Welcome, ladies and gentleman! Today, your good, ol' Major Flare presents to you...
... THE MAJOR FLARE'S OVERWORLD MUSEUM FOR MAP MANIACS!
In this museum, I'll show you all my Overworld map creations I could find, since 2007 (a good eleven and a half years). I'll try to show an evolution of mine; how I got to change from a crappy, no-good designer to a fairly decent one.
Without further ado, let's start!
2007-2009
Well, when I started SMW Hacking, in 2005-2006... I didn't know how to use the OW Editor at all. I remember I longed for the day I could create my own maps... Eventually, in 2007 I finally learned its secrets (LM 1.63 at that time)!
Also, in the 2007-2008 era, I was kinda fixed with SMB3 OWs. So... the fatal flaw of my creations was that they're too square-shaped. Let me show some examples:
These, friends, were my first custom OWs I have a solid memory of. They were made for an abandoned hack called "Super Mario Braw World", back in 2007-2008, the time when I happened to learn, among other things, to insert blocks and sprites (old Blocktool and mikeyk's Spritetool... oh, the memories...).
Another hack back from 2007-2008, called SMB6
Aaah... the times I were obsessed with DW:TLC. Anyways, this was for a hack called "Super Mario Pro 1" (rejected, I know.). I had put an extra effort in learing how to put blocks and sprites... an effort which guided me further in my desire to know ASM.
Now, these nice pieces of OW were from my first project people actually paid attention to: The Legend of Pirra. A pity I couldn't complete its development, it was a good hack to create.
Also, I'll add this: I was a SSP-addict, I admit. The Legend of Pirra reflected this particular flaw of mine.
Super Yoshi's Land. Another nice hack I've come to make, back in 2009 (more or less). The first time ever that I kinda drew some tiles that did't suck (never did thata gain, I guess).
This is a lost piece from a hack I planned to make starring shyguy. Kinda bland.
Mario in Valhala. Yes, the last one I'll show in this timeline, since it was 2009-2010 (again a guess, my memory cannot stretch this far to these kind of details). This marked the time I started to play with .asm patches (gool ol' xkas).
2010-2013 - THE REQUESTS ERA
This era marks the time when I, being a little better with OW design, started to attend other users' OW requests; I would create only the physical aspects of the maps, such as landscapes and level placements; the users themselves were responsible for the decorations. The images I found are shown ahead:
These were one of the first maps I've ever did for request. They were for Vitor Vilela's "Massacre World" project, back in... 2010, 2011, maybe?
I don't remember whose request was this, I swear.
The same above (ugh, cutoffness).
Poorly made sky, I guess?
Mario's Crazy Adventures. A hack that is currently being revamped by a fellow BR, with me being a co-author and supporter.
Now, a breakpoint: The advent of LM 1.8+, which allowed more palettes in OW:
Made these for a vanilla-ish hack of sorts that was scrapped soon after its start. A shame, indeed.
A request of mario and luigi.
Loved the night effect. Might as well be only me with this opinion.
Some plaything I made for another request. Looking again... that underwater world is not so underwater without a nice effect, is it?
y did u hate cliffside's lines, Major Flare? Because I always forgot about them, really.
A sky submap, one of the last work-by-request maps I've ever made.
This one I was particularly upset with losing the project: Super Yoshi's Galaxy. Dynamic Sprites, HDMA, nice plot, ideas and etc. A pity, indeed. It was the first project I had some more serious ASM work myself.
2013-2019 - MARIO'S ENIGMATIC TALES AND BEYOND
Now, for 2013 and beyond... this era is almost all about my most famous and downloaded hack: Mario's Enigmatic Tales.
The story on how I created Mario's Enigmatic Tales is funny, in a sense; one day, I was trying to design levels and a hack based on some custom powerups I made several years ago (they hold nothing to LX5's work, though). Aside these levels, I was creating a vanilla level or two out of boredom. Since the original idea failed... all I had was the few vanilla levels I created. Then I started another level, then another... when I saw it, I had 1, 2 worlds worth of levels. That's how Mario's Enigmatic Tales came to life. Of course, there are its maps! It was a matter of few days in order to plan all the landscapes, the level tiles and the decorations for the main map. The submaps, though... they were made on the fly, depending on which world I was working on. Without the further ado, the images:
From nice plains to hot deliciousnesses of chocolate and beyond the frigid glaciers... the Enigmatic Main Map.
A nice mountain to stroll, some half-flooded forest, a generic cavern, the Nether of Despair, a sky secret place and the fearsome void of Enigmatic Tales.
The last OWs I decided to do: one is for a revamp of Mario's Crazy Adventures - Lost in Subcoony World... and the other two submaps are from a secret project of mine that I intend to carry on (when I have the time and motivation, that is):
This is the new ice map for Crazy Adventures. Decorations will be added.
Glacial Aegyptus - this is for a project of mine called "Abstración". I won't give spoilers, sorry.
Amazonic Cavern (ignore the placeholder behind Luigi). Again, for "Abstración".
That's all. I have forgotten to put here the ones for Super Plumber Mario World, I know, but... it's from 2007-2008, so expect the same quality of my works from that particular timeline.
Hope you liked it! Major Flare's OW Museum for Map Maniacs is officialy open for visitors!