[lang_pt-br]É com imenso prazer que damos a partida para a finalização da versão 1.0 do nosso querido jogo/motor estilo Mega Man (Rockman). Em uma longa jornada, nos deparamos com muitos percalços trabalhando no tempo livre de cada um sem receber um tostão, mas muito felizes pelo reconhecimento que o jogo já recebeu, mesmo antes de ter uma versão realmente estável.

Lembranças à parte, o que significa o RC no nome desta versão? RC é sigla para Versão Candidata (a se tornar a final, do inglês Release Candidate), ou seja, uma versão já estável e polida o suficiente para até poder vir a se tornar a própria versão final; o que não é o caso do Rockbot pois planejamos pelo menos mais um RC após este. Resumindo, nenhuma feature nova será implementada, nenhum bug crítico (exceto por alguns específicos de uma plataforma) deve existir até a versão final ser lançada, após o qual, começa o trabalho na versão 1.1 que será basicamente uma versão com melhorias, nada radical.

Um aviso para os usuários Android: por conta de uma limitação no SDK nativo, você deve desinstalar a versão anterior antes de instalar a nova. Estamos procurando a solução para o problema a fim de ser possível atualizar normalmente o app.

Novidades desta versão:

• Todos os estágios foram revisados e melhorados
• Nova versão para Nintendo Wii (obrigado ao Akira Faganello pelos testes)
• Plataformas agora mostram uma animação quando ativadas
• Editor suporta opção “beaten” para msotrar estágios como quando revisitados após derrotadosEditor can swap stages order
• Melhor balanço entre armas e vulnerabilidades
• Correções para o congelamento quando usado pelo Dynamite no jogador
• Correspondência direta entre número de estádio e de arma
• Correções no colorcycle
• Limpeza no código do editor com remoção de ponteiros desnecessários
• Novas imagens para os controles de tela do Android
• Estágios reordenados (o skullcastle#1 era o quinto na ordem)
• Correções para armas não aparecendo no menu de armas
• A arma de congelamento agora dispara projéteis normais após ter sido ativada
• Introdução melhorada
• Final de jogo melhorado
• Melhoria nos tempos de duração da intangibilidade após ser atingido (tanto para jogador, inimigos e chefes)
• Melhor menu de configuração, podendo setar botões e pedindo para reiniciar após mudar configuração de vídeo

Como de costume, o jogo pode ser obtido em nossa página de downloads.

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[lang_en]It is with enormous pleasure that we do the kick off for version 1.0 our our dear game/engine, Mega Man(Rockman)-style. In a long journey we faced several obstacles working on each person free time without any gains, but happy with the acknowledge that Rockbot already received, even without a real stable version.

Rememberings aside, what the RC in this version name means? RC is short for Release Candidate, a version already stable and polished enought to even becode the final release; that is not the case of Rockbot, as we already have plans for a second RC. In short, no new features to be implemented, no critical bugs (except for a feew platform-specific) must exists until the final version to be released, after what we start working on 1.1 that will be just an incremental release, nothing radical.

A warning for Android users: due to a limitation in the native SDK, you must uninstall previous version before installing a new one. We are looking for a solution to this issue, so users can upgrade it normally.

• All stages were revised and improved
• New port for Nintendo Wii (thanks to Akira Faganello for testing)
• Platforms now have some nice animation when activated
• Editor supports “beaten” mode to see how finished stages will look if revisited
• Editor can swap stages order
• Better weapon balance and vulnerabilities
• Fixes for Dynamite when he uses freeze on player
• Direct correspondence between stage-number and weapon-number
• Fixes in colorcycle
• Clean editor code to remove several uneeded pointers
• New images for Android on-screen controls
• Reordered stages (skullcastle#1 was the 5th one)
• Fixes for weapons not showing in the weapons-menu
• Freeze weapon shoots normal projectiles after activated
• Improved intro
• Improved ending
• Better intangible timing after hit (both player, enemies and bosses)
• Improve config menu, ask for restart when changing video mode, change keys.

As usual, the game can be obtained from our downloads page.

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[lang_pt-br]Este é uma versão bastante melhorada principalmente na resolução de bugs em relação ao beta anterior, esperamos que vocês gostem!

Disponível na página de downloads.

Melhorias desta versão:

• Inteligência Artificial amplamente melhorada
• Vários novos inimigos
• Novos logos para Upperland e homenagem aos 25 anos de mega Man
• Game Over quando o número de vidas fica abaixo de zero
• Várias correções e melhorias no editor
• Função parábola para pulos de inimigos e projéteis
• Maior tempo de invencibilidade dos inimigos e chefes quando atingidos
• Maior dano recebido pelo jogador
• Posicionamento usa números reais para fazer diagonal exata para um ponto
• A seleção entre Betabot e Rockbot é feita apenas na opção “new game”
• Melhores créditos no fim do jogo
• Novos gráficos do novo colaborador Hunter Trammell
• Melhor velocidade no Playstation 2 e PSP
• Melhores fundos de tela para os estágios
• Aumentado tamanho do estágio inicial

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[lang_en]This is a higly improved version over the previous one, with several bugs fixed. We hope you enjoy it!

Available in the downloads page.

Improvements in this version:

• Highly improved artificial inteligence
• Several new enemies
• New logos for Upperland and Mega Man’s 25th anniversary
• Game over when lives goes under zero
• Several corrections and improvements in editor
• Parabole function for jumps ad projectiles
• Higher time for enemies and bosses invencible time after hit
• Higher damage taken by player
• Positioning use float points for exact diagonal to a point
• Selection between Rockbot and Betabot is done only on “new game”
• Better credits on ending
• Better graphics from our new partner Hunter Trammell
• Better speed on Playstation 2 and PSP
• Better stage backgrounds
• Bigger initial stage size

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You all know that Rockbot is inspirated by Mega Man (Rockman) classic game series, and I am a big fan of Kenji Inafune, the designer of the series.

So, well, he left Capcom, that later simply killer all Megaman projects, sadly. So, he is now at his own company, and asked US for help! That is it! We can help out to make a spiritual sucessor of Megaman, a game called Might no 9!

So, you can go to Kickstarter page, and donate money to the project, as I already did of course. For just $20 you can get to fund the game and get it for free when it is launched! And more, they will hear US, the funding team, about HOW we want the game!

Cool, isn’t? We could not be happier with the idea, as Rockbot was also created with the same principle: make the platform action old style games alive!

Please, you also need to donate and help! Let’s do something amazing together.

[lang_pt-br]Como o Rockbot é um projeto, basicamente de uma pessoa, às vezes eu preciso tirar “férias” dele, para descansar, jogar videogames e relaxar um pouco, principalmente quando o meu trabalho do dia a dia me deixa sem vontade de programar (leia-se, eu estou em um projeto chato). E foi isto que ocorreu nos últimos dois meses, joguei muito Playstation 3, espaireci e agora, aos poucos estou voltando.

Reorganizei bastante a lista de tarefas pela frente, tornando cada versão beta menor e adicionando um sétimo beta à lista. Estas últimas versões tendem a demorar mais pois eu tenho que encarar alguns bugs que vem desde o início do projeto, e apesar de pouco impactantes, tendem a ser muito difíceis de resolver. Enfim, de maneira geral, o que teremos pela frente é:

BETA5 (DONE): lots of bug-fixes, skull castle stage intro with path indicator, move some classes to sub-folders in project, experimental android port, remove threads, fix dynamic background flickering, centewred-weapon can be destroyed, fixed technobot colorcycle affecting menus, fix crash when leaving game, fix turn in NPCs, add in-game config, a beaten stage can have a different tileset and background, NPC with static background, add weapon support in editor and more, .

BETA5 (Ongoing): stages adjustments, replace copyrighted tiles by free or custom ones, break bosses artificial inteligence into new chain system, add option for PSP to change between fullscreen or windowed, fix for transition screen and dynamic backgrounds, gravity-level for NPCs, destroy NPC centered-weapon by using TNT Flash, editor adjustments and code cleaning.

BETA6: better teleporting stop-method by checking first non-blocking tile (from bottom to top), better ending credits, move drawing methods to draw class, bolts and shop, AI jump-up and jump-down, fix max projectile logic for weapons, setup rock and beta differences.

BETA7: fix for 3rd level of tiles on transition screen, remove build warnings in all platforms, implement different frame sizes in game collision, create spawn-npc AI action, NPC death AI, action, NPC hit AI action, optimize memory usage by using game_data directly when a copy is not needed, new/better intro.

RC1: optimization, reduce memory usage

After 1.0: Ports for Dreamcast, XBox, OSX and Wii; more optimization and code checking with cppcheck and coverity

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[lang_en]As Rockbot is a project, basicaly, made only by one person, sometimes I need to take “vacation” from it to rest, play videogames and relax a bit, mostly when my day-work leaves me with no desire to code (AKA, I am in a boring project). And that was what happened in the last two months, I’ve played a lot of Playstation 3, emptied the mind, and now, slowly, I’m returning.

I reorganized a lot of tasks ahead, making each beta version smaller and adding a 7th beta to the list. Those last versions tend to be really slower because I have to face off some bugs that are still from the project start and are mostly difficult to solve. Anyway, in a general way, what we have ahead is:

BETA5 (DONE): lots of bug-fixes, skull castle stage intro with path indicator, move some classes to sub-folders in project, experimental android port, remove threads, fix dynamic background flickering, centewred-weapon can be destroyed, fixed technobot colorcycle affecting menus, fix crash when leaving game, fix turn in NPCs, add in-game config, a beaten stage can have a different tileset and background, NPC with static background, add weapon support in editor and more, .

BETA5 (Ongoing): stages adjustments, replace copyrighted tiles by free or custom ones, break bosses artificial inteligence into new chain system, add option for PSP to change between fullscreen or windowed, fix for transition screen and dynamic backgrounds, gravity-level for NPCs, destroy NPC centered-weapon by using TNT Flash, editor adjustments and code cleaning.

BETA6: better teleporting stop-method by checking first non-blocking tile (from bottom to top), better ending credits, move drawing methods to draw class, bolts and shop, AI jump-up and jump-down, fix max projectile logic for weapons, setup rock and beta differences.

BETA7: fix for 3rd level of tiles on transition screen, remove build warnings in all platforms, implement different frame sizes in game collision, create spawn-npc AI action, NPC death AI, action, NPC hit AI action, optimize memory usage by using game_data directly when a copy is not needed, new/better intro.

RC1: optimization, reduce memory usage

After 1.0: Ports for Dreamcast, XBox, OSX and Wii; more optimization and code checking with cppcheck and coverity

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