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Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Heraga
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by Heraga »

Oh, this is now a thing again? Anyways, yeah. I would be interested in designing some extra content
Zygl
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by Zygl »

WestonSmith wrote:I'm currently doing some work on SDS, despite being long dead. So two things:

(1) Any changes or fixes people would like seen made to the current game?
Putting in an SMB1-style timer would be pretty neat, I think. Also in the realm of the much less reasonable a proper rebalancing of the 'postgame' content would be much deserved.
(2) Anybody interested in extra content? I've got some ideas, but not too interested in wasting time on them if everyone's interest level is near zero.
I am intrigued.
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WestonSmith
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by WestonSmith »

SPOILER: SMB1 Timer has already been added in thanks to the fine help of people at the talkhaus. The big question is how long the timer should be set for. It totally works though.

Not sure how in which direction you'd like to rebalance the post-game stuff, but I'm open to the idea.
Zygl
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by Zygl »

WestonSmith wrote:SPOILER: SMB1 Timer has already been added in thanks to the fine help of people at the talkhaus. The big question is how long the timer should be set for. It totally works though.
It was always 400 "seconds" in the original if I'm not mistaken, though I don't know offhand how long an SMB1 second is.
Not sure how in which direction you'd like to rebalance the post-game stuff, but I'm open to the idea.
Well as I recall hard mode isn't so much hard in its level design as it is hard in its being 32 levels long with quite a few fewer lives than the maingame - in fact at least one level is conspicuously easier in hard mode - and that just doesn't feel right to me personally I guess idk. I'm not advocating making all the levels super hard or anything, mind you, just... not deriving like all the difficulty from life scarcity.
As for Challenge World, it's just far too easy all-around from what I remember, I know we made it quite a bit easier because 8 hard levels in a row is rather a lot but given that it's ostensibly meant to be the hardest thing in the game I feel we swung a bit too far in the other direction.
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Alice
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by Alice »

Zyglrox Odyssey wrote:
WestonSmith wrote:SPOILER: SMB1 Timer has already been added in thanks to the fine help of people at the talkhaus. The big question is how long the timer should be set for. It totally works though.
It was always 400 "seconds" in the original if I'm not mistaken, though I don't know offhand how long an SMB1 second is.
According to this page it was 0.4 seconds per game second in SMB1.
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Mabel
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by Mabel »

well SDS 2 has some possible progress in terms of mechanics we need working since the relay gave us an ability to make multiple checkpoints so theres that...

as fars as NPCs and the bonus games, idk... as far as the bosses go, we can do all of them...idr what else we needed tho
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WestonSmith
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by WestonSmith »

Response is pretty soft, which is to be expected. Not sure how far I'd like to carry this, but here are some thoughts that I had for extra content:
(1) Rushcow Mode: A raocow only selection of eight existing levels, played as a guantlet. The timer for each is "impossibly" short, AKA the room for error is somewhere around 3 to 5 seconds. This mode takes advantage of raocow's speed. Super easy to implement now that the Timer is already added to the game.

(2) The Snake Pit: A Sheath only mode. It would only be four levels long, and would take place entirely underground. Each level would get progressively darker as you move further down the pit (levels end with pipes, not flagpoles). The levels would be built around Sheath's abilities to some extent (breaking bricks, ability to block fireballs, downward thrust). As the name suggests, the focus would be on Banana Snakes, but other enemies would be present. To take things to the next level, the game could actually pack four different levels per section, randomly selected via a roullette warp exit.

Example: There would be four different "Snake-1" levels. When you enter this mode, one would be picked at random. There would be four different "Snake-2" levels, and one would be randomly selected. Et al until finished level 4.

(3) Some kind of Kood only mode. Not sure what to do within the confines of the SMB1 inspired engine though.

(4) Superb Mode: A "super difficult" version of the main game. BIt of a retread, and possibly overly frustrating given the game's level structure. Might introduce some slightly more original enemies (for instance, I've tried adding a super speed Furba, which adds some new potential challenges). The timer would be turned down to 60 seconds.

As it currently stands, I've currently changed the following:

(1) Added timers to the existing levels. Each level is 150 seconds long, or 100 seconds in Hard Mode. AKA: TONS of time.

(2) The flagpole pallette updated to red to match the block base.

(3) Minor layout changes. Probably unnoticeable for the most part.
Again, response has been soft and I'm not overly invested in adding content no one will play, especially since I'm working on other SMBX stuff. But if interest is there, I'm game to add some stuffs.
Heraga
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by Heraga »

I'd like to see 12 new levels (3 world's Basicly) based around Kood, raocow, and Sheath. It would be cool to make a gimmick based world I guess.
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cheez8
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by cheez8 »

WestonSmith wrote:Response is pretty soft, which is to be expected. Not sure how far I'd like to carry this, but here are some thoughts that I had for extra content:
(1) Rushcow Mode: A raocow only selection of eight existing levels, played as a guantlet. The timer for each is "impossibly" short, AKA the room for error is somewhere around 3 to 5 seconds. This mode takes advantage of raocow's speed. Super easy to implement now that the Timer is already added to the game.

(2) The Snake Pit: A Sheath only mode. It would only be four levels long, and would take place entirely underground. Each level would get progressively darker as you move further down the pit (levels end with pipes, not flagpoles). The levels would be built around Sheath's abilities to some extent (breaking bricks, ability to block fireballs, downward thrust). As the name suggests, the focus would be on Banana Snakes, but other enemies would be present. To take things to the next level, the game could actually pack four different levels per section, randomly selected via a roullette warp exit.

Example: There would be four different "Snake-1" levels. When you enter this mode, one would be picked at random. There would be four different "Snake-2" levels, and one would be randomly selected. Et al until finished level 4.

(3) Some kind of Kood only mode. Not sure what to do within the confines of the SMB1 inspired engine though.

(4) Superb Mode: A "super difficult" version of the main game. BIt of a retread, and possibly overly frustrating given the game's level structure. Might introduce some slightly more original enemies (for instance, I've tried adding a super speed Furba, which adds some new potential challenges). The timer would be turned down to 60 seconds.

As it currently stands, I've currently changed the following:

(1) Added timers to the existing levels. Each level is 150 seconds long, or 100 seconds in Hard Mode. AKA: TONS of time.

(2) The flagpole pallette updated to red to match the block base.

(3) Minor layout changes. Probably unnoticeable for the most part.
Again, response has been soft and I'm not overly invested in adding content no one will play, especially since I'm working on other SMBX stuff. But if interest is there, I'm game to add some stuffs.
On the extra content:
Rushcow mode: Are those 3 to 5 seconds of leeway game seconds or real seconds? Either way, I'd be up for attempting speedruns to try to see what the fastest time possible is.

Snake Pit: Interesting, though I might personally get turned away by that. It brings back memories of the part of Zelda 2 that I could never pass... dang cavern bears. ^^; Personal bias aside though, it's an interesting idea and I think it rounds out the others well.

3: I... don't have any particular suggestion for this, sadly. ^^; I'd be up for making a Kood-only SMB1-style level all the same though.
(Alternately, Nin's idea of combining these three into a three-world level pack could work just as well.)

Superb Mode: Also sounds interesting. The 60-second timer for each level would definitely add a lot of challenge, especially to longer levels, so I personally wonder if this one would be best broken up into worlds from the start. It would be incredibly tedious to practice later levels otherwise, and with a low enough time limit, players will outright need the practice.
The changes you've made sound good, by the way.
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WestonSmith
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Re: Superb Demo Sisters Official Release

Post by WestonSmith »

The leeway on Rushcow is roughly 5 seconds of real world time, which is equivalent to the in game clock (or close enough). I've tried turning level 1-1 into a Rushcow level and its quite doable, it just requires some practice. I figure the powerups would be removed (since they'd only slow things down) as would extra pathways. The player would always spawn with two hearts to avoid instant deaths from mistakes. For the sake of anti-frustration, it could be done as individual time trial pipes rather than a guantlet (and in that case, there would be no need for to cap off at an arbitrary number of levels - the whole game could be converted in this manner if we so chose to). Honestly, the biggest challenge with implementing this mode would be: (1) Rearranging the HUB to accommodate the new levels and (2) creating new intro screens for each level (since I switched computers can not remember what font I was using for the life of me).

If peeps want to make Kood specific levels, I'm cool with that. I'm just not sure how to design levels around a character as broken as Kood. I had an idea, but it didn't suit this game (and I'm now using it in a solo project where it will work better).

The Snake Pit is essentially just a Sheath level pack, but with a specific theme / plot in mind. I'm in no way committed to the idea, I just liked the idea of setting an entire level pack in the underground. Little touches like that can help make the content feel fresh without adding any real gimmicks.

Superb Mode would be stupid difficult, but then it's meant to be the ultimate challenge. I'm personally fine with it be too much for the average player, since its post-post-game content. The biggest challenge would be making the game harder without "gotcha" traps, since the enemy pool is fairly small. And I'd hate to make a kaizo or SMW "blue shell outta nowhere" game.
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