Saturday Morning Adventures Developer's Diaries and Teasers

[BentonGrey]

Cranlox, you intrigue me!  I am looking forward to seeing what you've got up your sleeve!

Bearded, you're over my head, but I wish you luck, my friend! 

I am indeed including Joe.  I've got Style's amazing Joe skopes, and he's got most of the cast created.  There are a few that have issues or don't work, though.  I'll probably add them last, as they're the biggest undertaking, other than Transformers, and I've already got a start on the TF because of my abortive attempt at a mod years ago.

[BentonGrey]

Howdy guys!  I don't have a real update right now, but I'm close to something sorta' cool.  I've been experimenting with creating FF Python scripts with AI.  It's taken A LOT of trial and error, and it's been a frustrating process--BUT I am pretty close to a functional mission, and when I have it, I'm going to try to create an AI "Primer" that gives a (somewhat) code competent AI like Claude a base in what it needs to create FF code.  This could revolutionize modding!

I'm also messing around with some AI voice packs.  I'm toying with the idea of getting a subscription to ElevenLabs, which would let me make up to 30 voices and allow me to create fully voiced campaigns. 

Stay tuned!  Exciting stuff!

[MarvelHero]

Interesting. Will it be compatible with FFX3?

[BentonGrey]

MH, short answer, yes.  I've actually been incorporating some of M25's innovations into the script.

[MarvelHero]

That's awesome.

[BentonGrey]

Howdy folks!  Well, this took way more time and effort than I intended, haha, but here is the preview that I've been hinting at:

Join the Mighty Mutanimals in their first adventure!
https://youtu.be/Wgc72H9cHXo

This video is a sneak peek at the first story mission in my upcoming Mighty Mutanimals campaign, for Saturday Morning Adventures. Join me for a tour of my version of the team's origins, as I try to give this short-lived and underrated group of characters a new lease on life.  Meet the seven central characters and follow along as they try to escape the sinister clutches of the nefarious Nullcorp!  I've been wanting to actually get into the storytelling of the mod and get a start on the campaigns, and this is the first fruits of that.  You can actually see the whole range of the mod in action, not just in the Rumble Room, but in the campaign itself.

I wrote this mission, but then used AI to actually script it, and it also features AI-created voicepacks for several of the characters.  I'll make a blog post soon, providing more information about that process and sharing the guide document I made to train an AI to do FF coding. 

[Randomdays]

Oh no! Benton's gone AI! Is that really you Benton?

[BentonGrey]

Haha, in very specific contexts only!    Other than the environmental impact (an element about which I still have many qualms), I think that the use of AI for a fan project like this is one of the few places where it can be an unalloyed good.  It's not replacing any actual human agency or ability, and nobody is losing money because of it. 

[deanjo2000]

That was a great watch. It's shaping up very nice

[BentonGrey]

Awesome!  I'm really glad you enjoyed it, Dean, especially since your contributions have been directly responsible for me being able to tell this story in the first place! 

[spydermann93]

Mighty Mutanimal and X-Men team-up when???

Lol, great vid, Benton! Curious about those two buttons on the main menu blocking the "Exit Game" button. Are those new?

[MarvelHero]

I also watched it. Although I was late.

X-Men TAS next? jk

[Jimaras8]

As always great attention to detail and care for the material Benton. It was also nice to see you for the first time hahaha

[WyldFyre]

Finally got to sit down and watch. Awesome work. I love the voices and I hope you can get AI coding to work like you want. I can see me finally getting to work on that Fawcett mod I have on the back burner if you can show us hoe to make it less time consuming. 

[BentonGrey]

Thanks, guys!  I really appreciate that!

Mighty Mutanimal and X-Men team-up when???

Lol, great vid, Benton! Curious about those two buttons on the main menu blocking the "Exit Game" button. Are those new?

Ha, there might be an interesting story there.  Those two buttons are from the debug mode, which I keep on for testing and such.  I actually don't realy know what they do.

MH, my Marvel Adventures mod already features pretty much my love letter to X-Men TAS!     If I had all the time in the world, I'd go through the show and get voice packs for all the characters...

Jim, ha, yeah, showing my face for the first time.  Thanks, man!

WF, I think we're getting there.  I'm going to try it again with my first He-Man mission, and if this goes smoother, I think we'll have something.  A Fawcett mod would be great!

[BentonGrey]

Hey guys, I'm back in action, and I come bearing some new preview videos!

This one is a teaser for the first mission of my new He-Man campaign, just a glimpse of the action and a hint of the story.
https://youtu.be/L0Uz51KxwkE

But if you want a more in-depth look, this is a full preview, with commentary from your truly, like the Mighty Mutanimals video I posted a while back.
https://youtu.be/LOeKMMJc8oE

I'm sorry this has taken me so long!  This He-Man mission was a real nightmare to code, and basically everything went wrong.  I hit an absolute brick wall when I was almost done with it at the end of the semester, and I put it aside until I had the bandwidth to deal with it.  I had all kinds of weird issues, including with stuff that I had successfully done in the previous mission.  The weirdest issue was in the final encounter, where the villains, for some reason, acted like complete spazzes and kept jumping around like they had ants in their pants.  They'd start an attack, only to hop like there was something in the way and they were blocked.  No clue exactly what caused it, but apparently the AI did something funky to the character AI.  I had to redesign the entire encounter to get rid of whatever it did.

There's no doubt about it, scripting with AI is possible, but by no means a good experience.  The bot I was using constantly made mistakes and screwed up the code.  The positive side of it is, I've learned a lot, and I'm slowly becoming marginally competent with Python myself.  And, I was able to do some cool things that I couldn't have done with EZScript, like use explosive traps in the mission. 

Anyway, I hope that y'all will enjoy these!  I'd love feedback on the mission and the designs. 

[deanjo2000]

Very enjoyable to watch and a good cast of characters.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks, Dean!  I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[spydermann93]

those soundtracks bring much nostalgia to me

makes me wanna go see the movie again, lol

[BentonGrey]

I was pretty pleased with finding all the incidental music from the show.  That gave me a lot of nostalgia fuel to work with!

[BentonGrey]

Howdy folks!  I'm delighted to share the next sneak peek of my Saturday Morning Adventures mod, this one exploring the first mission of the ThunderCats campaign!
https://youtu.be/q_LcLrqPU1E

Fortunately, this one went much more smoothly than the He-Man one.  While my scripting bot apparently had an electronic aneurysm and forgot what it was doing at the very beginning of the process, I switched out the underlying tool, and it ended up working much better.  Still got to watch it like a hawk, though. 

SilverHawks are up next!

[Randomdays]

Sometimes I wish this forum had "upvotes" like others

 

[deanjo2000]

I do like watching these videos

[cranlox]

Great work

[BentonGrey]

Thanks, guys!  I appreciate it!

[BentonGrey]

Howdy folks!  I had a request to provide a more detailed look at the powers and abilities of the ThunderCats in my mod, so I put this video together to give a deeper examination of what everyone can do.  It shows a couple of skirmish matches with the team vs. the Mutants.:
https://youtu.be/1SL9eDzCFHk

Also, I have a favor to ask; if you're enjoying these videos, please give them a like to help boost their visibility!  I'm really hoping to get some traction with the fan communities and recruit some folks to help me with voicepacks and such.