Much as it pains me, "plain" is going to be the verdict of quite a few players, I'm sure, especially when you have some great hacks coming up by people whose room designs are both complex and creative. There's a few points in my defense: I'm using all new tilesets, most of which I've drawn myself, and those are a bit limited, so I haven't gone into great detail. I've also wanted to get this project done in a reasonable time frame (i.e. not years from now) so I've often rushed through the "creative room design" process.
Truthfully, I could go back and add more to those tilesets (a LOT more) and spice things up. This is still something that's possible... but it'll significantly push back the time frame for release.
I'm not sure where I want to go with this yet. At the very least, I want to finish level design, get beta testing going, etc. Then if it seems like it'd be worth it, I'll revisit the old rooms and spice things up. I really do want to knock this one out of the ball park, so to speak. If I could make every room as full and beautiful as DMantra's stuff, I'd love to do that, but that's gonna require a lot of patience from all of us.
To be honest, I'd much rather the game was finished in a no permastucks and smooth level design way, with correct slope BTS and stuff, than a fancy graphics way. The graphics are great, but need to play second fiddle to the game flow.
If I could make every room as full and beautiful as DMantra's stuff
Then you'd probably need more than 4 MB.
I think that plain is in the eye of the beholder here. I rather like that room. Sometimes simplicity is exactly what is needed, and if every single room is crazy detailed, it can be a little bit rough on the player. Especially since this room looks like a simple transition corridor/shaft, which really shouldn't be terribly detailed if you look at most video games.
I would not go the crazy detailed route simply because that's not the stype that you've been going since the beginning (from what we've seen of course). There's a simple charm to that room. It looks beautiful but not overbearing.
Oh and for everyone saying there's no BG, look towards the top and you'll see a pink transition. My guess is that he's got the Layer 2 set on very slow vertical scroll.
Oh and for everyone saying there's no BG, look towards the top and you'll see a pink transition. My guess is that he's got the Layer 2 set on very slow vertical scroll.
Yup, maybe an in-game screenshot would do it more justice.
I also notice your minimap is gray. Not sure how much I like that but hey, it's your hack.
The minimap change color based on the location you're in, as well as the color of your e-tank and the outline of the status bar fonts. It's an unavoidable side effect of me using the CRE palettes for non-CRE things. Some areas actually have brown or purple doors (but I don't use doors in those areas, so you'd never notice).
Oh I like that idea of having the minimap change based on area. That's really creative, though it's unfortunate that there's the side effect. Still, really cool idea. Obviously can't wait to play.
I HAVE WAITED +10 PAGES OF NOTHING FOR THIS ^__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________^
looks nice, ach. very original, but the rocky gray part looks like it's part of the background. kinda like those darker rocks in crateria that go behind you. I'd suggest a palette change.
It's not like you can measure how well designed a room is by how detailed and complex it is... playing the game isn't like looking at a picture. Rooms have different functions that need to be considered, how it feels to go through it is the most important thing to keep in mind while designing it. And some rooms need to be kept simple to make others stand out. That room looks perfect btw.
I'm pretty sure those youtube videos are months old though. Unless there's been a new one...
*hurries off to youtube*
I'm thinking if this hack has a new story or them (like Redesign with the guardians), then this would take over number 1 of the greatest hacks made IMO. I have no idea though. IIRC Acheron said something about new weapons ages ago... like a heat beam!
Yeah those youtube videos are pretty old. Funny thing is Acheron said in the video comments that it was possible that the hack only had a month of work left on it. I'm guessing the final release will scarcely resemble the video at all. As far as new weapons or story goes, I'm hoping the details remain secret. I'm glad Acheron hasn't divulged too much over these long months. More excited than ever for this !!
I respect his decision to remain rather tight-lipped about the whole hack. It helps build up the anticipation and when it finally comes out, everything will seem very new and fresh. I'm starting to follow this method of thinking when it comes to Volta. I feel like I show stuff off too much, so I'm cutting back.
I respect his decision to remain rather tight-lipped about the whole hack. It helps build up the anticipation and when it finally comes out, everything will seem very new and fresh. I'm starting to follow this method of thinking when it comes to Volta. I feel like I show stuff off too much, so I'm cutting back.
I've said it once before. The best hacks are (usually) the one's you don't see coming.
Am I the only one not super excited for this hack? I'm sure it will surprise me like the Volta demo did, but I'm not very excited like I was with Brawl (lulz)
And jeez, you guys critique so harshly on a room that looks very nice. Transition room whoopie, while playing, we probably won't even notice that it isn't very exciting.
I'm very excited about this hack too, and it seems that we're not alone about that in this forum =)
Speaking of advanced, detailed rooms: Single rooms with advanced detailing is a design/challenge of small proportions, making the game feel smaller than it should do and are mostly about abusing save/load to overcome. Those challenges are not the funny ones, they are merely annoying. If one should build complex designs, it should be on a large scale covering several rooms and be more than just a maze (yes, I have those in my own hack, at least for now), or tight spots covered in spikes. It makes the game feel larger and you get to use more of your brain. A holistic feeling is much more important than just a stack of single room puzzles.
