Topic: Megaman X:Rise

[Aresian]

Gotta say, this is looking mighty fine. I like the feel... it's innovative, while still keeping the good traditions. It makes X actually look fun to play for a change too. It... looks like fun. Genuine fun, not just "hey, I used to play this when I was a kid" fun.

Two thumbs up. Keep up the good work, comrade.

[kirbyhi5]

Gotta say, this is looking mighty fine. I like the feel... it's innovative, while still keeping the good traditions. It makes X actually look fun to play for a change too. It... looks like fun. Genuine fun, not just "hey, I used to play this when I was a kid" fun.

Two thumbs up. Keep up the good work, comrade.

I'm happy to hear you feel that way. Motivation +10  

Been working on some minor things in spare time, mainly charged shots and the stage select screen.


The max charge shot is pretty much X1's and X3's combined.(frame count reduced in gif for faster loading)


Not 100% sure on how much damage it'll do. Right now, the initial blast does about +2 more damage more than a regular charged shot to an enemy. The  blast leaves behind a damaging after shot that deals 0.5 damage until it's duration is up.(about 3 second duration)


Decided to add a feature where you can slide/dash under narrow passages. (Basically like in mario where you could run + crouch under small passages, but instead you can dash + crouch or simply dash. The level needs to have ice tiles to dash + crouch slide though)


Realllly basic stage select screen that's only functional at the moment. the red block will be the boss display image, and the yellow block is for the stage background image. The middle panel is for stage information, such as rank and level completion. 100% means you've obtained all secrets in the stage(Etank, Wtank, Heart, etc) The other colored blocks shown below are for the boss sprites.

[Mirby]

Your images are a bit grainy... but it looks great!

[MSX]

I'm not really into the "X" series, and I only like the classic ones, but man - this one is really well-done and I actually look forward to it =)

[CKeen]

Hi. I'm terribly sorry to bump this thread, but I wanted to ask if someone has the demo for this. According to this video and the thread at the MegaManX9 forums, this fangame did see a demo release. However, the mediafire link for it is now dead.

Since this seems to be a pretty big community, I was wondering if anyone here had the demo and could upload it, or knows of a place that has a download link.

Thanks in advance, and sorry again for the bump.

[kirbyhi5]

There was a demo but it's extremely outdated(From November I believe).

Anyway, progress has been slow but steady.(Mainly because I have work and classes to attend, so I don't have much time like I used to) Unfortunately I do not have screenshots, since I have been working mostly on internal things that will be mentioned below. Since I do not have any play testers, a public engine test will most likely be released in the near future once these tasks are complete. Once the mentioned tasks are complete, updates should become more frequent.

[Level Editor] (New things)
-Supports multiple background images for each stage.
(You can specify when you want the background to transition to the next)

-Supports any amount of animations per background image.
(MMX games have 3 frames per background, so that'd be the ideal amount)

[X:rise]
-Improved physics engine for enemies.
-Additional 8 enemies added. Few previews below.

Laser Bot

General aerial enemy. (Don't worry, they won't be clustered in actual stages)

Flame Chaser

Possible placeholder sprite, based off X1's rider.

Laser Ant

Remains hidden until in range.

Security Bot

Targets the player using bézier curves.

Sea Serpent

Plan on adding this enemy as a sub-boss with a new moveset. Physics are complete though. (No, it does not actually move this fast)

[Tasks that need to be completed]
-Animated tiles
(I am still deciding on how to approach making each individual tile to have animations in the most efficient way possible, via the level editor of course. There will probably be a limit of 3 frames, which MMX games seem to have. The problem is mainly trying to find a way so users can easily add animated tiles in. The best approach I can think of is having the editor import animation sheets. When complete, tiles will be able to have small animations like lights flickering, electricity and what not.)

-Several more enemies -There's a total of around 40 enemies at the moment, some new, some old with new physics. The only thing stopping my enemy creation process is ideas. :p

Again, it's not much. Creating sprites will most likely be the most time consuming task.(Backgrounds, enemies, weapons, perhaps bosses) Gimmicks(devices that make stages unique) and tilesets/BGs aren't really important until I begin working on the actual levels. I'm trying to put it off as much as I can until the mentioned tasks are complete.

[Flame]

Looking good. I'm especially digging the laser bots

[Blackhook]

Me actually getting interested in a X (Besides Corrupted) game? Gotta say I hope to see this finished.

[RetroRespecter]

This may make Mega Man 21XX get a remake.

[kirbyhi5]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Just wanted to point out that I believe I finally have a solution for making animated tiles. Decided to have the level editor import "animation tile sheets", which are pretty much sprite sheets, except they are tiles. The editor will automatically arrange the animations in order based on a 32x32 grid.

Marked

This is an animation tile sheet that I marked. Each 32x32 slot is a frame. Each tile can have a total of 5 animation frames. (Frames 0-4, Looped)

Unmarked


How it'll appear in the level editor:

[VirusChris]

What program are you using to create this game? Looks awesome so far!

[kirbyhi5]

MMf2 all the way man.

Dec 25th, 2011
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qny59Ndezo&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

INFO
Quick boss battle of a placeholder boss, perhaps..Either I'll use a combination of new/old moves on old bosses or new sprites.

[RetroRespecter]

Looks like this is alive and kicking!

[VirusChris]

MMf2 all the way man.

Dec 25th, 2011
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qny59Ndezo&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

INFO
Quick boss battle of a placeholder boss, perhaps..Either I'll use a combination of new/old moves on old bosses or new sprites.

What's MMf2? I got to look that up... and awesome video by the way! That boss fight was interesting!

[N-Mario]

What's MMf2? I got to look that up... and awesome video by the way! That boss fight was interesting!

I hope when he says "MMF2" he means "Multimedia Fusion 2". Man I love that! I'll love it even more when Mega Man fan games are run through it! 

[GameDragon]

Really glad you're still working on this. I hope to see more soon. =D

[VirusChris]

How good is this "Multimedia Fusion 2"? If it can make a Mega Man fangame like this, it must be pretty good!

[kirbyhi5]

Yeah MMF2 is excellent for creating any snes-era game in general, especially if combined with Lua scripting. It's really easy to understand  once you play around with things for a bit.

As for the game,  progress isn't as fast as I'd like due to university classes/major classes being time consuming.(And a part-time job on my weekends) Also most of the progress is technical changes, so I'm not too fond of updating the thread for those types of things. It's mostly trying to have a more efficient level editor.

Example: Spread function

[Can create mass-tiles at once]



[and there they all go]

and then of course copy/paste and moving sections of tiles is next. Should have been done first but I'm going back & forth between making engine changes and the editor.

[VirusChris]

Cool.

[kirbyhi5]

More enemies.. (Because you can never have too many enemies!)

Crusher
From X1 Intro stage



Sensor
From X3 Volt Catfish stage.



Bomb Been
From X1 Intro stage. This time his bombs send you flying up.



Jamminger
From X1 Intro stage. (Yes, it laughs when it hits X.)



The Hive
From X4 Web spider stage, except using different sprites.



Just a normal day testing enemy ai.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I'm just about at the 50 enemies mark. Maybe it's time to start making an actual level.

[Align]

Nice! The crusher effect's timing seems a bit off though, it looks like the big flash is meant to disguise the tile underneath being removed, but it flashes too early/removes the tile too late. Though perhaps just making a few shards of rock fly out from the tile would make the tile being removed less obvious?
It looks like the sensor beam itself does the damage rather than the shots it fires after, IIRC it was possible to dash through the beam at some angles without being hit by the shots.

[kirbyhi5]

Nice! The crusher effect's timing seems a bit off though, it looks like the big flash is meant to disguise the tile underneath being removed, but it flashes too early/removes the tile too late. Though perhaps just making a few shards of rock fly out from the tile would make the tile being removed less obvious?

Good eye, the explosions are disguises.  I don't know why I forgot to make debris fly from broken ground, thanks for the suggestion. I'll definitely add it.

It looks like the sensor beam itself does the damage rather than the shots it fires after, IIRC it was possible to dash through the beam at some angles without being hit by the shots.

Yea the beam + shots do the damage. At first only the shots damaged, but for some reason I thought dashing through the beam was an unintended effect so I revised it. However I'll just change it so it can be dashed through at certain angles.

[Mirby]

These are some slick updates, man! Lookin' forward to this!

(also 8000th post! woo!)

[kirbyhi5]

Thanks for the feedback.


I've been pretty busy with this project lately actually. Most of it is internal work so I can't really show anything, but I'll post one of the ideas I have that I'd like feedback on.

This will be the file select screen. A snapshot is taken randomly during levels and used as the background image. Just a little fun thing i added.


[Dynamic Difficulty]
I'm going to use this method instead of just having "easy", "medium", or "hard" settings. So what is this dynamic difficulty?

Basically the difficulty in the level changes depending on how good you are. There will be maybe 3-4 "Grade Points" in each level. This is how it'll be constructed:

Hard path : You reach the grade point while taking little to no damage + quick time.
Normal path: You reach the grade point while taking some damage + average time.
Easy path: You reach the grade point while taking lots of damage + slow time.

The way the enemies behave isn't going to change. Only more tricky placement and how the path is made. This way there's no need for difficulty setting or worrying that you're missing out. Taking the hard path will give access to optional stages that have..secrets. The Normal and Easy path do not offer access to those stages.

Or

I can simply make paths that are more difficult, and if you can get past it, then you'll be granted access to those optional stages. However since the stages will not be long, it leaves the risk of the player just abusing the invincibility hit-delay without really being a good player. (hit-delay meant I could dash through a bunch of tough enemies. I used to do this in MMX1-3 all the time :p)

so why use this instead of difficulty settings? Well think about it. When you start a game on whichever difficulty, what are the chances of you going back and playing the game on another setting? Probably unlikely unless there were incentives such as unlockable content. There's always the option to let difficulty be changed during the stage, but it doesn't give a real sense of challenge when the player can just switch to easy mode during tough parts, then switch back to normal. I think this will also add more replay value to levels aswell.

What are your thoughts?

[Align]

Enemy placement is a pretty huge part of stage design so I'm not sure how that'll work out if it changes dynamically.
Also I've never met a dynamic difficulty game that I liked.