Yo dawgs. Got some work done on this project. I'm never happy with how much progress I make though, I wanted to have an almost-working boss by now. Oh well, I got some other shit sorted this week anyway.
Hey look, Crunchdown's off the front page. Perfect timing n all, it's got a 4 out o 5. You probably don't remember, but I was aiming for a 4 and it passed judgement with about a 3.8- So that's mint. Mission accomplished, I finally broke into the fours. That's gonna sound really dumb to most people, but keep in mind I aint no Swain or Ed McMillen. I don't make shit about Nintendo guys, I don't make sprite cartoons, I never make sequels, got no serieses; I think it's an achievement to get a 4. Unless it's just like the same few guys who keep voting 5. Is that a good thing? I dunno.
TODAY'S THE 24TH IF Y'ALL WANNA SKIP DOWN TO THAT
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This is a work-in-progress of a game I just started making. It's gonna take me about 3 or 4 months to complete. Check back here every so often if you wanna watch it develop. Actually you can click Add To Watch List to get updates.
Use WASD to move around. Clicking the mouse close to your character will do a melee attack, clicking far away will shoot. Play around with it.
I won't usually update this often, this is just a one-off.
Checking if vertical platforming is an option. It works pretty well. Arrow keys now usable. Also you can double-tap in a direction for a new melee attack. Climbing animation added for when you get to a ledge you can't quite reach.
I think I've finished all the animations for this guy. Drew him a sword, added more friction to the floor, made the camera shaky-as-hell to emphasize impact and baditude. New moves added:
Double-tap Left or Right to smash forward
Double-tap Left or Right in mid-air to smash diagonally.
Do a melee attack and hold the mouse down, then release when the sword flashes for a radial special.
The only thing I think I'm lacking is an attack that launches an enemy into the air, and another that smashes them down. My first thought was to use the mousewheel, but they're not as common as you'd think.
I thought about Double-tapping Up or Down, but you can Double-tap Up. As soon as you press Up, you're in the air. So Double-tapping Up for a ground-based attack isn't gonna work. I don't know what I'll do for that.
Anyway, I should probably start making enemies next.
Okay, alot of development:
Firstly, there's some actual background art now. I've decided that I'm making alot of the art outside of Flash for this one. The Newgrounds team does alot of their artwork in Photoshop and it makes the games really stand out. Makes it look alot more professional, I thought I should try it. Considering I'm pretty useless in Photoshop, I turned to the next best thing on my PC after Flash; 3DS Max. I should be practising 3D anyway.
ENEMY- There is now an enemy. He's pretty standard. His limbs have blades connected to em, and he can align all the blades into a wheel and roll at you. Now I was aiming to not rip off Devil May Cry with enemies, because it's pretty obvious that's the main influence behind the game, and I wanted to come up with all the content myself. Sadly though, I was playing through it this week, and I got up to mission 14 yesterday where you meet an enemy that turns into a wheel and fucking rolls at you. So I felt pretty bad about that.
Anyway, he's about 70% done. I've not full decided on some of his art and the death animation is just a lazy placeholder. I've bin workin on the AI, and I think it's allright so far. If anyone finds themselves beating him by just doing the same move over and over, please tell me about it.
NEW MOVES- I thought for a long time on the Blastoff - Breakdown moves. The obvious choice would be to drag the mouse up really fast, but then the mouse ends up too far away from the guy. I thought about rolling the mouse wheel up, but alot of people don't have mouse wheels and it interferes with the web page. Someone on the forums suggested a good idea; Press DOWN and then UP to smash a guy up. I tried it out, but having to press two buttons for one move was just really bad. You have to be really quick. It wasn't comfortable and I couldn't see everyone getting the hang of it. I think I found a way that works though: Do a melee move, then press UP right after it to launch a guy in the air. When in the air, press DOWN to smash a guy to the ground.
That's it for October 9th. Strangely though, I have one bid for $250. Not for the source script or anything- For the game as it is now. Crazy.
DON'T FALL OFF THE BOAT. I haven't done the script that brings you back yet. I didn't work much this week. Well- Nobody's forcin me are they? Also I was busy with that munchdown thing.
ENEMIES: I'm gonna have a hard time coming up with new ideas for enemies. I allways do. We've still got our wheelman in there, but now there's this chomp guy. He's basically this big dumb blob that eats you. IT JUST CAME TO ME. I love how his animations came out, they're great. Still haven't decided on a death animation for all the enemies though.
Second new enemy is the bat guy. Little tiny enemy that you're really gonna have to shoot to get rid of. I'm not 100% happy with his AI. I'm aware that all these enemies are the same colour. Maybe that'll change, maybe it won't. i haven't decided.
GRAPHICS: Made a new bullet shot. I've decided that white is the colour that denotes enemy damage, so the attacks and the shots are all white. I got rid of the particle effect, TRIED a frame-by-frame one. I hated it, it just wasn't random enough. So now I've made this white randomised kind of anime-style bang. It doesn't look QUITE right to me but I like the idea.
BACKGROUND ART: I've decided NOT to do 3D. After a whole lot of unsuccessful attempts to model a light-house, I decided I'm not skilled enough to pull it off. I redrew the docks in 2D, added a little tiny boat in the background, added a boat ride that forces you to beat some guys without really moving, and drew a light-house. You can cut that desk in half, by the way.
The light-house might play some significance in the upcoming boss fight.
24th of Cocktober
The guy with blades on him's got a new attack. It's nothin flash, just an alternate version of his original ROLL-AT-YOU attack for when you stand too close. He jumps you.
NEW ENEMY- I really like the concept of this. I basically took a greyhound and a revolver, and smashed them together. Creative isnit? I got the idea from some shit I saw on Deviantart like a guy with a gun for a face. The AI's not 100% yet, but you get the idea of how it works. By the way, it'll be easier to dodge it once I put an audio cue in of the pre-shot gun click noise. Then you'll know when to jump.
What's that house about? Don't know, I thought the level seriously needed som variety. I was goin for one o those crapshacks you find out in the middle of nowhere on Half Life 2 Episode whatever. Oh, don't lead any enemies in there, they're not housebroken yet and they'll probably flick through the cielings or something. You can smash all the objects in there. Please don't though, they belong to the light-house keeper and it's not fair on him, he's a nice guy.
BOSS!! You'll see the boss I've got planned at the end of the level. I haven't animated it yet- And I know what you're thinking: He'll never animate that; draw it sure, but animate? No way. Well that's where you're wrong, I've made it carefully so it's constructed out of about 5 different graphics all stuck together. I can tween em wherever I want like Madness, no problem. I'm gonna need some grunjy as hell music for that boss fight. I threw in a step ladder by the way so you can take a look at the guy on top. HA, I guess I haven't mentioned the plot atall. I won't spell it out, but if you've played Cannoncrotch you know what to expect. It's gonna be awesome and dumb as hell.
That GO! sign's recycled from an old game I never finished called THE FUCKIN AWESOME QUEST. It was pretty much a prototype for Crunchdown, but you could pick up enemies and throw them. Well- You could pick up anything and throw it. It was cool.
Don't think there's anything else. Is it running slow for anyone? I turned the quality down a notch cos I think it might be running slow. Something I should do: Add some kind of collectible stuff to give you.
Any suggestions on how to beat a giant enemy crab, I'm all ears.
Perry
you fucking rock