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 :)

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.

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.

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!

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.