Ten Ton Ninja Xmas Level Pack

Just uploaded the new Xmas Level pack for Ten Ton Ninja.
It's 5 extra levels of fat ninja Christmas fun!

Get it at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/tentonextralevels.htm

I've also put it in a nice simple installer so all 5 levels are installed in the correct folder. You can then just launch the main game and get to the new levels from the Custom option on the main menu.

Enjoy!

Ten Ton Extra Levels

Currently working on some extra levels for Ten Ton Ninja with a Christmas theme. They should be available in the next day or so.

There's more extra levels that can be downloaded at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/tentonextralevels.htm

It's really simple to use the Extra Levels. Once you've downloaded the one you want (see instructions on the page link above) start the main Ten Ton Ninja game and select Custom Levels from the main menu.

Click on OK and you will see a list of the Custom Levels available to you. I think there were 10 in the original release of the game. Any new levels you've downloaded will also be in that list.

Just click on the level you want to play and then click on PLAY.

You can also use the Level Editor that comes with the game and design your own fiendish levels. Submit them to us at our main email address and we'll put them up on the website.

Humble Indie Bundle #2

http://www.humblebundle.com/

Pay what you want . . . need I say more!

Game Modes

The article I posted the other day about creating game modes and not levels was a really interesting read and got me thinking (and doing) about level design.

A lot of the time when designing levels it's really easy at the start but then it does become a bit of a chore trying to come up with new and interesting levels. Game Modes, I think, gets rid of this repetitive and largely boring design stage.

For example, on my next game I've been looking at it just having Game Modes and no real level structure. I've been working on a Survival Mode where the player has to survive for as long as they can. With random elements the game mode is never really the same so it's fun (and different) every time you play. I've wasted more times playing the game mode than I have at coding it - which I think is a good sign.

If I design enough different game modes then you should have a game that has a lot of content. Some of the modes could be unlockable depending on what you have achieved so far which would also make the player come back for more. Online High Score tables for all the modes would also make it appealing.

Any thoughts on Game Modes?? or do you prefer traditional level design?

Another interesting read . .

http://www.toonormal.com/2010/12/03/five-years-as-a-full-time-indie/

A really good read about a full time Indie Developer and the journey over the last 5 years.

One day I'd like to document my journey through this mad world of games but . . . maybe I will when it's our 10 year anniversary - next year, June 2011 - wow!!

Create game modes, not levels

A very interesting article here

It's about game design and about creating game modes and not levels. It's a lengthy article but well worth a read.

Also, check out the game that its relating to Steambirds: Survival
I think I lost at least an hour playing it yesterday - excellent design, fantastic game!

Working hard

Yes, I'm still alive!!!
Haven't really posted recently as not much to say. I've been playing around with a few different ideas plus some old designs too. It's funny how when you take a break from something and then come back to it you get a new lease of life.

Anyway, still coding, still posting and desperate to get a big scale game out there next year. I'd like to talk about what I'm working on but whenever I seem to mention anything here, it almost gets the "kiss of death" and I get no further with it - I'm keeping quiet for now!

Want to kick some graphic ideas around with Phil also, but his life is extremely busy now with his first baby. How easy life was before we all grew up and became responsible adults :)

YOUR ideas

I'm looking at doing a sequel to Ten Ton Ninja as the game received a lot of praise and people do seem to be interested in another version.
The original game was written really quickly and was always intended to be free. I think it's rough around the edges but it served it's purpose.

I'm basically after ideas from other people regarding what you'd like to see in a sequel.

The ideas so far are: Larger and improved graphics, more stunts, more Ninja Skills, more enemy types, mini-games, boss battles, more levels, different online high score tables and choice of control method.

Some of these ideas I have already implemented in what could be a new version.

Anyway, if you've got any ideas on what you'd like to see or what would be cool to include then please post a comment.

Nice Comments

We're getting some nice comments about The One That Got Away so if you haven't played it yet get over to http://www.addictive247.co.uk/flashtheonethatgotaway.htm

The One That Got Away

We've just released our new Flash game The One That Got Away.

Play it at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/flashtheonethatgotaway.htm

All your fishy friends have been captured by Big Red and his evil Octos. It's up to you to rescue them from the sea chests in this fast paced, quick thinking arcade game.

Scores Done!

The problem with the High Scores is now sorted out and I've even managed to get some music into the game.

The music is soft and "not game like" at all but it then ramps up a lot during the bonus rounds. I like the difference between the two.

Just some little finishing touches to sort out. I can then build it and upload for all to play. Should be ready for this weekend :)

Online High Scores

Just doing the finishing touches on the online high scores for The One That Got Away.

A few minor bugs to iron out like it sending the scores to the server ok but not displaying them!
Should be something simple to fix though as it uses the same online score code as Donuts in Danger, which works fine.

20 Levels - Done!

All 20 levels are now in - hurray!

I've just had a few plays and I've failed to complete my own game! Keep getting stuck at Level 19.

All that's left to do now is to throw in a nice bit of music, do the How to Play and Game Over screens and then sort out the online High Scores - simple!
Should have it ready to upload at some point next week.

I'm pleased with my productivity on this small project. Although the game is nothing special, if I release it next week then it will have taken just less than a month to complete :)

Getting There

Well I've now completed 13 levels and I've changed how the game works ever so slightly.

Now when you collect all the Bonus Bubbles (to spell BONUS) aswell as massive points you now get an extra life. This seems to work out well for letting the player get further into the game.

The later levels are now becoming quite difficult so the extra lives are a nice addition :)

Finally! Screenshots!

A couple of screenies to show you the new game "The One That Got Away".

I've completed 9 levels so far. I'm not sure how many the final game will have yet, but I'm trying to do at least one every night.


In the screenshot you're the yellow fish.
You have to free your fishy friends from the chests to get to the next level. The 2 pink Octopus patrolling the top and bottom of the play area will shoot when they are lined up with you.
The red Octopus is Big Red. He appears if you take too long on a level and chases you all over the screen.

The game starts easy enough with just one Octopus. As it progresses though there will be up to 4 Octopus trying to take you out, plus the threat of Big Red!

Anyway, it's nothing mind blowing or new or radical but hopefully a small fun, free web game that you'll enjoy.

A couple of Screenshots - or not!

Well, I was just about to upload some screenies for you but Blogger is giving me Service Unavailable when it tries the upload - balls!!

Have to wait until tomorro now :(

The One That Got Away

A new small flash game that I've been working on. Featuring a fish and an evil Octopus - coming soon!

Productivity

You know what it's like - you turn on your PC to do some "work" and first of all you check your emails. Then you go to your regular forums and see what's going on there. Then you browse your favourite blogs, check your email again and then chat to a friend on Skype.

Before you know it 2 hours have passed by. You decide to go downstairs and make a cup of tea before you start coding. Back upstairs an email comes in that you decide to respond to straight away. You then go back and check Ebay and have a message on a forum that you need to reply to . . . and on it goes.

Eventually you've had enough of your PC and decide to go downstairs and do something more productive like watch the tv or cut the grass!

I've had (have) this problem too. The only way I've managed to combat it is to do some work first, no matter what.
I now turn on my PC, bring up my code and do at least one little thing that needs doing. Even if it's something that takes 2 minutes, I've been more productive than usual. I usually find that once I start coding I carry on for quite some time before I decide to check my Email.

So if you want to be more productive ignore the emails, forums, blogs etc and get a small bit of work done first, then sit back and play on the Interweb. You'll feel much better for it.

Fighting Talk

Well, Fighting code anyway.

Currently I've got a player controlled fighter who will move around the play area nicely doing jumps, kicks, punches and some specials taken from Street Fighter. All works very well.

I've also just finished coding the Player 2 stuff plus all the moves and if you've got enough fingers you can battle it out between them.

I think that's the easy bit done!

The hard bit will be doing the computer opponent AI.
I read somewhere (don't know where!) that the best way to do AI for this kind of fighting game is to make the hardest opponent first. Then you just strip back bits until you end up with the weakest, most stupid opponent. Sounds good to me!

A day away . . .

. . . from your code is always a big help.

I had a problem with the special moves for the fighters in our latest game. I spent hours looking for the problem and couldn't see it. I even went back to earlier builds of the game to try and track down the cause, but to no avail.

I didn't look at the code the next day but last night I looked at it with fresh eyes and there it was - an obvious mistake staring right at me! 10 minutes later and the special moves for player 1 are working fine again - hurray!

Onwards and upwards!

Crazy Man!

Sneak peak at the first draft of the "crazy man" for the new game.
This was sketched on a tablet by Phil and is a rough first draft. The look we're going for will be a kind of Manga style.

When Phil has some free-time he'll import it into 3DS Max and then animate it.
Phil's free-time is going to be scarce though as he's just become a dad - congrats Phil and Lianne :)

Getting the band back together

Well getting the "old team" back together anyway.

A couple of weeks ago I met up with my old chum Phil for a few drinks and a chat. We haven't worked on a game together for probably a couple of years now.

Phil is responsible for all the graphics in OrbitZ, Solid Spheres Deluxe, Coin World, Coin Planets, Baby Boom I and II, Donuts in Danger and Addictive Football - phew!
We've also worked together on some contracted games for other companies. We have a great history of work and work really well together.

So we discussed some ideas and one of them made us chuckle - or was that the beer?!
Anyway, if we both liked the idea, then it must be worth doing.

So, work has started on our latest joint project and I'm very excited. All I'll say for now is that it's a fighting game in the style of classic fighting games from years back.

Will post more very soon.

Price Drop!

I was away last week for a much needed holiday - great to get back to reality :(

Anyway, I've been meaning to reduce all the prices of our games for a while now.
So every single game is now only $4.95!

This isn't a sale or some other time-limited discount; You can have any game for just $4.95.

So stop hanging around here and get over to our store at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/purchasegame.htm

That is all :)

360 Stunt!

In the original version of Ten Ton you could do 360 spins but weren't awarded for it. Now you are in the form of a 360 Stunt Bonus.

If you do a 360 you gain extra points plus more Ninja Skill. If you carry on pushing in the direction you're spinning you can build up a run of 360's.
However, do too many (not disclosing the amount!) and you get a Dizzy Penalty which throws Ten Ton off into the sky and you lose points.

It hasn't been simple to code but it now works well and adds that little bit more to the game.

Still Swinging!

What a terrible title for a blog post!

Anyway, still messing around with the Ten Ton Ninja code and still enjoying every minute of it. I love flinging the little fattie around the screen!

I've added some cool lasers in, which streak across the screen. They look great and are very hard to dodge. The actual laser turrets rotate and track Ten Ton so it makes it very hard to not get hit.

I've also changed how the Ninja Skill bar works. Now it gives 3 special abilities. Build up enough ninja skill and first of all you get extra time - not too exciting, I know.
Build it up a bit further and you initiate a Special Attack which sees our fat hero throwing ninja stars at enemies.
The third time you build up you become invincible.

It's quite a change from the original game but it does make you want to build up your Ninja Skill more rather than just collecting the gems. I might come up with some other skills to include also.

Reset Scores

Meant to reset the High Score table for the Flash version of Donuts in Danger - but forgot!

Just done it now, so you've got no excuse for not trying to get on the leader board now.

Play it HERE

Playing Around!

The other day I fired up Ten Ton Ninja and ended up spending about 40 minutes playing it. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the game. It's quite strange to have so much fun on a game that you've written yourself.

When the game was released it did receive a vast amount of praise and I do still wonder if a remake/re-design is needed??

Anyway, for the last day or so I've been playing around with the code and am having a fine old time just tinkering and not really making any progress! It's nice to just mess about without any added pressure of trying to make it into something else.

Tonight I'm looking at making a massive scrolling level for Ten Ton to swing around in. Not for any reason, apart from I think it will be fun!

New Template

Changed the background and style of this blog as it was boring the life out of me!

I think it looks much cleaner now although the background isn't exactly game related. I'll probably change it another 3 times this weekend, just for fun!

Skin & Bones Chapter 3

It's been a while coming but Skin & Bones Chapter 3 is now available to play online at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/flashskinandbonesch3.htm

This time our two unlikely friends battle it out at Future City!

Enjoy!

Donut Protectors - Go Play!!

The Flash version of Donuts in Danger is now available to play!

Play online at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/flashdonutsindanger.htm

Enjoy :)

Donuts in Danger

This was a game we released quite a while ago so have decided that it was perfect for being converted to Flash.

Hopefully it's going to be released this weekend. It will be the full game featuring 45 levels including 4 bosses to fight and the upgrade shop. There's also some new music and some graphical changes.

Skin & Bones Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is now done. Play it at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/flashskinandbonesch2.htm

Enjoy :)

Doing well

Skin & Bones Chapter 1 is doing really well and people seem to be enjoying it.

You can also play it in the following places:

NewGrounds

Kongregate

If you enjoy the game then why not leave a response or a rating on Newgrounds or Kongregate.

Also, Chapter 2 should be out within the next day or so :)

Skin & Bones Chapter 1

Available in Flash!!

Start playing at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/flashskinandbonesch1.htm

Chapter 1 is the first world from the main download version of the game.

More chapters to come very soon. Enjoy!

Flash!

ClickTeam have released their SWF File Exporter and I must say that it's fantastic!! I've been using the beta version for a month or so now and I'm very impressed with the results.

I'm hoping to have a Flash version of Skin & Bones done in the next day or so. In fact what I'm calling "Chapter 1" is already done, but not uploaded. The game will now be split down into Chapters so the file size isn't huge. Anyway, I'll post a link in the next day or so.

More details about this fantastic product by ClickTeam can be found at http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=178830#Post178830 or purchased in the store at http://www.clickteam.co.uk/acatalog/Multimedia_Authoring.html (it's only £49 !!)

Long time no see

Wow, the last time I posted was at the end of January! That's not good - apologies!

Not much to report really. I haven't made any progress on any of my game projects although I have been doing some app development, which I've found rather enjoyable.

It's actually a nice break from games as the "creative" side of things doesn't really come into it. Instead you just need to focus on what the app needs to achieve.

Back to games shortly though . .

Refreshed

Just been away for a week. A whole week without computers, games or Internet!

I've come back fully refreshed and keen to get going again. Well, once I've sorted through the large amount of junk email I've received.

Busy, busy, busy!

Been very busy lately which is why I haven't posted much over the last week.

Work continues on the "Penguin Game". I'm currently waiting for the girl penguin graphics from Adam and have put in a few new fun bits like switches, falling pipes and exploding blimps!

I'm also working on something secret which I'm not really allowed to talk about. Let's just say it's game related :)

One day left . .

. . until our January $1.95 game sale ends.

Be quick and bag yourself a bargain at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/purchasegame.htm

Go on, stop playing in the snow and do it now!

Snow, snow, snow!

Now being British we don't really like to make a fuss about anything. But bloody hell it's SNOWING!!

Last time I saw snow like this in the UK I was probably about 11 or 12 years of age - that's a whopping 25 years ago, give or take. So, it's about time we had some decent snow.

This piccie is of my back garden just before we all ran outside in suitable clothing and bombarded each other with snow.

Now depending where you are in the world this amount of snow may make you laugh out loud and say "Call that snow, that's nothing compared to what we get!".

But we don't care. We don't see snow that often in this part of the UK so even a little bit is exciting and makes us go all child-like. No doubt the whole of the country will grind to a halt with this "amount" of snow as we don't know how to handle it.

I say, Hurray for Snow!

Good Old January Sales

It's January and everybody has had enough of Christmas and are feeling thoroughly depressed at the idea of going back to work! Fear not friends, Addictive 247 is here to help!

We've jumped on the traditional band-wagon of the January Sales and have set all our game prices to just $1.95!

You can now cheer yourself up with the full version of one (or more) of our games, happy in the knowledge that it cost you less than an over-priced meat pie.

Go and tell all your friends/family/colleagues and enemies now as this offer is only available until Sunday 10th January 2010.

The link to this post-Christmas madness for extremely cheap but great fun games is at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/purchasegame.htm

Cheat!

Ten Ton Ninja was released just over a year ago and in all that time I've failed to mention that there is a cheat code for it. For some bizarre reason I remembered it last night so thought I'd post it here for all you Ten Ton Ninja fans.

The cheat code unlocks all the levels in the game so you don't have to complete one level to move to the next.

On the main menu just type "BIGFATCHEAT" (without the quotes and lowercase is fine) and hit Enter.

You'll hear a ninja grunt and the text "Cheat Activated" will appear in the top right of the menu. All the levels to the game will now be unlocked.

If you haven't tried Ten Ton Ninja before then why not grab it at http://www.addictive247.co.uk/tenton.htm