ID:45442
 
Keywords: megaman, platformer
As the game only has three levels I am reluctant to call it a full game, although it does have all the necessary mechanics completed. Adding a few more levels, projectiles and bosses wouldn't take too long but I didn't want to turn this project into a full game, I have already achieved my goal.

Originally the game used more realistic jumping and movement velocities, when I decided to turn it into a Mega Man game I had to adjust it to accurately mirror the Mega Man controls and physics. A lot of study and testing went into this, including getting the collision box around Mega Man just right.

This game only contains three levels, which are unlocked one after the other. The final level was an added bonus, it was only added on a whim which gave me a chance to add a more advanced and difficult boss.

Several playable characters are available, they are unlocked as you complete the levels and find items. You're able to switch between them during a level except during the last boss fight.

Why a platformer?
This is a project I've been wanting to do for a long time. Since my time with BYOND I've created several small pixel movement demos in an attempt to create a simple side scrolling platformer, unfortunately BYOND lacked some features which made it possible.
With BYOND 4.0 came some necessary features, key up/down detection, interface customization and client screen offsets. I decided to start from scratch and make a simple platformer game from the ground up.

Is it Multi-Player?
Unfortunately the engine could only be used as a single player game. I tested the possibility of a multiplayer option multiple times but it just wasn't reasonable, the data transfer is just too slow; the game appears very jumpy to clients. It's not unexpected, the networking in BYOND is obviously not designed for that sort of game. Perhaps if the network export features were more reliable, it may have been possible.
I also toyed with the ideas of 2-player gameplay using the same keyboard. It worked fine but didn't seem as useful as network play, and the game wasn't meant to grow too big.

Will the game be updated?
Unlikely. BYOND isn't the best platform for a project like this, especially lacking multi-player support. There is an unknown problem where the game appears to slow-down and become less responsive; I spent a lot of time trying to track down any leaks but found nothing significant; everything the game creates is cleaned up correctly. Sadly BYOND lacks some more in-depth debugging features at this time.
This makes me reluctant to add any more to the game because features may have to be disabled.

Was it difficult?
Yes and no. The challenge was that the game required many unique systems, I had to create my own libraries and management systems. Game states were used to separate areas of the game. Sprites represent all game objects, which only use objects to display themselves. Sprites also had to be bigger than 32x32, up to 256x256. A custom icon management method was required as the sprites were bigger than 32x32, I couldn't decipher how the large icons worked in 4.0 so I had to create my own method using the 32x32 limitation.
The hardest part was dealing with the icons, something I don't like doing. This is the major reason more wasn't added.
Enemy AI was especially difficult, having never worked with AI in a platformer before I had to be creative.

Any plans to release the source
Not at this time. Due to my lack of experience with this kind of game some parts of the code doesn't look too pretty. I don't believe it would be beneficial to release it in the current state.
As for the libraries and such at the base of the game, possibly. I made them first and well enough but I'm no expert and the BYOND community is unforgiving if a library has a flaw or uses something that has a better alternative. The safest option is to not release anything.

What has BYOND 4.0 allowed?
The best feature is the interface and the ability to customize macros, allowing you to detect key up/down events. The other major feature was allowing the client screen to be moved in pixels.
Both of these features were essential.
You should put the DMO host files up if you're going to be making a mega man game. =\
I'll be focusing on DMO shortly. Consider this a small project to take a break and re-energize.
Ah, but would it be possible to have DMO up longer? My time zone requires me to stay up late to play DMO.
I'll be able to focus on DMO again shortly but until then I can't really answer those kind of questions.
Since this is another one of your games, you should really add it to http://www.lufika.com.
Aye, OK. I shouldn't be mentioning about DMO in a Mega man post anyways.

*Back On Topic*

It sounds like it could be a decent game. Shame about the multi player thing though...
Good lord.

This is EXCELLENT. This is how Megaman wars should play. Unfortunately no multiplayer :(
"Runs at 20 frames per second"

BYOND is capped at 10FPS last I heard, but other than that great job!
T3h B4tman wrote:
BYOND is capped at 10FPS

By decreasing world.tick_lag, higher fps values can be achieved.
Just ran through it. THIS is the kind of Byond side scroller game I want to see more of. Shame about the multiplayer limitations though.
Very good game.
C'mon give Kaj a break, he said he'll work on it and hopefully I won't have to leave BYOND up to check if DMO is online (sorry I know how busy you must be!)

Hopefully we can download DMO soon too!
I played it, it's epic.
Heh, just the thing to come out to get us even MORE excited for Megaman 9.
Great job man. I actually felt like i was playing a real megaman game. Keep it up.
Thanks for the positive comments!

I'm looking forward to Mega Man 9, can't wait to see what kind of neat weapons and tools were added.
I found a few bugs. One deals with the charged shot. Somehow charging can allow your movement to become locked, causing you to only move in one direction. The easiest way to describe it would be like turning on you gamecube while hold the joystick to the right. Your character will constantly move right, and holding left will only stop you from moving. The second bug is that I somehow got my character's icon to disappear.

I will test these further to see if I can meaningfully reproduce them.
Pretty good stuff here, aside from the few little issues here and there that probably can't be helped; like occasionally you'll move more than you should when you hit the arrow key once, or the little platforms that move on the first level will occasionally drop you even if the icon doesn't indicate it's in drop-mode (albeit only slightly out of sync).

If you could work out those little kinks a little bit (especially the movement one, nothing like landing a well placed jump only to walk off the edge by over-movement) and add some more content this would make one solid game.
Try using this to make it multi-player: http://www.byond.com/developer/Gakumerasara/ Client-SideProcessingDemo

It uses Topic() to send messages/packets. It's how Gakumerasara does multi-player for his Ray Casting game.
Thanks for the reports, I thought I had worked them out by the final release. There were some slowdown issues over time, but I couldn't track down anything that gets leftover or built up. Some slowdown also occurs with charging due to the rapid icon changes.
I'll see what I can do to reduce the effects of these.

I had considered sending data between games to emulate a multiple-player version, I wasn't aware someone had made a demo of it though. I'm not sure if sending data is 100% reliable but it sounds like a possibility. Thanks.
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