SSGX's BYOND website

Lego Voltron part 3

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:56:44 GMT

So some of you might remember a few posts I've made about the Voltron I built out of Lego:

http://www.byond.com/members/ SuperSaiyanGokuX?command=view_post&post=32711

Well, I've run across another Lego Voltron that completely blows mine out of the water:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandadmiral/sets/ 72157621831608361/

And I really mean completely... I mean, I'm still proud of mine, especially considering the part limitations it was built under (namely just what I had available in my modest collection, plus just a few extra ordered special), but this guy's rendition is lightyears above it...

If you like Voltron and/or Lego, you need to check it out...

Jumping on the 2MB bandwagon

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:13:06 GMT

Once again, I find myself grudgingly agreeing with parts of Silk's point, yet cringing at the way he has conveyed it...lol

I don't agree that BYOND games have no reason to ever grow larger than 2MB, but I do agree that if the size mainly comes from high-res title screens and other wasteful graphic resources (which generally only come packaged with games that don't even come close to living up to the look of those wrappings once you get inside the actual game) and lots of poorly chosen, uncompressed sound files, then yes, there's a problem...

But if a game genuinely uses some extra file space to accomplish something worthwhile (lots of compressed, yet good quality sounds, high-res graphics all-around, etc.), then I have no issue with it...

My largest game package is Murder Mansion, weighing in at 2.6 MB... This is obviously due to sounds... Virtually none of the sounds in Murder Mansion have been edited from the originals I found on the 'net (mostly through findsounds.com), and quite a few of them are far larger than they need to/should be, so if I ever got around to doing some optimization, I could probably shave that total down quite a bit...

DBTC tips the scales at 1.5 MB, making it perhaps one of the only fan games that slides in under Silk's arbitrary limit...

How sad...

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:31:26 GMT

So I just witnessed something very sad...

The Orange Glo commercial came on (you know, the one that goes "This sander simulates years of wear and tear on your hardwood floors... blah blah") and it was almost the same commercial I've seen hundreds of times... It shows someone running a sander over a wood floor, scraping it all up, then squirting Orange Glo on it, mopping it around, and the floor looked good as new, while the announcer goes on to talk about how Orange Glo "cleans, shines, and even protects from damage!" Etc.

Well, up until today, that announcer has been Billy Mays... Today, though? It's the same commercial, but all traces of Mr. Mays have been removed...

There's now a female voiceover, saying the exact same lines as Billy's version, and all shots that used to show him have been edited out...

The guy dies, and the Orange Glo people decided to erase him from memory? Completely trash his legacy?

Jerks...

It's probably some sort of way to get out of paying royalties to his estate or something...

My little genius

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:18:54 GMT

So, most of you know that I'm a father now (as of the past year and a half), but what you're all unaware of is that my son is incredibly smart (at least we all think so, and I swear none of us are biased in any way ;) ) And though vocabulary is only a small part of the intelligence puzzle, my kid knows a huge number of words for his age (as far as I'm aware) Here they all are, as well as I can recall them all (remember, he's only 1&1/2, and much of this list he's known for months; though as expected per child development around his age, he has very recently hit an explosion in learning new words) Most of the following are actual, honest-to-goodness, plainly spoken words, and some are approximations or baby-talk mispronunciations (which I'll make notes on as needed):

Family members:

Mommy
Daddy
Paw-paw (paternal grandpa; this is slowly turning into "grandpa")
Me-me (paternal grandma; she's referred to as "Grammy")
Papa (maternal grandpa; this one should stick, as that's what we refer to him as)
Mama (maternal grandma)
Me (himself, in pictures or the mirror)
Nick (his closest-in-age cousin)
[Uncle] Bryan (my brother)

Animals:

Dog (which says "Arf")
Cat (which says "Mao")
Bird
Moo (Applies to cows... he doesn't say "cow" yet, though)
[Gi]raffe
Lion (which says "Roar")
Frog
Pig
Fish ("feese")
Bee (not just a random sound; actually applied to the insect, both in pictures and real life)
Duck
Monkey (this one is currently just "mee", but he applies it to primates)
Bear
Mouse (still just "mao", but again, applied correctly)
Owl
Sheep (which says "Baa")
[Ze]bra
[S]nake
Elephant ("Ahh-phan")
[Butter]fly

Foods (and related):

Eat
More
Bite
Cup
Milk
Chee[se]
Apple
[Ba]nana
Ice Cream ("i-keem")
Water
Ju[ice]
Fry (for french fries)
Pop (even though he never gets any)
Cookie
Egg ("eyeg")
Butter

TV characters (we watch a lot of Nickelodeon):

Dora
Boots
Go-go (Diego)
Bob (Spongebob; he also recognizes the other characters, and can approximate their names, like "Pappur" for Patrick and "Kwurd" for Squidward)
Ming-ming (the duck on "The Wonder Pets")
Ernie
Elmo
Carly (the girl on "iCarly"... he seems to have a crush)

Body parts (including locating/pointing to them):

Eye
No[se]
Mou[th]
Ear
Hand
Arm
Feet
Pee-pee (this was discovered a few months ago, and diaper changes and baths haven't been the same since)

General nouns:

Phone
Night-night
[Out]side
Slide
Swing
Bubble
Car (which goes "Beep-beep")
Truck
Van
Bike
Plane ("Pane")
Train ("Tane" which goes "Whoo-Whoo")
(The last few relating to vehicles, he uses to correctly identify each type of vehicle he plays with or sees on the road, and the sounds they make)
Baby
Ball
Shoe
Shirt
House
Light
Bath
Stairs
Seat
Clock
Drum
Flower
Balloon ("Ba-oon")
Book
Star
[Re]mote

General verbs:

Stop
Go
Stand
Clap
Roll
Climb
Jump
Peek
Fart (he's a boy, what can I say?)

General adjectives:

Hot
Cold
Off
On
Up
Down
Stuck

Interjections:

Hello
Hi
Bye
No (much to our dismay)
Aww (for hugs)
There!
Whoa!
Wow!
Oh no!
Aw, maaaaan!
Aw, c'mon!
Duh!
Uh oh!
Hurray!
Yay!
Boom!
All done/gone!
Mmmmm (occasionally after taking a bite of food)
Ahhhh (occasionally after drinking)

He's also polite:

Please (well, more like "pwee", but he actually uses it when asking for things)
Thank you ("ankyu")
Excuse me (more like "cue me", but he knows when to use it, and even urges us to say it when we make bodily noises)

Higher concepts:

He's recently been learning colors and numbers... He'll say two, three, four, or five if prompted with the number(s) before (though I'm not sure if he gets the concept, or just has the sequence memorized) For colors, he seems to have blue down pretty good, and can make almost discernable words for red, white, black, brown, and green (he sometimes needs a reminder), but blue and red seem to be the only ones he can correctly apply when asked what color an object is...

I know that learning things is his thing (as with all children), but I'm continually amazed and impressed by the little dude...

Someday, I'll become a ripper...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:40:13 GMT

So today I got the urge to make another DBZ game... DBTC is a style of game that doesn't appeal to the masses (turn-based, singleplayer-focused, not flashy, etc.), and I decided I'd like to make a second DBZ game that follows the more popular mold...

It won't happen for quite some time (if ever), because I've got a nice list of projects and jobs ahead of it (including actually upgrading DBTC itself at some point; I wouldn't abandon my baby for this project), but I'm putting it at the end of my List...

The trouble is, I don't want to invest a lot of time into another huge project (which this would quickly become), I don't want to re-use DBTC resources (or even mimic their style, which I'm not sure I can get away from), and I don't want to even try to compete with some of the truly original and amazing DBZ games out there (both released and in development)

So...

I want to become a ripper...lol

I want to grab up some popular source (or maybe as many of them as I can find) and hammer them into a decent game... Sort of show the rippers how to really do it...lol

How would I go about this? Well, a lot of my focus tends towards the artistic/aesthetic side, so a major part of the work would be graphical... Every icon (ripped or otherwise) would have to be edited into a coherent style (I'd dump the most glaring offenders... no icons would remain that were taken from commercial games, and I'd try to weed out any that aren't now more or less in BYOND's "public domain") Too many DBZ games around here are a jumbled, mismatched, hodge-podge of icons from wildly varying sources and styles (and they look like garbage because of it) I'd pick one style that I like the best (and/or can emulate the best) out of the lot and dump or edit everything else to match it...

Along with visuals would come mapping... I see too many games (not just DBZ games, mind you) with terrible mapping jobs... Just plopping turfs down to make stuff that looks like buildings, or having huge expanses of nothing but empty water or grass for the sake of making the map look big, or having layouts that don't make sense, or maps that don't even resemble the places they're supposed to represent are all huge sins in my eyes... I'd have to rectify these common issues in my rip...

And of course, the programming... This one will be tough, but I think I'm up to the challenge... Aside from cleaning it up to my current standards of simplification, universalization, organization, etc., I'd have to gut most of it and rebuild from the scrap...lol But I'd try to retain all of the various commonplace elements that DBZ players on BYOND come to expect...

Of course, for much of the ubiquitous (and ultimately pointless) systems (like "Meditate" or P-bags) I'd try to find some way to make them actually worthwhile and entertaining... Perhaps a great undertaking in itself, but to stay true to the spirit of the project and its roots, I wouldn't want to just tear them all out...

So yeah, someday, I'll become a ripper (unless the "Warning of the Day" hits me because of this post)

Will everyone still love me? lol

Of course, I wouldn't try to pass the game off as original (kind of hard, since it'll likely still scream "rip", plus, y'know, there's now this blog post), and it and/or its hub entry would be very clear about its origins (maybe even with a little sermon about the evils of ripping, unless that might seem too hypocritical)

Murder Mansion's world.status

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:03:10 GMT

So, Murder Mansion's world.status outputs the following information:

Current Map (if any), Current GameMode (if any), Number of games played this session, Winner of last round (if any) along with their key (because it displays their in-game name) and the map and mode used during that last round...

Now, this is actually mostly for my own benefit... I like to check on the status of live games to get a feel for how things are going... Are people playing the various modes, or just sticking to Classic? Are people trying out all of the maps, or just sticking to one? Are people mixing-and-matching modes to maps, or are they always playing Classic in the Mansion, Clue in the Clue Mansion, etc.? Are they actually finishing rounds (with winners, or just aborting rounds)? Are the bots sometimes winning? Are they playing more than one round per hosting session (indicating not only interest, but also that the game is holding up to long-term playing)?

So whenever I see that the game is live, I drop by the hub page to check out what the world.status tells me about the session...

Anyways, I just saw that it's up, so I checked it out, and found this, which I thought was amusing and awesome:

"Join [Current Map: Mansion. Current GameMode: Classic. Games Played This Session: 3. Winner of last round: Person dressed up like Jason Voorhees (ForsakenSoul) (Camp, Classic).]
Hosted by ForsakenSoul"

Now, this might only be cool to me, but I really like the fact that the winner of this round (ForsakenSoul) happened to be wearing the Jason Voorhees costume when he did so... I hope he was the Murderer...

So, whatcha doin' SSGX?

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:59:49 GMT

With Murder Mansion's new version out and relatively stable and working properly (judging by the lack of recent bug reports and suggestions) I've moved on to other things for the time being (don't worry, though, there's still a list of content I plan to add to it in the future, including 6 or so more maps, and one or two more game modes and/or options for existing modes, on top of a little list of things I had planned to add for this update, but decided to skip)

My current major project is mapping for Tiberath's "Isorath"... Though unfortunately, I have precious little to publically show for it...lol I am working on it, though (it's just that right now, the work consists of roughing in land forms, then smoothing the edges with angled edge pieces; not exactly exciting stuff yet)

What I do have to show is some tinkering I've been doing on one of my neglected projects, SkyWurm...

It's probably my most neglected (released) project, as it's probably the one with the most unrealized potential, and was basically dumped out as-is, turned into an 8k contest entry, and then left for dead...

For now (to keep me from getting in too deep with it, and slacking from work on Isorath), all I've done is improve the graphics (as with Murder Mansion, transparency opens up so much room for improvement), and fix some bugs I happened to notice...

I actually have a list of notes for planned additions and changes (chief of which is a system of levels) and the game will also eventually have a high-score list on the hub (the game will always essentially be an old-school arcade-style play-for-points kind of game) But again, I'm not going to be doing any of that work until I've gotten much more done for Isorath's map...

For now, though, enjoy these screenshots from the game:

These shots show what it used to look like (what it looks like in the currently public version)

And these 4 show the current graphics! Alpha transparency used to make translucent fire effects, shadows, improved screen fade-out effects, translucent wings on the dragons, etc... I've also animated the dragons with flapping wings (in 3 frames, each of which one of these shots shows), swinging tails, and bobbing heads... And some of the other graphics have gotten a "texture" update (the dragon scale icons in the border have more depth, the grass has been softened and given a more textured look, etc...

So yeah, be on the lookout in the future for news of an update (I might just put this version up to replace the old one until I make an actual update)

Murder Mansion Manual: Modes (Clue)

Sat, 30 May 2009 15:24:46 GMT

---------- Clue(do)* Mode ----------
The classic board game of whodunit...Murder Mansion style! A murder has already been committed, and it's up to you to figure out the Who, What, and Where of the crime... Make your way to the green question mark in various rooms to make suggestions to be disproven by your fellow players, until you are confident you know the full story, and can make a phone call with your final accusation!

*"CLue(do)" and all related elements are copyrighted by Hasbro, and are used here without permission... Hopefully they won't mind...lol
---------------------------------------

Those familiar with the history of Murder Mansion (IE anyone who was paying attention, or remembers, when I've talked about it before, or has read the in-game credits) knows that it was initially inspired by a forum text roleplay game that was started by a user on the http://www.dragonballtoys.com forums (so in a way, you all have DBZ to thank for Murder Mansion's existence! lol)

Well, the guy who started up that game was, in turn, inspired by none other than CLue(do)! So Murder Mansion's roots go back to that classic board game... And in fact, in my mind MM has always been thought of sort of as "real-time Clue"...

So when I was adding alternate modes, I simply had to make it official and include a direct copy of Clue's gameplay as one of the new modes... I was a bit hesitant, not wanting to infringe on any copyrights, but I ultimately decided it was a risk I was willing to take...

Like is says below, if you've ever played the Clue(do) board game (and you should!), you'll already be familiar with this mode's rules, which I'll give here, anyways:

---------- Clue Mode Rules ----------
If you've played the board game, you already know the basics... In this mode, players race to logically deduce the Who, What, and Where of a Murder that's already been committed...

Each map has 9 locations/rooms/areas that are marked with Clue Spots (a flashing green question mark on the floor), 6 of the map's weapons are picked as possible Murder weapons, and each of the players is one of the possible suspects...

One possibility from each of the 3 categories is selected to be one of the correct details of the crime, and the rest are "dealt" to all of the players...

Players then visit Clue Spots on the map to make suggestions of which suspect and which weapon might have been involved in a Murder in that location (Clue Spots can't be used twice in a row)... If one other player has been "dealt" one of the elements suggested, they give that information to the player who made the suggestion to disprove that element of the suggestion... Play continues until a player has disproven enough possibilities to confidently make an accusation, and they do so by calling it in from a phone... Incorrect accusations result in disqualification...

The Murder Mansion twist is that killers will automatically learn the evidence that the victim was dealt at the start of the round, and the victims will "forget" all evidence they've been shown by others...

The Clue Book keeps track of all evidence, and marks off the disproven (either dealt or shown) elements...
---------------------------------------

And though it's not documented in the rules (it was a last-minute idea that hit me), this mode has the BYOND Member selectable option of playing in "Speed Mode" as opposed to regular mode... Speed mode speeds things up by announcing to everyone the impossible element when a suggestion is proven wrong... Under normal rules, once a player makes a suggestion, if another player has one of those "cards", they show that card to the suggesting player only, and that player now knows that that element can't be part of the final accusation...

Well, with speed mode turned on, the incorrect "card" is shown to all players, so everyone can mark it off of their lists...

I actually have another mode variant in mind to add later, but we'll have to wait and see...

So put on your Sherlock Holmes outfit, and get to sleuthing!

Murder Mansion Manual: Modes (DeathMatch)

Sat, 30 May 2009 15:00:45 GMT

---------- DeathMatch Mode ----------
Everyone's a killer in this slashfest... Be the first to reach the winning number of kills (your own deaths count against you) to claim your place as champion!
---------------------------------------

I guess no game in which players can kill other players is quite complete without the ubiquitous DeathMatch mode, right?

So, I added this mode to Murder Mansion to bring it up to "code"...lol

The general gameplay of this mode itself is the very straightforward "kill everyone, and try not to get killed" that you'd expect from DeathMatch, but it has some variations as selectable options, so the rules for this round are pretty lengthy, but that's only because they give a run-down of the 4 different sub-types that can be chosen (by a BYOND Member!) when starting the round...

The rules are as follows:

---------- Deathmatch Mode Rules ----------
All players are free to kill, and will "respawn" when killed (as in your typical multiplayer FPS)...

This mode can be played either in Points-based or Timed rounds (selectable by BYOND Members only) with different variations of each... The options are as follows:

Points based (number set to 1, 3, 5, or 10)

First to:
The winner is the first to reach the number of points set for the round (Note: Points equals total kills minus deaths)...

Lives Left:
Players are eliminated once they have died a number of times equal to the set number...

Timed (time limit set to 1 min, 3 min, 5 min, or 10 min)

Most kills wins:
The player with the highest points (kills minus deaths) when time's up is the winner...

Least kills eliminated:
The player with the least points when time's up is disqualified, and this is repeated down to the last player standing...

Hot Potato:
All players may kill, but one player is picked to have Murderer Status, and he/she must kill someone else to "pass" Murderer onto them... The player stuck with Murderer status at time's up is eliminated, and this is repeated down to the last player standing...

Musical Chairs:
All players may kill, but none of the players is given Murderer Status at the beginning of the round... Players must kill others to "take" Murderer status from them... Any players without Murderer status when time's up will be eliminated, and this is repeated down to the last player standing...

Default settings (automatically set if a non-Member begins the round) are Points-based, first to 5...

The Clue Book displays the current scores, and marks the player(s) with Murderer status by a red asterisk... The Phones on the map connect you to a mysterious person who has the place under surveillance, and tells you the location (IE "Red Bedroom" or "Kitchen" or "Outside") of all players in the round...

---------------------------------------

Hopefully that explains it well enough...

Now get in there and kill each other!

Murder Mansion Manual: Modes (Classic)

Sat, 30 May 2009 14:50:47 GMT

---------- Classic Mode ----------
Unfortunately for you all, one of you is a murderer! This murderer will attempt to kill everyone else before any of the potential victims can figure out his/her identity and correctly accuse them to the authorities!
---------------------------------------

Longtime fans of the game will obviously be familiar with this mode of play, since it's the one that was the only mode of play in the original version (hence the name "Classic" mode, heh)

It has basically remained the same in terms of the rules (which are the following):

---------- Classic Mode Rules ----------
One player is selected to be the Murderer and it is his/her goal to kill all others before anyone can correctly identify him/her as the Murderer...

The potential victims must collect clues (by looking at/examining evidence like bloody or muddy footprints, clothing fibers and hairs left on bodies of victims and dropped items, players holding weapons that match the wounds inflicted on victims, players with bloody hands, etc)...

All clues observed, along with notes the player writes themselves, can be reviewed by looking at the Clue Book...

Once sufficient evidence is gathered to logically deduce the correct Murderer, a player must get to a phone to call in an accusation... Incorrect accusations, though, result in disqualification by death...

Players may also win by killing the Murderer (as in self-defense), but they must be certain, as killing anyone but the Murderer will result in disqualification...

BYOND Members will get to set an option at the beginning of the round to announce the location of all deaths (to speed up the game)...
---------------------------------------

There are some changes, though... Aside from some long-standing bugs being fixed (the phones and phone cut-off box should be working properly after all this time, for instance) and the AI being improved to the point where they can actually win the round, there is now the change that all players may attack all other players (including themselves, which is handy for giving yourself some wounds that others can see, so they'll hopefully assume you were attacked by the murderer, when you are the murderer)

Of course, killing anyone but the murderer instantly results in DQ by death, so non-murderers should be very careful when attacking others...

This mode currently has two BYOND Member options:

1) Murder/death location announcements, on or off:
The very first version of Murder Mansion always announced when there was a death, and what floor of the mansion it occured on... Players felt that this removed the mystery aspect of the game, and didn't allow murderers to secretly kill off players... So, it was removed... Deaths are no longer announced, unless a BYOND Member starts the round and turns on this option!

2) Clues fade right away, on or off:
In normal mode, clues stick around for a long time... Some are on a timer, and some stick around until a player examines them and some never disappear until the end of the round... Well, if this option is turned on, clues will all fade almost as soon as they hit the floor... Blood splatters, water drips, footprints, etc. all gone almost instantly...

Good old Classic Mode... The gameplay that Murder Mansion was founded on... Sure to remain a fan favorite!