Developing Ramblings

[jayenkai]

Still working on that music engine!!
It's a biggy!
So far, nothing's gone wrong. This is usually a bad sign!

I've yet to tackle any Monkey code, yet, but the BlitzMax engine is running beautifully.
YouTube Footage

Tomorrow I'm going to start the Monkey edition.
*fingers crossed*!

[jayenkai]

Oh boy, that wasn't fun!!
I spent ages converting the code, assuming all would "just work"..
Did it?
Did it monkeys!!

This morning I went back to fighting with it, and eventually found my issue.
It seems that, with Monkey, if you load an image, you must wait at least one frame before you try to draw it... Hmm..
Since the music is stored in images (..yeah!) I was trying to extract the data quicker than Monkey was loading it, and everything was breaking down as a result.

This morning I figured out the problem, and got it all working nicely.

I spent most of the rest of the day tired out from the insane puzzle that the task had given me.
Live and learn!!

Anyway, the good news is that it does indeed work.
I can make a piddly little tune using my own homemade tracker, save the tune as a picture, load the picture into a Monkey game, and have the tune work in the Windows, Android and iOS versions of my games.
Browsers unfortunately won't work, since they lack any kinda of pitch-control on their sound playing. Grrr!!

But for everything else, it works lovely.
Expect my next game to have some sort of music included!

Probably Boring YouTube video

[Tormuse]

That's pretty impressive! It's amazing how that little bit of modulation makes it sound like a totally different song! Just out of curiosity, Jayenkai, do you have any musical training? Like, did you go to school for it or something?

Also, I gave Arcade Slots a whirl, (so to speak) and it's kind of fun to watch Platdude run around the randomly generated maze. (Maybe he'll make it this time!) My best score so far is 955. Funnily enough, I find myself playing that one the most, despite my complaints about randomness earlier.

I couldn't figure out the rules for the "Lucky Dice" game though; I think I need instructions.

[jayenkai]

Um.. Technically I did do a GCSE in Music, but I only got a D, so I'm not sure that counts towards anything!
My main issue with music is my lack of playing ability. Hand me an instrument, and I'll prod/pluck/blow it for a second or two, then give it back! I'm not a performer. But School had a top-of-the-range Atari ST specifically for Music, and I was destined to kick ass with it!!
.. The year I started my GCSEs, the Music teacher left, we got a new one, and she hated computers.. From that day forth, and with a teacher who wouldn't let me near a feckin' computer, my Music Grade was destined for failure.
SOL - Sucks out loud!!


Lucky Dice follows Yatzee rules, but simplified to make losing more common
You get points for the values of the dice, but if you get a special combo, you get bonus points, and get to keep your life.
Specials are as follows, in order of bonus. (Not at computer, forgotten the exact scores!!)
1,2,3,4 or 2,3,4,5 or 3,4,5,6 = Small Sequence. If in order, score more!
1,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6 = Large Sequence. If in order, score more!!
Two of One, Three of Another = Full House
Four of a Kind = Four of a Kind!
Five of a Kind = Yatzee!!

Anything else, you only score the values of the dice, and then you lose a life.

Simple enough!

[jayenkai]

A somewhat slightly more productive day, today.
I spent a good hour or so drawing a rubbish looking boat, and animating a terrible looking bird, then threw them into the SpikeDislike engine, closely followed by the reappearance of the Amiga ball theme.
The boat mode is new, the Amiga mode is limited!
Both are nice and playable.

I've also now finished the hat stuff, and the music engine is almost ready to go.
It's been a good week, considering I had another migraine halfway through.
I didn't get my website work stuff done, though. Hmm.. I really really need to tackle that stuff.
Unicode's completely borked all over my forum, and I wasn't in the mood to fix it while putting up with a migraine!

Maybe I'll get around to that tomorrow?

[Tormuse]

I just wanted to say that I played a round of Lucky Dice during my lunch break at work today and my very first spin got me a Yahtzee! (Needless to say, I told it to hold all 5 dice) I estimate the chances of that happening to be about 1 in 1296, so I guess they really were lucky dice!

EDIT: And I think I need the rules for the Matches game too. I was really hoping I could figure it out on my own, and I came up with a number of theories about what the rules are, but one by one, I disproved them all. For the life of me, I can't figure out which combinations cause me to lose lives and which ones don't.

[jayenkai]

You will always lose a life, but if you get a match of 4 or more you get an extra life.
.. Probably should've written that down, somewhere! Aw well, no matter!

Today I really need to get some website stuff working. I could probably also do with looking into getting my Android games up onto the official GooglePlay doohickey, too, but I'm not sure I want to tackle al that, today!
...doesn't help that I'm already yawning!

[jayenkai]

No game, this week.
I've been working so hard on my little music tracker thing, that I haven't actually gotten around to doing a game.
Hmmm..
Still, it's done, or at least it's "working". As with most of my multi-use stuff, it'll never really be "done".. It'll keep getting tweaked and added to, and eventually be 100 times better than it currently is.
For now, it's ready to be plonked into games, and have the games go "plinkity plunk", so that's good enough.

If you want to play about with the tracker, the latest version is available right here. The bit you can play with is in the "BlitzMax_Tracker/" folder!

Now I need to decide what game to tackle next. I'll admit, I'm quite tempted to start that new mini-collection, but I'd only have a few days to get a whole bunch of games working. hmmm.. probably not, then. I might make that my Big-April-Project, instead..

*shrugs*

[Zyx]

You will always lose a life, but if you get a match of 4 or more you get an extra life.
.. Probably should've written that down, somewhere! Aw well, no matter!

Today I really need to get some website stuff working. I could probably also do with looking into getting my Android games up onto the official GooglePlay doohickey, too, but I'm not sure I want to tackle al that, today!
...doesn't help that I'm already yawning!

Don't forget about Amazon's Marketplace... you'll reach totally different group of people there, at least in my experience.

(Also, so far it has been mostly filled with shovelware and many Android top games are not there, so any quality game will gather audience far easier than on the other two app stores...)

[Tormuse]

You will always lose a life, but if you get a match of 4 or more you get an extra life.
.. Probably should've written that down, somewhere! Aw well, no matter!

Ah, okay, that explains it. I saw that I was gaining and losing lives and got confused. Now that I understand how it works, it's a much more compelling game! (Especially for the odd occasion that I can get two sets of four and gain two lives!) This could replace Platdude Golf as my most played of your Android games.

[jayenkai]

Last week, whilst messing about with JMTracker, I recreated the classic Manic Miner - Ingame tune, and posted it to my forum.
Since then, everyone's been hoping for some sort of Manic Miner clone from me.
Hmmm..

I've never actually tried to tackle Manic Miner because it's a very specific game. Either it's exactly the same, or it's just plain wrong.. And, as you all know by now, I tend not to remake things in exactly the same way. I like to tweak.
If I were to tackle "A Manic Miner Game", it would end up being significantly different, and would therefore be wrong!

But what the hey, people seem to want it, so I might as well give it a whirl. No harm in trying, right!?

Last night, I sat in bed and drew a bunch of "Floor" sprites on my iPad. I managed to draw 48 different-enough looking floor tiles, and will probably round that up to 64, tonight. Then I'll also need to draw a bunch of "Things that kill you" tiles, along with "Things to collect" tiles, as well as animating a selection of "Things that kill you" enemy sprites. nnngh.. I suck at animation!!

So far the engine's running nice and smoothly, and our new little platforming fella (who I've decided to name Karl) is having a nice little time running around a mostly empty level area.



More tomorrow!!

[jayenkai]

And so it continues..
The engine's a little sturdier, and features everything you could ever need for a semi-accurate portrail of Central Cavern. Keys, a door, a travelator and a deadly thing that wanders around aimlessly. What more could you possibly need?
... Hopefully nothing, because now it's time to leave the engine behind and try to make a dozen or so levels before Tuesday's release.
Yikes!!!

Not so keen on this part, I'll admit. I typically try to get away with pseudo random levels whenever I can, so having to sit and design things with a rapidly approaching deadline is never a fun task!
... But hey, it's AGameAWeek, and that's half the task, right?
...nnngh..

[jayenkai]

I've made 16 little levels, and fixed up a couple of Android issues with the music engine. All appears to be ready for release tomorrow. Eek!
Not sure what game's happening next week, but I should really tackle adding features to SpikeDislike2. Not really sure what's happened to that.. Must learn to focus on these things!

Been quite a busy week, in all.
Woot!

[jayenkai]

And here's the result.

Karl's Tiny Adventure

I should warn you, before hand, that onscreen dpads aren't quite up to scratch, when it comes to lovely retro platformers like this one!
As a result, the Windows edition plays much better than the Android one.
It still works, but it's .. um.. let's say "quirky".
If I could get physical buttons to work, that'd help, but I'm getting no closer to that.. grrr!!

Anyway, this is a crackin' little platformer, in a classic mould. Grab the flashing things, and get to the exit without dying.
Beware : To keep with the spirit of old-skool, this game features "Falling to your Death!"
I'm not particularly a fan of that mechanic, but folk wanted it, and it seemed like it fit in with the retro vibe thing, so I popped it in.
It can be evil, though, even by my standards!!

My brand new Music Engine is in full force on this one, so let me know if it breaks, at all!!

[Pater Alf]

Nice work, Jay! Haven't played it very much by now (just tried every mode for some minutes), but so far it's good old retro platform fun. I will certainly return to it.

[jayenkai]

Coming Next!!! All-New Stringy Things!

So, on Wednesday, I finally took the plunge, paid for a GooglePlay Developer account, and set about trying to get SpikeDislike2-Lite up in the AppStore.
The results were far from perfect, leading to a terrible amount of frustration, along with a bucketload of swearing.
I still haven't fixed the mess that's been left behind, nor am I yet in the mood to do so.
Instead, I decided to leave all that nastyness behind, and move on to the next game.

Since I recently integrated the WordList functionality into my framework, I figured it was about time I tried to use it for something, and have therefore started a new Stringy Things game.
The initial bits and pieces are in place, and you can currently play a 2 or 5 minute game of Strings.
I need to now work on a new menu interface for the thing, to incorporate all the different games, their modes, and all those scores. hmmm.. might not be so easy to achieve!!

I didn't think that bit through!!

No matter, carry on, no time to lose!!


Tuesday : All New "Could do with a better name, but I can't think of one" Stringy Things

[jayenkai]

Still haven't come up with a better name! It's still "All New Stringy Things"..hmm....
Aw well, no matter.
Today I spent a couple of hours drawing some lovely menu buttons, then gave up when it came time to make the menus.
I hate making menus, especially ones that need to work on multiple devices, in multiple resolutions, and multiple orientations.
Grrrr..

Luckily, I've only coded the main "Strings" game, so far, anyway.. So, the full menu can wait until I've added a couple more games.
I'm currently considering making April into AWordGameAWeek month, with me re releasing StringyThings over the course of the month, with a new word game added each week.
.. But then folk don't like word games, so that might not go down so well.
Meh, whatever!

Oooh, interview!! \o/yeay\o/

[Pater Alf]

Nice Interview! And this is the best statement in it: "Indie doesn’t ‘go’ anywhere. It just is."

I still wonder why people think that the indie scene is something special, that goes somewhere and don't see that it's always been around without a certain direction it heads to. There are just two possibilities, either a game idea is great or it sucks, it doesn't matter if it's indie or AAA...

And I wonder why Chroelle never made an interview with you. We have several on the site, but none with the developer that has the most games on CWF. Strange!

[jayenkai]

I have the most games here? Kewlykewly! Although I expect the grand total of time spent working on all those games is probably outweighed by any other single game, here!!

I really should plan out a great big super mega epic awesome game, some time.
... I'm not sure I have the willpower to see it through, though. :/

[Tormuse]

Indeed, nice interview! I'll have to check out those games you suggested at some point. (As if I need more distractions from my schoolwork!)

I tried out Karl's Tiny Adventure on my Android device. I like the setup and the character and I notice that you're including your music engine in there; it all looks pretty good... but yeah, as you said, the dpad controls suffer a bit... maybe more than bit. I tried both control schemes, but both gave me trouble; sometimes it doesn't register my button pushes and sometimes, he keeps going (or jumping) after I've released the button. This makes the precision jumping parts next to impossible, especially the bits where the platforms disappear after you jump off them, so you have to get it right on your first try. (Yeah, not happening)

But on a more positive note, ooh! Word games! I love word games! I approve!