CSTSFMC2017 - Mod Discussion Thread

ok flame now you're just being provocative :V

 

any image editor works with pbm, just rename the extension to bmp and open it up

this really isn't the thread for this though

 

Got around to playing the updated 9 Rooms version (?), Flight 2, and #4.

Spoiler

I've reviewed it previously, but 9 Rooms is a cryptic, disorganized experience... Initially frustrating and seemingly pointless (the 9 rooms area could be handled better... For instance even a subtle tick or door sound effect that plays upon load. Maybe a repeated sound, corresponding with the amount of secrets found? There was 9 to find? I just assumed, but didn't count... Just some kind of hint that you ARE progressing in that first part.). But if you stick with it, and never accept that it is over, you did eventually find that it kept going, even when it told you to stop. Personally, I found it to be one of the more interesting entries. Even though it's really rough, I appreciated the concept, and it stuck with me.
Would love to hear what you were thinking when you developed it, the reason why 9 rooms, the demon face, the simulation; in your own words. I have my own idea, but would be interesting to hear your side! (Or was it just randomly built without an overall target in mind?)

Flight 2 made me smile, and it's mostly better than the first. Difficulty was about right for me, almost died, but made it the first time. There are a lot of things that could possibly be improved though. Like half the time I'm flying around waiting for some monsters to show up. It's a bit... awkward. Also at the end, after defeating the boss, "the earthquake stopped"... except in the rescue scene the quake is back on lol. And bam back to title screen. Story is flimsy; I was slightly nostalgic at the start but the robot had bad acting x) Kinda funny, but the real star of the show is the gameplay. Which works. Again, I like the concept of playing as the sky dragon, but it's just pretty awkward how each room/round is handled. It was nice to have the extra breath attacks though

Lastly, #4. Um... I gave it 15 minutes of my life lol. Ugh. It *could* be interesting. Maybe if you gave the player like 50 health on Easy, and I'm assuming there are save points... I never got to one. Almost made it to the bottom of the map, but yeah.......
Alternatively, if it saved after each pattern on "Easy" mode, you would only have to pass a section once and it would be fun to keep moving ahead even if in a brute force kind of manner... However, as it stands... it's just too unforgiving and not enticing enough to keep going lol.

@re: youve got mail

Spoiler

I should give it a proper statement rather than Good good good good good.
It seems like the mod kinda defeats the purpose of a TSC, vanilla contest, since the mod doesn't have all of its features unless you include the .dlls. Though, even if you DO remove those, it ends in a good place actually lol. You just miss all the content that blows your mind is all... That music x) Those effects... (That face)
What a trip. You are a computer artist, and your hacks are pure

 

Doors the fuck are you doing

Don't

 

they were gonna win the vote anyway ;P

 

Tried out all of these as well. Flight and Flight 2 were alright, I preferred the former due to being a bit less spammy with the entities. I didn't feel like trying to mess around figuring out what the deal with The 9 Rooms was, the idea could have potential but it's hard when everything looks the same and I can't see where I'm going properly most of the time. Similar for #4 and that jump at the bottom. Regardless, thanks for all the entries to their respective creators.

Spoiler: Some extra info

Since the .exe couldn't be changed, it wasn't possible to alter the map settings. In addition to map names and entity sheets, this also meant that backgrounds and scroll types couldn't be switched. I was going to have a static full city in the background until I realised there were almost no fixed backgrounds in the unedited game. From the looks of it I'm pretty sure Noxid ran into this exact same problem and dealt with it by making the outside map one screen high, so that it'd only scroll (mostly) innocuously to the sides.

Who needs hacks?

 

Swell


I still say this was fun but I probably won't be entering anything next year. I really need to start getting some other mods and such done if I'm ever going to clear any of my project backlog out. Maybe I'll finally run one myself instead

 

I knew the roll before the die was cast but i'm still counting this as a moral victory because I broke the bad rules which was rad and it paved the way to treasure islands which was rad

e: oh since I didnt see the detailed review until now, @Tpcool the bad text lines thing was a tribute to the original Mail Story which had the same "style" of line endings. Also I thought it was funny AND it had the benefit of being way easier to write

 

huh? (looking at the scores it really shouldn't matter but I'm wondering how/if the scoring affects the place your mod gets put in. maybe you just picked the first mod i submitted? that's probably it)
oh i got second place.
This was surprising. Thank.

Work on this modcon was fun. Most of my finished mods weren't too polished, but I enjoyed making them nonetheless. The mod I enjoyed making most was probably either Flight 2 or #4, which were surprisingly the least liked mods in the contest. I guess I like overly difficult things, I don't really know. I'm not sure if I should have gotten a good score in the contest at all, really, but I'll take what I can get.

 

It was an interesting ride.
Most of the mods held up really well despite them being short. There was some variety in the whole thing which was nice.

I hope if you guys do another in the following years, it'll have more particpants.
Now for the CSTSFMC: 2020 edition.

 

You know, one would think it would be befitting of ALL judges to give reviews, reasoning or justification to their scores. It's only fair to at least be rewarded with a bit of feedback for all the hard work we put in