Welcome all to my C3 Thread.
I wish I had a bit more to show off this year... Or atleast something that would be more useful to the community as a whole, but being away for a while has caused my hacking skills to rust and I'm not yet back up to that level. Hopefully next time I can put out a sprite or something.
ANYWAYS! For C3 this year, I'm releasing an early version of my hack, Mario's Grand Star Struggle (name subject to change). The hack is far from being ready for submission and I'd be reluctant to even call it a beta at this point, but it's perfectly playable. Hopefully you'll enjoy it and I'm welcome to any and all feedback.
Mario's Grand Star Struggle v0.1
Click to Download
Plot:
Mario gets a letter from Princess Peach telling him to come to the castle immediately. Something is wrong and it's up to Mario to get to the bottom of it. (Note: Nothing plot related is incorperated into the hack at the moment.)
Screenshots:
Levels:
Mario's House - Planned. Not yet in the hack.
Goomba Road - A grassland level inspired by the area in Paper Mario.
Toad Town - Planned. Not yet in the hack.
Princess Peach's Castle - Planned. Not yet in the hack.
Sludge Trudge - The quickest way to get from the Mushroom Kingdom to the Koopa Islands is through the sewers. No one ever said being a plumber was glorious.
(Unnamed Grass Level)
Cloudy Crossing - A bridge high in the sky. Heavy cloud cover makes the area dangerous.
Fungus Fortress - A fortress level with a heavy Goomba theme. Every enemy is some type of Goomba. More difficult than you might think.
(Unnamed Ice Level) - A frigid hill standing between Mario and the first castle. The weather takes a turn for the worse.
Larry Koopa's Castle - The first castle and the last level in the hack so far.
This Hack Contains (or will contain*)
Custom Graphics - Very little vanilla remains.
Custom Sprites - Including custom boss fights.
Custom Music* - I prefer to do my own porting so this may take a while.
Eight Worlds* - World 1 is a bit of a mix, containing grassland, sky, and snow. World 2 will be primarly desert.
A Single Star Coin Hidden in Each Level - Similar to the DK coins in DKC2 and DKC3. These have been placed and you should be able to reach most of them, but at the moment they don't do anything.
Town Areas* - With shops and NPCS with helpful (or atleast amusing) dialogue.
Notes and Known Issues
For testing purposes, each level save for the last has a goal sphere near the beginning.
Likewise, boss rooms have a goal bar in them as I do not yet have the sprite that makes a goal sphere when there are no enemies inserted (I plan to modify it a bit). Ignore them or use them to skip levels as you like.
The intro movie and whatnot have not been changed. Due to the changes I HAVE made, the graphics are garbage at the moment.
I haven't worked on the overworld. It's just a generic square of green at the moment.
Some levels have multiple exits. These multiple exits don't go anywhere yet though. There may be an issue my temporary overworld and the way I have events setup at the moment, so you should probably go for all of the main exits before trying for any of the secret ones. Just to be on the safe side.
Levels that use layer 3 have some issues involving layer priority that I haven't quite sorted out yet.
As I said before, no plot elements are incorperated into the hack yet. Most of what will be in the first world will take place in the three "hub" type levels (Mario's House, Toad Town, and Peach's Castle). Since none of these are finished, no ingame plot yet.
Graphics subject to change. For example, I'll almost certainly be changing Goomba Road to use a different background than the unnamed grass level. I also plan on changing the background of Castle 1. And Larry Koopa himself probably needs to be redrawn... I don't really care for the way he came out two years back when I drew that sprite.
Castle 1 dumps you in an empty area before teleporting you to the actual beginning. I have something planned, so don't worry about it.
I plan to disable spin jumps and replace them with a ground pound. However, you will not be able to use the ground pound right away. One of the minibosses is designed around this, being fairly easy to beat and possible to kill with a single ground pound. At this point, a spin jump will make short work of it.
The hack does not yet have custom blocks inserted. This means that...
-Mario and enemies can walk through some slopes. This is most noticable in the unnamed grass level.
-Doors do not work (I'm not using the default ones). I have pipes placed wherever there is a door as a temporary fix.
-Donut blocks do not work. Most noticable in Cloudy Crossing.
-Ice blocks don't disappear when hit by fireballs.
-On/Off blocks do not work. They'll animate, but they're never solid. Don't jump on one thinking it'll keep you out of the lava.
-The miniboss in Castle 1 can't be fought. Just ignore him and go through the pipe.
-Some areas that would normally require custom blocks to reach have normal blocks set as placeholders. You can still reach everything you need to reach to beat the levels.
-Yoshi is able to reach one of the minibosses. It's an easy fight made easier by the fact that Yoshi can eat it.
I haven't inserted any custom music yet. I haven't set the music at all so if hearing the same song every level annoys you, mute the game and play your own music or something.
(Mini)Boss behaviors are subject to tweaks and changes.
The vine tile graphics are glitched in one level (not saying which or where since it's hidden). Just ignore it.
HDMA backgrounds don't fade on level end. I fixed the flickering, and I know they can be set to fade to black like everything else. I just haven't looked into how to do it yet.
Snow + Level End = Snow on top of iris in. Not sure how to fix this one.
Star + SMB1 Flagpole = Amusing glitch. It should be an easy enough fix and not an issue you'll see in my levels as the only star in the hack so far can't be reached until I insert custom blocks. Still, it's an issue and I am aware of it.
The Firebars in the vertical room of Castle 1 disappear or don't appear at all. I think imamelia's SMB1 Firebars might be incompatible with vertical levels. Not sure how to fix this one, so if you have any ideas, please let me know. If I can't get them to work, I may eventually get rid of them or replace them with something else.
Larry Koopa sometimes glitches through the wall when he jumps.
Larry Koopa's graphics glitch if he falls in the lava when he dies.
Click to Download
I have a hack thread - Link (Now with a demo!)
Also a music thread - Link
C3 Projects
2013: Modern Spiny Pack
2012: MGSS v0.1
Spring 2010: SMB2 Autobomb Sprite
I wish I had a bit more to show off this year... Or atleast something that would be more useful to the community as a whole, but being away for a while has caused my hacking skills to rust and I'm not yet back up to that level. Hopefully next time I can put out a sprite or something.
ANYWAYS! For C3 this year, I'm releasing an early version of my hack, Mario's Grand Star Struggle (name subject to change). The hack is far from being ready for submission and I'd be reluctant to even call it a beta at this point, but it's perfectly playable. Hopefully you'll enjoy it and I'm welcome to any and all feedback.
Mario's Grand Star Struggle v0.1
Click to Download
Plot:
Mario gets a letter from Princess Peach telling him to come to the castle immediately. Something is wrong and it's up to Mario to get to the bottom of it. (Note: Nothing plot related is incorperated into the hack at the moment.)
Screenshots:
Levels:
Mario's House - Planned. Not yet in the hack.
Goomba Road - A grassland level inspired by the area in Paper Mario.
Toad Town - Planned. Not yet in the hack.
Princess Peach's Castle - Planned. Not yet in the hack.
Sludge Trudge - The quickest way to get from the Mushroom Kingdom to the Koopa Islands is through the sewers. No one ever said being a plumber was glorious.
(Unnamed Grass Level)
Cloudy Crossing - A bridge high in the sky. Heavy cloud cover makes the area dangerous.
Fungus Fortress - A fortress level with a heavy Goomba theme. Every enemy is some type of Goomba. More difficult than you might think.
(Unnamed Ice Level) - A frigid hill standing between Mario and the first castle. The weather takes a turn for the worse.
Larry Koopa's Castle - The first castle and the last level in the hack so far.
This Hack Contains (or will contain*)
Custom Graphics - Very little vanilla remains.
Custom Sprites - Including custom boss fights.
Custom Music* - I prefer to do my own porting so this may take a while.
Eight Worlds* - World 1 is a bit of a mix, containing grassland, sky, and snow. World 2 will be primarly desert.
A Single Star Coin Hidden in Each Level - Similar to the DK coins in DKC2 and DKC3. These have been placed and you should be able to reach most of them, but at the moment they don't do anything.
Town Areas* - With shops and NPCS with helpful (or atleast amusing) dialogue.
Notes and Known Issues
For testing purposes, each level save for the last has a goal sphere near the beginning.
Likewise, boss rooms have a goal bar in them as I do not yet have the sprite that makes a goal sphere when there are no enemies inserted (I plan to modify it a bit). Ignore them or use them to skip levels as you like.
The intro movie and whatnot have not been changed. Due to the changes I HAVE made, the graphics are garbage at the moment.
I haven't worked on the overworld. It's just a generic square of green at the moment.
Some levels have multiple exits. These multiple exits don't go anywhere yet though. There may be an issue my temporary overworld and the way I have events setup at the moment, so you should probably go for all of the main exits before trying for any of the secret ones. Just to be on the safe side.
Levels that use layer 3 have some issues involving layer priority that I haven't quite sorted out yet.
As I said before, no plot elements are incorperated into the hack yet. Most of what will be in the first world will take place in the three "hub" type levels (Mario's House, Toad Town, and Peach's Castle). Since none of these are finished, no ingame plot yet.
Graphics subject to change. For example, I'll almost certainly be changing Goomba Road to use a different background than the unnamed grass level. I also plan on changing the background of Castle 1. And Larry Koopa himself probably needs to be redrawn... I don't really care for the way he came out two years back when I drew that sprite.
Castle 1 dumps you in an empty area before teleporting you to the actual beginning. I have something planned, so don't worry about it.
I plan to disable spin jumps and replace them with a ground pound. However, you will not be able to use the ground pound right away. One of the minibosses is designed around this, being fairly easy to beat and possible to kill with a single ground pound. At this point, a spin jump will make short work of it.
The hack does not yet have custom blocks inserted. This means that...
-Mario and enemies can walk through some slopes. This is most noticable in the unnamed grass level.
-Doors do not work (I'm not using the default ones). I have pipes placed wherever there is a door as a temporary fix.
-Donut blocks do not work. Most noticable in Cloudy Crossing.
-Ice blocks don't disappear when hit by fireballs.
-On/Off blocks do not work. They'll animate, but they're never solid. Don't jump on one thinking it'll keep you out of the lava.
-The miniboss in Castle 1 can't be fought. Just ignore him and go through the pipe.
-Some areas that would normally require custom blocks to reach have normal blocks set as placeholders. You can still reach everything you need to reach to beat the levels.
-Yoshi is able to reach one of the minibosses. It's an easy fight made easier by the fact that Yoshi can eat it.
I haven't inserted any custom music yet. I haven't set the music at all so if hearing the same song every level annoys you, mute the game and play your own music or something.
(Mini)Boss behaviors are subject to tweaks and changes.
The vine tile graphics are glitched in one level (not saying which or where since it's hidden). Just ignore it.
HDMA backgrounds don't fade on level end. I fixed the flickering, and I know they can be set to fade to black like everything else. I just haven't looked into how to do it yet.
Snow + Level End = Snow on top of iris in. Not sure how to fix this one.
Star + SMB1 Flagpole = Amusing glitch. It should be an easy enough fix and not an issue you'll see in my levels as the only star in the hack so far can't be reached until I insert custom blocks. Still, it's an issue and I am aware of it.
The Firebars in the vertical room of Castle 1 disappear or don't appear at all. I think imamelia's SMB1 Firebars might be incompatible with vertical levels. Not sure how to fix this one, so if you have any ideas, please let me know. If I can't get them to work, I may eventually get rid of them or replace them with something else.
Larry Koopa sometimes glitches through the wall when he jumps.
Larry Koopa's graphics glitch if he falls in the lava when he dies.
Click to Download
I have a hack thread - Link (Now with a demo!)
Also a music thread - Link
C3 Projects
2013: Modern Spiny Pack
2012: MGSS v0.1
Spring 2010: SMB2 Autobomb Sprite