One year already?
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.
Thanks to Andrew Webster for letting me participate.
Ok, as always comments an suggestions are welcome.
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 GamesThanks to Andrew Webster for letting me participate.
Ok, as always comments an suggestions are welcome.
Comments
It's looking great, and the map screen's comming along nicely.
I do have a question though; are you planning to have Item markers (collected and not) for Missiles, Energy Tankes ect, like they did in Fusion and Zero Mission?
AWESOME!!!! :D
Is this game is excellent.
I can not wait to be able to play it!
They look great new movements.
No doubt the game will be a great success! Go ahead Doc!
Hope all excited about his game.
I'm the one who speaks with you again
MSN (Dark Master) ^ ^, so that you are not
xd forget.
As for the maps, or lack of in the original, I also kind of liked the fact that you could easily get lost in the deep unexplored caves of the planet in the original. I think it added to the exploration and mystery of it more.
I think if you are going to incorporate the player getting whole maps of the region which include unexplored areas, the map download sites should be completely optional like in Super Metroid rather then forced or semi-forced like in Fusion and Zero Mission.
Looking forward to the games completion :)
Just a opinion.I do not want to tip on your toe, you are doing a nice job and it makes me happy, the demo was also awsome.
Its not ever much helps much, in mso ;)
As for the small map thing in the upper right corner, Duct Tape will easily solve that ;)
Hope the Gammas are as cool as the Alphas, I would really like to see them.
Now that music caught the metroid spirit, good job.
Spin jumping, shooting then keep on air with space jump is awesome.
But at the same time, wouldn't it take away most of the screw attack exclusiveness?
i hope to see it later released :D
Greetings
the auto ball and climb features are definitely convenient. no more lacking control of jumps or overextending, and no more wasting seconds hesitating trying to activate the morph
I can't wait til this project is done, it already seems like it'll be fun
16x16 for tiles. Email me (doctorm64*AT*live.com), and I´ll try to help.
>How are the Gamma Metroids?
Fine, thanks for asking. I´m struggling to aminate the different states, since all the legs are different sprites with independent angles. They´re not very smart yet...
>I think it would be good to make an option when you first start playing as to whether you want the map enabled or not.
That´s a good idea. I´ll add that option.
>are you planning to have Item markers (collected and not) for Missiles, Energy Tankes ect, like they did in Fusion and Zero Mission?
Nope. It would make exploration extremely easy. Most of the missile tanks are in plain sight inside the different ruins, what´s sometime hidden is the way to get them. Energy tanks, Super Missiles and Power Bombs are going to be hidden, but mostly in secret areas, instead of the classic obscure 1 block secret in the middle of nowhere.
>I'm worried about the auto-climb. It seems like I would end up accidentally climbing up a step, when I would rather be jumping to avoid something.
You have to hold forward and press Jump to auto-climb. If it messes with your play style, you can turn it off in the options screen.
>I like the idea for the auto-climb, but do you need the Power Grip to do it?
Yes. You get the powergrip pretty soon anyway.
>are you going to break up the map screen into the different regions of the world, ala super metroid?
No. Each of the different areas are very small, and wouldn´t be enough for an entire region. The whole map is one hughe region, you´ll be able to see all the areas of the game at once on the map screen (if you´ve discovered them of course).
I´ve had more work than expected these weeks, but I´m managing to work on the project at least an hour everyday.
Thanks for the comments! See you next update!
I much prefer using power bombs to lite up all the hidden blocks, revealing their identities in an entire room at once. It keeps the pace up and saves from the meticulous scanning of every little corner to see if you missed something.
Th scan visor was stupid, it was only in the stupidest metroid games of all: The Prime Ones.
The 3D aspect didn't fit metroid well at all to me, and the last thing I want to see is have a good 2D metroid fangame ruin itself by adding stupidness from prime in it.
This is part of a different style of exploration: the examination. You can choose to find out parts of the story, or just rush through the levels.
The classic 2D kind of exploration consists of finding hidden areas and items, without changing the pace of the game. The scan visor would make the game slower, specially if it´s required to operate mechanisms needed to advance.
Besides, instead of revealing some backstory about the chozo in scannable logs, I prefer to keep that tragedy as a mistery.
I haven´t played any Prime games (I don´t own a gamecube), but I´ve seen enough speedruns to understand it. I´ve played the demo of Metroid Prime 2D, and the scan visor just didn´t fit, IMHO.
What do you think?
=/ The spiderball is supposed to be gooey.
At least in Metroid 2, it was a very organic power-up and I think would look a lot more interesting if the spiderball made the morphball look like it was covered in a sticky translucent mucus flowing over the entire surface of the ball instead of a generic magnetic glow coming from the sides or behind it.
(I hope the current spiderball in the movie was just a graphical place holder)
me decepciona que dediques todo tu empeño solo a la gente que habla ingles, siendo que tambien hay mucha gente que lee tus avances, pero hablan español y estan limitados a entender todo esto que escriben, deberias dedicar tambien una traducción a tus comentarios, para al menos entender las propuestas y proyectos que tienes, varias veces he intentado sugerirte o preguntarte algo mediante el idioma ingles, pero parece que es peor, porque no pones ni la más minima atención...
Ojala lo hagas (la traducción en tus comentarios y proyectos), te lo agradeceria toda la gente latina estoy seguro.
En cuanto al proyecto, he querido decirte que encuentro que es un gran trabajo, y lo que más me impató fue la lucha del metroid alfa, que increible que hayas creado un arte como ese, jamás me lo imaginé, y la música de la lucha está excelente, la única que me sonó agena al juego es la música que le pones de entrada al juego, el tema del tunel de SR388, encuentro que está muy alejado de ser parecido al antiguo... Si quieres mi consejo deberias seguir los pasos que tomó nintendo al remasterizar el Metroid Clásico y llevarlo a ser el Metroid Zero Mission, cuya música es practicamente la misma solo con algunas variaciones (y quedó aun más excelente).
Ojalá puedas entender que no todo tu público habla ingles, y que no todos pueden entenderlo, y si le dijiste a Dark Master que hablas español, no creo que te sea de gran esfuerzo poder hacerlo...
de antemano gracias
suerte en tu proyecto
Patronus
DoctorM64
it disappoints me that you dedicate all your alone determination to the people who speaks English, being that also there are many people who reads your advances, but they speak Spanish and are limited to understanding all this that they write, you should dedicate also a translation to your comments, at least to understand the proposals and projects that you have, several times I have tried to suggest you or to wonder a little by means of the English language, but it seems that it is worse, because you put not even the most minimal attention...
I hope you will do it (the translation in your comments and projects), all the Latin people would be grateful for it to you I am sure.
As for the project, I have wanted to say to you that I think that it is a big work, and what more me impató was the struggle of the metroid alpha, that incredible that you have created an art as that one, I never imagined it, and the music of the struggle is excellent, the only one that me sounded agena to the game is the music that you put of entry to the game, the topic of the tunnel of SR388, I think that it is very remote..
If you want my advice you should continue the steps that it took nintendo to the remasterizar Metroid Clásico and lead to being it Metroid Zero Mission, whose music is practically the same one alone with some changes (and it remained even more excellent).
I hope you will be able to understand that not all your public speaks English, and that they not all can understand it, and if you said to Dark Master that you speak Spanish, I do not believe that it you performs big effort to be able to do it...
in advance thank you
luck in your project
Patronus
Free Online Spanish to English Translator
Oh, before I forget; If you ever need some help with the music for the project, don't be afraid to send me a message.
It's true what they say. But you have to see the Chambers Lafuente (Dr M64) is making an effort to ensure that all people benefit from your project. Besides almost all comments are from people who speak English. I also speak Spanish but I translate it for the freedom of the translator of google. I am not criticizing your comment or anything, just say you have to think about all people.
Nice work Doc!
@ Patonous:
Es cierto lo que dices. Pero hay que ver las Salas Lafuente (Dr. M64) está haciendo un esfuerzo para garantizar que todas las personas que se benefician de su proyecto. Además casi todos los comentarios son de personas que hablan Inglés. También hablan español pero traducirlo por la libertad del traductor de google. No estoy criticando su comentario ni nada, sólo dicen lo que tienes que pensar en todas las personas.
Buen trabajo Doc!
porque aqui en chile hay muchos que estan al tanto de este magnifico proyecto, y que se interesan por saber como está el avance del juego, pero luego que ven que sólo hay comentarios en ingles, se desinteresan totalmente (yo te lo digo porque si yo no tubiese sierto conocimiento en ingles también quizás me hubiese desinteresado), al final soy yo el que tiene que contarle a todos mis amigos y conocidos que les gusta el juego como estan los avances y mejoras en el juego...
Puedes pasarlo como que es un detalle menor esto de las traducciones, pero si no te lo digo yo, estoy seguro que mañana te lo dirá otro.
Sería de gran ayuda y además aumentaría el número de fans.
bueno eso era
un saludo
Patronus
my email is numonohi_boi@yahoo.com
Oh and palamon, it seems you can speak both English and Spanish, so why don't you translate everything for him. Just make your own blog in spanish and ask dr M64 to link his to yours. Then everyone can be happy and dr M64 will not have to spend any time on translations.
I figured I would be nice and share it with everyone since I already had it translated since all I have to do is cut and paste.
I also put the link to the translator on the bottom of my message (which is down bty but you can always google another one)
in hopes that all non-English speakers would use the link to translate their messages to English and also use it to read English messages.
(I admit, I should have put the link in Spanish)
I may have been nice enough to translate one message, but I'm not nice enough to translate them all.
Free Online Translator
Jaap, yo acabo de preguntar lo que ese mensaje largo decía tan que utilizaba a un traductor en línea libre para averiguar.
Figuré que sería agradable y lo compartiría con todos desde que yo ya lo tuve tradujo desde que todo tengo que hacer es cortado y es pegado.
Yo también puse el lazo al traductor en el fondo de mi mensaje (que es hacia abajo bty pero usted pueden siempre google otro uno) en esperanzas que todos altavoces no-ingleses utilizarían el lazo para traducir sus mensajes a inglés y también utilizarlo para leer mensajes ingleses.
(Admito, debo haber puesto el lazo en español)
Puedo haber sido suficiente agradable para traducir un mensaje, pero yo no soy suficiente agradable para traducirlos todo.
Liberte a Traductor en línea
Will this be a GBA ROM?
Seriously you're the best
I thought you had to be a real metroid fan to actually spend a huge amount of time making a metroid game!
oh well.. i guess you are still a real metroid fan... yet, it suprises me that you haven't. I really recomend you play the first one atleast. Just buy a Wii! i'm suprised you dont even have a Wii.
!Si no juegas un juego de prime, no voya poder jugar este juego saviendo que el creador nunca jugo uno de los mejores jegos de la MISMA seria!
oh and great job on the progress, it looks like you're well over half way done.