MMLEx Temporarily postponed

[JMC47]

I'm sorry to have to announce this, especially after such an optimistic update only a few weeks ago, but I am postponing MMLEx until further notice. The reason is that I do not have the necessary skill to pull the project any longer. I am going to hone my skills with perhaps a bunch of training and return one day to complete it (hopefully within a few months actually) but for now its over. With the final fracturing of the will to complete the game, and the plain truth that the game is going nowhere fast, and never has been.

The reasons for this are quite simple. I'm a n00bie when it comes to game design, even at this point. I did not have forethought while designing MMLEx, and I did not provide the proper staffing for my staff. This resulted in modelers not having concept art, and level designers not having textures, making it impossible to progress. I've tried to hide this on myself by working on stuff I can do, but the truth of the matter is that we've done everything else, and we require staff that we don't, and will not have. This is another fault of mine, not predicting how small the fan base is for MML, and actually expecting to get a decent staff out of it. I got more than I deserved, and more than my fair share of luck during the more than 2 year span of MMLEx.

What will I do now? After the troubles I ran into in game design, I'm going to work on a community made for helping people like me back when I started MMLEx, a community willing to help those who are ambitious and trying things that no one thinks are possible. I hope to get this up soon enough, but I do have my hands full preparing a second project to follow MMLEx, and be the for runner of my new community.

If there are any people that were waiting forever for MMLEx, and one of the few that have not given up hope, forgive me. I had a lofty goal to bring this game to reality, and I could not fulfill, no matter how much I told myself I could. I hope to return within a few months, with new talent, and new experience, and a community to back me up, for the continuation of MMLEx. This is not the end for MMLEx, not permanently at least. I do promise I shall return to complete MMLEx. It may be a few months, it may be longer, but I will try to hold myself to finishing it before 2008 if possible.

If there is one thing I can encourage all the people out there to do, its to try something like this. There is nothing more fulfilling than to dedicate yourself to something unknown, something people think is impossible. Without people that try something different, something challenging, and possibly stupid, MMLEx would not exist.

On one final note before I officially close down MMLEx, if someone would like to take the reigns of the project, and try to keep progress moving while I am gone, then PM me, because I check MMLS almost every day for PMs. If someone were to take over, there job would be mostly to recruit staff while I was off learning, and if I trust them try to continue the project while I am learning. Understand that I am stopping MMLEx not for me, but to end this cycle of nothing. It needs change, and I am what needs changing.

JMC47

[fAB]

So, to summarize...
MMLEx isn't making any progress, so you're ceasing all work on it for the time being, but will be back on it when you feel you're qualified to continue. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, and a good plan of action (or inaction rather) given the current circumstances. I wish you luck with your new community of dreams, and I hope you can build the necessary skills you need quickly.

I really feel badly reading this. Though I see all your posts and updates, it seems like there are always people posting, willing to help with the project. As a result I failed to notice that after all this time you've failed to acquire the right people--ones who can do concept art and textures... these are both things I can do, but of course I never offer because I don't have the time. Seeing the project completely shrivel up for these reasons though, I wish I could have made some time to help out.

When you're ready to get things moving again, if you're still in dire need in these areas, give me a shout. Remind me of this post and maybe by then I can find some time to help out, even if only a little.

Also, this is kind of a useless suggestion considering the timing, but at some point you might consider bringing in talent from beyond the Legends or even Mega Man communities by offering some sort of reward to those who help out. DeviantArt could be a prime place to stir up interest. What do you have to offer? How about 3D modeling? You could have a system like this:
= They draw 3 pieces of concept art and in return you agree to model an original character of theirs.
= They draw another piece of concept art and in return you allow them to run that original character around in the demo in place of Trigger.
= They draw another piece of concept art and in return you'll insert custom textures for them, making their character's surroundings look like someplace besides the Kattelox ruins.

Maybe this wouldn't be a fair exchange time-wise, but you could balance it out to make it work for you, perhaps. I think you could find a lot of artists with spare time who would love to see one of their characters walk around in 3D and would be willing to work for it. Just an idea, keep it in mind. Again, good luck and we'll be looking forward to your return to MMLEx whenever it may be!

[JMC47]

I've definitely gone outside of MML and MegaMan in general looking for talent. The problem is mostly with me.

With the idea of modeling an original character for them, its really rare that anyone wants to help at all. The problem is that the modelor would not have time to work on a second model, and then in turn if they made more, we would not have time to animate a separate rig for that character for it to be able to run around.

Its really hard to just postpone the project even. Hopefully I'll gather up some staff along with experience from my training and get the project moving. I don't think its too big a deal its postponed either, since the last release was several months ago.

Here is to hoping for a quick return!

[duo]

Regarding the way the project was set up, I thought it was bad from the start. I'm not saying the project won't be done, but there is no reason that is should have taken so long. Like I said in another post, there is a guy who was two seconds away from ripping megaman legends 3d models straight out of the game. He just lacks encouragement. He should have been the first guy to talk to. Also, the program has been able to rip textures and pictures for a whole bunch of years. A lot of stuff could be reused.

Also, there was no need to make an engine from scratch. There are millions of 3d engines out there already that support everything a mml game would need. Why didn't anyone use one of these? The game has been started 3 times over already?

You guys did a good job all the way, but it seems that your approach was off. It takes too much time to do all these things by hand. People lose interest. It is important to take as many short cuts as possible.

[JMC47]

You offend me. I think you miss the entire point of what I've learned for 2 years.

First off, ripped models are no where near high enough quality. I found a way to rip MML models 2 years ago, and you know they aren't even good enough to rig. They are low polygon, and unsuitable for a modern game. Plus, ripping a model doesn't come with animations and rigs 90% of the time, the ripper guy is extraordinary for doing this, it is an accomplishment. But, ripped models = illegal. Its sprite ripping, but for some reason companies care more when people use more modern games.

A pre-made engine huh? We used those, they suck. We needed an engine that would be able to compete with current games. Our engine when finished would be able to compete with Xbox and PS2 graphics, and would not have the problems of limitations of other engines. I will get a screen of an indevelopment model.

I believe that you are like a younger me, not knowing the ins and outs yet. I respect your opinion, but I'm not trying to make an average fan game. I'm trying to make a great GAME.

I'm sorry if I seemed mean, but this happening to MMLEx has been hard on me, and I'm only trying to get a point across that we cannot use ripped models, because our current new models were PS2/Xbox graphics comparable. I'll gladly post screenshots as soon as possible to show what we've been doing.

[duo]

I figured that you'd say something like that actually. I'd mention something about legalities, but I don't want to get into it. I figured using megaman characters for a game is illegal anyway. I also figured that capcom doesn't care, or else they'd complain just like other companies regarding large-scale fan games.

Also, I don't mean to attack you. I appreciate what you're doing 100%. However, I still think it's not the right angle. Awesome graphics are always nice, and the latest version of the game looks great (except for the running animation). I love the random ruins. A level editor, etc. Still, I think the scope is too big. Megaman legends didn't have the best graphics, and it was awesome. It had a lot of charm. I'm worried that too much time will be spent perfecting the engine, and the game will die in the mean time.

Adding in a story and animation sequences takes a LOT of time too. I see a lot of game engines out there, or demos with these engines that just fall. Megaman Legends is different, though. You guys are pretty serious. I hope for the best.

p.s. can I get a copy of that model ripper? I tried looking at mml2, but the game is compressed. I guess you're talking about mml models, right? Looking at the data, I thought megaman was all in parts.

[mirak]

Well, one of the basic laws of game making is:
"Fork the graphics, a game with a stickman will be awesome if the gameplay and plot is good."

You could have used the other models, the original ones, it would have been awesome.
Well, at least i would not stab you for doing so if you were able to bring a new megaman legends game, also, don't take this as a complaining eh? I was just dropping my grain of sand.

[JMC47]

I apologize for my response, I'm strung out to tell the truth.

Really, I don't care about legalities at this point. I'm sure that MMLEx has broken the law in several ways and whats one more?

About the graphics now. Making a game with good graphics means several things to me. It sets the mood, I mean, a darkly lit ruin, with danger around every corner would be amazing, but if you can elevate the graphics to accurately convey it, it takes the game play one step higher. Animation is part of graphics by the way. Its important to know that if I said Xbox/PS2 like graphics, I meant everything. Shaders, lighting, polygons, everything.

Sure, everyone loves MML because of its charm and game play. That was 10 years ago correct? I can't play MML any more, because the graphics are distracting at times. I don't care how much charm, or how awesome the game play is, graphics are important. I'm not a graphics person though, I understand Gameplay > Graphics. But I wanted to sustain a certain level of graphics to elevate gameplay, and I'm 100% sure you can understand that.

And on the subject of model ripping, to rip models, you must know how to model, and be able to touch up said models. I am not a skilled enough modeler myself to do it, and unless you are extremely skilled you wouldn't be able to make much with it, and if you were extremely skilled why would you want to rip the models in the first place?

Last but not least, I will say I screwed up a lot with MMLEx's development, but it was because of using a Pre made engine for the majority of its development. A pre-made engine cannot fit a game like MMLEx, and no one could convince me that it could not in a million years.

And everyone thinks its the graphics that killed the game based on what I'm saying, its not. Its the lack of a TEAM. I had a coder, myself, modeler, and Chiz working on the core of the game. There were others, but thats not enough. I would need an artist to draw concept art for the modeler so he could model, an animator so the coder could program the engine with actual data rather than hypothesizing how stuff would work, and a texture artist for Chiz so he could design levels without guessing what the textures would look like. Its the lack of a cohesive team, and even having every model from MML1 and 2 would not have helped the game to completion.

[theomegahunter]

I for one want to thank you for the effort you have produced. I love Legends and would love to have helped on the project if I could, but my coding skills lack quite a bit of experience. While college takes up much of my free time, I wish to strive to better my C++ knowlege outside the classroom so I can be of help to the project when it begins again. In the end, its the fact that the project grows stronger and better with time that counts.

[Notmyname]

I just came back after a very long time of leaving. Anyways, I'm making a 3D engine right now. I'm trying really hard to finish it. It was never planned to be used on MMLEx, but if thats what happens, it'd be fine with me.

As for legalities: If Capcom has the time and money to pay someone to come out here and tell us to quit, then they can do that. Doesn't mean MMLEx won't exist, just a hint to you all... (If such situation occurs, PM us...)

And decent prebuilt engines cost alot...

[Mandinga]

A lot of us were just lacking in time or skill. I agree with JMC. The actions you and NMN took have by far surpassed any previouse attempt. MMLEX got off the ground and produced a demo. No one I know of has achieved what JMC has done. Ripping models Is a SERIOUSE copyright infringement. I do think that a few of us in the communitty (including me) should have done some looking/ recruiting A small attempt would have been nice from teh folks ar PMM and MMLS (No insult or Flame intended). When I find the time and JMC's still up for it I'll help out for free as I did before. My hats of to you JMC (and the MMLEX staff new and old).

Throw me a line when ever your ready to get started again.

[Dash]

Yeeep...I'll pretty much always be around. So, I'm already onboard and waiting to work. xP

[Aim]

I'm just sorry I never got on that writing... I really feel miserable about it now. Sorry I wasn't able to help out, especially to Chiz, who I promised I'd write for. Really, I misused my time, and I'm a terrible deadline keeper.

Anyways, you guys did well with everything you did. I wish I'd worked faster and put more effort into it...

[mirak]

Have you dudes used FPS?
What if we used it for making a little entry (lol, hungry) for the masses!
I would make it myself since i have the program, but my models graphics are cheap, i mean PSOne cheap.

[Notmyname]

Err, FPS as in?

The project is just gone right now... We're going to need some time off this project. For one thing, we'd want a single, proper launch next time through. Second, there are some nice engines that we might want to look at. Its not really up to me anymore though.