This week a suggestion from Authentic Kaizen, who suggests having a neon styled platform game, with bubble bobble style components.

The game has taken a few turns during the week, changing from spike induced terror, a game with a frog like creature, and a whole lot more besides!

It now appears to be settling down quite nicely into some kind of obscure chaos.

Hurray for chaos!!


Coming Tuesday : NeonPlat!

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     "Bonus Round"
          #031 - 27th November 2009
          
          

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     ; Hello all
          #31, and we're starting to add extra juicy bits.
          It might be taking me longer to pad it all out each
          week, but it's certainly gotten a little bit bulkier
          with this week's additions.
          
          I've now started to add a list of games from two of
          my favourite indie game collections.
          
          And they're not just my favourites because they've
          featured my games...
          Oh no..
          That would be very biased!


          This week..
     
          Nobody entered Wednesday Workshop #228, which was
          all about making a Beach based game!
     socoder.net/?topic=1785

          Nobody wants to enter Wednesday Workshop #229, which
          is about making a game using only lines and rects!
     socoder.net/?topic=1795
     
          Afr0 continued to post his C++ class, but everyone
          was apparently too busy to answer anything.
     socoder.net/?topic=1793
     
          And the mudchat got a chatlog!
     socoder.net/chatlog.php
     
          New theme.. /look, but don't chat!
Read More

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..
Read More

*phew* Just about!!!


Munky Blocks DS, a complete remake of the original that can even make use of the level files from the PC edition, but also adds in a little mix of "Munky's Block" levels, too.

In the end, it's turned out as a lovely little game, but BOY was that a rushed ending!
Missing a day didn't help things, and the entire editor (top to bottom) had to be coded yesterday!!
Surprised I even managed to finish things off, at all!

As such, there's only actually 6 "advanced" levels in there, but it's plenty enough to get folk started.


I'll now sit and wait for everyone to make me more levels.

..
...
yup.

You can Download Munky Blocks DS here, and then head on over to the Archive to give it some nice voteyness.

If you're interested, an approximate Dev Diary (what went in, and when) is available at GBATemp. Woot!

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AGAW Scoring : 15 weeks, 15 games, 2 DS! A nice ratio, I think.
Next week, probably some sort of platformer, with magical colourful platforms..
..
Maybe.

This week, I've decided to try something a wee bit different.

If you're a fan of previous AGameAWeek games, you'll notice that I'm more than a little crap at designing levels.
It's a slight issue, but one that I've never bothered to care about.
Usually, any games that NEED levels will include a built in level editor. And folk who like the games will spend minutes trying to make one, and that'll be half the fun.

The trouble with this theory, of course, is that half the time, nobody will ever send those levels back to me.
I've got LOADS of games in the archive that have editors, and have had a whole 20-or-so levels submitted in total, all apart from JNKPlatDS08, which seemed fairly popular in the level making area and even managed to get about 50-or-so levels all on it's own!!

So.. About 70, then, total, which given that I've made 4x more games than that, is a rubbish total.

Which brings us to this week.
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Last week was Bonfire Night in the UK, and as such RetroRemakes.com had a little challenge. (They've started to do a monthly challenge..) Create a game/story/etc with Fireworks in it.

Here's my game.


Read More

Download JNKx15 Right Here
A nice neat 36Mb download, with 15 lovely little games included.

Download, Unzip, Play away!


View on YouTube

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In a world where Ninjas roam, there are many things to be aware of.

Ducks are deadly, be sure to have your sword!!



Z to swish, Left and right to run, Up to jump and Down to duck/slide.

You can Download Ninja, Duck! here, and get a super highscore!

The game's also in The Jayenkai Archive, here.

Short and sweet..!

AGAW Scoring : 13 weeks, 13 games, although this week was nearly unlucky, since no game seemed to work right. If I'd have realised, earlier, that it was the 13th week, I may very well have been suspicious as to why the games weren't working out!

So, after having attempted to create a racing game and a word game, I've finally settled on a game that appears to be coming together nicely.

Ninja Duck (temporary name, but they usually tend to stick) is about a Ninja who has a sword, and an oncoming swarm of ducks, frogs and birds.
Simple stuff, on a nice small arena.

Not really too much gameplay, but just enough to allow for Online Highscores.

Game should be done in the next few hours, but I'll be bug hunting until the early hours of the morning, just to be on the safe side.

I'm currently deciding what else to add, but.. It's one of those "too much breaks it" kinda things.

*shrugs*

Ninja Duck, Tuesday!

Then probably something with Fireworks, 'cos RetroRemakes are having a firework month.

Sometimes you can start a game and it grows and grows and is wonderful.
Other times, you get about 10% through, and realise it's just not working out.

Game Idea 1
This week started with a word game. A decent enough idea, place the tiles in a scrabble-esque crossword style, and make words.
Each tile would have two points, Point A, the letter, and Point B, the link.
The link is either to the left or below the letter.

Tiles could only link to each other, so rather than having a grid, you play with just the tiles, and try to match up words.

The lack of tiles became annoying, and without an ample supply, the game became very limited, especially since the links never really seemed to fit in where you really needed them.

Not sure how to proceed with this, but it's probably worth another look.


Game Idea 2
The good!
I made a very neat looking strip-based racing tilemap. The track would be made of 64x16 pixel strips of land, and with added rotation could generate lovely smooth little tracks.
Looks GREAT!

The bad?
I've had this happen before, and I'm not sure why I forgot!
Trying to get "Nice Smooth" tracks to meet up end-to-end is a complete and total git to achieve!
I tried adding a nice "Then smooth the track" algorithm, but it usually resulted in the entire damn track being smoothed back into a circle again!
Bah...

No cars added, no grass, just a line that may or may not meet up.

I might end up having to resort to a plain simple tile based map. Boo


.. Nothing's working out, this week!

Blimey, Blockman got big!

5Mb!!
FIVE!!
That's not like me!

But with over 350 great big (for me!) 64x64 pixel sprites, the game was bound to get a little bit bigger than usual.
Oh, and a bitmap font, too!
I've really gone all out, this week!


To be fair, it's taken about 2 weeks to get this all done, but I did have Swine flu halfway, and even created a completely different game, too!
So, you know, it all evens out!

How to play
Roam around, eat the dots, don't miss a dot, same as before.
Dodge the ghosts, avoid the spikes, watch out for ice,
Oh, and SUPER BONUS ROUNDS!!!


Controls : Cursors + C (for Camera Button, which you'll probably never use!)
alternatively...
WASD and L for Camera Button
or even...
Joystick/pad if you've got one plugged into port 1, and you've enabled it in the options screen.

Wowie!


Anything else to add?
Hmm.
Nope, I think that's everything.
Anything else, you'll have to sort out yourself.

You can Download Blockman Gets More here

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AGAW Scoring : 12 weeks (already), 12 games, 1 repeat.. In fact, this is the third Blockman Gets game I've done this year. Whoops! Going to have to come up with something else, next week, aren't I!

Bonus Rant!
I started Blockman Gets as a way of saying "F-You" to the people at the 2Bees compo. I really dislike people moving deadlines in competitions. It tends to completely screw up everyone's entries, and it's not a nice thing to do. Some people worked very hard to finish their games in time, only for the organisers to move the deadline and let other people take their time with their games, and screw over the folk who rushed in the first place.
Bah, humbug..

To somewhat prove that point, I started Blockman Gets AFTER they moved their deadline, and then finished and ENTERED it into the compo before the new deadline was reached. Ha! shows them!!
As a further case of irony, I've now successfully created the entire sequel before they've even bothered to name the original entries to the compo.
Sometimes compo's take FAR too long!

Blimey, that got complex!


Starting with "World 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1" I built a set of sideways Arcade menu start points.
Then I added the old "J/K" gameplay options in the style of World 10-1 and World 25-1.. Although from 6-1 and after, the theme isn't predetermined, and it's just picking random themes each time!
Each world contains 3 levels, so 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, etc..

Lots of levels to pick.
Read More

Or rather, he needs one, but doesn't quite have one.
That's on tomorrow morning/tonight's list of things to do.
Otherwise we've got sounds, graphics, music, levels, level progression, bonus level sets and more.
Everything's nice and happy!

Blockman is happy, too!


(Finally added scores to the bottom of the screen!!)

One thing I'm slightly worried about, though, is online highscores.
At the moment, I could have One highscore table, or none-at all.
I'd like to have a whole bunch of tables, though.
Will I have the time to implement a multitude of tables before Tuesday? Probably not.
Which will be a shame.

No matter, the game's running, the spikes are skewering and the ghosts are roaming.

Blockman Gets More, Tuesday!!!

Like I suggested yesterday, those one-way arrows could lead to some serious deadends, so rather than allowing the game to plonk them down willy-nilly, I've brought back Path Mode's AI.

Path Mode will work the way it used to, a trail of dots leading to an eventual deadend..
But we'll also be using it to find paths for the arrows.
Find a path, pick 4 or 5 points at random, add the arrows.
Nice and simple.

Of course, if you leave all the arrows in, it does get a little bit hectic.

Don't worry, there won't be that many arrows ingame!
Things will be vaguely sensible!

Not added Boulders yet, so I'm going to go and do that next.

Sometimes you have really productive days.
Occasionally, though, those really productive days seem to drag on and on, and not actually produce much at all!

Here's what I've done today.

1. We're up to 5 skins, since I added a plain rock+lava one.
Plenty of graphical variety, but only as much as it's still a bunch of squares making up a maze!

2. Added the nice filter down level drop effect back into the game.
It's a nice enough effect. No need to jazz it up, nor remove it.
It worked, that's good enough for me.
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Poor Blockman, all alone in a gigantic maze.
If only there were a way to zoom into the action..

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A nice and simple game, this week, inspired by this week's Wednesday Workshop (#224) Board Game challenge.
Rather than having plain Questions and Answers, I've taken all the results from Socoder's daily polls, and rounded them up into the game.
Can you select the option that the most people at Socoder did?!


Pick the best to gain points, pick the least to lose points, and with any luck you'll have a decent score by the time you get to the other side.


This game was written entirely on Wednesday, with the audio plonked in, this morning, whilst full of Swine Flu! Hopefully I feel good enough to actually finish things off, on Blockman Gets More, this week!!

You can Download Guesstimates here and try to pick the popular answers.
Meanwhile, I'm off to lie down some more!!


AGAW Score : 11 weeks, 11 games, phew!!

Blockman Gets More is coming along nicely, with one slight issue to be aware of.
I've got the bloomin' Swine Flu, so don't expect a miracle super game by Tuesday.
Dangit..

I should have a game done by Tuesday, but it won't be Blockman Gets More, that's currently waiting until such a time that I can actually think straight, and not struggle to type!
Flu sucks, especially once it's got into your head.
Bah!

This week's game will be probably be the poll-based board game that I started on Wednesday.
Release, Tuesday.
Sleep, Mostly..

This week, due to popular demand, Blockman's Getting More.
As you may have read, I attempted a new art style (fweeDee!!) last week, which really didn't work out at all.
So, this week I'm aiming for the Pseudo popped-out-a-bit art style, and all seems happy in the world of Blockman.

Read More

Prepare for disappointment!

This week's been a bit of a disaster, really.
I started with Arcade Slots, and actually managed to get quite far into it, but eventually realised there wasn't anything new to add to the mix. So that got scrapped.
After that came a brand new Blockman graphic style, which was far too angled, and resulted in the maze being completely obscured. No good!

So, after those two, you'd think I'd suddenly come up gold. Third time lucky, right?

Nope.


Yip consists of a little dog. Run along and catch all the frisbies, then pop your best score onto the highscore table.
And that's about it.

Oh well.
Never mind.

Better game next week!

You can Download Yip Here.

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AGAW Scoring
10 weeks, 10 games, still on top but hopefully a better game next week! You can't win 'em all.