Showing signs of life
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.
Comments
good to hear from ya. my friends and I are cheering you on
That feels good to hear good news about the great progress of the project.
I think it would be very cool to see the metroids gamma action in the video. Thank you for not forgetting their fans. We look forward to more news!
Just finish it, Doc. That's my suggestion.
go on!!
In that case, I look forward to another video. I really enjoy hearing the music and the animations you've had made. And YES i do wish to see the gama metroids.
So yes, just show the videos. We've all played Metroid 2 before, so it's not like there's 'that' much you can spoil for us.
:p
Just keep going, making demos and releasing videos and screenshots takes time away from developing the game. I know that you want to take your time with this project and all (as you stated in the interview with Downwards Compatible), but I think it would be wiser not to spoil the game. The more stuff you show us, the more dull our reaction will be when you release the actual game. I'm not saying ignore the fans, but you shouldn't let us get in the way of your development. The choice is yours, good luck.
And as Griever said it allows us to give input on the progress and what might need to be changed and so forth.
Your choice, but I have a feeling this will happen again, people will also want a video of the Zetas, Omegas and who knows what else... maybe you can show them all in one video? It depends on how long it takes you to make those videos.
And I sort of have an Idea of what zeta's might look like due to vonricters version and as for the queen? well I won't even bother asking for something that far along in the game because by the time the queen is done the game probably will be too.
As for gammas? Well I have never personally seen a form of it remade. At least zeta had vonricters version and omega had fusions version.
So it's quite exciting tbh lol.
I still remember when I was super surprised when the gamma first appeared. I ran for my life because I had no idea what to do against the new form.
Ah good times I must say. Good times indeed.
I say only go to the trouble of making a video of the gamma only if you want our feedback on it. If you like what you have already and don't want our input on it because it's pretty much set in stone, then don't waste time making a video.
I think screen shots and videos posted on this site should help the developer as much as it satisfies everyone else's curiosity about the game.
The music seems to be too much of a happy trancy type. The music in Super Metroid fit the game well and really set the tone of the game without sacrificing music for atmosphere (like much of the Prime series). The original Metroid and Metroid II had their technical limitations to work within, so they're not quite comparable in terms of sound design, but within their capabilities they were atmospheric. The music in the second trailer felt too much like a generic happy colorful platformer with a hint of newb dance music, not fitting Metroid at all. Not to diss the project, just that imo the current music isn't gonna do the franchise justice.
My other concern is the mac one. Dunno if the engine is cross-platform, but it'd be great to have this available on mac and other unix OSs.
I can't identify who we are, but there are indeed people within the professional gaming industry who are watching your product as well, and I don't mean that in a legal threatening way. I've been watching you make this since this blog began and I'm extremely impressed with your efforts.
Keep it up. Even with everything that's going to be up and coming at E3 this year, this is one project I look forward to the most.
Dr.M I must say this is the most promising fangame I've seen... ever.
I am looking forward to the finished product
theres already a Super Metroid remake happening...
its almost to demo stage, too
http://z13.invisionfree.com/FSMR/index.php?act=idx
i can personally garantee, as an assistant spriter for FSMR, that you will not be dissapointed
I'd rather wait for a quality product than get crap because the maker was in a rush.
Same with food.
actually this is the only one i watch
all the others im helping with
(FSMR, MP2D, FoZ, M5F, and a few others)
i also have my own project
(Evolution)
BUT a big thing is, are you going to give too much away like in terms of surprise and mystery and other such things? i know of a project that is at that point, no pic or vids atm :( thats a hard place to be in alot of ways for them and fans, but i think its a good anticipation builder!
OFF TOPIC: Hmm, just look release dates for example, 94 for super metroid.... 2002 for fusion. I liked prime 1 an 2. 3 was kinda meh in alot of ways, but hey they are better than nothing. but wait... where is the next 2D metroid title, the style that from what ive seen ALOT of fans luv? The big N is!... nope no more 2D metroid titles on the foreseen road ahead that i can see(unless im blind and have not found any news on them). im not having ago at anyone with that, just a lil rant. The Doc here is doin what alot of fans want and what the metroid universe NEEDS! and we will prolly see it way b4 anything offical :P
im done too much typing >_<
-Peace
"there is not a new 2-d metroid in the works"
so we have to keep waiting
(also they didnt deny a 3-d metroid)
and holy hell ravaga, thats a helluvalot of typing for a comment xD
Have You read my e-mail about the rest of the glitches I found in confrontation 1.1. I also uploaded a video to show them, the link is in the e-mail. It had 20 possible glitches, not all of them are glitches.
Don't hurry with the video or updates! We can wait. Thanks.
wut
also i made some Omegas that are now on Metroid Fan Mission
if you want to use them, thats cool
if not, eh, whatever xD
probably have your own style in mind ;D