Monday, April 15, 2013

Area Development/New Things

I'm trying to spend a good amount of time developing each room... Every room should have a purpose, but they should all come together in a non-linear way.
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I totally redid the title screen, and added customizable controls. However, at the moment they're very unstable. I might have a separate executable available for editing them. It shouldn't hurt anything, as long as they work. I've also finalized the save system, it works a lot like that of Metroid II, however, it restores your health. One might say this makes things too easy, but considering how few save rooms there are, the difficulty stays at a good level.
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As long as you could spam enemies with your beam they weren't a problem. I've found a better way of doing things. While some enemies can be damaged all over, some have weakspots, weaknesses and resistances. For example, you can only use concussive weapons on the space pirate (bombs, missiles) but you can use anything on the jumping slime enemy.
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I totally neglected 2 things I had programmed before: Acid and Elevator Shafts. I've found places to put acid so that one is more aware of their environment and doesn't just breeze through. I've also added scrolling elevator shafts to keep in touch with some of the special things Metroid has always done.
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This is just to show that the second area, Anfine, is now the main focus of development. I'm still working on new enemies for it however. I've recently started redesigning enemies to look and behave differently from classic Metroid enemies. Also added a little particle trail to the power beam, and other types of trails for the other beams.

That's all for now, please comment & share!

7 comments:

  1. Update looks great!

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  2. One Question, you will do another demo to the game?

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    1. I don't like the idea of demos of the actual game, I feel like it spoils too much. However, if the game is not done for NCFC, I'll do another short tech demo.

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  3. Looking great! MFH definitely needs more recognition in fangaming circles. I really like your new title screen; the old one seemed a little 'placeholderish'.

    Knowing elevators will be in MFH makes me smile. The acid looks a little wierd, though- it's a single colour, no gradient. Are you still working on the sprite for it?

    Different enemies having different weaknesses and resistancies... Fabulous! That means that now there will be actual reasons to change weapons. Looking forward to hunting down every single method of obliterating one's foes.

    That screenshot of the cave is absolutely beautiful. And I noticed the fountains in Anfine, too. Pretty neat.

    Just one thing that I don't get... What's that slice of lime in the upper left of the Anfine screenshots doing?

    Anyway, can't wait to play this!

    Ever your loyal fan,

    Dragon-Tamer 795

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    1. Thanks!

      The acid at the moment is that plain color, but it does seem a bit odd that way. Liquids, or frankly, anything transparent, is very hard to pull off in this style. Bold colors call for solid colors, know what I'm saying? I'm still trying to figure it out.

      As for the "slice of lime", it is the corner of a fan. Rooms in Anfine without fans heat up too much, and you need the Varia suit to go through them unharmed. The fan is also a chargeable object, so when you get a certain powerup, you will be able to charge inactive ones or speed up currently active ones to clear certain pathways.

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  4. Hey-
    Just finished playing Super Metroid for the first time and it left me wanting more of the same. Found this blog by chance - I really appreciate what you are doing. Not a game designer myself but am aware of how much work it takes to create a game.
    So thanks and keep it up.
    p.s. Can't help but draw comparison to Cave Story with the sprites. Always a good thing.

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  5. so any update about the project?

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