Project AM2R - Another Metroid 2 Remake

I´ve been with a lot of work lately. Life is eating my time away, but I manage to find time for the project once in a while. I even drew a tileset while I was recording voice actors for a documentary. I retiled most of the breeding area 3, I had to add more variety to the tileset, it was too repetitive. Changed the tiles of the tunnel connecting area 3 with the main shaft, instead of a recolor of existing brick tiles, I´m using new original tiles. The Gammas were tweaked yet again. Some fights are in very closed spaces, and some gammas were moving too fast. Zeta Metroids are coming out pretty well. Both HyruleSwordsMan and me are working on animating a wireframe sketch of the zetas with all the required actions, before he starts drawing the details. This gives us an idea of how many frames each animation will take, and how many positions need to be drawn for every part.We´re trying to make things look as fluid as possible. For example, the current sketch for the walking animation has 2...

So, Gammas are coming out nicely. Battles are challenging and fair, there´s much more attack variety compared to Alphas. The cool thing is that you´ll see new attacks as you discover more Metroids, so once you encounter a Gamma, you´ll surely experience something new. The customizable moves took some time to code, but it´s really worth it. The slow map screen was redone from scratch. Now the map is drawn using tiles, instead of hundreds of objects. Also, the scanlines effect was removed, it made the background too distracting. And last, but not least, Zeta metroid sprite production has begun. This sprite set will be a lot more challenging. Since this is a bipedal creature, animations will be quite complex. I´m sorry for the lack of updates these days, I´ve been working too much. Comments and suggestions are welcome, as always.

Earlier today I posted a general information page written in spanish, this will help me write the updates in 2 languages. Si buscas información en español, puedes hacer click en el link a la derecha. -> The progress these days: I´m constantly tweaking the Gamma Metroids AI. Right now they´re extremely hard to defeat. They have a couple of attack patterns, but they´re too difficult to hit, since the core is hidden deeper into the creature, compared to Alphas. And I haven´t coded the lightning attacks yet. I have plans to redo the map screen display system. A lot of objects are used to draw the entire map, this causes a severe slowdown on older machines. I´m trying to find a way to use fewer objects (and I´m already using deactivation). I know it´s not much progress, but work was unusually busy these weeks. Like always, comments are welcome.

The following post has general information about the project written in spanish. Este post contiene información sobre el proyecto en español, acá vas a encontrar las respuestas a las preguntas más comunes, información sobre el progreso, en fin, de todo un poco. A medida que haga nuevos post sobre el progreso en inglés, voy a ir agregando la última traducción a este post, así que pueden agregar esta parte a sus favoritos y estar actualizados. Voy a tratar de escribir en un tono lo más neutro posible, si se me escapa algo en lunfardo avisenme por favor. Si tienen alguna duda pueden postear un comentario o directamente escribirme un mail a doctorm64(ARROBA)live.com PROGRESO (Actualizado 28 mar 2009) Estuve con mucho trabajo ultimamente. La vida me está ocupando mucho tiempo, pero cada tanto puedo encontrar un momento para trabajar en el proyecto. Hasta llegué a ponerme a dibujar tiles mientras grababa a locutores para un documental. Reapliqué tiles a la parte inferior del area 3, tuve que...

I just noticed the project has been public for over a year. I could´ve prepared something, a trailer, screenshots, anything, but it completely slipped my mind... My girlfriend is right, I suck at remember anniversaries. Anyway, the progress these days: - Added the automorph and autoclimb features. Automorph requires to hold down diagonally for 4 frames when near a ground tunnel, then Samus crouches and 4 frames later she morphs. This avoids accidental automorphing. To automatically climb a 1 or 2 block high ledge, touch the wall holding the direction and press Jump. Kinda like pulling up from the grip state. If the ledge leads to a tunnel, Samus automatically morphs after climbing. This control scheme does not interfere with the classic style, so purists won´t be affected at all. - Changed jumping mechanics a bit. Morphing while jumping doesn´t reset the vertical speed, unless you´re falling (otherwise the charge-bomb attack becomes useless in air). Also, firing from a spinjump preserv...

These couple of weeks were refreshing, I rediscovered Cave Story (finally got to the Hell stage), I started another run of Soldexus, and played countless hours of Call of Duty 4 (it´s so fun I forgot completely about Unreal Torunament). Anyway, here are my plans for this summer: - Work on Area 4 - Do the map screen - Finish the subscreen - Redo the transitions and fade system - Rework Samus´ physics and some moves - Code Gamma Metroids AI Area 4 is my primary goal. Since I´m revamping it almost completely, I´ll be able to make interesting layouts instead of the basic design of the original. The map screen is working, I´ll just make it look good, and accessible from the subscreen. I came up with an idea about making a better and faster method for the transitions and fade in/outs. Since now I have to link the subscreen with the map screen, I need more flexibility to make transitions look better. I hope I can pull it off. I might change one or two things about Samus´ moves: - Change the s...

May you all find peace this holiday. And may this new year bring us all prosperity and happiness. I´ll be taking a small break from work (and AM2R) these last 2 weeks of the year. I´ll have plenty of time to put into the project on January. I did manage to improve the subscreen these days: This one is taken from the engine, that screen back there is from the actual game. The text is still part of each section´s bitmap, the values at the top are still fixed, and there´s still no validation for the switched abilities (you can toggle anything without having the item). But it´s functional, and it´s as far as it could get this year. As always, you´re free to post your oppinions, or just drop by and say hi. I´ll try to make some time to answer your questions. Ah, BTW, I replied to most people on the last post´s comments. If you asked anything back then, check it out. Well, take care, enjoy the celebrations and have fun. My best wishes for all of you. DoctorM64