Redoing it... again
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?
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?
Comments
As for achievements... they're always fun because it adds more to the accomplishment of doing something cool, but at the same time it's lame to have "checkpoint" type achievements (ie, Get the Space Jump, Kill 20 Metroids) as these are things that EVERYBODY will do. If achievements are going in all I'd really like to see are things that one has to really work for or go out of the way for to earn.
Of course I'm not creative enough to offer suggestions. :)
100% map exploration
100% items
beat it in under a certain time
kill so many enemies, or defeat at least one of each
find the secret areas (such as the lower part of area 4)
perhaps there could be some related to various techniques, like.. infinite bomb jump 70 tiles high
hold a shinespark (are you putting that in? i can't recall.) charge for at least 1 minute.
beat the game without dying (maybe too rediculous)
sequence breaks (?)
kill every single enemy at least once (Annihilation)
hmmm.. what else...
but yeah i'd say it seems like it would be a pretty good idea, for replay value.
can't wait to see your next update
- Accomplish a task (kill x number of metroids, reach a certain point of the game, etc.) by a certain time - encourages speed running.
- Accomplish a task (kill x number of metroids, kill the queen, etc) having obtained less than X number of missiles/energy tanks/other items/etc - encourages low % item runs.
-Kill certain enemies in less than a certain number of shots or without missing.
-Kill all minibosses.
-Achieve a speed booster run of X distance (I dunno if you can abuse the speed booster using your physics like you could in super metroid)
-Cover a certain distance/time while in space jump
-bomb up to X height
-move X distance using horizontal bomb jumps
-kill certain metroids/bosses within X amount of time from the beggining of the fight.
Just some thoughts.
Considering achievements, I like achievements that require some thoughts, and not achievements that you cannot miss (like "beat the game", "kill that boss", etc).
But it can be a very good idea to put some in the game.
And you could add a feature that gives you choosable bonuses for the next time you start a game. For example, let's say you get "a credit" by beating an achievement. When you start a new game, you'd have a menu that allows you to "buy" bonuses with the credits you've earned, like starting the game with some equipment (but that would be difficult to put, since metroid uses equipments to unlock areas), so you could go to areas you're not supposed to sooner. Well, let's say it would be "another gaming experience"). You could also start the game with x missiles, or x energy tanks, or things like that. Of course, that would completly change the game, but it could be interesting to have the second (or the third) try totally different from the "normal" game. That would add a lot of "replay value". I think you can find this mechanism in some RPGs, allowing you to start another game with the techniques you had in the first one, or the money you had, or the level (!) of your character.
Ok, I think I'm just saying some bullsh*t, but maybe you (or someone else) will have a great idea reading that, so I'm still posting it :)
However, on the subject of another demo... I would much rather play the completed game sooner than get another demo. You're all about quality, so no doubt making another demo would sidetrack you for a couple more months. I'm sure I speak for more than just myself when I say I'm looking forward to the full release with baited breath since the big N seems to think 2D Metroid is dead.
Beat the Game
Beat XXXXXX Boss e.t.c
But I think you should have a few of these and a lot of achievements like:
Kill 3 Enemies at Once
Find All Expansions
Find All Weapons e.t.c
And the demo I think you should ignore and just concentrate on finishing the game! I really can't wait as I have for following it for around a year! Good Luck!
I was thinking this because no matter how much sequence breaking you do, you always end up at the same spot, you could redo the entire concept of finishing up the game. IDK my mind just wandered off there...
And achievements also seem like a great idea. I just hope that they will be difficult, yet rewarding in the end.
But what if you were to make as a reard for getting all the achievements you get to fight one of them. Or maybe some form of boss endurance.
or maybe make a large room, and fight them both at the same time!
As for achievements, I think it’s a great idea. Obviously try to be kinda original with them. One thing I would say is that if you’re going to have them, be careful of how you implement the system.
If the achievements are stored outside of specific games files, in the general save-file for the whole game then it’s fine. But if you store them specifically on each save game file, then you have to make sure of one of two things. Either that all achievements are obtainable at any time during playthrough, or that you can save a finished game file (like in Fusion or Zero mission) that will allow you obtain missed ones.
I’d hate to have to start a new game if I missed a specific achievement and couldn’t get it again, and any of the three above ways would work on preventing that.
It all depends how you’re going to go about doing it...
If you want the Achievement Unlocked SFX from the 360, you can DL it here:
http://majornelson.com/archive/2007/03/15/download-the-achivement-unlocked-sound.aspx
You don't have to of course. Making a Metroid-style SFX could be just a fun.
Go through 10 rooms without killing a single enemy (excluding metroids and sub-bosses.)
Pacifist Silver Achievement-
Go through 30 rooms without killing a single enemy (excluding metroids and sub-bosses.)
Pacifist Gold Achievement-
Go through the entire game without killing a single enemy (excluding metroids and sub-bosses.)
Omega Achievement-
Fight and kill all Omega metroids without taking damage.
Icey Achievement-
Play through the entire game with the ice beam only.
Varia-not Achievement-
Play through the entire game without the varia suit.
Yo Mama Achievement-
Defeate the Queen metroid without getting hit once.
Screw the Screw Attack Achievement-
Play through the entire game without the Screw Attack.
Also, I'd rather you focus on finishing the full game rather than doing another demo. The first already served its purpose of giving players an idea of how things will work, and convincing everyone that you're a game design genius who actually knows and genuinely loves what Metroid is about.
Achievements, good idea, but I would originally play the game just cause it will be so Damn good anyway. I loved the original, and almost cannot wait for AM2R.
Keep up the great work! Demo's don't matter to me, Just the overall game being finished.
Hopefully it will be recognized as a quality creation by Nintendo, and published as a remake like Zero Mission.
Im thinking maby somthing like every powerup you get = a new achievement.
One for "Beat the game in less then **time here**"
one for 100% colecting all items, or beat game without a certan item, or low %. "Beat the game with less than 25% items colected
Killed a cirtan number of enemys.
keep them an after thought and don't conform any of the game to any of the achievements.
and... just no to "just a suggestion" mother brain shouldn't make an appearance in this game at all.
Or getting xx amount of energy tanks, missile tanks or metroids killed.
Maybe getting xx percent.
you should put in bronze, silver, gold, platinum trophies?
As for a demo...
Unless you're going to let us play a portion of the real game, or fight some metroids... skip it. If the last one took you a month to make, I'd rather see you put that effort into the final product so we get it a month sooner.
As long as we get videos and screen caps to keep us going, I'll be happy just regularly checking the blog here as you work towards the final product. (Did you notice how many more comments you've gotten over the past year?)
Could we get another percentage chart from you at some point? While a release date is hard to predict, it'd be nice to know where the game's actually at in terms of progress and overall work.
100% map exploration
100% pickups
Sequence Break an item
beat it under 3hrs
under 20% pickups by end of the game
Beat the game without earning an achievement (ironic achevement???)
I'm pretty sure all these where oblivious. You're a smart dude, you'll figure out some good achievements.
Ideas:
-Kill a boss without missing a single shot(or a few, thinking about the difficulty of that..)
-Killing all the Metroids
-Perhaps put some easter eggs in here and give an achievement if you find them?
I like the standard endings like in MMZ based on time of completion and % items collected.
You should definitely make it possible to do a 15% or less run. I found that greatly increased the replayability of Zero and required full mastery of the game on hard mode.
Also, to get 15% or less, you would have to sequence break with some insane ball jumping and such to get around getting stuff like the spider ball and speed boost.
Obviously getting 100% completion signifies that you accomplished all the tricky tactics accomplishments like ball jumping X height to collect an item and whatnot.
As a reward for unlocking all the endings, you could unlock zero suit Samus with limited abilities and play style (no ball, only crawling) like an ultra hard mode.
Then, an achievements menu can be accessible, and the player may look it over on his or her OWN time.
(Do YOU want to be fighting Ridley in an epic climactic battle, suddenly to hear a "BOO-BEEP!" sound, the music dim, and the lower-half of the screen say, "Delt 2000 damage to enemies."? Yeah, kind of ruins the moment. Badly.)
die before first alpha metroid fight
air assassin achievement:
space jump screw attack 10 enemies, with out touching the ground
arsonist achievement:
burn up 100 enemies with the plasma beam
bomber achievement :
kill 100 enemies with morphball bombs
Some ideas for achievements:
-Kill 100 (or whatever) enemies without losing any health (respawning enemies do not count)
-Beat the game without collecting any energy tanks (not sure if even possible..)
-Kill a Metroid without using missiles (again, not sure if even possible)
In other words, having to visit every last nook and cranny completely in order to get marked for having visited the entire game. That's one thing that I wish was in the previous games (mainly because of a little Obsessive compulsiveness to not have that one little corner of a room not marked on my map.)
Some things you absolutely NEED to include, though, are Minimalist achievements. Preferably ranked (e.g. Bronze for 10% of unnecessary upgrades, Silver for 5%, Gold for 0%, things like that).
Other ideas:
Don't kill anything that isn't a boss creature or its minions.
Don't shoot a single missile, except for opening doors.
Don't use anything except missiles, unless absolutely necessary.
Kill absolutely every enemy you see.
Sequence Jump Achievements...
For the Space Jump spots, try and make it so it's possible to Wall Jump or Bomb jump instead. Then you can have a "No Space Jump Achievement."
That's all I got.
Achievements that i can think of (didnt read everyone elses posts yet so if its a repeat sorry):
-Beat Game
-Obtain all missiles
-Obtain all power bombs
-Obtain all super missiles
-Obtain all energy tanks
-Obtain all suit, boots, beam, and ball upgrades
-Obtain 100% items
-Full map exploration
-Beat game in x:xx time
-Space jump for 3 minutes
-Defeat a Metroid without losing any health
(if you make the queen fight like the one on the gb)
-Defeat the queen using bombs only
-Defeat the queen using missiles only
And I say drop the demo, just work on the full version, I'm sure people can wait :)
Only using X amount of super missiles
Wall jump X distance
Never have critical health
Never use Health Restore Points
Never use missile Restore Points
Only kill metroids and bosses
Only get 15% of items
i hate it when achevements ruin the presure im getting by leting me know i can chill i love the heat dont cool me off
also you should toataly have mother brain in there
also after the end boss make it so you need to escape like in super metroid and others where theres a bomb and the place is blowing up and theres kick ass escape music playing
Some achievments off the top of my head:
Beat the game in xx amount of time
Beat an omega metroid without taking damage
Beat the final boss without taking damage
clear secret area
Beat game with xx% items
Get all upgrades
Destroyer: Kill 2,000 Enemies Metroids Included
Samus Aran: Get 100% Upgrades
Zero Suit: Beat The Game with exploring no secret areas, no optional items, and kill no sub-bosses.
Astronaut: Space Jump 100 Times Consecutively without touching anything.
Game Over: Die 50 Times
The Impossible: Kill any Type of Metroid (Alpha,Gamma,Zeta,Omega,Hatchling, Queen.) Without Missiles or Ice Beam.
Sequence Break: At the final layer before the Queen at the Omega Metroid areas, jump through the lava passage to find out the area is closed....
Be Nice to Another: Get The Baby Metroid out in 1 minute.
Restricted Area: Find The Secret Passage that leads back to the First Area
Lava Man: Stay in Lava for OVER 3 Minutes
Milestones:
Get 5 Achievements
Reward: Platelet Select
Effect: Changes the platelets of any suits to Phazon Suit colors.
Get all Achievements
Reward: Hard Mode
Each Energy Tank Gives you 50 Health Expansion, Missile Expansions give you 2, Super Missiles give you 1, Power bombs Give you 1, Bosses are harder, Beat the game and get!!!
Spoiler: A comment section to everybody who contributed to the achievements section and this project with a boss rush scramble.
Man!... It would be nice if this was used/Mentioned in any way!
Keep going! I'm working with SMILE and it is very tiring... Well I feel you pain of tiling... Just to say one more time...
If you use any of these idea's that i put in for you, I would greatly appreciate it if you would just put a Easter Egg in to mention my name or something... Ah.... If you can't... A beta for me to test would be nice, But if you're a busy person, Just nice to contribute...
get all missile tanks
eat breakfast
let samus die
die over 20 times
discover the secret breakfast easter egg
explode yourself
I beg of you please add Zero suit Samus as an achievement, and make it so that you can play through the whole game with the Zero suit. That in of itself would make me want to play through at least two times normal, and then hard.
Achievments? Hell yeah.
ideas:
Bomb jumping enough times.
Wall Jump enough times.
Stay in the same room for enough time, make it something snappy like lone wanderer. Or in the same room with a living Metroid for enough time.
Oh also an easier way of tiling is that you use the same sprite sheet as the old tiles, but update the whole sheet, and put it in the game. It will re-tile itself, and it's super easy and fast.
The change pallet idea was also a very smart idea RY3NO.
Maybe add a special new boss that has nothing to do with the story, like in ZM's Crocomire but is there, and is kill-able that is hidden away in some random area.
And I too would like to know how the game is progressing please.
Also no demo please, I can wait Zas's game/demo should be done sometime soon and that should keep me content for some time.
My game also had the idea of achievements and of course a lot of other secrets and prizes. I kept the achievements a secret for now. I'm just saying I'm not stealing.
Others are still a secret. There will be secrets in my Demo.
@DM64
I can see the bomb jump achievement work. Just reach high enough with bomb jumps. Also a speed booster one, where you need to have traveled long enough (horizontally) without crouching.
Good luck
Directly from slick-forum :D
i think that your primary goal is to build all maps, let game playable and testable for everyone.
Achievements is for a v1.0 game, imho.
A great feature, if you don't already included, is to give a "direction" to a player that don't play for some time.
In many open-game, like metroid, i'm a bit confusing after some time, because i don't remember where i have already explored and where not.
So, if is possibile, could you include this into your game? (maybe with a layer on game-map?)
Also it would be nice to make an alternate character playable after you beat the game.
And a good idea is to include some mini games and the original metroid 2 ( after the game is beaten)
Good luck developing! :)
Thanks
A second the idea that it would be nice to know how much you have completed, though.
But yeah I think that would be cool. You guys could probably think of better ideas. :)
YES! I love secrets, and I can't wait to the game.
Question! Will AM2R be mod-able? Like Confrontation?
Also another idea you should use for AM2R is the old school suits, you will have to do Gravity suit but still it would be fun to play as the old suit from the original game. As some sort of reward for achievements.
Oh also I have recently made some very good sprite remakes from Metroid 2 that I beleive you may be interested in so I will write you soon showing some cool sprites, they will be available to look at over at mfm whenever the main site get's updated, just saying... someone might be interested.
@Muzak (downloadable)
more dificultt XD
For how to get them, you could use something like 100% items in a certain time, and maybe even through in a 100% map exploration too.
As for the achievements themselves, you could do like in Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission, where they have a counter to say what items you need and in which main area the items are, along with a timer on the bottem for speed runs. Or how about this, have the completion time and item percent as a highscore, so you have a more competing score to work for.
Also you could do like in metroid 1, where you can start over with all power ups, or if you do well enough with the time, items, and map, then you can start over with Suitless Samus (or Zerosuit Samus). I don't know about you, but I think that would be cool. =]