JA carries over a lot of things from Donkey Kong, and the meowing tux guy is one of them. The tutor lady is almost the same graphic as she was in DK. I just find a meowing guy in a tux amusing

Big work done today and a big update. The demo, as far as I can see, is complete!

I went through and finished all the coding I didn't already have down phat. And, realizing I was basically finished with the demo, I playtested and added a few new features.

It still has everything I mentioned in a previous post, and some extras.

After beating the second world, some people will say different things, such as the meowing tux guy. I've also added a save feature to the hubworld (at last). I've made a custom graphic for the carrot you can pick up in World 2.

One of the coolest features of this demo (and a hidden one), can be found by checking the bottom-left of the hubworld after completing the second world. You can view unused levels! I still have levels that I made but aren't being used in the game's memory, and I figured I might as well let the player view them, and see what Josh's Adventure looked like in beta form. I plan to delete the levels pretty soon, so the demo will be the only way to check out these levels.

So, I plan to send out the demo pretty soon to get ready for Magcon, and you can look forward to playing this after that event. I'm thinking I'd like to upload it the day after the Josh's Adventure video goes up. I absolutely cant wait....I'd like to upload this now, to be quite honest! But I'll try and be patient, and I'll ask you to be as well. Now that the demo version is complete, I'm going to start working right away on the third World, where the game will be split apart into seperate memory cards for the first time! Get psyched!

Make sure you get the demo sent to whoever it is you're supposed to be sending the demos.

Already done, dragon dude. The file was sent to Lantis tonight.

What's so lovely about being ahead of schedule? You have time to improve your stuff. Tonight I went back and re-did some sprites. If you look at my current sig, the letters aren't sized properly, and the edges are a little pointy on most letters. Today I formatted them all to fit an equal size. So now they all look much better together, and I also finished some last minute bugs.

Now that the demo is complete, I'll move on to new material from here on.

Very small update. I'm mostly trying to take a break from the project until it's unveiled as a demo, and I'm getting interested in other activities. Most of that is new stuff, like new games and anime. But I've also been trying to write for a bit, and have a small series planned out for writing. Nothing commerical, just for myself. But, back to the issue at hand.

I've split the game into two cards now starting today. Altogether I have 15 blocks of information, so it was much needed at this point. I had to actually stop for a while just so everything could fit into one card for the demo. I've again started working on more anime maker sprites, this time working on a death animation for Josh when he runs out of lives. Unfortunately this wasn't going to fit on the demo, even though some sprites can still be found on the demo. In any case, they're all dran up and soon I'll be playtesting to see if it works like I have planned. I also have started working on World 3......well, the entrance to it anyway.

And that's it for now. Only about a month away from the public demo!

So, no actual work today. Just chatting and thinking. I gotta make sure I stay fresh in everyone's minds!

Speaking of thinking, I'm having second thoughts on the rocky mountain level. It just seems so....blah. Bland, boring, (insert other words that start with the letter "b"). I think I'll try thinking up a new idea sometime in the next few days.

Yeah....no progress. I figure, however, that I'm talking a bit too much about the facts and am not talking about how the game will be though. I think I tend to ramble about how much progress I've made. What do you think? Post your thoughts.

It's really hard to get motivated to work after a completed demo, but I'll try and get something done within the next few days. The WIKI page is always being updated, so check that out in my sig.

A bit more progress today. I was chatting in the Mag chat room, so I had some motivation to work.

I'm working on a new level, 3-1 Cliffs. It's a level with lots of highs and lows. It's also the first level to have a hidden level available for the Normal difficulty! I designed the entire level and got all the jumps functional.

Unfortunately, I worked and chatted a little too much, because I have to get to bed. Bedtimes suck! But alas, I'll be back to report more as it develops.

Well, I hit a roadblock with my progress on World 3. I don't know what sort of 'theme' I want to go with. I had planned a rocky mountain, but to be honest, I hate it. It's the color, really, or the lack of it. It's all brown and monotone. I tried making a diverse level, but it didn't come together that well, so I deleted it. So, I'll need to figure out a redirect around this roadblock pretty soon.

Anyway, I did get some work done. I had all the elements and custom graphics set up, and today I made a complete 'death animation'. It's not terribly complicated, but I think it's a unique idea, and it's really good for getting around my limitation of not being able to draw very well.

Originally I had the idea of doing what fufu did, and if you're not familiar with how that works, I'll explain. Basically when Fufu the acid trip bunny dies, he moves back and forth, then disappears into sparkles. I was going to do something similiar, but manipulating a graphic that's so complicated is no easy task. So, I got the bright idea of altering the color scheme. By adjusting the color, I could make Josh look red in the face, and his hair turn from yellow to green, like he suddenly looks really sick. I then made several graphics to make it look progressive. So, at first he doesn't look that bad, but then the redness gradually increases and he looks pretty bad. Then he's warped to the hubworld looking ready for another playthrough.

I love it. It's something creative, different, and original. I'm still rather disappointed I couldn't get this in the demo, but I didn't have enough room. I tested this and refined it in a test room, and now I'm ready to start copying and pasting this to every enemy in the game insofar. The first boss and it's 100 plus enemies wont be fun. But alas! It must be done.

On a completely different note, it looks like the game is currently using two cards of memory. Depending on how many worlds I go, I don't see the game going any more than 4 cards if I stick with four or so worlds. But we'll see.

If you've been keeping up with these little progress updates, thanks for sticking around. Hopefully I'll be able to up the ante pretty soon, and get some more serious work done.

More work! Woohoo!

Actually, it's just me copying and pasting the new death animation to the first world. I got it all done! I intergrated some more unique ideas into it as I went along. Dying at a regular level will send you back to the hubworld with Josh saying something like "Drat, I lost! Better try again.", while dying at a boss will give you a different response.

I also managed to do all 100ish events in the first boss level. Since they're all unique, it's quite boring going through all the events to bring them up to standard. It goes like this; Paste the new code into the event, delete the old stuff, and then copy the new stuff and move on. You gotta copy the new stuff, otherwise when you paste you'll paste what you cut. Pain in the ass? Oh yeah. Hopefully this will be the last time I have to touch the events in this particular level.

A big surprise awaited me as I worked though. I noticed in the boss level that the new code took slighty less memory than the old stuff, even though there was more code to the new stuff. It wasn't a huge difference, mind you, but after it was all said and done, I shaved 200 blocks of scenario data from that level. Perhaps some day someone will determine how much memory individual event commands take up. I totally see someone doing that in the next couple of years.

And as for the new level? I think I have an idea of what I'd like to do. The third world will be based on a tropical island with an active volcano, and the fourth will be in space. Depending on how much scenario and system memory I have left, I'll see if I can squeeze in a co-op mode like I've been wanting to.

The gravy train is starting to roll again, so be prepared for new updates!

Yesterday I worked on the title, and today I plan to do a bit more work.

While half of the work yesterday went to copying and pasting the new death animation in the 2nd world, the other half was developing the third world! I still have no idea what to call it, but I'm probably going to stick with the tropical island theme, with an active volcano thrown in for good measure. I made a new level, 3-1 called Shoreline. As you can guess, it mostly takes place on the shoreline, as you cross the sandy beach and make your way into the volcano for the next level. There are ropes tethered to some trees you have to utilize as well. It's a short level, but there are many enemies. It's nearly done. Monster placement is the only thing I really need for it now, and I can move on.

Oh, and I may have found a huge oversight in the game. On the level 2-4, when putting in the death animations, I realized the enemies didn't do any damage. In fact, their event pages were blank. So they move around, but don't hurt you at all. Quite the mistake. To be honest, I can't remember if I fixed that or not, but I think there's a high possibility that particular mistake is in the demo.

Whoops.

Well, it's not game-breaking at the very least. It has been fixed, needless to say. But then the question: Will you fix it for the demo? Probably not. Like I said, it's not breaking the game, and I don't particulary feel like sending anything more to Lantis for the Magcon; I've done that enough already, trust me.

Something else I've been thinking about is when to upload the public demo. How many days after it appears on the Magcon? One? Two, three, more? I still haven't figured that out. I think the rough idea I've had in my head is two. Tell me what you think.

*ala F-Zero GX*

And that's it everyone! We'll see you at the next progress update!

Quixotic TV.....

Thanks for playing!

These are my goals for Josh's Adventure:

-To expand on the creative blueprint I left with Donkey Kong, and expand existing ideas into a fuller, bigger game.

-To make a title that's both difficult and never cheap. I want to develop a title where you are never killed by accident; I want a game where if you die, it's your fault, never the game's.

-To present a game that displays creativity and thoughtful design into one package.

Good luck with that. It's rather easy to be walking along and have a randomly wandering enemy suddenly step into your path as you're trying to get around it.

There's not much I can do about that, you're right. However, I can avoid making jumps that lead to your death, or giving the player unfair circumstances.

I'm thinking more in line with what FuFu did. I mean, I won't dent the game's importance or graphic design, but it's a sub-par game in my eyes because it's a game of trial and error. A game where you can die by exploring what you need to beat the level. It's unfair. That's what I'm trying to avoid.

Progress is halted, thanks to Pokemon SoulSilver. Will be back later. If ever.

Alright, so maybe it wouldn't hold me back for long. More progress.

I went in and completed 3-1 Shoreline. It only had two different enemies, and the level is pretty dang short, so it's not really surprising I'm done with the level already.

I also went back and played with more death code. Turns out some of the 2nd boss level code wasn't correctly changed when I copied it from the first boss, so that was fixed. I also redid some custom graphic touch-ups, noticably the V and S sharp point problem that bugged me. All's good.

Honestly though? I'm getting tired of working on this thing. I need another, longer break. Maybe it's just because of my crappy mood, I don't know. I just keep getting this feeling nobody will play it, even if that's utterly ridiculous. If you're looking forward to playing this, please speak up!

The Magcon and public demo can't come any sooner.

Actually, speaking of which, I need to do another Studio Update this month...will get that done soon.

So despite the need-a-break attitude of the last post and the general restlessness I usually have, I went ahead and worked on the game. I figure if I'm not working on some creative endeavor, then life just starts to become meaningless to me. I need to better myself or create something to keep myself occupied and productive. So with that in mind, 3-2 Ascent began.

It's a level inside the volcano. There are general jumps and enemies to avoid, and now lava which can't be stepped in. There's also a hidden area that's deceptively hinted at...look at the walls. I also included text in case the player decides to check the dirt or rocks scattered across the level. It never does anything, but I thought it would be a nice touch. I've got the jumps, lava and text coded, now I need to place enemies inside. This will be a level with random movement enemies, so that should make things a bit harder.

I've also been fortunate enough to have the next three levels planned out. This world starts at the base of a volcano, and weaves in and out of it till a final showdown inside the volcano. But, I'll post that later. After all, there's still so much more to work on.~~

More progress will happen at some point. When that happens, I'll be here to report it.

There's also a new studio update:
viewtopic.php?f=64&t=8720

Off the wall time!

Here's some random information I ran into today!

There was, at some point, a game being made called Josh's Story. Check it out:
http://www.rpgmmag.com/issues/issue_5/cover_story.html

The only good link I could find to the game's creator is Taichi, who made this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2223&hilit=josh

Is that Josh's Story? Personally I don't think so, since his post history doesn't have anything more to say about that particular game idea he posted. Not even going to the old yuku forums helped in the search. It will probably always remain a mystery....

Only two titles in that first link seemed to actually get anywhere.

Mencara Revelle and A Work In Progress? They're both in eternal development limbo. I don't think they "got anywhere".

And, way to stay on topic! Sheesh!

Well, you're the one that brought it up.

And I stand corrected. Only two of the titles lasted long enough for me to remember.