News - Updated... Sometimes!

Hello again
16/01/09

Weekly updates have become monthly updates. Oh dear. I'll write something here in a bit, k?

UPDATED AT LAST. Seriously.
17/12/08

Oh man. Oh man oh man. I thought I was bad at updating before...
Eh, I think I'm the only person who reads this site anyway~

So, to anyone who does read this (there are better sites around, try Google), FINALLY AN UPDATE. After over a month. So what's been happening? Well. I got a spriter for Bubble, and he immediately disappeared. Then I got another spriter for Bubble, and he also disappeared shortly after doing a handful of sprites. I can't seem to hold these guys down... oh well. So, I've decided to stop working on games altogether. Instead, this will be a site for tools and apps. And more likely used as a personal blog more often than it is for tools and apps.
...Like usual, then.

Um. Not much more to say right now.

Until next week (if you're lucky)
~Raylax~

Bubble, and looking for spriters/musicians/artists
03/11/08

OK, it really is time for an update, especially since the last one was a fortnight ago and barely 3 lines long. There is a reason why I haven't updated, I had planned on having Bubble completed and released and suprising you with that. Unfortunately, Moz had to pull out due to concentrate on Momotaro, so as of yet I haven't been able to get it sprited. Anyway, you're probably wondering what Bubble is.
It started as a bit of experimentation with MMF2's particle spray extension, which got a bubble effect going, and shortly after I had an engine running and an idea in progress. Bubble is a puzzle game, in which you must guide an orb to the finish point, dodging obstacles and using various things in the level (switches, etc). But, of course, there's a catch. You can only use bubbles to push it around. Holding the mouse button will send a stream of bubbles towards the orb, which will push it. By careful clicking, you'll have to use the bubbles to keep control of the orb and navigate it through the obstacles. The underwater settings means that the gravity is lower (the orb is by no means buoyant... but light enough to be pushed around by bubbles. Ignore the broken logic, it never stopped half of the other puzzlers out there), and I think I've done a fair job of simulating that. It uses the Chipmunk Phizix Extension for realistic underwater physics, and obstacles will be able to be spun, knocked over, and pushed out of the way. I've wanted to make a game using Phizix for some time, and this was a great opportunity.

Right, onto the next bit of the update. One of the reasons my games can stop dead in production is the lack of the non-programming side of game-making. Unfortunately, I'm about at skilled at arty stuff as an elephant is at deep-space exploration, and my attempts at spriting have rarely yielded anything of use. So, I'm looking for people to join Raylax Games who want to do the spriting, music, or art for the projects. However, I am unable to pay for this, as I intend for all my projects to be released as freeware. All I can offer is heavy creditation on everything you're involved in (and the site) and free advertising for your own site/blog/gallery/whatever if you have one (or, I'll host stuff on here if you don't... provided it'll fit on Weebly's stringent upload filesize limit). If you're interested, drop me a line at [email protected]

I think that's all this week. Until next week,

~Raylax~

Mini Update
20/10/08

HEY LOOK THE ADVERTS ARE GONE. And the broken clock. I didn't like either of them, the former was doing nothing useful, so I reached for the delete button.
Anyway, more stuff to update with later. Tarrah.

~Raylax~

Vitalize! Clock
15/10/08

That broken search bar has been replaced by a broken clock :D
It looks fine until you scroll in Firefox, but I don't know why. Apparently it works fine in other browsers... Bah. But yeah, Vitalize! clock. It's set to your own system time, so don't try to use it to fix your computer's clock. Considering putting up some more Vitalize! stuff on the site, too. So look out for them. Also, as promised, that Instinctive Reaction concept is now there on the Other Concepts page. Enjoy. (You'll need the Vitalize! plugin to see it)

Hmm... what else...

Not sure atm. I may update later on when my mind is less Java'd out. Oh yeah, the adverts on the other page seem to have died. Random... so, ignore the big lump of code at the top of the pages for now, I'll sort it out tonight, when I return to my internet connection.

Until next time

~Raylax~

Massive Site Work Done
07/10/2008

So, I didn't update last week. Simply because I had nothing to update with. I have been doing stuff, but nothing much of interest to warrent an update. A bit of spriting for PowPow, a few design choices... not the most interesting stuff, especially as it's all very subject to change. This week, I've completely updated the entire site. All of the pages are now in for all of the current projects (PowPow, PokéCalc and SmashMaps), along with an About page and an Other Concepts page I'd like to tell you about now.
When I launched Raylax, I planned it to be a place for my concept ideas rather than actual development, and it very much still is. Howver, I needed a way to separate the concepts I am working to the ones I have no plans on working on (due to limitations both on my own and MMF2's part, and scale of projects). So, I now have a directory of concepts I do not plan on actually making. I am aware that some of the readers of this site are budding MMF2'ers, so I open up this section to you guys.  If you would like to use one of my concepts, contact me and we'll sort stuff out from there (more details on the page). I'm not actually expecting anyone to pay any attention to this, but I prefer the idea thay are there for the taking, should anyone want them, rather than just keeping them to myself when someone would happily make something of them. And obviously, some of the concepts aren't designed to be taken on at all, just results of complete free thought on boring afternoons.
The Other Concepts page currently has PostMaker linked up there, and another concept called Instinctive Reaction that isn't linked (the page isn't up yet). I'll have a detailed page up about that later in the week. If you're curious, and remember my concept over on Electron for "Doduo SPRINT!," Instinctive Reaction is basically that without the Pokémon link and much, much more hardcore gameplay. I suppose it plays like a rhythm action game but with platforming objects rather than music - timing hits is key to completing it.
I also have a third concept to put up there as well, an idea for a 3D console game that I've had knocking around for a year or two. That might be up later this week, or perhaps next.
Unforunately, the site now has adverts. A necessary evil, unfortunately. The good news is they're Google adverts, so you won't be subjected to DOWNLOAD SMILIEZ NAOW with an incessent unstoppable noise doing it's best to make you want to find the asociated website and throttle the admin. Sorry, but hey, it's not too bad.
We've also got a Google Search box that'll let you search content on the internet. You know, incase you forget that google.com exists. It also doesn't work that well, the minimum width is 795, but this site is only about 660 across. So, I'll probably end up deleting it.

That's all this week, hope you like the new stuff. Except the adverts, no-one likes them =P

Until next time, catch ya later

~Raylax~

PowPow, SmashMaps, and the Pokémon Calculator
25-09-2008

Another nice, chunky update for you. I'm getting kinda used to this "unset weekly updating" thing, it's kinda handy. More good updates for you guys, less stress for me. Yay. Anyways, yeah. 3 big things to talk about this week. Some stuff to tell you about with regards PowPow, some information on the Pokémon Calculator (remember that?), and a new concept called SmashMaps. So, let's get the ball rolling with PowPow

I've been thinking quite a lot about the scope of this project over the last couple of days, and I've realised that my concepts and designs for it had gotten to that kind of level where I simply wouldn't know where to start coding it. As a result, the project has been shrunkified (a word for sure. In my dictionary at least) to a much more managable level. You guys wouldn't notice that, unless you're some kind of mindreader who stalks me (in which case STOP WATCHING ME TYPE, IT'S DISTRACTING), but my envisioning of the had far too much on the "horribly complex to program" side. The gameplay, level design, and general structure will remain the same, it just won't be as... 'pretty' as I originally envisioned. So yes, more managable project, less hardcore on the programming side, easier (ie, possible) to make, which means any kind of demo or whatever will be out sooner. GOOD GOOD. PowPow aside, it's time to move onto the next section of this update, the Pokémon Calculator

No, I didn't forget about it. The Calculator will come. I've finally converted the ridiculously complex damage formula into something understandable by the Dynamic Array Object (or was that MagicDeque? ... I forget) and MMF2. Making it even more ridiculously complex. Good good. Want to see it? OK, but don't say I never warned you. If you are at risk of heart attack, have high blood pressure, or are pregnant, I suggest you scroll past this =]

(Floor ((((((( (Level("Player")) * 2 / 5 ) + 2) * (getFromLabelRow( "MoveData", "BasePower", PlyrNumber("Variables Store")) ) * ( getFromColumnRow( "PokémonData", (9 + SpMod("Variables Store")), OppNumber("Variables Store")) ) / 50 ) / ( getFromColumnRow( "PokémonData", (10 + SpMod("Variables Store")), DexNumber("Variables Store")) ) ) * ( (Brn("Variables Store")/2) * (RL("Variables Store")/2)* (0.5+SR("Variables Store")) * (FF("Variables Store")/2) ) + 2 ) * (CH("Variables Store") ) * ( Mod2("Variables Store") ) * ( ((217 + random(38)) × 100) ÷ 255 ) / 100 ) * (3 / STAB("Variables Store") + Adapt("Variables Store") ) * ( Type1("Variables Store") ) * ( Type2("Variables Store) ) * ( ( SRF("Variable Store") / 4 ) * ( EB("Variables Store") / 5 ) * ( TL("Variables Store") ) * ( TRB("Variables Store") / 2 ) )

*SHUDDER*
If you want me to explain all that... forget it xP
OK, I might later. Possibly. Depends on if I can be bothered going through tons of variables. But yes, the damage formula is cracked, and I know how to handle it all. Also, welcome back heart attack/high blood pressure/pregnant people. All that's left to do now is to get all the Pokémon data collated, type up a few other (thankfully not quite as terrifying) formula for the calc, and we'll bo on the way to completing the project. Woohoo.

OK, so for the last part of this update, I'm announcing another new concept, probably one that I'll have finished (in beta stages at least) in none too long. Perhaps a couple of weeks, perhaps less. Now, I assume quite a few people who have gotten here by my indiscrete plugging will own a copy of Smash Bros Brawl, and will be familiar with it's rather nice Stage Builder. Now, getting stages from one person to another is a bit of a pain. I know IGN has a rather snazzy website for uploading created stages for others to play, but that is sometimes a bit of a pain. It's somewhat tricky differenciating one .bin file on your SD to another, especially when there's hundreds of the things all lovingly titled in random numbers. And sometimes, you simply don't possess an SD card. So, I'm announcing SmashMaps, a tool to replicate your stage in the SmashMap Editor, and send the file to others, so they can then replicate that stage in Brawl. It'll comply to Brawl's stage building rules - tiles cannot overlap, every tile has three different size settings, and some can be flipped from left to right. There'll also be a limit on how much can be put down, again just as Brawl has. Fields will be added to suggest the best music for the level, the best characters, and the best type of Brawl. It'll then save the map in a format that can be opened in another SmashMaps, for the next user to copy manually into their Brawl level editor. It may also have a feature to snapshot the map in some image format (probably png), to give the user a taste of the map they're opening.

So, that's it for this week. Come back next week for more updates and stuff. Yay, stuff

~Raylax~

New site layout, logo, PowPow, and other projects
17-09-2008

So, the site's only been up a week and I've already altered the layout. Why? This one lets me put the Raylax logo up top there. Lame text-based logos are a thing of the past! Also, this isn't a site that'll be updated every Monday on the dot like Electron *tried* to be. From now on, it'll be updated at some point in the week, when I actually have news to update with, like today. If I'd updated this place on Monday... you'd be reading "sorry, not much to update with. Come back next week, my brain may have turned on by then." And chances are come next Monday, I'll have so much to update with, I'll have forgotten half of it. New site, new logo, new system. Yay. Finally, I've started putting names of games/projects in bold. Why? Not sure. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It makes things a little more organised in that I don't have lots of small titles above every paragraph, I guess.

OK, now for the more interesting stuff. I said last week that by now I'd have a page up for the big PowPow concept. It isn't there. This isn't me being lazy (for once), I realised during the week that putting up all my ideas and plans for a game is a free ticket to copyright-losing chaos. So, I'll be updating with small amounts of news when I want to, rather than publishing the lot all in one shot. I have a few new level themes, like one based on cakes, and another set inside a giant library. The Pyn design has been finalized (in my head, that is, I'm yet to force any paper to suffer under the malice of my poorly skilled drawing hand), and I've come up with a few more enemies too.  At some point I'll draw (or get someone to draw for me) these concepts and put them up, so watch out for those. I might have some more PowPow news up next week, so check back.

Now, this is a concept site more than a games site now, so here's a concept I had for a little application that could be pretty useful. It's current name is PostMaker. If you've ever been on a forum (which I suspect most of the visitors to this site have), and attempted to make an enormous post with all sorts of formatting (in my experience on Pokémon forums, setting up the first post for clans is a big job), you may have discovered that when you get to your fifth line of [url=http://photobucket.com/album/pictures/lololimages/big_picture_of_cheese.jpg], it all gets incredibly confusing. Add to that the fact that most forums have comparitively small edit boxes, and Notepad seems to enjoy adding random extra lines as soon as you put Word Wrap on (whilst Word complains furiously everytime it spots BBCode)... well, it's never been an easy job. Some forums log you out as inactive if you spend too long editting your post, too. Goody. So, that's where PostMaker comes in. It's essentially a simple text editor, but one that supports BBCode. There would be two windows on it, the Design window and the Preview window. The Design window lets you type in your post as you would on a forum, adding the BBCode as you go. Whilst you do this, the Preview window will constantly update, showing you exactly how your post will appear when you hit submit (images from websites would probably not show, though there would probably be some kind of image sample to show you where they are in your post). Now, when it gets complicated, you could start editting within the preview window instead. Don't worry about finding the start and end of a complicated URL code, just find the URL in the preview, select it, and hit delete (or right-click > Remove Link to retain the text if it's a labelled link). Same would go for images too. And like the Preview window's constant updates, whilst your doing this, the Design window will find and change all your edits to the Preview window. Posts would be able to be saved in simple txt format (the Design data would be saved, not the Preview one. That'll just be regenerated as soon as the program starts again), making it easy to edit your post later within some other software if needs be.
Of course, many forums have many different bits of BBCode, some don't use BBCode at all, but instead a different format. PostMaker would be compatible with BBCode and UBBCode (Clickteam forum's code), and all others that work in the same way ( [b] [/b] for bold, for eg). It would come with most basic functions, and would probably be updated with more should the need arise. I think I have some idea on how to make this (MMF2 users: probably using the String Parser Object?), so maybe sometime I'll work on it.

That's all I've got this week. Check back next week for more news!

~Raylax~

Raylax Games launches!
08-09-2008

Welcome to to the new home of Raylax Games! This is the new name for Electron, a name I've decided to stop using for various reasons. The site is now focused on game concepts rather than game programming - that's not to say that I'm not programming games any more, it's just the site's focus that has shifted. Besides, I don't have any major projects in programming stages any more, as I'm no longer working on Momotaro. Moz is now working on the game with a new team using the programming software Stencyl, which means he'll be able to have a much larger input on the programming side, and be able to get it done quicker, too. I'll keep you updated with news on Momotaro as it comes.

Well, that's all for now. The site is clearly bare at the moment, but keep checking back over the week, and more content will emerge. Oh, and the old site, Electron, is still up. Visit it at http://electron.weebly.com. I'll keep it up for archiving purposes, but don't be looking there for updates. You won't find any. Right, that's it for this update. Another update next week!

Raylax