My previous update already described a lot of the new content released in this one, so if you don’t want to wait anymore go play Bass Abyss now!

For more details of this update and interesting tidbits, just read on.

Mega Man X Giga Armor

Also known as the Second Armor. This armor appeared for the first time in 1994 in Mega Man X2 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

I love that armor. I always loved the X2 Buster and its Double Charge Shot. Back in the day, I noticed it would do double damage to a boss if both shots connected. The image got imprinted in my mind forever.

Gameplay Details

From the character selection screen, just select X to access a new page where you can choose between base X and Giga Armor X.

The more interesting aspect of this armor is the buster. When fully charged, it will release two charged shots. This is known as the Double Charge Shot and it can inflict a lot of damage to enemies even if they are flashing. This armor also features reduced damage taken from enemies.

Development details

Originally, Fall of 21XX was meant to be played using this armor. X-Hunters vs X2 Armor. I had the sprites ripped ready to be used from that early project. Soon enough, reality hit me. It was too complex to implement. I barely managed to solve the wall climb. Anything else was going to take too much time and, as an extension of the Fire Man Incoming Storm engine, I already had reached its limits. I knew I wouldn’t accomplish too much and a complete rewrite was required. That rewrite would be in a new project, Bass Abyss.

In hindsight, now I realize how unlikely it would have been for me to reach that goal. I just didn’t have the foundation, experience, and time I do have now. When I determined Bass Abyss had everything I needed to implement this armor, I was not going to let this opportunity go to waste. So, at long last, the Giga Armor is playable!

You’ll notice that for this release, something is still missing. If you saw the video of my previous post, at the very end I release the Giga Crush. Well, for this update I didn’t have the time to implement the proper gauge logic, but it will be ready for the next update in August.

Legendary Level 19

After years of wondering what happened after level 18, I finally did enough engine changes to feel the need to make new levels. Yeah, it is Boomer Kuwanger’s stage remixed, but well, it started as a proof of concept, and it grew a lot from there. I’m not the most creative person when it comes to level layouts, but I really love to see what others do.

1.0

What does the 1.0 mark mean?

Not much. Ok, I had hoped it would be a full, functional, bug-free game, as the good console games from the past. At some point, I was really aiming at that.

As praiseworthy as this sounds, sometimes this is not too realistic. Sometimes it is better to ship early, ship often, and fix bugs as you go. Experience with other products like Windows Update, WordPress, and many other software products with infrastructure to update themselves, indicates that an approach where patches and updates are easily delivered is more realistic. Sure, Bass Abyss is nowhere near as complex as those projects, but in my case, the problem is the time I can devote to it. So, this has been the more pragmatic way for me to deliver from time to time: Get to some acceptable state and ship.

I do consider I have reached an interesting milestone with this release. Camera transitions, rooms, doors, new Level Editor. Foundation wise, it was huge. But still, there’s a lot of stuff I want to do. So, I’d better let go of the 1.0 feature-complete release goal, and start to grow from here.

Next steps

For the next update:

• Giga Crush
• Level Editor

Have fun!