Super Metroid: Fear

[Vismund Cygnus]

Midday Saturday? Hmmmmm. I hope I can see this.

Friday, Friday. (Geddan!) Of course, being in that weird upside down place, it will most likely be Saturday for you, but that is besides the point. (Unless of course that is what you meant, but I don't want there to be any confusion just in case.)

That is exactly what I meant, although I was wrong anyway. It'll be 6am Saturday for me.  :pale:
I suppose I can be awake that early.
Please don't listen to what I'm saying people, because I'm upside down while I'm standing up.

[M1CR0H4CK3R]

I'll be sure to join in the stream. It's at the perfect time. See you all there, especially you Quietus!  :nod:

[Quietus]

Aww, shucks... :^_^:

[personitis]

That is exactly what I meant, although I was wrong anyway. It'll be 6am Saturday for me.  :pale:
I suppose I can be awake that early.
Please don't listen to what I'm saying people, because I'm upside down while I'm standing up.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I will save that stream forever in addition to uploading it to Youtube. That way if someone wants to watch it off of Twitch while I'm in the process of uploading it, you're free to do so.

[JackJihad]

I shall be there for this legendary event, it'll give me a sneak preview of my coming pain in the LP I told MetroidMst I would do

[MetroidMst]

After what person told me his plans are for the one bit that was questionable about doing in the first place. . . Legendary might describe his demeanor quite well.

[Quietus]

Ooh, this had slipped my mind, and is now less than 24 hours away! :cheers:

(Don't worry - I had a reminder set!)

Just for some hype, have an acrostic! :^_^:
[spoiler]
Smiling
Undauntedly,
Person
Explores
Rapidly

Many
Enemies
Test
Reactions
Of
Intrepid
Daredevil

Forever
Exalted -
Achievement
Realised!
[/spoiler]

[MetroidMst]

About 40 minutes away from the stream of suffering!

http://www.twitch.tv/person701

[Eppy37]

Somehow, I'm having trouble seeing "Fear" and "Suffering" in the same thread. Guess I'll have to see to believe~

[personitis]

So, stream is finished. Here's the TwitchTV recording and later I will update this post with a YouTube link (whenever Twitch decides to upload the video for me <_<).

Edit:
Here's the YouTube vid.
[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=firTFOwL9wY[/spoiler]

[Quietus]

Dag nammit!  After all that, I bloody missed it. :stern:

Thanks for the catch-up link, Person!

[MetroidMst]

You were greatly missed Quietus. So much so in fact, that YouTube and Twitch aren't talking anymore and won't upload the video to his channel! The drama!

[Quietus]

So, my thoughts on the preview, in the order I noted them:

The title screen looked odd with the words on different levels.  You have SUPER alone above METROID FEAR, which just seemed like the emphasis was on the wrong part of the title.  The impression I got was that it'd be better with SUPER METROID at the top, with FEAR underneath.

With the large grapple room, I think it would be worth adding a few more safe spots in, so that players don't have to do such a large chunk before being able to save (state).  Even adding just two more platforms would make a world of difference.  There are two things that turn most players off: difficulty and frustration.  This room falls under frustration, and unless you are intending people to have to use slowdown, then it would be better to amend the room.

I love the vivid palettes that you have used throughout the hack.  Everything seems very clear, and there didn't seem to be any of those 'What is background / foreground' moments.  Person mentioned in one part that brown platforms on a brown background is difficult to see.  Even if they use different tiles, this makes navigation unnecessarily difficult, especially since it's in a section where the player is having a hard enough time as it is.

The shinespark is very cool. :cool:

I like the map.  It seems like two very small changes (colour and removing the grid), but it makes a nice difference.

The speed booster escape...  Oh, deary, deary me.  I can tell you that this section alone will turn away four out of five players.  The thing to have in mind when creating these rooms is the first time player.  In the beginning of this section, the player will pause to assess where they are, and will then decide to go left or right.  In the time they decide this, they are likely dead.  If they are not running, they are dead.  If a player does progress, they have rapidly rising acid making any exploration impossible.  The player will not know there is nothing to collect, and may wish to look around, but is offered no opportunity.  How would a player know that it's all a big escape sequence, and that they must keep running?  They'd only learn through death.  Even if / when they learn that they have to run, they have enemies positioned in places that are very likely to knock them back in to the acid, and metroids latching on to them before they know what is going on.  On top of this, there's a room with tonnes of dead end paths, and the player has zero chance of backtracking or finding the correct path.  Going back to what I mentioned earlier, this falls under difficulty, and big time difficulty at that.

I hope that last section doesn't sound too much like I'm bashing the hack, but if Person already had experience with the hack, and died that much, it's obvious what is going to happen to new players.

Either way, thanks for the preview.  I eagerly await 2032. :^_^:

[altoiddealer]

I watched the preview.  Regarding the large grapple room, and the shinespark escape... well, I think the game appears to be much more merciful than Redesign :bounce:   I'll bet that escape sequence will take me fewer attempts to pull off than Redesign's "hell run."  I loved and hated that game... but yeah, from what I've seen so far I believe I'll enjoy playing this hack.

The colors and graphics are absolutely stunning.  :yay:  Awesome, awesome work.

Looking forward to this in 2034!  :lol:

[QuarterCircleMetroid]

You guys are too lenient.

Fear 6072 ftw.

[Vismund Cygnus]

I didn't exactly see the big issue with the grapple room. I mean yeah, it's difficult, but with the save point right there, I think it was a great room.
Even though I hate grapple and it can go die. Hell, you might say I'm....
In FEAR of that room.  :cool:

[QuarterCircleMetroid]

I'm afraid you're gonna have to leave this topic now, Vismund.

[Vismund Cygnus]

On a serious note, having rewatched the demo while being less asleep;

1. That opening for the speed boost segment is seizure-ific.
2. Australian coffee is normal coffee, I think. It's the same as English coffee, at least.
3. The Googly-eyes changing colour, is that intentional, or a side effect of some other weird thing?
4. In regards to the grapple room; while it is difficult-looking as hell, with that excellent save station placement, there's really no need to change it. I can only assume the point of it was to be difficult anyway, otherwise there'd be a walkway across it or some s***. I like it how it was, and I hate grapple. But grapple is too underused in hacks, and in the original, so I think it's good to see someone requiring it.
5. Sorry for killing you at the end there person.  :heheh:
6. I'm out of things. BRING ON FEAR 2030!

[personitis]

I hope that last section doesn't sound too much like I'm bashing the hack, but if Person already had experience with the hack, and died that much, it's obvious what is going to happen to new players.

I say it again: you should have heard the original Skype call when I found that place. I was not a happy person by any means.

About the giant grapple room: for your first few attempts, you're going to fail. After that though, it's pretty easy. All it is is some precision so it's not all that bad. Even with the one platform. I feel like putting an extra platform somewhere else in the room would either make it too easy or force the room to be remade to incorporate the extra platform so as to keep some of it's challenge.

[M1CR0H4CK3R]

I was afraid to show my face here after not showing up on Twitch, but now that I know Quietus missed it too (Shame on you! I mean us.) it isn't so bad. Bring on the FEAR!! :affraid:

[Quietus]

I'm curious why that emoticon has two F's in it.  Maybe that's how scared it is. :^_^:

I'm also curious about the actual working mechanics behind the HUD.  What are the button presses for that?

[MetroidMst]

I guess I should mention a few things.

The Googlyeye color changing radness is mostly from just playing around and deciding it was good.

As for the HUD. . . It uses item cancel and select to go through stuff. Select will just switch between the two pods, allowing you to use whatever was selected. Item cancel brings up the menu, where you simply just press a direction to move through those items. (Up/down will move to the other menu, so you can switch your beam and your other utensils at the same time.)

It will take some time to get used to, but between working on the hack and recording a bunch of others which use the standard HUD, I do prefer this HUD. The quick-select ability is something I think that all hacks should use. (And BF does have the HUD released publicly people, which is the same as this HUD, just without the fancy stuff.) The convenience of being able to switch beams fast is probably one of the three best things you could do for your hack. (The other two being lots of items placed and bubbles.) Especially for people who like to switch off, for inexplicable Eppy reasons, Ice Beam. So yeah, learning curve with that, but once you get used to it, it should feel alright even if it isn't exactly your cup of tea.

And finally, with all this pressure. . . I just don't know about 2032 anymore. . . It seems like it isn't giving me enough breathing room!

[personitis]

So, stream is finished. Here's the TwitchTV recording and later I will update this post with a YouTube link (whenever Twitch decides to upload the video for me <_<).

Edit:
Here's the YouTube vid.
[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=firTFOwL9wY[/spoiler]

Announcing the edit (for those not seeing this via zbot in IRC).

[The Monster of Surrealton]

I tried Fear this morning, along with several other hacks.

Result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yThPVC8JJ8w

I got stuck at the end because I suck at midair Morph Balling.

I LOVE the red water effects.

The Torizo fight was really easy.

Coming off from playing Black Plague prior, I feel like there should be darker lighting out of the water to add to the "fear."

[Quietus]

I admit that I didn't watch all of the seven minutes.  It was getting painful to watch. :^_^: