The next wave in collaboration pixel art drawing - Tuesday August 24th 2010 at 2:53 PM

I found this really neat open source Python application hosted through the Amazon Web Services. The developer is working on version 2.0 and I suggested some features that would definitely be an asset to OHR pixel art collaboration for a single game made by multiple people. The app in it's current state is very powerful, but lacks some needed features, like saving the image to a PNG file, or choosing the width and height of the pixel image. Check it out: http://hiveland.com/ If you view the "full movie" link from the bottom of the page, it will show everything that's happened in this pixel art world since the developer put up the application early this year. Some people there made mario and other popular 8-bit mascots. As it's open source, I was thinking hosting a OHR specific version, if anybody is interested, I will download it and put up a server with it as soon as I can. This could be used for example, to hold classes on learning how to draw pixel art from the OHR masters, one a month for example. I for one would like such a feature in the community. This site is completely live, when one does a change, it is seen by all canvas viewers. chronoboy Replies (4)

New python-based Game list in beta - Friday August 6th 2010 at 10:41 PM

I am currently working on a next-generation game list which will sport many new exciting features. Such features include: tags, and new sorting methods. Tags will work very similar to photo website tags system, whereas it will be-able to sort similar games together, and make browsing by tags possible. This would make it much easier to people to find a game they would like and make it easier to recommend similar games to people who may like one game. Other sorting will include recommendations by liking a game or disliking a game. For example, if you reviewed the game and game it a low rating, it will check what kinds of games other players who also gave it low scores like. And if you gave it a high score, it will display games that people who also enjoyed this game also liked. In the game view screen, it will also display the version of OHR which the game was developed in. Once there are enough games in the database, I will add a feature for browsing by Screenshot. Basically, it will display a huge page full of images of the games. Putting your mouse cursor over the picture will display a tooltip displaying the game name. This will make it really fun and enjoyable to find a new and exciting game to play. There will also be a top downloaded game on the main page, as well as displaying the latest games uploaded. Please play around with what is there, and if anybody has any Python experience and wishes to help out on building the database, please tell me if you would like to contribute. Any feature requests for this are fine as well. Better to get them put in while I am developing it, right? http://apps.chronoboy.com/gamedb My Zelda game is on there as an example of how it looks with an uploaded game: http://apps.chronoboy.com/gamedb/view.game?id=1 If anybody is curious, the server is on Rackspace, and the RPGs and screenshots are located on Rackspace cloud files. chronoboy Replies (10)

What is a -Zelda game-? - Sunday August 1st 2010 at 10:29 PM

Most of you know that Zelda is a video game franchise created by Nintendo which is very much successful. Although many companies have attempted to re-create much of it's success to attract fans of the series to their own series, most of them have failed to get the attention of these hardcore Zelda fans. Which bring me on to fan made Zelda games made in non-Zelda engines such as OHR.R.P.G.CE. Every Zelda like game for OHR does not re-create the Zelda experience as one would like. Some developers choose to create a game of just puzzles and not so good battle system. Others choose to be more unique and steer further from the Zelda roots but keep the story intact. I have created something of a tech demo, but also a full game which has an ending. Basically, I created a Zelda game in OHR with a turn based battle system, BUT the rest of the game is heavily similar to a traditional Zelda game. However, even the battles are quite similar to Zelda anyways in regards to monster strengths and weaknesses. A monster in a real-time battle Zelda game has the exact same hit points as one in this turn based battle system. Example, an Octorok takes one hit to kill, in both type of Zelda games. Other interesting features to note which stick loyal to Zelda, is that monsters leave the same amount of rupees and no experience points for the player. Rupees in this demo are in increments of 1 and 5 for which monsters drop. Moblins also drop the occasional Bomb, as in other Zelda games they would. Since the player does not receive "Experience points", I added "Heart Containers" just as a normal Zelda game would have. When you beat a boss at the end of the dungeon, his 100% drop is a heart container, which the player can then eat and gain additional hit points. I made one heart equal to 16 hit points, not sure why though. In effect the player then starts with 48 hitpoints, as this would be equal to 3 hearts. Another popular drop that monsters can leave are normal hearts which the player can use when he/she chooses. Please check out this games homepage located here: http://www.chronoboy.com/projects/rpg-development/what-is-a-zelda-game There is a download link there for the RPG file, which is unpassworded and debug keys are still enabled for you can test this. Which bring me to my point of posting this, can someone please download it and play through it(it's only about 30 mins long) and tell me what they think. I would like perhaps a Zelda fan and a non-Zelda fan to try out for the best results. Personally as a Zelda fan, I quite enjoy the mechanics, but the levels are short. As it is unpassworded, feel free to alter the levels and play around a bit, if you would like my HSS source code, please ask and I would be happy to provide it. -- Chronoboy. chronoboy Replies (1)

HamsterSpeak #40 Online - Sunday August 1st 2010 at 7:54 PM

http://superwalrusland.com/ohr/issue40/cover.html Mr. Pepper, Dogero, Octopus, Yuks, etc. Edit: A couple of pictures were missing from the Pepper article. They've been fixed. Surlaw Replies (12)