What will world 2 be like?

[cheat-master30]

I know I'm asking a lot for a game which currently has a demo of world 1, but do you have any specific world theme for world 2, or will there be an individual puzzle per level? Any ideas about what levels will go in this area?

Oh, and anyone who's wondering, I think the world 2 castle was this place:

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/medium/1_HauntedCastle.PNG

http://www.dsultimate.net/photoplog/images/1/large/1_HauntedCastle.PNG

I really want to hear Azura or ProtonJon's reactions when they see this level and the amount of freaking annoying ghosts and spikes... It will be hilarious.

So, any ideas about world 2?

[Zexis]

I think individual levels should have their own themes, because it allows for easier level design without being constrained to an ongoing world theme. I liked how all of the levels in the first demo had their own distinct design, and if the whole game is like that, you know we'll have shining final product when all is said and done. Though I've got a feeling it will take some time before the whole thing is done, and the more members that help out here, the sooner we can make some more progress.

[cheat-master30]

That's what I think as well with individual levels, but there's still a lot of sub themes that can exist even with a very general area theme. For example, a haunted world could have a mansion, cathedral, castle, forest and graveyard all with distinct level themes and puzzles, while a water level could have a boat, the bottom of the ocean, the surface of the ocean, an underwater cave, a submarine, etc.

[kyledude92107]

Exactly, Zex.

And they'll have their own puzzles and such. Not really a theme. <_<

I'll possibly take a stab at an underwater leevl. Problem I see coming, though, is that I'm ALREADY running out of memory space. =/

[cheat-master30]

Why you running out of memory space? *Bets it's because all the current level designs are long levels*.

I think that's probably why Wario Land 4 only had 18 levels in the game, because each level was the equivalent about 10 Super Mario World ones... But hey, you don't need a lot of space to make a game difficult and interesting. Never the less, I only really see a space problem potential with the castle designs, fortress designs, ghost house designs, Super Mario World Easter Eggs and Crescent Moon Village to be honest, since those seem like the longest and most complicated ones (the Easter Eggs one by far is probably the biggest level I've ever designed, and I understand it's probably rather complicated as a result).

[kyledude92107]

The thing is: I only have 120-some odd levels to work with. I've already used around 20. >_>

[kyledude92107]

I room = 1 level, BTW.

[cheat-master30]

My guess then is to shorten a few of the designs to a few less rooms each. For example, maybe I should remove about half the rooms in Super Mario World Easter Eggs to make it shorter so it only uses around 10 areas. From my quick calculations though, a few things about each of my designs and the room counts needed:

Haunted Castle- 3 areas. 2 for the inside, one for the roof.

Sherbet Land- 4 areas.

Syrup Castle- A lot. Probably 10 I'd say and I'll merge many of the rooms into larger, connected rooms.

Underwater Castle- 4 areas probably.

Crescent Moon Village- 3 if you can make a few levels seem like more, since there are only two distinct backgrounds used and three types of areas in the level (outside, inside, storm drain). Up to 7 if you need to link multiple areas together because you can't go from area 1 -> area 2 -> another part of area 1 etc. On the bright news... it's actually longer than it is in Lunar Magic, because the players have to get through the level TWICE to finish it.
The Mansion- Potentially only two levels, but size might be a limiting factor which says how many levels are needed. Another level though is needed for the Big Boo battle arena otherwise the Big Boo itself would cause either game crashing or major lag.
Haunted Forest- Potentially only ONE level, because the entire level has one set theme and background and sprite set...

So most of those shouldn't be too bad on level usage, I'm just a bit worried by two levels and their level usages; Super Mario World Easter Eggs (or you can just throw in whatever's left to make this) and Syrup Castle (we'll have to merge roughly 4 rooms into one 'level' in each section, because otherwise you'll use like a quarter of the available space for often rather small or empty rooms).

[kyledude92107]

I had to split up room one of Gimmick Castle into 3 because of size limitations, so... <_<

[cheat-master30]

I don't think there should be too many problems though, because the biggest levels are only a few of them, and hey, many of them should theoretically be quite small because the loop back around quite a few times.

[kyledude92107]

Loop back? What? >_>

[Zexis]

Perhaps he means that some of the screens will be used again? (i.e. Start at screen 1, go to screen 2, return to screen 1, go to screen 3 for boss...)

[cheat-master30]

Nope, I mean that each area fits as much path into as little space as possible. Note how the Haunted Castle uses quite little horizontal space for example, and even as a vertical level has really narrow passageways.

[kyledude92107]

Oh. Right.

[cheat-master30]

Yeah, hopefully that saves you a bit of room. Sorry if some of my levels are really long, that's because some of the coolest levels (Syrup Castle, Crescent Moon Village and Sherbet Land as examples) are based on the Wario Land series, which is probably only second to the Yoshi's Island series in 'absolutely enormous level length with fifty trillion secrets'.

[Zexis]

Worst case scenario, if we did run out of room with a good bit of the hack to go, we could always divide it up into two patches. Though it would still be better for it all to fit onto one, for convienience.

[cheat-master30]

That's what NintenDan did with his game, except he made it into four sections.

[kyledude92107]

I could do that, but the problem is, you'd have to play through the un-edited levels to get to the new ones.

Or I COULD make it so you could apply it to the already-patched ROM, if I think I can do what I'm contemplating.

[cheat-master30]

Could you make Mario start out in the right world in each version, and just make a lock out level to stop them accessing original levels?

Or you could just use six worlds, and you'd then have enough space for all the levels you want.