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Gun Of Thunder and AG iPod Exchange

Gun Of Thunder

Gun Of Thunder is a shocking platformer created for Game Jolt's Indie Game Demake Contest (July 2010).

Gun Of Thunder is a demake of Ted Lauterbach (rotten_tater)'s Thunder Gun which was entered into Game Jolt's first contest where the theme was "Shocking".

Link:
Gun Of Thunder on GameJolt

AG iPod Exchange
I had to format my laptop due to a few virus issues and when everything got back to normal, Yamipod decided that it didn't want to work for me anymore (probably due to a pesky update by Apple). This prompted me to create my own really simple program to copy the contents of my iPod back on to my laptop with names that actually make sense. It uses an external jar library to read in the ID3 tags which can be viewed here.
What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon, eh?

Download:
AG iPod Exchange Download
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Blogged on 07/12/10

Blind Redux

Do you recall that Minimal Contest I mentioned at Game Jolt some time ago? If you do, you'd know it was a great success and there were some 50 or so games submitted.

Well, I've only just gotten around to playing one of the games submitted: Blind Redux by CROS (David DeCarmine).

It (honestly) had me laughing from the start, right up to the finish.
It's been around for a good 5 months now. How did I possibly miss this game?

Anyhow, it has a reference to me (that's right, me in it) so I thought I'd post it up here for note.

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Blogged on 04/27/10

Slick with GameJolt Quick Play

Slick

Game Jolt

So you've got your Slick applets working on Game Jolt, but what if your game is normally a downloadable? Game Jolt has "Quick Play" which is pretty handy considering most people don't want to download, unzip, and run a batch script to play your game.

You've tried compiling your Slick game into an executable with both launch4j and JSmooth, but neither have seemed to work. Did you ever try asking Game Jolt to run your batch script?

I did, and it didn't work.

After some reading, here is the reason why:
The Quick Play java applet which downloads and runs your game uses the method Runtime.getRuntime.exec().
Programs ran with exec() will stall if they produce more than a few lines of output.
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Blogged on 01/09/10

Windows 7: Gadgets not working with UAC off.

You've disabled UAC, and your gadgets have stopped working. Coincidence, I think not!
Fixing it requires you to add a small item into to your system registry.
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Blogged on 12/01/09

Windows 7: XP/Vista style "Show Desktop".

You've probably just installed Windows 7, it's working wonderfully, but you're a little frustrated that your "Show Desktop" button is now on the far right.
You're probably using a laptop touchpad, another crazy input device, or you're just too adjusted to the old button positioning. :)

Ever heard of Windows Key + D?

I've stumbled upon a method to do this using a program which you can "pin to taskbar".

Download "ShowDesktop.exe".

If you're interested in the source code, click "Read More".
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Blogged on 11/30/09

LOVE ME!

LOVE ME!

LOVE ME! is a minimal R-Type shooter created for GameJolt's Minimal contest (November 2009).

Minimalist Aim:
The aim was to create the whole game in polygons and to programmatically generate the sound. This would have been such if we had more time. :)

Programming, Sound and Graphics by Ashley Gwinnell and Sam Connolly.
Music by boomlinde titled "Aether Bats".

Minimal Story:
You are white square in a world of reds. The reds don't really want you around, but they are normally passive beings. You've provoked them a little, and things escalate. You are no match for their army.

Minimal Gameplay:
Arrow keys and leftctrl to move and shoot. There is no definitive ending to this game, you will eventually be killed by the swarms and swarms of red stuff. O_O

Links:
LOVE ME! on GameJolt
Boomlinde Music
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Blogged on 11/18/09

Utilising an API: GameJolt.

Recently, I read a thread in the GameJolt forums that wasn't receiving very much attention. A few users were requesting dynamically generated images for their games on the site. Nobody else has created the means, so I took it upon myself to do so.

Here are a few examples:

Psycho Pandomium

Vertiglow

Colorion


How to use:
What do you think? Well, the good news is that it's as easy as using a normal image!

Simply replace GAME_ID with the game's id in http://netbin.co.uk/gj/box/GAME_ID.
I'll work on beautifying the script in the coming days.

I almost forgot! GameJolt API!

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Blogged on 11/02/09

Game Jolt Contest #3!

Game Jolt Contest 3

With the Slick contest coming to a close, and having not officially entered a game into it, another opportunity arises.

Game Jolt's 3rd contest will run for a week starting on the 1st of November.

Theme: The theme hasn't been announced yet, but the image to the left is a teaser/hint as to what the theme may infact be. Could the theme be colour, light, retro or glow? We'll find out soon!

Prizes: The 1st place prize is the choice of a game from Steam! and the 2nd and 3rd place prizes will get you featured on the website.

Game Jolt Forum Thread on the contest!
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Blogged on 10/30/09

Slick "Beer" Contest!

Slick

You may know already that I've been using Slick quite adamantly for some time now.
Well, a young man named Gornova from Random Tower thought it would be a jolly good idea to start a beer-themed contest over on the Slick Forums. Granted, I thought about posting one a while back, but figured that JGO was for that kind of thing.
What is my idea? I don't want to give too much away, but it involves... cider!

Slick Forum Thread on the contest!
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Blogged on 09/28/09

Maibox

Maibox

Maibox has been added to the Software page.
Download | Screenshot 1 | Screenshot 2 | Screenshot 3
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Blogged on 09/24/09

Inverse Polarity

Inverse Polarity

Inverse Polarity is my short platformer schmup for the GameJolt Axiom contest (August 2009).

Axioms Used:
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Links:
Quickplay (Java Webstart)
Readme File
Inverse Polarity on JGO
Inverse Polarity on GameJolt
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Blogged on 09/13/09

Introducing Fluent Cutscenes

Fluent Cutscenes

With my GameJolt Axiom contest entry going all too slowly, and still needing to create cutscenes successfully in Damon the Dinosaur, I decided that I could genericise my existing cutscene code so that I could use it in my Axiom entry, Inverse Polarity.

A while ago I wrote a short article titled "Fluent Animations and Effects for your next Slick game". I've extended this concept recently for the above reasons and have written a small library built on top of Fluent FX. It's aim is to simplify and code-lessen creating interactive cutscenes for your games.

Downloads:
Fluent Cutscenes demo
Fluent Cutscenes Jar
Fluent Cutscenes JavaDoc
Fluent Cutscenes Source Code
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Blogged on 08/26/09

Madness? Success!

Hoola Roundup

The "Two Hours Of Madness" contest deadline was over a week ago, and all the entries have been judged. Most were pretty awesome, I was sure that some of the other entries were better.

However, Hoola Roundup came in first place!

I am really, very proud of myself; this was the first games programming competition that I had ever entered. There are an array of features that had to be left out of Hoola Roundup due to time constraints, but I will be putting these features in shortly.

Thanks go to Gideon Simons (AKA QOG) for hosting the competition.

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Blogged on 07/24/09

Create A Game in 2 hours? MADNESS!

Hoola Roundup

Around and about the time that I've had recently, shifting between projects - Damon The Dinosaur, Harmonia, etc - I felt I should give myself a break from the long-term projects.

Some of the good folk over at GameJolt have started a competition to create a game in two hours or under using any tools necessary. It's not an official GameJolt competition, it was just posted by one of the GameJolt members, who is also on Poppenkast.
The theme of the competition is "MADNESS", and surprisingly, there have not been any entries including Spartans yet.
My entry is called "Hoola Roundup"

The competition ends on 15th July. Can you find two hours to enter?

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Blogged on 07/12/09

Do you play Squash Forest?

Damon The Dinosaur is taking a new direction away from online highscores.
With this we feel the need to disable your accounts for an indefinite period of time.
You will still be able to play Squash Forest with your account information but you will not be able to login from the Ashley Gwinnell homepage.
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Blogged on 06/10/09

New Features: Accounts & Squash Forest.

A new feature for the site is the ability to create an account.
You will use this account to play the turn based games such as Collision and Squash Forest, as well as to upload and validate your Damon the Dinosaur highscores.

I aim to integrate the site with open social networks such as Facebook.
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Blogged on 04/05/09

Music, Sounds, Fonts!

Today I am going to share a few resources that I have found useful to me during my time. Those who know me in the real world will have acquired a large grievance with my use of the tool that I am about to share with you.
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Blogged on 02/20/09

Fluent Animation & Effects for your next Slick Game.

Alex at Another Early Morning has written an animation and effects library with the aims of providing rich and concise animations and effects to games without the need to restructure the game architecture.
It will run on Java 1.5+ and has no depencencies, and can be used (if not preferred) with Slick.
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Blogged on 02/13/09

Java: Writing an XML HTTP Server.

What am I doing? Rewriting the wheel!
Why is it that Java (BufferedReader(InputStreamReader(InputStream))) reads everything in my HTTP POST request fine up until the actual POST BODY?!

It only reads the POST BODY once PHP has timed out. :(
Well, in relation to my last journal on Harmonia_Game_Engine (which I forgot to tag...), I'll make a note to remember.

Don't use BufferedReader if dealing with InputStreams; use StringBuffer.

But why? You may think the BufferedReader's readLine() method is good, because it reads you a line (yep, no parsing of ints to chars), but when it comes to the last line in your stream, it doesnt return -1.

So in revision, don't check for -1 if you want to break out of a 'read input stream loop', use an \"end of stream\" set of characters or equivilent.
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Blogged on 02/13/09

HP Pavilion dv9820 downgrade.

Okay so this week I decided it was time to give up Windows Vista.
For why may I downgrade?
It's pure and simple, Vista runs so many background processes, and uses graphical resources even when using the 'Classic' windows theme.
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Blogged on 01/11/09

Buddy Blogs

I OH U - knitetgantt

The mastermind behind my game, Click The Pixel.
http://iohu.blogspot.com/

Ted Lauterbach - rotten_tater

The crazy developer of the awesome game Thunder Gun, as well as most other things that are awesome.
http://www.rottentater.com/

Another Early Morning - Alex Schearer

Alex Schearer created the fluentfx library which I used in Inverse Polarity.
http://www.anotherearlymorning.com/

Indie Games

Let's face it, what indie gamer or developer doesn't follow this one?
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/

Inkidia

The developer of Voltorometer, a game that was entered into the Game Jolt shocking contest. Sequel in the works!
http://www.inkidia.net/

Random Tower

Gornova just keeps learning! There's quite often content here that amuses me. http://randomtower.blogspot.com/

Achroware

Jack mostly posts stuff on Twitter, but hey. http://achroware.com/

Kieran Patel

Kieran mostly posts stuff on Twitter, but hey. http://kieranajp.tumblr.com/