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
I really think there should be some kind of extention, maybe just for another 2 week?

1) We have very few boss levels (there are what, 3? 2?).

2) At a glance, there are still some worlds (I see world 4 being least in numbers) that are lacking in levels.

I recommend putting a submissions cap on some worlds right now (World 2 can be a priority here) and encouraging the participants to make levels for the more sparsely utilized worlds.

Also, Davenport, why are you submitting multiple World 5 levels? :|
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
Daven, you can only make one level per world. You can't have 4 world 5 levels >.<
author=Ratty524
Perilous Pipe Warehouse
+ I found this to be quite solid. Good use of secrets and the P-switch.

- Your background graphic pans weirdly. I think you need to assign it to a different background type that stays fixed on the screen.


Thanks for the input, Ratty! Which background would you suggest I replace for it??
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
I'd try either background 2-43 (SMW castle inside) or 2-54 (SMB2 warehouse). You'd need to edit whatever graphic you are using to fit within those sizes, though.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
@AnimeBryan: Have you considered another projectile for the player to throw at Naval Piranha? Fireballs shouldn't be its main weakness anyway since you can't guarantee the player will have a fire flower.

@Davenport: Like Ratty said, you can't have that many ice stages.

@pyrodoom: Don't sweat the deadline. If you can't quite finish something, I'm okay with you submitting it incomplete. Besides, there's a good chance of an extension anyway.

Feedback impending!
oh look
a pipe, to another update
the update that fixes a pipe
get it?
...
i'll go now

And also, thanks. I'm still curious about how long World 6 levels are suppose to be, though. .3. I'd probably say, the first part of the level should be about the length of a World 1 level(which I think would be the case), and then the second half the same. In Mario 3D Land and 3D World, that seems to be the case as well. When playing 3D Land's World 7, I got through half of the stage and was like "If this was World 1 I'd be done with this stage now"
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
Seiromem's Giga Funklen:

Now, 'Funklen' may be a nonsense word that means nothing, but at this point, I'm willing to say it refers to an overcrowded forest.

- Those big piranhas look really good, but I have a couple major beefs with them. First, they rise out of nothing; slowly, mind you, but there's no visual cue to their placement. Second, they take two hits to kill. This makes them a tremendous pain to get rid of, and killing them really slows the player's progress. Knowing Seiromem, there's probably a super-fast way past all these guys, but I don't expect the average player to find it. I'd like you to apply the NPC's sprites to a different NPC. Personally, I recommend a Spiny. Flag it for noyoshi=1 and speed=0, and that would solve both these problems.

- This forest is heavily overcrowded. I'm getting flashbacks to the original Funklen Forest. This is only W3, dude. Take out at least half the enemies and make the most of whatever's left.

- I was okay with the spear guys being immune to Yoshi, since that's more true to their YI counterparts anyway.

- If you want to use a Pokey that's safe to stand on, then leave it with its normal sprites. The pointy-topped one doesn't look safe at all.

- Getting to the flower after hitting the P-switch is easy, which is fine except it's a block by the time the player gets there. If they bust the block, that flower's gone forever. Put something on the P-switch layer that prevents the player from breaking the brick.

- I get that the hidden POW is helpful for beating the four big piranhas, but I don't see why it needs to be hidden. Why not leave it buried as a plant nearby? I'd like it further from the flower anyway; POW blocks can mess with those.

- The 5th flower is far too devious for W3. Don't make it so hard to obtain.

It's hard to say more with the place so choked with enemies. I'm not kidding about taking out half of them. This forest is far too busy for its own good, so bust out that eraser!

from pyrodoom
I'm still curious about how long World 6 levels are suppose to be, though. .3.
There's no length requirement for stages, but don't make them overly long. For flower collecting purposes, they really mustn't drag.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
Ratty524's Colonel Cryo's Cavalry:

You were really determined to get an auto-scroller in here, weren't you? ;P That's fine, it's a fitting one.

- Ugh, I hate the All-Stars version of this song, but you can keep it if you really want to...

- The stage starts out really mild for a W5 level. You could use a little more on the first couple screens.

- Why does the final tank scroll so far it can crush you? The screen will stop scrolling when it reaches the end of the section. Either shorten it up so this doesn't happen or allow the player to hop over the tank and find a secret in the back.

- That three-tile spike pit jump is too difficult. I get that it can be made with some momentum, but there's no cautious way to cross, and players are likely to try being careful before ramboing through. Nerf please; it's up to you how.

- The key doesn't need to be a generator because the game respawns them if they're lost.

- I love the graphics you made for Colonel Cryo! He looks like an icy subspecies of Cleft. It's just a shame that the fight is so short. It feels more like a mini-boss as it is, but that may be okay! I wanted to ask if you'd be all right with this guy having a castle at the end of W5 alongside this stage. It'd be as if he came after you with his tanks and was forced to retreat to his lair. That way, it'd be justified for him to be a mini-boss here and have a more elaborate battle later. Either way, I'd put one more tile in the floor so it takes three stomps to fall through.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
Ratty524's Switch Swap Swamp:

Switch block stages give me a headache, so I'm trusting you that this is 2P compatible.

- The drop down from the 2nd flower is completely blind. I know there's that little puddle to save you, but I think that's too devious for W1.

- How exactly are you meant to obtain the 3-up moon? At least stash a blue shell somewhere only Yoshi can grab it or something.

- The jump to the 5th flower is too hard to only be attempted once. If I were collecting flowers, reached this point and screwed up, I'd be royally irritated. Let the player climb out and try again!

That's about all. It's a nice W1 stage without too many troubles.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
Davenport's Wetlands:

So I guess you gave up on Serenade Forest? Well, then...this stage is actually pretty nice. It has a good aesthetic going for it and the platforming is pretty solid, too. Still, some things need fixed:

- It's nice that you like Windmill Hills' theme so much, but I'd rather not have the same custom track for more than one stage in the game.

- Where are your flowers? There are supposed to be five of them!

- Stop putting in red coins, I swear to God, dude.

- Some of your custom NPCs are questionable, but I can take care of that for you later ('cuz I'm a nice guy).

- The Dino-Torch is indeed spitting hammers. I'd just take these guys out entirely; they don't add much to this stage.

- The springboard above the lily pad is too high to reach if you have no power-ups. Lower it a couple tiles.

- The Bulborbs have no business existing here.

- You brought back those ugly piranha plants, though I'm sure you didn't mean to.

I love what this stage has going for it, but you really need to patch these things up!
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
Ratty524's Molten Mine Mire:

Okay, dude, I know my alliteration skills are simply beyond reproach, but that's twice now you've borrowed the island name in your stage title. This isn't even technically a mire (in the geographical sense)! Please please please put yourself to the test and come up with a different name. Same for Giga Growth Gulf; it just doesn't sit right.

- The early raft ride is rather dull. It's okay to have a slower start, but it could really use something else here. I'd move the Blargg up sooner and have a single podoboo where it was.

- I think the 2nd flower would be good down in the stomp hole beneath it. It's tricky enough to get down there, so the reward would be better.

I feel like I should have more to complain about, but I don't. Nice Chucks, dude!
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
Frozen's Frosty:

I like that the entire stage is slippery, even though it makes things a bit cumbersome. I only think the title should better reflect that the whole thing is iced over. "Frosted _______"; I can't brain right now.

- The bonus room at the start is an anti-secret. It's so painfully obvious, I wish it were in an unassuming pipe somewhere later in the stage. The exit warp doesn't have to be the same as the entrance, either.

- The 1st and 2nd flowers are extremely easy to get. Surely you can be a little craftier about placing them. I'm a bit burned out right now, so I have no suggestions.

- That hidden ice yoshi got me killed. You can't hide it there. Move it or make it visible.

- I love the sparkly koopas, but yoshi spits them out as fireballs (weird). If you used those sprites to replace a green SMB1 koopa, that'd solve the problem. You could even flag cliffturn=1 for them so they still behave like red koopas.

- The block kicking dudes are a cool addition, but they don't appear often enough to justify it. I'd either put in more of them or remove the few you already have.

- The pipe after the 4th flower is really conspicuous, but impossible to reach. You should remove it.

This stage is simple at a glance, but its slippery physics help it stand out more. I dig it.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=halibabica
Ratty524's Colonel Cryo's Cavalry:You were really determined to get an auto-scroller in here, weren't you? ;P That's fine, it's a fitting one.

- Ugh, I hate the All-Stars version of this song, but you can keep it if you really want to...

- The stage starts out really mild for a W5 level. You could use a little more on the first couple screens.

- Why does the final tank scroll so far it can crush you? The screen will stop scrolling when it reaches the end of the section. Either shorten it up so this doesn't happen or allow the player to hop over the tank and find a secret in the back.

- That three-tile spike pit jump is too difficult. I get that it can be made with some momentum, but there's no cautious way to cross, and players are likely to try being careful before ramboing through. Nerf please; it's up to you how.

- The key doesn't need to be a generator because the game respawns them if they're lost.

- I love the graphics you made for Colonel Cryo! He looks like an icy subspecies of Cleft. It's just a shame that the fight is so short. It feels more like a mini-boss as it is, but that may be okay! I wanted to ask if you'd be all right with this guy having a castle at the end of W5 alongside this stage. It'd be as if he came after you with his tanks and was forced to retreat to his lair. That way, it'd be justified for him to be a mini-boss here and have a more elaborate battle later. Either way, I'd put one more tile in the floor so it takes three stomps to fall through.

- It does kind of suck compared to the NES version and the remix, but I specifically chose it to better fit with the SNES aesthetic of the level.

- I think it's a habit of mine given that I'm sort of aiming for more "gimmicky" stages this time around, and I want players to warm up a little to the core idea of the level before wailing on them. Is this really a bad thing? Because at least from what I've played, there aren't many earlier airship/tank levels for earlier worlds that would set an example.

- To keep the player on their toes? A break happens immediately after, anyway. Why is that a bad thing?

- Will do

- I see. I forgot that's how keys worked.

- The reason he's short is because I figured the level itself would is hard, and given what you also have to do from the checkpoint position I figure players wouldn't welcome an elaborate boss fight to go with it.

In that regard, I wouldn't mind if he was reduced to a miniboss since he kind of feels a bit underwhelming, but I'm not sure; Mario bosses aren't made to be complex to begin with. Also, I original did test this fight with an extra line of bricks to destroy, and I felt it was going to be too tedious that way.

I'm glad you like the boss graphic though ^^ He was loosely inspired by the Paper Mario Clefts, though I sort of intended him to be an over-sized Freezie (perhaps enhanced by Bowser's magic?)

author=halibabica
Ratty524's Switch Swap Swamp:Switch block stages give me a headache, so I'm trusting you that this is 2P compatible.

- The drop down from the 2nd flower is completely blind. I know there's that little puddle to save you, but I think that's too devious for W1.

- How exactly are you meant to obtain the 3-up moon? At least stash a blue shell somewhere only Yoshi can grab it or something.

- The jump to the 5th flower is too hard to only be attempted once. If I were collecting flowers, reached this point and screwed up, I'd be royally irritated. Let the player climb out and try again!

That's about all. It's a nice W1 stage without too many troubles.


- Good call, I'll fix that.

- With a leaf from another stage... :x (You're against this sort of thing aren't you?)

- Am I the only one here who thinks it's okay for you to miss flowers as long as it's for a fair reason? I'll alter that area, though.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=halibabica
Ratty524's Molten Mine Mire:Okay, dude, I know my alliteration skills are simply beyond reproach, but that's twice now you've borrowed the island name in your stage title. This isn't even technically a mire (in the geographical sense)! Please please please put yourself to the test and come up with a different name. Same for Giga Growth Gulf; it just doesn't sit right.

- The early raft ride is rather dull. It's okay to have a slower start, but it could really use something else here. I'd move the Blargg up sooner and have a single podoboo where it was.

- I think the 2nd flower would be good down in the stomp hole beneath it. It's tricky enough to get down there, so the reward would be better.

I feel like I should have more to complain about, but I don't. Nice Chucks, dude!

- I literally have no other idea for a different name, though (what would describe underground magma raft rides?)

- My reasoning for this is similar to the situation with the first part of Colonel Cryo's Cavalry, but I think there is at least one other lava ride level among the batch and yeah, I'll try something better with this.

- I thought it was pretty easy to get down there on the account that all you need to do is spin-jump as a large mario/luigi, but maybe not compared to dodging a Chuck's attacks?
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
About the start of Cryo's Cavalry, it just feels really empty at first. I can understand introducing a gimmick mildly at first, but don't forget these stages' placement in the game overall. They can introduce their gimmicks without being totally tame at the start.

The issue I have with the tank crushing is that, traditionally, auto-scrollers always stop when there's nothing more to see. This one just keeps going, making it seem like there's more when there's actually just death.

Designing bosses is one of my favorite things to do in SMBX. I'd just like your permission to use Cryo again since I think he deserves more screen time.

No, I'm not cool with needing things from other stages to find secrets. The solution should be available somewhere in the stage itself.

Alt name ideas: Segmented Skull Surfing and Big Blooper Basin.

Derp, you're right it's easy to spin jump down there. It's much trickier to Yoshi stomp through, which was what I did. ^.^;
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=halibabica
About the start of Cryo's Cavalry, it just feels really empty at first. I can understand introducing a gimmick mildly at first, but don't forget these stages' placement in the game overall. They can introduce their gimmicks without being totally tame at the start.

Fair enough, I guess. The player would probably, by now, at least know how to jump over obstacles that'll hurt them.

author=halibabica
The issue I have with the tank crushing is that, traditionally, auto-scrollers always stop when there's nothing more to see. This one just keeps going, making it seem like there's more when there's actually just death.

I could name a few games where that isn't the case, but I guess you're right by Mario standards. Thinking about it, it's probably not that big of a deal to begin with.

author=halibabica
Designing bosses is one of my favorite things to do in SMBX. I'd just like your permission to use Cryo again since I think he deserves more screen time.

Sure!

author=halibabica
No, I'm not cool with needing things from other stages to find secrets. The solution should be available somewhere in the stage itself.

Why is this? For me personally, it allows stages to feel a bit more inter-connected rather than self-contained entities, but I guess that's inevitable in a game like this. It's not like the item you are getting is a required thing, anyway. It's meant to be a reward for the player's ingenuity.

author=halibabica
Alt name ideas: Segmented Skull Surfing and Big Blooper Basin.

The first kind of makes the level sound like it's a beach/water level, but I kind of like the other name.

author=halibabica
Derp, you're right it's easy to spin jump down there. It's much trickier to Yoshi stomp through, which was what I did. ^.^;

I mean, I'm actually fully aware you can do both, that was part of my reasoning for not putting a flower there: to demand a bit more of an actual challenge.
Seiromem
I would have more makerscore If I did things.
6375
author=Ratty524
Why is this? For me personally, it allows stages to feel a bit more inter-connected rather than self-contained entities, but I guess that's inevitable in a game like this. It's not like the item you are getting is a required thing, anyway. It's meant to be a reward for the player's ingenuity.


I think the main problem is that you don't know if any other stages within a reasonable distance from your level will actually contain a leaf to begin with.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=Seiromem
author=Ratty524
Why is this? For me personally, it allows stages to feel a bit more inter-connected rather than self-contained entities, but I guess that's inevitable in a game like this. It's not like the item you are getting is a required thing, anyway. It's meant to be a reward for the player's ingenuity.
I think the main problem is that you don't know if any other stages within a reasonable distance from your level will actually contain a leaf to begin with.

Not a bad point.
Seiromem
I would have more makerscore If I did things.
6375
Just updated all my levels with their newest versions and added a W5 level, Debilitating Depths, to the list!