Folk who currently have the editor should be aware that there's a slight bug with the far right, and lower sides of the levels! Try not to go too far!! Thanks! I probably mis-counted something, somewhere, and it's all gone a bit pants!

Otherwise everything should, hopefully, be working just fine. Although I'm a little disappointed that I didn't test that. It popped into my mind a couple of days ago, but I was too busy trying to get the encoding to work that it then popped right back out again! Bah.

It'll be fixed by Tuesday!

Meanwhile, another little bit for editing folk.

If you're making a larger level pack, and want to spread things out a bit, place a "[Checkpoint]" before the next "[Level]", (inside the raw file in notepad) and once the final version's released, these will act as restartable points that the player can begin from. As opposed to always starting from level 1 in your pack, they can pick checkpoints once they're reached that level.

And I should probably point out, the player will be getting three lives again, just like the DS version.

To the 7 people who asked, the editor has been sent.

This kinda counts as a release, but since it's not a public release, it also kinda doesn't.

2 weeks in, and the game's coming along in leaps and bounds. There's a couple of DS08 tiles that aren't in there yet, but otherwise it's about the same game.


With 1 week left, I need to..
1. Add more tiles!
2. Do the entire frontend, 'cos it's a bit pants right now.
3. More niceyness
4. Levels! Must remember to make levels!!!
5. Probably more stuff, but nothing else written down!

If you asked, but haven't received, check your spambox, and if you definitely don't have it, let me know.

AGAW Scoring : 33 weeks, but still only 37 games. Still not bad, but I'm definitely slowing down!!

Think you've got what it takes to make JNKPlat levels?

Want to get your name into a game before the game's even finished yet?

Want to even get to play the game before it's even finished?!


email me, NOW! Jayenkai@Gmail.com
or post "Me!" (or otherwise) into the comments below.


A limited selection will receive the pre-pre-pre edition of the game, with a very simple batch of test levels, and the fully formed level editor, ready to build some kick-ass new stuff.

Pre-pre-pre edition will be sent out on Tuesday, so get your name in the hat before that happens.

Each person will be expected to build at least one fantastic level, and it'd be nice if you could build a couple more to bulk up the numbers a bit!!
The full release will probably be the Tuesday after, so you won't have a lot of time, but it only takes a few minutes to bodge something half-decent together.

Let me know if you want in!

Things aren't going too badly in the Level Editor.


A nice bar, Selectable objects, Test button, Tabs..
In many ways, things are about the same as they were before, and that's exactly how Platdude likes them!

Keen observers might notice the lack of lights and switches. The whole purpose of the lights was to limit what the player could see, but when you've got an option to zoom super-close, the game already has that limitation. As a result, I'm not 100% sure it'd be worth spending the time implementing any "darkness" to the game. Maybe later, but for now, having the ability to set super-close in the level's settings does all that it needs.

Speaking of which, I should probably make a Level Settings thing in the editor!

(note, this is a bit waffley, and tends to jump about from point to point!!)

Today I've been working on the editor.
It's been a bit of a challenge, trying to think of every little think you might use, and also the keys for all of it, but I think it's coming along quite well.

Draw with the mouse to draw, left for the selected tile, right for blank.

WASD will scroll the screen around
E picks the tile under the mouse
Q allows you to draw a rectangle using either Left or Right mouse button.
For those familiar with the DS edition, that's pretty much the same, except with left and right scrolling.
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It's amazing that, a week and a bit later, there are still loads of old things that must be put into the game.
I completely forgot about those little mines, and the TNT Plunger based mines, too!
Then getting them all working on Travellators, too.
Plenty of work.
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Yeay! Platdude's on his way!

Here's the first teaser..

View on YouTube

Odd things to spot.

1. Framerate's a little quirky, because my screen-capture STILL sucks, even on the new fancy PC. Dangit.
2. No ingame audio, same reason.
3. Those aren't real levels!! Those are just made up to show off different things.
4. I made the music WAY too short, and couldn't fit all 8 video that I'd captured. Oh well, never mind, there's always the 2nd teaser!
5. The exit doesn't work yet, so I had to very very carefully stop, right beside it!!

There may be more odd things, but I've forgotten the rest!

I'm now up to the "Make a bunch of levels" part of development.
This usually takes the longest!!

No release yet, it's nearly ready, but still so far away!
Not to worry, it's Platdude's month, so let's carry on.

By the end of this month there'll be a PC version, and a Linux version, too.
That's hopefully apparent by now.
What I've not mentioned, yet, is my hopes to recreate this game onto other platforms. So let's talk about that, now.
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Blocks and Spikes are in the engine now, as are the default sound effects!

Seems a bit of a long time for Blocks and Spikes, but those Blocks are always more complicated than they oughta be!

Work is coming along at the regular rate, but I'm now starting to think about the frontend of the game. Not entirely sure what I'll be doing for it.

I might try to replicate the DS's menu screen, since that seemed to work out nicely.
We'll have to wait and see!!

Tuesday, if I can get it done, I'll release a "Trial" like I did with the 09 edition.
Hopefully people won't whinge their asses off, this time.

I've spent ages working on the whole Music Engine thing, and so far it's not sounded 100% great.

Today's work got it up to about 75%, or thereabouts.

As Background music, it does it's job. As anything more, it's a little lacking. So I think I'll just say "That'll do!" and carry on.

JNKPlat 2010 + random'ish music, coming soon!

I'd post a new High-Def screenshot, but you can't really screenshot music, and I've not really done any new graphics since yesterday.. So, instead, here's an mp3.

: Download

Note : The bass gets WAY too low about 20 seconds in! I might have to fix that!

I haven't really been updating this like I oughta be, so here's the "So Far"

Day one (Tuesday 30th March 2010)
Make it Big

Decided to go with the "upped size" style, so set about redrawing all the old background tiles at a higher resolution.
I considered making 50-odd brick tiles, and give them all a slight texture, but figured that'd kill your memory, so instead created an overlay texture that would be added to the screen once the game's done it's frame drawing.
The result was a "Fuzzy Felt" style JNKPlat.
Looks kinda neat, but also helps the game keep it's retro style.

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Today I've made a start on the next JNKPlat.
Everything will be sprite based, but MASSIVE compared to previous outings.
Where previously they'd been 8x8 pixel tiles, this time around they're going to be 64x64 pixels.
That's a 6400% size increase! (Assuming I did the maths right!)

Look inside for the super high-resolution mock-shot!
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A classic Blockman game, in the style he was meant to be in! Sure, he looks great doing his whole "Pacman maze, but hungry" thing, but this is the style he made his name in, so it seems only fitting that this would be where he finds his Mario Costume.

And not just once. He can find it over and over again!



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Blimey, that was quick!


Usually I spend most of Sunday and Monday rushing through the end of a game, but this week's game seems to have slotted perfectly into place.
nice!

Although, that's probably due to the "rest" I had, last week.

Let that be this week's lesson..
Sometimes, it's good to take a break!

Tuesday : Blockman in a Mario Costume

NMcCoy's made a nice "experimental" game, this week. He suggests that "Squidfold may or may not be about anything." and that's a really nice way to sum up a game!

A cracking little game, and a good addition to his list.
But is it the "algorithm-intense" game he'd been working on for the past couple of weeks?
I'd guess.. quite possibly, yeah!

|Edit| A link might help!! D'oh! |Edit|

First up, this week's game will be Blockman in a Mario Costume. Greenie looked great in his costume, but he's a lost cause, and I'm moving on.

Blockman will return to his original Flicky style gameplay, with the Mario Costume acting as a power up to give him an amazing new ability! Combo scores aplenty!

After that, we're done with Mar10, so I can start playing with fresh, original, and fantastically new ideas..
Speaking of which, Tetripong is apparently needed on the DS, so that'll probably be my first fresh, original and fantastically new idea!

I'm already playing around with the JNKPlat idea in my head. I can't imagine that'll be quick to appear, but whilst that's all going on I'll have time to do random little games.

No idea what they'll be! Could be anything, really!

The Suggestion box is waiting!

Awww

This week I've been ill, and between website tweaks, and lying in bed half-dead, I've not really had time to get anything done.
This morning, I managed to wake up, and was bright and alert.
I figured it was probably a good chance to get something done, so I grabbed the half-assed sprites, popped them into an engine, and got them running in a right facing direction.
Adding random pipes, and the ability to jump over them, I'd made a 1980's style Waggler Hurdles type game.. You know, the ones that really knacker your joysticks!!



After approximately 10 seconds of gameplay, waggling and jumping became as boring as you'd expect it to be, and it's at this point that I'm struggling to come up with anything else.
I could add things to Idigidragon, make him throw flames at Greenie, make Greenie collect items as he goes, but .. meh..
Game fail..

Rather than fiddle around with things, trying desperately to get them to work, we'll instead call this week a fail, and move on.

It's a shame, and it does ruin the whole "MAR10 Month", which is a bummer.
Dangit..

I'll try not to sleep as much, next week!!

Uhoh!!

This week I've been doing a lot of background work over at Socoder.
There's been a heck of a lot of unseen features added, along with a couple of noticable, but not noticed, additions as well.

I guess i've been in a php mood, more than a game-making one.

As a result, I've actually yet to even begin writing this week's game, although I have drawn a few nice sprites, and am looking forward to getting this one done.

No matter, there's another whole day before Tuesday, and I've certainly managed this before..


It's time for Jay's "homework on the back of the bus" mode to kick in!!

Tuesday : Greenie in a Mario Costume!

Yesterday I mistakenly posted last week's game.
Today I post this weeks!

NMcCoy's been working on AGameAWeek of his own, for the past 8 weeks.
Lately he's stumbled upon a bigger idea which is taking a while, but is still managing to throw out smaller games, to keep up his ratio.
That's the way to do it!!

Go McCoy!

You can play Redivider on his site. It's Java based, so you can play it on his site.

August 26th 2009
That's the last time I did a Mailbag post!

Blinkin' eck!

Over the past 6/7 months, I've occasionally dipped into the mailbag and plucked out little snippets, but I figured it was about time I did a proper one.
A few of these have already been posted, but there's a whole batch of new ideas here.

Let's go!!! (There's a lot!!)Read More