I really like the first version guy.  Even if the whole game was just recolored versions of him I think it'd be awesome.  I think the beaver needs less-human-detailed eyes to fit in stylistically with the main character, plus I think it would also make him cuter.

I agree with all of this.
You should use some interesting colors, though... Not just medium red and blue or whatever.

This looks really nice.
I hope you add a few interesting elements to set it apart, though.
Don't misunderstand; I love Contra. But it's nice when you give some reasons to play your game instead of the original sources of inspiration.

Too much talk! Not enough art!

I had never heard about this until now.
I read that Wolfire post, and at first I was thinking, "Uhh, OK? So... why do I care about this?" But after I got to the part where he explained the implications, that turned into "Oh, yeah... WHOAH."

MUTO by Blu - No doubt you've already seen this incredible graffiti animation that has nearly 7 million views:

Actually, I was not privileged to have experienced one of those seven million views; this was new to me.
It was really excellent... pretty crazy imagery. The heads-coming-out-of-mouths part reminded me of Fullmetal Alchemist...

It seems like with every Sonic game that is announced, people get really excited and say, "Hey, look! They listened to the fans! They fixed all the things we complained about!" And then it turns out that they didn't fix things very well, and they also introduced new problems.
I think part of the issue is the whole "They listened to the fans!" thing, because "the fans" are saying really stupid stuff.

Exempli gratia:

1) "We don't want so many characters. In fact, we don't want ANY characters except Sonic. Because that's how it's supposed to be. That's how it was in the beginning."
Uhh, what? Remember Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Genesis? TWO? As in... the one that comes after ONE? Yeah, I'm pretty sure the games were still awesome back then. And that had Tails. Tails didn't ruin the game. He made it more interesting, because he was a fun new character, and he introduced competitive multiplayer (and a weird cooperative mode).
I have always liked the cast of characters in the Sonic games. And I like it when those characters are playable, because it adds some interesting diversity. I'd be OK with having the extra characters be an unlockable feature or something, but I don't see any reason to take them out entirely.

2) "They're messing up the main point of the game. The Sonic series was always about running really, really fast. We want everything to move REALLY, REALLY FAST!"
There's a limit to how fast you can pace something before it just breaks completely. So, yeah, a Sonic game should be paced fairly quickly. But speed is not really the "main point" of the Sonic series. It's just one of the core elements. Another core element is over-the-top platforming that actually works and is fun. You can't increase speed to a point where it messes up the mechanics of the game or makes it boring.



...Anyway. I'm happy to see Tails, I like the visuals, the music sounds nice, and it looks like it plays well... But I remain heavily skeptical. If this turns out to be a disappointment just like every other "oh-look-this-could-actually-be-good" Sonic game, I will not be surprised.
It would be dumb to get my hopes up anyway. I'm already upset about all these other crazy E3 announcements (OoT 3DS?!) because I can't spend money on such things at this stage of my life...

By the way:

12 years

I hope that was hyperbole, because Sonic Adventure was released in 1999 and Sonic Adventure 2 was released in 2001. I maintain that both were solid games. I also liked the GBA games, and I've heard very good things about the two for DS (though I haven't played them myself)...

I propose we find a point to this here thread.

Done:
This thread now exists for the purpose of discussing actual clown noses.


This is a subject I don't know much about, so I have a lot of questions. What are they typically made out of? How are they affixed? Are they difficult to remove? Are they ever any color other than bright red? If not, why is that? Is there some traditionally explainable origin of the clown nose? Or is it just another ridiculous part of a ridiculous costume?
Moving on to the subject of clown in general: Do we know the name of the psychotic individual who originally decided that clown costumes were fun and humorous? Are there any children alive today who perceive clowns as anything other than frightening? If not, has this always been the case? How much has the clown costume changed over time? Were clowns originally entertaining, and aesthetic change over time has worsened their image?
THIS COULD BE IMPORTANT, GUYS. Somebody should answer my questions.

I've been doing chiptunes for a while now... I think I've been improving a lot. I don't know if I would call any of it super amazing yet, but... it's getting there, I guess.

Anyway, I have finally released some actual compilations of music, instead of the single tracks I sporadically post on 8 Bit Collective.


RIP Gunpei <3
This is a fifteen-track album that contains music I produced in 2008 and 2009. Listening to this stuff makes me think, "Wow, I've definitely gotten a lot better since then." ...But there are things in there that I still like. It's probably worth listening through.

Sorry You Missed Us
This is a shorter EP of more recent work. I was planning on including only six tracks, but I put one more together before I released it... So now there are seven tracks. In case, umm... you can't count or something.


I'd like to hear what you guys think of this, especially the newer music.

[on fire]

Monsters for my current project.

...It's about setting yourself on fire.



...Do you think the contrast needs to be increased somewhat? The color variation is a little subtle right now...

This is looking great!
Your characters are pretty incredible; I love the general style of the whole thing.
Your weapon system sounds pretty neat; I'll be interested to see how that works out.

[A+]

...Just stopping by to give you an A+ for patience... Especially with all of the flak you get for "never actually doing anything" or whatever, just because you're taking your time to make something awesome.

...And also, if this never comes out on a platform I can actually access (mostly just PC), I'll probably die of exploding, so... keep that in mind.

I actually like the "big" look, especially if this is for later in the game... it makes it feel a little bit more dangerous, if that makes any sense...

By the way, I've  been watching this for a while, and I don't think I've actually ever commented on it, so:
Really cool stuff. I love your characters, especially. You have a very fun style. ^_^
I'm excited for the final version!

[EDIT:]

Machine Saint: I will say I didn't dislike it but it didn't really appeal to me; it didn't seem interesting enough. It may be in part due to the fact that some parts repeat later on in the song and the song is rather lengthy. Of course, aside from this I don't have a lot constructive to say ]:

Overall it sounded nice but it never really... caught my attention.

Maybe it's just me, though! >:

I actually don't like the repetitiveness of it, either. There's a strong possibility that I will try to improve on that slightly before I officially release the EP.
EDIT: ...I got around to that sooner than I expected (specifically, it was pretty much right after I finished this post). A subtly updated version is done now; it will go up when I put up the EP it's on (and my other album of older stuff).

your stuff on 8bc is awesome. When will your EP be out?

Thanks! I found something that appears to be a good place to host it, so it will probably be up some time within the next few days.

This is pretty incredible.
I'm kind of shocked; Nintendo hasn't been all that impressive lately, but a lot of this stuff looks really amazing.

Why did they have to announce all this madness during a time when I can't spend money?

First of all, I should be able to just cycle between them with a button press, rather than have to select them with a cursor.

That's a good idea. If I were to come back to this, I would probably try to implement that, but I'm working on something different now...
I actually made the cursor movement difficult on purpose in order to make the game more challenging, but it turns out that was pretty stupid, because:
A) The game is challenging enough as it is
and
B) Were that not the case, there were probably a hundred better ways to make it more challenging.
I guess I really don't have an excuse for things like this that I added in fairly quickly and never thought about again for the rest of the development process... 

However, I'm actually going to defend this choice:

I'd also implement some sort of way to fight back.  It's frustrating to be playing one character, and have another character get killed with little you can do about it.  It would be nice to be able to shoot the goo creatures off the other guys' heads or something.

Earlier in development, I had planned on adding combat elements, but the basic ideas of the game changed over time.
So, yes, there is actually a reason why you can't fight the monsters. I think combat might have ruined what this game is actually about, because it would have made the situation something other than completely hopeless.
This might make more sense if you've beaten the game, but doing that requires a lot of patience. It's also somewhat arbitrary, which will probably frustrate some people. (I don't care, though; I still think that was a good decision, too; it reinforces the game's point.)
As it is, the point is to switch between characters often enough that they remain shielded most of the time... But I admit that the controls make that pretty hard to do.

The game has the makings of something fun, but you really need to make the controls much more smooth.  It's generally a bad sign when the player is fighting with the controls rather than the enemies in the game. 

I understand... Maybe some day I will correct these things, but right now I'm trying to work on finishing something completely different that makes more sense and is a lot more accessible (hopefully easier to play, too).

Thanks for the feedback; I appreciate it!

[First reaction:]

First reaction: Wow, cool stuff!
Second reaction: Oh, Xbox. I won't ever be able to play it.

Exactly...

I wish you success, though. This looks to be a very snazzy game.

Bee tea double you:
I finished my project.



(The astoundingly positive reviews are rolling in, guys! Cactus raves: "I didn't figure out how to properly play the game.")

Yeah, that's OK. I did wonder if you had plans for something already.
I'm glad you like it, though. That might be a good thing to put on a business card or something some day: "Virtual Plankton Kleptocracy: Now Jan Willem Nijman approved!"

Feel free to use this if you ever need music for another random thing in the future. Your games have a pretty consistent style, so it might sound right with something else, too.

Did you guys miss the help file?
In-game instructions would have been preferable, of course, but this was a relatively quick project; I wanted to get it finished with as little time wasted as possible.
So, yeah... you should definitely look at "help.txt"; it will probably, umm... help.

You may also want to read "notes.txt"; hopefully it explains why the game is so loose and confusing. If nothing else, it at least admits that the game is indeed loose and confusing. 


Also:

Music is also very good. Fits the game nicely.

[...] but the music is f***ing horrible.

Quite a range of opinions there, and I haven't even gotten that many comments on this yet... Haha. I guess that's cool, though.

[Hazardous Surface]

Hazardous Surface was originally prototyped during the most recent occurrence of TIGJam Midwest. I continued to work on it after the event, and now it's finished.
It's a little bit odd, so I'm not going to try explaining much of it.
It has astronauts.
And gelatinous monsters.
In space.

Things die.


...Mostly just you.




You should probably just visit this URL and try it for yourself.
This would also be a good opportunity to try the rest of my games, because I have gotten very little feedback on them. It would be particularly nice if people would submit ratings for !°µ1.53 and DTPZCC, because I'd like to have more than one opinion so that there is an actual average...