Pixel Sports Devlogs

[MetaNinja]

Good afternoon, everyone! How are you all?

The main Pixel Sports discussion was growing really big, which to me is amazing. I can see that the game has progressed over these past one and 11/12 years. I want to discuss a little bit more about how Pixel Sports came to be, such as where ideas come from, what I do with scrapped ideas, and basically share some fun facts about the game. I may even show some sneak-peaks or behind-the-scenes here and there, and share at least 3 fun facts about the game.
I could have just done this in the Pixel Sports’ main discussion, but I wanted to focus more on posting game updates and have people talk about this game and share feedback. This discussion is more focused on game design. Plus, I don’t want to flood the main discussion and have newer users have to dig through pages of “Did You Know?” and behind-the-scenes, just to look at the patch notes. Also, keep in mind that I will not tag anybody unless I want to give credit or if I want to respond to their comments.

I will be posting devlogs on this discussion every Friday (the only exception is this week, where the devlog will be posted this Thursday). If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

WARNING: This discussion may contain spoilers about Pixel Sports’ upcoming features and currently existing ones! Please read with caution.

[MetaNinja]

Devlog 9/17/2020

Since this is the first devlog, I’ve decided to keep it small and simple with just a few screenshots from Pixel Sports, some taken really far back in time!

---

3 Fun Facts:

1. When it was first created, Pixel Sports had chess pieces as characters. Thus, the game would have been “Chess Sports”. However, the idea was changed to Cubes as characters because Chess and sports didn’t go together very well in my head
2. Pixel Sports used to have animated outfits that changed throughout the seasons. The last time animated outfits were used was June 2019, before they were removed entirely.
3. The Pixel Sports title screen was changed almost 5 times! When it was first created, Pixel Sports didn’t have a title screen.

---

That’s all for now! Come back next Friday for more devlogs.

[MetaNinja]

The second devlog is here! This one is a bit smaller since there isn’t much going on with Pixel Sports at the moment, but there is a Halloween event that is about to happen that will last until the end of October. The world of Pixel Sports will transform during this event.

---

3 Fun Facts:

1. From October 2018 to June 2019, so called “seasons” would play out, where players had a limited time to equip unique animated outfits. However, that was before Pixel Sports became as popular as it is now, and the seasons trend ended in less than a year.
2. If players are lucky enough, they can get emeralds from the daily loot. This is very rare, however.
3. Clicking on Boris in the Outfit Shop can make him say other lines other than greeting the player.

---

That’s all for now! Come back next Friday for more devlogs.

[MetaNinja]

Devlog 10/2/2020

Spooktober is upon us. So every October Pixel Sports gets ready for the Halloween Season. So come and join us for the party… if you dare.

It was about a year ago where I decided the monthly tradition of temporarily changing the game to reflect the holiday seasons. October is Halloween, December is Christmas, February will be Valentines and peace, and March will be Spring. I chose to do this kind of thing to make Pixel Sports feel a bit more alive and attached to what is going on around us.

In the Soccer Gamemode, the soccer ball turns into a pumpkin, while the ground turns into pumpkin faces rolling their eyes at you.

In the American Football Gamemode, the ground remains the same as in soccer, but the football is now a plague doctor’s head.

In the Hockey Gamemode, only the hockey puck changes… into a piece of candy. I don’t think it’s edible though, so try not to salivate all over the floor or you might make the floor even more icy than it already is.

---

3 Fun Facts:

1. There is a secret vault that can be access by Right-click certain things and you may find some nice things!
2. The death difficulty face becomes more cracked the harder the level is.
3. The game’s link partially gives away a secret code. Use the game’s link to play the game!

[MetaNinja]

And for future reference, to those wondering how I wrote those red and green highlights, just surround the text with the following HTML tags:

This is a red highlight. Normally, it would create a strikethrough.
This is a green highlight. Normally, it would create an underline.

[ManiacPumpkin]

I saw a pumpkin and had to ask if that was me, lol.

[MetaNinja]

Devlog 10/5/2020 Part 1
So I chose to do a devlog this Monday instead of Friday because I will be very busy that day. Besides, this is a rather long devlog, so it will be split into two parts.

Today, we are talking about the lore of Pixel Sports. Now when you first start playing the game, you will see a short cutscene where two disembodied voices are discussing something about a recent incident, and later on Boris tasks you with a dangerous secret mission to steal this so-called “Sword of the Universe”.
Now, I usually request reviews of Pixel Sports to other people to see what they think of the game, and the results are admiringly positive. Thank you guys! Anyways, one of those people that made those reviews was @ManiacPumpkin, and he made a rather interesting comment about the story of Pixel Sports:

@ManiacPumpkin

Really well done, I loved the fact that there is a sad story behind it all

No no, he has a point. Pixel Sports’ story is a bit melancholy.
There is an entity named Master and his assistant Demon who created the Universe in order to help the Cubes who were “in a pit of ■■■■”. He also gave those Cubes full freedom. While freedom is good, and was one of the building blocks of many democracies, those Cubes kind of took advantage of their freedom, much to Master’s disappointment. He hid himself away from the rest of the world, and threatened to destroy the Universe if another “incident” occurred.
Now you, the player, is tasked by Boris to steal the Master’s weapon, the Sword of the Universe, in order to delay the Master’s plans. To gain access to the rest of the story, well, you’ll need to be sneaky and pay attention to details. If you succeed, then you’ll confront the Final Boss: the Master himself. Although he might be rather weak, his boss fight is long, has two phases, and requires a Level 5 Hero or above to even pass the first phase. This means you need to REALLY grind in the game for you to even get to the hardest part of the fight.
If you defeat the Final Boss, the Master apologizes for his aggressive behavior and decides to teleport you back to the main game. This will reward you with LOTS of coins and diamonds, a free level-up, and a secret outfit.
So that is pretty much what the story of Pixel Sports is. It is the tragic tale of an entity creating a world for his people, only for his trust to be snatched out of his hands (even though he technically doesn’t have any) and smashed it into bits in front of his very eyes, and then taking to extremes to alleviate his anger. Then comes a hero, who shows him that his behavior, while sympathetic, is unacceptable. But what if I told you that there was a hidden meaning to this story? Pixel Sports’ secret story is secretly telling another one. What is that hidden meaning? Well, just wait next week. Or Friday. Or perhaps it might come tomorrow? It depends on if I have time. But you’ll get it soon enough, if you’re patient…

To be continued…

[GrimProductionZ]

Word of advice “kid” -Sorry just had to implement that in this sentence you could stick to one style of art for your game with one pixel size it would make your game a lot professional other than it look like it was made from a “kid” -again I thought it was funny But yeah anyway it would look a lot better

Note please take no affiance from me calling you “kid” this was soppsose to be funny and have humor in this comment

[MetaNinja]

No offence taken from the whole “kid” thing.

I am quite satisfied with my artwork for this game, whether it is professional or if it looks like it was made by a “kid”. Also, the stadium was made by @The_Kodex, so that’s one plus (thank you Kodex, by the way).

[MetaNinja]

Devlog 10/6/2020 Part 2

Previously on devlogs:

@MetaNinja

So that is pretty much what the story of Pixel Sports is. It is the tragic tale of an entity creating a world for his people, only for his trust to be snatched out of his hands (even though he technically doesn’t have any) and smashed it into bits in front of his very eyes, and then taking to extremes to alleviate his anger. Then comes a hero, who shows him that his behavior, while sympathetic, is unacceptable. But what if I told you that there was a hidden meaning to this story? Pixel Sports’ secret story is secretly telling another one. What is that hidden meaning?

Based on the themes in this story, you’d THINK that freedom and the abuse of it would be the hidden meaning to the game. Not exactly. Pixel Sports’ story is trying to tell the story of my development for the game.
First, let’s discuss a book/movie called “The Life of Pi”. If you haven’t read/watched it, then here is a short summary:

Life of Pi Summary

Pi is a boy who was rescued from the sea. He says that he was travelling in a small lifeboat with a zebra, orangutan, hyena, and tiger. However, the animals didn’t really get along well. The hyena ate the zebra and orangutan and the tiger ate the hyena. Pi was able to tame it and “live” alongside the tiger in the lifeboat until they reached land. Pi later says that his story with all the animals was actually a figurative representation of a darker story. Pi was actually travelling with his mother, a sailor, and a chef. The chef killed the sailor to use as bait for the fish, then killed Pi’s mother when she hit him. Then Pi killed the chef out of vengeance - which was against Pi’s religion. The zebra represented the slain sailor, the orangutan represented Pi’s mother, the hyena represented the murderous chef, and the tiger represented Pi’s inner evil.

Now let’s talk about how Pixel Sports came to be:

Pixel Sports Development

So it started around October 8 or 10 in 2018, when I had started making Pixel Sports. I had an idea of a big colorful game, but with limited knowledge of how Flowlab worked back then, it was difficult to do anything like bosses or enemy AI. Back then the Red Cubes would just move back and forth mindlessly and would not even try to get the ball! And there was no real story going on. At first, I was completely dissatisfied with how Pixel Sports was going and just decided to keep it a simple game: one level, one goal, one sport. After that, I would quit development for the game, except for occasional bug fixes. Then I had my friends try out the game, and they actually liked it, and they wanted to see more. This gave me a boost in confidence, but what about the whole behavior thing? I was still a beginner back then. I heard this advice that when in game development, it is best not to start off with a HUGE project, and instead start simple. Perhaps recreate games made by other people. So, in secret, I began working on a game that I had started LONG before Pixel Sports, and before long, I got the hang of behaviors. Now I am doing splendidly with the game, and I am proud of what the game has begun to look like.

So what does Life of Pi have anything to do with Pixel Sports? Well, just like the book, each character represents a real life person or feeling. Master, who was completely disappointed with the world, represents my past dissatisfaction with how the game originally was like. Master wanted to destroy the world, and I wanted to quit development of the game. Boris, who wanted to stop Master from destroying the world, represents my friends’ satisfaction with my game. Much like how Boris wanted to preserve the beauty that was the Pixel Sports Universe, my friends really wanted me to continue making this game because they saw its potential. As for the player, the Blue Cube and the Hero Cube, they represent my regained confidence in Pixel Sports. They helped make sure that the world did not get destroyed by a vengeful entity, just like my confidence helped prevent me from giving up on Pixel Sports.

So there you have it. Pixel Sports’ story about a vengeful entity and a valiant hero is really a story about the clash between the dissatisfaction and confidence inside of me. I am thankful for the attention that Pixel Sports has received and I thank everyone for playing the game. Even if you played for just an hour, I thank you for being a part of our community.

Thank you

@Ramshacklegamestudios - Thank you for playing this game for a long time, and supporting it too.
@The_Kodex - Thank you for the stadium art, and I look forward to seeing what other art you would like to introduce.
@ManiacPumpkin - Thank you for your good review in your Pumpkin Previews.

---

3 Fun Facts:

1. The gray/grey bits on the Daily Boss’ head are supposed to be spikes.
2. A heist type of gamemode was planned, but was removed because it completely broke the game.
3. Traps and Shield Bombs used to be replenished.

---

That’s all for now! Come back next Friday for more devlogs.

[Ramshackle]

No problem!

P.s. Do you have a discord?

[MetaNinja]

No, but I am thinking about getting it this week.

[Ramshackle]

Ok!

If you ever do my account name is
Mrramshackle#9139

[MetaNinja]

Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.

[GrimProductionZ]

Ok just noice (character limit)

[MetaNinja]

Devlog 10/16/2020

Music is everywhere and unavoidable. Music plays as you play a game. Music plays when you watch TV. Music plays thanks to the “click-clack” sounds that your keyboard makes that is totally not annoying when you type too fast. Today, I will tell you about the music in Pixel Sports.

So most of the sound effects and music in Pixel Sports are provided by Flowlab, but I did make my own soundtracks that may also appear in upcoming @GalaxianGames’ games. That made more sense in my head…
Anyways, I am going to talk about my soundtracks. However, if you intend to use these soundtracks, you MUST ask for my permission first, and then give credit in your game via in-game credits (description does not count).

The first one is the main theme to Pixel Sports: Adventure Awaits. Unfortunately, I need an mp3 file, but my files are in wav format, and requires a download to listen to, and like I said, if you want these soundtracks, ask me first.
Anyways, you can listen to Adventure Awaits in the title screen, Campaign Map, and the Ruby missions in the Campaign. It USED to be based off of a small song I made on Chrome Lab, but it was bad, until I switched to BeepBox.co.
The second soundtrack is Adventure’s End. If you listen to the soundtrack, you will immediately notice that it is a remix of Adventure Awaits. I thought that it would be a proper way to make a boss music. Adventure’s End plays while fighting the Final Boss, and will play as you fight the upcoming Void Dragon.
The third soundtrack is Heroic Journey. This one plays during Husk Attack missions in the Campaign. Not sure about you guys, but I get scary vibes from this soundtrack whenever I was making this one. Probably because I was reading a news article from a couple years ago about… Actually, I don’t think I should mention it publicly since it is a sensitive and scary topic.
The fourth soundtrack is Big Bad Battle. This one plays during certain boss fights, mainly the Daily Boss. I was honestly disappointed with how it sounds, but I thought it was good enough to stay in the game.
The fifth soundtrack is Fate of the World. Megalovania was in my mind while making this soundtrack, but it doesn’t sound like it at all. Fate of the World was intended to be the final boss music for an upcoming game of mine called “Robot Reboot”. And now that grazer fixed that repeater bug, I can continue working on that game. Fate of the World will be heard in the Final Boss.
The sixth soundtrack is NinjaStep. It is a remix of Big Bad Battle that will play in the upcoming Dark Ninja fight. I am a bit more proud for this remix than of the original. The remix is longer than the original, and I managed to implement some other sounds into the music.
The seventh soundtrack is Master Room. It is a rather soothing song that plays in the game settings page and in a secret location . I wanted to give the song a calm yet mysterious atmosphere.
An upcoming eighth soundtrack is in the works, and it likely will be called Scientific Lawbreaker. It will likely replace the Adventure’s End part of the Final Boss music. This song is called Scientific Lawbreaker partly because Master will say that he is going to break the Law of Conservation of Matter and Mass. This is a scientific law that states that matter and mass cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed. It is impossible to break this law because you might end up changing our understanding of chemistry and physics, but if some powerful maniac says he is going to break the law of conservation, you better watch out.

---

3 Fun Facts

1. Rubies have the same design as diamonds.
2. Husks despawn after 5 minutes. This is to prevent long-term swarming. Husks despawn almost 5 times as fast during the Shadowzer fight.
3. A holiday message appears during specific holidays.

---

That’s all for now! Come back next Friday for more devlogs.

[MetaNinja]

Delvog 10/23/2020

So before I discovered that Flowlab was a thing, I’ve fantasized that one of my first games was going to be a mock-up to the 8-bit style of games in the NES. The game would have pixel graphics, 8-bit sound effects and music, and would not contain any physics that would have been impossible back then (like object rotation and size increase/decrease). My first game was sort of like this, but Pixel Sports sort of grew out of that style. The game still retains 8-bit graphics and sfx and music, but it still behaves as if it was meant to be a normal 2D game.
So we are now going to be talking about the art style of Pixel Sports. Again, the game was meant to reminiscent on the old days where almost every game was in 8-bit style or 16-bit style. The art style was also inspired by another Flowlab game: Color Quest. Color Quest was the first Flowlab-built game that I played, and I really enjoyed it.
For those of you who have no idea what Color Quest is, I am very shocked and disappointed and you need to play it right now. Basically it is a platformer game where you have to collect 20 keys and reach the exit. It is difficult, but also fun. Think of it as Super Mario, but it has elements of a rage game. I wish I could recreate Color Quest, but I can’t because 1) I don’t have the creator’s permission, 2) he disappeared from Flowlab a long time ago, and 3) apparently everybody hates remakes of anything. As soon as a remake of something is made, maybe a movie adaptation of a book or remake of a movie, everybody rips it to shreds. That is probably what people would do if I did end up remaking Color Quest.
So the art style of Pixel Sports and Color Quest are quite similar, and you’ll notice that that art style will transition over to my other games too. Every object or character has a black outline around them, and has an 8-bit animation. Characters have two, stick-like eyes (and the humans lack a mouth on their design).
The only thing that is not similar to Color Quest is the large objects. They have their own unique pixel art, especially the stadium.

---

3 Fun Facts

1. The soundtrack Heroic Journey was made while reading a news article about a horror phenomenon.
2. The hockey puck is bouncier on the sides.
3. Husk Cubes will flee from the Hero.

---

That’s all for now! Come back next Friday for more devlogs.

[MetaNinja]

Devlog 10/31/2020

It’s Halloween, and as MetaNinja, aka GalaxianGames, sat down in his chair, he realized that Pixel Sports was on page 9 of the games page.

“Yo! That’s amazing!” he shouted, then he began to question why he was narrating his own adventures…

Oh and Decimation of Mankind is on page 8 of the games page. Congrats to @Ramshacklegamestudios and @F3Art! And everybody else working on DoM!
He also noticed that the game was quickly approaching 666 plays and he begins to panic. Then he remembered to PLEASE STOP NARRATING HIMSELF!
Oh yeah he also switched his profile picture back to what it once was because the Halloween craze is nearly over.
Oop, hold on one second.

Hey, sorry guys, some weird ghost thing attacked me a couple minutes ago. Now I woke up to it using my computer. But to be fair, that ghost is kind of nice…
Regardless, let’s take a look at the tragedy of the Golf gamemode! Yes, it’s a tragedy. Why? You see, when I first decided that Pixel Sports was here to stay, I came up with 7 sports that players can play: Soccer, American Football, Hockey, Golf, Basketball, Volleyball, and Racing. Racing was actually the 2nd sport added to Pixel Sports… but then I deleted it. Remember back in Devlog 10/6/2020 Part 2 how I said that I wasn’t that good at behaviors and logic back when I started Pixel Sports?

@MetaNinja

This gave me a boost in confidence, but what about the whole behavior thing? I was still a beginner back then.

Well, Racing was added at that time. I didn’t quite know what behaviors to use to make a 2D car. And here was the other problem: the shapes. Back then, polygon shapes were not a thing yet. So I had 3 choices: circle, rectangle, and cylinder. Circle and cylinder made the 96x32 sized-sprite look like it was levitating, and the rectangle made the object… stuck. Lowering the friction didn’t help either. So I scrapped the idea and decided to add it later on. When? Well not now, obviously. I’m working on a huge update and I’m only 60% done!
What about Volleyball? Well again, there were some issues. Given the size of the sports ■■■■■, it would be hard to hit a volleyball into the air. And since the gravity of the game is so strong, the ball would fall faster than the player could react. So I also decided to add it later on.
Now Golf was added early last year, and since then it has been almost forgotten. You might call it “The Forgotten Sport”. Why is that so?
Making the Golf gamemode was not as easy as the rest. In Soccer and Hockey, your goal is to hit the soccer ball/hockey puck into the goal. In American Football, your goal is to hit the football over the goal. In Basketball, your goal is to hit the basketball on top of the basket. Golf is different; your goal is to hit the golf ball into a TINY hole. There is only one hole, and the player who hits the ball LAST gets the point. While every other sport took me about an hour from start to finish, Golf took nearly two days to make sure that it works well… and it STILL has some bugs. For one, you could hit the hole from underneath and get a point. There was another bug where even if the Red Cube hit the ball into the goal, the Blue Cube (you, the player) would get a point. Some of these bugs were so game-breaking that Golf had to be taken down numerous times. Out of the 5 current gamemodes that you can play now, Golf is the most broken and the buggiest gamemode you can play. The gamemode was later largely forgotten, and you can only play two levels of Golf.
I do intend to fix Golf in the future, but for now, consider Golf to be a bug nest.

---

3 Fun Facts

1. The Daily Boss had to go through 3 revamps in order to get it right, and it may get a 4th revamp in the future.
2. You used to play a Flawless Soccer gamemode where you had to try to beat the Red Cube without them scoring a point.
3. Originally, the Frenzy Fruit was called the Rage Ruby, but as you now know, rubies are collectibles in the Campaign Mode.

---

That’s all for now! Happy Halloween, and remember, do not eat poisoned apples. They taste bad.

[HuckleBerry]

congrats on getting to page 9! and i agree, poison apples do taste pretty bad.

[MetaNinja]

Devlog 11/5/2020

This is going to be a short and boring devlog because I don’t really know what to say, so… Just enjoy this list of future sports!

• Racing - Race each other to the finish line on go-karts (to appear in Full Release 1.1)
• Volleyball - Knock the ball to the opponent’s side (to appear in Full Release 1.2)
• Boxing - Punch each other in the face for the belt (to appear in Full Release 1.2.3)
• Water Polo - Soccer in the water (to appear in Full Release 1.3)
• Swimming - Race each other to the finish line while swimming through the water (to appear in Full Release 1.3.1, depends on success of Water Polo)
• Fencing - Stab each other with swords (to appear in Full Release 1.4, depends on success of Boxing)
• Olympics Mode - Compete in 5 different sports with a friend to see who is the better player (to appear in 1.5, is local multiplayer only, does not grant rewards)

---

3 Fun Facts

1. The MetaNinja Outfit is reminiscent of my avatar.
2. In the past, it was planned to have the Golden Outfit cost diamonds, but since diamonds are used to upgrade the Hero and to enter Campaign levels, I thought it was going to be too expensive.
3. The Purple Block seen in Soccer Level 5 was first introduced as a way to tease the introduction of the Daily Boss. In fact, that Purple Block is an egg containing the Final Boss, and will be used to introduce them in a future revamp.

---

Attention people, this man has an announcement!
It’s been at least a month since I’ve ACTUALLY worked on Pixel Sports, as most of my focus had gone to other games like Construction Man and Monster Maze. I’ve decided that I need to start working on the game again, ESPECIALLY since it is the game I am most proud of as of yet. So I’ve decided to do a sort of schedule for myself to try to push Pixel Sports updates a little faster. If you want to know this schedule, here it is:
Every once in two weeks (starting November 8th), I will work on Pixel Sports for the entire week. If there is a week where I am not working on Pixel Sports, I will work on whatever other game that I have. Hopefully this means that I can get to work more on Pixel Sports and work on other projects. This may also help me get to work on DoM, because Ramshacklegamestudios had invited me to the development team, and so far all I’ve done is draw out some terrain. I’ve done nothing over there, so hopefully I’ll actually get to do something useful for the team.

---

That’s all for now! Come back next Friday for some more devlogs.