Because Development can be boring

Here's a mockup using graphic assets.

While I may not be the most able programmer, I at least feel a little capable with the graphics.

WOAH. Woah.

I'd like to apologize for hiatuses and any and all lack of care to the blog.

But that's all I apologize for. Anyway! As I've implied, the unofficial hiatus is over. The project is moving again. My programmer friend was, apparently, stuck on a feature for the editor I didn't quite need. When I discovered this, I went "aaaaAAAAAAA" silently and now we're gonna do that thing manually and stuff will get done now.

Man I hope making the SCRIPTING system won't pull any shit on me

Monster: The Wimp

The Wimp

These violent creatures cause nothing but trouble! They've been seen wielding different kinds of weapons and light armor. Weak and non intimidating, they're more of a nuisance than anything.

Monster: The Puff

Sorry about the prolonged silence. Here, have some info.

The Puff

The puff is one of the most common sights found in the caverns of The Island. While most float about helplessly in the air, There are species that have stuck to the walls and grew spikes, large pushy ones, and who knows that else.

Puffs that have a pink hue have a concentration of Soul Drop in their body. Bust them apart and you can use the Soul Drop to heal yourself!

Character Concepts 1

I'm always thinking about people who could live in the world of The Island. Here's two characters who you might meet when you play the game...

(click it for the full picture.)

Art!

I drew a really big picture.


(click it for the full picture.)

Don't you worry, everything's going fine.

Once the programming stuff is done with, some real progress will begin!

When there's real progress, there's things I'll be happy to show to you all.

Status 2

It gets pretty quiet, huh?

Popping in to say that the game is going fine, and the reason updates suddenly stopped is that I ran out of things that I think is safe to show!

Maybe I should have update bi-daily instead?

Power up: High Jump

HIGH JUMP

After getting this power up, you'll have the ability to charge up power. When you've charged up to full, press the jump button to do a High Jump! The added height should make previously inaccessible areas... accessible!

Power up: Dash

DASH

After getting this power up, you'll have the ability to charge up power. When you've charged up to full, press right or left to start dashing! When dashing, you can damage enemies by running into them, and you can break through fragile walls.

Power up: Stomp

STOMP

After getting this power up, tapping down twice in the air will shoot you downward with great speed. The added oomph will damage enemies more than jumping on them, and can allow you to break certain things.

Tripping!

Seems like you tripped while carrying that expensive glass goblet!

TRIPPING!

Tripping is a wonderful feature where, while walking, your character will fall down! This could happen while you're running away from savages, carrying a cure for the cold, or while standing over a neatly built card house!

Status

So far, the engine is waiting to be fitted with an external map system.

Our plans are to use Tiled, a generic tile map editor. Pretty convenient, but we need to get it's map format loading into MMF2. That was easy enough, except for the objects. Right now we have an idea what to do, so hopefully that won't take much longer.

Also, Tiled's handling of objects sucks. We're going to make another application to place objects in tiled's maps, but making sure that the objects are saved into the map itself.

Shad wants to keep the whole thing simple enough so that this could be used in other games. I suppose that would be nice, but I've never thought about open sourcing it myself.

Engine Video

Here's an old video showing the engine for the game. A LITTLE outdated, but oh well.

The Goddess' Protection

If you asked a man who ventured into unknown territories and dangers how he survived, he'll probably say, "The Goddess protected me, of course!"

An old legend on Sol goes like this:

"If thou wish to cross the mountains,
the rivers, the plains, the deserts, and the sea,
The goddess will watch over thee.
For if you seek to find the Promised Land,
The Goddess will guide you with her hand."

Any adventurer can recite this by memory. They believe in it very strongly. After all, they haven't been maimed yet!...

Item: Soul Drop

SOUL DROP

How do I put this simply...? This is a soul, trapped in a drop of some sort of otherworldly liquid. They float about aimlessly, or maybe towards the nearest sharp pointy thing. The souls inside want to escape, and I bet if you help them, they'll use some of their otherworldly powers to heal a cut or three.

Character: Jeremy

JEREMY

Jeremy, the faithful servant of Lady Elena. Completely loyal to her family, he shall do anything to protect Elena.

Occupation: Butler
Favorite Snack: Peaches

Character: Lady Elena

LADY ELENA

A beautiful and wealthy woman who's fiance vanished 10 years ago, without a trace. She enlists in the Hero's aid to find him.

Despite him being gone for a decade, she seems rather confident that her love is still alive, somewhere.

Occupation: Retired
Favorite Snack: Sunflower Seeds

Item: Magic Berry

MAGIC BERRY

This strange fruit has been popping up in the oddest places on Luna Island! It's peculiar color and alluring smell are not recorded in any field books, but give it a taste... if something goes wrong, maybe they'll name it after you!

Their seeds also like to travel about. If you happen to find one, plant it in special soil and it'll grow!

Character: The Hero

HERO

The hero of the story. A budding adventurer, he takes up the task of finding a vanished person without much thought. But, will his experience be enough?

Occupation: Adventurer
Favorite Snack: Strawberry Jam

Plot Synopsis

So, there's this continent called Sol. And it has a smaller sister called Luna. Luna Island, they call it.

The largest settlement on Luna is a city fondly named St. Astrol. At least, it was, before it up and disappeared over night.

The strangeness of situation sent all of Sol in an uproar. ...But, despite incredible efforts, nothing is found.

A decade later, the island of Luna is mostly uninhabitated, save for a continuing investigation led by the government and some crack-pot conspiracy theorists/tourists. Despite a yearly remembrance day for those who vanished, life went on.

Another item has taken over the news: A young adventuring pilot has been scouring the unknown world, slowly filling in the blanks of the increasingly growing world map. His brave efforts have been recognized, and a spot on the telly is being broadcast across Sol. The brave pilot has been given the nickname, "The Discerning Aviator."

You, the pilot, are eating out in a diner one rainy night when you are given a summons to head to Lady Elena's mansion across town post-haste. When you arrive, she reminds you of the strange occurrence many years ago, and makes a request.

She asks you to find her fiance, who disappeared along with St. Astrol. He had been on a business trip, and when he returned, they were to marry.

The next morning, You, Lady Elena, and her butler, Jeremy, depart in your airplane for the island.

Alright then!

This blog is a place for me to record milestones in the development of The Island.

I'd better record some of this.
As of right now, I'd say...

• The graphics are going smoothly.
• The programming is having it's first hitch, but it's getting dealt with.
  
• ...We have no musicians.
• But I DO have a level designer!

That makes a grand total of... 3 people.

Those three people are...

Me, Marty, who's doing programming, graphics and design (but mostly graphics)
Shadoku, who's helping with programming I'd never figure out myself
The coincidentally named Marty Chang, who has experience in Level Design

I don't know what I'd do without you guys!
Alright, that should be enough...

EDIT: Oh whoops, I forgot about Garnavis, who's a musician.
That's a big blunder on my part. Sorry!

First post

Alright then!

Testing, one, two...