Choconilla Rise C3

Welcome, guys!

Firstly I'd like to thank 1updudes for posting this, as I won't be able to join C3 myself until tomorrow. I also won't be able to respond to your questions or feedback until then, but don't be afraid of commenting, I'll be covering everything as soon as I'm back ;)

So let's get this rollin'.

Hey there guys ^^ I guess most people who are reading this probably already know me and my project, but for those who don't, my hack, Choconilla Rise, is mostly focused on visuals, but that doesn't mean that I'm not trying to give you a fun gameplay experience, some might not believe me, but I really do and I would love to see all those who don't think that I can make something fun to play AND fun to look at give this a chance. CR, as the name implies, is a choconilla hack, so you'll be able to find original SMW graphics as well as graphics from other Mario games (SMB SMAS mainly) and some custom graphics (most which were made by me) in the hack. It also features HDMA, custom layer 3, custom sprites, custom music, patches, cluster sprites, and a lot of other things I can probably not remember right now xD Also just for the sake of mentioning it, I've been working on this since a little more than a year (I'm a very slow hacker ).

So yeah, the demo has a total of 5 levels (sorry, couldn't get more than that done in time ;_;). Well, let's not jump to the .ips link just yet and show of some screenshots and a little trailer for this C3 release first ^^

























And also here is a little 1 minute trailer for the demo which I uploaded yesterday so you can see some bits of the levels in motion ;)

Trailer!

I also made this userbar which leads to this thread! I hope you like it and use it to show your support ^.^





<a href="http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=67597"" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://puu.sh/3wx1N" alt=""></a>


And finally here is the link to the demo. I hope you have fun playing it and enjoy this year's C3!


Download!

1UPDUDES HERE. I HOPE I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT THE LINKS SEEM TO WORKING.... UNDY WILL BE BACK TOMORROW SO YEAH. ^.^'

Seems like everything is working!

I did a beta test for Undy and yeah, these are some pretty lovely levels. I can't wait to see this hack finished as the demo makes me crave more! Well done dude! :3

I've been waiting for this, Undy! I can't wait to start playing this. Good to see you actually got it done in time ;).

This definitely looks good. I'll find out if it plays good and come back with my answer.

This is sweet! I'm downloading and what's inside.

I find this hack really appealing, I just hope the level design is good. Below are my edits:

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Edit 1:
Question: Is there any reason I cannot move to the right of the level "The Late Lake"? Am I missing something? I got the secret exit and finished the "The Deep Sea Ruins" first if that matters. Found my own way of fixing by resetting the game .

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Edit 2:
Offering some review, the level design is quite good. They seem like the standard length and seem normal. I still found minor cutoff and a some funkiness when Mario grabs a fire flower in the underwater level but other then that, all is well. One thing about the underwater level: I find a lot of the graphics coupled with the HDMA extremely distracting. It may be just me but yeah, that is what I saw.

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Edit 3:
Now that I have finished the hack, I can say that the level design is much better then I expected because most of these nice-looking hacks contain subpar in level design. I found a lot of decorations distracting, please tone the down. Other then that, I had no problem and I enjoyed the hack. I will wait to see more.

Ok, I've finished the demo, and I have some thoughts.

First off, it's possible to get permanently stuck in the first level if you're trying to get the P-Switch. Bad. Another glitch happened when I beat the swimming level. I was unable to move to the right, so I had to reset the game. I'm assuming this is an exit error, so it should be easily fixable.

Second, while the palettes are very nice, they're a bit too relaxing. No joke, I was feeling a bit drowsy while playing. You need to brighten the mood. Speaking of palettes, the colors you chose for some of the enemies blend in too well with the scenery. If I can't tell I'm about to get hit, it's not fair if I do.

The level design is excellent, but it seems like you're decorating far too much. I'd tone it down a bit, especially because sometimes I couldn't tell what was ground and what wasn't. Otherwise, I enjoyed this hack, and I'd love to see more.

This looks amazing! The decorations look fantastic, and the level design looks just as good.

However, the HDMA in the water level sees a bit too distracting, but I'll have to wait to play it to find out for sure though.

Unfortunately, I can't play the demo until tomorrow, as I'm currently using my Ipod to post this, and I don't have access to a good computer to play it.

This is one of the first times I've seen these sorts of graphics done really well (or at least my idea of really well). I like that you're using bright colors as opposed to 50 shades of gray. It's also amazing when I look closer and just see how much of these graphics are recycled SMW graphics. It takes a creative person to put them together in new ways, and they ways you have done are even more creative than ways I've seen it done before. The level with the waterfalls and the floating water are the most appealing to me.

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[?] Miscellaneous Helpful Hints
If I moderated your hack, there was apparently a 90 percent chance it was rejected.

I think the strong point of his hack, he is not in itself, but the colors chosen. All are very good and match well with each level.

10/10 for his work. "Keep up the good work!"

The hack is very pretty and the level design is very fun. That said, this demo still had some flaws. For world 1, there was just too much going on. The last level (that lava cave castle thing) of this demo was far too difficult for world 1. Not to mention it's atmosphere. I would honestly see myself playing that in at least world 5. There was also a strange lack of powerups. There was a lot of places were you should've placed them instead of just coin blocks. That would also fix some of the strange difficulty that plagues this hack. Other than that this hack was fantastic.

Seing the screenshots and trailer, I can recognize this very particular style of yours. Personally, I'm not really a fan of hacks focused in visuals, since I'm more focused over level design myself, but as long as you don't leave level design aside I'm fine.

Good luck with your hack.

I told you I would be here, didn't I?

I played through all its levels and what I have to say is: it is fun. Each level has its own theme and almost everytime, its own level design gimmick too. I must say though, I didn't like the floating water gimmick. It looks rather ugly, and the animation is so much out of sync. Also yeah, the fifth level is rather too difficult for a first world, not to mention it has sprite memory issues (those fire floating creatures keep following me and make some essential falling platforms disappear). Otherwise, the difficulty curve was pretty balanced.


And then again, I am sorry for what I posted that other day. Those were rather unfair comments, as I barely used to check your stuff out. Now I am officially (trying to be) in track of this hack, and I am looking forward for what you yet have to show!

Your graphical style is amazing, with all those decorations and unique palettes. I really enjoyed this demo - even if the secret level was a bit slow (I don't really like waiting for Urchins to move away). Great job nonetheless, I was absolutely impressed!

I'm currently uploading a Let's Play of this demo. Overall, it was pretty fun. I do agree with the person who said that the Lava Chamber was a bit too hard for World 1. Also, the secret exit in The Late Lake seems a bit too hard for something in World 1. I can't muster the speed to get the Springboard down, move it, and get the coin below the keyhole before the P-Switch wears off.

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Quintesson Judge: Silence, or you will be held in contempt of this court!
Hot Rod: I have nothing but contempt for this court!
- Transformers the Movie (1986)

Weeeell, guess who's back

Thanks for all the comments guys, as I promised I'll be responding to them now.

Harvey:

Thanks for the help, dude! Didn't think it would work out as nicely as it did (I was sure I would have forgotten to put something in the post xD)

Graphfv:

Thanks ;) I actually finished in the last minute I had (literally, I only had one minute of my day left when I uploaded the demo)

MolSno:

Thanks for the feedback. I'm wondering if you could elaborate further on the P-Switch problem, because I'm not exactly sure what you mean. There's a reset door and if you got stuck when you went through the turn blocks you'd still be able to kick out with the P-Switch.

I'm sorry about the problem with the exit, I'll fix that and update the link right away! Also may I ask which level(s) you are talking about when it comes to the problem with the sprites blending in too much? (my first idea would be the water level)

Pork:

Thanks!

Everest:

Firstly, I'm thinking about removing that gradient in the water level, because it might really be a bit too much. I just thought I'd look good, but if that destroys the playability for that level, I guess it's too much.

Thanks! I hoped I'd be able to show that focusing on visuals doesn't necessarily mean that the level design is garbage. Also regarding deko, I can't tone it down. I just don't want to and if I did I'd most likely not want to make this hack anymore, but I can see where you're coming from.

GvS:

Thanks ;) Nice to see you around once again!

Blue Raven:

Thanks and have fun playing ;)

Andy (lol just change A to U and it's Undy roflkkk):

Thanks! The creativity is the thing I love most about choconilla hacking. It's kinda like vanilla, only that you can use the original resources in a more creative and interesting way.

Ninja X:

Thanks!

Xinn:

Thanks and yeah, the difficulty in the last level might be a bit too high. I'll either tone it down a little or move it to world 2 or 3 (as the hack will only have 3 or 4 worlds).

aj6666:

Thanks, I try sticking with one style if I can.

PowerStrike:

Thanks!

Scorpion:

Thanks and have fun playing the demo ;)

Koopster:

Thanks for giving it a chance ;)
Also about the floating water animation, I've heard a lot of complaint about this, but the problem is that I'm not setting them up the wrong way or anything, they are just that out of sync. However, I'm gonna do my best and try fixing that if it's possible!
I've already covered the difficulty problem, but yeah, the sprite memory issues are terrible. Sad fact is that I tried for two hours straight to fix them (removed cluster sprite, switched through all the sprite headers, removed other sprites, changed the level to make up for the lack of sprites,...), but I still couldn't get them out of the way entirely (although I noticed them more during the first part of that level and didn't see anything in the second part, but I'll look into it!)

RednGreen:

Thanks! As I said before I hope this showed that good visuals don't equal bad gameplay (don't kill me for saying that, I can only rely on other people's opinions here)

Gamma V:

Thanks for LPing this! It always gives me a feel of accomplishment when I see someone playing my hacks.
The secret exit was made to be hard, as I'm going to implement a feature that allows you to only enter the level after you got all the yoshi coins in one world and as those are hard to get, I thought it would be okay to make it a bit more challenging.
Also the timing on the keyhole is a bit hard to get right. The most important part is the setup. Everything (aka shell and P-Switch) has to be in the perfect spot and you need to be pretty fast (there's always the reset door if you can't get it done the first time).


Well, I hope I got everything covered so far.

For a version of the demo with fixes that I could get done now (mostly small stuff) just re-download the file from the download link in the first post!

Well I just played through the Demo and I must say: Every Level looks extremely well designed and I really hope you will be able to finish up this one!

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C3 stuff: http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=67626 HDMA-Codes and Custom Music included!

1 Island Of Vanilla Feeling: http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=5988

MaSeHiHa World 1: http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=6055

DINGS Demo: https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=12147