I… technically don’t know what to write right now. It’s been almost half year since I wrote a really fleshed out game development post. Heh, it feels a bit nostalgic to be back to IndieDB after a whole year; you guys really supported this game a lot and took it all the way to the top for a bit, makes me wonder why I was so stupid for slipping out of this game’s development. I’ve noticed that this game still gets between 6 and 24 page views a day —even though the last update was posted a year ago— which makes me feel both heartwarmed and, well, disapointed in myself actually. Just, thanks for all the support, seriously.

Now, I have a big surprise for you (notice the bold text). For the past few months, I’ve slowly been working on a brand new version of The Million Character Game, from scratch. For reasons (a lot more than pure laziness) I’ve been unable to continue working on it, but I can’t keep it in secret anymore, there’s literally no reason to keep it as a secret. So, here you go.

I know I’ve broken some sort of game developer golden rule, which is “do not start your game from scratch” but the current mechanics and organizing was, well, shit. But now the game is technically inhigh resolution, runs on 60fps, we’ve got a few automatic camera angles and some fake light shaders, seems about right for now.
I’ve got Cha-Cha and Garbodor for placeholders —don’t ask me why— but they work fine for now.

Oh kids, for the first time we’re gonna have a basic enemy AI. I’ve aslo added a revolutionary, ground-breaking new feature: double jumping. I’ve been trying to think about new ways to make the game more fun, so I tought that maybe it would be a good idea to make the whole mobility better, much (much) faster and with a lot more possibilites.

Speaking of fast, you can now sprint! Oh, and in case you haven’t noticed it on the GIF, I’ve made an actual new thing. As someone who has grown with home consoles, and more specifically game controllers, there’s something that has always being bugging me. Have you noticed how all game controllers make their directional sticks to be controlled using your left hand and the action buttons with your right hand, while PC games traditionally do this the other way around having to play with the arrow keys using your right hand? If you see the past two images, you can see the cursor clicking, I’ve made an alternative control scheme that can be played by using the WASD keys to move and the two mouse buttons as action buttons. To me, it feels way more natural than the previous scheme (arrow keys + Z and X), so I’ll keep testing this and hopefully it will bring a more fluid experience for players like me.

Awwh yeah, battle mechanics. Just like the previous version of the game, you could shoot at enemies, with the bullet sprite and color changing depending on the character being used. This would be a”Shoot” attack, again, just like the previous version of the game.

Now here’s something a bit more interesting. While doing the previous versions of the game I promised different attacks depending on the character; here’s an example of a “Swing” attack. I forgot to record it in the GIFs, but you can now attack upwards and downwards, which I think will add a lot of possibilities to the game. Additionally, I’m planning on giving each character up to three different attacks depending on the input. Multiple character inclusion will be added soon, along with multiplemechanic updates.

Usually at this point of the post I’d be saying something insanely cheesy or cringeworthy to make you download the game, but there’s no demo for now, not until the game is playable in some way; we can still have our traditional change log, though.

Change Log = TL;DR

Version 0.1 New:

• Basic movement + animations

• Double jumping

• Sprinting

• Basic enemy AI

• Two attack types (shoot + swing)

• Upwards and downwards attacking

And this is the end of this post. Once again, thanks a lot for keeping this game alive, even if it was just a little. Please consider going into the game’s forums and submitting a character, as this is a game that will only be possible with the help of its community.
I will keep doing my best at making the game, and please contact me if you have any doubts or suggestions, I’ll be happy to help, but for now I’m off to try Ultra Street Fighter IV because apparently it’s free on Steam. See you soon!