Maybe you have heard of Mushroom Kingdom Fusion. It is a Mario-based fangame, but also a crossover of many different games (Mario, Sonic, Metal Slug, Mega Man, Doom, Castlevania, and more). It was orginally developed by the FusionTeam. However, development on the game ceased because of most of the team was busy with real life occupations, so the game went open-source. Here's a video of a level from the original game:
[youtube]boqPLNQ9hvY[/youtube]

I'm trying to port this game to the Blitz engine (I've started on BlitzPlus, but soon I will most likely upgrade to BlitzMax). Hopefuly, this will allow the game to be completed, fix lag problems, make the game avaiable to Mac and Linux users, and allow new features to be easily implemented (like simultaneous multiplayer, which I'm really looking forward to add). I've started recently, so currently I don't have much to show. I'd like to know if people here would like to help me with this project, as obviously it's not gonna be short and easy, especially with coding and level design.

If you have any question, I'm ready to answer.

I don't know anything about your abilities as a programmer nor the content of the game, so the only recommendation that I can make is to take advantage of the fact that you're porting an open source title. It's in your best interest to get a thorough understanding of the source material, understand what parts of the underlying structure work and what parts need to be improved on. (It's unlikely that framerate issues are 100% at fault of the underlying engine used, especially in a 2D title) While doing this you should writing a plan for how you're going to implement them in a different environment.

You shouldn't be writing any code until this implementation plan is finished. It doesn't have to be perfect, but re-writing code is a massive timesink and should be minimized wherever possible.

Thanks. The source code for this port will be released along with an upcoming playable demo, once I'll have the platforming engine and some characters done.
The two major causes of the framerate issues are the fact that the code isn't well optimized (according to the developers), and that GameMaker (the engine the original game is based upon) isn't very good at managing resources. I've made the plan for the making of the port, it's cut into 9 phases:

1. Character skin loading
2. Platforming engine
3. Multiplayer
4. Adding the other characters and powerups
5. Making a simple test level
6. Level editor
7. Making the mapscreen system
8. Adding more enemies and gimmicks for the stages that will be created
9. Making the levels

The said demo will come after phase 5 will be completed. I will also post videos of the progress as well.
I'll try to keep the development as simple as possible, like many people have suggested to me.

EDIT: I have a question regarding MaskImage. I'd like to know if it's possible to get the color of the bottom-left pixel of an image, if yes, how, so I can use the RGB values with MaskImage to remove the background.

Feguelion wrote:EDIT: I have a question regarding MaskImage. I'd like to know if it's possible to get the color of the bottom-left pixel of an image, if yes, how, so I can use the RGB values with MaskImage to remove the background.

Thanks a lot juanjpro! In which version of Blitz the ReadPixel function is? I havn't upgraded to BlitzMax yet, and I did try to search in BlitzPlus's manual but didn't find a clue.

Feguelion wrote:In which version of Blitz the ReadPixel function is?

It's valid BlitzPlus/Blitz3D code. Go to the 2D>Graphics-Buffers section in command reference.

I'm sorry, but the port has been moved to Game Maker: Studio, Hello Engine 6 will be used, which will make the port much easier.