[ACTIVE-PreDEMO] Megaman Legends Pang!(WIP. Title pending)

[SketchMan3]

Can't think of a better name than that right now. At least it's descriptive and to the point.

I've been working on this for several weeks now, off and on. Didn't want to mention anything here until I had something interesting to show. Pang is one of my favorite games(genres?)
I've always liked Pang games, ever since I played Pang '96 back in the day, when bonus.com, lycoszone.com, and alfy.com were still going strong.

So, I've been working on a Megaman Legends/Pang fan-game project. It's still very early in development.

Anyway, I've been wanting to make a Pang clone for years, and there aren't enough Game Maker Megaman Legends fan projects out there other than the ones in the Sky Pirate Arcade. So, yeah, why not a Megaman Legends Pang game?

There's still a lot of work to be done.

Game will feature:
Classic Pang harpoon action.
Original music and graphics and ripped sounds.
A variety of bubbles to pop.
A variety of power-ups based on special weapons in the MML games.
Boss battles.
2-player mode.
One thing that's always disappointed me about fan-made Pang games is that they lack the "recoil squat" firing animation of the original game. Mine will feature that, just to give you an added sense of *oomph* when you fire of that harpoon.

Sound effects are currently taken from the resources section of the Main Gate. This is why I posted that Sound Effects request thread in the "Legends Talk" section for the sound effect of the balloons popping in Balloon Fantasy. Still hoping somebody can get that for me...

Graphics are "9-bit" style.

Here are some screens. No backgrounds, yet. Maybe it's not good to show screenshots of such an early build? But, meh.
Pop!
Oh... He shoots harpoons, not plasma...
Those bubbles are vicious!
And he can walk, too!

And, yes, these are in-game screens, not mock-ups.

[MegaTuga]

Pang? PANG?

Man I loved that game! back in the day where for me videogames were in arcades with coins and nowhere else. Pang was vicious! I loved that one to death.

...and those balloons from the MML mini-game creep me out XD

[SketchMan3]

Yeah. I never had the privilege of playing Pang in an arcade. I probably never would have looked at it online if it wasn't 2-players. We spent many a Sunday afternoon on that game.

It was hard for me to decide on whether to use those balloons or not. They kept calling to me, though, and I finally had to give in. "Balloon Fantasy" is a bit like Pang, anyway. Capcom made "Super Buster Bros." for the SNES, so I think it's fair to say there is probably a direct relationship between the two.

Anyway, I'm glad to see somebody is interested. I just hope I can get the feel down.

[Deleted]

Pang, hmm? That sounds like it would be quite fun to play this fan-game.

[Dashe]

I've never heard of Pang in my life, but I'm glad you're working on something that looks nice and simple. Don't forget to submit it to Sky Pirate Arcade when you're done to earn your SPA badge!

[MegaTuga]

Oh yeah I forgot the Balloon Fantasy balloons do the same thing.

I wonder... what about for later having selectable characters? I vagely remember that a Pang game in the arcades had that, each character with their own abilities. Just throwing out ideas.

I can't say how much I loved Pang. The 2-player mode was always awesome. I don't know if there is anything that resembles Pang in the games nowadays so I'm glad someone remembers those old times.

[SketchMan3]

A studio that made a really horrible game about a viking with a sword, shield, and axe (all at the same time) made a respectable Pang game for the XBL Arcade, if I recall correctly. I haven't played it, though.

And, yeah, I'm still working on this, though it's slowed down a little bit. Trying to get the balls to bounce evenly every time... lol... The low resolution of the game means I have to resort to using decimals to keep things from moving too quickly... and that causes some problems with consistency...

As far as characters with unique abilities... I won't completely throw out the idea, but I'm not currently planning on it. I do plan to have at least 3 other characters (essentially skins, I suppose) to choose from, for multi-player made, though. one very close friend, one diminutive adversary, and one almost-rival if Capcom had had enough resources and time to expand his role in the first MML game...

Incidentally, I have an unfinished Pang-inspired project from years ago starring Megaman X, Protoman, Bass, and Zero in which they do all have unique abilities. I may post that up later, as bad as it is, lol. It was inspired by a fan game called "Megapop" that I found at some free games website.

I think it was a good idea for me to start this new project from scratch... lol


I may have a playable alpha demo coming up by this time next week. I like demos.

[Dashe]

So you're adding Roll, a Servbot, and Art? Bangerang.

[SketchMan3]

It's been a long time, I shouldna left you without a strong rhyme to step to...

I, I mean, hey, Truner's Copy.com and the release of the MML3CA and boredom inspired me to work on this a wee bit more, and post a little concept demo, just to show that I wasn't making it up. Nothing fancy, no presentation, no frills, no powerups. Just 3 otherwise empty rooms filled with balls that you have to avoid and pop. Oh, and one room with a reaverball that you really should avoid.
copy.com/PDsPAe4chZK0

You get 3 lives. F1 = Help. Arrow keys = move. Ctrl = shoot. I used sound effects from the Megaman Digger soundpacks (still waiting on that balloon pop sound rip), music and graphics are original. 

Things that I've accomplished so far that were hard for me to figure out: 

*Harpoon generation without the use of multi-frame animations.
*Generating a collision with only the drawn visible portion of the harpoon.

yay

Sorry about the filesize. I didn't feel like deleting all the unused resources before executabling. 

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I can't figure out if the updated information is supposed to go at the top or bottom of the horizontal line... hmmm... anyhow

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May 3, 2012
Production has slowed down as I just can't figure out how to make these silly little balloons bounce evenly while maintaining a good falling speed. So, no demo, lol. Obviously. Haven't made much progress on it in the last few months. I'm stuck on this one thing. That's so annoying.

Hoping I won't have to double the grid size to compensate for the uneven bouncing height caused by using decimal values for gravity and vertical speed. That'd mean a complete graphics overhaul. 

Anyway, If anybody could rip the ballooon popping sound from the "Balloon Fantasy" mini-game in Megaman Legends, it would be great motivation.
@ Dashe, 

[Dashe]

It's cool. Actually in an art-section thread like this double-posting's still legal as long as it's for an update.

Did you ever consider just popping a balloon yourself and recording the sound it makes?

As far as the game itself goes, I suggest you either have the balls bounce higher after the first bounce, make Mega Man move faster, or both. The controls are really sluggish as they are and dodging is frustratingly difficult. Either way, that demo still qualifies for Sky Pirate Arcade, though you'd probably want to create a custom icon for it first.

[SketchMan3]

I really would like to stick with all MML-based sfx where applicable.

Actually, the balls already pop too high as it is, imo. As for the difficulty in dodging... this is based on a retro arcade game, but I'll see what I can tweak. I'm not trying to make it too casual, but I'll find a way to balance things out.

As for sluggish controls, you simply mean that he runs too slow, and the shooting animation slows you down? There's no actual delay in your keypresses, right?

I'm still working out the kinks, but I'll be doing side-by-side comparisons with Pang '96 (it's my favorite iteration of the game). I really want to capture the hectic-yet-controlled feeling of that game.

Thanks for trying it out, and thanks for the feedback.

[Dashe]

There's no delay. I just think he runs too slowly. He's going Nino Ruins speed. I do like the sprites.

[Sybillian]

Today I learned what that game that my sister always plays on Webkinz is called.

I really like this idea, though.