Well, after playing with the editor a bit, I decided to start properly on my project! It's a work-in-progress on an insane level ; even the title will be subject to change varying on how things go (notably, wanted to name the project 'Super Mario Wave' but since I may relace the player characters, decided not to for now). But well, since I finally decided on some things and begun to assemble ressources, I'll go on and post about it.
The story so far...
King Bowser has still not conquered the Mushroom Kingdom despite his best efforts, a fact that makes him unhappy as one might guess. Then one day, as he pondered ways to get the upper hand over his eternal rival, Mario, a strange star fell from the skies, bringing with it strange apparitions and great visions to his Magikoopas. Guessing that the star hold great power, Bowser set out to make it (and its powers) his.
Meanwhile, in the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach received a vision from the strange star too. Knowing that a star with sufficient power for every single magic-using person on the planet to sense its arrival must be an artifact of great power, she depart alongside with her most truster retainer as well as the Mario bros to claim the star, hoping to pre-empt the Koopas before they can claim it and use it to lay siege on her kingdom.
Princess Peach believe the star to be an ill portent for the future. She doesn't know how right she is...
The concept...
The game is primarily SMW-based but with a more open structure ; the player unlock the final world early but unless one has collected all of the stars, which lies at the end of each world, one can't access the final stages. Thus, unlike most games, the worlds can be played in mostly any order outside of the 'intro' worlds and the final world.
Planned elements...
I'm aiming to put in as much custom stuff as possible. Some of it will be simply graphics, other elements (like bosses) will be pure custom. Varying on how many elements are hardcoded, more or less stuff will be custom (generally, any edits that are impossible to do without graphical glitches will be avoided).
In terms of the level content, I plan for at least 8 worlds of 5-10 stages each, with the exact number varying. I will try to inject story into the game but as I am aware that cutscene repetition might be annoying and a Mario-style game is usually difficult to make into a full story-driven affair, I plan for most of the plot to come in a non-intrusive 'show don't tell' manner. Basically, something that those who care will appreciate but that those who just want to get to the action won't be annoyed by.
As for the ressources I've been working on...
I've been working on a castle gfx to be implemented into the game. I don't know how it will turn out (or if my idea is just crazy) but well, here is a mock-up using the built-in world map tileset.
