Mega Man Unlimited Interview
posted:
5/11/2010 11:00:00 AM
More On:
Mega Man Unlimited
As I am sure that you have heard, from all of the various coverage across the net, Capcom’s Captivate Media Summit 2010 was an amazing event. As amazing as the event itself and Capcom were, there were also plenty of amazing people in attendance at the event. I had the pleasure of meeting one individual who was there for a different reason than everyone else. There were four types of people at the event: Capcom staff, Capcom Unity members, gaming press, and Philippe Poulin.
Phil was officially there as a Capcom Unity member, but the events that brought him there were different than the rest. See, Phil didn’t win a contest or have any good blackmail material to hold over someone’s head. Phil was there because he loves Mega Man; so much in fact that he has spent the last year or so of his life creating a a new chapter of the Mega Man universe. Phil has been hard at work on Mega Man Unlimited (MMU).
You are probably thinking right about the same thing(s) that I did when I first heard of Phil’s project, “oh, another fan game... okay”. Let me assure you, this isn’t just some fan made knock off of a beloved IP. MMU is the real deal, and by that I mean a game that I feel is worthy of being considered part of the Mega Man lineage. Phil, or MegaPhil if you will, has poured all of his heart, soul, and love for Capcom’s blue bomber into an incredible project... a project good enough to catch the attention and appreciation of Capcom.
I got a chance to spend a lot of time getting to know Phil at Captivate and he was gracious enough to sit down and do an interview for Gaming Nexus concerning his project... check it out after the jump...
Phil was officially there as a Capcom Unity member, but the events that brought him there were different than the rest. See, Phil didn’t win a contest or have any good blackmail material to hold over someone’s head. Phil was there because he loves Mega Man; so much in fact that he has spent the last year or so of his life creating a a new chapter of the Mega Man universe. Phil has been hard at work on Mega Man Unlimited (MMU).
You are probably thinking right about the same thing(s) that I did when I first heard of Phil’s project, “oh, another fan game... okay”. Let me assure you, this isn’t just some fan made knock off of a beloved IP. MMU is the real deal, and by that I mean a game that I feel is worthy of being considered part of the Mega Man lineage. Phil, or MegaPhil if you will, has poured all of his heart, soul, and love for Capcom’s blue bomber into an incredible project... a project good enough to catch the attention and appreciation of Capcom.
I got a chance to spend a lot of time getting to know Phil at Captivate and he was gracious enough to sit down and do an interview for Gaming Nexus concerning his project... check it out after the jump...
Just to introduce yourself to our readers, who are you and what brought you to Capcom’s Captivate 2010?
I am Philippe Poulin, online I am known as MegaPhilX, and I work as a game designer. Why am I here? Well, I am here because I am a huge Mega Man fan and am working on my own fan game project called Mega Man Unlimited. Basically, before the real Mega Man 10 was released, my game was called Mega Man 10. One of the web designers at Capcom used some of my assets on the official Mega Man 10 website. I guess that is how I got Seth Killian’s attention. He (Seth) contacted me and offered to give me credit and something nice in return because I had chosen to let them use my stuff. So... here I am...
Prior to the work on your own independent project, what experience do you have in the gaming industry that inspired you to start your own fan project?
When I was little, I used to draw my own robot masters and I have got tons of drawings. I even made a Mega Man X table RPG, with my own rules and character sheets... all that along with one of my friends. In terms of the actual industry , it has been about ten years that I have been in the industry (for a company, which will not be named in this interview). I have worked on about 5 or 6 games, most of them based on movie licenses and cartoons and I'm still working in the videogame industry. So I work on MMU in my free time at home.
Can you give us an overview of the Mega Man Unlimited project? Is it a compilation, and original story... what is the game?
It started with me wanting to make a fun little (flash) animation of what I wanted Mega Man 10 to be and I used some of my original robot masters for that. I made some flash animations to show that but it was nothing more than an animation. I didn’t want to start a full project but people really liked it. It looked authentic so they thought it was real; they were disappointed when they found it it was just an animation. People encouraged me to do it and create a full game so I found N64Mario’s Mega Man engine and Starsimsuniverse, which is another Mega Man fan. They convinced me to work on the game. Then we got some really nice music from Kevvviiinnn, he is making some really awesome music for the game. I am making some music as well and I am making all of the graphics and stuff.
As far as the story goes, without giving too much away, Mega Man Unlimited is an 8-bit / NES Mega Man game that could take place at any time in the (canon) storyline after Bass has been introduced. Bass plays a great role in the story. It starts off as you would expect, “Mega Man has saved the world once again” but “oh, something’s happening”... it could take place at any time in the (official) series. That is the idea that I was going for.
I just touch on some really cool subjects with the characters that I always wanted Capcom to elaborate on. Bass will have a bigger role and there will be a bigger role for Proto Man too. I don’t want to hype it too much because it isn’t a big story but I am trying to elaborate on the actual characters a bit more.
How would you describe the Mega Man fan reaction that you have received for the project?
I would say that the fan reaction has been pretty intense. I have reached a pretty high number of subscribers for the small amount of time that I have been on YouTube. People seem very eager to play the game, so I am starting to feel a bit of the pressure. Overall, the reaction has been pretty good. It is sure to get some hate some time, but all of the positive feedback outweighs all of it.
What, if any, reaction have you gotten from Capcom?
They haven’t given me much feedback... I kind of avoided revealing the game directly to them or sending any message to Capcom about it because I didn’t know how they would react. Obviously, now I know that they are very fan-driven and they are encouraging me to continue by inviting me to something like Captivate. When I make more progress, and get more actual gameplay videos... and since I have gotten to know most of the Unity people here... I will probably send them updates in the future.
If anyone wants to track the progress on the Mega Man Unlimited project, or anything else you may be working on, where can they find you?
I have a website, MegaPhilX.com, but there isn’t much on there right now. I have just put the basic information there. The website where you will have a better chance of getting in touch with me is at megaphilx.deviantart.com. My YouTube channel, which is www.youtube.com/user/megaphilx is also a good place to find me. I have a profile on the Unity blog as well, but Unity and the MegaPhilX website don’t get updated that much because it takes away from the time I can put into working on the game.
When the game is finished, it will be posted on my actual website. I will also begin posting things such as my sprites, all of the songs, everything related to this project as well as other stuff I am working on.
Is there anyone else out there that you would like to give credit to for this amazing project?
I have to give a big, big thank you to N64Mario and his Mega Man engine, Kevvviiinnn’s awesome music, and Starsimsuniverse’s help with the project. I would also like to thank my friend Yan (ThunderThouin) who composed some of the first tracks of the MMU soundtrack.
I really wish that they could have all been here at Captivate, I felt bad that they couldn’t come. I just want to thank them for all of their support and the awesome stuff that they do to make this project possible. A very special thanks to my wife for her precious support throughout the last year and a half I've been working on this.
-----
I want to give a special thanks to Phil for sitting down with me at Captivate and telling me about his game. Don’t just take my word for it, go and check out Mega Man Unlimited for yourself. This is as authentic as a fan-game can get... I will try my best to keep you updated on the progress of the project and hopefully do a full write up on the game itself sometime soon.
I am Philippe Poulin, online I am known as MegaPhilX, and I work as a game designer. Why am I here? Well, I am here because I am a huge Mega Man fan and am working on my own fan game project called Mega Man Unlimited. Basically, before the real Mega Man 10 was released, my game was called Mega Man 10. One of the web designers at Capcom used some of my assets on the official Mega Man 10 website. I guess that is how I got Seth Killian’s attention. He (Seth) contacted me and offered to give me credit and something nice in return because I had chosen to let them use my stuff. So... here I am...
Prior to the work on your own independent project, what experience do you have in the gaming industry that inspired you to start your own fan project?
When I was little, I used to draw my own robot masters and I have got tons of drawings. I even made a Mega Man X table RPG, with my own rules and character sheets... all that along with one of my friends. In terms of the actual industry , it has been about ten years that I have been in the industry (for a company, which will not be named in this interview). I have worked on about 5 or 6 games, most of them based on movie licenses and cartoons and I'm still working in the videogame industry. So I work on MMU in my free time at home.
Can you give us an overview of the Mega Man Unlimited project? Is it a compilation, and original story... what is the game?
It started with me wanting to make a fun little (flash) animation of what I wanted Mega Man 10 to be and I used some of my original robot masters for that. I made some flash animations to show that but it was nothing more than an animation. I didn’t want to start a full project but people really liked it. It looked authentic so they thought it was real; they were disappointed when they found it it was just an animation. People encouraged me to do it and create a full game so I found N64Mario’s Mega Man engine and Starsimsuniverse, which is another Mega Man fan. They convinced me to work on the game. Then we got some really nice music from Kevvviiinnn, he is making some really awesome music for the game. I am making some music as well and I am making all of the graphics and stuff.
As far as the story goes, without giving too much away, Mega Man Unlimited is an 8-bit / NES Mega Man game that could take place at any time in the (canon) storyline after Bass has been introduced. Bass plays a great role in the story. It starts off as you would expect, “Mega Man has saved the world once again” but “oh, something’s happening”... it could take place at any time in the (official) series. That is the idea that I was going for.
I just touch on some really cool subjects with the characters that I always wanted Capcom to elaborate on. Bass will have a bigger role and there will be a bigger role for Proto Man too. I don’t want to hype it too much because it isn’t a big story but I am trying to elaborate on the actual characters a bit more.
How would you describe the Mega Man fan reaction that you have received for the project?
I would say that the fan reaction has been pretty intense. I have reached a pretty high number of subscribers for the small amount of time that I have been on YouTube. People seem very eager to play the game, so I am starting to feel a bit of the pressure. Overall, the reaction has been pretty good. It is sure to get some hate some time, but all of the positive feedback outweighs all of it.
What, if any, reaction have you gotten from Capcom?
They haven’t given me much feedback... I kind of avoided revealing the game directly to them or sending any message to Capcom about it because I didn’t know how they would react. Obviously, now I know that they are very fan-driven and they are encouraging me to continue by inviting me to something like Captivate. When I make more progress, and get more actual gameplay videos... and since I have gotten to know most of the Unity people here... I will probably send them updates in the future.
If anyone wants to track the progress on the Mega Man Unlimited project, or anything else you may be working on, where can they find you?
I have a website, MegaPhilX.com, but there isn’t much on there right now. I have just put the basic information there. The website where you will have a better chance of getting in touch with me is at megaphilx.deviantart.com. My YouTube channel, which is www.youtube.com/user/megaphilx is also a good place to find me. I have a profile on the Unity blog as well, but Unity and the MegaPhilX website don’t get updated that much because it takes away from the time I can put into working on the game.
When the game is finished, it will be posted on my actual website. I will also begin posting things such as my sprites, all of the songs, everything related to this project as well as other stuff I am working on.
Is there anyone else out there that you would like to give credit to for this amazing project?
I have to give a big, big thank you to N64Mario and his Mega Man engine, Kevvviiinnn’s awesome music, and Starsimsuniverse’s help with the project. I would also like to thank my friend Yan (ThunderThouin) who composed some of the first tracks of the MMU soundtrack.
I really wish that they could have all been here at Captivate, I felt bad that they couldn’t come. I just want to thank them for all of their support and the awesome stuff that they do to make this project possible. A very special thanks to my wife for her precious support throughout the last year and a half I've been working on this.
-----
I want to give a special thanks to Phil for sitting down with me at Captivate and telling me about his game. Don’t just take my word for it, go and check out Mega Man Unlimited for yourself. This is as authentic as a fan-game can get... I will try my best to keep you updated on the progress of the project and hopefully do a full write up on the game itself sometime soon.
