The GP2X Wiz, Upskyway, Squaresliding V, and Sqdef

Howdy, it’s about time for an update. Here’s what I’ve been up to since last time:


Upskyway Upskyway is my main pet project now that Sqdef reached version 1.4 which is pretty close to final. It will be an all-fun arcade game in the spirit of SkyRoads, with a GP2X and WIZ release hopefully sometime this year.

	The GP2X Wiz Gamepark Holdings were very kind to send me a Wiz prototype in order to port Sqdef over, which will be one of the handheld’s 12 built-in games. It is a very solid upgrade to the GP2X, and I look forward to writing more software for it in the future. The touchscreen and accurate control pad are especially nice.

Squaresliding V After the Wiz Sqdef port was all sorted out, I ported over another one of my GP2X games, Squaresliding. I finally got to try the touchscreen controls for myself (no F-200 here), and I noticed that the boxes were too small to be easily touched, especially while riding on a train which tends to move you every which way. I decided to re-make it with the Wiz in mind, meaning larger boxes and a vertical orientation. Not having a battery bulge, the Wiz lends itself to portrait mode much better than the GP2X.

	Sqdef I have a couple of fixes and optimizations for what will be Sqdef’s final release, version 1.5. But before I’ll make it public, I want to write a nice online manual that explains in detail all there is to know about the game. I learned a lot about game development while working on Sqdef, so I’d like to tie all the loose ends before finally saying goodbye to my dearest project yet.

I can feel my eyes closing now. Time to get some sleep before going back to course work… and eventually, to more homebrew coding :-)

Alex