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Super Mario Nation - Video Demo



Dear Fans and Followers,
I have been a fan of the Super Mario series ever since my parents bought me an NES for Christmas more than 30 years ago. I have always dreamt of building my own Mario game one day. It was a dream that became more feasible after my studies of electrical engineering and computer programming in college.
For the last 5 years, I have created my own Super Mario game engine and level editor. There were ample resources on the Internet that allowed me to create my own version of the Super Mario algorithm. In the coming months, I will try to give as much credit to my sources as possible.
During the pandemic, I have tried to spend my free time on cultivating my video game programming hobby. For the last year, I have revamped my graphics and music and created 20 stages of my new game. For the last month, I have finally created a feature I did not have during my first phase - the overworld map where player selects the levels Mario will enter.
This video shows the first 3 stages of my game. There are still lots of bugs in my game. Heck, if you pay attention, you will be able to find a few in this video. However, with 90 to 95 percent of the game engine finally complete, I will concentrate less on adding new features and more on making gameplay presentable.

P.S. NEED HELP WITH EDITING VIDEO
As you can see, I have a lot of black area in my video on the right side and bottom. I don't know how it got there. Can someone help me get rid of it? I am using Microsoft Gamebar and never had this problem before. Does anyone know of some easy way to "crop" an area of the video so that I only see the video section and get rid of the black section and status bar and menu bar? I would prefer some method that is free, does not require a download, and will not load any adware or malware on my computer.


A video with the black borders removed.

Here are some of the credits for graphics and music.

Graphics:
Mario and Luigi transformations - AwesomeZack
Yoshi - A. J. Nitro
Backgrounds and Foregrounds - SuperSludgeBros, Valtteri, Evan F
Animated Tiles - Shikaternia
Enemies - Ton, AwesomeZack
Hammer Bros (not seen yet) - GeoShi
Koopalings - Sunsoft Dev

Music
World 1 - Grassland - Dave Phaneuf
Super Mario Underground Theme - Matthew Collinson
Airship Theme - Jay Reichard

If you see any of your work here, please let me know in the comments below so I can give you credit. Do not behave like a rude douchebag. I didn't keep track of all of the graphics and music I downloaded over the years.

If you have any suggestions for making this game better, please also put something in the comments. Once again, do not behave like a jerk. This game took me 5 years to make and I know that there are a lot of bugs and incomplete features.


A new upload after I came back from vacation.

This video shows the 3 stages from the first world of my game. There are still lots of bugs in my game. Heck, if you pay attention, you will be able to find a few in this video, including a very unacceptable bug with Mario falling through the floor in a bonus stage.


This video shows the first 4 stages from the second world of my game, Mushroom Mountains. There are still lots of bugs in my game. Check out the Windy Woods to see a few cosmetic ones. Although I have to feel glad that I fixed the bug of Mario falling through the floor when he is on a donut lift.

World 2-1 Vineyard Valley
World 2-2 Ricochet Rock Range (Enjoy the Blue Yoshi. He took me two weeks to code).
World 2-3 Pipe Dream (I know I didn't show the regular exit. I needed two game plays in order to show all gems and when it was over, I just wanted to go to the next stage.)
World 2-4 Windy Woods (A toughie, especially if you want to get all the gems. If you want to comment about the bugs, please be polite about it.)


This video shows the second 4 stages from the second world of my game, Mushroom Mountains. Enjoy the Ghost House and Hammer Suit. They took a month to code. Check out Stone Block Smash for an example of experimental (and flawed) stage design.

World 2-G Haunted Catacombs
World 2-5 A Game of Tag
World 2-6 Stone Block Smash
World 2-7 Curiosity Cliffs


World 3 Punchbowl Sea
World 3-1 Blooper's Reef
World 3-2 Dolphin School
World 3-3 Sewer Sludge
World 3-G Sunken Ship

This video shows the first 4 stages from the third world of my game, the Punch Bowl Sea. Check on Red Yoshi, who can breathe fire.


This video shows the first 3 stages from the fourth world of my game, the Mirage Desert. I was deeply influenced by the Forest of Illusion from Super Mario World. Every stage in this world will have two exits. I used a lot of elements from Doki Doki Panic / Super Mario Bros 2 such as quicksand, spikes, the Cobrats, and the backgrounds from the SNES remake. I also recreated the Fire Snakes and the Angry Sun. Speaking about the Angry Sun, why didn't he appear in the New Super Mario series? Nintendo should have reused that gimmick.



This video shows the first 3 stages from the fifth world of my game, the Ice Cream Mountains. I wanted to get this winter themed video out before the end of the winter season. I know I kept dying in the first stage, due to my being tired last night. Note that Mario will slide down any icy slopes automatically. I hope I am not abusing Lakitu. Enjoy the Holiday music theme and the Penguin suit.


It has been 7 months since my last upload. Please bear with me, as I have a full-time job and making this game is far more time consuming than I thought.

This video shows 4 more stages from the third world of my game, the Punch Bowl Sea. In World 3-4, I create an underwater stage that has wave blowing left and right. In World 3-5, I decided to create a Boss Bass that can swallow Mario whole. This stage was based on the Super Mario Bros 3 stages that had Boss Bass swimming back and forth, ready to swallow our plumber whole. The prime difference between my Boss Bass and the traditional version is that you can stomp on mine. Just be careful not to be eaten.

Hopefully, one day, I will be able to create a Giant Piranha Plant that can also swallow Mario whole. Also, I feel a little vexed that my water level can't rise up and down. It's a feature that will have to be added to my game engine in the future... the far future.
For the special stage, I made it an underwater auto-scrolling stage filled with Boss Basses and Electro. Once again, this was based on the tremendously difficult SMB3 level 7-4. For the military stage, I decided to design a submarine with the difficult to avoid Torpedo Teds as hazardous obstacles.

I know I died more than a few times during my gameplay. I designed these stages in the spring and early summer and forgot the layout of the stages. I even had to look at my guide to remember where some of the gems were. It's just like the times when I would sneak a peek at Nintendo Power in order to cheat as a kid. :)

If you like my demos, give me upvotes and subscribe to me. You might even contact me in the comments if you want to play test the game yourself.


00:09 World 4 Mirage Desert
00:30 World 4-4 Magic Carpet Ride
03:40 World 4-5 Ride the Sandstorm
07:38 World 4-M Iggy's Airship

Boy oh boy oh boy oh boy. I didn't expect to have to spend a whole gosh darn hour of my Thanksgiving weekend to prep this 10-minute video. What is with Microsoft Gamebar? I don't like black borders on my video so I set my computer resolution to 800 x 600. Except the first video I made had horrible video and sound quality. It sounded like metal nails scratching on a gosh darn chalk board. So I recorded another video on the default resolution of 1920 x 1280. The video quality was much better except now I had those annoying black borders again! It took me a little less than a half hour but I found out that Adobe Express can easily remove those black borders with their online video editor. Now why didn't I think of using them a year ago when I first had this problem.

This video shows 3 more stages from the fourth world of my Mario Game, Mirage Desert. For the first stage, I wanted to build a stage with platforms that would fall when Mario steps on them. That has been a staple of Mario games since World 1-4 in SMB3. However, I never liked how all of Mario's platforms were always a generic wooden or metal plank. So I decided to use the magic carpet sprite from SMB2.
I decided to experiment some more with wind in the second stage. I also wanted to show more Ice Mario action, freezing tar, as well as blue Yoshi flying.
For Iggy's airship, I created the firebars and screw platforms that Mario will fall off of when he steps on them. I have a feeling there is something wrong with my Koopalings algorithm. After I finish my planned 60 stages (I have complete 40 stages as of this time) and code the other non-boss enemies (most notably Chain Chomp and the Hammer Bros), I need to examine the Koopaling code and possibly redesign it.

If you like my demos, give me upvotes and subscribe to me. You might even contact me in the comments if you want to play test the game yourself.
For something built from the ground up this is really impressive. Great music choices and graphics too. Mario's physics seem a bit off and he doesn't look as snappy as you'd really want him to. Yesterday you told me that you had changed Mario's algorithm so that his jump was shorter and that gaining speed by running wouldn't change jump height. While a smaller jump isn't a big deal, to some people it might feel weird, since Mario looks like he does in SMW people will most likely expect him to feel the same, or atleast similar here. Maybe get some feedback on that. I feel like removing any extra verticality while Mario is in the air kinda takes away from some of the fun of using Mario's momentum. In Super Mario World Mario's normal jump is roughly 5 blocks high (A little over 4 off the ground) when at full speed he jumps as high as a little under 7.5 blocks. Toying around with momentum affecting the speed and height of a player's jump could make your levels more fun to play since it changes the way the player traverses them and also makes them pay attention to their surroundings more since it can be used to challenge the player to use their momentum to reach higher places. Mario's animations seem a bit sluggish here, when Mario is running around swiftly his walking animation doesnt change speed. And when starting to move there is a period of time where Mario slides forward before taking a first step, instead of immediately taking the step to make it look like he's walking. (Mario looking forward when you turn also causes this 'sliding' issue. Mario World already has turning graphics you can use)

This is everything I observed, I like how the level design looks like a nice mix of SMW and Super Mario Bros 3. With a little more polish this could really be something great. Good luck on the game, hopefully this helps :)
Current Projects:
Super Mario 𝓥𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓰𝓮
“If you are not able to be wrong, you will never come up with something original”
I have taken a lot of suggestions for tweaking my Mario algorithm from the Discord server and have implemented them this weekend. Please note that the reason why I decided to build a large number of stages before I finalized my Mario algorithm was because I suspect that there are more bugs with my algorithm than I am aware of. Building stages with different features help me uncover these bugs.
For instance, I have just finished my 40th stages. It is a desert stage with a pipe network and Chain Chomps and Hammer Mario. After finishing this stage, I fixed the following bugs:
- Did you know that when my Mario punches an invisible block, he sometimes gets stuck in it? I had to modify the Vertical Movement subroutine quite a bit. I wonder why SMW didn't use invisible blocks.
- Hammer Mario sometimes glitches when his head touches a ceiling while he is on a ladder.
- Hammer Mario can't slide beneath one block spaces.
- Mario sometimes gets stuck if he climbs a ladder along a wall. It won't freeze the game and he can still move if the player is patient but it didn't look professional to me.

After fixing those bugs, I made the following tweaks, all of which the SMWCENTRAL bloggers suggested to me.
- I slowed Mario's horizontal acceleration to make his movement more smooth. I previously used SMW values. Now, I am using SMB3 values. Note that I only modified the acceleration values, not the top speed values.
- I modified the code for changing Mario's animation speed when he is walking and running. Now it is easier to tell them apart.
- Previously, Mario would slide against the ground when he began to walk. I fixed the animation sequence so he would step with his foot out when he began to horizontally move along the ground.
- Mario will now switch immediately to a skidding animation if he is moving in one direction and then faces the opposite direction.
- I received some complaints that I made Mario's jump height too low (4.25 blocks). After some debate, I decided not to tinker with that. However,
- I did modify the jump velocity so that Mario's jump height will vary if he runs. His jump height now varies from 4.25 to 5.75 blocks depending on how fast if he is running.
- Mario's fire and ice balls will now explode on impact. I wanted to do that for some time.

I will have another video for you all next week.
I'm just impressed that this was apparently built from scratch. That makes all of this much more interesting to watch. Well done! I'd love to give this a try at some point.

I mean seriously this look really fun haha~
                                                                                                                  
                              
Dear VinylHeart:

First, thank you for your kind remarks. However, your praise might be a little premature.

The truth is that my game still has a lot of bugs. Some of them are in the demo videos, although most, if not nearly all of these, have been fixed. Every single time I add a feature to the game, I have to test it repeated for bugs. I seem to find new ones every month.

Some of the critics on SMWCEntral Discord complained that my stages/videos are too long. However, the reason why I showed most Easter Eggs is because I wanted these videos as records to see if there are any bugs. Do you realize that as I was testing my game just now (Christmas week 2022), it bombed out as I switched between Mario and Luigi? That is totally unacceptable. I like to play for as long as possible to see if my game will bomb out.

Other critics said that I should have finalized my Mario algorithm before I began building my stages. I built about 41 of them at this point. However, I feel like the only way for me to find all the bugs in my Mario algorithm is to create as many different stages with as many different layouts and features as possible. Do you know that Mario glitches if he is climbing a ladder attached to a ceiling? I fixed that about 8 months ago. Then I had to fix it again last week for Hammer Mario.

In any case, I believe that the bomb out I experienced just now has less to do with the in-game controls and gameplay and more to do with the "emulator" feature. If I switch between Mario and Luigi on my game tester while inside a stage, the code bypasses the subroutine that deallocates all the previously loaded sprites (enemies, platforms, etc.). I didn't bypass this code on my stage tester, which is why I didn't notice it until now.

This exercise has made me really appreciate the console programmers in the late 80's and early 90's, who had very limited debugging tools. I feel like I really learned a lot in the past 10 years.


I got a lot of feedback for my game demos on several Mario fangame websites such as MFGG and SMWCentral. They pointed out that my Mario seems to move not as smooth and is quite janky. Is that so? In any case, I spent the last two weeks tweaking the Mario algorithm. My Mario now moves more in accordance with Super Mario Bros 3. Please tell me if the animation and movement looks smother.
For demonstrations, I had 2 runs through a World 1 level - Ferocious Forest. This features Piranha Plants, Venus Fire traps, and Munchers. If I wasn't careless, I would have gotten the Yellow gem at the end.


This video shows 3 more stages from the fifth world of my game, the Ice Cream Mountains. I wanted to get this video out during the Christmas holidays but I started work on these three stages too late (in November). It taught me that if you want to make a Christmas Mario hack , you have to start on it early. I wanted to experiment with some crazy stage mechanics such as wind and snowflakes in an ice stage.


I was hoping to complete my game by the end of 2023 but I don't think I will, despite having 46 stages completed. In any case, I completed another big milestone shown at the end of this video. I have actually began programming the Koopalings in 2021. However, after the Koopaling fight, there was no victory cutscene nor any return to the overworld map. Now, after beating a Koopaling, you will rescue a Toad, who will give you a familiar message.