Lowser's Conquest - A little update

[PROX]

nice to see that everything's still going.

[Darkonius Mavakar]

i'm so glad that you're back Seddy!

[MECHDRAGON777]

Should of commented on this way eariler.

2 levels of world six done
Does 9 complete levels while away

He is about to start on world seven, and if it is ice, I can not wait.

[Arceus88]

I've seen that tree boss, that tree is from Bloo Kid 2. I'm positive it was from Bloo Kid 2.

Is Lowser an NPC, playable or a boss? I want it.

[PROX]

It hasn't been used yet in his episode, and he won't be releasing graphics until his episode is done

[Sednaiur]

Well, that was unexpected by me, to stay offline for a quarter of a year xD. I still could work onto my project and even finish a whole world while being offline. One sure could say that world 6 is a "Ninja"-world since it came and go without much notice xD. And since it is the biggest world in my project, it has a rather huge update, which comes here:

Spoiler: show

World 6 introduces a lot of new platforms to "Lowser's Conquest" like the steering platform, the rotating platform, the spinning platform, or the controlling platform.
I also updated already completed levels, or even redid them from scratch, like the pyramid level, or the SML2 levels. You will not recognize much of em, if you played the demo. Promised ;-P.
Please note that this is just the first half of the update. I will bring you the other half of the update later, but I cannot upload all the pictures at once :-P.


And here to my answers for the replies:

Spoiler: show

Did you draw that beanstalk from scratch, or did you use a template?

I did draw it from scratch as I didn't had a template. It was difficult at first, but then I just filled all the holes with my imagination, so what you see now may be totally wrong - logic-wise, but I like how it turned out ^^.

Wow that vine looks awesome.
maybe you could add giant Hoopters to it.

Thank you. I would do that if this was a SMB2-styled project, but how it is right now I do not really like to consider that. But thanks for your suggestion :-D.

Ahh, I really like the idea of the giant beanstalk going up and by falling down you get some coins as you stated on your post. I love that Chess Castle right there so far by the Points of view on the screenshots. Really looking Forward to that Kind of Level. Of course I will make a Let's Play by myself once your SMBX Episode has been finished since I don't take Demos and I tecnically don't want to spoil the entirety of the game while playing. Of course while watching I get spoiled a lot but even then while playing the game by yourself you still will find new things that you haven't seen before and other related stuff.

"Bishoujo" is something I rarely take into my account since I mostly care about the games rather than the Story and the Overall stats like movies and such. I more care for SMBX rather than Touhou though.

Thank you for this ^^. Yes, I understand your point about not wanting to play it until full release, as I think exactly the same about any projects or games. But about the "getting spoiler'd"-part, I can tell you that all the levels in the demo ae way outdated at this point, as I changed some details in every one of them, as well as adding some new mechanigs, like bomb blocks, bridge blocks (that work similar to coin block bridges, but you only need to hit one block to activate a whole bridge of them) and other stuff. I also removed some bugs and redid all of the SML2 levels by now, so they are not just like copied versions of the original game anymore. I hope you will like it more this way :-).

Those beanstalks look fascinating. You're such a flawless graphic designer.

Oh thanks a lot for that praise. But I guess I need to learn way more to be a"flawless" GFX maker, but thanks anyways^^

O, man :mrgreen: I bit worried while you has a long time of inactivity, but now everything is fine :D

Also I sent to you via PM a fixed SMRGP musics with pure quality (this beautiful episode must have no music of "toilet"-quality!) ripped by me from original SPC files to make a bit clean-up from musics of "toilet"-quality (really, that musics are ripped from a toilet and compressed with MP3-128 which finally made poor music file!)

I also was worried that I could not get a new internet connection, but now that problem is squished like a goomba :-P.
About the music, I will gladly take your musics, but there is one big problem about the overall filesize that my project already has, mostly because of the music. At the moment my project's folder is at around 350MB, even with 128kbps music that also is edited by me to loop better and be shorter, and if I put music with 320kbps instead, it will have around 900MB, which is not acceptable for a SMBX episode, in my opinion. In the end my episode will have around 450MB of size, but with best quality music, it will be around 1,3GB which is too much. No one will download that bunch of MBs, which is the reason for my "toilet" quality music. But I still understand your point. It would be so much nicer to hear the best sound while playing. Sound quality also adds to the experience, eh ^^?

i'm so glad that you're back Seddy!

I am also glad to be back here. So, hi Darkonius :-D.

Should of commented on this way eariler.

2 levels of world six done
Does 9 complete levels while away

He is about to start on world seven, and if it is ice, I can not wait.

The next world (world 7) is, in fact, an ice world and already planned out. I hope you will like it the way it will be ^^.

I've seen that tree boss, that tree is from Bloo Kid 2. I'm positive it was from Bloo Kid 2.

Is Lowser an NPC, playable or a boss? I want it. :)

The tree boss is from a Kirby-game, but I do not know from which one. Also, Lowser will be a custom boss (but I still need to plan his phases :-P). When I can release this project as a full and completed episode, everything will be free for use, as "PROX" already said. But please do not use anything from my project until then.

[PROX]

wow I really like those fuzzies. Also teddy bears on top of beach balls... I've officially seen everything xD.

[underFlo]

wow I really like those fuzzies. Also teddy bears on top of beach balls... I've officially seen everything xD.

those teddy bears on balls stem from SML2. Actually, the level appears to be SML2-themed in general.

I really like those screens and especially the SML2 love that's all over this project! I'm excited to play the full episode.

[RudeGuy]

I really like that poster, the fuzzies and the cloud BGOs.
Very good work on everything, but I wonder how can you get past the level shown in the second to last screenshot...

[h2643]

Holy shit, I love that SML2 inspired level! Every other screen looks great as well! Glad you're still working on this

[Marina]

These new graphics look really cool, I espespecially like the chain chomps! However there are a few things that look a bit off. For one, I don't think the excessive shading with like 20 different colors for one graphic (especially the pipes) fits in with the other graphics that use more "traditional" 16-bit gfx. Also the spheric shading on these balls is a bit off, it makes them look like they're flat in the front like they're being pressed against the screen lol. Otherwise great job though, I like those SML2 graphics.

[Wohlstand]

I also was worried that I could not get a new internet connection, but now that problem is squished like a goomba .
About the music, I will gladly take your musics, but there is one big problem about the overall filesize that my project already has, mostly because of the music. At the moment my project's folder is at around 350MB, even with 128kbps music that also is edited by me to loop better and be shorter, and if I put music with 320kbps instead, it will have around 900MB, which is not acceptable for a SMBX episode, in my opinion. In the end my episode will have around 450MB of size, but with best quality music, it will be around 1,3GB which is too much. No one will download that bunch of MBs, which is the reason for my "toilet" quality music. But I still understand your point. It would be so much nicer to hear the best sound while playing. Sound quality also adds to the experience, eh ^^?

Anyway, if you wanna re-compress musics, feel free to take source WAV's which are generated by my SPC-player and cropped by me with Audacity:
http://engine.wohlnet.ru/docs/Music/SMB ... wav/SMRPG/
The good game must have everything good: graphics, musics, sounds!
If you would use LunaLUA (no matter, will you use scripts or you will keep vanilia levels+cgfx with no custom scripts), you have able to reconvert all musics into OGG format: you can make OGG file with [oggenc -q 3 "mymusic.wav"] (quality 3/10), and gotten music file will still have GOOD quality, but less size than MP3-128 which at same time has "toilet" quality. Later LunaLUA-based SMBX will be more popular, because unlike LunaDLL, LunaDLL doesn't requires "understanding": install&play, and official LunaLUA installers are provides installation of entire SMBX with everything and with installed LunaLUA. Now its a hacker's patch which fixes lots of SMBX's bugs and adds some features to it, include support of OGG, FLAC, etc. files. And also, latest version of LunaLUA (and PGE too) has modified SDL Mixer (SDL2_mixer_ext) which also adds support of true-looped musics (for OGG files only), so, you can crop your musics to have alone loop in file which you can loop without replaying of intro part. That's a small Audacity trick to add special meta-data LOOPSTART= and LOOPEND= to have working looping music file. Now we are have almost finished support of PNG sprites instead of masked gifs via LunaLUA (put npc-12.png instead of npc-12.gif+npc-12m.gif and it will work. But will be available in NEXT release of LunaLUA), which gives you ability to apply GIFs2PNG to entire episode and have to less total size to 2.

[Alagirez]

Wow the new screen shot looks good designed and the GFX Is awesome.

[reghrhre]

Well, that was unexpected by me, to stay offline for a quarter of a year xD. I still could work onto my project and even finish a whole world while being offline. One sure could say that world 6 is a "Ninja"-world since it came and go without much notice xD. And since it is the biggest world in my project, it has a rather hugs update, which comes here:

Spoiler: show

Good stuff

[Sednaiur]

Okay, it's time for the second half of the update now. It shows off the second half of world 6, as well as the worldmap of it:

Spoiler: show

Please note that the ice level visible on the screens is still from world 6, not from world 7, which I still need to start.
The good thing about world 6 is, that it can have a slightly higher difficulty compared to the other worlds, which allows me to use new kinds of stuff in the levels.
What will we see in world 6?
We will find the homelands of the nice guys, meet the Boom Guy and his little problem again, will slide onto slippery spinning platforms covered in ice, find the equivalent to the "Sky Tower" which is the "Space Tower", gigantic brambles which are inhabited by the fearing Zinger, will fight our way through a fortress, that is turned upside-down and then rightside-up again, and persue Coward and his airship on a speed vessel while dodging lots of Bullet Bills, Kametroopers, and Boomin' Betties.
Sounds like a busy day to me xD.

wow I really like those fuzzies. Also teddy bears on top of beach balls... I've officially seen everything xD.

xD Thank you. But I tell you that there is something really way more crazy comming in the future ;-)

those teddy bears on balls stem from SML2. Actually, the level appears to be SML2-themed in general.
I really like those screens and especially the SML2 love that's all over this project! I'm excited to play the full episode.

Yes, this level is from the Mario Zone of SML2. I first liked to do one more level from that, but then I thought that would be too much. Stll, there is one lonely level left, that will be from SML2 ^^.

I really like that poster, the fuzzies and the cloud BGOs.
Very good work on everything, but I wonder how can you get past the level shown in the second to last screenshot...

Thank you :-). These "Fuzzies" are in reality "Fuzzles". They are not from the Mario Universe but from the "Oddworld"-universe. Now one can guess what happens with some of the fuzzles, when Munch saves them xD.
Also, in the same level, you use ridable clouds to get through some of the sections there. It is not as hard as it looks, though.

Holy s***, I love that SML2 inspired level! Every other screen looks great as well! Glad you're still working on this :)

Thank you for your support and comment. Yes, I will work onto this until it gets done. And I even now have an estimated release date for now. I will soon update the main post, where I tell about it :-).

These new graphics look really cool, I espespecially like the chain chomps! However there are a few things that look a bit off. For one, I don't think the excessive shading with like 20 different colors for one graphic (especially the pipes) fits in with the other graphics that use more "traditional" 16-bit gfx. Also the spheric shading on these balls is a bit off, it makes them look like they're flat in the front like they're being pressed against the screen lol. Otherwise great job though, I like those SML2 graphics.

So you also dislike the shading, huh? Yes, the gumballs are the only GFX that are old compared to the rest of the level's graphics, but I now updated them a bit, which can be seen here:

Spoiler: show

But still, I am not too good when it comes to shading of gum and the like.
About the other flaw you pointed out, that is something I will not be able to change, since many stuff has different shading and I cannot shade stone as much, as I would shade metal, for example. But I think I get your point regardless. It is also nice that you like the other graphics. I do my best to keep the gameplay on par with that.

Anyway, if you wanna re-compress musics, feel free to take source WAV's which are generated by my SPC-player and cropped by me with Audacity:
http://engine.wohlnet.ru/docs/Music/SMB ... wav/SMRPG/
The good game must have everything good: graphics, musics, sounds!
If you would use LunaLUA (no matter, will you use scripts or you will keep vanilia levels+cgfx with no custom scripts), you have able to reconvert all musics into OGG format: you can make OGG file with [oggenc -q 3 "mymusic.wav"] (quality 3/10), and gotten music file will still have GOOD quality, but less size than MP3-128 which at same time has "toilet" quality. Later LunaLUA-based SMBX will be more popular, because unlike LunaDLL, LunaDLL doesn't requires "understanding": install&play, and official LunaLUA installers are provides installation of entire SMBX with everything and with installed LunaLUA. Now its a hacker's patch which fixes lots of SMBX's bugs and adds some features to it, include support of OGG, FLAC, etc. files. And also, latest version of LunaLUA (and PGE too) has modified SDL Mixer (SDL2_mixer_ext) which also adds support of true-looped musics (for OGG files only), so, you can crop your musics to have alone loop in file which you can loop without replaying of intro part. That's a small Audacity trick to add special meta-data LOOPSTART= and LOOPEND= to have working looping music file. Now we are have almost finished support of PNG sprites instead of masked gifs via LunaLUA (put npc-12.png instead of npc-12.gif+npc-12m.gif and it will work. But will be available in NEXT release of LunaLUA), which gives you ability to apply GIFs2PNG to entire episode and have to less total size to 2.

Thanks for your help and effort, but I cannot use luna.DLL nor luna.lua, since it get's blocked by my antivirus (I already made it a exception but it still gets blocked and does not work for some reason).
Otherwise I would curtainly do what you have suggested. But I will see what I can do for a better quality and sound anyways. Since I already use custom soundeffects too, I could replace some musics from the SMBX.exe, which will come in a modified verion with my project. I am sure I can do something for it. There is still some time left until the release ^^.

Good stuff

Thank you. Let's see if the gameplay will be as good for the people, as the graphics are :-P.

[Marina]

Yes those newer balls look better. And don't worry, you're not the only one who struggles with spheric shading xP

[Mable]

Damn i would like to use some of this stuff from you but i also want to play this so badly now :D

It's good to see this still being worked on also.

[Alagirez]

I really like the bramble Level, and the ice level ones. The 2nd screen has custom slopes. I'm sure you made the level with PGE. Want to see more screens.

[Wohlstand]

Thanks for your help and effort, but I cannot use luna.DLL nor luna.lua, since it get's blocked by my antivirus (I already made it a exception but it still gets blocked and does not work for some reason).
Otherwise I would curtainly do what you have suggested. But I will see what I can do for a better quality and sound anyways. Since I already use custom soundeffects too, I could replace some musics from the SMBX.exe, which will come in a modified verion with my project. I am sure I can do something for it. There is still some time left until the release ^^.

I think, that was a false alert anyway. However if you will check out the LunaLUA download page, you will found the "Vanilia+Launcher" base which has vanilia SMBX.exe as-is and additional LunaLoader.exe which loads SMBX with working LunaLUA. You can make both variants:

• vanilia format (MP3 music, GIF+GIFm CGFX) [will work on all SMBX 1.3 builts]
• PGE/LunaLUA format (OGG musics, PNG CGFX, music.ini+sounds.ini to customize SFX-es for entire episode) [will correctly work on PGE or on SMBX 1.3 with LunaLUA starts from 0.7.1]

Don't worry about second variant, I have plan to make user-friendly maintainer based on merging of LazyFixTool, PNG2GIFs and GIFs2PNG which will do not only CGFX fixing/converting, it will be a converter of entire episodes! PGE/LunaLUA <-> Vanilia format, include musics! [great thanks to the SoX audio converter tool, and.... you may convert MP3<->OGG from PGE Editor which has GUI shell over SoX: "tools"->"External tools"->"Convert audio (SoX)"]. Now you can keep Vanilia-only format before I will implement that toolset.

[Hani]

I'm so excited for this episode to be finished! I hope this episode will be featured ^_^

I want 2nd season of Sailor Moon Crystal.