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Lunar Legends - Actually Serious Update!

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Thanks a lot again! ^.^
Originally posted by xlk
I love how the screenshot with the saw has cut trees, really gives a nice theme.

Interesting, never thought that someone would actually notice that. Yeah, the trees in this level are all cut by the saws, even though not all of them have saws on them.
It would be a bit boring like that, wouldn't it? :p
Originally posted by Austin
Those question blocks are too yellow for my taste, however, but eh, not a big problem. :>

The '?' are flashing :p
I'm pretty sure I saw a question block like that in a Mario game, I think it was SMG2.

I'll see if I can get some videos to post here :3
Palettes and level design are awesome! And it seems creativity will be a strong aspect too. Looking forward to seeing this complete. (PS: I like food themes. :P)
Looks fantastic. You're introducing LOTS AND LOTS of creativity. I really like it. Congratz!!


The thing is, are you sure you're going to finish this one? I hope you are.
My, this looks quite stellar. I especially like the looks of Kiwi Woods 1. Keep it up! ;)
Wow, the palettes look great in each of the levels, awesome job man, keep it up!

Haha, thanks a lot, really :3
Video of level 2-3
Also, the hack was not going to have a story, but I thought about a cool one and decided to use it :3
The hack's name is now "Lunar Legends: Tears of the Moon".
EDIT: I know that the level doesn't have any chainsaws, that's intentional.
:P
I like hack like this it looks cool and it pushes vanilla graphics further then before.
RMG Productions
Very nice video, hat. And Nice level too!
It's overflowing creativity.
I love this level, Mario's Hat. Didn't find any errors, though. Keep it up!
Windowless ride, feeling alive
Are you alive or just breathing?
Thanks a lot! :3
The next level will be a castle. In LL, castles will be just normal levels (like Ghost Houses), and any type of level can have a boss.
Also expect some Majora's Mask references in the plot, as it's one of my favourite games, and favourite in the Zelda series :3
I've been looking for a hack thread with a sufficient amount of progress - not too much so it's hard to go back and change things, but not too little so there's nothing to post about - and this hack thread seems to work quite well.

First of all, let's start off with the Lemon Plateau overworld. To me, it looks pretty flat, maybe a bit more varied terrain heights could work here.
But regardless of that, there are two main things which I seemed to have noticed (referring to this throughout) - Firstly, the pink 'circle'. I am aware that the 2px wide line cannot be helped, but it seems to look a bit off when it's right next to the border. That area going down too looks a bit off-perspective, even though it isn't and is absolutely fine. That was pretty nit-picky but eh. The red 'circled' area looks two things: One, it looks like the grass is flat and stuck onto the front of the mountain. Two, due to the flatness it makes it look like there are perspective errors. Having two of the black lines above that grassy area will fix both of them issues. But I am assuming that the grass area is where a secret level is - or a normal level for that matter - and that you will continue up that mountain. So if you did have them lines you'd probably not want to add the rock-climbing pegs or a ladder and just let Mario climb up the bare mountain. Which to be honest isn't a big deal for me.
Moving on to the decoration of the overworld: It's very well done, not too much or too little. My only complaint on that aspect would be the stars in the cliffs. They look a bit odd to me.
The palette is also very nice too. I can see a difference from the original SMW overworld palette, which is good. Not too much of a change but I don't feel that a massive change would be required for this kind of world. So good job with that.

Getting onto Lemon Plateau 1. I like the graphical mixes between the cave and outside tileset. I am not sure if this is in the level due to the screenshots not showing it but maybe the cave graphics should be accessible to stand on too - as in the grass disappearing.
The palettes in this level are really nice. The grass and cave graphics both have nice palettes which fit together well. Good job with them.
I've never really been a fan of mixing graphics from all the games in SMAS - like in this case having the bushes from SMB3 with the SMW graphics - but this isn't really an issue as SMW doesn't really come with much choice for aesthetics.
Speaking of aesthetics. I'd like to say that you should be careful with them. Don't go overboard and/or focus on them too much. I've seen other hacks do it and it really ruins the level design as the designer is thinking "Got to add decoration!". Trust me, it's easy to fall into this trap and hard to get back out.

Moving on through the levels. I can see more pretty palettes and some decent level design. I'm liking the way you've slightly edited the ? Blocks and the Used Blocks so that the hack looks a bit different from a standard vanilla SMW hack. And I'm liking their new palettes too.

I'm assuming you're using the SMW alternate enemy graphics in this hack. Which is fine- it makes it different in my opinion and is actually quite a good idea.

I'm not really a fan of the coins in the dirt in Lemon Plateau 2. It looks a bit odd really. I think it looks like a translucent coin floating around - which could be collected if you touch it. Maybe a palette change with it would do the trick.

Onto the cave aspect: I don't mind claustrophobic caves - or castles for that matter - so that doesn't bother me. I'm not entirely sure on the bone piles which are stuck to the ceiling of the cave, and I'm a fan of the orange (which looks pretty similar to the orange of the main body of it) of the ? in the ? Block. The white would fit fine here I think.

That orange is back too in the next level. Still looks odd here. But the decoration here looks fine, and so does the level design. One thing I'm not sure about though is this overly stretched tree. It looks really weird to me.
This time in the hack seems like a good time to introduce Bullet Bills, which you have, so I don't think difficulty will be an issue (but that's hard to tell from the screenshots).
The palette in this level is probably my... third favorite? I'm not entirely sure really as I really like it but I like two of the later ones more!

Getting onto the castle of this world. Am I to assume this level has a roof and is vertical scroll enabled from these two screenshots? If I am then OK - if not it could look really weird with the columns going up into---nothing.
To be honest I'd like to see a bit more ? Block usage, although maybe you've just taken the screenshots, not purposely, without them in. I think that's the reason because by chance where you've taken the screenshots there are no ? Blocks.
Now: What's to determine the difference between a solid castle brick and a castle brick that doesn't look like it's solid and acts like a second-ledge that would be outside? This looks pretty confusing to be honest.
Regardless of that. I'm liking the slight tad of green which is added to the palette - it looks like the castle has bits of mold growing in it. Not sure if this is the intended impact but I rather like the idea of it.

I believe I'm onto world 2 now. I am thinking what is the relevance of kiwis or lemons in these levels - but come to think of it what was the relevance of the donuts or chocolate in Donut Land and Chocolate Island in SMW?
Now Kiwi Woods 1 has got my favorite palette so far. I can also see some decent level design and ideas here. I think maybe a more of a change in the midway-point palette couldn't go a miss here to fit more with it's surroundings though.
I'm not going to say the floating grass looks odd because it doesn't for me. It's different but hey, this is the world of Mario - anything can happen. We have a dinosaur that breathes fire there (Bowser or Yoshi? Take your pick).
So yeah, this level looks pretty decent so far.

Not much is shown of Kiwi Woods 2, but it looks good so far. I like the palette here - my second favorite - and it gives a nice feel of the level being set at night - while the one before felt like it was at dusk. I like what you've done with that. Maybe darkening the sprite palettes would work here to add more to the feeling of night time. I'm not even sure if that is the feel you're going for but it works.

Kiwi Woods 3 looks decent. The palette is not as good as the others though - maybe because I think the green really needs to be darkened or something as it really stands out too much at the moment. Meaning the green of the grass and the trees. Also, that orange ? is back - it looks really odd when you hit it and it goes white as well.
The level difficulty seems good for this point in the hack - and I suppose so does the level length, but maybe it was a -bit- short for my tastes.
I also believe that a bonus room could be added (perhaps there is one but you didn't show it) as I thought the level was a little linear.
But overall, I rather liked the level - minus the few things I pointed out above.

I've never really played any Zelda games (yes I've been told I'm missing out on some fun stuff) so I won't know if you throw in any Majora's Mask references. But that's not really an issue as a good plot is a good plot - I like good plots, I like no plots. To be honest I don't really care about plots (not in a derogatory way - I'm just not really fussed if the plot is "Peach has been kidnapped, go save her).

But yeah. I can really see some decent progress and I will be sure to check back at a later date to see what more delights you have to showoff.

I wish you luck.
@Tahix
Not sure if you noticed, but you're considering that SMW-hacking patterns that some people like me hate a lot.
Your opinion is your opinion, right, but you cannot take different opinions as wrong. This hack is more simple but is it bad because of it?
Many things you pointed out aren't wrong or make no difference in the hack's professionalism.

This behemoth comment you made only shows that you follow hundreds of SMW-hacking rules that don't even exist in game-making. The only thing I agree with you is the red circle in the overworld (for some reason, I didn't notice it).

Remember: Flat or linear =/= bad. Flat can be good. This OW is good. I can imagine you getting into a desert or plains and saying "Sorry god, but this place is too flat. Add some varied terrain heights here and it will be fine!" XD
(Not saying that undecorated and boring can be good)
(but hyper-decorated and hyper-varied as heights CAN be odd)
Is the "after special world" sprite gfx in purpose?
If so, where are the pidgits?
Other than this, seems like a good hack. Good Luck on progress!
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YouTube
Your palette creativity seems to be at high standards and the level designing isn't horrible it's great along with the World names that remind me of the Kirby games that also had worlds named after food keep up the great on this Purple Rex
Man, you never cease to amaze me with your works. Just looked through it all. The level design is really great and everything looks fantastic!

Keep it up!
Thanks a lot again! And yeah, It uses some of the Special World sprite GFX, The bullet bills are not pidgits because I will use them as another enemy later on :3
Also finally working on this again! ^~^
I decided to make some changes to the hack.
1- All of the World 1 levels will be moved to World 3. I feel like they are too hard for the first world, and are not that good at introducing the player to the game imo.
2- The hack will have 9 worlds, two being optional (World 4B and World 5B) and one secret world.
I also finished World 2 (the forest world :3) and the new first level.

Lemon Seaside 1
First level! Bubble goombas, goombas and koopas are present here.



I reshaded the SMAS GFX a bit, and I feel like they fit better with SMW's GFX now. The level is a bit simple, but it's supposed to be simpler than most levels in the hack.
Also, I'll post a video of the W2 castle soon :3
Cool Purple Rex, glad to see You're working in this hack again ^^

Also, You can change the Goomba GFX if want, for the used in SMA2, just a opinion if You want, sure.
The first demo is ready! It have 3 worlds (13 levels?). Some screens:










DEMO LINK

The letters on first screen use palette ExAnimation. The hack has been tested on Snes9X and ZSNES, and it probably works on all emulators. (Bsnes doesn't work on my PC D=)
The credits will only be on the final version.

Known bugs:
- Luigi's sprite on the OW border uses Mario's GFX
- Score and remaining time on level clear (the score and the timer are disabled :p)
- Luigi uses controller 2 (not really a bug, that is intentional)

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Comments? :3

EDIT: I just submitted the hack :3
AWESOME demo right here. Be sure it's gonna be a great hack. Really enjoyable and fun to play.

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