Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Obligatory Mission Statement

This is my mission statement for the Metroid Classic project.

First up, I recognize that Metroid has been ported to death, and that includes GBA/DS/Wii/Gamecube/PC ports (Yes, PC has been done. It's called Metroid Cubed). My goal is not to construct a simple port and recreation. That's just the first step...

The first goal is to get a functioning Metroid game working, playable from beginning to end. This will also come with a level editor which is pretty much 100% necessary to make the original game without my head exploding.

The second goal is provide modability, and that goes beyond the level editor. When making Super Metroid Classic (notice how Salty's MeTroid Conventional can still be SMTC :D ) I developed a 90% complete scripting engine complete with custom variables, functions, and the like. It never hit total functionality and I doubt many people did much with it, but it will make a return this time.

Expect this modability to also feature cool stuff like new items, enemies, and bosses too. And probably even scripted cutscene features like Super Metroid had. Those of you who saw Super Metroid Classic knew that this was mostly done as well.

The third goal is to upgrade to Metroid II: Return of Samus. Despite what you may think, Metroid II is not a major change from Metroid I, and both could easily work within the same engine. They're both 8 bit after all. I would, however, need someone to grab the graphics from Metroid II and color them so they don't look ugly.

The fourth and final objective would be upgrading this engine to Super Metroid levels. Once again, this is not that large an upgrade from Metroid I and II. The problem with Super Metroid Classic was that it was a major programming feat and I was an amateur programmer, but this time I'm not and I'm taking it in small chunks.

Intermediate objectives include interesting things like netplay (more on that later) and complete custom scenarios. I recall a lot of people making hacks for Metroid to make it harder or more baffling. I figure such scenarios would be more enjoyable in the SMTC built-for-PC engine.

So that's it. A list of my plans and what you can expect in the near future. Keep in mind that right now we're in an alpha phase. Expect some screenshots and possibly videos uploaded to youtube demonstrating my progress sometime next week.

6 comments:

  1. I forgot about all these Metroid projects I used to watch. Glad to know one of them is still making progress.

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  2. Pete here, reporting in live from the UK!

    Can't believe crimson changed his name... tut.

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  3. Go ahead, man. If you need any kind of help, just ask. I still have your email and you once mailed me the sources. Did a little work on them to port it to the DS but in the end it would have been better to start anew... Any way, keep on it. Your plan is extremely interesting and will provide the framework for other people to complete other Metroid remakes (should you grow tired again, which happens with these projects)

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  4. It's been way too long! It's Sammo, the annoying little idiot from the channel ;P

    My mom snipped my internet around the same time that SMTC disappeared. I had even planned on tinkering with it too...oh well. Now I'm on with my own projects and even though it's Basic, it will work flawless.

    But yeah, I still exist and I can't wait until the project gets running again!

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  5. Nice!!!
    I'm in programming now myself, so I'm definitely willing to help!

    BTW, this is Jaxspades...I think that was the name I used on the old boards; At least its what I have used for a long time.

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