List of years

NEWS ARCHIVE 2013

Previoust Year (2012) * Next Year (2014)

January 4th

Calendar NIM

To start off the new year I thought it would be appropriate to have a Calendar Themed game. Calendar NIM is a variation of the NIM game where the goal is to beat your opponent to the end of the year. This version has some move restrictions that other variations of this game do not have.

January 18th

Zombie Forever Part 1

The theme for mini-Ludum Dare 39 is hindsight with the idea being to be a redo of any theme. As the previous LD had the theme "You are the Villain" at the same time there was a school shooting, I went with a less violent theme. For this mini-LD I want to do the game I was originally envisioning. A tactical combat game where you control a zombie army. The army starts off with a single zombie and grows as you kill people. This game will be broken into 3 parts (and more levels will be created if it is popular). Future episodes will fix issues with the game and add new features in addition to new levels.

February 1st to 3rd

CRA Game Jam

This week's game was developed live over the weekend as part of the CRA Game Jam. This game jam is to reflect and comment upon the firing of David S. Gallant because he created a game about how poor his job was. This game jam was hosted by Ludum Dare. I started work Saturday morning and posted regular progress reports to my twitter account so feel free to follow me on twitter. This account was created for the One Game a Month challenge so it hasn't been used much yet but I may start using it for my game jams.

February 15

Puzzle Gallery 2013

I have taken the 2013 calendar art and used it to create a new "episode" of Puzzle Gallery. Twelve new images to use as puzzle images.

March 1

DNA

As people who follow me on Google+ and the person who follows me on twitter already know, for Mini-Ludum Dare #40 I created a game that actually uses real human DNA for both the play sequence and the title music. While this game is a Simon -says variant, it requires the sequence you input be the matching molecular pairs making the game a bit more challenging.

March 15

Dungeon Romp 2 Alpha

I was warned to beware of the Ides of March.. My 7DRL plans were to create a sequel to my 2007 Dungeon Romp game. This did not turn out as planned as while I got a lot of code written, the glue code for tying the huge amount of RPG code to the game would require at least a few more days. While I technically have a playable game there is a lot to add yet. Consider this an early alpha. I will continue working on this game and release a version much closer to what I had hoped to accomplish. I have other plans for my Good Friday game so it will be at least 4 weeks before the next release of DR2.

March 29

Whale of a Tale

The Mini-Ludum Dare challenge for this month was Blood in the Water. When I think of that, I think of whaling. For that reason, this week's game places you in the role of a whale who must eat to keep up his/her energy while avoiding harpoons. If you or any of the fish bystanders are hit, there will be blood in the water!

April 26

Ultimate Retro Project Volume 1 episodes 1, 3, and 5

Due to last fortnights unfortunate events, I have decided to release 3 games this week in the off chance that I am not able to finish my Ludum Dare #26 project. These are three episodes of my Ultimate Retro Project which have been ported to HTML5. I am planning on porting all of my older Java games to HTML5 and will be releasing them when I do not have newer material to release.

May 10

Loot Run

For Ludum Dare #26, the theme was minimalism. To me this means eliminating the unnecessary things from a game, which tends to be the graphics and sound. This challenge is a bit open as to the type of games so I decided that a text-based platformer would be my game.

May 25

Towels for Earth

The Mini-Ludum Dare #42, happens to occur on towel day, which is interesting as 42 is a very significant number to Douglas Adams fans. I obviously can't resist this challenge so I created Towels for Earth on the 25th . This game has you using towels to save the Earth from demolition beams. A simple game but in the spirit of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

June 7

Utlimate Retro Project Volume 1 Episode 2: Modern Doors HTML5 edition

I am starting to port my older Java games into HTML 5 but decided to try a different route when porting Modern Doors. Instead of JavaScript, I wrote the game in Dart which compiles into JavaScript! I am still considering this a beta as I am in the very early stages of learning Dart (this is my first Dart program). My development blog will outline my thoughts on Dart next week.

June 21

Binary Logic

With yet another weekend being ruined by poor weather, I decided to do a Game Jam. The only problem was I couldn't find one so instead did a game based on the One Game a Month theme for June, which is educational. When thinking of a subject for the game binary logic immediately came to my mind. The game presents you with a set of lights and switches. by using the provided logical operator (AND/NAND/OR/NOR/XOR/NXOR) you need to manipulate the switches to create the desired light pattern.

July 4

NIM (HTML5)

A HTML 5 port of my Flash NIM game but not using any JavaScript (see instructions for an explanation). This is also proof that I read your emails, though I get so few of them that really should not be a concern.

July 19

Ultimate Retro Project Volume 1 episode 4: Modern Hide and Seek (HTML5)

A HTML 5 port of my modern Hide and Seek game. It was written in Dart using StageXL and compiled to JavaScript.

August 2

Metal Galaxy

Created in only a couple of days for Mini-Ludum Dare #44 (7DRTS). this is a simple space colonization where you try to colonize the galaxy before your opponent can. The speed that you can build colony ships is based on how much metal you can extract from the soloar systems you control.

August 16

Moon Base Z

Created for the 2013 7DFPS challenge this is a simple FPS where you play the sheriff of a research base on the moon. When research backfires, turning people into zombies, you must deal with the infestation until help from Earth arrives. While the game is playable, this is just the first chapter of a 4 part series and the game is still very rough. As I finish the other chapters the underlying game engine will be fixed and tuned so after the other chapters are done I expect to revisit this episode.

August 30

Apple Harvest

Created for Ludum Dare #27 with the theme of 10 seconds, this game gives you 10 seconds to harvest as many apples as you can. Due to the fact that I had a wedding to attend, this game was created in only 7 hours. Had there been more time I would have probably created a money booth game but if I was to spend more time on this game I would add more levels (with quotas per level) and possibly different types of apples.

September 13

Moon Base Z level 3a Alpha

I am going to start turning Moon Base Z (My 7DFPS entry) into a full-fleged game. Unfortunately the chapter 2 code isn't quite working so I am instead releasing an early build of one of the Chapter 3 levels. This is still in a very rough state so only those who are interested in seeing a game in a really early state should play the map. Of course, if you do test out the level, feedback would be welcome but do look at the todo list at the bottom of the game page first.

September 27

Treasure Run (NES)

For the latest Mini-Ludum Dare the challenge was to create a low-level game. The idea was to get people to learn about how computers work by working with a low-level language, but as I already am familiar with low-level programming, I decided to learn a new system so created a game for the NES using 6502 assembly language. To play the game you will need an emulator, though the web-based JS-NES is provided for those of you who do not wish to download anything.

October 11

Color Collapse HTML

I have finally gotten around to porting my Color Collapse game to HTML5. I am using Dart as I like that language and it compiles into JavaScript. This is a beta release with additional features and changes coming as soon as I have time to get them implemented so expect a couple more updates as well as something special.

October 25

Candy Collapse

A special halloween edition of Color Collapse. You must clear the five houses of candy!

November 8th

GameMaker Test

As part of my efforts to test new tools, I spent a few hours trying GameMaker Studio (free version) and created a simple side-scroller! While the game still needs work, I found that GameMaker simply didn't meet my needs (though is a lot more powerful than I expected) so am holding off further development. If there is a really good Steam Sale for GM, I may change my mind.

November 23rd to 30th

Charity Game Jam 2

Between November 23rd and 30th the second Charity Game jam is going held. This fortnight's release will be developed during that time with updates to the page as the game progresses. You can follow my progress on Twitter or just come back on the 30th if you don't want to see early stages of the game.

December 6

Blazing Games 2014 Plans and Calendar (PDF)

As I do each year, this release is my Calendar for 2014. Unfortunately "Ladyraine" did not have time to do artwork so instead I have decided to combine the Calendar with my 2014 plans. This is a PDF file, so you will need a browser that has built-in pdf support or a pdf reader to view this file.

December 20

Schrodinger's Kitten

The theme for December's Ludum Dare was "You Only Get One" which isn't a very good theme so I combined it with the One Game A Month theme of Kittens to create a rather unique twist on a famous game show sequence.