Super Mario Bros. X Forums

Hello! I was planning on making a brand new SM64-styled project, and I was wondering what you guys thought about it. (This isn't going into Projects because nothing has been completed yet, I just wanted to bounce a few ideas off of you guys)

It's planned to be a story about Luigi trying to escape from his everyday humdrum life by sailing to Isle Delfino when all of a sudden, he shipwrecks somewhere off the coast of the Mushroom Kingdom. Upon exploring the island, he finds a strange and mystical temple dedicated to housing a powerful book called the Ryitarburkh (rye-TAR-buk) Of course, the book is important because every 500 years, it needs to be read during a ritual, lest the sun go out. Of course, the book is sealed away behind a powerful door that can only be opened by the 16 Stars. Sadly, these stars have been scattered across five nearby islands. Using portals found inside the temple, Luigi must go out, find the stars and save the universe.

There are 5 islands, plus a tutorial level and a final level. Each island has three levels, each with one star. The five islands are:

Mossrock Island (a grassland/forest)
Sunhallowed Island (a desert)
Eaglepeak Island (a mountain + cave system)
Frostcastle Island (a snowy area)
Rainbowcove Island (a tropical jungle/river system/bay area, essentially the water world)

Each island also has a boss (in order, Boom Boom, Wart, Larry, Ludwig and Bowser, with the final boss being a nice big surprise)

What do you think of this so far?

That. Sounds. AMAZING.
Seriously man, your story is phenomenal.

I will definitely support this.

Sounds interesting. I'd definitely give it a play.

This storry sounds cool, and I also like the ideas that they are all individial islands.

I just dislike the mostly generic bosses.

The bosses are more just because I'm not terribly great when it comes to boss battles, and to be frank, I find the bosses to be the absolute least important part of a game.

IcarusBen wrote:and to be frank, I find the bosses to be the absolute least important part of a game.

Whereas in my episode they're mostly the key focus, but that's irrelevant.

On the contrary, though, bosses are pretty important in a game, as it's usually a big climax before the end of a world. Each world can be considered a chapter in the hero's adventure, and a boss is the perfect way to end the chapter. Bosses also have a lot of opportunities, so if you execute them correctly, people might really like it.

Don't treat bosses as something minor and not important, treat them as a pretty important aspect to your worlds. One of the islands could be ruled over by one of the bosses, who has one of the stars you need to progress, so you must go through the trials of the island to finally face off with the boss and potentially defeat him, collecting the star you need to proceed. That's one of the easiest ways to do it whilst adding a bit of storytelling along the way, and making the world feel a bit more alive than just set places for the hero to run through. Each island should have a certain atmosphere, like one of them can be ruled over by one of the bosses as aforementioned, and that boss directs tribes of Snifits to protect the island.

Well, each world has three acts, with the third act having a boss, but the third act is also longer.

As for the whole ruling the islands thing, all of them except Bowser rule over their respective islands, with Bowser invading Rainbowcove Island.

Speaking of which, how should I design the temple? I've been looking through the big GFX pack, but I'm drawing a blank when it comes to SMB3-colored temple stuff.

What ever happened to this?

Also, I agree with 8bitmushroom about the bosses; if you're going to use the generic pre-programmed AIs as bosses, the least you could do is add stuff to the room (like moving blocks, invulnerable NPCs, etc.) to make the fight more unique as opposed to just having the boss in an empty room with a generator that the player has to use as a weapon.

By the way, I just saw the quote you used from me in your first post in that topic, and I just wanted to let you know that you took that out of context; not only did I say that "there's nothing wrong with not using custom songs" right after that, but the reason I wrote that in the first place was so I could suggest that you use Castlevania 3's clock tower song for your episode's clock tower. Admittedly, I probably could have thought of a better transition than what I used, but I digress.

Those last quotes were actually meant as a sort of joke. You know how games and such will often tout; "Critics say; 'Amazing!' 'One of a kind!' 'Generic praise!'" I did the opposite.

As for what happened to it... Eh. I might pick it back up, but I really don't know... Work on this project hasn't really even started, and I honestly don't know how I'm going to continue on with that. I guess I could pick it up as a side project, or try and finish it as practice for this one, but... eh. It's sort of in development hell. I got caught up with school and stuff and I just couldn't really work on it too often.

IcarusBen wrote:Those last quotes were actually meant as a sort of joke. You know how games and such will often tout; "Critics say; 'Amazing!' 'One of a kind!' 'Generic praise!'" I did the opposite.

Ohhh. The concept does seem clever, but the quotes you used are talking about aesthetic choices, and complaining about those is usually looked down upon in this community. In fact, sometimes, using a certain custom song can be a bad decision.

IcarusBen wrote:It's sort of in development hell. I got caught up with school and stuff and I just couldn't really work on it too often.

So, if that's the case for your first project, wouldn't the same thing happen with any others you try to start? Either way, I recommend you focus only on one project until it is completed before starting another, whether it's this one or your previous one.

Yeah, you're probably right.

If I do try and salvage the Clocktower, it'll be pretty different. Namely, everything has to be rebuilt. Looking back, the first level was OK, the rest were pretty bleh.