Madhouse

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="20f785a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Mikes Homepage</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Homepage"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id390.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Splatterhouse Shrine"><U>Splatterhouse Shrine</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id357.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Splatterhouse"><U>Splatterhouse</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id366.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Splatter House 2"><U>Splatter House 2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id368.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Splatterhouse 3"><U>Splatterhouse 3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id367.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti"><U>Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id370.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="West Mansion Horror"><U>West Mansion Horror</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id391.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ANSI Splatterhouse"><U>ANSI Splatterhouse</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id392.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Splatterhouse: 2k3"><U>Splatterhouse: 2k3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id446.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Splatterhouse Mobil Games"><U>Splatterhouse Mobil Games</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id447.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Evil Splatter"><U>Evil Splatter</U></A>   |   <B>Madhouse</B>   |   <A HREF="id548.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Splatterhouse 3D"><U>Splatterhouse 3D</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id549.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Splatterhouse Project"><U>The Splatterhouse Project</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id550.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Slaughterhouse"><U>Slaughterhouse</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="210d2b03.jpg"> <div> <B>Creators Website</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.madhousegame.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.madhousegame.com"><U>www.madhousegame.com</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Download</B></div> <div> <A HREF="Madhouse.zip" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Madhouse.zip"><U>Madhouse</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Madhouse</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="122df0780.png" border=0 width="240" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  </div> <bR> <div> Taken from Paul Hubans website for Madhouse.</div> <bR> <div> HISTORY AND THE MAKING OF MADHOUSE </div> <bR> <div> MADHOUSE was created with a program called Game Maker, a free game developing utility created by Mark Overmars. A friend introduced me to Game Maker around fall of 2003, but I made no serious attempts at making anything that I was ever able to finish. However, after experimenting with the software and attempting to make a few games, the concept of MADHOUSE came to me. Although, it wouldn't be until a year later that MADHOUSE became the form that we see today.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="123040f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="123140f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> My first idea for MADHOUSE was to have a two-player game via a split screen, where players could fight against each other in a death match using "psychotic" characters. I did some minor conceptualization on characters, weapons, and the environment in my notebook. Thus, Butch, Zero, Bozo, and Ragman were born. At first, I had only planned to comprise the levels of three types of blocks; wood, stone, and metal. The player would be able to break through some of these blocks by using certain weapons. As anyone can see, the levels of MADHOUSE today are much more in depth than being made up of just blocks. However, I still maintained the theory of being able to interact with the level itself and not just the other player!</div> <bR> <div> In the beginning, there were a few models for MADHOUSE that are very rough and dissimilar in comparison to the model we see today, as you can see in the above images. These models were never released to the public and only played by my brother Lucas and I. The prototypes were barely animated, the attacks were experimental and ridiculous, and the games themselves were hardly even functional. I wasn't sure what kind of direction I wanted to take with the game, so I quickly phased it out of my line of projects. At that time I just wasn't experienced enough with Game Maker, and so I wasn't prepared to create MADHOUSE just yet.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="123240f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="123340f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> During the summer of 2004 I devoted part of my time to really working closely with Game Maker. I experimented with making a game called Amazin'!, which turned out to be the first complete game I created with the software. All of the sprites in Amazin'! were created pixel-by-pixel in the sprite drawing application of Game Maker, however, the game engine was constructed using GM's easy to use Drag & Drop feature. After summer, in late August and into early September, I began work on MADHOUSE as we see it today. I used the same theory of doing all of the sprites pixel-by-pixel within the Game Maker program as opposed to using an outside program like Photoshop or Flash. The result was desirable; the style was the missing piece of the puzzle that held me back from working on this project previously.</div> <bR> <div> Once I had established the style of MADHOUSE my workflow increased dramatically. The style, which is a pixilated low-resolution format I refer to as retrostylized, portrays an "old-school" feeling that is reminiscent from games of the Nintendo era. Perhaps one of the biggest inspirations for MADHOUSE was Splatterhouse: Wankpaku Graffiti, a rare Famicom gem that was never released in the US. Of course, one can see many influences from Nintendo's Zelda series, as well. And in my opinion, the Versus Mode game play is very much like that of a first-person shooter like N64's Goldeneye 007.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="123440f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="123540f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Although MADHOUSE depicted a similar graphical style to that of Amazin'!, MADHOUSE was my first project that attempted to build a game using only the script features of Game Maker, as opposed to the Drag & Drop feature. GML, which is based loosely off of C++, is Game Maker's own built-in programming language. By creating the entire game using only code, the creation of MADHOUSE in itself was a learning experience. With the help of Lucas, I was able to thoroughly test MADHOUSE as it was being created. We would sometimes spend over an hour playing the game, and he was actually quite good at it, and frequently he was more than a match for me!</div> <bR> <div> On October 12th, 2004 I released MADHOUSE to the public via the Game Maker Community forums. I posted it in the Works in Progress section as a "Bloody 2 Player Deathmatch Game" that boasted "original graphics and themes". MADHOUSE was immediately well received by the GM community, and heralded by some as one of, if not the best game on the forums.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="123640f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <IMG SRC="123740f00.png" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Only days away from a big update I had planned for Halloween, which included two complete and new stages as well as many improvements over older versions, I tried to open the working file on the morning of October 27th, only to find that the file had somehow become corrupt. At this point, I was unable to recover MADHOUSE, and sadly, I had to announce that the project was over. I had not only lost the file, but also my will to continue working on the project. The only backup file I had was over 2 weeks old, which was at nearly 150 hours of work lost. So in lieu of this, I took a break.</div> <bR> <div> After four months of hardly touching the project, I decided to finally try again. Instead of focusing on trying to recover what had been lost, I started implementing a one-player version of the game, which we today know as Arcade Mode. Prior to this, MADHOUSE had only been a two-player versus game. MADHOUSE returned to the Game Maker Community on March 2nd, 2005. Since that day, production of this game has hardly stopped. Everything that was lost has been recreated and even better than it ever was before. Various new characters, modes, and stages have been created and even more are planned for the future.</div> <bR> <div> The future of MADHOUSE looks bright; I intend on creating Netplay Mode, which will allow players to connect to each other via an internet connection, and do battle against one another from the comfort of their own computer! I also hope to implement Story Mode, a one-player story driven adventure with RPG elements like character building, money gathering, and NPC interaction. However, both of these modes will require a large amount of work and time, so we may not see them until 2008.</div> <bR> <div> My excitement and passion for making this game is unceasing, thus, MADHOUSE continues to grow and expand daily.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> PROGRESS</div> <bR> <div> My estimation for the completion of MADHOUSE including Arcade, Versus, and Netplay Modes, is at least another six months at the rate I am going now. To implement Story Mode in its entirety will take at least another year. But these estimations are highly variable; I might surprise you! As it stands right now, I have broken down the completion of MADHOUSE like this:</div> <bR> <div> Characters</div> <div> |||||||||||||||||||| 80%</div> <bR> <div> Arcade Levels</div> <div> |||||||||||||||||||| 60%</div> <bR> <div> Versus Levels</div> <div> |||||||||||||||||||| 55%</div> <bR> <div> Netplay Mode</div> <div> |||||||||||||||||||| 30%</div> <bR> <div> Story Mode</div> <div> |||||||||||||||||||| 5%</div> <bR> <div> Overall</div> <div> |||||||||||||||||||| 50% </div> </td> </tr></table></body>