A Koopa’s Revenge 2

Yes, I’m still alive 2024 edition

Yes, I’m still alive 2024 edition

As some of you may have noticed, I have not posted or replied to anything online in a while. Long story short, my mental health took a pretty big hit about a year ago, and I ended up taking 11 months off the internet altogether. I didn’t even tend to the Discord server. I wasn’t doing too well before that either, having not worked on anything substantial in over a year. My issues are mostly related to anxiety, insomnia, and ADHD. I might go into further detail about this later, but it’s kinda private. I will say that I am seeing a psychiatrist and a counselor, and I have been getting better over the course of the past year.

I’m still no where near being able to put my all into gamedev (or any of my other creative pursuits) so you likely won’t see much from me in the near future. I need to put my mental health first. I know it sucks that A Koopa’s Revenge Gold, AKR2 v2.9.1, and the other projects still aren’t out, but forcing myself to make them would only cause me to burn out and delay things even further. Trust me, it’s happened many times in the past. I’m going to eventually respond to all the YouTube comments, Newgrounds reviews, and other stuff I missed over the past couple years, but I’ll be doing it at my own pace. I’ve learned the hard why that forcing myself to do even the smallest stuff can be bad for me.

One positive aspect of being off social media for a year is that I mostly missed Twitter going to shit. And because it’s such shit, I’ve decided to quit and sign up for Bluesky instead. So you can follow me on Bluesky or join the Lambtaco Discord to catch all the little updates I make and chat with me or whatever. An example of a little update: In the future (version 2.9.2 probably) I’ll be adding the option to change the mid level and end level (after you beat the level) flags in A Koopa’s Revenge 2. It’s a small thing, but I think people will appreciate it. And it’s something I’m capable of working on in my current state.

That’s all for now. More to come (when I’m ready).

Posted by Malinbo in Games Blog, Other Blog

AKR2 Roadmap to Version 3.0

As you may know, I rushed AKR2 v2.9 out so that it would be easy for everyone to play the game again (using Ruffle). But because I rushed it out, it doesn’t have all the features and upgrades I had planned for 3.0. Hence it’s only version 2.9. I still intend to add the things I had planned, but now I can do that at a relaxed pace over the next year or more while I also work on other projects like A Koopa’s Revenge Gold and Lambtaco Run. Anyway, here are the nonbinding plans I have for upcoming AKR2 updates.

Version 2.9.1 HD Textures, High Quality Music, Performance Improvements, and More Art

The new underwater level graphics
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Posted by Malinbo in Games Blog

Big 2021 Catchup Post

Well, it happened again. I didn’t update the site for almost a year. Mostly because the old site was a pain to deal with. (See this post for details.) So here’s what I failed to post about since September first of last year. Mostly in chronological order, but there’s a lot of overlap here.

Learning Godot

In September of 2020 I finally started learning to use the Godot game engine. I fiddled around and started making a practice game starring Mr. Game and Watch. More on that on my Twitter, to left on desktop and above on mobile.

I’m hoping to get back into Godot once I’m done with AKR2 v2.9. I’d like to finish this little game in particular. Might be cool to have an actual game made in Godot, even if it’s just a demo.

I also started an itch.io page. But I’ve yet to do anything with it. Maybe this little game will be one of the first things I post on it.

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Posted by Malinbo in Comedy Blog, Games Blog

Hotfix for AKR2 v2.9 lag

Long story short, I fixed one of the biggest lag factors in AKR2, and I didn’t want to wait until v2.9.1 to have the game running more smoothly for everyone, so I’m releasing an update now. Play it on NG, or download it from here. (Those using Ruffle to play the downloaded version, should be able to keep their save files by giving the new version the same file name as the old one they were saving on.)

Long Story Version

Some people complained about sections in 2-A and 5-1 lagging a lot after the v2.9 update of A Koopa’s Revenge 2. I wasn’t sure why, and I couldn’t recreate the lag at first (not to brag, but I have a powerful-ish gaming laptop). After finding a way to induce lag, I started marking down where I experienced it the most so I could improve those areas for version 2.9.1. Every area had an easy explanation like too many collisions are running, or too much vector art. But that one set of areas had horrendous single-digit-framerate lag I just couldn’t explain.

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Posted by Malinbo in Games Blog

Why Version 2.9?

You may have asked yourself (or asked me) “Why is it A Koopa’s Revenge 2 version 2.9 and not version 3.0?” Well, there’s a long and a short answer to that question.

Short Answer:

Put simply, the game’s not finished. So then why did I release it before it’s done? Ruffle, the Flash emulator. I was on my way to releasing 3.0 some time in the next year or two, when I realised I could have AKR2 running in browsers just like the good ol’ days. And giving people access to the game again was more important to me than delaying it until it’s 100% finished. Perfectionism be damned.

Long Answer:

The details are a bit of a long story, but here goes. When I first heard about Ruffle, I got excited and tried to run AKR2 in it, and at first everything seemed adequate but… no dice

The map really shouldn’t be behind the level. The level shouldn’t even be there any more.
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Posted by Malinbo in Games Blog