Hello there. I’m here today with an announcement that I find very hard to make.
I’m done.
This project ain’t going anywhere at this rate, with our disorganized resource-creation and lack of suitable programmers.
All is not lost, however.
After extensive discussion with a few friends on the team and the Super Metroid hacking channel #JZD, I’ve taken upon myself a project I can’t possibly do alone.
Super Metroid Prime, or P2D…Version 2.
This will eliminate our engine woes and give us a solid foundation to work from. We’ll be using the Super Metroid Integrated Level Editor (SMILE) and ASM code to tweak the engine and levels as necessary.
Sprites are going to need to be done in SM’s style–colorlimits and all, so unfortunately most of the existing work will need to be redone or at least edited heavily. I’m still not 100% certain how to tackle the music or sound effects. I’ll be honest–I’m pretty damn poor with SMILE right now, as are most of the new staff members.
I’ll understand if you don’t want to support this move. If you want to stick to the classic and hope CFX comes through, I won’t hold it against you. But anyone who’s interested in joining Zurg and I… Let’s do this shit. Let’s make the best damn P2D we can, MetEngine or otherwise.
And I ask, where the motherfucking shit can I fucking start? (note over use of language. It means I want to be a part of this. I can make music thats good enough quality for Super Metroid. We need a new thread.
Well, we have CFX’s approval, so I’ll go ahead and make a subforum for this project. Again, if you want to wait on MetEngine and stick by your previous work, nothing will be held against you. But we could use the help, so at least stop on by.
Super Metroid’s engine… SNES memory is quite limited. I had other problems in mind but I forgot some of them on my way here, and decided others were wrong because Samus rotates arbitrarily when grappling.
Honestly, I think there needs to be a major common goal for all Metroid fan gamers to work toward, one super flexible game that they can make into any number of creative, interactive fan fictions. I think all Metroid fan gamers should stop, drop, and roll.
Stop working in small groups.
Drop their own projects. (temporarily)
And roll with it.
But of course we’d have to disguise it as an amazing game engine with Metroid-like features. Like GameMaker, but specific enough to Metroid that nearly all the programming (except enemy AI, events, or possible new items) is taken out of it.
Unless they want a fan game with 3D gameplay. Those people can go work on their own.
So you’d prefer to remake Metroid Prime in 2D and spend five or more years trying to come up with playable games of your own, rather than work with a larger, more capable team to make a system that makes creating all those games much easier? I thought my idea would be much more rooted for when stated thusly. Huh.
I suppose making P2D with Super Metroid as the engine is just about as good as using a (more flexible) Genesis engine, though. And Zurg’s project is fine because he’s using another game as his engine, too.
Hey, Super Metroid Primers…enjoy your 128-sprite, 32-sprite-per-line limits. I don’t suppose those hackers are capable of making it a 512x448 game? The SNES supports that, but very few games utilized it.
I too am working on a flexible engine called NetMission, which I decided several months ago could also be used to make P2D (and other fangames).
I will try to pull my engine together this summer. Last summer’s attempt at this did not have much success, but it seems more possible this time.
In the meantime, feel free to carry on with Super Metroid Prime. Just know that, with my engine and the Genisis engine and potentially others, there are still several options available. I’ll see what I can demonstrate at the end of the summer.
P.S. I like the idea of a grand Metroid engine to rule them all, but I don’t think it is all that reasonable, at least in the next few years. It seems to me that people would hesitate to delay their fangames to help make everyone else’s fangames feel like theirs.
Oh, but even if they use the same game engine, they don’t have to feel similar. I fully intend to make physics pretty customizable in my engine–you could have a floaty Super Metroid feel, or a rock-like MZM/MF feel, or a fatty Metroid Prime feel. (She seems really slow and clunky to me in Prime.) I mean, I’m even allowing a Genesis modder to decide what abilities (such as power grip and long beam) are latent, attainable, or completely excluded.
If it sounds good enough, they will come… forget building it first, 'cuz that’d defeat the purpose. >
The problem is really that nobody finishes their games. Working together as a huge group on an engine rather than a specific game could quite possibly cause a significant boost in completed (or at least more playable) fan games. Mutual benefit. SHARE
Like GameMaker, but specific enough to Metroid that nearly all the programming (except enemy AI, events, or possible new items) is taken out of it.
