Project AM2R - Another Metroid 2 Remake

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 .

There was a lot of progress with Zeta Metroids. Right now they walk, crouch, jump and do a horrendously animated claw attack (soon to be redrawn). I just realized that since this is a ground based enemy, it will require much more testing than the floating ones. Specially when the environment limits the Metroid´s movement, there´s room for exploits. So, last time I mentioned Challenge Mode. And there were many cool suggestions about it, and the possible escape sequence (thanks!!!). Here´s what I have planned so far for this mode: - It will be available after completing the normal game once. - All the lava will be gone, so you can explore freely. - The item and Metroid placement will be changed. - There will be extra Metroid fights, even maybe more than one at the same time. - A boss rush mode could be unlocked after completing Challenge Mode. One thing I know for sure, challenge mode will be done after the game is finished. This means I´ll release the game once it´s completed, and chall...

In the last post there was a very interesting suggestion by Palamon: A final escape sequence after the Queen fight. It´s true, the planet is succeptible to earthquakes caused by Metroids, and killing the biggest one of them all could easily cause some disaster. Ok, but you (supposedly) have Gravity Suit by the time you reach the end, and lava isn´t much of a threat now. If the escape is going to be dramatic, it should be more menacing than lava and some falling rocks. And making so would deviate too much from the original game, IMHO. The moment you first see the hatchling, and peacefully reach the surface is a classic scene. I might consider making an escape sequence for "Challenge Mode", a special mode for hardcore players. I´d like to hear your oppinions about this. About the progress: I´m starting with the AI of the Zeta Metroids. I had to make a custom animation system, since there are separate body parts with different numbers of frames. Using the built-in variables was ...

Hyruleswordsman finally found some time between exams to work on the Zeta Metroid sprites. After many revisions, the standing sprite is done. Like in many other aspects of the project, I started animating the sprite, thinking it wouldn´t be as difficult as it seemed. I was SO wrong. I´m kinda getting the hang of it, and there´s still a lot to animate. The ingame object uses a wireframe sketch right now, it gives a better idea on how the sprite will behave with the environment. It´ll take a lot of work, but it will be worth it. I finished tiling the tower part of area 4, next up are the spiky caves. Those will be done really fast, I just need a "skpiky" tileset. I guess I´ll have to draw it... Thanks for the achievements suggestions by the way. Don´t worry, they will be more challenge based than anything else. I´m not that much of a fan of the "You fired a Missile!!!" kind of achievements, instead they could be like the skill points of the Ratchet and Clank series, f...

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 pointles...

Before you freak out, I do NOT have swine flu. There´s a medical emergency here, with a lot of people dying every week. I´m taking all the needed precautions with my customers and myself, and luckily my life rarely involves being in crowded places. I do have a regular flu, this makes it harder to do simple tasks, like tiling rooms. After a tough week I´m feeling better now, so things will move much faster. So, about the misterious lower part of area 4... I already did the basic rooms, there´s a lot of tiling left, and it still doesn´t have any scripted parts. What I can tell you about it without spoiling too much: It´s not too small, there´s an item to be collected, there might be a miniboss waiting for you, it´s completely optional (so, no Metroids down there). I read many of the ideas you people posted on the last blog post, there were some really cool ones, but I had to come up with something within the reach of my skills and my free time (I don´t want to spend too much time on a si...

All the rooms of area 4 are done, they still need some tiles, and the outside of the tower is still made of dull square blocks, but it´s playable. After the first test I noticed how small and simple this area is, compared to eralier ones. I did add some scripted surprises inside the tower, and even if it´s bigger than the original, it´s not enough. So, I was thinking on adding some extra rooms below the tower, so what we really visited in Metroid 2 was the upper part of a bigger structure, buried inside the cave. The Chozo are one of the most mystical and advanced civilizations of the universe, and they decide to make a tower in the deep underground of a dangerous planet... they must have a GOOD reason to be so unpractical. Anyway, another problem I found is the main cave room. In this case, rooms are parts of a level that are separated with transitions, it could be a single screen, or a huge cave. The bigger the room, the slower the game gets. When I tried the game on a slower PC, th...