Hey there,

This is the last issue this year! I’m amazed that I’ve managed to consistently publish a newsletter every two weeks all year! Thank you for reading along and sticking with it. I really appreciate it.

Rather than sharing apps or tutorials this time, I thought I’d end the year by looking back at some of the fun, creative things that stuck with me.

Hey there,

It’s the 1st of December already! We put up the Christmas tree this weekend and started making things more festive.

I’ve been working on BeepMini this last week. I wanted to make a path editor to help with my stealth game. I originally planned to have an interactive tool that allows you to place waypoints and draw paths, but that was going to be a lot of work. Instead I realised I could use a simple text-based language to define paths. This turns the act of creating paths into a game of its own, so now I can define paths quickly without needing a complex UI.

This means I now have characters walking around my levels, which is a big step forward. There’s lots to do to make this more usable in games. The characters don’t collide with the environment, the player, or each other yet. But it’s a start!

Hey there,

Last week I joined a game jam for fun and tried to make a small BeepMini game. I got the basic idea working fast, but making lots of levels by hand felt painful. That pushed me to think about a level editor.

At first I planned a quick and messy tool. Then I realised my adventure game editor already did most of the work. So I’m turning it into a general editor that uses config files and can handle different types of games.

The first step is adding worlds and levels. This means I can build separate areas for each game and bigger spaces for adventure games. After that, I’m adding paths, which I need for my stealth game so guards can patrol. This will also help NPCs move around in adventure games.

Hey there,

Welcome to a new issue of Ninja Sparks! It’s been half term here in the UK, so I took a short break with the family. We went away for a couple of nights, did some trick-or-treating, and enjoyed the slower pace for a bit. It’s amazing how much clearer my head feels after a few days away from screens.

Back at work, I’ve been deep in the Brush Ninja accessibility review. It’s taking longer than I expected, but I’m learning loads and the site’s improving with every tweak. It’s satisfying work, even if it’s a bit of a rabbit hole.

The break also gave me space to think about what’s next. I’ve got a few new game ideas for BeepMini bubbling away that I’m itching to start on once Brush Ninja’s update is done. These last few days I’ve been watching student animations from Gobelins, and that’s what I want to focus on in this issue.

Hey there,

I’ve been super creative the last couple of weeks, working hard on my new 3D engine and trying to finish off BeepMini so that I can properly launch it. Plus I’ve had an email from someone asking about the Accessibility of Brush Ninja, so I’ve been filling out a VPAT form, which is a whole new thing for me.

Amidst all this I’ve also been doing a lot of things with my son who is really into Pokémon. He’s been collecting for years. Now we go to a weekly Pokémon club where he plays the games and trades cards, and has even competed in his first tournament. He’s quite shy but he’s been loving this and it’s been great to see him engaging with new people and making friends.

Outside of my own work and family time, I’ve been spotting a few new creative things online worth sharing. A new 3D game builder (which I’m a little jealous of), a video about the importance of boredom for creativity, and some interesting links I found recently.

Hey there,

Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on quite a few different things. Firstly, I have decided to rename beep8 to beepmini. This is a relatively small-sounding change but it means rebuilding the website and merging it with the beepmini.com domain.

I still think beep8 was a good name, but about 6 months after I bought the domain, someone else released a project with the same name. I reached out but didn’t hear back. I was first, but I don’t fancy a fight, so I’ve decided to change it. Fortunately, when I bought beep8.com I also grabbed beepmini.com. At first I thought I’d use it as a games arcade, but now it just makes sense to keep everything together.

Merging the two sites, updating the code, and rewriting the copy is taking a while. Hopefully I’ll have it sorted in the next week or so.

Hey there,

Last week I had the chance to work during the day instead of evenings and was so much more productive. Less tired, more focus. I’m going to try that a couple of days each week so evenings can be for unwinding — or drawing my comic 😊.

Talking of which, I had a bit of a breakthrough in the story of the comic, but it means I’ve had to rejig things a bit so the story flows better. Fortunately I have been able to re-arrange the pages and keep a lot of the things I had planned, so there’s not a huge amount of re-drawing. Overall it feels like it’s coming together well and I’m excited to start drawing everything.

Beep8 and the map editor are coming along really nicely too. The first version of the map editor is almost done, and I now need to add a preview button so you can test the games in the editor. After that I will make a web page where you can play the games (a virtual console) and then you will be able to download and share them with friends or on social media.

Hey there,

I hope this finds you well, it’s time for another Ninja Sparks newsletter!

I have spent the last couple of weeks working on my beep8 game making app. It’s a map editor that allows you to create simple little adventure games, and it’s getting close to a version 1 release! I’m really looking forward to getting the game making element ready so that other people can easily make games with it.

The first version will allow you to make small games like Key Kwest and then share them with your friends and family. Once I have this working and released, I plan to add all sorts of extra features, non-player-characters (NPCs) to talk to and enemies are top priorities. Combat and an in-game shop to use your currency on. Eventually you will be able to make your own little adventure games really easily.

Hey there,

Welcome to issue 17 of the Ninja Sparks newsletter!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been stepping away from the computer and doing more analogue things. I just finished the Crookhaven book series, which I picked up at the library with my son (he’s the real bookworm in the family). The final book has just come out, so the timing was perfect.

I also read a graphic novel and thought, why not make one myself? So I’ve written an outline, sketched thumbnails, and started designing characters — all on paper with pens and pencils. I even found a printer, so this might actually get finished. My wife has been telling me for years to make smaller projects that don’t spiral out of control. So instead of a 20-part cartoon series, I’m making a short comic. Probably sensible.

Hey there,

Welcome to issue 16 of the Ninja Sparks newsletter!

I’ve just got back from a couple of weeks away with my family. It was a relaxing holiday and I barely used the computer at all; quite a change for me. I took my laptop with me, but it didn’t get much use.

Fortunately I had some links prepared for this issue, so I can publish it on time (he says with only a couple of hours to go before the self-imposed deadline). I hope you enjoy this issue, and if you have any feedback or suggestions for future issues please let me know.

Hey there,

Hello - welcome to issue 15 of the Sparked newsletter!

It’s been some wild weather here in the UK, rapidly switching between hot and humid, and wet and windy. So a classic British summer then! I hope you’re all doing well, and managing to stay cool and dry.

I’ve been working on the Beep8 game engine quite a lot recently - specifically the game-making tool. I have a whole map editor now that lets you create almost an entire game! I don’t currently have a way to signify the end of the game, but you can create a map with a start point, locked doors (and keys to open them), pushable crates, and collectible coins. Next I want to add switches that trigger events, or characters you can talk to. Maybe even enemies to fight, but that will also involve adding combat which is not something I have thought about so far.

Hey there,

Hi there! Welcome to Issue 14 of Ninja Sparks, my fortnightly newsletter where I share interesting, creative things I’ve found online.

Next week marks the start of the school summer holidays here in the UK, so I’ll be spending more time with my wife and son, including heading off on holiday. I might miss or delay an issue or two, but I’ll still be working on my projects (like Beep8 and Brush Ninja). I’m also trying to prep some newsletters in advance so I can keep them coming.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been building a map editor for Beep8. It’s really helping me define how I want the game maker to work, and I’ve got some cool features planned. Right now I’m working on an ECS (Entity Component System) for the engine, which will make it possible to build much more complex games. It’s properly geeky, but I’m really excited about the possibilities this will open up.

Hey there,

It’s been 2 weeks so it’s time for another issue of Ninja Sparks, my fortnightly newsletter where I share interesting things I’ve found on the internet.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve spent some time polishing Photo Edit Tools, the app I featured in the last issue. The day after I sent the email I realised there was an error that meant you couldn’t load the modified images because the app removed the file extensions. Not ideal. I fixed that and added a few more tweaks and improvements.

I have also been working on a new editor for Beep8. One of the games I was making for Beep8 is a top down adventure game called Key Kwest. I got quite far with it but I was editing the levels by hand in a text editor. Cumbersome, but it worked, until I changed the screen size for Beep8 and had to start again.

Hey there,

I’m currently writing this in the evening of Father’s day in the UK. I had a lovely day with my family, playing video games with my son, and seeing my wife’s parents for dinner.

I hope you had a great weekend too!

The last couple of weeks have been spent working on a whole new project. It started off as a small editor for Key Kwest, the game I have been making for beepmini.com. I just wanted to make a way to draw the levels and export them to the game, but it is now turning into a full-fledged game editor (albeit in very early stages).

Hey there,

Last week was half term so my boy was home from school for the week, which is always fun. One of the best things we did was go to a comic drawing workshop where we listed to an author make an amusing presentation about how they got into writing and drawing, and then we all got to draw our own comics. I posted my son's comic on BlueSky.

So I spent the last couple of weeks finishing off the anti-capitalism game I have been working on. It took up a good chunk of the month but I was able to make all sorts of updates to beep8 in the process. These updates will make it much easier to reach my long term beep8 goal of making a game creation app! More on that in the future.

The finished game is called Prime Time and you can play it in it's entirety on beepmini. It's a darkly humorous game about creating a capitalist company that sells anything and everything, whilst abusing the employees and planet it's profiting from.

Hey there,

It's that time of the week again, and I'm only 20 minutes late this time! I've spent the last couple of days working on Brush Ninja - mainly tweaking and fixing small bugs I've spotted recently. Nothing major, but it's satisfying to get them sorted.

I also added a few "How to Animate" videos to the Brush Ninja video channel. These aren't made by me and aren't specific to Brush Ninja, but they're solid introductions to animation skills. I think they're a great addition to the channel and should help people new to animation.

I've also been working on the Beep8 game I mentioned last issue. It's coming along nicely, and in the process, I've made various tweaks and improvements to the core Beep8 library, which should make future games easier to build. If you're interested you can try an early version of Prime Time (name subject to change) on beepmini.com.

Hey there,

Hope you made the most of Star Wars Day yesterday! Just me? Never mind 😀 I built some Star Wars Lego with my boy and then we went out and bought some Pokemon cards because he's not really into Star Wars.

The last couple of weeks I've been improving Brush Ninja, fixing some bugs, and generally doing some spring cleaning. I also updated the TShirt store. It seems the old one had stopped working (thanks to Amy for letting me know) so I changed platform to a UK company focused on sustainability.

I have also started working on a new game using Beep8. It's for an anti-capitalism game jam. I have no idea if I will finish it but I'm trying to keep the feature list small so I can get something done. I'll let you know in a future issue how I get on.

Hey there,

I hope you're doing well! I've been poorly the last few days, just a cold but it's annoying with all the sniffling and coughing. I went away with the family over the Easter break, and also had my birthday so I'm feeling old and tired, but I have so many things I want to do.

Work wise I've been trying to get beep8 to a stage where I can start properly promoting it (although it's all live beep8.com and beepmini.com). I've also been thinking about doing some work on Brush.Ninja and NinjaPuzzles.com since I have been focused on beep8 for a while and they need some attention.

It's fun working for yourself, but it's also hard when you juggle lots of different things. But I don't like the idea of relying on a single project so I have a few things going at once. It keeps things interesting and provides a bit of security.

title: "Pixel Art and Animation" date: 2025-04-07

Hey there, it's that time of year when we celebrate the arrival of spring, and in the UK Easter - which normally boils down to chocolate eggs and a long weekend. Easter this year falls between newsletters so I hope you had a good time, and if you don't celebrate Easter, I hope you had a nice weekend anyway!

Hey there,

Over the last couple of weeks, I've made some great progress on my retro game engine. So much so that I've even mentioned the name on social media. It's kicking off with two websites: BeepMini.com and Beep8.com.

BeepMini is a fantasy video game arcade that will feature a collection of games. There are currently four in various stages of completion. If you want to play them, I recommend using a keyboard. Mobile controls exist, but they're not quite perfect yet.

Beep8 is the developer site, home to documentation, examples, and some tools.