Preface and Information
After three years, over 1,000 cumulative hours, 120+ checkpoints, 22,000 lines of code, and plenty of sanity lost, this hack is finally done. For those unaware, celeste.smc is a kaizo hack that attempts to combine the elements and design philosophies of Celeste with the tech and design philosophies of Kaizo Mario. None of the levels are 1:1 with the original game, though there is obvious design inspiration and sections that may look similar to obstacles designed in the original Celeste. I have a C3 thread from a few years ago that explains some of the "why" I made this hack, so I'll link that here if that interests you. Though the "why" is not what I'm here to talk about today. I'm here to show off the final product. No demo, no broken ASM, no half finished levels. A trailer and some screenshots are what follow.
Now you might be thinking, "what from Celeste was actually implemented"? Well, just about anything you can think of was added. The dash, strawberries, wall jump, beat blocks (that even sync to the music), crystal hearts, and more have all been implemented over these past few years. Each goes used at one point or another in the hack, so basically the entire catalog of Celeste mechanics has some representation in the hack. Whether it be a single checkpoint, a full section, it's there. Basically all of the elements from Celeste were coded myself, bar a couple one-off things that were already implemented by someone else.
On an unrelated note, all of the graphics, music, and ASM for this hack will have a varied level of release after this hack comes out. The graphics I ripped and drew may find itself to the graphics section at some point, though I will probably have to redo some of it so it's up to moderation standards. The music was the only thing that I didn't do, so whether or not the songs find their way to the music section is up to the individual porters on a song-by-song basis. As for the ASM, a lot of it is hardcoded and tailored to this hack specifically, not for a general, all around use for anyone to throw into their hack. The more significant mechanics and pieces of code I wrote may find their way to the ASM sections, but not all of the code will be public. I may have a GitHub repo in the future that has all of the raw code so it can be used as a learning tool, but nothing more.
Before showing off the cool stuff, I'll conclude by re-stating that this IS a kaizo hack. And not only is it a kaizo hack, but my playtesters admitted that it was a fairly difficult kaizo hack (notably Farewell, which includes the hardest checkpoints and sections in the game). If I were to rate it myself, I would put Celeste's equivalent of "any%" (beat Summit) as a Kaizo: Intermediate hack, while attempting Celeste's equivalent of "100%" (beat all chapters, get all berries and hearts) would be Kaizo: Expert. Nonetheless, I still believe that even the most beginner players can find some fun with it in the first few levels, though difficulty definitely starts to ramp up around Old Site/Celestial Resort and again at Farewell. For added context, it took some really talented playtesters multiple hours to get a single checkpoint in Farewell.
Content
Anyway, now to show off what I've done! A link to the trailer can be found here, and screenshots can be viewed below. I also have an embed of the trailer after the screenshots.
Conclusion
And with that all said and shown, that's my final update regarding Celeste.smc and its development, process, and content. I hope you enjoyed reading through what I had to say and found the trailer and screenshots interesting. Thanks for reading, and I hope that if you end up playing it, you have a wonderful time doing so. This passion project over these past three years has been one hell of a grind, but it'll all be worth it once I finally press that submit button.
~ Mark
After three years, over 1,000 cumulative hours, 120+ checkpoints, 22,000 lines of code, and plenty of sanity lost, this hack is finally done. For those unaware, celeste.smc is a kaizo hack that attempts to combine the elements and design philosophies of Celeste with the tech and design philosophies of Kaizo Mario. None of the levels are 1:1 with the original game, though there is obvious design inspiration and sections that may look similar to obstacles designed in the original Celeste. I have a C3 thread from a few years ago that explains some of the "why" I made this hack, so I'll link that here if that interests you. Though the "why" is not what I'm here to talk about today. I'm here to show off the final product. No demo, no broken ASM, no half finished levels. A trailer and some screenshots are what follow.
Now you might be thinking, "what from Celeste was actually implemented"? Well, just about anything you can think of was added. The dash, strawberries, wall jump, beat blocks (that even sync to the music), crystal hearts, and more have all been implemented over these past few years. Each goes used at one point or another in the hack, so basically the entire catalog of Celeste mechanics has some representation in the hack. Whether it be a single checkpoint, a full section, it's there. Basically all of the elements from Celeste were coded myself, bar a couple one-off things that were already implemented by someone else.
On an unrelated note, all of the graphics, music, and ASM for this hack will have a varied level of release after this hack comes out. The graphics I ripped and drew may find itself to the graphics section at some point, though I will probably have to redo some of it so it's up to moderation standards. The music was the only thing that I didn't do, so whether or not the songs find their way to the music section is up to the individual porters on a song-by-song basis. As for the ASM, a lot of it is hardcoded and tailored to this hack specifically, not for a general, all around use for anyone to throw into their hack. The more significant mechanics and pieces of code I wrote may find their way to the ASM sections, but not all of the code will be public. I may have a GitHub repo in the future that has all of the raw code so it can be used as a learning tool, but nothing more.
Before showing off the cool stuff, I'll conclude by re-stating that this IS a kaizo hack. And not only is it a kaizo hack, but my playtesters admitted that it was a fairly difficult kaizo hack (notably Farewell, which includes the hardest checkpoints and sections in the game). If I were to rate it myself, I would put Celeste's equivalent of "any%" (beat Summit) as a Kaizo: Intermediate hack, while attempting Celeste's equivalent of "100%" (beat all chapters, get all berries and hearts) would be Kaizo: Expert. Nonetheless, I still believe that even the most beginner players can find some fun with it in the first few levels, though difficulty definitely starts to ramp up around Old Site/Celestial Resort and again at Farewell. For added context, it took some really talented playtesters multiple hours to get a single checkpoint in Farewell.
Content
Anyway, now to show off what I've done! A link to the trailer can be found here, and screenshots can be viewed below. I also have an embed of the trailer after the screenshots.
Conclusion
And with that all said and shown, that's my final update regarding Celeste.smc and its development, process, and content. I hope you enjoyed reading through what I had to say and found the trailer and screenshots interesting. Thanks for reading, and I hope that if you end up playing it, you have a wonderful time doing so. This passion project over these past three years has been one hell of a grind, but it'll all be worth it once I finally press that submit button.
~ Mark