Captain R: The Game Ranger 3 (The Army of Evil K)

Yes, that's right, the project is finally at an end. After many-a-setback on the project, I've managed to successfully complete the entire movie and have it ready for upload. Just to let everyone know, I worked on it starting Monday at 12:15pm until Tuesday 4:35am in order to get it done.

Now...where do I begin? First, let me thank everyone who participated in helping to get this project finished. Each person from the voice actors to the BBS forum posters who helped me with problems I was having. The community has been very supportive and I am extremely grateful. Those who helped me in the BBS have a "Special Thanks" in the credits.

This project started it's life nearly three years ago when we were still working on Game Ranger 2 and Game Ranger EX. Between life and Flash issues, the project chugged along very slowly. The end result is much better than Game Ranger 2 and Game Ranger EX for sure. Game Ranger 4 is going to be even higher quality, as I've decided to break down and just use the "advanced sprite techniques" in the animation. I've avoided using them in order to produce a specific type of work in the series, but things must change, and so they will.

How about a run down on how this was originally planned and how it ended with Game Ranger 3 being what it is? Well, it actually starts around the time Wyldfyr1, Maximus2142 and I were planning Game Ranger 2. It is absolutely vital for me to start here, because it will make sense how we came to our conclusions.

The original plan for Game Ranger 2 was to have Ron end up in the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night world with Richter filling you in on his back story as he walked through the level. Near the end of his story, he was going to be interrupted by Ron and they would battle it out. Ron would end up being the winner and as Richter died, he would tell Ron to "Seek out the sages!" During the production of that version of Game Ranger 2 (yes, I started in on it and had up until Ron interrupted Richter) Wyldfyre1 and I started talking about what would then be the Game Ranger 3. We talked about Ron running through a side scrolling level and fighting a giant duck from Duck Hunt and being saved by Zero. Ron wold tell him that he was finding and seeking out the sages, but be informed that he was only, in fact, wasting time.

Well...we scraped that idea! The other idea we had for the would be Game Ranger 3 would to have him end up in Sonic's world. Sonic would be a mute, because of an injury so Tails would be talking to Ron. Ron would have to defeat Sonic in a foot race through an Emerald Hill Zone style level. Along the way, we would reveal Tails to be completely gay on Ron, and other Sonic characters would be putting up booby traps in order to stop Ron from winning the race.

Guess what? Yeah, we scrapped that idea, too! Why? Well, we started talking about having Sonic and Knuckles fighting against Broly's army and Ron ended up coming to help. Now, remember, Game Ranger 2 at this point was still not finished, either. Around this time, our voice actor for Richter (Larry Bolman, not Musical-Pants) dropped out on us, so we couldn't re-record the needed lines. What do we do? We decide to change Game Ranger 2 into the Game Ranger 3 idea, only we changed Knuckles to Shadow.

We discussed what changes we needed and began our brain storming. I showed Don how I could make a cool thunder cloud effect, and the idea struck that we should parody Kingdom Hearts for the opening. From there, the consensus would be that Ron wound up at the End of Time with Janus telling him where to go and what to do. It was at this point we decided to scrap the idea for a trilogy and just go for as long as we thought was necessary to tell a good story to keep it going.

Obviously we decided to have Sonic and Shadow as heroes who end up finding Ron. I don't remember exactly who's idea it was to have Ron raped by fairies in that cave, but that's what happened!

As Game Ranger 2 was being made, we weren't really sure who we were going to have as an enemy aside from Broly. I had planned on using Richter, but we scrapped that idea in place of the name "Evil K". Mind you, neither Wyldfyre1, Maximus2142, nor I had any plans on who "Evil K" was going to be. At the time, it was just a name we threw in there. I think it was around the time I was getting ready to place in the voice over talking about the next episode when both Wyldfyre1 and I went, "AHA! I know!!!"

Around this time I began the remake of the original Game Ranger and named it Captain R: Game Ranger EX to show that it was the enhanced version. It scored just as well as the original and received even higher praise. This gave me the motivation for GR3 even more.

Brain storming on Game Ranger 3 continued. The plan was to have Ron wake up as he was being dragged behind Sonic and Shadow as they raced through the Emerald Hill Zone type level. Along the way he they would run into enemies here and there while telling Ron what is going on in that world, all the while Ron would be slammed into cliffs, spun around loops, and the like. Well, people felt the pacing of Game Ranger 2 was a little too slow, so we decided we had to really kick it up a notch...BAM!!!

So, we decided to have Ron be filled in on the situation and then pick up the pace in action and dialogue after the first scene ended. Yes, the first scene is a little slow, but it fills you in on much needed information and back story that would be confusing otherwise.

In addition to the increased pacing, there were characters with radically different voice styles we needed done. What to do...what to do... Well, we held open auditions for characters. To our amazement, we had 36 auditions for four characters! We found the actors we wanted and it was all gravy from there...mostly.

Several times I just wanted to give up because of issues in all areas: life, flash, computer, etc. The animation was taking so long to finish that I honestly thought a few times that I was going to end up saying the project would never be finished, but I didn't. No, I kept going, taking some breaks away from it to cool down and work on other projects, like Appalling Justice and pieces for the All Sprites Collab. When I got stuck so close to the end after not knowing how to proceed with the fight between Shadow and Ken, Wyldfyre1 was able to help me get those wheels cranking again. From that point on, I was a fucking 900 ton locomotive on the project, pushing ahead and forgoing sleep, personal relationships outside of instant messaging programs, cell phone calls, and social interactions.

Well, as I stated, I worked from Monday, July 6th, 2009, 12:15pm until Tuesday, July 7th, 2009, 4:35am in order to finish up because I was so close. I was afraid it was going to take me another full day in order to complete the project, but I refused to sleep until it was 100% done. Wyldfyre1 stayed up with me through IM's while I finished this up.

As an artist, I'm always, always going to find flaw with my work. That's just who I am. I don't know if it's a personality trait of mine or that's just how people who do these kinds of things are. Even after finishing last night and going, "DONE!" I went back this morning and made some changes. I know...I need to stop making work for myself. The thing is, even though it was stated as a joke, the saying, "When using the preloader, change the Tankman to anything else to show how creative and talented you are. Use Chuck Norris and make the barrell a giant penis. It really doesn't matter. 90% of all Newgrounds users are going to vote only zero or five, and that's based solely on the preloader."

So, I went back and changed the preloader into something different. I used the preloader from my sprite mash-up animation that I'm working on and added the necessary logos. I'll change the other preloader later. I had also forgotten to make the icon, which I just did and love.

After it's all said and done, I'm very happy with how everything turned out. The new preloader does add an extra "something" to it, the audio sync is spot on, the voice acting is top notch, and the action sequences are light years beyond what was done in previous Game Ranger animations. Just, please, don't be expecting Super Mario Bros Z type fights, as that was never the intention.

Head on over to the animation and enjoy. Please don't forget to vote and review!