New coloured Thug sprites.

Running and punching.

EDIT: And here's another variation on the thug, with both animations.

And a slight update to the mockup:

How's this looking, Aleiav? I hope this looks better. I never saw any distraction, but then some monitors are brighter than others, and I want to aim to please the majority of computer screen eyeballs out there! Now you make me worried about the trees.

PS. New BH animations: from hold to slap and from hold to uppercut.

@Shark: The trees doppleganger drew are too highly textured and highlighted to match the rest of my backgrounds. Like I said, I want to avoid overpowering the sprites with complex backgrounds. I've changed the tree colours and swapped the brown with a lighter brown found in BH's costume.

I'm gonna try and get a new scene up soon using some new background pieces and sprites. I'll try and make it as different to this one as possible.

@Shark: Thanks mate. I'll be having variations in trees throughout the levels, so hopefully everyone will get their way at one stage.

I other news, I'm looking to take aboard another pixeller for this project. The job will primarily involve tile based work (which is not a specialty of mine). You'd be working under me, and ofcourse you'll get credited for all your hard work. If anyone is interested, please PM or email me with examples of their work.

Nice topbar. :) Much better.

And I really like the clouds.

News for anyone following the game:
Shark will be joining me in the art department to help bring a proper foreground tile set. It also looks like he'll be aiding me with other aspects of the game. I'll still be controlling all big decisions, he'll just be lending a hand when it helps- which is similar to having Demon aboard with the programming in the first place.

Hope to have some new stuff to show off soon!

I hope the Black Hole is like one of those hero's from the 1950's that makes all the kids wish that they had the hero instead of their real fathers.

Gordon: Say son how would you fancy fishing with me!
Jack: Gee wiz dad, that would be real keen, but the new issue of The Black Hole comes out today.
Gordon That's okay son.......maybe some other time...

@Aleiav: Cheers!

@Swifty: Shark answered your question! It also makes him look pretty goofy, even a bit of a pussy. Remember, Black Hole (the comic) was always a superhero comedy.

@Shark: ;)

I'm personally happy that I finally managed to get some cape movement going on. That thing was looking pretty damn stiff up until now. It sort of looks more like he's practicing Tae Bo, rather than beating up some felons-- and I find that hilarious!

This just seems a bit of a contradiction to me. Cartooning is all about sacrificing a bit of realism for simplication and humour's sake. I want to hear your suggestions, cos I know this game could be cartoonier-- and for better!

And don't worry, just the fact that you've taken the time to get involved with the game is enough to warrant your input some significant amount of weight. I wouldn't bother posting it here if I wasn't willing to take aboard everyone's ideas.

Oh, and if you want to know why he throws his head around like that, then simply try doing it yourself. Throw a punch at an (imaginary) enemy, and turn your head the other way as if you were practicing some sort of exercise routine. It's the best way to describe the humour of the action. It also makes BH stand out from the regular Thug way of fighting.

EDIT: Oh, and I think I compromised making this a serious game when I decided to make the characters big headed. I may well work on a more serious adaption of my Black Hole concept further down the track, but at the moment, I want something light, fluffy, and fun filled.

I'm gonna work on colouring some of the other character sprites now. I should have some new stuff up soon. And don't forget, Swifty, read the comic!

@Swifty: Glad I could beat some sense into you with my punching demonstration ;) I will consider making some further body movement to the action.

Regarding the 'control' of BH's sucking ability. Currently plans are to have a considerable control of where exactly BH is sucking and propelling. I want there to be a curser that follows an invisible radius of say 30 pixels surrounding BH. When you press and hold the suck button the curser appears and you can use the left and right buttons to move the curser around the invisible circle. When you release the suck button it sucks in that direction. It sounds complicated, but believe me its not. Here's a little demonstration:

This will make it funner to hide secrets, objects and objectives in the background because the player has a much greater amount of directions to choose to suck, rather than just make him suck left, right and up. And once the player gets used to it I'm sure it will become faster to control.

This will probably mean BH's arm will need to be a seperate object, so that it can rotate in every direction, but I'll work that out with Demon.

EDIT: That's just a standin curser, by the way. Not sure what we're gonna use yet.