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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:24:54 +0000

Medal Metal Arena (MMA) - 4

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:19:27 +0000

I've been out for a bit, I got lost in the void.

Welcome to central Illinois

However, I've been devoting time recently to pursuing progress on MMA. According to some of the lurking I've been doing, BYOND has received the attention of some of the big dogs out there and sadly this means I'll be needing to remove support for a bunch of the fan games I had intended to list as OMGs. I'm taking an extra precaution and removing anything that is unoriginal, or uses others' intellectual property.

The following titles are now nixed.

Death Note Online (18)
Final Fantasy Legacy (33)
Pokemon Citrine Online (8)
Resident Evil (29)
Resident Evil Online 2 (18)
For a whopping total of 106 medals. I'm sad to see them go, but I can't be pixeling content for games that may or may not be permitted in the future. I'm just playing it safe. Besides, I'm a big proponent of originality anyway! Then again, I need to find some more original games with medals to replace those medals I won't be supporting. If you know any original games that added medals in the last few months, let me know.

As for progress, I've gotten back into pixeling, with tutelage from many wonderful pixel artists around BYOND past and present.

Pixeled this little fellow last night.

The above will quite likely serve as the base for player sprites and NPCs. I'm not sure how much customization I want, it'll probably wind up being hair and face only. Or I might make everyone be the super-nerd on the right.

Anyway, I've been doing design and pixel art. It's slow going, but I'm doing some neat stuff with javascript and interfaces that is sure to turn some heads.

It's Time To Rebuild.ogg
I've been discussing the creation of some decent music with the guy who was remaking Efencea's music and SFX too. At this point, I'm pretty sure MMA will have some nice music and SFX that are entirely unique.

Dear Tom

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:53:10 +0000

The following was a response I was writing to a somewhat impolite reply by Tom to my somewhat impolite post about Tom's opinions. It expresses my view of the current way things work on BYOND. I was hoping that Tom would at least read it, but the thread was closed so I'm putting it here, on my blog. Yes, it is silly to speak my opinion on someone else's opinion. I'd link to what we had said but those particular posts have been deleted, apparently Tom moderates himself sometimes.

I wasn't talking about 'various other metrics'. Just because I am the one speaking doesn't mean I'm talking about -my- ideas and what -I- think is best. I was talking about instances where large groups of users were asking for a particular feature.

It is my understanding that because I'm outspoken I've been lumped into the 'never satisfied' category. I suppose that's why we see things so differently. You have to make tough decisions, I understand. I also understand that sometimes one can make bad choices. I'm not worried about bad choices and I'm not going to share any of my opinions about what is right or wrong here. I just want you to keep an open mind, don't ignore us.

I'm sorry that you feel listening to your community is a means by which to enslave yourself. We do have legitimate concerns and ideas now and again. Continue listening to yourself and your gurus, maybe we can cry out to them and thereby to you.

It's not about you, the developers of the software, being slaves to the whims of the users. It's about letting us in, letting us help if we can. Give us progress updates, let us in on the details, and let us comment.

Of course, you can replace 'we' and 'us' with 'I' and 'me' and continue thinking I'm just another metric, too. I never sought to enslave you to my whims, you've already shackled yourself.

MMA Enemies

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:34:08 +0000

I posted these up on my blog just a moment ago. Wondering if anyone has any tips/suggestions.

Medal Metal Arena (MMA) - 3

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:29:54 +0000

(I still haven't decided if it's Medal Metal or Metal Medal)

I've been plunking along at this project, primarily on enemy pixel art. The Waste is a dangerous place after all, so it has to be populated with an array of creatures. I have to thank my pixel artists friends for helping me along--you all know who you are. Anyway, I'm a bit over halfway through pixeling the static enemies I have planned to inhabit The Waste, and that's disregarding recolors and rehashes. Just now I finished going back through and adding more contrast, which seemingly improved most of the sprites in terms of readability.

(18 of 32 planned static unique enemies)
I'm still sorta slow, but I think I've gotten a bit better. Progression goes top to bottom, left to right, so crab, bigger crab, worm, bigger worm, etc, next column.

I mention 'static' in describing these enemies in that you'll be fighting robots as well, which will be similar to you because they have a chassis and can have a wide assortment of parts composing their weaponry, mobility type, etc, making them none static.

As for combat itself, I have a lot in mind. Not only will parts be determining what you attack with and how well you evade and aim, but they'll be determining your capacity for storing data (experience) and software (algorithms that alter your performance), rate of data accumulation (how fast you earn experience), rate of data analysis (how fast you can spend experience), how often you act, and more. As for how players go about building their robots, that's up to them and their success, which depends partly on the number of medals you have for a specific sector (OMG), in finding/trading/building/buying parts. I intend for this to be fairly random and I also intend to keep part purchases to a minimum.

Each chassis, think of it like an empty computer case, of a robot will have a different assortment of modification points and external parts will have to fit onto specific modification points. Some parts will fit any type of modification point as well. Joe might build his Junk Chassis robot to be completely decked out with a couple weapons, but that would leave him without defensive or utility parts. Dave might rely on a single weapon, a physical shield, and a repairing utility part that he was able to cobble together. Joe would have more options offensively but Dave would have greater survivability.

At the moment I'm thinking combat will follow an Active Time Battle system like you may have seen in Final Fantasy 6, only instead of waiting for your turn, you'll store up points for actions. A simple weapon might cost you 5 points where firing a rocket may cost you 15--more if you take the time to aim/lock on.

Expect a lot of junk, a lot of tinkering with said junk to find how you like to build your robot(s), and making choices on what parts you want to build first.

Metal Medal Arena (MMA) - 2

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 08:42:06 +0000

Recently, I've found myself back at work on my fun little BYOND project, MMA. A few of you may have caught the last post regarding what MMA happens to be, but if you haven't look here. I've been pouring a few hours everyday into pixel art and planning which is slowly putting me closer to having a groundwork to start programming upon. Also, I've been improving on some of the old pixel art as well.

(Top: The old arena. Below: The new style WIP)

Looking back at my design document has me rethinking a few aspects of how I had planned things to work. For example, I have:

"Scavenging. Players are awarded scavenging tickets for various things, which allow them to look for parts in various sectors. There will be a few MMA-specific sectors to scavenge from but a lot of emphasis will be placed on sectors tailored to OMGs"

It doesn't seem too fun to have to get a ticket to explore the waste for loot unless there is some easy or renewable means by which to obtain them. So, I got to thinking about how MMA is built around players playing other games and thought maybe I could reward players with some tickets over a time period. Say, 3 tickets a day, and maybe a ticket per medal earned since last play? That way they have to wait before they can search for more loot, which will give them time to play another game--where they might earn some new medals. Thoughts?

(A jalopy chassis with a couple sawarms attached)
Also, since I've been away for a little while, I thought I would ask about OMGs (Other Medal Games), that is, are there any 'new', playable/hostable, quality games that reward players with medals besides those listed below?
Blobble (5), Death Note Online (18), Deus Rex (12), Feval (15), Final Fantasy Legacy (33), Mooseland (6), Murder Mansion (7), My Life As A Spy (13), NEStalgia (22), PathWrath2 (6), ~~PokemonChallenger~~, Plunder Gnome (7), Pokemon Citrine Online (8), Regressia (7), Resident Evil (29), ~~Scream of the Stickster Volume II: The Crayon Massacre (10)~~, Tomb Explorer (6), TurtleTower (7), WarpWrangleAndWeep (5), and WitchesChess (24).
(The stricken titles are unplayable at the time being.)
Don't be afraid to nominate your own game. Otherwise, I'll probably be making rounds again sometime to badger good games to employ medals/find games that I've missed. I'm pretty sure ACWraith has released 2-3 new games since the last time I blogged, maybe one of them has some medals and isn't too complicated for my brain. (</joke>)

I know I mentioned in the previous post that I would discuss the nuances of combat in MMA and how they differ from the generic Arena games on BYOND but I'll be putting that off to another day since I'm still reorienting myself with the project--and as I said above, rethinking some of how things were planned to function.

I'll try to post again soon detailing some progress and ideas for peer review/discussion.

Lastly, say hi to Fatty:

Medal Metal Arena (MMA)

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:00:50 +0000

Recently, I put together a library named MedalData, which allows for an in depth view of the medals players have earned on BYOND games--not just the game MedalData is used in. More recently, I blogged about games with medals. At this point, I'm disappointed in the lack of games that employ medals..

(Not part of the game, just something to momentarily distract you from the wall of text.)
Anyway, I'm developing a game that will support games with medals. The game will be played similar to other BYOND Arena style games. Fight enemies, get stronger, fight stronger enemies. Since I'm doing art, and programming for the project, I'll have to stick to this simple scope--especially since the art still takes me forever.

The game will be known as Medal Metal Arena, or MMA for short. Player's will be building a robot from 'junk' parts they scavenge from the Waste, which they then pit against enemies or each other. I have intentions of having rankings, a campaign ladder and some other neat stuff to make the combat have a purpose.

(An early mockup of MMA)
So, how does this support games? The Waste is divided up into multiple sectors, each of which will represent an OMG (Other Medal Game) and the Waste is where you get your parts. Players might find themselves scavenging the Regressia Sector for parts, and the number of Regressia medals they have (and maybe other secret stuff to do with Regressia medals) will determine their luck with findings. I don't intend for this to be the only reward for collecting medals either. There will quite likely be some great benefit for earning 100% of the medals in a given game--since this is often very difficult.

As of now, I've found 19 games with medals that I intend to use :Blobble (5), Death Note Online (18), Deus Rex (12), Feval (15), Final Fantasy Legacy (33), Mooseland (6), Murder Mansion (7), My Life As A Spy (13), NEStalgia (22), PathWrath2 (6), Plunder Gnome (7), Pokemon Citrine Online (8), Regressia (7), Resident Evil (29), Tomb Explorer (6), TurtleTower (7), ACWraith.WarpWrangleAndWeep (5), WitchesChess (24). If you know a good game that I missed, please let me know.

I'll explain how I intend to deviate from the norm of BYOND arena games next time.

Demake Artist, I'm amazed.

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:01:23 +0000

So, I ran into this post of a guy who does demakes. Rather than explain, I'll just show you: Demakes.

I was highly amused. Quite fascinating, really.

Medals and MedalData Library

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:25:29 +0000

I've been doing some searching of the live games listings. It seems there is some interest in a game that makes use of what I wrote MedalData for, so I'm doing some research. It seems that there aren't a lot of decent quality games that employ medals. I've found quite a few but I'd like to invite those of you that read this to nominate games that I should consider for use in this project. Here is a brief list of games I've jotted down:

Blobble (5)
Death Note Online (18)
Deus Rex (12)
Feval (15)
Final Fantasy Legacy (33)
Mooseland (6)
Murder Mansion (7)
My Life As A Spy (13)
NEStalgia (22)
PathWrath2 (6)
Plunder Gnome (7)
Pokemon Citrine Online (8)
Regressia (7)
Resident Evil (29)
Scream of the Stickster Volume II: The Crayon Massacre (10)
Tomb Explorer (6)
TurtleTower (7)
ACWraith.WarpWrangleAndWeep (5)
WitchesChess (24)

I've spent quite a bit of time perusing but it is quite likely that I've missed some gems that have medals--not that all those listed above are 'gems'.

As for the MedalData portion of this blog. The next version of MedalData, which allows users to easily pull Medal information from games as well as key-by-key, is on hold due to a BYOND bug.

As for the game, I've got a small two page document brewing and some elementary artwork done up. Please take a moment to share thoughts, games with medals, etc.

Funny Flash Videos

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:40:16 +0000

These are oldies but goodies.

Mario Twins: link
Final Dump: link