Spike Dislike FAQ

What's it called?!
Spike Dislike, and/or SpikeDislike, either or.
I messed up trying to get the space to work. I had it working fine when I did Stringy Things, but forgot how I did it, and it all messed up when I tried this time! Whoops!
Better luck next time, eh!
Still, either will do. If it helps to pick one, SpikeDislike is easier to Google, what with it being a none-word.

Super Spike Dislike comes from a rush-job with the logo. I grabbed it from Super Spike Dislike
Maybe I'll fix it, Maybe I won't.
One day, I'll add shooting, and THEN it'll be SUPER Spike Dislike!!

Any updates?
Of course!

Like....?
I've played with the speed, so perhaps changing other methods of movement...?
Shooty bullets would be Super.
Different objects?
Better gfx!!
But, as Gabrien said on the TouchArcade forum, there's no point in breaking the "real" game's logic. Instead I'll add different modes, with different highscores. That'll keep anything new from breaking the original.

I'd also love to add a new gamemode, with little challenges, and things like that.
More details as I bother to start that!!

And GameCenter?
YES!!!
But..
a. Never done it before, haven't a clue what I'm doing, might take a while!!
and b... If I want to add achievements, I apparently need a 100% static list.
From day 1, I'd need a complete list.
Now, assuming these achievements would be things that are relevant to the forthcoming challenge mode, it's probably a good idea to do the whole challenge mode thing first, because I won't know the accomplishments before I've done that, and I won't be able to add GameCenter until that's done.
Bah!
Annoyingly I'd really love to just plop online scores in, but Apple, in their infinite wisdom, made this annoyingly slow.

To be fair, though, if I'd have planned this from the start it'd probably help.
No matter!

About those themes...
New graphics, obviously! Try to spice things up a bit.
I should probably try to jazz things up a bit, but I've already grown to love the really basic starfield, even if it is the cheapest starfield effect I've done in years!

I'm also considering changes the sounds for each pack. I might make that an option, though!
I'd love to ask for graphic-pack submissions, but I've not quite decided how they're going to end up being setup.
I've currently got all the graphics in 4 different images. One for all the spikes, one for the balls, one for the floors and another for the backgrounds.
I really should neaten that up a bit, and make things one-pic-per-theme!
I'll let you know how that goes.

Other Questions?
If you have any other requests, leave them in the comments, and I'll get back to you.

OK, Now What?

Plans are afoot to expand Spike Dislike.
There's a whole manner of additions I could come up with.
Graphic tweaks, gameplay features, game modes, those kinds of things.
I'm not entirely sure what'll actually be the next thing to add, though.
I really want to start playing with some sort of challenge mode first, I think, but I'm also thinking that it'd be nice to have that unlock things, so then I need to add things that could be unlocked.
... This is one of those bulky additions, methinks!!

In the meantime, we've also got a few other things to play with.
Blockman Gets hasn't gotten got yet, so that should be done.
That game needs a menu.
I really have no idea what to do for that!
It's been sat here for about 3 weeks, in a mostly playable state, but completely stuck because I can't think of a nice menu!
..d'oh!

Then there's the big three..
Cardagain, Stringy Things and Arcade Slots all suffer from the Early Learning Bugs.
Cardagain and Arcade Slots have the good old "I used the wrong audio method" issue, with sound that blasts out at the volume of your ringtone, whilst all three of them have that annoying iPadFREAKOUT issue that renders them all completely unplayable on an iPad.
For what it's worth, Cardagain and Stringy Things are both perfectly playable, and are both still available in the AppStore ;) Just not on an iPad!

I think, in all honesty, I'm going to have to redo from start with those three.
But all three of them were meant to be Battery-Saving games.
I'm not really sure how to tackle this.
If I do redo them, I'll lose their ability to last ages, as they'll all be redone in this battery-draining Cocos2D.
Not that there's anything WRONG with Cocos2D, of course, it's just really bad at preserving battery life.

hmm.. what to do..?

.. I'm going to go play with Blockman some more!

Spike Dislike Update 1.1

Coming to your iPhings as soon as Apple have thrown it through it's paces, the first update features a few difficulty settings to play with.



Level Layout
Speed
Difficulty
and of course, a switchable skin setting (ooooh!)

1.1 is a massive update, considering the blandness of the original, but 1.2 will be even bigger!!
I have no idea what 1.2 will be, but it'll be bigger!!!

Spike Dislike!

Get Spike Dislike for iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad here
$0.99/£0.59/equiv

Guide the ball to the right, avoid the Spikes, perfect your flight!



The game is simple, and there's loads of points to earn as you go.
But wait, There's More!!!

Or, there will be!

This edition is the simple "Get it done" edition, but MUCH more is planned, from weapons, to different ball types, and even a few physic tweaks to keep the gameplay interesting.
The extras are coming soon.

They're not quite done yet, but they will be!
Keep it on your iPhings!

Coming Soon.. Blockman Gets

Let's just plain ignore all the bugs, and focus on something that hasn't blown up yet!

I started Blockman Gets with a fresh Cocos2D-based engine.
I figured, if things aren't going to work, I might as well just plain scrap it all, and redo from start. so, Blockman Gets is me redoing from start.

A new engine, a new game, and a whole bunch of sprites, some of which are about 3 years old!
That's the way to do it!!



Blockman Gets is coming along nicely, and it'll be great to see if this (finally!) is something that works on an iPad!
.. Because, let's face it, this game would rock your fingers off, on an iPad!!!

The continuing iPad Bug...

I could've sworn I'd fixed that!!
Apparently, though, the iPad hardware is doing something entirely different to what I'd like it to do, and not at all what the Simulator says it will...
*insert swearing here*

Never mind, new game on the horizon while I work out StringyThings' little issue..

The iPad Bug...

Here's what Stringy Things looks like on a classic iPhone/iPod display..


Nice and simple, exactly as expected.

When the game runs on a Retina capable display, the wonderful language that Apple gave us will automatically pick up any files that are labelled as "@2x", and load those instead of the normal versions.
That basically means that you can make all your sprites twice as big, twice as clear, and then leave it to the iPhone to pick which one it wants to use.
It's a FANTASTIC idea, and it works brilliantly.



You get lovely hires displays, and everything works neatly.

Of course, when you're snipping your sprites, it's good to know which one it's using.
If I need to cut a 256x256 image into 32x32 sprites, but it loads the 2x one, then the sprites I need to cut will instead be twice as big.
I accounted for this with a simple bit of code.
If Screen=Big, Double sizes!
That worked great!
Everything was fine.


Until this happened..



The blinkin' iPad!

For some strange inexplicable reason, the iPad, (even though it has a larger screen, and CAN/WILL achieve everything that the retina display can do) completely ignores those wonderful little @2x files, and instead loads the small ones.

This basically means that, although my "Screen=Big" code kicks in (what with the iPad saying it's got a big screen), it actually only loads the little pictures.
My sprite cutter ends up cutting strange missized chunks of random bits, and attempts to use those as if there's nothing wrong.
But there IS something wrong.
And it's blindingly obvious.

Gah!