A couple weeks ago, I posted a video of a level in my hack codenamed ø. That hack is indeed The Essence Star 2, a followup to SMW2+3: The Essence Star.
What exactly brought upon this sudden desire to work on a followup to SMW2+3? I've been talking to fellow SMWC user Azurik who has been showing off his very nicely done overworlds to me. He had this very unique, dark and sad overworld, and that made me want to create a hack of the same nature.
So what's the progress so far? Very, very early on. I've only finished the first level, as seen in the previous video, so far. Since posting the video, I've fixed up the level a bit according to people's suggestions.
For level design, I'm trying to go for a different approach than in its predecessor. Levels will be more puzzle-based, ala Super Mario Underworld, and somehow relate to the plot. In the above level, a bunch of icky creatures have infested the plains, and Mario must find a way to use them to his advantage. A lot of people pointed out that they enjoyed the story of SMW2+3 but felt the levels were lacking, so I'm trying to build more interesting levels this time around.
Gameplay-wise, I'm trying to eliminate some unnecessary things. As you can see, no status bar, meaning no coins, lives, or reserve items. As many would likely agree, lives are really unnecessary. You can still die, you'll just go back to the start of the level or the midpoint. I think that's punishment enough. Reserve items...I've always felt that player stocked up on them very easily, so I just got rid of them. And since there's no more lives, no need more coins. I could use them for some other arbitrary purpose, but didn't see a need for them.
As for story, I've planned out the general idea from beginning to end, but of course there's room to work out a few kinks. Here's the gist of it:
Story: The Essence Star has been stolen from Mario's castle by an unknown character, and now the Mushroom Kingdom has succumbed to darkness. Odd side effects have been seen as well, such as the plains being infested by icky creatures. The citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom blame Mario for allowing this to happen, so it's up to him find the one who took The Essence Star and lift the curse over the lands.
Of course, there's a lot more to that than meets the eye.
A small teaser...while "The Essence Star 2" may not seem like a very creative name, there's actually some significance to it...
Speaking of story, I'm contemplating how to convey it through the hack. In SMW2+3, I used Romi's Cutscene Tool. I want to use RPG's Cutscene Tool, but it seems a bit complicated for me to use. I wanted to ask, do people have a preference as to what type of cutscenes are used when playing hacks? Do you feel Romi's Tool is outdated?
Anyway, it's pretty early-on, but I was hoping on any feedback on my current ideas and direction for the hack, as well as anything from SMW2+3 which you feel could be improved on in this sequel.
What exactly brought upon this sudden desire to work on a followup to SMW2+3? I've been talking to fellow SMWC user Azurik who has been showing off his very nicely done overworlds to me. He had this very unique, dark and sad overworld, and that made me want to create a hack of the same nature.
So what's the progress so far? Very, very early on. I've only finished the first level, as seen in the previous video, so far. Since posting the video, I've fixed up the level a bit according to people's suggestions.
For level design, I'm trying to go for a different approach than in its predecessor. Levels will be more puzzle-based, ala Super Mario Underworld, and somehow relate to the plot. In the above level, a bunch of icky creatures have infested the plains, and Mario must find a way to use them to his advantage. A lot of people pointed out that they enjoyed the story of SMW2+3 but felt the levels were lacking, so I'm trying to build more interesting levels this time around.
Gameplay-wise, I'm trying to eliminate some unnecessary things. As you can see, no status bar, meaning no coins, lives, or reserve items. As many would likely agree, lives are really unnecessary. You can still die, you'll just go back to the start of the level or the midpoint. I think that's punishment enough. Reserve items...I've always felt that player stocked up on them very easily, so I just got rid of them. And since there's no more lives, no need more coins. I could use them for some other arbitrary purpose, but didn't see a need for them.
As for story, I've planned out the general idea from beginning to end, but of course there's room to work out a few kinks. Here's the gist of it:
Story: The Essence Star has been stolen from Mario's castle by an unknown character, and now the Mushroom Kingdom has succumbed to darkness. Odd side effects have been seen as well, such as the plains being infested by icky creatures. The citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom blame Mario for allowing this to happen, so it's up to him find the one who took The Essence Star and lift the curse over the lands.
Of course, there's a lot more to that than meets the eye.
A small teaser...while "The Essence Star 2" may not seem like a very creative name, there's actually some significance to it...
Speaking of story, I'm contemplating how to convey it through the hack. In SMW2+3, I used Romi's Cutscene Tool. I want to use RPG's Cutscene Tool, but it seems a bit complicated for me to use. I wanted to ask, do people have a preference as to what type of cutscenes are used when playing hacks? Do you feel Romi's Tool is outdated?
Anyway, it's pretty early-on, but I was hoping on any feedback on my current ideas and direction for the hack, as well as anything from SMW2+3 which you feel could be improved on in this sequel.