Alas.

Dear forsaken, I hath for you.... more spriteths.

(By Sir Thomas)

New sprites.

BlckNWhteNnja, your spritesheet is ready and sexy.

-Thomas

Totally not dead.

Well, we've been going through a slow period, mostly with Animator's arm and laziness to blame. Well, I've made a spritesheet for Gloomp, a floating boulder half submerged in a pool of black sludge. Totally the easiest one to make so far.

Animator's arm will be out of its cast soon, so expect a surge in progress in the near future.

-Thomas

After 9 days of silence...

We've got a new
spritesheet! I (Thomas) made this for Eiturlyf.

If you're wondering why I did his, it's just because I chose randomly (although difficulty came into factor).

And on the heels of Thomas...

Another sprite sheet is finished!
This will probably be for Tsukatu (I might change the red to yellow), since he's bad...rump. His hair powers his special attack. :D

- incluye

Awesome.

Well, I (Thomas) made my first spritesheet for the game since I've been hired by Animator. It's a little strangely organized, but I'm proud of my first sprites ever. (It's a Super Solver!)

Also, me and Incluye have been discussing events in the forums which could be included in the game; we're doing okay so far, but we need a veteran of the forums to help us. Maybe LV?

Soon, we are going to get to making the sprites for the people that asked for them, so, if you're dying to see what your character's like, you'll find out soon. ;)

-Thomas

:P

Animator's going to be away a bit for the next three days, so until then Thomas and myself (incluye), the other two spriters, will be posting updates on the game progress.
Just a heads-up.

The hunt continues.

My right hand is fractured as of now, and can't work on the project for 3-6 weeks. Therefore, the hunt is on for a spritist that can temporarily sprite (or maybe even permanent) for the game. The thread and all details can be found here, as it covers most of the job's requirements. I'm desperate, people, because if I can't find a spritist, then the whole project will be set back 3-6 weeks. I was able to get some things done before my hand had fractured (some backgrounds and tile sprites), so I can't really do more in my position thus far.

Mixit Mixit Good Now, Baby.

We have a physics demo up and ready now, but there are some notable features (and bugs) on them. As you all know, the forums started out when Keron Cyst sent an e-mail to M&R about the possibility of a forum, therefore, Keron is the default (and first) player in the game, and therefore, we can't mess him up. As in a previous post, I posted his spritesheet. Many of you are saying,"What the hell is with the spritesheet? How can it all make sense?" Well, I'll explain it to you in our newly made (but very flawed) engine we are still working on, which can be found here (always on the forums). This will explain many, many things about our first movable and most important protagonist. (As well as a disclosed part of the plot, which makes more and more sense, but could really put you behind in terms of rationalism and plain common sense).

Now, the game starts out as LV begins to unravel a story to some forumers (sitting in a chair, of course, in the forums), and it starts all the way back to when Keron e-mailed Mare and Raigan, thus he will be transferred into his own computer (digital landscape I'm working on), to send the e-mail. Rule #1 of being on the internet: You must always be armed and prepared to face anything. The sprited form of Keron surely proves that, as He is equpped with a bit gun (small gun that fires small pixel-clumps), and as a secondary attack, he can transform his own body parts, and transofrm into a smaller, stronger Keron Cyst. His joints and arms merge to create a miniature bazooka, capable of dealing damage.

Now, let's move on to the engine. It shows (basically) everything about Keron I just said, but there are obvious problems (all of which Tapp has assured me he has fixed). The jump is like using bubblegum to jump, it sticks sometimes in 1 position, and the sprites are all horrible messed up (But not to the point you can't get detail. This was because of a little mishap me and Tapp worked out.) You can't really move (or so I can't) when you're in the transformed state, but as a beta-beta-beta-beta of the game, it's not bad.

On to music! Yes, music, we finally have some music to show off, as Lenny (our newly joined musician in this project) has done the first room music, and it's quite nicely done.

Onto Images! Oh, um. Well, I haven't done any images yet, but I plan on getting started tommorow.

Onto current job placements! Fractal is fired, couldn't keep up with him. LittleViking gave me his permission to speak for him since he can't think up any narration.

Ont- *ended*

Balls.

I did Keron. That's right, and there's a bonus, thanks to an awesome suggestion by LittleViking. I've switched to 20 x 20 tiles (I'm going to be lazy and just tell you that it's just 4 10 x 10 tiles in a square formation), and we even have a saving feature prepared by Tapp. Not much to say, though, just the fact that I'll be extremely busy tomorrow. I'll be also editing LV's spritesheet again, based on the fact that he needs a second attack.

And now for a math lesson.

Ahahaha. I really wish I didn't need to do math, especially in the summer (after studying a whole book), but it seems to hit me back again. So now, I think after this post, I'm going to take a break.

Probably not.

Anyway, here's a math problem. a total area size of a room is 800 pixels by 600 pixels (width by length), and the tiles inside here must be exact, and not so big so they don't take up much space, but not so small that you can't detail them. What could be an appropriate size?

Using my trusty MS calculator, I find out the complete area of the rectangle in pixels (which leads to 480,000 pixels). Since I need to fit squares into a rectangle, I use a trial and error test between various square numbers ( 9, 16, 25, those kinds of numbers), and divide. The amount I get is the amount of blocks that can fit inside. There is a problem, though, as these are not square roots and can mislead a person (example, 480,00/16 = 30,000 blocks, but the square root of 16 is 4. 4 pixels by 4 pixels is way too small), and the second part is the amount of blocks I'll be using (they have to be a reasonable range, I am not going to create an area that consists of a little less of 30,000 blocks, when the character is at least 5 times the size, and mind you, the characters have a little more [in estimate] than 30 pixels). The solution? Sprite out the square number. to see how big it is. The answer I have arrived at is 100 pixels, 10 by 10. It's reasonable, not so small, and takes up only 4,800 blocks. The result is the block prototype.
There is a part 2 to the problem, though (which is mostly a flaw in my own part). The rooms have a size of 800 x 600, but I had fooled myself into believing that was going to be the screen size. I don't want to show the whole room, it'll ruin all it's surprises. Instead, the size of the scroll camera will replace the window size, but the whole question is, what should be the size of the window? Now, in this case, the camera should not scroll of it's edges, but then, should the camera be a square number, or should it be a little bigger in a horizontal view? There is an idea to this, though. Say the scroll size of the game is a square number. It doesn't have to remain that way, it could scroll farther depending on the direction. What worries me, though, is the size of the screen, for unless there was a possibility to zoom it in a ratio in such a way that it matches the 800:600 ratio, the size will be very small. I have decided on a size, though, but I'm still having trouble for it. I'll solve it eventually, as for now, let's move on to a different subject. For now, indulge in some self-blatant image-hosting for the game.

Time for Q/A.

Alright, there have been springing questions back on forth on IRC/forums, so it's time to answer them all (or at least get through a default amount exceeding the ration of done:not done).

Q: What is this game about?
A: Exploring and experiencing the history of this forum.

Q: I read your last blog post. Is this game based on Power Rangers?
A: The last blog post is insane primarily because they display (in order) Power Rangers Theme, spritesheet which helped me make LittleViking, and the last one is LittleViking's spritesheet.

Q: How many players are allowed in the game?
A: 1.

Q: How many characters will be in the game altogether?
A: That is a really good question [person who is obviously me]. That number will seriously depends, as all people who post here will be included in the game (so far, that's 13 people),
plus the active mods that pertain to the history of the forums (15 overall) plus global mods (2 in total), and the admins ( 3 total, but adminbot counts for a character because [spoiler] he will be a boss in the game. Yes, he will be a boss in a way that I won't tell you because it would give up more of the plot. And I'm not excluding myself, and a few normal members that played big roles in the history, which is about 3 or 4, plus one, altogther, the estimate is about 38 people, overall.

Q: Remind me again the genre?
A: It's a bit of action/scroller, and a bit of RPG, but the action/scroller is more prominent. The RPG will be evident when you talk to people.

Q: How long will this take you to beat?
A: Oh. Oh, ho ho ho. You'll have much to do, I plan for this game to take some time and think it through before beating it, and even after you beat it, you still have a lot to do, as you would in the actual forum, and as a mod, you can do even more! Heck, you could even unlock members in the process. How knows? It's an adventure.

Woo.

We have a new member in the group, Tapp! Since fractal hasn't been on for 2 days, and his impending school actions coming on, I shall need a second programmer, and he fits the bill perfectly in this game. After a discussion of mafia, electric chairs, and mass confusion of all, he joined the team. He has previous experience in 3D physics, and 2D programming, and knows all the tricks. His work involves Quadrotron, a 3D car physics project that is very impressive for it's coding. On other news, we have some artwork so far. I photoshopped this as the title screen, and I think it's nice. I thought too long about the title, but I think it fits for the kind of game in store. It's a very nice space theme relating to time, and the forums in the background (because that's what the game is based on, the history of the forums). We're making great progress.

- Animator

*Big-bang*

Boom. All the puzzle pieces fall into place as I go ahead and create my own game. Sadly, I have no idea how to code, no idea how to do anything in flash or game maker, which is why I have assembled a team behind the project. Metastra, a group of dedicated musicians ready to prepare the music, a coder to help me implement the ideas that can't stop hurting me (because I'm too excited for this), and myself, a hard-working spritist, hell-bent on getting this game in action, as well as a man behind the dialog, a professional story-teller that knows how to express himself better than most of the people I know. And so, you ask me,"What the hell are you going to do?". Well, I'm making a game in celebration for a forum I participate in, and for its almost 5 years of action and awesomeness. It's a game based on the history of the forums, in complete chronological order. This will take take time, effort, and research, but it will be done.
I shall not reveal the plot yet, but I can tell the story of the people behind this. Metastra was a musical group created by the forums by a man named Kablizzy (that of which has left and never came back, an awesome person complete), and ever since then, they have barely had any activity since then (and there are some awesome people that can play some mean instruments), so hopefully, they can be revived. The coder is a close friend of mine by Fractal, and he knows how to do these things like the back of his hand. He has assured me that he can do this, and will be ready for anything I throw at him. The narrator is nothing more than LittleViking, and he is the greatest at creating such stories, and since he will be the narrator in the game, I asked him that if he could help me create his dialog (since he plays a very important part of the game. His character is the original Green Power Ranger as he told me.) He is playable at the very end, the funnest part of the game, but I can't tell you (yet).

-Animator