Shadow Star: Secrets of the Realm (UPDATES)

[silent_]

Credit to Natsu for the logo.

Yup, Kep is back yet again to present his miserable sixth attempt of constructing a project. However, I have came to a fair conclusion that the reason I've been cancelling all of these is because I'm forcing myself to create too much levels. Now I am here to present a short amount aiming at eleven, plus a hub, and a custom intro and outro. I'm aiming myself for the best, and hopefully I can finally become successful and perhaps well-known around the community.

Plot
Mario lied down in the sun, getting a glimpse of the sunshine, until all of a sudden everything went black. He looked around, glanced at himself, and he was black, too. Mario figured he was dreaming, so he pinched himself. However, he never woke up. Abruptly, an apparition appeared before his eyes in actual color. "Go back Mario... Go back in time... Stop this madness..."
Mario panicked, when he wondered where the time machine was. He traveled back to July first, 2009 (when SMBX first started) and then had to trial through eleven levels. What would happen after beating them?

Hub/Intro/Outro/Additional Features
As mentioned beforehand, the Hub is included in this game, however much different than your average. Eleven doors await in the realm; though, Mario can't just enter them like a simple human being. The power of the Shadow Stars unlock new trials; each trial is focused on top-quality, with at least three gimmicks and 20+ events and 15+ layers.
Regarding the intro, it is simply Mario and friends strolling across a shadow land.
The outro has the same conceptual, despite everything being light, because Mario saved the shadow world from peril.
Additional features will remain unknown for you guys until the game is released!

Music Uses
I am aiming to use all MP3 soundtracks never heard or seen before in SMBX, and I will list what I'm using so far below with their respectable authors!
Substantial Steppe's theme is Driftwood Galaxy by Bowiez. Listen to it here:

Spoiler: show

Demo(s)
There will be no demos, but some of the individual levels developed for this project will be released in the Levels forum.

Levels
NOTE: Levels in green are completed, levels in blue are under construction, and levels with red mean they haven't been started yet.

Level 1 - Substantial Steppe - A simplistic level with immense moving mushrooms, red coins that activate triggers, stars and all of your average enemies with a variation of background objects. ADDITIONAL NOTES: Bear in mind everything used in this level was at least recolored by me. The difficulty level is 2.1.

Level 2 - Seasonal Sensation - A sky that changes seasons gradually. Each season will have a different gimmick - summer with a lot of doughnut blocks, spring with platforming and Koopas, winter with moving blocks, and in fall/autumn you're in a tree trunk. ADDITIONAL NOTES: Yet again, everything was recolored by me. Respectable credit for the original things will be featured at some point. The difficulty level is 3.3.

Level 3 - Alarming Anchorage - A dock awaits for you to discover its secrets. You will find many anchors, and wooden platforms. Recent invaders have been spotted storming around the boundaries of certain islands. ADDITIONAL NOTES: Still, everything was recolored by me The difficulty level is 4.0.

Level 4 - Adventurous Antre ("Antre" is frankly a word and it means "grotto" or "cavern") A gloomy grotto lies deep into the underground. Many spikes are prepared to kill you and all who pass. Beware. ADDITIONAL NOTES: No surprise; everything was recolored by me. The difficultly level is 5.5.

Level 5 - Glistening Glacier - *description unavailable*

Level 6 - Tricky Tropical Track - *description unavailable*

Level 7 - Perilous Peak Pathway - *description unavailable*

Screenshots

Spoiler: show

Credits
INSPIRATION: Chad's Super Mario Star Expedition.
GFX DESIGN: Bloodelf300, Legend-Tony, Quill, Chad, Elbow, and Kyo so far. If I missed anyone else, let me know since I'm not a "professional graphic recaller".
And bear in mind everything made in this game will be a hundred percent recolored by me. I kindly ask you to absolutely NOT use any GFX seen in this episode because it's taking me three days a piece to recolor everything for an individual level. Not even with my permission would I appreciate someone using such. Thanks for understanding.

Release Date Prediction
December 2014 or January 2015

Conclusively, I'd like to say thanks to all who took their time to read this thread and hope you enjoyed the screenshots! Constructive criticism and questions are always appreciated.

[Darkonius Mavakar]

i don't quite like the green effect... but the level design looks promising

[silent_]

i don't quite like the green effect... but the level design looks promising

Hmm... since it's a grassland, unfortunately I can't do much about that but I appreciate the feedback; but in general why particularly don't you like the green effect? I see it fitting quite well, being honest.

[zlaker]

i don't quite like the green effect... but the level design looks promising

Hmm... since it's a grassland, unfortunately I can't do much about that but I appreciate the feedback; but in general why particularly don't you like the green effect? I see it fitting quite well, being honest.

I'm agree with Darkonius. Even though it's a green grassland level doesn't mean it it needs the green effect. But the design looks good though. Just fix that green effect and this episode is good to go.
Meow..

[silent_]

i don't quite like the green effect... but the level design looks promising

Hmm... since it's a grassland, unfortunately I can't do much about that but I appreciate the feedback; but in general why particularly don't you like the green effect? I see it fitting quite well, being honest.

I'm agree with Darkonius. Even though it's a green grassland level doesn't mean it it needs the green effect. But the design looks good though. Just fix that green effect and this episode is good to go.
Meow..

I'm really shocked that of all things users are criticizing this, because well, it took me three whole days to recolor these so yeah, maybe after the episode gets released and I have the patience I could, but for a long time it will just have to stay how it is.
Thank you for your comments.

[Darkonius Mavakar]

i don't quite like the green effect... but the level design looks promising

Hmm... since it's a grassland, unfortunately I can't do much about that but I appreciate the feedback; but in general why particularly don't you like the green effect? I see it fitting quite well, being honest.

well, the green effect would fit better in swamps

[FanofSMBX]

Hold on a minute what if player took Kuribo Shoe or Yoshi to Substantial Steppe? It would clash with green stuff!

[Fuyu]

I like the fact one of my logos is already being used and for such project.

Don't take it too personal Kep, but in my opinion that effect should be used maybe on poisonous environments such as swamps or pipelines like on DKC, but I have to say it's rather original. Going with the level design it looks rather well, it looks fun to play too. Judging by the screens it seems you're using the P-Blocks gimmick from SMSE, good to see it has not been forgotten yet. Keep up the good work.

[silent_]

Hold on a minute what if player took Kuribo Shoe or Yoshi to Substantial Steppe? It would clash with green stuff!

Let me just say, a Yoshi or Kuribo Shoe won't be featured in this game, and that's enough of that rant. They're cheap, I believe.

I like the fact one of my logos is already being used and for such project.

Don't take it too personal Kep, but in my opinion that effect should be used maybe on poisonous environments such as swamps or pipelines like on DKC, but I have to say it's rather original. Going with the level design it looks rather well, it looks fun to play too. Judging by the screens it seems you're using the P-Blocks gimmick from SMSE, good to see it has not been forgotten yet. Keep up the good work.

Yeah, I must gratefully remark that the logo you applied to me was very helpful, I appreciate your work. Regarding the feedback, thanks, and I'll put your mentions in my thoughts. The P-Blocks haven't been used for a long time, and I just noticed that, too.

[Magician]

I mainly like the green effect because it feels satirical. So many people start out with green, and you're blatantly saturating everything with green. It looks like you're letting people in on the joke. I don't know if that's what it's meant to convey, but I'd argue that you should keep it for the humour value.
Nonetheless it would be better if the foreground&npcs were either a lighter or darker green to convey their importance as objects and to offer a contrast to the background. One of my pet peeves with common SMBX design is how enemies tend to camouflage with the background in certain stylized levels, and I can see that probably happening in a few instances with this level.

[silent_]

I mainly like the green effect because it feels satirical. So many people start out with green, and you're blatantly saturating everything with green. It looks like you're letting people in on the joke. I don't know if that's what it's meant to convey, but I'd argue that you should keep it for the humour value.
Nonetheless it would be better if the foreground&npcs were either a lighter or darker green to convey their importance as objects and to offer a contrast to the background. One of my pet peeves with common SMBX design is how enemies tend to camouflage with the background in certain stylized levels, and I can see that probably happening in a few instances with this level.

Thanks for your constructive feedback Magician, I really didn't intend for the green effect to feel satirical, but maybe you could apply a point.
The foreground and NPCs are frankly as light as they can get with my certain palette I used, but I could darken them in another version/update even though it would consume a lot of time. However, I had no issue with camouflaged NPCs since once you start the level no one much pays attention to the background as it is.

[Bomber57]

I suppose the level design looks fine in itself, but I find the graphics of the level too distracting. I feel as if I need to strain my eyes to distinguish things because of the monochrome shade pasted on every single object. It is a pain to look at and doesn't look all that good either.

[Magician]

When there's little to no contrast between objects you can interact with and objects that you can't, it's objectively bad. That's part of where I'm going with it. I can't tell you how many times I've jumped through a BGO thinking it was a solid object or a platform, or hit a wall thinking that it was a background. It's a conveyance issue, and it's not an unavoidable happenstance. Most people just don't seem to carefully work out that kind of stuff when designing levels.

I'll agree that for the most part it doesn't look like it'll be a problem in your level. Still, it's something you should take into consideration when designing levels nonetheless. If it's not a valid criticism, then I hope at least that you take it as general advice.

Also, Mario and Luigi have different outlines for some reason. It looks strange to me, and it looks like something a lot more easily fixed to match with the other sprites that appear in the level.

[silent_]

I suppose the level design looks fine in itself, but I find the graphics of the level too distracting. I feel as if I need to strain my eyes to distinguish things because of the monochrome shade pasted on every single object. It is a pain to look at and doesn't look all that good either.

I could see your point; however, I really don't know how I could fix this either.

When there's little to no contrast between objects you can interact with and objects that you can't, it's objectively bad. That's part of where I'm going with it. I can't tell you how many times I've jumped through a BGO thinking it was a solid object or a platform, or hit a wall thinking that it was a background. It's a conveyance issue, and it's not an unavoidable happenstance. Most people just don't seem to carefully work out that kind of stuff when designing levels.

I'll agree that for the most part it doesn't look like it'll be a problem in your level. Still, it's something you should take into consideration when designing levels nonetheless. If it's not a valid criticism, then I hope at least that you take it as general advice.

Also, Mario and Luigi have different outlines for some reason. It looks strange to me, and it looks like something a lot more easily fixed to match with the other sprites that appear in the level.

When designing levels, I typically don't acknowledge the graphical issues because I always think that others will not criticize them. I noticed every single thing that you pointed out here, but never simply fixed them. Though, I have no way to fix Mario and Luigi's outline because of the fact I'd have to put in on 100% tolerance and then 0% tolerance for the black part. I've experimented, and that was the only way around it, unfortunately. The outline just doesn't want to cooperate with the paint bucket.

[SuperMario7]

This looks good so far. The green effect looks kinda cool to me, but I just hope the whole game isn't gonna look like that. Anyways, keep up the good work, Kep. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this.

[silent_]

This looks good so far. The green effect looks kinda cool to me, but I just hope the whole game isn't gonna look like that. Anyways, keep up the good work, Kep. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this.

Not to let you down about this project, but I plan to have every level have some sort of effect, like a desert orange/yellow, ice blue/white, etc.

---

UPDATE BUMP: I am still recoloring everything in Disconcerting Desolation (and I'm almost done), so by the end of the day I plan to have some new screens up for it!

[silent_]

PROGRESS BUMP: The beginning screen of Disconcerting Desolation is up! Enjoy!

Spoiler: show

Additionally, I have determined the description for Adventurous Antre and founded a new level name for the sixth one. See those in the original thread.

[FanofSMBX]

Do you have to recolor each graphic or is there some sort of in-game filter?

[Emral]

This might just be the best use of my rocky-grass-ish tileset in conjunction with darkchao's and my background yet. I like it.

[Darkonius Mavakar]

PROGRESS BUMP: The beginning screen of Disconcerting Desolation is up! Enjoy!

Spoiler: show

Additionally, I have determined the description for Adventurous Antre and founded a new level name for the sixth one. See those in the original thread.

that's the sexyest use of that tileset