ARTICLE: I Just Made New Characters

An original super hero by Aeolus06 (credit: DeviantArt)

This post is a number of things. It's a commentary on diversity arguments in comics. It's an announcement of a secondary project I have in the works. Most importantly, it's a story of how I got into popular culture in the first place.

I was born with problems. I know how sappy that sounds, but I had difficulty hearing and seeing. Low sounds were almost inaudible to me while high ones hurt my ears and fixed objects were often perceived to be moving. Suffice to say, this cut me out of sports and made it hard for me to make friends for quite a while (my Dad even thought I was being rude to him prior to my hearing problem being diagnosed).

The angriest we've ever seen 'em.

So I found myself taking shelter in stories; both print and film/televised. These were worlds that I felt like I had some degree of control in; I felt more able to function in fictional worlds than real ones. It helped that the TV was at just  Being engrossed in these kind of stories left me wanting to contribute to that part of the world in the same way I imagine other young were inspired to take up sport after watching a great sportsman. This lead me to imagine myself into stories and play time often consisted of me making up stories.

My introduction to superheroes came with the Ninja Turtles. I was also introduced to the cutlery draw at the same time, which caused no small level of concern to my parents. Sharp objects + vision problems = potential for much bigger problems. The damage was done however- I loved heroes in masks and nothing could change that. I found myself later introduced to the Transformers, the 90s X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons and, of course, Batman.

This isn't the only way for black kids to feel that they can be
heroes.

So what does this have to do with diversity arguments? Well, so often I hear arguments that changing
an established hero's race or gender is necessary because how else are kids from demographic X going to see themselves as heroes? Brian-Micheal Bendis often shares the story of his adopted son when talking about the creation of Miles Morales. I sorta get the sentiment, but I'm not sure it holds up. I knew I could never be Batman. Batman, for starters, was an American who understood how the world worked, and I was an Australian who could recall being heartbroken because my parents were driving me to Ikea and not Africa.

More importantly, though, Batman was an adult. I was under 10.

So I did something that many who argue against diversity have been demanding for years; I made my own characters- ones that I could see myself in. They were called the Super Kids and they were a cross between the 90s Batman toys and the Power Rangers with Spider-Man-like enemies. I never worked out an origin story for them, but never found myself caring; I became invested in these guys I made what seemed then to me to be elaborate stories for them (the fight between the Orange Super Kid and their enemy The Hawk is a story that stuck with me as a personal epic). This filled the same function for me; it allowed me to see myself as someone heroic even though I wasn't exactly like the people I was reading about and watching.

I made many more superheroes of my own design. Again, this was part of creating a controllable world that had long ago left any control I had over it. But what it means is that I am a firm believer in the "make new characters that fit the demographic.

The Great Ghostman

And that leads me on to the side-project announcement. Because I believe so firmly in making new characters that represent something other than the typical American hero, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Along with The Caped Crusader, I am making The Great Ghostman; a game about an Australian super hero. I'm not going to give away too many details yet, but see the screens to the side.

I'm basing most of the world on the
area around Red Hill and Paddington,
Brisbane.

As for origins, when Luke Scarce is shot he finds himself getting up and walking again; half-human, half-ghost. He is now able to walk through walls and use telekinesis. But who is behind his
shooting, and why?

For the record, my sight and hearing problems are no longer a concern, through hearing therapy and a time with corrective lenses I have had normal senses since about age 12. The only last effect was a strange accent that when I turned 18, turned out to be rather impressive to girls (and yes, I did think I'd hit the jackpot).

New Caped Crusader Graphics

For a long time, The Caped Crusader has been using tiles from the long-forgotten SNES game Live-a-Live.

Now, I've been working on a side-project for a while and I've been making some custom tiles for it. I've started to really like them, and started wondering "why aren't these getting used in Caped Crusader?".

So now they are. See below;

It's a bit light, but I'm going to tint the screen dark.

Storyline and hint at characters

Well, I'm up to getting the in-game gameplay done for the demo release. It's a long process, but I wanted to give you that extra little something. Here's some in-game dialogue.

The hero I'm hinting at shouldn't be a surprise to anyone familiar with the Bat-family, but suffice to say, this game's story is going to focus heavily on Batman's allies.

Another picture

I know, it's been a long time since I posted a picture. I have been working on the game, but my day job has made things difficult to get as much done as I would have liked (I'm a teacher, and currently on probation as a new employee- gotta impress to feed my wife and kids).

But a little bit of free time on my hands means that I can post this:

Just. One. Bad. Day.

ACE Chemical, the area where meet a far less serious character. I wasn't fond of the way I designed it until I added the graffiti on the walls. I think that gives it just the "Batman" touch it needs.

Where does he get such wonderful toys?

Okay, so the reason for the lack of updates...

RPG Maker 2003 is a great program. I've been using it for an awfully long time and I'm pretty decent at using it. But to be honest; I'm forcing the program to do what it isn't designed to do. That means that basically everything is going to be a long process. I'm in the process of making and testing gadgets and programming enemies. Some of this I've done before, but some things currently only work in theory.

That said, I'd like to introduce one of the alternate costumes in the game:

Did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?

That's right; the Tim Burton Batsuit from the 80s has come to Caped Crusader! This suit will have increased HP, but lowered skill (I mean, you can't turn your head in that thing!).

Okay, here's the actual Bat-HUD

So, trying to test some systems, here's your HUD:

Now with Gadgets

The idea is that while in the Batcave, you pick 4 gadgets to put into your Utility Belt. Those four gadgets can be accessed by using hotkeys.

Bat-HUD

Been quiet on the blog; mostly because I've been working on the finer details of The Caped Crusader. Here's what I have that I can show off;

The HUD is almost complete.... Hey, this is harder than it looks, Okay?

Not much to add, but...

Here's the title screen;

Insert Batman theme that you're most familiar with.

I'm hard at work trying to make a grab system work. There's a lot of bugs to work out, But I'll do it.

The Caped Crusader: Villains reveal

Well, I've been up late working on the sprites for all of rogues in The Caped Crusader. Here's the roster. The sprites are incomplete (Lady Shiva needs a bit of shading work and I'm not real happy with Black Mask's face), but here's the roster:

No, this scene isn't in the game, it looks a little too West Side Story.

So from left to right we have

Row 4 (Back): Lady Shiva, Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Talon
Row 3: Carmine Falcone, Victor Zasz, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Scarecrow.
Row 2: Black Mask, Penguin, Two-Face
Row 1: Joker

Chillin' in the cave

Okay, made a new map today. The Batcave is now formed.



An admittedly unimpressive bat-computer. I'm working on it.



Gonna take you for a ride on a big Bat Plane...

Have a guess which part of that above pic was handmade. Yeah, the Batplane could be better, I'll refine it as I go, but it's now 11:15 pm, and my eyes feel like sawdust.

Blue or Black?

Okay, so I'm at a crossroads.

I've made two Batman sprites. You've seen the black one already. That was my first choice. Then I remembered that in some Batman stories (some of the most popular, in fact) the Dark Knight dresses in a blue cape and cowl. So I made the blue one, and to be honest, I kinda love it.




"I'm BATMAN!"
"No, I'M BATMAN!"
"No, I'M BATMAN!"
"No, I'M BATMAN!"
"No, I'M BATMAN!"
"No, I'M BATMAN!"
"No, I'M BATMAN!"...

I know, however, that the vast majority of people see the character as dressing in black. Now, I lean towards the blue, but what do you think? Leave a comment below indicating which one you like more and be aware that whichever one becomes the "official" version, there will be an option for the other costume in the game (that's the entire reason I created two sprites).

Let me know.

A quick look at a villain

So, if you've been looking at my screenshots, you've been noticing a familiar, not so serious face in the game. Well, I'm about to reveal another villain in the game; see the screenshot below.



Yeah, waddaya want?!

Expect in the next few weeks to see Batman's various gadgets make an appearance.

Announcing: The Caped Crusader- A Batman Fan Game

So, firstly, welcome to the blog. I've been using RM2K3 for quite a while now and decided that now is the time to blog my projects.

So I'm starting with a fan game I've been working on; introducing, The Caped Crusader- my Batman fan game. It's a top-down adventure game that features a Action Battle System (and ABS, as we call it RM2K3) of my own design.

As some who have been following me on Awesomnistic have known, I'm a bit of a comic fan. This game is designed to get people invested in comics by promoting some of my favourite story lines.

The story is still a work in progress, but I'm borrowing heavily from the Court of Owls, with a smattering of bits and pieces from other Batman stories.

Oh, right; Pics, or it didn't happen, right? I got your back:

Batman walks around my incomplete Gotham narrows.

The ACE Chemical plant, and a very familiar face...

Just a few faces you can expect to see...

Before anyone asks, I'm not trying to reinvent the Arkham games. I honestly haven't played them (I'm kinda' poor) and what I know about them comes from reviews I've read. You'll still see a few elements that may seem familiar (a little bit of stealth gameplay, for example) but I'm not using it as Arkham as my inspiration; I'm hoping to create something that feels like it's own beast, and I hope you'll join me on the journey.

Eventually, I'll be posting it up on RMN, but I need plenty of time to fine-tune it and hopefully get a demo together.

I'm also going to post tutorials as I create the game, and promote other 2K3 projects that I consider inspirations to this game. In the meantime, check out Awesomnistic, my primary blog for all things Superhero.