8-Bits of Tribute

I plan on working on a set of levels that serve as a tribute to the age of gaming that got me started playing. That golden area gone by. The days when just moving a collection of pixels in X and Y direction on a tv screen controlled by the user was the height of innovative gaming :P

This project will be almost a type of love letter to the games I started playing in my younger years. I'll never forget that moment I knew my life was forever altered when I came home from school in 1995 and found my Mom sitting on the floor making a little man in red overalls jump over little brown monsters.

The levels will be familiar yet have a little LBP twist. I want to attempt to make the levels as enjoyable to play now as they were then. So I plan on recreating the levels but making sure they are easily playable in the LBP setting and make use of LBP tools and features to give it that little extra kick.

My current plan is to develop in stages with the following break down:

- Develop toolkit that includes building blocks & custom textures, make small proof of concept level using toolkit
- Create "minibytes" that are basically completed areas of the larger tribute level
- Publish "minibytes" and tweak with feedback as each "minibyte" goes live
- Provide dev notes to LBPC dev community for feedback as each new "minibyte" is created
- Encapsulate all "minibytes" into a full larger scale tribute to 8-bit gaming

Thats the plan but theres no real timeline on it as I'll be working on it as I find the time.


What I need first is a pool of games from the 8-bit era that are undeniably golden classics that set the stage for future generations of gaming to choose from.

So far the list of games to have a possible "minibyte" are: (italics means work has begun)
Super Mario Bros
Metroid
Zelda
Tetris
Mega Man
Sonic (Voltiare)
Final Fantasy (Voltiare)
Ninja Gaiden (Voltiare)
Castlevania (RockSauron)

What games do you think should get a minibyte? What 8 bit game whittled away hours of your Saturdays as a kid?

- Sonic
- Final Fantasy
- Ninja Gaiden

Not 8-bit, but still awesome.

- Galaga
- Missle Command

Thanks Voltaire :) And mind if I hang onto your other suggestions? Im planning an grandfathers of gaming level to come once this project concludes ;) Pitfall, Frogger, Galga, and the like!

Castlevania!

Might not be the same without Vampire Killer or Bloody Tears, but meh.

And for the Metroid level, be SURE to make it exploration based. Like, exploring for new "powerups" that are just objects or stickers or whatnot.

You have no idea how long I've been wondering whether to just do a total Metroid conversion.... I have it all planned out the question is would you guys be satisfied in it only being pushed out in screens at a time until I have full zones ready or do you want each area all together?

EDIT-**** you RockSauron!! You pushed me over the edge!! Im starting work on converting Metroid as soon as I get home! You've doomed me to sooooo many late nights lol

Finished BG layout of Room 1 of Brinstar at 3am last night. I was orginally attempting to skin in textures but the time it was going to take to do that vs just using stock textures for now was waaaaay to much.

I'll publish the level tonight so you all can play around in the Maru Mari room, if I can ever connect to the servers......anyone else who has a prerecall copy have trouble connecting to the EULA?

So heres what I used to design room 1 of Brinstar. Heres the map notes

1 - A sticker switch for the Maru Mari sticker
2 - The sticker that serves as the key to open Blue Doors
3 - The sticker switch that is activated by blue door key
4 (arrows on map) - These are leathilized blocks that will fall once the player triggers the supporting dissolve material to disappear

The grey balls and lines are "organic spongy growth" from the caverns that just so happen to be strong enough to be grabbed and swung from / springy by the new SackSuit ;)

I've laid all the background and terrain in, currently working on adding the "organic growth" and triggered mechanics.

Oh and I scaled the blocks in LBP so that two blocks high in the design maps are jumpable by the SackSuit.

Any ideas for the ground based enemies? In the game they climb whatever surface they come in contact with.

Just had a thought. After giving up for importing textures using the current method, Im thinking that I might actually use stickers. This time I will use them as blueprints rather than actual textures. Take a screen shot using the square frame sticker and Eye, place the sticker of the room on a cardboard wafer, then just create the actual level infront of the blue print.

Why the hell didnt I think of this before?! lol Anyone want to help out with this? Just need to take some nice size screenies with the eye that don't get too distorted when blown up.

I really should make a friggin blog for this project with the amount of posts Im writing. . .

After cutting my chops on creating room 1 and learning how NOT to do alot of things I, Im starting the project over with LittleBigMetroid being the first entry in my Tribute.

I was previously developing in freeform mode, which while handy, really has a tendency to throw off designing something that was orginally made from 16 x 16 pixel blocks. Im switching over to using grid mode. Its my feeling that this will allow things to match up closer and allow me to show you guys content alot quicker.

Instead of skeletoning room by room, I plan on making the outline for all of Brinstar using the new grid view. The entirety of Brinstar stretches over 7500px by 4600px tall. This means that the map will be 469 blocks wide by 288 blocks tall. Which ever grid allows those dimensions will be the one that gets used. Im hoping its medium or large.

If the servers decide to cooperate with me this time, look for an outline of Brinstar later tonight. I'll share the development tag name once I publish it.

WOOT!! After spending from 9:42pm to 12:42pm I've finally finished the Brinstar skeleton. I was very suprised at how massive the level seems. It may need to be scaled down. But in order to do that...I need feedback!! lol

I've published(or been attempting to, stupid servers) the level under the name

LBPC LBMBS1

Which is basically - LittleBigPlanetCentral LittleBigMetroid Brinstar Skeleton 1

I added jetpacks cause Im too tired to start adding platforms at the momezzzzzzzzzzzz ::falls asleep typing::

When was Sonic ever 8-bit? o__o

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chaz'oSulls

When was Sonic ever 8-bit? o__o

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Never, but I assumed it was more like childhood games. Post- Nintendo, Pre- Playstation, N64.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chaz'oSulls

When was Sonic ever 8-bit? o__o

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He never really was but because I remember the first commercial I ever saw for Sega was the one with the old lady talking about how nice mario was compared to the fast moving rebellious rebel hedgehog I think he deserves a nod. Even tho he is technically 16bit.

Ahhh Sonic the first choice a young gamer had for "sticking it to the man!" lol

Some which I would like to see/ try to make

Recreating many donkey kong country levels (there are some really interesting ones which would go well with LBP such as the floating platform levels, the rope swing levels and possibly barrell launching levels)

Scorched Earth - tank vs tank (2-4 players). Choose launch angle, power and blow each other up.

I want to try an old style side-scrolling fighter plane shooting level where things fly at you from the right and you shoot down as much as possible. Not sure if this one is possible yet.

Also a level or two based on old classic platform games like commander keen, duke nukem or even a double dragon clone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LordDax

He never really was but because I remember the first commercial I ever saw for Sega was the one with the old lady talking about how nice mario was compared to the fast moving rebellious rebel hedgehog I think he deserves a nod. Even tho he is technically 16bit.

Ahhh Sonic the first choice a young gamer had for "sticking it to the man!" lol

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I don't know why I'm complaining really. I love Sonic!

I need you guys!! I added the first interior room and need to know if the scale is right. If you get a chance please play my level. The name is all wonky cause its using the development naming scheme from my moon. Only one room is completed so far but if the scale is right the others should follow!

PSN: LordDax
LvName: LPBC LBMBS1

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Are you planning to recreate any tiles/sprites? As in, chart out the actual original tiles from Super Mario 3 or whatever, and then just recreate those on a grid using squares of different colored material, shrink them down and save them as objects?

My orginal plan was to create blocks and paste snapshots of the tilesheet right onto them. Problem is that it bumps up the thermometer reaaaallly quick when attempting to use stickers as textures and puts a huge load on the server loadtime as the players haveto download the stickers as the level is loading. What I have opted to do for the moment is to sparingly use the spritesheet to display items as stickers and rewards instead of having every texture.

What you suggested is an eventual step to get around not having a texture editor, and I plan on doing that once I have everythign built out using stock materials. Once I have the full level set, I'll eventually push out a v2 that uses faux-textures that were created using assorted materials and using the spritesheet as blueprints.

ZELDA YOU SEROIUS !!!!!1!!11ONE!!!
I'm in for zelda:p

I'm working on some mega man content; right now I have a working mega buster (with charge attack!) and I'm working on creating some enemy templates (enemies will have x hp, so it'll take a few normal buster shots to kill it, or 1 charged attack). I have the 'core' of the enemy created, just need to throw on whatever skin you like and voila, you've got a custom enemy.

Only problem is the way i have the buster working is that you're stuck on the ground (so no jumping with it)... I'll probably have seperate sections of the levels for battles and for megaman-style platforming.

I'll probably create multiple zones (either in 1 level, or multiple levels unlocked via a key) where you can use the new powerup gained from the previous level's boss (new buster attacks!).

Okay, I probably won't be posting anymore development info on these boards anymore since posting chronological progress keeps getting me infractions. I'll start a development site somewhere, so I can keep anyone who wants to follow along up to date.

I've moved the offical development and home of my projects to my googlespace. If you are interested you can check out the progress of any of my projects at D3 Workshop

I have 2 8bit creations that are already published. They are an 8bit mario and an 8bit bowser. The bowser is as small as i could make it. Please check it out it looks really nice. The only downside is that the color on bowser might not load all the way so you have to run back and forth to see one half of bowser colored and then see the other half of him colored.

Simply just search the level name or my psn.
Level: 8bit mario pack 1
Author (psn): GG_NO_BBQ

Hearts would be greatly appreciated

I'll go have a look see when I get a chance. Good 8-bit projects really entice me to keep working.

On a related note. More interior work done, 11 - 15% of Brinstar. You can check out the current level progress(and snag a crappy crawler creature) using:

Lv: LBPC LBMBS1
PSN: LordDax

Let me know if the springboards don't work right, was having some disappear if a player got stuck underneath.