Topic: Simon's Curse, metroidvania game based on Simon's Quest

[mgfcortez]

I don't know if you know about this but...

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1032/

There was a re-translation and it is much more accurate to the JP original. It even includes a cutscene in the beginning which uses the story from the JP manual. It also includes a map. I would suggest incorperating those things in your hack, but I hope you can get a better map tho. Maybe SOTN style if possible.

do you know if someone did a play through of it on youtube don't really want to play it again right now but love to check it out last time i played c2 sq was the revamped fan game really enjoyed it all the new sprites and backgrounds

Edit
wondering if this is it seems like a cool opening but with no music idk if it was real or not
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ZvC7Aurfc

and btw i like the wood stake

[MooMilk]

That seems to be a playthrough of the hack, but I don't know if theres any video where someone talks to every person and gets every one of draculas riddles. Also, they seem to have day/night transition text disabled.

Another feature of the hack is that it allows you to keep every whip you buy and select them.

[coinilius]

Wow, that new intro cut scene looks awesome - I'll have to check that hack out!

[Wanhus]

Few questions I would like you all to answer =)
Your answer might affects how things work in game.
Also please give a reason for your choices not just yes or no.

1. Would you like enemies to spill blood if hit? ( if the enemy is the type that does drop blood )
2. Metroidvanias often limit heart max, would you like to see heart max locked to level in Simon's curse? ( so you don't farm 500 hearts for every boss. Remember gold and hearts are different, buy with gold. )
3. Would you like to see armor items in game? ( old one had resistance that increased by level )
4. Would you like Simon's curse to have very hard to know secrets/easter egg items or/and places? ( Well you know how these things work )
5. Game better very hard or just normal difficulty? (I'm not adding difficulty slider, harder new game+ MAYBE)
6. Thing you would like to see in this game? ( items, enemies, bosses, places, characters, etc)
7. Would you like there to be rare hp potions that cant be bought only found in secret places max 3 carry? ( how much they would heal? I dunno that has to be balanced, currently thinking 30%-50% hp )

Thanks for answering =)

[MooMilk]

1 - I don't wanna see unessesary blood. Whatever they do now is fine.
2 - Hearts should be level locked, gold shouldn't cap at 255, I'd actually prefer they not be limited. You can continue gaining it should you play after you beat the game. Maybe you should have a bestiary and boss demos. Bosses shouldn't drop multiple hearts.
3 - I don't really want armor but wouldn't object to there being any.
4 - Don't really care.
5 -I don't want it being very hard. Far too many people make their hacks really hard cause the normal game is so easy to them. Instead of being fun it gets less fun. Keep the difficulty like 2.
6 - Like I said before, you should let all whips be keepable and selectable at any time. No real advantage to that, but other metroidvanias let you keep old weapons.

[Wanhus]

Yeah, I read your comment about the whip and I'm already doing it =)
Changing the current system to have changeable whips. There will also be extra whips from other castlevania games.

Also there will be whips that you might need to use due to their ability from time to time, even thou they are not the best.
Just to make the swapping actually useful. Also some enemies are immune/resistant to fire so flame whip/sacred flame is not always the best solution.

Also you might know this already but my game is not rom hack its totally fresh self made engine.
Thanks for replying. I will wait for others as well to see what majority thinks. but I'm heavily leaning in locking the hearts to levels my self as well.

I could add one more question as I'm kinda thinking of adding hp potions as rare (cant be bought, found in secret places) max 3 potions carry thing...

[BLOOD MONKEY]

Few questions I would like you all to answer =)
Your answer might affects how things work in game.
Also please give a reason for your choices not just yes or no.

1. Would you like enemies to spill blood if hit? ( if the enemy is the type that does drop blood )
2. Metroidvanias often limit heart max, would you like to see heart max locked to level in Simon's curse? ( so you don't farm 500 hearts for every boss. Remember gold and hearts are different, buy with gold. )
3. Would you like to see armor items in game? ( old one had resistance that increased by level )
4. Would you like Simon's curse to have very hard to know secrets/easter egg items or/and places? ( Well you know how these things work )
5. Game better very hard or just normal difficulty? (I'm not adding difficulty slider, harder new game+ MAYBE)
6. Thing you would like to see in this game? ( items, enemies, bosses, places, characters, etc)

Thanks for answering =)

1.Maybe a little bit, but I don't think it'd work with your current artstyle.
2. Yes.
3. Defense and Attack stat should increase with level, but enemy type should become harder as well. (Don't just up the atk + def of normal enemies, like adding harder enemy types.)
4. Secrets and Easter Eggs are always welcome.
5. An increased difficulty level would be fine with me, but not an insane or cheap difficulty. Maybe something along the lines of Castlevania 3 difficulty.
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aip2aIt0ROM Watch this. Please don't keep that stupid shit the original had. (dead slow walking speed, repetitive  and boring colour design, etc.

[Sumez]

1. Would you like enemies to spill blood if hit? ( if the enemy is the type that does drop blood )
I don't really see any reason to be unnecessarily gory. But I wouldn't mind a few larger enemies with detailed death animations for maximum kill-satisfaction, and if making them bleed violently helps the effect, go ahead. SOTN has a nice balance between this stuff. Either way, don't worry about "age rating" for a fan game.

2. Metroidvanias often limit heart max, would you like to see heart max locked to level in Simon's curse? ( so you don't farm 500 hearts for every boss. Remember gold and hearts are different, buy with gold. )
I'd rather have heart max limited by your game progression, so it's easier for you to scale the difficulty appropriately. In general, I wouldn't want to see your character's level being too dominating a factor. That's the kind of stuff that always brings the challenge off balance and causes a lot of metroidvanias to be way easier than they should be.
Whatever you do, though: Farming shouldn't be necessary or benefiecial ANYWHERE!

3. Would you like to see armor items in game? ( old one had resistance that increased by level )
Sure, but not too many, and once again it shouldn't bring the challenge too far off balance. Either make armors a reward you really have to work for, or easily award them when you progress in the game, so you know what to expect the player to have on specific points in the game.

4. Would you like Simon's curse to have very hard to know secrets/easter egg items or/and places? ( Well you know how these things work )
Of course! The more extra details to discover, the better.

5. Game better very hard or just normal difficulty? (I'm not adding difficulty slider, harder new game+ MAYBE)
You shouldn't expect the majority of people to want to replay your metroidvania, so I agree that difficulty shouldn't be a selection. Definitely watch out not making the game too easy, or it won't be memorable to most people. A CV3'ish difficulty level might throw off a lot of people, but I would enjoy it personally. Maybe something around the lines of COTM or Order of Ecclesia would be fitting.

6. Thing you would like to see in this game? ( items, enemies, bosses, places, characters, etc)
Definitely much more variation in enemies than what's in the original CV2. Just lift a bunch of stuff from popular mythology etc. like all the other CV games have always done.

7. Would you like there to be rare hp potions that cant be bought only found in secret places max 3 carry? ( how much they would heal? I dunno that has to be balanced, currently thinking 30%-50% hp )
I don't think potions should ever be a thing in Castlevania games, metroidvania or not. Even if you only allow 3, you need to balance every boss fight to assume the player having 3 at any time. And if there's a finite number, hidden in secret areas, most people wouldn't ever use them anyway, most likely saving them up for the final boss, and breaking the potential challenge in that fight.

[MooMilk]

If you're going to change the difficulty you should set the level cap higher so we can make it easier if we want. I think you should add Christophers whip tho, so you can shoot fireballs. Even if chronologically christophers whip is supposed to be the same as simons.

[Wanhus]

This is how the blood spill would work sorry for the poor screenshots its hard to time as it happens fast.
I made it similar to some enemy blood spills in symphony of the night. ( pixel pray )
Its not overkill blood as you can see =)
I just thought it would fit the death animations and effects.

Hit position sprays a bit of blood pixelsin opposite direction...                        Blood then paints the area where its hits for a few seconds until vanishes.....
 

Bloo
Also my game is running at 60 fps, it uses about same speed as Simon's Quest but he moves prolly 2-3 times faster due to fps.
Also most of the stupid shit belongs in the I will fix from old Simons Quest section.

I think I have already taken the boring color scheme out of the original dark color lots of grey to vibrant colors scheme. =)

Armor would replace the Original Simon's Quest leveled up armor that it had.

Also I watched the video it had good points, thou as this is kinda metroidvania and he disliked metroidvanias some things I cant change also as this is still Simon's Quest based and he disliked Simon's quest.
I'm mainly trying to improve and change it from being the first of metroidvania style to more modern and improved.
Good points from the video that I'm thinking is: Don't make it too much farming game, intelligent enemy placement where possible ( I wont make the game so that even early parts are insanely difficult due to enemy placement )
Most other things from the video are addressed.

Sumez
Yeah I'm not worrying about the age rating. =)
I'm not selling this and it would never bee nothing too bad but castlevania games are supposed to be a bit scary, have corpses, blood, scary nights and monsters.

it would not be too harsh limits but something so you cant "CHEESE" ( happens a lot in dark souls ) the bosses so you also need skill in them.
So you are not curled up in a corner throwing 500 axes at a bat boss that can barely hit you.

Yeah I'm not adding too many and only 1 piece, prolly basics like leather, chain, scale, plate. Nothing as fancy as "Angelic armor of flight and shiny lights + 7 strength".

I have many planned out =)

Ok ill keep the game to about normal about cv3'ish, that seems to be the general opinion. Leave the harder things to new game+.

I'm already having more enemies than the original and the originals have extra abilities ( I would not try to hit shield skeleton in the shield with anything ).

I was kinda thinking them to replace the wall hams from most non metroidvania CV games. As it hinders progress if you need to go back to town and heal.
And like I said earlier this has save system so no continues, you fail you lose!


At least for me but I have about 400 test runs at this game I can make it pretty far with out dying or loading. But I know everything and I have a few tries at this and the original =D
Currently trying to get some graphics and effects done, so I can give you all a short demo to test out.

[Wanhus]

I redid the Berkeley mansion a bit, made it more skeletony and thematic so that mansions are less like each other.
Also the boss got swapped for more skeletony/darksoulsy thingy =)

[eryson]

Yes, this thing is getting very good.
anyway, your game seems to have a beautiful environment.

[MooMilk]

Looking good.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

Your environments remind me of Terraria.

[Wanhus]

Thanks all =)
Delayed em a bit to make whole new tiles set, remove the old then place it along with few changes to levels.
But I think it was worth it =)

Bloo yes I did not even think about it but yes it does look like Terraria green dungeon a bit.
I have about 1100+ hours in Terraria steam version. Also few hundred in non-steam versions.
Its a bit like Castlevania so you got to like it =)