"Super Princess Peach: Operation - Toad Rescue", Our princess is on the case again!

Hi there, everyone -- yours truly has been working on two fangame projects, and one of them is making great progress for me to announce it here on MFGG (and at my fangame headquarters website afterwards). This one is targeted for those of us who are fans of the #1 princess of the Mario series', I'm happy to announce Super Princess Peach: Operation - Toad Rescue! I was inspired by gameplay videos that I saw of Lock and Chase (for the Gameboy), as well as hoping to keep the Super Princess Peach enthusiasm alive -- but with some changes, but more on that later. :P

Right now, let's get to the main details.

Story:
Peach will explain the story for us in her point of view in the game itself - but the main scenario is this: Months have passed since Peach and her friend Perry journey to Vibe Island to help rescue Mario, Luigi, and the captured Toads from the hands of Bowser. The problem was, as the months passed, Bowser's jealously of Peach still hasn't simmered down, even after he got the K.O. from Peach herself. So, one night, he assembled his army to get his revenge on Peach, the Toads, and all of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Thankfully, as Peach will tell us, she was away on her daily stroll to meet with friends while this commotion was going on. However, as she was returning back to her castle, Perry noticed her approaching and rushed to meet her, in a frantic mood. He says:


...and worse, he also says that Bowser's army was looking for her too! Talk about a close call, huh? Regardless, Peach rushes to the investigate to notice her castle... empty. No one was there. Not even Toadsworth, or any of her main friends in the castle. Perry confirms the commotion he saw during the course of Peach's absence -- and as you can tell, being captured by Bowser is one thing, but when you hear news about your own Toads being captured, Hades is about to break loose. Case in point:


Peach declares: "[The Toads] need my help. I'VE GOT TO GET THEM BACK!" And that that point, Peach is now in hot pursuit after the Toads, as well as those responsible for their raiding her castle and capturing them. However, she knows she can't do it alone, so she's calling on us to help in the cause by guiding her through many locales to rescue the Toads that have been captured, and ultimately, bring the antagonists to justice. As Peach tells us at the end of the intro to this story: "This rescue operation... starts now!" Will it be a success? The decision is up to us -- her supporters!

I'll update the second post later when I get home, but for now, here are two screenshots from gameplay itself showing that the game itself is in production phases:





I'll move these to the second post later where I'll post the details about how this "game" will work. But what I CAN tell you is some of the stuff that we have encountered in the original (and official) Super Princess Peach game -- won't happen here (the two screens above may be self-explanatory, but it doesn't hurt for me to clarify on those things later).

This post has been edited by M. C. Productions on Jul 8 2009, 12:18 AM

Okay, here's the game plan for how this will work:

There will be a total of 8 levels, separated into six sections each. Each section will have a certain amount of Toads that are "pleading" for Peach's help to rescue them before Bowser's army takes them away. It's our job to help our lead gal out by finding those Toads and picking them up. Once all Toads have been accounted for in a current section, then the section will be "cleared". Sound easy, right?

Well, almost. As I said, I was inspired after seeing videos of "Lock & Chase" for the Game Boy. Which also brings in the "problem" at hand -- Bowser's army already got word that Peach is in hot pursuit after the Toads to get them back. And they're standing in the way to make sure that our rescue attempts FAIL every time.



Now, here's the thing -- in THIS game, there are some things that are going to be a little different than the "official" Super Princess Peach game - which in my opinion should have been placed in there - including the following:

(1) Peach's Health Meter - This was all right; they're still represented by the hearts that we saw in the original Super Princess Peach game. However, this time, we've got a maximum of four hearts... which brings me to the other thing that was missing from the original game...
(2) Lives - Yep, remaining lives. They're shown on the bottom left corner of the screen. On a side note, the Peach icon that represents how many lives we have remaining -- that's also animated -- since she's also supporting us in the cause of helping her out on this task (just like Peach's "Normal" animation in the original Super Princess Peach game). PLUS, when a section gets cleared... let's just say she REALLY gets supportive. Also, we all know the "standard" -- if Peach's health meter hits zero -- our Peach gets "K.O.'d" out of the scene, and a life gets taken away. And yes, there's an animation for that too.
(3) Treasure Boxes - Yep; sadly no "vibes" here -- IMO, somehow it was a bit insane in the original game. However, in each section, treasure boxes are scattered around waiting to be opened -- including a "Heart" (replenish one unit of Health), a "Stopwatch" (freeze all enemies), and a "Star" (become temporaily invulnerable).

If you clear all six sections of a current set, you've cleared the stage and will get a password to unlock the next set.

Aaaggghh... almost forgot...
(4) Peach's "Heads-Up" (just like in the original S.P.P. game)!

If there's anything that Peach notices that is worth alerting us over - she'll give us a "heads-up" when we start the said section. It can be anything from how to approach certain situations, enemy alerts, etc. They're always shown on the top of the screen whenever it is necessary.

Other features planned:
(1) Options Area - Customize starting lives, select amount of continues (up to four)
(2) Once game has finished, I've obviously got to deal with doing the game instructions (which Peach will also explain in the game)

Now here are all of the first screenshots that I've uploaded so far (including the ones I demonstrated earlier):



GAME DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS:
MAIN ENGINE: Finalized
OPTIONS AREA: Finalized, just need to do the Music Room and Credits section after main game is finished
STAGE SETS COMPLETED: 1
LEVELS TO COMPLETE FOR CURRENT STAGE SET: 2 for the Stage 2 Set
REMAINING STAGE SETS TO DEVELOP: 6

ADDITIONAL LINKS:
Game page at my fangame website
Discussion topic at my forums

This post has been edited by M. C. Productions on Jul 9 2009, 12:39 AM

This looks pretty interesting, but at its current stage, it looks pretty unprofessional. Maybe its the use of graphics, but I dont know.

All right; updated both first two posts now -- first details should be self-explanatory. If there's anything that needs to be clarified, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Hopefully I can put this same media on my fangame site during the course of tomorrow too; I'm too tired to deal with it right now.

Reminds me of Croc

run around collecting helpless little guys as they plead for your help

Get a better tileset and font, and make the boxes and HUD look nicer.

Just a few tips.

Never heard of the game. :P As I said earlier, I only heard about Lock & Chase for the Gameboy. Very addictive game as far as I know.

@thingy: In terms of "boxes", are you referring to the treasure boxes that are scattered in each section waiting to be opened?

I think thingy means those pink and white boxes surrounding the HUD and text and stuff. I have to agree, you should use a tileset more fitting for an RPG, and you could probably use a better font for the text.
And now that you mentioned it, you SHOULD get better tresure chests because they dont fit in at all.
Another thing that bothers me is that Peach is the only one with RPG styled poses, while everything else looks more fitting for a 2D sidescroller game. Might want to fix that.

The thing is this -- this is not an RPG game, per se. As I said earlier, viewing gameplay of the Lock & Chase game inspired me to go this route. And number two, if I were to go the route of the original Super Princess Peach game (side scrolling action) - it would be a big mistake on my end.

Also, about the HUD - that what I could think of when I was dealing with the game engine itself - which is finalized, thank heavens. The box HAD to be pink to keep with Peach's "theme", and at least the hearts from Super Princess Peach are there, as well as the Toad sprites from the game. I'm still optimistic about this.

Got a long ways to go on the development -- as I stated earlier, EIGHT sets have been planned for this game.

It looks interesting.
You should pick one style to go around, though. Maybe Mario & Luigi styled.
It seems like Peach, the titleset, and the enemies don't really fit in together.

It looks interesting enough, but the mix of graphics (including the font) just isn't good right now.

Actually - the main/enemy sprites are from Super Princess Peach, I can tell you that much (including that health meter). I would imagine for those of us who have played the Super Princess Peach game itself (and maybe still do) may notice the familiar style of Peach and the enemies. :P

As for the M&L style suggestion -- you know, I actually have the Peach M&L sprite sheet on my computer, but for another game project. I'm still hoping to deal with engine work on that project after finishing the Stage 2 set, and maybe the set for Stage 3 for the S.P.P.: O.T.R. game I'm doing now.

I have played Super Princess Peach. It was a 2D platformer. This game is not a 2D platformer, therefore the sprites are not going to fit.

I'm still optimistic on this one, though - as long as the gameplay itself matches the intentions. Did you actually read the second post as to what prompted me to create this to begin with?

At least I'm trying to keep the "Super Princess Peach" spirit - but in a normal fashion (time stop, invulnerablilty - which is triggered after opening treasure boxes).

Anyway, I'm still forging on with the Stage 2 set -- was hoping to relay info onto my site; but hit certain roadblocks. >_>

Sorry for said delay, but those who are curious about said progress about the game itself - I placed in said info in the second post of this thread. As you can tell, I still have a long ways to go on this project.

Plus, I have place same info on my website (located here) and have also put a development topics on the site forums (which can be found right here). These same links are also in the second post.

Once again, still trying to find time to do the last two sections to complete the Stage 2 Set. I've been hit with many roadblocks lately. o_O

Okay, to those of you Peach supporters that have been keeping tabs on how I'm doing on this project, just a few quick things for this update:

(1) Stage sets 1 and 2 have been finalized since a while ago, and I am currently working on the Stage 3 set at this time (I have the first three sections for it done, just have to deal with the latter three now). Here's a screenshot that I just posted on my site to show proof of the matter that I'm on the job with it:

(This is one of the sections from the Stage 3 set I'm currently working on; the locale is the Desert Ruins. More details on that can be found on this entry I put up on my site moments ago.)

(2) I currently have plans to feature a demo version of this game at this year's Nintendo Community Fangame Convention. Nothing's set in stone yet, but I hope to make more progress development wise so that those of you who are Princess Peach fans can check to see how the game's coming along.

(3) The important piece of news -- because of news of these forums transitioning to a new system, I won't be posting any more updates on this thread; however, I will make a thread on the new system once it's up and ready for action. As always, if you're a fan of Princess Peach herself and interested in discussing said game project with me, you can chat about it right here on my forums.

That's all for this update, everyone! ^_^

Just a quick update to let everyone know that this project of mine is not dead - but there is some news that I need to share with you folks.

First up, on the game itself -- I am still making headway on the Stage 4 set of this game; it's just that I was faced with a roadblock with getting my fangame site and forums onto a new server. I'm still hoping to get off my rear and finalize this set so I can see about getting a demo ready for the Nintendo Community Fangame Convention later this month.

Which brings me to another thing -- the info pages and such about this game have now been moved to here. Link to existing screenshots can be found at the respective link -- and I'm still dealing with getting the development topic at my forums there back up. (EDIT: The topic is now available right here.

Now to get back to some REAL developing business with this game... I've waited too dang long to make progress on this thing... >_>

I don't think the download link works. Sadly I didn't read anything.

Uh... I'm drawing a blank. I didn't say that a download was available for this game yet (at least for the demo version because I've yet to work on that after I finish the Stage 4 set in the main game file).

I guess I should have read.