Alrighty!

So lately I've released the WiP ending that JA makes references to all the time, called Fatal Furlong. This is the one with a long horse race and has a character that makes a big appearance in JA, Bradson. It's available now at the Pav, and while I wait for the game to get reviewed for the Anything Goes contest, more progress was made for JA.

I recently finished the hard mode 1-1, so I've moved on to 1-2, Intricate. This level has a similar layout to the previous 1-2, with a sloping bowl like sand area. Rather than jumping on a spire and reaching a high area, you jump over and into a newly re-designed area. It has a wall jumping segment where you can't land on thin air (you gotta aim for the jump pads....not that hard), and after that, make your way through a narrow metal area with monsters. The level is all designed and I spent a good amount of time doing most of the events. Everything except the metal area is finished, although I still need to playtest it.

I gave it some thought, and I think I will go with a three level plus boss program. It'll leave me with some more space and quickens the pace a bit. The next level I have is a redesign of the fan favorite 1-4, BB Gun. It will be similar in that a giant BB gun will need to destroy a rock, but the buildup will be much different. I'll keep tight lipped on it for now. I'll go into it more as I start making it.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm super pumped for the new Magcon 2011. I'm going to be very interested to see if the new worlds are better than the last, what the reaction will be to some changes; the hubworld and paralyze jump should be favorable, and the reaction to some....funny things I threw it just for the demo. It'll be a treat.

Oh, and this time, there is a password lock. If my game's going to bust, then let it fry, I say. I'm confident there'll be no more problems.

That's all for now. Stay tuned next time.

As soon as I can pull myself away from DDR and my newfound addictiveness to it, this will be updated. Please stand by....

I've unfortunately just been very unmotivated to work on this game. I'm spent, and a little burnt out. I'm sure seeing the game at Magcon will probably help jumpstart some new ideas...but right now, I just haven't wanted to make anything. It just seems pointless to continue at times.

So, when I get another motivational boost, progress will resume. That's all for now.

OK, time to get back into this.

Most of December I've been away from this project. I just simply got burned out. Thankfully I feel that the worst is over and I may begin working on the game again very soon. To kick off the return of development, I did something tonight I've wanted to do for a while now; finish the Magcon demo.

So most of tonight I booted up the demo and gave it one last run through. Fortunately most of the playtesting and bug fixing was already finished and I just needed to spruce up some areas. A little more text was added (just in case somebody says No for whatever reason), the fourth boss level had a slight level redesign, the hubworld got a bit more streamlined with it's save point (cut down the windows to go through, so you only get one window instead of three), and other small things changed. I can safely say that the demo for Magcon 2011 is 100% complete! Yes!

So, with that roadblock out of the way and finally behind me, I'll probably start getting back to work on this little project here very soon. Wish me luck.

Big news here.

This game has been in the shadows for awhile, so I think it's time to get it back in the public eye. I've got two things to report, along with some progress.

At the mag, there's usually a new years resolution page where you make goals on what you'd like to do for your progress. This year is my most suspenseful; finish Josh's Adventure by 2011. I've got a lot of work finished, and I think if I keep going with the pace I've kept, I'll get it done. I really want to make it happen.

The second bit of news is that I'm considering making this my last game.

With the MagCon demo finished, I've moved on to the third level of the first world. This level has seen so many redesigns....it's not even funny. I may have finally settled on a unique level design, though. Called 1-3, L B4 U L (Look Before You Leap), it's a level that's separated into two halves by a bridge. You start on the top half of the bridge, and jump below it. Before you jump, though, you'll notice an enemy on the top side. When you jump down below the bridge, you'll get two options for jump pads. You have to choose the right jump pad that doesn't have the enemy, and you can only do that by memorizing where he was before you jump. Tricky, eh? I think I may add more enemies just to throw the player off. The last section of the level is interesting; There's an enemy that will change which platform he stands on every step you take. You first see where he steps, but then have to remember his position at the top when you're below, and choose the one he's not occupying. I love the idea myself, and it makes you think a bit more, without turning the game into a puzzler.

Hopefully more progress soon, and a finished resolution soon too! Hold me to it, and wish me luck.

Well shoot, I was hoping to generate more interest with my big announcement...at least enough to get a post. Don't sweat it, though. I'm still committed to finishing this come the end of the year.

I recently finished up 1-3. It's a very small and short level. Maybe too short for a later level, and it is comparably east as well. At least it helps me get back into the groove or game making, because now is the boss level, and the rematch with Captain Calcium. I haven't got anything planned for this yet, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes.

Some more, good progress today.

With 1-1 through 1-3 complete (and somewhat playtested), it's time to move on to the first boss of the hard mode: the return of Captain Calcium! And he's none too happy about losing the first time around either. After jumping in the water, you'll find yourself face to face with him...and a wall of fire behind him ready to say hello! You'll have to move around to get Captain Calcium to make an opening, and grab that trusty shield to bang up that evil boner. But wait! The shield has no effect?! You'll have to jump to another section of the level where, after losing the captain to your trail, you can activate a movable cliff. Even the hardest bones can't stand against hundreds of pounds of rock!

The level design has been mostly finished. It did take a bit of redesigning to make it all fit. Originally there was a deep water cavern separated by two ocean rock cliffs, but I ran out of horizontal space, so I had to connect them. Not a huge loss, but it's funny that it's at it's very limit. The rock cliff that will squish Calcium at the end is made completely of event spaces, and is the first time several event spaces have been used like this. It's something I've wanted to do in the game, but haven't gotten the chance to yet. I foresee myself running out of events to place, so I'll need to plan it out carefully. Not many events placed down yet, still need to finish the level design and such.

So this little project still coming along quite nicely. It's pretty awesome to be working on a project you can invest so much time and effort into. I say you all should do it too!

Today I took some time to play through the demo for the Magcon. I thought it was nice and finished, but I'm glad I went over it again, because I found some more things to nitpick on. Nothing huge, but little things here and there. Sometimes chests wouldn't give out tokens! This has been fixed, along with some general playtesting. I'm trying not to change too much; then more problems may open up. It kinda sucks though, because I could see potential ways to improve the demo from where it is now, but it's too late to really implement them. It would have been far easier to do it in the planning stages. Oh well. At least I've found a number of problems that can get fixed in the final version.

Another smaller note is the wiki. Before I couldn't figure out how to add games to the templates, so JA wouldn't show up in the RPG Games section. Now, however, that's been fixed. If you click the RPG Games, you'll see both Josh's Adventure and Usuru! It's several years too late for anyone to care, but I'm pretty proud I was able to figure it out myself.

So, things are well. Hopefully more progress soon.

I can understand why you might want this to be your last game. It sucks to say stuff about it and only be able to say "it's coming out in the future".

If I do something, it'll probably be a team effort.

It's just so much work to work on a project like this, you know? This is my biggest project, and after this year, will also have been the longest in development (Usuru took me a year and a half....heh). I just don't think I'll have enough left in me to do any more. I wish I could do a team-like effort with a friend or something. That would be supremely awesome.

On another note, after one more playthrough to check for anything missed, the demo was wrapped up and sent to the Magcon, ready to play.

Hate to post twice in the same day, but I figured this was worth mentioning.

I brought over the game to my friend house to have him and his girlfriend play JA. I figured since it was a platformer, a genre he usually didn't like, he wouldn't like it and it's overly campy attitude. However, I was quite surprised to see that he did indeed like it. He enjoyed the humor of the game, and even had some recommendations for some jokes.

There was just one probelem with it. Apparently I had grabbed the right scenario card, but the wrong system card. So as he popped into World 1, the events showed up, but not the land. After a restart he went to World 3 and 4 and everything was good.

I swear though, I can never work on anything RPG Maker related without SOMETHING screwing up. That demo I sent out? I'm sure there'll be a bug that implodes the memory card as soon as the data gets on it. Ugh.

Didn't intend to take such a prolonged absence from the game, but writer's block has been keeping me from doing much of anything.

Not a bad thing or something to get worried about, because where I'm stuck, a boss battle, tend to be the biggest, flashiest and most memorable parts of the game. Plus, writers block is something I've been running into quite frequently, to my dismay.

We'll be back soon. Promise.

Okay, so after a break, work has quietly resumed.

Not a lot of progress, but it's something, which helps me get lot of the rut I've been in. The intro for the first boss has been fleshed out and started. Everything worked just fine. After entering the level and having a chat with Calcium, you grab a shield and use it to Calcium...and it has no effect. That's most of what I've coded in so far. I had fun making up some lines of text, and I really enjoyed a certain part if you try and run away without grabbing the shield. He'll point up to it and flat out tell you what to do. Grab and shield and try to run, and Josh gets a little pissed. Heh.

Now if I can keep the creative juices flowing, I'll be reporting more progress soon!

Hey there. Anyone still here? I figured if anyone is still interested in this game after this string of prolonged absences, you get a gold star. Motivation has been very hard to come by, and my new Xbox 360 hasn't helped. Hopefully the Magcon will help reserve this nasty trend.

I ran into a pretty big problem a few weeks ago. The original idea for this second Calcium boss level was to conclude with Calcium getting squashed by a giant pillar. To do that I was using object 37 in the event graphics. The huge issue I ran into, is that the player can walk on the pillar. This threw the game into a complete halt. Dead stop. So I've since had to think up a new idea, and today I began work on a new design. I first started by deleting all of the previous level work. That was a bit disappointing since the level was nearly complete and looking good. The beginning is coming together pretty well. The new idea revolves around Calcium chasing Josh to fall off a massive cliff, and Josh needs to set up a cushion ahead of time to break his fall. Thinking up this particular level was pretty fun, since you have to figure out how to break bones. If you can't crush bones, you can break them from falling, lol.

Nothing else to say!

It's kind of funny, this game. At this point, I've come so far, but still have so much to do. It's been an exhausting but wondeful ride.

I pounded away at the game a bit more. I revised and updated the boss level and have it all planned out now. Odd how the original idea for these boss levels never go as planned....heh. The intro is complete, and most of the jumps are finished. When I'm good and ready, I'll tackle more of the level.

I'll try not to promise to get back to work really soon, because that hasn't been happening lately. At the very least, the game is always on my mind, so it's unlikely the game's going anywhere but up. Will post whenever progress is made.

This is still seeing some slow and steady progress lately.

I've started hammering out an working on the boss level for World 1, Hard mode. It's starting to get increasingly difficult to come up with new dialog. The game is very "pun"ny and uses a lot of wordplay, so oftentimes it's tough to make some stuff funny AND come up with new material. I've constantly challenged myself to not use the same jokes or the same ideas and always use fresh ideas. So there's not as much progress as I'd like, but what's there is good.

I know I also mentioned in this topic I was considering not making any more RPG Maker games. Well, I can't help but feel that I can't do that just yet. After Josh's Adventure I have two more projects lined up. It's just so hard to leave something when you're good at it. I think when I run out of ideas, then I'll stop. Until then, I'll keep going.

Today my only day off work :tear, so I went ahead and worked on my little project. I got a lot done, and am pretty proud of my work today.

So here's how the new level works out. You're facing off against Captain Calcium....when you realize he can't swim! Heh! After flipping a switch and moving forward, you get ashore onto dry land...when you start getting blasted at! Turns out Calcium has an energy gun that he's gunning you down with. Josh realizes that he can't run from his opponent, and instead must find a way to defeat him. Fortunately, he finds himself at the edge of a very long cliff. A fall can break bones! So Josh must fool Calcium to jump off with him, while Josh has to set up a cushion to break his fall. Otherwise it's going to be called Josh's Pancake Adventure!

I just got finished with everything prior to the gun zone. I also went through and added fail conditions and scripts, where before I had left them blank. It was rather fun making the gun area; there are several darker spots where the gun shoots Josh. Rather than go the simple route, I added different lines of dialogue for every spot. So you never get the same line twice, and I got to play around with some gun puns, like chitty chitty bang bang. I also went back to prior levels and fleshed out some coding that was incomplete. I just generally had more time to work on JA today.

Magcon 2011 will be playing the second JA demo in about a week. Just like last time I'm very excited and very nervous. I played through that demo more times than I'd like to count, so nothing should be wrong with it. I just hope the guys remember to have fun!

Well, with any luck these progress updates will keep going strong!



Oh, and one more thing!


Heh, that didn't exactly happen.

Got some more progress today. Thanks to my friend playing this, now I've got his support, and some motivation to continue working.

I'm still pounding away at the World 1 Hard boss. It's been slow going. I've already mentioned the usual slow pace of making boss levels and how difficult dialogue and pacing are. But they're also really complicated. Which makes it frustrating, because I have to testplay and iron out any problems that WILL pop up. It's not a question IF it will go awry, because something always comes up. Which means I have to replay the same level over and over just to figure out if something works, or where the sequence breaks. Aggravating, to say the least.

But hey, it's not all bad! I got some more work done. Most of the (admittedly short) boss level is done now, and with some luck, I should be able to finish it up whenever I get back to working on this! A day I can't wait for. I'd love to forge ahead with new levels right about now.

That's all for now! Yep!

Put in some more hours today. Thank god for Diet Dr Pepper, Youtube and laptops.

Finally, after much pounding away at it, the boss level is finished! Yes!

Holy crap that took forever! Whew!

So it's time to move on to World 2 Hard mode. Fortunately, level 2-1 is already done!

Level 2-1 is Heck March 2. It plays almost exactly the same way...except you now have monsters who swarm both walls. The level is covered with monsters! You can't make any mistakes here. And once you get past the level, you have an extra option. There's a treasure chest. Not difficult to get to. But to open it up, you need to sacrifice a life to get the spoils. Are you willing to do that?

I'll post more progress as it comes up!

Y'know, it's kinda lonely sometimes. It feels like my game's the only one in recent development. If you've got something worth making, don't give up!

We're still here developing. Good luck with yours.