A2XT: It's Over

[docopoper]

Is that homing missile from Worms?

Calleoca should've used Patsy's magic bullet instead

And then the paragoopa AI could be analogous to the homing pigeon.

[Ditocoaf]

I'm actually kind of disappointed with Custom C++ Code's placement in the game.

You start out the world with the cutscene hyping up the fight against Calleoca, a character you've seen throughout the entire game but barely have an idea of what they're truly capable of (seeing how broad the power of shapeshifting is), but instead of leaving that hype to boil around in the mind of the player for a while it's just "BAM here's the fight" literally immediately after the hyping happened.

It's so much lost atmosphere and flavour having the fight immediately after the concept gets introduced. The player could've been given the time to anticipate what the fight was going to be about over the course of World 8 and perhaps encounter it somewhere in the middle, but none of the build up really gets to blossom the way the level placed right now, and is instead killed as it was just born.

The stage itself however is really cool, that's something I won't ever deny.

Yeah, I totally agree. This has happened a few times in A2MBXT:E1 -- super neat content, but with weird pacing that leaves some parts of the game feeling overcrowded and some parts feeling sparse.

[Willhart]

I just thought Calleoca was super eager to fight Demo or just well prepared.

It would have been really interesting to see her different phases later in the world, inside a small room and having the player to try dealing damage to her with something.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

Science's cutscene music(located in the SoW6) sounds horrible after a while. It should have been cut off, or

based on another remix of the same song.

[Alice]

At the end of the path is

an item that gives you 99 lives, made a bit useless being the first full level after the life farmer containing hub.

Would have been useful for raocow seeing as he forgot to do that before entering world 8 anyways.

[SAJewers]

I didn't have access to any of the luna code at the time of testing so I never got to experience any of docopopper's stuff. I'll have to take a look at the actual code he/she used when I have some free time.

So that was pretty neat. The level makes a lot more sense when there's a boss chasing you.

I really love the intro to this world. But the intro to world 9 might be my favorite. Maybe.

It's all custom C++ code built into LunaDLL, not any LunaDLL code. Hopefully he throws out the sourcecode to it.

At the end of the path is

an item that gives you 99 lives, made a bit useless being the first full level after the life farmer containing hub.

Would have been useful for raocow seeing as he forgot to do that before entering world 8 anyways.

If he needs lives, there's a lifefarm in Mistrial/Content Nowhere.

[Kil]

Qraestolia Caverns and Calleoca are actually some of the oldest stuff in LunaDLL so they're both hardcoded. There wasn't Lua or even (much) Autocode available back then.

[docopoper]

It's all custom C++ code built into LunaDLL, not any LunaDLL code. Hopefully he throws out the sourcecode to it.

http://pastebin.com/JQc6iy80

Though I'm not sure how useful it'll be since there is a way to program for LunaDLL using LUA now that doesn't involve hardcoding the DLL (which feels really hacky).

EDIT: Also you can see from that code that I am not that versed in C++ and that I basically treated it as a fancy version of C (not to say I don't know how to use object orientation in general since I most certainly do). Having to write C++ code may have been part of what convinced me to start making my engine in Python.

Also I think my first postgame level might be the oldest publicly available level to use LunaDLL (unless Kil made one I don't know of).

[sedron]

Really strong start to World 8! Seriously, one probably the best start to a world yet!

Custom C++ Code, Example #3- First off, Bad Guy Brigade is an awesome song and Wyatt should feel awesome for making it. It really helps make this fight feel great. It's energetic and sets up for a confrontation nicely. The level itself looks really cool, too. I love the use of bright greens on a black background, and the moving ground is visually interesting. Calleoca herself isn't really a fight, but she doesn't need to be. The stage layout is designed to make running from her interesting and fun, and I think it does just that (much better than the old layout, too.) The fact that she doesn't actually hit the ground as a thwomp is a little weird, but other than that I don't really have anything bad to say about this one.

As for the Bridge, I don't think there's anything hidden there. The block can be used to force NPC's to move, for what that's worth. I've forced my own NPC off-screen with it. =P

[docopoper]

The reason the thwomp doesn't hit the ground is because I didn't have access to collision testing functions so I would have had to make them all myself and deal with things like the sloped terrain. I also would have had to check against every block every frame since there wasn't some kind of nice grid of close blocks I could just look at.

I think kil ended up developing one but by that point the stage design already relied on the fact that she didn't hit the ground and it had been done for a while.

[Sturg]

Always thought the placement of Calleoca was a bit sudden, but that's okay.

Also raocow, you should probably announce that this game is out for the public now in case there are still people who think it isn't based on some YT comments.

[docopoper]

Always thought the placement of Calleoca was a bit sudden, but that's okay.

Also raocow, you should probably announce that this game is out for the public now in case there are still people who think it isn't based on some YT comments.

I feel like that guy was trolling since he disabled replies and raocow told people to go and play it specifically in the description. Though maybe not.

[Sturg]

You never know, people can be super dense!

[Joseph Staleknight]

With many of the other siblings defeated and/or befriended, Demo and Company finally begin the journey to Science's lair. But first, they have to deal with one more sibling.

HUB: Bridge: A couple more cameos and a free Catnip. Not bad, though I have to wonder what's up with that block over Aterraformer. Makes me think there's something extra involved, even though it's not really the case.

Also, hi Pily! Glad you could join us!

CoNS: Library, NE Tower/Left Wing: While the books were rather humorous callbacks to raocow's ramblings in his earlier LPs (their references being phrased as Biblical ones, no less!), I honestly thought there would've been some clues for other secret areas and leeks. You know, just in case the player only got 72 leeks without getting every leek before World 8. Ah well, it's not so bad, though there could've been more things in there.

Mistrial/Content Nowhere (SAJewers): Oh, poor SMW Mario. It sucks to have your head caved in by someone else's butt. At least there was a fair warning, unlike in the beta where Demo came out of nowhere and crushed you.

Meanwhile, the level itself is in the same vein as the last two intros--an actual "level" level with enemies and platforming challenges, rather than a simple mood-setting area. Despite the multitude of enemies, it's actually quite simple to get through, so long as you don't waste the stopwatch at the wrong time as Demo. Overall, a neat level showing that this world is the last one in the main game, and thus potentially the hardest yet.

Start of World 8 Cutscene: What Will Science Have/-th Wrought III (Demolition): Uh oh, looks like Calleoca's making her move now that the other siblings (except obviously Science) are out of commission/AWOL. I wonder what tricks she'll have up her sleeves...?

Custom C++ Code, Example #3 (vs Calleoca) (Docopoper): Oh. She'll just confront them directly with her shapeshifting powers. Well then.

Gotta say, that was a hectic boss battle-of-sorts. Since you can't harm Calleoca, you pretty much have to out run her--not an easy task when she becomes a Production-style Boss Thwomp* and then (after the midpoint) a homing missile from Worms Armageddon. The copious amounts of Bullet Bill Cannons and areas of shifting lands are tough to maneuver through as well. Still, I like how the boss actively engages you to keep your wits sharp and your reflexes sharper, and the resolution of the battle was just hilarious for how utterly anticlimactic it was. And of course, Wyatt Croucher gives the level an awesome chiptune song. Overall, it really felt like Calleoca took the heroes' threat seriously and responded in kind.

Also, there's a bonus on the immensely long platform where Calleoca turns into a Fishing Fishcat. Get to the very end of the platform without running into her, and

there'll be something like a 99-up for your efforts

. I should know; I saw Stink Terios's video where he did just that.

*As an aside, I thought Calleoca's frowning Thwomp face didn't really fit her character. As far as I know, her cat smile would've been more appropriate and sadistic.

[pholtos]

Wait... this game is public?

[docopoper]

Fun facts about the way that boss fight was made:

1) For the first two phases of the fight Calleoca is a resprited sign with a really really slow animation speed. I then constantly set the frame of the animation to the one I wanted to display her as. This is because at the time there was no way to display a custom sprite.

2) She doesn't actually hurt you in the normal way. Instead she constantly checks her current hitbox (which is just a variable since it changes depending on which form she's in and SMBX can't do that) against yours and if they overlap then an invisible firebar is teleported into you for a few frames. This is why you can't spin jump on her.

3) The third phase is actually a resprite of a coin. I hadn't intended on the boss ending the way it did and had only resprited the coin so that I could use a different graphic since the fishing fish guy's sprite is much bigger than the other phases'. I forgot to set the coin to friendly though and found it hilarious enough to leave in as the actual ending.

4) The terrain morphing doesn't use any custom code. It's done by having background objects resprited to look exactly the same as normal ground that pieces of normal ground slide over and obscure. There are then also invisible solid blocks over the background tiles to give them collision. Previously I had done this with foreground tiles and normal ground blocks instead but it caused the problem that Calleoca clipped behind them.

[Doctor Shemp]

Isn't aterraformer telling people to jump just a silly joking shout-out to JUMP? I figured as much since JUMP is likely to be the second-to-next talkhaus game to be released. It used to be that old, smaller devs would leave hints in their games as to what the next one would be, like the hidden swastika in Commander Keen hinting towards Wolfenstein 3D.

[Mabel]

I still kinda want Bad Guy Brigade to be a default in the devkit...

well, kinda...probably...still

It was a gud pick for this battle...

speaking of music, looks like the W8 overworld has changed to something not as calming, Fits much better considering its the last main world...

[Kil]

It's all custom C++ code built into LunaDLL, not any LunaDLL code. Hopefully he throws out the sourcecode to it.

http://pastebin.com/JQc6iy80

Though I'm not sure how useful it'll be since there is a way to program for LunaDLL using LUA now that doesn't involve hardcoding the DLL (which feels really hacky).

EDIT: Also you can see from that code that I am not that versed in C++ and that I basically treated it as a fancy version of C (not to say I don't know how to use object orientation in general since I most certainly do). Having to write C++ code may have been part of what convinced me to start making my engine in Python.

Also I think my first postgame level might be the oldest publicly available level to use LunaDLL (unless Kil made one I don't know of).

I don't think there's a good OO way to do weird memory manipulation stuff we're not supposed to be doing in the first place

[Gaming Spirit]

I like the fact that in the intro cutscene to world 8, they reference how Mishi erased herself from existence, I thought that was clever.

[YelseyKing]

I like the fact that in the intro cutscene to world 8, they reference how Mishi erased herself from existence, I thought that was clever.

Who's Mishi? I don't remember anyone by that name... I could've sworn I did, but I just can't remember now.

[Doctor Shemp]

I still kinda want Bad Guy Brigade to be a default in the devkit...

I don't. If everyone uses it it will lose its importance. Like how every second A2MT level had that super-epic boss music in it and it cheapened the whole track.

[sedron]

I don't. If everyone uses it it will lose its importance. Like how every second A2MT level had that super-epic boss music in it and it cheapened the whole track.

I have to agree on this one. The theme is tied to Calleoca now, so let it stay that way, you know?

[Willhart]

Video games? Wonderful. Just wonderful.
Night world is kind of the opposite from the sky world, where it was always day.

Ninjis are one of my favorite enemies in this engine since they never wander off.

[jayScribble]

Mario's back and he's still got the moves.

"Alternative Invasion" is a level of moving platforms, "veggi" Luigis, and Mario cosplayers. Overall it seems to be a good difficulty in it's world. Is this the second time that Mario has become SMB3 Bowser?

"Navel of the Universe" offers plenty of alternative paths to get to the end, and the exploring doesn't really overstay it's welcome in this level, although there are some consequences if you missed a jump. Other than that, a level that is mediocre in terms of it's difficulty.

"Party, Platform, and DODGE!!" is a platforming level that is difficult if you're timing with the level is off, but the overall difficulty of the level seems to be on the hard side, but nothing too outrageous.