Episode 1 Discussion Thread

[DinnerSonic]

Hope this is the right place to ask, I'm all but finished making a level, it's got

two exits, a normal one and what is currently a leak obtained after a sort of miniboss. I know bosses are for end of world things or secret paths, but this sort-of-boss is mostly a joke, as it's three Big Boos at the end of a mini puzzle that requires you to find and keep a Hammer Suit powerup. There's of course a few regenerating buried shells for Sheath or if you manage to lose the suit, but the fight seems really easy (for anyone but Sheath, who has to take an extra step)

Is it alright to have basically a joke mini-boss at the end of a secret exit if it's otherwise an average level?

... also, if there's enough time for me to make another level or two(this is addictive! It's been a while since I dealt with a solid engine rather than trying to do something in MMF2 from scratch!) what are the unwritten rules on referencing Cat Planet? I wasn't even going to go there, but I was thinking of an idea, needed something small, round, cute and in large numbers and realized the Cat Planet cats would work perfectly. Still, while I might be exaggerating the popularity of the whole Cat Planet thing, I fear that's probably been overdone or would be left to a single level by someone bigger.

[darkychao]

Hope this is the right place to ask, I'm all but finished making a level, it's got

two exits, a normal one and what is currently a leak obtained after a sort of miniboss. I know bosses are for end of world things or secret paths, but this sort-of-boss is mostly a joke, as it's three Big Boos at the end of a mini puzzle that requires you to find and keep a Hammer Suit powerup. There's of course a few regenerating buried shells for Sheath or if you manage to lose the suit, but the fight seems really easy (for anyone but Sheath, who has to take an extra step)

Is it alright to have basically a joke mini-boss at the end of a secret exit if it's otherwise an average level?

... also, if there's enough time for me to make another level or two(this is addictive! It's been a while since I dealt with a solid engine rather than trying to do something in MMF2 from scratch!) what are the unwritten rules on referencing Cat Planet? I wasn't even going to go there, but I was thinking of an idea, needed something small, round, cute and in large numbers and realized the Cat Planet cats would work perfectly. Still, while I might be exaggerating the popularity of the whole Cat Planet thing, I fear that's probably been overdone or would be left to a single level by someone bigger.

why don't you just upload the level and well give you an opinion.
Don't worry about not having time to contribute, the project has only been going for about a month and there's plenty of time.

[jayScribble]

You know what's really difficult and time consuming for me?

Making 15 short-to-medium levels within one level and having the theme in all of them consistent, not to mention testing all of them as well...

[StraightFlame]

On the subject of plot twists, i found an interesting fan theory on TVTropes:

Once upon a time there was a man from French Canada known as Rao. Far off on the other side of reality was an anthropomorphic fire flower, the true villain of Mario, that was so powerful it escaped its reality and entered ours, rewriting the Mario story to obscure itself as a minor element of gameplay. It then infested Rao, mutating him into raocow, and began a single-minded vendetta against every Mario game ever, playing as Mario in an effort to destroy him from the outside. The gradual evolution of his talkative non-sequitur speech is a major characteristic of how the fire flower continuously erodes his mentality. In addition, every time raocow plays a game that isn't Mario, it is the true Rao fighting back against his mental enslavement. And that, my friends, is how the chipmunk saved Christmas.

[Mata Hari]

You wrote that didn't you

[docopoper]

Ok, sorry for not being in the project so far.

I assume that nobody has any problems with me starting making a level that uses the LunaDLL thing. Right?

[Sturg]

Just so some peeps know, I've inserted Retarded Volcano by StraightFlame in World 3 in order to make things work out with paths and such. It's a short level and is great for what I need to fix in World 3. This'll probably be the only level that will get into Episode 1 at this point due to circumstances.

[SAJewers]

Ok then, that's fine.

EDIT: Actually, looking at it, this reshuffling might be better:

Retarded Volcano -> World 6
Oh No a Ghost -> World 4
Pet Rock -> World 5 OR World 2 OR World 1
Just Rusty!/ShoeZone2/Triforce Trials -> World 3

[AUS]

Is / an AND symbol or an OR symbol for this suggestion?

[SAJewers]

Is / an AND symbol or an OR symbol for this suggestion?

Or.

[pholtos]

Due to college being college I've had limited time to record anything besides my LPs. I'll do some video reviews during my thanksgiving break.

[ztarwuff]

You know, I've been looking at it more and more and I can't help but wonder whether it was a good idea to let people decide what type of exit they could use. Shouldn't we have dictated a normal exit type and a secret exit type to at least try and give the game some semblance of being one product?

Just so you know, I don't mind if you alter the exits to my levels.

[raocow]

I always thought the a[x]thing series to embrace the chaotic nature of colaboration, in contrast to, say, smwcentral's 'it must feel like a real game' ethos. As far as I'm concerned, the stranger and uncontinuitious it is, the better.

[pholtos]

In that respect is lava world right next to ice world then?

[raocow]

having a 'ice and also fire' [cave] world is actually kind of a legit cliché at this point, haha

[Frozelar]

Alright, I added myself to the NPC list thing on the wiki

Or, here's my preferred text and download:

Help

I was in the ocean but then I lost it

Have a good day

Download

Thanks!

[Septentrion Pleiades]

I can never really tell where we are at for the final level. Last thing I did with it was make come minor changes to the very last part. Can't we just use the wiki page for it whenever we make changes?

asmbxt.wikia.com/wiki/Science_Final_Battle_(Name_pending)

[SAJewers]

I can never really tell where we are at for the final level. Last thing I did with it was make come minor changes to the very last part. Can't we just use the wiki page for it whenever we make changes?

asmbxt.wikia.com/wiki/Science_Final_Battle_(Name_pending)

Read the Update thread.

[Sturg]

Retarded Volcano -> World 6
Oh No a Ghost -> World 4
Pet Rock -> World 1
ShoeZone2 -> World 3

Btw, these changes have been made.

[ztarwuff]

I always thought the a[x]thing series to embrace the chaotic nature of colaboration, in contrast to, say, smwcentral's 'it must feel like a real game' ethos. As far as I'm concerned, the stranger and uncontinuitious it is, the better.

Probably best not to change things, anyway. I'm really looking forward to this game being released and the guy whose music I used in my level is legit interested in the project. (Or at least, he's polite enough to ask about how it's going).

[SAJewers]

Were custom per-level sounds ever implemented in LunaDLL?

[docopoper]

I don't think so. I'm pretty sure only the ability to change to any section's custom music at any time was added, no sfx.

[ztarwuff]

Do you guys think the game will be ready for raocow to play after he finishes Variety of Chance?

I only ask because...

I think it would be funny if in the first level he played, a block gave him a green apple and it was a poison mushroom.

[jayScribble]

I don't think so. At best one more LP before we finish, if we get all the music, cutscenes, world intros, OW, towns (including mine), and graphic swaps done before then.

[SAJewers]

How much left is there in VoC anyway?

I know Sturgyman is on world 6 in regards to the OW. Depending on how fast people work, I could see a beta or Release Candidate of Episode 1 being put out by early December. As for the DevKit/BaseGame, I'm really only waiting of Kashkabald on the sound stuff, and 2 people who offered their services for OW music. I guess as well, we'll need someone to hack in the new graphics that are hardcoded, but as the level graphics that are left, we already have a Larry Koopa (we just have make it into the right format), and it shouldn't be that hard to find replacements for the other NPCs.