Project AM2R - Another Metroid 2 Remake

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T16:13:00.000-08:00

Another year, and a whole lot of changes happened in that time.

AM2R advanced, not as much as planned but the great feedback you people sent me about the demo was very useful (Yes, the first Metroid will be easier). Work is now centered on the main menu, and adding the 3 save slots with their respective options. It´s already designed, but the stats of each save slot aren't working yet.

A lot has changed in my personal life too. Besides the huge pride of being a father, I recently got a solid job offer to address our money issues. I´ll be programming ASP websites in C# for a consultant, and keeping the studio working. Of course, AM2R will always be my top free time project.

Anyway. I want to thank all the great people who shows their support, who take their time to leave comments, write emails and participate in the forum. To all the people who contributed to the project: Spriters, mod makers, translators, beta testers, and you, for playing the demo.

I wish you Happy Holidays, have a good and safe celebration with the people you love.

December progress

2011-12-12T20:55:00.000-08:00

So... new priorities, new responsibilities, new ways to find time and motivation for the project. Among the progress of this last month there were 2 things that I can show you without spoilers: The new map system and the new subscreen.

Samus looks gorgeous and detailed thanks to very talented people from the forums.

For those who like to know where items are, now the map shows their location. It´ll be optional.

The subscreen now displays a more detailed Samus picture. If you select any of the upgrades located in the lower half, the image scrolls down to show its location.

The map system was expanded a lot. Now it has some more variety on room shapes, you can place a marker manually and have the direction shown in the HUD minimap. Also, items and discovered Metroids are displayed too. The items display (Zero Mission style) will be optional, I´m still not sure if I should make it a game option or dedicate map rooms for those coordinates in each area.

The logs screen is being redone. Besides having the logs divided in categories, now the logs aren´t limited in length as before. You can scroll the text now, this will make certain logs more expansive, and will prevent a lot of localization headaches.

The project is being worked on, I still find time for it. I want to thank all the awesome people who gave me their blessings, their positive thoughts and congratulations. This is a very special moment in my life, and it´s a great relief that you took the news with such respect and happiness.

To all of you, thanks!

The great people of PlayNoMore.com were kind enough to interview me. Luckily for the Latin and Spanish fans, the interview is in Spanish. Puedes leerla haciendo click AQUI

I´ll post here before the holidays, hopefully with some more screenshots.

Have a good week!

Family

2011-11-12T13:25:00.001-08:00

These weeks I dedicated all my time to my family. Last Friday, my first daughter was born. She´s beautiful, healthy, and incredibly cute.
Both my girlfriend and I are living the happiest moment in our lives, and we´re enjoying every moment of it.

Nine months ago all of my priorities changed a lot. Including how much time I can dedicate to AM2R. The project hasn´t advanced as much as I wanted, but right now it´s not my biggest priority, compared to other moments in my life.
Other people in my situation would just dump the project, and move on. I just moved it aside a little bit, and slowly make progress.

Luckily, I was able to complete the contents of the first demo in time for you to enjoy at the NCFC. Oh, I want to express my gratitude to the great people who showed their support at the NCFC, thanks to you AM2R was awarded the Best of Show award.

So, no AM2R progress on this post... Next time there will be, I promise.

The Demo

2011-10-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

So, NCFC is finishing today, it was another year with awesome fan-games, and a great community.
For those who didn´t visit the convention yet, today´s the final day.

This year AM2R showcased the first, official Demo with actual content from the game. No minigame with tedious bosses this time, this is pretty much what you´ll find in the fist section of the finished game.

DOWNLOAD

As usual, there were a couple of things that were not finished in time for the NCFC. The title screen song is halfway done, and I couldn´t finish the intro sequence (featuring the text I showed you in the last post).
But the contents you do find were polished A LOT. Most of my time was spent debugging a lot of tiny details, half of them regarding the new music engine.

Anyway, if you still haven´t tried it out, go ahead and have some fun blasting some Alphas. Just make sure you use all of Samus´s mobility during the fights. Metroids evolved quite a lot since their black and white days, but so did Samus.

Have fun! And remember to share your thoughts and comments here or at the Forums.

NCFC is near again...

2011-10-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

This year´s Nintendo Community FanGame Convention is near!
That means there´s going to be some exclusive, never seen before AM2R material shown. Make sure you bookmark that URL, and visit the convention on the 23rd.

Thanks to all the great people who participated with the intro sequence text ideas. I already chose an intro, so congratulations to Lex, author of the following:

Metroid. After all that transpired on Zebes, the Galactic Federation
has come to view these creatures as highly-dangerous life forms.

By enlisting me to exterminate the remaining Metroids on their homeworld,
Planet SR388, the Federation hopes to secure peace in the galaxy.

Once again I find myself standing alone against the Metroid menace.
What horrors await me within the depths of this vile world?

One neat idea that has been discussed in the forums is about having a Log in the game. I like how the idea included details about making it passive, not intruding the normal gameplay at all, so people who want to expand their knowledge about certain things, can read the Log.
Luckily for me, the code used to make the SubScreen is easily reusable. So, in a matter or hours I had this working:

Certain events will start unlocking Log Entries, and they might be as useful as the scans in the Prime series (describing bosses weak points, describing places, etc). The basic system is up and running, I still have to separate the entries in categories, and decide which events, places and creatures will have their own entry.

Anyway, please come back on the 23rd, I´ll make sure to have some cool stuff to show you.
Have a good week!

Music and the Intro

2011-09-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

Most of the work these days was spent on the soundtrack.
You might remember a couple of posts ago that I lost the data of one of my hard drives. Well, fortunately, most of my sample libraries and custom sound banks were in the other drive. All I have to do is redo the songs using the sounds I already experimented on and chose.

Starting from scratch was tough at first, but remaking something that was good before made it even better, taking a fraction of the original production time. Also, having heard Harmony of a Hunter many times opened my head with ideas of how diverse the Metroid songs could get.

You´ll be able to hear a preview pretty soon.

In the meantime, I´d like to ask for your help. I´m working on the intro sequence, and my English is quite limited. So, if you have ideas for a short introduction text, I´d love to hear them. Simply head over to THIS THREAD on the forums, follow the guidelines, and write your suggestion.

Thanks!
PS: Comment moderation has been re-enabled, don´t be scared if your comment doesn´t appear right away.

Happy Birthday Metroid!

2011-08-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Metroid just turned 25 yesterday!
It´s amazing how gaming was changed after the release of the original Metroid, 25 years ago. Platforming exploration was born, and Samus was the first strong heroine of gaming history.

To celebrate the occasion, the great people of shinesparkers.net produced an awesome tribute album with songs of the entire Metroid saga. Darren, the project director, was kind enough to let me participate with one track. There´s a lot of variety of styles, and some neat surprises. If you haven´t downloaded it yet, get it here:
Harmony of a Hunter

I participated with "Danger in old Tourian", my own version of the Space Pirates song in Super Metroid. Instead of making epic orchestrated arrangements, I decided to go for the atmosphere, and try to recreate what my feelings were when I first heard the song.
The rest of the album is simply impressive, it shows how professional and dedicated the Metroid fan community is.

Thanks to all the people who contacted me about the hard drive, I´m still doing some research on the subject, seems like the solution to this isn´t as simple as it seemed.

Anyway, enjoy the album. Feel free to share what your favorite songs are, here or in the forums.

Data loss... for now

2011-07-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

Before you freak out with the title let me tell you this: AM2R IS SAFE, I keep weekly backups of the main project folder in different media types.

A couple of weeks ago one of my SATA drives stopped working. It was the main project drive in my studio PC, so all of my current audio projects can´t be read anymore. As I usually backup audio projects as soon as they´re finished, I have some very angry customers who lost their on-production album. Also, one of those projects was the AM2R soundtrack.

While I have some test mixes in my laptop, most of the music engine work was done using placeholders (the original Metroid 2 soundtrack). I was already tired of hearing the songs during production, hearing them all the time in-game during testing would be even more tiresome.

Now, I did some testing on a friend´s house. We tried replacing the drive´s controller board, using parts from the same drive model. The motor starts, there is drive activity, but it´s not recognized by the bios (or Windows). We noticed that, even if the drive model is the same, the controller boards we tested had a different serial number than the one in my drive. I´m pretty sure that all of the data is intact, but I can´t acess it!
So, if you ever had a Western Digital Caviar WD5000AAKS drive with broken sectors, or anything that doesn´t affect the controller board, please get in touch with me. There is a chance that you have the piece of hardware I need lying around in a pile of old HDDs.

While I was dealing with this, there´s been quite some progress. The new music engine is done, and all of the tiresome tasks of managing loaded songs and crossfades between tracks are now automated with simple scripts. Assigning the corresponding track to each section of the game is now really easy, and it should be complete within these days. There´s also been some performance optimizations here and there, the most visible one is the new HUD code. Since all of the elements are now separated by different scripts, I could add parameters to allow customizable HUD layouts. If tweaking the position of the HUD elements is something that you´d like to use, let me know and I´ll add the option.

Hopefully, I´ll be able to solve the drive problem soon.
The game is still alive, and it will be done. I promise.
Have a good weekend.

Progress, and a Metroid Marathon

2011-07-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

Before I start with the progess of these weeks, I want to tell you about a special event. The guys at Metroid Headquarters are celebrating their 7th anniversary, and they´ll be doing a 101 hour Metroid Marathon, streaming live playthroughs of all the Metroid games on their hardest difficulty, with 100% items and scans.
These awesome guys will be collaborating with Child´s Play, the famous and respectable charity.
The marathon will start on Monday, July 11th at 8pm CST.
For those who will watch it, I´ll be ocassionally on the chat room (I´ll try to tune in the entire Metroid 2 part).

Regarding AM2R, there was some progress. Mostly playtesting and balancing issues with many enemies. Some Alpha Metroid fights were tweaked, mostly the first ones. Fighting Alphas with a limited supply of missiles and only 1 energy tank can get pretty hectic. A new save station was added near the bottom part of the first area, for those who want to retreat from any of the Alphas there and restock.

Well, this post was pretty early. Be sure to stop by the chat room if you watch the marathon.
Have a good week!

Cutscenes!

2011-06-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

I was able to work on AM2R quite a lot these days. The most interesting addition to the already complex game was a cutscene system. Before, all the small puzzles had their results in real time. So, in order for the player to see the outcome of his/her action, the entire puzzle had to be constrained to a single screen (sometimes a little bigger).
Now, when an important event is happening, it takes control of the camera and shows the event properly. Cutscenes done so far are very short right now, and can help make bigger puzzles (don´t worry, the level design doesn´t depend entirely on them).

Many small tweaks and improvements were done in a lot of rooms. New level tools were done to provide Metroids proper ways to avoid cramped areas, helping them follow Samus more effectively. There were small places where you could hide and rethink your approach, but now Metroids give a fierce chase.

You can´t hide anymore!

The rest of the progress was mostly changing some naming conventions on game events, separating them in areas and unifying different types. There were different event lists (Metroid events, stage events, lava events, etc.), now it´s only one. Even if it´s a way of reorganizing resources, it really helps speeding the delopment up.

Like always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Back on track

2011-06-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Fortunately, things are going back to normal. I´m starting to have some free time to invest in the project.
Most of these weeks work was spent on tweaking and tuning the level design of areas 1, 2 and 3. Many small bugs in some scripted events were fixed, and some elements that were done years ago were redone.
Besides being a tech demo and a great chance to find bugs in the engine, Confrontation has set the standard of level and background detail that AM2R aims for. There are many places that still look too simplistic (mostly the caves connecting the different areas) that need work.
Also, some new tilesets were done to replace some old, outdated tiles.

Speaking of Confrontation, the super secret room was found by Hemse. Head to the forums, for instructions on how to get there. The secret prize... AM2R will feature a secret "Hemse Mode" with new gameplay twists. Congratulations!

Thank you for following the project, and like always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Absence

2011-05-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to appologise for my absence these weeks.
I had to take care of some personal matters, leaving me almost no free time or energy to work on the project. Progress these weeks was almost non-existant, except for some scarce work on the sountrack.

Things should become normal again soon, and blog posts will actually show some progress.

In the meantime, I re-uploaded Confrontation 2.5, since almost all the mirrors were deleted. I repackaged it to include 2 more translations (Hungarian and Norwegian) and 2 mods (Zero suit and 8-Bit GameBoy).
Thanks to all the great people that make Confrontation a better game.

Metroid: Confrontation v2.5
MediaFire - FileFactory - EasyShare
Download Mirror 1 - Thanks Matt!
Download Mirror 2 - Thanks Steven!

Still not convinced to give Confrontation another go?
There´s a small super secret room that nobody found yet. So if you thought you knew every inch of the game already, there´s some hardcore exploration still to be done. Whoever finds it first, gets a surprise gift...
If you find it, feel free to post about it on the Forums.
Note: It´s on v2.5 only (this release or the first one).

Good luck, and have fun!

April´s fools and progress report

2011-04-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

I hope you found the small demo fun enough to forget the hate and frustration of seeing Mario instead of Samus. I tried to make it less obvious compared to last year, I was actually going to release it on April´s fools of 2009, but I couldn´t finish it in time.
Once I get a little closer to completion, I might release an actual, real demo of the first area, so I can have some feedback while finishing the game.

Here´s the progress report I promised:
Game Engine
Physics, states, behaviours - 100%
Abilities - 100%
Powerup System - 100%
Weapons - 99% (some balance and testing still needed)
Enemies - 90%
Map System - 100% (might expand it later)
HUD - 100%
Sound FX - 70%
Music - 60%

Level Design
Area0 - 100%
Area1 - 90% (some revamping underway)
Area2 - 97% (some scripts need to be revised)
Area3 - 95% (miniboss AI not done yet)
Area4 - 95% (miniboss and some scripting left)
Area5 - 98% (some testing needed)
Area6 - 100%
Area7 - 100%

Metroids
Alpha - 98% (some tweaking left)
Gamma - 90% (some tweaking left)
Zeta - 80% (some animations need to be redone)
Omega - 70% (some animations/behaviors missing)
Queen - 50% (still no AI, sprites almost done)

This last stretch is the most complicated, there´s a lot to test and balance.

I´ll be updating the links to Confrontation 2.5 later today.

AM2R Demo Released! (April´s fools)

2011-03-31T18:04:00.000-07:00

After several days of work, a couple dozen jars of coffee, and lots of tweaking an polishing, I present you:
THE AM2R DEMO

DOWNLOAD

EasyShare - MFFileHost - FileFactory

Thanks to the great people that provided feedback with Confrontation, the engine is very stable and now I can gather feedback from actual segments of the game.

This demo covers the landing site (with the new tileset), the very first tunnels and a battle with the first Alpha Metroid.

Keep in mind:
- Alpha Metroid AI is limited, since it´s the first fight.
- Music has been compressed and downsampled for filesize reasons.
- No major upgrades are being shown right now (It´s the beginning).
- Some enemies AI isn´t perfect.
- All external files are now embedded in the exe.
- Joypad support is disabled in this build.

Please be discrete with the videos and images you might post on the net. Things are always changing in the game, and some material on this demo might be outdated soon.

I´ll be uploading Confrontation 2.5 to other sites in these days, seems like some links are dead.

As always, suggestions and comments are welcome.
Have fun!

Metroid Confrontation v2.5 Released

2011-03-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

At last, the final update for Confrontation is here.

DOWNLOAD: FileFactory - MFFileHost - EasyShare

In this update:
- Added Mod support (finally!)
- Added Time Attack mode
- Added Multilanguage support
- Changed the locations of Charge Beam and the 2nd Super Missile
- A lot of small bugfixes and details

Mods
- To enable a mod, go to Extras/Mods and select your installed mod.
- To intall a mod, place the downloaded zip file in the mods folder.
- To make a mod, read mods.txt inside the /mods folder.
There´s much more content that you can modify this time. I bet there will be awesome mods in no time.

Time Attack
This mode is perfect for the speedrun practice.
- Time and item count is displayed all the time
- Item cutscenes are replaced by a small notification text
- No saving allowed, checkpoints are used to retry a section if you die
- Detailed stats shows times for all the important events on your route

Miltilanguage Support
All of the text in the game can be translated. There are 9 languages included in this release, and you can make your own if you want. Read translations.txt inside the /lang folder for more info.

This release took some serious debugging. Adding the Mod support broke a lot of the collision masks (Game Maker acts really funky when replacing resources), so I had to make separate mask sprites for a lot of objects. In the end, collisions are now much more precise.

Anyway, this is the last version of Confrontation. All of my free time and energy are now focused on AM2R.
Expect a progress update on the next blogpost.

Have fun!

Translation and Podcast

2011-03-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

First of all, if you ever wondered how I sound, you can check out Metroid Headquarters. I´ve been invited to their latest podcast, it´s online right now. You´ll have to excuse my accent, it´s been quite a few years since I´ve actually spoken any English.
I want to thank the great MHQ staff, it was a very fun experience.

In other news, I´ll be making a post at the forum about translations. Right now the text files for Confrontation will be released, so you can translate it into your language. Since 90% of the text is also used in AM2R (except the story, of course), you´ll be actually helping translate the full game too.
Edit: You can find the topic HERE.
I´m polishing an updated version of Confrontation to add support for these files, and some other surprises. Stay tuned.

AM2R is my main focus this week. Testing the revamped first area is taking more time than expected, but it´s a very important part of the game, it must be perfect. One of the features that´s taking most work is the different times of the day at the surface. If you return after clearing certain parts, you´ll find changes in the sky and the tileset. The game starts at daytime, there´s a sunset part after half of the game, and the return to the ship with the hatchling is at night, like the original.
All of these need to look properly after changing the color palettes, and some resorce swapping is needed, so I don´t have to re-tile the same rooms with different tile colors.
It´s a small detail, but it´ll be awesome.

First area makeover

2011-02-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

Here´s some images of the new tileset and background of the first area. It was the most outdated part of the game, and now it has a more uniform and detailed look.

(Click on the images for a large version)

While the queen sprites are finished, I´m still struggling to make decent animations for the Omega. Having such a huge beast and making it look organic when moving is quite a challenge.

Also, mod support is functional. I still need to make a menu to choose between the installed mods, and add support for some more resources. Now you´ll be able to personalize enemies and even bosses, but only graphically.

Once the mod menu is up and running, I´ll release the language file in the forum, so translations of Metroid: Confrontation can be made and revised.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Have a good week!

El último Metroid está en cautiverio...

2011-01-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

Multilanguage support is almost here.
I was able to find good, complete pixel fonts. I replaced them, and had to adjust almost every place in the game with on-screen text, since the y coordinate was off.
Now all the text is read from an .ini file, selectable in the options screen. I still have to convert some small snippets of text that are drawn as bitmaps (like "press start to skip", etc.) into actual text. Once the system is fully working, I´ll paste it into Confrontation, and make the .ini file available at the forum, in case you want to translate the demo into your language.

After that, mod support comes next. Instead of making all the resource files available in folders like last time, I´m planning a mod section in the options menu, to select the available mods without having to mess with overwriting files.

Anyway. The remade first area of the AM2R is starting to look great. There´s a couple of details I need to fix with some tilesets, and I still need to make a new background. Expect to see some screenies on the next update.

Sorry if I was a little absent these days (on the emails and the forum). I took a small vacation to Uruguay with my girlfriend, I´ll reply as soon as I can.
Have a good week.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

2010-12-23T13:37:00.000-08:00

I have a small Christmas present for you, an update for Confrontation:

Metroid: Confrontation v2.2

DOWNLOAD

FileFactory - EasyShare - MyFreeFileHosting

New in this version: Hard mode, Medals, and a lot of small fixes and updates.

Edit: Added Trailer.

A lot of the changes were done to the main AM2R project, and applied to Confrontation. Multilanguage support is functional, but I can´t find any small pixel fonts that include special characters (needed for most languages). If you have any experience editing fonts, or have a complete pixel font at hand, let me know.

There was some progress on AM2R, mostly bugfixes and optimizations. I´m in the process of rewriting the music playback system with one that manages more than one main song (The one used in Confrontation). The transitions between the main tunnel theme with some atmospheric sounds and the specific area songs need to be smooth, and so far it´s working quite well.

Well, I hope you have a good Christmas, and a great New Year. Personally, I know 2011 will be an excellent year. I do have a couple of work proposals, and if everything goes well, I´ll be in a much better position.

Take care!

Links Updated

2010-12-13T04:34:00.000-08:00

I´m in a bit of a hurry right now, so please excuse such a small blog post.

Here´s some updated links of Metroid: Confrontation v2.15

FileFactory - MyFreeFileHosting - EasyShare

Sorry for the inconveniences.

Achievements

2010-12-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

So, progress was good these weeks.
I resumed work with AM2R, finishing the camera controls the last rooms. I also started revamping the first area, the landing site. Remaking it after all this time made it look and play much better. Once I finish with the new tileset, I´ll put some pics up.

Some scripts were updated too, now lava is drawn using a series of background elements, instead of animated sprites. I synchronized Confrontation with this change (AM2R and Confrontation are two separate projects now, to avoid having unnecesary resources in both projects), so those who experienced slowdowns in big lava rooms, specially the Crocomire and Kraid fights, will have a better framerate.

Right now I´m adding Achievements to the game. The easy part is to make a nice menu to display your unlocked "Medals", the most complicated part is having the game to recognize when you meet the criteria for each one. Most Medals are common to AM2R and Confrontation, so expect to see this feature in the next update.

Anyway. This year wasn´t as productive as I thought it would be. And that goes for this project and a lot of personal stuff. I won´t bother you with the details, but the thing is, I´m looking for work. My studio isn´t doing so well lately, and I happen to have more free time than I´d like to have.
I´m offering my services as a game system designer, level designer, or any other role you might find productive for your project.
You can find most of my earlier work in this Portfolio, if you need design documents for any of those projects, let me know.

I struggled a lot deciding wether I should post about this or not.
Eventually, things are going to change a lot in my life, and having a steady income is becoming very necesary.
Whatever I end up working on, I´ll find time to finish AM2R. (I promise)

Thanks for reading this and for following the project.

Metroid: Confrontation Update: v2.15

2010-11-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

I decided to add proper joystick support (multiple axes/POV) right now, so you can start using it. Besides, I couldn´t borrow a 360 pad, so you´ll have to tell me if it works. Also, updates are taking a little longer, since I´m working on both AM2R and Confrontation, synchronizing the changes of the engine so you can enjoy the latest engine version.

In this update:
- Full joystick support
- Extra aim button (Super Metroid style)
- Missile toggle option (Super Metroid style)
- Redesigned options screen
- Some bugfixes

Your old save files will work on this version, and there aren´t any big changes in the game content. So all your speedrun records are still valid!

DOWNLOAD

RapidShare - MediaFire - MegaUpload

Coming up, in the next update:
- Hard mode
- Mod capabilities
- Multiple language support

Have fun!

Metroid Confrontation 2

2010-10-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to thank all the great people of NCFC. AM2R won the "2nd Place Best of Show" and "Best of Metroid" awards. It was an awesome event, and I´m already looking forward to the next one.

Since NCFC is over, here´s the exclusive material:

First, the meet Omega Metroid...

It´s not finished yet, and the animation is still primitive. But you get the idea of how epic the battle will be.

And last but not least, a new Metroid: Confrontation.

With a lot of new content, a new level layout and the solid AM2R engine, this new version expands the concept with new features. More enemies, more open exploration, a new boss, many speedrunning options.

Here´s an updated version fixing some issues of the original release:

DOWNLOAD v2.1

Mediafire - MegaUpload - RapidShare

If you still haven´t done so, enjoy the new demo. If you´re having trouble finding all the items, or if you made an impressively fast run, you can stop by the Forum.

Have fun!

NCFC 2010 is almost here...

2010-10-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

This year´s NCFC is about to begin, and AM2R has a booth ready to show some exclusive material.
There are other great fangames being displayed too, so I can´t recomend it enough.
I might be on the chat on certain occasions, and don´t forget to listen to the radio show, DJ Yoshiman is awesome.

Oh, and there will be a little surprise tomorrow.
Have fun!

http://www.nintendocfc.com/

Collisions done

2010-10-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished with the collision. I checked and fixed each and every room so every slope, wall and floor does behave like its corresponding tile shows. If Game Maker just had any way of linking tiles to specific objects (or custom tile groups), this and many other steps wouldn´t have been necesary.
Anyway, all the rooms look and feel like they should, except of course the ones marked to be redone.

After checking some of my older work (including all the surface area), I keep adding rooms to my "redo" list. Some needed some tweaks, others are just plain. It´s this kind of "revisiting obsession loop" that made me stop making music a long time ago. You know, watching or hearing what you did yesterday and making it better, just to do the same the next day?

Now, coming up is the camera work. This is crucial for the transitions to look correctly, and there are a lot to be done. A good example of a missing camera controller is in the Confrontation demo, after you return from the dark room with the missiles and super missiles, you can see a weird camera motion that lasts a couple of frames as the transition ends. That´s what I´m trying to avoid.
It´s just an object and some code in most of the entrances and vertical corridors, but it´s necesary.

Last, but not least, this year´s NCFC (Nintendo Community Fangame Convetion) has been announced. I plan to attend with AM2R this year too, and I´m preparing some exclusive material like always. I´m just not sure if it´ll be as good and fresh as last year´s.

Feel free to suggest and discuss anything you want here or at the forums. Oh, and thanks for all the encouragement and kind words, I really appreciate them.

Samus has a GPS

2010-09-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

These weeks I managed to make quite a lot of progress. I´m checking all the rooms of the game, focusing on one aspect at a time, to make the tiresome tasks more fluid.
Now the entire game has correct map coordinates data, the rooms position the map cursor correctly. The entire map was tweaked here and there, adding some parts of some areas that didn´t appear.

Also, I finished connecting the last rooms. I managed to travel the entire "loop" from the spaceship to the Queen´s Lair and back to the surface in about 13 minutes (There´s a lot of rooms missing enemies).

One of the things that always bugged me about the engine is that the Speed Booster visual effects make the game lag on some computers, including my laptop. So I replaced the old afterimage effect with a new one that uses only one object. Before this, each shadow behind Samus was a separate object.
I´m planning more small optimizations to make the game run a little smoother.

Hopefully, updates will begin to get interesting once I finish the level polishing part. It´s a lot of work, a lot of time, and there´s no pretty way of showing interesting screenshots.
But you´ll experience solid environments when you play the finished game.

Ok, like always, you´re welcome to post your ideas and discuss the project by commenting here or in the forum. Have a good week.

All the rooms

2010-08-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

I managed to finish the basic layout (collisions and tiles) of the remaining rooms of the final area, and the last tunnels to the surface. So, in some way, all the rooms are basically done.

There´s still a lot to tweak, there are some tilesets to be done, and some of the backgrounds are placeholders, but once I connect these last ones, the entire game will be accessible.
I had a basic layout of the game done before, but the last areas changed too much lately. Also, navigating tiled rooms is a lot cooler than empty rooms full of square blocks.

So, it´ll be a little tedious to check all 224 rooms, and fix or add any missing camera controllers, tiles, hidden parts, minimap coordinates, transitions to other rooms, enemy placement, etc.

Also, I might be redoing some of the earlier surface rooms, I can definitely make a much better tile work with all the experience gathered all this time (the landing site and first temple were done in 2006).

Well, have a nice week. You´re welcome to stop by the forum or post suggestions here.

Fixed!!!

2010-08-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

I bought a new power supply yesterday, I installed it and the system has been stable since then.
I want to thank all the great people that commented here in the blog and emailed me with their suggestions. The faulty power supply was one of the most mentioned cause you suggested, one that I hadn´t considered.

Why did I take so long to fix it?
I discarded other possible causes in my free time, being the PSU and the motherboard the last two (the most expensive ones).

Now progress resumes, I´m preparing the tileset and backgrounds for the final area. It´s fairly small, I should have it done in a couple of days.

Thanks again for all of your support, and for taking the time to write. (Sorry if I couldn´t reply all the emails!)

Not a very exciting update...

2010-07-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Progress was quite slow these weeks for two main reasons: The classic flu that strikes me every year, and some hardware problems at the studio. Before I expand on the last one, here´s what I could do:

All the caves up to the entrance of the Queen´s lair are done, there´s some details left (like some waterfall effects) but it´s practically done.
I also started with the regular Metroid AI, the ones you face before the queen. They happily latch into Samus, I still have to make them detach with the bomb explosions.

About the hardware thing...
The PC I use at the studio is also my main development computer. And a couple of weeks ago I started experiencing random system shutdowns. These started to happen more frequently, and I even had to cancel a couple of recording sessions (THAT was embarassing).
I tried replacing the videocard, I bought new RAM and replaced it, but it still happens.
Why am I talking about this? I just wanted to know if any of you guys experienced anything like this, there´s a lot of qualified technicians I´d like to hear. (I am good at assembling computers myself, but only if everything works well)

If you think you could share your experiences and hopefully help me fix this problem, you can email me, or post in the forum. I´ll create a thread about this right now explaining it better.
Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I tried a couple of your suggestions, but no luck yet.
Here´s the Forum thread with all the hardware details and what I did so far.
Thanks for your help!!!

The Omega Nest

2010-07-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

One positive thing this FIFA world cup had is that people became zombie-like creatures with soccer as their main conversation topic, motivation and concern. In some ways, the entire country was "paralyzed", expectant of each and every match, and my customers were no exception.

Since I couldn´t care less about soccer, I used all this free time to finish the Omega nest.

Besides the actual levels and tile work, I also updated the tilesets, adding more variety and a couple of colors to the palette, so the bubbles look smoother. The lighting effect was tweaked also, with a bigger area to make enemies and spike avoiding less frustrating. The old version can be seen in this preview.

About the Super style suit, if the varia version gets finished, I might include it as an optional selectable style. It´s not that complicated to implement, and there are already some Super Metroid gameplay options already.

Up next is the final area, and after that a lof of AI coding, testing and tweaking. Things are starting to feel so close to completion, but also still too far away.
At least AM2R is still going.

Back on track

2010-06-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

After some time with "Game-Designer´s Block", I finally started working again.

I focused mainly on what´s remaining of level design. There´s still a lot of boring caves that connect the last areas with the Omega nest and the Queen´s area. But I decided to start with some interesting locations first...

I wonder where this leads to...

And WHAT IS THAT!!

I´m nowhere near finishing the final area, but I´m starting with the tileset and the level layout.

Also, MichaelGabrielR finished his excellent "Super Mod" for Metroid: Confrontation. It replaces the music, tiles, backgrounds, and most importantly, the power suit design with a custom Super Metroid inspired one. This design might be the one to be used in AM2R, so feel free to try the mod out.

Super Mod for Metroid: Confrontation
Rapidshare
MediaFire
MegaUpload

Well, have fun playing the demo again.

Not focused lately

2010-05-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

These last weeks were slow. I had a couple of work issues that kept me occupied and unable to work on AM2R, and whenever I got the time to open up Game Maker, I was blocked.

In the meantime, HyruleSwordsMan finally got some spare time to start with the Omega Metroid sprites. Hopefully, he´ll find more free time between work and study.

AM2R is now affiliated with Metroid: Coven, an awesome looking top-down fangame. I suggest you check it out. And this blog´s RSS feed is also available at RetroInvaders, a great site with retro gaming news, it´s one of my new favourites.

Things will be better for me these days, I´ll be spending time with the project right after my birthday party (It´s tomorrow). Have a good week!

"New" Enemies

2010-05-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

The new area is still too easy. Even if almost half of the area is travelled underwater and without the Gravity Suit at first, there´s two abilities on my way to make a challenging area: Space Jump and Screw Attack.

Sure, there´s spikes and other hazards now, but they´re quite easy to avoid having Space Jump, and underwater it´s even easier, it´s on slow motion!.
Screw Attack makes the enemies virtually dissapear from the gameplay. Having trouble with an enemy that takes too many missiles to kill? Press jump.

So, I made alternate versions of some of the robotic enemies to make things more interesting. I´m not falling into the predictable "ScrewAttack resistant shields", but I´m making the enemy AI more "Projectile happy". If Samus wants to get close to these enemies, she´ll have to dodge some shots, and having multiple enemies on screen can be fun.

Right now these pallette swapped enemies are cheap and unbalanced, especially when trying to dodge their shots underwater. But with some polishing they should be just fine.

Regarding the small trolling episode of these last days, I changed the blog settings to moderate the post comments. So don´t be scared if the comments aren´t appearing right away.

As always, any comments or suggestions are welcome here or in the forums.

Metroids + Water = Challenge

2010-04-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Most of the week I´ve been fixing all the little thigs that I broke when I changed the water physics. Some behaviors depended on the (now slower) vertical speed, and some others were still slow even with the gravity suit on. I also tweaked some minor details, like the timing required for walljumping, now it´s a little easier to pull off, even under water.

I´m starting to populate Area 5 with enemies, Metroids, and some surprises. Underwater Metroid fights are quite challenging, but not unfair. Luckily, you won´t have to fight too many Metroids before you find the Gravity suit.

Some of the room layouts had to be changed a lot. By the time you get the Power Bombs, the enemies aren´t much of a challenge. So I had to rely a little more on environmental hazards (well, spikes) to keep things interesting.

There are some scripted events left to do, a miniboss, and some tile and background work to finish Area 5. After that, it´s just the Omegas Nest and the Queen´s Lair left to make. Compared to the rest of the areas, those two are very simple, level layout wise.

Like always, comments and forum discussion is welcome.

April´s fools, and new water

2010-04-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

I´ve seen many different reactions about the little, improvised April´s fool post, reminding me how "global" the fans are.
Here, in Latin America and also in Spain, that celebration is called "The day of the innocents" and it´s celebrated on December 28th.

So, to make it clear to all the concerned people: It was a joke, I tried to make it as obvious (and funny) as possible.

Anyway, I recently tweaked the way the water is drawn. I was making Area 2 when I made the script, and the whole graphic style was much more colorful back then. This new color scheme looks much better IMHO:

The background layers still need some work, the stone texture has still too many colors, and I forgot to mention, the black shadows are in a different, subtractive layer. So it actually looks much better in motion.
On a funny side note: I did stumble with a "secret world" situation once, when I tried to switch the layout of the tile sets from spaced to non-spaced.

Not creepy enough, but glitchy at least.
Well, I´ll get back to work. Feel free to comment and suggest anything, I´ve added a link to the forum on the right pane for your convenience.

New design

2010-04-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

These months I rediscovered my old Commodore 64. After some hours trying to load a single game from an old tape, I realized... Nostalgia is powerful. I didn´t care too much about the game itself, but the experiences around it are more prevalent over time.

I then decided to implement some nostalgia factor in AM2R, to make it a better experience.

Now, AM2R features multiple bit ages in one game, sprites of different years and consoles will make you remember the good times of each age.
The ugly, and obtrusive GUI was replaced with a classic 8bit interface. It makes the screen much smaller, but it doesn´t get in the way!

But not everything is oldschool. Some innovations can be enjoyed too. Inspired by the control scheme of Metroid: Other M, you have now the choice to enter first person mode at any time!

Simply rotate you joypad or keyboard 90 degrees clockwise (be careful with the keyboard cable) and you´ll enjoy a new, deep RPG style battle. With a deep, complex and intrincate way of combining beams, bombs and missiles, all of them obsolete when you get screwattack.

But what is a Metroid game without glitches? The secret worlds of Metroid 2 are back, and can be used as a shortcut to advanced areas, or even other games, who knows.

As for the gameplay, I remembered one element from the golden age of gaming that I completely forgot to add until now: Frustration. There are limited lives now, with an instant game over if you lose all of them. There is a 64 digit password system, and no save stations.

Also, for the hardcore gamers, there´s the new mode: I wanna be the Samus, where you have only one life, and die on contact with any of the infititely respawning enemies.

The new release date is April 1, 2011.
It will be released for PC, Mac, Vectrex and Turbografx16.

As always, any cool retro ideas are welcome.

Some progress

2010-03-28T22:01:00.001-07:00

The last few posts weren´t so exciting regarding progress, because most of it didn´t involve features that were easily shown on images. Since now I´m working on more "graphically showable" stuff, I can share a few WIP pics with you:

A maintenance passage. There will be some exciting action going on here.

Testing the new color palette for the cave parts of Area 5, and a preliminary fog effect.

Part of a flooded cave, outside the main part of Area 5.

Most of my work was spent on the new water physics. I tried to fight an Alpha Metroid underwater, and even with HiJump and SpaceJump, it´s really frustrating. Just play Metroid: Confrontation, and try moving around under the lava, then imagine exploring half a sector of the game like that.

So, instead of using direct speed multipliers for underwater, I had to make a separate set of speeds for all the states. This way, I could make the physics more like Super Metroid (it takes some time to build some speed, but you keep the momentum, and move fairly fast).
This lead to a lot of tweking and bugfixing, but it´s working nicely right now.

Work on the soundtrack will resume this week, once I have some decent material I´ll let you hear some of the new tracks.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome, here or in the forum.

The Forum, Finally

2010-03-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, the comments of each post are getting a little uncomfortable to discuss ideas. So, here´s the official AM2R forum: http://am2r.freeforums.org
Feel free to discuss anything there. I´m not going to stop posting here, you´ll be able to follow AM2R´s progress from this blog as always.

Speaking of progress, I now have some free studio time to continue with the soundtrack production. Right now I´m making a variation of the Alpha Metroid fight song for the Gamma encounters. The idea is to make a different version for each evolution.

After some playtesting, I found out that even with all the Metroid fights, hidden items and Minibosses, the game is quite short compared to other Metroid games. I was able to clear the first 4 areas in about 1 hour (without exploring too much), I even had to "simulate" the time some Metroid fights take, since not all of them are in the map yet.
So, since I´m making an entire new area to accomodate the new items, I could add some Metroid fights, so it wouldn´t be optional anymore. This opens an array of many interesting scenarios that weren´t possible in the original game. (Underwater physics Metroid fights...)
All I have to do is tweak some of the room layouts to accomodate these fights.

I think this new area will also bring back (to some extent) the feeling of exploring a place, hoping that a Metroid doesn´t appear all of the sudden. If you played the original, you more or less know where to expect a fight, but in Area 5, things will be as mysterious as it should be.

Anyway, I´ll be writing some posts in the new forum. Feel free to drop by, and be sure to keep checking this blog.

Names... so many names...

2010-02-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

Wow.
Almost 250 comments, that´s a record. I appreciate each one of your suggestions, seems like the options listed in the poll pale in comparison to some of the later suggestions. One thing for sure: Second Mission is a terrible idea for a name, I added it just to see if anyone seemed to like it, and a couple of minutes later it was leading the poll. Second Mission wouldn´t fit because of A) The chronology and B) The project tries to be a little darker than Zero Mission, even if it defined the style of the gameplay it´s quite different right now.
There are submit button mashers everywhere I guess.

So, I thought about the name these days. Mostly what kind of words would the title screen have. Could I use "AM2R" and find some other meaning for the "A"?, Does it HAVE to include the word "Metroid" in the title?, If not, then the phrase "Return of Samus" should be somewhere, maybe?

The ammount of comments on the last post reminded me how popular the project is, and how people are familiar with "AM2R" already. So, using it for the name with a new acronym would work quite well, IMHO. Something like: "AM2R - The Return of Samus" ("Advanced Metroid 2 Remake" in small print below)
This would be a different approach, since there are a lot of fangames names with the "Metroid: [Something]" formula.

I think sharing my thoughts will help me find a proper name a lot more than a poll.

About the progress: I took a couple of days off, now I´m starting to work more on the game. If everything goes well, after I finish mixing a couple of big albums I´ll have studio time to dedicate to the soundtrack. In the meantime, I´m optimizing some of the bigger and slower rooms of the game to use fewer collision objects. That combined with some code cleanup I did last month resulted in a slight FPS boost in my test laptop. There´s still a lot of room for optimization.

Well, thanks for the constructive comments! I´ll be posting more regularly now. (And replying all the emails, please be patient if you wrote to me)

PS: Sean, if you´re reading this, please resend the email you sent me. I checked my inbox and I couldn´t find any emails with the names "Sean" or "MetroidGuardian". Mail me here: doctorm64[at]live.com

About the name...

2010-01-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

While I was reading the comments of the last post these days, I noticed how many cool names people suggested for AM2R. I was thinking of choosing a name when the project is near completion, but I don´t see why we can´t choose one now.

The name will be officially be used when the game is released, for now AM2R works well, people know the project by that name and unless the game is released, there´s no need to confuse people. Even the Confrontation demo made some people think the game was done. I won´t be using any name that has SR388 in it, just to avoid even more confusion with VonRichter´s project.

Here are some of the coolest names you suggested, I made a little poll to see which ones you like more.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-30T13:02:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sorry I haven´t been replying emails or posting here. These last couple of weeks were too short and chaotic.

So, I received a lot of offers from many different music and pixel artists, and I mean A LOT. I think the project has gained some popularity since last year, there are many talented artists out there and many of them offered their help.
I gave a couple of test assignments to some people, hopefully by the next update I´ll be able to annouce the new spriters and musicians.

In the meantime, the project has advanced a little. Right now I´m making all the caves that connect the main areas, and the new and mysterious area 5.

Thank you very much for following the project, for your comments and for your support. I´ll do my best to make 2010 the year when AM2R is finally released.
I wish you all a Happy New Year, have fun and be safe!

Another year...

2009-12-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

Another year is about to end. It´s in these days when I realize how many of my plans for the whole year I couldn´t complete. AM2R is one of those, it´s not finished like I wanted it to be, but at least the progress was good.

So, I´m planning my summer. Besides a couple of days of vacations, there will be very little movement here at my recording studios, like every summer. So it can be a nice opportunity to dedicate myself properly to the project.

I do have plans for next year, some of them involve big changes in my life. My free time will be compromised, a lot. This means I´ll be putting myself a deadline to finish AM2R once and for all. Last year I made a checklist of features and goals to be achieved on summer, this time the list is as follows:

- Finish Zeta Metroids sprite and AI
- Start Omega Metroids production
- Start Queen Metroid production
- Recruit one or two sprite artists for backgrounds, tiles, minibosses and new enemies
- Recruit one or more musicians for original compositions
- Advance level design up to the final area

It looks like a lot, and it is. I´ll be needing additional sprite artists to accelerate the progress. HyruleSwordsMan is working on the Metroids, but there are other grpahics that need to be drawn. New backgrounds, a couple of tilesets, some of the planned minibosses don´t have sprites yet, and some new enemies could make the game more diverse. I´ll be contacting all the people that once offered their help here. Besides, are there any sprite art forums you know of? Please let me know.

I´ll be also accepting help from musicians. If you have good MIDI composing skills, I´d love to hear your work. My plans are to work with plain General MIDI, and assign the instruments I use for the rest of the soundtrack, so there´s coherence between songs. I´ll be contacting all the musicians that once offered their help.

The nice people of GamePro featured AM2R in this remakes article. Thanks!!!

I´d love to reply to all your comments more often, but I can´t find time to do it. Here´s my quick response to some of the comments of the last post:

- Zetas will spit acid instead of fireballs. You´re right, it looks more natural.

- Samus temporarily losing her powers doesn´t sound like a good idea in the context of this game. It would feel too forced, and that same situation happened in Zero Mission.

- I read all the comments, but I do have to choose which ones are relevant, cool and possible to make.

Well, I guess I´ll be posting again before christmas. Remember, if you are a pixel artist or a musician, and wish to help me out, please email me. Thanks!

New area, and progress

2009-11-18T10:47:00.000-08:00

This is the approximate progress of the project.

Game Engine
Physics, states, behaviours - 100%
Abilities - 100%
Powerup System - 100%
Weapons - 98% (some balance and testing still needed)
Enemies - 70%
Map System - 100%
HUD - 100%
Sound FX - 60%
Music - 30%

Level Design - 75%

Still to do: Omegas nest, Queen´s lair, new area and the tunnels connecting those places. Also, some of the done areas still need tweaking and scripting.

Metroids
Alpha - 95% (some cosmetic details left)
Gamma - 90% (could use some more animation frames)
Zeta - 60% (needs a lot of sprite work, and is still missing the fireball attack)
Omega - 0%
Queen - 0%

About the new area. It was kinda frsutrating to have a new place to unleash my level design creativity at such a late part of the game. By the time you reach this place, Samus is a walking tank, with a lot of health and all the abilities of the game. The only item that can limit the exploration is the Power Bomb, since it´s aqcuired there. But once you get them all the yellow hatches are accesible.
The only other element I can play with is water. But i have to use water areas before the Gravity suit not so cramped or long, since water navigation is really slow and boring.

I have a couple of sketches on paper, and I´m starting to make the rooms into the game. I might also start making the last area too, since it´s not so big after all.

HyruleSwordsMan has all the final exams these weeks, so until his schedule is a little lighter I´ll be taking a break from the Zetas, and concentrate on level design.

I want to thank everybody again for the comments and suggestions. I know I showed the Zetas early, but they will eventually be awesome thanks to your input.

Zeta Metroids

2009-11-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

So, NCFC is over. It was even cooler than last year, and AM2R was given again the "Best Metroid Booth" award. I was sure the award was going to be given to the guys of Project Prime (BTW, check it out if you haven´t). Thanks to all the great people at NCFC!

Here´s the trailer I made for the event, and some new pics:

There are mixed oppinions about the Zetas.
First of all, this is a Work In Progress sprite, and I decided to show it just for the NCFC. The animations are unfinished, and there are details to tweak about the overall apprearance.
Second, I took a slightly different approach in the design. The original Zeta seemed to be designed within the limits of the sprite size, and it´s a good middle step between the original Gamma and the original Omega designs displayed in-game.

In my case, Omegas will be fairly smilar to the ones in Fusion, in terms of size and proportions. If I were to use a more "traditional" design, there would be a major evolutionary difference wih the Omegas. So I redid the design by associating the Omegas to a T-Rex (in terms of relative proportions), and the Zetas to Velociraptors.

Desinging Zetas as "Armored velociraptors with a Metroid core in their belly" was my starting point. The whole Metroid changed a lot, and it will continue to change as the animation and gameplay demand it. Don´t worry, a longer tail and thicker legs are on my to-do list.

Also on the video 2 parts of the new area are shown. One big ruin-like corridor and the water area (for Gravity Suit fun). I´m planning these areas right now.

I´ll be tweaking the Zetas these days, it was great to hear all of your concerns about the proportions. I´ll consider some of them, since having other points of view makes a better result.

Thanks for your comments!

NCFC 2009 is coming...

2009-10-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

NCFC begins tonight, and this year will be awesome as always.
Last year AM2R made an appearance in its own booth, it was the first time the Alpha Metroids were shown to the world.

I do have some exclusive material for this year. No new demo, but I´m sharing the progress of these months. It´s a surprise...
I´ll post the material here after the convention is over, don´t worry.

Unlike last year, I´ll be appearing every once in a while in the NCFC chat. If you want to exchange some words with me, come by the chat room. I´ll be online tonight during the opening ceremony.

Comments about the new material are welcome. I read the ones of the last post, and I was really tempted by some of the ideas you shared with me. The limit here is my time, and the ammount of effort I can put in the project right now.

Well, enjoy the Nintendo Community Fangame Convention.

Progress, and challenge mode

2009-10-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

There was a lot of progress with Zeta Metroids. Right now they walk, crouch, jump and do a horrendously animated claw attack (soon to be redrawn). I just realized that since this is a ground based enemy, it will require much more testing than the floating ones. Specially when the environment limits the Metroid´s movement, there´s room for exploits.

So, last time I mentioned Challenge Mode. And there were many cool suggestions about it, and the possible escape sequence (thanks!!!). Here´s what I have planned so far for this mode:
- It will be available after completing the normal game once.
- All the lava will be gone, so you can explore freely.
- The item and Metroid placement will be changed.
- There will be extra Metroid fights, even maybe more than one at the same time.
- A boss rush mode could be unlocked after completing Challenge Mode.

One thing I know for sure, challenge mode will be done after the game is finished. This means I´ll release the game once it´s completed, and challenge mode will be done in the first update. This way I´ll be fixing all the details you find in the game, and add the new mode in the update.

I want to thank you all for the great feedback of these last posts, and for the patience you have with this project. If there´s something you´d like to suggest for Challenge Mode, feel free to post it.

To escape or not to escape (sequence)

2009-09-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

In the last post there was a very interesting suggestion by Palamon: A final escape sequence after the Queen fight. It´s true, the planet is succeptible to earthquakes caused by Metroids, and killing the biggest one of them all could easily cause some disaster.

Ok, but you (supposedly) have Gravity Suit by the time you reach the end, and lava isn´t much of a threat now. If the escape is going to be dramatic, it should be more menacing than lava and some falling rocks. And making so would deviate too much from the original game, IMHO. The moment you first see the hatchling, and peacefully reach the surface is a classic scene.

I might consider making an escape sequence for "Challenge Mode", a special mode for hardcore players. I´d like to hear your oppinions about this.

About the progress: I´m starting with the AI of the Zeta Metroids. I had to make a custom animation system, since there are separate body parts with different numbers of frames. Using the built-in variables was impossible.
Right now the Zetas can only walk, soon they´ll have some cool attacks (as soon as I start animating those). All of my time is being dedicated to these creatures, so there wasn´t much progress in the level design part.

Sorry for the lack of updates, there´s not much to report lately, since a single enemy animation and AI takes too much time to make so little progress. Like always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Zetas are alive! (almost)

2009-08-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

Hyruleswordsman finally found some time between exams to work on the Zeta Metroid sprites. After many revisions, the standing sprite is done. Like in many other aspects of the project, I started animating the sprite, thinking it wouldn´t be as difficult as it seemed. I was SO wrong.

I´m kinda getting the hang of it, and there´s still a lot to animate. The ingame object uses a wireframe sketch right now, it gives a better idea on how the sprite will behave with the environment. It´ll take a lot of work, but it will be worth it.

I finished tiling the tower part of area 4, next up are the spiky caves. Those will be done really fast, I just need a "skpiky" tileset. I guess I´ll have to draw it...

Thanks for the achievements suggestions by the way. Don´t worry, they will be more challenge based than anything else. I´m not that much of a fan of the "You fired a Missile!!!" kind of achievements, instead they could be like the skill points of the Ratchet and Clank series, for example.
Onscreen notification will be optional.

Progress these weeks might be slow, I´m struggling to keep my business alive, and that takes a lot of time and energy.

Like always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Redoing it... again

2009-08-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

So, I´m fully recovered, and back to dedicating all my free time to the project. Thanks for your support in the comments!

The french FAQ was updated with some questions that were missimg from the original FAQ. Thanks to Victor Coutellier for the additional translation.

I edited a Metroid Fusion tileset, to use it in some places of the lower part of Area 4. It turned out so well, that I decided to use variations of it in the entire tower. So, I´m retiling the entire tower again. Believe me, it´s worth the effort.

I also changed the backgrounds. I replaced the Castlevania SOTN outer wall backgound with a 5 level parallax scrolling background. It looks better and fits the "techy" theme of the tower.

There were many gameplay tweaks as well. For example, I´m planning on making an enemy I was going to discard: the Proboscum. Those little platform robots that let you fall after a second were not going to be on the game. Since by this time you already have space jump, it was pointless. Now they´ll be inside the tower, replacing the red floating blocks. This makes the fights much more dynamic, by keeping you on your toes while dodging enemy fire.

I´ve put a lot of thought on the demo subject. The thing is, the more I think about it, more cool ideas start coming up. In the last demo, I used most of the first one as a base. Then it took about a month of work to make all the new rooms, tile them, test them, add the new features and the new boss. I know myself, if I make a new demo, it WILL have much more polished content, and a new boss, taking precious time. I have to think about it...

Anyway. I was thinking of making an achievement system for the game (and the demo, if I make it). It might give the game some replay value, and some reward for the corageous gamer.
Do you like the idea?
What kind of achievements would you like to see?

A little sick...

2009-07-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

Before you freak out, I do NOT have swine flu. There´s a medical emergency here, with a lot of people dying every week. I´m taking all the needed precautions with my customers and myself, and luckily my life rarely involves being in crowded places.

I do have a regular flu, this makes it harder to do simple tasks, like tiling rooms. After a tough week I´m feeling better now, so things will move much faster.

So, about the misterious lower part of area 4... I already did the basic rooms, there´s a lot of tiling left, and it still doesn´t have any scripted parts.
What I can tell you about it without spoiling too much: It´s not too small, there´s an item to be collected, there might be a miniboss waiting for you, it´s completely optional (so, no Metroids down there).

I read many of the ideas you people posted on the last blog post, there were some really cool ones, but I had to come up with something within the reach of my skills and my free time (I don´t want to spend too much time on a single area).
Thank you for your suggestions!

In other news, this year´s Nintendo Community Fangame Convention has been confirmed for October 26th. There´s going to be some awesome Metroid Fangames this year (incuding AM2R), so be sure to bookmark the NCFC page.

So, I was thinking, there´s still a lot of work left for the project to be finished. In the meantime, would you like to play an updated version of the demo, to be released on the NCFC? I might include the latest engine features for you to try out, and some level updates... but of course that would distract me from the main project.

I still haven´t decided about it, what do you think? Would you prefer to play a new demo and wait some more for the final thing, or simply wait until I finish the game a bit faster?

Done, but too small

2009-07-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

All the rooms of area 4 are done, they still need some tiles, and the outside of the tower is still made of dull square blocks, but it´s playable.

After the first test I noticed how small and simple this area is, compared to eralier ones. I did add some scripted surprises inside the tower, and even if it´s bigger than the original, it´s not enough. So, I was thinking on adding some extra rooms below the tower, so what we really visited in Metroid 2 was the upper part of a bigger structure, buried inside the cave.

The Chozo are one of the most mystical and advanced civilizations of the universe, and they decide to make a tower in the deep underground of a dangerous planet... they must have a GOOD reason to be so unpractical.

Anyway, another problem I found is the main cave room. In this case, rooms are parts of a level that are separated with transitions, it could be a single screen, or a huge cave. The bigger the room, the slower the game gets.
When I tried the game on a slower PC, the framerate crawls down to 20FPS in that room. So, I think I´ll have to divide it into 3 smaller rooms to make it faster. After all, if you´ll spend a lot of time climbing the tower, it better be fast.

Last but not least, thanks to JayCity from Botkun Workshop, portuguese speaking people can read the FAQ in their language: informação no português

Informação em português

2009-07-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Perguntas Frequentes

-O que é AM2R?
É um projecto para refazer o segundo jogo da saga clássica “Metroid”.
Metroid 2: Return of Samus, criado pela companhia Nintendo há mais de uma década para o Game Boy clássico, importante para a historia de Metroid, marcando momentos da saga antes e depois do jogo. AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake, Outro remake de Metroid 2) expande o conceito original para incluir gráficos actualizados, novas áreas de jogo e jogabilidade moderna.

-Em que linguagem é programada o jogo?
Eu uso o “Game Maker 7”. Podem fazer uma visita a http://www.yoyogames.com/

O nome oficial vai ser AM2R?
Não, é um nome preliminar. Quando o jogo estiver terminado, vou baptiza-lo com outro nome.

-Em que plataforma vai sair? Vou poder jogar na minha DS/GBA/PSP?
Neste momento apenas para plataforma Windows. Se o Mac OS receber uma versão do Game Maker, é possível que se faça um “port” para Mac. Não há planos para versões de consolas.

Quando é que vais acabar o jogo? Eu quero jogá-lo!!!
Eu também!
Depende do tempo livre que tenho para investir no jogo.
Mas tenho esperanças de poder terminar ainda este ano.

-Qual é o estado do projecto?
Eu diria a mais de 50%. As habilidades básicas já estão feitas há algum tempo.
Das cinco áreas do jogo, três estão prontas.
Faltam fazer mais alguns Metroids, só estão concluídos os Alfa e os Gamma.

-Todo este projecto é feito apenas por uma pessoa?
Não. A base do meu trabalho é um motor de jogo feito por Martin Piecyk, poupando algum tempo a implementar as noções básicas do sistema.
Uns meses depois de mostrar este projecto ao público geral, recrutei um desenhador de “sprites” para fazer o novo desenho dos inimigos e do Metroids, o seu pseudónimo é HyruleSwordsMan.

-Eu quero ajudar!!! Posso fazer parte deste projecto?
Neste momento estou a progredir muito bem e tenho tudo debaixo de controlo. Mais tarde é possível que aja audições para músicos/compositores. Quando chegar o momento publicarei uma nota neste blog.

-Porque que é que não programas em C++? É mais eficiente e portátil!
Não sou programador profissional. Faço isto como actividade de lazer, e pude aprender a usar o Game Maker no meu tempo livre. O meu código não será o melhor nem o mais rápido, mas funciona.

-Vais fazer novas áreas/habilidades/inimigos?
Há uma nova área planeada, onde encontrarás: o Gravity Suit e as Power Bombs. Há novos mini-boss em cada área, excluindo o único que já havia no original (Arachnus). As habilidades são aquelas que podes ver na demonstração (demo), e muitas mais.

-Vai publicar o código fonte?
Não

Area 4, finally - French info

2009-06-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Mr. Clément Puppo, French speaking people can read the info/FAQ post in their native language. If you wish to translate the FAQ to your own language, and maybe later the game text, let me know.

Informations sur le jeu en français

I finally started to make all the planned rooms for area4, and this one will be very different from the original. I´m not adding too many new places, but it will be something much more interesting than the original corridors.

I`ve read all the comments of the last post, seems like the last video generated many questions and concerns. Here are some facts that you should know:
- This is a Work In Progress video preview, you saw how things have changed from the first trailer, things are gonna change even more (for the better I hope).
- Gammas are not complete yet. There are minor things to tweak, and I still have to animate them more naturally.
- The Alpha intro will be redone eventually, the current version isn´t dramatic enough (you´re right).
- Arachnus will look different. Right now all I´ve done with him is the intro with the Fusion sprite.
- I recorded the footage with a script that took a screenshot on every frame, and since I recorded the game running quite slow, the resulting animation looks like a Tool Assisted Speedrun. There´s no rapid fire, it´s just me firing unusually fast. If you look at the battle with the Shirk, I try to control the firing speed with the beam.
- Tiles and backgrounds will be worked on, it´s not prioritary right now.

It´s good to see people with solid opinions on how to make the game better, I appreciate your suggestions.
Thank you very much for the feedback!

Informations sur le jeu en français

2009-06-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

- Qu’est-ce que AM2R?
L’objectif du projet AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake, pour « un autre remake de Metroid 2 ») est de recréer Metroid 2 : Return of Samus, à l’origine réalisé par Nintendo sur la console portable Gameboy. Le jeu est développé avec Game Maker, et apporte des nouveautés graphiques, sonores et de gameplay, issues du dernier Metroid : Zero Mission sur Gameboy Advance.

- Puis-je jouer à une démo ?
Oui, il existe une démo technique. C’est un petit jeu avec sa propre histoire et ses propres bosses, histoire de montrer comment sera le gameplay du jeu fini. Jetez un œil dans la colonne de droite, sur le lien vers « Metroid : Confrontation ».

- Je ne peux pas démarrer la démo ! Tout ce que je vois c’est un écran titre !
Les touches d’actions par défaut sont Z et X, utilisez-les pour démarrer le jeu, ou configurer vos propres touches. Vous pouvez aussi utiliser une manette.

- Ridley et Kraid seront-ils présents dans le jeu ?
Non, ils ne seront pas présents dans Metroid 2. Ils sont exclusifs à la démo technique.

- Quand le jeu sera-t-il terminé ?
Je ne sais pas. J’espère avoir du temps libre ces prochains mois, il est possible qu’il soit terminé cette année.

-Où en est le projet ?
Je dirais environ 60%. Les techniques de base sont programmées depuis quelque temps. Des cinq zones, trois sont prêtes.

- Je n’aime pas le nom AM2R, changera-t-il ?
Oui, mais je n’ai pas encore décidé du nom. Toute suggestion est la bienvenue.

As-tu TOUT programme toi-même ?
Non, j’ai démarré avec le moteur de jeu de Martin Piecyk, et l’ai modifié pour ajouter toutes les aptitudes propres à Metroid.

- Porteras-tu le jeu sur DS/PSP/Mac ?
Sachant que les jeux développés avec Game Maker ne peuvent être compilés sur d'autres plate-formes que le PC, non. Si une version Mac de Game Maker voit le jour, je me pencherais sur la question, mais une version console n'est en aucun cas prévue.

- Pourquoi ne codes-tu pas en C# ? C’est mieux/plus flexible/portable.
Je ne suis pas programmeur. J’ai appris à utiliser Game Maker tout seul : en créant des jeux non finis en lisant des tutoriels et en regardant des exemples. Mon code n’est pas parfait, mais je me débrouille pour que les choses soient faites.

- Ne serais-tu pas le DoctorM qui créa un remake de Brutal : Paws of Fury sur MUGEN ?
Si. C’était il y a longtemps, ce fut mon premier jeu complet. Trop mauvais, le moteur MUGEN mourut avant qu’une version Windows soit disponible. Vous pouvez trouver le jeu ici.

- As-tu fait la musique de la demo ?
Non. La chanson principale provient de http://www.modarchive.org, la chanson du combat contre Ridley vient d'un vieux MusicDisk pour Amiga, mais je ne sais plus lequel.

- J'ai vu le trailer sur Youtube, d'où vient cette chanson ?
http://www.metroidmetal.com/

- Y aura-t-il de nouveaux boss ? Des pirates de l’espace ? Des « easter eggs » ?
Une zone supplémentaire est prévue, où l'on pourra trouver la combinaison deGravité et les bombes de puissances. Il se peut qu'il y ait un ou deux boss gardant la zone des Ruines Chozo, je n'ai pas encore décidé.

- Pourquoi as-tu rendu le jeu public si hâtivement ? Tu risques de voir Nintendo demander l’arrêt de ton projet !
J’ai créé ce blog pour partager mes design notes avec d’autres Game designers. Je ne pensais pas que le projet deviendrait si populaire.

- Rendras-tu public le code source du jeu ?
Non.

(Si vous pensez avoir une meilleure traduction concernant certains passages, n’hésitez pas à nous la signaler)

New Video - AM2R Preview 3

2009-05-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

First of all thanks for all the birthday greetings, they cheered my week up.
Anyway, here´s the new video I promissed. You can watch the YouTube version here:

Or, you can take a minute to download the high quality 60 FPS version (Requires XVid codec):

Rapidshare - MegaUpload - MediaFire

Basically, the video shows a comparison between the original and the redone versions of some places and events. There´s some old footage from past videos, re-recorded with the new tile sets. Oh, and you can see a Gamma Metroid, finally.

Have a good weekend.

Working on the new trailer

2009-05-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

Last week I visited a friend of mine, who showed me some footage he created with After Effects. That woke up my curiosity, and I started some research about its capabilities. The feature that made me drool was support for 60 FPS video. I thought of making a high quality version of the trailer before, but that framerate wasn´t supported by the programs I use regularly.
I tried it out, and the result is impressive.

So, the bad news is: there will be no trailer this week. The good news: I´m re-recording all the previous footage in 60 FPS, and I´ll make a high quality version available for download (in addition to the butchered YouTube version). The video size will be 320x240, making it any bigger would distort the pixels.

The original plan for the trailer was to show some updated areas, and some new ones.
I revamped the tiles of some places, with the method I told you last time, and added some new backgrounds. There were places and features that were functional, and now they are also good looking.

This week will be quite slow, since I have some social obligations regarding my birthday. I´m usually not that productive during hangovers. But I´ll do my best to finish the trailer for next week. After all, every new and reworked rooms done for the trailer are also progress for the game.

Have a good week.

Back to normal

2009-05-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

Things are up and running again, not as good as before, but enough to bring food to the table. I manage to work on the project for about an hour a day for now, so progress is starting to be steady.

Before starting with area 4, I´m changing the layout of some parts of area 3. Specially the lower parts. Many Metroid fights are too cramped, so I´m making slightly larger rooms for more exciting Gamma fights.

I´m also editing all the Zero Mission based tileset to remove the black outline, so they merge much better with the background. The outline really helps in a handheld screen, here it looks quite cartoony.

I´m recording some material from the original game, and some unseen parts of AM2R to create a new trailer. If everything goes well, you´ll be meeting the Gammas on the next update.

I want to thank all the great people that understood this last delay, I really appreciate your support.

Too much work...

2009-04-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

These last couple of weeks were strange. Most of my customers simply disappeared, bands were separated, musicians became sick, and in no time I had an almost empty week at the studio, and many expensive bills to pay.

This happens frequently, economic crisis is part of our life here, but this time it´s taking my free time to gather new customers. Last week I couldn´t even find time to open Game Maker to, at least, lay some tiles anywhere.

The project had these kind of delays before, but this is the first big one you people witness.
I had no news on HyruleSwordsMan lately, he surely is busy too.

Anyway. I´ll try to solve my work troubles as soon as possible, and make a teaser video with some Gamma Metroid footage.
Thank you very much for following the project, for your great comments, and for your patience.

Showing signs of life

2009-03-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

I´ve been with a lot of work lately. Life is eating my time away, but I manage to find time for the project once in a while. I even drew a tileset while I was recording voice actors for a documentary.

I retiled most of the breeding area 3, I had to add more variety to the tileset, it was too repetitive. Changed the tiles of the tunnel connecting area 3 with the main shaft, instead of a recolor of existing brick tiles, I´m using new original tiles.

The Gammas were tweaked yet again. Some fights are in very closed spaces, and some gammas were moving too fast.

Zeta Metroids are coming out pretty well. Both HyruleSwordsMan and me are working on animating a wireframe sketch of the zetas with all the required actions, before he starts drawing the details. This gives us an idea of how many frames each animation will take, and how many positions need to be drawn for every part.We´re trying to make things look as fluid as possible. For example, the current sketch for the walking animation has 21 frames.
The Zeta sprites will take more time to produce than the past Metroids, but it´ll be worth the wait.

A lot of people asked me to show screenshots or videos of the Gamma Metroids. The way gammas are drawn, they use sprite rotation much more than the Alphas. Rotation is applied subtly to give the body a more "floaty" sensation, and to each limb to create the animations in real time. The thing is, that most screenshots look distorted in at least one part of the Gammas. That´s why I want to show it on a video, instead of images.
Now, I still have to redo some of the animations. Most of them look very mechanical right now. Whenever I find time to redo them in a more natural way, I´ll post a video showing a fight.
Only if you want to spoil the surprise of running into them in the game.

Do you want to see the Gamma Metroids?

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention: Lee Evans of Downwards Compatible closed a series of great Metroid related articles with an interview with me. I cannot recommend his blog enough, it´s a great read.

INFO ACTUALIZADA EN ESPAÑOL

Drawing the Zetas

2009-03-07T06:23:00.000-08:00

So, Gammas are coming out nicely. Battles are challenging and fair, there´s much more attack variety compared to Alphas. The cool thing is that you´ll see new attacks as you discover more Metroids, so once you encounter a Gamma, you´ll surely experience something new.
The customizable moves took some time to code, but it´s really worth it.

The slow map screen was redone from scratch. Now the map is drawn using tiles, instead of hundreds of objects. Also, the scanlines effect was removed, it made the background too distracting.

And last, but not least, Zeta metroid sprite production has begun. This sprite set will be a lot more challenging. Since this is a bipedal creature, animations will be quite complex.

I´m sorry for the lack of updates these days, I´ve been working too much.
Comments and suggestions are welcome, as always.

Gammas are too hard...

2009-02-12T22:54:00.000-08:00

Earlier today I posted a general information page written in spanish, this will help me write the updates in 2 languages.

Si buscas información en español, puedes hacer click en el link a la derecha. ->

The progress these days:
I´m constantly tweaking the Gamma Metroids AI. Right now they´re extremely hard to defeat. They have a couple of attack patterns, but they´re too difficult to hit, since the core is hidden deeper into the creature, compared to Alphas. And I haven´t coded the lightning attacks yet.

I have plans to redo the map screen display system. A lot of objects are used to draw the entire map, this causes a severe slowdown on older machines. I´m trying to find a way to use fewer objects (and I´m already using deactivation).

I know it´s not much progress, but work was unusually busy these weeks.
Like always, comments are welcome.

Información en Español

2009-02-12T22:43:00.000-08:00

The following post has general information about the project written in spanish.

Este post contiene información sobre el proyecto en español, acá vas a encontrar las respuestas a las preguntas más comunes, información sobre el progreso, en fin, de todo un poco. A medida que haga nuevos post sobre el progreso en inglés, voy a ir agregando la última traducción a este post, así que pueden agregar esta parte a sus favoritos y estar actualizados.
Voy a tratar de escribir en un tono lo más neutro posible, si se me escapa algo en lunfardo avisenme por favor.

Si tienen alguna duda pueden postear un comentario o directamente escribirme un mail a doctorm64(ARROBA)live.com

PROGRESO
(Actualizado 28 mar 2009)

Estuve con mucho trabajo ultimamente. La vida me está ocupando mucho tiempo, pero cada tanto puedo encontrar un momento para trabajar en el proyecto. Hasta llegué a ponerme a dibujar tiles mientras grababa a locutores para un documental.

Reapliqué tiles a la parte inferior del area 3, tuve que agregarle variedad a los gráficos que eran bastante repetitivos. Reemplacé unos ladrillos que había reciclado de un area anterior con unos nuevos, dibujados para la ocasión.

Los Metroid Gamma fueron modificados de vuelta. Como algunas luchas transcurren en lugares muy cerrados, algunos Gammas eran demasiado rápidos.

Los Metroid Zeta van bastante bien. Tanto HyruleSwordsMan como yo estamos trabajando en la animación de bocetos de lineas para cada una de las acciones, antes de que HSM empiece a dibujar detalles. Esto nos da una idea de cuántos cuadros de animación tiene cada movimiento, y cómo hay que dibujar cada parte del cuerpo.Tratamos de hacer que los movimientos se vean lo más fluido posible. Por ejemplo, el boceto actual de la animación del Zeta caminando tiene 21 cuadros.Este set de sprites va a tomar mucho más trabajo que los Metroids anteriores, pero va a valer la pena.

Mucha gente me estuvo pidiendo imagenes y videos de los Gamma. El tema es el siguiente:De la forma que se dibujan en la pantalla, se usan efectos de rotación en el cuerpo (para que parezca estar levitando y no un cuerpo rígido), y para animar las extremidades en tiempo real.
En una imagen al menos una parte del Gamma va a salir distorsionada por el efecto. Por eso prefiero mostrarlos en video en vez de imágenes.Dentro de mis tareas planeadas está rehacer algunas de las animaciones. Algunos movimientos son muy mecánicos todavía, cuando llegue a rehacerlos de forma más natural, voy a mostrar al Metroid Gamma en acción en video.
Solamente si quieren arruinarse la sorpresa de encontrarselo en el juego por primera vez.

Que dicen, quieren ver a los Metroid Gamma?

PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES

- ¿Qué es AM2R?
Es un proyecto para rehacer desde cero el segundo juego de la saga clásica de Metroid.El Metroid 2: Return of Samus, hecho por Nintendo hace ya más de una década para el GameBoy clásico, marca un antes y un después en la trama de la historia de la saga. AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake, Otro remake de Metroid 2) expande el concepto original para agregar gráficos actualizados, nuevas areas de juego, y jugabilidad moderna.

- ¿Con qué lenguaje se está desarrollando el juego?
Uso Game Maker 7. Pueden echarle un vistazo en http://www.yoyogames.com/

- ¿El nombre oficial va a ser AM2R?
No, es preliminar. Cuando el juego esté a punto de ser terminado, voy a elegir un nombre.

- ¿En qué plataformas va a salir? ¿Voy a poder jugarlo en mi DS / GBA / PSP?
Por el momento solamente PC. Si el Game Maker recibe una versión para Mac OS, puede que haga un port para mac. No hay planes para hacer una versión para consolas.

- ¿Cuándo vas a teriminar el juego? Quiero jugarlo!!!
Yo también!
Depende mucho de mi tiempo libre. Tengo esperanzas de poder terminarlo para este año.

- ¿Cuál es el progreso del proyecto?
Algo más del 50% diría. Las habilidades básicas ya están hechas hace rato, de las 5 areas del juego 3 ya están listas. Faltarían hacer algunos Metroids, ya que solo están hechos los Alpha y los Gamma.

- ¿Todo el proyecto es obra de una sola persona?
No. Basé mi trabajo en un engine para juegos de plataforma hecho por Martin Piecyk, eso me ahorró tiempo a la hora de implementar el sistema básico. Unos meses después de hacerse público el proyecto, recluté a un spriter para hacer los nuevos enemigos y los sprites de los Metroids: HyruleSwordsMan.

- Yo puedo ayudar!!! ¿Puedo ser parte del proyecto?
Por el momento estoy progresando bastante bien a este ritmo, puedo tener todo bajo control. Más adelante puede que haga audiciones para músicos/compositores. Cuando llegue el momento voy a postear en este blog.

- ¿Por qué no trabajas con C++? Es más eficiente, y portable!
No soy programador profesional. Hago esto como hobbie, y pude aprender a usar el Game Maker en mi tiempo libre. Puede que mi código no sea optimo ni el más rápido, pero funciona.

- ¿Va a haber nuevas areas/habilidades/enemigos?
Hay una nueva area planeada, donde encontrarás: Gravity Suit y Power Bombs. Hay nuevos minibosses en cada area, aparte del único que había en el original (Arachnus). Las habilidades son las que pudiste probar en la demo, y algunas más.

- ¿Vas a publicar el código fuente?
No.

- ¿Porqué no escribes los posts en español, si eres argentino?
La mayoría de los fans del Metroid 2 original hablan en inglés, o al menos lo entienden. Me pareció la forma más rápida de mantener a la gente informada. Recién ahora (a pedido de mucha gente) dedico tiempo a escribir en español tambien.

- Tengo una pregunta y no puedo escribir en inglés, ¿Donde la hago?
Podés hacer un comentario en este post (voy a visitarlo seguido), o podés mandarme directamente un mail a doctorm64(ARROBA)live.com

One year already?

2009-01-26T17:10:00.000-08:00

I just noticed the project has been public for over a year. I could´ve prepared something, a trailer, screenshots, anything, but it completely slipped my mind...
My girlfriend is right, I suck at remember anniversaries.

Anyway, the progress these days:

- Added the automorph and autoclimb features. Automorph requires to hold down diagonally for 4 frames when near a ground tunnel, then Samus crouches and 4 frames later she morphs. This avoids accidental automorphing. To automatically climb a 1 or 2 block high ledge, touch the wall holding the direction and press Jump. Kinda like pulling up from the grip state. If the ledge leads to a tunnel, Samus automatically morphs after climbing.
This control scheme does not interfere with the classic style, so purists won´t be affected at all.

- Changed jumping mechanics a bit. Morphing while jumping doesn´t reset the vertical speed, unless you´re falling (otherwise the charge-bomb attack becomes useless in air). Also, firing from a spinjump preserves the vertical momentum as well.

- Expanded the transitions system. I tried to revamp it, but it was a complete failure. Instead I´m expanding the existing system with extra transition types. Now accessing the subscreen looks great. I had to do some serious bugfixing to the camera system. It´s incredible how fadein/outs can hide camera glitches.

EDIT: Here´s a video showing some of the new features.

- Started with the map screen eye candy. I had to tone down the scanlines, they looked horrible with the map grid on top. It´s still very basic:

The top bar will display the remaining metroids in the area, and in the whole game. The bottom bar will display the current game time and item completion percentage.

That´s about it.

Before I forget it again, AM2R got featured in an interview at Ars Technica. It´s a very interesting read: Resurrecting Classic Games
Thanks to Andrew Webster for letting me participate.

Ok, as always comments an suggestions are welcome.

Back to work

2009-01-10T13:50:00.001-08:00

These couple of weeks were refreshing, I rediscovered Cave Story (finally got to the Hell stage), I started another run of Soldexus, and played countless hours of Call of Duty 4 (it´s so fun I forgot completely about Unreal Torunament).

Anyway, here are my plans for this summer:
- Work on Area 4
- Do the map screen
- Finish the subscreen
- Redo the transitions and fade system
- Rework Samus´ physics and some moves
- Code Gamma Metroids AI

Area 4 is my primary goal. Since I´m revamping it almost completely, I´ll be able to make interesting layouts instead of the basic design of the original.

The map screen is working, I´ll just make it look good, and accessible from the subscreen.

I came up with an idea about making a better and faster method for the transitions and fade in/outs. Since now I have to link the subscreen with the map screen, I need more flexibility to make transitions look better. I hope I can pull it off.

I might change one or two things about Samus´ moves:
- Change the spiderball command to the Aim button (several people suggested this, I´ll try it out)
- Keep vertical speed when firing from spinjump. Stopping in the air when firing is part of the "heavy" physics of Zero Mission, but I found it makes air combat feel unnatural. The battle against Kraid in the second demo could have been much more fun if the jumps weren´t limited this way. This change will be applied only to firing states, NOT the mid air morph. You have Power Grip for those situations, and you get it early in the game.
- Add an "Auto Climb" state and animation for small ledges (1 block high), and a slower one for high ledges (2 blocks high). The idea is, when you run against a ledge, samus automatically climbs it if you´re pressing the upwards diagonal direction (this way you won´t climb it accidentally if you´re just looking for cover).
- Add an "Auto Morph" state, similar to the one above, but for small openings on walls. It could be triggered by using just the downwards diagonal direction while running against the opening.
These are just ideas right now, I´ll try them out and see if they fit the current engine without changing the "Metroidy" feel too much.

The Gammas. HyruleSwordsMan finished the sprites before christmas.
Right now they behave like Alphas (I´m using them as a template), I still have to add the new states, and animate them. I made a basic sprite limbs system, it saves a lot of static frames, but it´s really tedious to animate.

I don´t know if I´ll finish all of these within these months, but there will be a lot of progress.
As always, all your comments and suggestions are welcome. If you asked questions in the last post, take a look at the comments, I´ll answer them in a minute.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

May you all find peace this holiday. And may this new year bring us all prosperity and happiness.

I´ll be taking a small break from work (and AM2R) these last 2 weeks of the year. I´ll have plenty of time to put into the project on January.

I did manage to improve the subscreen these days:

This one is taken from the engine, that screen back there is from the actual game. The text is still part of each section´s bitmap, the values at the top are still fixed, and there´s still no validation for the switched abilities (you can toggle anything without having the item). But it´s functional, and it´s as far as it could get this year.

As always, you´re free to post your oppinions, or just drop by and say hi. I´ll try to make some time to answer your questions. Ah, BTW, I replied to most people on the last post´s comments. If you asked anything back then, check it out.

Well, take care, enjoy the celebrations and have fun.
My best wishes for all of you.

DoctorM64

About the subscreen

2008-12-17T12:06:00.000-08:00

These days instead of progressing on level development, I worked on the menus and the subscreen. It´s really time-consuming to make a decent looking menu, and I´m still trying to put together a good subscreen layout.

So far, the main menu is done. I just have to add the classic small Samus cursor, and change the background for an original picture (that one is from the Metroid Prime comic).

On the other hand, the subscreen is barely functional. I´ve done the menu, but I´m still not convinced about the items layout. This is the latest mockup of it:

NOTE: THIS IS A MOCKUP!!!
Just to avoid complains about how much that screen sucks. This is just to determine where each part of the screen will be placed.
Anyway, the layout is inspired by Super Metroid (item grouping), Metroid Fusion (stats at the top of the subscreen), and there´s a brief description of every item on the bottom, like in Zero Mission.
The map screen will share the format (letterbox with blurred game screen on the background), to make the transition between both screens seamless.

For all the people asking: Yes, you´ll be able to toggle all the abilities and items you have via subscreen. By now I´ve scraped the idea of toggling beams in real time, there are no situations that need it, and you can do the same in the subscreen.

Well, once I have the proper artwork and layout, I´ll show you the progress. In the meantime, you can post your thoughts and suggestions about it, I´m all ears.

Progress Report

2008-12-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

I´ve been very busy this month, and I couldn´t make as much progress as I wanted.
Most of my free time was spent expanding the industrial complex part of area 3, it was too short. Now it´s double the original size, changes the location of a Metroid fight, and there´s a place to get Super Missiles.

There are a couple of unique features that take some time to implement and tweak, so overall the rough map of the complex is done.

As for the entire project...

Game Engine
Physics, states, behaviours - 98% (some tweaking left)
Abilities - 98%
Powerup System - 100%
Weapons - 98%
Enemies - 40%
Map System - 95%
HUD - 100%
Level Design - 50%
Sound FX - 60%
Music - 20%

Metroids
Alpha - 90%
Gamma - 10%

System
Menus - 50%
Save System -10%
Game Management, cutscenes, etc. - 20%
External Resource Management - 70%

OVERALL PROGRESS - 60%

COMPLETED FEATURES
Samus
- Basic states (run, jump, spinjump)
- Morph ball
- Jump Ball
- Spider Ball
- Screw Attack
- Space Jump
- Speed Booster
- Super Jump (normal and ball form)
- ShineSpark
- Power Grip
- Wall Jump
- Hi Jump
- Power Suit
- Varia Suit
- Gravity Suit
- Combinable Beam Effects

Weapons
- Power Beam
- Bombs
- Missiles
- Super Missiles
- Ice Beam
- Plasma Beam
- Spazer Beam
- Wave Beam

Well, it´s quite obvious that it won´t be finished this year. I´m sorry, real life is eating my time these months, specially near the end of the year.
The most notable change these months compared to the last report (8 months ago), was the level design. Basically in that time I did area 2, revamped it, done area 3 and expanded it, and that´s without counting the new demo, that alone took about a month to complete.

Right now I´m about to start area 4, I´m trying to figure out a bigger layout that keeps the original idea.

Anyway, since customers tend to dissapear on summer, I´ll have a lot of free time in my hands for the project next month.

New Trailer

2008-11-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

This was supposed to be ready for the NCFC, but here it is:

As you might notice, Metroids become more aggresive as you advance in the game. This gives some variety, since you'll fight a LOT of Alphas in the game. Every Metroid in the game is customized depending on the environment.

I finally found some time to code some more enemies, so I could include them in the trailer.
Also, the music tracks are the current mixes of the main tunnel and encounter themes. The second one isn't finished yet, but at least gives an idea of how it will sound.

Ok, enjoy and tell me what you think.

NCFC Screenshots - Some Mods

2008-10-27T17:46:00.000-07:00

So, the Nintendo Community Fangame Convention is now over, and Project AM2R won the "Best of Show" award. Thanks to all the nice people at NCFC, it was an awesome event, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

These screens were NCFC exclusive. Since the event is over, you can now take a look.

So, in other news... I was waiting for the pizza delivery today and started playing around with some tiles. It ended up being a nice 8 bit tile mod for M:C. I also renamed some of AM2R's sprites to make a Varia and Gravity suit mod.

I hope this encourages creative people to "pimp" the demo up a little more.

Download links for the three mods are on the right pane of the blog. ->

Metroid: Confrontation Records

2008-10-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

any% - Normal - 03:09.76 by mocktroid
100% - Normal - 04:56.13 by cowphat
1item - Normal - 08:30:13 by me
any% - Hard - 08:44.04 by Lord.Roderick.I
100% - Hard - 06:57.53 by Lord.Roderick.I
1item - Hard - none yet
any% Pacifist - Normal - 03:57.58 by mocktroid
100% Pacifist - Normal - 06:09.86 by Naverin
1item Pacifist - Normal - none yet
any% Pacifist - Hard - 11:44.20 by Steven Nguyen
100% Pacifist - Hard - 24:33.84 by Jaap Rutten
1item Pacifist - Hard - 12:41.08 by SangueDuMal

If you've beaten any of these times in M:C 1.1, email me with a snap of the stats screen, or a youtube video of the run, and I'll list your name on the next update. In order to qualify for a "pacifist" run, you must not kill any normal enemies, just the bosses. So, if the stats screen shows only 2 kills, you've made it. Being killed does not disqualify the run for any category, it can even be used as a shortcut.

NCFC

2008-10-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

The Nintendo Community Fangame Convention was launched today!
Be sure to attend, there are many cool fangames there, and if you go to the AM2R booth, you'll be able to see an exclusive preview of the Alpha Metroids.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish the trailer in time.
Anyway, I resumed my work on the main project. Right now I'm mapping the lower part of Area 3, the vertical plant zones. I'm also adding enemies as soon as Hyrule_SwordsMan makes the sprites.

The Metroid: Confrontation records list was moved to its own post, so you can discuss strategies there. It's also easier to edit for me.

Update

2008-10-15T14:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, there were a few issues with the sprites in the demo release, so I decided to fix that, and use the update to tweak some other details too. Here's Metroid:Confrontation V1.1, with the following changes:

Fixed collision on spazer beam room
Fixed sprite glitch (samus invisible sprites)
Added a lot more enemies, most for hard mode
Fixed Kraid Spazer exlpoit
Fixed Kraid nail not being hit by pseudo-screwattack
Added Hornoad spit projectile
Changed some enemies behavior on hard mode
Fixed blocks with tiles becoming invisible when coming from map screen
Added alternative way to exit the game (Alt+F4)
Menu options can be selected with fire button too
Fixed opening missile hatch without missiles
Modified layout of the speed booster room
Kraid platforms speed vaires depending on the difficulty
Added extra health for bosses in hard mode
Fixed intro effect happening when returning to the first room

So, if you wanted an extra challenge on hard mode, be sure to check this update up.

DOWNLOAD v1.1
YoYoGames
64Digits
Rapidshare
MegaUpload
WillHostForFood
MediaFire

For those who haven't played the game yet, here's a trailer:

Metroid: Confrontation - RELEASED!

2008-10-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

It's done, so I decided to release it early.
I guess I wanted some rest from the project this weekend.

DOWNLOAD

YoYoGames (Instant Play enabled)
MediaFire
RapidShare
WillHostForFood
MegaUpload

I'll be adding more mirrors as soon as I finish the uploads.
Have a nice weekend, have fun, and don't forget to post your best times.

To Mod, or nor To Mod

2008-10-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

So, the Metroid: Confrontation is almost ready. I just have to tweak some details, separate the game from the main project, and test the game intensively.

I was watching videos the other day, and found THIS cool speedrun of the first demo. This skillful player changed the Ridley song, and it fits the fight very well. So, I wondered if this game in particular should support some sort of modding.
It wouldn´t hurt the story to have customizable aspects, since all you modify can be the way the Galactic Federation did the simulation.

The question is, would you like me to include a way of making your own suit, backgrounds, tiles and soundtrack?

This idea is just for Metroid: Confrontation, AM2R won´t support mods.

Metroid: Confrontation

2008-09-23T04:53:00.000-07:00

So, the demo has a new name: Metroid: Confrontation

This name was suggested by Afro-Shroom.

The storyline will be on the simulation side, a training excercise based on the combat data researched in the first Zebes mission.

There were a lot of really cool ideas, and I thank you all for taking the time to share them. I had to choose the name and story that fitted the already existing demo best. Some of these ideas were so cool, that they deserve an entire game (Like the Ridley chase sequence, or the X incident dream).

If everything goes well, Metroid: Confrontation will be released on October 13th.

New Demo... New Name?

2008-09-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

It´s been months since the project became public, and the first demo was released. At that time it was just a couple of test rooms and an improvised boss battle, but today it´s more than just that.
There´s people who still complain about Ridley not being in the original Metroid 2 game, they just don´t interpret the words "Tech Demo". So, in order to make things much more clear, I´ll give the demo a name.

This, from now on, will be a little game on its own. It has all the upgrades of the first demo, some new rooms, and the following new features:
- Jump Ball
- High Jump
- Spazer Beam
- A surprise at the end :-)

I´d like to hear some name suggestions from you. The game is unrelated to the Metroid storyline, keep that in mind. You can also write a small storyline, so I can add it in a small cutscene at the beginning. The whole game can be a training excercise, memories from past adventures, a parallel dimension, anything.
The only rule is the name format, It will be like this:

Metroid: [New Name Here]
AM2R Tech Demo

If your name is chosen you´ll be listed in the credits. This is just for the demo. Before the actual project is released I´ll be letting you pick a name for it.

You can post your suggestions here, or you can EMail me if you need to know any details of the game, so I don´t spoil any more surprises to the rest of the people.

Thanks in advance!

Working on the new demo

2008-09-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

I paused the normal project development this week to start working on the next tech demo. As already mentioned, this updated tech demo will be available for the NCFC.

Changes since V1.0 (so far):

New areas to explore. The demo is twice as big as before.
New powerups for you to try (Hi-Jump and JumpBall)
More hidden missile expansions for the explorer gamers.
Engine optimizations. Slowdown is reduced when playing in older PCs.
CUSTOMIZABLE CONTROLS with JOYPAD SUPPORT!!! (Finally!!)
Options menu. You can customize the screen settings, sound volume and input settings.
Ridley is now more balanced. You won´t have to rely so much on the bomb trick.

Before you ask: No, you won´t have that many missiles in the demo, I was just testing the boss battle.

All my free time is focused on this new version, so I hope the finished product can be a nice speedrunnable game, and an oportunity to try more of the engine.

Progress on Area 3

2008-08-22T14:59:00.001-07:00

Area 3 is almost done. The upper part turned out to be like an industrial complex, with a small mining facility on the east side of the building. There are still some backgrounds to make for these parts, but the area is done and playable.

So, next is the breeding enviroment of Area 3. I´m preparing the "plant pipes" tileset of that area. Making balanced Metroid encounters on vertical shafts will be fun, but complicated.

After I finish Area 3, only the fourth area, the Omegas nest and the Queen´s lair will be left (and all the caves that connect those areas). The most complicated areas are practically done, since Area 4 is a relatively small tower, the final area is really simple and the Omegas nest will use a small modification of the bubble tileset from Zero Mission (The one in Ridley´s room in the tech demo). I do have to add some variety to the backgrounds, and plan how big the new area will be, but the progress so far is very promising.

If everything goes well, after I finish Area 3, I´ll coordinate efforts with HyruleSwordsMan to start with the Gamma Metroid sprites.

I´ve read all your comments about the music, thank you for your oppinions.
I already tweaked the main tunnel song to make it more "Metroidy", it follows the original song a little bit more closely in terms of rythm. I won´t be showing you anymore unfinished songs for now, pleople will criticize them as if they were the finished product, and that won´t be helpful at all.
I might use one of the new original songs for the next trailer... I have to think about it.

Music Preview!

2008-07-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Here´s a premix of the main tunnel song, keep in mind that this version will change until the game is released, specially the drums section.

There will be more atmospheric tracks, don´t worry. I just wanted to keep alive the original rithm, even if it´s for the first section of the game.

About the Metroid fight music: There will be a variation of the fight song for every evolution, Omegas will feature a new song and the Queen battle song will be a remake of the original one.
I´m finishing the Alpha Metroid fight song for the upcoming trailer.

Started working on the third ruins, I´m still sketching the rooms while finishing some original tiles for the outside part of the temple.

Anyway, let me know what you think about the music style, all your comments are really appreciated (Yes, I read them all).

Music Progress

2008-07-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

People asked me by mail last week: "Why did you wait so much to start making the game music?". Well, back when the project started I had a very different idea of what the game was going to be like when finished. Now I can see and actually feel how this game is evolving, and these are some ideas I have about the soundtrack:

It won't be orchestrated. Not because I can't make nice arrangements, I just want to differentiate AM2R from VonRichter's Metroid:SR388 in terms of style, and this includes music.
And besides, VonRichter clearly kicks my ass at composing epic soundtracks.

So, I chose a more electronic approach. I'm using some elements from Metroid Prime 1 (filtered drums with background choirs and pads), and the Metroid fights will be like boss battles in Fusion (upbeat techno, just to raise the tension). This kind of sound will fit the game style.

For example, the main tunnel theme is catchy and invites to the adventure of exploring SR388. The ruins areas are calm and mysterious, the player senses something terrible happened there.

After clearing an area, as you go deeper into the planet, the main theme changes according to the new areas. Caves become darker, and the music becomes atmospheric and clautrophobic.

I hope you could understand anything I wrote, it's even more evident that English isn't my native language when I try to describe music.

About the music progress: I just finished the first version of the main tunnel theme. I'll show you a preview on my next post, right now I'm tweaking the song everytime I get my hands on it.

This is how the project looked like before automation made it a mess

NCFC 2008 has been announced, and I've registered a booth. I'm preparing some exclusive material: A new trailer, some new screens of the latest developed areas, and a new demo. The trailer might give you a preview of a Metroid fight, the demo will be mostly an update fixing some bugs, improving performance and adding customizable controls (Finally!!).

Regarding your comments about the endings: Yes, there will be multiple endings in the game, depending on completion time, item percentage and difficulty level (there are 3). When the time comes I'll be choosing an artist to draw the ending screens, since I totally suck at drawing, and HyruleSwordsMan is specialized in sprites.

Thank you all for your support.

About to begin Area 3...

2008-06-28T13:27:00.001-07:00

The second area is done, at least the map and tiles. There are some scripting events to be done and tweaked. Right now I'm preparing the tilesets for the third area. Just as many of you suggested, the ruins will be some kind of industrial/mining facilities.

Here is a snapshot of the caves before the third area, this shows the new tile color palette. The background will be properly replaced soon.

Alpha Metroids are being tweaked and improved all the time. Currently they have the normal introductions done (normal and coming out of the cocoon), I'll be adding more these days.

Sound production is becoming really funny. In order to do some cool screeching sounds for the different Metroid evolutions, me and a friend are recording some really weird screams here at the studio, and then applying a lot of effects. I'm ripping sounds from plenty of games too, sound test in emulators are really useful. These will be used to create new sounds for the game.

Music production has also begun, there's still a long way to complete the soundtrack.

Thanks everybody for your comments and suggestions, I really appreciate them.

Alphas are alive...

2008-06-12T19:26:00.001-07:00

I won´t be showing you screens yet, the sprites are being tweaked.

I´ll share with you some info about the current state of the Alpha Metroids:

Their behavior is very different from the original, since Samus can aim diagonally and you can see a larger portion of the level on the screen. Alphas charge at you at great speed.
They can´t be damaged by frontal hits, you have to hit their core, this means you´ll have to avoid them and hit them from their back, or bottom.
They are going to be more agressive as you progress. Later Alphas will take more damage to defeat, they´ll use a charge attack, and some will dodge incoming missiles.
Alpha Metroids can´t be hit while stunned. You´ll make sure you aim every missile, instead of firing a barrage and depleting your supply in seconds.
Super Missiles deal 2x damage to Metroids, instead of the normal 5x. Stun time is slightly longer, so if you want to keep attacking, you´ll have to time your shots differently.
PowerBombs, ScrewAttack and SuperJump/Shinespark won´t have any effect on Metroids. There were cool ideas around about using any of these to temporarily paralize them, but they would be easily abused.

Right now I´m coding the intro sequences: Coming out of a Metroid shell, and normal encounter. The AI is quite challenging, I´m trying to minimize the possibility of cheap fight tactics to kill them. Battles are unpredictable so far.

I´ve read many cool comments suggesting cool abilities in the last post. Energy leeching grab attacks are planned for later evolutions, since Alphas have very small claws. Zetas and Omegas will be mainly walking, Zetas will be able to temporarily float, Omegas will jump.

I´ll mention this once more, just for the people who ask this every day:
NO SPACE PIRATES ON METROID 2, NO SPACE PIRATES HERE
This also means no Ridley. Sorry if you were excited about him.
It´s not that it wouldn´t be cool to make them part of the story, but I already have a lot of game to make, including pirates would make me take even longer to finish.

About the third area: Mining facilities is the best option I´ve read. Thank you all for your great ideas and thoughts.
It would make sense to gather minerals that deep into the planet, a processing plant could be a good part of those ruins too. I´ve been thinking of some mechanical puzzles, I even came up with a drill machine that, when activated, drills a path for you to collect an item. I have many ideas on paper right now, if you think of something cool, I´d love to hear it.

Alpha Metroids on their way

2008-05-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

The second ruins are almost done, I still have to add some scripted events, but the map is there.

So, I´ve coded 11 enemies so far, a few of those have some interesting and complex behavior. I made a version of Ridley for the demo, and it came out quite well, even if it was an experiment.
I feel I´m ready to start working on Alpha Metroids. I know I´m capable of making interesting enemies to fight, and I have some cool ideas for all the Metroid evolutions that I´m sure I´ll be able to pull off succesfully. Metroids are a key part in this game, and I wanted to be sure they are well coded.

Most of the actions of the Alphas are planned. Not all of them will behave the same way, and some will appear in unexpected ways (Sorry, I don´t wanna spoil the surprise).
I´m taking into account that Samus can now aim in 8 directions, and an Alpha would last 5 seconds if it behaves like in the original game. They will be faster, more agile, and smarter. I´m still trying to figure out a way to make them learn to avoid incoming missiles.
There will be enviromental interaction to aid you in battles, but in rare ocasions.

Hyrule_SwordsMan is busy with exams, so Alpha Metroid sprites production will begin in a couple of weeks.

To all the people who are asking for screenshots: I won´t be posting screens until I finish the new areas. Backgrounds and tilesets are being tweaked and recolored all the time, so whatever I show you now, it will be different in a couple of days.

If you have any suggestions about anything, I´m all ears. Thanks!

Progress Report: Second Ruins

2008-05-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

Progress has been slow but steady these days.
I decided to redo the second ruins from scratch, since they were too close to the original map. I also planned some cool puzzles and scripted events to add some variety.

First, I´ll list some ideas I have about the design of the chozo ruins in the game.
All the ruins have these in common:

There´s what it appears to be a Metroid breeding enviroment in every ruin, most of them under the main building.
The ruins are inside a hughe cave, and you can explore the outside part of the building.
There´s one beam upgrade and at least 1 item to find in these areas (the third ruins actually has 2 beam upgrades, but I´ll exchange it for another item).
Only one ruin has a boss battle, the second one (Arachnus)

The first ruins.
They are almost at the same level of the planet surface, so I made it look like a temple. It has the golden tiles of MZM, and some statues on the roof. Outside, at the upper side of the cave, you can see some of the sky of SR388 (the ruins appear to be inside a mountain).

The second ruins.
In the original map there are some pipes connecting different parts of the building. There´s also water pools in some rooms, and an underground lake. You even fight a Metroid underwater! (water has no effect on Samus on the GB version).
So, I made this place look like a water treatment plant. Many pipes, and some water-involving puzzles will be between Samus and the items.

The third ruins.
I have no idea what this area could be. I still haven´t decided.

In these ruins you get Spazer Beam and Space Jump.
There are some areas with a lot of sand.
The Metroid breeding area is under the building, and is made with plant tiles.

If you have any idea of what this place could have been when the Chozo were still on SR388, let me know.

The fourth ruins.
In this place you get all the beam upgrades. This tower like building could then be an armory or a weapons research facility. The corridors are heavily guarded by strong robot enemies.

The hive.
This is the final area, with all the Omega Metroids and the Queen.
I´m still planning what tiles will be used here.

This will give you an idea of how different the areas will be. Unlike the original, you´ll be able to tell in which area of the game you are by just looking at a single game screen.
Right now I´m making some new puzzle elements to make some of the second ruins areas more varied, without breaking the pace.

I won´t be posting screenshots this time, since I´m also updating the tilesets color palettes. The original MZM tiles are too bright, since they were designed for a small LCD screen. Playing the game on a PC monitor lets you play with contrast and dark rooms, without losing sight of the main character. The game is now aiming to a more atmospheric visual style.

Hyrule_SwordsMan is drawing awesome enemies. I´m coding the AI as they come out of the oven. Almost all the enemies of the first area are done.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions about the Chozo ruins, let me know.

Introducing the official spriter

2008-04-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

First of all, thanks to all the people who sent their work.
The criteria I used to choose among all the very talented people is how good they captured the style, and made sprites that would fit perfectly into the game.

So, the official spriter of the AM2R project is: Hyrule_SwordsMan
You´ll find some of his previous work in his Blog

Here are some new versions of enemies you´ve already seen:

The new yumbo

The first Tsumuris you find

Moheeks in the first tunnel

Gunzoo in a test room

HSM is now focusing on the enemy sprites, while I code the AI. I also took some time to balance out the stacked beam system, it was too overpowered.
After all the enemies are done, the Metroids come next... and that´s where the fun begins.

Project Resumes... and GFX stuff

2008-04-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I managed to reassemble a simplified recording studio. I won´t be able to do multitrack projects for a while, but at least I´m still working.

So, I´m starting to put some time on the project again.
Now, if you are skilled with graphics and spriting, I might be needing your help. Here are the enemy sprites I drew:

Feel free to criticize my drawing style. Anyway, if you want to be the project´s official spriter, just pick any of these enemies, shade or redraw it to fit the zero mission / super metroid style. There´s no color limitations, but it should look like 16 bit age enemies.
You can contact me via mail or MSN messenger at this address: doctorm64@live.com.
So, sharpen your photoshop pencils and good luck!

Latest dev shot:

The entrance to the second ruins (that will be a bridge someday)

Setback

2008-03-30T23:27:00.000-07:00

Progress is going to be momentarily paused.
Last night I had my first experience at live sound operation and recording. It went pretty well, until my portable rack got stolen. I had most of my recording stuff in there, along with most of my microphones and the audio interface.
So, right now I can no longer work.
It's gonna take a while to replace most of my equipment, since all the studio gear is imported (there's no national audio industry here).

Anyway, I don't like bothering other people with my personal issues, but one of many things I'll have to sell is my home PC, my main development machine. I'll migrate the project to my studio workstation, and resume work when this setback is taken care of.

In the meantime, here is the Metroid Map example I promised. If you are into GM programming, and need a simple and effective map, you might find it useful.

FAQs

2008-03-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

The project is becoming popular, I´m still shocked when people I know here in Buenos Aires ask me if I´m remaking Metroid 2. Here, GameBoys were rare back in the 90´s, but there´s people who know about the game and ask me about it. It might be beacuse I have an uncommon name. Who knows.

Anyway, there are comments everywhere. Half of them about cease & desist letters, the other half with questions or suggestions about the project. It would be tiresome to sign up on every forum and news site, so I bring you... AM2R FAQs: The questions that are made everywhere, answered here.

- When will the game be finished?
I don´t know. I hope to have some free time these months, it might be possible to finish it this year.

- I don´t like the AM2R name, will it change?
Yes, but the name is yet to be decided. Suggestions are welcome.

- Did you do ALL the programming by yourself?
No, I started with Martin Piecyk´s platform engine, and customized it to add all the Metroid abilities.

- Will you port the game to DS/PSP/Mac?
As long as Game Maker games can´t be compiled on other platforms than PC, no.

- Why don´t you code in C#? It´s better/more flexible/portable.
I´m not a programmer. I learned Game Maker the hard way: making unfinished games and looking at tutorials and examples. My code isn´t optimal, but I manage to get things done.

- Aren´t you the same DoctorM that remade Brutal Paws of Fury on MUGEN?
Yes. That was a long time ago, it was my first completed game. Too bad the MUGEN engine died before a Windows version became available. You can find the game here.

- I don´t like the keyboard layout of the tech demo
There will be customizable controls and joypad support in the final game.

- Did you make the tech demo music?
No. I got the main song from modarchive.com, the Ridley fight song is from an old Amiga Musicdisk, I can´t remember which one.

- I saw the YouTube trailer, where did you get that song?
http://www.metroidmetal.com/

- Do you really think Prince of Persia sucks?
No, It´s one of my favourite game sagas. That text was a placeholder, since I couldn´t remember the real powergrip description. I wrote that more in a "Take that, Prince of Persia!" way, believe me, it makes sense in spanish. Anyway, I thought I edited that part out, and it was already on YouTube when I realized the text was there.

- Is there going to be new bosses? space pirates? easter eggs?
There might be one or two bosses guarding the chozo ruins sections, I still have to decide it.

- Why did you make the game public so early? You´re gonna get a C&D from Nintendo!!!
I created this blog to share my design notes with other game designers, I didnt´t think the project would become so popular.

- Can I help?
I´ll be revising the enemy sprites soon, I´m gonna need help of good graphic artists.
My sprite sheets will be posted soon. Music will begin production once I have most of the game mapped. I´m waiting to actually play the sections that each song will represent to get the actual "feel" of the place. I´ll let you know whenever I need help.

- Are you gonna release the source code?
No.

- Where´s the Donate button?
I have absolutely no idea how to make one.

Feel free to post any other questions.
On the next post, I´ll show you how to make a Metroid Style map system.

The progress so far

2008-03-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

This is a rough estimate of how advanced the project is:

Physics, states, behaviours - 95%

Abilities - 95%

Powerup System - 90%

Weapons - 98%

Enemies - 15%

Map System - 99%

HUD - 100%

Level Design - 15%

Sound FX - 5%

Music - 0%

This little map shows a draft of the entire game, along with the already completed areas (the ones colored red are mapped and tiled).

Right now I´m mapping all the rooms of the game with black squares for tiles. This will give me an idea of how dynamic travelling between zones is, if a tunnel is too cluttered, etc. before spending too much time with tiles. I´m also trying to figure out how I´m going to implement the vertical pipes of the second ruins.

I noticed these days that the project is somehow extremely popular now. The rumor spread around many gamer sites with a lot of possitive comments, and advise about the "cease and desist" letter that many think is imminent. I learned about other great projects that got shut down for legal reasons, that made me feel a little more paranoid than before. I put a lot of effort and time into this little project, and I´d like to finish it at least.

I want to thank all the people that showed their support and constructive criticism.

For all the people that couldn´t find all the items on the demo, here´s a 100% run:

A year building

2008-03-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

2007
So there I was, beginning 2007 without my studio, without work.
Me and my girlfriend couldn´t afford vacations this year, so we focused on finding a new place for my studio. By the end of february we found an old house near a train station, it was practically destroyed, but I could see more than ruins there.

I rented the place, and started rebuilding my recording studio. I´m definetly not a handyman, I had to learn how to do practically everything, since construction is very expensive here. About 9 months of continuous work later, I reopened my recording studio, along with 3 rehersal studios. You can take a look here if you want.
I finished 2007 with new hopes, and more importantly, more energy to put into the project.

2008
I moved the project to Game Maker 7, this boosted the overall engine speed a bit. I also decided to make public my game. So, here we are.
By the end of January I started working on a tech demo, so the people would be able to experience the engine while they wait for the finished game. I spent a whole month putting together a bunch of rooms with some of the most important powerups and even a boss battle.
Right before I released the demo, I made a trailer video. It received very good comments so far:

A few days later, about a week ago, I released the Tech Demo.
So, here it is, enjoy it!

Project AM2R Tech Demo (YoYoGames)
Project AM2R Tech Demo (64Digits)

Some screenshots of the demo:

I hope you enjoy ther demo, please leave comments with your impressions and suggestions.

A year drawing

2008-02-25T16:42:00.000-08:00

The time is March 2006. Most of Samus´ moves are done, so I ventured in a dark and unexplored area of my life... Sprite Drawing.

I´m a sound technician, I really suck at drawing, but since I needed some original enemy sprites I decided to draw them. It didn´t matter if they were not that well drawn, some placeholder images would be fine.

So, first of all I ripped existing enemies from Metroid Fusion, since a part of the space station emulates the SR388 enviroment. Using the original Metroid 2 sprites as a starting point, I drew each enemy from scratch. I even developed a shading technique, it might be poor compared to a talented artist´s work, but I managed to draw all the enemies in a couple of months. I documented my humble spriting technique, I´ll post it here next time.

By this time I had the first couple rooms done, from the beginning up to the first Metroid fight. I added the classic transitions between rooms, a parallax scrolling system for backgrounds, hidden areas, a camera system with scriptable controls, Varia and Gravity suit, a save system, Samus´ ship, among other things.

On the second half of the year I faced my first real programming chalenge: the minimap system. I put a lot of thought before even writing a single line of code, I had too many ways to implement the map. I modified a small level editor for an unfinished breakout game, and used it to make the entire map with small 8x8 squares. Then, I made the editor export a series of 2d arrays describing each square. So, all I had to do is make a way to draw the entire map on the pause screen, and a few squares on the game HUD.
This was the first HUD element I made, ironically the most complex.

The game levels advanced a lot in those months. By the end of the year the first temple was roughly completed. A lot of other elements were tweaked and improved. Samus now had a health system, with damage multipliers that change according to the game difficulty and the current suit. I also added all the beam combos with their respective effects and sprites.

And here is where the real life factor kicks in.
By the end of 2006 my recording studio wasn´t going very well. So, my partner and I decided to close it. We spent the entire week before christmas dismantling our studio, the same studio we spent 6 months building a couple years ago.
So there I was, no business, no job, no partner, no mood for fangame coding. I almost broke up with my girlfriend, and THAT would´ve sucked.
By new year´s eve, it was the first time of my life when I actually closed my eyes, and made a wish: "a better year, just that".

2007 would be a year of change.

Samus Learns the Moves

2008-01-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

By January of 2006 the project had the basics. It was time to add the signature abilities. Every time I added a new move, even basic stuff, I tested it. I made a test level for each one, so I could test the new ability in every possible situation. Once everything was working correctly, I compared it to the original games to do some fine tuning.

For example, I added the MorphBall. It´s simple, but it required the following items to work correctly:

Change Samus´ collision so she is actually smaller and can fit small holes.
Add a morph and unmorph animation.
To morph correctly the crouch state change must be working, so you morph by double tapping Down.
Rolling on the ground and falling in the air have different animations.
Samus can morph and unmorph in the air. She also needs a double tap (one to aim down, one more to morph).
Morphing or unmorphing in mid-air resets the speed.
Whenever you unmorph you should check if there is enough room above to fit Samus.
Falling from a determined height makes Samus bounce a bit.
After unmorphing Samus goes to Crouching State, not Standing!

And this is just MorphBall. Other abilities are much more complex to implement properly. So AFTER checking everything I moved on to the next move.

Walljump! Actually it wasn´t hard to make.

PowerGrip was tricky, specially to align it right.

That´s 2 sprites, the legs and the torso (it changes depending on the aiming direction)

I struggled a lot to make the SpiderBall work.

ScrewAttack with some more eye candy.

SpeedBooster Test Levels were the best. I made some naughty shinespark puzzles.

The first beam, with all the aiming directions.

BombJumping! And that´s the first tileset I ripped.

All of Samus´ abilities were done in about a month. I had plenty of free time back then, and I could work on the project many hours a day.

By this time I really thought the project could be finished in a couple of months, but life had different plans.

Mimicking a Classic

2008-01-19T04:57:00.000-08:00

December 2005, the game is starting to shape.
It took almost a week to understand the engine, and to start modifying it without beaking anything. I tweaked the animation system, now it flipped the sprites instead of having a left and right version of every sprite. I added the first custom states: Morphball and Spinjump.

One of the first test rooms.

Trying out the Morphball.

The new states worked really well. But before adding anything else the few elements already done should be working correctly. So, instead of adding more abilities, I tweaked Samus´ physics to make the game feel right.

Emulation is a great tool to understand how things are made in games. So, I used VBA to take a closer look to basic things. I took frame by frame snapshots of the basic actions, then arranged them using Paint Shop Pro and compared the changes between frames. This revealed how fast Samus runs, how many frames does it take to morph, powergrip, etc.

The initial running acceleration.

The powergrip animation, vertical sprite offsets of each step.

This helped a lot to establish a goal regarding basic gameplay. All the subsequent tweaks were now heading to a clear direction. I knew what I was looking for.

Game Design - The beginning

2008-01-10T11:22:00.001-08:00

Designing a game is challenging. It requires the designer to know exactly what he's looking for in the game even before writing the first line of code. In order to make a succesful Metroid game, I had to study all the games, understand how they work, and then design my version.

When I contemplated the idea of a remake, I did the most obvious research first: Play the original again. I have to recognize, I kinda cheated. I played it on a Super GameBoy cartridge, instead of the original GameBoy. Most of the atmosphere and desperation was lost because of playing in a comfortable TV, just because batteries are really expensive here in Argentina.
I also used a printed version of a map I found in GameFaqs, so I didn't get too lost.

It was a great experience to play it again so many years later, suddenly the game was a lot easier than before, except of course the final battle. Playing with a B&W color sheme and the lights off is quite a trip.

Having completed and learned the "feel" of Metroid 2, I researched on everything I could find about the game. The story, Samus' backstory, secret worlds, etc. Tool Assisted Speedruns pushed the little game's limits and showed how you could skip entire areas by diving into lava.

Then came Super Metroid. It was hughe, until now I hadn't completed the game. This was a good excuse to play the best platform game on the SNES. After that I played again Zero Mission and Fusion, paying a lot of attention to how the engine works. Physics, frictions, speeds, jump heights, how walljump works, etc. Speedruns of Zero Mission are very interesting, since the game was designed with speedrunning in mind. It was then when I set my first design goal: The player must be able to play like this in my game.

So, I had the game in my mind finally:
- Zero Mission style graphics
- Samus should be fast and versatile like in ZM, so exploring would be easier
- The game should run smoothly, preferably at 60 fps
- There will be shortcuts for the speedrunning player

I then started with the engine. The most stable platform engine I found was Martin Piecyk's, it is solid and easy to customize. I ripped some of Samus' sprites using VBA and placed them into the engine. In a matter of minutes Samus was already jumping and running.
Having a platform game featuring Samus is easy. But making a full fledged Metroid game would be a challenge.

Screenshots!!!

2008-01-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'll show you the current state of the project. Anyway, this is all I'm gonna show you until I manage to make a trailer video. These screenshots compare the original gameboy places with my version.

Some aspects of the game design:

- The game will be as linear as the original. No open exploration, you HAVE to kill the Metroids of each area like in the original. However, I'm thinking of adding a Time Attack mode, with a lot more freedom to explore.
- Right now it plays a lot like Zero Mission. The upgrades available are the following:

MorphBall
Missiles
Super Missiles
PowerBombs
Spider Ball
PowerGrip
SpeedBooster (complete with Shinespark)
JumpBall
Hi Jump
ScrewAttack
Space Jump

- Spider Ball works just like the original one. It can grip in any surface, but it's really slow.
- PowerGrip has more animation frames than Zero Mission.

Weapons:

Charge Beam
Ice Beam
Spazer Beam
Wave Beam
Plasma Beam

- The beams can be stacked. Each one can be turned on/off on the fly. All four can be active at the same time, unlike Super Metoid.
- Missiles have splash damage. The whole damage is divided between the direct impact and the explosion. Super Missiles won't affect the game difficulty during Metroid fights.
- Samus can walljump, just like in Zero Mission.

Next week I'll show you more screens, up to the first Chozo Ruins.
Feel free to comment about these first images.

See ya!

About the Project

2008-01-03T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hi. My name is Milton. I live in Argentina, where I work as a sound technician in my own recording studio. This is a project I've been working on for over two years, and now I feel it can be finished, so I decided to make it public.

This is my own remake of Metroid 2, one of the most important chapters of the Metroid saga. I always wanted to play the game with the graphics and physics of Metroid Zero Mission. So, I decided my next game would be a remake.

During the next weeks, I'll share with you the progress so far. I'll post screens from the very beginning of the project, until its present state. I also documented some of the most important aspects of the game design.

<- This, for exampe, is one of the early test builds. I am using Game Maker 6, and used Martin Piecyk's Platform Game template as a starting point. His excellent engine provided solid platform physics, and state based characters. The engine is also easily customizable, so I could add all the states I needed for Samus.

So, stay tuned for the next update, I'll show you some more screens and reveal some gameplay details.