Cherry Disaster and Fix

There's not much update right now, except for the Cherry bug that I found out while bug testing my game. This bug was at Yoster Safari, one of the stages in Yoster Isle. I notice that you can get a lot of lives on this bug. The problem is that the flame that Yoshi spits out after eating a red shell moves slow. Slow that you can even run past it. Because of this, the spit out fire can be followed. The fire does not seem to have an end and it passes through walls and killing all vulnerable NPCs along the way, including the cherries. The score multiplier activates and after the 8000pts. mark, you get a life. This is, of course, a default feature of the game, but since the flame can go a long way, it scores you tons of lives by busting multiple cherries along the way. I made the cherries immune to fire, but it comes with a side effect. Now, Mario's flame can't go through it. Bummer.

Happy Hills

Happy Hills

A screenshot of the level I am working on. It's called the Happy Hills. Apparently, it's a level that resembles SMW 2 Yoshi's Island, though the grass tiles is from SPP (Super Princess Peach). This is a fusion of SPP and SMW 2 by any means. I definitely like to mix things up.

By the way, only 1 more level remaining and I will be releasing another demo. It is unfortunate that not so many gave feedback on the first demo though.

Vacations over!

It is unfortunate for me to say that vacation is over and I may not be able to put much time on this project anymore. However, I am not saying that this project is going to be abandoned. It's going to continue, only that progress may slow down and updates may not be frequent. Right now, I am working on a level, which I would be putting a screenshot here in a day or two.

Changed the text background

New Text Box Color

I always find the smbx text box color a lil too bright, so as an extra something to the episode I'm working on, I did a graphic hack on the text box color. Now, the SMBX text box should be red instead of blue. This hacked SMBX will be included in my future SMBX Super Mario Quest demo release.

By the way, I'm trying to learn on ways on how to hack the SMBX. If I have time, I'm thinking about reverse engineering it. I still have to find out what compiler did Redigit, the author of SMBX, use to create the exe though. It's a lot of work, and I'm not really hoping that it would even be possible, but we'll see.

Yoster Safari

Yoster Safari

Yoster Safari is a level in my project SMBX Super Mario Quest. I intended this level to be a replica of Super Mario World Yoshi Island 2 level, with slight modifications. Perhaps, this is my first clash-free level.

I had been using custom NPCs on this one, take the cherries for example. SMBX doesn't have cherries, but thanks to Valerri's Return to Dinosaur Land episode, I manage to grab some graphics and replicate what he did on his levels. The only problem is that the cherries turn into Megamole once killed, so I had to do an extra hack on the effects. There is yet another problem to this. I notice that some NPCs treat the cherries as another NPC so they actually bump on them despite the npcblock=0 attribute on the cherry NPC. There's one more problem, the cherries seem to hide the other NPCs. So I try analyzing the NPC codes and their behavior, and after some time, I manage to resolve the problems. There are some problems I couldn't resolve with the cherries though. They can get killed by Mario's fireball and by the Koopa shells. There's nothing I can do about it.

Encounter with the Chargin' Chuck

Now, this level, like SMW's Yoshi Island 2, has the Chargin' Chuck in it. The Chargin' Chuck isn't like the Chargin' Chuck of SMW however, as this one can't be killed by a stomp or a spin attack nor is it vulnerable to fireball. These things can only be affected by Ice and can be killed by shells or hammer. The new Chargin' Chucks will really pose a threat even to the mighty plumber. Sometimes, the best way to deal with it is to run away from it.

And lastly, I also run with another SMBX problem involving the P switch. It turns Yoshi coins into blocks. It's a normal function but can also be problematic. Take for instance, a scenario where you want it to remain a coin. In my case, I put the last Yoshi coin beyond reach, and the only way to reach it is by turning the gold coins into blocks so Mario could use it as a stepping block. However, since the Yoshi coin also turns to a block, you have to wait for the power of the P switch to expire. This renders the purpose of the stepping block useless. But, with a little event trick, that problem was solved.

Anyway, here's the video:

SMBX Tutorial: How to customize NPCs

I am just reposting this since this tutorial was already featured in the SMBX Editor Help File.

How to customize NPCs in SMBX
By Redigit and Blue

While the feature is implemented in SMBx. It is not part of the actual program's user interface. All custom NPCs are set just like custom graphics and are done manually by the user creating a file in the game folders. In the folder for the level you wish to use a custom NPC in, you will create a file with notepad (a program that comes with your computer) that is named the same exact as the graphic file of the NPC you wish to alter.

For example: If you wish to make a goomba not able to be stomped, you would do the following.

Create a new .txt file in the desired levels folder.
Name the .txt file npc-1
Open that file and then place the following text in it.
playerblock=1
jumphurt=0
and then save the file.
Now in the level in question, the goomba will no longer be able to be stomped.

The following flags can be placed in the .txt file to effect the npc. If you want to set a flag to yes, put =1 and for no =0

NPC Player/World Interactions Flags

grabtop= Can Mario pick it up and carry it?
grabside= Can Mario grab this from the side and carry it?
jumphurt= Will Mario get bounce if he jumps on the top of this NPC?
playerblock= Will the player treat this NPC like a block?
playerblocktop= Can the player stand on this NPC?
npcblock= Will other NPCs treat this NPC as a block?
npcblocktop= Will other NPCs walk on this NPC's head?
noblockcollision= Passes through blocks.
cliffturn= Will it turn around when it comes to an edge, rather than falling off?
nohurt= Will not hurt the player if set to 1.
noyoshi= If yoshi can't eat it, set this to 1.
nofireball= Setting to 1 prevents fire from harming this NPC.
noiceball= Setting to 1 prevents ice from freezing this NPC.
nogravity= Is uneffected by gravity if set to 1.
speed= How fast it moves. (Percentage) 0=0% 1=100% 2=200% 

score= How many points the NPC should give you upon its death/collection. Score can be set to any number from 0-13. Each gives a different amount of points listed below.
0 give 0 points
1 gives 10 points
2 gives 100 points
3 gives 200 points
4 gives 400 points
5 gives 800 points
6 gives 1000 points
7 gives 2000 points
8 gives 4000 points
9 gives 8000 points
10 gives a 1up
11 gives a 2up
12 gives a 3up
13 gives a 5up (anything higher than 13 will produce a 5up as well.)

NPC Appearance Flags

foreground= This will be drawn in front of other sprites if set to 1.
frames= How many frames the sprites animation uses for a single direction.
framespeed= How fast the frames of the sprites animation change. 8 is Normal.
framestyle= 0=No Directional Sprites, 1=Left and Right movement, 2=Left and Right movement and inverted (upsidedown) if Held.
gfxoffsetx= Moves the graphic in a specific direction (X) -1 is up, 1 is down.
gfxoffsety= Moves the graphic in a specific direction (Y) -1 is left, 1 is right.
width= The NPCs hitbox width (in pixels)
height= The NPCs hitbox height (in pixels)
gfxheight= Only set if sprite height is different than Hit box height.
gfxwidth= Only set if sprite width is different than Hit box width.

Yoster Lake

This is apparently the second level of Yoster Isle, the 2nd world in Super Mario Quest. There are simple puzzles here that could earn you a star. I believe any Super Mario World veteran already knows how to solve it. Also, if you listen to the music, you'll realize that I edited the original SMBX music of the underwater level. The music no longer fades out like it use to be.