Glider got a slightly different concept visually and moved to Art Man's stage
Revolver got a more uniform color in the final game
Necro Man of course is the other extreme side of Zombie Man's tranformation.
torsdag 19 december 2013
MM42 Behind the Scenes: Part Deux
This is the second and final batch of MM42 behind the scenes-images. As you can see, some of the enemies didn't make it, some got changed and some had color changes. A slight spoiler warning here as well since the Wily bosses' concept drawings will be showed off.
The Mite got scrapped since it didn't work out, there were already enough shielded enemies in Sand Man's stage, and the sprite just didn't work out like I wanted it to.
onsdag 18 december 2013
MM42 Easter Eggs
Before I get to the MM42 easter eggs, just a tidbit from the Prometheus development. Is there another game where you fight a firebreathing Chimaera, playing as Prometheus, while riding on a Pegasus? I think not :)
There are two small easter eggs in MM42, and so far nobody has reported that they've found them to me. This means either nobody has actually found them, or they just haven't bothered to tell.
I imagine people might want to try to find the easter eggs by themselves now that I've told about them, so be wary of spoilers below if you don't want to know how to find them.
**SPOILERS**
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How to find the easter eggs: Go to Mad Man's stage. At the very bottom of the downward vertical section there is an Elehead, and you are supposed to go the left into a padded room in order to get to the boss room. Here there is actually an additional path to take.
Kill the Elehead enemy and jump up one step on the stair-looking thingy to the left. Use Launch Missile while facing right and jump onto the missile. When you are at the right edge of the screen jump up to the right and you should enter a hidden boss room. It houses Etc Man, an early scrapped Robot Master. Etc Man spawns an enemy from the 31 available at random as his special attack. In case you can't tell I'm a sucker for randomness, mostly stemming from the fact that I used to play Magic: The Gathering for many years. I'm really pleased with this fight, and the guy deserves to have a stage of his own I think, but since I added him in like a week before the release there was no time for that. The reason Etc Man had sprites I could use was that he was suggested by Skyman and I made a very early animation with Etc Man in it in 2001 as a concept sketch for the game.
If you beat Etc Man and then beat the game you will get a special end screen with Beck from Mighty No. 9 in it :) Enjoy!
There are two small easter eggs in MM42, and so far nobody has reported that they've found them to me. This means either nobody has actually found them, or they just haven't bothered to tell.
I imagine people might want to try to find the easter eggs by themselves now that I've told about them, so be wary of spoilers below if you don't want to know how to find them.
**SPOILERS**
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
How to find the easter eggs: Go to Mad Man's stage. At the very bottom of the downward vertical section there is an Elehead, and you are supposed to go the left into a padded room in order to get to the boss room. Here there is actually an additional path to take.
Kill the Elehead enemy and jump up one step on the stair-looking thingy to the left. Use Launch Missile while facing right and jump onto the missile. When you are at the right edge of the screen jump up to the right and you should enter a hidden boss room. It houses Etc Man, an early scrapped Robot Master. Etc Man spawns an enemy from the 31 available at random as his special attack. In case you can't tell I'm a sucker for randomness, mostly stemming from the fact that I used to play Magic: The Gathering for many years. I'm really pleased with this fight, and the guy deserves to have a stage of his own I think, but since I added him in like a week before the release there was no time for that. The reason Etc Man had sprites I could use was that he was suggested by Skyman and I made a very early animation with Etc Man in it in 2001 as a concept sketch for the game.
If you beat Etc Man and then beat the game you will get a special end screen with Beck from Mighty No. 9 in it :) Enjoy!
söndag 8 december 2013
Lycia and Kolchis
I figured I'd give you guys a little something to show that I'm still alive, kicking and working hard on Prometheus. The Kolchis area is now complete, and I've made all the graphics for Lycia which is the next area I'm working on. The programming is what's left to be done there. In other words two out of eight areas are completely done and I've now begun on a third. Mind you the game is nonlinear so you're not necessarily supposed to complete the areas in this order, it just happens to be convenient for me to go through them in the way they will be adjoined in the game. Right now I feel I'm in a very nice flow, the framework for the game when it comes to screen transitions and showing text on the screen etc, is all done so it's the dirty work that is left which is great. From now on out I'm positive things will progress much more smoothly as opposed to before when I had to split my attention between MM42 and Prometheus.
Below are screenshots from the Kolchis and Lycia areas. These were taken from before I put the enemies in there so they will have to be revealed later. I'm going to make a serious attempt at getting Prometheus Greenlit on Steam, so probably once I've finished Lycia I will make a trailer and a NES boxart-style promotional picture for the game for this purpose.
Below are screenshots from the Kolchis and Lycia areas. These were taken from before I put the enemies in there so they will have to be revealed later. I'm going to make a serious attempt at getting Prometheus Greenlit on Steam, so probably once I've finished Lycia I will make a trailer and a NES boxart-style promotional picture for the game for this purpose.
onsdag 20 november 2013
Progress
Since I released the latest version of MM42 I've been taking a little bit of time off from working on my current game, but I just wanted to post this to inform that work is now progressing again and I've made the level design and the graphics for the next area in Prometheus. I had some trouble with my computer that it would overheat, but I've now replaced the one chassi fan I had, installed two more and so far it seems to work much better.
As you may be familiar with, Prometheus uses the genuine 54-color NES palette, which is great for authenticity, but once you get down to the nitty-gritty you start to see some problems with it. When you draw natural environments most of them tend to be in shades of grey and brown, such as stone, earth, wood etc. However, the NES palette only has two shades of brown (plus a skin color) and grey respectively (plus white and black). So that means you really have to be inventive when using the palette. I have no idea what was going on in the mind of the person who chose the colors for the NES, because in place of the colors most commonly found in nature it has a plethora of purples and pinks. Either that person was female, or a very fabulous guy. Just wanted to get that off my chest :)
As you may be familiar with, Prometheus uses the genuine 54-color NES palette, which is great for authenticity, but once you get down to the nitty-gritty you start to see some problems with it. When you draw natural environments most of them tend to be in shades of grey and brown, such as stone, earth, wood etc. However, the NES palette only has two shades of brown (plus a skin color) and grey respectively (plus white and black). So that means you really have to be inventive when using the palette. I have no idea what was going on in the mind of the person who chose the colors for the NES, because in place of the colors most commonly found in nature it has a plethora of purples and pinks. Either that person was female, or a very fabulous guy. Just wanted to get that off my chest :)
torsdag 14 november 2013
MM42 v1.1
Rockman 42 has been released!
Just kidding, it's just version 1.1 of Mega Man 42. But that ain't half bad!
UPDATE 20131115: If you downloaded this file within the first few hours of its release, please download again using the same link. I was a bit tired and uploaded more than one faulty version. Sorry about this!
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/dyjy2kmyque789e/Mega_Man_42_v1.1.zip
Here's the changelog for this version:
20131114 - Version 1.1
----------------------------
- Fixed the jump and it's now much CLOSER to the jump in the commercial games. This also meant I had to get rid of the "pixel perfect" jumps since they got too hard. For 99 percent of the people playing this game, I'm sure that's an upgrade, but I'm a little sad they had to go :)
- Fixed Homing Laser to easier hit Robot Masters
- Half Zombots now have the same hitbox width as the whole ones and spawn on the same x coordinate. It is still not recommended to stand right by them as you shoot them. They are enemies and they are supposed to be dangerous
- During refights, Missile Man's reward big health item will now not spawn inside solid ground and instantly zip out of the screen
- During the final form of the very last boss, the small deathballs will not damage the character until they are fully charged and start moving
- Fixed bug where Roll's color would change to the normal one while having a special weapon equipped, when dashing through a door to a Robot Master or Wily boss
- Fixed bug where the closed door to the first Wily boss would still be around when the character died and re-entered the room
- Fixed bug where the character's overlay sprite when using a special weapon and climbing, would not keep up with the character sprite itself
- Added spikes to checkpoint room in Art Man stage to make it more clear which path the player should take
- Jump input can now be used in menues to confirm choices in addition to start, fire can be used to remove password dots
- Changed color of Sand Man stage beds so they look less like dangerous lava
These are the bugs that were reported to me and that I found myself. I haven't scoured the Internet for bugs, and I have no illusions that all of them are gone now, but the most important ones should be. Right now I don't see myself working on MM42 again for a long time. Expect the Redux version to come out 1-2 years from now, regardless of what happens in the coming few months. Redoing that much of the graphics and doing it that well will take a lot of time and energy, and like I've mentioned I want to concentrate on my other projects now. In all fairness MM42 has been in the works for 12 years, so I figure there's no real rush to get the definitive version of the game finished.
My thanks go out to GoldwaterDLS of Mega Man Rock Force fame. He helped me with the code for the jump. If you haven't heard of MMRF, it's a very solid fan game that I recommend: megamanrockforce.com.
Just kidding, it's just version 1.1 of Mega Man 42. But that ain't half bad!
UPDATE 20131115: If you downloaded this file within the first few hours of its release, please download again using the same link. I was a bit tired and uploaded more than one faulty version. Sorry about this!
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/dyjy2kmyque789e/Mega_Man_42_v1.1.zip
Here's the changelog for this version:
20131114 - Version 1.1
----------------------------
- Fixed the jump and it's now much CLOSER to the jump in the commercial games. This also meant I had to get rid of the "pixel perfect" jumps since they got too hard. For 99 percent of the people playing this game, I'm sure that's an upgrade, but I'm a little sad they had to go :)
- Fixed Homing Laser to easier hit Robot Masters
- Half Zombots now have the same hitbox width as the whole ones and spawn on the same x coordinate. It is still not recommended to stand right by them as you shoot them. They are enemies and they are supposed to be dangerous
- During refights, Missile Man's reward big health item will now not spawn inside solid ground and instantly zip out of the screen
- During the final form of the very last boss, the small deathballs will not damage the character until they are fully charged and start moving
- Fixed bug where Roll's color would change to the normal one while having a special weapon equipped, when dashing through a door to a Robot Master or Wily boss
- Fixed bug where the closed door to the first Wily boss would still be around when the character died and re-entered the room
- Fixed bug where the character's overlay sprite when using a special weapon and climbing, would not keep up with the character sprite itself
- Added spikes to checkpoint room in Art Man stage to make it more clear which path the player should take
- Jump input can now be used in menues to confirm choices in addition to start, fire can be used to remove password dots
- Changed color of Sand Man stage beds so they look less like dangerous lava
These are the bugs that were reported to me and that I found myself. I haven't scoured the Internet for bugs, and I have no illusions that all of them are gone now, but the most important ones should be. Right now I don't see myself working on MM42 again for a long time. Expect the Redux version to come out 1-2 years from now, regardless of what happens in the coming few months. Redoing that much of the graphics and doing it that well will take a lot of time and energy, and like I've mentioned I want to concentrate on my other projects now. In all fairness MM42 has been in the works for 12 years, so I figure there's no real rush to get the definitive version of the game finished.
My thanks go out to GoldwaterDLS of Mega Man Rock Force fame. He helped me with the code for the jump. If you haven't heard of MMRF, it's a very solid fan game that I recommend: megamanrockforce.com.
tisdag 12 november 2013
New Prometheus demo released!
UPDATE 20131115: Fixed a bug where you would not respawn after dying on the first stage.
The new Prometheus demo has been released! Here's the changelog for this version:
20131112 - Prometheus - The Fire Thief Demo version 0.3 Alpha
---------------------------
- Left and right inputs can now be used to walk up and down a stair once Prometheus has entered it
- Nerfed Zeus from 40 to 30 hp
- Bug fixed where the animation speed would be stuck at 0 when leaving a staircase
- Hitboxes now better represent sprites on enemies and bosses
- Added kbinput 4.0-extension support and ability to configure controls
- Getting hit while on a staircase will not cause Prometheus to fall down now
- Stair code improved in general
- Prometheus now walks to the first step of a staircase instead of instantly teleporting there when you press up
- Tweaked jump code
- Damage knockback tweaked
- Added gold coin worth 5 coins to make grinding for money easier
- Added Erymanthos area with new enemies, NPC's and a new boss
- Added various new weapons and items
- Added save/load feature
- Fixed screen tearing
- Upgraded to the much better GameMaker: Studio audio system
- Added title screen
- Added new music by Dan Butler
- Added checkpoints. You now start at where you entered the last room after dying
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/qx1ixstp2s123q6/Prometheus_Demo_v0.3_alpha.zip
I hope you like the new demo. Now I'm going to work on version 1.1 of Mega Man 42 which will probably be done not too long from now. Then I will go back to the rest of Prometheus, and since I now have the framework for the remainder of the game down it should cooperate fairly well.
The new Prometheus demo has been released! Here's the changelog for this version:
20131112 - Prometheus - The Fire Thief Demo version 0.3 Alpha
---------------------------
- Left and right inputs can now be used to walk up and down a stair once Prometheus has entered it
- Nerfed Zeus from 40 to 30 hp
- Bug fixed where the animation speed would be stuck at 0 when leaving a staircase
- Hitboxes now better represent sprites on enemies and bosses
- Added kbinput 4.0-extension support and ability to configure controls
- Getting hit while on a staircase will not cause Prometheus to fall down now
- Stair code improved in general
- Prometheus now walks to the first step of a staircase instead of instantly teleporting there when you press up
- Tweaked jump code
- Damage knockback tweaked
- Added gold coin worth 5 coins to make grinding for money easier
- Added Erymanthos area with new enemies, NPC's and a new boss
- Added various new weapons and items
- Added save/load feature
- Fixed screen tearing
- Upgraded to the much better GameMaker: Studio audio system
- Added title screen
- Added new music by Dan Butler
- Added checkpoints. You now start at where you entered the last room after dying
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/qx1ixstp2s123q6/Prometheus_Demo_v0.3_alpha.zip
I hope you like the new demo. Now I'm going to work on version 1.1 of Mega Man 42 which will probably be done not too long from now. Then I will go back to the rest of Prometheus, and since I now have the framework for the remainder of the game down it should cooperate fairly well.
söndag 10 november 2013
MM42 CD Data
If you've ever played Mega man & Bass you know the game included collectible "CD"-items with short fun bio's on the series' various Robot Masters. I didn't put these kinds of bios for the MM42 RM's into the game, but I've written them down just as a fun, silly exercise and I thought I'd share:
Sand Man
Quote: "Time to go to sleep!"
Info: Lives in the dream factory and often sleeps in
Good Point: Well-rested
Bad Point: Sleepy still
Like: Beds
Dislike: Alarms
Zombie Man
Quote: "Rise from your graves!"
Info: Once a robot waste manager, then he was infected by an illness
Good Point: Raises spirits
Bad Point: Slow
Like: Eating robots
Dislike: Sharp objects
Mad Man
Quote: "I'm mad about you!"
Info: Lives in an insane asylum. Likes spikes so much he wears them too
Good Point: Doesn't hold back
Bad Point: Unpredictable
Like: Chaos
Dislike: Order
Sky Man
Quote: "Let the thunder roar!"
Info: Lives in a weather station in the sky. Can control the elements
Good Point: The most electrifying Robot Master in show business
Bad Point: Blows circuits
Like: Storms
Dislike: Clear skies
Ombuds Man
Quote: "I need to get to my meeting!"
Info: Handles Dr. Wily's economic affairs. Doesn't like when things are a mess
Good Point: Neat
Bad Point: A snob
Like: Paperwork
Dislike: Ink smudges
Art Man
Quote: "Express yourself, man!"
Info: Wants to connect with the forest and make art
Good Point: Creative
Bad Point: Sloppy
Like: Paint
Dislike: Rules
Missile Man
Quote: "Launch is confirmed!"
Info: His base is a hangar ship from which he launches his missions
Good Point: Good aim
Bad Point: Blows up
Like: Rocket fuel
Dislike: Peace
Brain Man
Quote: "Let me think about it!"
Info: Uses his brains to find out secrets
Good Point: Intelligent
Bad Point: Weak
Like: Theories
Dislike: Hard work
tisdag 5 november 2013
Mega Man 42 OST
The Mega Man 42 OST has been released! Get it here: http://megaman42.bandcamp.com/album/mega-man-42-original-soundtrack
After discussing it with the rest of the team we decided that the album was going to be a completely free download. I think I speak for all of us when I say that when you make a nonprofit game like this, that has to be a guideline that follows the entire project. If other Mega Man fan games want to include the option of making money off of Capcom's copyrighted intellectual property, that's their problem, but I'm not going to do that.
Hurry up and download the album while you can, because the downloads are limited to 200 per month!
After discussing it with the rest of the team we decided that the album was going to be a completely free download. I think I speak for all of us when I say that when you make a nonprofit game like this, that has to be a guideline that follows the entire project. If other Mega Man fan games want to include the option of making money off of Capcom's copyrighted intellectual property, that's their problem, but I'm not going to do that.
Hurry up and download the album while you can, because the downloads are limited to 200 per month!
måndag 4 november 2013
Mega Man 42/Mega Man 1 comparison video
I posted this on the MM42 Facebook page yesterday and might as well post it here too:
Mega Man 42 has been out for four days and has now surpassed 1000 downloads. It feels very nice that so many people want to try my game out. The vast majority of the downloads has come from our Indiedb entry, and most of those after the game's mention on At7addak.com. That's the fun part out of the way. Now comes the serious time.
When you make a fan game like this, you get a lot for free. People want to play your game because they like Mega Man games. But there is a flipside to that coin. There are people out there who will look very closely for the tiniest flaw on your game, even though I've never claimed that MM42 is 100 percent true to an NES Mega Man engine. This is the first real game I make in GameMaker and I don't have the skill set to do something like a perfect engine (read: to romhack a Mega Man game and extract the values from said game). The main critisism against the game has been that the jump mechanism doesn't work like in the commercial Mega Man games.
I've made a video where I compare the jump in the game side-by-side to the jump in Mega Man 1. When you look at the video, have in mind that there are people out there who take it as a personal insult that the jump doesn't work exactly like in the commercial Mega Man games. If that isn't worrying, I don't know what is.
Even though I tried to get the jump as close to the real thing as possible, I'm not a perfect person and it IS a little bit flawed. I have a list of bugs and other things to correct for version 1.1, and the jump is high on that list. I want to make a point though, that in my opinion you can still enjoy the game for what it is even though it's not completely true to the commercial games. Point in case: The Gameboy Mega Man games.
The GB Mega Man games' physics engine and jump is completely different from the NES games, but they are still very enjoyable. I recently bought all five on Ebay and played them through. If you count out MM42 on the principle that the jump is faulty, you should also count out the GB games, in which case I think it's just your loss. Furthermore, another fan game called Mega Man Rocks has a jump that isn't anywhere near the commercial games, you jump way too high. But it's still a fine game, and an accepted fan game.
I'm sure this post will not make the critics silence their voices, but at least you have my stance on this debacle. Enjoy the game for what it is, if perfect replication is what you're out for, play another game. I was going to say "play another fan game", but there is no such thing as a fan game that plays exactly like the real Mega Man games.
Mega Man 42 has been out for four days and has now surpassed 1000 downloads. It feels very nice that so many people want to try my game out. The vast majority of the downloads has come from our Indiedb entry, and most of those after the game's mention on At7addak.com. That's the fun part out of the way. Now comes the serious time.
When you make a fan game like this, you get a lot for free. People want to play your game because they like Mega Man games. But there is a flipside to that coin. There are people out there who will look very closely for the tiniest flaw on your game, even though I've never claimed that MM42 is 100 percent true to an NES Mega Man engine. This is the first real game I make in GameMaker and I don't have the skill set to do something like a perfect engine (read: to romhack a Mega Man game and extract the values from said game). The main critisism against the game has been that the jump mechanism doesn't work like in the commercial Mega Man games.
I've made a video where I compare the jump in the game side-by-side to the jump in Mega Man 1. When you look at the video, have in mind that there are people out there who take it as a personal insult that the jump doesn't work exactly like in the commercial Mega Man games. If that isn't worrying, I don't know what is.
Even though I tried to get the jump as close to the real thing as possible, I'm not a perfect person and it IS a little bit flawed. I have a list of bugs and other things to correct for version 1.1, and the jump is high on that list. I want to make a point though, that in my opinion you can still enjoy the game for what it is even though it's not completely true to the commercial games. Point in case: The Gameboy Mega Man games.
The GB Mega Man games' physics engine and jump is completely different from the NES games, but they are still very enjoyable. I recently bought all five on Ebay and played them through. If you count out MM42 on the principle that the jump is faulty, you should also count out the GB games, in which case I think it's just your loss. Furthermore, another fan game called Mega Man Rocks has a jump that isn't anywhere near the commercial games, you jump way too high. But it's still a fine game, and an accepted fan game.
I'm sure this post will not make the critics silence their voices, but at least you have my stance on this debacle. Enjoy the game for what it is, if perfect replication is what you're out for, play another game. I was going to say "play another fan game", but there is no such thing as a fan game that plays exactly like the real Mega Man games.
torsdag 31 oktober 2013
Behind the scenes
What's fun about having released MM42 is that I can now show you some behind the scenes stuff. Below are some before and after pictures of the Mad Man and Sky Man sprites. Both sprites underwent a bit of a touch up before they were put into the game and animated. Mad Man was also changed to look more like the concept art picture I had drawn of him.
Note that Mad Man's cuckoo bird survived the redesign and can now be viewed when Mad Man opens the lid to attack.
What did Zombie Man look like before things went... less good? Below is a line drawing of De-Zombie Man:
Here's another nice concept drawing of the originally planned six Robot Masters in the game. This was before Zombie Man and Missile Man joined the party. I like Sky Man's Rocketeer-like helmet in this one.
There's a lot more of this stuff, but most of it are concept drawings of the enemies which are not so interesting, they look the same as in the game basicly except less pixelated. Maybe I'll upload some more pictures later, we'll see.
Note that Mad Man's cuckoo bird survived the redesign and can now be viewed when Mad Man opens the lid to attack.
What did Zombie Man look like before things went... less good? Below is a line drawing of De-Zombie Man:
Here's another nice concept drawing of the originally planned six Robot Masters in the game. This was before Zombie Man and Missile Man joined the party. I like Sky Man's Rocketeer-like helmet in this one.
There's a lot more of this stuff, but most of it are concept drawings of the enemies which are not so interesting, they look the same as in the game basicly except less pixelated. Maybe I'll upload some more pictures later, we'll see.
onsdag 30 oktober 2013
Mega Man 42 has been released!!!!!11one
Mega Man 42 is out now! Click the below link to begin downloading.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1g3w5tj4vu9amaa/Mega_Man_42_v1.0_release.zip
I hope you enjoy the game! It's been quite a ride these last seven months working on Mega Man 42. The first three months certainly were the most intense, after that the game hasn't changed too much, but finally finding trustworthy composers for the project was worth a million and the main reason I'm now finally able to release Mega Man 42. Also fine-tuning and improving MM42 based on my own playthroughs and the beta testers' feedback has made all the difference in the world.
I feel absolutely spent now and it's going to be really nice to close the book on this chapter and look forward instead. Eventually I will release a Redux version of Mega Man 42 with improved stage tile graphics, as well as a very hard Nightmare Mode version, but I can't say for sure when that will be. Right now I just want to focus 100 percent on my current game Prometheus.
Speaking of Prometheus I'm going to take the opportunity to write a little about its progress as well. All the graphics for the Erymanthos area have been done, I've also coded all of the enemies. Now what's left to do is to code the boss, the NPC's, the transition from Olympus to Erymanthos and some other minor things like adding a title screen, configurable controls and a save feature. Once that is done I'm also going to go through all the feedback I've received and improve the game based on that. Then, and only then, the second and final demo version will be complete and ready for release.
Props and slops for Mega Man 42:
Props:
- Mike Thal and Dan Butler for coming through and composing the lion's share of the music for the game in a very professional manner. Thank you very much!
- The other composers: Dylan James, Mirthan and Phunk Master Flex
- Sky-Man for coming up with the idea for the game
- The beta testers for your invaluable input: spd12, Alex Goldstone, Kenneth Blaney and cannonballbam
- Capcom and Keiji Inafune for coming up with Mega Man
Slops:
- All of the haters. You know who you are
- Various mean-spirited and immature development team members from other unnamed Mega Man fan games.
Always fighting for everlasting peace,
-Daniel
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1g3w5tj4vu9amaa/Mega_Man_42_v1.0_release.zip
I hope you enjoy the game! It's been quite a ride these last seven months working on Mega Man 42. The first three months certainly were the most intense, after that the game hasn't changed too much, but finally finding trustworthy composers for the project was worth a million and the main reason I'm now finally able to release Mega Man 42. Also fine-tuning and improving MM42 based on my own playthroughs and the beta testers' feedback has made all the difference in the world.
I feel absolutely spent now and it's going to be really nice to close the book on this chapter and look forward instead. Eventually I will release a Redux version of Mega Man 42 with improved stage tile graphics, as well as a very hard Nightmare Mode version, but I can't say for sure when that will be. Right now I just want to focus 100 percent on my current game Prometheus.
Speaking of Prometheus I'm going to take the opportunity to write a little about its progress as well. All the graphics for the Erymanthos area have been done, I've also coded all of the enemies. Now what's left to do is to code the boss, the NPC's, the transition from Olympus to Erymanthos and some other minor things like adding a title screen, configurable controls and a save feature. Once that is done I'm also going to go through all the feedback I've received and improve the game based on that. Then, and only then, the second and final demo version will be complete and ready for release.
Props and slops for Mega Man 42:
Props:
- Mike Thal and Dan Butler for coming through and composing the lion's share of the music for the game in a very professional manner. Thank you very much!
- The other composers: Dylan James, Mirthan and Phunk Master Flex
- Sky-Man for coming up with the idea for the game
- The beta testers for your invaluable input: spd12, Alex Goldstone, Kenneth Blaney and cannonballbam
- Capcom and Keiji Inafune for coming up with Mega Man
Slops:
- All of the haters. You know who you are
- Various mean-spirited and immature development team members from other unnamed Mega Man fan games.
Always fighting for everlasting peace,
-Daniel
fredag 25 oktober 2013
Mega Man 42 Release Event Stream!!
Announcing the Mega Man 42 Release Stream!
As a fun event to celebrate the release of the game, we are going to host a stream were I play through the game with commentary. Also joining the stream will be the following special guests; Sky-Man who came up with the idea for the game, as well as the composers Dan Butler and Mike Thal! We will discuss our individual contributions to the game, and what inspired us.
The channel will be: http://www.twitch.tv/servadac420
Mega Man 42 will be released on Thursday October 31th 00.00 (meaning very late on the 30th, the night to the 31st), Swedish time. And the stream will start at that time as well. The stream will mean spoilers, but I will do the playthroughs with buster only on the Robot Masters in order not to spoil the weakness order. The plan is to do one playthrough as Mega Man and one as Roll, meaning the stream will last for about two hours. After that there is a possibility of a bonus section with other Mega Man- or Mega Man-inspired games being played.
In other news, the work on Prometheus is progressing well, and all of the graphics for the Erymanthos area have been completed. Now the coding is left to be done and then I can release the second demo version. I'm also pleased to say that Dan Butler of Mega Man 42 has been recruited for Prometheus as well! This is great since I can now take my mind of the music for the game and instead focus on things I actually know how to do. The second beta test stage of Mega Man 42 is wrapped up and the game is getting very close to being finished and ready for the release, only a little bit of fine-tuning left.
See you on Wednesday for the release stream!
As a fun event to celebrate the release of the game, we are going to host a stream were I play through the game with commentary. Also joining the stream will be the following special guests; Sky-Man who came up with the idea for the game, as well as the composers Dan Butler and Mike Thal! We will discuss our individual contributions to the game, and what inspired us.
The channel will be: http://www.twitch.tv/servadac420
Mega Man 42 will be released on Thursday October 31th 00.00 (meaning very late on the 30th, the night to the 31st), Swedish time. And the stream will start at that time as well. The stream will mean spoilers, but I will do the playthroughs with buster only on the Robot Masters in order not to spoil the weakness order. The plan is to do one playthrough as Mega Man and one as Roll, meaning the stream will last for about two hours. After that there is a possibility of a bonus section with other Mega Man- or Mega Man-inspired games being played.
In other news, the work on Prometheus is progressing well, and all of the graphics for the Erymanthos area have been completed. Now the coding is left to be done and then I can release the second demo version. I'm also pleased to say that Dan Butler of Mega Man 42 has been recruited for Prometheus as well! This is great since I can now take my mind of the music for the game and instead focus on things I actually know how to do. The second beta test stage of Mega Man 42 is wrapped up and the game is getting very close to being finished and ready for the release, only a little bit of fine-tuning left.
See you on Wednesday for the release stream!
tisdag 22 oktober 2013
Mega Man 42 Trailer
Resident composer and PR manager Mike has made a trailer to hype up the imminent release of Mega Man 42! Here it is in all its glory:
onsdag 16 oktober 2013
Stay on target!
Hey look what I found waiting for me in the mail!:
Pretty cool, huh?
All of the music is done, we're getting really close to the release of Mega Man 42 and I couldn't be happier for that. The last couple of days I've put in a lot of work coding the final few things that have been in the pipeline for a while now. One of the composers, Mike Thal, came up with the idea to start a Facebook page for the game: https://www.facebook.com/MegaMan42
The official release date is October 31st and that's what we're aiming for, but maybe, just maybe the game will be able to be released even before that! No promises though. Watch this space!
Pretty cool, huh?
All of the music is done, we're getting really close to the release of Mega Man 42 and I couldn't be happier for that. The last couple of days I've put in a lot of work coding the final few things that have been in the pipeline for a while now. One of the composers, Mike Thal, came up with the idea to start a Facebook page for the game: https://www.facebook.com/MegaMan42
The official release date is October 31st and that's what we're aiming for, but maybe, just maybe the game will be able to be released even before that! No promises though. Watch this space!
onsdag 9 oktober 2013
Music progress!
After a number of months of search I've finally found two composers for Mega Man 42 who are very talented and also serious about contributing. Work on the music is now progressing very smoothly, and if everything works out I'm confident that the game will be able to get released by the end of the month at the latest (October 31st is what I'm aiming for now).
Here is a demo of some of Dan Butler's songs for the game, enjoy:
Regarding Prometheus the demo has gotten overall a very positive response for which I'm happy. While I don't have time to answer all posts on the forums and sites where I've posted the demo, you can rest assured that I read everything and will take all the feedback into account when continuing work on the game. Right now I've started work on the next area - Erymanthos - and the first room out of seven is right about done.
Here is a demo of some of Dan Butler's songs for the game, enjoy:
Regarding Prometheus the demo has gotten overall a very positive response for which I'm happy. While I don't have time to answer all posts on the forums and sites where I've posted the demo, you can rest assured that I read everything and will take all the feedback into account when continuing work on the game. Right now I've started work on the next area - Erymanthos - and the first room out of seven is right about done.
fredag 27 september 2013
Prometheus demo released!
The first demo version of Prometheus - The Fire Thief has been released! The music took a while to get done, but here it is finally:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1w7sgzn2trb787k/Prometheus_Demo_v0.1_alpha.zip
There are still a few bugs, for example the stairs you can fall down from if you get hit. But for a first demo it works perfectly fine. Below are also a few screenshots from the game, and a link to a video I've recorded and uploaded to Youtube, this time WITH SOUND!!1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciCjGl9qkVM
I'll let the stuff speak for itself and make this a short post. I want to talk about the music in Mega Man 42 though. This is my plan now: Once I'm done with P:TFT which will be in about four-to-five months time, I will sit down and really study how to make Mega Man-sounding music (I will have a little more experience with chiptunes then from making the OST for P:TFT), get the songs done, and release the game. Which means my plan of realeasing MM42 around August this year really won't be a reality and I'm sorry for that but I've exhaused all possibilities at this point. Now three songs out of 14 are done, and at that rate the game won't be out for another year and at least this solution will be faster than that.
I hope you enjoy the demo. Now work begins on the next area - Erymanthos - which will be much larger, and also playable in the final version of the demo.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1w7sgzn2trb787k/Prometheus_Demo_v0.1_alpha.zip
There are still a few bugs, for example the stairs you can fall down from if you get hit. But for a first demo it works perfectly fine. Below are also a few screenshots from the game, and a link to a video I've recorded and uploaded to Youtube, this time WITH SOUND!!1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciCjGl9qkVM
I'll let the stuff speak for itself and make this a short post. I want to talk about the music in Mega Man 42 though. This is my plan now: Once I'm done with P:TFT which will be in about four-to-five months time, I will sit down and really study how to make Mega Man-sounding music (I will have a little more experience with chiptunes then from making the OST for P:TFT), get the songs done, and release the game. Which means my plan of realeasing MM42 around August this year really won't be a reality and I'm sorry for that but I've exhaused all possibilities at this point. Now three songs out of 14 are done, and at that rate the game won't be out for another year and at least this solution will be faster than that.
I hope you enjoy the demo. Now work begins on the next area - Erymanthos - which will be much larger, and also playable in the final version of the demo.
lördag 14 september 2013
First boss done!
The boss of the first intro stage in Prometheus has been finished today after a couple days of hard work, made possible with inspiration returning to me after a bit of a draught (unfortunately I have not yet been able to get into the mode were you just work whether you feel inspired or not). All in all, I'm very pleased with the result so far with the game; it has turned out very close to how I imagined it and wanted it to. Visually and game mechanics-wise, the first stage is now complete, all that remains is creating the sound effects and music. Unless my new found inspiration suddenly vanishes I should be able to do that in a few days work. Sound effects are going to be intentionally sparse even compared to MM42, and the music is much less of a problem when it doesn't have to sound like Mega Man music.
Of course there are some bugs, as always, but it will be great to be able to put a first demo out there and record a video to put up on Youtube. Like I've mentioned, the second real demo once it's done will include one more area. Because when push to comes to shove, this type of game is not much about the platforming, but more about exploring, combat, and using the right items at the right place (which just one stage could not possibly show off properly). But the first mount Olympus stage will show off the graphics and the physics engine etc just fine.
Of course there are some bugs, as always, but it will be great to be able to put a first demo out there and record a video to put up on Youtube. Like I've mentioned, the second real demo once it's done will include one more area. Because when push to comes to shove, this type of game is not much about the platforming, but more about exploring, combat, and using the right items at the right place (which just one stage could not possibly show off properly). But the first mount Olympus stage will show off the graphics and the physics engine etc just fine.
måndag 2 september 2013
Progress and Mighty No. 9
In case you have missed it, Keiji Inafune - the man behind Mega Man - has announced a new project he has started working on since leaving Capcom. It's called Mighty No. 9 and is a spiritual successor to the Mega Man games. It's on Kickstarter right now and at the time of writing it's very close to acheiving its goal of becoming reality.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/mighty-no-9
Personally I'm really excited about this. Like I've mentioned before Capcom really have given up on Mega Man, but something like this is more than any Mega Man fan could've hoped for. I've been very sceptical towards Kickstarter since first hearing about it, and as such I've never backed anything on there. But this project I didn't hesitate to back and if you like Mega Man I think you should do the same. One thing I especially like is that the composer for the original Mega Man soundtrack - Manami Matsuae - is going to make the music for the game! Mega Man 1 is my favorite game of all time, and the game I've modelled Mega Man 42 after, time so this is more than awesome for me. The theme song for Mighty No. 9 is available on the Mighty No. 9 website: http://www.mightyno9.com.
Progress is coming along somewhat nicely on Prometheus - The Fire Thief. I had some trouble with the stair mechanic, but it works acceptably now after struggling with it a bit for a few days last week. I've drawn all the sprites for the enemies now so I need to code them and then start working on the boss. Once that's done, some sound effects and music is all that is left to be done on the first short introduction stage where you steal the fire from the gods of mount Olympus. Once all that is finished I can make a video of it for sure as a demonstration, and just maybe release a demo. That's definitely not more than a maybe though, because I want the official demo once it's done to include the second area as well, to flesh it out and show off the action adventure gameplay and its mechanics properly.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/mighty-no-9
Personally I'm really excited about this. Like I've mentioned before Capcom really have given up on Mega Man, but something like this is more than any Mega Man fan could've hoped for. I've been very sceptical towards Kickstarter since first hearing about it, and as such I've never backed anything on there. But this project I didn't hesitate to back and if you like Mega Man I think you should do the same. One thing I especially like is that the composer for the original Mega Man soundtrack - Manami Matsuae - is going to make the music for the game! Mega Man 1 is my favorite game of all time, and the game I've modelled Mega Man 42 after, time so this is more than awesome for me. The theme song for Mighty No. 9 is available on the Mighty No. 9 website: http://www.mightyno9.com.
Progress is coming along somewhat nicely on Prometheus - The Fire Thief. I had some trouble with the stair mechanic, but it works acceptably now after struggling with it a bit for a few days last week. I've drawn all the sprites for the enemies now so I need to code them and then start working on the boss. Once that's done, some sound effects and music is all that is left to be done on the first short introduction stage where you steal the fire from the gods of mount Olympus. Once all that is finished I can make a video of it for sure as a demonstration, and just maybe release a demo. That's definitely not more than a maybe though, because I want the official demo once it's done to include the second area as well, to flesh it out and show off the action adventure gameplay and its mechanics properly.
måndag 19 augusti 2013
Prometheus - The Fire Thief
Work has begun on my next game entitled Prometheus - The Fire Thief. After two days of work I have a working engine, a HUD and a weapons and item selection screen complete with graphics that are both fully functional as well. For some reason I did not think it would be this easy to gain progress on the game but apparently it is. I suppose the explanation is that I actually have learned a great deal from coding Mega Man 42, which makes the work on Prometheus much easier. It took a week or something for me to get this far on MM42, and just getting a half decent game engine took me three long hard days of struggling and having no idea what to do.
It certainly was the right decision to code this one 100 percent from scratch. I was thinking about building on the Mega Man 42 engine, but thank heavens I didn't do that. There is so much unneccesary code in that game, pages and pages of it coming from inexperience in GML coding, and P:TFT is another kind of game as well, much simpler in most respects like I've mentioned before, which of course also is a factor in that progress has been so smooth. That being said though, I dare boldly claim that my Mega Man engine is very accurate and precise compared to most other fan games out there. And I can say that with confidence because I've played a fair share of fan games lately and some of them are really wonky when it comes to the engine, even though most are still enjoyable despite that.
My sprite work so far for this game I'm very pleased with, more so than most of the stuff in MM42, and this is where I should post pictures. However I don't really like posting straight up screenshots for various reasons, the main being that I'm afraid someone is going to steal my sprites. Posting the MM42 screenshots was really painful for me. I'm thinking once I'm done with the intro stage I'll record a playthrough of it (with sound this time) and upload it to Youtube. This might not be that far away into the future. Tomorrow the plan is to make a test enemy and after that work shall begin on the first stage.
As far as the music in MM42 is concerned: Don't mention the war.
It certainly was the right decision to code this one 100 percent from scratch. I was thinking about building on the Mega Man 42 engine, but thank heavens I didn't do that. There is so much unneccesary code in that game, pages and pages of it coming from inexperience in GML coding, and P:TFT is another kind of game as well, much simpler in most respects like I've mentioned before, which of course also is a factor in that progress has been so smooth. That being said though, I dare boldly claim that my Mega Man engine is very accurate and precise compared to most other fan games out there. And I can say that with confidence because I've played a fair share of fan games lately and some of them are really wonky when it comes to the engine, even though most are still enjoyable despite that.
My sprite work so far for this game I'm very pleased with, more so than most of the stuff in MM42, and this is where I should post pictures. However I don't really like posting straight up screenshots for various reasons, the main being that I'm afraid someone is going to steal my sprites. Posting the MM42 screenshots was really painful for me. I'm thinking once I'm done with the intro stage I'll record a playthrough of it (with sound this time) and upload it to Youtube. This might not be that far away into the future. Tomorrow the plan is to make a test enemy and after that work shall begin on the first stage.
As far as the music in MM42 is concerned: Don't mention the war.
onsdag 14 augusti 2013
Musics
Things are starting to move when it comes to the music for the game. I can now treat you to this piece from Phunk Master Flex. I think he really nailed it with this one:
https://soundcloud.com/phunkmasteflex/brain-man-stage
https://soundcloud.com/phunkmasteflex/brain-man-stage
torsdag 25 juli 2013
onsdag 24 juli 2013
Music
Well, good news is I have couple of people working on music for the game. Bad news is I thought it was going to be much easier to recruit composers for the project. This has lead me to the conclusion that I'm going to make a serious attempt at composing music myself. Which means the release of the game will be set back a while, how long I don't know but I'm determined to release the game come hell or high water.
Most of the bugs are done but like always when you solve a bug it feels like three more pop out like heads on a Hydra. The bugs are mostly cosmetic stuff now anyways.
Most of the bugs are done but like always when you solve a bug it feels like three more pop out like heads on a Hydra. The bugs are mostly cosmetic stuff now anyways.
tisdag 2 juli 2013
My next project
Hi!
Not a lot going on with Mega Man 42 at the moment. There is still the music issue and a few bugs left to be fixed. I kind of miss having something to code and make graphics for, so I'm excited to begin real work on my next project soon.
The next game will be another NES-style game now restricted to the correct color palette. It will be a metroidvania-type game set in ancient Greece. The player will battle mythological monsters and collect items. All the good stuff. And to let the cat out of the bag, indeed it will be heavily inspired by Battle of Olympus for NES and to a lesser degree Zelda II (which of course in turn is one of the main inspirations for BoO). However, it's important to note that it will not be a fan game this time around. I intend to make a demo and a full version that will be for sale.
As fun as it has been these last three months creating MM42 from our ideas dating back to 2001, and it certainly has never been my intention for MM42 to be anything else than a non-profit game (after all the IP Megaman obviously belongs to Capcom), working more than full time for something that you wont be getting anything back from financially is kinda not workable in the long term. I'm unemployed at the moment which of course has meant I've been able to put a lot of time into the creation of MM42, but it's also a factor that plays in that it's just not workable for me to keep doing this as an amateur. On a positive note I've learned so much from developing MM42 which is very valuable when continuing to new projects, had I made MM42 from an existing engine, or if I had started out with this next game, it would have been much worse as a result since my skills would have been on a much lower level.
In any case I've started planning the project and I've settled for all of the bosses and areas, so it's coming along nicely. Stay tuned for more updates.
Not a lot going on with Mega Man 42 at the moment. There is still the music issue and a few bugs left to be fixed. I kind of miss having something to code and make graphics for, so I'm excited to begin real work on my next project soon.
The next game will be another NES-style game now restricted to the correct color palette. It will be a metroidvania-type game set in ancient Greece. The player will battle mythological monsters and collect items. All the good stuff. And to let the cat out of the bag, indeed it will be heavily inspired by Battle of Olympus for NES and to a lesser degree Zelda II (which of course in turn is one of the main inspirations for BoO). However, it's important to note that it will not be a fan game this time around. I intend to make a demo and a full version that will be for sale.
As fun as it has been these last three months creating MM42 from our ideas dating back to 2001, and it certainly has never been my intention for MM42 to be anything else than a non-profit game (after all the IP Megaman obviously belongs to Capcom), working more than full time for something that you wont be getting anything back from financially is kinda not workable in the long term. I'm unemployed at the moment which of course has meant I've been able to put a lot of time into the creation of MM42, but it's also a factor that plays in that it's just not workable for me to keep doing this as an amateur. On a positive note I've learned so much from developing MM42 which is very valuable when continuing to new projects, had I made MM42 from an existing engine, or if I had started out with this next game, it would have been much worse as a result since my skills would have been on a much lower level.
In any case I've started planning the project and I've settled for all of the bosses and areas, so it's coming along nicely. Stay tuned for more updates.
onsdag 12 juni 2013
Gameplay all done
Phew!
That's it, finally all of the gameplay in the game is done. The last few weeks really have been good for me inspiration-wise, which has allowed me to get this far in the process in such a short time. As I have mentioned before, only the GUI-parts and everything that takes place in between the levels are left. I made a checklist and a rough estimate which tallied up to a little more than two weeks of work. So far my estimates have been very generous, as I am currently like a month ahead of the initial schedule, but I think this one will be more true to the actual time things will take to complete. And of course that is not counting the music, which really is the only hurdle right now. More updates later when I start sorting out the non-dirty work.
That's it, finally all of the gameplay in the game is done. The last few weeks really have been good for me inspiration-wise, which has allowed me to get this far in the process in such a short time. As I have mentioned before, only the GUI-parts and everything that takes place in between the levels are left. I made a checklist and a rough estimate which tallied up to a little more than two weeks of work. So far my estimates have been very generous, as I am currently like a month ahead of the initial schedule, but I think this one will be more true to the actual time things will take to complete. And of course that is not counting the music, which really is the only hurdle right now. More updates later when I start sorting out the non-dirty work.
tisdag 11 juni 2013
Megaman confirmed for Smash Bros!
Yo!
E3 is in full steam right now and today Nintendo revealed that Megaman will be one of the new challengers in the next Smash Bros game! Yay! Maybe Megaman isn't dead after all? Although Nintendo are obviously not Capcom and it's their IP so you never now about that.
Regarding my fan game all that is left to be done is the last of the Wily stages' bosses and then that's all done as far as the actual gameplay components are concerned. The boss is planned out and I have done all the sprites for it so it's just the actual programming left which should be done in a day's work. It's very nice to have virtually all of the dirty work done at this point since it really will be easy sailing from here. I'm looking forward to completing the game so people can play it, and so I can begin work on my next project which will A. Not be a fan game and B. Probably be way easier to program and create in general.
Have a good one!
E3 is in full steam right now and today Nintendo revealed that Megaman will be one of the new challengers in the next Smash Bros game! Yay! Maybe Megaman isn't dead after all? Although Nintendo are obviously not Capcom and it's their IP so you never now about that.
Regarding my fan game all that is left to be done is the last of the Wily stages' bosses and then that's all done as far as the actual gameplay components are concerned. The boss is planned out and I have done all the sprites for it so it's just the actual programming left which should be done in a day's work. It's very nice to have virtually all of the dirty work done at this point since it really will be easy sailing from here. I'm looking forward to completing the game so people can play it, and so I can begin work on my next project which will A. Not be a fan game and B. Probably be way easier to program and create in general.
Have a good one!
söndag 9 juni 2013
Update
Hello!
The first Wily stages boss is done and like I hoped and predicted it cooperated fairly well, once I figured out that I had switched the x and y coordinates in one place. I don't want to spoil the boss but if you have ever played a Megaman game before you might have an idea what it could be. What's left now are the remaining three Wily stages' bosses and work has begun on one of them. After that is done everything needs to be tied together as far as the game goes, with menues and a password system. This is mostly just stuff that will take x time to do, it's not really tricky at all. Music and sound effects also need to be done, the music could prove to be a bit problematic because I need to either find someone to do the music or learn it myself which could take some time. I've done my fair share of music using a computer, but the chiptune stuff I've never tried.
On the list is also adding Roll as a playable character which has always been the idea for me at least from day one. Which could prove a bit problematic as well since the engine as far as Megaman's sprite goes is the patchiest piece of code in the game. The reason is I programmed it before everything else to see that I could do it which was good for that reason but it certainly has given me a lot of headache throughout the process of creating this game. I've found out that the less built-in functions in Gamemaker that you use, the better the game turns out. And of course I started out by using almost exclusively the stupid GM functions since I didn't know better at the time, as opposed to coding them in GML. That's all for now, more updates later.
The first Wily stages boss is done and like I hoped and predicted it cooperated fairly well, once I figured out that I had switched the x and y coordinates in one place. I don't want to spoil the boss but if you have ever played a Megaman game before you might have an idea what it could be. What's left now are the remaining three Wily stages' bosses and work has begun on one of them. After that is done everything needs to be tied together as far as the game goes, with menues and a password system. This is mostly just stuff that will take x time to do, it's not really tricky at all. Music and sound effects also need to be done, the music could prove to be a bit problematic because I need to either find someone to do the music or learn it myself which could take some time. I've done my fair share of music using a computer, but the chiptune stuff I've never tried.
On the list is also adding Roll as a playable character which has always been the idea for me at least from day one. Which could prove a bit problematic as well since the engine as far as Megaman's sprite goes is the patchiest piece of code in the game. The reason is I programmed it before everything else to see that I could do it which was good for that reason but it certainly has given me a lot of headache throughout the process of creating this game. I've found out that the less built-in functions in Gamemaker that you use, the better the game turns out. And of course I started out by using almost exclusively the stupid GM functions since I didn't know better at the time, as opposed to coding them in GML. That's all for now, more updates later.
fredag 7 juni 2013
Megaman 42
Greetings!
Welcome to the blog for my video game development projects. I was going to hijack my old blog -> servadacsgamingrants.blogspot.com, but sadly Google ate that one up. Or rather, made it impossible for me to access it anymore. So here we are at a new address.
Playing video games has always been a big part of my life, minus some periods where I couldn't afford to buy new consoles or I did other things. One of the game franchises I played the most as a kid and have replayed countless times as an adult are the Megaman games. Sometime around 2001 one of my friends came up with the idea that the two of us and another pal of ours would make our own Megaman game. He also came up with a number of names for the Robot masters in said game. The names were mostly puns like Mad Man etc. I was up for this, but even at the time I kind of knew nothing would come of it because that's usually what ends up happening with this kind of stuff. Anyways, among the three of us I am the 'art' guy since I've always liked drawing. Hence I was going to do the graphics and leave the programming to the second childhood friend of mine who is very good at those things.
So I did some concept drawings, and pixel art for the Robot Masters. But that was basicly it. We had a few discussions about it on icq, but like I had expected in the back of my mind all along, the whole project never materialized. Many years later I got the itch again and drew seven Robot Masters from the initial ideas, colored them and uploaded them to my deviantart account -> http://plageus.deviantart.com/. The game has always been in the back of my mind but I was convinced it would never happen since I just don't know programming well enough to do any of this.
Flashback to about two months ago. I've been browsing 4chan since late 2007 and early this year m00t released a few additional boards, one of them being /vr/ about retro games. The nostalgia rush I got from the discussions on there was unreal and our fan Megaman game came into my mind once again. I had this game sitting on my hard drive that I hadn't played - Megaman x Street Fighter. Someone on a stream I watch mentioned the game which made me finally play it. I kind of enjoyed it for what it was, but when I read that it had been made in GameMaker, that blew my mind. You could do that in GameMaker??? I had tried GM but I could just do horrendously crappy games in which the animations didn't work and the player got stuck everywhere. So I booted up GM and tried making a Mega Man engine. Three long hard days later I had a working engine - made almost completely with the built-in functions in GM 8.1 (minimal coding) which is insane to me now.
The last two months I've spent making graphics and coding the stages, enemies and Robot Masters. Currently all RM stages are done including the RM's themselves. The game is actually like 75% complete at this point, I have the Wily Stage bosses left to go but they shouldn't be too much hassle. The menu stuff is really easy compared to everything else and shouldn't be any problem at all. Note though that I know absolutely nothing about the Megaman fan game community if there is such a thing. If Capcom get their lawyers on my ass for doing this, so be it, I mostly did it for myself anyway and I've learned so much about game development in this short time. I just know that in 2001 we got this idea and it has now become reality thanks to me. That was obviously long before even Megaman 9 or 10 were released.
Here is a video of a now outdated version of the game, most of the graphical glitches in this video have been fixed now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLzmXKJXZBQ
This is already long for a blog post but I wanted to make a mini-FAQ so here goes:
Q: Why didn't you just make a rom-hack?
A: Firstly I have absolutely no idea how to do a rom-hack and I think learning it would just not have been worth it. Also I want this to be its own game as much as it can be, I don't want to build upon another MM game. Extremely few sprites in the game now have been taken straight from another Megaman game, besides good ol' Rocky himself obviously.
Q: Is Rush, the ability to slide or the charge-up megabuster in the game?
A: No. I have based the game on Megaman 1, my favorite game of all time in fact, not just in the franchise of classic MM games. And of course that game has none of those things. Personally I think all of these additions don't add anything to the game play. MM9 and 10 didn't include the slide or the charge-up buster and there is a reason for that. There are no items in this game, be it Magnet Beam or MM2-style items, but you will be able to use one of the weapons as an item...
Q: How come you don't use the palette limitation for the NES?
A: When I started making the graphics I thought the palette limitation was 256 colors for the NES so I just didn't bother to look it up. As I understand now it's something along the line of 56 colors(?), but converting all the sprites would just not be worth it at this point. A rough estimate of the number of sprites in the game currently is 700 plus backgrounds. Also if this would have been a big consideration for me I would've made sure to stay true to the hardware limitations regarding that. Megaman 42 is intended to be a game that pokes fun at the whole Megaman franchise, so this purist stuff is rather besides the point. You can make damn sure that I've used all sorts of mathematical calculations that the NES could never do as well. You just have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to this stuff, and I've intentionally been generous. Also MMxSF obviously didn't use the limitation and I've never read any complaints about that. The fact that I'm color blind doesn't help either. In the future I will make sure to use the correct colors though because I do plan on making at least one more NES-style retro game after this one.
That's it for now I think. I will update the blog when some more progress on the game is made.
Later!
Welcome to the blog for my video game development projects. I was going to hijack my old blog -> servadacsgamingrants.blogspot.com, but sadly Google ate that one up. Or rather, made it impossible for me to access it anymore. So here we are at a new address.
Playing video games has always been a big part of my life, minus some periods where I couldn't afford to buy new consoles or I did other things. One of the game franchises I played the most as a kid and have replayed countless times as an adult are the Megaman games. Sometime around 2001 one of my friends came up with the idea that the two of us and another pal of ours would make our own Megaman game. He also came up with a number of names for the Robot masters in said game. The names were mostly puns like Mad Man etc. I was up for this, but even at the time I kind of knew nothing would come of it because that's usually what ends up happening with this kind of stuff. Anyways, among the three of us I am the 'art' guy since I've always liked drawing. Hence I was going to do the graphics and leave the programming to the second childhood friend of mine who is very good at those things.
So I did some concept drawings, and pixel art for the Robot Masters. But that was basicly it. We had a few discussions about it on icq, but like I had expected in the back of my mind all along, the whole project never materialized. Many years later I got the itch again and drew seven Robot Masters from the initial ideas, colored them and uploaded them to my deviantart account -> http://plageus.deviantart.com/. The game has always been in the back of my mind but I was convinced it would never happen since I just don't know programming well enough to do any of this.
Flashback to about two months ago. I've been browsing 4chan since late 2007 and early this year m00t released a few additional boards, one of them being /vr/ about retro games. The nostalgia rush I got from the discussions on there was unreal and our fan Megaman game came into my mind once again. I had this game sitting on my hard drive that I hadn't played - Megaman x Street Fighter. Someone on a stream I watch mentioned the game which made me finally play it. I kind of enjoyed it for what it was, but when I read that it had been made in GameMaker, that blew my mind. You could do that in GameMaker??? I had tried GM but I could just do horrendously crappy games in which the animations didn't work and the player got stuck everywhere. So I booted up GM and tried making a Mega Man engine. Three long hard days later I had a working engine - made almost completely with the built-in functions in GM 8.1 (minimal coding) which is insane to me now.
The last two months I've spent making graphics and coding the stages, enemies and Robot Masters. Currently all RM stages are done including the RM's themselves. The game is actually like 75% complete at this point, I have the Wily Stage bosses left to go but they shouldn't be too much hassle. The menu stuff is really easy compared to everything else and shouldn't be any problem at all. Note though that I know absolutely nothing about the Megaman fan game community if there is such a thing. If Capcom get their lawyers on my ass for doing this, so be it, I mostly did it for myself anyway and I've learned so much about game development in this short time. I just know that in 2001 we got this idea and it has now become reality thanks to me. That was obviously long before even Megaman 9 or 10 were released.
Here is a video of a now outdated version of the game, most of the graphical glitches in this video have been fixed now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLzmXKJXZBQ
This is already long for a blog post but I wanted to make a mini-FAQ so here goes:
Q: Why didn't you just make a rom-hack?
A: Firstly I have absolutely no idea how to do a rom-hack and I think learning it would just not have been worth it. Also I want this to be its own game as much as it can be, I don't want to build upon another MM game. Extremely few sprites in the game now have been taken straight from another Megaman game, besides good ol' Rocky himself obviously.
Q: Is Rush, the ability to slide or the charge-up megabuster in the game?
A: No. I have based the game on Megaman 1, my favorite game of all time in fact, not just in the franchise of classic MM games. And of course that game has none of those things. Personally I think all of these additions don't add anything to the game play. MM9 and 10 didn't include the slide or the charge-up buster and there is a reason for that. There are no items in this game, be it Magnet Beam or MM2-style items, but you will be able to use one of the weapons as an item...
Q: How come you don't use the palette limitation for the NES?
A: When I started making the graphics I thought the palette limitation was 256 colors for the NES so I just didn't bother to look it up. As I understand now it's something along the line of 56 colors(?), but converting all the sprites would just not be worth it at this point. A rough estimate of the number of sprites in the game currently is 700 plus backgrounds. Also if this would have been a big consideration for me I would've made sure to stay true to the hardware limitations regarding that. Megaman 42 is intended to be a game that pokes fun at the whole Megaman franchise, so this purist stuff is rather besides the point. You can make damn sure that I've used all sorts of mathematical calculations that the NES could never do as well. You just have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to this stuff, and I've intentionally been generous. Also MMxSF obviously didn't use the limitation and I've never read any complaints about that. The fact that I'm color blind doesn't help either. In the future I will make sure to use the correct colors though because I do plan on making at least one more NES-style retro game after this one.
That's it for now I think. I will update the blog when some more progress on the game is made.
Later!
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