The little Inn by the wayside

[eMTe]

what game to do for next week, then?

How about using one of the ideas from the forgotten "how about a game" topic?

[jayenkai]

Ooh, I'd forgotten about that topic!!
I've already started one game, had a suggestion for next week, but might delve into the forgotten topic for the week after.
Plenty of odd ideas, iirc.

[eMTe]

Well, here's one idea. Fpp platformer, in the tradition of Tomb Raider, but with truly simplistic graphics. Sort of "3D" NeonPlat.

[Tormuse]

They still make phones without cameras?!!?!?

I wonder if it has a rotary dial...

@Jayenkai, I tried out your latest version of Centipong. I like the extra space at the bottom this time, and the extra sound effects, and the new badges system, but there seems to be a bug that renders it unplayable on my phone. There's a sort of ghost image of... everything... a couple centimetres to the right of each object in the game that's very distracting and confusing. And keeps making me miss the ball, because I confuse the real ball with the reflection or whatever it is. (I have a feeling it's related to the change in resolution) Also, a couple of questions about the menu screen: What does the symbol in the lower-left corner mean? (The one that looks like a white circle with a ball and two lines on it) Touching it doesn't seem to do anything. Also, also, what does the "icade" button do? Is that for storing scores online or something? When I touch it, my touchscreen keyboard pops up, but then when I try typing, it crashes the game.

In other news, I didn't actually get around to upgrading my computer like I said I would; oh well, maybe next week...

[jayenkai]

I was unsure whether the background-blur would look good, or not.. Sorry, probably wasn't the best time for a random ability-test, there!! I know in future. I'll undo it, and rerelease in a few days. Sorry!!

The little white circle thing in the bottom left is the tilt mechanism. You should notice a little green dot that shifts around as you tilt it, like a spirit level. ? Tapping it resets it to zero, or "this orientation should be thought of as being flat", so if you're lying on your side, trying to play with tilt controls, it should theoretically work. Probably best sticking with the touch controls, though!

And that brings us to iCade! Mmmmmm....
This is an iCade


Basically acts as a Bluetooth keyboard, connects via the regular Bluetooth methods, then each button sends out key presses.
You sit your iPad in the little holding doohickey, turn it all on, then switch on iCade support in the game, and bingo..
You can play Centipong with a big-ass joystick and buttons.
Since its Bluetooth, it also works on Android devices, and can even work with the Windows and HTML Browser edition, too, which is pretty neat.
It's true that the giant arcade cabinet version probably won't work so well with your laptop, but they also make compatible mini devices, like a little NES-styled controller called the 8-bitty.
Basically, if you have an iCade compatible controller, you can flip on iCade mode, and play with that.
Now, it's true that Centipong isn't actually all that good with digital controls, vs the proper touchscreen ones, but that's not really the point. We're still in "testing what we can do" territory, here, and I needed something playable that people could double-check my iCade support with! So far I've not had any complaints about it not working, which is a good sign.
I might add some sort of little popup box, for first time users, though!

Oh, yeah, before I forget, I re uploaded Cardagain Again, again, the other day, with a little tiny added subtlety, which should help new players. On Easy and Normal mode, the first few cards are highlighted, with little green circles showing the pairs, to help new players. It's a remarkably simple addition that pretty much explains the goings on, without needing any explanation whatsoever! GETS!! I've also put the brakes on the difficulty ramp, whenever you get a card wrong.
Should make for a happier game.. Maybe..!

[Tormuse]

Wow! You actually followed my advice! I'll check out the new version of CAA when I get some time.

And just to make sure we're talking about the same thing, I'm uploading a picture of my screen during the Centipong game. The real paddle and mushrooms are circled in red and the fainter ghost images are circled in blue. I suspect that, if you're using a tablet, having the second image 2cm away isn't as big a deal, but on my tiny phone screen, it's half the screen width!

[jayenkai]

Euuuw, weird. Shouldn't be doing that, but I'm guessing its all related to the same thing. Basically I'm allowing the last frame to bleed through, to give a cheap ghosting effect. Obviously that's having an adverse effect on your phone, so I'll switch it off in future updates. (Maybe tomorrow!?)

And, of course I took your advice! I might not always bother to update any of my games, but when I do, I'll always try to cram in as many fixes as I can. Every comment counts!!


Had a somewhat unproductive day, today. I started a new game, yesterday, and tweaked it for a couple of hours, today, but annoyingly the thing doesn't feel very much like a game. It's "playable", but not very gamey. It just sort of ... Is..?
I've tried tweaking difficulty, but nothing seems to be happening in it.
I dunno.. An odd situation. I don't like it when games go nowhere.
I might just leave it as it is. Like I say, it is at least playable, even if it doesn't really do anything.
More on Tuesday!

Meanwhile, SpikeDislike2s coming along in (sorry) leaps and bounds, as the first few new modes get added into the mix. The Titlescreen does all the unlocking, and the credit system seems mostly fair.. or testers are too scared to complain about it!!
I'm not entirely sure how big I can make this. I'd initially wanted to pad it out to 20 different themes, but am already starting to run out of ideas for game modes, after just four!! D'oh!
Perhaps I oughta play the original one again, and see if I can bring up some old ideas!

Health - Today's my third day in a row feeling kinda lousy. I'm certainly not as bad as I was yesterday, though. Keeping busy seems to be helping quite a bit. I think that makes me a bit of a workaholic! AGameAWeek will make me better, even if the Doctor didn't order it
In many ways, I'd love to go back to work... It's been nearly a whole year since I last set foot in the shop. Perhaps I should build up my strength, and go visit them, some day. That'd be nice.
Technically my job is still there, once I'm better, but of the two bosses, the good guy quit, and the idiot that nobody likes is now running the place. .. Not entirely sure I want to go back, now!!
Kinda my fault, really. The two never got along, and I was always the buffer zone between them. Then when I disappeared, they had to actually interact with each other.. ... That didn't go very well!!
.. Yeah, I should probably go visit, some time.

[Railwaymodeler]

Pace is in the news - again!

http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigation ... 24541.html

Seems they're getting more press coverage lately. Wonder why?

Back to health now, flu didn't last too long, Maria and Skoda are back home now. At least it wasn't a particularly bad strain of the flu. There's a couple strains going around they have no medicine for.

[jayenkai]

Good to hear you're all fine.
Beware lingering flu germs, though!! Just 'cos you're over it, doesn't mean it's gone!!! Dum-dum-durrr!!!
*extreme paranoia*

[jayenkai]

doublepost! *slaps wrist*

I uploaded the new "Background Blacking" C3ntipong version, so if you've been having obscure ghosting issues, this new one should fix it. Sorry about that. Wasn't a good idea to experiment on things so late in the day!
Never mind. Lesson learnt!

Today I spent a good couple of hours drawing some badges for SpikeDislike2. They're the little tiny icons that pop up on the bottom left of the screen, whenever you do something cool. I say tiny.. Onscreen they're tiny, but for some stupid inexplicable reason, Apple wants you to upload them at 1024x1024 pixels!!
Basically, every single little tiny badge that I create, has to have a magnificent piece of artwork to go with it. And not only do I have to make it look good when it's big, I also, somehow, have to make it look just as good, and legible, when it's drawn in the tiny corner of your screen for half a second!
Oh, crumbs!!
So, that's what I spent ages doing today. I tackled 25 of the little massive things, and it's completely worn me out. I'm not cut out for this artwork malarky! You might've noticed that!!

Annoyingly, it'll be more of the same, tomorrow, and probably the next day, too, as I try to build up a nice selection of things for the player to collect.

If anyone would like the preview edition, (currently for Windows or Android) lemmie know. I'm currently trying to get as many decent website editors to try it out as I can, but ... *sigh* trying to get interest in SpikeDislike is like trying to .. um.. do something really really hard!

I might have to make a video, for this one!

[Tormuse]

And, of course I took your advice! I might not always bother to update any of my games, but when I do, I'll always try to cram in as many fixes as I can. Every comment counts!!

Oh! It occurs to me that I might have sounded passive-aggressive when I said that. I didn't mean it that way; I just meant that I felt honoured that you implemented my suggestion. I tried out the new version and it looks good! Nice helpful pointers for beginners, and the difficulty doesn't run away out of control when I screw up.

I uploaded the new "Background Blacking" C3ntipong version, so if you've been having obscure ghosting issues, this new one should fix it. Sorry about that. Wasn't a good idea to experiment on things so late in the day!
Never mind. Lesson learnt!

Aw, that's okay. How else will you learn? I don't mind helping you experiment.

If anyone would like the preview edition, (currently for Windows or Android) lemmie know. I'm currently trying to get as many decent website editors to try it out as I can, but ... *sigh* trying to get interest in SpikeDislike is like trying to .. um.. do something really really hard!

Sure, I'll give it a whirl.

Also, I was wondering what kind of shop you work (worked?) in. What is it you did before all the medical stuff got in the way?

[jayenkai]

Halfway through college (14 years ago! yikes!!) I was invited to work in a local corner shop/convenience store/off license.
It's a family owned store run by two brothers who hate each other!
I worked as a general shelf-stacker / till worker. Nothing special, but it's a small "local" shop, and with just four staff members (the two brothers, the older brother's wife, and me) the shop's always had a certain warmth to it.
It's a lovely little local shop.
It's apparently fallen to pieces since I've left, and the two brothers are battling endlessly. Ho-hum!! Guess I was more important, there, than I thought!

Oddly enough, I got a phone call this morning, from the younger brother. "I can't get to the computer, and the Order needs sent!" So, being Mr Ever Helpful, that was my task this morning. For the first time in almost an entire year, I actually did some "work" related work! I logged into the Order system website, (after having to ask him for the password.. it's been a while, and it's an odd selection of random letters!) and sent the order!!
Nothing amazing, nothing magical, but something I haven't done since around about March last year.
Felt .. ... odd!!

The two brothers are still working together, until the younger brother manages to find himself a new job. He's been searching since about November. It's not going well!! Poor guy.
:\

Spent yesterday adding the first few badges to SpikeDislike2. The basic stuff, like "Passed 50 spikes", and "100 Combo!!".. things like that.
Today I'll spend the day playing the game, and working out what super-tricky trick badges I should be adding to the game, as well as trying to come up with different badges for all the alternative modes.
This is the bit that usually takes ages, as I annoyingly find myself simply forgetting what I'm supposed to be doing, and just playing the game instead! Ooopsy!
OK.. Gotta hop to it.. There's gaming to do!!
Super!

[jayenkai]

Platdude Goes Golfing
I'll be honest, it's not very good.
I got bored with this game, really early on, and ended up going back to SpikeDislike2 instead of working on this.
whoops! Never mind.
It's a nice arcade styled ball bouncing thing.
.. it's not very good..
But it's available for Windows, Android, or Browser, so you don't even have to download the thing.

It's nice that I can now write a half-finished none-game, and still let people play it on their phones!
Here's hoping next week's game is a little better!

I've been doing only minor tweaks to SpikeDislike2 over the past couple of days. Work is slowing down, which usually means I'm running out of ideas. I really need to see about adding GameCenter functionality, now, so I can get the iOS version up and running properly.

In health matters, had a couple of good days, so not too bad. My Blood Pressure's been quite high, though, so I'm wondering if I oughta be upping my doses a bit. .. kinda scared to be upping, though. No matter, I head off to the hospital again on Thursday (My calendar is marked "Date with Doc" on Valentine's day!) and will get to have a nice little chat with him, let him know how I am, complain that I'm still being sick, and so on. Hopefully he doesn't keep me in. .. I really don't want to get stuck in there, again!

[jayenkai]

Unwanted Health Update

Went to see the Neurosurgeon, today. (Aww, the doctor wanted to see me on Valentine's Day! How cute!!)
All is going well, and none of my scans are showing anything bad. If anything, he says, the scans appear to be getting healthier. That's great news! My brain ain't botched!!
He didn't, however, have any ideas as to why I'm still being sick daily.
I'm a special case!! I'm an oddity. He's baffled.

So, it's basically left up to myself. I'm going to be playing Dr Jay for the next few weeks, and trying to remove pills from my daily list, one at a time, to see what does/doesn't happen.
I'll be watching my blood pressure, analysing my sickness (eeuw!) and watching my general fitness.
Oooh, look at me, giving a munkys about my health!!

Oddball Factoid : Turns out my Neurosurgeon also operated on famous Opera singer, Russell Watson! Who knew!! Guess he knows what he's doing, even if I am an oddity.

[Railwaymodeler]

Valentine's day, and also not only Skoda's birthday, but also my sister's.

My sis was born on the 60th anniversary of the Chicago St. Valentines Day Massacre. Then, as for me, I was born on the 50th anniversary of the famous gangter couple Bonnie and Clyde's killing. And, to make it even more interesting, my grandpa was a gunsmith for the mob after World War II.

[jayenkai]

Good grief!! Them's fun birthdays! Mine has nothing interesting associated with it. Unless you count ritualistic sacrificial days as interesting... Not sure I do!!

Speaking of birthdays, I'm nearly five CWF years old
I should make a special CWF game, or something?..

[Railwaymodeler]

Come March it will be 7 years for me. Hardly seems like it!

[Scythe]

I think CWF is 7 years old. Hm, still remember when we used to hang out somewhere else. I reluctantly came here for Chroelle's sake. I guess it was the company keeping me here more than the freeware.

[Drasir-Vel]

*pops up from out of the blue*

The company is worth it. You're all awesome people. And it's not too bad that you get to play an exciting game once in a while as well.

*disappears into lurkiness again*

[jayenkai]

Speaking of old-forums...
Every Valentine's Day, my website gets a little theme makeover, and pretends to be an old fantastic little forum called BlitzCoder. It was a great little indie-website, for folk who used the Blitz range of languages. Long story short, a big company bought the forum, closed it down, replaced it with another more marketable forum full of advertising, then one day randomly closed that down, too, and basically screwed the entire community. *sigh*
Everyone seemed to come to me to decide what happens next, so off I trotted and wrote a fully working (slightly borked, but working!) web-forum within the space of about a week. Amazingly, my script is still working, somehow, and every year we look back fondly at the original BlitzCoder site, and share memories of our time there.
Aaah, the good old days, when you didn't have to worry about SQL attacks, and simply plopped your games online for others to enjoy!

One of the biggest changes of the past few years, has been the addition of a weekly Newsletter. I always hated stupid automated junk mail showing up in my inbox, and decided that there probably should be something a little more personal than that. So I started to compile a weekly little thing. Half composed of links to my own site, half links to the outside Indie-community. It's gathered a few readers over the years, but probably not as many as I'd like. But what the heck! As you've all guessed, I do tend to waffle on quite a bit, and it's good to have a weekly waffle outlet to rant and gripe into!

At one point, I started adding a CWF Pick-of-the-Week, but .. not sure where that went, to be honest! Features have come and gone over the years, and .. well... I forget things!! (Could very well be tumour related!) I might see about plopping that back in. See if I can bring a few readers 'round here for a bit.

For anyone interested, here's today's Newsletter. It's weekly! Sign up to read even more of my waffling!!

Health Update
Woke up, been sick. No change.
This is somewhat significant, since I stopped taking my Anti-Sickness tablet, yesterday. I was expecting *more* sick, this morning, but I ended up about the same. I'm going to give it a few days for the months-worth of anti-sickness drugs to make their way out of my system, before tackling the next drug-removal.
I have a LOT to get through :\