Boot Engine (Alpha Release) - GameMaker: Studio

[Scooterboot9697]

Well I don't have the time to do a really in-depth review of my thoughts but I'll give a quick summary.

All of my previous concerns with controls seem to have been fixed. I don't know what exactly you did to fix it but I experienced no troubles with Grapple Beam this time. Samus controls like a dream; she's quick, responsive, and agile. Chaining shinesparks is fun to pull off too.

Some notes:
Is there a reason that both Aim buttons trigger Spider Ball?
Have you considered a Quick-Morph button like in AM2R?

Here's one bug I noticed: If you have both the Spin-Jump Restart and the Quick Space Jump options turned on, you can jump infinitely...in Morph Ball. Bug, or feature? You decide.

Other than that I'm really impressed so far. This engine is shaping up to be really fun to play in.

Omg, that bug... Yeah, um, easy fix. I'll wait around 24 to 48 hours before releasing the hotfix, so that maybe I can get some other bugs fixed as well and release it all in one go.


In AM2R, when using the two-button aim style, both aim buttons could toggle it so I figured I'd do it the same way. No real problem with it tho, right?

I don't think I could fit in a quick morph button. Sure, there may be some button I can assign it to, but not all controllers are the same, and so I'm trying to limit the button count to match the SNES controller (with the exception of the aim lock/moonwalk button, which can be played without anyway).
Aside from that, however, I've always felt that a quick morph button wasn't entirely necessary.

[FPzero]

I had no idea AM2R allowed both buttons to activate Spider Ball. I guess I always used one button and never noticed otherwise.

I also didn't know you were shooting for controller parity with SNES. I just bought an SNES USB controller recently. I should give it a try and see how the engine performs while using it.

edit: Well, I don't know if it's the engine or the controller but no matter what I do when using my SNES pad the game will constantly think that I have Up + Left inputted. That means Samus is constantly moving to the left while aiming diagonally up and the menus aren't navigable. I'm willing to bet it's the pad conflicting with what I assume is XInput architecture since I've used it for emulation purposes without any problem. If it was working though, I think the engine would feel very good using it.

[Ozzatron]

Hopefully this should be significantly shorter than my previous post.

• I also vote for a quick morph button. But who said it was a vote? :lol:
• Turning on auto-dash lets you quick charge even quicker.
• I really like the improved push-block physics, and that they fall through crumbles. Maybe this isn't new...
• Grapple controls and physics feel spot on -- to the point that I actually like the Grapple Beam again. It feels fun instead of clunky. Whatever spaghetti you cooked up behind the scenes, you did it right. Good job man.
• Keyboard controls and customization are flawless as far as I can tell. I'm one of those scrubs who learned to play Super Metroid on a keyboard, so I really appreciate it.
• Axiom Verge aiming, while you implemented it exactly like in Axiom Verge, feels very clunky within Metroid. I almost feel like it could be mixed with the moonwalk button somehow, or replace the other Aim button when the GBA style is selected.
• You can both pass through frozen Rippers from below (they are one way platforms) and wall jump off of them. I'm sure this is intentional, and it's neat.
• Starting where the two Geemers are (the spawn point), spark into the left door and then chain spark right. Hold down when you hit the metal slope. Samus should freeze indefinitely until you stop holding down. This only sometimes works if you aren't doing it via chain sparking.

[Scooterboot9697]

Hopefully this should be significantly shorter than my previous post.

• I also vote for a quick morph button. But who said it was a vote? :lol:
• Turning on auto-dash lets you quick charge even quicker.
• I really like the improved push-block physics, and that they fall through crumbles. Maybe this isn't new...
• Grapple controls and physics feel spot on -- to the point that I actually like the Grapple Beam again. It feels fun instead of clunky. Whatever spaghetti you cooked up behind the scenes, you did it right. Good job man.
• Keyboard controls and customization are flawless as far as I can tell. I'm one of those scrubs who learned to play Super Metroid on a keyboard, so I really appreciate it.
• Axiom Verge aiming, while you implemented it exactly like in Axiom Verge, feels very clunky within Metroid. I almost feel like it could be mixed with the moonwalk button somehow, or replace the other Aim button when the GBA style is selected.
• You can both pass through frozen Rippers from below (they are one way platforms) and wall jump off of them. I'm sure this is intentional, and it's neat.
• Starting where the two Geemers are (the spawn point), spark into the left door and then chain spark right. Hold down when you hit the metal slope. Samus should freeze indefinitely until you stop holding down. This only sometimes works if you aren't doing it via chain sparking.

:bounce:

• For those not in the know, you can get a speed boost much quicker by tapping Dash rather than holding it. I may or may not remove this. Or perhaps I may have it disabled when Auto-Dash is enabled.
• Yes, blocks always fell through crumble blocks. Something I did forget to mention, however, is that a few of their physics values were changed to make them feel heavier, and it is now possible to push them with (Super) Missiles.
• Grapple code was less spaghetti-fied which is what made it work better. Before I was using calculations that only "felt" right when in reality weren't right at all. Now it is corrected.
• The idea of mixing both alternate aiming styles so that one aim button is GBA-troid and the other is Axiom Verge sounds interesting to me. I might consider adding it as an option.
• Yes, frozen enemies act as one-way platforms that can also be wall-jumped off of. This is indeed intentional.
• I just now fixed that bug. Kinda odd that I never ran into it before, but then again the process to cause it is kinda weird. What's more is that the problem had nothing to do with Chain Spark despite it being the most accurate way to replicate the bug.

edit: Well, I don't know if it's the engine or the controller but no matter what I do when using my SNES pad the game will constantly think that I have Up + Left inputted. That means Samus is constantly moving to the left while aiming diagonally up and the menus aren't navigable. I'm willing to bet it's the pad conflicting with what I assume is XInput architecture since I've used it for emulation purposes without any problem. If it was working though, I think the engine would feel very good using it.

Well, I was about to say that I'm not 100% sure of all the types of controllers GameMaker supports. You may need some sort of driver for it that makes it think it's an XBox controller or something to get it to work. Either way, I don't think I can fix it on my end.

[Lin]

I gave this a shot and the biggest thing I have to say is the animation is simply amazing. Not sure how you got Samus even smoother than in the original game, but my god is it nice.

[liamnajor]

I gave this a shot and the biggest thing I have to say is the animation is simply amazing. Not sure how you got Samus even smoother than in the original game, but my god is it nice.

Someone made a whole new Samus spritesheet(I think his name is betatronic.....?), with 2-3 times the number of frames when compered to base Super Metroid's Samus sprite. It is also higher resolution.
New Sprite
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Old Sprite
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Scooterboot9697]

I would highly suggest putting those in spoiler tags for various reasons.
[spoiler=Like so]

Code Select Expand

[spoiler]-insert text and images here-[/spoiler]
[/spoiler]

Also, while it was Betatronic (or whatever spiter was associated with Von Richter's dead project) that came up with extending Samus's anims, Physix is the one who made those ^
The ones Betatronic/whoever made were never released to the public (they were only seen in poor quality videos).

(edit: also, I have no idea what you mean by "higher resolution" as they are the same size as the original sprites.)

[Scooterboot9697]

Hotfix released (download in first post)

Fixed being able to Space Jump while in Morph Ball if Spin-Jump Restart and Quick Space Jump were enabled.
Fixed bug causing Samus to freeze completely if you Shine Spark into a ramp while holding down without holding left or right.
Speed Booster short charging will now be disabled if Auto-Dash is enabled.
Some minor tweaks here and there.

[Hackmi]

It literally says Physix right there. :)
Anyway, I think the ones IE and Betatronic made are available to the public, I am almost certain I have them.
Liam, ScooterBoot is already using an extended Samus sheet, either made by Physix or whatever, the only outdated sprites in his engine (as far as I can tell) are a few really minor stainding, looking towards us, ones and the spin jump.

This place is mainly to talk about BootEngine, not MEngine so I suggest we all keep that to a minimum.

[liamnajor]

It literally says Physix right there. :)
Anyway, I think the ones IE and Betatronic made are available to the public, I am almost certain I have them.
Liam, ScooterBoot is already using an extended Samus sheet, either made by Physix or whatever, the only outdated sprites in his engine (as far as I can tell) are a few really minor stainding, looking towards us, ones and the spin jump.

This place is mainly to talk about BootEngine, not MEngine so I suggest we all keep that to a minimum.

boy, SOMEONE ASKED!!!! why wouldn't I give him a detailed explanation of where Scooter got those sprites?!!

[FPzero]

Dude, calm down.

[liamnajor]

sorry. hackmi can be EXTREMELY annoying sometimes.

[Ozzatron]

[spoiler][/spoiler]
Exactly what it looks like: space jump while speed boosting, break spin in midair to fire grapple beam at wall, reel it in as quickly as possible.

Also, I can't tell if supers push blocks more than normal missiles. Are they supposed to?

[Hackmi]

I have not tried the latest version yet, but as far as I remember Scoot did say they are supposed to go further in the discord server. So...yes?

[Hackmi]

Also, scoot, would you post the exact spritesheet you are using in BootEngine. I have only been able to find the ones for MEngine online. Thanks in advance.

[ShadowTiger]

An absolutely lovely engine.  I have a major bug for you though, unfortunately.

If you opt to rebind the Menu Selection key to Enter, you basically can't do anything in the menus anymore because enter closes the menu too.  It takes precedence over your actual Menu Selection, too.  You're out of luck. 

[Scooterboot9697]

An absolutely lovely engine.  I have a major bug for you though, unfortunately.

If you opt to rebind the Menu Selection key to Enter, you basically can't do anything in the menus anymore because enter closes the menu too.  It takes precedence over your actual Menu Selection, too.  You're out of luck.

That's odd, I seem to be unable to replicate this. I tested it with my build and then to see if I hadn't already fixed it, I tested it with the currently uploaded build, and yet I'm still unable to produce any bugs with rebinding the pause key.

Remember you have to press "Menu - Select" to start the rebind for keys, as pressing "pause" (or in this case "Enter") will simply unpause the game (however this shouldn't be possible if you're rebinding the pause button).

[Hackmi]

Are we just going to ignore the new video? Seems reasonable. Lol.
What sound system are you using?

[FPzero]

If ScooterBoot wants to post the video in here, he will.

Personally, I thought it was very neat that you can diagonally downwards shinespark now. Not sure how many applications it will have, but having the option there is nice.

[Scooterboot9697]

Haha, silly me. I just edited the video into the first post and forgot to mention anything about it here (most of you don't frequent the MetConst Discord and I forget that sometimes).
But without further a due...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_vChZduVSc

Coming soon to an update near you. :lol:

[passarbye]

gotta say, this engine is looking better each time I look back at it, keep up the great work Scoot!
I loved the landing site room, those AM2R tiles look gorgeous with that samus and all those effects (beam+booster), but I like that the SM tiles work with it too.

Do you plan on doing a demo of some sort or are you leaving that for others to accomplish?

[Scooterboot9697]

gotta say, this engine is looking better each time I look back at it, keep up the great work Scoot!
I loved the landing site room, those AM2R tiles look gorgeous with that samus and all those effects (beam+booster), but I like that the SM tiles work with it too.

Do you plan on doing a demo of some sort or are you leaving that for others to accomplish?

That tileset isn't from AM2R, it was actually Physix who made it.

I plan to make a tech demo at some point after I get all the essentials done (Main Menu, Saving, more enemies, bosses, etc).

[Quietus]

I just want to say that while it may have been there before and I just never noticed it, the sound effect that kicks in when you gain speed booster status is pretty cool, and makes it sound like you're not just running faster than before, but that you've actually had your speed boosted in some way, like the name actually implies. :cool:

[SirAileron]

I just want to say that while it may have been there before and I just never noticed it, the sound effect that kicks in when you gain speed booster status is pretty cool, and makes it sound like you're not just running faster than before, but that you've actually had your speed boosted in some way, like the name actually implies. :cool:

That's the sound effect from Other M's Speed Booster.

Man, this engine is a piece of work. I'm definitely impressed with the care taken with making the stuff look and feel good! I'll post some more thoughts when I get a chance to play around with it some more.

[Hackmi]

Could 2 player be a possibility?
Just a test I guess, who knows how that will be ingame!

Got my eyes on this engine, now that MEngine will definitely not be as good as this.