Project AM2R - Another Metroid 2 Remake

Besides some minor bugs here and there, I was able to add some improvements. AM2R Demo v1.32 The biggest change was to replace all the in-game transitions and cutscenes that used background resources created in real-time. As I was able to test with several users having slowdown and crashes mid-game, this change solved that issue. So, if you were experiencing slowdowns or crashed, please give this version a try. It was a pretty extensive change, but it's one less feature to rewrite from scratch whenever I get to port the game to GM Studio. Speaking of which, I was able to conduct a small test, to see the impact of the port. To get the game running, I had to remove TONS of features and mechanics. This will take some time, but having the option to make builds for Linux and Mac will be worth the effort. Besides all the work put into the update, the contents of the rest of the game is being worked on. While I continue to make things work in the next area, some of the collabora...

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 spe...

Next Saturday, the awesome people at Speed Demos Archives will be hosting a Metroid Speedrun Marathon. The cool thing about this marathon is that AM2R will be featured, along all the official Metroid games. The event will appear at the frontpage of Twitch.tv , professional speedrunner Dragondarch will be speedrunning the AM2R Demo v1.3. Here's the schedule , and the Twitch Feed that will be streaming the event. I'll do my best to attend, so feel free to drop by the stream chat. So, you don't want to watch the new demo on a stream because of the spoilers? We can fix that: DEMO 1.3 DOWNLOAD New in this version: - Acess to a new area - XInput support for XBox 360 controllers (Includding triggers) - Improved button hints in-game - Centralized menu control with dedicated buttons - Redone lighting engine - Aim Lock - Analog walking - Morph Button - Many engine improvements and optimizations

I know the DLC joke couldn't match last year's, but I had a lot of fun writing it. Too bad I couldn't make a screenshot of the cat launcher in time... Anyway, the new demo is almost ready for a release. The miniboss of Area 3 had several revisions, and it's still being tweaked during the final playtest sessions. As usual, as things get fixed and features are added, other things break. Sometimes it feels like a never ending loop. But things look pretty stable nowadays, just a couple of (hopefully) simple bugs left to fix. I know I entered into a "feature lockdown" to focus on the contents, but there was a feature that was requested a lot: Centralized menu controls. Now, first time players might find the subscreen controls a bit confusing (almos nobody reads the commands at the bottom of the screen), so I limited all the actions involving menus to 2 dedicated, customizable buttons. This is a small detail that makes things much more intuitive. Anyway, as ...

The final testing phase of the new store system is almost over. After yesterday's stress test, the servers seem to be stable enough to handle the load of the release day. Also, there were some changes in how the currency is stored. Now, instead of paying directly for items, you can buy " Galactic Federation Credits " that can be used to redeem the items, be gifted to other players, or bid at the casino area. Also, the in-game store has been finally added. You won't have to minimize the game and visit the store page each time you run out of missiles. Now the entire AM2R item store is available from the pause menu. Right now all the support crates that contain the items spawn at the landing site, but there are plans to expand the drop locations.   Bear in mind that the current store screens are in-development, there will be a better looking background and a bigger selection of items. Speaking of items, Reserve Tanks were added. These add 100 energy each...

Finally, the playtesting phase for the upcoming demo started. There were several playtest sessions, some of them in person, with good old friends, some of them remote. These sessions were really useful to detect some level design issues, along with some serious balance problems with the miniboss of Area 3. There will be more sessions later on, but for now I've been fixing most of the recently found issues. There were a couple dozen bugs that appeared because of the new control options, too. Even if they're pretty solid there were a couple of minor bugs here and there that went by undetected until now. I also spent plenty of time on sound design of existing objects. There are new ambient noises in certain rooms, along with dedicated impact and death sounds for robotic enemies. Al that's left to round up the contents of the upcoming demo is: - Finish and balance the miniboss - Finish the music tracks of the new areas - Test and polish everything This was a lengthy ...

So, these new features will give you even more options to customize the way you control Samus. Morphing with just a button can give you a lot more versatility, specially when using analog sticks. For those with analog controls, Samus can walk if you push the stick halfway towards a direction. And the coolest, and potentially most useful, Aim Lock. Holding the Aim Lock button will force Samus to aim in a specific direction, and walk instead of run. This makes some of the harder Metroid fights more interesting, since you can now strafe and position your shots better. These features have been in development for quite a while. Now that they're working properly and bug-free, they are officially a part of the engine. You'll be able to try these out on the upcoming demo. And last but not least, Decayed , an awesome AM2R fan, donated a Game Maker Ubuntu Export Module license. This means that, whenever the project is migrated to Studio, a Linux port will be very likely to be dev...