IRAGINATION

This update took a lot of time but it is going to pay off. Here is a video preview.

From the previous update, I had already decided to add the Mega Man X’s Giga Armor to Bass Abyss. I had the sprite sheet ripped for years, but that is a story for another post.

I seem to remember I had the Giga Armor implemented in relatively little time. But I decided to keep it on hold. I use to do that as my back up plan. It was too soon, and at worst, if I didn’t have the time to complete anything else, I could just show the armor. While that was the plan, I didn’t develop much for several weeks afterward.

Engine upgrades

Room support

As I approached my update deadline, I decided to revise some stuff I’ve been delaying. The concept of “rooms”. I’ll probably talk more about that in the next update, but the thing is, for something that started as simple experimentation, it went so well and I saw so much progress that I decided to hold the update and build a new level.

It was just going to be a demo level, but again, what started as a proof of several concepts, based on Boomer Kuwanger’s level, went so nice that I could not help to keep adding stuff to the engine. Then I went: “This is it, this deserves to be Level 19. At long last!”.

Boss battle support

Later on, I decided I didn’t want to have a simple exit. I wanted a boss battle. You know, this stuff takes time. I like to consider my options, decide on some music, and little by little I start to put things together. A boss has weapons, attacks, states, attack points, sound effects. Well, I was on a roll, weeks went on, I just didn’t mind.

Boss door support

Then, a few weeks ago I was debating over to stop there and release. But then I went. “Come on, this looks too good, just a little more. I want doors. Boss doors. Mega Man X Boss Doors. I had them on Fall of 21XX. I want them here now!”.

I pushed the release date again and I started to work on those doors.

This is oversimplified of course, but really, this must be the most extensive update in years. New character, new opening, new level, new boss, new music, new tiles, new editor. Complete insanity.

And still, you’ll have to wait for just a little longer. I expect to polish this a bit more and have this published before the end of the month. In the meantime, enjoy the video preview. I used to be strict with my “no spoilers” rule, but I really love to record these videos for posterity.

Canceled games

Fun fact. The last time I updated, Mega Man Universe was canceled. Now Capcom had to ruin my weeks of anticipation working in this update by canceling yet another Mega Man game: Mega Man Legends 3. Coincidence much? Still, such horrible timing.

I decided to post this update anyway.

It’s here! As promised, Mega Man X joins the list of available characters of Bass Abyss. Yes, he can climb walls, dash, and do all the standard movements you’ve enjoyed in Fall of 21XX. I was not going to settle for less, no sir. It took its time, but everything is ported, implemented, and fine-tuned.

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Well, I’m beyond my arbitrary self imposed time limit of no updates. With nothing finished at hand, I had to be creative, so I decided to at least put together this video with the recent stuff I’ve been working on. I’ve been working, you know? Then I noticed it’s April 1st. How am I going to be taken seriously if I post on such a date? Well, this is no joke, Mega Man X is coming. I’m beyond the point of no return with this, so hopefully, I’ll have this released before April ends.

And I love so much to play as X. Yeah, gameplay and balancing will be most likely broken after this. But what the heck, this is just too much fun.

In other news, I read Mega Man Universe has been canceled? Well, that’s one less game to tear apart enjoy. I hope this video cheers you up at least a little bit.

I don’t know how it happened, but somewhere, when I was in Panama I screwed up the High Scores and Speed run records code. Well, that was a lot of time ago. Recently I’ve been busy fixing up a lot of stuff that I don’t like anymore, cleaning code, moving around stuff, and overall extracting a base platform for further projects. So I decided it was time to fix the scores problem once and for all, but while I was at it I thought, this code is below my current standards so let’s do something extensible that will be usable for other games and not just this one.

It took longer than I expected, even considering the few hours I can devote to it, but I’m really happy with the results. Now I feel like modifying my old games to use this new high records backend, but now that I remember, I also have to restore the HTML view of the scores. For now, probably I’ll just take a break. Anyway enjoy, and try to beat my records! Happy Holidays!

After all the Mega Man 2 hype surrounding Mega Man Universe, I was wondering what’s up with Mega Man 2 and the Mega Man 2 Robot Masters. Why is the Metal Blade considered to be God’s weapon by some? Even better, how can I tell if it is enclosed forever in Mega Man 2? As there’s no simple way to answer this, I decided to simply put Metal Man to the test.

So, in this update, I bring you Metal Man as a new Bass Abyss playable character.

With Metal Man come all the simple controls you’d expect from an 8-bit character. Just note, he can’t slide, but he can run. Also shooting will fix him on the floor.

Metal Blade

Metal Man’s weapon can be shot in eight directions and here is where the major fun comes from. You can literally reach anyone from anywhere. The blades go through walls and are really strong. Your only limit is how fast you can shoot them. I recommend you to use a gamepad and Joy2Key for superior controls.

Super Jump

I was going to call this Robot Master Jump but whatever. Essentially, when you combine UP and SPACEBAR (jump and up) Metal Man will jump higher than usual. With so many new custom levels, I was concerned about releasing a new character but not being able to get through the new maps. Well, this solves the problem, for Metal Man at least. I still want to solve this for the other characters, but with a little more time, I’d like to try another route.

This month IRAGINATION is another year old! Have fun!

Well, this was fast. In this update, I bring you three new custom levels by Hunter. As usual, you can check them at the Custom Level section of the game’s title screen.

The levels are:

• Hunter’s Temple
• Hunter’s Temple 2
• Hunter’s Temple 3 – Nightmarish Tamp

Well, probably I should save you some frustration and tell you that I was able to beat them only with Bass and Samus. But other than that the levels are pretty long and challenging. Temple 3 at least has to be the largest map I’ve seen so far, and the engine didn’t die on it! The difficulty builds up in every step so take your time and make use of Bass as Samus aiming abilities to clear your path safely.

I’m thinking of ways to overcome the limitations for other characters to get through the long jumps required for this kind of level, but only time will tell what the future holds in this regard.

Have fun!