K-16 - Story of Steel (a hack that has nothing to do with Mario)

Guess who's back! I'm working on the hack again, I have some stuff to show off, and some new information for you all! Let's get to it!"

First off, I've greatly improved the moon level. It looks much better now, but I'd like your opinions too.




Alright, there's that level. I've also went back and made some improvements to the first, mainly adding layer 1 background tiles to make it look a bit more detailed. You'll also see I've redrawn the Bombibombs.



So onto the info.
First off, I don't know how much time I'm going to have to spend on this hack, but I'm going to do my best to work on it consistently. Please bear with me, it's a busy time in my life.

Secondly, regarding levels. The hack will have less levels than its predecessor, mainly because I don't want to repeat planet themes; having three identical ice planets would be stupid and make no sense, but in return, I aim for it to be a difficult hack, which Sicari failed on some parts.

I'm also going to try and fix everything my previous hack did wrong.
-1ups now serve more of a purpose, as I'm using midpoints in this hack, something that Sicari didn't have, thus making 1ups redundant, as every level saved the game.
-Ground pounding has been removed! I mean - come on, nobody liked it!
-More unique/varied levels.

Anyway, that's all for today, as usual, comment and give feedback! ^.^

Thanks everyone, it's good to know you still support the hack. New updates on the weekend; I'm working on the first space station level.

I said I'd update, so here I am! :3

Next up is the Gemini Space Station. Space stations are the castle replacement and in this hack there are three or four, each named after a constellation.

Here is what I have so far. Please excuse the background - it is more of a placeholder right now, unless for whatever reason, you guys like it. I'm also thinking of making the blocks and gems green for this level...




That's all, I'll try and update again today, if I get a better background, but until then, please comment and give feedback! :3

I have some updates today, all with a new background! YAY! Also, you'll notice that I moved the satellite dishes into the background, as it makes more sense.



Well, that's all for today, I hope you all -

A CHALLENGER APPROACHES!

Oh yeah... almost forgot... BOSSES AND CUTSCENES!


Meet Titan, the first boss. Despite sporting large mechanical armour himself, this goofy alien hates robots, and loves to destroy them. K-16 is no exception.

Truth is, Titan and his two comrades are secretly serving a mysterious foe, who is harvesting power from the stars in the form of space stations.

Anyway, that's it for today, hope you enjoyed! Please comment and give feedback! :3

Today, I just want to talk about difficulty, and I'll need some input on this, as I'm being more careful on how I handle this.

As I said before, I want to make this hack fairly difficult. It will only have three or four worlds, but it will be a challenge. As previously mentioned, I disabled ground pound - mainly because nobody liked it, and I'm not good with custom blocks, so I can't improve upon it. However, since then, I've also disabled the spin jump, as I think that a lack of it ups the challenge. In SMW, if you see a spiny, your first instinct is to spin jump on it, so they aren't really that threatening. I don't want to make it unfair, or abuse enemies like this, but I really do think it's much better for a platform game if you have to carefully plan when you will run/jump etcetera. Here are some examples.

It's all about jumping at the right time.

You can go over or under, both work, you just need to take more care.

Again, time it right and you're fine.

All three of those jumps would be quick and easy with the spin, but at the same time, I don't want to make it unfair, and I'm not sure if people would like me disabling the spin jump for this reason.

What I want is your opinions - are you OK with this, or not? What do you think?