(07-12-2012, 03:18 PM)alexmach1 Wrote: what
all i asked is why you have different looks for the same thing, ie the ground and clouds

just a simple question, not a complaint

Quote:I think you misunderstood me. Having a story is GREAT, but it needs to be A) more entertaining to read, B) Spaced out so the story keeps your attention. You can't have a story dump in the first few minutes of the game. That's not why people play a Mario game. Hell, when I turn on Mario World, that one little balloon that pops up "Welcome to Dinosaur Land!" makes me scream at the TV "I don't give a shit! Where dem Goombas?!"

Not really, but here's a better example; Mario 64. We get Lakitu zooming around, then Mario pops out of the pipe and the game starts. NSMB Wii; The Koopa Kids snatch Peach and take off. The story is quick and you immediately get to play.
Mario 64- You enter the castle, Bowser says "I got yo woman! Bwahaha!" and you get to play. Simple and easy.
The thing, however, that REALLY ruins the intro is all the dialogue between Bowser/Jr/Koopatrol/Kamek that goes on and on and on, and then just as Bowser is about to DO something, it cuts away and get a box that says "Bowser did something." This is telling, not showing, and is the number one thing NOT to do when you want to draw in an audience

(07-12-2012, 08:43 AM)Gors Wrote: also i should add the fact that the sprites clash with each other. Try using an unified style if you have the time. (yes I know you're looking for spriters, I'm just making sure )

(07-12-2012, 01:47 PM)Gors Wrote:

can I suggest this layout?

Code:

MARIOX99  OOOOO        TIME  0X99
9999999  >>>>>>P [  ]   999  CX99

Changes:

• No one will ever need 999 lives. 99 is more than enough for lives.
  
• Score is put below Mario's name and the label 'SCORE' is omitted. Everyone knows that long string of digits is the score. Also, this being a Mario game, score isn't important at all.
  
• Moved the Ace Coins over the P-meter.
  
• Removed 'ITEM' because it's redundant.
  
• Removed 'WORLD 1-1' because it's redundant.
  
• Other things were kept in place.
  

This way, the HUD gets tidier and aligned. Also I'd mode the HP bar a little higher, because the in the middle, it looks like actual objects instead of HUD icons.

(07-12-2012, 02:50 PM)Tonberry2k Wrote: I was hoping to see some gameplay, not a ten-minute unnecessary intro story. By now all we need to know is "Bowser = bad. Here are your characters." Brevity is the soul of wit, after all. Right now we get a lot of exposition on both sides and no action. It immediately tunes me out of the story. We have a 5-minute scene with Bowser and then when he's about to finally do something, we cut away.

Why not open with Bowser transforming Pipe Land or whatever, so we get an example of what the Star can do, then cut to Mario, et al reacting (Maybe they see the sky darken on the horizon and all run off to help), Choose your character, bam.
Then we could get snippets of what the All-Star is as bosses are defeated. It keeps the story going as you progress and lets you jump right into the game. Just an idea.

EDIT: I also stopped making the "clashing sprite styles in Mario games" argument when Nintendo added SMW2 sprites to SMB3 on the GBA and gave zero fucks about sprite style consistency.

(07-12-2012, 04:31 PM)Crappy Blue Luigi Wrote: are you trying to say that the game may have levels that are so difficult that the player could lose more than 99 lives?

ok, that's cool i guess. you don't need to make up for that by giving players a higher max lives count.

do you not want players to ever get a game over?

(07-12-2012, 06:01 PM)Mikeystar Wrote: Alright, feeling better now. Heh.

Anyways, we just made a better HUD Preview. What do you think?



Now the HUD looks like a huge gap between Coin and Cherry Counter and the rest of the HUD. We'll find things to put there soon.

We forgot to remove the "ITEM" text, that'll be removed.

(07-12-2012, 06:27 PM)Previous Wrote: The cherry icon below the coins actually fits quite well and the whole bar (save for ITEM) is two rows high anyways. But yes, some other thing could possibly be moved there. If some of the non-standard displays like treasure and star would never be active at the same time, they could share a position.
Overall, it looks much better, cleaner and even now.