The Invasion 3

Share your work-in-progress SMBX episode or browse and support others'.
ShadowStarX
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby ShadowStarX » Mon Jun 27, 2022 6:37 am

Enjl wrote:
Sun Jun 26, 2022 6:52 pm
Gonna have to be a bit of a party pooper but I'm a bit torn on the maps. It might be because of how they appear from this high up with me being able to see much more than a player would in-game, but there appears to be a certain lack of direction, and a lot of visual clutter to them.

...

Again, might be completely overblown and me reading too much into how these are presented in the screenshot, but if any of that ramble makes some remote semblance of sense to you, I hope the ideas I've touched on can help in making the maps even better.
Keep on keeping on either way!
Thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure what exactly I'll do with it but I might build off of some of this.
Regarding the Valley of Bowser, I might reconsider reshaping Wet Water Zone to have it be in the center of those islands (perhaps making World 8 have a horseshoe's shape) yes, and when it comes to the inside, I could put the castle on a central peak too, to be rather visible at least a noticeable portion of the time.
For context though I'd like to note that the Nimbus Heights airship level (marked The Invasion 4) is the penultimate level of the game, at least as of now.

And generally, had I been laical or semi-laical, I would've noted similar things, as telling which one is the normal route and which one is the secret isn't always clear and cut. (like in the case of the World 3 cave level with two exits) If somebody plays through the game without finding any secret exits, the maps will feel a bit less square-like I bet. (plus I'm personally weirded out by New Zealand esque islands, I for some reason prefer shapes that are more akin to Iceland, Ireland or Borneo, but with more bays and/or peninsulas) The addition of Switch Palaces and a second side world (namely the sky one) has also innately made branching paths more common, which would just feel super awkward on more stretched out islands than these more squareish ones. And like, while my intention wasn't to go out of my way and mimic a mix of SMW's and NSMBW's structure on a per-world level, the way the paths branch does tangentially remind me of a reshaped version of Donut Plains, in hindsight that is.

But um, placing the Valley of Bowser entrance and Bowser's Castle on central spots on the respective world maps is something I may very well do. Regarding Koopa Kingdom's original shape though: the split of the original made more sense because the first half of the world was basically SMB1 stuff and the second half of the world was used as an uphill of difficulty on the grand scheme of things. (this game's World 3 may also get a redesign map wise,

The eyecandy part: when it comes to the scenery I don't think a lot more is used than TI2 but admittedly, the elevation is much more complex, especially in the case of the desert and forest worlds. (well, the cave world also has a decent chunk of elevation but it's not that radical compared to Vanilla Dome in SMW, considering how the episode's cave world is also home to more levels than SMW's World 3)

In addition to world map remarks though, I understand if there are some concerns about the design as well, but the thing is, I, or anyone on the team really, can't go out of their way to intentionally "casualize" the levels, especially due to the fact that it'd be an oxymoron. The two primary things we kept in mind is to showcase a big chunk of easily accessible SMBX2 features (in other words: a large majority of basegame mechanics) while also providing a nice Mario experience. Levels like Pwnhammer, Painful Playland and The Suck are naturally still returning, but The Short Level for instance has been cut out. (I know you only commented on the world map, but I vaguely remember a few of your remarks from roughly one and a half years ago) Hopefully with the help of the beta testers though, the result will be satisfying.

Either way, anyone from the SMBX2 Dev Team giving feedback is more than welcome, as it'd be nice to have this game be an appropriate way to introduce people to the engine.

ShadowStarX
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby ShadowStarX » Thu Jun 30, 2022 3:33 pm

The first dungeon to have gameplay footage recorded for it!

iEnderman55
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby iEnderman55 » Wed Aug 17, 2022 7:20 am

Wow! I thnk it's very beatiful at the exit of the episodie!

ShadowStarX
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby ShadowStarX » Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:39 am

Made some changes to the world map, most notably redesigning World 3, 4, 8 and 9.
Image

KnownStranger
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby KnownStranger » Wed Nov 16, 2022 8:19 pm

I like how the worlds have many warps and red levels, making the episode absolutely nonlinear. In my opinion some places should seem less obvious; e.g. the green switch from the SMW island (I forgot its name) and the star palace from the dessert island (again). Both are in a single and bland isle. Maybe you should take as reference that little isle from the Rawest Forest(?) and that hill where it's placed the star palace(they look natural), and make those isles like if they were just decoration. By last the Subcon Archipelago has the best change because it has a phanto shape and really fits the SMB2 style.

ShadowStarX
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby ShadowStarX » Thu Nov 17, 2022 5:14 am

Twisted4932 wrote:
Wed Nov 16, 2022 8:19 pm
I like how the worlds have many warps and red levels, making the episode absolutely nonlinear. In my opinion some places should seem less obvious; e.g. the green switch from the SMW island (I forgot its name) and the star palace from the dessert island (again). Both are in a single and bland isle. Maybe you should take as reference that little isle from the Rawest Forest(?) and that hill where it's placed the star palace(they look natural), and make those isles like if they were just decoration. By last the Subcon Archipelago has the best change because it has a phanto shape and really fits the SMB2 style.
Thanks for the feedback.
Regarding the Star Palace: if the player discovers just one of them, they can check in at every single one of them and reveal their location (not unlock their path of course), making that forced obscurity much less useful. (also I just dislike overly hidden stuff)

Also the episode isn't as non-linear as it may seem, the secretless path is pretty straightforward and almost all levels make you go forward. (there are like two exceptions which do not make you progress... one of them gives you the Yellow Switch Palace, the other one gives you a star)

erkyp3rky
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby erkyp3rky » Sun Mar 26, 2023 12:37 am

not sure if im being a necro here but is this still being worked on? looks really promising and has a great world map.

ShadowStarX
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby ShadowStarX » Mon Jul 10, 2023 11:41 am

Here is something to take a look at from World 9... It's a water level deep beneath Bowser's Valley, full of Fishbones and Firebars!

Image
erkyp3rky wrote:
Sun Mar 26, 2023 12:37 am
not sure if im being a necro here but is this still being worked on? looks really promising and has a great world map.
Late response, but yes, it's still being worked on.

Fangamestalgia
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby Fangamestalgia » Sat Nov 04, 2023 10:34 pm

Questions:
1) Are there other ‘The Invasion 3’?
2) Is this subforum viewforum.php?f=82, about this episode here?
3) Do you have a download link?
4) If there are other ‘The Invasio 3’, do they have a download link?
5) When will The Invasion 3 be released?

Thanks!

Sednaiur
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby Sednaiur » Mon Nov 06, 2023 5:19 am

Fangamestalgia wrote:
Sat Nov 04, 2023 10:34 pm
Questions:
2) Is this subforum viewforum.php?f=82, about this episode here?
No, that subforum was for another, unrelated and now cancelled version of The Invasion 3 with the subtitle "Shadowstar". The project was led by Valtteri and I was one of the designers for some of its levels. It had the purpose to introduce updated design of existing levels, aswell as to have a more difficult "shadow"-version of each level that had an SMB3-exit star at the end.

You can say that this project might be better than the previous Invasion 3-project, as that one lacked any real new features that SMBX2 introduced to us, unlike this one. :-)

ShadowStarX
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby ShadowStarX » Tue Dec 19, 2023 5:43 pm

Fangamestalgia wrote:
Sat Nov 04, 2023 10:34 pm
Questions:
1) Are there other ‘The Invasion 3’?
2) Is this subforum viewforum.php?f=82, about this episode here?
3) Do you have a download link?
4) If there are other ‘The Invasio 3’, do they have a download link?
5) When will The Invasion 3 be released?

Thanks!
Sorry for the late reply, but.

1. I don't know of a finished one, there might be other WIP ones but this one seems to have the most replies to it.
2. No, Sednaiur explained the details regarding that. Most of the talk regarding this TI3 is done on Discord.
3. I believe the thread has a link to many World 1 and World 2 levels in a demo.

5. No release date given, but no earlier than Q3 2024. (a lot of the remaining unmade levels are waiting for Beta 5)

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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby Just_Thomas » Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:18 am

ShadowStarX wrote:
Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:20 pm
Have you upgraded your project already to beta 5?

And just out of curiosity, did you actually create some kind of plan for how the elements (NPCs in particular) would be distributed across the levels, or how the difficulty would be regulated across the project (e.g. World 2 would normally supposed to be easier than World 8 despite its low difficulty - at least you said so in your entry post).
It goes without saying that the level of difficulty cannot increase perfectly, as there are countless elements that can be influenced. You don't seem to want to use the timer, probably because the predecessor didn't either. Otherwise, some elements are easier for the player to learn than others and some enemies are harder to defeat than others (10 Goombas vs. 10 Chucks, for example).
If something feels too easy or difficult, you can always do something about the enemy npcs or remove or add a few power-ups. If you were still missing a few levels, would you have any guidelines for the designers so that this could be integrated into the overall package?
Example: Level is mostly horizontal - max up to 2 screens vertical, main element: Twister, level would be up to 12 screens (horizontal) and should use 2 checkpoints, powerups would be rare and hidden in turnblocks or in obvious ?-Blocks, but tricky to reach. Something like that, I mean.

ShadowStarX
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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby ShadowStarX » Thu Feb 08, 2024 9:03 am

Just_Thomas wrote:
Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:18 am
ShadowStarX wrote:
Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:20 pm
Have you upgraded your project already to beta 5?

And just out of curiosity, did you actually create some kind of plan for how the elements (NPCs in particular) would be distributed across the levels, or how the difficulty would be regulated across the project (e.g. World 2 would normally supposed to be easier than World 8 despite its low difficulty - at least you said so in your entry post).
I really just brainstormed which NPCs would fit which world(s) by theme and/or difficulty.
Also the project has mostly been updated to Beta 5, but only for the beta testers. (the public demo for W1&2 should still function fine) The piranha plants have been replaced, some of the redundant NPCs have also been removed, and so on. The levels are designed by feel and difficulty progression.

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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby Just_Thomas » Thu Feb 08, 2024 2:42 pm

Awesome, It reads as if you have everything under control.

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Re: The Invasion 3

Postby Justin Bieber Fan » Sun Feb 11, 2024 11:21 pm

This episode looks really fine, i love it, i hope it releases this year :(


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