It was over 7 years ago that I began my Game Maker "journey", so to speak. I was in my early-teens at the time, and until then I had never found any creative ambitions to pursue, so Game Maker really changed my life in a positive way. It opened up a whole new world to me, where I finally had something creative and rewarding to devote my time and energy to. And for a time it was the only thing I wanted to devote my time to.

However, life changed drastically over the past 7 years. Beyond Game Maker I've found many creative ambitions I'd like to pursue- too many, in fact, to the point where I don't have the time needed to pursue them. I've also matured considerably since then, age and otherwise, and my responsibilities in life are much heavier and more time consuming now than they were then. Really, for years now there just hasn't been room for Game Maker in my life...

And yet I made room for it. Game Maker has still remained my primary focus throughout the years. I had many games I wanted to create and I didn't want to move on with unresolved projects, looking back later and wishing I'd seen them through to the end. But in doing so I've sorely neglected everything more important.
However, the time has finally come when I can gladly say:

I'm retiring from Game Maker!
No more games, no more examples, nothing. The only work I'll be doing in Game Maker is maintaining what's already been done; essential bug-fixes and such.

This has been the most exciting year for Blyka's Door yet, with many new games and the public release of my Mega Man Engine, so this news may come as a surprise to some. But it's reasonable to say that my need to move on in life is why this has been the successful year that it has... and my efforts have finally paid off. With this year's work I feel I've given Game Maker a very final and appropriate sendoff.
Although, it would be nice if my games and examples inspired others to take up fan game creation down the road. I think my Mega Man Engine deserves more use than I gave it, too. ;)


But what does this mean for the future of Blyka's Door? Well, I can assure you the site will not be closing, nor will I be leaving the Mega Man fan scene. Updates will probably slow to the pace of previous years, but my Mega Man fandom doesn't end with Game Maker; there are several other ways in which I'd like to contribute down the road. I plan on announcing a big part of the site's future tomorrow to start the new year off fresh, so check back then. :)

Finally, you may have realized that I never finished Tuttle's Little 5-Island Adventure. Yeah, it's the first publicly cancelled game for Blyka's Door. However, today I released a final demo that showcases most of what was done and is considerably fuller than the last demo, so I hope you enjoy it! And before you go thinking I pulled a complete Capcom on everyone, let me assure that my next Mega Man fan effort will be very Legends-oriented...


In closing, I really appreciate everyone's support for my Game Maker work these past 7 years, and I hope you continue to enjoy the fruits of that work while looking forward to my future projects.

Merry Christmas everyone!
As the update title suggests I actually have not one but a few gifts to give, so here we go:

You got it. My Mega Man engine, which has probably received more interest and requests for release than any of my games, is finally available for download. Of course, this isn't a full game or anything; the engine has been simplified to make it manageable, but it still provides a very thorough and solid foundation on which to build from.

More info can be found on the Examples page, and if you aren't a developer, the download comes with an EXE so you can play a short Proto Man game. Fun for everyone!
And you may be asking "But why release it now, after you've said no so many times?" Well, aside from the spirit of the holidays, there are several reasons... the main of which will become more apparent on my December 31st update, so check back then. ;)

My other gifts consist of new guides for various games, which include the following:

SuperDanny Powered Up
Boss Damage Chart - What I released for SuperDanny 2 on the 19th, now for Powered Up.
Challenges Guide - Further details and tips for completing the game's 18 Challenges.
Bon Ball
Level Maps - Full maps for each of the five levels. If you've ever felt lost in the game or haven't been able to find all the zenny, these are for you.
Star Man
Level Maps - Full maps for each of the four levels. Yeah, it's a bit strange to release guides for an outdated version of an old game, but I actually made these years ago and never got around to putting them up, so why not?

And finally, I've updated the FAQ page with a large Q&A section regarding the SuperDanny series.
If you've ever scratched your head as to whom SuperDanny is or why a Boba Fett head is the first Wily Castle boss in Powered Up, this may be worth a read.


So again, a Merry Christmas to all! Hope you enjoy the gifts and I'll see you on the 31st.

And today is the day! SuperDanny 2 is now a year old, which makes it exactly 5 years since the project began.
Time sure flies, eh?

Top Fusion was the last of the passwords, so to celebrate the day itself I've released a very comprehensive
Boss Damage Chart. Stumped by any of the bosses? Now you can go straight for their weakness without having to experiment yourself. This covers every boss in the game post-opening, including hidden ones, so
beware of spoilers!

I've also created a page containing all of the Secret Passwords released in the previous updates for easy reference, which can be reached through the SuperDanny 2 game page. Enjoy!

Lastly, a word on the update scheduled for the 25th. I expressed some uncertainty about making it on time, and while it's not quite ready yet it I'm glad to say it certainly should be by then. And even if the main "gift" isn't ready I have some smaller ones to update with regardless, so be sure to check back then!

• Today's Password: 'topfusion'
• Password Effect: Enter this password to unlock Top Fusion, an unfinished beta weapon. It can be used by pressing the special weapon button while playing as SuperDanny.
• Password Reason: Top Man was originally going to be one of the main 8 Robot Masters instead of Snake Man. When I decided to make that change his Fusion was already partially finished, so I wanted a way for you to play as what was there when it was abandoned. Who doesn't like extra Fusions and beta material?

• Today's Password: 'outcast'
• Password Effect: Enter this password to replace all of the "Brown" enemies from Mega Man 6 with "Damage128" enemies. This is just a graphic swap and doesn't affect the enemy itself.
• Password Reason: 'Cause, funny.

• Today's Password: 'wildblue'
• Password Effect: Enter this password to start each stage and new life with 1 energy on any game mode.
• Password Reason: WildBlue is an inside-joke that I thought would be funny to include in the game while giving the very hardcore players the ultimate challenge that none of the other modes provide.

• Today's Password: 'desu'
• Password Effect: Enter this password to begin each stage and new life wearing the costume.
• Password Reason: Undoubtedly there are many out there who don't dig the SuperDanny concept, and undoubtedly those players get tired of having to switch to the costume over and over. So, this password pretty much turns it into a Mega Man game (or Proto Man game if combined with the 'bruce' password).

SuperDanny 2 released on December 19th last year, so in celebration I'll be making small SuperDanny 2-related updates every day from now till then.

Most of these updates will come in the form of "Secret Passwords". These can be typed in during the "Blyka's Door Presents" screen before the opening to produce various effects. If entered correctly a sound will play. They can't be found in-game, so no one has ever been able to use them until now.
I hope you enjoy some of the effects these have on the game!

• Today's Password: 'bruce'
• Password Effect: Enter this password to exchange the Mega Man costume for a Proto Man costume.
• Password Reason: Who wouldn't want to play as Proto Man?

As promised today's update consists of a new game: Green Biker Dude!
Now it's your chance to pop that wheelie for everlasting peace! Join the famous Green Biker Dude in his intense pre-X2 training efforts and hone your fighting and racing skills with a Ride Chaser in two different game modes, or compete with a friend locally. Hit the link for the download and more info!

The month of the Holidays has arrived, so what better way to celebrate than with some fireworks?
...What? You don't have any? Well then, Blyka's Door has you covered with a new mini-game: Fireworks!
This is a small, single-screen score-racking game that was planned and developed in well under a week, but I think it turned out pretty fun and polished all things considered. And even if you don't enjoy it as a game it's still a way to celebrate with fireworks on your computer, so go check it out!

But that's not all! Among the holidays in December is the end of the year, and to celebrate that I'm going out with a huge bang in the form of 10, yes, TEN, updates, to be made throughout the month of December. These are all pretty exciting and there should be something for everyone among them- see the schedule for yourself! *This is the only update that isn't really "finished" as of this update, so it may be delayed. Hopefully I can make it on time.

So be sure to check back here on the above dates, and in the meantime enjoy the holiday season!

No doubt many Mega Man fangame makers are aware of the NSF music format; an entire NES game's soundtrack, compressed into a single file with perfect loops on each song and tiny file size. Unfortunately, support for this awesome file in Game Maker is very limited, with only one extension out there to my knowledge that can handle them. And, great though it is, its NSF support is somewhat limited and can be confusing at times, which caused numerous headaches for me when trying to get an NSF system up and running the way I wanted it.

So, on the Examples page you'll find my latest example in the form of a PDF document containing advanced notes on how to better use NSF files in Game Maker via Shaltif's S-Winamp extension. It includes a working NSF DLL and how to use it, how to play the desired track of an NSF file, how to reset the game when using S-Winamp, and how to work with the actual S-Winamp object. Hopefully between Shaltif's base example and these notes, anyone can get a working NSF system up and running with minimal trouble.

And that's it for now. I hope to get at least one more exciting update out before the year ends,
so look forward to that.

Finally, the next big release for Blyka's Door is here! I am proud to present...
SD Powered Up is the first SuperDanny game that I made back in 2005, only now it has been Powered Up to include SuperDanny 2's engine and ton loads of new and improved content! Despite only being in the works for under 7 months as opposed to SuperDanny 2's 4 years, SD Powered Up is a game of near-equal quality.
Click the above link to learn more about and download it!
On a side note, this is naturally the "next Mega Man" release I mentioned earlier this year, and also the "????" game I announced alongside SuperDanny 2 back in 2007. It only took 4 years to get around to it, but yes, it never got canceled.

In addition to a new game, I have also released SuperDanny 2 V1.2! This includes a larger number of important bug fixes and visual improvements over V1.1, as well as a few small details tweaked to curb difficulty only slightly.
In particular, I think many will appreciate that Top Man, the game's opening boss, now has his original attack power from Mega Man 3 and his special rebound attack has been made a Hard Mode-only feature. While he may be too easy after his pattern is learned, the number of complaints in regards to his difficulty prompted a discussion with the game's tester, and I realized that perhaps his attacks were a bit too elaborate for a simple opening boss.
So, I hope this makes the game more accessible to people.

And there's still more; the update name of "Powered Up!" doesn't only apply to the new game, but also to the revamped Blyka's Door. In addition to an updated banner and Home Page image, I reorganized the main Games page to separate the collection in appropriate categories, updated the description text for many individual games, added YouTube links for Star Man -Upgraded- and Launch the Drache!, added viewable box art for SuperDanny 2
and made a few other tweaks around the site.

I also replaced the 5-star-based difficulty rating system on each game with text-based ratings that can be hovered over for a quick descriptive line. Shiny though the star images were, I think they were often inaccurate and didn't help the potential player much, where as text can give you a clue on what to expect.

Finally, I also ditched the Previews page and put Tuttle's Little 5-Island Adventure on the Games page. The Previews page was created to be an active page with frequently updated information regarding exciting future releases, but it never really took off the way I wanted it to. That and most of the exciting future releases have been released now, so with only one game on the page I figured its usefulness had ended.

All in all, a very large and important update to the site as a whole that was a long time coming.
I hope you enjoy SD Powered Up, and look forward to future updates!

Yes! Blyka's Door has an unexpected new release in the form of a Mega Man Legends mini-game: Bon Ball!

A rest was desperately needed from my other project as I worked on a very tedious aspect of it, so I decided to finally indulge my long-standing desire to pump out a game in under a week's development time, and what better way than to contribute to the Mega Man Legends fan game scene over at the Sky Pirate Arcade?

As life would have it this game broke my goal and was stretched a couple days beyond a week's development time (although it wasn't the project's fault so much as life throwing far more crap at me to deal with than usual, thus postponing work). In actual time spent working on the game it should have been done in a week or less easy,
so I say it counts. :P

The point of the project being a speedy completion (and one that I could do entirely myself- graphics and all) it isn't the most polished piece of work, but personally I'm quite satisfied with the result for what it is.
You can read more about and download it here. Enjoy!

And it is now the number of years since Blyka's Door launched; happy anniversary to the site!

While I don't have anything fancy to celebrate with like last year's SD2 boss video, I did manage to upload two new items to the Resources page, and both audio for a change!

The first and more exciting is a sound pack for retro Mega Man, which consists of 40 sounds taken from Mega Man and Mega Man 2. I get the impression these are in demand fairly often, and the only rips I found of them many years ago were pretty crappy, so hopefully some will find this pack useful.
The other sound pack is from the obscure NES title, Milon's Secret Castle.
Yes, the Resources page is basically made up of whatever I feel like ripping for it.

For a word of progress, I've been working very hard on the next Mega Man release for Blyka's Door, and it's getting very near completion (at least, in terms of items on the to-do list; levels are quite time consuming).
Look forward to it!

And that's the update. Happy 5th Anniversary!

SuperDanny 2 V1.1 is now available for download! V1.1 includes a number of important bug fixes and graphic/audio tweaks and improvements, as well as some very kickass box art drawn by fAB for a new loading screen. I had hoped the game wouldn't require a V1.1 release so soon after the original, but all the fixes and improvements definitely made it worthwhile. Naturally, you can download the latest release here.

In other news, I took probably a little over a month's leave from game creation after the completion of SD2, but since late January I've been hard at work on various projects as time allows. I hope for 2011 to be an exciting year for new releases, so look forward to future updates!