Description

WHAT IS THIS?
Super RMN World 2 is a collaborative effort to make a solid Mario game in SMBX. It's the latest in the RMN Bros. series that has run on this site over the years. Unlike previous events, this project is more organized to produce a cohesive result. Even so, all users of RMN are welcome to participate! No past experience necessary! I'm your gracious host, halibabica, and I'll be overseeing the whole thing.



THE STORY
The Mario Bros. are on vacation with Peach in Yoshi's Archipelago, a group of exotic islands far from the Mushroom Kingdom. Of course, wherever they go, trouble quickly follows. Bowser and his Koopa army crash the party and kidnap the princess! The brothers' mission is clear, but something seems off about Bowser'whatever may be, there's work to do! Mario and Luigi hop right to it with the help of the princess' devoted bodyguard, Agent Toad!



WHAT YOU NEED
To participate, you need only make stages in SMBX and submit them. There are some rules, though. Please read the following before diving in.

  • You need Super Mario Bros. X to make your levels.
  • You need to save your levels in this folder. Put it in SMBX's 'worlds' folder and save your levels inside. It contains resources that will be standard for the project.
  • Levels must be created for this event. Don't submit preexisting work!
  • You may use custom graphics and music, but be sure to put them in a folder with the same name as your level. This graphics pack may be useful.


Once you have the engine and the standard resources, you're ready to start! However, for your stages to be accepted, the following must be adhered to.



SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
As this game is intended to feel like a legit Mario title, there must be some consistency in the levels. For this project, you will need:

  • 1 middle ring; the checkpoint for your stage. It's the sparkly ring in the SMW NPC tab. You can't use more than one due to engine limitations, so place it wisely!
  • 5 smiley flowers; these replace dragon coins. They're also on the SMW NPC tab and your stage needs exactly five of them. They must all be obtainable in one go through the level. The debugger can tell you how many you used. For technical reasons, they must all be on the Default layer.
  • 1 end goal roulette; this gate marks the end of the stage. It's on the SMB3 NPC tab, and jumping through it ends the level. The player automatically walks to the right and off-screen when they touch it, so every level must end going to the right.


These objects will only appear if you save your level in the Super RMN World 2 folder. Include them in your stage, and beyond that, the sky's the limit! Or is it?



ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES
This game is themed around Yoshi, and SMBX has a wide variety of them. Each island has its own theme, too. Your stages need to match the themes of the islands they're being made for. The difficulty should be relative to the island's order in the game. Each island also has its own color of Yoshi, so any you include should match, and you're encouraged to use them!

  • You may only submit one stage to each island.
  • You must be able to complete each level while riding Yoshi. This means no ladders required for progress or jumps where you must ditch Yoshi. This includes boss stages (more on this later).



WIsland NameThemesYoshi
1Green Grass Islandgrass/woodGreen
2Deathly Desert Islandsand/ghostsYellow
3Giga Growth Islandplants/giantsPink
4Molten Mine Islandcave/lavaPurple
5Slip Drip Islandwater/iceLight Blue
6Sky High Islandcliffs/cloudsDark Blue
7Pyre Fire Islandfire/wastelandRed
8Brain Drain Islandpipes/factoryBlack

About boss stages, you're allowed to make them, but their rules differ slightly. Each island can only have one boss and one mini-boss. Boss stages should end with the boss room instead of the end goal roulette. Due to post-production event handling, you don't need to include an exit; the stage will end when the fight is over. Boss stages still need to be thematically appropriate and have 1 middle ring and 5 smiley flowers. The player should be able to beat the boss while riding Yoshi. The boss stages of islands 7 and 8 are reserved for story purposes.




GENERAL GUIDELINES
I know, I know, we're almost there. In addition to all of the above, please keep the following in mind:

  • Try to stick with one art style for your level. Don't mix SMB3 and SMW koopas/coins/etc.
  • Don't let mushrooms from blocks escape off nearby screen edges.
  • Since stages must end with the end goal roulette, all other exit types are banned.
  • The SMW Bowser statue and SMB3 Lakitu are banned for their quirkiness. Use the SMB3 Bowser statue and SMW Lakitu instead!
  • No swimmable waterfalls. These should be for aesthetic use only.
  • Stages must be two-player compatible. Include both player start positions and ensure the stage is passable more than once. Basically, avoid scenarios that could trap the 2nd player.
  • Prevent no-win situations. If the player isn't dead, they should still be able to complete the stage.
  • Avoid single-tile gaps. The player wall-zips if they stand up in a short passage. This can break the game sometimes, so use caution!





LEVEL FEEDBACK
'HALI THERE ARE TOO MANY RULES I HATE THIS'
I know the rules are extensive, but we're aiming to make this the best episode yet. Don't fret if you can't remember it all. As you submit your stages, I'll be reviewing them and providing feedback. You will be expected to use it to make revisions. Failure to do so may result in your levels being altered post-production, or denied completely! Users are encouraged to test each other's levels. Every bit of feedback helps!



TIMELINE
Submissions will be open for all of July. Afterward, there will be a two-week period where revisions can still be made (but no new submissions). Then the gates will shut and the rest of the game will be processed by yours truly. It will take time, but it will get done.

If you have any questions, please ask! I hope we can build a fantastic new RMN World together!

Details

  • 07/01/2016 12:00 AM
  • 08/15/2016 11:59 PM

Registration

You must be logged in to sign up for Super RMN World 2: Yoshi's Archipelago.

Participants Entries
kentona
Davenport
Jparker1984
Solitayre
Ratty524
outcry312
nin8halos
Bart_Sol
pyrodoom
Seiromem
jackalotrun
Blobofgoo
Animebryan
lonestarluigi
Jalex
TungerManU
NeverSilent
Illy
Frozen
Fflo
El_WaKa
Frogge
Punkitt
Thunder176
Kloe
KuraiYukiChan
eric00051
Entry Status Key
  • - Pending
  • - Validating
  • - Accepted
  • - Rejected

Posts

Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=Animebryan
The ice flower isn't central to the level itself, only the boss fight. Since Naval Piranha is just a resprited Mother Brain (which is fireproof), that means the only way to damage it is to either throw a projectile at it (like a block or enemy) or have Yoshi eat an enemy & spit veggies out at it. Taking out the Nipper Plants makes no sense for 2 reasons. 1 - The original Naval Piranha fight from SMW2 actually had Nippers spawn from spores during the fight, since you needed to eat them in order to produce eggs. 2 - Mother Brain is a defenseless boss. Without other enemies & hazards, its not really a 'fight', much less a challenging one.

> So I'd go with the other suggestion on not making the fight dependent on whether you can keep an ice flower or not.

> Yoshi's Island plays by completely different mechanics from SMBX. Mario can't store projectiles to throw at stuff, once he uses it it's gone and he has to find another one to pick up. I'm not suggesting for you to remove Nippers to remove any generating enemy outright, I'm suggesting that you replace nippers with something else on the account that, due to their mechanics, they don't add much to the fight other than to be a nuisance. I also get how they can be used as ammo for the ice flower, but then you are back at the problem of power-up dependency. That's why I recommend removing them altogether and maybe replacing them with an enemy you can pick up and throw somehow.

You already have fire piranhas shooting from the boss's vines, so I don't think there is any reason to worry that the challenge would be drastically affected.
author=Animebryan
More video feedback:




Ahaha, thanks for trying out my W8 stage! I'm surprised someone was so diligent as to check all the pipes XD
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
Speaking of things from Yoshi's ISland, can we use the YI Yoshi graphics? I think they look much better than the SMW ones.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16948
I'll think about it. I don't want to bog the game down with too many files that need loaded for every stage.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=Solitayre
Speaking of things from Yoshi's ISland, can we use the YI Yoshi graphics? I think they look much better than the SMW ones.

The only reason I avoided those is because things like blocks/backdrops are a pain to use with this program. YI graphics generally have complex tilesets.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16948
They used them in Mario vs. The Moon Base, so finding them wouldn't be hard. I'll just need to look at the impact on load time. There are other graphics yet to be standardized, you see.
More video feedback:

Carps Against Humanity (v1.4) (W5) by NeverSilent:


Tempest Valley (v2.1) (W1) & Bill Bouncing in Billowy Blumes (v1.1) (W6) by pyrodoom:


Switch Swap Swamp (v1.1) (W1), Big Blooper Basin (v1.2) (W3), Searing Skull Stepping (v1.1) (W4) & Colonel Cryos Cavalry (v1.1) (W5) by Ratty524:



author=halibabica
I wouldn't dive into making changes to the boss right away, Bryan. From the look of things, it kinda needs an overhaul. I mean, there are ways we could make it work better with its current layout, but I think something more true to the original Naval Piranha would be much cooler. I could list out the issues with the current version, but Ratty covered them all pretty well.

So here's what I'm thinking: the Naval Piranha's weak spot is its little Adam's apple thing, and that's just above the surface of the water. Ice blocks slide along water, so we can replicate that aspect of the original fight. To do so, we need to make the body into Mother Brain instead of the head. The hit box will need tweaked (among other NPC flags), but I can help you with that.

If we do that, the head will need to be a different NPC; something that can't be killed by any means. I think we could actually change the properties of a donut block to make that work. Basically, the head would be indestructible and capable of hurting the player.

With those two NPCs in place, that would leave the boss' means of attack. Nippers are pretty much mandatory, but I wouldn't use SMBX's normal ones. We should dig up sprites of YI Nippers and replace Tweeter with them. The boss could shoot them forward from its mouth as a projectile generator. If I recall, the Naval Piranha's only other means of attack was to ram into you, and that can totally be done with layer movements. Mother Brain and the donut block can both be moved as layer objects, so it should work.

The big problem I foresee with all this is that it's very technical. I'd be more than happy to help you work through it all step by step 'cuz I think this boss would be absolutely worth it (and you'd probably learn a lot, too). I don't want to overstep my bounds with this bold suggestion, but I do want the bosses in this game to be something special. Let me know what you think of the idea and perhaps we can hammer out the details.


I definitely like the sound of this idea, as the reason why I decided on such a level & boss was to pay homage to the original YI, hence the YI styled graphics & music. The concept of how to beat Naval Piranha originally in YI crossed my mind when I was throwing those ice blocks along the water surface (and only ice blocks behave that way).

I don't think respriting the head into a donut block is such a good idea because I don't think you can stop a donut block from falling if you stand on it (and you saw how easy it was to get on top of it's head). Ironically, I decided to use the SMB3 version of the nippers instead of using the YI ones for no reason, but using YI ones makes more sense. But respriting a tweeter into a nipper makes no sense because you're not supposed to stand on top of a nipper & be able to pick it up & throw it.

As for moving Naval Piranha with layer movement, the editor has been trolling me a lot with layer movement (which not only plagued me with Barrel Volcano but also my world 6 boss level with airships, which I scrapped). If the movement can be done then that would be great (not sure how the bottom area would be set-up then). The only tricky thing is you helping me 'step by step', because I only get access to the internet Monday thru Friday between 8am-4pm, because I have to use my apts. computer lab, and this computer doesn't have SMBX on it. So it's basically get on the internet with no SMBX for the beginning of the day, then go home & work on SMBX until the next day.

But if we can make this work then I'm all for it. Btw, I highly recommend pushing the deadline again until at least the end of this month. I'm working on a world 8 level & then I want to make a world 9 level before submissions are cut off.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6299
Thanks for the feedback video, Animebryan! That was really useful to see how the level is actually being played by someone else than me as the creator.

A few direct responses to points that you made or issues you encountered:
- The spawning intervals on the fish-launching pipes around the first flower is definitely very high. Probably too high for an area right at the beginning, even if it's optional. I think I'll lower the fire rate of those pipes a little.
- The red shells in the unreachable area of the second flower are honestly just there for decoration, and maybe to hint at the fact that you need a shell to solve this secret. They probably are more confusing than helpful, though, so I should probably just get rid of them.
- The red shell in the first underwater section has a double function: If necessary, it is available to help the player get through the narrow tunnel with the fish swimming to the right. But if you can get it through there without using it, you can spit fire on that row of fish trapped inside the wall in order to get a 1-up.
- One more thing I noticed: For some reason, when you played the level, the breakable yellow blocks were still replaced with their blue equivalent, even though I removed them to avoid confusion as to their properties. I don't know why they still showed up as blue for you.

Thanks again for all the work you put into this testing! I really appreciate it.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Thanks for the test play of my levels, Animebryan! After seeing the vid on the Colonel Cryo fight, I'm wondering, halibabica, if you are thinking of reconsidering on making that a miniboss. The fact that the level is hard as is and the boss utilizes slippery floors into a wall of spikes, I think it'll be fine as a boss of its own by Mario standards.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16948
Well, Bryan, that is quite a predicament. I'll experiment with some stuff over the weekend and get back to you with some details for the boss fight. I guess you'll have to get old-school and jot down notes or something.
author=Animebryan
Tempest Valley (v2.1) (W1) & Bill Bouncing in Billowy Blumes (v1.1) (W6) by pyrodoom:

In case you don't see it, here's my response in the Youtube comments:
author=Joshua Wood
Tempest Valley:
It was a very, VERY minor update. Basically, I fixed a pipe. I may do another update to change that indent - I didn't think it was too problematic(doesn't seem to be, but still), but I thought having a fold would make it look a little more interesting. Of course, being the only fold in the stage probably makes it look VERY out of place, so meh. Really, the update was for someone who had an issue with a pipe.

Bill Bouncing in Billowy Brumes:
WTF. I THOUGHT I FIXED THAT!!!
I saw that big block turn into a red block, WHAT THE FUCK. ;-; I thought I took that graphic out!
Anyways, this part was actually kind of painful to watch, especially after the comment of "you need a more reliable way to get up there". The way you get up there? After the bullet bill passes you, run after it then jump at the bill. You should not fall to the lower platform where the first bouncing koopa was. Surprised you even got it from there.
Also, I noticed that too. It's a pretty weird thing, sometimes the koopas will despawn and respawn at random. Seems to only be SMW koopas, though. Hm.
Originally, instead of donut blocks I was going to heavily use the chasing shell because it's pretty hard to deal with any chasing enemy but it's fun when you use it properly to kill enemies. Eventually, I sort of changed things around when the rainbow shell didn't work out(Lakitu originally threw them... they kept killing bullet bills required to beat the stage).
No one else commented on that rule about mushrooms leaving the screen in my stage, especially not in that fashion. It was a suggestion in forum posts on the event page, not in the rules lists, that people were talking about the off-border stuff when it comes to keeping mushrooms from falling off screen. Not mushrooms actually FALLING off the stage. .3.
I was kind of a dumbass in my placement of some koopas it seems - I need to change one of those blue koopas into another cliff-turning koopa. Honestly, having a blue koopa in W6, especially on such an open stage as this, is redundant and... weird. Like, it BREAKS the stage.
I never intended that to be Agent Toad, but it makes sense. It'd probably be good to edit his dialogue so that he would seem more like Agent Toad to me. In one of the levels, he seems more like "incompetent comic relief" and I was thinking cool dude, so I was just gonna be like, "Hey dude, have these sweet power-ups I found!" or something next time I edited the stage.
Which should be soon, seems I've got some work to do with it.

Thanks for playing my levels in a video! :D
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18995
I decided that I was gonna make a level for whatever world was most lacking in levels, so I counted how many levels each world had >.< I decided to share it in case anyone else wants to make levels for a world that doesn't have enough.

W1 7
W2 6
W3 5
W4 4
W5 6
W6 2
W7 4
W8 4

I might have miscounted though, so if you notice that I did please lemme know.

World 6 it is. PREPARE FOR CLUTTER.

Edit: And I might also make a world 8 level afterwards since I have an idea.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=Frogge
World 6 it is. PREPARE FOR CLUTTER.

Please don't. :(
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16948
from Frogge
I might have miscounted though, so if you notice that I did please lemme know.

UPRC, in their good graces, is allowing me to keep their stages even though they had to drop out. Thus, the stage count for each world is as follows:

W1: seven
W2: eight
W3: eight
W4: four
W5: nine
W6: three
W7: five
W8: four
W9: two

from Animebryan
I highly recommend pushing the deadline again until at least the end of this month.

I have no intention of moving the deadline again, but I don't want that to discourage anybody. Do what you can before the day arrives, and if you have to submit an unfinished stage, that's okay. We can work out the details afterward because this project's post-event stuff will be extensive.
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
I think we overcompensated on World 5.
Punkitt
notorious rpgmaker 2k3 shill
3341
K, should I submit to every world except 5?
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18995
author=Punkitt
K, should I submit to every world except 5?


You'd be one hell of a life saver
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16948
from Punkitt
K, should I submit to every world except 5?

Start with 6 through 9, if you please. :3
made a simple easy World 6 stage in about 30mins today.

Donut Fall

Punkitt
notorious rpgmaker 2k3 shill
3341
Already have a W2 and W9 level 50% done, and snippets of others!