I typed out this entire post and just lost it all! So I'm retyping things so I hopefully don't forget to retype things! But I might speed through things on the retype.

Thanks for everyone for submitting pieces! My tentative deadline I'm looking for right now with trying to address the upcoming holidays and all is Sunday, February 21st at 11:59EST or when I wake up and start working the next morning.

My quick elephant in the room is Domination! If you wish to add domination to your map, certainly feel free! If you don't want to go through that, that is fine but I fully intend on adding domination compatibility to the entirety of Jam (pray for me) so if you don't do it, I will do it myself. Likewise, if you want to add domination to an older Jam map of yours, feel free!
Big Trillster telling me if I don't include a link to the wiki on how to do Domination that I'll DIE so here's the Domination tutorial if you're interested!

Usually after the signup phase we don't allow other people to signup for Jam. That's something I'd like to phase out of if possible? So if you're interested in participating but weren't able to make the phase 1 deadline, shoot me a DM on Discord and I'll try to figure something out. It'll most likely involve me throwing two random pieces at you, some of which may be from older Jams, I don't know!

Anyway, let's talk about map requirements which is mostly a copy/paste job as always.

-Each mapper must use both map pieces given to them in their map. The piece must be in the playable space of the map at all times and not off in the background or something. However, the mapper is able to make plenty of changes to the pieces if they so desire. Common ways map pieces are changed include...

-Changing the height of parts.
-Changing jump stairs to walk stairs, the other way around, changing it to a ladder or a fan, changing a slope to not a slope or the other way around, etc. etc.
-Adding little things to fill up blank space.
-Changing curved walls to normal angles (or the other way around).
-Flattening out uneven terrain.
-Any textures, aesthetics, or anything like that in the piece.

There are certainly more options than just these, but these are the common ones I've seen in the past. The general rule of thumb is I should still be able to recognize the map piece when everything is said and done. If you have any question about editing a piece because you're unsure, just ask me and I'll let you know if it's legal or not.

-You're allowed to use custom assets to your heart's content. As long as it's still 8-bit in nature, though I'm sure that goes without saying. But you're not obliged to stick with what's in the core game, though you can if you want!
That said, please try to avoid custom weapons and such. We're a map pack not a weapon pack, so that's pretty much the one line I have to draw.

-Likewise, the song in your map must be 8-bit in nature. If it's not, I have full authority to change the song. Likewise, try not to use a song that's already in the core game, I will also change it in that case. I'm a picky soul about music as well and I will ask for a song replacement if it actually is unpleasant to listen to. Do not worry about adding boss themes because they will be replaced when the pack is released. And while you don't need to worry about adding a map card, I will need the song information so I can do it myself at the very least.

-Some general mapping courtesies. Include at least 32 spawns, 16 Light Team Spawns, 16 Wily Team Spawns, 8 Cossack Team Spawns, and 8 King Spawns (if there's a big problem I can add the team spawns myself). Make sure to keep the lighting at an even 255 unless there's a really good reason for it to be something else (AKA don't make the whole map the default 192. Trust me, it's not as appealing as you think it is!). Also make sure you lighting isn't 256, that's a common error that leads to lighting problems. If you have any sorta instant death such as pits, lava, etc. make sure to block the edges of the platforms with block monster lines.

- If you want to add Domination / Sectinfo, feel free! At the very least I will be adding Domination points myself if you choose not to. But there's no problem if that's just something you don't wish to tackle.

-I will have to either ask for changes or outright reject a map if something in it causes the game to have difficulty running, either offline or online. Software mode is very unpopular in this world, but the map needs to be functional on it, though it doesn't have to be pretty. In the past this has been the only reason I'd have to not accept a submitted map. Gotta make sure it works for everyone!

-Remember that this is NOT a competition, nor is it a race to the finish line. Feel free to get input from other people if you're unsure about something, and don't be afraid to ask questions if you have any! If you're new to mapping or unsure on something, I would definitely recommend not waiting until the last second to make your map so there's time to get feedback/make potential changes if that needs to happen.

-While it's incredibly unlikely to happen, I hold full authority to reject a map for a failure to abide by the main rules or for any other very unlikely reason that might pop up. As such I hold authority to make slight edits to a map myself if for some reason the situation calls for it. Don't worry about this one too much, it's more of the "just in case" rule.


That should cover all the baseline rules so let's see some pieces!



And here's a link to the Jam Pieces!
in google drive format that's hopefully fine. i've used dropbox for all the past ones so let me know if there's a problem.

That should be all from me! If you have any questions, shoot them my way and here's to another great jam!

Cutstuff Mapping Jam 10: Godjammit!

(i didn't have time to make a funny image maybe i'll edit one in later)

(mushsect had time to make a funny image so i, korby, have edited it in without telling freems i did so)



Hello everyone, it's Freems and after much waiting, welcome to the tenth Cutstuff Mapping Jam!

For those who do not know, Jam is a community mapping event where we just get a ton of people together to make some maps for the game. We always welcome both old and new mappers, and in fact, encourage new mappers to try to make a map for the first time if they've ever thought about it! Jam is not a contest but more just a place for everyone to make some maps and stick em' in a pack!

This was usually a yearlyish thing, but I've been waiting for V6C to come out before hosting the next one so we can all play with some of the new tools that the version offers, but obviously that took a little longer than originally planned. But we finally made it!

Firstly, if you're new to mapping and are interested in trying, please check out the mapping tutorial on our wiki right here! It's a great way to get started.

Jam as always, is broken into two phases. The first will last about three weeks and will consist of every mapper making a small map piece, which acts as one's sign up. Once those three weeks are done, every mapper will be assigned two other map pieces and will get to make a map with them!

In the past we've done some gimmicks to go along with Jam, but as it's been a while and it lines up with a big version release, I want this Jam to be a little more open so the only gimmick in play will be the normal map pieces one. I want people to just kind of be able to do what they want (as long as they use those pieces!)

There are a few guidelines for pieces which I'll copy/paste from every past year below!



Remember, your map piece will act as your sign up! I'm trying to figure out a system where people who are late can do these things, but I don't have something set in stone quite yet so until then I'm still going to say the map piece will act as your sign up!
If you have any questions about anything whatsoever, please do not be afraid to ask! I think it's fun for veterans to make some maps, but I really do like to help newbies learn how to make maps too, so if there's anything you're confused about, do not worry about asking questions, I'm more than happy to help!

In this era of not having forum PMs, please submit all map pieces to my Discord account (which is Freems). I'm doing a slightly longer signup period just because the version did come out like 3 days ago. So submissions will close at Sunday, November 8th at 11:59pm EST or in reality when I wake up the next morning and start setting up phase 2.

I think that's everything I have to cover here. Phase 2 I'll talk more about things such as DOMINATION but spoilers: no one will be forced to add it.
Here's to another great jam!

Hey all you Mega Fans! It's finally time for the release of Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch V6C!

At this point I really don't have much left to say that I haven't already said. I do want to thank everyone who worked very hard on this new version, and all of the players who remained so patient while it was in development!

But that's enough out of me. Firstly, here is a link to the changelog! There's a lot inside!

Changelog

And here are the downloads for V6C!

• Installer (Recommended)
  
• Win64 Archive
  
• Win32 Archive
  

Lastly, tonight, October 16th at 7:00pm EST there's going to be a launch party of sorts for Domination! If you have a Discord account and/or that's something you're interested in, you can check out the event and the official 8BDM Discord server here!

Launch Party Domination Event

That's all from me! I hope you all enjoy this update!

Hey all you Mega Fans, we're back with one last V6C Newsletter!

This one will be very short and sweet. As you may have seen, the latest Zandronum build has released, which means the big thing we were waiting on to release V6C is done!

As such, with the trailer already posted, we have the official release date for V6C below!



That's all for this newsletter! We will see you on release day!

Hey all you Mega Fans, we're back at it again with another V6C Newsletter!

First things first, if I'm going to post a newsletter in this day and age, I owe you all another image of some grass.



Marvelous.

To cut to the chase. It's crazy that it's been nearly 5 months since the last newsletter and here we are in a very similar position as to where we were before. For all intents and purposes, V6C is finished. There's always small things to be caught and fixed, but when it comes to the content we want to put in the game, it's basically tied up neatly with a bow.

That said, we of course are still waiting for Zandronum to release its next build, as some features in it go hand in hand with V6C. That can be soon, that can be later, but we're more or less at a standstill until that's ready on Zandronum's end.

However, we are pretty tired of just sitting on this version and while we are unable to release it until Zandronum is ready, we are very able to release the trailer without it.

So mark your calendars! The Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch V6C Trailer will premiere Monday, September 7th at 6:00pm EST! Below is a link to the video premiere!



Now obviously we won't be able to put a release date on this trailer, just a "Coming Soon!" (spoilers....), but we do want to show off all the hard work we've put into this version after all this time. And even though we've shown a lot of content in these newsletters, we have a couple more surprises in store in the trailer, so I hope you are able to catch it!

That's all for this newsletter! We will see you next week for the trailer!

Hey all you Mega Fans, we're back at it again with one more V6C Newsletter!

Hey, check this out.



As promised, I was going to post a picture of grass once I was out of things that I wanted to show in these newsletters. So here's that grass.

Since it's been in development for some time now, let's briefly run down the history of this version. V6C originally just started as a small scale update to come out with Zandronum 3.2. We'd hit some changes that would be required with the engine update, maybe tweak a few weapon balance numbers and call it a day. However, we found ourselves with little to do while waiting for 3.2 to come out, so instead we just started working on a lot of different things. And I do mean a lot. The wait time caused us to change trajectory and just start changing and improving pretty much whatever we wanted. As a result, by the time Zandronum 3.2 actually came out, we still had a TON on our plate that we had started and had to finish.

This all turned into V6C being, easily, the version with the most content we've ever made. I know there's no new games being represented here, but if you were to just sit down and look at everything we've done, it eclipses even V6A adding two Mega Man games at once.

With that being said, my original plan for this newsletter was to post that picture of grass and also include a date for the V6C Trailer release! But as it turns out, we got so much work done that we looped back around to the beginning and we now find ourselves waiting for Zandronum 3.3. Oops.

As it stands, I've shown everything that I'm interested in showing in these newsletters. We will certainly have a few surprises in the trailer itself, so don't think you've seen everything we have to offer. But, without knowing when 3.3 will be ready, I can't set up a planned release date, and by extension, I can't set up a trailer date that would need a planned release date. So we once again find ourselves in a slight waiting period. It's one to my understanding, shouldn't be terribly long (Or I certainly hope that is the case) but one where I can't keep newsletters going without just posting more pictures of my yard every three weeks.

Please do not immediately expect a V6C trailer to drop the second 3.3 comes out as well. We're firmly in what I'd like to call the "buttoning up" phase. But there's a lot of content to button, and if it were to drop very shortly, we'd still have to finish buttoning up. I think a trailer can safely be expected to drop within a few weeks of 3.3 dropping, with further info being in that trailer. But please don't take that as a promise. What if I get hit by a meteor when 3.3 drops? That'd be bad and would probably delay the trailer, so I won't promise anything.

ANYHOW! Thank you for reading all these newsletters, I hope you've enjoyed them over the last year or so! Next time you see me in here, it will hopefully be with knowledge about Zandronum 3.3 and a trailer maybe!
See you then!

Hey all you Mega Fans! We're back at it again with another V6C Newsletter!

Let's jump straight to the chase! Today I want to focus on a couple more weapons that are getting updated for V6C. These ones are more than just simple balance changes and are more or less full reworks of existing weapons. So first off, let's take a look at...



For quite some time now, Flame Sword has found itself in a little bit of a weird spot in our game, in that it is always competing with other resident melee weapon, Slash Claw. Back when V3A first came out, Flame Sword kind of was "Slash Claw but better", but nowadays Slash Claw really overshadows it in every aspect and it really brings nothing new to the table.
So how about a change?



It may be a little difficult to tell from this gif alone, but Flame Sword has been reworked into a slower, but much more powerful melee tool. Instead of the quicker shorter range damage you'd get before, you now have a windup that goes with Flame Sword, but to compensate the attack is wider and way more immediately damaging.



To help compensate its power, we also gave the slash the ability to go through walls. Of course, it's still a melee weapon so you can't use it to the same effect as Magic Card, but it can still be a useful ability to keep in mind.

Now, while I don't usually do this, these gifs can only do so much to show how Flame Sword works now. There's a good deal going on with the animations and sound that help sell how this weapon works now. So here is a short video showing Flame Sword in action on the field. Please take a look!



Now that's all I have to show for Flame Sword today, but there is another weapon I want to talk about!



Gravity Hold has been in a little bit of a weird spot for some time now. It's one of the classic AOE weapons, and always has been. But there's generally been something... not terribly fun about using it. If you're fighting against Gravity Hold, you would know it deals more damage if you're in the air so the best way to avoid pain is to just not jump ever, which isn't terribly fun. And if you're using Gravity Hold, your enemy most likely knows better and will just not jump, which also isn't terribly fun as you more likely than not to just not get much gain out of using it.

So instead we made some changes to how Gravity Hold works to keep its more powerful AOE weapon design intact, while adding a lot more "oomph" to using the weapon.




Gravity Hold now acts as an AOE weapon that, after a short windup, will now slam all grounded enemies to the ceiling, and all airborne enemies to the ground! Some damage is dealt by the AOE blast itself, but more of it is dealt via the slam instead.

Of course, several changes were made to the weapon to compensate this new design. The amount of shots you have before having to refill ammo has been significantly reduced, and the AOE no longer hits a large circle around you, and instead focuses on a radius in front of the user. So you at least have to be "aiming" the weapon at people to take them for a ride.

While this is definitely a more satisfying weapon to use and helps fit the theming of Gravity Hold a little better, the weapons only use isn't only in causing AOE carnage, in fact, while the damage isn't bad, it certainly isn't anything special.
But when a player is slammed into the floor or ceiling, they do experience just a little stun. Which is perfect for turning Gravity Hold into a combo tool!



After all, if you hit Gravity Hold succesfully, you should know exactly where your opponent is heading and can follow up accordingly!

Or, you know, you can perform tricks like this.



That's all for today's newsletter! I hope you all enjoy the new weapons when V6C comes out, and we'll see you next time for some more info!

While I certainly appreciate the enthusiasm, I'm going to move this topic to rejected simply because we have a battle plan already set in stone for the Mega Man 11 campaign.

Hey all you Mega Fans! We're back at it again with another V6C Newsletter!

I'm going to be doing this newsletter ever so slightly differently than the past ones, as in I'm going to show off a lot of things at once but hardly say any words about it. So let me do my rambling at the top of the post this time.

While a lot of our focus on these newsletters have been on the main maps, weapons, and items, there's still a whole subset of maps we don't really discuss much at all in any of these updates, the Capture the Flag maps. Capture the Flag has never been the most popular of modes in the game, and as such these maps usually fall to the wayside completely when it comes to updates. So for V6C, we did a rather comprehensive sweep of the CTF maps in order to just generally improve the quality of many of them.

Now that doesn't mean every single CTF map has changed drastically. A few got large changes, some got some smaller touchups, others focused more on updating the visuals, and others didn't really change at all. But instead of talking about all the changes, I'm simply going to show off some screenshots of some of the changes that will go into V6C.

I will NOT be showing off all the changes made to maps in this post though. So if a map doesn't show up here, that doesn't mean it's not getting anything in the release. I just don't want to show literally everything before the game releases.

Without further ado...

MMCTF03 - Melting Metal



MMCTF05 - Clockwork Factory



MMCTF08 - Edge of the Dam



MMCTF15 - Double Castle




MMCTF17 - Deserted City



MMCTF25 - Sky High Skirmish



And normally, that's where our CTF maps end, but you know what, I'll throw in one more as a treat.
Introducing...

MMCTF26 - Seasonal Shrines





That's all the pictures I have for you all for today! Remember, there's even more CTF changes than the ones listed here today, so make sure to keep an eye out for those when V6C releases! Though it's just going to be the one brand new CTF map, I hope you all enjoy it! It's very well done.

That's all for today's newsletter! We'll see you next time for some more V6C goodness! See you then!

Hey all you Mega Fans! We're back again with another V6C Newsletter! It's been a minute since we've had a proper one of these, so I hope you all had a great New Year and the such!

So let's get right to it this time, shall we? I only have a couple things to show you and they're surprisingly not terribly map related this go around. Instead, I want to take a look at an existing weapon in the game...



Skull Barrier has always been a very interesting weapon in MM8BDM, exclusively focusing on the defensive capabilities of the shield. Originally it just provided straight invulnerability for a period of time with it eventually being changed to being able to tank any one hit while being able to switch to any other weapon.

While this was certainly very effective, it has proven to be almost too effective. After all, there is practically never a scenario where you shouldn't use Skull Barrier if you have it, it's a free hit after all. There was some talk about how to handle this, and some very out there different ideas. But we decided to keep the gist of what Skull Barrier is, but add an actual offensive twist to it.



First of all, you might notice that Skull Man's stage has received some quality of life updates. It's nothing game changing (hence why it's not the point of this newsletter) but try to see how much you can see in this clip.

Back to the point though, Skull Barrier can now act as an offensive on contact weapon! It will still protect you from any one hit, and that one hit will still pop the shield. But if you make contact with an opponent, the shield will pop with one burst of damage surrounding the user, which turns it into something of a rush weapon.
To compensate for this change, you can no longer switch off of Skull Barrier once you have it activated.

Though there's certainly one more detail that's worth mentioning about it. You might have noticed it in that first clip but this one will show it off better.



Contact with the enemy also provides a knockback effect! There's actually also a knockback effect if the shield is popped by a projectile, but it is much smaller and much less dangerous. In the past you'd often expect to see players with Skull Barrier running away from you, but now you might want to show more concern if they're running toward you!

Now, if you're looking very, very closely in that last clip, you might notice some item pickup sitting in the background of that shot. It is very hard to make out, so let me give you a closer look.



An important part of Skull Barrier in all of its versions has been its ability to cross dangerous terrain. While it still retains that ability in its current form, the fact that you have to commit far more to it without the ability to switch off had us want to provide an alternative means to pull this off.
So, introducing Shock Guard!



Shock Guard won't protect you from any enemy projectiles like Skull Barrier, but it acts as a passive item that will protect you from any deadly map hazards! Lava, pits, you name it. It will even protect you from the likes of a Cold Man Ice Block if one were to finish you off. Though it's important to keep in mind that if the damage of the hazard isn't lethal, it won't protect you from that damage.
But it does open a number of new options with map hazards that weren't possible before...



Now there is one more thing I should address before I wrap this newsletter up, and it's the state of the buster sprites in the last two clips. If you recall, a couple of months ago we hosted a community poll looking for feedback on the idea of changing the sprites from two colors to three. I want to really thank everyone who filled out that form and especially those who gave us feedback to go with it. There was a lot of different aspects to consider when it came to this change.

Though as you can likely tell from the above clips, we have officially decided to keep the same two color style that they've previously had. There's definitely something pretty and appealing about the three color style to be sure, but for various reasons we've decided it is better for the state of the game to keep it the way it is. The tricolor sprites came into existence to better match the art style of the more detailed weapon get screens and Megaman artwork, but it just wasn't possible to keep that style AND have the busters be easily readable at the same time. There were certainly ways to add more colors to tricolor to fix that readable part, but in doing so we lost the entire point behind doing tricolor in the first place, and instead of being based on the artwork, they just turned into weirdly detailed graphics that didn't match anything.
Really, this was just one of the aspects that influenced our decision, but you all don't need an essay at this exact moment. Regardless, I do want to thank you all one more time for your feedback on the community poll, it was very very important.

Anyhow! That is all for today's newsletter! We'll see you next time for some more Mega Man action!