Hey Everyone,

as most of you might know I have been around for some years now. I would like to take the time to recap what I did so far and then talk a bit about what is coming.

The first “game” I programmed was GameHero. Development happened over the course of one month. I had this idea of video-game themed music game and mainly focused on the music part. I still remember hearing the first 6 notes of the Mario underground for the first time played by my VirtualBoy. Even though people sometimes tell me they like GameHero and ask for the card release I usually feel embarrassed looking at it now. That’s the reason why there won’t be a card release. Not until it is way better.

After that I would often come back to my music engine and Midi Converter and optimize it. I think the current quality is acceptable but could be better. I just don’t feel like putting more effort into it right now as I’m not so much into music.

However, after GameHero I programmed Fishbone. VirtualBen approached me at the time. Within 3 month I did put it together using the sprites provided by Ben. It could have been way better but I was very burned out at the end. I almost dropped development because of many reasons. In the end I pushed myself through it and released a more or less complete game which actually got a card release. It is just a bit short.

After Fishbone I did my very first rom hack. In about 4 month I altered the Faceball Rom heavily to support more levels and to be closer to an actual game. Therefore I programmed a Level Editor which Benjamin Stevens and I used to design the new levels. Many others supported this game which I’m very thankful for.

After that I used my newly acquired rom hacking skills to translate the missing pieces in SpaceSquash. While this was only a minor contribution I really liked seeing another awesome game being released as repo card.

After that I would work on a tool called VirtualBox. The idea originated from the Fishbone development. Basically, I wanted a tool to put sprites, animations, objects and actions together more easily. As a result I created MarioCombat which was more or less a tech-demo. I submitted it as my coding competition entry but I think people misunderstood the purpose. I was actually more about showing the capabilities of my engine in combination with the tool. You can for example see sprites beaming, flickering, jumping and moving (all also in groups) while executing animations. All of that behavior was tool generated and didn’t need any programming experience. In the end it felt like bowser and the doom gun overshadowed that. I released the VirtualBox because I was asked to but pretty much stopped development after the coding competition…

… because some time after I would start on a new game. This time I would only occasionally work on it though. Especially in the beginning and when I switched jobs recently I took very long breaks. I did realize a couple of weeks ago that the game is now in development for almost one year. So I set myself a random deadline for a public release. I have a okish demo which has been tested by a handful of people and they seemed to like it. It is very different from everything I have done so far. If you happen to know/figure out what game I’m talking about please don’t spoil the surprise. However, I will release whatever is done when this timer runs out:

http://www.webcountdown.de/e.php?a=WUEZARo

When you put it all down like this, you have contributed a hell of a lot over the past 4-5 years. At first I was worried this was going to be a farewell post, but i for one am glad you are sticking about and working on new projects. It’s guys like you that help keep the virtual boy community going strong.

My gosh, at first this looked like a farewell post indeed. I am relieved that this is not the case, but the contrary even! 🙂 I have no idea what game you’re talking about… Should we be able to figure out from your post? Hmm. At least it does not seem to be a Star Wars game, otherwise the deadline would probably be May the 4th. 😉

Oh April 18th, why must thee be so far away? Judging from the high quality standard of your previous projects, we can really look forward to that day.

VBmills wrote:
… over the past 4-5 years.

Actually, I started the GameHero development almost exactly 3 years ago. I feels more like 4-5 though.

VBmills wrote:
At first I was worried this was going to be a farewell post…

KR155E wrote:
My gosh, at first this looked like a farewell post indeed.

Hah, that wasn’t the intention. I just feels like such a long time until I released something. So I wanted to show how my projects got bigger every time. I will most likely develop VB games until I die of old age. In the best case we got another 60-70 years.

KR155E wrote:
Should we be able to figure out from your post?

No, there is nothing hidden there. But if you talked to me on the chat you might have figured something out. I’m sometimes a bit to talky.

Just in case someone actually cares. I went through my svn and checked when I committed code. I marked the dates on the attached calendar. This does not include conceptual and art work though.

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   dev-calendar-scaled.jpg
   

It’s crazy how much time you’ve been able to put into the game this month.

-Eric

I like how the checked off dates are in red and black.

Lester Knight wrote:
I like how the checked off dates are in red and black.

Oh lord…i feel silly..didn’t notice.

-Eric

OK… so the timer is running without a break and I tried to keep up. I have all of the basics (controls, graphics, game-engine, music) in place since mid January. Only a save feature is missing but I might not add that for the demo. I had to make compromises here an there but I think the result is still enjoyable.

Since then I have been working on adding content. So far that is going quite well even though it is tiresome. As usual I wrote plenty of tools to support the task.

However, over the last few days I have build multiple possible demo builds. So basically I build a demo, then start adding stuff until I have another demo ready. Whatever is in the latest demo build when the timer runs out will be released.

The only problem I have is that I’m slowly running out of space. The rom is 2mb already and constantly filling up. This is not because there is so much content but because I’m rather wasteful when it comes to graphics and music. So as soon as I break the 2mb barrier I will start optimizing that before I add more content.

I know that I’m teasing quite a bit here. I promise all of this will make sense when the release happened. Only 10 more weeks.

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   dev-calendar-1-scaled.jpg
   

You have been busy, but don’t burn yourself out thunder, 2015 is still young.

Definitely looking forward to this. Thank you for all the contributions you have made to the Virtual Boy community!

SuperRetroBrosBlog wrote:
Definitely looking forward to this. Thank you for all the contributions you have made to the Virtual Boy community!

Thanks for the interest. Hoping you will like the final result.

VBmills wrote:
You have been busy, but don’t burn yourself out thunder, 2015 is still young.

I was actually planning on taking a break from my current game after the demo and approach a couple of smaller projects so that they can become part of the anniversary celebration as well.

I managed to put quite some time into this project. I had to stop for a bit recently but am now on track again.

As expected I did run out of space. I managed to compress the music by 10-40%. That allowed me to add some more content and produce a first release candidate.

After that I also changed my image code to be less wasteful. Now there is plenty of space again. So right now I’m in the middle of adding a bit more content while polishing what is there.

Some people were asking for a hint. The only thing I feel comfortable saying right now is that it’s my take on a game that had been in development for the VirtualBoy but was never released.

18 more days.

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   dh-dev-calendar-scaled.jpg
   

Great to hear its going well!

DH-dev-calendar.jpg (2,231.36 KB)

That’s your calendar image name. DH….. Dragon Hopper? 🙂 lol.

Wyndcrosser wrote:
DH-dev-calendar.jpg (2,231.36 KB)

That’s your calendar image name. DH….. Dragon Hopper? 🙂 lol.

In your case it stands for “Deluded Hopefulness”. 🙂

“…it’s my take on a game that had been in development for the VirtualBoy but was never released…”

Thank you very much for that hint, I will not sleep at night now, because I will always think about what game exactly that would be now. 🙂

Wow, in one month you did more than me in my whole life…

I really wish you good luck with your project.

Can’t wait!!!
Feels like Christmas Eve all over again….

Oh man! I’m on the edge of my seat yet again! Can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on. Here’s a big wi-five to my VBro, Thunder! =)

Heh, it might look like allot of time, but I would guess I work an average of 2 hours per day. That means I spent around 200 hours on if so far. Therefore, the demo is surprisingly short. I have to stop rewriting everything all of the time I guess.