Turns out that Newer also beat me to the punch with the whole 'bouncing on large wigglers through poison water' thing.

Hey  skawo, just how much of the level design in Newer is your own? It's very creative, to say the least.

Pic of the Week - Week 23



You basically already saw this scene in the latest trailer, but I've come to start snapping development pics about a month or so before I post them, so... yeah.

Though I have a question to ask for people who have a DS flashcart. Does the Demo Version of this hack run on your flashcart? I noticed recently that my flashcart was crashing on startup with the Master ROM, and I want to know what's causing it, and if this bug occurred before or after the demo came out. I can get the ROM running on an my old, old DS flashcart that only works on DS/Lite, but I can only use one or two pipes before the game crashes on me.

I have a theory that it might be because I've accidentally at one point enabled DLP-friendly mode, even though I had no intention of using it. I've disabled it now, but I'm not sure if the damage can be undone. Plus side, however, is that the hack is still running perfectly on emulators.

Random Progress Report, just 'cuz:

1. The Bug I had encountered has been fixed. The ROM now works on any flashcard that supports NSMB hacks.
2. Even though I'm only half way through development of the top-right corner of the map, the world is starting to take shape, and it's getting pretty expansive. I've gotten lost myself! Lucky I'm plotting out a map.
3. Right now, inspiration for level design is at a standstill. I'd rather spend time coming up with fresh ideas than building randomly generated areas. I have something in mind for a Mini-Mario area.
4. Music hacking is picking up. I've imported over 10 music tracks over the last couple days. Some old classic, some new compositions. Returning classics are the Title Screen from Super Mario All-Stars, Western Land from Mario Party 2, and a remix of the Main Theme from Super Mario 64.
5. In other news, I'm toying with the possibility of a custom Final Boss. I need to perform some tests.

In my last update, I mentioned the possibility of a custom Final Boss battle. Here's a little update on that.

I've been playing around with a bunch of sprites, and I think I have the equipment at my disposal to make a serviceable custom Boss battle, but there are a few hurdles in the way. For example, I can't get the Final Boss music to play during the battle. I also had this problem with New Super Mario Bros. 5: Clone Tag Team 2, and I only found a partial solution to that (by the way, that was a full year ago now, wtf?).

So I can't make any promises at the moment.

It's Wednesday and I totally forgot about Pic of the Week again. Sorry!

Next week, two Pics!

Pic of the Week - Week 24



I'm getting close to completely finishing the forest biome! There's going to be a few unexpected things amongst those trees! Just above this screen, there's a higher series of platforms. If you fall from them, you fall down here and have to work your way back up. There's also a Power Star hidden somewhere up there.

Pic of the Week - Week 25



This was already in the trailer, but it's interesting to talk about anyway. We previously saw this door in the Spooky biome, and this door will serve the same purpose. This one's a bit tricky to reach, because it's out of normal jumping distance. Though I think the solution speaks for itself here.

Pic of the Week - Week 26



Behold, my most delayed Pic of the Week ever! This was supposed to be the Pic of the Week some five, six weeks ago. Things just kept coming up that I'd rather show. Development speed is catching up to its former pace, and I'm getting ever closer to filling in the top-right corner of the map. So over the next few weeks- expect to see a lot of Sky/Mushroom areas in the Pic of the Week.

For those wondering if there's nothing new that's left for me to show- don't worry. I've got quite a few bombs left to drop- and I just want to spread them out over the hack's development.

Little progress report.

I just reached 20% completion of the overworld- which equates to the approximate amount of 20 standardized NSMB-style levels. I've come up with some new design ideas that are really going to take advantage of the open environment.

Remember though, that this does not mean the hack is at 20% completion. There are many other things that need to be taken care of, such as the additional non-overworld areas which range from traditional linear level design to a m#(!i$! &u) @or*# d(s&#n!% f%r #u(!k &!av)l.