NCFC 2009 is coming...
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.
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.
Comments
Will you reveal what suggestions you will implement, or will you maintain it a surprise?
-DMN
esperemos todo salga bien
suerte con el proyecto
y recuerde no añadirle una secuencia de escape al juego,
o perderá la real esencia y tranquilidad que tenía Metroid 2 u.u
saludos
Sir_Poeta
-Strategic beam stacking. Possibly allow a maximum of two beams to stack or put in an item to allow enhance the # of beams you can stack that you can find in places as secrets. Having your beams stored in the pause menu to switch between there would be preferable to having to go back to the tower to get them like the original. (Possibly one of the beam stacking items could be in the hidden area under the tower you talked about previously.)
-Show an X parasite getting eaten by a Metroid somewhere. This could be in a cutscene of some sort right before Samus enters a room. This allows the player to see it without breaking the canon. It could also be somewhere in the background or in such a way that it's unremarkable and Samus might not notice or place any special interest on it to still not break the canon.
-Buffing the Omega metroids so that they are actually the strongest. They were too weak in the original and surpassed by the Zetas. Hopefully you won't nerf the Zetas too much even with the removed flight.
-There should be two types of lava. The normal type that Gravity Suit protects you from, and the Superheated type. The superheated lava should be used for progress blocking, boss fights, and possibly secret areas or any possible escape scene. It could be denoted by a darker red color, heat waves, and/or more violent bubbling. Gravity Suit could of course reduce the damage from it.
-If you do show a Zero Suit style Samus, remember to use purple suit and brown hair. She hadn't switched to blond hair and a blue suit yet.
-An SA-X style chase scene. Before you have the ice beam, having a metroid chase you would be awesome. I loved that style of gameplay and I really think it increases the suspense in the game. (You could also find a way to work in another similar thing later if you have a type of metroid or enemy that requires a better weapon you don't have or an ice beam upgrade or it's armored due to some special event or something.) Basically, this type of thing is great and if you could fit in 1-2 escape scenes that would be amazing.
-Seeing a metroid eat would be awesome, even feeding on normal life. As would seeing it eat and then metamorphose. Again, this could be a cutscene or a background type thing and doesn't necessarily have to be interactive. This could also be linked to my previous mention of an X Parasite cameo appearance.
Overall most of these ideas aren't mine and I'm not taking credit for them, but they are some of my favorites. I think some of them could improve strategic gameplay and/or really add to the story or overall feeling of the game with added storyline depth through a few cutscenes or chase scenes.
Thanks for listening!
alright then, i'll be sure to tune in on NCFC to see this surprise
Btw, if anyone at the event could do a list of all the Metroid fangames that show up, that would be great. I won't be able to attend, but I would love to hear about any other good Metroid games that are coming out or any news about old ones that I previously thought were canceled.
i just saw the video on the NCFC website http://am2rncfc.x10hosting.com/
amazed by some of the new areas you've shown. i can see that this game will be FUN!
About the Zeta's:
i like how you had them look very creepy and scary
i know you're in charge of this project and what you say goes, so all i can do is comment. i don't really agree with how much you changed them from the original/metroid fusion look.
1. you gave them a neck. they appear to lack a neck in the other appearances, so even if they had them, i doubt they'd be long and skinny like you made them. the omega's have a short neck but it is very thick.
2. the feet should at least be much bigger than the hands, and thicker too
3. again with this metroid and the other 2, i still feel as though they aren't really alive. they're just moving, but they're not really "breathing" or moving within themselves. an example would be to make its teeth open and close like the omega did whenever it walked (in fusion) or just simply make their whole bodies move up and down a few pixels.
i hope you consider this, I'm still your number one fan and i check your blog every day.
awesome progress noted ;)
but yes i dont recall zetas having necks, small feet and hands... maybe you will update those sprites once everything else you are doing is working well.
there was a reason that the X werent around on SR388, because the metroid ate them all... but i dont truely feel it necessary to show the X since we dont deal with them on this mission. but yeah it would be cool to see a metroid eat something before it has a growth spurt. perhaps another local enemy?
there usually is 2 types of lava, 1 which is your basic heated volcanic lava that doesnt take damaged with the varia suit, and then there is acid lava which does still take damage no matter what. this coincides with super metroid.
oh yeah and i noticed you added the stackable beams.. very cool.
i dunno what kind of time u plan to invest before wrapping things up. im pretty sure that you have alot of things set in stone in your mind or in your development planning and no matter what happens i and surely everyone else will still think this is the cooler than metroid zero mission and metroid fusion... well.. maybe not fusion... fusions storyline had me messed up playing for almost 2 days straight on a "i must not sleep until i complete it" mission...
awesome progress noted ;)
but yes i dont recall zetas having necks, small feet and hands... maybe you will update those sprites once everything else you are doing is working well.
there was a reason that the X werent around on SR388, because the metroid ate them all... but i dont truely feel it necessary to show the X since we dont deal with them on this mission. but yeah it would be cool to see a metroid eat something before it has a growth spurt. perhaps another local enemy?
there usually is 2 types of lava, 1 which is your basic heated volcanic lava that doesnt take damaged with the varia suit, and then there is acid lava which does still take damage no matter what. this coincides with super metroid.
oh yeah and i noticed you added the stackable beams.. very cool.
i dunno what kind of time u plan to invest before wrapping things up. im pretty sure that you have alot of things set in stone in your mind or in your development planning and no matter what happens i and surely everyone else will still think this is the cooler than metroid zero mission and metroid fusion... well.. maybe not fusion... fusions storyline had me messed up playing for almost 2 days straight on a "i must not sleep until i complete it" mission...
thats about it. neck, tail, small legs/feet, and motionless.
Overall, this looks like zero mission on crack. No, not crack. Phazon. This is MZM on highly-concentrated crystal phazon. The backgrounds were incredibly, the dynamic enemy animations were better than anything I've seen in a 2d game before (professional or otherwise), and that hive-tileset would make H.R. Giger weep tears of joy. I think you owe yourself.
My one point of contention is regarding the zeta metroid. It looked really, really creepy, but it also looked...well...toylike. The sticklike limbs and neck made it look kind of like a really messed up puppet on strings. The messed up part was awesome. The puppet, not so much.
Also, n the original the entrance to the sr388 caves are blocked when you defeat the queen metroid, maybe you can see the rocks falling down from the ceiling and block the exit after you enter the cave the first time or after you have defeated the first alpha metroid.
no puedo esperar a hecharle el guante a tu genial obra maestra ;-) animo y suerte que al menos a mi como a muchos aqui nos tienes esperando ;-)
I forgot to tell you about the new contents, and i must say that the tiles, sprites and animations are marvelous really, for example the robot is even more real than a robot that nintendo could create.
But in the other hand i have 2 say that you should redraw some aspects of the zeta metroids as others said.
They MUST have a long tail.
They shouldnt have neck and also they shouldnt have such a long legs.
Also u could add that breathing move upwards and downwards. They seem to be robots
To conclude, i would want to supplicate u not to create a new omega having thhe Fusion one.
I am reaaally looking forward for this game :DDD And also for seeing how the metroid queen will be (but dont show it keep her as a surprise :D)
Some have called for you to redraw the Zeta sprites. I can see why this might be an issue with some people, as it is quite a bit stylistically different from the look of the Omega in Fusion (which itself may have been a bit overly cartoony, but still.
My suggestions...
If it's going to take a large amount of time to retool it, don't bother. At least not in this release. It's consistent with the style of the metroids we've seen so far... just not necessarily with some aspects of the Nintendo animators. If you do plan to redraw it, wait until after you release version 1.0 of the game. I don't think you should get bogged down in such a thing for another month or so, and I don't want you to end up rebuilding them from scratch when it looks like you've already got a good thing going.
Still, if you do decide to touch up the Zetas, make them a bit more animated. Give its mouth some movement.
Really, do what you want to do. I see why there's some criticism, but they're by no means a bad piece of work either. The one guy who called them "unacceptable" on youtube is full of it.
-There should be two types of lava. The normal type that Gravity Suit protects you from, and the Superheated type. The superheated lava should be used for progress blocking, boss fights, and possibly secret areas or any possible escape scene. It could be denoted by a darker red color, heat waves, and/or more violent bubbling. Gravity Suit could of course reduce the damage from it.
-Buffing the Omega metroids so that they are actually the strongest. They were too weak in the original and surpassed by the Zetas. Hopefully you won't nerf the Zetas too much even with the removed flight.
-An SA-X style chase scene. Before you have the ice beam, having a metroid chase you would be awesome. I loved that style of gameplay and I really think it increases the suspense in the game. (You could also find a way to work in another similar thing later if you have a type of metroid or enemy that requires a better weapon you don't have or an ice beam upgrade or it's armored due to some special event or something.) Basically, this type of thing is great and if you could fit in 1-2 escape scenes that would be amazing.
I completely agree with those, however, considering the prime games came before Metroid 2 and in Prime 3 Samus has Blonde hair and Blue Suit the Zero Suit Samus comment is false...I don't like Samus's Blue Suit and Blonde hair though so it'd be cool if you changed her look back to normal.
Another suggestion that you're probably already implementing...I think you should add a few more non-metroid boss battles...it gets boring fighting the same bosses repeatedly...maybe you could even switch it up a bit by making a zeta metroid fight and then an alpha metroid fight, of course you'd have to make some changes to enviorment to hinder Samus's power if you did that because otherwise the Alpha Metroid would be overwhelmed at that point.
They are fantastic.
but maybe that's just me.
To those who suggested changing Samus' zero suit look.
Don't change her hair color, but you can change the color of her outfit if you like. It might not be a good idea since this game probably takes place not terribly long after Metroid Prime 3 (where her zero suit is clearly seen and the same as always), but if you want to give her a more retro outfit, I think it'd be interesting.
Also, if you have the zetas done, there can't be much left for you to do. Any way we can get a progress report post here? Even a slight hint of a release time period? I'll be patient, but I look at this blog every day waiting for this project. I care about it more than Metroid: Other M!
I'm guessing the leg animation is still in the mid-early stages. One thing that would make the leg swing look more fluid and natural is to make the front legs begin to swing forward a frame or two before the back legs begin.
I like the dead gamma shell in the zeta intro. It looked good. Only thing that would have made it look better is if the Zeta burst out of the shell, using it's head to break free with a mighty thrust upwards and shell pieces flying everywhere, instead of the Zeta gently rising from the shell/ground.
The Zeta metroid I'm not too happy with, but I think I see where you are trying to go with the design.
Instead of taking a segmented metroid evolution with the gamma evolution being more of a Cocoon stage which is shed to reveal a smaller reformed bipedal creature with a head which then grows larger with time (kind of like a caterpillar and a butterfly, or the various stages of growth in the "Aliens" series);
You are choosing to take a more continuous evolutionary development where the gamma grows into a zeta by developing slightly thicker legs and arms from those little dangling stalks the gamma had, which then leads to a nice easy translation in both size and features, to the fusion Omega without need for scaling the sprite down.
So I'm guessing the Zeta is modeled after an Ostrich, which fits with Docs intention of making it more of a fast runner and jumper than a flier. That being said, I'd like to see the Zeta do a head ramming attack with that big potato head of his.
I miss the fireballs that came out of the old Zeta's mouth, which looks like it's replaced by a weak looking version of the omega's claw attack.
I really don't like the Zeta's huge floating head, especially with it's eyes in the center of the oval, they would look better closer to the mouth.
The main body looks fine, if you are going for an Ostrich look; I like the glowing belly. The tail looks like more of an after thought, but here's where you would see the Orange-sh segmented tail as seen on the omega and queen.
(Zeta's always been my favorite metroid so I'm trying to take his drastic change humbly and with an open mind)
On a different note,
The Spazer - Wave beam looked pretty nice although the Wave beam's wavelength looked a bit long to be useful on it's own in a single osculating sine wave (like in Super Metroid and all those before it), unless of course you use the mzm's double-pronged version of the wave beam. (I've always liked the single sine wave approach when dealing with the wave beam alone though)
I liked the spike designs in the caves, reminded me of the the alien landscape in Super Contra
I hope the artist you're working with is capable of making sprites for everything you have. That way, everything would meld together nicely and wouldn't clash.
by the way, I love how the metroids look. (though I agree, they should be a little more animated). They're very much what I would expect the classic metroid to be with better graphics. Very creepy.
I must agree with the other people, in fact they are really good, but they have a lack of life.
Still need some extra animation and fixes.
Keep up your great job doc ;).
On an unrelated note about sprites: if you are looking for the omega metroid sprite or even other metroid sprites, you should take a look at a website called the Shyguy Kingdom.
http://tsgk.captainn.net/index.php?p=showsheets&t=sr&sr=183
If that doesn’t work, search “metroid sprites” on the internet and you will quickly find it.
It has many spritesheets of various things in the 2d Metroid series, including some fan-made sprites. There is also a Crocmire sprite under the minibosses section that was originally meant to be in Zero Mission, but it was never actually used in the game. This new Crocmire sprite could be a boss somewhere in the game. I know you don’t want any space pirates in the game, but I don’t think Crocmire is one.
Some thoughts about the games scenery that I have seen so far: You should make the main cave for each of the main areas fairly large. The level design tends to get compressed when switching to a Zero Mission-like style (This was evident in the NES Metroid to Zero Mission.) I always liked in the original M2 how humongous the caves felt. They gave you that, “Did I miss a hidden passageway in this area?” feeling. I saw on your new video footage of the spiked vine filled passageways. The vines look great, but I think you should also have some normal platforms there to balance out the way those passageways look. By the way, are you going to post some of your new videos under the video section of your blog?
On the plus side, I'm really digging the particle effects you used for the robotic enemies. If you could somehow integrate that type of effect on certain organic targets (without making them look misplaced), such that we could all leave a bloody mess in our wake, that would be awesome.
Tienes todo mi apoyo, como el de toda la gente que te visita, supongo que muchos como yo, a diario.
Suerte en el NCFC, saludos desde españa.
En serio, este es el juego que mas espero de todos los que puedan salir, ya se me olvido hasta el other M con este gran proyecto
For reference this is how all the metroid, up to zeta, look in Fusion (link). Your alpha and betas seem true to Nintendo's designs but your Zetas are way off.
Though, that being said, very nice work indeed.
The game which received it is just crap compared to yours -.-
because i am a metroid fan, i ask DOC to please go back and redo the Zeta's. All i want is the neck gone and a tail added. it really shouldnt be too hard. and dont be like "i've already shown it to the public and it's humiliating to change what i've finished". I know you can do it.
estas escuchandonos verdad? parece que la majoria de los fans que te sige con este projecto quieren que esto pace. almenos consideralo.