Something based on the Boot Engine

[samusfan]

First off this project is based on the awesome Boot Engine made by Scooterboot9697!

I started to work on this game since the end of April 2017 I think. It was just a random decision. First I tried Scooters Engine out and enjoyed playing it so much with it's very smooth and solid gameplay physics. Then I started to change the title screen and I edited the first rooms. It made so much fun to me, so I decided to try to make a "bigger thing" out of it.

This game is not meant to be an exact clone of SM! Please keep that in mind.
There will be differences like different ai's, effects and the most important thing: new areas!
In this game you will be able to travel dynamicually to different planets in the Palion Solar System. This also means, that the planets will not be as big as Zebes to explore.

Some pics:
[spoiler]


[/spoiler]

Videos:
[spoiler]
Video 1: Welcome To The Arkus Space Station!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9u1cp7hYMs
Video 2: The End Of The Arkus Space Station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs9pR2fuYUA
Video 3: Dynamic Planet Travel System
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw9i6R0fyHY
Video 4: Exploration Video 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyxwRgF_O7k
Video 5: Bomb Torizo Boss Battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQy3mzeFR6E
Video 6: Exploration Video 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMplJg4a5zY
[/spoiler]

And yes there are a lot of minor bugs and issues because my focus is more on progression now. If I will ever finish making all the areas and stuff I will try to fix them.

[FPzero]

This looks like it has some promise. Some parts are a bit rough around the edges right now, mostly your own animations or things like Ridley or the ship's rotation compared to how smooth the engine's animations are, but those can be worked out in time. I like the idea of having your ship as a central hub, allowing you to choose planets to visit. I hope you keep posting more progress as you get more done.

[samusfan]

Yeah, some of my animations are rough for now. But I will check them again when the most important things are done.
The dynamic travel thing was very important for me, we always see her ship but never from the inside...

Added some pics btw...

[Hackmi]

Hmm, very interesting work with Boot engine...this really inspires me to work better with other peoples engines...
Great job, can't wait to see more and hopefully play it when it's done 😄

[Quote58]

I find the samus monolog stuff super annoying because samus is traditionally a silent protagonist, and story telling in Metroid games is done through environment, but I dig the style you're going for. All the animations and gfx are, like FPzero said, rough at the moment, but that will hopefully improve with time.
The clouds and rain are super rad though.

[samusfan]

Hmm, very interesting work with Boot engine...this really inspires me to work better with other peoples engines...
Great job, can't wait to see more and hopefully play it when it's done 😄

Thanks Hackmi! This helps me a lot. Working with the Boot Engine is just fun.  :nod:

I find the samus monolog stuff super annoying because samus is traditionally a silent protagonist, and story telling in Metroid games is done through environment, but I dig the style you're going for.

If too many ppl don't want it, I will change this to a scanner device or something, just like in Metroid Prime. A device that analyses battle data or the enviroment, radiation or the heat to warn her of danger. Or to inform the player where to go if you take to long to find a way, just like in Prime.

[Hackmi]

Hmm, very interesting work with Boot engine...this really inspires me to work better with other peoples engines...
Great job, can't wait to see more and hopefully play it when it's done 😄

Thanks Hackmi! This helps me a lot. Working with the Boot Engine is just fun.  :nod:

I find the samus monolog stuff super annoying because samus is traditionally a silent protagonist, and story telling in Metroid games is done through environment, but I dig the style you're going for.

If too many ppl don't want it, I will change this to a scanner device or something, just like in Metroid Prime. A device that analyses battle data or the enviroment, radiation or the heat to warn her of danger. Or to inform the player where to go if you take to long to find a way, just like in Prime.

Or make it optional in the menu ?
I have a programmer helping me with Ridley,f you want I could share code 😄.
Really hope the gets finished and lots of people play it!

[samusfan]

I have a programmer helping me with Ridley,f you want I could share code 😄.
Really hope the gets finished and lots of people play it!

This sounds really great! But my problem right now is practice...
So far I have programmed only the walking Space Pirate and I tried Ceres Ridley. I think I need some more experience to make an acceptable and challenging boss ai. Right know I am designing the rooms of the first area on the first planet. Now I'm starting to program the ai's of the Crateria-enemies. This will help me to get better at this.
I would also share with you my stuff. So far many things are written in German, but I think I will translate the stuff if I have finished the game.
You can send me the code if you want, I could take a look at it and try to understand it. But as I said, so far I am not sure if I can help very much at this point right know. But if you/we can somehow manage to program his ai. The hardest part in coding would be done for me I believe.
Dragoon and Phanny have more fixed patterns and movements and should be easier than Ridley not to forget his tail... Kraid just shoots randomly things and moves around a bit, he should be the easiest.

[Hackmi]

I have a programmer helping me with Ridley,f you want I could share code 😄.
Really hope the gets finished and lots of people play it!

This sounds really great! But my problem right now is practice...
So far I have programmed only the walking Space Pirate and I tried Ceres Ridley. I think I need some more experience to make an acceptable and challenging boss ai. Right know I am designing the rooms of the first area on the first planet. Now I'm starting to program the ai's of the Crateria-enemies. This will help me to get better at this.
I would also share with you my stuff. So far many things are written in German, but I think I will translate the stuff if I have finished the game.
You can send me the code if you want, I could take a look at it and try to understand it. But as I said, so far I am not sure if I can help very much at this point right know. But if you/we can somehow manage to program his ai. The hardest part in coding would be done for me I believe.
Dragoon and Phanny have more fixed patterns and movements and should be easier than Ridley not to forget his tail... Kraid just shoots randomly things and moves around a bit, he should be the easiest.

Hmm, thanks for the offer! But since this awesome project is in BootEngine I doubt it'd work well with MEngine, will all of your code be open source/anyone can see/use it??
Looking very promising, I really like the inside of the ship but If I'm honest it's too big. Also, MEngine ship doesn't match too well with SuperMetroid graphics, but it's fine as a placeholder, good job mate. At the moment me and my programmer haven't had too much time to make Ridley, we will finish it in a few months maximum promise! But if you need help with some rooms/concepts I'm a little busy but I can sure try and give you a helping hand.

See you next mission?

[samusfan]

...I doubt it'd work well with MEngine, will all of your code be open source/anyone can see/use it??

It was planed to be released with the game itself when it is finished or in a rc-state.
But I will send you now a pm with the current status of the project. So far I am making tiny things like the different doors and the item drop system. Next thing I will implement is the Waver enemy.

At the moment me and my programmer haven't had too much time to make Ridley, we will finish it in a few months maximum promise!

See you next mission?

Just take the time you need. I can take a look on Ridley's code but I am absolutely not sure if I can help you with Ridley at it's current progress. You can send me a pm if you want.

But if you need help with some rooms/concepts I'm a little busy but I can sure try and give you a helping hand.

Again thank you so much for your help. So far I want to design the areas by myself. But I'll come back to that, if this becomes to much for me...
So far this game is suppossed to have 8 areas after the escape from Arkus Station.

[Hackmi]

It's fine, I get it. Making rooms is one of the fun bits! Don't want to take that away from you.
8 Areas!!!! Damn that's ambitious...

[samusfan]

Exploration video added:
[spoiler]
Video 4: Exploration Video 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyxwRgF_O7k[/spoiler]

Now some more enemies are implemented and the different doors are also done. Next huge step will be to finish the path to Bomb Torizo and then starting to implement his ai...

[Scooterboot9697]

It looks great, but a lot of the tile layer values seem off. I suggest looking at the original rooms in my engine (if you haven't already).

Assuming you haven't changed it, Samus's layer should be 100; tiles should start at layer 90, with additional layers being 91 and up or 89 and down. Backgrounds obviously should be on the background layer, and any background tiles should start at layer 200 (I can't remember why I chose a really high value for that, but oh well).

Something to remember is that X-Ray Scope is actually based on these values (to be precise, it checks foreground tiles between 85 and 95, and background tiles between 195 and 205, if memory serves correctly).

[samusfan]

It looks great, but a lot of the tile layer values seem off. I suggest looking at the original rooms in my engine (if you haven't already).

Assuming you haven't changed it, Samus's layer should be 100; tiles should start at layer 90, with additional layers being 91 and up or 89 and down. Backgrounds obviously should be on the background layer, and any background tiles should start at layer 200 (I can't remember why I chose a really high value for that, but oh well).

I will check that out, thanks for the hint. Will change the rooms soon.
Haven't changed her layer. In my newer rooms I have set the tile layer to 10 or something, but I will change them to 90 and above now.

Something to remember is that X-Ray Scope is actually based on these values (to be precise, it checks foreground tiles between 85 and 95, and background tiles between 195 and 205, if memory serves correctly).

Okay I will keep that in mind!

[Hackmi]

Wait...Scoot has a map engine! Wow!
Also. I don't think Zero Mission tiles work too well with SM style samus, maybe you will change the tiles to custom some time later?
Your level design seems very nice, if I had to nitpick I'd only complain about the tiles and that I don't like ZM's background :)

[Scooterboot9697]

Wait...Scoot has a map engine! Wow!

Uh, no, it's a piece of shit. It has no "square revealed or not revealed" mechanics and is basically static. I don't know if samusfan has made any alterations to it.

[samusfan]

Uh, no, it's a piece of shit. It has no "square revealed or not revealed" mechanics and is basically static. I don't know if samusfan has made any alterations to it.

Not really, I just added an object after each door that corrects the map position for each room as soon as Samus hits it.

I simply used Smile RF to make the map of the area. I used the Redesign Axeil Edition rom because it has better map tiles in the map editor.
I made a screenshot of the map and imported it into the BootEngine.

[samusfan]

The first boss is done, hope you enjoy it :)

[spoiler]
Video 5: Bomb Torizo Boss Battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQy3mzeFR6E
[/spoiler]

Also added Wall-Jump Pirates and added a map menu.

[Quietus]

Not bad actually. I chuckled when his banana shots travelled backwards when he fired them from the left. :^_^:

[Hackmi]

Imo, zm tiles mixed with sm almost works, kinda weird at parts, personally I don't like ZM, so the tiles are annoying. I wonder, will you ever make new gfx, this is probably one of the bigger fangames, new gfx could really pump it up. But for now, it's better to have the game done I guess 😆. Good luck. Ai seems decent too.

[samusfan]

Not bad actually. I chuckled when his banana shots travelled backwards when he fired them from the left. :^_^:

Totally oversaw that! :lol: It's already fixed. :wink:

Imo, zm tiles mixed with sm almost works, kinda weird at parts, personally I don't like ZM, so the tiles are annoying.

I respect your point of view but since I like the tileset of ZM the most it will have mostly ZM tiles.
So far only the Arkus Station and the doors have SM tiles. But I'm pretty sure I will use some more SM tiles later on.
The planets in the story of this game are undiscovered for her, this means the structures and environment of the Pirates' research bases are mostly undamaged. That's also a reason for me to use more ZM than Super tiles.
Zebes was damaged after her first mission, that's why SM has used a tileset of a more decayed world and that gave this game a very interesting style we all love.

will you ever make new gfx

Not so much. I focus the most on the ai of all the enemies and the bosses and the objects like elevators and basic events like the escape event.
The story progresses while you investigate different planets. So my focus is more on ai and bosses, I want to include Dark Samus (or a clone, I don't know right now if I will use Dark Samus or create another doppelganger for the story) in the game and she will play a very important part in the games story later on. That's what I will focus on mostly.
But you saw the weather effect with the clouds and the background on Xandria II's overworld. It was something new, so there are some new gfx in the game.

Another thing, you saw three planets on the map of the solar system. But this does not mean there are just three. Story will progress throuth your observations you get on the different planets.
Planet 9 was always there but it took so long to discover, just things like that...  :lol:

[samusfan]

The path to the next area is done. Elevators work now!
Also added some spikes :grin:

[spoiler]
Video 6: Exploration Video 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMplJg4a5zY
[/spoiler]

[Hackmi]

Very, very well done. I'm impressed!
Do you plan on adding the fusion suit? For any reason?

[Hackmi]

Personally, I think the zm and sm styles clash too much. I specially dislike the cave bgs, I feel parallax can do so much more and the art is just...so cartoonish. It doesn't fit well with sm samus and enemies Imo. Perhaps this will change in future?

[Amorsis]

This looks very exciting. Im looking forward to more. I hope to see a new game come from this engine.