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This is a short collection of Ghost House levels made in SMBX under the aegis of Deckiller and Solitayre, with contributions from several other kind users. It is a sequel to last year's event, Mario's Mansion. This time, we kept it small; those who wanted to make a level hunted us down ;)

Kamek, the evil wizard, is now a ghost and has been tracked to a massive ghost house. It's up to Mario to infiltrate and navigate through various areas within the mansion until he finds Kamek and finishes him off once and for all! There are 12 levels and 11 stars; you need 9 to reach the final level.


The Mansion by Deckiller
Graveyard by Solitayre
Chilly Cellar by Jackalotrun
Ghostly Ballroom by Solitayre
Out of the Frying Pan by Deckiller
Falling to Pieces by Kentona
Lost Library by Solitayre
Greyhouse by Deckiller
Ghosts Spring Eternal by Kentona
Scarelevator by Deckiller
Trapped Tower by Jackalotrun
Clock Tower by Solitayre
Kamek's Keep by Solitayre


Thanks to Archeia_Nessiah, Link2112, and nin8halos for contributing graphics (in addition to the ones already in the standard SMBX Graphics Pack)! Other recolors, level edits/fixes, and graphical odds and ends done by the rather graphically incompetent duo of Deckiller and Solitayre.

To play this game:
1. Download SMBX (if you don't already have it installed).
2. Download the Mario's Mansion 2 game from this gameprofile.
3. Copy the zip file to the SMBX worlds folder.
4. Unzip the game to that folder.
5. Start SMBX and click Start Game.
6. Select 1 Player and then select Mario's Mansion 2 from the list.

Latest Blog

The Creation of a Mansion

The Creation of a Mansion
Some notes about the creation of Mario's Mansion 2

As you see, this wasn't really a true community game but rather a sort of accident spawned by the All Hallows Event page.

So it kind of started as a joke. When we made the All Hallows Event page, I added Mario's Mansion II as the first entry just to get something on the list. At the time there were no serious plans to make another ghost house game. I added Kentona and Solitayre for the lulz. But I like sequels (and so does Liberty), so plans started to swirl. Solitayre and I began talking, and I even mentioned it to Kentona and Link2112, and before you knew it, we decided to make a small series of ghost house levels within the context of a larger mansion. Jackalotrun and some others PM'd me about doing levels after they saw the signups on the event page, and before you knew it we had a project in development!

The goal was to keep it small and simple: 8-12 levels with a boss at the end. Link2112 mad some really cool graphics (though we only ended up using a few of them for time/real-world constraints), and I asked Nessiah to make a chef boo hat (which I swear I'll include soon!). I asked nin8halos for that cool skeleton lotus he used in SMB3's Blood Ocean level. Some other graphics were taken from the traditional SMBX Graphics Pack and were recolored or edited slightly. Jackalotrun made the first 2 levels relatively quickly, which lit a fire under the rest of us. Solitayre began cranking out levels faster than the speed of light, and I pumped out about a level a week for the month. Kentona did his in about 2 hours one evening.

Soli and I wanted to make sure the game had enough variety, and we wanted a few levels that didn't fit the traditional Ghost House mold (like Greyhouse, Graveyard, Clock Tower, and so on). We wanted a balance of puzzle, platforming, hot, cold, wet, horizontal, and vertical. The idea was that each level would fit within the context of the mansion (ballroom, corrupt greenhouse, elevator) but still have its own identity and feel. I think we succeeded on this front, in part due to design but also due to luck: Kentona and Jackalotrun injected a lot of variety between their levels. Kentona's levels looked the same, but they played very different: one was a platformer and one was a puzzle-solver. Jackalotrun had a fun trap-like gimmick in his first level, and then switched gears to some slippery ice platforming in his second. Thanks for the contributions!

Initially Solitayre had the idea of re-skinning the world map graphics to a ghost house interior (sort of like how TT2 did Bowser's castle), but the idea fell through and we went with a small hub instead. If we do this again in the future, we'll probably have "slots" for each room and ask people to fill them - that way the mansion is more planned out and each room has a true identity instead of an implied one.

In short, I guess you could describe the development of this game as a hybrid: it was sort of on the seat of our pants, but we had an idea of where we were going. I like this approach because it's not completely random and scattershot, but it also isn't rigid to the point of sacrificing interesting ideas for the sake of the plan.

I'm pretty happy with the results, but there are certainly things I could've done better on my end if I were more competent or had more time. Hopefully you guys enjoy it!

Thanks to everyone for your help, support, and contributions!

Posts

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Definitely gonna play this today.
Best thing about this game is that it has a good balance of platforming as well as good ghost house levels, something that the first didn't have and the reason I never even tried the first, so i'm impressed...
One or two hits away from killing Kamek... Get hit, oh don't worry I got a checkpoint, out of lives (Even though there's two lives for free in the hub)
I'll never forget that one...
I couldn't get too far :/ I can't figure out how to beat Kentona's first level, it just keeps repeating heh (PM me a hint or something) and Deckiller's Frying Pan level lags bigtime. It's probably the music, because the music wasn't playing. Actually, I can edit the level and check...yep, when I change the music it doesn't lag. The custom music played in the editor, but as soon as I press test play I get no music and lots of lag.

The save files were left in, too.

The levels were fun. Maybe a little too many door returns, I did that in one of my levels before and I can see how annoying it is xD and the 1 tile stairs annoy me too. Especially when you have to climb an entire screens worth. Try 2 tile steps or resprite the angle pieces to look like steps so we can just walk right up. Nintendo hasn't done 1 tile stairs since the first game, I think.

I'll finish the rest later and upload my playthroughs.
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


SPOLARS:

Carry the p-switch to the top floor and run far enough to the right to "warp", then quickly backtrack to get to that unreachable platform. Hit the p-switch to reveal SECRETS
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
Whoops! I left the save files in, I'll fix that. If anyone else reports lag I can remove the custom music.

Edit: version 1.1 posted, featuring deleted save files.
@kentona - what switch?

just got the video uploaded so take a look for yourself. maybe we're talking about different levels or i'm missing something :o

Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
SPOILER

The p-switch is in an invisible block.


Edit: if Frying Pan lags for anyone else, please let me know and I'll remove the music and re-upload~
author=Deckiller
The thing is in a thingy thing.

spoiler alert :P

and it's in a thingy thing? that's so lame, dude!
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
Hey I didn't make the puzzle ;)
author=Deckiller
Hey I didn't make the puzzle ;)

haha yeah, that second comment was directed at the fella who did
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
I always enjoy watching people solve my ghost levels.

kentona's Falling to Pieces is a really clever level. It took me a few minutes to solve it the first time.
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
author=jackalotrun
Best thing about this game is that it has a good balance of platforming as well as good ghost house levels, something that the first didn't have and the reason I never even tried the first, so i'm impressed...
One or two hits away from killing Kamek... Get hit, oh don't worry I got a checkpoint, out of lives (Even though there's two lives for free in the hub)
I'll never forget that one...


Haha, yeah the boss is a decent challenge, I thought! Thanks for contributing two good levels!
author=Deckiller
author=jackalotrun
Best thing about this game is that it has a good balance of platforming as well as good ghost house levels, something that the first didn't have and the reason I never even tried the first, so i'm impressed...
One or two hits away from killing Kamek... Get hit, oh don't worry I got a checkpoint, out of lives (Even though there's two lives for free in the hub)
I'll never forget that one...
Haha, yeah the boss is a decent challenge, I thought! Thanks for contributing two good levels!

Thanks...
Alright, time to crack down and smash my way through the last level...

Beat it....
God that final battles a pain, injury after injury...
Just 2 levels left... The Falling To Pieces one and that Goddamn Ballroom one...
Kill me...

And a final elipse just for good measure...

Beat it...
I give my commendation to Solitayre's Clock Tower
The level just was plain epic, even the music was (Compared to Mario's aggravating corny music)
And most annoying level DEFINITELY is his Ballroom Dance which plain irritated me, and when I figured out that the little platform wasn't there for show I was proper annoyed, there wasn't really much to give you a little hint and to be honest only guesswork got me there...
Okay, rant over, everything else was brilliant 'cept that damn library {sigh}
Think you did a good job Deckiller...
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
If you're REALLY stumped, check out the video I posted!
Falling To Pieces, first challenge
Epic puzzle, well thought out...
Kentona did a pretty damn good job, once i'd figured out those insta-warp things were there it was a piece of cake...
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
Awesome! What did you think of Greyhouse, Out of the Frying Pan, and Scarelevator?
Greyhouse made an excellent change from the rest of the levels and equally challenging to boot, Out of the Frying Pan was pretty good if not extremely random and Scarelevator was again a brilliant addition to the compilation...
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
Haha, there was actually a method to the randomness. The boos will have chef hats. The first area is like an oven, and the second area is like a freezer. The vegetables are food. It's like a kitchen of sorts! Hence the pots of vegetables.
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