[RyanThunder]

Thanks for taking interest in my latest project, "Ryan Thunder!"

Genre: Action/Platformer

Plot Synopsis
Ryan Thunder is a 10-year-old boy with the gift of super-speed who dreams of being a hero. He travels the land looking for evil-doers, people to help, and new adventures to take on! But, unbeknownst to him, he is about to take on way more than he bargained for! With the help of his new friends Turquoise and Alivia Aqua, RT will fight the evil forces of RazerBlade and Enerjak! But, are there more darker forces at work here? Find out in high-octane action game, "Ryan Thunder!"

About the Journal
Just like the major function of a normal game journal, mine has the same purpose as well; to keep you updated on my project. I'll try to update as frequently as I can with little tidbits such as screenshots, musics, and some other stuff to keep you interested!

Screenshots









Progress (as of 11/21/2007)

• Story: 100%
  
• Engines: 95%
  
• Soundtrack/SFX: 85%
  
• Levels: 58%
  
• Enemies: 100%
  
• Bosses: 50%

Approximate Release Date: December 2007 - Q1 2008


[B]To keep this journal alive, your constructive criticism (comments/compliments/suggestions) is a must! Post it up! Have any questions? Post them up!

[Maxim]

I have to admit, I really like your bizarre art style.

[T-Bone]

That looks like a lot of fun. How many stages will there be?

[RyanThunder]

There will be a total of 9 stages. That may seem like a small number, but I'm not making this game for replay value; I'm making it to tell a story. Don't worry though; the stages get longer and more challenging as the game progresses.

The game itself has an "old-school" feel to it (to me anyway), and it plays like a Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man hybrid. It has Sonic speed and Mega Man level design, if that makes any sense.

This post has been edited by RyanThunder: 21 November 2007 - 08:26 PM

[Micah]

RyanThunder, on Nov 21 2007, 07:54 AM, said:

Plot Synopsis
Ryan Thunder is a 10-year-old boy with the gift of super-speed who dreams of being a hero. He travels the land looking for evil-doers, people to help, and new adventures to take on! But, unbeknownst to him, he is about to take on way more than he bargained for! With the help of his new friends Turquoise and Alivia Aqua, RT will fight the evil forces of RazerBlade and Enerjak! But, are there more darker forces at work here? Find out in high-octane action game, "Ryan Thunder!"

Best plot synopsis ever.

[Genrok]

This looks like a pretty cool game

This post has been edited by Genrok: 22 November 2007 - 01:31 AM

[RyanThunder]

Attack Moves

If it's one thing heroes need, it's strength. Luckily, RT has plenty of that, and he's ready to take on many foes!


<Standard Attack Move: Punch>


Keep swingin' at those enemies!

Pressing the "M' key allows RT to fight with his fists of fury! If you hold down the key, RT unleashes a plethora of punches at light speed! Be careful though, because when you punch during super speed, it cuts you off and you go back down to normal speed!

<Special Attack Move: Dash Attack>


W-W-Whoa! Where did that come from?

Pressing the "N" key executes RT's special move: the Dash Attack! This move is great for clearing out hordes of enemies, but you can only execute it when RT is running at super speed. After finishing his attack, RT goes back down to normal speed...or stands still. Whichever you prefer.

This post has been edited by RyanThunder: 23 November 2007 - 08:58 AM

[djtiesto]

^^ that post a reference to the Dojo?

[RyanThunder]

Yep, I'm going to update much like the Dojo!

[RyanThunder]

Soundtrack Customization

One particular reason why I called this game a Sonic/Mega Man hybrid is because of the choice of music!


Decisions, decisions.

You can choose between 3 different soundtracks to accompany you while you play the game! You can choose between the game's default soundtrack, the soundtrack from "Sonic the Hedgehog 2," or the soundtrack from "Mega Man X." But, why specifically Sonic 2 and MMX? Because those games were the main motivators for the creation of RT himself! Little adjustments here and there are also made depending on which soundtrack you choose. What little adjustments you might ask? I guess you'll have to find out for yourself!

This post has been edited by RyanThunder: 23 November 2007 - 10:20 PM

[Lachesis]

Please, never, EVER use built-in text boxes. Dx

[Val]

Kuroneko, on Nov 23 2007, 09:29 PM, said:

Please, never, EVER use built-in text boxes. Dx

yeah because they're so horrible and dysfunctional and everything. it's not like they're useful at all or that they save you time you would otherwise have to spend making custom text boxes so that all of 10 people wouldn't have to bleed from their eyes at the sight of builtins or anything

[CJA]

Go ahead and use text boxes! Just change the color with

scroll___ color is cXX

where ___ is base, arrow, pointer, title, or corner.

People like Kuroneko and, uh... well, Kuroneko will complain less if you change color. But really, default boxes are nothing to be afraid of.

[RyanThunder]

The game uses very little text boxes, so I don't really plan on changing the color. It mainly uses message rows, and the text colors change frequently.

Honestly, that OMGWTF BUILT-IN TEXT BOXES post was a little disheartening after I posted about one of the favorite features of my game.

Eh, whatever, to each his own.

This post has been edited by RyanThunder: 24 November 2007 - 02:19 AM

[Goshi]

Kuroneko, on Nov 24 2007, 11:29 AM, said:

Please, never, EVER use built-in text boxes. Dx

I don't like the idea of ruining the awesome old-school feel.

Plus I like using the built-in text boxes =(

[T-Bone]

Generally it would be a good idea to use the built-in text boxes. Reason being, a lot of the custom text boxes don't work properly and are way too jittering. Its rare to find a properly constructed overlay table. So I'd say just stick with the built-in ones. Will save you programming time.

[RyanThunder]

Music for Issue #2

"Jasnita Baby" (3:12)
Click here to download and listen with ModPlug Player.

Composed by: MfM

Music is a very important factor in Ryan Thunder. I've been paying careful attention to it's soundtrack to make sure that the music is good quality, catchy rock/pop music (but mostly rock) so that it can be a great soundtrack to listen to on its own merits. I've been picking and choosing rock MODs from the MOD Archive, and let me tell you, there are some pretty bad rock MODs out there. "Jasnita Baby" is a particularly great song because it has great instruments and catchy rhythm. It also suits the mood perfectly for Issue #2.

Even if end up not liking the game's soundtrack, you can always listen to the music you know you'll like with the Sonic 2 and Mega Man X soundtracks.

Oh, and if I didn't mention already, levels are called "issues" in this game, much like in the fashion of a comic book. But why the comic book reference? There'll be more info on that in the next update!

This post has been edited by RyanThunder: 27 November 2007 - 12:13 AM

[RyanThunder]

Who is Ryan Thunder?

Ryan Thunder started as a mere homemade comic book. In lieu of inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, "Ryan the Thunder" was born.


Not exactly the expertise of Leonardo da Vinci.

I entire beginning of RT is a bit too long of story to tell right now, but I'll give you the basics. After a few random drawings of Ryan the Thunder, one night I decided to make my own homemade series of comic books starring him and the many adventures he goes on. Given I was age 10 at the time, and now by today's standards, the story wasn't very good. Anyway, during Season 2 of the comic books, I decided to change his name to "Ryan Thunder," simply because it was an easier name to say and remember. By this time I was quite proud of my creation. However, after a few half-baked concepts of RT games, it looked like I would never get the chance to publicize this hero. Every RT game that I made never really showed the true story or potential of him.

But this game is here to change all of that! The game's story is the true RT story since it is based off of the first season of the RT comic books. Since the story at the time was done by a 10-year-old version of me, a 21-year-old version of me is here to remaster it to today's standards!

I hope you will enjoy RT as much as I have when this game releases!

[RyanThunder]

Main Theme of Ryan Thunder

"Ryan Thunder's Theme" (1:29)
Click here to listen.

Composed by: Ryan Tyrrell
Remastered by: James McGlocken

This here is the original theme of Ryan Thunder. It was composed by yours truly, with a lot of help from James. This theme truly expresses the mood of the first RT game! Throughout your adventure, you will also hear a couple more original tracks based off of the main theme. Unfortunately, there are only a few of these, since James became too busy to finish an entire soundtrack.

Not to worry, though. The MOD soundtrack still sounds really awesome!

This post has been edited by RyanThunder: 05 December 2007 - 09:26 PM

[RyanThunder]

A Plea For Feedback

I've noticed as of late that none of you have given any feedback on what I've posted on my game so far.

Come on guys! I'm trying to get you pumped up for the game! Your opinion is important! I want to know what you think!

This post has been edited by RyanThunder: 15 December 2007 - 08:58 AM

[Lachesis]

RyanThunder, on Dec 15 2007, 01:56 AM, said:

A Plea For Feedback

I've noticed as of late that none of you have given any feedback on what I've posted on my game so far.

Come on guys! I'm trying to get you pumped up for the game! Your opinion is important! I want to know what you think!

Don't make my mistake and think that lack of feedback means lack of support. Keep working on your project even if you've had no feedback, and when feedback decreases, decrease the amount of content you post in your thread to a bare minimum. Then, when it gets close to finished, don't post any new content for a while and then release the complete game and people will be like ZOMG I WONDARED WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT GAME D:

At least, that's what I've kind of gathered from some other people's journals...

This post has been edited by Kuroneko: 15 December 2007 - 04:01 PM

[RyanThunder]

Hello again!

Yes, "Ryan Thunder" is still in development, and the ambitious, projected release date is June 2009

I'm not making any promises, but development is in a steady cycle once again. It should be noted that many things have changed, and let's just say that some of the screenshots in the first post are no longer valid. We'll just have to see what happens.

In any case, keep your eyes peeled!

This post has been edited by RyanThunder: 24 April 2009 - 04:55 PM

[RyanThunder]

A Minor Update

I just wanted to mention a few of the things that have had major upgrades since I last updated the journal in December of 2007:

A brand new dialogue engine
After the numerous beta tests that I've done with the game, waiting for the dialogue to progress began to get really annoying. I figured that if I'm getting annoyed of it, the player will surely get annoyed as well. So, dialogue in cutscenes can now be progressed by the reading speed of the player via a key press. Text has also been color-coded according to the color scheme of whichever character is currently speaking. This makes it a lot easier to follow the story.

An all new introduction sequence
This is something I don't want to get into detail, simply because I want this to remain secret for now. But, I'll just say that it's a lot more exciting than the old one.

An addition to the Soundtrack Selection
The soundtrack to Mega Man 7 will now be available as a selectable soundtrack in the game. Despite it being another motivator for RT, I really think that game was the underdog of the series; it was a lot of fun, and the music was outstanding.

That's all I really wanted to mention. The rest of the game is going to remain secret, simply because I want this game to be a nice surprise when it comes out. I might reveal a few more tiny details in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!

[Goshi]

Quote

The soundtrack to Mega Man 7 will now be available as a selectable soundtrack in the game. Despite it being another motivator for RT, I really think that game was the underdog of the series; it was a lot of fun, and the music was outstanding.

Just because it got compared to Megaman X a lot doesn't mean it was an underdog >_>

Anyway nice to see you're still working on your stuff! Keep up the good work!

[RyanThunder]

Goshi, on Apr 27 2009, 02:35 AM, said:

Just because it got compared to Megaman X a lot doesn't mean it was an underdog >_>

Anyway nice to see you're still working on your stuff! Keep up the good work!

Thanks very much for the compliment! Anyway...

Difficulty Choice

This was another feature that surfaced after too much beta-testing. After a while I came to the realization that some bosses were a tad too difficult to defeat. In spite of that, I created two difficulty settings: NORMAL and HARD.

The only real difference between the two settings is that in Hard mode the bosses are stronger and therefore don't take as much damage when you attack them. Not only does this save me some time while beta-testing in Normal mode, but those of you who like their games hard will be pleased to have this option. No matter which difficulty you choose, the game is still a good challenge and fun to play.

[RyanThunder]

The Control Scheme

As it stands right now, here are the main controls for the game:

Key "N" - Used to execute the Dash Attack at the proper running speed.
Key "M" - Used for Punching and progressing dialogue.
Key "Enter" - Used to pause your game or make menu selections.
Arrow Keys - Used for the movement of RT. The Up key is for jumping.

After numerous instances of beta-testing, I've grown quite accustomed to the control scheme and it flows pretty well. There might be an overhaul of the side-scrolling engine since right now it's just your typical MZX Encyclopedia side-scrolling engine with a few tweaks. However, since the engine works rather nicely already, at this point in development it would probably be a waste of time to design a side-scrolling engine from the ground up. I would rather focus on the things that are more important like finishing the rest of the levels and actually releasing the game and showing it to the world.

[RyanThunder]

RT: Delayed

Unfortunately, things have been pretty busy in my life as of late. When you're in the midst of graduating college and finding a long-term job, it tends to take up a lot of time. Henceforth, my creative work must be put off to the side for now, and so I must announce that Ryan Thunder is officially delayed and will not see a June 2009 release.

I will not declare any new release dates, as I think that's a bit too ambitious for MegaZeux projects. Needless to say, the game is not forgotten, and it will be finished.

[nooodl]

RyanThunder, on May 1 2009, 03:26 PM, said:

Key "N" - Used to execute the Dash Attack at the proper running speed.
Key "M" - Used for Punching and progressing dialogue.

That's... stupid, really, can't you use the much more often used Z/X? Or hey, F/G is universal, even Dvorak users can use that.

[RyanThunder]

nooodl, on Jun 13 2009, 05:19 PM, said:

That's... stupid, really, can't you use the much more often used Z/X? Or hey, F/G is universal, even Dvorak users can use that.

Alright...dude...try positioning your hands on the N & M keys and on the Arrow keys. See? It's fine.

Honestly, if it's that big of a problem for people, I'll change them to Z & X. However you do have a point: Z & X are more mainstream.

[Goshi]

RyanThunder, on Jun 17 2009, 02:43 AM, said:

Alright...dude...try positioning your hands on the N & M keys and on the Arrow keys. See? It's fine.

You ever tried playing Melty Blood? The default keyboard controls are terrible =(