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Rockman & Community => Fan Creations => Fan Games => Topic started by: Servadac on June 30, 2013, 12:23:46 AM

Title: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Servadac on June 30, 2013, 12:23:46 AM
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Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Phi on June 30, 2013, 12:46:54 AM
(http://s21.postimg.org/rljr2bmlz/MM42_Robot_Masters_Concept.jpg)

Homicidal Kool-Aid Man?
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Reaperoid on June 30, 2013, 02:42:42 PM
It's nice to see a new game posted in here that's actually almost done.

You said in the blog that you've fixed things up a bit since the video was made, but I didn't see anything wrong with it aside from a few things needing polish. Off the top of my mind, the physics on the bed platforms was the only thing I really thought could use some, maybe cap your terminal velocity if you can.

Overall, well done.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Servadac on June 30, 2013, 10:36:22 PM
It's nice to see a new game posted in here that's actually almost done.

You said in the blog that you've fixed things up a bit since the video was made, but I didn't see anything wrong with it aside from a few things needing polish. Off the top of my mind, the physics on the bed platforms was the only thing I really thought could use some, maybe cap your terminal velocity if you can.

Overall, well done.

Thanks for your comment. If you look closely at the video you can see the Megaman sprite glitch out a few times, that's mostly what I've fixed and also the physics engine a bit. I assumed Megaman couldn't make a four-tile gap jump but apparently he can so I fixed that. Regarding the bed it's kind of supposed to make the character hard to control but I can see if maybe I can make a cap.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Zynk on July 05, 2013, 05:25:39 PM
Heys!  :D Its nice you have Roll in there! I'll just nit-pick on the screenies of her. On the 'Player Select Character', Roll has a red chest armor but her player sprite has none.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Servadac on July 05, 2013, 06:17:10 PM
Heys!  :D Its nice you have Roll in there! I'll just nit-pick on the screenies of her. On the 'Player Select Character', Roll has a red chest armor but her player sprite has none.

Yeah, I gave this some thought as well. I think her sprite would look kinda weird with the chest armor and it's nicer to keep it in line with Megaman's sprite. Also the Robot Masters look different from the concept art as well, obviously you just can't draw that many details when you only have 32x32 to work with.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: thefallenalchemist on July 17, 2013, 07:59:30 PM
Look forward to giving it a try!  :)
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: kokocipher on July 19, 2013, 01:34:41 AM
Game needs some serious graphics touch up.  If you're still looking for a music composer, I'll give it a shot.  Just tell me where I can download the sound fonts.  I can do pixel arts too.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Servadac on October 22, 2013, 06:14:07 PM
Bumping because of new trailer. Re: the above gentleman I plan on releasing a redux version of the game with better tile sprites at some point. Don't have time to do it for this release because of various reasons but I'm aware of it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pVDYACccyo[/youtube]
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: spd12 on October 23, 2013, 04:05:11 PM
Nice to hear that things are still on track for getting an original soundtrack in there, and now I realize that as I posted this I forgot to get back to you on something - really sorry about that, I got occupied with some other things that I ended up forgetting about it.

Can't wait to get to hear the rest of the soundtrack, that last theme in the trailer sounded pretty catchy.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Zynk on October 23, 2013, 04:20:36 PM
Whenever I see fan-made Megaman games, I always wonder if I could make sprites for such games. I really want to touch up Roll over there. But I really don't have much free time.  O^O

Still, I'm expecting another cool Megaman fan game. Good job!  owob
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Shinryu on October 26, 2013, 05:47:55 PM
I'm going to quote a line from the indiedb page you guys have set up for this game:

Quote
Mega Man 42 is made in the style of the original Mega Man for NES. Because of this many of the newer features are not to be found in the game, such as Mega Man's slide and charge-up buster. There are no E-tanks either. This to preserve the challenge of the game instead of watering it out with features that do not add to the gameplay, and instead detract from it by making it too easy. A Password system has been implemented however.
For reference: http://www.indiedb.com/games/mega-man-42

I don't mean to be completely antagonistic, but this sounds fundamentally wrong on so many levels that it just hurts my brain. First of all, your notion that the aspects of sliding, a chargeable buster, and E-Tanks "water out" gameplay and add nothing to it are completely untrue. ALL of these aspects add depth to the gameplay elements of Mega Man. They make for different possibilities and present the player with more basic options in how they can approach certain situations. By removing these aspects, you are essentially removing any sense of depth from your game.

Based on the trailer and what you stated on your site, it definitely looks like this is going off of aspects from the very first Mega Man game. While I might be alone on this one, I don't think this is such a good idea. Dumbing down the gameplay back to the very basics would make the game seem far more outdated than it would challenging or interesting. This is also paired with the fact that you're not choosing to incorporate a save feature. I'm not shy to admit that I absolutely loathe the notion of passwords, considering all they do is waste several minutes of time either trying to remember them or write them down in order to pick up your progress. Essentially, they seem like the lazy way out of actually programming a functioning save feature.

Other than all of that...I don't even think I need to comment on anything else (graphics, music, etc). They all speak for themselves as a foreboding warning through that trailer.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Phi on October 26, 2013, 07:20:19 PM
I like this guy.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: Mirby on October 26, 2013, 07:26:47 PM
I like this guy.
As do I.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42
Post by: thefallenalchemist on October 27, 2013, 03:23:25 PM
I could deal with the no slide, charge and loss of E-Tanks. But not being able to save in this day and age, is ridiculous. I don't mean to be harsh, but I simply don't have to time to play the game in one sitting. Barely any of us do. We've all got jobs and lives and families, so not being able to record your progress and being expected to blow through the whole thing in a few hours is just not the luxury that all of us have. Especially if you work in retail. My hours have jumped up quite a bit due to the approaching Holiday season, and I do plenty of work in the field of musical journalism on the spare. Playing games are a bit of a cool-down from work, so I take about an hour or so at most to play and to sometimes record on Youtube. So if there's no password system, I think I'll just run through a few levels, post the work on Youtube to show people what to expect, and probably not touch it again after that.



Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Shinryu on October 31, 2013, 03:06:50 AM
I just got done testing this game out for an hour or so. Even though my expectations weren't exactly high for this game to begin with (refer to my first post in this thread), I tried to go into this with a bit of an optimistic outlook. Unfortunately however, that outlook came back to bite me harder than I could ever imagine.

Right now, I'm doing everything in my power to type all of this without exploding into a sea of anger that would make even the most vulgar and hate-fueled forum goers cringe in anguish. For the longest while, I proclaimed "Mega Man Rocks" to be the absolute king of garbage when it came to poorly made fan-games...but not anymore. There are so many different problems with this game that it's not even funny. It's actually gotten to the point where I'm highly considering ripping off Joseph Collins' style of creating a list that pin-points every last complaint and bug with the game. However, I don't feel inclined to do so right now (mostly considering I haven't beaten the game yet). For now though, I'll briefly describe some of the major aspects that make me think so negatively on this game.

[spoiler]
- The overall engine is extremely flawed in more than one way. Movement, scrolling, and among other aspects feel so off that it barely feels like I'm playing a game inspired by the mechanics of Mega Man.

- Movement in particular is extremely awkward. Upon reaching the peak of your jump, Mega Man/Roll seems to hover slightly in mid-air for roughly half a second. This makes jumping around on platforms (some of which are constructed and positioned in such asinine ways) extremely awkward.

- The recoil from damage in this game is just insane. Every single time you take a hit, you'll be sent flying backwards at an alarming rate. The distance you get thrown from damage is much greater than in any other official Mega Man game as well. All of this pretty much guarantees a few cheap deaths from being flung into bottomless bits.

- The graphics are outright atrocious looking. Nearly everything in the game, especially the Robot Masters, look like they were done up in MS Paint in about 3 minutes. The overall look of most of the things found in this game is completely unlike Mega Man in almost every single aspect.

- A good chunk of the music is outright ear-bleeding. Missile Man and Sand Man's stage themes are easily among the worst of the bunch. The composition on these pieces is either extremely bland, completely unlike that of a Mega Man game, or so jumbled and ear-piercing that it becomes unbearable to listen to.

- The level design is absolutely wretched. I understand this is supposed to be taking after Mega Man 1, and while that game did have its fair share of flaws in its level design, it doesn't even come anywhere close to this game. A good example of this is in Missile Man's stage - primarily with a jump that requires the player to leap over a small gap, but with barely any room to do so due to a disturbingly low ceiling. From what I've seen so far, a few jumps similar to this also appear in one of the Wily stages.

- The Password system. We live in the year 2013 - and soon to be 2014. Even in the regards of this game trying to imitate the style of a much older game, the password system is extremely unnecessary. It's an outdated mechanic that was only used due to most games back then not having enough memory space to allow for such a feature. Considering this game is for the PC, there is NO excuse not to have a functioning save feature.

- The game itself starts off in full-screen mode. I don't particularly like full-screen mode for more personal reasons than technical ones (I'm the kind of guy that likes to multi-task when doing these things, and full-screen gets in the way of that for several obvious reasons). You can put the game into windowed mode by pressing F4 however, but that only begs the question: If you were going to include a windowed mode on this, then why make it automatically become full-screen on launching it? Why not just keep it in windowed mode for easier methods of maximizing and minimizing the game? Or better yet, add an options menu to adjust something like this.
[/spoiler]

Ugh...I'm gonna need a minute after all that...or an hour...or maybe a few days/weeks/months/eons/whatever. I'll probably go through with that list once I complete the game.

Update: 10/31/13
I can't stand to reach the end of this thing. Even though my word would probably be a bit more credible if I had completed the game, I don't think I'll be doing so for a while. I'm officially at my wits end, and all due to one particular instance that occurred in this game.

Due to the insane recoil as mentioned in my list of issues, I was struck by a Sniper Joe-esque enemy (that only seems to come to life and attack whenever he sees fit), and landed directly into a pit of spikes without any chance to save myself. Even with invincibility time, I still died upon hitting the spikes. Now then, I understand this game is obviously going off aspects from the very first official Mega Man game - and the lack of invincibility time saving you from spikes was indeed something that was present in the original.

With that being said however, why do you think Capcom saw fit to change this in every single other Mega Man game released? It's because they knew the first game had a ton of design flaws, with the invincibility time not counting towards spikes being one of them. Why do you think they added things like E-Tanks, a slide, a chargeable buster, and even a save feature as the series went on? It was to make new innovations to the series in order to make it fun. That's why.

This whole thing all goes back to a point I made in my original post: Unless you're actually willing to make an effort to improve upon certain aspects (which Capcom obviously already did as the series went on), making a game based on the outdated and flawed aspects of the original Mega Man game is not a good idea in any way, shape, or form. Case closed.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: GoldwaterDLS on November 02, 2013, 10:04:58 AM
Hey, congratulations on the release of your game! I gave it a go and, aside from a few issues, I found myself enjoying the experience quite a bit. I know you're aiming to update the artwork eventually, so I'm not going to harp on you about that aspect. In fact, there's something strangely appealing to me about the sprite work in its current form, though I'm not sure what it is. The music is a mixed bag, I'd say; while some tunes were generally quite pleasant (Sky Man, Ombuds Man, Zombie Man), there are a few I think could use a bit more work. Missile Man's theme seemed rather repetitive and lacked the fast-paced, explosive nature you'd expect from a missile themed Robot Master. While I thought the instrumentation of Sand Man's theme was more fitting for his stage, the melody was simply dissonant. Again, those were the only two tracks that I really had any quarrel with.

I found the majority of the level design to be fluid and inventive, though I did encounter some hiccups along the way (namely one evil room later in the game). There were also instances where having a special weapon seemed mandatory for smooth progression, otherwise you were guaranteed to take hits. These areas might have been easily traversable if it weren't for some of the incredibly large hitboxes on pretty much all of the projectiles. For instance, the shielded enemies that throw grenades at you are next to impossible to dodge simply because the explosions in this game have a hitbox nearly twice the size of the actual sprite. This was one of my biggest frustrations, especially against the final boss, but I'll talk about that later. Aside from the hitboxes, I thought most of the boss battles were fair with a nice sense of variety.

The weapons were well suited to deal with each Robot Master and made sense thematically. I probably didn't look at the weapons as in-depth as I should have, but I tend to be more of buster dueler when it comes to Mega Man games. Still, I found myself using the weapons in a variety of situations; Brain Man's weapon was particularly useful in taking out those obnoxious bouncing ball enemies, despite being fairly slow. Also, Sand Man's weapon was a very unique concept and, now that I think about it, I probably should have used it against those Joe-type enemies.

So, my least favorite aspect of the game would definitely be some of the engine aspects; I'm aware that this game is a callback to Mega Man 1, but the knockback in this game is too extreme. Not only does it send you back a huge distance, but it also hurls you downward. If there was one aspect of the game that I'd recommend fixing first, it would be that (though, I do have another one in the spoiler tag). My favorite aspect of the game would be the Robot Masters themselves; some of them are completely ridiculous, but that's why they're so fun. There were so many nice creative touches along the way, such as the padded cells in Mad Man's stage and the breaking in and out of the glass in Ombuds Man's stage. The only stage that I really felt lacked that creative charm was Missile Man's stage; it just seemed rather empty at times and had some frustrating enemy placements. Overall, this game was a fun and challenging experience (I missed the use of E-tanks, but it sure made me work for my victory) and I would certainly playthrough it again, given you fix up some of the more frustrating issues. Some of those issues are listed below and have to deal with the last few stages.

[spoiler]While the first two fortress stages were easy enough to get through, those Joe enemies were extremely irritating, given that they frequently appeared in clumps and had practically undodgeable attacks. I noticed they also sometimes threw their explosives in a completely random direction, though this proved to be beneficial for getting past them. I actually quite enjoyed your spin on the Yellow Devil; it made the fight far less tedious then those fights tend to be, given you discovered its weakness.

I do not like the third fortress stage at all, even though it's short. This is all due to that one room with the four evil jumps in a row. First, I really hate those types of low ceiling jumps, but to force the player to do four times (over spikes) is just downright mean. The boss was interesting, even though it was difficult to anticipate his attacks. I only managed to beat him by camping in a corner and mashing the shoot button.

My biggest complaint about the fortress stages is directed at the final boss. I was really enjoying the game up to this point, but this boss really put me over the edge. Yes, it was a difficult boss and I'd be perfectly fine with that, however this comes back to hitbox issue. Pretty much every explosion and projectile fired from the boss, in all of its forms, seem to have hitboxes much larger than the actual sprites. I'd be standing nearly ten pixels away from an explosion and still get tagged. This was especially frustrating because I knew I needed all of my health intact for the final form. This is the one aspect of this game that I'd outright consider a dick move. First, I've never been a fan of having to use a particular special weapon to take down a boss, but I could still cope with that. No, it was the choice of weapon that infuriated me; the paint weapon has barely any horizontal movement to it, so it requires you to be right next to the boss for it work. However, since the boss alternates its attacks randomly, you never know when he'll decide to do that four ball attack, which appears right where you need to be. This essentially leaves the player praying that the boss will use the other attacks and the battle ultimately comes down to luck. I feel this can be fixed easily if you give the paint weapon more range or you change where the orbs appear during that attack. Otherwise it is completely unfair. Sorry if I come of as a little extreme in this part, but I'm conveying the genuine frustration this caused me, especially since this happened right before the finish line. This is the only thing in the game that I feel absolutely needs to be fixed, because otherwise I can definitely see myself playing through this again and enjoying it.[/spoiler]

Thanks for the game!
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Zynk on November 02, 2013, 03:37:44 PM
Just finished the game! I'll report some bugs I found.
1.) When on ladders, Megaman can shoot Paper Slasher only once; you have to enter/exit the menu for it to work again.
2.) While playing Roll with boss weapons, her colors seem to revert when she's on ladders. There's one frame transition where you could see her red color.

For players who would fight the final boss:
[spoiler]Try killing off your retries up to zero so that you wouldn't have to farm weapon energy to defeat Wily's 3 machines.
Since its in a spoiler tag, here's the weapons you need to defeat Wily:
a.) VS Blimp: Use paper Slasher first until you drop the Blimps HP in half, then when it descends use Sleeping Sand;
b.) VS Tank: Use Zombie Beam (forgot what its called :p) on the turret;
c.) VS UFO: Use Paint Glob, use it like Bubble Lead vs Alien.[/spoiler]

Comment about the game. Graphics are meh, needs improvement esp. Roll  ~w~. Music is cool, some are catchy but needs more instruments & remixing; I'm looking forward to it in MM42 Redux. Over-all its short but sweet.

EDIT: I also like to point out that Megaman & Roll doesn't have the short step animation (tap left or right move 1 pixel forward sprite). Hope you add it.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Shinryu on November 05, 2013, 01:07:56 PM
Well, persistence has paid off for me, and I somehow managed to beat this game. I didn't enjoy it. Not one, single, solitary moment of it. All of the reasons as to why will be listed below. As stated before, I'm pretty much taking a page out of Joseph Collins' book (read: completely ripping him off) and listing off every major bug I managed to find, along with every complaint I have for different portions of this game. Since I'm still checking for bugs in the 8 main stages, I'll primarily post listings for general aspects on the game itself and the Wily stages for now. I'll update this to include the main stages later.

[spoiler=Overall/General Aspects]
Bugs:

Complaints:

(*) Note: I realize that this game is based on aspects of the original Mega Man, and that some of the details I listed were present in that game. As stated before however, I really don't like this overall notion. To revert back to the very beginning of the series is to essentially dumb down the gameplay (and in the process, reverting back to many design flaws as well). When it all comes down to it, the game itself is devoid of any sense of depth or intriguing aspects that made the later games in the series so enjoyable.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Enemies]
Bugs:

Complaints:
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Weapons]
Bugs:

Complaints:
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Wily Stage 1]
Bugs:

Complaints:
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Wily Stage 2]
Bugs:
Aside from the ones with the fortress boss, I did not find any bugs in this stage (yet).

Complaints:
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Wily Stage 3]
Bugs:
Aside from the ones with the fortress boss, I did not find any bugs in this stage (yet)

Complaints:
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Wily Stage 4]
Bugs:

Complaints:
Not much to say here. It's just a typical boss-rush stage, and that's about it (even though I could make entire post rambling on about why these Boss Rushes are obnoxious and need to die off altogether). Then again, this stage could be considered a bit redundant as well, mostly considering the nature of Wily 3's boss.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Wily Stage 5 and Ending]
Bugs:
I did not find any bugs in this stage (aside from the aforementioned and annoying beetles, that is).

Complaints:
[/spoiler]

There's probably a lot more I missed, and I'll likely be updating this (and including the 8 main stages, of course) as time goes on. Overall however, this game is just one gigantic pain from start to finish. There's nothing fun about it. Not in any theoretical or practical sense. The only saving grace of it is a few potentially interesting mechanics behind some of the weapons - and even that gets botched up due to the numerous bugs and highly unappealing gameplay.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: thefallenalchemist on November 05, 2013, 04:46:22 PM
As stated, this game is a mess. It's playable, albeit barely. I haven't gone through all of the stages yet, but after traversing through Ombuds Man and Mad Man, I'd really hate to see what else is in store. Has anyone mentioned that the frame rate in Ombuds Man is actually much higher and smoother than the series usually allows for, but when you play through Mad Man's stage, the rate slows down to almost a crawl. Is this to compensate for the padded room areas?

Also, I feel that the stages are a bit lonely. There's not enough enemies in each stage. On the other hand, I do like Prometheus. Maybe original material better suits you, Servadec.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: spd12 on November 16, 2013, 03:55:10 PM
v1.1 was recently released a few days ago. Sure, this game may not be everyone's favorite, but I'm passing the message along. Quite a few bugfixes and it sounds like some of the more disliked jumps have been adjusted according to the alteration in the jump physics.

Here's a link to where you can grab it, if you are so inclined: http://servadacsgamedev.blogspot.com/2013/11/mm42-v11.html (http://servadacsgamedev.blogspot.com/2013/11/mm42-v11.html)
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Jadzxa on November 16, 2013, 05:32:48 PM
I still have to find some time here, but I'll surely give this a go and let you know what I think. From the shots. It looks really nice!
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Joseph Collins on November 16, 2013, 07:21:45 PM
As stated before, I'm pretty much taking a page out of Joseph Collins' book (read: completely ripping him off) and listing off every major bug I managed to find [...]
Hey, it's okay, Shinryu!  Really!  I'm actually kind of glad my style of (over-)analyzing these fan games is interesting enough for other people to borrow.  ^_^;;  I take it as a compliment!  Besides, it's not like I put a copyright on that format or anything.  (... yet~)

As for this game?  I'll probably get to it when I'm less busy (slacking off).  It looks promising and the addition of Pink Megaman Megagirl Roll as a character seems like a good idea.  Plus, I'm kind of excited to see a fan game that I've actually heard of finally got released.  I haven't exactly been following the fan game scene, but I've seen "Mega Man 42" on YouTube now and then.  So, yeah.  :3
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Threxx on November 17, 2013, 12:45:13 AM
I barely was able to change the freaking controls to my preference; I would press the up key and it would assign the C key...  bVd

I've seen Shinyru's LP of the game, and I don't think I'll be playing this one anytime soon.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Zynk on November 17, 2013, 07:42:40 AM
Yet again. The bug where Paper Slash doesn't work after using it on ladders is still present.

Plus, Roll's palette bug is still there.
Title: Re: Mega Man 42 - Released!
Post by: Darkflamewolf on December 02, 2013, 01:26:35 AM
Wow, this is completely unplayable, even in 1.1. The game won't recognize basic default keyboard commands, even if I try mapping Joy2Key. I tried configuring them myself using the option menu only to get them all to appear as '1Key' instead. Now it simply won't respond to anything at all at the title screen. So until this gets fixed, sad to say, its getting trashed. Sorry.