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game design

Game A Week 3: Blockshooter

Australian Post Posted by Logan Booker at 12:00 PM on June 30, 2008

blockshooter_1.jpgBlockshooter is the third game to come out of Kotaku Australia's Game A Week feature. If Game A Week is new to you, I suggest you give Zafehouse and Wizkill a go. Both of these (and Blockshooter) were coded in seven days by your resident Kotaku AU editor (in other words, me).

Blockshooter is a combination of Breakout and Space Invaders. It's your job to pilot a little ship, shooting at coloured blocks that come your way. Shooting multiple blocks of the same colour will award you a point multiplier. Destroying entire segments will drop a "piece", which can be collected and added to your ship. You lose points by getting hit or allowing blocks to slip past you.

That's the nuts and bolts of it. If you'd like to give it a go, hit the jump for a download link and developer's diary.

PS. Yes, this has come out on Monday instead of Friday. I've decided to shift the Game A Week schedule by two days, so I can have the weekend to playtest and debug. Don't worry, I'm sticking with the whole "seven days to code" requirement.

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announcements

Kotaku AU's Game A Week 2: Zafehouse, The Zombie Survival Simulator

Australian Post Posted by Logan Booker at 1:30 PM on June 20, 2008

zafehouse_v1.jpgUpdate: Zafehouse now has its very own website, zafehouse.com.

Game A Week 2 is done. Done I say! Zafehouse is ready to be played by all.

As I said earlier in the week, this thing almost killed me. I had an idea that just exploded. I think the end result is quite awesome. Zafehouse has strategy, survival horror and, best of all, zombies. I love shufflers, I just love them to death, and I'm glad I got to put them into a completed game.

I have yet more plans for a version 2, which I'll release when it's done. For now, I have to get started on Game A Week 3. If you'd like to check out Game A Week 1, Wizkill, hit up this post.

Hit the jump for a development breakdown, hints and tips and unimplemented features, or download the game and give it a spin.

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game design

How's Zafehouse Coming? I'll Hit Friday, I Swear

Australian Post Posted by Logan Booker at 1:30 PM on June 18, 2008

baddude.jpgThis one's going to kill me, I think. May have been too ambitious. The mental image I had of Zafehouse, the next title for Kotaku AU's Game A Week feature, went fuzzy at about, oh, 3AM this morning. I almost freaked out believing I'd made some unplayable monstrosity. But, through the late nights debugging my arse off, I've managed to forge something I'd call "feature complete". Now I just have to playtest like mad.

Don't forget to check out Wizkill, the game from week 1, and make suggestions for other games I can make.