LiteralGrill
Smokin' Hot~
---
Since many people are unfamiliar with what I do, exactly, I'll start with a lengthier introduction.
I started Brawl modding back in 2008... (flashback effect) ...Brawl had just come out and after trying to adjust to playing it for several months my play group decided it just wasn't for us. Then came the first wave of Brawl hacks, and among them a code that let you cancel your Aerial Attack Land Lag by Shielding, or "S-Canceling" (Video). It was, of course, maximum jank but I was so excited by this prospect that I went out and bought a new Wii and Brawl the next day.
From there I eventually joined the Brawl+ team. For those of you that don't remember Brawl+ it was a predecessor to Project M. The gameplay tried to walk the line between Brawl and Melee (Think "Smash 4 with Smooth Lander ON"), partly out of choice and partly due to the primitive nature of modding tools available at the time. There were a lot of different people trying to pull the project in different directions and eventually as the modding capabilities matured those people that wanted a more Melee-esque game splintered off in 2010 to create Project M. I was one of those people.
In Project M I started with character design. The first task was to match up Falco & Ganondorf to their Melee incarnations as closely as possible. We didn't have access to Melee data files at the time, so I worked on matching their physical attributes like falling speed using a side-by-side Melee-PM setup, measuring their jump position on each TV with a ruler frame by frame and plugging the results into kinematic equations. The results turned out to be laughably inaccurate looking back on it now, but it was fun and gave us something to work with. From there I started on animation with help from camelot (and later jiang), trying to replace Brawl animations with crude imitations of their Melee renditions. (Most of these have been replaced by now with much improved work by SDoom, Haloedhero, Fireball Stars, and others).
After working on the Melee top/high characters we moved on to the task of getting Melee low/mid characters and Brawl newcomers to fit in. Sometimes characters were straightforward and required relatively little imagination to assemble (EX: Merge Doc's strengths with Mario's strengths to create one very capable character), and other times I have to admit I strayed perhaps too far from the Brawl source (EX: infinite unreleased revisions of Lucas). Of the "revamped characters" I have focused the most on Wario, Lucas, Ivy, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo, though in the course of Project M development I have worked on or shaped nearly every character to varying degrees. With that said the game is as good as it is today because many other dev members (cmart, camelot, magus, jiang, and more) have come in and added their own ideas and hard work to the mix.
In 2011-2012 I took an active role in leading the PMDT back when it was more of a monarchy, and I wrote the project goals that we still operate under today. Having one leader was helpful at the time, as it kept a unified vision, but upon starting my PhD in 2012 I had to dial back my activity, easing off of leadership a bit while still chipping away at character work. Thus, we created what would become the "Jedi Council" of advisory senior developers and moved towards the model of 50/50 do-ocracy/democracy that we operate under today.
I have continued to dial down my activity in response to real life commitments but I still work on general quality control, characters, and secret things here and there. Additionally I write or co-write many of our blog posts, and I usually roll up my sleeves to explain changes and answer questions with each new release.
---
Want a question answered? Be sure to go to on /r/SSBPM in this thread and ask Shell anything!
SmashCapps really hopes Project M fans enjoy this AMA. To ask SmashCapps any questions be sure to follow him on Twitter or use his ask.fm!
