Development Blog - A.K.A "Why didn't I do this earlier?"

Pinkie Pie · 03-11-11, 20:24

It occurs to me. I need to actually start posting stuff on this forum. It feels like ages between notfications and updates for this game. I bet it feels like I'm doing nothin' at all.

This thread will act like a development blog. My goal is to get a decent demo out by Christmas. A lesser release should (hopefully) be fairly shortly on the tester forum. This is of course, providing I don't run into more health problems and the like. And also providing I don't decide to scrap the engine again. I'm fairly happy with the current one to be honest, I don't forsee any major problems.

For the record, the game's Folder regularly gets updated with stuff not posted to the forums. So, yeah.

Also if someone could occasionally prod me and tell me "Back up you idiot". That'd be appreicated.

... this was supposed to be a blog post or something. You know what, i'll do that below.

This thread will be updated as stuff happens, not matter how tiny.

Pinkie Pie · 03-11-11, 20:24

03/11/2011:
Holy crap, it's Novemeber. What happened to the year? I blinked.

My wrists are getting better by the day (other problems have cropped up, but I can do some work now!)

The last week or so was mostly spent
a) Failing at adding slopes to the game engine. I will admit - I have no idea how to code slopes with any degree of comeptancy.

The concept eludes me. I don't think they're completely nesserary for a classic Megaman style game, but it would be nice to have as a level design option. I'll keep working on it. (Most of my previous games have used existing engines as their basis. This game doesn't. This is the main problem.)

b) Expanding various enemy/boss submissions. I spent a while expanding Blackhook's Skelerang enemy. It's gone from 6 frames of animation to nearly 100. There's a good reason for this, i'm sure.

Also some more boss/enemy ideas uploaded to the various folders above. Will offically post them later, but you can spoiler yourself if you want to see some works in progress.

c) Stage art.
Such as remaking Second level graphics from Castlevania.
Mostly focusing on the intro stage now though.

d) As stated in the Beta tester forum, the sixth playable character is now finished. I better stop while i'm at it or it'll never get done.
For those that can't view the Beta Tester forum, there are six playable characters. And no, they aren't in any way shape or form balanced.
And before you ask - they each have seperate Weapon Sets.
No, really. There are about 60 or so weapons in the game. It's gotten a bit out of hand.

e) I found the original pixel art for the Crab Enemy:

It looks so stupid, I feel I should include it somewhere.

f) Most of the Robot Masters look great in motion. I just thought i'd mention that.

Blackhook · 03-11-11, 22:39

Yay for progress

Rangda Bangda · 04-11-11, 20:18

Back up, you idiot. *Prods

Why would you need the CV stage 2 tiles if you've already got a screenshot with them? Or are there more that need working on?

Good to hear about the RMs. Exey working okay, or does he need fewer or more frames or anything?

Pinkie Pie · 09-11-11, 20:54

Sonic Generations got in the way of me working on this.... also holy crap it's the 9th of Novemeber already? Sheesh!

Fluttershy · 09-11-11, 21:09

It's okay Ace, same thing happened to me.

Blackhook · 10-12-11, 12:49

A status update once in a while would have been nice you know

Pinkie Pie · 14-12-11, 07:56

Indeed.

Despite the fact i'm working on it daily I don't have alot to show for it.
(yay development.)
I willl admit, thanks to the time of year, (and the fact that I am still suffering from carpel tunnel) I am finding it hard to put in my usual days worth of work into this.

In other news though, i've been updating most of the submitted sprites to include new animations. I should probably post the updated sheets.
That'll have to wait, since i'm entertaining guests at the moment.

Pinkie Pie · 22-12-11, 00:40

I hate game development.
Name: Image3.png
Views: 388
Size: 1.9 KB

BECAUSE THIS SORT OF GLITCH MAKES PERFECT SENSE.

Some people have been sent a few files. I'll be uploading something to the beta testing forums hopefully tommrow. Or Friday. It depends on how tired I am after a few all nighters.

Blackhook · 22-12-11, 20:27

Noone said that it was going to be easy.

Pinkie Pie · 22-12-11, 23:56

I'll be uploading the file to the beta testing forum when i get home from work tommrow.

Pinkie Pie · 02-01-12, 22:26

2/01/2011

I've spent my time largely debugging the game - or specifically Christmas Carol - but they're the same engine, and all the Wilyvania coding is IN that game anyway. Even the enemies and mid-bosses are still in every level of Christmas Carol.

For the record - the next release of Christmas Carol should look and play alot more polished. Which.. is a good thing right?

Fluttershy · 02-01-12, 22:54

Right

Pinkie Pie · 03-01-12, 23:23

Online Highscore coding. Gah.

That is all.

Blackhook · 04-01-12, 15:19

Right

Pinkie Pie · 17-01-12, 18:26

So Christmas Carol decided to introduce a glitch into the game that basically ends in "This game crashes for no reason". I've gotten rather sick of this sort of thing occuring so I did stop development for about a week, and ended up doing something else. Mostly played Zelda and some other crap that's not useful.

So i'll be getting this release out in a few days as soon as this "Game crashes" glitch is nailed in the head (this is basically me looking at the current version and a previous version and trying to find out what exactly has gone wrong).

I've decided, we are no so long after Christmas, that Episode 2 being released NOW is just pointless, so I'll probably release that at the end of the year. Since all the sprite work is done already as well as some boss refights from the first game... I may just work on it occasionally throughout the year so I don't have to lose sleep over it again.

SO ANYWAY. "Halloween" game news...

You've seen the basic engine, and the testing has been very helpful.
Some of the things I didn't even think about have been fixed, and others are being changed based off feedback from Christmas Carol.

How-ever so many edits have been made to the engine in Christmas Carol, and since all the WV coding, weapons, characters, enemies, etc are still in Christmas Carol, i'll probably be adding the WV code back into the Christmas Carol engine and working from there. Of course I have to solve the game crashing glitch, but I may release a new engine test level to make sure I havent' missed anything out/test even more thouroughly.

Making Christmas Carol 2 has been a wake up call that the engine still has alot of work to do. In fact, I may need to do some tidying up of the coding so it isn't such a pain to fix glitches in the future.

Still, even if I haven't gotten the additional episodes out, and despite the fact I should really have the fixed version of the game online... ... and the fact the game isn't even FINISHED, I would deem Christmas Carol 2 a success.

Soo.. I'll be keeping you posted as I do work. I'll try and be more forthcoming this year.

EDIT: Ok. No such luck with the crashing buisness. This is frustrating.
Sod it, i'm going to just call it a night and download and catch up on Pony. ¬_¬

EDIT: Actually settled on downloading all the episodes (Via Youtube downloader) rather than attempting to watch the latest one.. which is trying it's hardest to put me off. I'll work on this tommrow.
This fault in the game has to be something obvious, and I'm just not sure what exactly i've changed to cause it to crash.

Blackhook · 01-03-12, 18:20

So..will this not be worked on till you finish Paint my world?

Pinkie Pie · 01-03-12, 19:34

Paint My World sort of got a boost to production recently. As stated on Deviant Art, a few commerical companies seem to be interested in the project.

Don't worry about Wilyvania, it'll pick itself up shortly. I got a little burnt out with Megaman thanks to Christmas Carol.

Blackhook · 01-03-12, 19:49

Good thing Wilivania is only 1/2 Megaman :P

Pinkie Pie · 23-03-12, 14:29

I really don't post in this too often do I?

I'm not sure what to post outside of "I've been changing how some of the weapons work based off feedback to Christmas Carol 2."

That and fixing bugs.

So many bugs. I hate game design.

03-11-11, 20:24	#1
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	Development Blog - A.K.A "Why didn't I do this earlier?" It occurs to me. I need to actually start posting stuff on this forum. It feels like ages between notfications and updates for this game. I bet it feels like I'm doing nothin' at all. This thread will act like a development blog. My goal is to get a decent demo out by Christmas. A lesser release should (hopefully) be fairly shortly on the tester forum. This is of course, providing I don't run into more health problems and the like. And also providing I don't decide to scrap the engine again. I'm fairly happy with the current one to be honest, I don't forsee any major problems. For the record, the game's Folder regularly gets updated with stuff not posted to the forums. So, yeah. Also if someone could occasionally prod me and tell me "Back up you idiot". That'd be appreicated. ... this was supposed to be a blog post or something. You know what, i'll do that below. This thread will be updated as stuff happens, not matter how tiny. __________________ Let's Torture ACE

03-11-11, 20:24	#2
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	03/11/2011: Holy crap, it's Novemeber. What happened to the year? I blinked. My wrists are getting better by the day (other problems have cropped up, but I can do some work now!) The last week or so was mostly spent a) Failing at adding slopes to the game engine. I will admit - I have no idea how to code slopes with any degree of comeptancy. The concept eludes me. I don't think they're completely nesserary for a classic Megaman style game, but it would be nice to have as a level design option. I'll keep working on it. (Most of my previous games have used existing engines as their basis. This game doesn't. This is the main problem.) b) Expanding various enemy/boss submissions. I spent a while expanding Blackhook's Skelerang enemy. It's gone from 6 frames of animation to nearly 100. There's a good reason for this, i'm sure. Also some more boss/enemy ideas uploaded to the various folders above. Will offically post them later, but you can spoiler yourself if you want to see some works in progress. c) Stage art. Such as remaking Second level graphics from Castlevania. Mostly focusing on the intro stage now though. d) As stated in the Beta tester forum, the sixth playable character is now finished. I better stop while i'm at it or it'll never get done. For those that can't view the Beta Tester forum, there are six playable characters. And no, they aren't in any way shape or form balanced. And before you ask - they each have seperate Weapon Sets. No, really. There are about 60 or so weapons in the game. It's gotten a bit out of hand. e) I found the original pixel art for the Crab Enemy: It looks so stupid, I feel I should include it somewhere. f) Most of the Robot Masters look great in motion. I just thought i'd mention that. __________________ Let's Torture ACE Last edited by Pinkie Pie : 03-11-11 at 20:51

04-11-11, 20:18	#4
Rangda Bangda Rainbow Dash Approves Rank: Harry Kim Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Fuckin' Equestria! Posts: 232	Back up, you idiot. *Prods Why would you need the CV stage 2 tiles if you've already got a screenshot with them? Or are there more that need working on? Good to hear about the RMs. Exey working okay, or does he need fewer or more frames or anything? __________________

09-11-11, 20:54	#5
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	Sonic Generations got in the way of me working on this.... also holy crap it's the 9th of Novemeber already? Sheesh! __________________ Let's Torture ACE

14-12-11, 07:56	#8
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	Indeed. Despite the fact i'm working on it daily I don't have alot to show for it. (yay development.) I willl admit, thanks to the time of year, (and the fact that I am still suffering from carpel tunnel) I am finding it hard to put in my usual days worth of work into this. In other news though, i've been updating most of the submitted sprites to include new animations. I should probably post the updated sheets. That'll have to wait, since i'm entertaining guests at the moment. __________________ Let's Torture ACE Last edited by Pinkie Pie : 14-12-11 at 08:08

03-11-11, 22:39	#3
Blackhook Promoted Rank: Godlike Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: The Holy Ground Posts: 2,711	Yay for progress

09-11-11, 21:09	#6
Fluttershy Moderator Join Date: May 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 9,039	It's okay Ace, same thing happened to me.

10-12-11, 12:49	#7
Blackhook Promoted Rank: Godlike Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: The Holy Ground Posts: 2,711	A status update once in a while would have been nice you know

22-12-11, 00:40	#9
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	I hate game development. BECAUSE THIS SORT OF GLITCH MAKES PERFECT SENSE. Some people have been sent a few files. I'll be uploading something to the beta testing forums hopefully tommrow. Or Friday. It depends on how tired I am after a few all nighters. __________________ Let's Torture ACE

22-12-11, 20:27	#10
Blackhook Promoted Rank: Godlike Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: The Holy Ground Posts: 2,711	Noone said that it was going to be easy.

22-12-11, 23:56	#11
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	I'll be uploading the file to the beta testing forum when i get home from work tommrow. __________________ Let's Torture ACE

02-01-12, 22:26	#12
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	2/01/2011 I've spent my time largely debugging the game - or specifically Christmas Carol - but they're the same engine, and all the Wilyvania coding is IN that game anyway. Even the enemies and mid-bosses are still in every level of Christmas Carol. For the record - the next release of Christmas Carol should look and play alot more polished. Which.. is a good thing right? __________________ Let's Torture ACE

02-01-12, 22:54	#13
Fluttershy Moderator Join Date: May 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 9,039	Right

03-01-12, 23:23	#14
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	Online Highscore coding. Gah. That is all. __________________ Let's Torture ACE

04-01-12, 15:19	#15
Blackhook Promoted Rank: Godlike Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: The Holy Ground Posts: 2,711	Right

17-01-12, 18:26	#16
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	So Christmas Carol decided to introduce a glitch into the game that basically ends in "This game crashes for no reason". I've gotten rather sick of this sort of thing occuring so I did stop development for about a week, and ended up doing something else. Mostly played Zelda and some other crap that's not useful. So i'll be getting this release out in a few days as soon as this "Game crashes" glitch is nailed in the head (this is basically me looking at the current version and a previous version and trying to find out what exactly has gone wrong). I've decided, we are no so long after Christmas, that Episode 2 being released NOW is just pointless, so I'll probably release that at the end of the year. Since all the sprite work is done already as well as some boss refights from the first game... I may just work on it occasionally throughout the year so I don't have to lose sleep over it again. SO ANYWAY. "Halloween" game news... You've seen the basic engine, and the testing has been very helpful. Some of the things I didn't even think about have been fixed, and others are being changed based off feedback from Christmas Carol. How-ever so many edits have been made to the engine in Christmas Carol, and since all the WV coding, weapons, characters, enemies, etc are still in Christmas Carol, i'll probably be adding the WV code back into the Christmas Carol engine and working from there. Of course I have to solve the game crashing glitch, but I may release a new engine test level to make sure I havent' missed anything out/test even more thouroughly. Making Christmas Carol 2 has been a wake up call that the engine still has alot of work to do. In fact, I may need to do some tidying up of the coding so it isn't such a pain to fix glitches in the future. Still, even if I haven't gotten the additional episodes out, and despite the fact I should really have the fixed version of the game online... ... and the fact the game isn't even FINISHED, I would deem Christmas Carol 2 a success. Soo.. I'll be keeping you posted as I do work. I'll try and be more forthcoming this year. EDIT: Ok. No such luck with the crashing buisness. This is frustrating. Sod it, i'm going to just call it a night and download and catch up on Pony. ¬_¬ EDIT: Actually settled on downloading all the episodes (Via Youtube downloader) rather than attempting to watch the latest one.. which is trying it's hardest to put me off. I'll work on this tommrow. This fault in the game has to be something obvious, and I'm just not sure what exactly i've changed to cause it to crash. __________________ Let's Torture ACE Last edited by Pinkie Pie : 18-01-12 at 00:06

01-03-12, 18:20	#17
Blackhook Promoted Rank: Godlike Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: The Holy Ground Posts: 2,711	So..will this not be worked on till you finish Paint my world?

01-03-12, 19:34	#18
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	Paint My World sort of got a boost to production recently. As stated on Deviant Art, a few commerical companies seem to be interested in the project. Don't worry about Wilyvania, it'll pick itself up shortly. I got a little burnt out with Megaman thanks to Christmas Carol. __________________ Let's Torture ACE

01-03-12, 19:49	#19
Blackhook Promoted Rank: Godlike Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: The Holy Ground Posts: 2,711	Good thing Wilivania is only 1/2 Megaman :P

23-03-12, 14:29	#20
Pinkie Pie Admin Rank: Crazy Pony Overlord Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Equestria Posts: 3,483	I really don't post in this too often do I? I'm not sure what to post outside of "I've been changing how some of the weapons work based off feedback to Christmas Carol 2." That and fixing bugs. So many bugs. I hate game design. __________________ Let's Torture ACE

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode