Classic Ridley Progress Report (11/29/2018)

So... You wanna know how the Classic Ridley update's going, right? What if I were to tell you to expect a release within the next few weeks? Because that's what I'm expecting. Allow me to give a full breakdown about this project's past, present, and future.

As a minor introduction, back in May 2017, I released a balance overhaul to BaganSmashBros' Classic Ridley beta. The release was met with mostly positive reception. However, there were many glaring balance issues which were brought to my attention by a few users. After obtaining this knowledge, I decided to gather a group of people to assist in playtesting Ridley (BaganSmashBros even hopped on board the project to finish the animations Ridley needed), fine tuning his balance to the point of near perfection. This was all done within a matter of months, but there was still work to be done. Que the Fighting Alloy Team announcement back in July 2017.

The Fighting Alloy Team was meant to be an appetizer for people to enjoy while they wait for this Ridley update to be finished... Well, it turned out a year already passed since I revealed and worked on those Alloys, which was why I decided to release them on Thanksgiving day. Because who knows how much longer it'll be until this Ridley update is done.

Now let's get back to Ridley. Fast forward over a year, and we're so close to releasing this highly anticipated update. So how's Ridley changed since the last preview back in October? Not very much, actually. Only noteworthy additions are Aerial Down Special landing being re-animated (the pose you see in today's preview is from this very animation), new renders (by Tryptech, I'll post links shortly after this post), minor model optimizations (more optimization still has to be done, as 4 Ridley players will lag on larger stages), and Heavy Item animations finally being completed. However, that was all that was needed to be done. The only thing left is to make and implement sound effects for his Neutral Special (Fireball).

After that, We'll finally be able to release this update that's been in the oven for over a year now. The release will include the raw files for users to manually install into their own builds in addition to an optional pre-made PMEx build (in the form of an sd.raw), which will contain an already installed Ridley (this pre-made build also has the exclusive feature of expanded costume slots, alongside some other goodies).

So when can anyone expect release? Well, to elaborate upon what I said in the opening sentence, I can anticipate the release happening anywhere within a week to about 3 weeks, assuming nothing gets in the way of the sound effects getting done. So until release day, there will likely be no more progress reports nor previews (aside from posting the new renders) from me regarding this Ridley update until release.

What happens after this Ridley update is released? That's gonna be a secret until things are ready to be revealed... So until next time, I'll give my thanks to everyone who's been following my work and those who have been helping out with this Ridley update. You have all been incredibly helpful in either keeping interest in this project or helping this project's completion.

This is KingJigglypuff, signing off.