Metroid "Rise of the Demiurge"

[Tahazzar]

FIRST OF ALL: This is a level layout hack made on top of metroid mOTHER - so it features saving and pause-map and other such goodies.
The title screen rather pompously declares "Level design by Tahazzar". I can't find out how I previously easily (without hex editing "by hand") edited the title screen text/subtitle... :neutral:

The main idea in this hack's level design is that there are multiple "right" directions to go. So you can basically choose three/four different directions to go at the beginning - all of which have their merits.

You might be able to finish the game - or not. I gone through play session where I have gotten every power up and killed both Kraid and Ridley, but I've never attempted to actually finish the game + since that time I might have "broken" the game one way or another (made an impassable corridor for example). See update at the bottom.

[spoiler=HERE are some screenshots][/spoiler]

Oh yeah, I messed around with metroidTuner then I tried to revert the music tracks back to normal. Kraid music kind of got messed up - it starts out okay, then it begins hitting that one key a bit too long, then riffs something that strangely sounds rather okay(?) and then starts from the beginning again (like it should).

EDIT:

"Wall of text" description:

[Spoiler=Story of the hack's development?]My path to this point has been quite backwards. While I'm a quite avid NES player, I had never finished NESTroid (and much for same reasons Zelda neither). With no map I would rather quickly get that "I'm lost, going nowhere and generally just wasting my time." My sense of direction is so bad that I have to glance at the map even in my own hack to check "Where exactly was I again?"

Not that long ago, I finished playing through Axiom Verge. I've always liked Metroidvania games (Symphony of the Night and such) and started to look for others similar games. Since many said that the game is a clone of Super Metroid, I tested it out. Yeah, I had only looked others playing Super Metroid - my list of sins is growing ever longer by the second :D. While Super Metroid is a well designed game IMO it didn't feel that similar to Axiom Verge in the end (although it's rather laughable from design perspective when those blocks turn to indicate that "use <item X> to break this" when you bomb them). After I watched some interviews with Thomas Happ, the sole creator of Axiom Verge, he spoke of the NEStroid as more of an inspiration rather than Super Metroid. I was like "Really? That drag of a game?"

So I started to look ways to not repeat the experience I had as a child with NEStroid. That's when I stumbled upon the mOther hack and the ips script. Ips script had features such as seeing where you had already been in the map and inventory screen. One could say it made the NEStroid too easy even - since you could come upon what looked like a dead end, but could clearly see from the map you were supposed to be able to continue from here on at one point or another. There were couple of times where I scoffed at these so called solutions to these secrets/puzzle; "How was I supposed to solve this? Am I actually supposed to bomb and shoot every block I see - that's ridiculous!"

Also, although it might be a bit absurd to call metroid games "linear" per se, something like "modular" isn't that far from being apt. What I mean is that many times the way to progress comes to this (with little or no alternatives): "Get item A -> then you can get item B -> with which you can then get item C -> ..." and so on.

...
This where this hack comes in.

The main idea was testing if I could make the game more open - that there could be many different ways to travel the map to complete the game. No doubt of those routes one is more optimal from speedrun viewpoint while others might be just for someone looking to "spice up" their game - which I think is somewhat the point - it would be nigh impossible to make them all evenly balanced. That didn't stop me from trying though.

In practical terms, I think around four of the "absolute must required to complete the game" items are placed in such ways that you could get them without getting any other item before hand. Others either require one those fours or combination of the two.

I initially spent much time just playing around with the limits of the NEStroid engine. Since something that would feel open (at least to me) is rather hard to accomplish, I've recreated the whole thing around four+ times. What I mean is, I would go "Eh. This isn't what I was looking for" and start from the beginning again (ie. delete each screen from the 32x32 grid).

Much of the effort was spent on using all of the available space for screens in the grid, which might be little nonsensical from game design perspective. Later on I ended up removing some corridors that didn't seem to serve any real purpose.

So the hack was made from bottom-up, ie. it's very mechanically inclined and experimental. This can be seen in the lack of story (changes). Even the most of the screen layouts were made with mechanical experimentation in mind rather than elegance or flavor purpose.

There are a bunch of things I would like to incorporate or even to some extent, finish ("really finish" or maybe "polish" is the better word here). There are certain areas which, while being able to be completed, just "are there". What I mean is that, I didn't really design them to the end, they were made more out of necessity just so the game could be completed. IMO every part of every area should be made with love and care. Obviously in real life game development this would be impossible, but here we can think of this as more of a hobby art.[/spoiler]


UPDATE EDIT:

Just went through a full playthrough with little modifications here and there that forced the player to commit suicide to progress. Not a funny process when you have Varia and 4 full energy tanks.

You can "transfer" your saves, at least with FCEUX, if you replace (taking backup suggested obviously) the "old" ROM with the new ROM. Or move the old somewhere else and place the new ROM in the same folder with exact same name.

[Grimlock]

Sounds interesting but it also sounds unfinished (untested).  Are you planning on working on it more or are you moving on to other things?

[AuroraxPhilic]

I could play test the game for you if you'd like. :3 If you're still working on it.

[Tahazzar]

Sounds interesting but it also sounds unfinished (untested).  Are planning on working on it more or are you moving on to other things?

I work on it whenever motivation rises for it. There really isn't any schedule or anything and I do have a bunch of other projects that I work on. Basically when I get bored of the current one I'm working, I switch to another unfinished project.

Actually, I don't think this would really ever be "completed" per se - only abandoned at one point or another.

Well, eh... Maybe it could one day completed if I used every screen in every zone for something and I had optimized the use of 32x32 grid available.

At the moment I think it would already be "enough" if I completed the game fully once - I could name that the "1.0" version.. The problem with that is that whenever I start playing it, usually at one point or another I notice some minor things I would like the change and then feel completed to start over again with those changes in place. Plus, added the fact that the 32x32 space is mostly used (so it's a large hack in that way) and that I've played it likely hundred+ (?) times you get tired of it - even if there's like four possibly routes to go through at.

I could play test the game for you if you'd like. :3 If you're still working on it.

Sure...

I do feel though that I should confirm 100% that the hack is able to be fully completed before pushing it for people to play - it's only fair.

It's like 75 % finished or so. I'm pretty sure it can be at least mostly completed. This is because I test it in long sequences, then fix it (fiddle with) then test again and so on. There's always those little changes there and there so I can't really be certain about it's playability.

However, I do think that the saving features enables you to transfer your progress from earlier version of the hack as long as you keep the file name same or change it to same (and the password tracked items haven't changed that much).

[AuroraxPhilic]

Why don't you just use the TEST ROOM feature in editroid to test everything once you make it? It speeds up the process dramatically. :P (I'll record a play through of your hack then; post it here once I finish).

[Grimlock]

Why don't you just use the TEST ROOM feature in editroid to test everything once you make it? It speeds up the process dramatically. :P (I'll record a play through of your hack then; post it here once I finish).

The test room feature is incompatible with the "Metroid mOther" hack due to some ASM modifications.  This hack used mOther as a foundation. 

[AuroraxPhilic]

After posting that response, I thought about it; I realized that was the case, but was too lazy to edit it. :P

[Tahazzar]

NOTE: I updated the OP with looong description or whatever.

Yeah, the save-map hack uses code sections that are "initially" used by the test room. This is why I have a "test ROM" separately which I sometimes use to design a room layout, then place that same room like ten times in a row, and use the playtest feature again and again to get the "feel" for the corridor.

In hindsight it might have been a bad idea to use the mOther as this hack's basis. It has made practically impossible (or at least very, very troublesome) to integrate other ASM modifications into the game. Also, disassembling with editroid seems to fail (I can't get the disassembled version to run). No doubt also because this such a "frankestein" of a hack. The new version of save/map with minimap in the corner and the healy-damage blocks with Varia as immunity would have been neat. Wall jump seems like it would not be that useful (from design perspective) since both High Jump and Ice Beam can be used for vertical travel.

Still, this is (or was) a good exercise if nothing else (and fun to boot). I would expect the "Rogue Dawn" yield the community much more new features for us to fiddle with.

(I'll record a play through of your hack then; post it here once I finish).

Good luck  :oh:

If anything I would like you to spend you're efforts/focus in determining whether the secrets/puzzles were sensical and/or "balanced". Ie. whenever you find a power-up, think of how easy it was to find and so on.

I guess this too should be in the long description, but with the map in mind, I thought of and "invented" in a sense, a long list of obstacles for players to overcome which I then evenly placed around the map whenever they were "needed" .

Some descriptions about the secrets/puzzles and how I would expect them to "look like" (only speaks vaguely about the nature of the obstacles - not which is connected to which power-up or region advancement):
[spoiler]

• There's one "puzzle" that could be perceived as "trollish" by nature. I would say it's more a task of coordination and space perception. It also includes a chance that the player may "stumble" upon it's "solution" by accident.
• Many of which could be said to play with the players preconceptions (I hope in a good way). I fear some of these might be way too obscure for player to "discover."
• Certain items can just be found laying around - basically a reward that you "got this far".
• Some are at the end of a rather long "gauntlet". A bit different from the aforementioned in that these "gauntlets" might be a series of "mini-puzzles".
• At least one which quite plainly tells you one-step at a time that "you require that item to progress here."

[/spoiler]

[squishy_ichigo]

I wasn't sure if I wanted to make a post about this, but ehhhh whatever.

So on a whim, I decided to play this yesterday. I played for almost an hour and a half, and stopped playing due to frustration.
In all that time, I didn't obtain a single item, though I saw several on screen that I couldn't find a way to get to. This alone wasn't why I stopped playing, it was more so that if I went down an elevator to a new area, and I died in that area, I wasn't restarting at the elevator I was at. No, I was teleported to the complete opposite side of the map, nowhere near where I was at before, with a measly 30 energy. This happening because each area normally would only have one elevator, so the game only sets one elevator per area as the 'starting location'.  So if I wanted to try and get that item that I was trying to get, I'd have to leave the area, die, thus restarting my starting location back to the original starting location, and try all over again, still with 30 starting energy and no items.

I guess I'm just not 'good' enough at nestroid, and not the target demographic.

[Tahazzar]

I wasn't sure if I wanted to make a post about this, but ehhhh whatever.

So on a whim, I decided to play this yesterday. I played for almost an hour and a half, and stopped playing due to frustration.
In all that time, I didn't obtain a single item, though I saw several on screen that I couldn't find a way to get to. This alone wasn't why I stopped playing, it was more so that if I went down an elevator to a new area, and I died in that area, I wasn't restarting at the elevator I was at. No, I was teleported to the complete opposite side of the map, nowhere near where I was at before, with a measly 30 energy. This happening because each area normally would only have one elevator, so the game only sets one elevator per area as the 'starting location'.  So if I wanted to try and get that item that I was trying to get, I'd have to leave the area, die, thus restarting my starting location back to the original starting location, and try all over again, still with 30 starting energy and no items.

I guess I'm just not 'good' enough at nestroid, and not the target demographic.

I think many of those issues could be attributed to the limitations of the Metroid engine. That's still is my fault - not the games  :<_<:

I was unable to include "healy blocks" (that would regenerate your health to full) or even to set the starting health to something understandable like 90 - these issues might be very troublesome indeed. I did include (rather poor) options to combat this though. Almost every elevator (if you travel it upwards back to Brinstar or so) this "slaughter pen". You can notice this in the game starting screen. In here I included spawning bugs that don't pose any real threat to you (they are located too high in the screen) and can easily farm for health. Unfortunately the spawning doesn't seem to work that well in the elevator ones. When you return to them those enemies only spawn once, and you have to either travel the elevator twice or use the door to once go "back and forth" when the spawning starts to work properly again.

Here's an example video about the game starting area "slaughter pen":

www65.zippyshare.com/v/5143zfa3/file.html

Turbo ftw - am I right? Hopefully it's within the rules of the forums to post links such as that :pale:

EDIT:

Another example video about a "slaughter pen" - this time in norfar starting area. Also shows the "bug" with spawning and how to ignore it.

www74.zippyshare.com/v/aMkgi7vr/file.html

EDIT:

Okay, maybe I should have started with these, but...
First of all, feedback is always welcome. Without it I'm just playing around with my own subjective understanding of various factors. The longer I do that with no feedback, the more those ideas become ingrained into my perspective.

Also, if I may so inquiry:

• Have you completed the original Metroid (NES)? It would be pretty safe to assume this, but since I have barely done that myself... I also felt to ask this since that description of your frustration sounds rather similar to my initial experiences with NEStroid.
• Have you played other NEStroid hacks? I'm uncertain if this is relevant - maybe I'm just curious if checking NEStroid hacks is something you regularly do to spend time or was there something that got your attention about this one?

More on these:

So on a whim, I decided to play this yesterday. I played for almost an hour and a half, and stopped playing due to frustration.
In all that time, I didn't obtain a single item, though I saw several on screen that I couldn't find a way to get to.

You would not have happened to be spending most of that time in Kraid area, would you? :blush:

This alone wasn't why I stopped playing, it was more so that if I went down an elevator to a new area, and I died in that area, I wasn't restarting at the elevator I was at. No, I was teleported to the complete opposite side of the map, nowhere near where I was at before, with a measly 30 energy.

This is something I was aware of. I didn't think players would care that much (maybe I was wrong).

Now there is a question whether the "rewards" of having multiple instances of the same zone are enough of a compensation for issues such as these. One reason why I'm more willing to overlook this issue in this hack, is that your chances of progressing are pretty much the same in both of those instances of (assumedly) Norfar. Also as a site note this "bug" could be used by a speedrunner to skip some distances (a very minor hypothetical benefit).



I've admit that I'm pretty bad at making design that are approachable (or even relatable?) I'm much better at theoretical experimentation; I think this hack could be a good study case for example.

[SacredHooves]

So I took the updated patch you had for a spin, as I have some vague memories of NEStroid.  First and foremost it's not a bad concept: however I spent a good chunk and some change just wondering around: never finding Morph ball or Bombs.  I couldn't even find missiles because I would die randomly from Lettuce leafs that spawned directly where I was set to jump.  Other than that maybe just a little less of the wondering amiss with side path tunnels, and a little more direct line to things would help out.

The only other big thing I had was already mentioned: the whole teleporting to what is set as the "main" elevator when I didn't even come down that way

[Tahazzar]

UPDATE: OP now has a new version which has been confirmed to be able to be completed. It features various fixes (nothing absolutely game-breaking, but still very annoying).

So I took the updated patch you had for a spin, as I have some vague memories of NEStroid.  First and foremost it's not a bad concept: however I spent a good chunk and some change just wondering around: never finding Morph ball or Bombs.

In this hack morph ball and bombs are items you get later on after other power-ups unlike in the original NEStroid. It certainly takes much longer to get your first item in this hack compared to the original/unmodified. Actually not that much longer if you know where to go but generally I would expect it to take awhile.

I couldn't even find missiles because I would die randomly from Lettuce leafs that spawned directly where I was set to jump.

I'm uncertain where you were. Can you give a sense of direction - ie. north-east or something?

Usually there is some kind of indication whether a foe is respawnable and where it will respawn from. Or did they come from outside the screen?

By lettuces do you mean those fireballs that go around the screen by floating through air and bouncing off walls?

Other than that maybe just a little less of the wondering amiss with side path tunnels, and a little more direct line to things would help out.

Yeah, my playthrough took around 2 hours and that's when I knew exactly where to go. So it can be a quite a trial to finish this game... Maybe around four hours or even something absurd like eight hours? :O_o: Then there's the chance that some of the "puzzles" are so bizarre that most won't be able to solve them - although I would imagine them being around the same "level of obscurity" as the "puzzles" in the original NEStroid.

However, I would expect there to be multiple cases where you're not that far from progress of some kind, since there are multiple places where you can get your first power up. Four or so that are quite far from each other.

There are certain sequences you have to complete, but until those the game is rather open - which certainly causes a lot of wandering. That kind of was the point behind the hack, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was a good point...

The only other big thing I had was already mentioned: the whole teleporting to what is set as the "main" elevator when I didn't even come down that way

Well, I mean... If you actually continue that way, where the elevator sets you on, you can get some items, probably the instance where power-up is given most easily, that can help considerably with other things.
But I don't really know how to fix that or if it's worth the effort to try fix it. It might be better if the game only had on instance of that area... Idk.

[AuroraxPhilic]

From what I've played so far...the graphics are VERY unappealing. mOther's graphics always looked ugly to me, but you somehow made it worse. Not to be mean or anything, but that's how I feel.

[Tahazzar]

From what I've played so far...the graphics are VERY unappealing. mOther's graphics always looked ugly to me, but you somehow made it worse. Not to be mean or anything, but that's how I feel.

I did mention that in the other thread. The structures in the screens serve mostly mechanical purposes.

There is an updated patch for download btw. The most important update is that I blocked off a certain area until the player is able make progress in there.

The actual important thing I just realized is that there's "add room" feature in editroid that I had somehow missed or forgotten all this time.
My head is just spinning with possibilities at this point. I mean, I can basically anything with that. That shakes radically many of the base ideas behind this hack. I might even have to start from the beginning to get my thoughts together.

[AuroraxPhilic]

It's kinda funny that you never knew there was a NEW ROOM thing in editroid. XD There is a limit to how many rooms you can have however. Anything after 7F stops working properly. I think when editroid 4.0 comes out, you could have more than this...but that just a guess given the scope of Rogue Dawn.

Have fun with it. :3

[Grimlock]

Rogue Dawn Stats:

Unique screens: 726 (The original Metroid had 188)
Unique structures: 1144
16x16 Combos: 1270

[Tahazzar]

Rogue Dawn Stats:

Unique screens: 726 (The original Metroid had 188)
Unique structures: 1144
16x16 Combos: 1270

THE HYPE IS REAL.

Are those counts within the limits of a ROM expanded by Editroid 3.7? Or is there "magic" at work behind the scenes?
Anyway, that basically means that every screen can be unique. Absurd. Absolutely bonkers.
It's getting more closer to designing your own game rather than just hacking NEStroid.

[Grimlock]

Rogue Dawn Stats:

Unique screens: 726 (The original Metroid had 188)
Unique structures: 1144
16x16 Combos: 1270

THE HYPE IS REAL.

Are those counts within the limits of a ROM expanded by Editroid 3.7? Or is there "magic" at work behind the scenes?
Anyway, that basically means that every screen can be unique. Absurd. Absolutely bonkers.
It's getting more closer to designing your own game rather than just hacking NEStroid.

Well, "designing my own game" was the whole idea from the get go (for Rogue Dawn).  Anyway it's not difficult to make unique screens, when you create a new screen it just copies the currently selected screen and places it at the tail end of the available rooms.  With that you could reuse a bunch of screens as you initially build and then go back later and easily copy them to allow you to at least make a few noticeable changes to add some degree of uniqueness.  You don't have to make a whole new game like we did with RD, but you can avoid bland repetitive level designs in ANY scale of project with a little effort.

[Tahazzar]

Well, "designing my own game" was the whole idea from the get go (for Rogue Dawn).

No doubt there is a love for NEStroid behind it yet still.
Idk if this rude or just unproductive to ask, but isn't there or when do you reach a point, that you should just, well, go and create your own game? Aka something like Axiom Verge or such - although that guy (developer of the said game) had some serious experience with game development. I think that many times the limiting factor is that it's currently very unclear as to how someone could get a job at game design and not be that into/experienced with game development (what I mean specifically is activities like game engine construction ala programming and not the whole actual game making progress).

This is something I've myself met: "If I just had an engine ready, I could get on working something cool" or "I could do so much with that engine".
But even as a programmer myself, I'm not really into spending time working on some game engine, which is how many game projects would begin. I could see myself working on actual game code for sure though. I guess one could get something done with tools such as Unity.

With that you could reuse a bunch of screens as you initially build and then go back later and easily copy them to allow you to at least make a few noticeable changes to add some degree of uniqueness.

I *think* that was the initial plan but at some point or another (at a very early stage) I just forgot that the "add room" feature even existed. So basically, I'm set up for that second phase :^_^:

I'm tempted to "go off the deep end" and start working on graphics with a unmodified ROM, but I don't think anything would ever come of it unless I let go of my other hobby projects / activities. Obviously "real life" with work and studying limits activities such as these.

At least for now, I think I just keep fiddling with this; I'll keep my aims at creating something "cute" (ie. not that "serious" or ambitious).

It seems to me, that the current focus ought to be on making the experience less demanding; the other non-starting areas in NEStroid weren't meant to be accessible without any power ups. With unique screens I can make the ones that are open from the start not so unforgiving and frustrating (although I think the original NEStroid was always unforgiving and frustrating experience so it might not be that easy to change that).

[Grimlock]

isn't there or when do you reach a point, that you should just, well, go and create your own game? Aka something like Axiom Verge or such

I think that's the next step, I don't know where it'll lead for me personally but I'm going to take it and see what happens. :cool: 

I'm tempted to "go off the deep end" and start working on graphics with a unmodified ROM, but I don't think anything would ever come of it unless I let go of my other hobby projects / activities. Obviously "real life" with work and studying limits activities such as these.

I learned a long time ago that you need to keep yourself from being too divided among multiple projects (projects that require a high level of attention).  I have a lot of non-game design interests that I divide my time with also but I limit myself to one major creative project.  I tinker on the side some for experimentation but I keep it in check.  It's tempting to shelf a project when you hit the tedious stages of development and toy around with a new idea or concept but I find that the tedious pain in the butt stages are actually the most rewarding once you get through them. 

[snarfblam]

I think that's the next step

Ditto. It's cool to transform something you love into something even better or to give it a new twist, but I'm just about spent as far as large scale hacking goes. If you're going to be pouring that much time into something, it's not hard to see the upside of taking an approach where your time spent is more productive, you don't have to worry about copyright, and if the game turns out awesome enough you can even think about going commercial.

[AuroraxPhilic]

While I read all this, I couldn't help but smile. Mostly because Tahazzar is very relatable to me, and because I just got done watching NickonAquaManga's overview of the Prime games. Grimlock is also very much relatable, because I have a few projects that I have Juggle with on occasion, to help keep the balance, as well as my adventure into making dem vidia gaems.

When I first started making my small hack, I just did it cause I thought it be cool; and it was. Now I just wanna create something that's as great as Rogue Dawn. Now we have Tahazzar over here, thinking about going crazy with a hack.
I know this is a bit early to say...but, the concept of more complex hacks of Nestroid was pioneered by Grimlock, and I feel in a way it is a bit of a duty to try and continue this trend. The 3 Musketeers of Nestroid & Knuckles (I mean Snarf *cough* please get the joke). That's an interesting thought...a very early thought, but an interesting one non the less.

Wait, Tahazzar, you're a philosopher too?

[Grimlock]

Ditto. It's cool to transform something you love into something even better or to give it a new twist, but I'm just about spent as far as large scale hacking goes. If you're going to be pouring that much time into something, it's not hard to see the upside of taking an approach where your time spent is more productive, you don't have to worry about copyright, and if the game turns out awesome enough you can even think about going commercial.

Yep, 100% on that.  I have grown to really enjoy working with NES graphics though so I'll probably continue to do that occasionally but It's unlikely that I'll dive into a large project like RD in the hacking scene.  I might continue tinkering with that Ducktales idea just for fun but there really isn't a decent editor for it anyway.

I definitely encourage anyone who's interested in working on a full scale hack, the experience has been great, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and learned a lot from it that will carry on to other future endeavours.

[Tahazzar]

I definitely encourage anyone who's interested in working on a full scale hack, the experience has been great, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and learned a lot from it that will carry on to other future endeavours.

Well hacking/modding scene has been getting a much wider acknowledgment lately.

• Steam attempting to enable selling of mods (unsuccessfully)
• Mario Maker pretty much tapping into that vein
• Those Sonic hackers who moved onto actually making games for Sonic Team (check upcoming "Sonic Mania")

Nintendos approach so far has been trying to suppress the hacking scene so it certainly isn't on the forefront though :cry:

My point is that working on hacks might be less worthless or waste of time than one might indeed think (so I agree with it).

Ditto. It's cool to transform something you love into something even better or to give it a new twist, but I'm just about spent as far as large scale hacking goes. If you're going to be pouring that much time into something, it's not hard to see the upside of taking an approach where your time spent is more productive, you don't have to worry about copyright, and if the game turns out awesome enough you can even think about going commercial.

This was exactly my thought.

This is also why Axiom Verge is such an apt example, not only because of its heavy influence from NEStroid, but because the developer worked on that for years as a hobby projects besides his actual work before really going full-time into developing just that game.

However, I think we all own you gratitude for all that "unproductive" work that has made NEStroid hacking so much more welcoming for lazy people :yay:.
Ie. I would expect this subthread to be very, very dead if it weren't for you. You can get only so far with something like MetEdit.

Oh, oh! So what is the Editroid 4.0 gonna contain? Is it gonna blow our minds? This is really going off topic, but will/could you add various small ASM hacks/modifications as patchable with Editroid (like the door transition thingy)? (examples: wall jump, minimap/saving, even healy/dam blocks with just default options would be aaawesome) I have some serious problems trying to mix and match ips patches when some are meant for unexpanded and others for expanded ROM. Also, why does the game just reset when Samus should be beamed in when I do in any (original or modified) ROM these actions in Editroid: * Create project -> Disassemble & build or whatever -> Play the generated .nes file? I also tried to disassemble the rom with "conventional" means which I quickly realized was just futile (and why Editroid is so amazing). I tried to look at some tutorials but I still have no idea how to debug that. Although assembly is probably my least favorite language to program in so the prospect does not evoke excitement in me... With that project thing I think I could rather easily overwrite "one value rules" I think? Starting health obviously, but maybe even how much enemies deal damage (also Varia damage reduction) and how much missiles bosses give - I've searched and found couple of these from the commented Metroid source documentations.

While I read all this, I couldn't help but smile. Mostly because Tahazzar is very relatable to me, and because I just got done watching NickonAquaManga's overview of the Prime games.

My youtube page is full of subscription for various "game design" channels :wink:

Now we have Tahazzar over here, thinking about going crazy with a hack.

I think it's pretty crazy already (but maybe not in a good way).
Since this is actually on topic (not that I don't mind good off topic discussions), you wouldn't happened to have found an item in the game? I'm not trying to put much pressure on you or anything, but please tell someone has at least found one power up :lol: Have I really made so counterintuitive design choices here?

Maybe it doesn't matter - I had another revelation about the construction of structures (and graphics/sprites). So the next version release is going to be major with bunch of new rooms, transitions (added door patch since reserving "room space" doesn't make sense), and structures - probably marked as "2.0" version.

Wait, Tahazzar, you're a philosopher too?

Uhhmm, well... Is "a philosopher" a job description? Is Louis CK a philosopher? As a hobby though - sure. Otherwise - idk.
Aren't we all philosophers one way or another? :grin: At least of our own lives...

[TheDruggedMetroid]

I might try it when I get the chance.
Looks pretty cool!