[Baby Bonnie Hood]

Um, about that...

Y'know how a demo of a MZX game gets released that promises a full game that apparently never ever comes?

Yeah.

I hate to say it, but I got distracted by non-MZX stuff and have made no progress whatsoever since the demo. I'm here now in a MZXing mood, but my focus is on an RPG engine instead of Ned.

I guess a remake of Ned's length was too ambitious for me. I'm sorry I couldn't do it after all.....

[KKairos]

eyes on the prize, man. keep focused on one project.

[Galladin]

This looks absolutely delicious, keep it up.

[Otto Germain]

Yeah, sorry I haven't been keeping up well with updates... a bit sidetracked getting my new site up and running. It'll be going live the 1st of the year.

I'll be getting back to work on it soon enough, and hopefully have something playable for you guys. It's a big project but a lot of groundwork is already done, thankfully.

[Otto Germain]

Has it already been so long? I've been bad about working on this... I've been getting back into it over the last week though.

Here's a screenshot of the new, less eye-gouging title screen. The animation and music fits really well, to boot.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and the tagline changes every time. There's some pretty funny stuff in there... feel free to make suggestions, I only came up with 13 variations.

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This post has been edited by Otto Germain: 24 September 2013 - 04:10 AM

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

Tagline...

Is the word "bard" a requirement?

[Otto Germain]

Baby Bonnie Hood, on 24 September 2013 - 07:48 AM, said:

Tagline...

Is the word "bard" a requirement?

Nope, not at all.

[Graham]

This is very exciting!
It's probably been ten years since I've played it but I'll try some tag line suggestions:
"Now with 30% more pseudo 3D mazes!"
"Squirting flower not included"
"Not responsible for damage to alarm clocks"
"Insert clever tag line here"
"The quest for Blinky's treasure"
"Because you didn't get enough lute the first time"
Or
"Lute back by popular demad"
(He played a lute right? I'm having trouble remembering for sure)
"Bard business is hard bidness"
I dunno, are any of those funny?

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

He starts with a lute, then gets a harp later.

Anyway:
"Bard's Quest"
"The Bardening"
"The Bard's Tale" (...okay, maybe not that one)
"Catch That Goblin!"
"blah blah blah best MZX game ever ffffffffffff"

...that's all I got for now.

[Otto Germain]

Graham, on 24 September 2013 - 06:08 PM, said:

This is very exciting!
It's probably been ten years since I've played it but I'll try some tag line suggestions:
"Now with 30% more pseudo 3D mazes!"
"Squirting flower not included"
"Not responsible for damage to alarm clocks"
"Insert clever tag line here"
"The quest for Blinky's treasure"
"Because you didn't get enough lute the first time"
Or
"Lute back by popular demad"
(He played a lute right? I'm having trouble remembering for sure)
"Bard business is hard bidness"
I dunno, are any of those funny?

I like the lute/loot pun... "Phat Lutes"

+30% more 3d mazes would have to be more like -90%... heh.

Squirting flower is definitely back, and does more stuff. Pretty much all the stuff does more stuff. Also, there's new stuff.

Yeah, I'll use a couple of these for sure :]

Baby Bonnie Hood, on 25 September 2013 - 02:55 AM, said:

He starts with a lute, then gets a harp later.

Anyway:
"Bard's Quest"
"The Bardening"
"The Bard's Tale" (...okay, maybe not that one)
"Catch That Goblin!"
"blah blah blah best MZX game ever ffffffffffff"

...that's all I got for now.

I like "The Bardening"... actually surprised I didn't think of it.

[Exophase]

Oh oh shitty puns and stuff, I wanna play

"The Good, the Bard, and the Ugly"
"He'll make minstrel-meat outta ya"
"Be rebarded" (yeah I know...)
"You spoony game!"
"Gooberific"
"Not starring that dinosaur guy with a random fanbase!"
"Powered by Megazeux Head Engine (patpending)"

[Otto Germain]

Exophase, on 26 September 2013 - 03:43 AM, said:

Oh oh shitty puns and stuff, I wanna play

"The Good, the Bard, and the Ugly"
"He'll make minstrel-meat outta ya"
"Be rebarded" (yeah I know...)
"You spoony game!"
"Gooberific"
"Not starring that dinosaur guy with a random fanbase!"
"Powered by Megazeux Head Engine (patpending)"

Ooh, good ones, Exo!

"The Good, the Bard, and the Ugly" is brilliant.


Here's a peek at Bernard's shabby new digs, while I'm at it:

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[Baby Bonnie Hood]

Will the chimney still be nowhere near the fireplace?

[Otto Germain]

The chimney was removed due to balance issues.

[asgromo]

Is this going to be a much better game that nevertheless fails to return us to our childhood?

This post has been edited by asgromo: 27 September 2013 - 01:42 AM

[Otto Germain]

asgromo, on 27 September 2013 - 02:41 AM, said:

Is this going to be a much better game that nevertheless fails to return us to our childhood?

Well, I'll let the community be the judge of that... It will definitely be different than the original, because I don't want to just do the same thing again with a fresh coat of paint, but I can't change too much or it loses that nostalgia...

It's a return to childhood for me as well, so I hope I can succeed in capturing the same feel.

[Graham]

I'm sure you'll put your usual special touches to it. Your games always turn out good. This got me wondering how old Bernard the Bard is so I looked. 15 years old this month, wow! Will be fun to play it again and have it be fresh.

[Otto Germain]

Graham, on 28 September 2013 - 03:28 AM, said:

I'm sure you'll put your usual special touches to it. Your games always turn out good. This got me wondering how old Bernard the Bard is so I looked. 15 years old this month, wow! Will be fun to play it again and have it be fresh.

Yeah, if I'd been thinking ahead I coulda had it done in time to make it a 15th anniversary edition. Ah well.

On the topic of nostalgia, I want to include music from the original version... but I also have a lot of new music that's really fitting. Trying to strike a good balance, so is there any particular tracks anyone would like to see return?

The castle music springs to mind, that's gotta stay the same.

[Dr Lancer-X]

Otto Germain, on 28 September 2013 - 01:20 PM, said:

On the topic of nostalgia, I want to include music from the original version... but I also have a lot of new music that's really fitting. Trying to strike a good balance, so is there any particular tracks anyone would like to see return?

techead4 (Necrinia's Palace) and organbos.

I'm pretty fond of midlalta, but if you have something more fitting I could stand to see it go.

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

If organbos stays, then so should hunter since the start of organbos plays a bit of hunter.

Speaking of organbos, will the final battle still have a time limit? It suited both plot and gameplay, but it also really didn't let you hear much of organbos due to length differences (long song, short stage). I feel music that good shouldn't be wasted.

[djtiesto]

Otto Germain, on 28 September 2013 - 04:20 AM, said:

Yeah, if I'd been thinking ahead I coulda had it done in time to make it a 15th anniversary edition. Ah well.

On the topic of nostalgia, I want to include music from the original version... but I also have a lot of new music that's really fitting. Trying to strike a good balance, so is there any particular tracks anyone would like to see return?

The castle music springs to mind, that's gotta stay the same.

Voodoo People, of course!

If you want to be cheeky (and this is something I've sometimes done with my remakes), you can even add a more modern-day remix of the track:
The Pendulum remix

[Otto Germain]

I like midlalto also. It'll be used on a different board though.

I can keep techead4 for Necrinia's palace, it works well. Also, I'm changing the sidescrolling sewer area in that area. First, the sidescrolling isn't great... and second, ANOTHER sewer level? Seriously? Needs improvement.

To this day I still feel bad about the disservice I did to organbos. I should've made time to fix that final boss... Yeah, I'm coming up with something pretty much built around organbos to finally do it credit.

Good point about Hunter... think I've got a good spot for that one.

Djtiesto... heh, that would be clever. That'd go well for the goober boss-rush in town near the end.



...Oh yeah, and the chimney was re-added to nerf Sherman the Lard.

[Jorpho]

Would "Bernard the Bard: He's Got Serious Balls" be too obvious/crude..?

Where did the castle music come from, anyway? I never did find out.

[Otto Germain]

Jorpho, on 05 October 2013 - 04:05 AM, said:

Would "Bernard the Bard: He's Got Serious Balls" be too obvious/crude..?

Where did the castle music come from, anyway? I never did find out.

I may actually use that for the ammo vender instead.

Last I checked fairlight.mod was public domain. No idea where I found it originally, though... too far back.


... Screenshot!

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[Zinfandel]

Is this still bein' worked on? I was looking forward to it...

[Otto Germain]

It's been put on the back burner for now, but I'll get back to it.

It just might not be until sometime in March...

[Jorpho]

Got to thinking about this again just now. I guess nothing ever emerged, did it?

[Otto Germain]

Ahh, no, I'm a slacker.

Actually, it's more that any time I have to work on games is going into Puzzle Depot, these days.

So, for now, it's yet another incomplete Megazeux venture for me. Still, it was a good thing for me to work on at the time, as a way of getting back into Megazeux and game development in general. It would be nice to pick it back up at some point, maybe with some assistance for music and code.

[Wervyn]

Speaking of Puzzle Depot, how is that coming along? I've seen the occasional post on Twitter but you haven't updated the Trello board in four months. I'd love to see and in-depth progress report sometime.

[Otto Germain]

Wervyn, on 07 June 2016 - 12:37 PM, said:

Speaking of Puzzle Depot, how is that coming along? I've seen the occasional post on Twitter but you haven't updated the Trello board in four months. I'd love to see and in-depth progress report sometime.

Currently I would say "slow but steady". I know I haven't been very good about keeping things like the Trello board up to date (I'm honestly not too fond of Trello after using it... I probably should have gotten more familiar with it before starting one up), but we are getting ready for a larger update in the near future. I'm gonna make an effort to make more frequent updates and keep people in-the-loop more than I have been. There have been some cool developments, some of it I can't talk about just yet, but I really do appreciate the patience... I'll try not to keep everyone waiting much longer.

Part of it is that when I get to working on something, it can be hard for me to reach a good stopping point. I don't always like showing stuff before I feel that it's good enough. It's easy for me to disappear down the rabbit hole and fixate on pixels and puzzles... it's a bad habit that I know I need to work on.

Getting back into Megazeux, reconnecting with the community, and even working on the BtB Redux... these were important things for me, it's been a "getting back to my roots" experience and I feel I've gotten that creative spark back. I owe it to everyone who has supported me along the way to do something great with it. Not to get too sappy about it or anything