Sup dudes. I'm not dead yet. And I'm now employed on an experimental game development agency inside my university... Guess all that training with SPC fan games are finally being useful.

I  don't even know if I'm alive anymore. Well, at least I remember my password to edo. Hello again, everything ok?

Boy oh boy, looks like I work better under pressure, heh.

  Well, looks like the good and old windows stopped supporting individual midi volume configuration since W Vista. That give me two options: Install a new library, learn how to use it correctly and change every single line of code that involved midi music in the game and hope it still work in other plataforms like linux and mac OR modify all midi file into wav files.

  I've taken the second option, although it gave a considerable boost in the whole game size (every ~20KB midi now is a ~14MB wav file), all the music is loaded faster and the volume adjustment is working again.

blah blah blah there is the new, sweet and shiny update: HERE

Still waiting for some feedback about the new physics, specially from you cuchulain.

Funny thing I've got some spare time today and have done all the configurations menu. Here is the update for today:

20/02/2013

now you can toggle between windowed and fullscreen mode, activate or deactivate software and hardware acceleration and adjust sound and music volume.

Hello. New update today. Nothing great, just still trying to figure the best physics for this game. I am moving now, going to live with some friends in a new city to study there. I'll be very busy this next weeks, so don't wait for a new update. Chances are I'll be able to develop again due march.

Anyway, here is the update download

update 08/02/2013 09:10.

Download.

yeah.

and video. Cool.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46zOMCciPPc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46zOMCciPPc</a>

Yaaay, new updaaate!

I've worked hard to make it windowed 832x640, so it runs smoother and all. Also, now you have 2 complete (ok, almost complete) levels to explore. Please, try it and let me know what you think...

download here

Don't take me wrong, I never said boring, have in mind that you need to keep the dialogue simple for making easier to make it fit in the cutscenes (Unless you are making a RPG game)...

Hah, Yeah, I got it. I'll keep the dialogues short. I just though that telling you guys the story in the old "*does that* *goes there* *says that*" mode would be boring.

I'm not making any Metal-Gear-Solid-long cutscenes here 

Not bad but it feels more like fanfiction than a game script; i mean, usually the games have  simpler and faster dialogues; anyway, this is just my opinion and I can be wrong...

Yup, It's true. In the middle of the work I though "Meh... That's a boring thing to read. Maybe I can write it like a story, just for fun?" That's the result. It's a little less formal and straightforward than a script, but I still can use it as one.

[Nyankii is forever!]

Hello again...

So, I was thinking about some plot for my game, and I came up with this first part and wanted to show you. English isn't my first language so there's probably a lot of errors that I would really like if you could point.

That's the first Scene of the game, immediately after that starts the first tutorial, where you use Speedy to go through.

Nyankii is forever!

Chapter 0 - The adventure begins / Tutorial


   After a few months of the final struggle between Big Cheese and our feline heroes, Francine and Polly are tediously cleaning the tables. Its winter, the day is gray and cold and there is no one in the restaurant. The phone ring and Francine take it up.
-Pizza Cat, our delivery guy is as fast as a blur and we promisse not to drop any fur. In your pizza, I mean.
   Polly giggles. What kind of catch phrase is that anyway? She continues her work.
-Ok, we will delivery it as soon as we take it out of the oven. G'bye. - Says Francine, putting the phone down.
-Finally some work. Looks like almost no one wants pizza nowadays.
-Well, someone want. And It's house is almost out of the city. Where are Speedy and Guido?
   As if by magic, Guido walks in, scratching his back and yawning.
-Man, I'm bored. I never though I'd say that but I miss the old times, even with all the dangers and ninja crows bothering us and stuff like that.
-So gear up. You have a express delivery to do. - Says Francine, giving him a note with the adress.
-Oh no... no, you mean... You can't possibly mean...
-Oh, cut it out, I won't miss this time. And the good old cannon is becoming all rusty. Now shoo, begone you two. You have work to do. - She says, looking irritated.
   As Polly and Guido walk into the kitchen, the phone rings again.
-Pizza Cats, we do our best to deliver they fast. (...) Yes, of course. (...) Understood. We'll be sending it shortly. Bye.
-Another one? - Says Guido, putting his head through service window.
-Yup. But It's on the other side of the town. Where's Speedy?
-No Idea. Haven't seen him for a while now.
-Geez... Now what do we do? You can't possibly deliver both pizzas in time...
-I could do that - Says Polly. -There is no other costumer today, and we need to keep our good name.
-Well, that's... Unusual... But desperate times need desperate actions. Ok Polly, here is the adress and the order. Finish the pizzas and Gear up you two. You launch in 15 minutes.
   Meanwhile, Speedy is sleeping inside the pantry. Altough the day is freezing and he's lying over only some bags of flour, he's sweating and moving his arms around like fighting something. He hits some bags with punches and kicks some others; mumble something about Bad Bird, Ice and Polly, then Suddenly wakes up, yelling.
   His eyes open wide, he search blindly for the light switch, breathing deeply as he notices that all was just a dream.
-Oh boy, I'll never sleep again. That damn nightmare is breaking my nerves.
   He lie down again and looks to the ceiling, daydreaming about what his life was and what it has became. After some time, he hears a loud noise, and jumps almost 25 feet away from where he was.
-FRANCINE, ARGH. YOU SCARE SIX OF MY LIFES OUT OF ME.
-Good to know you still have one left. That way I can KILL YOU FOR BEIGN SLEEPING DURING WORK.
-Meh, I was... Meditating... About a new pizza flavour... whatever, what's up?
-It's been almost 2 hours since I sent Guido and Polly in a delivery, and they're not back yet. If it was only Guido I'd say he went for Lucille... But Polly?
-I... I see.. What do you think happend?
-I don't know... but that doesn't smell good.
-I'll check it out, don't worry. I guess is probably nothing... I hope.
   Speedy goes to the ovens, preparing for the launch. He trully loves Polly, but his comedian nature never let him trully express his feelings without making a joke or a funny remark about her "strong temper", so they never engage in any kind of relashionship.
   With that bothering his mind more than ever, Speedy is launched away, straight to the adress Polly went.

Just to inform that I've started the trully development of the GAME now, seeing that the engine itself is almost done. Now I'll try to figure a good plot, drawn some sprites, build some maps and adjust some configurations. Now the work will be slower and there will be less updates, but I'll still be working on that daily.

Oh, and I've just come up with a name for the game:

"Nyankii is Forever!"

[1- Physics.]

Matt, I just got done playing through it and wanted to give you a bit of feedback, though really it's all positive.  The physics are off just a tad, I think, but I have no idea how hard that is correct.  It plays a lot like an early Mega Man/Rockman game in a way, because everything feels kind of slow (as was mentioned with Polly's shuriken).  So I guess my suggestion would be to take it from NES Rockman to SNES Rockman, and you're good to go.  

I did have a suggestion for how you could develop it, if you think it's possible, though.  Since you seem to have the sprites and the physics down, do you think you could add a few new character sprites and make a multiplayer fighting game option?  Basically, a 2D sprite based Super Smash Bros. with Pizza Cat characters?  I have no idea as to how difficult it is, but I think we could definitely get some of the posters playing in an online battle royale style game.  I would think maybe 8 playable characters would be plenty, and of course some more attacks and items you could use in combat.  One thing that would be easier is that you wouldn't have to create elaborate level designs, just get the fighting space down and your'e good to go.  I know that emulators like MAME support online play, so maybe you could sync it up with an emulator like that to make it smoother?  Just an idea, forgive me if it's an insane suggestion.

Thanks for testing, believe me, it means a lot. About what you said:

1- Physics.
I was thinking about what you said and trying to understand the exact feeling of what you mean. I've never played the classic megaman, so I just watched some videos to mentally compare it with what I know of the physics of the X Series (that I've played a lot).

-Vertical - Maybe is a question of gravity acceleration? Looks like the old megaman jumps almost the same high as X, but falls faster and keeps speeding up for some time. X falls slower and just looks like it have a limitation in his falling speed.

-Horizontal - I'm trying to do something that looks like a Sonic game. The character starts slowly but can speed up a lot.

Also, maybe I could fix the feeling of slow motion. I'm trying to enable hardware acceleration, instead of just software.

2-SAMURAI SMASH BROSSSSSSS
Although I LOVE the idea of an online fighting SPC game, that was not the initial idea. I will, of course, try to figure it as a "Multiplayer" mode, but I am still starting on this "game developing" thing and I don't know anything about multi-machine developing.

I'm not saying I won't do it. I will. Just not so soon.

PS: All the sprites are just temporary. I just take the old 32x21 sprites of the old famicon game and "stretched" them to fit 96x64. I plan on doing (or asking someone with more skills to do) brand new sprites.

PS²: New video. I won't put this new update online because its so small its irrelevant. Anyway, here it is:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH6mF5DgRs4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH6mF5DgRs4</a>

And, for you that are having trouble with embedded video, here is the direct link: this one

The age of console gaming, as already said, is ending. Now, PC's have became almos on-pair with consoles in terms of graphic processing. So, the power of consoles rest only in it's exlcusives. I, myself, have bought my PSP just to play Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, and I don't intend to buy any console anytime soon. Even the next Metal Gear Solid will be released to PC now, why should I buy ANOTHER eletronic, if I can play almost anything that I'd like to in my PC?

Back to the main question of the topic: N64, PS2, PSP

New update AND video. Here.

Music by Felineki  

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi1UOK5ChvA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi1UOK5ChvA</a>

btw, if you can't see the video, try opening directly in my Youtube channel

Hey Felineki! Thats some awesome midis! They get just the right feel of the show. Really nice indeed. Well, since I've read in the first post

Hope you enjoy! You're free to use these any way you wish... use them in fan games, upload them to your sites to share with others, etc. These are labors of musical love done by a fan, for the fans.

I think you wouldn't mind if I put some of the midis in my C++ game? That would be cool.

Love the background! And (with a clear run) Polly is so fast she can outrun her own shuriken, but I kind of like that as well 

Matt, tried it and it works (I'm just glad I gave up on Gentoo and ended up choosing Debian, which uses apt-get!).  I will play through it when I get off of work later and give you some much deserved feedback/kudos.

I'm really happy it worked for both of you. That boost my confidence in C++ instead of the old Delphi that had so much issues. Thank you for your feedback.

Also, big news: I'm reading an article right now and maybe, just maybe, I could compile this game for iOS (that uses C# instead of C++ but still. SDL is really flexible).

Unfortunately, Android is out of question for now. It would need a complete C++ -> Java transcription. Big and slow work, but maybe in a long, distant future...

Small update:

here

Now 4 background layers.

[ALSO:]

Hello again. New version is up. download it here.

Worked a bit on background movement and added 2 layers of background. I like the resulting "depth" feeling. Would really appreciate if someone could try it.
Also developed a "melee" attack for all cats. Use "c" in the keyboard.
Plus:   now can use his umbrella as a shield.

ALSO:

For linux users:

download the Runtime Library that will work with your linux:

http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php

Install it using your package manager. For instance, app-get (sudo apt-get install libsdlx.y-dev)

profit!  

Hello Matt!

Just downloaded this latest version, and it all works here. One thing I spotted was the screen shifting a bit when a crouching. I'll play about a bit more, but it all looks good.

Hello! Glad you like it. I'll try to change that. Thanks for the feedback.

Matt, there probably is no way to get this game running under Linux, is there?  I don't use Windows and tried it with Wine, but to no avail.  I wonder how old of a PC it would run on; I still have my old Windows 98 PC for nostalgia's sake, maybe I should fire it up?

Well... I can't say for sure, but I think almost any PC will run this game. I don't think it needs any big graphic processing or anything.

Also, well... I've read somewhere that SDL, the library I'm using for this game, works on linux too. I'll search more info and see what I can do.

New video. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82w-Mn5EPC4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82w-Mn5EPC4</a>

Just developing enemy AI, Melee attack, as well as correcting some bugs.

Just that for today. Still waiting some feedback from you guys.