Powerstick Man Update Center

Pepsi Ranger · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:43 pm Post subject: Powerstick Man Update Center

Well, the impossible's been happening for the last year and a half. Ever since I announced in my journal topic called "Chronicles of a Second Wind" that I'd re-launched production on my 2000 cult classic The Adventures of Powerstick Man, I expected to burn out and shelf it within two weeks every day thereafter.

That, of course, was in March 2007, and so far I haven't shelved it.

And since I don't intend to kill production before the official release sometime in 2009 (or at some point close to 2009), I thought I'd go ahead and start the official journal on progress.

Now, this journal won't be the public version of the weekly progress report I've been keeping for myself and my playtesters for the last 61 weeks. That's something I use to keep myself motivated to work on the game, something I use to allow my playtesters ample room for effective feedback (which I rarely get--hint hint, playtesters). It isn't something I intend to share, mainly because it reveals a BUNCH of spoilers. As of now, I want to keep the surprises to a maximum. So this journal won't be the extended edition of my development notes.

I will, on occasion, use this journal to report new breakthroughs or anything cool in the game that I just want to share ahead of release (which is what I'll be doing in a moment once I get through the explanation, so stick with the present narration). For an example of what that means, consult the links to my older articles detailing new advancements below.

For reference, here are links to those previous articles and files that chronicled the latest updates (as recent as September 2008):

HamsterSpeak Article 1: The Official Preview

http://superwalrusland.com/ohr/issue9/index.html

Forum Preview: A Battle Graphics World Premier

http://www.castleparadox.com/ohr/viewtopic.php?t=5740

HamsterSpeak Article 2: Nostalgia Rewind: A Tour of the Hotel Primex

http://superwalrusland.com/ohr/issue19/index.html

Powerstick Man Trailer (featuring a music video of the song that Jimmy Knightly--Powerstick Man's alter ego--uses to enter tennis tournaments and rile the fans)

Note: You're better off right-clicking the trailer's link as a "Save Target As" if you want to save yourself some buffer stream trouble.

http://castleparadox.com/trailers/powerstick%20man%20trailer.wmv

I probably won't be revealing any spoilers in this thread--and there are things worth spoiling this time around (as in I've been punching up the plot since the 2000 release). I will say that most of the new stuff ties in with the events in the novel I finished a few weeks ago, so the story is not quite as wild as the original version was. But there are still a number of inconsistencies to iron out or do away with to adequately update the game to the new story, so there are still things to spoil. As an aside to development, I'll probably work on those inconsistencies once the original game's presentation is fully updated.

Now, I'm not writing this journal as a promise to keep frequent updates posted here. But I would like to speak my intention to use it as a source for announcing new features and for sharing elements I'm proud of.

Having said that, I'd like to present to you, for the first time, the latest game footage involving the addition of midi music and sound effects. I could explain it all in detail here, but I'd rather let the videos speak for themselves.

I'm including "before" and "after" videos to show you the difference. Each block will reference the original version and the work-in-progress extended edition.

Please note that some of the footage in the Extended Edition videos may change as there are still features I'm adding as I go. You'll notice, for example, the inclusion of special text borders that weren't revealed in earlier screenshots or the trailer. I expect that sooner or later, while they're not implemented presently, that the game will also have those cool new portraits from Xocolatl to help enhance the story.

So think of these as outlines for the future.

Footage from the Fire and Ice battle of Primex (and some surrounding action):

The Original Game:

The Extended Edition:

Footage from Sandy Smack Island:

The Original Game:

The Extended Edition:

Footage from Cannonball City:

The Original Game:

The Extended Edition:

So, as you can see, the game has gone far into production since the "Chronicles of a Second Wind" post, and has vastly outdone the original's quality. It's not a game I want to take too lightly, so I hope to keep pushing its boundaries as far as I can take them without making it excessive. I can't say for sure when I'll actually bring it to a stopping point, but now that the original version is almost fully updated, I think it's safe to say that the downhill battle is coming soon.

Well, that's it for now. I'll post new treats here from time to time, so keep checking back.
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Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

Newbie_Power · Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 1762

You have an awesome use of ambient sounds, sound effects, and animated backgrounds. Cannonball City is amazing.
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

Pepsi Ranger · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 5:14 pm Post subject:

Oh yes!!! The original commercial that inspired the comic, which inspired the game, which inspired the novel (and in all things inspired the character) is on Youtube! I just saw it linked to my own video. Scroll to the second page and look for the old guy with the tennis racket. For all you kids who don't remember the 90s, THAT'S THE COMMERCIAL that started this madness!!! Go watch it and laugh.
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Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

TMC · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:45 am Post subject:

Cool, having you do this is so much easier than me doing it manually ;) I also see I forgot to look the second HS article.

Were you going to redraw Jack Ice and Cloak Combustion? The smoke for the fires for that battle also lets down the otherwise great backdrop, but I guess it's not possible to do better in Paint. Also, watching that battle makes me think that we should let you add (optionally animated) graphics to battle formations, to create layers.

I (of course) spotted a typo: receptionist at the police station: "splitting at the seems"

Ah ha, I finally found the video you were talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSQURA37uVI
Not easy to tell from the thumbnail. It doesn't look old to me.

Now I'm going back to you-know-what.
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"It is so great it is insanely great."

Pepsi Ranger · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:14 pm Post subject:

I think for now I'm done redrawing those characters. I'm sure I'll do another cosmetic sweep near the end of production (on this version), looking for those last minute graphic updates I missed the first time around. I could, feasibly, touch them up one more time. But I don't know yet. I'm fairly content at the moment.

That may change when animated enemies are implemented, though.

I actually worked and reworked the smoke as much as I could, but it was the one thing I couldn't get to translate to CUSTOM well enough under the current color depth.

A layer feature in battle backdrops would be awesome, though. One of the biggest aesthetic disappointments about Halloween Quest 3, in my opinion, was that the rain in that one rainy town fell behind the heroes in battle when it should've fell over them. Wasn't RMZ's fault, of course. He used what he had. But layered backgrounds and transparent backgrounds (or foregrounds) would be awesome. I suppose the new slice feature will make that possible?

I noticed that typo, too. And I still have yet to fix it. Maybe I could do that now.

I actually need to get something done today. I have a feeling it's gonna be another dry week if I don't.
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Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

Pepsi Ranger · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:37 pm Post subject:

Many times a game will be criticized for its cliches. Castles, knights, blue-haired anime fighters. Little farm boys rising up from obscurity, twarting plots to destroy the world. It seems creativity is exhausted when the same old same old resurfaces.

And yet, we seem to permit certain elements of the same old presentation over and over again without much say. True, graphics can change and we're happy. A story may forsake the castle for something more conventional--like a convention center--and get noticed. And of course we'll spice up that tired old expositional dialogue to something that feels more natural and it'll sit well with us. But is it enough? Do the threads of "been there, done that" still linger?

There are many ways to spice up the gaming experience to prevent the same old same old from happening. One such way is to give NPCs more to do than just to wander around like aimless drones.

Awhile back I wrote some articles that mentioned automated NPCs, but they only discussed the idea at surface level, and showed, at best, a couple screenshots. With this update, however, I thought I'd show one in action.

Meet Buck. I drew him last night. He may be a cowboy who's a little misunderstood by his female observer, but he's also a dedicaded pool player. And nothing breaks his concentration.

Watch him as he goes about his business.

Buck isn't the only automated member of the Cannonball Strip. Throughout the region, the player may stumble across NPCs who have better things to do than to wander around aimlessly. Some perform on a loop (as Buck does). Others react to objects they wander into (like the housekeeper in the Hotel Primex). But each automated NPC does one important thing: they go against the OHR NPC grain.

I share this as inspiration to anyone who wants to do more with their characters than to make NPC cliches.

The entire sequence took only a couple hours to draw and plotscript. And now Big Daddy's is more interesting than it was a few nights ago.

Give NPC automations a try.

And the last two seconds of the video reveal why we need a "kill (specific) script" command in plotscript, rather than killing one internally at specific time intervals if a condition isn't met (which is the case here).
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Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

Uncommon · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:49 pm Post subject:

Good on you, man. I want to see more of this. Hell, I want to see some kind of game that works solely around NPC automation now. Would that end up something like Majora's Mask, come to think of it?

TMC · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 3:37 am Post subject:

Awesome possum!
You are the only person who meets my high demands for NPCs!
And how I delight at all the bugs I might potentially find with that pool table!

My aim for the next couple OHR versions is to make things like this as easy (and bug free) as possible.
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"It is so great it is insanely great."

Moogle1 · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 6:30 pm Post subject:

That is great.

As I watched that, I imagined scripting up a working model of pool for him to play, with a limited physics engine and everything -- then I realized you probably just had a looping animation. Much less trouble that way Happy

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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

Pepsi Ranger · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:34 pm Post subject:

Camdog · Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 606

I think you could probably implement the custom NPC movement now. Why not just call a plotscript with a for loop that goes through each NPC of an id of your choosing, making it move however you want, and nest it in a while loop that executes as long as you are in the appropriate map?

Or, if you already have a looping plotscript you don't want to interfere with, you could use timers.

The pool playing cowboy looks great by the way. I found it strange that the woman recommended the bar on having the strongest drinks around, though. What bar won't serve you strong liquor when you order it?

Pepsi Ranger · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 12:55 am Post subject:

Have some new info, videos, and related stuff to show, but I need to respond to an old comment first:

Newbie_Power · Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 1762

Pepsi Ranger · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:07 pm Post subject:

Pepsi Ranger · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:19 am Post subject:

So today marks the arrival of one of my greatest nightmares since I started updating this game, something that has lingered in my subconscious as an impossible feat. I knew this day was coming for a long time, and for the longest time I didn't know how I was gonna handle it. But now it's here and now I'm facing true game design terror.

(I'm over-exaggerating, of course. It's not really that bad.)

Today, I am updating the great Tidal Wave of Treasure Cove Cave.

If anyone played the original demo to the end, you'll remember that just before fighting the last available boss, there was an underground earthquake and subsequent tidal wave. You may also remember that the tidal wave was nothing more than a single airbrushed animated tile repeated in several columns that washed over the land bridge and made it impassible.

Well, the whole point in updating this game was to make everything look and play nicer, and so my mission was to redraw the wave to actually resemble a tidal wave.

So far I think I got it.

The next step is to rewrite the plotscript. And this signifies my true dread because it's one of the messiest plotscripts in the whole 870K file. And it only manipulates one set of animating tiles. The new tidal wave uses nine sets of animating tiles.

This is gonna be a pain, I just know it.

But I will be showing a video of it once I get it looking nice (though, it may not reflect the cave's final look because each level is gonna have a new color set). I'll need the reminder that the impossible isn't always so aptly named when it comes to design.

But yeah, after today, the rest is downhill.

Oh, and for those who are interested, the original game is about 90% updated now (not including extended areas).

I'm still toying with the idea of issuing a very limited special release of the original game with its new grand overhaul. There's no guarantee of this actually happening, but I am interested in knowing how many people out there would want to see the original game in revamped form.

Until then, I'll be posting a video once I finish reworking the tidal wave.

EDIT: Just to show you the disaster I'm facing, here's the original script, which includes the earthquake.

And no, I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote it this way. It was well over eight years ago and I didn't have a clue (but I got it working, at least).

Enjoy the train wreck.