#megamanfanproject

[jazzpostsstuff]

Chapter: AXL Development Documents, Initial Story Concept

When I first designed Axl's design for a Halloween art that spawned this project (you can see it below), I thought of making it cover all four games that existed for ROCKMAN ZERO series.

The idea was to have Axl awaken prior to the start of Z1, occasionally appearing in the background and not interacting much with anyone while hiding his identity behind the hood of a ragged cloak (which wasn't a gift from Guardians of X for proving his loyalty and was just some random old rag badly stitched together). He would join Neo Arcadia off-screen during the timeskip between the first and second games. Once I figured out that it wasn't really working and that I couldn't really think of much stuff Axl could do in Z1, I scrapped the idea, turning Chapter: AXL into a trilogy that begins from Z2 and it was certainly for the best. Sorry, folks, but I guess I couldn't insert Axl into Z1 to make it better *chuckles*.

There was also an idea by one of my friends and a former developer of the project. His suggestion was to add an almost game-long quest where Zero would've searched for parts of Axl's body, seeing what his old memories were prior to his death, and once everything has been gathered, Ciel would reconstruct and revive Axl. The idea itself was cool, but it didn't mesh well with what I had invisioned for chapter covering Z2 and I thought that it was taking too much focus away from Zero's main quest (and my goal was to not influence Zero's story to the point of severely altering it, I wanted to keep his story close to the original, even if some changes would still be implemented).

#fanfic #fanproject #megamanzero #mmz #megaman #megamanaxl #megamanfanproject #mmaxl #rockman #axl #ChAZ #Chapter: AXL #concept art

[jazzpostsrandomthings]

I got someone asking about ROCKMAN ZERO, Chapter: AXL yesterday, maybe I should advertise this project on this blog too.

Hey, basically I gathered up with my bros to write a silly what if about Axl appearing in Mega Man Zero and it became this huge project I will probably finish writing in three years from now on lol.

It’s written like a concept for a video game (although chapter 1 doesn’t have much of actual gameplay mechanics unlike chapter 2 I recently released), with the dialogues and scenes structured like something you could see in the original Zero saga. You can also check the art assets made for each chapter so far and see what attacks bosses can do.

Sadly, the team is pretty small for a project of this scale. I am the only artist and the script writers and proofreaders (me included) don’t have English as their native language. We also don’t have sprite artists (although I did try to do something myself but it’s a bit clunky) and programmers so it would probably just stay a script with lots of gameplay descriptions.

Although if you are willing to help or learn more about the project itself - feel free to DM me here on Tumblr!

That being said, I am gonna link the blog dedicated to the project itself (that I keep forgetting to update). You can check the scripts here!

Stay Tuned!

#mmz #megamanzero #Megaman Zero #axl megaman x #mmaxl #axl #megamanfanproject #fanfic #megamanfanfic #rockmanzero #rockman zero

[jazzpostsstuff]

Just a sketch for Axl's new character art. Took me a few tries to get the pose right, but I still see a few problems I can't really fix :'(

Hope I won't get so sad to the point of leaving it as a wip forever hahah

Btw, something interesting is coming out tomorrow. Read the previous post in order to learn what exactly.

#megamanzero #fanproject #mmz #fanfic #megaman #megamanfanproject #rockman #chapter: axl #ChAZ #rockman zero #wip

[jazzpostsstuff]

Chapter: AXL Design Documents, Abaddon Locust

Inti Creates had some amazing concepts for the MMZ bosses that never made it into the games or any other official material like audio dramas. One such fascinating scrapped boss was a locust mythos simply titled "Abaddon".

I loved this design so much I decided to give it a second chance in my Chapter: AXL (with some minor design tweaks). I gave it some sickly colors (pale bedge and green), big red eyes similar to Lumine's in their appearance, and a thousand of small crawling minions that it stores inside of its body to make the boss invoke a sense of disgust and dread. From that point on, it became known as The Lord of Calamity - Abaddon Locust.

Surely that isn't really original of a name, but it still sounds cool.

#mmz #megamanzero #megamanfanproject #fanproject #fanfic #rockman #megaman #chapter: AXL #ChAZ #rockmanzero

[jazzpostsstuff]

The place to see and read all of Chapter: AXL!

Recently organized everything released up to this point, now it's time to share the link with everyone!

So far, it includes Chapter 1 (covering MMZ2) which consists of Chapter 1 itself (divided into two parts), Art Assets and Extra Content (which includes Boss Chart, Trinkets and scripts for a CD Drama series about Chapter 1 bosses with the events occuring 6 months prior to the start of the fanfic), as well as Chapter 2 (covering MMZ3) which consists of, well, Chapter 2 (devided into three parts), Art Assets and Extra Content (which includes Boss Chart, Trinkets and Side Content, mostly side-quests with some interesting additional storylines).

Once more comes out, the folder would update (I will update the blog as well when that happens). You may also check out our Discord server where I sometimes post updates and just chat with everybody about whatever comes to my mind (you don't need to join but we will be happy to see you there!).

I will be updating this blog more from now on. I will use it to tell some stuff related to development and scrapped ideas. But in case that's not what you would like to see, you can go to my other blog where I post random stuff and drawing not related to the project. Maybe you can find something interesting there too!

Until next time, Stay Tuned!

#fanfic #fanproject #megamanzero #mmz #megamanaxl #megamanfanproject #mmaxl #megaman #rockman #rockmanzero #rockman zero #ChAZ #Chapter: AXL

[jazzpostsstuff]

'Reminiscence' Audio Drama Script OUT!

So, the last entry just released on the Discord server (link in the pinned post). It's time to post the links to the entire series here for everyone to enjoy it in full!

A content warning though: Mentions of suicide, death and depression. Although members of the server didn't have much issues with the writing featuring those subject matters, I still think it's right to give you guys a warning so it doesn't come out of nowhere.

The link to the folder (Check the four numbered entries, everything else is for Chapter 2 in general)

This is the last piece of material dedicated to Chapter 2. Thank you all for the continued support and Stay Tuned for more.

#megamanzero #fanproject #mmz #fanfic #megaman #megamanfanproject #rockman #chapter: axl #rockmanzero #ChAZ #cd drama script

[jazzpostsstuff]

Chapter: AXL Development Documents, Initial Story Concept PART 3

If you happen to wonder why this project has some psychological or just some heavy themes that haven't been explored by the series prior, it's because the creation of this fanfiction happened to coincide with some bad and traumatic stuff I've experienced a mere month after I decided to make Chapter: AXL into a real thing. Usually when you feel like something is getting really good, there would be a moment you will just spiral down to the depths. Both your existence and mental state fall so deep you would look back at who you were before and not recognise that person anymore.

Going through a sudden loss of a loved one while you're still a child (or rather a teenager in my case but I can say I had a mind of a child at that time) is always devastating, and going through that together with your family can be even more soul-crushing because you see their pain and suffer even more from inability to influence your other family members, feeling weak and even going insane from that sometimes. Knowing that the last time I was optimistic was when I wasn't accepting the death of a family member and was trying everything to make them open their eyes and speak again has been making myself sad everytime I looked back at who I was just one and a half years ago. I am even tearing up while writing this right now, so I am clearly not helping myself here.

You can never truly recover from something like this. You can only overcome, let go and enter a new chapter fo your life as a new person. You would look back at the past, at the good moments you had so long ago, maybe you'll smile, maybe you'll get sad again, but just try looking at the bright side. Those happy memories were something that happened to you. The people you see in them might be gone, but it would've made them sad if you just gave up after the loss. You was strong enough to get back up and learn how to live again, despite everything you went through. And if you're still there, at the bottom, it can motivate you to get better for them and maybe regain the optimism or happiness that was lost.

If you fear death after an experience like this... I know how hard it isfor some because I've been there, but just try to accept your mortality. Knowing that you can't stay alive for all eternity would make you cherish the time you have on this Earth more and live a life to the fullest (within reason). Eternal life would just make you less human eventually (which was also something that happened to X prior to Zero series as well so here's an example of how living forever can suck).

"Why is it in a Megaman fanfic?". Well, I always related to Axl and I managed to bond even more with him after what I went through (the loss of a family member at a relatively young age, to be exact). Besides, Axl's story was supposed to be grimmer and deeper according to one of the producers of X7. I felt like taking a psychological approach to the story of Chapter: AXL and exploring the trauma that you get after experiencing horrific events only made sense. However, I am still not going into that topic too deep because I am still writing a Megaman story, but maybe you can argue that I still can do that because it's based off MMZ, but we have to remember that it's a story about war and hope - a hope for a better peaceful future that comes after the worst, like the light in the darkest depths you could've fell into.

You have to retain this hopefulness, give a breathing room after a disaster and not bombard the player reader with depression all the way through.

#fanproject #megamanzero #mmz #megaman #megamanfanproject #rockman #rockmanzero #ChAZ #Chapter: AXL #feelings #deep thoughts #hopefulness #dealing with loss #dealing with grief #overcoming

[jazzpostsstuff]

I remember talking about my own mental problems and trauma a few times here and on this Tumblr blog. They were one of the reasons why the project is the way it is. Right about the time I finished Chapter 2, I felt a certain type of exaltation that honestly made me feel much better after a year and a half of trying to get over it finally. And I wouldn't have gone as far as I did without your support, guys.

All that experience inspired the creation of the second CD-Drama Script series - Reminiscence, telling the story of Sotiris after Chapter 2 as he has to find out the source of his mental struggles in order to eventually overcome it.

First entry, "Composure", is out right now. You can see it early through the Discord server. There will be one entry each two days and if you can't wait to see them, feel free to join (a lot of fun stuff happens here, be it ChAZ related, Megaman related, or not any of that). The last entry will be uploaded on this Sunday, and with it I will also add them to the Chapter: AXL folder. Don't worry, I will make a post announcing that.

Stay Tuned.

#megamanzero #fanproject #mmz #fanfic #megaman #megamanfanproject #rockman #chapter: axl #rockmanzero #ChAZ #cd drama script

[jazzpostsstuff]

I liked the sketch I did of Euclid in a fancy suit so much that I decided to line, color and shade it!

I still think I am far from actually being able to mimic the style of MMZ art (sometimes I think I figured it out and the next time i do it, I forget what was I doing completely lol)

But still, I like what I did here (even if it's not canon, unless I actually do a short bonus story with him in this suit for some reason), didn't even need to change his color pallete.

Have a speedpaint too (I forgot to record the sketching lol)

#fanfic #fanproject #megamanzero #mmz #megaman #megamanfanproject #rockman #digital art #mmoc #megamanoc #megaman oc #mm oc

[jazzpostsstuff]

I held a small poll on my Discord server (link in the pinned post if you're interested), where people ended up voting for a character bio to be the next update post on this blog, and the character they chose was Peatan! Right now I am working on a bio on my toyhou.se account (which I recently remembered existed, *chuckle*), I will post the link, as well as the About and Development Notes sections in full here on 31st of August!

Here's a snippet from the toyhou.se bio by the way (used this template and ended up modifying it a bit too)!

#fanproject #megamanzero #mmz #fanfic #megaman #megamanfanproject #rockman #chapter: axl #chaz #rockmanzero #toyhouse

[jazzpostsstuff]

Chapter: AXL Development Documents, Axl's MMZ Redesign

Make sure to look at the picture descriptions for each of these! They contain more information about the designs and I put them in like this to make the blog post less bloated than it already is.

Fun fact, I did redesign Axl into a MMZ character one and a half years prior to that "life-changing" Halloween art. I didn't know anything about the series yet aside from some basic concepts and I didn't understand its style much yet, but I still wanted to go an do that.

Well, you can certainly say I tried. His character was also altered, with him becoming a pacifistic hermit that lives with a real dog in a forest (it doesn't make much sense but 14 year-old me thought differently at the time). However, you can probably see some design quirks already that ultimately got used again in his look for Chapter: AXL, a scar over the right eye and shorts with suspenders in particular. There's actually a reason for this choice of clothing though since I did see something like this in his original MMX design, and I thought it could make the design more "fresh" while staying true to what was before (even if it does look a little goofy).

Then, a year and almost a half later, I came up with the idea of making a MMZ Halloween Axl drawing as a follow-up to the MMX Halloween Axl one I did a year prior (I will probably post it on Halloween this year on my random blog). This resulted in me coming up with a redesign for Axl, starting from a clean slate.

Something curious that I've noticed while looking into the design of Zero here was that... his silhouette was mostly the same. Despite the entire body overcoming changes, you could still recognize that it was Zero thanks to the hair and the shape of the helmet, mimicking what came before through the silhouette itself. That also was the design philosophy that Keiji Inafune persued and the only advice he gave to the designing team when they were trying to design Axl for X7, and that's... a really great tip to character design/redesign as a whole.

I was trying to follow the 'memorable silhouette' tip while remaking Axl for MMZ universe, but unfortunately I wasn't able to change his helmet much without losing the silhouette so I left it mostly as-is. Some parts of his armor do look strange (like boots for example) or too similar to what came before (the shoulderpads), the wings pack (or whatever it's called) looks really different and blocky, and the jets on his feet are a bit weird too, but I still think I did a good job reimagining this design, to the point of not changing it much in the next revisions.

I was trying to make Axl look sharper and more mature than before. I gave him a serious look, a few new scars (one on the left cheek as a reference to Grey and another over the right side of the face as a reference to Red), a blind right eye and a jacket with high collar (that doesn't close all the way because of the chest crystal). Shorts on suspenders still remained, though... which still kinda makes sense because he was supposed to still be young here, plus they help greatly with retaining the same "silhouette" as before. In addition, they actually have a functionality - Axl keeps his scythe folded behind the back and suspenders keep them safely in one place.

Oh, and yeah, this time Axl was supposed to become a grim reaper much like Red. I saw this as fitting, like he was following his old friend's footsteps, and eventually I realized it would be a great melee/middle-range weapon for him.

However, once I decided to make a full-blown game concept out of "What if Axl was in MMZ?", I chose to redesign him, to make him more in-line with the official designs (You can judge how close I came to that as I am still not sure if I am good at imitating them).

For the longest time, I thought that I perfected his design, but eventually as I started to fool around with the sprite arting, I realized that it was difficult for me to translate all of his details into a sprite while dealing with color and size limitations (which resulted in me never finishing that sprite too *chuckle*). I ended up going around all of the characters I had and giving them redesigns if needed, removing the unnessesary details (or adding on new stuff for some that needed them to fit in better). Axl was one of them... a-a-a-and I never remade his character art. Fortunately, I still have the promo art I did a few months ago and he had that design here.

And actually, there was one more redesign in July I did for the visual novel adaptation of Chapter: AXL (which I decided to put on hiatus for now because doing all that alone would stagnate the main project badly). It just removed the scar on his left cheek. I just thought that it wasn't necessary for now (maybe he will get it back during the story, who knows).

#fanfic #fanproject #megamanzero #mmz #megaman #megamanfanproject #rockman #megamanaxl #mmaxl #axl #ChAZ #Chapter: AXL

[jazzpostsstuff]

Chapter: AXL Development Documents, Initial Story Concept PART 2

Once I got the basic outline of "where the story begins and ends", I decided to set up the rules in an attempt to make the concept itself closer to a reality. The initial idea was to make Chapter: AXL into a side-story mode that Inti Creates could've included into a rerelease of the MMZ saga and the rules went as follows:

Axl doesn't drastically change Zero's story (it stays mostly the same and the outcome/personal conflicts remain the same);

Axl's existence doesn't give Zero new stages to beat;

Axl's gameplay has to work well with Zero series' philosophy;

Axl's story has to be the same length or shorter than Zero's;

Chapter: AXL has to not contain too much of the new visual assets for the sake of 'cutting cost';

Chapter: AXL has to not contain too much of new characters for the reasons mentioned in Point 5;

Chapter: AXL has to feel and play like a game that could be released for DS (since it won't make any sence for Inti Creates to rerelease a GBA game for GBA).

If you've read through Chapter 1 and especially Chapter 2 already, then you would know that I didn't really follow these rules much. Point 2 might seem like it hasn't been followed in Chapter 1 (because of that scene after Axl defeats the Ride Armor Boreas and confronts its pilot), but that one was supposed to be a cutscene in Zero's story. However, Point 2 won't be followed in Chapter 3 because of the opening stage being changed (I can't tell you what would change exactly yet though). Point 4 gets followed well unless you count that short ambush with Flauclaws at the end as a full mission (and it isn't really). Point 5 and 6 ended up getting ignored more and more as the project progressed which is kinda my fault (I love coming up with new character designs, unfortunately *chuckle*), but also those points were preventing me from coming up with memorable bosses which is one of the reasons why I love playing these games in the first place. Point 3 and Point 7 both aren't followed because the idea for Chapter: AXL eventually shifted to a full-blown remake of the entire saga with a new additional story mode to beat for each game starting from Z2, with Axl's gameplay being an attempt to intergrate modern (post Gunvolt, if you will) Inti Creates platformer gameplay into the classic Inti Creates' gameplay they've made for MMZ so long ago. It also kinda made sense for the character of Axl as he was supposed to be a breath of fresh air for the X series with cool modern looks, deeper story and more modern (at the time) gameplay (and the "deeper story" part is also kinda the reason why his campaign is more heavy on the plot and some psychological aspects that arise from trauma and war, but that's a story for a different blog post). Zero's campaign also would've received some QoL changes to gameplay, aside from a few small story changes (nothing drastic since his plot stays the same), but I only thought of including them in Chapter 3 because the changes were big enough to mention (and maybe I will explain this later too).

Yeeeeah, I am pretty bad at following the guidlines, I guess. Maybe I will be an awful corporate worker in the future because of that *chuckle*. Hope you are enjoying what I've made at least, despite those short comings.

#fanfic #fanproject #megamanzero #mmz #megaman #megamanfanproject #rockman #rockmanzero #ChAZ #Chapter: AXL

[jazzpostsstuff]

If the opportunity was created, would you plan making a fan game

Absolutely! That's one of the reasons why I even wrote it this way. I just can't imagine this project being anything than a game you could play (and some additional material that could've been added as sidestory content perhaps? Basically a very long optional cutscene).

Unfortunately, I cannot make it into a real game, at least in the near future. I am the only artist here (and my art isn't quite there yet in terms of being 1-to-1 with the original) and I can't hire people that could assist me with that, as well as making the sprite art, maybe music, and of course the programming for the game itself. Mostly due to how I am a poor student stuck in Russia with no proper way for paying for anything outside the country :/

But in case you just happen to really enjoy the project and know a thing or two about spriting and programming "free of charge", we would be incredibly happy to have you there! Just DM me here or go to my Discord server!

#fanproject #megamanzero #fanfic #megamanfanproject #mmz #megaman #rockman #chapter: axl #ChAZ #rockmanzero #help wanted #Help welcomed

[jazzpostsstuff]

Chapter: AXL Development Documents, Peatan

Like I've promised, today we're gonna talk about Peatan!

If you wish to see the full, neatly condenced profile right away, you can go to their page on my toyhou.se!

So,

Peatan is a blue nurse cyber-elf who used to be in Resistance's possesion. This happy playful fellow grew tired of living in the special cyber-elf containers, eventually conduring a plan of their own to escape the clutches of this organisation once and for all. Despite of low chances, their scheme was a success as they got brought to Neo Arcadia by Axl along with the Keeper Amulet they were hiding in. However, upon learning of the sacrificial nature of cyber-elves and Peatan's personal wish of exchanging their life to heal the wounds of someone else, their newly found repliroid friend chose to keep the blue nurse inside of the amulet so they won't self-sacrifice at the first opportunity. Luckily, Axl wasn't so harsh on Peatan, letting them out to view the places he was taking the cyber-elf to. The more time Peatan spent with Axl, the more they learnt about the material realm and complex feelings their inhabitors could experience. This allowed the blue nurse to mature as a person and acquire earthly attachments that were so alien to the digital beings who are the cyber-elves...

How do you distinguish Peatan from hundreds of other blue nurses? Well, you would only need to take a look at the cross on their hat! They also gain puffy white shorts underneath the dress upon evolving but that trait is a little more common than the black (deep blue) cross.

You may also say that Peatan has a skirt in the base form which nurses usually don't get until their first evolution, but after seeing this little drawing from a soundrack booklet (I think it was Mythos), I couldn't resist giving them to base forms too which does mean that all nurses in my continuity are not naked when they are babies *chuckle*.

Also did you know that Peatan is an elf you can obtain in the original Rockman Zero 2? They're in Kuwagust Ancatus' stage, after the optional Thunder Golem midboss, stuck in a container. However, when found in Chapter: AXL (since it's meant to have Zero's campaign as well, it just hasn't changed much so we didn't describe it), Peatan would fly away and Zero would receive a different blue nurse after the level if he speaks to one of the soldiers. If Zero has already beaten Crystal Cave stage and didn't get the elf prior, the cyber-elf container would be missing and he would still need to talk to a soldier.

And now it's time for development notes:

I thought our protagonist would need a companion on this journey who could lighten the mood and contrast with a more serious and grimmer version of Axl. The idea of an incredibly cheerful nurse cyber-elf that he would keep around to show what the material realm has to offer came pretty quickly and naturally after that. But why was it an elf that could originally be found in Z2? Well, it was kinda a placeholder but I was able to make the character work in the context of this story pretty easily so I saw no need to change them. In addition, Peatan had a slightly different backstory in the very first draft of Chapter 1, being a cyber-elf that saw one of their own kind sacrifice themselves. This inspired the elf to take their name, and dreaming of accomplishing the same goal one day, hoping to become just as cool and brave at the original Peatan before. Not only it was "a bit" messed up, but it also ended up not working with the timeline. The latter problem could have actually been patched, but I decided not to go through with it. Peatan is an embodinment of child-like innocence (at least in Ch1) and giving them a backstory like that could've been too much. Also I should mention that the idea for a talking ball of light companion was inspired by Sein - the guiding light from Ori and the Blind Forest which I happened to finish prior to conceptualizing Chapter: AXL. Sadly, Peatan wasn't much of a combantant by the end *chuckle*.

And (this isn't in the profile on toyhou.se because it would've made it too long), maybe some of you are also wondering why does Peatan have a lisp in Chapter 1 and not in Chapter 2? Well, if that wasn't obvious yet, they were a little child in Ch1 and they grew during the 2 month timeskip between it and Ch2 which is why they managed to get rid of the lisp. But why was it there in the first place? Well, I just thought it would convey their childness more and that it would be cute *grin*.

Although I've told you about most things that were already written down in the toyhou.se profile, you can still check it out!

Stay Tuned! ~

#fanproject #megamanzero #fanfic #megamanfanproject #mmz #megaman #rockman #ChAZ #Chapter: AXL #rockmanzero #cyber-elf #cyberelf #toyhouse

[jazzpostsstuff]

Ask is now open!

I didn't quite realize that I forgot to turn the Ask function for this blog so now I fixed that, *chuckle*

If you have anything you want to know about Chapter: AXL, feel free to ask here! But in case you want to ask anything about me personally, just go to my sideblog @jazzpostsrandomthings !

#ask #fanfic #fanproject #megamanzero #megamanfanproject

[jazzpostsstuff]

Chapter 2, Part 1 has been released!

I literally forgot I had a Tunblr blog for my project lol

But yeah, me and my team released the first half of ROCKMAN ZERO 3, Chapter: AXL (which is the Chapter 2, yup) last week on the Discord server for the project.

It stars Axl, now as a part of Resistance, trying to pay for his sins that he commited while serving Neo Arcadia that, in the meantime, is now pumping out the new repliroids based off Axl’s technology. One day Resistance finds a mysterious energy reading coming from some coordinates far away from Neo Arcadia’s borders that turns out to be the laboratory Axl was kept in for almost a century. However, as Axl moves along, his soul still weights heavy with guilt.

What might be Neo Arcadia’s goal with such a mission? Will Axl manage to make amends with Resistance members? Well, the chapter is only half-way done but it kind of answers that a bit.

I am bad with advertisements but yeah, you can check it out here:

Chapter 2 Part 1 content:

Main Document - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mWi1i2sLe9tzA4BYyY0eppVHXbGUQPmE/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115445485612251413138&rtpof=true&sd=true

Trinkets - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NVF9uOryRuCF9wm-TOY-pg8Dyke2Kfq9Gf0iMa_IGNE/edit?usp=sharing

Side Content - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N_Vf3VVYC-MUFV4LXUeVd03yfdiJu0LlDwcKWH1WYN4/edit?usp=sharing

Art Assets - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WEMKvrbd_H3FEqWG7hUmYE9Cd3v1_YTu?usp=sharing

Stay Tuned!

#mmz #megamanzero #rockmanzero #axl #mmaxl #megamanaxl #megamanfanproject #fanproject #fanfic