Sunday, August 21, 2011

UPS LAND Jr: Update

Pictured above is the title screen for UPSLAND JR. And below is a screenshot of the actual gameplay.
It looks a lot better than the earlier version. The sprites are crisp and clean. The UPS shield border looks sharp. And, of course, the background looks very kick ass! The game music is from the NES game, Kung Fu (grabbed it from here). And the know-how to make a title screen was learned from this youtube fellow.

As I said before, it's a simple game. Grab the goodies, avoid the baddies. But I'm proud of it.

Next up on the polish list: Fix the Kung Fu music to loop without a fade out.

If I can find a site that allows uploads, I'll upload UPSLAND JR on it.

UPDATE: Signed up for an account on MegaUpload.com and uploaded the game: UPSLand JR. Link will take you to my file for UPSLand Jr. No account is necessary to download from MegaUpload. I have to warn you though, this is an uncompressed file. So the download may take awhile.

Friday, August 19, 2011

UPSLAND Jr

This is a game I created with a program called GameMaker 8.1. The object of the game is to click on the boxes, hotdogs (safety dogs), gold coins, and Mystery Box. These items earn the player points. Avoid the poison sign (hazmat) and the anti-money sign. These take away points. And avoid clicking on the dark polo shirt, as this ends the game (you're fired!).

The GameMaker software was easy for me to use. No programming knowledge needed! It was easy to understand, yet still customizable. All of the game graphics were put into the game by me. I fully customized the sound that each piece makes (Homer's "D'oh" is played when you click on the poison sign; the hotdog sounds like the power-up mushroom from Mario Bros). It's a simple game (try to click on the pieces as they fly around) but I liked it. I think the software shows promise.

It might be what I need to create UPSLAND.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Roms in progress

This is the start screen to the NES game, Super Mario Bros. Using a text editor, some of the text has been changed (unless you remember playing as Gonzo or Duke).
And this is the Game Over screen with modifications from the same text editor.

Making modifications with a text editor is as simple as knowing how to spell. You simply substitute "Game Over" with "UPS Wins" and you've modified your game. There are a lot of rom hacks out there. A rom hack is a video game that has been modified. This can be anything from a lightly modified game (Mario without a mustache for example) all the way to a heavily modified game (basically a brand new game). Serious modifications usually involve a lot of programming knowledge, something that I don't have.

But I want to make a rom called UPSLand. I want to change the Mario and Luigi sprites (game character graphics), the enemy sprites, some of the background, and maybe the music. Of course, I'll be happy with the first 2 out of four. But that's my new project. Learn some programming. Make a game.