I finally have enough screenshots and stuff worth showing off to make a thread. Since we're nearly completely done with world 1, you might be seeing more soon. We're trying to figure out right now how many worlds we want to finish before releasing a demo. Right now we're deciding between 2 and 4. This hack is being worked on currently by myself and Heisanevilgenius.

The finished product will have 11 worlds, 85+ levels/120+ exits, a new overworld, returning enemies from previous SMB games as well as brand new enemies, new blocks, new graphics, and new music. Basically an all-encompassing Mario hack. When this hack is done, it will be left unlocked so people can do what they want with it. I don't believe in locked hacks.

Right now the hack is a total mess and not fit for a demo. Rest assured when we are ready for a demo it will be uploaded here.

We are currently looking for some help with the hack. We're looking for a few people to do some minor graphic work (just a few enemies) and some custom sprites (a boss or two, and a level ender sprite -- basically things I can't do myself). We ARE NOT looking for beta testers right now. We have a small focus group. We may ask for beta testers in the future, however. But please don't ask. We also don't need help with levels, overworld, or music; we have those covered, thanks.

Anyway, I know you don't care about that, so on to the content.

Screenshots

Note that probably half of these screenshots are of levels that aren't yet done. Many graphics need replacing and some you see are placeholders. Though if you do have suggestions, let us know.

World 1 screenshots, showing off our midway point and infoboxes as well as some returning and new enemies. Also, stompable goombas, because I've never been a fan of some of SMW's changes, like the turnblock (although my co-author adores them).


More scenery screens. The middle is the Yellow Switch Palace, which has no enemies, but has several puzzles Mario must figure out within the time limit.


Parts of our first monument level, and a castle screen. The thwomps in the first screenshot are power thwomps, identifiable by their battle scars. The third screen shows some on/off blocks.


The first two levels in water world. The first is Bill's Bridge, which is a linear level with bullet dodging. The second is a vast underwater reef with a large variety of enemies, including crabs, baby urchins, jellectros, and bloopers, in addition to the normal SMW fish.


Miscellaneous screenshots. The first is from the very unfinished water castle, which will have varying water levels based on where you enter. The second is from the forest, which has falling pinecones, giant bees, and very giant goombas. The third is a ghost ship. The first screenshot also shows a springboard in the item box. After applying the patch and reading that SDW:TLC didn't have the springboard graphics in the box, I decided to mull around until I could make it work.


A strange ghost house, a giant beehive (what game could be complete without one?), and a toxic mine which is full of gas bubbles and koopas wearing gas masks.


A level in ice world. One of my more popular levels, though it may be due to the music. The last few screenshots here are images of the overworld.


Ice world, underground world.

Videos

I've made videos of a couple levels to show off the full design and concept. They are slightly out of date, but should serve their purpose.

Toxic Mine:
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Melting Ice Cavern:
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Music

My co-author is doing a brilliant job with the music for the hack. We're going to have completely original music (not based on anything -- with one exception) for the overworld and levels. Sorry, these aren't freely available for use, so please don't ask to use them. Here are a few of our favorite tracks.

Overworld Music:
Overworld Theme
Underground World
Bowser's Domain

Level Music:
Underground Theme 1
Ice Theme 1
Mystery/Wonder

Those look very, very good. I, like some others, really like the ice caverns. What does TKO stand for again?

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I am not a hacker by trade, I am an observer and I can be very observant. I tend to lurk around here to prolong the good experience of playing the original SMW. Whatever can add onto it is something that I will definitely do when I am bored which is often. And I will rarely post and give praise when needed to the hacks that may make me interested to relive memories.

My worst enemy in Mario isn't Bowser but my controller that keeps on getting disconnected from the inside. Might be my memory count.

It looks very good right now. Why is the info box an upsidedown ! point?

Oh. Looks like an upside down ! to me because it got thicker at the bottom. :/

It's an inside joke, but it's a play on our names.

Do have a story at all yet? There also seems to be a Stone Henge Icon on the map. Whats that?

Ooh, lot of interesting stuff here. Original Music is a great thing indeed and all the tracks are enjoyable. I especially like the main overworld track. Ooh, and SMB2 underground theme worked into the underworld map. Me likey.


Walking bush enemies? What do they do?


That background can be a little tricky to work with. It looks like the shading on the clouds is lighter than the white of the clouds themselves, so you might want to tweak that a bit. What's with the brown question blocks?


I'm not really a fan of ground pound enemy gameplay-wise, but I love the idea of scarred Thwomps.


Is the baby Urchin a wall-guided Fuzzy/Sparky? I had the same idea but haven't gotten around to using it in my game yet.


Nice work double-sizing the Goomba. (I find it kind of relaxing to blowing up enemies then cleaning up the pixel work. Heh) I'm pretty sure the pinecones are falling spikes, but what's the bee do?


I've loved this level since I saw a video for it. Mixing big and small gas bubbles is a fine idea.


I remain impressed with all the new level icons on the overworld. Is the white outline on what is usually a shadow on the border intentional?

So yeah, this game looks to be coming along very nicely. The variety in the levels is a very good thing and I have no doubt you'll be able to make each of the 11 worlds worth playing through.

Yes, it has a cute story but it's right now unfinished. We're going to have it so the princess is rescued in the opening video, before the game even starts.

The stone henge icon is a special level. Every world has one. Ice world has the igloo and underground has the volcano. The forest will have a giant beehive. The monuments represent longer, more difficult levels. They're like a fortress in SMB3. Monuments lack midway points, and always end in a boss fight. Some monuments are optional levels.

EDIT for icegoom's post:

The bushes are called Ivies. They're a very basic enemy. They're really no different than goombas. Each world is going to have at least one new, unique enemy, which will have varying behaviors. To start off easy, Ivies just walk back and forth, but stay on ledges. They do have a small twist though, which isn't really in their behavior, but we've intentionally always hidden them behind bushes, so they can be hard to see.

We were trying for a "dusk" sort of scene in the second screen. We might tweak it some. The brown ? blocks are sensitive bricks, but they're placeholders until we get something more identifiable.

The power thwomps are actually used somewhat sparingly in this level. This is one area where there are 4 in a row, but they're easy to navigate through. We're looking for someone to help us make some round, stone, spiked creatures, which will replace Sparky and Hothead for this level as well.

The baby urchin is a sparky I think. It doesn't animate much, just seems to bounce in place, since the sparky animates by flipping vertically. I'm not very good at graphics, either.

The goomba took a while, but I'm all right with sprite editing (I just can't create something out of nothing). The bee is basically a flying spiny. It can't be jumped on, but can be killed with fireballs. They bounce off walls. There are also stationary ones, and red ones (DK influence anyone?) which are immune to fireballs, and also come in stationary varieties.

The gas level is a fun one, I think. I never found the SMW gas bubbles to be very in-theme with a ghost house so I wanted to make a level where they made sense. The small gas bubbles are waving eeries. The water is swimmable, but does constant damage, so you can only stay in it while flashing or if you have a star.

Sort of. I like the white border around the overworld. All the new icons actually took an incredible amount of work. There are 7 new icons total, and we're reusing Yoshi's house, ghost house and fortress as the other monuments. We also had to make it so the save prompt doesn't come up at any monuments, so I had to remap most of the level icons, and redraw some graphics.

Lastly, we have two mushroom houses, red and blue. Red ones are normal save huts which are in almost every world, and give the player an item in their itembox (some normal, some special, like springboards). The blue ones are special huts which give extremely rare rewards. Since these had to be save enabled, the icon map is a mess from all the remapping. Mushrooms replace ghost houses, ghost houses are on previously unused blocks, and it's all very confusing. Even I get lost trying to remember what I did.

Another potential smash hit. I really like the canoe in the ice world. Will the optional monuments have rewards at the end or customized boss fights(I smell a great opportunity here. So far, more people have been open to using customized boss fights instead of the ole usual stuff)? I love the giant Goomba.

I also really like all of the new and cool things going on.

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I am not a hacker by trade, I am an observer and I can be very observant. I tend to lurk around here to prolong the good experience of playing the original SMW. Whatever can add onto it is something that I will definitely do when I am bored which is often. And I will rarely post and give praise when needed to the hacks that may make me interested to relive memories.

My worst enemy in Mario isn't Bowser but my controller that keeps on getting disconnected from the inside. Might be my memory count.

The monuments have a reward of sorts, but I can't elaborate on that. The ones that are optional will be shortcuts or lead to other worthwhile areas. One monument guards a switch palace. All the monuments will have custom bosses... we hope. We don't intend to use any of the classics except for the boo boss. If we get some help with these things, other levels may end with a boss as well.

Sounds like a hack worth waiting for!

--------------------
I am not a hacker by trade, I am an observer and I can be very observant. I tend to lurk around here to prolong the good experience of playing the original SMW. Whatever can add onto it is something that I will definitely do when I am bored which is often. And I will rarely post and give praise when needed to the hacks that may make me interested to relive memories.

My worst enemy in Mario isn't Bowser but my controller that keeps on getting disconnected from the inside. Might be my memory count.

This is a very nice looking and sounding hack, but you already knew that. I spot a ton of clever ideas here, especially the upside down ghost house and the beehive (great job making the BG work by the way) Your overworld is also great too, with all of the creative icons, like the igloo and stone henge.

There are two things that are irking me though, but I don't know if you want to change them. The first is the grey-on-grey in the monument castle - they clash too much for me. It should be very easy to fix, just darken the grey on the BG or FG a bit to make it look better. The second is just that your underground theme doesn't work (the SPC) It only plays one note then dies.

Other then those two things, this hack looks like it's coming along very well. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Nice screens. Like that icy cave. When you ask for beta testers, I would like to be one.

Yeah, we already discussed the monument's background. If you notice, the ice level acts pretty much the same way, but I've darkened the background. We're going to do that for the monument.

For the underground music... it works for me. Is anyone else having trouble with it?

Yeah, but it had to go through a lot of work and still needs more. The honeycombs in DK2 are actually part of the foreground, and for some mad reason there's about 50 different ones (even though you'd never notice without comparing them in an editor), and no single one tiles upon itself. I had to work on it a lot, but managed to reduce it to a 32x32 image. It still needs a little work, but it's getting better.

Some advice, don't try to rip graphics from Joe and Mac. They use about 8x as many graphics as it should actually take for everything. A simple cliff wall uses a whole page in Mario terms. It has good backgrounds but don't touch the foregrounds. They're massive and trying to piece them together is too much work.