Super Mario Bros. X Forums

"The game play idea!"

As i said in the introduction post about me, im doing a project with 3 levels in a world, designed for speedrunning. The levels are going to be somewhat hard, but have a nice flow when you learn how to tackle them. The hard part is important to get better separation in times when diffrent people run the levels. Also, it looks more impressive when someone speeds through a nasty level

So far im working on the first level, and i think its about 50-60% done. Im doing new gfx from scratch and i will try to replace it all to follow my own theme for these levels. Far from done as of now. Im still not sure how the hero will look. Which leads us into...

"The Story!"

The vague idea here is "revenge of the blocks", which means that the blocks have had enough of people jumping on them in platform games, and now theyre fighting back! Enemys will all have a block-theme more or less, and in the background there will be black blocks/squares missing across the levels, which symbolises that the blocks in the background ripped free and came alive, and are now coming after the hero! It also gives this desperate feeling that the world is collapsing and falling apart with the blocks not holding up the worlds anymore. The hero is trying to get to the end as fast as possible, beating the big block agitator boss at the end, before the whole world is lost.

"The enemies"

I have a few diffrent types of enemies, and for the players its gonna take some deaths to find out and learn how they work at first. Im thinking about adding a "start/tutorial level" just showing the diffrent enemies, but im not sure. Its not that many though, and youll learn fast. Since they will all look like blocks more or less, i tried hard to make small gfx clues as how they work in how they look.

Oh, and i also added 1 false door on this level im workin gon now, that takes you back to the start, just for fun and rage quits. Ye im funny ;>

"the gameplay part II"

The gameplay is gonna be 90% execution and 10% platform problem solving (when playing on the "easy" setting.) I will have 3 levels as i said, but as an added bonus i will have a "hard" variant of each map just for fun, and for ppl who like an extra challenge. Theres not going to be any power ups on the levels, and no mid way thingies, so you have to make the level from start to finish in one go. They are pretty short. As an added bonus #2 i will add an extra area after the exit door, where there will be waiting a single coin in a block. Its mostly for show, and when the projects finished, and someone is really good at running it, they can add the extra super challenge of finishing all 6 levels (including the hard variants) and getting all 6 coins in one continue!

"music and sfx"

Im using some really old stuff i did back in the 90's, but it did fit pretty good cause it sounds a bit blippy and cosy ^^. I will replace effects later too.

"extra stuff"

i would love to get a timer in there, counting up seconds. And also a death counter would be cool Dont know if its possible, but im gonna look it up.

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"Screenshots"

Here are some screens of the first level as of now (dont be scared if it looks bad right now. I will polish most enemies alot or redo some later.)

OLD SCREENS HERE: NEWER SCREENS HERE (OLD NOW, EDIT): "Video Gameplay"

Early gameplay video of first level (test video 1. OLDER): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObcQkKS37dg
Early video number 2: with new improved gfx and a much darker feel that i like. Better size video and better gameplay from me.
Test video 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvQ-ec-ZtBU

TEST: (NEW!) GAMEPLAY, Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPWMudzGMx0
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"Downloads"
Here is an early version if you feel like trying it out in this stage. I would love to get, not so much feedback, but actual times that it takes you to run the level and how many tries it took before beating it the first time. I think its too early for feedback yet (at least for gfx and stuff like that), but its ofc welcome too! I think most people will think its too hard right now, but i want to balance it for beating it in the first 80-100 tries or so, and after that getting better and better times. So it needs to be this hard. (its far from impossible though!)

All versions of updates i have uploaded so far (newest is at the bottom):
test 1: http://www.kurukururin.se/misc/kurukururun1.rar
test 2: http://www.kurukururin.se/misc/kurukururun2.rar
test 3: http://www.kurukururin.se/misc/Kuru3.rar

Remember to respect your blocks, kids.

On topic: This looks like a really fun episode. I'm not much of a speedrunner, myself, but the concept behind it seems cool! I'm looking forward to seeing more of this episode.

Thanks Its gonna take a while to make both the gfx look somewhat good and balance the gameplay But i think its gonna be fun to play it when its done.

EDIT: Made great progress today with the GFX, and alot of stuff looks better already. Made a simple hero aswell with 2 (!) animations, haha.

Here is the update: http://www.kurukururin.se/misc/kurukururun2.rar

Block Bollocks

This is one of the most creative ideas that I have seen for an episode - a normally harmless stationary object that actually helps not just Mario and co., but other characters in platform games as well. I like how you played on that concept and turned it on its head for a hilarious plot. I look forward to when this is finished.

Thanks Its going to be important that the diffrent types of block enemies stand out and can be separated from each other though, even they all look similar. Thats gonna be a big challenge, but im closing in already on that, and after playing for about 3 minutes everyone will know what the diffrent types is like and how you beat them and use them against each other.

Small update: Im starting to like how the easy level 1 runs now, and if you wanna play with my original hero, choose toad. Beware though that its in an EARLY state gfx wise on the hero (The idea for the hero is a hommage to mister TMR (The Mexican Runner on Twitch) ;D Thats why he looks a bit like an 8-bit mexican and thats why i have a mexican flag in the level as well, hehe.)

Updated version: http://www.kurukururin.se/misc/KuruKuruRun03.rar

NEW SCREENS HERE:
Oh and i should add that my best time on easy so far is 1:53 mins But its far from optimal. The level is not that easy, so i havnt managed to get though it in one run as many times as i would like yet, haha. Im pretty average skill wise though.

I now have a video up showing some gameplay of the first part of level 1:

Please watch in fullscreen, cause its only part of the screen recorded. Ill upload a better video later in the process.
The first 3 lives are my placeholder gfx for the new hero, and most of the other are mario jumping around

Test video 1 (older) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObcQkKS37dg

UPDATE: New video up with new improved gfx and a much darker feel that i like. Better size video and better gameplay from me.
Test video 2 (new!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvQ-ec-ZtBU

I would need some testers that have at least a little experience with speed running (or if youre just a very good player of smbx in general) to try out and help me a good balance for my first level. Right now i feel its almost too easy, but i might be blind after running it so many times. Let me know if youre interested, it would mean a lot to me

Huge update!

(FIRST: Ive been having trouble recording footage of game play for this, so i finally broke down and just recorded it with my digital slr in video mode on a tripod lol. Thats why it looks crap. Just so you know )

Making alot of progress with my super mario bros x project. I changed the overworld to a hub world and finished 2 more levels while polishing the first alot. Ive come a long way, but theres tons of stuff left to do. I changed almost all of the gfx, but mario is still to be re-done into my own hero. Right now im almost happy with the gameplay in the levels, and i have been balancing the difficulty th elast few days to make it alot easier. It was way to hard i think, and now its almost too easy for me, but perfect for most everyone else im guessing. Its still gonna frustrate the hell out of you for the first 30-100 deaths before you get the hang of it, but its better now. Dont try the hard version of the first level though, cause its almost impossible to finish. Its gonn aneed some more balancing, but its almost there. I have yet to start the other 2 hard versions, but i did make a fun bonus level that i show off a little bit of in the last part of the video. Thats not nearly done though.

GAMEPLAY, Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPWMudzGMx0
DOWNLOAD: http://www.kurukururin.se/misc/Kuru3.rar

I would love if the people testing it answered a few questions after

1: How many deaths did it take to complete each level? (dont need super exact number)
2: After you get the hang of the levels, what is the best time you can complete a level in? (need more exact numbers here!)(this one is hard to do, so only for the try hards, hehe.)
3: Did you manage to complete the hard version of level 1, and do you think it should be made even harder as a feat of strength kind of thing, more than fun gameplay? (this is for the REAL try hards)
4: I made the music way back in 1998 or something in a shitty program, but it kind of fits imo. Did you like it?

Kurukururin wrote:Huge update!

(FIRST: Ive been having trouble recording footage of game play for this, so i finally broke down and just recorded it with my digital slr in video mode on a tripod lol. Thats why it looks crap. Just so you know )

Making alot of progress with my super mario bros x project. I changed the overworld to a hub world and finished 2 more levels while polishing the first alot. Ive come a long way, but theres tons of stuff left to do. I changed almost all of the gfx, but mario is still to be re-done into my own hero. Right now im almost happy with the gameplay in the levels, and i have been balancing the difficulty th elast few days to make it alot easier. It was way to hard i think, and now its almost too easy for me, but perfect for most everyone else im guessing. Its still gonna frustrate the hell out of you for the first 30-100 deaths before you get the hang of it, but its better now. Dont try the hard version of the first level though, cause its almost impossible to finish. Its gonn aneed some more balancing, but its almost there. I have yet to start the other 2 hard versions, but i did make a fun bonus level that i show off a little bit of in the last part of the video. Thats not nearly done though.

GAMEPLAY, Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPWMudzGMx0
DOWNLOAD: http://www.kurukururin.se/misc/Kuru3.rar

I would love if the people testing it answered a few questions after

1: How many deaths did it take to complete each level? (dont need super exact number)
2: After you get the hang of the levels, what is the best time you can complete a level in? (need more exact numbers here!)(this one is hard to do, so only for the try hards, hehe.)
3: Did you manage to complete the hard version of level 1, and do you think it should be made even harder as a feat of strength kind of thing, more than fun gameplay? (this is for the REAL try hards)
4: I made the music way back in 1998 or something in a shitty program, but it kind of fits imo. Did you like it?

Thanks for the demo! Definitly going to try it out because it looks interesting. Also nice reference to a series that only has 3 games (not counting Smash Bros.).

Very interesting concept, Im currently tackling this, extremely hard!

Thanks guys It may not look very pretty or polished right now, but im just focusing on balancing the gameplay atm Btw, do you think the new gfx are way bad or ok so far? For fun , try to play with toad and see my super ugly first sketch for the new hero, haha. But the bad thing is, the levels get way harder playing them with toads physics imo, so watch out.

It looks good and all that, but I didn't really like the Music. But that's just my opinion.
I'm not a fan of speedrunning, but this looks like a fun project!

Hehe, the music is pretty weird i give you that I think i like it mostly cause i made it such a long time ago!