Welcome to my little place on the web.

I'm a software developer and occasionally when time allows, I like to blog about my various coding project here. I also like to tinker with home automation, retro gaming and more.

I have also shared some of my software, which I hope may be of use to others. It's on my software page.

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Newest entries

Spikes Galore Update 1.4

Just pushed out a minor update to Spikes Galore. This update adds in-app purchases on iOS. For under a £1 you can remove all ads and unlock new game modes.

The update is available via the AppStore and Google Play now.

logo_spikes.png

Give it a go for FREE at nellyfish.com/spikesgalore

#gaming #android #ios #nellyfish

Building games with Corona SDK

I have now created a few games in libGDX, and have found it a great framework and nice way to learn Java. However, it's not all been plain sailing. I found the depedancy management can be a little tempremental at times. Although that's more down to Gradle than libGDX. I also found it farily teadious re-coding the various sdk's for each platform to intragrate adverts, game services, in-app purchases etc. There has also been a lot of changes with the winding down of roboVM. This is what is used to build for iOS. To overcome this I have been using an earlier open source fork of roboVM that has worked fine. However, it does no... read more

Shopping list for building your own Arcade Machine

It can be a lot of work to build your own arcade cabinet, but it can also be a lot of fun! I still have not finished mine completely, as the base still needs painting! I’m sure i’ll get around to it at some point. You can see my progress last year from my past entries here

... read more

Dave Dangerous has new levels !

Big update to Dave Dangerous, maybe the last? There is now another 10 levels, so 50 in total! Update includes a new world with new image assets. If you have not downloaded it already, then please do at davedangerous.com. Android is live now, iOS will be ready in a few days.

Dave Dangerous Screenshot

The update also includes a change to the in app billing code. I was using Google's billing SDK, but have switched to using the gdx-pay libraries. This means that it ... read more

Dave Dangerous has an official trailer

I'm going to start promoting my first game soon, but before I do, it was time to create an offical trailer. Here it is...

This was created in Lightworks. It's a very powerful video editing package that has been used for many big screen movies. Bit wasted on me really :)

#gaming #nellyfish

Dave Dangerous can now be found in the Amazon !

Yesterday I submitted my Dave Dangerous game to the Amazon app store. I have made a small change to use Amazon's own ad service. I have found that the fill rate was not great, only 20% of ads served, so Admob will be used as a backup.

If you have a Kindle Fire, please download it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GQ6ODMC

I'll get my next game published to Amazon Underground.

#gaming #android #nellyfish

Spikes Galore now on iOS

I'm pleased to announce Spikes Galore is now on iOS! This was my second game developed using the libGDX framework.

It's in the App Store, so please give it a go at https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1120165272

Spikes Galore

Hope to get the Game services and In App Purchases working soon.

#ios #gaming #nellyfish

Dave Dangerous is finally on iOS

I'm pleased to announce that Dave Dangerous is now on iOS. This game was ported across to the libGDX framework a few months back. This should have made the transition to iOS easy. However, the Java VM components that are used to run on iOS were discontinued. This meant an alternative was needed. This is now working with the MobiDevelop fork of RoboVM. It's working pretty well.

It's in the App Store, so please give it a go at https://itunes.ap... read more

Update to nellyfish.com

I haven't posted for a while, as I've been busy porting my games across to iOS. I should have some news on this very soon. In anticipation to the iOS release I have made an update to the nellyfish.com site.

nellyfish.com

It was just a one page site linking to Google Play. This has now been updated to have a details page for each game with screen shots, reviews and links to the various app stores (when available). It's using HTML5. There is also a nice zooming effect that was done using CSS keyframe animation, as follows... read more

Big update to Dave Dangerous

Dave Dangerous was my first full Android game, and with that it had a few areas that had room for improvement. The biggest one would be that it did not use hardware rendering, so could struggle on low end devices. Not anymore! I have ported the game across to the libGDX. This is a cross platform framework that I used for Spikes Galore. This will also mean that porting across to other platforms should be a little smoother.

There is also a number of other enhancements. This includes some updated images, better management of adverts and hints on the first few stages. If you have not already downloaded it, head over to Google Pl... read more

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