A COLLABORATIVE LINK GAME IN SMBX

With the Create-a-Pokemon event running at the same time I probably won't be able to participate much, even though I said I would. I CAN be your guy for playtesting or giving info about Link since I've used him a lot and even developed a game built around him.

One comment I have, however:

2. The game is limited by what SMBX can do
-It's not like traditional Zelda games where you can get items permanently to unlock new areas or abilities or whatever. With SMBX there is no real permanence between levels (beyond your own character's powerups, which are lost once you get hit). The only thing that can really mark progress is a WORLD MAP and TRIFORCE PIECES (aka Stars).

Only issue with what I have marked in bold is that, to MY knowledge, you CANNOT change the HUD elements of the game. Even if you replace stars with Tri-Forces, it would still show up as a star on the HUD. You might also want to talk about how to handle keys, since Link in SMBX has no true "inventory" and can carry only one key at a time.

Ooh, I am so participating this!

Instead of collecting Triforce pieces, we should have Link collecting Force Gems (which are almost the same but not really).

And it would be awesome to have Zelda as a playable character too. Perhaps we could have levels specifically for her and other levels specifically for Link? (depending on how the plot goes) Peach (Zelda, w/e) and Link have rather different styles. A level made for Link might be too easy or hard (or impossible) as Peach/Zelda, and vise versa.

That's all the suggestions I can think of at the moment.

There's still have a few tiles I need to create/import into that starter pack, so I can post it later.

2. The game is limited by what SMBX can do
-It's not like traditional Zelda games where you can get items permanently to unlock new areas or abilities or whatever.

I have some world map ideas. One thing that I've had on my mind is the idea to create and area on the world map, a small island maybe. It has a few levels, one of which has it's exit point not on that island, but an identical looking island with different levels and maybe a new path to go to a different island. That way you can work towards getting the triforce on that island and when you do everything changes. If you go into the same towns, for example, the NPCs could be saying something different.

Although with that idea you need to keep the areas small and after a while it would get out of hand. So it's best used either for just a few areas at the start or for a short/small game.

I also made a stage to test Link's platforming to find out what kind of jumps work/don't work. Along with a few interesting ways to utilize his powerups. I'm busy right now but in the next few days I can work on this.

Any ideas on when the event will happen? I suggest either dec or jan. Mario Mansion and RMNW just finished, so I think there should be a break of SMBX stuff. Although I didn't really do much for either of them, so it's not like I need a break. Not sure if there will be a Christmas event, so ultimately I suggest Jan. But I'll do it whenever.

Ah, I like the sound of that open end date.

It's possible. You would just surround a treasure box with green switch blocks or something.

author=nin8halos
I don't think any of this applies to SMBX.

Games would be so much better if it did.

I suggest a secret bonus world that looks like Zelda 1. I made this graphics pack a while ago. It's not finished.


Heh, I tend to spend hours making graphics packs and then I never really put any effort into to making games out of them *shrugs*

There would be a fairly small world map, where each section is a single screen room and you move around like in the video. And there's a few Zelda 1 style dungeon entrances. When you go in, it's a level laid out like a Zelda 1 dungeon which is what people would make. People could suggest ideas for single rooms, but it would be the organizer that puts together the final overworld level like any hub in RMNBros. I guess you could have multiple level files connected to make the world map bigger depending on how many Dungeons there are. With a single level world map I'd say about 4 or 5 would be best.

Here's what I have for my testing area.


The first part is to see how many tiles Link can jump while running. Then I put blocks to prevent running, to see how he handles those jumps without space to run.

Next part is the same thing, bigger hurdles.

Standing jump height is 4 tiles. With a little bit of a run he can makes 5. Don't think he can do 6 at all, maybe with a full glowing run, never thought to check. So typically you'll want 3 high for easy platforming.

Then there's fairy testing. The biggest thing to master is momentum. What moment you press the button turn into fairy is very important because you keep the momentum from the jump.

You can press attack to sword cancel the fairy animation.

You can safely take a hit when in fairy mode. It cancels the transformation, I don't remember if you suffer the usual knockback. I don't think so. I go fairy as often as possible to take advantage of that. Also, I usually press attack to cancel the transformation if I got enough height out of it, instead of waiting for it cancel itself.

Then there's my patented Fairy Teleport™. Stuffing the fairy into a 1 tile space makes it teleport down. If you are in the permanent fairy transformation you might need to press up or down when inside the 1 tile space. You can see a few ways to use it successfully. It's a glitch but it's a predictable glitch. More so than with a Mario level you need to be very careful about where you have 1 tile spaces. If the space is near the bottom of the level you will die.

Then the Fire power. Not much here except the enemy I have in the bubble that drops the bridge. There is the climbing section after the door that shows good spacing to make that kind of platforming. haha The next section was a concept. I went a little overboard in this example. It lags worse in the video because I'm recording, but I have too many npc's there anyways. When the bullets are out it's just too much to have in one area.

Typically the color of enemy dictates what projectile will kill it. You need to hit it with the opposite, same color is ineffective. Sword beam kills all. I don't think there's even a flag to prevent that anyways.

The next part is a level concept that I really like. Getting powerups changes the level and you have to choose the right one to pass obstacles. This example is very linear but it would be cool in a non-linear dungeon. I will be making a level using this concept. The falling blocks only work when you do a few at a time. They are NPC's, so if you have too many at once it will lag. It only lags cause I'm recording, when you play it runs smooth. They don't kill you if they land on top of you, they push you aside.

Then all kinds of general tile usage. It's mainly just to show off all the tiles and npc's. The items are meant to change the level, usually by manipulating layers. This is how I envision some of them which can be altered a bit, but I suggest that the Power Glove stay the same throughout the game as I have it. I encourage everyone to make use of it!

List of some of the "features":

Raft - Affects water levels are shows the raft layer somewhere. When you stand on the raft an invisible event moves the raft.

Red/Blue Switch - 2 layers, 1 is ON the other is OFF. When you hit the switch it toggles them both.

Firepit thingy - Can only be activated by being hit with a fireball. It needs to be in a place that you can't reach with your sword, because that would light the fire. It's an NPC with it's flag set to firekill. When you kill it, it's layer turns off and shows the layer of it lit. Also triggers something else like a path opening or showing a layer or something. I can't remember if the sword beam activates this, probably does since it will kill the NPC. It still makes sense, kinda, but I don't think it can be prevented anyways.

Power Glove - There are blue blocks that can't be hit. They are on the layer POWERGLOVE OFF. When you get the power glove it shuts that layer off and turns on layer POWERGLOVE ON, which replaces them with destructible blocks. Usually only works once, but could potentially be limited. So when you go through an area that you used the Glove, it turns off the PG ON layer and they all go back to blue, allowing you to require the player to find multiple gloves in a level.

Red Eye - They are reskinned ghosts that you can stand on and ride into the sky. They aren't supposed to hurt you but I think in a certain situation they can. I don't remember exactly how or if that can be fixed.



I might have some other useful things in my other levels, but that's everything in my test area.

I don't know nothin' about nothin', but I'm willing to make a level.

I'll make at least one level.