Stupid hummm

I dunno why, but nowadays, when I record with my Microphone, it's producing a strange hum. I tried searching through the net and the only possible factor I can think of is electrical interference. Not that I'm 100% sure though. It could also be that I dropped my microphone until it gone all funky. Grr!1 There goes RM30!!!

Anyway, here's Mr Ball in 2D first and probably last special attack (because I'm not really a big fan of making Special Effects for these kind of attacks):



Until I get my mic fixed, there won't be any incantations... Bummer...

Demo

Anyway, I'm proud to say that my Mr Ball in 2D is coming along well. A little too well, I suppose... I made the boss kinda hard to kill, because he keeps spamming the lasers! I can't even kill him with 5 lives! Ooh, I did a great job! Hahaha!

I doubt 512 MB of RAM can cope with the vast amount of objects, especially the lasers, but who knows, maybe 512MB is enough.

Do take note however that the mode shown in the video is Insane Mode, that means, the boss will go all out on the player and doesn't matter whether the player wins or loses.

The AI is fairly simple and this AI system has been used through my Mr Ball games, with a little addition la, of course. What the enemy will do is:

• The enemy chooses an attack from a list of attacks after a few seconds.
• The enemy executes that attack.

The way the boss chooses his attacks is quite random, which adds to the difficulty to predict the boss' next action. Though, there are some overrides in the AI system, where some attacks are executed on demand.

As you deplete the boss' HP, the boss will choose his attacks faster, giving less time for the player to recover after getting pummeled. Now, in the Normal mode, the boss won't really speed up that much, but in the Insane Mode, Woooowie!

Anyway, the Insane Boss will speed up so much, he'll take no longer than 0.1 second to choose an attack, so that's one attack after another after another!

Oh, good news! Most of the projectiles (spears, CDs, etc), can be repelled off by the water gun!

You can also see the "Critical Moment" in the video (when the screen becomes white-ish). That's the right time for the player to deal some significant damage to the enemy. All he needs to do is press [Space]. With this, the level should not take too long to complete (well, hopefully).

Anyway, currently, the boss has 11 types of attacks. Some are variations of others, but they all are for one thing only, to destroy Mr Ball!

Never give the enemy the advantage!

Well, I didn't really obey that saying, so I gave Mr Ball's enemy some lasers!


I added some new features that never existed in any of my Mr Ball games, which is the so-called "Critical Moment". It's the moment when the enemy is going to execute an attack. Before the enemy sucessfully unleashes his attack, the player has to press [SPACE] to sort of like "counter" him, and cancels of his attack. Quite a good thing actually. I might implement this into my 3D Mr Ball game.

A number of visual effects were incorporated, such as the err... crappy zoom blur effect when the player successfully executed the Critical Moment.


Oh, and I also used the particle system in Game Maker. This is really the first time I am using it, and the results are stunning!

Ah! It's finally taking shape

So, another 2 hours of tweaking and drawing, and I finally got a working boss fight:

It's not really done yet though. Originally, this boss has like 20 attacks. I'm planning to make more for this boss. I want to make this one of the hardest boss fights (I mean seriously HARD) in Mr Ball history!

The spears are greatly improved from the original. It is not able to move in all 360 degrees. Originally, it's only able to move in 8 directions. Hahaha!

That's weird...

Well, anyway, in just 3-4 hours, I finally finished the foundation for the Mr Ball in 2D mini game:



The background's kinda dynamic, so it moves and and fades, creating a dark and gloomy environment. It works well with the music.

The heck?

After looking through about DarkBASIC, I'm not quite happy with the collision detection for 2D. It's very insufficient for me. So, what I think is, I'll try to use DarkBASIC for 3D instead.

Anyway, I'll use back again my trusty old Game Maker. Sigh... How I wish I can master DarkBASIC... but you know what they say, it takes practice.

But, for 2D games, Game Maker 6.1 is seriously great.

The game is being recreated!

The first ever game I made (well, not really MADE! But modified from another game), is sorta making a comeback. I'm planning to write it in DarbBASIC so that I can learn how to program in DarkBASIC. The language seems simple enough for me, so yea, I'm giving it a try. I don't wanna rely too much on Game Maker already.

All I'm gonna do is recreate the Secret Battle of BeeCatzArena game (mod of the original Catz game, which I do not own), but instead of the Cat as the main character, Mr Ball will be the main character. This game is actually what started the Mr Ball project, would you believe that?

Anyway, a preview of the BeeCatzArena I posted long time ago: http://blproductions93.blogspot.com/2008/07/ooh.html

Yea, so anyway, I can't wait to get started. Though, I'm still very very new to DarkBASIC.

Blast it to bits!

Wow! I never knew Mr Ball could control a thermonuclear explosion!


A very simple attack, Mr Ball says some incantation, then the stage explodes! Had a few problem with the texturing, but in the end, it looks damn cool!

Rest in peace

So, today, I received a terrible news that my teacher's spouse passed away. I won't disclose the name here. I really feel sorry for ..., but the only think I can do is wonder. I'm just curious as to how it happened, but some questions are best left unanswered, though, I'm still very eager to know the real truth behind the sudden passing. I plan to attend the funeral, just to pay my last respects. This just reminds me of my grandma. Death is something very unpredictable. But let's look at the bright side, without death, this whole world will be overcrowded, and everyone will be competing for food, resources and what not.

Impale 'em!

And there you have it! Mr Ball's 5th Special Attack, the mock version of the "Ground Dasher" but I prefer calling it the "Raging Tremor"!

It's going to be the second special attack you can obtain. It does pack a punch in the ass, provided that the enemy is in the active site of the attack. Lol! Active site! Sorry, got caught up with bio there.

One big disadvantage is that it is kinda inaccurate. It's only very useful for slow moving enemies, It's possible to miss the enemies who are moving at moderate speeds entirely.

Here's a demo:



Wow, in just about 1.5 months, the source code of Mr Ball 2 grew by 3 MB. WTF? Anyway, I'm proud to see my Mr Ball growing!

Luminol!!!!

To be honest, Luminol is my favourite chemical. Why? Because it can glow! (Provided that you mix the right chemicals la)
Awh,... don you just love that blue glow of Mr. Luminol??

If I can get hold of at least a few ml of Luminol, I'll be over the moon, no, over Mars! I seriously wanna try making my own glowy stick. Did I mention that I love chemistry?

Rock n Roll!

I'm in the middle of making the sixth level for Mr Ball, well, here's a little screen cap:



Well, I think this is a better view of the stalagmites:

As you can see, it's the rock-using boss. Well, I really love the stalagmites. They are so damn freaking cool! I love it so much I made the boss spam stalagmites! Uh oh, not good...

Oh oh, and in this level, I assume the player buffed up Mr Ball's defense, because the rocks can be a little painful. I tried playing the level and I died like 3 times in less than a minute!

Yay!

Yesh! Interact Installation is over! It's like one big burden's been lifted. Yeah!

It was really a success. All the committee members did their job, though most of them (including me) had procrastinated. In the end, everything came together like pieces of jigsaw puzzle.