Killed me with a sword...

Haven't done a lot of project stuff in the past week since buying Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the PlayStation 3 (I won't bore you with just how much I freakin' love that game as I could go on for ages on all the things about it I admire and adore. Has easily become my new favorite game of all time) but I have done a few things like fixing up the tileset for the 'Aldria Mines' which is level 1 (well, the first proper level anyways) of 'Hero - Celestial Force' as various aspects of the tiling had started to bother me. The main generic trooper enemy too has had a bit of a redesign featuring in my opinion a cleaner and bolder look though it means I now have to redo his animations but that's fine. It's worth it. I've also done a few new sprites for 'Cosmic Prison Commando' but not animated or coded the objects that use them yet.

As for non-project related pixelling I did a lil piece for the Hexquisite Corpse Collab II at Pixelation. I found the palette quite difficult (lack of purples or magentas which apparently I seem to rely on :P ) and it was a bit of a departure for me having to come up with a somewhat strange image but I'm glad I got involved even if I just did the one tile. The full finished collaboration will be revealed when all the tiles have been filled. I hope mine doesn't suck too much. I can't even explain why I pixelled what I did.

Been considering taking down the main website since I just feel no desire to update it and find it too much of a hassle. I think I started it's last update over a year ago and still haven't got around to finishing it. I'm not sure it really even serves a purpose anymore. I might feel a bit different once I got the demo of 'Hero - CF' ready. I don't know.

Iji v2

Did a fansprite of Iji a lil while ago which can be seen here
Wasn't truly happy with it so I updated it and redid the gun and some other details and tweaked the palette a bit. So here ya go.

Been updating some of the Hero - CF graphics too. Mainly the level 1 tileset and various enemies. It's looking better than before. I've been practising drawing again cos I seem to not be as good as I used to be so am learning to draw even half decently again, which I'll be needing for the various cutscenes and other larger imagery in the game.

Menus

Coding menu systems is very tedious but I've sorted it now and made me a good and easy to add to system for it. Hero - CF's main menu/options are nearly all done and I can copy/paste that script and inset it into C.P.C. with only minor modifications needed (for the graphics mostly and the wide pixel res). Seems to be one of those things I put off for ages but once I've got it done it seems I never have to do it again. I like those. In the next C.P.C. demo that options menu will be 'un-grayed' and actually usable. Working on the redefine controls bit now.

Here's the Video section of the menus for 'Hero - Celestial Force' just as an example. Click on it to see it properly.

C.P.C. technical issues.

Seems most of the people who've had problems running the C.P.C. demo use certain types of Nvidia's Geforce cards and I think it's causing issues with the surface technique used in the game to get clean non-blurry pixels in fullscreen. Until I can fix this and get it confirmed (difficult when you don't actually have access to the hardware mentioned). I've got a couple people now on my MSN who have these video cards and when I've got a clear head I'll try some work-arounds.

It also seems there is an issue with running the game on Windows 7 RC. Perhaps the Geforce workaround will work for that too. I don't know. I'm gonna need to think of something since all my projects use the same technique.

Tribute post to a great pixel artist

I've had a couple emails in recent times from people who like my work and seem to think I'm among or even actually the best pixeller using Game Maker. I assume these people have never seen DarkfalzX's work. I think he focuses more on GBA and DS coding now rather than GM but he's a better pixel artist than I could ever hope to be. Certainly professional commercial quality. His character spriting and animation is generally superb as are his background and tiling work too. You guys really should take a look at his gallery at Pixel Joint to see what I mean. Honestly despite my differing preference in style (I'm not so keen on cutesy fantasy stuff) I wish I had even half the talent of this guy.

Check out some of his work at DarkfalzX's PJ Gallery

Getting older ain't too bad...

Turning 30 two weeks from today. Looking forward to it. My twenties weren't great at all and were filled with various major problems but I'm fairly hopeful about this next decade of my life. Feel like I've learnt a lot and am ready to settle down and have a life that's actually substantial and full of purpose. Also soon I get to see my girlfriend again as she's coming to stay the week of my birthday. Due to the job she had, we haven't been able to see each other in over 3 months but still chat everyday on the phone and MSN. Miss her like crazy so it'll be great to spend some time with her again. We plan to move in together but up in her town as she has family there including a daughter from a past relationship but the right place just hasn't become available yet. When it does though it'll be good as hopefully I'll be able to sleep better there and be a lot less stressed and can finally get back to fulltime employment too and start really saving for our future. Got me plenty of ambitions. Would be nice to actually fulfil some of them.

Yeah none of this is really game related but what the heck, it's my blog and I can write what I like, right? Just nice to get thoughts out onto the screen once in a while.

C.P.C. Demo 1.1 Topic

Will be releasing a new demo of C.P.C. which is mainly a bug fix to the previous one which I found kinda embarrasing. This'll be the first time I host my own game files on my site too. This topic is also where any bug reports for this demo should be reported.
Ok read the GMC topic here

Download the demo direct here

Meh.

C.P.C. Update 11th July

Ok took me some doing but have fixed a lot of problems with the previous demo. These include:

- Losing all lives now sends you back to title screen.
- Ingame tune no longer ends after 5 minutes. (couldn't get it to play forever but now it plays for just over 2 hours which should be way longer than anyone can spend on a level).
- Resolution switching from windowed mode to fullscreen can now be done anytime by pressing Alt and Return together or just F3. Pressing F4 does fullscreen/windowed switching without changing the resolution meaning it looks a bit distorted and crappy but that's for those people who just refuse to have their resolution change even though the game looks better when it does.
- No more surface doesn't exist problems when switching resolutions. Now the game always checks to see if the surface has been destroyed and creates a new one if it has.
- Jack no longer gets stuck at the start point if restarting there after dying.
- Flying bot's bombs now actually hurt the player when they explode as they should have done in the first place.
- Sponsor screen for the Retro Remakes contest has been taken out as it's no longer necessary.

There are some other little improvements here and there. I'm gonna fix up the missing tiles near the end of the level. Add some info about your level status when you pause the game. Fix some more code. Some values of gun power and scores need to alter a bit. And I might be adding the level 1 boss before I release the new demo. I've never actually coded a boss before so this'll be interesting I guess.

C.P.C. Update

Reckon I'm gonna spend the weekend fixing up 'Cosmic Prison Commando' and get it so that at least the demo won't have those crucial bugs anymore and likely work some more on the later levels and enemies. What I've just done now is change some of the control code to match that of 'Hero - Celestial Force' which I've improved recently. What this means for the player is that as well as supporting PC and PlayStation 1 & 2 gamepads like it already did, 'Cosmic Prison Commando' now supports gamepads for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Main purpose of the demo bugfix is just to have it satisfactory enough to have up for download on my webspace officially. I might change the sound effects too as to be honest I hate them. They were created in SFXR at the last minute and I didn't have to time to really test them. I might try making them more authentic this time by creating them in an Amstrad CPC emulator and recording them.

Music-wise I'm still not sure what I'm gonna do. The Switchblade theme and Glider Rider bike them does suit the game as it is but I want it to have it's own identifiable soundtrack. And I'm still likely to actually remake Switchblade at some point (coding wise it's easy for me now, it's just I want to be absolutely sure I can do the graphics to the level I've imagined all these years) and it'll be needing a new version of that tune itself.

Anyways gonna have some dinner, watch the final part of the Torchwood - Children of Earth mini-series and then get some more coding done.

Iji Fansprite

Wanted a bit of practice doing a larger sprite again so I did a fansprite of Iji, the main character in the same-titled video game by Daniel Remar who also made 'Hero' which is the main inspiration for my own 'Hero - Celestial Force'. Tried to keep the design similar and it's the same height pixelwise, but I just did it in my own style and level of detail. Was good practice and reminds me how difficult I find pixelling female characters at this size. Iji is a great game and my favorite on the PC including all commercial and indie games. If you haven't yet tried it go download it at Daniel's site