Volume 3, Issue 3 - September 28, 2008
irc.windfyre.net #zfgc
This week's banner courtesy of Xiphirx and icon courtesy of 4Sword
Hello members, and welcome to another issue of ZFGC Weekly! Here's what's in this week's issue:
1. Community Announcements (Ctrl+F CA2)
2. Best of the Forum (Ctrl+F BF2)
3. Weekly Awards (Ctrl+F WA2)
4. The Big Question (Ctrl+F BQ2)
5. Featured Project:
Pokemon Crystal Legends and an interview with its creator, DJvenom (Ctrl+F FP2)
Community Announcements (CA2)New Moderators Selectedhttp://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31241.0We've chosen the following users for a pool of 30 or so applications as new moderators. They are currently on a trial run, if everthing goes well they will be permanent mods for the time being.
Bludleef
Darklight
DJVenom
Walnut100
If you didn't get chosen. Sorry, try again next time.
The Best of the Forum (BF2)Here are some of the best quotes of the past week or the most relevant topics of the moment:
Favicon Damn It!http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31140.0Can ZFGC please get a favicon?
It's annoying because ZFGC is the only forum website without a favicon in my tabs.
>_<
Comin' Out tha Closet.http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31223.0I'm Bisexual, and I still can't come out fully to some people, but alot of my friends know. All of them understood, was pretty cool.
P.S. Is he hot?
I mean, I wouldn't hit it...even if I were into guys. He's been called "adorable" by a lot of my girl friends. Also he has a boyfriend, so...
God, every five minutes I think about stuff that happened last year and laugh. So much has been explained by this. So much.
Update: Bentou Box Acquired!http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30958.0It's not that hard :p with all of those ingredients, you have enough for over like 2 weeks worth of bentous 
and it takes like 5 minutes to make 
Finally got the pics off of my camera
Time for celebration! Jack T Disbarred!http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31253.0Two words.
Thank. God.
HIGH FIVE YEAH!http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31230.0I snarked his crotch 
Combo Breaker Needed.http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31244.0*gets ideas*
LOL TRUTHERS.http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31254.0First person with a Zombie getting tornado kicked avatar to say "UFO's EXIST!"
Got a topic you think should be featured? PM Zidane or 4Sword!
Weekly Awards (WA2)A section for handing out awards to screenshots, graphics, projects, and other various things depending on what's happening around the forum.
Graphic of the WeekXiphirix's First Pixel Art:
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31218.0< - Avatar.
C+C
I'm surprised, it actually looks like me. D :
Story of the WeekTlozpop's Community Project Compilation
OK, since it's quite DEAD here. I thought we could finish the prologue since a lot of staff have been done about.
So here are what I found interesting in old topics.
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=24981.0
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=22594.0
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The Gerudo are a race of proud, desert-dwelling vagabonds who were, several centuries ago, dragged into a war with the rest of Hyrule by their evil son and heir Ganondorf's obsession with finding the legendary Triforce.
Ganondorf plunged the whole of the land into darkness and ruin, until at the desperate final hour he was defeated and sealed away in the limbo of the Sacred Realm, hopefully never to return.
Following Ganondorf's imprisonment, his people retreated to live in isolation in their harsh wasteland for centuries, embittered by the war and beaten by the unyielding desert wind, until their most recent king - the first male born unto the Gerudo in a hundred years, and who had grown to be a wise and courageous leader - decided if they were to continue to survive, the time had come to mend the broken relations with the rest of Hyrule.
...
Map of the WeekMigokalle offers his skills.
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31179.0So, if you're interested, here's a few of my own maps:
The Great Forest: http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/2343/migomotm2il6.gif
Hyrule Field: http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/1404/migokalleci4.gif
--Migo
Got a recommendation for a Weekly Award? PM Zidane or 4Sword!
The Big Question (BQ2)In this section, we'll ask a relevant or interesting question to the community each week, which everyone can discuss, comment on, and generally go gaga over.
This week's question:
How can we as a community come together to further improve ZFGC?Join the discussion at
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=31284.0Got an idea for a Big Question? PM Zidane or 4Sword!
Featured Project (FP2)Stepping into a world of super-powered animals that speak in tongues of their nomenclature, this week 4Sword began his journey through Johto with DJvenom's project, Pokemon Crystal Legends.
Gotta catch'em all they said. What is it that makes you want to make a Pokemon project?At the time I started the game, it was actually out of boredom... I sort of have a drive now, because I remember growing up with the gameboy games. Spending all night playing on weekends. Watching the sun rise in real life as well as in game
You're making Crystal Legends in GM 6.1, why is that and could this present some difficulty in future development of this project?A lot of people look down on Game Maker for the fact that its games are bloaty and it's overall very outdated. I only use it because my future isn't in game programming so I don't want to teach myself C++ or the like just to trash it all later. I don't see it really presenting any difficulty later on, since there are patches for Vista users. There may be a GM7 port near December this year when I buy a new PC though. Only time will tell.
The sound in your music in your game is going to be remixed, is this difficult to do and what impression are you trying to evoke from the player who listens to this music?Tracking music really isn't all that tough once you get the hang of it. I still have plenty of trouble myself with it, but there's always room for learning. The impression I want from players is simply them humming along with the game like I used to do.
If the gym leader's Pokemon lineup is going to be different, are the Pokemon you are able to catch in certain areas also going to be different?If anything was changed it would simply be hours. Like possibly low level evolved forms at much later hours of the night.
If Pokemon Crystal was an improvement over Gold and Silver in its graphics and capabilities and you are going to include future generational areas, why not just make the game in a style such as that of R/S/E?Ruby and Sapphire had a very messy style. If I were to upgrade the graphics, I would use the style from Fire Red/Leaf Green.
You mention a "Gameshark Guru" that would emulate how the Gameshark worked with the actual game. Are you familiar with the Monster Boy/Brain that was also released at that time which was also an editor for Pokemon data in at least Gold and Silver?Oddly enough, I only played the Japanese rom before it came out in America. I never played the American rom, or used any utilities to modify it. I'm thinking I might make pokemon editing a bit easier then the gameshark codes though, because there were so many that programming ALL of them would be somewhat difficult.
Something notable about the first generation of Pokemon games was that they had easily accessible glitches that deepened the game experience, do you intend to include these with Pokemon Crystal Legends as well?I might make a "glitch" similar to the Cinnibar island one in R/B/G/Y, but aside from that, any glitches found are solely my coding mistakes. :3
For a lot of ZFGCers interest in game development has gone down, so how is it that you stay interested?I've actually lost a lot of my interest in it as well, sadly. What keeps me wanting to make games is an underlying enjoyment of developing stuff. Be it sprites, music, games, maps, or anything like that.
Are your other projects such as FF7-2D still going to be worked on?Currently I've let FWgaming take wheel of FF7-2D coding-wise. He's much more skilled at it then I, so I see noone better for the job. So to answer your question, Yes.
And from one Pokemon fan game maker to another, do you think that Pokemon games have a future on ZFGC?I really hope so... Be them remakes, revamps, or completely new stories, Pokemon games are always fun! I was pondering releasing PCL as a source file for potential game makers to tinker with and possibly spawn more games!
Know a project you think should be featured? PM Zidane or 4Sword!Authors of this week's issue: Zidane, 4Sword