Posted by JJ

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I figure it's been a while since I've shown any progress on JAMH (that's Just Another Mario Hack for everyone who's new to the area). So here's some status shots of the current work to date, and little descriptions for each. Keep in mind that every graphic you see is custom designed from scratch or editted from the originals. No rips for me.


First off, the title screen. You can see that I've obviously changed the demo (who doesn't these days, right?), plus the title graphics. Also, if you're observant, you can see that the font was also changed. Not too many people touch the font (yet), but it's something that can add some style to your hack.


Here you can see some lollipops I drew. They've come a long way from the old crappy monotone ones with the bright white sticks I drew up so long ago. I think they're fairly perfect at this point (or at least I'm not going to edit them). Also you can see my custom background.


The chocolate interior set can be seen here. I find it useful for bonus areas (it just has that tone) and also for another level you'll see later. The background here is also custom drawn by me.


The dreaded Candy Warehouse. Here Bowser is storing candy for some nefarious reason (to be honest, I haven't exactly thought one up yet). Unlike the other sets, this one is drawn from a perspective to give the place a unique depth. The boxes seen here have since been improved, but I haven't taken a screenshot yet.


Iggy's (New) Castle. This time his lair is made entirely out of candy, just like the rest of the land. The fences are, obviously, climbable for you and the koopas. Note the custom background. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention earlier is that I editted all the sprites I've used so far to give them a newer feel. I've eliminated most interior lines and drawn black outlines onto all of them. This fits the newer Mario style better, I think. Mario is no exception from this.


My personal favorite tileset. The Heart Palace is the new replacement for the Yellow Swith Palace. Each of the Palace's has a card suit replacement, with poker chips (custom animated!) instead of coins. Hazards are, of course, in abundance.


The in-progress Cake set. I've still yet to complete the finishing touches on this one, but I think it's been rounding out nicely over the last couple months. Each level is perfectly customizable in terms of frosting and cake type. This makes for some nice diversity in the same vein as the original SMW.


And finally, the Candycane Maze. This level and tileset are reminiscent of that one stage in World 7 of SMB3 (I can't recall the exact number) where you gotta find your way through that pipe maze. Tons of dead ends, one way paths, and invsibile coin blocks make this level a headache, but hopefully you enjoy the ambience on the way.

Well, that about sums up the work I've completed on JAMH... or at least the stuff I've shown publicly so far. I've been meaning to put out a new demo to show off the newest stuff, but I'm not sure you guys would like to play the same basic game as my last demo with updated tilesets only. Maybe Ice Man and I will have some more levels done sometime soon. Questions, comments, and concerns are always welcomed. I don't do this work exclusively for myself, after all.

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Posted by JJ

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Some better shots of the new enemies.


Koopas with Shells. Notice that the different versions have different shaded of purple instead of all being uniform. This helps more easily identify the difference between them. Of course, their feet will retain their original shades.


Koopas without Shells. I've been working on these guys shading a little bit more, I think the end result is getting better. Also, notice how the Blue version has thicker eyebrows. This gives him a sullen look that I really like. He is the meanest of the bunch, after all.


That pesky Blue koopa again, this time kicking a shell. This screenshot serves two purposes. One, to show off what I think is the cutest animation of the bunch (look at his booties!). Two, to show the new Shell replacement. I'm still working on the animation frames of the shell, but it's getting better.


I've been eliminating interior black lines in all of my sprites, but it's really obvious on the tomatos. The shading, especially at the top, has greatly improved. This is the furthest along of all of the new sprites.

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Posted by JJ

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Some new screenshots to whet your appetite. First, the new sprites.


Killer Carrots! These guys replace the original rexes. I can't seem to get enough of that droopy eyed look for these sprites, for some reason. It fits the theme I'm going for, so it's all good (in my mind at least). And this time I decided to ditch the booties I've been using too much and just go with a sort of hopping animation. It's hard to imagine unless you see it in motion, but it works well.


Killer peas! (okay, I think I've overdone the Killer [vegetable] thing by now). Finally, an enemy that isn't completely out of it, at least regarding the eyes. I figure, if there's one enemy that's gotta be at the top of his game at all times, it's the Bullet Bill. The shading got screwed up somehow on the eyes, it will be fixed, have no fear. I've been working on a sort of blur animation (thanks ExAnim!), but I haven't gotten it to look right yet so I've disabled it for now.

That's it for the new sprites. Expect replacements for all enemies that will be used in my hack. Now, the touchups.


Not much has changed here, other than I took Glyph's advice and thinned out the tops a bit and made all the eggplants the same shade. I think the effect works better this way, but I would be willing to change it back if anyone has a good reason why I should.


God I love that little kicking sprite. Anyhow, what I changed here was how the Eggplant-Shell looks. Notice how it's sorta grooved on the bottom. I added that groove so it's more obvious when the shell is spinning (the groove rotates around, of course). It looks pretty neat when animated.

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Posted by Juggling Joker

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The in-progress Cake set. I've still yet to complete the finishing touches on this one, but I think it's been rounding out nicely over the last couple months. Each level is perfectly customizable in terms of frosting and cake type. This makes for some nice diversity in the same vein as the original SMW.

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