Bowser's Dark Plan Episode v4.0 Demo 4.1.2 Released! [Semi-Active]

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 4:55 am

Image made by Squishy Rex

Here's the backstory of the episode:
In the days of countless battles with the plumbers, An exhausted defeated Koopa King, tired of the same scenario each time, decides to give an era of temporal peace across the Mushroom Kingdom. However, a rumor, of a archaic device said to rejuvenate those exhausted from battle, left behind as a relic from an ancient civilization lost to time. Upon hearing this sent a small group of minions to scour the unmarked lands in search of this device and bring it what they find. They did not disappoint, in just a few weeks they found the dilapidated machine, intact but damaged. Several Magikoopas of Koopa King's order is to restore and figure out how this device will operate. A month later and becomes refurbished and discover its secrets! An Energy source is needed to power the machine. A power of both pure and nobility. It donned onto him, He could come out of this peace and steal peach again, but this time, to be used as a battery. However the use of this machine comes at a cost, When life is given, Decay follows. Noone was one the wiser on what else was going on in remote areas of the Mushroom Kingdom. As regions have mysterious started to wither and become sickly. Metastasizing an an alarming rate even! Word spreads about Peach's sudden disappearance and task Mario & Luigi to search and rescue Peach. Can you bring back peach safely in time? Or will the destruction of all life in the Mushroom Kingdom perish? Time is running out... better get moving!

Changelog

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Demo 1.0

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Demo 1.0.1 (Hotfix)

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Demo 1.1

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Demo 1.1 (Hotfix 1)

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Demo 1.1 (Hotfix 2)

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Demo 1.2

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Demo 2.0

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Demo 2.1

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Demo 2.2

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Demo 3.0

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Demo 3.1

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Demo 3.1.1

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Demo 4.0

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Demo 4.1

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Demo 4.1.1

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Demo 4.1.2

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Known bugs:
SMB3 & SMW Spinies are stompable even with Hurtstomp enabled due to ExtendedKoopas.lua -- this is being looked into by MDA
TravL.lua has a bug involving the cheat "illparkwhereiwant" (the ability to walk anywhere cheat) will make you walk indefinitely and softlock you.

Breakdown of Project Development + Total Level count(not finalized but is a good estimate)

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Screenshots

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Download Bowser's Dark Plan V4's Demos Here!

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Feedback and any bugs you encounter is greatly appreciated as I'll be releasing more demos and patches as they come out with an update to the changelog over time!

Want some exclusive Behind the scenes or want to keep up-to-date? I made a discord for everyone to come join and hang out in
Discord Invite (click here)

Credits goes to:

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Download Link: Version 1 & Version 2 Require at least Legacy to run (SMBX 1.3.0.1) Version 4 Demo 1 will require SMBX2 Beta 4 patch 4 Hotfix 1 or higher!
Fair Warning: These versions will run poorly with no optimization(use GIF Files over PNG with a lot of things being depreciated or may cause crashes when loading) and unfair difficulty balance issues! You will also experience countless bugs while playing!

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goombaguy · Postby **goombaguy** » Thu Aug 07, 2014 7:17 am

This is a great project. There is a bit of style mixing, but that doesn't matter. And please change the smb1 background to a smb3 background. That would work great with the tileset.

RudeGuy · Postby **RudeGuy** » Thu Aug 07, 2014 9:48 am

Nice, but I'd like if you fix these things:
Third screenshot: I think you should change the bushes to some SMB3 ones, but the SMW ones are good.
Fourth screenshot: There is a cutoff between the blocks and the lava.
Fifth screenshot: I think the cave BGOs should be green instead of black.
Sixth screenshot: It's really bland. Put a background, some NPCs and some BGOs.
Eighth screenshot: Try to recolor those pink SMB2 clouds into some blue ones.

The other screenshots looks nice.

Black Mamba · Postby **Black Mamba** » Thu Aug 07, 2014 5:30 pm

Christian07 wrote: Eighth screenshot: Try to recolor those pink SMB2 clouds into some blue ones.

That and the stem of the mushroom is off-center and is driving me nuts.

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 2:41 am

Christian07 wrote: Fifth screenshot: I think the cave BGOs should be green instead of black.
Sixth screenshot: It's really bland. Put a background, some NPCs and some BGOs.
The other screenshots looks nice.

I for some reason can't find Green BGO of those...I'll and i can't delete them or it'll look boring and plain
The black screenshot is part of the plot having a "void of emptiness" with nothing living( like Sammer Kingdom in Super Paper Mario(Inspiration))

Thanks for yours and everyone else's feedback this really helps me out!

FanofSMBX · Postby **FanofSMBX** » Sat Aug 09, 2014 12:53 pm

The green cave BGOs are in Valtteri's GFX Pack

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Sat Aug 09, 2014 7:38 pm

FanofSMBX wrote:The green cave BGOs are in Valtteri's GFX Pack

Thanks

That might give World 2 a more "Toxic" atmosphere!

YouTube · Postby **bossedit8** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:00 pm

Hey, this Project looks very interesting so far. I really like the design of it. I do see some cutoffs on a few screenshots though but since this is your very first project I can't really much complain on that. I am really looking to the full version. I can even record the full version after I am done at least a few of my other playthroughs.

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 3:10 am

bossedit8 wrote:Hey, this Project looks very interesting so far. I really like the design of it. I do see some cutoffs on a few screenshots though but since this is your very first project I can't really much complain on that. I am really looking to the full version. I can even record the full version after I am done at least a few of my other playthroughs.

I'd be honored if this was recorded when its done! Trust me its gonna be a great episode!

YouTube · Postby **bossedit8** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 3:20 am

dragonfan96 wrote:I'd be honored if this was recorded when its done! Trust me its gonna be a great episode!

I surely gonna play & record this Game once it is done and if the first Video is already uploaded, I am gonna post a Video including the real Link on this Topic. And I hope this SMBX Episode isn't extremely long because if that is the case then I have to deal with like a lot of SMBX Episodes that aren't even completly done playthroughed.

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 12:32 am

bossedit8 wrote:
dragonfan96 wrote:I'd be honored if this was recorded when its done! Trust me its gonna be a great episode!
I surely gonna play & record this Game once it is done and if the first Video is already uploaded, I am gonna post a Video including the real Link on this Topic. And I hope this SMBX Episode isn't extremely long because if that is the case then I have to deal with like a lot of SMBX Episodes that aren't even completly done playthroughed.

Its 6 worlds and the later levels do get harder and more puzzle-like. Most levels are optional(sidequests)but they usually contain stars which will be need for the Final boss(about 30/??*)

*- haven't counted them all but know that theres about 60 SMW/SMB3 stars i'm current counting them and ironing out some kinks from when I started to now.

Lots of custom musics that are both nostalgic and fun to listen too with some of the most elaborate level design yet!( In my own opinion, but i can't "judge" that though)

I hope You and everyone else has as much enjoyment as i did when playing/reviewing the episode!

Give it about maybe a week to two weeks and it be finished (hopefully)

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 12:33 am

anyone want to review my episode just let me know...

(didn't mean to bump this though...)

Imaynotbehere4long · Postby **Imaynotbehere4long** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 2:24 am

Although I'm not yet finished with the episode, there are some things that I feel need to be addressed immediately, so I decided to go ahead and review all that I have played through so far.

For starters, there are at least three custom music tracks that you forgot to put in the episode's folder:

Kirby Boss Battle.mp3
smrpg-marrymore.mp3
sm64-hauntedhouse.mp3

AND NOW, MY REVIEW OF THE ACCESSIBLE PARTS OF BOWSER'S DARK PLAN:

So, when you start the episode, you're greeted with your run-of-the-mill introduction with Mario at his house and a bunch of Toad NPCs there to tell you that the princess has been kidnapped.

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After that, you go through a town-like level where you can interact with various NPCs and get free power-ups:

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And so, leaving the town behind, you make it to the first level:

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On to Peach's Castle: So when you first make it there and enter the doors, you're greeted with this:

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All right, on to the actual first level:

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On to Cosmic Zone:

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All right, next level!

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Okay, moving on:

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THE FOLLOWING LEVELS ARE IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE ATTENION

And now, on to the second spade stage "Leaf Level."

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All right, on to Mushburg Heights!

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All right, on to the next level that I believe needs immediate attention:

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Okay, on to the next level:

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*whew!* On to the last level that I believe needs immediate attention:

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Closing comments:

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IN TEMPORARY CONCLUSION:
Always, always, always, ALWAYS, test your levels to make sure that they work the way you want them to, even if you don't think that the change you made would be very significant. SMBX isn't the most trustworthy level creator, after all; it still has plenty of bugs that haven't been (and most likely never will be)worked out.

In fact, I want you to test your entire episode, and if you come across something that doesn't work the way you want it to, fix it right then. After you have finished testing your entire episode, upload a patch, then get back to me. If you come across an error and aren't sure how to fix it, ask me and I'll try to help you.

Game-breaking errors aside, this episode was...okay. Nothing special.

P.S. One of the Toads in the gift shop said that something was expensive, but you already established in Toad Town (or whatever it's called) that money grows on trees!

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 3:22 am

@Imaynotbehere4long: To start off, the music you've listed i accidently took out while going back and forth on making levels and whatnot

To all the levels: the grammar/english im sure the misspelled kirby'a is supposed to be an "s" my finger slipped when typing
didi is suppose to be "did" i type too fast(and i need to slow down)
sopping is supposed to be shopping
Furthermore, spell check isn't in SMBX and(secretly i'm somewhat oblivious to the facepalmed mistakes i made)

Next: the souvenir shop was supposed to be "fake" items when actually u can pick them up after turning off the "security boxes"
(fun fact: i mispelled souvenir in a spelling bee(7th grade....ahhh the memories)

Leaf levels= a Nostalgic flashback to a nintendo game at the end of each leaf level is a star
leaf level b: yes it uses Super mario galaxy X's GFX and i did credit them in the read me-also im pretty sure it extends only too where it ends,
the toad is referring to the star you get at the end of every leaf level. The tree BGO i tried to make it work in paint(MS) but i didn't work out(guess W4 will be ugly)

Cosmic Zone:Anything grainy i made(from Scratch like the W2 portrait in MS paint and thanks for the converter too that REALLY help in the future)

Grassy Fields 1: there's an invisible vine to a bonus area where you'd collect coins(and a 1-up)

Moving on to the immediate attention levels(i'll plan to remake the level(s))
the toad not working is from the missing mp3 music or a event trigger error i must've never found when testing

Your suppose to be tiny only in the mini-game maze and can only go one way with invisible coin blocks blocking you if u jump

The vine glitch: honestly when testing i never had that happen, i'll most likely remake world 1/ prolouge(they weren't as good as the later levels it was more-or-less my "noob skills" showing compared to say world 4

Meadow fortress: there should've been toads...(again plan on fixing that)
(grammar/english errors : although im from the USA i suck at english grammar stuff seriously its was a weakness for me and im english go figure)
amps should have jumphurt=1 in a txt. file
Locked doors= warp fail i didn't undo the locked door=true/false tab
also i though i had the problem fixed for the GH path(it was the same for the W1 castle too but that one i DID(I) fix
the elevator part wasn't supposed to be just twiddle your thumbs moment

W1 ghost house: time limit= approx. 3 min. then boos will pour in
the boss im gunna end up scraping he was now use when i was looking for a boss in the GFX packs(no offensive to whom created him)

Yoshi's territory all of them should be friendly i not sure why that one isn't...

Overall: i'm gonna fix this immediate ones as it'll ruin everyone else's fun,i don't want this to be a "trash can" project
Remake will take about 2 days(give or take)
til then the download will still be up to its done then i'll revise BDP

Thanks again for reviewing thus far on those uh "small" kinks in the episode. World 1 was like my *derp noob mode*

Also i have the pathway perfectly connecting to the Cosmic zone(W1) warp

Imaynotbehere4long · Postby **Imaynotbehere4long** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:14 pm

dragonfan96 wrote:Leaf levels= a Nostalgic flashback to a nintendo game at the end of each leaf level is a star

I still think you could to more with this concept instead of using it as an excuse to copy other levels because it just seems like you're trying to pad out your episode.

dragonfan96 wrote:The tree BGO i tried to make it work in paint(MS) but i didn't work out(guess W4 will be ugly)

Here's what you can do:
--Copy the door graphic from the GBA (brighter) sprite, and paste it in the same location on the SNES (darker) sprite.
--Save this image as a PNG with the same name as the GBA sprite, put it in an image converter, replace the GBA sprite with this one, and it should fix the problem.

dragonfan96 wrote:Grassy Fields 1: there's an invisible vine to a bonus area where you'd collect coins(and a 1-up)

dragonfan96 wrote:Your suppose to be tiny only in the mini-game maze and can only go one way with invisible coin blocks blocking you if u jump

You say this as though they are there, but I opened the levels in the level editor and never found them.

dragonfan96 wrote:W1 ghost house: time limit= approx. 3 min. then boos will pour in

*plays level again*
Oh, heh...so they will.

One more thing: for Mayor T. and the MC in Mushburg Heights, you have their event triggered on "talk" play the "message" sound effect, when in reality, this is unnecessary because message boxes will play that sound effect by themselves, and having an extra sound effect play afterward sounds weird.

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 6:07 pm

@imaynotbehereforlong

Like i said W1(and prologue) is going to be remade, give me some time and i'll repost a download and PM you again

Also i'm quite sad that grassy fields 3 was a video expressing its flaw, then again originally i wanted this to be hard episode, but i dumbed down MOST of the episode

the Message sound effect...i didn't know that actually

About the Leaf Levels i have either 2 options

1)Delete ALL leaf levels

2)make a different gimmick that is similar too this (<----which can't come up with anything on that one)

So far i fixed most of what was urgently needed of attention
and made a cool idea in peach's castle too---you'll like it

Mushburg Heights is still under construction as i need to totally remake it as when going over the level again i don't like it very much...

Also i plan on adding a few new minigames in the level Fungitown Casino( to balance the possible loss of the leaf levels)

Imaynotbehere4long · Postby **Imaynotbehere4long** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 3:51 pm

dragonfan96 wrote:About the Leaf Levels i have either 2 options

1)Delete ALL leaf levels

2)make a different gimmick that is similar too this (<----which can't come up with anything on that one)

OOH, I have an idea: instead of the leaf levels containing stars themselves, they can be hint rooms as to where other stars are located. Hear me out:

Let's say, in Grassy Fields 1, you only use background-10 once. In front of the background image, you could also put a door-warp leading to a room with the star. Chances are, nobody is going to figure out that there is a door there by themselves. That's where the spade stages come in: instead of it being its own level, it's merely a room with an NPC that hints as to where the star is. It could say something like "In Grassy Fields 1, everyone looks up to the hill with two faces." It doesn't flat out say that there's a door there, but it hints toward it.

dragonfan96 wrote:Also i plan on adding a few new minigames in the level Fungitown Casino( to balance the possible loss of the leaf levels)

If you do plan on scrapping the spade stages altogether, you'll have to remember to reflect this in the amount of stars needed to progress in the episode (lower the star count needed for certain doors or add more stars in other levels. Remember: one section can't have more than one star, or else only the first one counts).

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 5:34 pm

@imaynotbehereforlong

Though the Leaf(it looked like a leaf than it does a spade...) Levels were meant to be a nostalgic flashback of Mario's old past

That's why there's 8-bit Mario remake,an old Kirby game,sonic,Minecraft, SMS ,SMP (in order, of all leaf levels, and what theme they were)

It was to reflect on what We as Players grew up with "back in the old days"

With that said. Leaf Level A&B is going to change entirely AND use that Star hint as well

dragonfan96 · Postby **dragonfan96** » Mon Sep 29, 2014 11:53 am

Unfortunately, I am unable to work on anything pertaining to SMBX because my Laptop's Battery died(for good) and its Charger got burnt/Singed.
(Which has ALL SMBX stuff and my grand-parents computer gives me "Run-time error 11 Divided by 0"

I'm still going to be on regularly(to see if i have any Red mushrooms,grey P-switches/ice flowers using a Public Library Computer(unable to download or upload anything)

It may be about a week or even longer before i can remake W1 of the Episode

BTW: Media Fire allows me to see how many times a file has been downloaded, over 100 people download the Episode! To be honest, that amazes me how many people
wanted to play this! Thanks everyone

marioman63 · Postby **marioman63** » Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:22 pm

this episode is probably abandoned, but i found a bug in the cloud world in the void level. at the part where you have to spin jump the saw blade and avoid the bullet bill cannons, there either needs to be something solid to stand on after the first floating cannon, or the saw blade needs to go all the way accross. according to the graphics, it seems like the saw blade should go all the way accross, but it stops about halfway and goes back. I also can no longer enter the cosmic zone after i took it to the cloud world (so basically, i am stuck in world 5 at the moment). just something to keep in mind if you plan on continuing this episode. i think it has some potential, and really like a lot of the ideas in it.