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Ganymede - Some music credit (or, how Kevin ported 30% of the entire soundtrack)

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Oodles of updates. I haven't posted much, but I have not been slacking off.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
There's a beta! Please download that beta and patch it right the hell onto a rom! I promise that you probably won't hate it very much!

As noted above, I had to upload a new set of patches because of a misplaced entrance on level E8. The links in this thread direct to this new zip. You can open the level in Lunar Magic and move the entrance over to the checkered pillar to the left of where the entrance currently is, if you don't want to re-patch your rom.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
I'd love to hear any feedback, criticism or suggestions from those who have downloaded the hack. It really means a lot to me to be able to make something that is accepted in an environment that has high standards.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
I have played your hack. It was very fun, and I can't wait to see more! Anyways, I suggest making a custom overworld instead of using the original, and adding some custom music. It would sure help the hack a lot.
Thanks for giving it a try!

I have some images up in the first post of the overworld that will be in the final product. I didn't include it in this beta because, for a long time, I had no idea what I was doing and just stuck to doing levels, but it's definitely going to be a thing.

As far as music goes, the final will definitely have custom music one way or another. I have a composer friend who will hopefully be able to contribute. If that doesn't work out, I'll find some good stuff on here.

For the next few days, I'm going to go around and play some of the hacks I've had my eye on for awhile, and yours will definitely be among them.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Alright, having nudged my way into the second world of this hack, I think I have enough initial impressions to compile a list of pros and cons

Pros
- Holy flib, the palettes are beautiful! I really like when people make the vanilla tilset blast out like this, it adds a lot of variety through simple use of color. Very much identical to what the DKC series does with levels to make them stand out despite sharing tilesets.
- The level design itself is very well thought out and interesting. It never really got repetitive at all through what I've played. Pretty creative!
- I like your preview OW design, for all it's worth

Cons
- I really dislike the coins = timer mechanic. I feel like it gives me a limited time to enjoy a level, and it really just....doesn't work well with me. Every other little ASM tweak is pretty neat but this one just rubs me the wrong way. It's a matter of preference.
...so, if you remember, I said that I will upload videos but got lazy. Sorry about that - I'll try to comment on all of your level images instead:
(by the way, about the maps - I think many of them don't have enough contrast. try to make a version with more contrast and see how they look.)

Road to the Palace
A quite nice level overall, but I have some complaint that if fixed, may make the level look better.
- If possible, can you add some green? Maybe some green bushes here and there? It would make the level look more colorful.
- Some of the palette rows really lack contrast. (0, 1, 6)
- I don't think the bushes that use palette row 4 look good.
- I don't think the bricks using palette row 5 look good.
- You might want to add some hue shifting.
Click to see my attempt to fix this level.

Sunsetter Hills
Same as above - really nice level (nice job with the palettes here) but I have a few complaints.
- You might want to make the stairs stand out a bit more.
- The pipes around the mushroom in the beginning don't have a very nice palette.
- The bricks don't have a very nice palette.
- The green koopa shells don't have enough contrast in their palettes.
- Not a complaint, but nice idea with the face in the dirt. Made me smile. #ab{:)}







I'll edit this post later - this will likely take a while.
Originally posted by TTTTTsd
Pros
- Holy flib, the palettes are beautiful! I really like when people make the vanilla tilset blast out like this, it adds a lot of variety through simple use of color. Very much identical to what the DKC series does with levels to make them stand out despite sharing tilesets.
- The level design itself is very well thought out and interesting. It never really got repetitive at all through what I've played. Pretty creative!
- I like your preview OW design, for all it's worth


Thank you very much. Most of my efforts in doing this was to have as little repetition as I could, and a lot of the rest was in using palettes, rather than GFX, to create variety.

Quote
Cons
- I really dislike the coins = timer mechanic. I feel like it gives me a limited time to enjoy a level, and it really just....doesn't work well with me. Every other little ASM tweak is pretty neat but this one just rubs me the wrong way. It's a matter of preference.


This is very useful to know. I'm personally in love with the mechanic, but it's hard for me to know if the timers are generous enough (because I really don't want you to feel forced to get out, except in one or two stages in which that's the gimmmick). So, this tells me I need to make the timers longer.

Berkay:

My use of low-contrast color schemes is intentional. I'm trying to go for a softer feel with fewer black lines, to evoke the feeling of a storybook. Certainly, though, there are parts in which this is inconsistent or simply doesn't fit. I'll consider any recommendations anyone wishes to make about it. Your recoloration of the pillars in Road to the Palace is one change I rather like and will implement.

The Row 4 bushes should have been removed and I just missed them in my effort to clean everything up. There are other such artifacts I'm sure you'll run across (I already found an example in The Outer Forts that looks really awful).



I'm not sure what you mean by hue shifting, could you explain?
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
That looks... really useful. Thanks for sharing!
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Tried a little something different with Road to the Palace. Here's a bite.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Yeah, everything looks much better. The bricks may be unfitting compared to the other things, but I don't really know.
Originally posted by Berkay
Yeah, everything looks much better. The bricks may be unfitting compared to the other things, but I don't really know.


Thank you. I'm experimenting with different brick designs and ideas. I've used three different ones so far and none of them have seemed just right to me.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Originally posted by Ten
Originally posted by Berkay
Yeah, everything looks much better. The bricks may be unfitting compared to the other things, but I don't really know.


Thank you. I'm experimenting with different brick designs and ideas. I've used three different ones so far and none of them have seemed just right to me.


I'm not much of a graphics guy, obviously, but you should try adding outlines to the bricks. Right now they look like they are just cut off and not very solid.

allow shy guy emojis in post footers you cowards!
Originally posted by Ten
I actually forgot that I had Layer 3 on, and I hadn't noticed. That will be gone. Fair enough point on enemy population, and that I will also see to.

Regarding that alcove that has only coins...

Do you have a secret path and is 1 block high?
Eh?
There are tons of secret paths in this hack. Most levels have a few somewhere. And, except for a few very rare exceptions, they're all 2 blocks tall.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Originally posted by Ten
There are tons of secret paths in this hack. Most levels have a few somewhere. And, except for a few very rare exceptions, they're all 2 blocks tall.
That's too easy it must be 1 block high.
Eh?
Hello Ten!

I've been viewing your gallery in the first post and it was like great, I love the BGs and the palettes and allthat cool stuff you try to make with the design!!!

I'll try out one day your demo and I think it is totally worth my time.

Hope the project carries on.

thesmb3fan144, I disagree with you since you seem very categorical. I used to think like you, putting difficulty in every little gimmick/bonus/etc, but I don't think this is mandatory to make good design. Even more, it can be frustrating sometimes.
Hey Darkslayer, thanks so much for the kind words. I'd love to know what you think about it after playing.

The project is on hold for the moment, because I'm doing NaNoWriMo, and my free time is limited as it is (which has kept me away from here for weeks). I'm working on the graphics a bit, making them a bit more distinct and just trying to see what works.

I'll post new builds more often, though, starting today.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Thanks for the new build.

I have started to play the first two levels and unfortunately I've already seen some things that may make your hack not accepted if you were to have it in the SMW Hack database on SMWC.
Such as this simple example in first level, Sunsetter Hills :

Here you have a ground tile (where player can stand above) that is invisible. That is because it uses the last line in Lunar Magic. I think it is considered as an error.

I got this advice from Ladida on my last removal log, to avoid player hitting these sideways ledges (he cannot pass through) from the backside, since it looks odd.


Once I get all the pros and cons about what I see in my playing, I could PM you to discuss. What d'ya think.

Also, for what I've seen, the palettes and graphics you use look very neat, I wish I could make something like that ^^

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