Hello! Hyper Bun Buster’s arcade mode now has a world map, along with a stage select menu and a stage intro screen that use it.

Because arcade mode makes you play every stage in order instead of having multiple shorter routes, I decided that I would just draw all of the stages side by side, like in the arcade game Captain Commando.

After experimenting with a few options, I went with making each stage sit on top of a little block, like a little row of chunky dioramas. The reason for this is simple: I love it when a videogame looks like a little chunky diorama, whether it's Captain Toad, the VR mode in Sayonara Umihara Kawase or basically any top-down Nintendo 3DS game.

I drew all the stages (other than the final stage, which doesn't have a visual theme yet) and hooked them up to the game. I love how they look!

Stage select menu

When trying to expand the world map into a stage select menu, I went with a layout that included a preview screenshot of each stage. Then I got carried away and spent far too long building animated preview dioramas of each stage instead. I really do love making little dioramas…

I love this menu! I arguably spent far longer making it than I should be spending on any one menu, but I had fun doing it. Please spend lots of time looking at it so I can feel more justified in all the time I spent making it.

Stage intro screen

The world map diorama is also going to show up at the start of each stage in a full arcade mode run:

I’d like to either use smaller text for the stage name or get a better looking large font, and I’d like to speed up the pacing of the overall sequence so there’s not such a long wait between stages. But other than that, I’m happy with how it looks!

Combo counter fixes

I fixed some long-running bugs with the game’s combo counter. It now counts the correct KO count in some situations where it used to break, e.g. awarding a 2 hit combo for hitting a stack of 2 cats against a wall, or awarding a 7 hit combo for hitting a stack of 3 slimes into 4 more enemies:

I know that’s just a small bugfix but it was extremely annoying to program so I’m putting it in the newsletter. I’m glad I got that task out of the way.

Next week I’m taking a break from menus and getting back into boss design mode. The last two stages don’t have bosses yet and the mouse stage boss needs a redesign, so hopefully I’ll be able to show some of those off next time!

Anything else?

Chessplosion was one of the games at the Frosty Faustings mystery game tournament again! Frosty Faustings is an annual fighting game event in Chicago, and the mystery game tournament pits players against each other in random games that they've usually never seen or played before. Chessplosion was the grand finals game back in 2023, and this year it returned as one of the games that people had to play in the top 32 of the tournament. You can see the footage here on YouTube!

Morrisons for Nintendo 3DS OST is a cute concept for an album! It's nice to know that it's possible to get together with a group of friends, make an album of videogame-inspired music together, put it online and pretend it's the soundtrack for an unknown 3DS game based on a UK supermarket chain. No one can stop you. I mean I suppose Morrisons could stop them in this case but you get the point.

I enjoyed the Steam demo of the upcoming Rolling Bird inspired game GUN.DOG.REVENGE. It has a few features that aren't to my taste such as movement inertia, powerful controllable jumps and metaprogression, but the core game is fun. You should absolutely give it a shot if you've already played Rolling Bird and are looking for more!

That’s all I’ve been up to recently. I hope you have a relaxing couple of weeks and I’ll see you next time!