On 9th Jun 2009, Roxblaster wrote,

Just a question for Steve. Approximately how long did it take you to plan Merlin's Revenge, Level 1? After that, how long did it take you to program it? I'm curious, since I hadn't heard of the site until MR2 was just being finished.


steve replied,

Erm. Good question. As I recall, there really wasn't that much planning. James asked for a game for merlinwebdesign.com with graphics similar to Rebellion. So I drew Merlin and the Goblin Archer and came up with the energy blast as a weapon. The first demo was just a green screen. You could blast the goblins around but they didn't die and they didn't attack you. Because there was so little going on it ran really fast you could have about 30 goblins perfectly smooth. It was obvious straight away that it was fun!

I don't think it took all that long to finish, I think it was around 3 months. Which is pretty quick by my standards :) It wasn't really planned though I just added features as I thought they were needed. That's why I had to do a total re-write for MR2. And then another one for MR3. I think it's finally good enough to not re-write now though :)

On 21st Apr 2009, medelin (DZ6WEB) wrote,

Hi,
do you have a shockwave engine developed?
I am interested in buy it.
Thank you


steve replied,

Hi, Yes we do.

You can download the GPL version for free from the download page on the website or by using this link:

http://themetalbox.com/downloads/merlin_4_027.zip

The GPL (GNU General Public Licence) means that you can use, change, and modify the code for free. However, when you publish your game you must also publish your source code (in this case the director .dir file).

If you wish to publish your game but not the source you can buy a commercial licence from me. Please write back and we can negotiate a price.

You may start development of your game based on the GPL version and then buy a commercial licence later if you wish.

Best of luck with the game and thank you for your interest in our engine.

Steve

On 19th Apr 2009, MR ROX! wrote,

Hey Steve,
It's been a long time (according to my login info, almost 2 years actually!).
I don't know if you remember, but I'm one of the guys who made a song for I think it was MR3. Fun times :)
I've grown up a bit (not too much I guess...) since then, and I'm pursuing composition at a much more serious level (I'm preparing to go to a music school in a year and a bit).
I assume you can see my email here, so send me an email if you want.
I'd really like to send you some of my latest music if you want to hear (orchestral stuff), and I was also wondering if you have any project that needs music or know of anyone that might need music.

I hope your hands are improving. You're a great guy with some great games under the belt!


steve replied,

Thanks man, yeah I'd love to hear your music!

In terms of projects that need music. MR4 will do eventually and Bottom Earth but neither of these will be anytime soon.

Some of the other projects on TMB might like to include music. I think there's been some recent activity on CHEF!

If you email me the files and say which ones you would like people to be able to use, I'll upload them to the site with the appropriate announcement.

Good to hear from you again, I'm glad to hear you are pursuing the music. My hands are pretty bad right now, I have loads of work to do for a course I'm on so I'm not getting much chance to rest them. I'm determined to find time for the games though. :)

On 27th Mar 2009, Ace_of_spades wrote,

Hey, i have two things i really wanted to ask you about. 1. Why do i keep frequently logging out? Am I doing something wrong on my browser?
2.How do i/Can i be one of your bug testers? Merlin's Revenge is the singularly greatest game on the internet (not to sound like a suck-up) please respond ASAP.


steve replied,

1. Well, you have log back in each time you close the browser. The session also times out if you don't do anything for a while. If you have to log in more frequently than this something's wrong. If not, it's just the way I programmed the site.
2. Thanks! There is a bug database but I'm not maintaining MR at the moment I think the big bugs are mostly gone now. I have some plans to restart MR development but I need to do a bit more work before it's ready to go. For now, go to http://launchpad.net/~themetalbox and join the team. I think launchpad will be the place where MR development eventually resumes.

On 22nd Mar 2009, Super_merlin wrote,

Hey Steve, you know that Tower defense game I was planning on making, well I've deceided to do it.So, would it be possible for it(aka Merlins's Revenge: Tower Battles) to get it own place in the DB? Thanks!!

P.S.: Would it be possible for you to send me the Dwarf Tower Spite and animations?


steve replied,

Ok, I've moved it to it's own section, and also put in a new pseudo-game called New Games so that people can add new game projects to there in future until I get a chance to move them to the proper place.

You can download the graphics from the download page. You want the MR4 GFX zip file, which right near the top of the page. All the dwarf tower anims are in there.

Good luck with this game - I LOVE tower defense games, so I can't wait to play it! no pressure... :)

On 21st Mar 2009, I wrote,

okay thanks I think I can put the new char in there, but that animating gfx is hard. XD thanks, I'll try to put the old merlin chars.


steve replied,

ok cool. If you want to get into MR animation, download the Instructions for Use zip file from the downloads section. It has a guide in there using GIMP (which is free, powerful, and rather unfortunately named image editor - it stands for Gnu Image Manipulation Program). Even if you prefer some other paint program, the principles may still help you.

Good luck!

On 20th Mar 2009, I wrote,

btw steve, how do you add gfx to the map editor? like add more enemies or friends or etc?


steve replied,

There's quite a lot to this. I should really write a guide but I'll try to write an overview for you. Also, megaman4ever knows how do it, if that's any help.

OK here we go:

First you'll need to import the animation for your new character into the game engine. The game engine is the .dir file called merlin_4_027.dir or something similar.

The graphics go into the gfx cast and will need to be named correctly. Take a look at the way the other graphics are named and hopefully you'll be able to work it out.

Next you'll need to create a data file. The easiest way to do this is to copy and paste one from a similar enemy and modify it. That all happens in the data cast.

With that done you can save and close the game engine and open the map editor. You'll need to find the graphic that contains the object layer tiles. If I remember rightly it will be the data cast and be called something like tls_merlin4Objects. Right click on it and edit it in an external editor. Draw your new character in an empty space and save.
Back in Director, edit the text file that sits right next to the graphic called something like tlk_merlin4Objects. You need to find the entry that relates to the graphic you just added. change it from #none to the name of the character. If the name of your character is sworddude you would type #sworddude

Important: your character name must be the same here, and on the graphics in the gfx cast, and on the data file in the data cast of the gfx engine. It is this unique name that links the three together.

You then edit the map and place one or more of your new character on it.

Next copy and paste the merlin4Objects tile graphic and tile key from the map editor into game engine. Also copy and paste the new map over.

Start the game and your new character should appear.


Now, these instructions are extremely bad, but if you can get it to work from them, you get a gold medal. Have a go and when you get stuck (which you will unless you're a pyschic genius) write again and I'll give you more detail about that particular aspect.

Good luck!

On 18th Mar 2009, I wrote,

One more thing steve, um...wheres the game making download? I know there was game maker, but you posted a game making thing as well, it had a core and everything, mind sending me it? please?


steve replied,

It's in the downloads section near the bottom. It's been superseeded by the full open source version of the game which is available as one easy to use file. That's also in the downloads section near the top.

On 11th Jan 2009, cjfjcjfjc wrote,

http://www.mediafire.com/?24zvqxhx3yz

here's my editable MR fangame. Sorry for the delay.


steve replied,

Cool thanks for that, I'll post a news item about it.

On 27th Dec 2008, Super_merlin wrote,

Hay Steve, I am thinking about attempting a merlin tower defense game, but I don't really know how to get started.Like what language should I use,etc.Ive heard C++ is good but really, I,ve no clue. Any tips?


steve replied,

C++ is good but hard. Py-thon (without the dash) with Pygame is much easier and very nearly as good. Probably the easiest would be to use Gamemaker. Google it, and you should be able to find a free download version. You only have to pay if you want to unlock advanced features.

Py-thon is completely free though.

On 20th Dec 2008, megaman4ever wrote,

Im leaving tomorrow for a/few weeks because of the christmas holiday, but I will continue on my stuff after that. I'd also point out that Tutorial 2 is about 30-45% done=)
And I'm trying to do alot of it tonight, but it certainly will not be finished today, maybe I'll get it to around 50-75% though.


steve replied,

That's cool - enjoy your holiday! I'll look forward to the second tutorial in the new year.

Have a good one!

On 17th Dec 2008, El Jefe wrote,

who knows if you got my email reply, but heres a copy from the message board:
Don't get too excited, it only works on macs... but I'm sure it probably wouldn't be too complicated to port to windows, We(my friend and I) just wouldn't be able to do it. The way it works is there is a cocoa framework called WebKit, that allows you to make a webbrowser very easily with all the capabilities of the Safari browser. Safari's based on WebKit. My friend used a technique to make the window go fullscreen, I'm not sure how he did it, but its fairly simple, less then 100 lines of code. and then some simple css coding allowed the MR object to stretch to the maximum width, while maintaining the aspect ratio. I just made a little webpage to serve as the index or portal to the different games. We downloaded the .dcr files, and are including them in the package with the stripped WebKit browser, and the index page. So the user will experience less than 5-10 seconds of loading time for each game. We also managed to get TB working offline. (if you do not approve of that, let me know). In effect, the user will get these fantastic games in a professional-looking(sort-of) offline application. It will be ready in the next week or too, we only need to finish off a couple of tidbits. I can send you the html source necessary for making the game expand to the window size. You would just have to find some way of making a full-screen browser capable of running shockwave, on windows computers. The webpages wouldn't even have to be changed... I'll just attach the MR1 fullscreen page: it won't be completely full-screen until you figure out said browser, but it will adapt pretty much seamlessly as the page is resized. (I'm kind of assuming you are using windows, but if you are on a mac, I can email you the whole thing and it should work perfectly (on tiger or leopard))

just open the attached folder, and open the html file in firefox.
the little triangle at the bottom of the page wont work because im only sending you the mr1 page.

Loading of saved games works perfectly between quitting the app, and restarting it.
If you want the app to put on your site, we would be more than happy to send you the finished version. (we'll put credits to you in a place)

Rapunzel would be easy to add as well.


steve replied,

Sounds great!

If you got TB working that's fine with me. I'm through with DRM now anyway :)

One thing though, the shockwave HTML tag allows for stretching the .dcr file. That is how I did the zoom levels on this site. Only problem was that it seemed to create a good bit of instability.

So it depends on WebKit eh? Well two linux browsers, Konqueror and Epiphany use WebKit (WebKit was originally based on KHTML, which was Konqueror's rendering engine). I think the people at Mozilla are thinking of switching firefox from Gecko to WebKit as well, but I'm not too sure about that.

Anyway, the only problem is that the shockwave plugin doesn't work on Linux. I hope we can find some way to get this to work on either Windows or Linux cos I don't have a Mac, and I don't have any money to buy one.

All the same, good work!

Perhaps you could post a video of it running on You Tube or something for those of us that won't be able to see for ourselves... that would be cool.

On 17th Dec 2008, nadircroatia wrote,

Hey guys
I really love your games, and i was thinking of ideas that would be awesome in the merlin's revenge universe. I was thinking that you could do a tower defense game. The towers could be all of merlin's spells (super tower would be the golden machinegun), and have all the enemies from the game. Just an idea, but if you do decide to pull it odd, it might just be the greatest tower defense game ever...
Thanks!
Nadircroatia


steve replied,

I love tower defence games! I started working on something that might have eventually become a tower defence game but I haven't had time to pursue it yet.

Perhaps someone will start something in GameMaker.

On 16th Dec 2008, The_Blode wrote,

Oh, crap, Game Maker. My Half finished MR fangame is still there.. Do i finish that, or continue with my RPG? Ooh, I know. I'll take my RPG, change the sprites, and turn it into an MR RPG!

No, I'll work on both.


steve replied,

Er, great!

If you want me to upload anything let me know.

On 13th Dec 2008, El Jefe wrote,

A friend and I are making an application to run your games offline in fullscreen, and it works fine with mr's 1,2,3, but TB needs a license... You wouldn't be willing to tell me how to override this would you?


steve replied,

Well, you can't override it. I made new copies of MR1, 2 and 3. I'd need to make a new one of TB too.

I'll put it on my to do list. It could take a while to get to though.

But anyway - that sounds fantastic! Tell me more, how does it work? Does the game stretch to fill the screen? How do I get to see this amazingness?

It's always bugged me that MR couldn't fill the screen (hence the disastrous experiementation with shockwave stretching (which nearly worked, which is the same as saying it didn't work)).

Can you do it to Rapunzel too?

On 9th Dec 2008, El Jefe wrote,

I was wondering if I could get my hands on the Director files for MR1 and MR2, they aren't on your download page. Also, I wanted to extract a sound file from MR3, using Director is this possible? I found it in the "sfx cast" how can I pull it out? thanks.


steve replied,

Ok, I've added uploading MR1 and 2 to my to do list. As for getting the sound fx, I don't think it's possible to get them out of Director (unless you can find an export option tucked away somewhere).

On the downloads page, at the bottom, there is a fan game pack. That has most of the MR1 and 2 sfx in it as WAVs if I recall correctly. You might find what you're looking for in there.

Good luck!

On 8th Dec 2008, berlin master wrote,

who is going to do tbm smash i know its dead but won't people try again


steve replied,

Not me anyway, maybe someone will pick it up.

On 26th Oct 2008, Rabid Merlin wrote,

Hey steve...
i think you should bring Merlin's Revenge to DS or Wii. They could give you a cut of the profits, and that would be a great source of money for you.I subscribe to Nintendo power, and I could send in a e-mail about themetalbox.com. That would get tons of readers to come here, and even the Nintendo Power staff might come here. Learning a new programming language would be hard, but it would be worth it(you might even be able to get Nintendo to program for you!). All your dedicated fans here at TMB would gladly buy it. The DS's point and click would be great for blasting goblins, and you might even be able to do some Rapunzel.



steve replied,

In theory, that sounds great. In practice though it could mean spending loads of time developing for an unfamiliar platform only to have Nintendo reject it. Re-writing Merlin's Revenge in any language would be a 2-3 year project for me.

I'll look into it though just to see what's involved.

On 19th Oct 2008, Zodiac1233 wrote,

I've updated my game again and added hard mode, stats (for all games played) and an award system and some more things http://www.box.net/shared/vrst8v408z


steve replied,

Cool! Sounds great!

I posted a news post to let people know.

On 10th Aug 2008, Zodiac1233 wrote,

i've massively updated my game it now has a new item more enemies a boss music and sound effects bug fixes and a guide http://www.box.net/shared/pbybzqmxv3


steve replied,

great stuff! Hope people get lots of fun out of it.