Alrighty, quite a bit of progress over the last couple of days.

First off, 3-4 is done. Yay! I also went through and playtested world 3. There were some funny bugs I ran into that I fixed. Sometimes things didn't disappear like they were supposed to. Oops. 3-2, I'm looking at you! I also noticed how much shorter this world is than others. Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be less cutscenes and it's more straight to the point.

The third boss level is being worked on. There will be lots of events in this one. The main boss actually doesn't have a name just yet; since he doesn't have a particular form to him, it's difficult to make a name for him. Basically he's a rather large white....thing on the right side of the screen. He has operable eye, mouth and hand. The toughest part about him is that he's invincible! That's right, you can't kill him! To try and humor you, he allows access to the rest of the level, one step at a time. As you make your way down difficult paths and past brutal enemies...you find not weapons, but sleeping pills. Then it hits you; if you can't defeat him, you can put him to sleep! Making your way back to the boss, you fire the sleeping pill in his mouth and he becomes drowsy. Fire all three sleeping pills into him and he'll fall asleep, letting you finish the level!

Most of the level design has been finished, and the coding of some jumps and enemies is done. I also have custom sprites of the sleeping pill drawn up. And the level is mostly planned out as well. Hopefully this will be another hilarious, epic boss battle.

I've also added in a neat new option, and well as an option selection. You can choose to save on the save point, or alter options on the hubworld. The new option I thought up is more of a convinence to PS3/PC players. Lantis and his SoE game gave me the idea. You can either set it to PS1/2, and not get a prompt to switch scenario cards, or set it to PS3/PC to get a reminder to switch scenario cards. I figure this will be a small but helpful addition to the game that will make players think, "Oh, that was thoughtful of him to include this!".

If you guys have any suggestions for options, I'm all ears.

Until next time!

New stuff!

I've completely redesigned the third boss. I just couldn't pin an interesting personality to him. I was also slighty bothered that he had no connection to the level theme in any way. He's on a fire island, but don't use fire....wtf?

So I made a new boss, one that I've been juggling in my mind for a while now. Get ready to face off against chicken Caesar! He's a hot one, that's for sure. As the boss of Ash Island, he's not afraid to turn up the heat, and has an impressive fire arsenal at his disposal. He does have a rather useful drawback; he must power up his fire attacks before using them. Josh will have to use some creative thinking, fast footwork and a bit of magic to extinguish this nasty chicken.

I've got the whole level design already done, and am working quickly-like on some coding to go with it. You start off against chicken Caesar by jumping above him, then using a falling rock to stun him. While tuned, Josh can climb higher and find a Water Stone, which temporarily gives him control of water in his immediate surroundings. Chicken Caesar isn't too far behind, and has a nicely charged fire spell ready for Josh. Fortunately for our hero, the Water Stone proves useful for controlling a puddle nearby to destroy the flame. And what happens next? You'll have to play to find out!

In other news, and more interestingly for some members, I'm fiddling around with the parayzle command. I'm thinking of making this an option in the save menu; either have the game set to Normal Or Para, and you can choose the way Josh jumps. I admit I prefer the normal way myself, but this gives the player some options and lets you customize the game to your liking to some degree.

One thing I'd like to try and do soon is get someone else I know (some friends, perhaps) to try playing the game and give their impressions. Just to get a new viewpoint on the game.

That's it for now. Thanks, and until next time!

Alright, it's been a while since I posted...I think. *checks* 6 days? Not that long, but it feels like it.

I've been busy, to say the least. When not working for a living, I'm playing two brand new games, and they're both incredibly fun. Trauma Team is great and so is Super Mario Galaxy 2, and often I'll opt to play one of those instead. There's also hanging out with friends, going to theme parks and general apathy to work on JA. Not to mention that boss battles typically take longer to make and are far more complex than average levels, and use way more events too.

Despite all that, I have been squeezing in a little bit of time to work on JA every day. There's been some real yet slow progress over the last couple of days. I just haven't felt like posting for a while. Whether I'll continue doing this or not...I dunno yet.

I've hit a bit of a roadblock here. I just can't seem to find a boss that I like. I've already made two bosses for world 3 and haven't really liked either of them. I think the reason is I can't find a personality type I like. It's too easy and kinda boring to have that generic 'evil' boss type I keep getting trapped into. The first boss was this rather sill, generic boss type, while the second had a "racing/elegant" edge to him that I liked.

So, I'm stuck for now. Until I can figure out what I'm doing with this boss, education has pretty much stopped. If you guys have any ideas, throw them my way and maybe I can get some inspiration.

EDIT: lol, forgot to copy and paste this here to the Mag.

So I've got some good work today.

The boss has been throwing me for a loop. So I kept elements I liked and threw everything else out. The boss is still chicken Caesar. The level has seen a pretty radical redesign. The old level was too big and had too many ideas. The new level is more streamlined and simpler, and more focused. In general I like it a lot more. Coding won't be nearly as code-heay either, which is really nice, since older designs called for overly complex situations.

Even though I thought I used less memory, I actually used more, bumping system data up to 5 (for those interested, this brings things to 5 system, 7 scenario, and...undetermined anime art. I've changed my mind a number of times, so I'm not sure where it sits now).

Holy cow, this project is taking so friggin' long! My God! This started in September last year. So I'm thinking it's going to be tough to make a Winter 2010 release date. I'm going to keep shooting for that goal though, because setting goals helps in two ways. First, it gives me something to shoot for, and keeps me on track. Second, it gives you guys a vague idea when the game will be out. Even if I miss that deadline, I'll predict another release date, and go from there. It'll help keep me on track.

I've travelled a long road, and still have much left to do. But little by little, the game is making slow progress.

This third boss level...is really taking it out of me.

It's such a complicated level, and has been redesigned so many times. I redesigned it yet again to flow better. Still, I spent the better part of today working solely on this level, and I'm still not finished. I'm at least about halfway done. It's a pain in the ass, making code and playtesting it, only to find out I screwed up and have to figure out where I screwed up.

But at least the level design should be finalized, so it's all coding from here. Hopefully players enjoy this level, because it sure isn't easy to make it. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get it done sometime this week.

And then on to World 4. I haven't completely pinned down what kind of theme I'd like for this one, but I think it will be either something air/cloud related or gravity/space themed. I want to mess with the jumping mechanic a bit. Throw in some wind to make the player change course, or keep the player pinned with heavy gravity. Maybe I'll do both.

I'm at 5 system, 8! scenario. This game is getting big. I figure I can fit the main adventure mode in one scenario. I'll probably have to make a new scenario if I want to add in a co-op mode. I don't think the game should need more than 3 memory cards.

Will post more progress as it happens.

First, a fact and prediction.

This thread is now my most active topic on the mag, and I bet I'll surpass Lantis's SOE topic in page count by at least March 2011 (14 pages).

Let's move on.

I got some more work done on the boss level today. Thanks to the hard work I pulled Monday, the end of this boss level is finally in view. Yeah!

Rather small update today. Just gotta keep up the motivation and keep going.

Thanks Pagerron, I can always use some support.

Alright. Finally did another weekend buckle-down and finished the third boss level.

It certainly took awhile to finish everything up and playtest it, but it finally is all finished! In case you couldn't tell, I'm pretty happy about it. The level uses all 120ish events, so it's packed to the brim with stuff. I particulary like the ending, where you must jump and move a bucket full of gunpowder over to a Caesar near a fire source. You gotta avoid the lava in the floors and the flames walking around.

It's odd, but I'm starting to see the bigger picture now. I've got three worlds out of four down and finished. Only one left to go, and then I'll move on to harder difficulty levels.

I've also taken some time to play through world 3 and fix up some issues in coding and also added some things to make minor tweaks. The game looks a bit better thanks to that.

I've also added a couple new items that you can purchase at the hubworld. By collecting tokens in levels, you can buy extra items. A cheap item worth 10 tokens is a barrel. This is just a fun little throwback to Donkey Kong, where a barrel moved back and forth in the hubworld, and you can do the same thing in JA.

The other new item is considerably more expensive at 100 tokens, but may help you track down some hidden stuff. It's a strategy guide, and it will tell you which levels have treasure chests and what's inside them. It doesn't, however, tell you where to find them, so you'll still have to hunt for them, which is why I may consider taking it down in price.

Funny enough, I still haven't finalized the next world theme. But I'll get there eventually.

And there's my disjointed, paragraph laden progress report!

It's a little late to give advice at this point, but I think I realize what made Fu-Fu so great. Exploration, and searching around for all the items. If you make your levels too straightforward, they're going to fall flat. The player needs to feel rewarded for exploring.

I think you're right Dray. Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy fufu so much.

I have added hidden chests within levels, but perhaps I can find ways to increase that amount. Thanks for the suggestion; I'll try incorporating that into my game some more.

Just make sure that the hidden chests don't just contain random nik-naks that serve 0 purpose from the moment you find them.

Wow, it's been about two weeks since I posted anything. Like it or not, this post will probably create more questions than answers, because I don't want to reveal too much. But I figure I'd let everyone know what I've been doing.

I haven't posted much of anything lately. One reason is I just needed time away from JA for a while. World 3 in particular was very draining, so I needed some recharge time to mess around so I could come back to it with a fresh look. Which also leads into my second reason: I'm working on a secret project right now. I figured working on something else would help me get away from JA for a bit. Unfortunately, I can't post anything about it right now. The reason why? There's a particular part of the game that's in development that I don't want to reveal until I'm sure it's gonna happen. I don't want to promise something that may turn against me, so for now it will be under wraps. I can tell you some things, though: I may submit it for the Pavilion's Anything Goes contest, and it's something that I'm sure most people won't get too excited over.

I've also been playing about with JA today. After coming back I'm trying to figure out what I didn't like about World 3 and work to fix it in this new world. I'm also messing around just testing new ideas and new world themes, seeing what works and what doesn't. I'm also trying some different ways to make the game, and changing just how I make the game. I'm having a fair bit of fun doing these experimental things, and will help ease me back into full production mode.

So, I figured I'd let you know what's up, and that I'm OK and still going strong with my projects.

Well, posting here has been very sparse. Just figuring out what I'm doing with the game has stopped production for a while as I try and figure out what theme the next world will use and what ideas I like. Combine that with lots of life events (good and bad) and some really fun games (Punch Out Wii!) I haven't gotten much work done. But I'm always thinking and planning the title, and today I had enough time to do some work.

The fourth and final world theme's been decided: Jungle theme! Although a jungle doesn't work so well on RPG Maker 1, it's something I've wanted to implement since the beginning, and have only now realized I've wanted to do this for some time now. I also have the planning finished for the first level, 4-1 Monkeys + Barrels = Fun! As you can guess, it's a level with a lot of monkeys and barrels. I also took some inspiration from one of Dray's games again, this time being Slayer's Reign. I rather liked one of the earlier levels, where ghosts pushed logs you had to avoid. It made for an interesting level design, and I'll be doing something similar.

I've got the basics of the level down, but there is one problem bugging me; the level is damn ugly. It started off using a pre-existing level until I realized there were some spaces you couldn't walk on. So I erased it, leaving the event data and made a new one that could make it work. Unfortunately, if you use the "inside" option, you can't use a background of trees like I planned. Ugh. So, yeah, it looks butt ugly, and hopefully I'll be able to flesh it out some more before it's done.

For World 4 I also have this idea I want to implement. It doesn't really make any sense per se in a jungle world as opposed to something spacey, but I've made a jump pad that turns Josh upside down, and lets him walk around upside down. This will not only give me more freedom with level design, it can also be used to make new puzzles and interesting new levels.

So, I got some good progress done today, and hopefully I'll get out of this non-making mood and get back to work.

Some good progress today.

I spent about 2 hours today slaving away at 4-1. It's almost completely finished too. First, I deleted the dungeon for that level and added trees as background, which required me to match up the event code again. The next step was to add some nice touches, like tree sprites to make it look good. Then onward to enemy placement (which was a hit more hit and miss than I would've liked, since I was using so many duplicates).

One cool area is one where there are a lot of monkeys and lots of barrels to avoid. It's pretty hectic, although the end section is a little easy since most of the barrels fall into a similar routine, but that's fine with me.

A new idea I implemented into the level was a different way of approaching chests. There are three chests, each with a piece of an incomplete token. Combine the three by opening all the chests, and you get a nice reward. It's nothing huge, but it adds a little variety the game could use.

So, all I need to do is add enemy code and some other small things, and I'll be done with the level. Oh, and I'll need to playtest it too.

Anyone else find listening to Dray's LPs helpful when working on their games? I do it sometimes and it helps!

So to wrap up this somewhat random post, here's some interesting facts about the game right now:

The game has taken 100 hours to make up to this point. That's longer than any other game I've made up till now (although I'm sure system idling had something to do with that high number).

The game is now using 9 scenario blocks. I think I'll have enough memory to complete the game without too many problems.

That Winter 2010 release date? I'm skeptical about it. I don't really think I'll be able to make it by then. Until I can predict a more accurate release, I'm sticking to that. Besides, I'd really like to be able to finish it this year.

And that's it! Until the next update!

Alrighty, so after doing some enemy coding, 4-1 is finished! Woohoo!

I also decided to go back to the third boss fight with chicken Caesar. I originally just wanted to fix a warp, but I ended up playing the entire boss fight and got a little sucked into it. No doubt in my mind, boss battles are where the game is at it's most unique and fun. After playing it, I realized there were a couple areas that needed to be fixed, since I could make certain events replay themselves. It took a while, since figuring out what I had done prior was a bit tricky. Thankfully I managed to figure it out and get stuff fixed.

I'm also going to try and work on this a bit more often, since I'll probably be working 6 days a week, have jury duty, and still find time to unwind. So, if I just wait for my days off to work, I'll get nowhere quickly.

So 4-2 will begin production soon, and I have a rough idea what I'd like to do with it.

I also updated the wiki slighty. The development section hasn't changed, but the Features section mentions the game's three difficulty options; Normal, Hard, and Difficult. You start the game on Normal and unlock them as you beat the game. After beating the game on Normal, you'll unlock both the co-operative mode and the credits, along with getting to play Hard mode.

I'm pretty gung-ho for getting a cooperative mode in the game somehow. It's something I really want to do. Something I feel I HAVE to do. Simply because there are no cooperative games on RPG Maker at all.

Hey, how y'all doin?

I figured I'd try a new little post intro since the "did good progress today" was getting a little old.

Today I worked on designing a new level, 4-2. Originally it was set to have Josh walking over trees and traversing the level never touching the ground, but this didn't work out so well since it always looked unnatural and I couldn't get it to work right. So I scrapped the idea and instead came up with a completely different idea. This one has you walking next to a river. Along the way you'll come to the exit, but it can't be reached since it's across the river. There is a bridge though, and if Josh could find some wood, maybe he could whittle a path to clear the level. Farther in you can find some and complete the level.

I rather like how it looks personally. The whole nature angle (rather than beaches) gives me some freedom to make more details in the game, like trees and flowers rather than sand and rock. It's a bit more diverse, and I like that.

So the level design is down and good, and it'l be time for enemy placement soon.

That's all for now. Until the next update.

Oh, and LMAO, I typed in Josh's Adventure in google just for fun, and I got THIS:
http://www.lulu.com/product/hardcover/j ... re/6474005

Although I was surprised the search result had the pavilion's JA topic as it's second choice, and video options showed a magcon video. Pretty cool.

Oh boy. I'm going all over the place.

I don't have a lack of level ideas, which I'm thankful for. My issue is figuring out just what kind of world I'd like to settle on. I don't think the jungle is working for me. The whole "joke" of that level was that there are only forest sprites, so the joke was that it was supposed to be a jungle, but was obviously a forest, to which the characters would joke about. It's just a one trick pony that's not very funny to begin with.

So what I might settle on is a world I wanted to make since the beginning; a sky world. I wanted to mess with the jumping mechanic, and although I like the "walking upside down" idea of a space world, the new "wind" idea for a sky level is much more interesting and can make for more diverse ideas to play around with. There could be a direction of wind, and every jump will be affected by the wind's direction. I have the idea that early levels will simply blow one direction and you must simply make the air neutral, but later levels will allow you to change the direction of the wind. This could lead to some very new and interesting ideas.

The newly redesigned 4-2 has that aspect. The wind is blowing westward, and the platforms you must jump to can't be reached since the wind alters your direction. So after jumping all over the place, you can find a machine to release moisture into the air and stop the wind. And thanks to chatting in the chat room, I got a lot of work done on that.

The mag chat room seems to really drive me to create. So does Dr. Pepper. Imagine if I combined the two....

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm probably switching over to a sky world (more ideas to work with), and will probably get more work done tomorrow.

A bit more progress and some new stuff today.

I've wanted for a while now to include the story back into the game. It's a creative little story and it helps explain why Josh is out trying to play these levels. So today I coded and completed the introduction and story into the game.

I cut the story out before simply because 1. The original idea for it was way too long and complicated, and 2. I was trying to figure out how I wanted the game to play out. Well, I tackled both of these issues today when I worked. The introduction I made for the game is short, sweet and simple, and it took only about an hour to finish. I don't know if I like the forth wall breaking, but it's the only thing I could think up that really felt like it worked. We shall see.

The screen fades in and you have Josh in front of you. He breaks the fourth wall by introducting himself to the player. He remarks that he heard RPG Maker players generally have no patience, so he gets to the point. At school, he hears a rumor going around saying that if you're inside the local arcade at the stroke of midnight, the lights all come on and the games play for free!

When Josh gets to the arcade, it turns out the rumor is only half true; the lights turn on, but the games don't play for free. Being royally ticked off at this point, Josh sticks his hand in the back of his favorite arcade game to hopefully find the free-play switch. What he gets is a nasty dose of electricity, thanks to some loose wires. The Grim Reaper is there to take him straight to Heck, but since Josh still has a heartbeat, he's still technically alive, and can't be taken. So the Grim Reaper offers up a proposition; an all or nothing bet on a platforming game. Win, and you walk away with your life. Lose, and it's a one-way ride to Heck, no exceptions. So grab a roll of quarters Josh; you'll need all the extra lives you can get.

I sunk most of my day today working on Josh's Adventure, and a bit into the night working on a feature some people wanted for this game, and today they're going to get it: paralyzed jumping.

If you remember the Magcon there were a few members that would be preferred Josh to do a freeze or paralyzed position instead of doing his walking animation through the air. I want him to walk through the air, personally. So, I was torn for a bit on what to do. Then it occurred to me; why not give the player the choice of what they'd like? So today I sent out to make that option work. At the hubworld save point, you can access the options and open up the "Jump Options" tab to change the setting.

This took a lot longer than I suspected. It didn't occur to me just how many jump pads litter some levels. There's only one level that has no jump pads (2-1 March), and some has upwards ten unique jump pads. And I had to go to every one and program the paralyze jump.

It was amusing to me how the earlier levels had many unique jumps, while later ones used duplicates more and more. That sort of thing is two sided; I feel kinda bad about it since earlier levels had more attenion paid to them. On the other hand, I love duplicates because it makes coding so much easier. I just change one event and all the rest do too. It's so nice! I would've pulled my hair out a couple of times had I not done it, since some levels have so many.

And adding it in didn't cut into the memory that much, thankfully. I even found some unused code that I deleted to make more room.

Some levels got a little too unique with jumps, and got pretty complicated when I used Josh as an event instead of his main character. I had a problem in 3-2, See N Saw, because I had to duplicated the entire code that made the rock fly, and I screwed up somewhere and had to start over. Thankfully I got it to work, and I playtested some of the levels to make sure I got it.

I think I can rest easy knowing someone out there will enjoy this little option, because it took a long time to make it happen.

Today was a good day for progress.

Earlier today I wrote down an idea I had for a new level. I wrote it down and kept it for later today, when I could get on the PS2 and try and make it work. And, with a little modification and playtesting, it's completely finished! Hooray! A level completed within the span of a single day!

The level is 4-2, Scare Tactics. At the beginning of the level you see several contained enemies. These give you an idea of what the enemies will do, such as chase or run from you. After leaving the beginning area, you find the end of the level.....blocked by a pixie that runs away from you. Thanks to how it's designed, you have to go around and make the pixie move up by going down. But on your way back, the bridge disconnects and reconnects to a new section of the level. Moving onward, you jump into a big blank area, that quickly gets surrounded by enemies! An ambush! You make your way between the enemies and get to the other side, jumping to safety. Then, after a series of wall jumps, you come back to the beginning of the level. The pixie is out of the way, and you're free to step into the level exit.

My biggest problem with the level is.....sometimes the pixie doesn't move if you're too fast. Then you're stuck in the level with no way of beating it. I think I'll add some jump pads so you can finish the level regardless, but that kinda takes away what makes the level so fun. Still, I don't want to screw over the player, so I'll probably go through with it.

Lately I've just had a lot of motivation to keep working on this game.

One problem I may run into is of scenario data. At 9 blocks, I still have some, but it's starting to get down to the wire. If worst comes to worst, I will probably cut out a difficulty level to make it all fit. So the game will have a Normal and Hard mode, and will not have Difficult. I'm still hoping the scenario data will hold out to let me try this, but that doesn't seem to be the way the game is headed right now. A little disappointing.

I must admit, I still am unsure whether I'll hit that Winter 2010 release I've been looking forward to. But it's not looking entirely impossible now. At the very least, I'm confident the single player campaign will be finished by then.

I'm really looking forward to this, and I hope you are too.