Mario and the Crystal Stars (Semi-Dead Project Please Read)

[Metrovania]

Well this is a post I've dreaded making for the past 2-3 months. When I started out this project, I had reasonably modest expectations for what I'd be able to get done, and in how much time it would take to complete. Here we are nearly 9 months later, and while I have "stuff" to show for my time and effort, it's not nearly as much as I thought I would have. Frankly I'm actually a bit disappointed in how little I have finished related to this campaign, at least relative to the massive chunk of time it took to get here. Of course I wasn't working endlessly on Mario and the Crystal Stars. I have had several other ideas for different projects (both in and out of SMBX2 which has been my main problem). At the end of the day my motivation for this project had all but vanished MONTHS ago and I've been deluding myself into thinking I'll ever be able to get the thing out. That and the fact it's changed so much since the start, it can hardly be recognized as the project I set out to make. All this and more is the reason I've decided to... cancel Mario and the Crystal Stars. I honestly am incredibly disappointed in myself but know I need to just move on. I'd rather simply admit I don't have the motivation to work on this thing than end up stringing anyone who cares along for months.

That being said, I still am here sitting on a few levels which I consider to be some of my best work. In an effort to not let these go to waste I'll be releasing some of them onto the forum soon. Think of these as "serials" more than episodes. There might not even be a story conclusion. I'm simply going to release what I feel confident in releasing and call it a day. Sorry to anyone whom I've disappointed with this announcement (let's be honest 3-5 people even know about this thing). I hope you all can at least enjoy what I do put out. In the future I will not announce projects so early into development like I did this one to avoid this exact scenario.

Thank you for your time.

[Suckerman7 GM]

Haha, funny thing I once had a project with the same name about 3 years ago. (But of course it was cancelled in 2-3 weeks, so I have changed the name and progressed a lot since then as of 8-9 months)

Anyway, I'd love to see how you will come up with your own ideas.

[Metrovania]

Haha, funny thing I once had a project with the same name about 3 years ago. (But of course it was cancelled in 2-3 weeks, so I have changed the name and progressed a lot since then as of 8-9 months)

Anyway, I'd love to see how you will come up with your own ideas.

Hah that's pretty strange. The name of the campaign/mcguffin was a spur of the moment Idea, so I don't think I could've seen your project and copied it even subconsciously. (not that I'm saying your accusing me). In terms of ideas, one of the main aspects of this campaign that I'm fond of the the essentially complete lack of traditional Mario level themes. I try to stay away from stuff like Greengrass, Desert, Beach, etc. Right now I've got stuff like Ice Tower, Quarry, Underwater Research Station, Metal Forest, etc.

[Suckerman7 GM]

Haha, funny thing I once had a project with the same name about 3 years ago. (But of course it was cancelled in 2-3 weeks, so I have changed the name and progressed a lot since then as of 8-9 months)

Anyway, I'd love to see how you will come up with your own ideas.

Hah that's pretty strange. The name of the campaign/mcguffin was a spur of the moment Idea, so I don't think I could've seen your project and copied it even subconsciously. (not that I'm saying your accusing me). In terms of ideas, one of the main aspects of this campaign that I'm fond of the the essentially complete lack of traditional Mario level themes. I try to stay away from stuff like Greengrass, Desert, Beach, etc. Right now I've got stuff like Ice Tower, Quarry, Underwater Research Station, Metal Forest, etc.

No no, don't get the wrong idea. I just saw the name and I thought to myself, I used to have a project named like that but then, I don't think anything like you copied me or something.

Also, I like the ideas that you're thinking outside the box than usual. Looking forward to see more.

[Metrovania]

Lol it's fine. Anyway thanks for the feedback!

[Flick smh]

from the gifs I can see that it looks really well made, plenty of custom graphics, it looks really cool and I can't wait to see more updates because it looks like it would be really fun to play

[Metrovania]

from the gifs I can see that it looks really well made, plenty of custom graphics, it looks really cool and I can't wait to see more updates because it looks like it would be really fun to play

Sorry for the late reply. I've been working quite a bit on it so thanks for the compliment! I have to admit the style of campaign I've chosen (that being few but very "dense" levels) can be extremely exhausting lol.

[georgespezi12]

visual glitch

Added in 24 seconds:
some of the snow fill is in front of the trees

[Metrovania]

visual glitch

Added in 24 seconds:
some of the snow fill is in front of the trees

Ah.... Yeah I've been meaning to fix that for a while but forgot I guess? The reason is, that's where Mario is "stored" during the 3-4 seconds he's not seen in the level. The background's priority was set high before I added the tree layer, meaning I didn't know it would overlap it. It'll be fixed in the full release, but thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[georgespezi12]

like the boss, but the extended tracks in the boreal spire level use up a lot of space even as .ogg files. looping oggs use less space. That boss uses a lot of layers, events, npcs and bgos in such a creative manner.

[georgespezi12]

Issues I noticed:
Snow fill in front of trees
theif misspelling
You can stomp on the first frozen toad
there is a blue switch block which can be activated by simply exploding the bob-omb close to it.