[WIP]Mary's Magical Adventure v1.8 - More Graphic Updates

[Doominator2]

Nothing here is convincing me to download it, So telling people to try it before they criticize it is a weak marketing strategy if every thing else thats being showcased doesn't look impressive. People havee other things to do in their day and they're not gonna go out of their way to play a mod that looks kinda crappy.

[Xane_MM]

@Cacockcansukmycok: As others have told me, yeah, the graphcs here need to be made more consistent.

@Doominator2: It makes more sense after I read your post; Yeah, the screenshots ad video have to get the person interested in downloading this. At the moment, it isn't too good looking...will I ever be able to improve the graphics?

Also, I modified the first post; Now the download for the game data is on Dropbox, meaning I can upload the latest game data without a new release of the whole source code; Hell City's further now with the islands and more Sonic-esque "automated sections" and the underground areas are in development. (If you're curious why the underground is incomplete, it's software renderer limitations; The player will be teleported to the actual location when going down there...no, I won't switch to makng this with GZDoom's renderer in mind. This is my only project that I'm making for the other renderer.

Here's pictures of the new areas currently:

[Xane_MM]

It hasn't been a month yet and this double-post/bump hopefully shouldn't be an issue...

I've now updated World of Kirbycraft to v1.4.5-alpha on GitHub; This modifies a few things like the green cop's voice and adds the underground area. It also allows you to disable Mary's potentially annoying crying with the xane_marycry CVAR or Options (F4) > Miscellaneous > Cry if Hurt (Mary).

The wanted level system now has an incomplete dispatcher (a text-to-speech voice...yeah) that tells the HCPD where you were when she started talking and blocks off the underground entrances when you reach a 3 star wanted level.

I'm doing this now not really to bump this Doomworld thread but to make a "backup" to revert to if the palette modification I make isn't worth the effort.



I am going to be changing WoK's palette so the faded-out colors have a proper fade to white and the "eye-searing" ones at the middle of the palette here don't have as many colors. I also plan to add additional colors in hopes of improving images that'll be added later in development.

The "new" palette on the left is incomplete but will have transitions between colors like the original XWE-made version.

So, yeah, the EXE and game data can be downloaded at those links. Type "youwonttakemealive" (You won't take me alive) during gameplay to gain a wanted level or "summon cop1" in the console then kill that cop to gain it.

[BamBamBrandi]

Looks great!!

[Koros]

I played the city level. I like the colors and map. But its empty and I couldn't find any monsters or whatever to fight.

But I think it looks promising.

[Xane_MM]

@Jimp Argon Thank you; Hell City is incomplete, as is everything else here, but once later levels are added, there will be proper enemies to fight; In the newest version, entering the Hell City Police Department (the smallest building) then entering the hallway behind the front desk will make cops start appearing which can be fought.

It is promising and will improve! For example, today I got it compiled on Mac OS X so now a precompiled build of that can be gotten here! Also, the game data's been updated, redownload from the first post; The GitHub GameData.zip is outdated until I release a new release, but I'll wait until I have Visual Studio back before attempting that.

EDIT:=

I've found possibly-better trees that fit in with World of Kirbycraft instead of looking like 3D models that'd look more in-place in Doom.

I don't have my usual image-editing program, CoreFX, on hand though and its EXE wasn't backed up so I won't be able to tweak their colors until I get that.

Oh, and if anyone worries the trees will cause lag, I made an object that spawns and removes the tree objects depending on how close any player is to the forest area. It automatically removing the trees improves the framerate.

[Xane_MM]

Both a double post and "bump", I know, but in the Wads & Mods forum I notice my thread goes off the first page very fast!

Anyways, this isn't a "new version" and doesn't add enemies to Hell City, but Hell City now has the volcano area and a dock in place of the castle from Kirby Air Ride!



Also, if you didn't get the hint in my previous post, there's now both a Windows and Mac OS X (Intel) version of World of Kirbycraft Eventually, Linux is planned as well.

[Xane_MM]

Another update bump!

Hell City is now more complete and Mary now has her wand! Arthas was...removed, though. Now the game won't have a reason to be called "World of Kirbycraft" and can be named anything, preferably with Mary's name in it.

Updated screenshots in the first post too!

[BoJustBo]

Xane123 said:

Now the game won't have a reason to be called "World of Kirbycraft" and can be named anything, preferably with Mary's name in it.

Bloody Mary: Kop Killer ;)

A lot of your recent posted screenshots seem to have died but I do like the 3d bridge/ramp thing. Not so sure about the palmtrees though, they have that faux-3d look of a donkey kong country game which clashes with the other graphics.

[Xane_MM]

BoJustBo said:

Bloody Mary: Kop Killer ;)

Oh, that would fit perfectly if I made a mod that was just Mary killing the Hell City Police Department with lots of blood!

BoJustBo said:

A lot of your recent posted screenshots seem to have died

Ah, I just don't like having the older version screenshots left in my Imgur picture list unless there's a way to hide them without deleting them. The latest version screenshots can be seen in the first post now.

BoJustBo said:

but I do like the 3d bridge/ramp thing.

Oh no, I scrapped that level! It's cool you liked that bridge in the grass level, so I'll bring it back in a later level.

BoJustBo said:

Not so sure about the palmtrees though[...]

Ah, those could be considered placeholder graphics nowadays; The normal trees had a similar problem but I've replaced their graphics. The palm trees are actually from New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I agree, do clash. A replacement will be done eventually.


And to make this post worth it for the 3+ months I've abandoned this thread, there's a new update:

• 1-1 (MAP1), although still somewhat complete, now has a better sky with mountains behind the buildings and the level can be completed! Become wanted and kill enough cops to get 5 stars and the blue cop will drop a green key. Bring that to the Hell City Police Department (bars with flashing colors on them indicate a key will raise them like locked doors in Doom) and hit the switch/button in there to lower the bars then escape the island! (Also, a special stage entrance is hidden there now!)

• 1-2 is incomplete but is the level design you'll expect to see in this game. Jump between buildings where one wrong move will send you falling to the city below (which isn't actually visible)!

• "Tutorials" were added and are on by default! Turn them off in Options (F4) > Miscellaneous > Tutorials. These will explain each new enemy as you face it and tips about the gameplay as this is very different than Doom.

• The soundtrack system was re-added, now allowing you to switch between the normal and Famitracker versions of my songs! If you hear music playing, go to Options (F4) > Sound > Soundtrack and you can choose! If the menu doesn't pause the game (menu_pausesp) y9ou'll immediately hear your changes.

• Mary can do her Air Dash any time she lands on the ground, removing the "ability" meter. Instead, there's now a combo meter! Kill enemies to earn combos and you'll earn more points! There is a lives system in place now but you can earn extra lives by getting 10,000 points with combos mainly, completing a level with 100% completion in a category (3-7 lives), and by finding them in levels (though the latter two are impossible until I get far enough to plan out what secret areas could use an extra life.)

• Mary's spinning hammer attack has been improved, now only requiring holding the alt. attack button while on the ground. This can even be done while moving, though to do the hammer jump, only press the button very quickly! You also no longer have to move the mouse after starting the hammer spin attack; It automatically spins to the right quickly a few times.

• A new enemy, the blob (actor class BlobA_Size3), was added; This enemy can't hurt you but after hitting it once you can kill it by just stepping on it! It splits into four smaller parts, which can split into eight smaller ones; Stepping on them kills them and gives points.

• And for DMGUYDZ64, that first special stage was replaced with one of my own...it still has the look of that special stage, though.

Anyways, downloads are in the first post! I've included the latest Windows version (v1.6) and the updated game data!

[Xane_MM]

More has been changed since the last post! (Most important are first and bolded.)

* Variable jump heights, previously only seen in Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch, have been added, replacing the double/triple jump! You can't jump much higher than before but can control how high Mary jumps by releasing the jump button as Mary goes upward in a jump. To prevent conflicts and complications with ACS scripts, this doesn't happen when jumping off water or walls.
* Mary no longer cries outside of challenges/being thrown inj jail! This makes gameplay faster and less of an annoyance if you get hurt! The No-cry Coin is now pointless but wiull be replaced in the future with a new coin.
* The general has a partially replaced voice; He now has voice acting by me instead of Microsoft David, though the first challenge still has the old voice.
* Hell City's end-of-level transition area is more logical, with two tall "rooms" full of air currents that lead the player to the top of the building, where the general can be overheard complaining about their search for "the criminal"/"whiny brat" (the last one makes less sense now!).

[Xane_MM]

I've decided to "update" it to v1.65-alpha (merely a text change in the EXE, so no need to redownload that)! Mary's Magical Adventure now has a few new things!

Spoiler

 

1. You can now step on enemies a'la Super Mario games; It is awkward to do when you can't look all the way down and you have to fall onto an enemy rather than just making contact with them. You can even start combos this way, by bouncing off one enemy to another.
   
   Certain enemies may react differently to this, like the newly-added fighter, who gets knocked out every time you land on him.
2. Special Stages no longer force you to go to the next level; Thanks to ZDoom's hub system, the game remembers the state of the level when you return to it from a Special Stage, even returning you to the entrance you entered. Don't worry about huge save files as I force the player to a second "cluster" after every level to make it forget about the level you were just at.
3. Unfortunately, this change broke challenges, so I removed the challenge scripts. This means Mary's crying is nearly non-existent.
4. HCPD officers are now more "aggressive", spawning in at regular intervals, as long as one is alive when it happens. Kill the last cop in a wave and the next set will immediately arrive, eliminating the combo-wasting pauses that were in it previously.
5. Hammer upgrades have now been added; Mary's hammer now only does one attack, but if you find the upgrades (or use summon PowerupHammer/xane_debughammer CVAR) you'll slowly unlock the upgrades/attacks, including the new Hammer Slam!
6. The wand now has limitations. You can't use the heart-shaped wand when not transformed into Magical Cutie Mary but can only use the shield-shaped wand's healing ability when not transformed.
7. A "speedrunning timer" was added, shown at the bottom of all four screenshots below; It doesn't reset after each level and can go over 10 minutes! It will be used in any mode that isn't the normal singleplayer/co-op campaign. Don't use it in place of an actual speedrunning timer as it's limited to the tic-rate, 35 tics per second approximately, and will fall out of sync after a while.
8. Level 1-2 is now further developed with two paths in the second building! Find the obvious secret there! There are also other level design changes to the first level like Mary's house now having a radio that serves as the game's sound test!

 

Here are the screenshots for this update:

 

Downloads are in the first post as usual.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Xane123 : Added the speedrunning timer information.

[Xane_MM]

As of today, Mary's Magical Adventure is true 3D! I've decided to transition over to GZDoom's source, meaning Mary can now look all the way up and down, and levels could look nicer. I'm not sure why dynamic lights aren't working (they're on), but they would help make the environment look good too.

This change might've been bigger than a mere .05 version increase, but I wouldn't want to call this v1.75! v1.7 adds:

 

Not sure how to embed YouTube here now since the forum update, so here's a link to the short video I made announcing the OpenGL renderer switch!

CHANGES:

Spoiler

• As said before, this update adds the true 3D (OpenGL) renderer from GZDoom, improving graphics. If anyone was afraid to play this because of the renderer, you now have no excuse!
• Special Stages now change their required coin amounts and time based on your difficulty and how many players are playing with you (for now, only the CVAR z_playertest is checked); Try playing on hard difficulty with "8 players" for the ultimate Special Stage challenge!
• Special Stages have a new transition animation, showing white rectangles "rotating" as they appear across the screen from left to right, forming the white fade rather than a basic fade out to white! Other transitions, including the fade in from white displayed afterwards, are the same as before this update.

 

[Xane_MM]

Time to bump this topic! Although the first post was updated, that doesn't encourage anyone to check out the topic itself.

 

CHANGES
I don't know all of what I changed since the last update, but the biggest change was that the version of GZDoom MMA uses is now nearly up-to-date, adding nice new effects like shadowmaps, which I have on by default. Also, while I removed ZDoom's built-in options menu before, I restored it as it has a lot of useful settings to change. Also, Xane's getting more attention with his new additions such as the Drop Dash, performed by double-tapping the "use" key in mid-air. He also has his own incomplete path through the end of 1-1 which teaches the player how to use his special abilities if tutorials are enabled.

 

Screenshots

[Xane_MM]

It's become a ghost town in this thread (and hopefully ZDoom Forums doesn't become the same thing), but I'm going to try reviving this thread again for the newest version, version 1.9! A lot has changed since 1.8, but now I keep a list of things I change between versions so the full list can be read on GitHub. The most notable changes done are...

 

UPDATES

• A new area, ARENA1, was added. This is the first map in the "wave-based arena" mode, inspired by Hulk's "Challenge Mode" rooftop area.

• Performing a Drop Dash over an area transition no longer makes Xane's sword lock up when attempting a Sword Beam on the ground.

• Xane's claw now pulls Xane up to whatever's above the spot it attached to. This can be seen in 1-2 near the end of the area.

• Four "mods" are now supported, like the "low-end" mod that changes behavior slightly; Skyboxes don't render and "render culling"/draw distance is enabled if no setting is set previously. To enable a mod, put it in the same folder as the game.

• A new sky was added, the moving clouds/stormy sky. It's the first animated sky in the game, with 96 frames of four cloud layers scrolling at different speeds. To see it on any level, type the command changesky STORM_01 in the console.

• Signs were added to replace some tutorials. Tutorials for enemies and Special Stages won't be converted to this, though in the future signs will disappear if the tutorial it mentions has been already seen or if tutorials are disabled.

SCREENSHOTS

 

DOWNLOADS

 

I don't know why Travis isn't giving me MacOS and Ubuntu builds, but due to that, they aren't up to date. Windows is as it's the operating system I use. If you want to use my settings, remove the "!" from !Settings.ini in the compiled Windows build download.

 

Anyways, here's the 64-bit Windows build, game data, and The X Site's MMA page. Have fun...if anyone plays the game!

[Xane_MM]

It isn't time for a new release yet but I still feel the need to keep this somewhat up to date, even though I ruined my chances of this game succeeding here from the beginning.

 

Anyways, here's how the changelog looks at the moment:

Spoiler

This is a list of any changes done to Mary's Magical Adventure since the last release. They will be included in the list of changes for the release when it happens.
 

Bug-fixes

• The version number on the title screen was corrected to v1.9.
• Xane's claw now uses the Animation3 inventory item instead of Animation2. Before this, enemies could be provoked like if Mary cried near them if Xane tried firing his claw.
• Mary no longer gets teleported as the screen fades out at the end of Isle Hell City (1-1). This was because the script that prevented the "stuck in Hell City" glitch didn't have its right boundary extended far enough into the fake 1-2 corridor at the end of Mary's path.
• You don't randomly get the Green Key when 1-1 loads anymore.
• Burning weaker cops (1-1 only) now make the yelling sound while on fire.
• Weaker cops (1-1's variants) now respond to being burned. firing a single bullet (blue) or a burst of bullets (green).
• Warping from the Battle Arena minigame is now impossible. This fixes a glitch where you could return to the Small Hut and use the teleporter to return to Isle Hell City (1-1), which should be impossible once you enter Rooftop to Rooftop (1-2).
• Added sanity check for checkpoints; Now if the player or monsters are set to spawn at an object that doesn't exist, the checkpoint ID will revert to the level default, 616. This should fix the Black Room Glitch when dying in 1-1 after returning from a Battle Arena fight.
• Fixed "special plane areas" being double the size they were set to.
• Special Stages don't drain your time on the ground, now updated to the new special plane system.
• Fixed the hammer's silly behavior in the air if the player didn't have enough hammer upgrades to perform the Hammer Slam.
• Respawning from checkpoints that are placed on 3D floors now places the player on the 3D floor and not on the ground/bottomless pit below it.

Major

• Health and jump height can be upgraded by picking up upgrade items for them, which are separate from weapon upgrade items.
• Mary's Hammer Slam attack behaves differently now; Instead of activating based on height alone, which could lead to unfair deaths, it now activates if at a high enough height and the attack button is held down. Briefly pressing the attack button will do the normal hammer attack now, even in mid-air!
• Reverted the bubble spawner's behavior to World of Kirbycraft v1.4's true randomness. This was done as the new system was ironically too predictable.
• Render-culling polyobjects are now non-solid due to a small source code modification. This replaces the "hurt on touch" polyobject behavior but the othe two polyobject types are still solid as before.
• Projectile reflection has been altered thanks to Ryuhi (developer of Heretical Doom); Projectiles only are reflected in front of Mary/Xane and you aren't invulnerable during the reflection. Lasers cannot be reflected, so they will phase through your protection. 
• City Street Run (1-3) can be completed now! Jump in the Uroboros (the "airship") at the end and it will "lift off" and Mary/Xane will go to "The Command Master", an incomplete area. Once this boss area is complete, the game will become v2.0 and the ZDoom Forums Demo will be made from this version, allowing playing of the four levels plus the arena!
• The Windows executable is now 32-bit! This allows more people to play the game.
• Enemies now use a script named EnemyHandleSpecialPlanes, which gives them shadows automatically when they are in the air, handles reactions with special planes (such as water), and warps them back to the last spot they were at on the ground if they happen to touch one of the aforementioned special planes. This really cleans up the enemies' DECORATE code!

Minor

• Making it to the end of an area with more than 15 coins will automatically send them to the bank in the Small Hut, but some coins will be removed. Additionally, if transformed even less will be stored in the bank. This was done to encourage the player to warp to the Small Hut and add them to the bank manually, which could give them interest in buying things from its shop or trying out minigames. Those give the player a lot of coins if played well.
• Lovely Heart's big heart-shaped projectile isn't treated as a "powerful projectile" to enemies anymore. This was done so enemies like cops wouldn't jump over Magical Cutie Mary's attacks, which would waste the five coins it takes to perform the attack. Altering how Magical Cutie Mary behaves is planned in the future but for now, yes, using certain attacks costs coins.    
• Mary's "falling scream" sprites have been re-added into the game, but in the new art style.
• The drill in the Small Hut now functions. It costs 100 coins to "dig a tunnel" to the blue building seen in the first area. The building will contain minigames which will give Mary/Xane extra coins, making it worth the price.
• Mary's Hammer Slam now maintains momentum. This feels more natural and lets Mary "launch" herself at enemies. The Hammer Slam's height it activates at was raised to 1½ stories (192 units) off the ground. This makes it harder to perform the more powerful slams but improves balance. Perform the downward Air Dash before it for a boost forward upon landing!
• Some invisible walls now have a texture on them! This makes it clear what the boundaries of each area are. It isn't much better than the immersion-breaking invisible walls, but it decreases the chances of players trying to go somewhere only to find out that area's off-limits and unfairly losing a life.
• Powerup Coins are always 3D voxel models regardless of their distance from the player. The images they would turn into when distant are used if voxel model rendering is disabled, however.
• Mary's falling scream height has been increased, so Isle Hell City (1-1)'s buildings won't cause screaming every time Mary barely jumps off one but higher areas like Rooftop to Rooftop (1-2) will still cause screaming.
• Isle Hell City (1-1)'s ceiling height outdoors has been levelled out, meaning Mary/Xane won't hit invisible walls in the sky anymore!
• The combo meter drains slightly quicker now to balance the planned amounts of enemies. However, coins now increase more of the combo meter, allowing continuing combos without Combo Coins easier.
• Extra dialogue was added to Rooftop to Rooftop and City Street Run for Mary and Xane.
• Turrets can now automatically shoot lasers to a fast or slow rhythm instead of the default player detection. Hitting a turret in these modes will temporarily change it to its default behavior until it loses sight of you and reverts.
• Linedefs that triggered script errors about a non-existant "TimeSafeBoundary" script have had the script attached to them removed.
• Above-normal process priority option was added (Windows only); GZDoom changes the game's process priority automatically, but this prevents the user manually setting it to anything but "normal", so this was added.

Anyways, what's the most notable changes from that list for a ol' "tl;dr"? Well, for one, the Windows EXE is now 32-bit so more computers can play my game if they're unlucky enough to not have 64-bit. (I get high-end laptops only so I don't know how common 32-bit really is!) Additionally, the special plane system is now handled through invisible objects that make it easier to set up and visualize in GZDoom Builder. Special planes are water, bottomless pits, and lava/deadly liquids in case you've forgotten.

 

Also, The Command Master (1-4), the first boss area, now exists but it doesn't have the boss programmed yet. You reach it from the end of City Street Run (1-3). Now, for the future, what will I probably go after next to further develop the game? Well, one thing's for sure, Xane doesn't have many weapons; He only has Arthas' Sword but Mary has three weapons, two more than him! Let's fix that with Xane's Hammer!

 

This is what Xane will use as his hammer, having an actually original design (not a mere Sonic Adventure DX reskin); It has multiple attacks planned:

1. Hammer Attack - Same as Mary's Hammer's counterpart, Xane will smack the enemy in front of him with his hammer. An upgrade will make this attack able to be charged, allowing Xane to use more force. When charged, Xane will turn the hammer around so the end with the spike is facing the enemy then will hit them quickly with it, which will deal extra damage.
2. Hammer Throw - Xane flips the hammer around so the spike is facing outward from him, grabbing the small blue handle above the orange area with one "hand". He then throws it forward quick enough so that the hammer starts spinning through the air, huting any enemies it goes through. If the spiked end is what hurts the enemy, it will do extra damage. The downside of this attack is that Xane is left without a weapon until it hits a wall or disappears in some way.
3. Charge Attack - Not sure what this one should be named, but it's an override, essentially; If Xane is moving fast enough, he'll move the hammer over to his left, across his body to indicate he'll do a different attack. If the attack button's pressed, Xane will speed forward, swinging the hammer sideways. If it hits an enemy, they will fly away from him as if Mary's Air Dash hit them.

That's the plan for Xane, but in general another plan is to re-program the upgrades in the game to make them non-linear; At the moment, if you get a weapon upgrade, it's always the same order, but this may change in the future. If it's implemented, the plan's to make a menu appear when the player touches a weapon upgrade object. This menu will let them choose any upgrade for weapons they have, but while they can choose any upgrade they want, the best upgrades for each weapon are unavailable until all normal upgrades are chosen.

 

Well, that's all for now; Visit The X Site to download the latest build and try out what is in the game...

[Merry Widow]

@Xane123 All I can say is while your game doesn't look that great yet, I would still wish you good luck. But it would be nice if we weren't called losers. Other members are just stating their opinions. For myself, I'll wait until you're further along and then maybe try it.

[Xane_MM]

It doesn't look too great but it's a big step up from what the game was when Doomworld first saw it:

Compare to how it currently looks, better graphics:

I really wanted it to succeed on these forums but looking back at what version I showed, it really was as bad as people were saying. I should've waited more before revealing it to the internet. This is why this isn't on, say, ZDoom Forums yet. I'm waiting until a set point in development instead of rushing it onto the forum.

 

It's good you may try it out once I get closer to completion, though; Seems a lot of people here aren't giving this a second chance. Anyways, here's news: I added a new song to the game, "To the Core", which plays in the big HCPD building at the end of 1-3.