Demo Update 1.31
The demo release went really well. There weren't many critical bugs this time, and people liked the new material. Still, some details needed to be improved. Some bugs needed to be fixed.
So, after a very intensive month of development, here's a Demo Update.
AM2R Demo 1.31
What's new:
- Fixed a Gamma fight game crashing bug in Area 3
- Revamped Speed Booster mechanics
- Small tweaks to Area 3 miniboss
- Knockdown recovery (press jump before touching the ground)
- Added Speed Booster Mockball
- Tiles and backgrounds in Area 3 were improved
- Added enemy freeze sound
- Missiles and Super Missiles use custom designed sprites
- Tweaks to item sprites
- Small changes in level design
- Reduced RAM consumption
- Many small fixes and overall improvements
The Speed Booster had a nice revamp. It feels more solid and more versatile than ever.
There are plenty of small details and improvements.
There are still some bugs that involve slowdown and crashes on very specific hardware setups. A future update might include workarounds to make the game playable on those scenarios.
As always, have fun and share your experiences, thoughts and opinions by commenting here or at the Forums.
Have a good weekend!
So, after a very intensive month of development, here's a Demo Update.
AM2R Demo 1.31
What's new:
- Fixed a Gamma fight game crashing bug in Area 3
- Revamped Speed Booster mechanics
- Small tweaks to Area 3 miniboss
- Knockdown recovery (press jump before touching the ground)
- Added Speed Booster Mockball
- Tiles and backgrounds in Area 3 were improved
- Added enemy freeze sound
- Missiles and Super Missiles use custom designed sprites
- Tweaks to item sprites
- Small changes in level design
- Reduced RAM consumption
- Many small fixes and overall improvements
The Speed Booster had a nice revamp. It feels more solid and more versatile than ever.
There are plenty of small details and improvements.
There are still some bugs that involve slowdown and crashes on very specific hardware setups. A future update might include workarounds to make the game playable on those scenarios.
As always, have fun and share your experiences, thoughts and opinions by commenting here or at the Forums.
Have a good weekend!
Comments
Anyways the Demo worked great.
My opinion is that the game is really challenging, but at the same time fair and gives you the tools to work around.
There was one area in particular I thought that It felt it was too early for me to approach because I thought game designer wouldn't put scrubbies through all that effort in order to enter lol. Its the area where you have to bomb jump and there is a spike wall to the left, The entrance to the Breeding Facility.
One question I have is, once the game is completed will I have to start a new game or will this save file I currently have work?
Thanks for the tremendous work
fixes are asewome (I don´t the the change with the speed booster mockball), anyway, the new factory style is wonderful, the gamma metroid transformation is great, the missiles and new sprites are great...
I can wait for the zeta, omega and queen metroids, the new minibosses and any minigame that you like put in....
I hope you release the new area in at least 3 or 4 months...
one thing that has always frustrated me as a speedrunner though is the metroids. i cant seem to get the metroids to react the way i want them to when trying to develop a strategie for beating them quickly. one thing i should suggest is adding sequence breaking to the game so we can power up samus with better equipment at a much earlier stage of the game by using tricks eg. bomb jumping, wall jumping, this could open alot of routes for speed runners to use. when you fight the first gamma metroid you don't have super missiles so hitting it 10 times with normal missiles slows to your progress and overall speed. please include ways of defeating this metroid quicker by adding a way to get super missiles before you fight it. either by sequence breaking or tricks i have never complained about anything in the game before this is my first one
keep up the amazing work doc
from. terra
been following for about 5-6 years and wont stop. the one game i always wanted a remake of. especially after they made zero mission
2GB of RAM and 2.2Ghz AMD Athlon 3500+ processor. It's a rather old computer, but it was enough to run AM2R 1.2 and earlier without issue. If the problem is more the game than my computer, then hopefully you can find out the cause without it giving you too much grief. :)
At least you rectified that one Speed Booster glitch where you may hit a missile barrier during the run and just "run frozen" until braking. (I have that one groanworthy issue of running on an analogue stick, but not being able to kneel).
Do it, pay?
Keep up the awesome work my friend! As soon as it's finished, work will find it difficult to tear me away from your gorgeous creation <3
Duragon~
I decided to try it on a Hard run with this update. Picked up the Speed Booster first.
Didn't manage to escape fast enough. Has anyone gotten lucky?
Also, if it is possible, DoctorM64, DON'T remove it from the finished game at all.
It would be an awesome homage to this trick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h86UQHQ79U8
Good luck in your work :)
- In original M2 game, there was a cave between Main Caves and Hydro Station in which there were some big flies that drag you into the sand.
- I remeber that in lava part of the Mining Caves there were those pink things that jump out of lava, just huge.
- Maybe you could add some more hidden missiles, super missiles or E-tanks that require certain upgrade which you must collect in another area, for example, there's a missile tank in area 0, and to get it, you must get the bombs in area 1.
- In jungle part of area 3, there were some flashing eneimes in original game.
Thank you for this amazing game, and keep up the good work.
-There seems to be an issue with going diagonally up walls; it was noticeable in the large room before Arachnus.
-Speaking of Arachnus, he's still WAY TOO STRONG. He needs a serious nerf, the speed and damage of his attacks are incredibly difficult to avoid and far too punishing so early in the game.
This game is beautiful, and deserves all of the praise it has been receiving. I can't wait to see this game when it is complete.
I moved my House and i got tons of stuff to do.
On my Machine the Demo has a Sound Problem, i plays Music but no SFX.
Strange im using a Asus xonar DS.
Stay Tuned
Really enjoying this game so far, though I thought I'd take some notes while playing:
- Enable/Disable on item menu should have a unique SFX (it's the same as navigating the menu)
- Add the Item Room music from the first metroid/Super Metroid to add tension in item rooms/suspicious areas
- Add energy tank/missile expansion info (I feel it was taken out intentionally, but I do think it's a nice addition to have)
- Fade music to silence/fade-back-in before and after the earthquakes happen (Not sure if this was intentional, but in my opinion it added a lot of tension to the original game)
- Disable Super Missile Switching/Automatically switch back to normal missiles if you run out
- Sound gets very quiet whenever a joypad is plugged in/removed (PS3 Snakebyte, PS4 controller)
- Add UDLR support for joypad configuration
I also took some screenshots:
http://puu.sh/8WfAj <- The red-circled map square had two items, causing the map marking to be inaccurate
http://puu.sh/8WfF9.png <- Holding up or down and trailing across the red-circled corner tile causes Samus' Spiderball to fall through
http://puu.sh/8Wfve <- This log doesn't end with a period, where all of the other logs do
*** Please take note that these images may expire within 5-6 months after posting this. ***
This game has always looked absolutely stunning, and this new demo continues to blow me away with every new surprise (Loved the space jump boss, by the way! Didn't expect that one, as well as the new boss in the corridor on the way back from the first area) I was playing on Normal, and found the game to overall be considerably difficult. I had a lot of trouble fighting the Metroids (Alpha and Gamma, maybe I'm just bad?) I particularly found myself trying to use the diagonal arm button, but my keyboard wouldn't let me do that (that's actually my own hardware issue, but I should mention that anyway) The game's intro made me feel like I was immediately "jumping into the action" with little explanation, though I suppose the original game also did that. I didn't mind it, being used to the Metroid physics from past games, but I do feel it might be a problem to some newcomers. I was actually hoping there'd be some short intro cutscene, similar to what Zero Mission did.
By the way, great job with the sound design! I noticed that the game engine uses a echo/reverb engine in realtime with some really cool panning effects. The soundtrack felt rather "badass" like Metroid Prime, and I was delighted to hear remixes from Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 2 (Or am I mistaken?) I really liked the full-ambient tracks as well. I think they captured the mood of each area very well, the same way Metroid Prime did. I should mention, however, that I felt the orchestra strings for the "Game Load" and "Item Obtained" fanfares should have layered strings an octave lower the ones already there (maybe a cello or something in the baritone?) to make the orchestra feel more "full".
Thanks for taking the time to read my rambling, and I look forward to future updates on the game!
Also, if I recall correctly, in the original game, there were spikes put along the walls in the area where Samus acquires Space Jump in an effort to guide you to find it.
In the giant cave at the start of Area 3, it's possible to spider ball on the ceiling over the entire area. I feel like there ought to be ceiling spikes in order to encourage the player to find Torizo while leaving the skilled players to infinite bomb jump over the spike-lined wall.
Thank you for your consideration.
And something i was thinking about, on the surface of SR388, it's sunny out, however when i played the original, it always looked like it was night. Just an idea, but you could change the time of day as the player is coming back to the surface with the hatchling.
A bit like this, perhaps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdjFvbKuoeE
If you pay close attention, a charged Wave Beam, with or without the Long Beam, sounds different without any other Beams combined with it.
Just a thought.
I hope it's not too late in your development process to make a suggestion: Near the end of the game, when the Queen releases little Metroids to try to prevent you from reaching her, it would be fun if those Metroids could be released not only around the Queen's lair, but in ALL the areas of the game, which implies that Samus would have to backtrack through all the areas to hunt down and kill those 'baby' Metroids the classic way (with the Ice Beam and 5 missiles).
Finally, a quick question: The 'About the Project' section of the official AM2R web site mentions that there will be 'new areas'. Will these new areas be completely new and distinct, or just extensions to the main areas already established in the Game Boy game? I for one would love to visit an underwater area similar to Maridia (where the Gravity Suit would be helpful) or an ice-covered area, or a lava area deeper inside SR388.