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The Ganymede Summer C3 Sampler

It's me again with my baby! Thank you so much for clicking on this link. Now that I've got your attention, I hope that I can hold it for awhile, because I have stories to tell you, and a HUGE game for you to play. Click on the first link below and take a trip to an island full of things and such. I've been saying for years that this hack was enormous, with dozens of large and complex levels. Now you can see, for yourself, that I don't boast. You can navigate through the entire map and play any of those dozens of levels. This is a full game, if not entirely polished or completed. This is simply a snapshot of where it has progressed to this point. You can spend hours, and days, exploring everything there is to see.

On that note, fair warning: C3 is a narrow window, and I had to spend over a month, working daily, to get the last demo in a release shape. This sampler is not release shape. You may encounter wonky palettes, glitched graphics, or other things you would not find acceptable in an actual release. There is some music, but most of the levels do not have any. There should not be many such imperfections, but they are there and I just don't have the time to fix everything. You are likelier to encounter this, the further you get from the beginning of the game. That said, you should be able to play, and complete, just about every level that you can access.

Ganymede is my baby, I've poured tens of thousands of hours into this hack, with who knows how many more to come. I hope most sincerely that you find joy in these efforts. That's at least half the point of me doing this.


Most Recent Playable Build (WHAT YOU ARE HERE FOR):
The Official Summer C3 Sampler
Official Trailer:
Back of My Eyelids
Complete Video Walkthrough (of the previous demo):
Ganymede
The evolution of Ganymede:
38 Months of Progress





SO WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT THEN?


Wake up, go to work, pay the bills. Feed the dog. Do what you're told, so that you may steal a few moments throughout the day to do what you want. Cope. Deal. Speak to people who can't stop talking. Buy. Sell. Watch. Be angry, be happy, be sad, pass judgment, when prompted to do so. Wash, rinse, sleep, repeat.

It started off with nothing left to desire. It was just one day, exactly like any other. Another turn around the hamster wheel, another day married to routine. It was a day not dissimilar to thousands the man had already seen come and go, except for the fact that this was the day he decided he would be the one to go. Enough is enough, already. Clean break.

A thunderous squall appears on the horizon and rolls, barrel-like, over the water. Gentle waves grow into shark's teeth. And the man and his boat are all there is for them to chew upon.

The same raging sea which put the man to sleep becomes, some time later, the same gently foaming caress which brings him back to consciousness. Land ho, it appears. The coast stretches into seeming infinity in either direction. Not far away, a broken hull rests upon a rock. Splintered remains, carried by the tide, lie in the sand. He must have swam, but there wasn't much to remember in the dark and chaos. His only evidence is himself, standing here on a coast.

Leaving the wreck behind, the man sets off in search of, well, anything. It is, he reflects, a life much simplified. It is, he reflects, a life with needs fewer in number but much more demanding. A stomach needs filling. Thirst needs quenching. So, there's plenty to do. For having brushed up against death so closely, so recently, it is no small wonder that the man feels so much more vividly alive than he can remember being in a long time.

He had a map. It was just part of the process, you brought a map along with you when you got on a boat. It had been some time since he had needed to use it, but you just never know. And that was the funny thing, was that there was not any coast. Not according to the map, at least. Not for a couple of thousand nautical miles, for sure.

He felt urged to amend, there was not supposed to be any coast. But it was what it was. And since it too was where he was, might this not actually be the place? Could this be the home he left home for?

Far off in the distance, massive cliffs tower over even the red hills before which he stands. It is in that direction the man takes his first steps, in search of nothing in particular, and in no sense ready for what he is going to find.




HERE ARE THE BENEFITS YOU WILL ENJOY BY INVESTING TODAY IN GANYMEDE


☺ 60+- complex and attractive levels loaded with secrets, hidden areas and multiple paths. Each level is meticulously crafted over the course of weeks and months, each one is huge, complex, and designed so that different play styles produce different experiences. Each level uses unique graphics and themes.
☺ A story told in images and words, with three different endings that can be earned.
☺ A beautiful world map with many divergent paths. Ganymede is a game you can play more than once and still enjoy the thrill of novelty.
Quality gameplay. If you're not engaged, I'm wasting my time. If you are not rewarded, you are wasting your time. It will be familiar in some ways, but it should hopefully not be too familiar in any way.
☺ ASM, some of which was made at my request, all of which was made by very helpful members. This wouldn't be possible without you.




THE HACK


Like everyone here, I'm just a person hacking an old ass game (though unlike a lot of people here, I am old enough that I was already a Mario veteran by the time Super Mario World was released. I've always been a huge fan of good 2D platformers and it has been my dream, since I was a kid, to make one of my own. Lunar Magic and SMW Central have helped me live a dream and I am forever grateful to those who have helped out in whatever way they have helped out.

I started this hack in early 2013. Though I had dabbled around with LM a few times over a few years previous, I had not made anything of note and I wasn't planning to here. I just liked turning the levels into something different and play the results. Well, after about a year, I had about 50 vanilla levels and a few pretensions about my level design ability. So, I came on here and showed off what I called Thoughtful Mario World. I released a playable demo in October 2014, and a few weeks later attempted to release it as a full hack, called Thoughtful Mario World, Part 1 (Part 2 was to be the remainder of the game). This was rejected, with advice I still refer to often, more than three years later.

I continued to work on TMW, learning how to do ExGFX and stuff, gradually improving a game I thought was mostly done. I had no real story in mind even after all this time, not even an excuse plot. And I am a storyteller at heart, so it bothered me that I had nothing to give in that regard.

Around this time, I got to hear an album by some band I hadn't heard of, and it turned out that the album is really amazing and I connected deeply with it on a personal level. It told the story of a man who became fed up with the people and the bullshit in his life and escapes it all to live in peace, far away. Having dealt with depression much of my life, and having also had experience having run away from everything I once knew, the seeds were planted. It was once I realized that the new world map I was making, had a wrecked ship at the starting area. It was a pretty big no duh moment for me, the moment when TMW became Ganymede, and Mario became the man on the boat.

Since then, I've had a clear goal in mind, and it's just a matter of doing the work necessary to produce the game I want to make. I aspire to make a hack unlike any other out there, one which is aesthetically pleasant, engaging to play, and maybe even makes you think a little when you're done playing. I want to make one of the greatest hacks this site has ever seen, and I'm patient and motivated. So buckle up, I guess.




THE ALBUM


1. The Departure (1:36)
2. The Storm (2:16)
3. Segue I (0:16)
4: The Island (3:26)
5: Segue II (0:47)
6. To Stay (3:53)
7. Janus (4:01)
8: Further (3:44)
9: Maybe I'll Stay Around (3:28)
10: The Nightmare (1:56)
11: Segue III (0:47)
12: To Leave (4:24)
13: Segue IV (0:49)
14: The Fire (1:43)
15: Realization (2:57)



SHOUTING OUT

Several people here have been instrumental in the success of this hack and directly helping me realize my vision. They are as follows:

K3fka/Vitor Vilela
Created a piece of ASM which increases the timer by one second for each coin collected.
MarioFanGamer/MFG/Manuel/Not "Mario"
Created a fantastic patch implementing an HP system using lives as HP.
Thomas
Helped alter the 100 Coin Roulette patch to include a 1UP.
chinesesmw
Created additional code for the above patch so that it correctly displays the 1UP sprite.
JackTheSpades
Crafted a nifty little ASM which expanded player character palette options.
Ladida
Patched together a superior goal sphere
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Like Mario in the vanilla game, the man on the boat has four essential forms. Each one has a dominant color, symbolizing a set of emotions. The major boss levels all speak to this theme as well, and eventually, completing them will give each form a unique special ability.



Default form. You always start every level in this form, regardless of the form you had when you finished a level, or died. This form has no special abilities or offensive capabilities. He wears blue to symbolize the sadness in his heart which led him to abandon his old life, as well as the serenity and tranquility he left in search of.



Much of the darkness in the man's heart was implanted early on, growing into the crisis-driven man of the present day. He was a confident kid with a big imagination and tons of fears. On the island, he finds it helps, at times, to see things through the eyes of his own youth. In this form, he has no offensive capabilities, and he takes three HP damage from foes and hazards, whereas all others take only two, but to make up for this, he is a smaller target and (to be implemented) will have the exclusive ability to perform double jumps. He wears yellow to symbolize the man's many fears, and how he is prone to run from them, as well as the shining hope for better things that has still not gone out in his heart.



Living in a world full of self-absorbed, fearful and reactionary people can leave a guy feeling a bit pissed off. Rage and love come from the same place inside of us, and one tends to take over in the absence of the other. When the man lets loose his furious anger, he unleashes a stream of profanity that can peel the hide off of anything (and spawns extra time collectibles). He wears red because of course he does. His future extra power will be to unleash true fiery fury in the form of multiple balls of fire a la Yoshi+red shell.



When so many people around you seem to have figured out how to get by in this loud, impersonal world, it can really make a guy wonder what sort of tricks are at work, and what kind of underhanded or debasing shit one has to do in order to fit in and have what everyone else seems to come by effortlessly. When the man acquires the Sword of Soaring, he becomes a powerhouse of activity, able to cut down all but the toughest foes with ease. As he falls, he holds the Sword over his head and drifts gently to the ground, and as he rises, he uses his bladed wings to scream across the sky. He wears green to symbolize both the envy which consumes him, as well as the ambitions he has to raise himself above what he currently is. The future superpower for this form will replace the slow descent with a kind of SMB2 Princess hover move.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Replying because a passion project like this doesn't deserve a lack of replies - it's possibly because of the relative lack of screenshots, though. I just like that the major themes are things that aren't really found in any hack, or in many games at all.

If it doesn't reveal too much about the story, how are the multiple endings intended to be played through? You've talked a lot about how the overworld diverges - is it that the paths split from the beginning, and each world ends in its own way?


Other Submissions of mine!
There is a level with two exits (themed on the track "Janus" from the album), either one setting you on a long path consisting of roughly 25 levels each. Once you take a path, you can't go back and the early levels are inaccessible. Both paths converge at the end and send you back to the beginning of the game. Your wrecked boat is here, and you can fix it and try to sail away. That is how you get one ending: LEAVE

Being back at the beginning means you can also choose to replay "Janus", take the exit you didn't take the first time, and play through the other major segment. This will, of course, lead you back to the start again. You can try sailing away again, but the result won't be different. What to do?

Well, there is actually another point at which the two paths intersect, leading to an apparent dead end in the southwest desert region.

Each path has two, uh, switch palaces and basically, you need all four of those blocks to be solid for that dead end to open up and reveal the final segment, where a lot of truths are revealed and it all leads to a climactic moment in which you can witness the second ending (STAY), or make available the third, in which you finally learn the truth behind everything you've seen.

None of the endings shall be 'canonical', although the first, earliest ending is the fate of the man in the album's story.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
I should try this eventually because this looks like a really passionate and extremely interesting project.
It's a shame that not much activity is going on here.
// Layout by Maxo
It's ready, whenever you are!

This is actually my most successful C3 thread. My WIP thread gets limited attention as well, I assume mostly because I go long stretches without talking about it. It's okay. I think, in time, it will capture attention.

Though I have to admit, it would be such a thrill if, one day, Ganymede is one of those hacks everyone has heard of.
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame
Originally posted by Ten
I think, in time, it will capture attention.

If you do what you love and love what you do, the rest will follow. If I may speak frankly out of respect for your project, I don't see this being the kind of hack that everyone will have heard of; that said, I absolutely see this hack as being well-liked by the vast majority of folks who give it a try. A sleeper hit, if you will. And hey, word of your work can only keep spreading, so who knows? This project is bound up in a charming earnestness, I'm sure it'll find its way.

As far as content, I'm a fan of your powerup system, visually and conceptually. The Sword of Soaring in particular is a very creative interpretation of the old cape feather that ends up working extremely well. If you find yourself in need of some help in realizing your final vision for your powerups, feel free to drop me a message - I'd like to see where this goes.
I think the healthy mindset, for anyone who wants to finish what they start here, is to do it firstly for yourself. I love experimenting with all the options I have, and what drives me is making something I have fun playing and challenges me, in spite of my intimate familiarity. I'd love it for people to love what I've done, but I won't ever stop, no matter what. Your words are kind and encouraging and made me very happy. : )

I have to be honest, I really would love to have even semi-dedicated help with ASM, to pull off some ideas I have. It simply is not a task I find fun or even really comprehensible, but your Yoshi patch demonstrates you feel quite differently. It would be amazing to collaborate!
GANYMEDE

Chapter Two: Land of No Shame