Hi. This is Shn275.

[Shn275]

Well...first I'd like to say hi and thank everyone for enjoying my past Big O works.  I'm not really sure if anyone remembers or heard of another Big O project I started over a year ago, but I've been continuing work on it off and on.  Originally, I had two game modes in mind: a story-based mode and mission-based mode, but seeing as how I suck at storytelling, I decided to recreate a few battles featured in both the Manga and Anime series.  This game will feature a much bigger cast of characters, multiple playable characters, more levels, more challenges, a DRIVABLE GRIFFON, secret modes, destructible environments, overhauled control-scheme, and much, much more.

Here's a few videos and screens:

BigO Demonstration:(old video;BO's been modified since)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcDBKQRd2Io

BigDuo Flight Test:(a test that's now fixed and ready to go)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzmMA8I1uoY

Mansion: Living Area:(well...it's one of Roger's interactive Mansion levels)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMovP_o--Y8

Screens:
Current Cast so far; more to come

A Few Enemies **Note: The Megadeus on the left is NOT Big O, if you've read the Manga you'll know who it is; the two on the right are the same Big, one in the "Negative" & the other "Normal".

Two versions of the Griffon


Update:
Here's Big-Fau:


Gigadeus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc5tbAuEzaU

Chromebuster + Other attacks: (I've fixed his Hip Anchors since uploading this video so now you can grab the enemy and pull them closer to you; I'll upload another video and a sample tutorial to demonstrate shortly)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r1Eh5CeW0k

[Professor Vogler]

I remember you from the days of SaveBigO.com, in fact I still have all the Big O games (and demos) you released from way back when.

I've been following your progress (the little bits that you've shown on YouTube) and I really cannot wait until you've perfected this one

Awesome job so far.

[paul1290]

Long time no see.

Drivable Griffon sounds good. I always thought the Griffon would be an awesome car to drive around in.

[Brooklyn Luckfield]

Wow, very well done. Impressive work!

[Yuko-san]

Looks fun, do you have a demo up and running? I'm learning the basics of programing and I'm good with technical stuff, so I can be of some help.

[R. Daniel 01]

You inspired me to e-mail him. I hope he responds. It's pretty amazing that he still works on these projects, considering all the years have passed since he started.

Also, programming? Cool. Female programmer, doubly cool. Stick around for long enough, and I might have a request.

[Yuko-san]

You inspired me to e-mail him. I hope he responds. It's pretty amazing that he still works on these projects, considering all the years have passed since he started.

Also, programming? Cool. Female programmer, doubly cool. Stick around for long enough, and I might have a request.

I'm just learning the basics of Alice, which many of my male programing friends find annoying, so I should be able to make tiny programs to run stuff like apps and Microsoft Word.
Apparently it takes 500 lines of directions in Alice to make a stick figure run up a wall and do kung-fu moves.  seems like a lot when you can get the stick figure animator for free and just mess with that.
However that doesn't mean I wouldn't be able to find mistakes. Mistakes are usually misspelled words and can take up to about 10 minutes to fix, which is very little time considering it can takes up to 3 hours to write a program.


I hang out with computer nerd guys too much.

[Char Aznable]

I'm just learning the basics of Alice

American McGee? First thing I thought when I saw that.

[Yuko-san]

I'm just learning the basics of Alice

American McGee? First thing I thought when I saw that.

awesome.
unfortunately no. I wish they taught classes based on video game lore, or story lines based of classic literature, but fat chance of that ever happening.
I think there was supposed to be a second game in the American McGee Alice series, but I may be wrong.

[Sharpshooter005]

I think there was supposed to be a second game in the American McGee Alice series, but I may be wrong.

American Mcgee's Oz. Judging by the name it was probably less a sequel and more the "zomg so dark" design aesthetic applied to Wizard of Oz

It's been cancelled, though I think McFarlane toys released a couple of figures of it back when it wasn't. Or I've seen pictures of them anyway, jumped the gun on that one I suppose.

McGee decided to set up some sweatshop of programmers in China or some such thing, and make the appparently god-awful "Bad Day L.A."

or story lines based of classic literature

Or in lieu of a class on this (which..how would "videogames based off lit 101" even work) You could go read the source material then come up with something from there.

That doesn't seem like much of a programming related thing as much as a conceptual thing, then again if the computer doesn't run on vacuum tubes I pretty much just assume tiny gremlins live in it and conspire to make it fail on me at a bad time. Guess who's replaced a bunch of computers in their lifetime.

[R. Daniel 01]

I wish they taught classes based on video game lore, or story lines based of classic literature

If you're really interested in learning how to spin a good plot or story, I could offer suggestions.

how would "videogames based off lit 101" even work

Similar to a "Books to Film" class, probably.

[Yuko-san]

I wish they taught classes based on video game lore, or story lines based of classic literature

If you're really interested in learning how to spin a good plot or story, I could offer suggestions.

how would "videogames based off lit 101" even work

Similar to a "Books to Film" class, probably.

First thing you typed: yeah I could use a little help. I have ideas, but organizing them is hard.
Second: yeah something like that, but most games based on books are usually closer to the original literary work, unless you count the new JRPG's based off books.
"Hello Dorothy and friends (insert speech here) now I need you to go get these 'egg' things that are on the four seasonal witches property and beat the shit out of them while your at it, when you are done well go kill the frost witch.....".

that's from "the Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellowbrick Road". Sorta twisted what the Wizard says, but that's the speech he gives in two line.

[Char Aznable]

I'm just learning the basics of Alice

American McGee? First thing I thought when I saw that.

awesome.
unfortunately no. I wish they taught classes based on video game lore, or story lines based of classic literature, but fat chance of that ever happening.
I think there was supposed to be a second game in the American McGee Alice series, but I may be wrong.

Well, not too long ago I went to American McGee's website, and the Oz project did get canned, but Alice is returning to Wonderland, and it's going multiplatform. What kinda bothers me is that EA is rumored to be in on the idea. I'm not sure if that's good or bad...

[Sharpshooter005]

Second: yeah something like that, but most games based on books are usually closer to the original literary work, unless you count the new JRPG's based off books.
"Hello Dorothy and friends (insert speech here) now I need you to go get these 'egg' things that are on the four seasonal witches property and beat the shit out of them while your at it, when you are done well go kill the frost witch.....".

that's from "the Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellowbrick Road". Sorta twisted what the Wizard says, but that's the speech he gives in two line.

When you put it like that, now I wanna see a game based off "The sun also rises"

The only two maps are Paris and part of Spain, and all you do is wander around drinking heavily and struggling with emotional baggage you accumulated during world war 1. (quick-time event: "Wiggle left thumbstick to feel wound act up")

Similar to a "Books to Film" class, probably.

This is a good enough time as any (but probably not at all) to mention or reiterate that "No country for old men" has to be one of the closest adaptations I think I've ever seen. They sort of glossed over maybe one or part of one chapter, but for the most part I was sitting there watching it and going "Okay this essentially is just the novel if it had moving pictures inset into it"

(Not a criticism, I like that movie a lot. And that guy that played Chigurh, wonderful. Even knowing how that one scene with the coin would end, it still had this great sense of tension and dread.)

[R. Daniel 01]

First thing you typed: yeah I could use a little help. I have ideas, but organizing them is hard.

One of the problems that I had, and which university-level writing courses only partially fixed, was that I didn't even know what a plot really was. If you're having trouble organizing your ideas, then you should see how successful people have organized theirs. To that end, get your hands on a couple of books and publications. You're looking for plot summaries, literary criticisms, and very short stories: things so digested, or pre-digested, that you can see the skeleton, but there's still enough meat on the bones that the plot, names and events still have some meaning to you.

Get:
1. Some Reader's Digest Select Editions (previously, Condensed Books), a volume from Magill's Masterplots, or a book of literary criticism. This book is awesome.
2. Fairy tales, or its modern incarnation, "magic realism." These tiny stories have brisk plots, rarely any embellishments, and the crazyness of how things shift in their essence or role is liberating.
          A. Read Italo Calvino's Six Memos for the New Millenium.
          B. Buying a book of Grimm's fairy tales is also a good idea. After around a hundred of them, you'll get bored because certain trends develop. Most of the stories are poorly structured, too. But the way things are often willy-nilly, you'll familiarize yourself with new ideas. You'll notice the cool ones and remember to avoid the bad ones.

The whole point of this is to get your brain jogging. The only way to make a good plot is to experiment, and experimenting often feels like betrayal or destruction of your most treasured creations. In reality, however, I've found that most transformations are beneficial.

Start writing things that would make good episodes or chapters. Don't think you can decide the entire book or movie from the outset. If the individual chapter or episode is interesting, then you have succeeded. When a chapter in the sequence is not interesting, then you have failed, so just change it.

This Q&A probably deserves to be in a separate topic.