Room of the Week 2012 - Archives

[FullOfFail]

Shadow: like I told you in IRC, just needs more BG variation, other than that it's perfect. You even met my pet-peeve standards, such as no floating platforms. Oh! Just noticed a tiling error, top left, blank space. Also, near the bottom right door, those green mushrooms don't blend well with the BG bricks.

As for me, Skree is right, it needs more variation in the pallets. But, in my defense, and in the context of my hack, confusion is a plus. Also, those patterns on the sub-BG (the rectangles surrounding the main course) didn't repeat like they should. It's easy to tell it's a 2x2. Those dark purple areas need more variation too, especially the reflects.

[Quote58]

Alright, now the review you've all been waiting for

FullofFail
[spoiler]Okay, I happen to really like that room. Now, there are many aspects that make or break a room. First and likely most important, Playability. The room may look weird, and insanely difficult. However, if you watch the video you see that there are enemies to freeze to get to the top. So no hbj person701. As well, the room fits perfectly in with the rest of your hack. Next up, Aesthetics. So, there are a couple ways to look at a palette like that, one is to say OMG HOLY CRAP THAT PALETTE IS SO FUCKING BRIGHT AND CRAZY, DEAR GOD WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!!? The other way, is to take the time to actually think about it. For one thing, in game it looks awesome, and it gives a deep, underwater, dark  atmosphere to the room. As well, the blue itself is great. Well, there's blue, and there's purple, and they both look good, but the blue stands out as being really vibrant, and just a great palette choice. Yes, there could stand to be more variation in the colour scheme, but as it is, I like it. Less important now is, Tiling. One problem with using MM gfx is that they fit way better in, well, MM. So some tilesets feel chopped an spliced and not meant for metroid. This is not one of them. Or at least, mostly it fits really well. The spikes don't fit well as they are all one tile repeated, and in the case of the original super metroid, that's fine. However, in this, they feel really rough, and choppy at edges. it feels like there should either be a diagonal spike piece, or an end spike. Other than that, it fits relatively well. Lastly, Overall. In general, the room looks good. It looks like it'll play well, and fit with the rooms before and after. For MM gfx, they fit quite well in super, and I look foreword to playing that room in your hack.[/spoiler]

Shadow
[spoiler]So, let's try those same categories, on my room. Before I do though, I will just say, I actually spent a few days making this room. Granted, it's simply a test room for this variation on lush, but I quite like it, and it took time to get right. I will be putting a video up that shows how it plays in game btw.
Playability: So, as I said, I'll have a video up later. But for now, I think this room actually plays quite well. You can go quickly or take your time. Either way, there's nothing that really breaks the flow at all. For reference btw, that first pillar is indeed solid, so you have to go up through the opening. I put the platforms up for moving faster, and also getting to the top room. The room was originally going to be outside, but I hate the idea of floating platforms like that, so I decided to put a ceiling in.
Aesthetics: So as most of you know, this is the tileset lush. Or at least, it's a variation of it. You see, I decided that for this version, I would put the focus less on trees and jungle, and more on the ruins themselves. So instead of adding the best LN chozo tiles in, for this one, I would add the best lush tiles into the LN tileset. This way I would take away the tiles that weren't ruins tiles, and bring in lush tiles instead. By doing this, I could have all the chozo ruins tiles, and they could even keep their tiletables. Now, the room itself. Well, honestly, I quite like certain parts of the room. I love the ruins feel. However, there really isn't a background. The green pillars were last minute. and they were supposed to have a bunch of variation. But alas, I didn't add anything like that. So it feels empty and bad. Oh well. I'll have a background eventually. Now, the other main thing wrong with the room is the lack of a proper filler tile. The one I have isn't very good, but I've gone through many many tiles, and nothing seems to work.
Tiling: Is it just me or do all the lush ground tiles seem to be angled down? Anyway, the tiling is fair. Not as good as it could be, but not bad. The only thing I really like about the room that's different from my other lush rooms, it that the chozo floors have filler-ish tiles and such. That might not make sense but the point is, I like what I did with the ruins floors.
Overall: It's pretty good. I'm fairly proud of it since it took longer than most of my rooms.[/spoiler]

So, there's the review.

[Black Falcon]

FoF: Your palette is really sexy, and I must admit I originally intented to give you my vote, but the spikes really killed it.
If your hack's really gonna be that hard, I'll probably never be able to beat it without heavy savestate abusing.

shadow: This is how a jungle ruins tileset should look like, lush and eye-pleasing.
I howerver agree with the others that the background could use more variation, but this is the only flaw I notice about that room. Definitely deserves a vote this week.

[Daltone]

Ill prolly vote shadow, pretty obvious wickedness,

fof's room looks fun, i want to play whatever hes making.

thanks to you too for not being lazy,but the rest of you should be ashamed!

[Quietus]

I already had the impression that FoF's hack was being targeted toward save states being a necessity.  Also, watching your vid, it took me about 0.5 seconds before Streets of Rage 2 slammed into my head.  I love the music from level 7's lift section. :cool:

[FullOfFail]

Personally, I think it's awesome Shadow is kicking my ass. I think he has the better room, but also because that's my buddy and he beta-tests my hack. Yes, this hack you see here. It's a nice revenge for the hell I have put him through (although he's a masochist and enjoys it).

[A_red_monk_called_Key]

2 great rooms make for a good contest. tons of reviews by Tuesday, i give this RotW 6/10.(Need more rooms and reviews)

Monkie review
[spoiler=Shadow96]
[spoiler=pros]the plants make the whole thing, they give the felling of an alien oxygen enriched environment. the colors really pop.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=cons]the background is lacking something. doors seem out of place.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

[spoiler=FullOfFail]
[spoiler=pros]all the graphics are awesome. foreground, and background have some nice tiles in there.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=cons]color. the color palette kills this room. [/spoiler]
[spoiler=advice]a trick i use is take a snapshot of foreground and background in separate images. then place them together in photoshop then use hue/saturation on each layer. put each layer in new image then convert to 16-bit to get colors[/spoiler][/spoiler]

[Qactis]

I'm voting FoF. I'm liking how it looked in-game, and I'm pretty sure(?) that those graphics are mainly from Crystal Snail's area (X2)- correct me if I'm wrong- and I have also ripped graphics from that level for Super Metroid because they are so awesome. To those of you who are wondering why there's so many spikes, you must realize FoF is making a hack that centers around Cliffhanger/Exia-esque difficulty, a kaizo super metroid if you will.

[FullOfFail]

I'm voting FoF.

NUUUUUUUUU, that ruins the flawless victory Shadow had :( But now that I look, someone else already voted for me too, so it doesn't matter.

and I'm pretty sure(?) that those graphics are mainly from Crystal Snail's area (X2)- correct me if I'm wrong

Nah, this Tileset isn't actually from the X series. It's from Megaman 7, Freeze Man's stage. I originally was going to make everything based on MMX, but due to the perspectives and other minor issues, I've strayed away from that a bit. The hack is still 90% MMX related, though.

you must realize FoF is making a hack that centers around Cliffhanger/Exia-esque difficulty, a kaizo super metroid if you will.

This is true.

Summary: My hack is intended to be basically the hardest SM hack ever conceived of. You start with 01 health, and have that through the entire game. Every room has puzzles, and it's linear, but set up to have alternate paths. You essentially just go straight forward through it. Various methods, such a grey doors, and crumble blocks prevent you from going back. It's not at all like a typical exploration hack. To accommodate for the lack of exploration, I've used many different tilesets to still get that effect. The spikes are a essential part of the puzzles and obstacles in and of themselves.
I've received mixed opinions on this hack, Skree cussed me out, and told me I should quit hacking (which was a good sign that I designed it right). And Shadow loved it, and always asks for new patches.

[Qactis]

[spoiler][/spoiler] its the cracks in the walls that made me think of it

[Quote58]

Okay, so someone had better put a room up against this because I'm not making a different room for next week if no one posts.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
And cause it's underwater, a video.
[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4fAYMPsMWY&list=HL1341886724&feature=mh_lolz[/spoiler]

[iRundas]

[spoiler]
image upload[/spoiler]
Click on it for better quality.

[Metaquarius]

Some maridian shit.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[begrimed]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Qactis]

[spoiler=Shadow96]Wow! Probably the best room I've seen from you, gg wp. Love the palette, tileset, bg, effects. It's all too good[/spoiler]
[spoiler=iRundas]I love that palette, but the room is a bit too plain. It is also too flat. You need to work on adding more slopes. Also, it seems to be ONLY rocks. No vegetation? The crateria tileset is fairly massive. If you aren't going to use the wrecked ship tiles, combine some tiles from a different set into the crateria set, and do something besides rocks.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Metaquarius]The design is pretty solid. I don't like the little mounds that come out from the walls by the bottom door, it looks kinda funky.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Grime]Eh Imo one of the ugliest tilesets in SM, sans wrecked ship of course. The design looks good, nothing really to criticize here. I can see all of the visual hints that would lead to secret passages in this room, so that's good.[/spoiler]

[Quietus]

Shadow for me this week.

If I had to find something to grumble about, it'd be that when paired with the plant life, the (almost) solid green tiles look like grass (intended?), which then looks odd on the ceilings.  Perhaps it'd be possible to create come tiles that look similar, but are more like hanging moss or something, which'd still give you most of the greenery without looking like grass.  An all-round solid room.  Excellent work, Shadow. :^_^:

[Quote58]

Oh wow. I'm so sorry, I didn't see that I was missing filler tiles. My screen was too dark I guess cause I still can only barely see that I missed a few parts. Next time I will turn the brightness up in smile before I post. However, it shouldn't detract from the room itself. In fact you can at most see only a couple of the tile spaces that I missed in game, and with the water you wouldn't notice it. So again, sorry, and I will make a long review post later.

[A_red_monk_called_Key]

Reds lazy review
[spoiler=shadow96]i like your old doors better. some of the plants look out of place underwater. the bg parts look squire at the top. other than that this is an awesome room the color just pops on this GFX set.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=iRundas]i dig the colors and all the stuff your doing with the plants, but it seems like you could use more variety[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Metaquarius]nice work. using a classic tile set, this room looks new. Bg is kind of lacking though.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Grime]too plain.[/spoiler]

RotW 5/10

[Quote58]

Red-Monkey: Ya, I forgot to change the cre. I changed it when I noticed I had forgot, but it was the next day :P
And I agree that some plants don't fit, but as usual this is really just the beta. I made the room as I was making the tileset, so there's lots I'd change (and have since), but on the whole, it came out rather well IMO.

Anywho, a week like this to me doesn't require a long review, so instead, I'll just say important bits.

Grime
[spoiler]Well, honestly I'm disappointed. I've been working with those tiles a lot for the lush variations that include them, and used right they can be amazing. The main things that stand out to me about your room are inconsistency in the style of ruins, and too much consistentcy in the use of certain tiles.
For reference, [spoiler][/spoiler]
I suggest you look at how they used a lot of the tiles in LN. I've found some better ways to use tiles from that.[/spoiler]
Irundas
[spoiler]the colours look pretty cool, I really like them. However, the use of the tiles is really bad. The thing is, to make it look good, you can't just have every colour change edge meet with a wall along a wall. You need to learn to layer, or you will get no where with using the criteria tileset. and the lack of vegation and rather bad use of other tiles makes this room very unappealing.[/spoiler]
Metaquarium
[spoiler]eh. Some bits are good, but it feels very cramped and nothing really stands out to me.[/spoiler]
Shadow
[spoiler]I really have little to say about the room. I quite like it. I've made a lot of changes to the tileset and such already since as I said, first stages of the tileset. I have some palette stuff to work out, and the background feels cut and a little bleh, it needs to blend better (i've been working on that, however it still needs work). But all in all, I like the room. The atmosphere is really nice.[/spoiler]

[MetroidMst]

[spoiler=Meh]
[spoiler=PhotoGarbage][/spoiler]
[spoiler=DropBox'd][/spoiler][/spoiler]

[spoiler=Not Quite Finished But Video'd Anyway]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7kpYUXhKW4[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Boring History And Such]So... the room isn't actually finished yet, but this is all I'm willing to show of it while the finishing touches are being done. Some in IRC may have seen me mentioning a castle, and this is why. The grey bricks work very well for a run down, broken fortress of some kind. It is all overgrown now. And it looks rad.

This room has actually taken a couple months, and the first two builds of it were completely scrapped. That is when I remember that I was using the custom So Alien I made, and I didn't have that brick tile in this graphic sheet. So I added it, threw some blocks in and this room was born. Two things need to be done for the room to be finished, and they will be later. But for now, this is what I'm willing to show.[/spoiler]

[iRundas]

How to repoint level data without (Out Level_Entries.txt)?

Click on it for better quality[spoiler]
upload photo[/spoiler]

[Law]

iRundas: I'd say you should probably find your Level_Entries.txt. Or get a new one.

[spoiler=My entry ('Tis a small room.)]

[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Purpose]Not much to show here, other than that this room was intentionally small. I was going to move the door further down, but I didn't know (at the time of making this room) of the Xi and Yi door values in SMILE. Still, I made do (with the default graphic set as well) and this is the result.

Two items to be found here, with one found pretty much at the beginning, and another at a much later time. That taken into consideration, I've made this room near the ship so it's quite easy to get to.

And yes. It's the first room I'm going to show off here.[/spoiler]

[Quote58]

So, I've been busy this past week and haven't had time to make a room specifically for rotw. Instead, I'm submitting a room I made for a little area I will be showing in a video.
Okay, about the room, the intent of this room is to get a relatively useful/major item. In the video, it'll be plasma. However, it could be power bombs or somethings.
The line of box like tiles going up about 2 thirds of the way into the room are speed blocks. You'll see how the shinespark works when I make the video.
Anyway,
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Round three Mst.

[Quietus]

Shadow for me again.  You seem to have a good feel for the tileset, and how things mesh together.  The only bit I'd say could be changed is the seemingly huge chunk of single blocks above the speed block column.

[JamieWebb16]

Metroidmst get's my vote for this week. I just like how the room is designed, keep up the good work!