SMBX: Super Talking Time Bros 2; Let's talk about it

[CM30]

Yeah, the boss shown in today's video was a bit of a disappointment, it's pretty much like the basic 'bosses' included with various game making tools that just randomly move around and don't do anything to attack. Still, the other bosses will probably be better (from what I remember from checking on Youtube a while back, there are some much better ones later in this game) and from what I can tell via watching Super Mario Bros X custom boss showcases, it seems to be much harder to make interesting ones for this game than for Super Mario World hacks.

Hey, at least it's not a reskinned SMB 3 Bowser!

[GlitchedGhost]

I was expecting that the Koopharaoh boss guy would try to smash you or hurt you in some way rather than just float back and forth in a totally unmenacing manner.

At least it wasn't the Thwomp boss from SMW?

[raocow]

The biggest difference between smw hacking and smbx, from what I understand, is that although it's way easier to modify variables in smbx, it's nearly impossible to create entirely new behaviour and whatnot.

[Goomba98]

I'm sorta working on an SMBX thing, but I want you to do it in the original engine, otherwise the overworld music will confuse you.

[Zaidyer]

It really didn't help us that SMBX basically has the most obtuse way imaginable of customizing graphics and setting up "events". It took us a while to figure everything out. Therefore, the early bosses are "easy", but things start to get challenging later on.

The good news is that the final showdown will not disappoint!

[Septentrion Pleiades]

It really didn't help us that SMBX basically has the most obtuse way imaginable of customizing graphics and setting up "events". It took us a while to figure everything out. Therefore, the early bosses are "easy", but things start to get challenging later on.

The good news is that the final showdown will not disappoint!

You don't have to build a game in strict chronological order. Would it have been too hard to go back and make the first bosses better?

[roundthewheel]

The biggest difference between smw hacking and smbx, from what I understand, is that although it's way easier to modify variables in smbx, it's nearly impossible to create entirely new behaviour and whatnot.

In my limited experience creating SMBX levels, I have found that I have the most fun when I alter so many variables on a sprite and alter its appearance and dimensions so drastically that the original form and function of the sprite are no longer recognizable. You can't technically create all-new behaviors, but if you're patient and don't mind creating some fairly arcane event strings, you can blur the line between altered variables and new behavior, which is in its own way very fascinating.

[ano0maly]

By the time Luigi has entered the Cetacean Kingdom, it was already too late. His purple-dressed rival has already overthrown its king, but was nowhere to be found in the kingdom, for he has already moved on to the next world.

[went]

This map music seems very out of place but in a good way. Not that we have had that good of a chance to listen to it but I wonder where is it from.

Also did the game really take 40 minutes to download? How large is that thing/slow is your connection?

[kilon]

This map music seems very out of place but in a good way. Not that we have had that good of a chance to listen to it but I wonder where is it from.

Also did the game really take 40 minutes to download? How large is that thing/slow is your connection?

All that information can be found in the video.

[Sebby19]

It's too bad you got rid if Ice Yoshi. All non-shelled enemies are converted into ice blocks. Very handy in my opinion, since there is no crazy rebound that shells have.

[Zaidyer]

Wow raocow, judging by the layout of your folders it looks like you made the mistake of creating a copy of SMBX to be overwritten by STTB 2 before you started playing. And then somehow you put STTB 2 in a subfolder inside that copy of SMBX. This isn't necessary at all and only serves to make things more confusing!

I'm guessing that you patched the vanilla SMBX you made, which would explain why nothing worked and it didn't have the STTB 2 graphics, music, or intro level.
It's possible that your original save file is languishing in the maze of copies you've created!

When we said to install the game in a separate folder, we meant something like
"C:\videogames\STTB2", where it will not interact with vanilla SMBX in any way.

[Kles]

Hey, where did the trumpet go?

[Zaidyer]

Fun fact:
Trumpet is a special guest star hailing from New Super Mario Bros Wii, where it could be summoned on command during multiplayer mode by any player who had lost all their lives and couldn't respawn until reaching the overworld. In this way, you could hold an ongoing conversation or use careful timing to enhance the hilarity of any given moment.

Because the original Stage Clear fanfare from Super Mario Bros doesn't last as long as the SMW fanfare, we needed to pad it out a little bit. Thinking back to the Freelance Astronauts LP of NSMB Wii, I brought Trumpet into the fold and put it to work at the Giant Gate, where its silliness would be sure to lift a player's mood no matter what they had to go through to get there.

I'm not sure exactly how Trumpet and raocow get along behind the scenes, but I guess we'll find out as the video series continues.

[GauRocks]

I don't want to alarm anyone, but that strange pink guy who serves as a message box appears to be some kind of sexual deviant. At the start of the level in today's video (7m45s or so in), he delivers this line:

"Welcome to the parade! This level features your trusty steed, Yoshi! I love him wild ways."

It is my sincere hope that we never find out about these wild ways.

[Bean]

That Kirby dude looks less like Kirby and more like that impostor enemy (?) dude in Dream Land 3 to me.

[Zaidyer]

I don't want to alarm anyone, but that strange pink guy who serves as a message box appears to be some kind of sexual deviant. At the start of the level in today's video (7m45s or so in), he delivers this line:

"Welcome to the parade! This level features your trusty steed, Yoshi! I love him wild ways."

It is my sincere hope that we never find out about these wild ways.

That's an inside joke from Super Squad, a parody of bad Nintendo fan comics drawn by Talking Time forum member Loki. It served as the inspiration for many aspects of the game, including a few entire levels, Kirby's face and personality, and the custom Mario graphics we wanted to use but didn't finish.
The official archives still haven't been populated yet but you can read all 109 pages from its former home at Drunk Duck.

[Eathanu]

Don't know if you did find the comment on it elsewhere, raocow, but the overworld music in party land is the opening song from Lost Vikings.

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqHo4aZv ... ults_video Here it is in Youtube soundtrack form.

[Mineyl]

Beat Blocks? Oh man, here comes a Super Mario Galaxy 2 thing tomorrow. Probably won't be nearly as crazy since this game is 2D, though.

Anyway, I have to wonder if the creator of SMBX deliberately made the mushrooms come out of question blocks erratically or if he didn't play SMB3 enough to realize the reason for their deceptively random behavior (for those who don't know, in SMB3, hitting a mushroom block from the right causes the contents to go left and vice versa. Just stand a little off center when hitting from underneath to get it to go where you want it to go). I've played a couple of SMBX games and I have to say that it is quite jarring when the mushrooms go the unexpected direction since the system implemented here so obviously draws from SMB3.

[Sebby19]

Mushrooms in this game move in the direction opposite that you are facing when you hit the block. Always.

[MrDeePay]

Related even though you know the answer already.

Beat Blocks? Oh man, here comes a Super Mario Galaxy 2 thing tomorrow. Probably won't be nearly as crazy since this game is 2D, though.

Someone did make something akin to Beat Blocks in SMW hacking a couple years back. I lost the link to it, though.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

Is it me or is the level design kind of dull. It's hasn't really made any attempts at challenging the player. Also the music has been extremely conservative despite having full access to mp3s.

Where there really strict guidelines when making this game?

[roundthewheel]

Blocks on the beat, blocks on the beat, beat blocks!

[Zaidyer]

Today's fun fact:
Every entrance to the Star Road was personally hidden by SpoonyBard, and they are some of the hardest secrets to find in the entire game. In retrospect, I would have liked to do this "one guy hides them all" trick with Red Stars as well. In a game like Donkey Kong Country 2, for example, you get a sense that this was going on with the DK Coins, and eventually you can learn to think like the designer does and anticipate where he might put one next.

Also, all this talk I've made of time constraints is because I set deadlines for every milestone of the project. We went over nearly every single one of them, but the idea of time constraints was still there, and it put pressure on everyone to get over themselves and do their best with the time they had.
The whole game took six months to develop from start to finish.

[sadron]

Wow I haven't been on this forum in a while.

You know this is a really awesome engine, we really should look more into it and get more games made for it.