May 2013
1 post
Gamescom (with an M) 2013
Last year, as some might have seen, we appeared at Gamescom with several of our games. It was an absolutely incredible experience (click here for a roundup post and pictures) and we hoped we’d get an encore at some point. Turns out we didn’t have to wait that long.
Now, what we did last year was awesome, but we thought we could perhaps try doing something radical. Think ninja...
April 2013
2 posts
Mari0 SE (online mulitplayer) is on hiatus
We figured we might as well post about it. Mari0 SE, that is.
As you might know, it never had a release date (apart from extremely rough guesses which were completely useless), and for a very good reason: it’s a hobby. You pick your own hours and your own projects. Perhaps a bad excuse, but nobody wants to spend their free time working on something as if it’s a job, especially if...
Resizing the map and design questions
Adding new editor features always adds the challenge of making it easy to understand and access for the user. There has to be a good balance between number of clicks required, amount of information displayed and prioritization of features.
You may know the way map resizing is handled in Mari0 1.6, where there’s two arrows and an “apply” button.
This is terrible on so many...
March 2013
2 posts
Exams are over, post progress!
Exams over and I have nothing to do for a week, so I would usually promise a lot of updates but that never goes well, but I’ll try anyway!
Here’s some notice system I quickly wrote for chat and other messages.
In the gif I made it print a random message with a random color and a random duration.
Mari0 is 1 Year Old Today
Exactly 1 year ago (give or take a few hours), Mari0 has been released publicly for the first time - we almost completely forgot about it. Time really flies, doesn’t it?
There really isn’t much to say, so here’s some numbers: Mari0 so far clocked in 1,696,644 downloads (not counting third party websites), with Windows having 88.88%, OSX 6.09%, Linux 3.18% and source 1.85% of the...
February 2013
3 posts
Community spotlight: Not Pacman ++
So you played Not Pacman and perhaps you thought “Hm, you know what this game needs? A level editor that allows massive levels, customizable everything and also sparkly powerup for pacman.”
Well, now there’s a mod for that.
Not Pacman ++
A Not Pacman mod by Felix Dumenil adds that and much more. If you’d like to give it a try, see the forum thread for download and run...
Automated Portals
Someone on the forums recently suggested a gamemode where the portals are made for you. Well since SE has portal placing entities and region triggers, you can already do this.
I wrote a quick overview of links so you can roughly see how it’s made up:
Another silly gif
January 2013
6 posts
Mari0 SE doesn't have a release date, and here is...
Mari0 SE, the upcoming update that adds online play to the game, does not have a release date, and that’s simply because it isn’t done.
To be more precise, the online mode is proving to be tougher than expected and we can’t tell when it’s going to be done. Since this is the most anticipated feature, I do not wish to release the game without it. If something like the...
And You Thought Yesterday's Gif Was Confusing
I did what I was threatening to do yesterday and added a second world on the “right” side of the cubes. The player collides with both worlds now.
Because it’s really confusing, I added a little 2D map showing the combination of the two worlds. It makes it a little more obvious what is going on.
Some 3D-2D Hybrid Platformer
Ever since I updated the Ortho Robot engine to support textured cubes, I always had this idea of playing a 2D platformer on the sides of the cubes where you can move the cubes around. Well last night I decided to make a prototype like that and you can see the results below!
I’m thinking of creating a second 2D world on the right side of the cubes so that changing the cubes will affect both...
Rolling Around at the Speed of Fast
Before Not Pacman’s release, our best time was just above 40 seconds and the best time at Gamescom was 39.4, but RabidJellyfish has put that all to shame with his impressive time of 30.9 seconds.
Are you a bad enough dude to roll even faster? Tell us your best time!
Not Pacman Released!
Finally! After over 2 years of sitting around on our hard drive, Not Pacman is ready to be played.
The main problem with the game were lack of a working control scheme, which we managed to solve with the standard controls where the player moves his mouse left and right to rotate the field.
Find the game over here and a video of the game below.
Not Pacman later today
After a lot of work, we’ll finally be releasing Not Pacman later today. You know, that game that has been in the sidebar for one and a half years? Yeah.
That’s pretty much all I have to say. So, prepare to Not play Pacman later.
December 2012
2 posts
Levelscreen backgrounds
You know these boring black screens before each level which tell you how many lives you have left?
Well mappacks can customize these on a map basis now. There was a thread on the forums suggesting that and it sounded like a good idea. Also some forum members (hans1998 and idiot9.0) made a few nice mockups of levelscreens which you can find here:
Oh and, happy new year everyone!
An update!
Bad news first: There aren’t any bad news. We never have bad news. Remember when we had bad news? You don’t.
Good news: Thanks to winter holidays, we’ll have a lot of time and will be able to work on Mari0 SE and updates to this blog!
We’re planning to have Not Pacman, that game that’s been on the list on the left for forever, ready for release in the next few...
November 2012
5 posts
Making of an Enemy
When I released Mari0, a lot of people have suggested adding enemies from SMB2J (the japanese sequel to SMB) or SMB3. And for that reason I’m trying to add enough enemy behavior components to allow at least most of them to be recreated easily with the enemy customization.
So let’s go and add fireball spitting Piranha plants to our mappack.
The basic behavior of the fire Piranha is...
Putting stuff into coinblocks
Why not? So now you can put any enemy in a coinblock to have it appear as soon as Mario hits it. Yes, hammers are enemies. Mushrooms and co will probably use the same enemy customization so I guess they’re enemies too?
Give Me Your Screenspace
Ever since Mari0 was released, people have been requesting the ability to run the game in fullscreen mode. I’ve always been against this since Mari0 uses a 400x224 base resolution which can’t be easily scaled for any resolution.
The solution is either: Change the base resolution by showing more/less blocks on the screen at the same time, something I can’t do because it would...
The problem with: Customizability
I was writing a blogpost about how customizability is always a problem because of the format that I let users specify attributes in (loading lua is too dangerous because people like to download these mods, and text parsers are annoying to write), but then I thought “Why don’t I just use JSON?” and then I just used JSON and it works perfectly. Or I’ll use sandboxing lua....
Custom Enemies for Mappacks
As part of the huge customization we add for mappack authors, we are also adding custom enemies to the bunch.
You’ll be able to create enemies with custom graphics and behavior by including sprites and then setting a bunch of properties for your enemy. So basically you can tell the game your enemy is “stompable”, but “killsonsides”, then give it the standard movement...
October 2012
5 posts
First Person 2D Sidescrolling Game
Further experimentation and we have some fancy following of Mario, which makes the whole portal see-through thing a little more bearable.
I also tried tinting the previews in the portal colors, what do you think?
More experimentation
Yesterday I implemented something that many other 2D games involving portals have, see-through portals!
New game: Order of Twilight
Hey everyone, there will be an update about the online functionality of Mari0 SE soon, but in the meantime we have a new game for you.
This is a game where you use your arrow keys to cast a number of different spells to help you progress through the levels. It was made as a single effort in a total of 27 hours for the 2-day MyLittleGameJam.
You can find this and the other submissions over...
Flap flap
Wiggle wiggle
September 2012
1 post
Mario to invade your trashcan soon
Hey everyone! It’s been a month so it’s time for a short update.
Online multiplayer is nearly done, lots of great new features were added to Mari0: Special Edition and a release isn’t too far away now. Meanwhile, you can take a look at something that will also be in Mari0 SE.
August 2012
10 posts
Trosh: The Movie: The Game
Ever wanted to play a game where you shoot lasers out of your eyes to destroy someone’s avatar, fly into space blowing up asteroids, bail out of an exploding rocket, put on sunglasses, and fall back down to the ground without a parachute, killing several birds on the way? Well, then this is the absolutely perfect game for you.
It’s Trosh: The Movie: The Game, a game made for a friend...
Gamescom 2012 roundup
Three months ago, us making an appearance at the largest games convention in the world was a thought we considered a mere fantasy, a mad man’s wish that would never come true. One week ago, we made an appearance at the largest games convention in the world.
And absolutely everything went without a hitch.
Thanks!
Of course, none of it would be possible without our benefactors. René Meyer...
Gamescom, Day 3
Lots of people!
Gamescom, Day 2
The third (and fullest) day starts in 5 minutes, so I’ll have to make this quick.
We’ve had a lot of people come by yesterday including a guy who played Not Pacman for about 2 hours and is dominating the highscore list. Also Nifflas came by, and since I really love his games it was great when he said he likes mine. He’s the guy with the awesome beard.
Gamescom, Day 1
Each day more exciting than the last! The computers were constantly in use and the fun is universal. We’ve had friends help each other think with portals and complete strangers joining up to go through the entire Super Mario Bros. campaign in a single sitting - it’s a really exciting thing to see.
Day 2 opens up in 20 minutes and if the current trend keeps up, the fun will overflow!
Gamescom, Day 0
The business/media day is over and it’s been quite exciting! We had a lack of sitting, but that didn’t stop anyone from just sitting on the floor to play our games, so that should be a good sign. Have some pictures, more tomorrow!
Live from Gamescom!
(Well, as live as a blogpost can be, anyway..)
We’re currently hard at work setting up our booth at Gamescom! There’s still much to do, but we’re getting there.
Come visit us in hall 10.1 if you’ll also be there! We’re under the banner that says “Retro Games”, even though that’s only 50% right.
Screenshot Marathon SE: Day 9
Offscreen markers
Being lost offscreen with no idea where you are is quite a nuisance in a local multiplayer game. To prevent that, SE has offscreen markers, so your comrades will know where exactly they are. The same markers will also be used in online multiplayer. A small notice: Gamescom preparations are taking up a lot of free time, which is already pretty sparse. Thus, SE marathon updates...
Screenshot Marathon NP: Day 8
Super Pellets
In order to get back at those ghosts, there’s 4 super pellets on the board which you can make pacman eat at any time. Once eaten, they will grant you the ability to eat the ghosts for a certain time, which will make them reset back to their starting box.
Random thought of the day: Apparently I have played a total of 3963 songs on Rockband 3.
Screenshot Marathon SE: Day 7
Text Entity
Be the next Wheatley and write “TEST” all over your map with the new text entities. Their color and text is fully customizable and they even take an input. In the above pic, I used 2 square waves and a bunch of gates to animate a 4-step clock. Also a XOR gate for the outline. You can hide the gates if you want, there’s an option for that.
July 2012
6 posts
Screenshot Marathon SE: Day 6
Logical Gates
Not gates are not as cool as they used to be, so SE will also have gates for “and” as well as “or”. These can be combined and mixed up to create some more or less complex mechanism for opening doors or activating laser death traps (Again, laser death traps do not give bonus points). In the screenshot above you can see: And gate; or gate; not gate.
Random...
Screenshot Marathon SE: Day 5
Region Trigger
Did that door just open all on its own? Does the door have eyes? Do the hills? Now you can link everything you ever wanted and much more to the region trigger tool that will be in Mari0 SE. Bonus points for laser deathtraps.
Random thought of the day: You don’t actually get bonus points for deathtraps, laser or not.
Screenshot Marathon SE: Day 4
Portal Gun Pedestal
You can define on a map basis just how much portal gun the player has. They can start with either none, the blue, the orange or the fully powered portal gun, and then pick up an upgrade during the level. In connection with the Day 1 preset portals, you can create some single portal puzzles like they’re found early in Portal and Portal 2.
Random thought of the day:...
Screenshot Marathon SE: Day 3
Custom Characters
Just like with hats, you’ll be able to create custom characters for use in game. These will support any number of walk and jump frames, as well as any number of customizable colors like the original Mario. Chell has 4 colors for example.
Random thought of the day: There’s also a certain light-blue mythical creature as a character, but it isn’t in the gif.
Screenshot Marathon SE: Day 2
Configurable Faithplates
Faithplates in the old Mari0 were pretty limited, so I upraded them using the new rightclick menus (which I will highlight later) to have configurable strength and direction. They also take an input now and you can easily see the plate’s trajectory! Random thought of the day: We just watched the opening ceremony for the olympic games 2012. The part with the...
Screenshot Marathon SE: Day 1
We’ve been busy preparing everything for Gamescom, but still: Four weeks is a long time without any updates, so we’re planning to make up for it.
We have added a lot to Mari0: Special Edition that we have not shown yet, so that’s a perfect opportunity for another screenshot marathon! Everyday for a few weeks, we’ll show a fancy screenshot or gif of something new in SE.
...
June 2012
4 posts
Stabyourself.net @ Gamescom 2012
Are you reading this on your vintage C64? Does it not have enough gigaflops to run Mari0? Well don’t worry, Mari0 will be playable at Gamescom in Cologne this August!
Yes, we’re most certainly absolutely serious. This year at Gamescom, you’ll be able to play Not Tetris, the upcoming Mari0 SE and never before seen Not Pacman! So come by, play some games and have a little...
I don't think you understand the gravity of the...
Mari0 SE FAQ
Back in October 2011 I posted a FAQ about Mari0. Here is the updated one for SE.
Is there a release date yet?
no.
Can you release a demo/beta?
no. Thanks for reading.
Progress update! Changelog!
Two weeks since the last update, here’s some info on the upcoming Mari0 Special Edition.
A lot has been added to the game in the past weeks, as you can see in the changelog after the break. I am thinking of a way to show the stuff that has been added in some way, but that’s at least a few days away anyway.
So head past the break for the current changelog in the meantime!
Added -...
May 2012
5 posts
Excursion Funnels
I’m livestreaming Mari0 development if you didn’t know. The link is at the top of the homepage.
Wheeee
Mari0 SE progress
Work on Mari0 SE is progressing. I had a livestream today as a homage to our great Swedish overlord, and it was lots of fun. Here’s some things that I did today. I’ll have a video of another thing up tomorrow that a lot of people are going to like.
Platforms
Blocks that you can pass from any side except above.
Geldispenser with input
Gel dispensers can now be hooked up to any...
