Super Metroid: Volta | Demo 2 Released! Merry Christmas!

[FirePhoenix0]

Demo 2 has arrived!  Get it below!

I would like to proudly present to you all:
Super Metroid: Volta

Let me start off with a screenshot montage of the planet, Volta.


Welcome to Gaia Heights, The Dual-Summit Mountain.


The outer caverns of Volta awaken.


Looks like this tunnel caved in...


High in the sky, Rippers guard their passages using their speed.  Too bad Samus is faster.


Secrets are abound in Volta.


These ruin remnants are scattered around Gaia Heights, testament to a long lost civilization.


The mirror-still lakes of Cyclonia are a beautiful contrast to the dark caverns connecting the outdoors.


Inside the darkness, flying creatures abound, preying on anything foolish enough to come their way.


The Kago is a natural barrier, strong enough to repel all but a charged attack.


The caves here may be deadly, but they also hold many a treasure to be uncovered, as well as secrets of their own.


So close, yet so far away.

(I know that in the last shot, I have Supers, Varia, etc., but you won't have much at all the first time you come through here.)

As for a storyline, I have none yet.  I'm debating whether or not the game really needs one.

I have no trailer, no release date, nothing, and I'm working at my own pace, which is probably a little slow compared to most.  I won't make any predictions because even I don't know when this may come out.  it's done when it's done and that's that.

Feel free to comment, discuss, make suggestions, whatever.  I'll read all the comments.  In fact, I love getting feedback on my projects so feel free to make as many as you want, barring getting too off-topic.

Thank you and I hope you'll all be looking forward to this. :D
Progress meters:

Gaia Heights: ~68% -- Map finished
Cyclonia: 33%  -- Map finished
Therma: 0%
Aquatic Rift: 0%
Fifth Area (Name withheld): 0%
Sanctorium: ~81% -- Map finished

Current Bug Count: 0 -- We're good again!

Demo 2 is both headered and unheadered this time.  Use the right rom!

[BiggestSchnoz]

This looks great, looking forward to it.  I'm wondering if it'll be hard or easy or somewhere in between.  I'm not asking about difficulty level of bosses or common enemies though but feel free to comment on that as well if you want.  I'm wondering if knowledge of the tricks/glitches and such will be required or not.  I mean like shinespark, bombjumping, walljumping, mockball, among others.... ....

[FirePhoenix0]

Acheron: I'd love to hang you with you guys but the port that IRC uses (6667/6666) is blocked by default here at college.  I've been unsuccessful as of yet figuring out how to unblock it.  Something to do with Telecom or IT and having them unblock it for the dorm.  Believe me, I'd be in there if I could be.

BiggestSchnoz:  Difficulty will be slightly harder than the original, but still not a cakewalk.  As for tricks, shinesparking and bombjumping are required, mockballing will be required only for 100% items, never to progress.  The game is being built with walljumping in mind for ease of travel, but it's not a required trick.  Nothing harder than the mockball or maybe speedball (again, only for 100%) will be required, but if I get things the way I want them, you may need to learn a few new tricks two get by. ;)  Also, while walljumping and mockballing aren't required, that doesn't mean I haven't built areas without them in mind.  They can lead to faster times or easier travel. :)

[petrie911]

I know I've seen that Cyclonia background before.  A Link to the Past title screen, perhaps?

[Spoo]

I think we are in the midst of a hacking Renaissance. 

[Bolognab]

I like the screenshots.

I'll get straight to some things that caught my eye:
1. the mountain/sky background's reflection in the water looks like you just flipped it.
2. all the backgrounds are a shade of blue; not that it looks bad, but have you thought about having a bit more variety?
3. you changed the name =(

[Zhs2]

I have no trailer, no release date, nothing, and I'm working at my own pace, which is probably a little slow compared to most.  I won't make any predictions because even I don't know when this may come out.  it's done when it's done and that's that.

Now, now, there. This is not a problem at all. Not-at-all. Blood only did little spoilers here and there in the screenie thread before his hack came out, and most people enjoyed playing it (besides the whole bugs thing, but you know...) If working at your own pace is what you need to do to finish this hack, then I say go for it. Who's with me on that one? 

Also, the graphics are great. I love the outdoor lake portion especially (but that may be my bias against original SM tilesets speaking for me. ) As one would say on 4chan: Proceed...

[Bioniclegenius]

Personally, I didn't really enjoy the original backgrounds. I like the new ones; it gives you some contrast against the original game, which seemed a little too dark. Also, the outdoor backgrounds weren't much to speak of; you fix that here. Overall, I really do like your graphics .

[Sneaky Paradox]

Colored speed booster blocks?! Blasphemy!

[FirePhoenix0]

Colored speed booster blocks?! Blasphemy!

Then don't let me tell you what I did to the Power Bomb blocks. ;)

[NuZalem]

Nice stuff here. Some of the tiles I see look similar to tiles from SMW, but that's just me. In any case, I look forward to your hack FP.

[ZephyrZx]

Somewhere in my mind made me read "release" on the title :< anyways, this looks amazing, a little too bright for a Metroid, but I love it, a change of all the "dark and creepy" stuff all over the place, I've always wanted to see a more green Mebes with plants instead of a barren, cave-like world with monsters lurking every corner and no stuff to please the eyes besides old and rusty Chozo statues xd.

This also reminds me of SMW2:YI, but I've seen people reminding that to everyone that makes bright and green tiles all over this board xd

I CAN'T wait for this, but i have to ask, whats the difficulty level of this hack? like, which skills are required, etc.


PD: tell me please if I use too many emotes in my posts I know these irritate some people and I don't wanna do that.

[FirePhoenix0]

I mentioned the difficulty stuff up a few posts: http://forum.metroid2002.com/index.php/topic,7573.msg223110.html#msg223110

@ Bolognab:  Yes, I changed the name.  This isn't really Aspiration anymore, so it needed a new name.  With the Cyclonia BG, I'm contemplating trying to draw a water effect over the tiles like the Crateria Lake BG did.  Last, about the blue in the BGs, uh... how about that.  Total coincidence I swear. :P


Thanks for all the feedback guys.  I didn't work today because I had homework but I'm actually gonna work on it a bit right now, even though it's 1AM.  Hehe.

[Xaggoth]

Since a lot of people are commenting on how bright your teasers are I thought I'd through in my thoughts.  Firstly, a bright, dry background and environment screams "I have a dank, wet, filthy hole somewhere in this game," I hope you don't disappoint.  Secondly, I think it would be pretty awesome if your bright outdoor rooms could have a separate state such that halfway through the game something triggers them to switch to a sunset.     

[FirePhoenix0]

I only got it working by sheer luck, and I still can only connect to #jzd and no where else.  Kinda sucks, because I really wanna say hi to my friends on Centralchat. :(

The sunset idea would be really cool to implement.  That would require a shitload of alternate state rooms though...  About half of the rooms in Cyclonia will be outdoors, not to mention that there are a good number in Gaia Heights.

[MetroidMst]

This looks very interesting. Most notably the "sky," a subject Metroid seems to avoid in difference to Samus spelunking all over. It really does look good.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

It's looking good.

How far is the progress in this hack?

[FirePhoenix0]

Well, I have all of Gaia Heights and Tourian (not called Tourian, don't want to give away name yet) mapped in game, and part of Cyclonia done.  That means that the actual map is done, now all that's left is the room design for those areas.

Total percent done?  Perhaps 10-12%.

[Bolognab]

Have you decided yet whether or not this hack will get a new storyline? In my opinion new plots don't work unless there's actual usage of that plot ingame. It would be great if you did incorporate a new storyline into the game, though.

And did the previous post get deleted?  :-s deja vu

[FirePhoenix0]

I added a progress meter to the first post like Acheron has for his hack.  Also, fixed the massive bug, without having to resort to a backup.  Thanks Acheron.

As for story, nah, no story needed imo.  It's Super Metroid on a different planet.  Unless I think of something real good and come up with a good way to tell it, expect your standard Super Metroid plot.