[Conversion] Castlevania Chronicles: Scourge of the Dragon (Super Metroid Hack)

[Morinis]

I am making a thread in documenting my adventures with a Super Metroid hack into a full on 100% conversion to a Castlevania game.  Why am I doing this you ask?  To bring out a MetroidVania styled Castlevania game on the SNES along with testing the waters, so to speak, for another adventure game to place onto Super Metroid far off into the future.

A lot of things are still being ironed out right now with me working on the sprite sheet to start things out.  About 0.01% has been worked on as of right now.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFtEeiwDa24


Just a little show-and-tell to see on what people think of my announcement.  Used Munchy's SPARTA tool to start things out but will be looking into a few other programs this weekend about their functionality as I am extremely new to Super Metroid hacking.  Been helping MindFlower on his hack since I've been back into the scene but due to his unexpected hiatus and needed another project to do for a full 100% completion (The Big Six I call it right now) I am going to get something made and brought out to the public after all of these years.


I know that this will not be an easy thing to undertake as I am going to learn programming and since programming does not mix well with me it will be an interesting journey.  Luckily I do have someone that can help guide me in a direction to learn this stuff though right now I want to focus on character and environment development before seeing what can be added, changed and who knows what else.

Not sure on how sound engines work on SNES as I'd like to swap what's here on Super Metroid to something else like Dracula X but if it's too difficult I'm just as happy to stick with Super Metroid's sound engine or whatever it is (I know nothing about that aspect so shooting in the dark on that one.)



I know this is probably a thread no one expected to see on a Metroid site coming from a Castlevania guy.  Figured I'd change some things up.



Not sure how long it will take me to complete this project but it will be one heck of a journey  :grin:

[Metaquarius]

Welcome to Metconst ! Sonia Belmont yay :wub:

It is usually a good practice to get some substantial work done before showcasing any hack. We've seen enough ambitious projects which didn't get past the first year of development (or stuck in development hell)

The sound engine stuff along with making CV like tilesets are probably the "easiest" things to do relatively speaking, tools do exist, that's nice and you shouldn't worry about it too much.

However, making a fully fonctionnal new character which is not a Samus clone/makeover, has not been done before to my knownledge. While that's possible, there is a ton of work involved, not just graphics wise.... and more if you decide to implement moves that simply do not exist in Super (sliding, backdash,...) That's a serious challenge, even for seasoned hackers, you are warned. :grin:

[Tomtroid]

An interesting idea to turn Super Metroid into Castlevania. I'll be looking forward to playing this in, dare I say it, 2036.

[Morinis]

An interesting idea to turn Super Metroid into Castlevania. I'll be looking forward to playing this in, dare I say it, 2036.

I'm looking into about 3 or 4 years of production.  5 at the most. 

It is usually a good practice to get some substantial work done before showcasing any hack. We've seen enough ambitious projects which didn't get past the first year of development (or stuck in development hell)

When I start a project I begin showcasing it via documentation as it's my way to show everyone that I am actually working on something  :^_^:

[DonnyDonovan]

All he's saying is that if we all had a nickel for every thread announcing a project that never went anywhere, we'd all have at least four or five dollars by now.  That's why the guidelines recommend waiting until something is at least a decent ways off the ground.

[Morinis]

Didn't expect this sort of thing but okay  :lol:


I will update whenever in the future when a 'substantial' bit of work has been done  :bounce:

[graw-_@]

Welcome to Metconst ! Sonia Belmont yay :wub:

It is usually a good practice to get some substantial work done before showcasing any hack. We've seen enough ambitious projects which didn't get past the first year of development (or stuck in development hell)

The sound engine stuff along with making CV like tilesets are probably the "easiest" things to do relatively speaking, tools do exist, that's nice and you shouldn't worry about it too much.

However, making a fully fonctionnal new character which is not a Samus clone/makeover, has not been done before to my knownledge. While that's possible, there is a ton of work involved, not just graphics wise.... and more if you decide to implement moves that simply do not exist in Super (sliding, backdash,...) That's a serious challenge, even for seasoned hackers, you are warned. :grin:

I'm not going to comment on the difficulty of op's undertaking, but your comment on mechanics got me thinking...i wonder if the grapple beam code could be repurposed to make a functional castlevania whip? The mechanics are somewhat similar. I'll admit, i don't know much about Super Metroid's code, but that might be a place to start at least.

[Metaquarius]

Yeah, that actually might work. Thus Samus' projectile slots could be freely repurposed as subweapons and the whip could be used to latch onto stuff (much like you can do in Super Castlevania 4).

[Morinis]

Sounds good, thanks for the advice!

Right now, I am taking my projects in private as there will not be any more open updates about anything.  I originally passed them to someone else to finish but after them doing a 180 it crossed me the wrong way (learned not to trust anyone again) so I'm going to work on ROM projects but ONLY in private.


Don't know when you'll see this released but I will be working on it off and on around my busy scheduling.

[Ethgar]

Loving the hack so far, I'm having a bit of an issue with speed booster though. I can't reliably get shinespark. I go into a crouch after turning blue, but most of the time nothing happens. Has anyone else had this issue? I thought maybe it was an issue with my controller, I hadn't used it in close to a year. But I've loaded up some older saves of other mods and vanilla, and it works fine.

[andlabs]

Wait, this hack is available? Or was that post meant for a different thread?

[Paragon]

Wait, this hack is available? Or was that post meant for a different thread?

It's not. It's a project idea with some demo video. Guessing you're right that Ethgar's post was intended for a different thread/hack.

[Morinis]

Hey, just giving an update as I see some somewhat old activity on here along with people finding my private email from someplace...or someone.



Quite a few people have sought me out through the grapevine in contacting me personally wondering on what's up with this project.  Well, here's the thing.  I am working on this project but only this one right now for full focus from start to finish.  There are many others but they're on hold until this is done.  Legends NES, CoA MMC5, Umbral Genesis, VoH II, Hyper Mario Kart, etc.  You know my stuff that I've been working with off and on over the years.  Many others have been added to the list but with NESMaker and Indie game development.  Been a lot happier since I did this while being with a small close group of friends that I can actually trust.



So, back to the project and not story time.  Progress on Scourge of the Dragon is at a measly 1%.  Been planning and plotting things out for layout including what can be added, inserted, everything to make this sucker beefy, big, THICC, and an enjoyment factor.  Just messing with title stuff right now with sprite adjustments for insertion.  It will be years until its done and I'm fine with that.  I can post up screenshots but not sure on videos just yet as I've gone through 3 YouTube channels due to severe drama and harassment.  Me posting this up I consider a high risk as people watch for my activity 24/7.



So yeah.  Nothing is cancelled.  Rumor mill is good for spreading that nonsense but my stuff isn't cancelled, just placed into private until they're done.  I can post up screenshots but unsure about videos just yet as that takes me out of a comfort zone as if I make another YouTube channel solely for my hacking stuff it will be targeted again.



The next posting I do on here will have more stuff in it, whenever that may be this year.