DEATH WISH • New Bloatoid Add-On

[Tchernobog]

Probably a good idea, as it may help prevent what I call the "Yahtzee Syndrome", although that is more common in adventure games. I call it that because Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw got so sick of people sending him emails asking about how to solve puzzles in his earlier games that by the time he was working on the Chzo Mythos he made sure to release a walk-through with the program, so that people would stop asking for support for a free product. I believe the most irritating instance for him was the Teddy Bear puzzle in 5 Days a Stranger, though there is also that infamous bug in Rob Blanc II...

At any rate, keep up the good work, I am looking forward to it.

[Bloatoid]

I personally don't think there's anything terribly confusing in any of the maps but since I made them it's hard to say. I've had a friend of mine going through the maps as I finish them to give me feedback.

[Tchernobog]

Well, I have finally gotten around to updating and expanding the Death WIsh section on the Wiki. I mostly just grabbed text from our correspondence in this thread and just tweaked the grammar and word choice a little. I also grabbed what I thought was one of the more unique and visually appealing screamshots (a hard choice with all the interesting architecture you were flaunting there) from your blog and uploaded it for illustration purposes.

http://blood-wiki.org/index.php/List_of_Mods#Death_Wish

Unfortunately, I had completed most of my edits before I realized that I was not logged into my own account. I was just appreciating the fact that the WYSIWYG editor is finally dead now that we have switched to DeathMask I guess. It is a nice feeling knowing that our articles formatting is not being butchered any more.

[Bloatoid]

Thanks for keeping it updated. Everyone seems to have a different favorite screamshot out of the set. It's hard for me to choose, although I do have definite favorites as far as the actual missions go.

As for my own updates, the walkthrough is now up to date, so it looks like it won't delay me any further. Next I'll start making the pieces for the cutscenes or I'll get back to work on E3M6 – haven't decided yet. I'm a little burnt out from doing the walkthrough!

[Bloatoid]

Blog updated with the latest info!

Everything is moving along smoothly, despite my project timeline having gone out the window a long time ago. I figure if Blood fans have hung around this long then they won't mind waiting a little longer if it ensures a quality release. I've spent a good amount of time hunting for glitches and making gameplay repairs. Having a solid playtester throughout the whole process has helped a lot, too — sometimes when you build a map there are things you simply won't catch.

[Tchernobog]

Sounds very promising, I hope the Blood community will offer you the full support for your effort here.

And hey, as long as you do not take fourteen years and then release a game where you only can have two guns at once but try to compensate by allowing the player to hurl feces at people, then I think we are perfectly happy with a slightly delayed release.

[Bloatoid]

Yeah, I'd like to talk about it more but I think I'd just end up spoiling the surprises.

Anyway, back to mapping!

[Bloatoid]

Blog updated with the latest completed level.

Only 1 to go! Hope everyone's getting excited

[Bloatoid]

After putting in some serious hours over the last week...

Blog Updated with the final mission!

That's it! I still have a few small things to take care of before I release Death Wish, but it looks like I'm finally finished with the levels. Thanks to everyone who's been giving their support while I was working — your patience will soon be rewarded!

[Bloatoid]

Are there any extras people would be interested in seeing to accompany the add-on? I already made a full although, which is probably the only thing that would have caused further delay.

If anyone can think of a good extra I may be able to add it in during my downtime next week.

[barf982]

looking forward to your addon. I only have one request, which is a general request, and it refers to installation. I use dosbox v74 with build # 20110525
Works best for me. Whenever installing blood addons, I always have a problem with the fancy installation program. I can appreciate the quality that goes into these programs, and the addons themselves, having been created by many talented people, such as yourself. However, the installations never seem to set up properly for me with my specs , my configs, for dosbox, and the game itself. Therefore, my request is to (and if you have created an installation program, thats fine for some too), have a simple installation program. there are very few files needed. sounds.rff already set up so it can replace the original blood one. ... tiles, etc, an .ini, and the .map files separate, rather than lumped in a .rff. Then it's easy to make a backup of the original blood, and just pop your replacements right in. As an example I installed a previous mod.. bpf, which is fantastic, by the way, so much fun.. but using the installation program caused much confusion, so finally there was a basic "no frills' installation on their site, which I used. and it basically had all the needed files separately listed, with the exception of sounds.rff, I think was listed as bpf.rff, so it was easy enough just to change their file to the blood one... sounds.rff, and everything worked fine. After making the switch , its an easy deal to run the game with blood -ini xyz.ini
I hope you consider this business, and if not? no problem, just my opinion.. the most important thing is that you'll have created another blast to play with the fantastic game "blood". Once again, looking forward to your masterpiece, and best of luck.

[Bloatoid]

This Add-On doesn't add any new sounds or textures so I'm not including an installer.

There will be a plain-text HOW TO INSTALL.txt file that will tell you where to place everything. There isn't any tampering with the original Blood files.

On that note, the Blog has been Updated with some more progress.

[I Live...AGAIN]

Looks great! Can't wait to try it.

[Bloatoid]

Don't worry — the wait won't be too long now. Check out the blog and you'll see that I've announced the release date as Halloween, October 31, 2011. I've been secretly aiming for this date for a few months, and it looks like I'm all set to hit it if I keep my current pace.

The blog also has an update on a new addition to the mission set. I've even updated the blog header to reflect that there will be a total of over 30 levels rather than 25 in Death Wish.

More announcements will be coming as I close in on the release date. On release day I'll be posting a download link on my blog as well as freeminded and ModDB. Get the word out — more Blood coming soon!

[zZaRDoZz]

Perfection unbound. The great pumpkin salutes you!