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| Plum's Worlds of Chaos |
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Forum Index - SMW Hacking - SMW Hack Discussion - Works in Progress - Plum's Worlds of Chaos |
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| Posted on 2012-05-03 10:56:24 AM |
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Plum's Worlds of Chaos is a hack that I've been planning for a while. The original idea, in fact, I had back in 2009. It's been postponed numerous times for various reasons, mainly for lack of resources; Tessera (or at least a sprite insertion tool with enough functionality for me) didn't come along until 2011, and then we have the whole Addmusic situation, plus the fact that player graphics for any original character are hard to come by (not many people take graphics requests, it seems, especially for sprites, and especially for player GFX). I think I might finally have a handle on it now, though. Of course, even now, there are some things that I'll want to update when I can...I still have a few things to code into the game, for one. I'm also waiting to switch over to a better Sprite Tool and Addmusic whenever they come out, but right now, Addmusic 4.05 and the current version of Tessera will do. I've made quite a few modifications to the game, such as a sprite status bar, a health counter, a new powerup system (with an MP counter), and a pause menu. I plan to do most of the ASM and all of the music myself. My intention is to make SMW into a whole new game that still feels like a 2D Mario platformer.
The plot of Plum's Worlds of Chaos is essentially: Queen Eris, wife of Bowser and mother of the Koopalings (well, you never see such a figure show up in official Mario games, do you?) has grown tired of Bowser's plans always failing, so she decides to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom herself. Aided by a few nieces and nephews, a whole new batch of seven Koopalings, she kidnaps not only Princess Toadstool, but the Mario Bros. as well, ensuring that the Mushroom Kingdom will never recover, with their normal heroes out of the picture. Or so she thinks...she didn't count on Peach having relatives as well. A cousin of hers named Plum heard about the crisis, and, concerned for the safety of the Mushroom Kingdom and the kidnapped hostages, she set out to stop Queen Eris, defeat the Koopalings, and rescue Mario, Luigi, and Peach.
And now, some screenshots! Actually, I've finished only one level so far (I finished three in a previous version of PWC, about two years ago), but I have advance ideas for a lot of levels. Naturally, I'll update the thread with more screenshots as I design more levels and mechanics.
This is the title screen, or at least what I have so far. I still need to add a background besides the HDMA gradient, but I don't know what. Strangely, that gradient looks better in bsnes 0.72 than it does in the 0.8x versions. (All screenshots are from 0.72, since the newer versions don't have a screenshot function as far as I know.) I drew the "Plum's Worlds of Chaos" letters quite a while ago, but I touched them up a bit recently, making some edges smoother and adding more colors.
I've redone the file select screen. There are now 6 files, and each one shows your game time, goals found, and difficulty level. Yes, there is also a difficulty select; I didn't make a screenshot of it, but it's the screen that shows up just after this one when you select a new file. You can select between easy, medium, and hard, and things will change depending on which one you choose. Your starting lives and HP will vary, certain enemies will become more or less powerful, platforms may add or take away a block, etc. If the difficulty changes become too troublesome to pull off, though, I may just drop the difficulty select altogether.
This is the first screen of the first cutscene of the game. Naturally, I'm using RPG Hacker's VWF patch for this hack, given how many cutscenes there will be. I may change the font.
A screen or so into 1-1. You can see Plum, some of my graphical modifications, and the new status bar here. Pay no mind to the fact that the coin icon on the status bar looks different from the coins in the level...I recently changed the graphics of both the object and sprite coins, but some of the old tiles are stiill there and I forgot to update the code. (I decided to ExAnimate the sprite coin, since I didn't really have enough sprite tile space to do it the conventional way without redrawing it. I may regret this decision in the future...I wanted the sprite to look identical to the object except for subtle palette differences, but I might have to change it anyway.)
There are quite a few collectibles in this game. The purple diamond-shaped thing is a crystal. You'd expect it to be similar to a Yoshi coin, but it's not really; each level can have anywhere from 1 to 8 of them (I doubt any will have fewer than 3, though), and each one that is collected will be noted when you save the game and won't reappear. You need all of the purple crystals to access certain special areas. (Don't expect all of them to be as easy to find as the ones in this level are!) The blue rectangle behind the Koopa is a number block (during one of its sideways frames). There are 5 of these in each level without a boss at the end, and the more you collect, the greater your reward will be at the end of the level. The red "C" block is just a checkpoint. Surely you didn't think I'd leave the multi-midway patch out of this hack, did you?
Just showing my new pipe graphics.
More fun in 1-1. For want of anything better to say, I could mention at this point that the coin counter is actually 5 digits long, and needless to say, there are shops where you can purchase items with them.
Here is the game's first bonus room. Plum's Worlds of Chaos actually has 6 different types of bonus room. This is an "orange bonus room", which...well...is orange. Orange bonus rooms are commonly found in levels and usually contain a few coins or a collectible. Purple bonus rooms are similar, but they are rarer, harder to find, and contain bigger rewards. The colored bonus room system is taken from my first serious hack, Mario's Mushroom Quest, although there, the bonus rooms used the SMW switch palace grahics and there were four different colors instead of just two.
This is what the goal points look like. This or a simple goal sphere.
I designed a custom pause menu for the hack. Each of the four tabs shows you a different set of stats.
This is what the World 1 submap looks like in its current form. Yes, I realize that the border is glitched...I ended up not even using those tiles, so I could change them back to normal, but I'll probably redo the overworld border anyway, although in what way I don't know. I'll probably swap out the pyramids for better-looking ones as well. Speaking of overworld graphics, have I ever mentioned that there are FAR too few custom overworld sets?! Every one I can think of except the one from SMW Redrawn is either missing a number of tiles, is a pain to set up, or both. I did redraw some of the graphics on the overworld, but not by much. Also, that circular blue thing in the lower left-hand corner is a portal, which acts just like a star and takes the place of a pipe in this game. The level tiles are shown as glowing purple numbers. There is actually a world before this that simply serves as an intro, but I'm not showing it off because the submap is incomplete and I haven't designed any of the levels in it yet.
And here we have a preview shot of 1-2. It uses a lot of the same stuff as 1-1, but it focuses more on pipes and Piranha Plants rather than walk-through ledges.
Now, as for music...well, all I have completed so far is the titlescreen theme and the P-switch theme (and the death theme, but no SPC of that). You can listen to those if you want, but I want to finish all misc. music, the intro cutscene music, the Worlds 0 and 1 submap music, and probably the desert level theme before I do much in the way of music showoff.
So...yeah. Plum's Worlds of Chaos. It's my main hack, and I've been planning and organizing stuff related to it for a while. It will have a full 96 levels (counting the one used for mushroom houses and stuff) and probably 120 exits, although that number might be less because I may not need that many secret exits, and 9 worlds (8 regular plus 1 bonus world, plus the intro world, which doesn't really count). It will have a completely custom soundtrack that I will compose, completely custom bosses that I will design, and as many custom graphics as I can manage. I am not terribly talented in the graphics skill department, so the vast majority of the graphics will either be custom-drawn by somebody else or ripped from another game. (I'm sure already that I'll have trouble finding somebody to do my boss graphics, among other things...) There is still a lot to do before it is truly playable, but hey, I won't be releasing a demo for a while anyway. I just wanted to show off what I have to far. And I wanted to use my 5000th post on something important without waiting forever for the chance.
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| Posted on 2012-05-03 11:15:52 AM |
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Wow, this is looking quite amazing! I really like the font you used in the title screen, and I especially like the changes made to the file system. I'm not sure how feasible the "multiple difficulties" thing is (I mean, it must be hard to manage all of them), but it is a great idea and an awesome concept for SMW.
I quite like the plot as well. It's a breath of fresh air into an old concept, but without changing it too much, which is nice. Can't wait to see the new Koopalings!
Really liking the idea of the level collectibles, but I'm especially intrigued by the "number block". How does it affect your reward for completing a level? Also, is there any way for the player to know exactly how many crystals there are in a level? I guess it's not bad having to search for them, but not knowing if you've got them all would be kinda unfortunate.
Oh, and, since I'm already commenting in the 1-1 screenshots, I must say I like the way you're using those platforms, and the new pipe graphics are pretty nice. What I don't like as much is the palette of the Koopa Troopas. Maybe you could try making their skin a little less... "pale", shall we say?
I'm liking the idea of using multiple types of bonus rooms, symbolized by colors. That way, the player knows what kind of reward to expect, and it also adds to the variety of the levels.
Another thing that I like is the pause menu, which is a feature that is missing from most hacks (most likely due to there not being one in the original game) that I really enjoy. Nice job! And speaking of nice jobs, I like how you "re-purposed" the Goal Sphere. I'd love to see the way those stars around it animate.
I quite like the World 1 Map as well! It really gives of the feel of a desert: an open expanse with lots of sand everywhere, some dunes (I think. Or are those supposed to be hills?), the occasional rocks and pyramids, and the much desired oasis. Very good!
I haven't listened to the songs you linked, but I will surely give them a try later. All in all, a very nice job, keep it up!
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| Posted on 2012-05-04 02:13:10 AM |
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Hehe, congratulations on a well spent post! I say, this hack looks really nice. You've got some nice ideas for this hack. It seems to have lots of potential, as me being an RPG nut makes me really want to play this. I can't wait to see more. Call dibs on being a beta tester! :>
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| Posted on 2012-05-07 07:53:43 AM |
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Originally posted by ThundahackI'm liking the idea of using multiple types of bonus rooms, symbolized by colors. That way, the player knows what kind of reward to expect, and it also adds to the variety of the levels.
Hmm, seeing a little of the Fourth Sector right here; which also utilizes the whole "different coloured bonus rooms" thing. It'll be even more coincidential if every level has a bonus room. Here I was thinking that multiple coloured bonus rooms was an original idea. Better it be used by multiple people with talent, than nobody at all though.
Do note that I've been following you up on this and anticipating it for a while now, and if you ever need anything else graphics related, you know where to look me up. Although, I do have to say, I lack in BG design without ideas so... yeah.
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| Posted on 2012-05-07 07:06:37 PM |
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This hack is my new favorite hack, for now. Can't wait for the full release of it!
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| Posted on 2012-05-09 10:31:54 AM |
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When I saw the thread title, I thought that you meant Plum from Mario Golf. But I still like just about everything so far in this hack. Of course it's always cool whenever someone does gameplay changes and things like your pause menu. Heck, even having six files is cool. Not nearly as much to say about the level screenshots other than that the graphics look nice and that the design so far is promising. This is yet another addition to my "future to-play" list.
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| Posted on 2012-05-10 08:58:29 AM |
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Yes, I can only imagine how much assembly files have went into modifying this. 10, 20 maybe? How long did you spend on modifying the game before it got to your standards' meeting point. It's always great to have high standards.
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| Posted on 2012-05-10 10:25:12 AM |
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Nice imamelia!!
Some questions about that hack:
1)What meaning the yellow toothpick?And the arrow?
2)Why the first world is desert world instead of grassland world?
3)Who is Queen Eris?
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| Posted on 2012-05-10 11:19:23 AM |
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Originally posted by Roberto zampari
2)Why the first world is desert world instead of grassland world?
A better question is why can't it be a desert. Deserts are personally some of my favourite worlds to make. I also think it's a very good way to differentiate this hack from most others. I start most of my hacks with a forest world. I've seen some start in a volcano actually. Why complain about deserts? They're the best!
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| Last edited on 2012-05-17 03:19:56 PM by S.C.O.R.P.I.O.N.. |
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| Posted on 2012-05-12 12:43:05 PM |
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Originally posted by ThundahackReally liking the idea of the level collectibles, but I'm especially intrigued by the "number block". How does it affect your reward for completing a level? Also, is there any way for the player to know exactly how many crystals there are in a level? I guess it's not bad having to search for them, but not knowing if you've got them all would be kinda unfortunate.
The plan was that you get coins when you hit the goal point, and the more number blocks you collected, the more coins you get. There will also be ?-blocks in some levels that give you just one coin if you've collected 0-3 of the blocks, a slightly larger reward for 4, and a significant one for all 5. And the pause menu will tell you how many crystals are in the level and how many you have found so far. I might even include one more collectible: red coins, which act essentially like the red coins in YI except that they aren't disguised and there are only 16 of them per level.
Originally posted by ThundahackWhat I don't like as much is the palette of the Koopa Troopas. Maybe you could try making their skin a little less... "pale", shall we say?
Hm, well...the thing is, I changed the orangish-brown colors of SMW to something closer to peach, because that fits with more sprites, especially custom ones. My plan was to have transparency, white, black, a basic 4-color gradient, the two shades of peach, and then 7 colors used mainly for YI sprites.
Originally posted by ScrydanCall dibs on being a beta tester! :>
Sure. Once I have a demo ready, you're welcome to beta-test it.
Originally posted by S.C.O.R.P.I.O.N.Hmm, seeing a little of the Fourth Sector right here; which also utilizes the whole "different coloured bonus rooms" thing. It'll be even more coincidential if every level has a bonus room. Here I was thinking that multiple coloured bonus rooms was an original idea. Better it be used by multiple people with talent, than nobody at all though.
I was thinking it was an original idea, too...ha.
Originally posted by S.C.O.R.P.I.O.N.Yes, I can only imagine how much assembly files have went into modifying this. 10, 20 maybe? How long did you spend on modifying the game before it got to your standards' meeting point.
Well...I had only about 10 patches total, but one of them was a combination of code from a whole mess of other patches, so if you count each of those separately, the number would be closer to 50. The patches were the most annoying thing to work with, I'd say...well, patches are always the hardest part about starting a hack for me, unless I'm using fewer than 8 or so.
Originally posted by Roberto zampari1)What meaning the yellow toothpick?And the arrow?
2)Why the first world is desert world instead of grassland world?
3)Who is Queen Eris?
1) What yellow toothpick and arrow? The yellow thing in the status bar is a coin, rotated to the side. The arrow in the pause menu just indicates which of the four submenus you are at.
2) I guess I thought starting off with a grassland world was too clichéd. I don't know. There actually isn't a grassland world in this hack; there is at least one grassland level in worlds 1, 2, 5, and 7, but no entire world of them. In fact, most of the worlds don't have as clear-cut themes as most games (e.g. NSMBWii) anyway. (Yes, I do have plans for all 9 worlds right now.)
3) She's Bowser's wife; see original post.
Well, guys, unfortunately, I have some bad news to break to you. My computer got stolen, and my last backup was 8 months ago, so I lost nearly all the work shown in this thread. I still have a few graphics and ASM hacks, but for the most part, I'm practically starting all over. So I might not have any updates for quite a while. I'll have to redo all the patches (which might be made slightly easier by using Asar instead of xkas like before), replace any graphics that were lost...oh, yeah, and ripping the titlescreen graphics from the screenshots and those two compositions from the SPCs will be a huge pain. I'll get there eventually. I've put my SMW hacking folder in my Dropbox folder now, so it shouldn't get lost again.
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| Posted on 2012-05-17 03:22:39 PM |
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While most of that will be a huge pain in the overhauled ass, the title screen shouldn't be that hard. There are two things that can be done over all.
The most obvious would be remake it, that is option one. The second uses a few more ExGFX files than originally partained, but used Edit's BG ripper. You might want to find a website that can turn PNG's to 16 bit PNG's, and THEN rip it with that. Might be harder to work with, or somebody could make you a whole new one.
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| Posted on 2012-05-17 03:34:18 PM |
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Oh god. Why did it get stolen?
You may also need to change the Koopas' skin to yellow.
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| Last edited on 2012-05-20 02:14:27 PM by Footsteps_of_Coins. |
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| Posted on 2012-06-09 05:35:04 PM |
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Pretty good. =)
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| Posted on 2012-06-12 05:42:47 PM |
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To make a long story short, it got stolen because I was careless and left the compartment door on the train unlocked. And I'd rather like to keep the palette like that...I find that the two shades of peach are more useful than the colors SMW normally puts there, and I don't have enough room in the palette for both.
Well, I have the "Plum's Worlds of Chaos" titlescreen font re-ripped now. Right now, the main thing I'm waiting for is certain tools and patches (come on, p4plus2, finish that OAM patch already so we can actually get Tessera 2.0 beta-tested!). It's too bad foop didn't design his desert GFX set with pieces that could be placed over top of dirt...I drew those myself before, but now I'll have to do it again. Don't worry, I'll have this hack back in the running, even if it's taking a while.
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| Posted on 2012-07-12 12:30:52 PM |
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Man... I was getting really entusiastic about this hack seeing it's featuring really, REALLY unique features, but just as I read "My comp got stolen" I got real sad D:
I hope to see this hack back in track again. You can do it 
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| Posted on 2012-07-12 01:00:24 PM |
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Another Great looking hack.Keep up imamelia!
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| Posted on 2012-09-14 07:55:10 PM |
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Well, regretfully, I have some bad news...
Plum's Worlds of Chaos might be delayed for quite a while. Maybe even forever, although I sincerely hope not. This time, it's not due to losing resources that I worked hard to make...it's losing resources that are yet to come. I might not be doing much SMW hacking in the foreseeable future, or maybe I'll try vanilla hacking for a while. Also, I'll probably actually deliberately make my hacks not work on ZSNES from now on...even ones that are otherwise vanilla. Maybe I'll try homebrew. I don't know. I just know that this hack is, for the time being, dead in the water, and not from lack of ideas or motivation. In fact, I could request this thread to be closed.
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| Last edited on 2012-09-14 07:56:57 PM by imamelia. |
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