Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)

[Athel]

Mega Man Unlimited: 8 Bit Deathmatch!
 
 

 
 Hello there, everybody! My name is Athel, and I'd like to introduce you all to a rather ambitious project of mine - an expansion pack based on the fangame Mega Man Unlimited!
 
 This started out originally as a question - what if CutmanMike and Co. decided to make an expansion based on the well-known fangame? It was a funny thought, but as time went on, I started actually wondering if such a thing was feasible. Earlier in 2019, I finally broke my silence on the forums and brought forth a "proof-of-concept," using assets from Jax's MMU weapons, various MMU class mods, and the tiles I ripped from MegaPhilX's stage maps (which you can see above). After seeing that there was interest, as well as receiving many warnings that expansions in development usually don't last long, I decided to formally start the project to see how far a fanmade expansion pack would go.
 
 At the moment, I am a one-man team here, and the assets I'm currently using are being used without permission from the respective authors, but fear not! I will be working on getting permissions from the respective artists to use their stuff in a project like this.
 
 The story of the expansion would take place after V5, but before V5's secret cutscene leading into V6. This is similar to how MMU takes place after MM9, as I believe that MMU would be sandwiched right in between 9 and 10 if it ever were to be considered part of the story line. I am also aiming for the expansion to have the same quality as the core game, so that players will have a seamless experience. The expansion itself would be selected upon starting a new game, where "UNLIMITED" would be it's own episode. Last but not least, the expansion would even come with it's own intro cutscene, establishing the story behind the expansion.
 
 As I've said before, however, this is a very ambitious project, probably one of my most ambitious to date. However, as a returning mapper with no good maps to his name, I figure I can use this as a learning experience, whilst making my dreams become reality. Volunteers are, of course, always welcome. In the worst case scenario, I can at least release the maps that I manage to create.
 
 

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This list will update as time goes on.
 

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(These are not in map rotation order at the moment.)
 NailMan
 RainbowMan
 NitroMan
 CometWoman
 TankMan
 JetMan
 GlueMan
 YoyoMan
 Fortress Stage
 UNKOWNU
 

 

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Glue Man
 RainbowMan
 TriNitro Man
 

 

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Campaign bosses need coding
 Tiles need to be ripped and set up properly for SLADE
 Cutscenes
 

 Going on a leap of faith here, I have set up a Discord server to keep track of all the crazy things that need to be done if this were to succeed. All are welcome, of course!
 
 https://discord.gg/6YW8pfJ
 
 And now, the old post, for archival reasons. I hope you guys will like what I have in store!
 
 

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(Before the post truly begins, I want to apologize if this is the wrong area to post this in. I usually lurk on here to see if there's any new updates to the main game or whatnot, and wanted to save my first actual post for something that was worthy. And, well... I thought this was worthy.)
 
 

 
 I'll admit, I've only played a few Megaman fangames. The good ones seem to be rare to find (either that or I don't know how to look). Out of the small few I've heard of and tried, Megaman Unlimited was and will remain to be one of my all time favorites, even if it is a bit overrated. I'm simply impressed by how close to canon MegaPhilX and his team made the game, in terms of stage design, music, etc. Yes, the lack of checkpoints in the rather long stages are a bit troublesome and the way some gimmicks are introduced are a bit... well, gimmicky, but personally I find this to be a welcome change in difficulty. It was hard, but satisfying.
 
 Seeing as how well received Megaman Unlimited was, it surprised me to know that there were only a few mods made for MM8BDM that were based on Megaman Unlimited. So, me being bored one day, I decided to compile the skins and weapons together, fixing up the weapons a little so that they were a little more compatible with the latest version (v5D at the time of writing this). I then went through the tedious task of finding a stage map from Wayback Machine, then proceeded to put together the tiles best I could and come up with the sort of demo map that you see in the video.
 
 So, this leads me to my question - is there something that is holding back the ones who are definitely a bit more proficient than I from making a full blown Megaman Unlimited campaign? Has such a thing been disavowed by MegaPhilX and his team directly? Or has anyone not thought to start one up? Are there any issues whatsoever that prevent such a project to be in the works, save for updates to the main game (which can be fixed with tweaking from time to time)? And if there aren't any roadblocks, would such a project even be feasible or shunned by the community?
 
 I'm aware that I still have a bit to learn, since I've recently been trying to get back into modding in general, but I just thought it'd be cool if there was an actual fanmade campaign that matched the style of MM8BDM's storyline and overall quality, much like how MMU made it's effort to match the original MM's quality and style.
 
 Shall we discuss?

[Rozark]

Sure, let's discuss.

As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been any restrictions on fangame expansions.
A Rockforce expansion exists along with DOSreborn.
However, outside of those expansions (huge exceptions), unofficial fan expansions are never really completed.
It takes a large amount of time to develop these sorts of things and the quality resources (Spriters, Mappers, Programmers, etc) required are often working on either the core game or other projects. High demand, low supply.

Unlimited's overall reception, while you hit the nail on the head with overrated, is a general "mixed" for assorted reasons.
Not exceptionally good or bad, just mediocre with relatively good PR to make it one of the more known fangames.
I personally don't mind the game outside of a few quirks, but I know a lot of people who hate it for some arbitrary reason or another.
Long story short, you're likely going to have a hard time finding enough willing people to work on a fan expansion, let alone an Unlimited campaign. They either wouldn't want to or are already too busy with something else to add yet another thing to their plate.

Here's the rundown on what would even get used from an Unlimited expansion. The only things that end up generally being used from fan expansions are either skins or maps. Weapons don't ever get noticed. Skins are more of a client thing and only show up to someone if they also have that skin. Maps however, if good enough, will probably be put into mappack server rotations.

That being said, I applaud you for making at least making a demo before presenting the idea.
Part of fan expansion failure comes from the general lack of the "suggester" doing any sort of pre-work to try and convince people to do something. Best of luck on your search.

[Athel]

I expected as much, what with the forums seemingly hardly getting any activity. Thank you for your response!


I'm not too worried on what will be used on online play. If I really DID go all out and did all the necessary homework on how to properly make a working campaign, I'd want it to be something as an add-on for those who simply prefer bot play for whatever reason. The weapons would be part of the maps, of course, and I'd imagine there'd have to be some rebalancing for online play. It's an interesting idea and I want to see if I can't find some way to make it a reality.

[LlamaHombre]

I personally have kinda middling opinions of MMU but would love to give mapping for one of the stages a shot someday. MMU has style in abundance, and none of my complaints about the source game would have to apply for a couple of deathmatch maps.

Getting a full expansion complete is extremely difficult, but still doable! Rozark mentioned RF and Dos Reborn, but even before that came Rockman no Constancy and Mega Man Powered Up. The precedent exists, it's just no one's really gotten it down to a science how to keep the ball rolling from project start to project end for the other projects.

[Ruzma]

Indeed, not only do you have to find peeps who are competent, they also have to be motivated, and they have to still be interested, from beginning to end, which is usually what is the campaign-killer around here.

[Lighter Dude]

I love this idea! I would work on it but schoolwork is a bit more important. I wish you luck.

[Athel]

Thank you! I am aware how many difficulties that'll come with this sort of project. So, let me just clarify a bit - maps, sprites, weapons, and textures are the main things that are needed for such an expansion? I'd really like to see how far I could take this sort of thing-

[TheDoc]

Yes, that's typically what MM8BDM expansions have: maps (with textures), skins, and weapons representative of each RM from the game and the Wily Stages. Usually, there's also some form of campaign similar to the core campaign, where you do DMs through each of the stages with a non-player boss capping it all off, but that's more icing on the cake than anything; the DM content is the main focus.

[LlamaHombre]

If you're motivated, I'll bite and see what I can chip in with.

To try and make a megapost with all the resources I'm aware of that that might be useful:

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Linnie's uploaded some enemy sprites here for map props: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=5853.0
Geno's uploaded the robot master sprites here: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=5853.msg251409#msg251409
Shinryu uploaded all assets necessary for Whirlpool Man here: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=7401.0
Jax made some weapons, which I think you were using for your test: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=10822.0
Geno made Comet Woman's skin: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=4207.0
Linnie made Yoyo Man and Jet Man's skins: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=5787.0
FTX made Prototype Zero, Whirlpool Man, and Tank Man's skins: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=4818.0
Giantmega made a music pack here: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=4773.0
Raze made Trinitro Man's skin here: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=9967.0
Laggy Blazko made Rainbow Man's skin here: http://cutstuff.net/forum/index.php?topic=2358.msg58085#msg58085

I could swear there were tilesets uploaded somewhere too (Jack Corvus?) but I couldn't find them at a quick glance.
I also haven't tested these links at all so I hope they work but if they don't, oops lol

I started a Tank Man map about a year ago but didn't make much of any progress at all with it - this summer I'll pick it back up and see what I can do with it.

[Athel]

Wow, all that might be pretty useful. Not sure if Whirlpool Man would indeed be in the roster, maybe as a secret map or something. I have the skins from the Mega Man Unlimited classes mod (which I was using for the proof-of-concept). I can extract the tiles and turn them into textures (the animated ones are the only ones that may be a bit different than just loading the PNG up into gimp). Also not sure if ZPrototype would be put into the "campaign" either. If this really 100% were to happen, I'd like to make it as close to the base campaigns as possible. Maybe this could actually happen if there's enough interest? It'd be pretty cool.

Also yes, those weapons you linked are indeed the ones I'm using for the test.

If there IS interest, I could format the OP to actually reflect a project in progress. However, I'm holding off on that until I'm certain that this may become an actual thing, instead of just being abandoned and joining the list of dead projects.

[LlamaHombre]

Understandable, really.

Well, you've got my interest at least.

[Ruzma]

If you have motivation, you can totally do it! The least you need to do are maps really.
If you can, you should go on the community Discord server, the most talented  people of this community are there, rounded up, and while they may not be able (nor willing, for some) to aid you, they can still gift thou with precious advice and knowledge, such as how to make a map and such. Might help.

In any cases, good luck! It can't be that hard 

[Athel]

Thank you! I've been in the server for a little bit, though I haven't really said much since, again, I'm not sure how far I'm going to be taking this, if I really am going to be working on this. I may be able to share at least one map at the very least, but even then I can't promise much. At this point it's really just more of a "personal satisfaction" kind of thing.

[Athel]

After much contemplating, I have decided that I actually am motivated to actually see this through as much as possible! I'm excited to see how far this can go, despite the obstacles that lay ahead! It may take some time thanks to life, but I fully believe this will prove to be quite the educational experience!


The first post has been updated to reflect a project in progress.

[Ruzma]

Like you said, ambitious, but feasible!
Fair warning: maps are usually, prioritized, but you do whatever you want. Don't forget the music!
What's cool here is that it's mostly a compilation of already-made stuff, so that's cool, on top of home brew mapping, which with the right knowledge, isn't that hard, there's a reason there are so many mappacks.

Now, personally, I would advise that you step away from the idea of making actual in-game cutscenes, if it ever crossed your mind. You will not be able to make those. Core expansions take most of their development time from these.

As long as you put all it is that someone would expect from a MMU add-on, you're doing great!

Oh, and as a wise man once said: no weak shit 

Good luck!