Wii Internet Channel and Nintendo DS/DSi Browser Homebrew

Reposted from my DSiPaint blog (2 Jan 2010):

This blog is going to focus on reviewing last year, carrying over from this blog, written on 26 Dec 2009. I will write another blog with goals for 2011.

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Statistics
Active Paintings:
Then: 10,000
Now: 42,500

Chatroom Count
Then: 6
Now: 11 (plus hosting)

Chatroom Activity
Then: 40-50 at a time max
Now: 60-70 at a time max
Record: 82 in Chatroom Event for the Saviis launch party

Visits per Day (DSiPaint)
Then: 1700
Now: 5000
Record: 7723 (16 Oct)

Membership
Then: 13,000
Now: 41,500


Original 2010 Goals

1. Allow admins to recommend other members to be admins through their profiles.
Status: Originally done but removed later

2. Lock certain avatars to specific members.
Status: Added custom chatroom commands

3. Link to DSiPaintings from profiles
Status: Added in the Level of Awesomeness area

4. Allow longer length bans for offensive members.
Status: Went the other way: Several bots issue a warning then do a short ban with no admins needed in the chatrooms.

5. Blog ratings
Status: Incomplete

6. Blog categories
Status: Done

7. DSiPainting comments
Status: Incomplete

8. Tabbed chatrooms for PMs
Status: Incomplete


Other 2010 Goals

Finish TMJ
Status: Several more demos arrived, but I decided to wait for the Nintendo 3DS for the final game. Plus, unoriginal artwork and lack of interest from team members created major set-backs. Let's shoot for 2011!

Migrate to a New Server
Status: I migrated the websites from shared hosting at FastDomain to a virtual cloud server at RackSpace. After only a few weeks, I doubled the server size. A few weeks later, I doubled it again. Then on Christmas Day, I doubled it again. Let's see how long this holds into 2011!


Various 2010 Upgrades
DSiPaint.com
(General) - Custom BBCodes, account privacy, real-time alerts

Affiliate Links - admin-run approvals

Bulletin Boards (New) - create threads, make posts, lock, sticky, delete

Chatrooms - Ninja, language chats, bots

DSiPaint App - 2x image dimensions, 4x image colors, solid line drawing, instant saving

DSiPaint Spriter (New, Beta) - Create simple animations, voting, galleries, admin area

Games - Minco Says, OverlorDS, Snack Time (Yobinja), Tap Party (Yobonja), Wak-a-Skunk, Yortzee

Groups (New, Beta) - Create groups, post comments, view profile summaries, invite members

Help Desk (New) - ask questions to admins, receive response alerts

Library (New) - Early demo

Messaging - forwards, replies

Saviis (New) - Create website avatars like Miis, earn points, buy bucks, conduct auctions, comment on Saviis

TMJ - PvP Demo, storyline demo

Web Hosting (new) - Gold Hosting, Silver Hosting, email addresses


HullBreach Online Lite
Added character creation on DSi
Fixed out-of-memory error


TWiiter Lite
Better styling


WiiOperaSDK
Bulletin Boards (New) - create threads, make posts, lock, sticky, delete

Chatrooms - bots, language chats


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As you can see, there have been numerous changes on DSiPaint.com, but all websites have received upgrades. Since the vast majority of activity has been by members using DSiPaint.com, the other websites may seem to have been left behind.

Overall, this has been a great year for the community, and I am glad to have been part of it. I would like to hear everyone's comments on the last year, relating to any of these websites. Please save idea for 2011 for the follow-up blog.

Wow, it's been a loooong time since I've posted here. Let me give two big updates to The Mystical Journey one of which should've been posted more than a month ago:

Mt. Hildar Coliseum Demo

Mt. Hildar is going to be the multi-player battle arena, where players can trade and fight. For the new year, the team released an early demo of the lobby portion of the coliseum, which allows players to explore in MMO-fashion and chat with each other. A newer version of this engine is in development for the village taverns that will have full screen scrolling and player interaction. Mr. Hildar in the final game will incorporate that engine, as well.

Minco Says...

This is a mini-game modeled after Simon, where players compete for the highest scores to rank on the leaderboard. The host of the game is Minco, the mascot for The Mystical Journey.

The upcoming Nintendo DSi Browser RPG is both my oldest and newest project related to the website. The Mystical Journey started in development on a Commodore 128 in 1995 but quickly moved to MS-DOS, where it was released as an extended demo a few years later with a play style similar to the classic Final Fantasy games. It had smooth-scrolling tile-based levels with NPCs and photographs for backgrounds in fight scenes. In all, the demo contained 13 levels, 5 battle backgrounds, 7 enemies, numerous NPCs, and MIDI music for each level. Characters could fight and cast magic in battle, and pausing the game would bring up a configuration screen.

The Nintendo DSi Browser version will build upon the old extended demo and be made into a full game. Rather than using a tile-based engine, levels will be comprised of giant PNG images of the tilemap for faster scrolling on the browser. The will allow more variety in level graphics since tiles can be blended more easily. The battle engine will be ported in a very similar manner, with all visual effects for magics intact, like waving and rippling. Levels will be released as episodic content so that the storyline can adapt and expand to player requests.

By its nature, TMJ will be single-player, although a battle arena will allow players to fight each other online. The first component of the game to be released will be the battle arena.

A teaser and scroll-test are available as http://dsipaint.com .