New area, and progress
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.
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.
Comments
also, i think acid would be better for the zeta's and not fire balls. fire balls were for ridley, let the metroids have acid. plus, the queen shoots out splotches of something that don't look like fire at all so it would make more sense if they didn't have fire balls at an earlier stage.
Any chance of a super-tentative, absolutely-no-promises, possibly maybe could-be release date guesstimate?
Also, I have 2 questions:
Can you update the blog in Spanish? because there are people who can not read English and understand some half ...
And finally, "The game also will be available in Spanish? and that American players would like it available in this language.
For now, luck with the project and move on, and very little missing.
Just my $0.02
Hi Dr. M64, iwant to say you that i hear it a interesting music that you can give an idea for the intro of your Project AM2R, and its like the atmosphere of the Saga Metroid so please send me a mail for send it to you the music!! maybe you can take some rithm of the music!! please send me a answer if you accept to send it the mp3!!
From what I have seen so far, this game may very be the best Metroid remake to date! Been following since the beginning and am amazed how dedicated you are. It looks like this project may even be done by the 3rd quarter of 2010!
I would also suggest that you should feel free to add your own new areas all over the place. Just put secret walls and things that can only be opened by power-ups you didn't get in the original. (E.G. Super Missiles or Power Bombs.) Basically that gives you freedom to add new areas wherever you want and still be cannon to the old game.
Oh, and finally, I really hope that Power Bomsb work as they did in Fusion to reveal all special blocks within their blast radius. That's invaluable for exploration.
For Doc: I thought of a shinespark mechanic you could add as a late power-up that might help your problem. Don't know what you'd call it, but it would allow Samus to kick off walls while holding a speed boost charge. I'll leave your imagination to ponder that one.
P.S. - I don't think downgrading Samus for a certain area would make any sense.. I noticed some people post about that. And as far as the game music, I like what you've been doing with that, so its all about keeping it so that it all fits together and fits the atmosphere at the same time. Remixes/updates to the original Metroid 2 soundtrack would be fine, seeing as we'd get to hear it CD quality sound instead of gameboy blips.
One way to spice things up is to add some completely new enemies to your new area. Really tough ones. Not as tough as the advanced metroids, of course, but powerful and evasive enough to give a supermissile/plasmabeam armed Samus a tough time.
Thank you.
You have an excellent work here and I wait to see everything on its place soon. Surpise us!
One comment though! Please, please don't forget that when reaching the Omega metroids' area, everything becomes much creepier (such as the music). You should also take notice that there are only a couple of species that exist here, the Goto and Ramulken. The powerful Metroids dominate over the lower creatures simply eating everything, so you feel a little bit stranded in these places.
I think that a mini boss in the 'special' area should be non organic, maybe a robot? or chozo/torizo maybe?
i cant wait to play
But it's just an idea.
Will the other evolutions of Metroids have there own theme. You showed the Alpha's, and I think it's good, but it doesn't seem like it would fit the other Metroids. Maybe you already planned on doing this, I just thought I would put it out there just in case.
Best wishes from another fan
Baixei o demo e adorei o jogo... está otimo mas versão final terá graficos melhores? Por exemplo vi que ao colocar em 1024 x 768 a imagem perdeu qualidade... e teria como os movimentos de andar da Samus ser mais suaves... mas femininos :D?
Desculpe por ficar criticando, mas queria dizer que seu jogo está excelente viu...
Ah ia me esquecendo, esse metroid tera suporta a português?
Abraços
[Will this Metroid have support for portuguese?]
Improvável, mas é Metroid, não precisa entender muita coisa.
[Probably not, but it's a metroid game, you don't need to understand the language to play it.]
Also, for the secret area, you could use (someone already mentioned in older posts, probably)that acid that's in Zero Mission when you revisit Mother Brain's room. That can damage even the Gravity Suit, as you probably know.
Just a suggestion. Good luck and take your time!
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I really like that idea!
but if a metroid were to run off with your space jump, all you could do is kill it and take it back. nothing is gained. it would be like a like-like in zelda 64, except you have to wait half a dungeon to get your equipment back. it's just a time waster. better to go with spikes everywhere or acid-filled puzzles or something that adds actual difficulty.
PS:I think the zetas throw acid, not fireballs; and the queen some sort of parasites
As one person suggested, have a Gamma steal the suit. The Gamma then immediately evolves into a Zeta. You begin to chase it, but the Gamma uses's the suit's gravity powers to trek through water faster than you can, and you're forced to follow it through a few of the water puzzles you intended to add to the area. Eventually, you find the Metroid and take it out, regaining your suit.
Perhaps with the twist that the Metroids energize and enhance the suit's abilities once you retain them? Maybe the suit gains extra energy reserve tanks from the metroid toying with it?
Good luck for the rest of the game!
And guys, come check out my game at www.metroid-escape.blogspot.com
I just released the first demo!
It's coming along very well, and I would play, although they are close to completion.
Also, I have 2 questions:
Can you update the blog in Spanish? because there are people who can not read English and understand some half ...
And finally, "The game also will be available in Spanish? and that American players would like it available in this language.
For now, luck with the project and move on, and very little missing.
_________________________
yo entiendo algo ingles pero igual me complica escrirlo todo
prefiero escribir en español y quien se interese por lo que hablo tendrá que traducirlo xD
El Doc explicó en otra ocasión: "el juego será creado en ingles"... quizás más adelante de haberlo creado pueda darse el tiempo de hacer una versión en español...
Solo espero que no creen una secuencia de escape para am2r, ya que eso rompería con la tranquilidad que hay al encontrar la última cria de Metroid de SR388, ojalá le quede genial la música del sector de "Queen Metroid's Lair"... La guarida de la Reina Metroid, el sector equivalente a Tourian de Cebes, donde Samus debe una vez más enfrentar a los Metroid en forma Larva...
Soy un admirador ferviente de esta dramática saga, en donde su protagonista pierde todo lo que ama en la vida, pero aún así continua, si se fijan, cuando el manga comienza, ella está regresando de una misión, es una cazarecopenzas... En ese entonces ella aún tenía la nave que perdió en Metroid Fusion, y se sume en una depresión tan inmensa que dice al recostarse en su habitación: "Hay veces en las que prefiero pasar mis noches como humana, sin razonar o planear, solamente acostarme en silencio. Son veces como esta, en las que me cuestiono algunas cosas de mi pasado" entonces ella comienza a relatarlo todo, desde una perspectiva recordatoria, por lo que podemos deducir, que ya había perdido a los Chozos, a la Larva Metroid, que le salvó la vida (recordando que esa larva la consideraba su madre, y ella su hijo), a Adam Malkovich, su mejor amigo y aquel que siempre la entendía. Según las palabras de los mismos creadores, Samus comenzó a hacer misiones de cazarecompenzas solo después de que Adam se sacrificó por ella. En términos generales, el manga comienza cuando tiempo después de que Samus vence a Mother Brain por segunda vez, y la larva muere por ella. Hasta ahora no hay mayores detalles la muerte de Malkovich, debemos por ahora dejaserlo a la magia de la imaginación...
un saludo
Patronus
And im ever happy to read about it, keep up the good Work :)
However, one way to make a new area more difficult is to make the enemies in the area stronger, immune to certain weapons (like metroids are to the screw attack) and
for a greater challenge, Not provide any power-ups for destroying them, leaving samus with a large but diminishing supply of missiles and health, thus making the new area more of an endurance test now that samus is nearly unstoppable.
I'm sure that would make for a lot of testing.... And it may not work if the final boss can't be like that. :-/
If you want it to be challenging for a fully powered samus, making her use all of her abilities, it should also be optional so that low % runs are possible.
If you're asking for the Newest Tech Demo (Tech Demo 2) it is on the home page on the right side of the screen.
And speaking of Fusion, are you going to be using the Omega Metroid sprite from it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyO3TNqsz44
Notice that as you destroy the smaller bubbles, they turn into bigger bubbles. I think there should be a metroid battle in the game involving these. You would keep destroying the bubbles, and they would keep turning into bigger metroid bubbles. Finally, they would combine to form a giant metroid bubble that you would have to fight as a boss battle. Killing it would then decrease your metroid meter by one. I know it’s just a suggestion, but that would be very neat. I also would like to see remixes of both of sector 1’s themes as music in your game. The first song is when you are destroying the atmospheric stabilizers, and the second song is when you are near Ridley X. I’m glad to see that this project is going so well!
I have an idea but i don´t know if you already decided to implement it.
The game could show some different pictures of samus at the end of the game according to the percentage of items you have collected or the time you needed to complete the game itself.
You could use some fan arts posted on the internet JUST as this one:
http://ui12.gamespot.com/1067/samus_2.jpg
Keep up the good work ;)
I have a suggestion about the new area. Your concern is that Samus is too powerful by the time she reaches it. Perhaps you could place the new area earlier in the game? Make it the place where she gets the gravity suit and power bombs (maybe that's what you had planned anyway), and have Samus have to either get the gravity suit to get the power bombs, or get the power bombs to get the gravity suit.
Also, I agree that the zeta metroids should spit/shoot/throw acid rather than fireballs.
One other question. Since in this version of the game the different beams stack like in the other games, what are you doing with the big tower that contains all four beams in four consecutive rooms?
One thing that you could do to make the area harder is make it super dark. The only sources of light you could produce would a small aura around samus and the shots from her beams (maybe limit which beam combinations can actually produce light because the Spazer would make it pointless). I think that would be totally fun and practical. Since Samus is so far down into the caves of SR388 by this point, shouldn't light be almost non-existent?
You know maybe, traveling through the dark could be the obstacle. You could even add a power-up or something near the very very end of the game that allows you to see in the dark, Like a night vision visor (which for our purposes shouldn't be green light) which could function similar to the X-ray visor in terms of lighting; more of an Arc shape.
This of course could be done in countless ways. For instance it could be a "stop and angle" variation like the Super Metroid X-Ray Visor, or an arm directed light (as samus looks in the direction she aims at); basically light that shoots from her visor while not forcing samus to be stationary doing it. I know for a fact that low lighting in a 2-D game such as Metroid = difficult but not impossible gameplay.
Having samus loose her abilities is not all that practical really by this stage in the game unless your going to do it like they did in Zero Mission, but I don't think that situation really fits in this game environment.
I hope you consider this suggestion and again good luck on the project.
The "beam shots emitting light" is even canonical since you could do this with the Wave beam in Metroid Prime, so much so that you could use it to navigate dark areas without using the thermal visor.
Using the wavebeam to light up rooms in Metroid Prime is not the most efficient way to navigate. It only provides so much light, and for that fact, a purplish glow which is a color that generally doesn't provide very good visual lighting to see things with clearly as it is fairly dark. Colors that generally do provide better night vision are Green and Red lights.
But beyond that reference, you are generally correct about using beam weapons to see in the dark. But overall, is that really the only source of light you want?
Indeed you have been making some great progress. Can't wait to see the finished project
I have a suggestion. Maybe, because someone said something about a therizinosaur type Queen, you could keep the original Queen design, but then after you kill it, it freaks out and blasts the room apart, and you fall down a long way. Once you reach the bottom, the queen has evolved super quickly, and turned into a King Metroid, or something named less cliché. It could look like a therizinosaur, with plating instead of the feathers, or whatever that is, I can't see it on Wikipedia. This one could be large, and move around slowly. It could spray acid out of it's mouth, and slice like the Omega in Metroid Fusion.
Just an idea.
I really like that idea, but i think the game is not going change the story from the original.
But that idea could be used for challenge mode
... Speaking of Metroid: SR388, does anybody know what happened to that project? It seems the game's entire existence has fallen off the face of the earth, with the site completely gone, and nothing to find except for a few sparse, outdated Youtube videos and nobody from the project to contact. Is MSR388 dead? Because it certainly seems so, and that's really disappointing.
Sorry to get carried away with a near-entirely different project, I love this one a lot, its just I have no clue what happened to the other one.
should be a prototype of the power one but it can melt ice and deal a great damage to ice enemies, and you should change the name of the hyper suit because it have nothing of hyper. and maybe the doc should put also the thing of the spider ball.
That's the latest news from SR388 posted on 9/23/09. He has also made a few posts afterwords that seem to point towards them still working on it as recently as last month.
Sorry to be off-topic, but I just wanted to give an answer to SR388 fans who have less powerful google-fu than me.
"We want to keep the game a secret at the moment. We are working on the game underground and thus don't want any publicity at the moment. Thank you for your concern."
That is the reply I got on Youtube.
Here is the user:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MetroidSR388vr
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That reply was 3 weeks ago btw.
RAWR.
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|(''') (''')|
| \ \(O_O)/ / |
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Settle down boy. If you bark too much, you'll wake the real bears!
u.u
No creo que ignore los comentarios, simplemente escoje aquellas ideas que el cree mejores, pero no por ello se van a dejar de escribir, si nadie escribe sus ideas no podra coger ninguna :S.
Y sinceramente me parece que hasta ahora esta teniendo muy buen criterio
Hay cosas que dice la gente que podrian llegar a estar bastante bien, pero se alejarian demasiado de la idea central del proyecto.
Saludos (y ánimo doc)
So, i work in Graphic Design and i have so much experience in Pixel Art, and i offer to do the work of the Animations and Sprites of Metroids (and other Sprites and Background in the game), so contact me to mail or MSN to: HlPablo@Gmail.com
Please Contact me.
(I am from Chile, but i know some of English to, i read better than wrigt A_Au)
@wazar
No creo que ignore los comentarios, simplemente escoje aquellas ideas que el cree mejores, pero no por ello se van a dejar de escribir, si nadie escribe sus ideas no podra coger ninguna :S.
Y sinceramente me parece que hasta ahora esta teniendo muy buen criterio
Hay cosas que dice la gente que podrian llegar a estar bastante bien, pero se alejarian demasiado de la idea central del proyecto.
Saludos (y ánimo doc)
___________________________
¿A cuales cosas te refieres al decir que se alejarían del proyecto mismo?
Estos tipos quieren hacer una secuencia de escape en el encuentro de la Larva Metroid y Samus, ¿no crees que eso si rompería con la idea central del juego mismo?
Metroid 2 es un juego único en su clase, por la sensación que traspasa la música que tiene, y es el único además que no tiene una secuencia de escape, y que con eso explica que Samus y la Larva se toman un amor fraternal, la Larva mira a Samus como su madre, ya que es a la primera que ve en su nacimiento u.u
yo he leido muchisimo de la saga Metroid, y puedo decirles más de lo que cualquiera aquí presume, me da lástima que el proyecto se esté desperdiciando en ideas que destruyen el verdadero sentido que el creador del juego de Nintendo intentaba entregar.
Si alguien es capaz de refutar lo que ahora dije, le reto a que lo haga, yo sé que tengo la mayoría de razón, en otras ocasiones he dado mis ideas y nadie las toma en cuenta, prefieren cosas que no tienen que ver con algo del juego :D
También he visto ideas muy muy buenas, de otros foreros de acá, y quedan atrás, y en el olvido, son las ideas de Palomon y otros usuarios "vip" las únicas tomadas en cuenta ;)
Saludos
La cosa es que la secuencia de escape es para el modo desafio, el juego normal seguira fiel a la linea de m2 segun parece ;)
This post has become self-aware and homicidal.
This post has been destroyed by the previous post.
For the last area, I would suggest a flashlight system if it's going to be real dark, not sure about Night Vision or IR Mode.
And you could show some GF Marine bodies on some locations to determine their fate and such. Make some cutscenes from any video logs you could have, but that intel has to be limited. (For some reason, I watched the first two Alien movies too much, and would like to see something inspired from that. But Space Jockey? Maybe not.)
I always loved how the music starts out so upbeat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urc4yDZrDxE)
then as you descend, gets darker and darker (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzPybCt48Ro&feature=related).
At some points there's really nothing but random whirs and tones . Really ominous stuff. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijriv5kkOdM&feature=related)
Doc, visually, your remake looks amazing. I have faith your audio will be up to par as well.
Great Work! Keep it up!
http://www.ezekiel-rage.at listen to some of my works. id be glad to help you out for free :)
sincerly
zeke
ps.: i also do SFX
http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/213137/13-great-fan-made-game-tributes-page-2/
So, you make it to the Queen, and you give it all you got with missiles and super missiles: they bounce right off! Out of desperation, you use ice beam, and while it does very little damage to the queen, it is very irritating (cold :P). You manage to escape with the queen still alive. In an area near where you start, there is a tunnel that you didn't have access to because you didn't have the necessary upgrades. Walls in layers that can only be destroyed with bombs, powerbombs, screw attack, various beams, etc. block you way. But, if you get inside, you are greeted by, lets say TWO METROIDS!! OMFG!!1! Which kind you choose is up to you. Once you defeat them, you find Ice Missiles (or some new weapon) that equips you to stand a slim chance against the queen.
just an idea :P
I bet you could think of a few cool morph ball puzzles that way like cooling magma blocks, or stopping a thermal vent that would have pushed you upwards with its incredible air friction.
Of course, it shouldn't be necessary to defeat the queen. Just able to make it a bit easier as a way to reward explorers of your game.
I think at this point Dr pretty much knows what he wants in the game and what he doesn't. Other element abilities and new abilities are cool ideas, but that will probably be for another game. (Maybe Dr will make a non-remake based game next and include original ideas and stuff?)
it's a little late to be adding last minute stuff now. it'll be cool for another game tho.
mmm aumentar la dificultad a cambio de pasar a un consiguiente sector podría descondinar la secuencia que tiene el juego, imaginemos logras acceder a varios sectores sin haber destruido a los metroid necesarios, siguiendo tu idea, te significaria mayor dificultad, y mayor cantidad de metroids. Lo siento no le hayo sentido a esa idea, solo altera la secuencia de las cosas, y hasta puede significar Ping para el juego por la cantidad de boss en la misma pantalla.
saludos
Wazarp.
hola! Me refería a dar marcha atrás. doy las gracias por
su opinión. Estoy de acuerdo con usted. Creo que el juego es
versión mejor permanecer original como el << GameBoy >>. << Además, pido disculpas si esto no es muy legible. He utilizado un traductor. tener un buen día! >>