Super Mario Legacy, [A 3D Fangame] ENGINE TEST DEMO POSTED

Super Mario Legacy


Updates:

July 20th
Engine Test Demo



Original Post
A few days ago, I decided to continue work on Super Mario Legacy again. In case you don't know what Super Mario Legacy is, SML is my 3D Mario fangame written in Blitz3D. Anyway, after completely rewriting the engine from scratch (wall collision is now perfect) and adding in some new features, here are some screenshots.

NOTE: These screenshots are now outdated, as of June 20, 2008.






Graphics are now in Paper Mario style, with all characters now being 3D sprites. In case you're wondering why the Goomba has a ! over his head, this is because he's detected Mario and is now homing towards him.



The Toad says to hit the ! block to make the bridge appear. Let's see if it works. (Yes, I know the speech bubble isn't aligned correctly.)



Wow, a bridge! =P



At some points in the level, the camera will move back and smoothly change into a 2D view. Mario can only move 2-dimensionally too. Later, it changes back to 3D.



? blocks and fire flowers! The fire flowers don't work yet, though, but the ! block and bricks do.

Other features not shown:

- Triple jumping
- Dynamic NPCs (the Toad runs off over the bridge when you open it for him)
- Smooth third-person camera, much better than the last demo's
- Killable goombas? =P

After I add more features, including moving platforms, I'll post a video of the engine. Comments and criticism on this are welcome. Hopefully this will turn out much better than the last version.

This post has been edited by MrGuy on Jul 21 2008, 11:53 AM

Hmm... this seems "inspired" from Super Paper Mario -- am I assuming correctly here?

Actually, the whole "going into 2D" thing was part of the original vision I had for this game. The Super Paper Mario graphics were just chosen because they fit the Paper Mario style (which I chose so I didn't have to be limited by the amount of available 3D models).

This post has been edited by MrGuy on Jun 20 2008, 08:32 PM

Looks interesting, to be sure. Kind of reminds me of Game Maker's 3D capabilities.

Sounds like you've got some quite interesting features implemented, too.

Are all the graphics in this game from SPM except for the ! block and the life meter? Because I'm not sure, and I'm curious as to where those ? block graphics are from. (I've never played SPM.)

This looks good! I am glad you are working on this game again.

Cool, but I think the other graphics were better.

They're custom by Jay.

PS. No offence, but those screenshots are what I'd call a severe eyerape. Such a big crime.

This post has been edited by hohoo on Jun 22 2008, 11:54 AM

Yeah, they're Jay's customs.

Also, how are those screenshots severe eyerape?

Engine Test Video

You'll probably see a bunch of new things and other little touches that weren't in the screenshots. I'd especially like comments from people who didn't like it last time; from the video, does it seem any better? (obviously you can't critique level design in this, because it's an engine test level =P) I personally think that the new engine is much smoother than the last demo's.

This post has been edited by MrGuy on Jun 24 2008, 11:18 PM

This is one of those times were it just feels like it's a gimmick being in 3D. It doesn't look like it plays that well, animations are stiff, and the camera not rotating seems like it'll really be a nuisance.

That is really

really

cool looking


Reminds me of Crash Bandicoot's 3D in a way

Looking forward to the final game :D

Guess 3D does amaze people easily though.

Yeah because it's really hard to do


The game also looks like a lot of fun to play

I dunno I guess that's just my opinion

The animations are coming straight out of the N64 Paper Mario, with all the original frames intact. I'm also working on a new camera system, so hopefully I'll be able to fix that. The video shows a temporary fix, where objects become semitransparent when they're obstructing Mario. I was also thinking about combining this method with an inverse fog effect (objects get more transparent when they're close to the camera), but if I can fix the camera system then this won't be necessary anyway.

What would you suggest to make it play better? I need all the help I can get here; I don't want it to be like the last demo, where it was recieved well on the forums, but when I put it up on the main site it got bad reviews. I've been trying to fix the many flaws detailed in the reviews (Black Squirrel's in particular was very helpful), but I know there's still a long way to go.

Razz: Thanks. People also said it reminded them of Crash Bandicoot when I posted the last demo =P

This post has been edited by MrGuy on Jun 25 2008, 03:24 PM

the walking animation needs to be faster and "bounce" more, because otherwise it looks really stiff.

I miss the 3d stuff.

It had to go, so that I could add more enemies and other things that would make the game actually fun. If I could I would keep it.

It looks like the land is floating in the air.Are all levels like this?

No, that was just an engine test level so I didn't make it look like it wasn't floating. I could easily fix that, though (theoretically; I haven't actually tested how it works yet).

I have World 1 all planned out, I just need to program it all in, with more enemy types and etc. Also, I tried to fix the walking animation, but if I added in bouncing it looked jerky, so all I did was make it faster.

Engine Test Demo!

New things include:

- Basic World 1 Hub (which will later be expanded)
- Title Screen
- Gradually Displaying Text (PM-style)
- Speed Shoe Powerup
- Changes to Camera System
- and more!



Controls are:
- Arrow keys to move
- Space to Jump
- Z to talk to NPCs

Any other controls will be explained by the NPCs themselves or other text, so talk to them =P

Comments and criticism are welcome, as always.

This post has been edited by MrGuy on Jul 21 2008, 11:53 AM