time?

I'm not entirely sure.

And I'm still not sure on what control method would work on an iPhing.

Oh dear... This is quite a decision.
Damn you, Mark!!!!!!!!

(and where's that Atari Jaguar support, already!?!)

Oh, Mark.. What have you done!
I was happily coding away at AGameAWeek, and now I'm stuck in this odd Will I/Won't I scenario, unsure as to what to do next..

I spent a few hours playing with Monkey again, Yesterday, and am still unsure which is the better path.
Monkey has no recolouring for sprites. That's a pretty big deal, and is a bit of a biggy when your onscreen text is sprites. No sprite colors means one text color.
Even my Tandy TRS 80 could do more than one text color!!
But right now, the Monkey way is either one color, or one font-spritesheet for every color!
Bloody 'ell...

So I'm not sure if it's happening...
I'd like it to.
But... *sigh*

Meanwhile I spent a few hours messing around with a "framework".
This one isn't anywhere near as big as my 2010 one, but it's coming along nicely for something that's being done in a language I'm only just getting to grips with!

As I learn, more will happen. For now, I'm hoping things will continue smoothly.
But I worry.
A life in only one color?!
My lovely flames, swooshes and swirly things will never be random again....