12/27/07: Thanks for your continuing support of Hasslevania with your gameplay questions! I'll always try to answer them as soon as I can. I've almost gotten 2 of the new weapons finished for Hasslevania 2 and they came out pretty cool. One thing to note is that I've made the short sword in this game smaller than it was in the original Hasslevania. It just didn't seem like much of an actual short sword, since the thing is almost as big as Rovert was. Although you'd think that making a weapon smaller would suck, it actually looks a lot better this way. I think maybe this has to do with the fact that I've wanted to make this alteration for a long time now, but wasn't able to with the first game because everything was so intergrated. The best part about starting over is being able to make all of those needed additions I wanted to from way back.

12/22/07: I don't know if there'll be any huge ground-breaking announcements for awhile while Hasslevania 2 is kept under wraps, so until then I just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (how generic!). Stay warm, stay safe, and thanks for coming back to DXF Games- the most popular website at my house!

12/16/07: Rikus was kind enough to put his video review of Hasslevania to text format up at the Daily Click and I've now added that review on the DXF Games reviews page. In Hasslevania 2 news, kevinski has had some excellent ideas on how to help improve Rovert's control scheme, and I've been trying to make the changes and get everything working properly. On a very early test, the results are very positive! The changes to the control scheme now give me a couple of more options to give Rovert some extra types of moves. He can now look upwards, for example, and it's going to be the first step in some nifty linked moves. The early idea is to have activating the high jump tie in with looking upwards first, instead of the old way of high jumping while coming out of a crouch (which sometimes made players do a high jump by accident while ducking down to avoid arrows and the like.) I'm hard at work, but the best part is that everything is still fresh and fun now. I better make the best use of this time before the eventual "dread and burnout" phase arrives later!

12/15/07: The Daily Click has a new Klikcast episode out (#4) and Hasslevania is featured as a video review in it! I also made up a little "Very Rovert Christmas" scene that plays out at the end of the episode. If you'd like to download the episode, you can check it out on its page here.

12/10/07: I suppose it's important to say a bit about the Hasslevania sequel. I'll say that the story is shaping up nicely for one. It's pretty interesting and is very different than that of the first game, which should be expected. Kevinski has some great ideas on new types of obstacles and ways for Rovert to move around. And oh yeah I thought of some good stuff too! And this may not be too popular but the sequel is also going to be a pay game with a free demo. I'd be a fool not to do so, what with the original Hasslevania with download totals far exceeding 10,000 units. As I've always done with my pay games, it will have a low price tag. Right now I'm working on the inventory / status screen for it, although technically my last session was cut short after a bad bout with stomach pains & intense nausea for about 3 hours. I hope it was the damn milk, because I tossed the rest of it this morning haha. Anyways, for the second time now in a few months the forces of imperfect food sources have tried to defeat me and I held them back (more successfully this last time). Hasslevania 2 shall not be derailed by tainted hot chocolate or poisoned cream of mushroom soup!

12/6/07: BLAH! Another bug! I don't know how I missed this before, because I was so sure it worked fine, but no. If you're playing a "Sans Devil" run in Hasslevania and go into where the devil normally is, his old conversation will still pop up even though he's not there! Although this might sound harmless, after the speech is done with, the game freezes up. The only way to right yourself is to exit the game by either pressing the "Q" or "F2" keys. I suppose for now all I can say is that if you're playing a Sans Devil game, well, don't go in his old room and you'll be fine. I don't want to have to take down and put up ANOTHER version of Hasslevania again, but what I'll do is make a list of any other bugs that other people have found and will go back sometime in the future and make the appropriate fixings. I'm just too busy right now, and the game is mostly very solid as it is.

12/4/07 (b): The second project is still in its early developmental stages, but I will say that the game is called HASSLEVANIA 2: THIS SPACE FOR RENT. To help make the game as good as it can be, I've enlisted the great kevinski (of some fine Hasslevania elements such as the Gala Moth, skelevator, and brittles ideas to name a few) to assist me with the overall design elements of the sequel. So far the two of us have come up with some great ideas and I think fans of the original game will be in for a treat. You're going to be seeing a lot of changes and at the same time instantly recognize the characters, artwork, and writing style of the first game. With a release date absolutely nowhere in sight, we'll have the proper time to ensure that Hasslevania 2 kicks giant amounts of ass!

12/4/07 (a): Once again proving that fans of DXF Games are the smartest fans in the world is Tim R, the latest person to make a donation to the DXF Games development fund! Thank you Tim, and have fun with your new map!! There are 2 projects in the works as we speak here at DXF Games, and both are Hasslevania related. The first one is going to be a Christmas short that will open up the next installment of The Daily Click's Klickcast Episode! The Klickcast is a summary of the month's events and games released during it, and features interviews from up and coming indie developers and vets alike. This one is of special interest to me though because it's going to feature a video review of Hasslevania! I've asked Ninja Bradley, who is of course THE voice of Rovert himself (among others) to assist me with his vocal talents for this Christmas short and he's agreed to do so. If all goes well, we should be able to get the voices down to tape this upcoming Sunday, and I should have the short done soon afterwards.

12/2/07: Hasslevania has won The Daily Click's game of the week award #262! I would really like to thank those who took the time to vote for it there! Hopefully the sequel can win as well, in the year 2009 or so. I consider the award to be an honor, and also fuel to continue making games for the people. Also, old mascot "Killer" the guinea pig has been sent off to the glue factory and replaced by new mascot Chris Subdevil. It was about time, eh?

12/1/07: I made up a great new challenge for myself yesterday and it's probably the toughest in Hasslevania so far. It's called the Manditory Run, where you just try to get things that you need to win the game and nothing else. There were a few choices to be made to do this and I think I picked the correct ones to give me the ultra-low 9% completion percentage after I won it. I could have maybe got 1 or 2% less but I accidentally did a codebook out of order and had to pick up an unskippable apple. I also got the treasure hoarde to avoid having to smash tons of candles for the $3000 axe all day. The weirdest part is that you can only really do this sanely on the new Wussy Schoolgirl mode. The healing coffins make it so that you don't have to constantly save and buy food from Oldie, since you can't pick up any food you find on the ground or in chests. You're also stuck with the same 8 max skill hearts you start out with, which means 4 high jumps maximum before you need to refill your hearts back up. It's an excellent challenge to try out, but you really need to think about the order you do things in more than usual, and jump over a few treasures as not to pick them up by mistake! Here's 2 screenshots of when I was done:

11/29/07: There's a new member of Daxon's Allies as of today, and that's Planet Freeplay! The guy there has been a big supporter of Hasslevania even before Rovert was a twinkle in his grandaddy's eye, so it's the least I can do to add his banner above. I almost lost my cell phone for good today, and when I called it I got directly sent to voicemail. The default girl's recorded voice came over the line and said "The person you are trying to reach.."  COUNT... DRACULA!!!! "is not available at this time." Oh man, I had completely forgot that I had recorded my voicemail name like that, with the voice and everything hahahaha. Thankfully the phone was not completely lost or taken by somebody, or that could have been a bit embarrassing going to meet them to get it back.

11/28/07: For the second day in a row somebody made a donation to DXF! Let's all thank Alec S! Enjoy your new map of  Hasslevania! And you can use your new map on the brand new HASSLEVANIA VERSION 2 which is out right now! There were some bug fixes and some minor graphical updates sure, but the most important change is that the game mode "Vanilla" has been changed to none other than "Wussy Schoolgirl"! Hooray! This new game mode is specially designed for players who are new to Hasslevania. It's still tough, but Rovert can get healed up to 50% of his life whenever he saves inside a coffin now! The trade off is that you can't get the good ending playing the "Wussy Schoolgirl" mode, but you can with any of the other 4 (or 5 if you also include the game mode that becomes available after you win the game). Hasslevania's already been downloaded thousands of times, and now it's time to try Version 2!

11/27/07: First and foremost, thank you Ed S. who was awesome and made a donation to the DXF Games development fund! I hope you enjoy your new map! I'm going to be putting up a Hasslevania version 2 soon. There was a bug that was discovered and it had been missed like 100 billion playthroughs before but it has to be fixed. It might not even happen to you while playing, but just in case here's what it is: In the LCD Tower, when you get to talk to Me Sued Ya the 2nd time around, well if you didn't kill the top most brittles with the Family Whip and just smashed him into a pile instead he can and will get up again and eventually walk over and damage or possibly kill Rovert during the cutscene! Sounds nasty to me, so this has to be repaired right away. You can still press ESC to skip past that scene but you'd miss out on some great parts of the Story that are pretty important to the game. I'll keep everybody posted as to when Version 2 will be ready to go, and thanks for the bug find Fifth!

11/25/07 (b): I've received an awesome review of Hasslevania from somebody who has won it this afternoon! It's from shockedfrog and it's now up on the games review page too with Shroomlock's. Oh, and the prize for anybody who donates to the DXF Games development fund is none other than a big screenshot map of Hasslevania in its entirety except for the elusive WTF Zone, which has been discovered by shockedfrog and Kaluroth so far. I'm going to go and buy a brand new notebook tomorrow morning while my car's at the dealer's and start going crazy on the thing with all the ideas and stuff I have planned for Hasslevania: Episode 2, This Space for Rent. I hope I can do my vision justice because right now my vision is pretty friggin' cool! Ahahaha....?

11/25/07 (a): I've been trying to promote Hasslevania on every message board that I can think of that its users would be remotely interested in. It's basically like a 3 hour endeavor every night before going to bed but it's a lot of fun to do. I just added another review of Hasslevania to the game reviews page, and it's another one from Shroomlock over at The Daily Click. I've also been answering more gameplay e-mail questions when I can. It's good to see that many people are indeed sticking it out through any difficulties and trying to win the game. There's even been a few more who have indeed won the whole thing! I'm in the process of making something that will be a small "Thank You" to those of you who have donated to the DXF Games development fund already. Be on the lookout for the reward soon!

11/23/07: I think what I'm going to do if I get enough donations is purchase Multimedia Fusion 2. I figure with its advanced features over MMF1.5 I could do a lot of spiffy stuff in a Hasslevania sequel- of which I'm starting to compile a ton of great ideas for. So much for a total game making vacation, right? I've added a few things to the site, most notably Derek Yu's review from TigSource and what I condsider an absolutely fantastic quote of criticism from Krinkle also over at TigSource about the 120MB of voiceovers on Hasslevania. Somehow I really like it and put it up on my Hasslevania Homepage's splash page as a tribute. Now that's weird!

11/22/07: All I can say is WOW! Hasslevania has been downloaded over 1700 times- from just the first mirror alone!!! (Thanks Dr. James for the awesome stat by the way!!) In minor celebration I've uploaded two new pictures for the "Information" and "Enemies" pages over on the Hasslevania Homepage. I have been trying hard to spread the word about the game on different message boards that are semi related to Castlevania in hopes for more future fans of the game. There have been a few of you who have e-mailed some gameplay questions and I have answered each one. I've spent so much time making the game that I don't think I'll ever be able to totally remove its imprint from my brain, so if you have any question or comment whatsoever, drop me an e-mail. Most of the reaction has been positive, with the majority of complaints being how hard it is to find your way after getting the high heel boots (see the entry below for help with that) and the demand for a "Hasslevania Lite" that features no voice overs which translates to a much smaller download. There are so many voiceovers entwined throughout the game that removing them all would be a giant task- one that I'm not up for anytime soon as I'm on a self-imposed break from coding for a little while to rest up for the next one. If there's ever a lite version, this will be the first place to find out about it, but since I feel the voiceovers add so much to the whole feel of the game don't look for the lite version until a long while from now.

11/21/07 (b): What a difference a few hours can make. The website has gotten over 1300 hits since I last posted, which for this site is really something else. Hasslevania was (sorta') featured a bit on TigSource where one Derek Yu observed "Screw this game!" LOL, awesome! Anyhow, a few of you have gotten stuck at the same part of the game just after purchasing the high heels, and mostly it's because you're not sure on where to go afterwards. Well, there are two possibilities: One is hard to find and the other is harder to find. The easier of the two I actually put a hint book in to help players out with it. In the first save room there's a book that says "A DRAFT!?" When you put that hint and the boots together it's not so hard anymore now is it? Good luck everybody, and spread the word about Hasslevania!

11/21/07 (a): Well, I'm sort of writing to you from the future I suppose because it's really still the 20th. However, I feel it's late enough in the day and I'll be too busy tomorrow morning so I'm releasing Hasslevania: The Quest for Shuteye... RIGHT NOW!

11/20/07: Well, it's been over 10 months and now the wait is only one more day. I don't know exactly when I can get it all together tomorrow, but rest assured that Hasslevania and its new homepage will be ready to go sometime on Wednesday. I have all my mirrors confirmed except for one, but that should be more than enough to work with if I still don't have the last by tomorrow. I'd like to thank everyone who offered to mirror the game, and trust me should there be a sequel I'll look into mp3 and ogg files for future speech files!

11/17/07: At long last, Hasslevania's beta has gotten its first preview (in English) over at Indygamer. To all of you coming here that are new to this whole process, I welcome you and hope that you'll enjoy the game once it's out in like... Holy crap, FOUR DAYS!!! I'm adding the preview to the reviews and previews section here now, but if you'd like to see the original check it out here.

11/14/07: I've changed the look of Rovert's high jumps now into something much better than it was. Not even the testers have seen the new jumps yet and I think they'll be surprised. I think it really adds a lot to the look of the game in its own way and can't believe I didn't do it sooner. I'm also going back and not "dumbing down" some parts of the game by making it easier than it should be. If a part of the game is supposed to be hard, and you die 5 times trying to get past it, then that's the way it's going to be. The big difference here is that the difficulty won't come from something out of the player's control of crappy gameplay- if the player has the skills to succeed he will. Fall-through floors have made a slight comeback in the game, months after I took a few of the nasty ones out. They're supposed to be there, so they're back. The binoculars have been nerfed, but since nobody's played the game really with the super powered ones who will know the difference? I have some slight fixins' left to complete tonight as I discovered some more to do last night while I was playing and trying new things out. It's always something, this game.. If I get aggravated enough fixing bugs later I think I'll throw some more spikes in somewhere for the hell of it. Aha!

11/10/07: A couple of doozy glitches were discovered and fixed last night, and thankfully they were found because I would have never saw one of them coming from a mile away. It sure does pay to have a devoted team of beta testers help out for a game this big! Very importantly, although you guys won't know the difference I am nerfing the crap out of the binoculars power up item to have it only show where secret entrances are located, and not for every hidden item too which was the case before. It just made the game way too easy once you found them. Anyhow, they'll still be very valuble to Rovert they just won't hand deliver you the game a lot faster than need be. Some other rooms were rearranged a bit to reflect better puzzles and layouts. As if that wasn't good enough, there have been lots of cool people who have offered to help mirror the game when it's finished, as its 137 MB would have quickly killed my bandwidth (and in turn, this website). All in all, I'm very happy with how the game is shaping up, and happier still that it will actually be out when I said it was going to be!

11/9/07: One of the beta testers has won Hasslevania! He managed to get a 95% collection total, which is really good. Props be to Kaluroth who is the 2nd person to ever complete the game. I have been working a lot on the final product lately, including some music changes and adding some pop-up text screens for spoken lines that didn't have them before. There will probably still be a few minor lines that won't get a text bubble (Oldie's one liners are a good example), but most of the voice overs will.  Players that find the good map can also view a much more detailed version of this map from the continue game screen now that doesn't show while playing normally (you'll see what I mean). And although Kaluroth got a whopping 95%, he did not find the fabled WTF Zone. Who will find it first???

11/6/07: There have been 2 more bits of news concerning two of my games that have been showcased on two different Polish websites recently. One is a review for Necropolis Rising (3/5 stars) and the other is a preview for Hasslevania, which was done by one of my beta testers (a 5- out of 6 in the Slimaczek clickzine). I tried to translate both pages using the Poltran online service, but it did not come out very well at all. I am going to list the two links to the original pages in the reviews sections for now, and if you can read Polish that's awesome because you're doing better than me already! If I ever get it translated I'll post it as soon as possible. And thanks for those reviews / previews!!

11/5/07: Well, the word is that the game is kind of on the hard side. I've made some needed changes and improvements using the feedback that I've received from the testers so far. So far, there are 2 endings- a good one and a crap one, although the crap one is not really all that bad. I've made Dracula's fight a lot harder, and he does more damage and has more HP than his earlier form had. I've been working on a new Hasslevania Homepage for the game and it will be ready when November 21st rolls around. Unrelated, I picked up my first DS today (the red and black one) with Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Rune Factory. That's pretty much going to be my birthday and Christmas presents, but that's cool with me!

10/28/07: And so the beta build had been distributed to 3 individuals and an editor for which I had an agrgeement with about 6 or 7 months ago. And of course once it was away I promptly found a few glaring problems that were caused by some last minute tinkering with the "mystery challenge" on my part the night before. So yesterday I put in some serious time with the beta and fixed what I found while playing it through again. And also for a bug that one beta tester had found earlier that morning concerning taking damage in water while the map screen was up. (Which is supposed to be paused so that doesn't happen). See, testing works! The V.2 beta build was once again distributed to the testers and the editor today. This had to be done as some of the challenge problems were game-breaking beforehand. Oh, and I never said it here but I put a new review of Necropolis Rising up in the reviews page from Shroomlock over at The Daily Click. I had been so busy I forgot to mention it here.

10/26/07 (b): It appears there WAS a casualty of all this downtime lately... My Hasslevania Homepage!! It was somehow erased when I went to update it this morning, so I hope everybody remembered all of that information for later :(  I have put up a facsimile in the meantime until I can rebuild it at a later date.

10/26/07 (a): Hasslevania is done! Hasslevania is done! (Victory dance) Hasslevania is done! Okay, okay, well at least the beta build is! I plan on sending it to the HV beta test team tomorrow. While they test it out I'm going to go back and make some more endings possibly, and add a lot of bells & whistles. The beta build is very large at 136MB uncompressed. Once the beta has been tested and the appropriate changes made, family members and those who helped me will get first crack at the game. And then on November 21st it'll be ready for everybody to play. Due to the high interest in the game and the lack of bandwidth of Sitesled, I'm going to be using a couple of mirrors which will absolutely be neccessary in order to have more than 1 guy in a shack somewhere have a copy of the game. I was thinking on also giving donators to the site an early shot at the game too. I saw that other developers were doing this and it's a great idea!

10/24/07: I recorded a short gameplay trailer yesterday for Hasslevania that shows a bit more of what it's going to be like. The file size is 27MB, and the clarity is a lot better than the last trailer I made at 90%. It shows Rovert using his weapons and running around some small sections of The Museum, The Offensive Altar, and The Bog. I tried to blow through the intro / start to get to the actual gameplay parts but you can see some beginning stuff too. Check it out here. (EDIT: This clip was uploaded to YouTube courteousy of GameFAQ's kevinski and should help people view the file a lot easier. Thanks kevinski!!) I also almost have the Boom Box screen completely done and it looks pretty good. Beta testing should be on schedule for the end of the week or so. Once the beta testing is done I'm going to work on some of the aesthetics in certain places and try to make it look better all around.

10/22/07: Holy crap my website WORKS now! Sitesled (my host) has been down since last Saturday and now all of the sudden their servers appear to have become "unmelted"! I don't know where to start, there's been so much that's happened. Well, first and most importantly I want to give a shout out to Travis J, who made a donation last Friday night before all of Sitesled's crapola started. Thank you Travis!!! Necropolis Rising has also won The Daily Click's Game of the Week award # 256!! (I'm so glad I put the updated version up there!). And if that wasn't enough, I've finally finished the Dracula battle in Hasslevania!! I'm doing the ending sequence now actually, and might be mostly done as soon as tonight with it. I'll update the Hasslevania and Necropolis Rising homepages as soon as I can with the new information.

10/13/07: Necropolis Rising version 4 available now! There were some changes and slight bug fixes, and although there's probably still some more it's a lot better now. Differences include: Fixed it so arrows and wizard's spells can't hurt you while the subscreen is up, the Alchemy spell now kills the Demon Mage like it should have, the necro can swing his sword slightly faster than before, Spells can't go through any cactus now, and bat form can't fly over them either. The two biggest changes though are the option to SKIP the opening story screens (not opening title, just the story for a new game) by pressing ENTER, and that most of the Dark Power rewards have had their costs significantly lowered. I had tried to incorporate a newer movement engine for a few hours last night but the end result had the necro stopping dead in his tracks whenever any part of a side of him touched a wall, tree, or otherwise. While it looked good for awhile, it quickly turned to crap when I tried to move diagonally from that stopped position. So what I had was a necro who seemed to get stuck on EVERYTHING, and was MUCH more annoying than my current jittery bastard we all love. So the movement is the same, but I did try! Now back to Hasslevania!!

10/12/07: A flashy new donation button! Weeee!! Also, I am in talks with Gamesare with more distribution plans for Necropolis Rising. I'm also going back into the year-old game and tweaking some things to make it better. This updated version should be ready to go in a few days or so, and you'll hear it here frst when it's done. Plans include a better movement engine for the necro (no more bouncies if possible), lower dark power costs for rewards, and some other odds n' ends. Hasslevania got some needed minor bug fixes again yesterday, and I've updated the credits screen with the new list of beta testers that volunteered to help in a little more than a week's time.

10/10/07(b): In a shocking move no one saw coming, I have decided to release the Full version of Necropolis Rising to all for free! I want to try something new here at DXF Games, and see if it works. My thoughts are, if you really enjoy the game, I'd ask you to please make a small donation to DXF Games via the PayPal link above. I'm talking 50 cents or $1 small. The donations would be greatly appreciated and would go towards my future game developmental costs, since everything I make comes out of my own pockets with zero outside funding to speak of. If this donation system works, I won't have another pay game up here again. Until then, why not download Necropolis Rising and see if you like the full version yourself!

10/10/07(a): The WTF Zone has been re-put (??) into the game, and it is far and away the most secrety of secret places. Most people will never find it. Think of it a bit as like the warp zone to World -1 on Super Mario Brothers for the NES. Only this place is a lot more helpful if you find it. There will be no screenshots or other information ever posted about this place unless somebody else finds it first. There is another item in the game called a Hearts Refiller. Getting one as a reward for doing well in Bat Blasters is a cinch- all you need to do is beat your previous best score and shoot down 10 or more bats. Each time you can do this you'll get a Hearts Refiller on your way out. This only fills your skill hearts to maximum levels, and is not as useful as a hearts maximizer, but it's still something nice to get for an otherwise optional mini game. I went to a county fair near my house the other day and saw the biggest friggin' bull I've ever seen up close before! Seriously, the thing was even lying down and it was gigantic. It reminded me a lot of the Cow guardian statue to the entrance of the Moo Tomb. It was art imitating life all over again! See, it's fate for ya, because I would have gotten the cow idea eventually anyhow. Moo!

10/7/07: I can't believe I didn't do it sooner, but I finally drew character portraits for Hasslevania that show up when they speak. It took 4 or 5 hours to do them all, not because they're Picasos but because there's just so many of them. Now anybody can tell an Alex Deadson from a Ghouly Lee, for example. The pictures themselves I did from scratch, and not from enlarging the sprites' existing faces or anything like that. (Except for Dracula and Deaf, whose sprite faces fit the portrait window perfectly already.) They look a bit better than the sprites- but not too much. If I'm calling my game a 7-bit wonder, then the portraits weigh in as whopping 7.5 bit masterpieces, ahahaha.. I will have a completed beta copy ready in a couple of weeks that is going to be tested by 3 others and myself. I also owe an advance copy to Indygamer for a preview there! Everything seems to be on schedule as planned. What a non-familiar feeling this is!

10/6/07: Hasslevania homepage overhaul #1 is done. A lot more information has been posted, including a progress report which shows % completion and the game's current build / stage. Check it out when you get the chance!

10/4/07: The challenge modes have been implemented! It really wasn't half as hard as I thought it'd be to do. The types of games you can start anew are: Vanilla (the plain Jane normal game for first timers), Original Orange (iron armor is gone, some areas are restricted), Sans Devil (no backup in Chris subdevil), Decaffenated Run (all the coffees are removed from play), and the hardest one by far Heartless Bastard (you start out with 20 maximum skill hearts but all heart maximizers in the game are removed. For experts and me only.) I think it's a great idea to have these built into the game. Doing a swordless quest in Zelda is very hard, but the player may give up and go get the sword anyways later. In Hasslevania, the option to chicken out is removed from my challenges! Winning the game on different challenges will produce different endings. At least that's what I'm aiming for. I may add another challenge in later, but man it'd be HARD. Probably too much. We'll see!

10/2/07: All of the voiceovers are complete! The last bastion of outside dependancy has been shed, so now it's all up to me to make sure that this thing gets done and done right. The ending song, "Oh Rovert", has also been finished and it's really craptacular (in a good way). It's perfect for what I am trying to achieve. For those returning folks to here who are keeping score at home, the current filesize of Hasslevania is at 114 MB. So much is done, with some new ideas to add.. The most ambious one I can think of now is the option to start a game in different challenge modes. Each one will automatically limit the player in certain ways upon starting a new game so that the player won't be able to chicken out and abandon his self-imposed challenge when the going gets rough. The prison zombies scene is almost done. The Moo Tomb is a scant one room away from being finished. Dracula's battle should be done by the end of this week. I got Rush's Grace Under Pressure tour DVD and learned how to play "Vital Signs" on bass, which was amazing. And the Patriots are 4-0. Whatta' good week!

9/28/07 (b): OH, and in order to gain a wee bit of perspective on the order of the old school and how I might inject Hasslevania with more of it, I sat down last night and seriously tried to win Ironsword again got the first time in years and years. How'd I do? I got killed off completely at the volcano half of the fire stage. (Which is like level 3-1) Blah! I can't believe how cheap that game is with dishing out the damage- There's this one secret room in the water level where you can get the Cross of Sindain (which is only for points, which are completely useless in this game). Anyways, in order to get the cross you have to go past two sets of four purple falling happy face things that take 50% of your life away in a single hit. I died about 3 times getting that stupid cross (and going back through them to escape the room). That was NOTHING compared to my next game I tried though. Good ol' Ghosts N' Goblins for the NES. I had to save state like mad- I seriously must have died at least 75 times (NO EXAGGERATION PEOPLE) And I only got up to the dragon at the end of the 3rd level. This game is just ridiculously hard, and made Ironsword look like the cherry level of Pac Man. I actually laughed out loud when I made this impossible jump just to have two little demon things materialize out of THIN AIR and kill me. And so I say to the good future fans of Hasslevania, "I feel your pain, and although this game will be like it was from the old school, it will NOT be from the same cloth as Ghosts N' Goblins!!!" I'm in the entertainment business, not the "piss people off" business!

9/28/07 (a): To be the creator of something, it's a great thing. To constantly mess around with what you have in the attempt to make everything better in the end.. I have moved the entirety of the Moo Tomb to a better (and more logical) place, and it's much better now. I've also sealed off the entrance so that it's no longer easy to see / get to. If you want to find the tomb, you better explore and look hard all around! And there's another Chris Subdevil mini-scene, which should make all players under the age of 15 laugh their asses off. Let's see.. bug fixes, more fixes.. It seems like everytime I fill up a whole notebook page with things that need a' fixin' (and there's a whole lotta' fixin' to be had in any kind of game like this, especially mine lol) I seem to just keep covering new notebook pages with more crap that needs to be done. I'm saving all of these to take a picture of this glorious mess and it'll probably be in some sort of Hasslevania gallery option hahaha......?  In other stuff, a new enemy has appeared to try and stop Rovert, and it's another one from the Phantom Zo- er, REALM! This time it's the Phantom Zombie, and he's bad news! I'll most likely change his name to something better later.

9/24/07: Today's update isn't too Earth-shattering, but there were some improvements / additions to Hasslevania since the last post. The mini-game ended up working out just fine, and it's called Bat Blasters. Rovert will find an anti-aircraft gun somewhere in the castle and can use it (and go to a separate screen in 1st-person view) and just shoot away at a bunch of bats. It came out cool, especially since I've never made anything like a 1st person shooter before, (as basic as this one is). Since I have no idea what the inside of an aa gun turret looks like, it looks like something out of Star Wars. The other big thing is there is going to be a new underground game area. I'm calling it the Moo Tomb for now, but it'll probably get a name change eventually. Aside from that, I'm going to also be dipping into the phantom well again and put another type of ghostly enemy in the game somewhere. Just WHERE to put them is the real question though.

9/17/07: Credit where credit's due, the Hasslevania credits screen is completed! Thankfully, it's not like some other projects I've done where I'm listed 10 times. (Only 9 this time). I made sure to thank everybody who has helped in any way, from playtesters to family members to GameFAQs brainstormers. For those who came up with an idea that was used or I drew inspiration from, I've listed that idea next to their name. For the credits music, I redid the opening section of a very old song that my old band used to play called Headache. I was messing around with it just for fun, and for whatever reason it just works for this. Players can view the credits screen from the start menu, as I have different ideas for the end(ings) so the credits won't be shown there. I have a good idea for a new minigame, but I won't say anything more about it in case I can't get it to mesh with the rest of the game first.

9/12/07: Rovert swims with the fishes! Yep, I made up a bunch of little fish to swim in the waters of Hasslevania. Unlike Manny o' Warriors or sharks, these won't hurt you and can't be killed. Just to liven things up a bit, and more's on the way! 7 fish were made including: Bass, Pike, Clownfish, and a Gar. And a lot I don't know the names of but there's a red one, a dark blue one w/ pointy fins, and a silvery one that can be seen in the upper left-hand corner of the underwater shot of Rovert in the bubble. I made this silvery one a salt water exclusive. Bass and pond or lake fish are in the freshwater pools mostly. Not like anyone will care / call me on it, but oh well.

9/11/07: There are eight new screenshots up on the Hasslevania Homepage now! Included are some never-before shown places, and some updated shots of places that have been shown here before. I'm going to infuse a lot of life into the game, and you can start to see it here a bit with the screenshot of one of The Bog's rooms. I might use another atmosphere effect for another area, since I like the bog's green mist / fog a lot. We'll see, right?

9/7/07: Talk about a LONG wait! No, I don't mean the wait for Hasslevania to be completed, I mean the long wait it took for the U.S. Copyright office to add Equin Village to their recordbooks! I submitted the game and documentation way back in March of 2006, and although I got a confirmation letter of sorts a few months later, it was never in their online records whenever I checked. Well, I stopped checking maybe 6 or 7 months ago, and for laughs did it today. It's in there, hooray! The game, along with Equin, Dirn, Zisha, and the rest now have Uncle Sam backing. Like money! Hopefully my other stuff won't take quite as long to enter the official books. We'll see! Hasslevania-wise, some graphicial additions are going in to make things look and feel better. And although I didn't mention it here, there's now a specialized machine hidden somewhere that can convert Rovert's extra keys into moolah. The Key Machine (original nomenclature, I know) came out just great, and the whole thing took maybe 3 or 4 hours to do from start to finish. Tonight may indeed be when the rest of the voiceovers are completed; at least, that's what we're aiming for.

9/4/07: What an extended break from here this is! Things done- in a list, everyone's favorite format, no doubt. List begins: 1.) Drac's Quarters is done and over with. It's completely in a darkness zone, which leads us to.. 2.) A master power switch. Finding this and turning it on will light up every darkness room in the entire game. 3.) Oldie's voiceovers are done and in the game now! The rest of the V/Os might be done as soon as this weekend. 4.) More outside areas are finished, with more on the way soon. 5.) The final battle with Count Dracula is being worked on. 6.) Some rooms have P.A. systems in them. If you see one of these, that means that there is always a small random chance to hear Dracula saying something in this room, usually something insignificant to his minions. Just a small extra in what will eventually be a lot of them. 7.) As of now, there are 101 treasures for Rovert to collect. There will be more in the finished game. 8.) More teleport orbs have been added along with some new shortcuts. There will be a lot of ways to get around in this game, at the very least! 9.) I want to have different endings. I'm not sure how many, but I'd say at least 3 of them. List over. I picked up Harmony of Dissonance the other day, and it's pretty good. I don't get why Juste Belmont is sporting Bo bo's (or Cons, Chuck Taylors, you know what I mean). And with inflatable basketball pump action for ankle support! HOD sure borrowed a lot from SOTN, from what I see. Too much, IMO. 50% through the main castle in less than a day and all I have is one spellbook? And I haven't seen ONE stinkin' breakable wall yet! Hasslevania has about a billion more secret things in it- hopefully not too much.. To the overkill machine!

8/18/07: Success, like the rice! We were not only able to do some voice over recording last night, but we got almost half of the total lines in the game done. Brad did a really great job, and has expanded his V/O role to take over some of the other characters in the game as well as Rovert's voice. At this rate, I'd estimate that voice overs should all be completely recorded in another session or two at the max. (You have to remember, my printed out script is about 15 pages at least). All these voices are going to be at a big cost, filesize-wise. They are going to make this eventual download HUGE when compared to the 12 or 13MB core game itself (a guess, but close). It's too bad this is going to be free, otherwise I'd have to arrange to send it out to customers on disc instead. Of course then I'd have to spend my days forever stuck at the post office, blah! If my initial predictions are even close to actual download numbers for Hasslevania, this game should promptly kill my allowed bandwidth for days upon release- Especially with the big file size. I just hope THIS time other websites won't hotlink all my stuff all over the place. I think I'll have it so that if that happens and I find out, I'll just change the location of the file. That way they'll have to mostly download the game off the.. *gasp!* actual page it's supposed to be on!!

8/14/07: It's been a bit, but it's all the same as I've still been very busy working on Hasslevania. Doors that can be opened with keys now remember when they've been opened so you won't have to open them again. There was enough space leftover in the save game file so it made sense to change it. There's a minor event that's pretty funny for the sub devil to do while Rovert is busy somewhere that came out great. I also had to fix it so that the devil couldn't kill any Brittles while they are down in a heap from Rovert's beatdowns. So instead, he flies over the pile until they get up... and THEN he kills them, because that's what he does best (next to putdowns and snappy comebacks.) The game is still coming, don't worry. It won't be August 21st like I thought back in June but just think of how much better it'll be because I didn't rush it!

8/09/07: The sub devil went down to Georgia.. Tonight was dedicated to Dracula's opening cutscene (with the game's first voiceover, hoorah!) and a lot of things concerning the Devil for Hire. The devil now has things that he does to bide the time away while Rovert is otherwise busy, like saving in a coffin or riding the skelevator. There' also a new cutscene that's activated while the devil is out somewhere that promptly gets him banned from somewhere.. His coding was streamlined to make him more efficient killing machine. I have to find a way to lessen his power, or else we'll have Chrisaegrim 2 on our hands in no time!!

8/07/07: R.I.P. Hasslevania's magic spells. It just didn't work out and made for a ton of bugs and freezes everywhere that I couldn't fix properly. I've completely restored the game how it was before the weapon spell moves. If there's to be a sequel I will build spells into the game from the ground up like everything else instead of trying to add something so complex so late in production.  The weapon book does still exist in game, only it's power is different. You can read it for insight on the different weapons available in Hasslevania, but best of all you'll receive a permanent +1 damage bonus for all melee weapons when you have it. The devil's coding has been reworked and it's a LOT more stable than it was before. He's also faster than ever, but consumes hearts at a rate of 1 every 4 seconds (instead of every 5 seconds like before).

8/06/07: Well, the voiceover session was kind of a big bust- there were a lot of technical problems with our engineer's sound recording program (really!) which sucked, A LOT. Anyhow, we managed to only get about 7 or so lines that were any good in about 4 or 5 hours time. Needless to say, this part is going to take a very long time at this rate. I can only ever go over there maybe once a week if I'm lucky, so hopefully we'll get a lot more done next time. Other than that, I've been working on making the game's title and continue menus a lot more streamlined and easier to use. And best of all is there's now an option to view Rovert's treasury from the continue menu that shows all the stuff he's collected. And some of the items will also show how many are left to find (like food and money bags). You'll still get the total completion percentage too, only now you can break it down and attempt to hunt down what you're missing.

8/4/07: The entire script of Hasslevania has been written and revised to what I want now. Which is just great, since we're going to be finally doing the voiceover recording later tonight! A definite future cutscene is going to involve some Prison Zombies, which was also inspired by an actual event I witnessed this past week while waiting for a train. It was so (unintentionally?) funny that I knew it just had to make it in here somehow. I won't be able to make it as good as the real deal, but it'll be close if I can help it. Other than those things, it's just bug testing as usual. Damn those spells and their sparkly effects!! Sure, it'll be cool in the end but I hope that next time I make a game like this I put the spells in at the beginning of the creation phase and not 7 months into it.

7/30/07: You take 2 parts Kuros and 1 parts Mario, smash them together in a big bowl, and add a quart of orange food coloring, and the result is now how Rovert jumps around. It's much better IMO than before. He definitely has a floaty feel, which allows players more leeway for making jumps over spike pits and stuff like that. I've incorporated it into all of the game's 92 frames so far that need it, and now I just have to clean up some little things that were changed by adding the new movment in. The puzzles before where you needed the speed boost from the Blade of Del Duio have all but been compromised by the new jump however, so I'll have to rework them a bit so that you can't solve them with a regular jump like now. There are wholly separate cutscenes now that are independant of the gameplay and are just there to add depth and / or character to Hasslevania. I've figured out a way to make these pretty seamless, so there may be quite a few of them before the game is through.

7/29/07: Okay, so some things have of course come up and I don't see the game being finished as I originally predicted it would be by 8/21 and still be the quality product that I have in my head. The voiceover plans fell through for later today and are getting pushed back at least a week or so, and I have to more or less scrap a big section of Rovert's platform movement and try something else to improve it. This was hard for me since I've had it pretty much set in stone since February, but all of my playtesters can't be wrong! Since everything is so very intergrated I might have to start over from the ground up, blah! So although I'm not sure of just WHEN Hasslevania will be done, rest assured that the product you will eventually play will be a lot better gameplay-wise than what was originally coming. I don't want to release anything that I can't stand behind 100%, which is why I'll just say the Hasslevania release date will be later. I'll post more when I know more about it, and hang in there!!

7/27/07: The streaming trailer from GameTrailers has an embed tag so now the trailer is up for everyone's non-downloading viewing on the Hasslevania Homepage! It really ties the whole thing together, what a great deal for me! I've secured the final voice for the game, an actual 4th-degree blackbelt, and he's going to be cast in the starring role of Rovert. I called dibs on most of the enemy NPCs in the game already and for sure I want to give the Devil for Hire his pipes. I want to have little scripted bickering matches between Rovert and the Devil while you're out playing the game. Mind you, the devil is not exactly in the easiest of places to find either. If you win the game without him, the map you're given (among other goodies) for the next playthrough will help you locate him.

7/26/07: I got another huge surge of traffic tonight, so I slapped on the Sherlock Holmes cap and magnifying glass and found out that the Hasslevania trailer has been added to Gametrailers.com. GAMETRAILERS.COM people! Holy crap, that's an awesome surprise. It seems to be inspiring the ire of many who might not realize what I'm trying to accomplish however. But best of all is this screenshot of my little 7 bit game with a budget of all of $50 (chips and drinks DO cost money afterall), among the likes of million-dollar masterpieces Metal Gear Solid 4, Crysis, Resident Evil 5 and Call of Duty 4. I think I just accomplished some sort of life's goal LOL. Now watch the train hit me tomorrow on the way to work!

7/25/07: Voiceover Recording is scheduled to begin this upcoming Sunday, with 2 out of 3 people I want confirmed. Also the good castle map you can get has been vastly improved to help players attempt to reach the coveted 100% treasure completion plateau! Drac's Quarters is being built, and Darkness Rooms are starting to spread around parts of Hasslevania. Makes it way harder when you can't see everything. Hoff Heads are no longer spell immune (sorry guys), so blast away with Burnflare or whathaveyou. There may be a need for near future beta testers too. If you're interested and the spot's still open, please contact me at dxfgames@gmail.com. This won't be for at least another 2 weeks.

7/21/07: Although it's turning out a bit tricky, magic has been incorporated into the game everywhere. It'll probably take me a day or two to work out the bugs, but I'm very glad that I put weapon powers in because it's very fun to do. The book that allows for such moves, "Weapon Powers & You", has now also been fully coded and completed. This book can be read (like the monster book and castle map) from the Continue Game screen in Rovert's house before you resume play. It tells you the name, requirements, description, and what weapon it comes off of. There are also now magic effect fields that show up on Rovert when he's under the influence of Insomniac's Rage and Fecal Fortitude spells. You can have both going at once, which is pretty busy-looking but cool IMO. The last order of business is that I've now made Hoff Heads magic immune. You can still crack them over the head with a magic weapon, but spell powers will have no effect. I may change this but as I see it I already have Phantom bats immune to non-magic attacks so it'd probably be a good idea to have an enemy from the other side. I put a screenshot of Rovert letting loose a Bellhump Blast in Engineering, to give you another look of some of the magic effects.

7/20/07: I noticed a HUGE surge of hits here this morning, and upon some detective-y work I noticed that Hasslevania is up on Indygamer's news page!! To whoever put it up there I say a huge THANK YOU!! And now to announce, not only are weapon powers possible.. I FINISHED THEM IN ONE FRIGGIN NIGHT MWAHAHAHAHA!!! It was about 6 straight hours, but yep, they're going to be in the game 100%!! You need to find the book of weapon powers though. I was thinking that upon 2nd playthrough Rovert starts out with the book as one of the "winning it" rewards. The effects came out pretty cool, especially considering the time I had to work on it (i.e. not very much). In other news, Me-Sued-Ya returns to Hasslevania, only this time he's an NPC. The way I'm going to work him in should prove to be funny, and he's going to be intergal to the plot late in the game as well. It's all looking great, I'm psyched!! I will update the Hasslevania homepage with these new weapon powers shortly.

7/19/07: It's not up on the Hasslevania homepage, and won't be until it's set in stone, but I am trying to incorporate Weapon Powers in the game akin to magic spells. These powers will have steep requirements to cast, whether it be skill hearts, money, or even Rovert's own life force. I want to have one spell for every weapon. Since it's so late into production pulling this off might not work, but it's early enough for me to try it out and see for sure. Some of the effects would aid in exploration like creating keys or warping to the shop. Others will damage enemies. One will even heal Rovert (although the cost is huge). In other news, I had to take the whole of Del Duio's hideout and completely MOVE the thing to another section of the castle! This has to do with item placement that conflicted a bit with another one and it bothered me for awhile so now it's fixed. The laser brick computer is now harder to get to, but the way it's done it makes more sense and seems natural so it'll stay that way. The last thing to say is now when the devil for hire goes into one of his shenanaghans he has his own theme music that starts up. When you hear this music, you'll know he's up to something!

7/18/07: Nothing really beats 4 hours working on a puzzle that WORKS, is all I have to say. I've updated all 12 screenshots to show what some of the new changes look like. There's a couple in there that have never been shown anywhere, but basically I wanted to show some of the beginning game stuff. There's also a shot of that new basic map that players start off with in one of them too.

7/17/07: "Big changes, gonna' carry you.." That about sums up what's happened with Hasslevania over the past 2 days / nights. I spent basically every free hour I could working on it, and have made huge leaps towards finishing it. So much has been done, but the most important and non-spoiler information would be: A new enemy, "Manny O' Warrior, the Irish Jellyfish", Codebooks that give you the code digits for the LCD puzzle, Enemy lifebars that are color-coded to match them, Rovert's own life bar got an overhaul and is now orange instead of red, a starting and VERY basic "map", and a lot of minor bug fixes. The whole orange lifebar was done because there was one big boss that had a red lfebar and it looked like crap to have two red lifebars next to each other. I figure since Rovert's all about the orange anyhow it made sense to change it (and I'm glad that I did.) And although it sounds really easy, it was a tedious task that took almost an hour to change, blah!. The whole LCD tower / codebook sequences came out 100% right on the VERY FIRST ATTEMPT by me, which almost never happens and because of this the endgame and the parts leading up to it have now begun to get rolling along.

7/15/07: There has now been almost 4100 hits on the DXF Games homepage alone (Hooray!) To me, that's cool stuff, and to celibrate it a bit, I made up a new DXF logo, which by now no doubt you've probably noticed already on this very page! Last night I fixed a lot of problems that were "popping" up in a bubble room, and also made Del Duio's secret hideout! Thing is, I can't show any shots of it because I want the player to be totally surprised when / if they find it. I am also in the slow, slow process of re-doing the mini map. This was because I was having spacial issues where Hasslevania was too big for it's own good. (It didn't fit on the 90-room areas of space I gave it 7 months ago anymore). There has been suggestion that Drac's Quarters be a little like Aria of Sorrow's Chaos Realm, and it's not a bad idea. For those who don't know, the Chaos Realm in that game is how you get to the "good" ending. It's a wholly separate place from the rest of the castle, and doesn't even have a map. Since I still want to incorporate a darkness room(s), maybe I can come up with a winning combo of the two?

7/13/07: Friday the 13th.. Ooooooo!! OOOOOOO!!! Now that you are sufficiently scared out of your collective minds, it is time to mention that Hasslevania now sports new giant bubbles for Rovert to ride around in. They are created at the mouth of special mechanisms called Bubble Nozzles, which are in turn powered by the mighty (and well-hidden) Bubble Device! When activated the nozzles release these giant bubbles and they float to the surface of the water they're formed in. While riding bubbles is generally safe, one should be careful not to steer one into an enemy or brick wall / ceiling, lest your bubble be popped and you fall to great harms below. With the addition of several bubble nozzles throughout Hasslevania, castle travel is much expanded.

7/11/07: The biggest news today is that the planned boss "Me-Sued-Ya" is not going to be in the final game. It's a great idea, it's just that there's no room for him for what I have left. Do not worry about a lack of big bosses though! To replace Me-sued-Ya, there's now an optional boss called The Moat Monster, which is a bubble-breathing underwater dragon! This fight came out just awesome, and will really reward those who want to search the whole castle for treasures. There are also two new screenshots up on the Hasslevania homepage, and the moat monster is one of them (in between bubble attacks).

7/10/07: Okay, well I downloaded a flash plugin at home and found out that my flash Trailer doesn't work, so it's down now. Fellow Clicker Phizzy took it upon himself to compress the big trailer by using the XviD codec and now the trailer is only 5 MB!! I tried to view it, but this computer doesn't have the codec, so here's a quote from the man himself: "I suppose XviD's not a standard codec, but most people have it. VLC will play it (VLC will play everything), and so will your windows media player if you download the K-Lite Codec Pack." So if the 46 MB is too much for you, you can probably watch the 5 MB one instead!

7/9/07: There are now 3 versions of the new Hasslevania trailer up on the HV homepage! Unfortunatley, two are big at 46 and 17 MB, and the small one is really blurry and crappy (but only 1.2 MB). If you view the small one you should try not to maximize it and it'll look a bit better. Just imagine what this was supposed to look like (quality-wise) and that'll help too! Fear not though, for the actual game itself looks a lot better than the trailer does.

7/05/07: There is now a new room called The Freezer, which has some very unique obstacles in it such as a snowball cannon and my favorite, ratsicles. Ratsicles are drats that were too stupid to try and nest somewhere else and promptly froze to death. Frozen solid is more like it, as they can't hurt you but Rovert can shatter them with a hit from any weapon. The room is zero degrees centigrade, mostly because putting a sign near the door that said 32 degrees farenheit didn't look all that good. I wanted to call this room Da Coolah, after what Col. Klink from Hogan's Heroes calls the lockup of Stalag (sp?) 13, but nobody would get it except me and a couple of old guys who will never see this game.

6/30/07: Hasslevania release date set for..

6/29/07: There was one hint book that was well-hidden but didn't really say anything useful, so I changed it into a Monster Book! The monster book is a written record of the different minor enemies found within Hasslevania, and can be accessed from the "continue game" screen that shows your acquired treasure percentage. There's also some new and very useful shortcuts to open the game up a lot more as far as non-linearity goes. Lastly, there's now a skelecopter somewhere in the game that shows up. I don't know how meaningful the skelecopter will be in the final product, but for now those hanging out on the roof can keep their eyes open for it. The top prize for Alucart's casino has also been changed to something very awesome indeed..

6/26/07: The Offensive Altar is complete, along with a new nasty boss, Black N' Dookie! Black N' Dookie is basically a monster made out of pure crap who wields a two-handed electric drill and dual machine nail guns. And he totes a gigantic black steel shield to boot. Hooray! On a cleaner note, new archery targets adorn the castle in places too. I wonder what would happen if Rovert practiced his aim with one?

6/21/07: The new area "The Roof" is already almost halfway done. It's easily distinguished by lots of black fog clouds and blacker castle spires. The spire top itself took me a lot longer to draw than I expected, mostly because the prototypes all ended up looking very flat and crappy (Not good at all!) The finished product looks the best out of the ones I made, and I ended up using black bricks for the base of the spire (although the rest of the castle's exterior is the regular gray color.) The only screenshot that didn't give too much away is now up and posted on the homepage, and although you can only see the bottom of the spire you guys will have to trust me that the pointy part looks cool too. Some of the underground passageways that had the darker gray brick backgrounds have been replaced with a muddy brown cavern background and it looks a lot better. So far, Hasslevania has 81 total rooms (area-wise), with an anticipated 105-110 rooms when it's finished. I would expect the game to be released sometime in August and I'll make sure to give everybody ample time to get ready for it.

6/19/07: Updates, and more updates! A new enemy called the Zerker will attempt to stop Rovert from reaching Count Dracula's inner sanctum. They are easily distinguished by black plate armor and their weapons of choice- Boomeraxes- which are small, razor sharp axes that move like boomerangs. Their defense is second to none, and in fact most of Rovert's weapons will simply glance off of it. Thankfully, Rovert can use his shield to deflect the boomeraxes and save his skin. The newest area, the roof, is two rooms done and will encompass the mid to upper castle towers. Most of this area is outside of the castle, so look for the clouds, wow! Story-wise, a huge new beginning cutscene detailing the trials of vampire hunter Simon Bellhump has been added, as well as the 100+ year old Simon himself, somewhere lost in the castle. Check out the homepage for more details and a picture of a Zerker in the museum.

6/15/07: Going back and improving some of the graphics, especially the backgrounds for some boss fights, really makes a big difference. There is a new updated screenshot of the battle with Gala Moth, only now he has a more fitting city background instead of the bland purple crystal one from before. Gameplay-wise, whenever a player continues a game now he's taken to another screen first where your treasure finding skills are shown both by number found and the precentage. This will be good for completionists, and also show you just how many you might be missing! Most likely a high precentage when the player wins the game will get some sort of special reward or prize. In-game, of course. I'm broke!

6/14/07: One more boss for Hasslevania is in the books, the rockin' reaper DEAF. Complete with skelegroupies, this new enemy of Rovert attacks with overhead chops with his bass, Diggslayer. Sonic assaults from the air are also a hazard, so watch out! The latest area, The Museum, is almost complete. A new screenshot of the battle with Deaf is up on the HV homepage so get going!!

6/5/05: Ah ha! AH HA!! A surprise this past weekend, as I had a lot of time to work on Hasslevania. Much more than normal. A pair of bosses- Twin succubi- To give Rovert some trouble now. What treasures do they protect? Where are they to be found? Only time will tell! And, I've made probably the BEST way to open up a secret room ever. HAHAHAHA. Could it actually be comedy gold?? Well, I think it's funny but I guess again only player reaction will determine that one too. Updated screenshots of a new bog room and the succubi are up now. 

5/29/07: The Vents area is now completed, and I've also added a super-secret hidden room... The Treasury! There may be two of these super-secret treasuries when the game is finished, but they're basically Dracula's treasure hoardes. They may require that you know the secret code to get into the vault though.. After my work on the game last night I was replaying an awesome freeware game called Lyle in Cube Sector and was getting owned left and right. That game plays perfectly, and has some crazy challenging parts to it in places. It was since inspired me to create some really tough areas in Hasslevania that will truly challenge. A good example of this is the updated Vents screenshot on the Hasslevania homepage. A zapper, arrow slit, metal floor, and a phantom bat- all in the same general area. This is more of what I want! Mwhahahahaha!!

5/14/07: The latest area is actually just one giant room that connects 3 other areas. And in sticking with the wacky area catagory, today we have: ENGINEERING! Yes, in a castle! It looks like a bunch of sci-fi movies and shows tossed into one, complete with a warp core and red-shirted zombies for good measure.. Complete with big windows showing OUTER SPACE and even MARS!! There are still a few bugs to work out, and some new background pieces to draw, but an early shot of the place is now up on the Hasslevania Homepage. (Which you can get to from the link above in the box, in case you don't already know!)

5/9/07: Finally, and after much ado, the Gala Moth and the whole of the Crystal Dungeon are completed! A new screenshot can be seen of the Gala Moth, although since it's just a beta the background is most certainly going to be different in the finalized version of the game. Tonight, I start work on the next area, which will effectively put me "over the hill" and into the second half of the Hasslevania project. A special thank you to those over at GameFAQs who have given me some great ideas! Whether or not they'll be used in the game, big kudos to you!! 

4/27/07: It didn't happen for everyone, but there was some Sitesled issues over the past few days that may have made viewing the site impossible for some. But now that it's fixed, I've put up the promised screenshots of the inside of Alucart's Casino and also one of the Crystal Dungeon (working area title for now). Lame-ia turns out to be a pretty worthy adversary, which is just great because a lot of the other enemies are pretty easy. For now I have her on an ammo count for her crossbow- three crossbow bolts in which to spend on poor Rovert. I don't know if I'm going to have a way for her to reload it, but I'll let anyone interested know as soon as I can. It should also be noted that her crossbow bolts fire at a much faster rate and speed than the other projectile-shooting danger, the arrow slit. Lame-ia can also knock you around pretty good if she touches you, so Rovert had better watch out!

4/24/07: Okay, NOW the casino is finally done! After a lot more playtesting "High Rollers", I found it near impossible to win anything, which resulted in some pretty big changes in the game, both in execution and appearance. The first big thing is that there is now a maximum of five rounds instead of six, with prizes being awarded upon rolling higher on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th round. Also three treasure chests that contain the prizes can be seen in a separate compartment above the casino room. (The screenshot on the homepage does not reflect these changes as of yet- I'll put the new one up there tomorrow, most likely.) In un-casino news, the game now has a new dangerous obstacle: The Arrow Slit. These operate much like the arrow slits seen in Necropolis Rising, only the arrows won't be directly aimed at Rovert. Instead, they'll fire once every 3 seconds when Rovert is within the range of the slit. It should be noted that although you can't destroy these slits, the arrows can be deflected with the shield if you have it. There was a slight monster change, and that was the Medusae are now called "Lame-ia". Yes, I know that's not how it's spelled! The last bit of information is great- The Iron Armor now also protects Rovert from the castle's floor and ceiling spikes. That means that I now have some great new ways to make areas off limits to Rovert until he finds the armor. Alright!

4/21/07: Well, the casino is finally done! Isn't it funny that a mini-game (casino) and an extended cutscene (the skelevator sequences, in essence) have taken me the longest to make? Well, stand-alone-wise I mean. A new screenshot of the inside of the casino is now up on the Hasslevania homepage. To keep things neat I replaced the outside of the casino's screenshot since it was a bit redundant to have 2 of the 12 screenshots be about the casino. All I need to complete it is to add the prizes you can win by playing "Highrollers" (easy stuff, no worries) and then I can start the new area. After a lot of playtesting "Highrollers" I've found that it is tough to get 5 or 6 higher rolls in succession, but it IS possible. This is exactly what I want! I'm also going to change it so that you win the prizes after conquering the 4th, 5th, and 6th tiers- Not 3rd, 5th, and 6th like I had planned before. This is because it's not too hard to conquer the 3rd tier. Oh, and the entrance fee has been bumped up to $100 a shot instead of $50. Oh, and the Red Sox had an amazing win last night over "Sandman" Mariano Rivera to score 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th to the eventual (and extremely improbable) comeback victory. Go Sox!!

4/20/07: New enemies for Hasslevania include Medusae and Hoff Heads! Yes! Hoff Heads resemble "The Hoff", complete with 1984 style afro. That should appease those fans who wanted to see a little Hoff in the game. I plan on doing a lot of work on Hasslevania over the next 3 or 4 days so stay tuned..

4/16/07: Finally the elusive treasure chests have been added to Hasslevania! Like doors, they can be opened with any of the many keys you'll pick up from the candles you smash throughout the game. Unlike doors, once you grab the prize inside of one, they won't respawn when you leave the screen and come back. I've also started working on "Alucart's Casino & Burgers" too. What a lot of fun THAT is!

4/13/07: Friday the 13th!! OOOOO!! BOOOOO!!! BOOOOOO!!! Your skill in superstitions and other ridiculous-ness has increased! (82) There are now zombies in Hasslevania, hooray! You can check out two of them in the new screenshot over on the page. BOOOOO!!!

4/10/07: Awesome, the new Slimaczek online magazine is out ( Issue # 10 ) and there's a preview of Hasslevania / interview with me in it. It's in Polish, so if you don't know the language you may be out of luck until I post a translated script up on the Reviews & Interviews section. In the meantime, you can check out the original page HERE. EDIT: YES! The translation is here! We English-speakin' folks can now read it too!

4/9/07: It's been a few days and a lot of progress has been made on Hasslevania including the near-completion of another area (Shipping & Receiving) a new enemy (Drats), and some other fun stuff. I just updated the Hasslevania homepage with all of the latest information. New information on some NPCs (Non-Player Characters, for the uninitiated) include Alucart and Simon Belmont himself, although REALLY old.

4/5/07: Feedback from the Symphony of the Night Board over at GameFAQs has been highly influential for Hasslevania's progress and content. To this end, another enemy was added, which very closely resembles the way that game's blood skeleton looks and works. Sprite-wise, it's just a recolor of the skeleton I already had (although that took me awhile, it's still a re-color in essense). It moves noticably faster than a regular skelly, and when "killed" it collapses for a bit, only to rise once again after a few seconds. The "Dry Bones" turtle skeleton from the Mario games also does this. Its name is Brittles, and they can be killed outright with the family whip, since it's the slayer of the undead. Hey, that makes sense! I posted a new screenshot of one in the new caste area, Shipping and Receiving. Since I've worked in warehouses a lot, I have a lot of things to include that will be instantly recognizable to anyone else who has done the same.

4/1/07: Yay! Yay! Happy April Fool's Day! Set out upon the world and confuse someone who's forgotten! This year, it won't be me (like normal). Ok, anyhow the first boss monster for Hasslevania is completed, and its name is.... THORNY BASTARD! Wow! It's a thorny tree-like enemy that attacks with its spiked roots, a root wall, and granny smith apples... that explode! I've done some updates to the Hasslevania homepage, and have also included this link to my main discussion thread about the game over on GameFAQs' symphony of the Night message board. You can access the topic HERE.

3/26/07: DXF Games is no longer on MySpace, as it's outlived its usefulness to me. (Cue Violin.) Other news is awesome, because not only have I (finally!) finished the stinkin' skelevator, I've also done a couple of new rooms- including the first save room! this will be a little like Symphony of the Night's save rooms and I plan on having something fun in store for the player in at least one of them. I've updated one of the balcony screenshots to show the new statue, the statue of Del Duio!

3/21/07: Updated more of the Hasslevania homepage to depict enemies, some minor item descriptions, and a new screenshot of a big underwater area with the newest enemy, the shark. Next up is the first of the castle's elevators complete with bellhoppish skeleton operator!

3/19/07: Just some minor updates site-wise. Hasslevania-wise, I've done a lot of work this past weekend. The shop is now operational, and some skeletons have been made / added. The scream they make when they die is so cheesy, but I gotta' keep it in hahaha. The next two sections to be completed are the underwater areas and the 5-floor elevator. The magic ring's power has been divided up too. It's now called a Water Ring, and its only power is to let Rovert breathe / not die while walking underwater. I've added a new item called the Binoculars that is going to be end-game or VERY expensive. They let you see all the castle's hidden secrets that you may have missed before. This is shown via green sparklies. The sparklies look cool, but showing you a screenshot of one will only give away the location of a secret, now won't it? They must be discovered for yourselves!

3/16/07: The crappiest weather ever has begun its assault upon our fair city and it only promises to get worse in the morning it looks like. To stay dry, I've started the third area of Hasslevania's castle- a cavernous deal that you can now see on the Hasslevania home page in the latest screenshot. I would estimate a conservative rate of 1 room per night, which is really not all that bad since I only have a few hours a night to work on the game at all.

3/11/07: I've been creating the layout and rooms of Hasslevania's main castle lately. And, the powers of the magic ring have changed now a bit too. It will still let you see invisible things sure, but you can also breathe while underwater with in on now too. This is important as Rovert will quickly drown in the deep pools of water found throughout the game without it. I've also implimented a cool and challenging gameplay mechanic that is pretty different that I like to call the "Danger Jump". A danger jump is when Rovert jumps on a dangerous enemy or object (like a spike pit) and can immediately jump off of it again to reach new heights. You have to do this fast, otherwise you'll get injured by said monster or pit. This will be a necessary skill the player will have to master in order to explore the entirety of Hasslevania.

3/9/07: As promised, the Hasslevania home page is now up and running. You can check it out here. I'll update that page with the most current information about the game, so check there if you're interested. Thanks!

3/7/07: Well, a whole lot has been going on at DXF Games. Most notably my real life job has me working overnights for 2 weeks so I haven't been able to work on Hasslevania as much as I'd like too. The good news is that there aren't much overnight shifts left so rejoice!! Hasslevania is now in the level design stage, truly a massive undertaking for me alone, but it should be really fun to do. These screenshots below are different even now! Look for some cool little extras in the game to give it some personal flavor. (I think that's what you'd call it, at least.) Rovert's weapons and moves have all been coded and completed, as well as the file system. I am going to also be putting up a Hasslevania home page that will explain more, but right now I have to go to work so see you later!

3/2/07: Here's some updated screenshots of Hasslevania for you! I'm going to have some castle statues feature characters from my other games. Here is the Daxon statue. Just 2 more weapons to code and then the real fun begins.

2/27/07: It's a break from EQ3:L and full steam ahead with Hasslevania! Oh boy, for my first ever custom platform movement it's unbelievably good! Rovert is so much fun to explore the castle's rooms and test out his new moves with. Let it also be known that the screenshot of the actual room on the games page is not what the game looks like now... it looks way better! I'll throw another more recent screenshot up there sometime soon. Rovert's moves so far: Walk, Duck, Jump, Super Jump (requires an item and 2 hearts to do), Short Sword attack and just last night the shield block (also requires a shield, duh!). It's so much fun I can't believe that I've never really tried to make a full-on action platformer before. On a side note, I've learned that "Rovert" has been used before for a fan comic of Castlevania.. however since you pronounce mine like its French (Rov-VAY), our Rovert is here to stay! And no, he's not a Broncos fan!

2/23/07: The screenshots of Equin 3: Legacy are finally here! Finally you can all see what I am talking about on the LiveJournal DevLog! Head on over to "In the Works" and see for yourselves! More later!

2/22/07: In a total surprise to myself especially, I am also working on a little game that seriously spoofs the hell out of a famous, established series of games. I can't say what it is yet, but look for it in a month or so. EDIT: The series is Castlevania, and my game is called HASSLEVANIA. (Yeah, I know lol..) The premise is you are Rovert Bellhump and you've just bought a house on the cheap. Why is it so cheap, you ask? Well, because the neighbors are none other than DRACULA and his castle!! Poor Rovert, all he wants to do is sleep but he can't with all the new noisy neighbors and such. Time to head on over to tell them to knock it the hell off! More as it becomes available!!

2/21/07: Well it looks like it's true after all, Lab Rat #37 is / was included on the Czech computer gaming magazine LEVEL's Feb 2007 issue! (Issue #149). You can check out the original page here. I can't read a lick of it, but here's a list of the games that are included in their free DVD-A:

2/18/07: It's work, work, work at DXF Games on ol' Equin 3: Legacy! Right now it's all about the battle system- maybe the 2nd most important part of the game. I promise to put up some recent screenshots within this week or so. I think a lot of people might be surprised at how cool it is going to be! Even if you take the exact same area for the exploration mode screenshot I have in the "In the Works" section and compare it to what it looks like now.. It's night and day. It's so much better now. Time and effort- they pay off in the long run!

2/6/07: It's been awhile but there has been some new info to post about. First, I need to update my devlog but there's been a lot of work done on Equin 3: Legacy over the past 3 or 4 days that's pretty important. I'll add that within the next day or so. Also, I've been contacted by the publisher of a Czech computer gaming magazine called "Level" and gave them permission to include Lab Rat #37 on their next issue's free DVD compilation. This was done with the understanding that since no money will actually be made on the DVD itself, Lab Rat would be right at home now that it's freewarre. And since we've been having a very high Czech hit rate here at the website, that only equals good news from here on out.

1/27/07: Well, Lab Rat did not win the Daily Click's new Game of the Week award today, as the only other game in competition, Battle Blade 2, won instead. On the plus side, it did manage to get more votes than I would have thought, and the final tally was 25-17. Thanks to everyone who voted, and shame on those who didn't. Yes, that means YOU, bub!! I did some more updates to the Developer's Log yesterday as well. All of my Multimedia Fusion stuff is now on the better machine, and it's making a big difference. If what I have now was still on my 500MHz, it'd slow to a crawl in every frame. Looks like the technology wall won't stop me at least!

1/19/07: Hey, my new e-mail works! (*cue crickets*) Thanks go to NottinHAM for his review of CotG2! (I was beginning to think I never made the thing, since I never hear a lot about it). Yes, yes, someday I'll probably finish it especially after the glowing review. I also updated the Equin 3 devlog in a few places, and I hope to completely finish the shop sometime tonight. Over at the Daily Click, the response to Lab Rat #37 has been largely positive so I'm glad I made it publicly available when I did. Have a good weekend!

1/18/07: Good news here at DXF Games! Lab Rat #37 is now FREE for download to all! I'm going to put it up on the Daily Click website very shortly as well. Back to EQ3L, the first shop it almost done and it looks great! See you later!

1/17/07: Hey hey hey everybody! I'm blabbing like a mother over on the Live Journal Devlog, and making great progress on EQ3L as well. Right now I'm busy working on the shop. Ah... you have to love the RPG shop creation process! Or, at least I do! On a side note, I'm considering using Captain of the Guard 2's music for this game. I think it's some of my best work, and there were a lot of songs that were made for later levels that were never completed that can now see some light. Some of it's pretty crazy, it should be interesting at the least. I have also added another of Daxon's Allies, jRIP Creations above. If you have a games website you'd like to promote, contact me and we can do a banner exchange too!

1/13/07: Well, the devlog is mostly set up. Now all I have to do is fill the thing! What I'm going to do: I've made an entry for each different category (maps, items, code & calculations, etc.) Now the idea is whenever I've done something to the game, I'm going to go back and edit the change to the proper category. I figure this is better than 100 posts of "I did this today!" and "I did that yesterday!". The link to the devlog is right below the MySpace link. Go and check it out if you haven't yet- There's some story entries that you might find interesting if you like the Equin series so far.

1/9/07: I am starting an honest to goodness DEVLOG over at Live Journal. This is going to be everything large and small about the creation process of Equin 3: Legacy and basically all the history of the series (and unreleased or unfinished games). It's brand new, so give me a few days to get it up to date. I still have some catching up to do, but the good thing is that people can post comments there. If you have a good idea, it just might end up in the game- holy crap! You can check it out here.

1/4/07: I updated the "In The Works" section with a new screenshot of the early exploration mode. There's still a lot that I want to do with it, so I wouldn't expect the final product to look exactly like it does now. The player will interact with a lot of things in real time, but will also call up command menu windows like the old Dragon Warriors did to perform actions like opening locked doors or picking items up off the ground. It really looks a lot better when you see all the objects' animations in action like the bird, campfire, moving flowerbeds, or the butterflies. While the command windows are displayed, the player is paused but the game world is not. Movement and control are resumed after the windows are closed. As of right now, all three shown operate together to save time for the player. I plan on working a lot on the game over the weekend so there may be another update here sooner than later.

1/2/07: I can't believe just how simple it really is to make an 8-directional custom movement in MMF1.5. Furthermore, I also can't believe that it took me this long to finally figure out how to make a functional one myself. Equin Legacy is going GREAT so far. The transition from exploration area to inventory works really well, and there are some snappy menu window effects too.  I'm going full force for the extra touches, and as of now that includes butterflies, birds, and flowers. There are also a lot of animated objects and, and.. just a bunch of stuff, you guys'll like it.