In January of 2011, a successor to the then-recently released An SMW Central Production began development. Looking to go above and beyond its' predecessor, Super Mario World Central Productions 2 (of which I'll refer to as SMWCP2 from here onward) sought to completely revamp the original Super Mario World. An all-new soundtrack, completely redone graphics from foregrounds and backgrounds, to sprites to even Mario himself. Unfortunately, the project has been on over a decade of stagnation - most of the hack was finished within the first year or two, and then management slowed down as people jumped in and out. As more time passes as well, the projects age began to show - iffy level design, subpar music, and so on.
Beyond these issues lays potential for a really nice hack. Blind Devil, Falconpunch and I would like to invite you guys to help with the SMWCP2 Completion Project.
We are looking for interested individuals to help out with playtesting, level revisions, graphical revisions, music revisions, and ASM help. You can join us over at discord.gg/YP8qaa8, or give feedback in the various threads we have here in this forum. It's worth noting we are only looking for people interested in helping this hack - so for the sake of making things easier please don't join if it's just to off-topic chat. We also have a verification channel set up, so please let a Project Manager know what you're interested in helping with.
So what can you do? We are looking for individuals to help polish up some of the following:
- Playtesting the levels of SMWCP2 and noting instances of poor level design, including overly long level design (levels with too many midpoints or sections), spammy or barren sprite setups, and so on. Please keep in mind this doesn't mean we are looking for SMWCP2 to have modern level design - it's important for us to respect the original authors intents with their entries. However, we also want to ensure the best playable experience, so cutting down long levels or changing certain setups that are complained about are helpful.
- Revising old songs that do not meet the standards of SMWCentral today. If you're a musician, you can help give feedback on the OST and even claim an old song to help address concerns with them. We aren't looking to replace any song - some songs just need some mixing adjustments, or different instrument use, or perhaps to be reorganized in a different fashion.
- Updating graphics on a global basis to be detailed and pretty. For the most part SMWCP2 has some great graphics - esp now with the help of Falconpunch, Dr Tapeworm, et co. Some tilesets just haven't stood the test of time, and some levels could have a bit more added to be prettier. If you're interested in helping with graphics, come join us!
With the project being over a decade old, we are allowing anyone to help update this project. That being said, original authors of any resource will get priority over what happens to their content - including if someone else revises a resource or level and the original author jumps in and wants to make different changes. We want to ensure that the original authors will have their resources respected - even if they need to be updated to match current hack standards. Together, we can help complete SMWCP2.
Currently, Blind Devil is reassembling the original SMWCP2 rom into a new base, fixing a bunch of issues as he goes along. He's up to Stone Sea Sanctuary of World 4, although there are a few random levels like Crumbling Catacombs inserted as well. If you're looking to revise a level not yet inserted into the new baserom, you can download the older baserom with all levels here.
For any further questions, feel free to ask here!