Category Archives: Meta

As you can see from the new header link, HeroMachine Classic (version 1.1) is now available for use here as well. It's kind of fun to see how far the program has come in ten years. That's right, the copyright date on that bad boy is 2002. How time flies!

Do you all want to see the other "mini" versions here as well, like the Pinup Creator and such?

Also, note how crappy the logo was before Friend of HeroMachine and Best Buddy John Hartwell did a professional makeover on it. That guy is a stud!

Hey folks, if you get a chance, could you try out the blogicized version of HeroMachine 2.5, hosted here instead of at UGO and let me know what you think?

Thanks! This will be a good test of "will it work properly" as well as a good indication of what kind of server load we're talking about.

I am anticipating a successful conclusion of the legal agreement between me and the awesome folks at UGO some time today, so in preparation for the change in management I am redesigning the blog. As a result, things might look a bit higgeldy-piggeldy for a bit; please bear with me as I iron out the problems.

Things are moving on the UGO/HeroMachine front! We have the first pass at a document transferring control of the IP to me, so I think we're going to be good to go! More updates to follow as I get them.

After almost a decade of a wonderful partnership, as of January 1, 2012, UGO and HeroMachine are parting ways. My contract with them is up and will not be renewed, which means it's time for me to move on into the next great adventure.

We're still talking about what to do with the program and this site, and while I'm hopeful you'll continue being able to enjoy the use of the program as you always have, we have yet to finalize anything.

As of this writing, UGO still owns all of the HeroMachine intellectual property. Since I am no longer employed by them, I don't feel comfortable, legally, posting new content here. Until we get things squared away, therefore, I won't be updating this site.

For now the HeroMachine 3 Alpha will remain freely available here, and all of the existing HeroMachine content on UGO.com (including the forums) will stay up as well. I can't guarantee how long that will be the case, however, so I urge you (as always ) to create both text and image backups of all of your creations.

Whatever happens in the future, I want to thank everyone who's either used the program in one of its many incarnations, or who has participated in this blog site. You're a funny, creative, awesome group of folks and you are a large part of what has helped make this the best experience of my life.

I am also extremely grateful to UGO, a fantastic company and a great group of people who truly made all of this possible. I remain optimistic that we'll be able to come to a long-term solution that results in the continued ability to bring your imagination to life with this set of tools. Regardless, I have nothing but good will towards them and will remain eternally and sincerely thankful for their support and partnership.

Folks, this is just a friendly reminder that the beginning of a new year is a great opportunity for you to protect your valuable creativity. In this case, you can do that by downloading any characters you have on the UGO Forums to your local hard drive for safe-keeping. We've had a couple of scares in the past with those boards in danger of going bye-bye, so it's only prudent to take steps to safeguard your characters. The end of a year is the time to be thinking of that kind of thing.

On a related note, you should also take the time if you have it to make both text and image backups of your HeroMachine 3 characters. The change the browser companies made earlier in the year to start wiping out Flash cookies by default was a good lesson that it definitely pays to be safe rather than sorry. So if you haven't been doing it before, load up the text strings of your favorite characters and paste them into Notepad or something just in case. Doing an image export is also a sound idea.

Create safely so you can safely create!

Today I submitted a request to my hosting company to move to a different type of service that is metered by memory usage instead of the flat rate I have been using up till now. I want to resolve the temporary outages once and for all, as well as prepare for the future. Hopefully this won't break anything and you won't even notice a difference, but there's always the chance it will all melt down into a steaming pile of digital goo.

Just a heads-up in case you notice funkiness.