Super Mario & the 8 Crystal Stars

[Suckerman7 GM]

Hello everyone! And welcome to Super Mario & the 8 Crystal Stars! This project is a revival to Super Mario & the 7 Grand Stars, a project I've worked on 2 years ago and cancelled due to lack of moral and business. But now, I'm determined to finish this in May 2019, (For personal reasons) but I can't do it alone, so I'm looking for people that can help me in levels, graphics etc. Anyways, let's move on to the project's information!


GENERAL INFORMATION:

- 9 worlds that have average of 10-12 levels in general, (World 1-7 have secret sections that have 3-4 levels each) with a total of 108 levels planned!
- There will be world maps representing the worlds, but they will be accessed from a main hub.
- 4 playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool!
- Bosses will be from Bowser's elite minions such as King Bob-omb and King Boo!
- Planned bonus content that will be added in future!


WORLDS:

Spoiler: show

- World 1: Green Grasslands (2/10)
- World 2: ??? (Desert World)
- World 3: ??? (Beach/Underwater World)
- World 4: ??? (Snow/Mountain World)
- World 5: ??? (Forest/Ghost House World)
- World 6: ??? (Sky World)
- World 7: ??? (Lava/Badlands World)
- World 8: ??? (City/Metropolis World)
- World 9: The Star Haven

TEAM:


PROJECT LEADER:
- Suckerman7 GM

LEVEL DESIGNERS:
- Suckerman7 GM
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WORLDMAP DESIGNERS:
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BETA-TESTERS:
- PopYoshi
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LOGO DESIGNER:
- goSciu

GFX USED FROM:
- Squishy Rex's CGFX Pack
- Sednaiur's Expanded GFX Pack
- PROX's GFX Pack
- Revamped Mario Bros v2 GFX
- DM's GFX Pack v. 2.0

Also thanks to Redigit and SMBX team to make this awesome game and Nintendo for creating Mario and its content!!!


LEVEL CRITERIA:

Spoiler: show

- Your level should have at least one main section and 2 secret sections. (You can put one of the secret stars in the main section, if you want.)
- If you make a level with a boss, there will be 2 secret stars and a star dropped by the boss.
- If you want to make challenges to acquire stars, (Such as red coins or kill all enemies) don't make them too hard or too easy. Try to put the balance.
- One of the levels in each world will have secret exits which will lead to secret stages of that world. You can make it like Key exits or goal pole exits from SMW.
- You can work with another level designer if you're making a big level. (Or a castle level with a boss.) (Up to 2 people can work together in each level.)

SCREENSHOTS:

Spoiler: show

DOWNLOAD:

No download yet, World 1 will be included in the 1st demo. Stay tuned!

Show some support by adding this into your signature:

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[img]https://i.imgur.com/Ff2vxq2.png[/img]

[Emral]

Might wanna read this. Regarding screenshots and the such. http://www.smbxgame.com/forums/v ... c9bd94d521

[Suckerman7 GM]

Might wanna read this. Regarding screenshots and the such. http://www.smbxgame.com/forums/v ... c9bd94d521

Thanks. Anyways, I'll change the signature too then.

[FirestarPlays]

You should use Imgur for your screenshots. PostImage screens eventually expire :/

[electro-kun]

Yep, Imgur is much better than PostImage.

[Suckerman7 GM]

All right everyone! I'm looking for level designers, beta testers and worldmap designers!

You can reply this thread to sign up for a place. Right now, there are 5 empty slots for level designers but I'll expand it up to 10 maximum. (No more) But I can only hire 6 beta-testers and 3 worldmap designers, so think about what you want to do.

Right now, I'll make 6 levels in World 1 and there are 4 levels unclaimed. (If you want to make an unclaimed level, PM me so I'll know.) I'm posting the unclaimed levels right now:

1-5: (It's going to be an overworld stage.)
1-6: (It's going to be an athletic stage.)
1-S2: (It's going to be an underground level with a giant cave area to be explored with secret stars located in mini-sections which can be accessed by pipes.)
1-S3: (It's going to be an overworld level, with Goomboss being the boss of the stage.)

[Emral]

Might wanna read this. Regarding screenshots and the such. http://www.smbxgame.com/forums/v ... c9bd94d521

Thanks. Anyways, I'll change the signature too then.

Rule 3 is why I made my last post btw, but you seem to have skipped that one when reading it.

You must have at least the same amount of screenshots as the amount of worlds you say your project is going to have. If you want your episode to have 10 worlds, you should have at least 10 screenshots. If you're making a hub episode, you must have at least 20% of the levels you say your project will have in screenshots. This means if you have a 50-level hub episode, you need at least 10 screenshots.

As well as Rule 4:

You can post multiple screenshots that are clearly from the same area of the same level, but only one of these will count toward the amount of screenshots you need. This doesn't always look good from a thread presentation standpoint, so you may just want to stay away from doing this entirely.

They're put in place to ensure that a sizeable amount of effort was put into a project before it is posted, to lessen the chances of people posting projects and getting tired of them shortly after.

[PopYoshi]

I'd like to be a beta tester, firstly because I want to help in the project and I'm interested (I could be a designer but I'm busy with my project ) and because I want to see how good are your level designing skills (I'm not going to count the level you sent me a week ago)

[Suckerman7 GM]

Might wanna read this. Regarding screenshots and the such. http://www.smbxgame.com/forums/v ... c9bd94d521

Thanks. Anyways, I'll change the signature too then.

Rule 3 is why I made my last post btw, but you seem to have skipped that one when reading it.

You must have at least the same amount of screenshots as the amount of worlds you say your project is going to have. If you want your episode to have 10 worlds, you should have at least 10 screenshots. If you're making a hub episode, you must have at least 20% of the levels you say your project will have in screenshots. This means if you have a 50-level hub episode, you need at least 10 screenshots.

As well as Rule 4:

You can post multiple screenshots that are clearly from the same area of the same level, but only one of these will count toward the amount of screenshots you need. This doesn't always look good from a thread presentation standpoint, so you may just want to stay away from doing this entirely.

They're put in place to ensure that a sizeable amount of effort was put into a project before it is posted, to lessen the chances of people posting projects and getting tired of them shortly after.

I have read that thread. But right now, only 2 levels are completed and I simply can't post 4 screenshots of each one. I can post 2 screenshots per level, but it will take some time. Please don't think I ignored your post.

I'd like to be a beta tester, firstly because I want to help in the project and I'm interested (I could be a designer but I'm busy with my project ) and because I want to see how good are your level designing skills (I'm not going to count the level you sent me a week ago)

Thanks for the response, bro! I know you have a project, so it's good to be a beta-tester. Once I finish 6 levels of mine, I'll send a beta to everyone. And don't worry, my levels won't be as bad as the one I sent to you. Since I'm going to make World 1, they'll be a little bit short and I have given clues about the secret stars, but it's because I don't want the first stages to be that difficult. I'm currently working on 3rd level, so by the end of weekend or next weekend, I can send the beta, I hope.

[Luna]

You need more screenshots or an admin or a mod will lock your topic.That one you gave us looks pretty good,even though i think a SMB3 Recolour would be a little bit better (The SMW one works,a SMB3 one would be even better).

[Cedur]

With only 2 levels complete, you should have wait a bit more before announcing your project?

[Suckerman7 GM]

You need more screenshots or an admin or a mod will lock your topic.That one you gave us looks pretty good,even though i think a SMB3 Recolour would be a little bit better (The SMW one works,a SMB3 one would be even better).

I've posted 2 more screenshots right now, and I think the current one is better right now. Until someone decides to make a better one and release it for this, maybe I can change the graphics.

With only 2 levels complete, you should have wait a bit more before announcing your project?

Well, this project has a special place in my heart. I want to finish this until May 2019, and I can't do it alone. By making the thread and releasing the unclaimed levels, I can interest you guys for designing nice levels. I want this project to be a great one. If you're interested with level designing, I can hire you.

[Cedur]

In order to promote your project plan, you could also join the official SMBX server (accessable through the link on top), and there's also a dedicated SMBX Projects server.

Also I'll check out any demo if I have time, I've got a few ongoing betatesting jobs already

[Emral]

Well, this project has a special place in my heart. I want to finish this until May 2019, and I can't do it alone. By making the thread and releasing the unclaimed levels, I can interest you guys for designing nice levels. I want this project to be a great one. If you're interested with level designing, I can hire you.

You can PM people or DM them on discord and form a team with them. Whether or not your project has a special place in your heart doesn't change the fact that certain requirements have to be met for a project thread, which are set in place to ensure that some amount of time and effort already went into the project.
Besides, project threads are horrendous stress-machines. I wouldn't be surprised if you'll soon find yourself under a lot of pressure trying to maintain consistent progress updates. It can be really demotivating from my experience. I think by not having a thread until your project is mostly complete, you'd be doing yourself a favour.

I have some questions though which you REALLY need to answer for yourself at the start of development though:
How planned out is the project? I doubt a rough outline for a story that only creeps up once per world and a handful of world themes are capable of securing a special place in one's heart, so it's got to be more, however...
Do you have plans for every level in the game? This'd be the next step. I suggest getting a spreadsheet of what levels you want, where you want them and what you intend to happen in them. It'll let you and your team keep an overview over how far you are, where you can cut content if necessary and who currently has what claimed.
Do you know how many levels you can realistically complete in a given amount of time? This is particularly important when working with deadlines. What me and my team have done for our current project (no thread, sorry) is start out with only the levels which ABSOLUTELY NEEDED to be in the game in order for the structure to work, and then we gradually added more and more as more ideas came to us, while keeping our abilities and speed in mind. Figure out what's important, work on the important levels first, work on the rest later. That way you can cut all the fat you haven't gotten to yet if you run behind schedule.
Do you have plans for what happens if a team member is slower than you thought they would be or delivers a product not up to the project's quality standards? Teams that aren't well-established tend to run into this a lot. Especially during collabs and projects with a lot of levels, this can hit hard. Not just because someone might be designing something apart from the initial vision of the project, alienating you from your creation, but also because everyone's abilities are steadily improving and what one might've considered a good level 6 months ago is now the worst level in the episode and might aswell be cut.
How do you plan on communicating with your team? My advice: Get a discord server for communication, get a github repository so everyone is always up to date and can play each other's levels, get a google sheets spreadsheet where the entire project is documented. Don't have any secrets in front of your team and develop ideas together.

[Eri7]

Well, this project has a special place in my heart. I want to finish this until May 2019, and I can't do it alone. By making the thread and releasing the unclaimed levels, I can interest you guys for designing nice levels. I want this project to be a great one. If you're interested with level designing, I can hire you.

You can PM people or DM them on discord and form a team with them. Whether or not your project has a special place in your heart doesn't change the fact that certain requirements have to be met for a project thread, which are set in place to ensure that some amount of time and effort already went into the project.
Besides, project threads are horrendous stress-machines. I wouldn't be surprised if you'll soon find yourself under a lot of pressure trying to maintain consistent progress updates. It can be really demotivating from my experience. I think by not having a thread until your project is mostly complete, you'd be doing yourself a favour.

I have some questions though which you REALLY need to answer for yourself at the start of development though:
How planned out is the project? I doubt a rough outline for a story that only creeps up once per world and a handful of world themes are capable of securing a special place in one's heart, so it's got to be more, however...
Do you have plans for every level in the game? This'd be the next step. I suggest getting a spreadsheet of what levels you want, where you want them and what you intend to happen in them. It'll let you and your team keep an overview over how far you are, where you can cut content if necessary and who currently has what claimed.
Do you know how many levels you can realistically complete in a given amount of time? This is particularly important when working with deadlines. What me and my team have done for our current project (no thread, sorry) is start out with only the levels which ABSOLUTELY NEEDED to be in the game in order for the structure to work, and then we gradually added more and more as more ideas came to us, while keeping our abilities and speed in mind. Figure out what's important, work on the important levels first, work on the rest later. That way you can cut all the fat you haven't gotten to yet if you run behind schedule.
Do you have plans for what happens if a team member is slower than you thought they would be or delivers a product not up to the project's quality standards? Teams that aren't well-established tend to run into this a lot. Especially during collabs and projects with a lot of levels, this can hit hard. Not just because someone might be designing something apart from the initial vision of the project, alienating you from your creation, but also because everyone's abilities are steadily improving and what one might've considered a good level 6 months ago is now the worst level in the episode and might aswell be cut.
How do you plan on communicating with your team? My advice: Get a discord server for communication, get a github repository so everyone is always up to date and can play each other's levels, get a google sheets spreadsheet where the entire project is documented. Don't have any secrets in front of your team and develop ideas together.

Hey Enjl these are very nice questions , I think that every project creator should ask himself these questions including me.

[PixelPest]

I have read that thread. But right now, only 2 levels are completed and I simply can't post 4 screenshots of each one. I can post 2 screenshots per level, but it will take some time. Please don't think I ignored your post.

I'm going to lock this until you PM a staff member with more proof of progress coherent with the rules.

You're also expecting to hire up to 19 more people to help you with the project...might want to consider whether that is reasonable or not