We got a big Ello Ello from MikeCirka this week. Though new to our forum, he's a moderator of one of our affiliate sites, GMaker.Org, and is in charge of their Tutorials section and fancies himself as a writer..

And if the name of our newcomer, FrozenAngel, sound familiar, he's the older brother of our fellow member ClockworkAngel. He cannot promise to post much, but says he'll pop in from time to time. He's more of a writer/musician than a game developer and his current writing endeavor is "Nebula Gravis Primo" in which the RolePlay thread by his sister is loosely based. He may even join in from time to time.

And there were a number of birthdays this week too, starting with those of Crono, ShinyToyGuns and sena 21x. After that, Shin, Alpha-Mad, fallenravenlyn, Tech Williams, Rishkaa, Zexion and prettygurl all had the same birthday at the same time. Then both Animeshow1232 and finalholylight shared the same birthday.

We underdtand that people have lives outside of Save-Point. It's a given. But we're just nosy enough to wonder What's on the Mind of our fellow members nonetheless. Zackwell found that every forum reacts to his posts in much the same way as he waits for responces. Always the optimist, ClockworkAngel says she's going to beat the hell out of her cold. She's also happy that her RolePlaying thread has taken off so well. And Rosair, now calling herself RosyPosy, posted a youtube video of the speed paint she did of herself. Kain Nobel made himself his own worst enemy as he agreed to work a second full shift at his job with only a four hour break inbetween. However, it gave him a full day to himself. He even posted the picture of a stitch-on patch he's thinking of as inspiration, along with a couple others he's thinking of buying. He planned to take a two hour power nap before going for it, but said he'd attack it head on and even see everyone in IRC because he's totally metal like that. But if you see him nodding off in IRC, just punch him through the keyboard and wake him up, because that's the metal thing to do. MetalRenard liked the inspiration that Kain Nobel had and gave him a cheer.

PK8 warns viewers of the Funny Pictures Thread that the picture he found of a men's bathroom may make people with OCD spaz out.

If you're a music lover, you may wish to know Music We're Listening To as yamina-chan is listening to the new album Auch of "Die ärzte". But she felt the video alone wasn't enough to post, so she left a link to their youtube account. She's also been listening to Unchain the Rain from Altaria, something she can enjoy over and over again and finds it a wonderful background piece while reading.

LagunaX1 made a video of Sonic The HedgeHog: Triple Trouble that he has on display in the Laguna Games topic. The entire production from gameplay to editing took all of five hours, and he's inviting people to view and comment. MetalRenard enjoyed the video, but felt that LagunaX1 needed to work on introducing the game better. Other than that, he's all "Sonic For the Win."

But he's not the only one gaming as we have a thread that asks our members What Games are they currently playing and yamina-chan answered. Her new computer isn't quite up to speed to handle Minecraft in survival mode and multiplayer is out of the question. Meahwhile, she picked up FinalFantasy Dissida, wanting to finish it before turning to Final Fantasy Dissida Duodecim. She's also hoping that she and her sister can start playing Secret of Mana soon. Meanwhile, WaddleDee has just returned to Dragon Quest VI and reached the same boss she encountered the last time she played it, not too pleased since it was a grind beating him the last time.

If you are reading ClockworkAngel's game, Nebula Gravis, then you kow that within the tomb, a whitehaired man continued on and found an enscription that gave him hope. But his hope resided on the power of one destined, if only she could banish his curse. Meanwhile, Lily ran for her life within the Shadowed Forest as the King of the Forest finally sensed her, its roar shaking the trees of the forest itself. She couldn't fly as she surely knew the forest itself would entangle her and eventually new the dark shadow approached her. When she reached the edge, it blasted her out of the forest with dark fire. She surely would have died but the fire was unexpectedly frozen off of her and shattered like glass from her form. Leaving the forest behind, she entered a small village and an elderly man greeted her, already knowing who she was. It wasn't long before she realized he was a member of the Cult of Umbranox that she knew years gone by. With newfound knowledge, she left the town and headed towards the tomb that held her answers. During all this, Zackwell gazed at the clouds overhead as he continued on to the port, but his daydreaming and reminiscing about the past caught up with him and he suddenly awoke in a field of crimson flowers. He gave a little laugh at his own foolishness, getting taken with his thoughts about how beautiful angels were and the lovely field of poppies he rested. However, the sky darkened ant was soon going to rain, so he began to sprint down the path... leaving a white rose behind in the field. Under attack by all the moving structures, Marcus whipped his chains about to shatter and splinter the living buildings that attacked him. Doors lined with teeth snapped as he dodged, weaved and fought back until he noticed one that remained static amongst the chaos... the church. He channeled his fire magic into his chains, and had a new target to approach, a spirit named Phantom who claimed to be a minion of the spirit of Autumn and had a bounty that Marcus now intended to collect. Reynard faced off against the brute that took all of his possesions and smited him. However, he found that the shard was no long being carried by the brute, but in the clutches of the three armed men that surrounded him. Assessing the situation, Reynard attacked the largest of the three and quickly dispatched him. The other two were wary and gave him some trouble. But after slaying the second, the third surrendered and was left unconscious as Reynard recovered the shard and his belongings. Leaving them behind, he made a quiet oath in respect for those he had to kill and headed for the town of Itzal. But while Reynard approached, Itzal found he could not open his eyes, recalling the downfall that took place within the Falaryn Court eons ago as humans drove his people from their lands. He didn't know what was worse, the agony of the waking curse or the inability to comprehend the visions tormenting him as the Undran Shard approached. And that is just the beginning.

As games are the things we enjoy making in our community, it's always interesting to find out What's Up with our fellow RPG Making members. Taylor saw PK8's post about his evented Database Limit Break system and wondered why anyone would need that many values in any game. And DerVVulfman was amused by KasperKalamity's reaction to having a project with 10000 variables available. DerVVulfman, also said he worked on a large number of hair resources for a face-drawing system for his message script along with a number of eye resources. Having returned to her old RPGMaker XP project, ClockworkAngel has been enjoying herself in remaking it with RPGMaker VXAce and posted a couple of before and after screenshots. Having studied a number of screenshots of commercial games, Charlie Fleed feels his current screens were poorly designed and is now redesigning them. KasperKalamity was surprised by how hard DerVVulfman worked on his graphic resources, saying that he can barely draw 6 tiles in 3 hours without getting bored. KasperKalamity also said he has a hard time understanding the scripts people write. However, his game is a labor of love and never had a clearer perspective what he wants. PK8 saw the posts about his newly available Database Limit breaker and replied that his variable only go up to 5000 rather than 10000, and that he doesn't understand why anyone would need that many variables himself. PK8 also mentioned to KasperKalamity that messing with a tutorial, visiting Ruby-Lang.Org and a few help files are what helped him become a scripter. Waving to ClockworkAngel, DerVVulfman returned and mentioned to her that we have a Maps and Screenshots thread for pictures like her project's map pictures. He also said he was surprised that Charlie Fleed thinks his menus are poorly designed. After that, DerVVulfman said he worked on some custom charactersets for his ABS and made 12 sets of hair for them. And MetalRenard has been discussing ideas with MarianFrae for a viral marketing campaign for her game, Magin. Kain Nobel posted a faithful recreation of a Snoop Dog song, Lets Get Blown, though he plans to return to it for fine tuning. He also posted another song called Capital City using the same instruments from the Snoop Dog song though the style is totally different. He later returned to post some pixel art in honor of MetalRenard, the pixelart of a fox. Returning after some time, Kain Nobel posted another pixelart rendition of a fix and showed a before-after progression. Along with that, he posted his rendition of Ozzy Osbourne's hit, Over the Mountain. And at the sema time, he posted a script called Skills: Require Goods that lets you have skills that need items. MetalRenard loved the pixelwork that Kain Nobel of the foxes he did and thought the work he did on the Ozzy Osbourne recreation was good, despite that he used synthesized instruments. KasperKalamity, looking at Kain Nobel's Skills/Items script wondered if it would let players be able to loot for unused items, as if in conjunction with a MUG command script. The work that Kain Nobel did on the pixelwork tribute to MetalRenard continued , though he was worried that the fox he's been working on could have ended up looking like a badger. But he posted all four of his fox pics for you to see. Meanwhile, it just dawned on him that it may be a running gag that Foxes can fly, citing games like StarFox and the character of Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog. Kain Nobel also replied to KasperKalamity that he had an old MUG and STEAL script along with a number of old scripts from way back that he intends to refresh himself with. On top of that, he posted a tune called 'Gang Territory' that may make one think of a bad neighborhood. Ace showed up and thought Kain Nobel's pixelwork was awesome, followed by MetalRenard. MetalRenard also commended Kain Nobel on his mixing skills, and posted his own dance music piece. He never thought he'd ever try and write a RAP song, but that is what Kain Nobel attempted for a piece of RPGMaker VXAce battlemusic. Attempted, but wasn't successful as he couldn't keep pace with the music and delivery style. He didn't expect the VXAce soundtrack was as good as it was, so he's taking a break from writing his own music score to give it a listen. Meanwhile, Kain Nobel found a USB cord for a guitar/keyboard plugin and felt like screwing around while not wanting to bother the neighbors.

Returning to the thread where Kain Nobel asked some questions about Recruiting and Gaining Resources for a Commercial Project, MetalRenard felt that legal stuff seems so complex. Lending his experience to the discussion, Charlie Fleed said he found it hard to find anyone willing to provide quality resources for royalty fees, having found he had to pay for the resources for his game, Hartacon. The person currently working on his game's interface is currently very strict and even wants payment in advance. He topped it off by saying that if you really want to make a commercial game, you need exclusive original resources. KasperKalamity agrees with paying for the resources and feels that it's neat if you're offering something different. But he questioned if anyone has ever successfully made a profit from an RPGMaker game. DerVVulfman mentioned Amanda Fitch, the author of Aveyond Series and posted a couple of links to a pair of her games.

And a new youtube video showed up in our Maps and Screenshots thread as Charlie Fleed has his Hartacon system on display, the video entitled "Upcoming XBox Indie Game Preview 1".

buddysievers wondered if Legacy considered teaming up with the members of Chaos-Project who are working on ARC to further development of the Calibur Engine, saying he would like to see the system work with the XBox 360 and PSP Vita systems. MetalRenard, not liking the ARC system replied back that it and the Calibur Engine were totally different and probably wouldn't work together. DerVVulfman said it probably wouldn't be a good idea, but he also replied that Legacy had various platform porting ideas in mind, including the XBox 360. buddyseivers figures that the two teams wouldn't work together, but figures that the Calibur Engine may be able to garner ideas from ARC's own game editor.

There are now at least three writing positions available for MarianFrae's project, Magin. MarianFrae just reported that Daniel, one of her writers, just resigned due to a demanding schedule.

And a new topic has shown up as ClockworkAngel unveils her project, Kurokiri Labyrinth a newer RPGMaker VXAce version of a game she previosuly worked on using RPGMaker XP. Starting over virtually from scratch, Mostly a puzzle based comedy, there are a number of random things happening in it to surprise the players. And she warns that the game has some strong language, so the game will have a warning for language content. The game centers around a legendary Black Mist tower that has been in existance as long as memory and rumors talk about a treasure of immense wealth and power being kept at the top. However, no one has been able to pass the obstacles as the Black Mist Tower has taken everyone who attempted to breach its defenses as its prey. Small settlements now reside within the labyrinth within for those that could not go further and were trapped while others lost their mind and have become puppets for those that guard the gates to each level of the tower. Already, a first demo is available for download, and it may amuse you to see the names of some Save-Point members as the guardians of the gates.

KasperKalamity was unable to fix some script relate bugs in his game, Arbor's Eve, and says he may not be able to upload a demo until May 1st, currently stuck on a business trip.

Though it wasn't AGAFURO's idea to make a topic about his game until it was actually finished, he showed up to let us know about Shads and Babes. It is a fangame crossing various universes in the realm of anime, mixing Sailor Moon, Bleach, Code Geass, Xenosaga and many more. The game centers around a lazy playboy who is caught up in a mixed up adventure as a dangerous mage steals the 'Void Keys' and breaks through the barriers separating the dimensions. What a way to ruin a mixed berry yogurt. His game features suggestive themes and anime-like fanservice along with Charlie Fleed's CTB, Hermes's Message Script, Blizzard's Custom Menu System, and a disturbing lack of pizza.

And MagitekElite apologizes for the lack of updates to Black Moon (Prophecy) as she's been having PC problems. She even needs a new power supply. But she found an older graphics card that can still run the game, though it has some issues. However, she's is getting a couple more sprites to finish and just got a couple more betatesters.

Do you need to get past the typical limit of 999 for your character's dexterity or agility scores? Well, lo and behold because PK8 released the Database Limit Breaker, modeled after Woratana's original system.

Only just arrived in Save-Point, buddysievers released the Buddy's CMS version 3.00. His custom menu has many features, including a command window that can be regular or icon-based, lets you choose the contents of various extra windows, their opacity and transition type, the use of faces or sprites in the windows, and plenty more.

PK8 bumped his Change Character Opacity in Frames system, having now reworked it from just an RPGMaker XP script to one that worked with RMXP, VX and even VXAce. In fact, he continued on for a few days to let you set relative values in some script calls.

Another bump that PK8 did was to his Event Tone, Color, Size, Angle and Mirror giving it a major boost, combining it with the Change Character Properties in frames system as well as adding some new script calls and enhancements.

And only just bumped was PK8's Data Backup to version 2.1 after a three year hiatus. New settings such as "Lang_" and Switch were added, and now this script tells you how long it took.

Meanwhile, PK8 also posted his New Picture Properties with Calls system for RPGMaker XP, RPGMaker VX, and RPGMaker VXAce. The script adds new properties to the Game_Picture class, letting you use many properties from script calls. You can now use color and mirrored effects, and change red, green and blue attributes along with many others.

PK8 also posted his script, Change Picture Properties in Frames that works with RMXP, RMVX and VXAce, letting you change specific properties of Game Pictures in Frames. This is a lot different from the Move Picture command in which you get to edit specific properties of the picture.

buddysievers wondered if someone could help him out in adding some Custom Paramters like the Strength or Dexterity statistics to his game. He wasn't looking for a complete script to be made, but was looking for a tutorial that could help him add his own. DerVVulfman replied that he worked on a system a year ago for a friend and only recently refined it a month ago. He posted it after adding more notes for users and gave him a link. buddyseivers was appreciative and asked DerVVulfman to give him a guide how to use a custom stat to influence a skill. DerVVulfman went and showed him a few edits of Game_Battler which buddyseivers said would try out.

buddyseivers also wondered if there was a way to have interactive Living citizens like those that could be found in larger RPG games like The Elder Scrolls series. He wondered if NPCs could be time-controlled so they could have their actions scheduled out throughout the day, leaving home at 6am, opening a store at 7am, closing at 6pm and the like. MetalRenard recommended using events for a system, believing that a script may work but would be extremely complicated. DerVVulfman said a day/night script would be necessary to track the hours and recommanded one he wrote. Seeing that buddyseivers is familiar with the Eldet Scrolls game, he suggested his Guilds system too. However, he sayd that the events would still need to be triggered with switches and variables. But buddyseivers knows that he'd need to use a day/night system and has one already. His problem is that NPCs must appear to travel from one map to another, so their actions must be calculated and tracked and parallel processes that may be able to do so could cause serious lag.

Not a fan of systems that can decrypt the RGSSAD encrypted file, buddysievers was looking for an Anti Decrypt RGSSAD. He knows that some projects out there have special encryption out there and wonders if any other than rmsusano's is out there. Though he never used it, Ace knew of one by Blizzard and posted a link to the tool over at Chaos-Project.com.

And another question came by way of buddysievers who wondered if there was a way to change the Environment Path of his save games in the way that other games do. He tried a few things, but failed and had difficulties. DerVVulfman showed up and posted a technique that created a folder within and saved the games within the user's Application Data folder, delivering step-by-step code that affected the Scene_Title, Window_SaveFile, and other necessary scripts.

After checking all of her backups after an unfortunate hardrdrive and laptop crash, yamina-chan is in search of Resources that are gone from the web as she found that she's five months behind and her collection of resources has dropped to virtual nil. While looking to retrieve her lost resources, she found the websites that held them are gone. But she's not complaining. Rather than that, she's gone on a quest to see if anyone had copies of the resources in question. The entire Naramuta collection, the Ikkatu collection where almost all the RPGMaker 2000 and 2003 characters were refashioned into RPGMaker XP format, and more.

And JWCaisa put in a couple of Graphics requests for a pickup truck sprite in all the directions the truck faces, The people sitting in the truck will be holding hands in one point as it's a romantic game he's working on.