A Koopa’s Revenge Gold

Dec

2024

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).

Jul

2021

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

Days 6 & 7 with Godot: Added sound, HUD, health, checkpoints, and the ability to pause to my test platformer. It feels like a game now.

The node system made sounds easy, if a tad tedious. Making the game pause was an absolute breeze compared to doing it in Flash#Gamedev #Godot pic.twitter.com/ep2wNQkN6q
— Malinbo🐑🌮 (@LambtacoMalinbo) September 11, 2020

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.

Continue reading →

Jul

2020

A Koopa’s Revenge Gold Demo #3

A Koopa’s Revenge Demo #3

I uploaded another demo of A Koopa’s Revenge Gold. Link above.

It’s not a huge update. Much of the work went into making it 60fps, and accounting for the change. But two new levels are playable.

Notable Changes:

Framerate increased from 40fps to 60fps.
New (placeholder) map screen.
Entirely mouseless gameplay.
Prerendered some graphics to improve performance.
Backgrounds recoded and prerendered to be more efficient when scrolling.
Updated collision detection for terrain and blocks.
New and updated backgrounds.
Levels 2-2 and 3-1 are playable.
Mario babies changed to balloons.
Level-complete and death screens updated to chalkboard look. (Still incomplete)
Functioning warp pipes.
Player turning animation.
Framerate counter.
Feathers float down properly instead of acting like fireflowers.
Added four frames of coyote time.

Known bug: You can’t run over one-tile-wide gaps. I changed the collisions to accommodate the new framerate and fix some bugs, but this new bug appeared as a side effect. I will have it fixed for the next demo.

EDIT: I fixed that bug, and uploaded the fixed version of the demo.

Not looking for any specific feedback this time. Just felt like sharing. Feel free to Let’s Play or stream it, if you feel inclined.

Apr

2020

A Koopa’s Revenge 1 Alpha Prototype

I’ve dug up the ancient prototype versions of AKR1 from 2004/2005. For those of you on mobile, here’s a video of them:

For those on old people computers, here are the playable Flash versions:
Older Version Using Pixel Art
Newer Version Using Vector Art

There are two versions, one with pixel art borrowed from various games and no sfx, and another traced vector art based version that includes the first boss, Wario. Both versions are a lot clunkier than the published game and are presented in glorious 15 frames-per-second.

Why did I cancel this build and start over? Aside from the apparent clunkiness, the performance was terrible. Every block you see (including the ground blocks) is constantly running four different collisions against the player. That doesn’t sound like a big deal in current year, but back in 2005, when I scrapped it, the programming was painfully inefficient and it ran at even less than 15fps.

In other news, progress on A Koopa’s Revenge Gold continues. I’ve upgraded the game from 40fps to 60fps (long story) and am making progress on rebuilding the levels.

Oct

2019

Big 2019 Catchup Post

No nice way to say it, but this site has been kajiggered for about a year now. I couldn’t post anything. Details in previous post. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to share all the stuff I posted offsite in the past 12 months. So here we go.

Continue reading →

Aug

2018

A Koopa’s Revenge Gold Movement Demo

After a few weeks of work, I finally have A Koopa’s Revenge Gold at about the same state of completion it was at when I first showed it off almost three years ago. But at least the tedious part is over.

I’ve got the first two levels mostly done, and at this point I’d like to get some feedback on Koopa’s movement before I get to far into development. I’m trying to strike a balance between the original game’s movement, and the ideal movement, so that it still feels like the same game, but not so dated.

Click through for the demo. (requires Flashplayer)

Sep

2017

A Koopa’s Revenge Anniversary Edition becomes A Koopa’s Revenge Gold

I’ve been toying with the idea for a while now, and I’m making it official. The game project previously known as A Koopa’s Revenge Anniversary Edition will now be called A Koopa’s Revenge Gold.

I missed the ten year anniversary, so I decided a name change was in order. Anniversary edition is a bit of a mouthful anyway. I want it big and sparkly and GOLD.

The logo is temporary. I’ll have a fancier, more refined logo when the game is done.