Hey all, just checking in to say this project never died, but hasn't really been worked on lately either. If you wish to stay in touch, contribute, see the most recent updates, etc., join my Discord: https://discord.gg/EapDFbm
No further updates will be posted here :)
Thanks!
Home for all current news regarding the Metroid fan-game "Metroid: Coven"
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Thursday, October 11, 2018
News update #3 - Arc Dash, asset changes, tutorial, and much more...
This is a big update, so I'll just drop the major bullet points here.
- Tons of room work, 8 done now.
- Added a new enemy, basic directional turrets. General behavior is done: they can aim within a certain range of angles and shoot.
- Finally got the Power Suit sprites added in myself:
Note: Arm cannon is animated separately.
- Fixed some long-standing bugs in transition code.
- Cleaned up several nigh-unreadable scripts that helped optimize game performance and development processes.
- Started redoing much of the game's audio. Placeholders will be noted going forward, but there is at least now a standard for file formats and normalizing. Several sound effects have been redone so far.
- Changed some visuals for some weaponry to better fit the scale of the player and surrounding environments.
- Massive optimization of weapon firing mechanics and consolidation of scripts. Still more to do, like condensing the scripts for common variables across all weapon cases, and more.
- Project tidying including renaming and reorganizing of several assets and all in-house scripts.
- Re-implemented arm cannon sprite offsets for firing effects for weapons.
- Adjusted size of player's ambient light.
- Added Super Missile to red door collision event.
- Started adding one of the remaining items and gave it a new identity. The "Speed Booster" has been renamed the "Arc Dash" because its behavior is a bit different. Think more like Hollow Knight's Crystal Heart dash ability, but electrical-themed. The basic coding is done, it just needs more sounds, effects, debugging, and interactions added.
Was a slower few weeks in terms of shear volume, but still some BIG strides made in fixing up the engine, which is one of my main goals in this development term. One of the biggest things that keeps me from going on is the unwillingness to fuck with the code of the engine that has become so convoluted that no one can understand it. I am trying to make it better so it is easier to step in and out of.
More to come soon!
- Echo
- Cleaned up several nigh-unreadable scripts that helped optimize game performance and development processes.
- Started redoing much of the game's audio. Placeholders will be noted going forward, but there is at least now a standard for file formats and normalizing. Several sound effects have been redone so far.
- Changed some visuals for some weaponry to better fit the scale of the player and surrounding environments.
- Massive optimization of weapon firing mechanics and consolidation of scripts. Still more to do, like condensing the scripts for common variables across all weapon cases, and more.
- Project tidying including renaming and reorganizing of several assets and all in-house scripts.
- Re-implemented arm cannon sprite offsets for firing effects for weapons.
- Adjusted size of player's ambient light.
- Added Super Missile to red door collision event.
- Started adding one of the remaining items and gave it a new identity. The "Speed Booster" has been renamed the "Arc Dash" because its behavior is a bit different. Think more like Hollow Knight's Crystal Heart dash ability, but electrical-themed. The basic coding is done, it just needs more sounds, effects, debugging, and interactions added.
Was a slower few weeks in terms of shear volume, but still some BIG strides made in fixing up the engine, which is one of my main goals in this development term. One of the biggest things that keeps me from going on is the unwillingness to fuck with the code of the engine that has become so convoluted that no one can understand it. I am trying to make it better so it is easier to step in and out of.
More to come soon!
- Echo
Friday, September 21, 2018
News update #2 - Zoomers, AI, destructibles, rooms, and more...
Apologies for being somewhat late on this. I have been hard at work on a lot of features for Coven in the last few weeks. I have a lot to share, so I will try to be brief.
First of all, I have added a few environmental features. There are now some modular spikes that can be integrated to any room, and have its sprite changed to fit the region (snow region, lava, interior mechanical, etc.) with some simple code. The player can take damage and suffer minor knockback from these...
As you can see, some more room work was done, too. Since I am minimizing the environmental details, like interior and exterior rooms, non-transitional doors, foliage, floor textures, supplemental tiles and more, I will be able to complete rooms much faster for demo purposes. So far, there are three rooms, and there will probably be close to 15 by the time I'm done.
Along with spikes, I added destructible crates...
They serve their purpose simply enough, for now. But let's move on to the main subject of this update. Zoomers!
As you can see, the basic AI is complete. There are still some very minor quirks to work out, like initially pathing into walls when spawning, and some other goofy behavior that I just need to notate somewhere to fix, but they function pretty well for a 1.0 demo version. Their general behavior is to find a random, accessible point on the map, and wander to it. Upon reaching it, or getting bored of trying to, it will stop and choose a new path. If it is attacked, and there is a den for it to run to, it will find the nearest one (to its x and y coordinate, not by checking the shortest route, yet), and retreat to it (as shown above), and burrow in, disappearing.
I am pretty proud to have discovered and implemented the motion planning code. It will help immensely with creating AI in the future.
As far as the rest goes, I am laying down plans for implementing the remaining player upgrades, like the Speed Booster, and the Lightsear shield, both of which were present in early game engines, but implemented poorly. I need to add one or two more enemy types to get decent use out of things like Grapple Beam and Lightsear, but a stationary turret is easy, and I can always copy-paste the Space Pirate code from the old engine as a placeholder.
That's all for now. Next time, I will have some good stuff planned for the update.
Take care!
- Echo
First of all, I have added a few environmental features. There are now some modular spikes that can be integrated to any room, and have its sprite changed to fit the region (snow region, lava, interior mechanical, etc.) with some simple code. The player can take damage and suffer minor knockback from these...
As you can see, some more room work was done, too. Since I am minimizing the environmental details, like interior and exterior rooms, non-transitional doors, foliage, floor textures, supplemental tiles and more, I will be able to complete rooms much faster for demo purposes. So far, there are three rooms, and there will probably be close to 15 by the time I'm done.
Along with spikes, I added destructible crates...
They serve their purpose simply enough, for now. But let's move on to the main subject of this update. Zoomers!
As you can see, the basic AI is complete. There are still some very minor quirks to work out, like initially pathing into walls when spawning, and some other goofy behavior that I just need to notate somewhere to fix, but they function pretty well for a 1.0 demo version. Their general behavior is to find a random, accessible point on the map, and wander to it. Upon reaching it, or getting bored of trying to, it will stop and choose a new path. If it is attacked, and there is a den for it to run to, it will find the nearest one (to its x and y coordinate, not by checking the shortest route, yet), and retreat to it (as shown above), and burrow in, disappearing.
I am pretty proud to have discovered and implemented the motion planning code. It will help immensely with creating AI in the future.
As far as the rest goes, I am laying down plans for implementing the remaining player upgrades, like the Speed Booster, and the Lightsear shield, both of which were present in early game engines, but implemented poorly. I need to add one or two more enemy types to get decent use out of things like Grapple Beam and Lightsear, but a stationary turret is easy, and I can always copy-paste the Space Pirate code from the old engine as a placeholder.
That's all for now. Next time, I will have some good stuff planned for the update.
Take care!
- Echo
Friday, August 31, 2018
News update #1 - New blog, title, intro cinematic! - 8-31-18...
Welcome to the new home of Metroid Coven! It has been some time since I last posted any kind of an update, and I don't want to get caught up writing an incredibly long post. Suffice to say, that I am keeping this project a little quieter than I was before, as not to get my (or anyone else's) hopes up too much.
I have definitely started working on the engine again. There were 2 very significant bugs that I encountered that demotivated me from working on the game a few years ago. Suddenly, I opened up the ol' engine and I fixed them both in about 15 minutes. Go figure. So yeah, back on track!
I decided to work towards making a playable product before I do anything else, and that meant streamlining a few processes. I am about halfway-ready to start drawing new demo rooms. The title screen is done, and the intro cinematic is about 80% done as well, which is OUTSTANDING! Here are a couple previews below:
There is still some work to be done, like maybe adding something to the center of the scene in the title screen, and obviously a planet to fly to in the intro cinematic. I wanted it to look similar to Super Metroid's intro cinematic:
I think I did pretty well, except that I got the tilt backwards for the start of the second part, and I added a little extra rotation (closer to the Zebes cinematic).
Anyway, I will be posting this new blog to the places where Coven already exists (various forums, etc.) and try to post when I have something good to share. My relevant links and method of contact are right here on the blog, so please, feel free to contact me anytime.
Thanks for reading!
- Echo
I have definitely started working on the engine again. There were 2 very significant bugs that I encountered that demotivated me from working on the game a few years ago. Suddenly, I opened up the ol' engine and I fixed them both in about 15 minutes. Go figure. So yeah, back on track!
I decided to work towards making a playable product before I do anything else, and that meant streamlining a few processes. I am about halfway-ready to start drawing new demo rooms. The title screen is done, and the intro cinematic is about 80% done as well, which is OUTSTANDING! Here are a couple previews below:
There is still some work to be done, like maybe adding something to the center of the scene in the title screen, and obviously a planet to fly to in the intro cinematic. I wanted it to look similar to Super Metroid's intro cinematic:
I think I did pretty well, except that I got the tilt backwards for the start of the second part, and I added a little extra rotation (closer to the Zebes cinematic).
Anyway, I will be posting this new blog to the places where Coven already exists (various forums, etc.) and try to post when I have something good to share. My relevant links and method of contact are right here on the blog, so please, feel free to contact me anytime.
Thanks for reading!
- Echo
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