MataPijos Development Guide.
1999 sTack oVerflow
https://members.tripod.com/neuralgya
neuralgya@latinmail.com
Last Update: 31-03-1999


1. What need to develop MataPijos

MataPijos Editor: MPE v2.00
Minimal Hardware :

-i386 or better
-DPMI Support for DOS or DIRECTX6 for Windows 9X
-SVGA Card.

 

2.Principal Knowlegments:

- What is a level?
It's an amount of files of type <name>xxxx.mdt. Each file is the screen xxxx
of the level.

- What is a screen?
Is a tile-matrix with 10 planes of depth.

- What is a tile?
Is a PCX file of 256 colors and size 16x16. It's the most basic part of the
design of a screen.

- Can I make my own tiles?
Yes, but you MUST RESPECT the SIZE,PALETTE and the name must be as our tiles,
(<tilexxx.pcx>),till a 256 limit.(It's a temporary limit). MUST SEND THEM
WITH THE LEVEL.

- How do I make the levels?
Think a name and Use Your Illusion (GN'R).

- What are the tile types?

NORMAL: It's a tile for background. They are in the plane 0-8.
SOLIDO: Solid object.
SEMISOLIDO: Like Solido, but you can pass throw them form down to up.(For jumpin' platforms)
SOLIDO DESTRUIBLE: A solid, but can be destroyed.
ESCALERA: A stair or ladder.
1PLANO: Plane 9. This tile is saw in first plane, over the rest of the screen

In these types, planes from 0-8 are filled with background tiles, and the representative tile is on plane 9. Ex. You have two tiles, one is a wall, and the other one is a stone. Put the wall in plane 0, then click on SOLIDO and put the stone over the wall. Wall is on 0 and stone is on 9, and you see the stone standing over the wall. The entire type is SOLIDO, so caracters won't pass through it.

ANIMACION: Is an animation. Plane 0 is a background tile. From 1 to 9 are the frames of the animation.

- Why ENEMIGOS...etc buttons doesn't work on MPE editor?
They aren't implemented yet, wait for v2.1.

- Will be out my level with the game?
YES, if it is better than ours (That means YES)

- Ehh, What the game's about?
Platforms like BLUESBROTHERS, MARIO....

- When will the game be out?
Before September (Maybe 1st of June)

- How do I send my level?
E-mail:neuralgya@latinmail.com , and we will talk.

- Why there are so many language mistakes?
BECAUSE ENGLISH IS NOT OUR NATIVE LANGUAGE, WE ARE SPANISH!!!

3.What to do

That's an extract of an e-mail I wrote to Christoff Jäger explainin' what to do. I think it answers all the questions you can ask.

"........
1. MataPijos (Meaning and argument)
Actually, all of our work is only code. Graphics work was Migue's stuff, but he gave it up finally and started enemy code.
I know you'll need the story line in order to make some pics or sprites unfortunately, there isn't a strong argument or story-board. That's the reason cause we gave graphics on Migue's hands, he had the original idea and he should know how he want the graphics.Now, argument is something a bit "ethereal". But there isn't any problem. Well, the first step is to explain you the meaning of MataPijos. That's a spanish compound word. "Matar" is 'to kill'. "Matamoscas" would be 'flykiller'. "Pijo" is hard to translate. A Pijois a Social-Strate,a city-clan, or something like that. Example: We have rockers, punkies,riders, heavys and many others groups of people.The Pijos are silly boys, usually with a lot-of-money-parents, and have all they want. They can be recognized easily:
- Usually wear special desing clothes or famous trademarks (Lacoste,Benetton,Levi's,Rebook,Nike,..)
- They pretend to know everything (but they don't)
- They have a special way pronunciation.
- They like soft music, and they pretend to be a hard guys.
- They don't call themselves Pijos.
Famous Pijos: Julio Iglesias' family, (Do you know 'Prince of Bel-Air', by Will Smith?. Carlton Banks is the perfect example).

Well, I expect you have understand the meaning of Pijo. I don't know how is the translation.

Jimy is our hero, (he has long hear, green beard, a Metallica t-Shirt, and dark clothes). The Primary mision is to go through the city, killin' all the Pijos he finds. We want to make it a funny game, but also very bloody.

(We don't promove any radicalism, in fact, a lot of our friends are a bit 'pijos'. We just wanna make a joke)


2. Music, Levels, Menus and graphics.

We can support some MODules & MIDI's. We were thinking' about Hard Music, something like Metallica, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Guns n' Roses, Prodigy, but send us all you want cause we are open to new ideas and styles. Levels: you can make levels about you want, a city, a big house, an hotel, a concert, a disco. All you imagin' would be right.Just remember to use the editor, and make some tiles. (By the way,the editor (MPE 2.00) only can use 256 tiles, but that's a provisional limit).
Read editor's documents for more information.
---
NOTE: Next week(29/3/99) we're on Holidays, and maybe we make a meeting. We will join our codes and I want to send you the result (Maybe put it on the web) .That'll be Jimy moving over a floor, jumpin', climbing, some primary shots, and special tiles treatment. It is a good way to test levels made on the editor.
---

Menus: Well, that's a secondary step. Just make some pics to put then on menu's backgrounds, or if you want, make a FONT. Send us all that you can. You can use 640x480x256 640x400x256 resolutions for menu's graphics or logos.

Ah, if you could make a FLI/FLC, would be very nice. d:-) You can also make animated logos.

Sprites: We are using some sprites for Jimy, but they're not definitive.That's another thing to do.
Enemies: Nowadays they are just green boxes. (Migue calls them tarugos)

Well, as you see, there is a lot of work to do. Take it easy and just do what you want (or be able to).

IMPORTANT 1#: If you got an idea, just e-mail me.
NOTE 2: I can send you the level-editor source code if you want.

Send us your photo if you want us to put it on the credits game

......."