SMBC Version 1.2 Delayed Slightly

Super Mario Bros. Crossover version 1.2 will be coming out in December instead of November.

I’ve been sick for the last 5 days, so I haven’t been able to work on Super Mario Bros. Crossover as much as planned. I’m feeling a little better today, so hopefully I’m recovering. I’ll still try to get the game out as soon as possible, but it won’t be before the end of November. Also, there’s some new features I’m adding, including unlockable cheats and a new game mode. The new game mode I’m adding is the way I originally intended for the game to be played, but I didn’t put it in for various reasons which I’ll explain later.

I’m not going to announce release dates any more because it’s way to stressful to keep them. From now on, the game will come out when it’s ready instead of being rushed to meet a deadline. So I’m not telling you a specific day, but it shouldn’t be too long.

Also… being sick sucks balls.

About the Next Updates for Super Mario Bros. Crossover

Development is resumed on Super Mario Bros. Crossover and an estimated timeline is given for the next few updates.

I thought I’d give a quick update on the development of Super Mario Bros. Crossover for people that are interested. Ever since version 1.1 was released, I’ve been working on other projects and taking care of things in my personal life. My goal for doing that stuff was to have a comfortable place to work  and to make enough money to live off of. I can happily say that I have succeeded, so now I can focus completely on the game once again. I’ve been working on it for the last few days and it’s like a breath of fresh air. It always feels so good to see my dreams come true in Super Mario Bros. Crossover.

Originally the next update to the game was going to be huge, but because it’s been a long time since the last version came out, I’m going to release a small update first. You can expect the small update out around the beginning of November. All I can promise is that it will include a new character. I already have this character in the game in a very early state, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and add some new gameplay elements. If I have time, I’ll add some new features to the other characters as well. If I don’t, then I’ll save those things for the big update.

The big update will add a lot of new stuff to the game. It will definitely give people a reason to come back and play. If everything goes according to plan, it might feel like a new game in some ways. If I am able to work miracles, the big update will be out before the end of the year. Otherwise, it will probably come out in January. But it would be awesome to get it out before Christmas, so I’ll do my best to make that happen.

I hope you guys are excited to see what’s coming. Super Mario Bros. Crossover will be getting a lot bigger soon. It will be nice to see it approaching my original plans.

First Fundraiser a Success

We raised all the money we needed for the new forums in only two days. Now I’ll be raising money for random things, and I’ll be starting on the next version of Super Mario Bros. Crossover really soon.

Amazingly, we raised all the money we needed for our Forums Upgrade Fundraiser in only two days. That’s a little bit crazy, but it’s awesome. I already purchased the new software and I’ve been looking over the documentation. As soon as we’re ready, we’ll transition over to the new system.

Also, since raising the money was so successful, I’m going to continue trying to take people’s money… uh, I mean… accepting donations. There’s no pressure or anything, and people usually donate anyway, but now you can see a nice graph of what your money is going towards. This first batch of donations will go towards a bunch of random stuff because I just moved and for some reason can still barely afford rent. But the next ones will probably be a new computer and a video camera. So now people will know what their money is going toward, and it looks cool because it’s a bar graph that gradually fills. I mean, come on, who doesn’t like a bar graph that fills up? It’s like a health bar in a video game, but it’s even better because when it fills up, I get money. I wish all health bars could give you money when they fill up.

Also, I’m just about ready to resume work on the next version of Super Mario Bros. Crossover. I’ll probably start after we switch the forums over. Coolness.

Help Us Upgrade the Forums

We’re raising money to upgrade the Exploding Rabbit Forums to vBulletin.

Today we make history. It’s the first fundraiser for Exploding Rabbit! Personally, I hate fundraisers. But I realized that if I don’t start raising money the stuff I want to do will never happen. So this is the first one.

If you’ve stopped by the Exploding Rabbit Forums recently, you may notice that they’ve gotten pretty big. And they get more popular every day. This is all thanks to the amazing Exploding Rabbit Forums Team, which includes J Squared as the administrator, Ganymede as a global moderator, and the recent addition of kyoo as another global moderator. There are also some other people that moderate individual forums that are doing a fantastic job. And then of course there is me… but all I do is tell other people what to do, and I also write stupid crap every once in a while.

Yes, the forums are pretty awesome, and that’s because the people that post there are awesome. They’re a great bunch of people with a good sense of humor, and they’re also very intelligent and respectful. Such a wonderful community deserves the best forum software around, so I’d like to upgrade to vBulletin. This will give the forums many new features, but my favorite new feature is blogs. Yeah, everyone will get their own blog. That’s badass. Now I will finally have a place to write my nonsensical ramblings. And so will everyone else.

We’re accepting donations using a widget from ChipIn, and the money is processed through PayPal. It costs $285 to upgrade to vBulletin, but I set the target to $300 to offset any fees charged by Paypal. I set a deadline for 30 days, and I think we’ll meet it easily. If you use the Exploding Rabbit Forums, or you want to join an awesome community and start using them, consider offering a donation to help improve the experience for everyone.

Now let’s work together and make this shit happen! You can donate using the ChipIn widget in the sidebar. I made a post in the forums about this, so feel free to discuss it there.

Super Mario Bros. Crossover Version 1.1 Released

Super Mario Bros. Crossover Version 1.1 is released! I talk about some of the new things and encourage you to go play it right now!

So it’s finally the day everyone has been waiting for… especially me. I’ve been looking forward to this day because it means I get to take a break. But anyway, you don’t want to hear what I have to say. You want to play version 1.1. So head on over to the new official website, supermariobroscrossover.com, and play that shit!

This new version is awesome. It has tons of new stuff, and it’s almost like a re-release of the game. This is how I would have wanted to originally release the game if I had the time. Version 1.0 didn’t even feel like a game to me. It didn’t add enough stuff to Super Mario Bros to be its own thing, so that’s why I often referred to it as a demo. Hopefully seeing all the new stuff I added gives you some hints that I plan on adding A LOT to this game. This is just the beginning. It really does feel like the beginning to me.

Ryu is now in the game, but that is old news to me. The thing I’m most excited about, and also the new feature I spent the most time on by far, is that the game now features a built-in NES sound emulator. All of the music you hear in the game now is emulated using a C/C++ library called Game Music Emu. There is no more mp3 music, so the filesize is significantly smaller and the sound quality is better. The drawback is that this causes a decrease in performance for the game because of all the extra work it’s doing. I’ve offered several sound quality options that change the amount of processing the emulator does, so I am hoping if people with slow computers use the low quality option, they’ll still be okay. If it still runs slow, you can turn off the music completely and performance will improve even more. My computer is kind of slow so I have to use low quality.

And then there’s a lot of other new stuff that I don’t feel like talking about. You can just play and you’ll see it. I made a page that talks about what I changed. It’s the new version history page. And like I said before, there’s now a website just for playing the game. And I made a cool banner for the website. At least, I think it’s cool.

Oh I remember what I wanted to say. A lot of people ask me about porting the game to other systems like Wii Homebrew, PSP, ROM, and other stuff like that. So here’s the deal. For now, I’m just making this one version of the game, and I don’t want people to port it to anything else. Why, you may ask? I have been advised by people in the game development industry that it’s best to leave it as only a Flash game for now because it doesn’t compete with Nintendo or any of the other companies whose intellectual property is used in the game. As a flash game, Super Mario Bros. Crossover is very nonthreatening. It’s just a fan game. But if it starts getting ported to run on other hardware, especially Nintendo hardware, then it’s a different story. So for now, it’s just an online game that you play in your browser.

And I’m also not going to officially have any download links for the game. It helps me when you play the game on my website instead of just downloading it and playing it on your own. Your visits will help increase the page rank of the site and can help me to get more exposure and have more opportunities in general. I didn’t put anything in the game that stops you from playing it offline though, so you still can if you want, but I’d rather you play on the site.

And I guess that about wraps things up for now. Hopefully everything works in the game. If not, I can do some small fixes. Report the bugs in the appropriate topic in the forum, and I’ll destroy them… one by one. I don’t know how long it will be until the next big feature gets in the game. I’m definitely taking a vacation, but it’s sort of in my nature to work constantly, so who knows.

I hope you enjoy version 1.1. I worked like hell to make it, and a few people helped me with some stuff, mostly J Squared and Blargg. So thanks for your support, thanks for playing the game, and most of all, thanks for enjoying the game. If no one liked it, I would have stopped at version 1.0.

And now, it is my great pleasure to tell you to get your ass over to supermariobroscrossover.com and play Super Mario Bros. Crossover Version 1.1… and while your ass is doing that, mine is going to sleep!

Talk Shit in the New Forums

Exploding Rabbit gets discussion forums. Now people can talk shit to each other. Cool.

Hellz yeah! It’s about ta get crazy up in here! We gots forums, yo!

Since a bunch of people were already talking to each other on the Facebook page, I decided to start some forums. I think it’s awesome that there is a community building around Super Mario Bros Crossover. And the people are pretty cool too. It’s awesome connecting with so many gamers that appreciate the 8-bit classics. I never imagined all this would happen just by releasing a simple game, but it’s so cool.

So anyway, go check out the Exploding Rabbit Forums and start talking shit to each other. Or you could be nice to each other. Whatever. I’m gonna keep releasing new crap so there will always be something new to talk about.

And here is some other news that no one cares about but I will tell you anyway. I changed the domain of this website from exploding-rabbit.com to explodingrabbit.com. There’s no more dash! OMFG Megaton or whatever people say. I’m not up to date with the current lingo. So yeah. Happy Forums day!

Let’s Chill Out

Jay gets tired of all the praise and requests he is getting, so he decided to make himself look like an idiot.

Wow, Super Mario Bros. Crossover is still in the news today. I was feeling a little bit frustrated about some business type things, but everything is much better now. But anyway, I figured I’d put up a funny video of myself just to relieve some of the pressure.

Video removed for copyright reasons. It’s possible I might put it up again later.

Yes, that is me dancing like an idiot. See, you all thought I was some genius game developer, but it turns out I’m just a crazy person. Have a good day and please remember to not take yourself or your life too seriously. 🙂

My second interview just got posted. Be sure to read it because it’s pretty funny.

By the way, the game has been played almost 6 million times. 🙂

And we’re talking about the game on The Exploding Rabbit Facebook Page, so be sure to check it out. I’ll be looking there for feature requests and other things.

SMBC Hits 1 Million

Super Mario Bros. Crossover gets over 1 million plays.

Super Mario Bros. Crossover has been played over 1,000,000 times, and it hasn’t even been on the Internet for 48 hours yet. Seriously, I just made this game for fun and wasn’t expecting all of this, but I’m very, very flattered. I’m so appreciative of all the nice comments people are leaving and also for donations, which I had no idea would happen. But really, I’m just glad people are playing my game. I did an interview that will probably answer a lot of your questions. My email is flooded and I will try to get back to people when I can.

Thank you for everything. Just keep playing the game and having fun.