Episode 1 Discussion Thread

[SAJewers]

Can I get a Status update on Towns 5 and 7?

[jayScribble]

It's just custom sprites, certain events and timing of events, and building sections for the houses and the large building what I have to do now, though that's certainly no excuse for procrastination.

[raocow]

so, realisticly, with no pressure intented, at this point of the process, when is a good eta for the first 'playable for testing purposes' of the game ?

[SAJewers]

I'm aiming for Christmas, but it wholly depends on how fast Darkychao/Demolition do the cutscenes. I'd like to finalize the Base Game/DevKit before that though is possible, but the music stuff has run slightly dry ATM, I haven't heard anything graphics-wise, and I can't get a figure on The sound stuff from Kashkabald other then "still working on it".

[Doctor Shemp]

I'm aiming for Christmas, but it wholly depends on how fast Darkychao/Demolition do the cutscenes. I'd like to finalize the Base Game/DevKit before that though is possible, but the music stuff has run slightly dry ATM, I haven't heard anything graphics-wise, and I can't get a figure on The sound stuff from Kashkabald other then "still working on it".

Surely we don't need any of that to test how the levels fit in the overworld and if the difficulty curve is coherent.

[raocow]

yeah, that's what I was getting at. Testers just need to have access to the gameplay. It doesn't need to be done-done.

[Isrieri]

I think from the sound of things in the Updates thread we've got all the levels together for testing sans a few that might neat a few tweaks, three intro levels, the towns, and the final boss. That's enough for major testing, right?

It's not like we need a world map to peruse through either. Just all the levels in a nice big, convenient download! Now is the best time for the beta testing phase, we can do it while all the other junk is getting sorted out. The levels should be up to standard - now we can focus on perfecting the difficulty curve.

[SAJewers]

Tried this during ASMBXT. No one (sans 2 people) wanted to test at all because it didn't include the HUB, and we couldn't get anyone to test anything until Shaman sent me the HUB and I included it in.

Also, I need to talk to sturg about the inclusion of Retarded Volcano.

[Mabel]

that seems kinda silly. The quality of the levels should be a main thing this time around apparently, im sure there are people who dont mind testing without an overworld this time around

[SAJewers]

How many people would be?

[Isrieri]

I'll have the whole thing tested in maybe 3 weeks. Exam week for college is next week. And it might take me two weeks after that.

I can't guarantee a very detailed analysis of all the levels. But I can tell you which ones rock and which ones suck and need fixing.

[SAJewers]

Well, I first need to talk to sturgyman about using some other level instead of Retarded Volcano (currently in the Approved with changes bin, but added in as he needs another level).

[Unaniem]

If it's necessary then I'll gladly volunteer for "entire game-/proper difficulty curve w/o overworld" testing.

I don't have anything major planned anytime soon, and I think it'll be fun to just play the game as whole whilst also doing something somebody else might actually benefit from.

[pholtos]

Yeah I thought I'd be testing more than just 2 on that list but I'm a lazy man. Of course these next two weeks are sort of impossible for me to assist in reviewing since I've had something like 5 projects, an assignment, a take home quiz, a presentation and 4 finals to worry about.

[docopoper]

I know I personally wouldn't end up testing it without a hub.

Once the hub is there, and the game 'feels' complete to play - then I won't feel like I'm getting spoilers and will just feel like I'm playing the game. So yeah, if you put the hub out with it - I won't mind playing.

When you think about it though - if people wanted to playtest w/o a hub, the levels are on the wiki and there is a flowchart of level unlocks. So evidently the hub does matter to people.

[cheez8]

Preemptively volunteering to test all the levels as long as there's an "all the levels" game, regardless of whether a hub exists.

I probably won't be super-thorough or anything, but I'll get every exit and I'll record myself doing it so that people can see how somebody who's not involved in the project might react. Kind of like what Frozelar did last time- I remember his videos ended up conveying a lot of things that couldn't be expressed simply through typing things afterwards, so I'd rather give that kind of feedback.

When you think about it though - if people wanted to playtest w/o a hub, the levels are on the wiki and there is a flowchart of level unlocks. So evidently the hub does matter to people.

The hub doesn't matter to me at all, but I think it wouldn't feel the way it should if I had to go through a file folder and open each level individually every time I want to move on to another. (I'm also incredibly lazy!)

EDIT: Wait, by "hub" do you all mean "polished overworld area" or "here are seventeen doors"? I was under the impression you wanted to get the overworld all polished and finished up first, and I meant that I'd be fine with just a basic "here, doors to all the levels" room like Frozelar's early testing videos showed.

[SAJewers]

Well, without the HUB/OW, you'd have to open each level individually.

[cheez8]

Actually, I might have misunderstood, but even if that's the case I can probably get the motivation to lump everything into an extremely basic hub area sometime soon (like the one we had for early testing last time.)

[SAJewers]

Even still, with the way the Cutscenes are integrated, the 9 levels that end each world will not work without them. The game will probably crash because it can't find the level. (they work fine in the level editor though).

[ztarwuff]

It's probably too late to raise the questions now but...

1. Why do we have to do this episodically? Why not just have episode 1 be A2MBXT, episode 2 as ASMBXThree and episode 3 as 4SMBXT?

2. Will we need a level to introduce some of the npcs or blocks? Some of the changes are so drastic that it might be unfair on a player who isn't familiar with the game e.g. it's not clear that the Switch Furbas toggle the SMW colour blocks when they die, the POW block doesn't look like a POW anymore etc.

[cheez8]

Even still, with the way the Cutscenes are integrated, the 9 levels that end each world will not work without them. The game will probably crash because it can't find the level. (they work fine in the level editor though).

Oh. Well, I guess I can't really throw everything together then. I might end up holding off a little bit before testing in that case. Sorry about that.

[SAJewers]

2. Will we need a level to introduce some of the npcs or blocks? Some of the changes are so drastic that it might be unfair on a player who isn't familiar with the game e.g. it's not clear that the Switch Furbas toggle the SMW colour blocks when they die, the POW block doesn't look like a POW anymore etc.

I can modify this if needbe.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

Can someone remove the multiplayer option? It would only break our game if someone chooses it.

[cheez8]

Aww, but watching things break is fun.

(Good timing, by the way. I just got the ability to put this stuff together yesterday.)

[SAJewers]

Is it even possible to remove it?