Curly Brace's Story *FIRST DEMO*

Is this mod discontinued?

 

no.
it just hasn't been updated in a while

 

I loved the demo.

Continue it. D:

 

NEW UPDATE




I've also updated the link in the first post. This one goes about 3/4 through chapter 3. If there's any problems with downloading let me know.

I'd like to thank xmrogue2003 for the angry facepics he made for Curly, Jcys for the Arthur sprite and AlexRose for the Arthur facepic.

And I am always accepting help with spriting and any other art related modding so if you'd like add me to msn, my address is in my profile.

 

the path to the mimiga village leads into nothing.

 

I noticed the dead end there too, the script that's supposed to run there just saves (reserved for TRA to village) or something, because i thought it was a script error. But the script just doesn't exist yet....

 

That's weird it worked perfectly when I just tried it. I mightve uploaded the wrong file. This one works for sure and I included a save at the end of the tunnel.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=6181a818d493a1e1d2db6fb9a8902bda

 

A really great job so far. I thought I posted something after I completed the prior demo release, but oh well... At that point, the mod seemed pretty easy anyway (With the exception of that one gravekeeper issue), but it was still rather fun even back then.

When I reached Chapter 2, however, things took an unexpected change of pace... *Be prepared for a spoiler wall!*

It's meant to be easy but by the 2nd chapter I've added something in to make it a bit harder, and maybe less tedious.

Spoiler

While on the way to Mimiga Village, the Basil segment beyond the Ancient Cave wasn't too bad on difficulty, but it could be rough at times when you have to jump right between two of them with only one square's worth of a safe line & the keyboard being used has an occasional issue with beeping because 3 or more buttons are pressed simultaneously, causing the jump to extend upwards as it doesn't detect letting off the keys in time.

The REAL irritation to deal with was the guards' range of sight in the prison escape sequence. They can see Curly before they she even sees them, even if she creeps up to them as slow as possible. Add to the fact that they're in a DARK CAVE, that's not very fair, even if the Mimiga's senses are that strong (As opposed to Metal Gear Story's theory on their sight radius, but that's not the point of focus here...). Other than that, the whole instant death upon being detected was rather harsh (Especially for a fan of Curly to make such a scene on a mod focused on her, heh heh), but since there's a save point in the cell, I guess that's not too much of a problem overall... If any changes must be made, however, perhaps they could return her to the cell the 1st time she's detected, then on the 2nd detection they kill her.

Then there was Grass Hills (Is GH an optional area? Arthur hinted at it being optional, but it's probably not.), which, when I attempted the fortress part, had me saying, "Oh come on! This place isn't THAT hard!", then when I encountered the Mimigas who put up the forcefield, I uttered a set of lines from Merry Gear Solid- "Are you kidding me? Now I have to do it BACKWARDS?!", which turned out to be a bit humerous to lighten the otherwise slightly tense mood I was in. The path of fans were not too rough (Only because of me playing the BoostMania mods before), but the instant deathspikes below the 4th fan boost jump (Which were also passed over as play went back & forth) can be a rather nasty surprise, especially when you don't even notice them in the gaps below, as well as the ones to the right of Power Terminal 2 (As if the skulls above those spikes are enough of a warning when the skulls are used on the Fortress entrances, too). Finally, after a relatively easy boss (And noticing the new Angry Curly facepic before that), the forcefield was down & the area was cleared not too long after that.

Next came Chapter 3, which was a much needed breather, compared to the last chapter. The dialogue lines of the Korons/Colons that were playing poker are greatly enjoyable. On the way to Omega, the use of standing on the Sandcroc to make it past those spikes on the way there was pretty clever, and even more so with the unexpected opening of the new area where Omega is normally fought. Only the falling block parts gave me a bit of trouble overall (Blocks ALWAYS seem to get me the most in Cave Story, regardless of whether I'm playing a mod or not)... Surprisingly enough, Omega was a bit easy to bring down, especially since it takes it 3 jump attempts instead of 2 to get loose from the sand & start leaping around. The escape part was quite fun, & the Sandcrocs along the way were a BIG surprise. I think I've reached the end of the mod for now, since I can only get Curly about halfway though the 'quicksand' before running out of air (Even when using jump+damage recoil to reach the ledge to the left of the skull/bird groups, not to mention the storehouse door is missing & the blocks above it can't be reached from ground level.

Still, this is a fantastic mod & an amazing story idea, well done!

 

Thanks for the feedback.

Spoiler

but it could be rough at times when you have to jump right between two of them with only one square's worth of a safe line

Spoiler

I had it much harder at first. Like the 2 basils were exactly aligned and you had to jump between them.

Spoiler

Is GH an optional area?

Spoiler

Nope it's mandatory.

Spoiler

(And noticing the new Angry Curly facepic before that)

Spoiler

That was one of two angry faces. That's a mild angry face you don't see the really pissed off look until a bit later.

Spoiler

I think I've reached the end of the mod for now, since I can only get Curly about halfway though the 'quicksand' before running out of air

Spoiler

An Air Tank was supposed to be found after you leave Sunken Ruins but I messed up the flags.. The demo was supposed to go a bit longer.

Also unfortunately I had to take the gun out of the Jetpack Soldiers death animation because apparently Flying Gaudis and regular Gaudis share the same death animation..

 

I think I played this once, can't remember if I commented or not, too lazy to check D:
OILSERS-SPAY
-Curly says "I don't remember anthing" when she meets Jenka.
-There's a lot of backtracking in that first dungeon, but I like the two-way aspect of it.
-Heeey, a chapter room! Neato! But starting the second year reset my Polar Star for some reason
-The text for "explosives" extends beyond the text box when talking to the Grease Monkey.
*THIS SPACE RESERVED for more notes, I'm taking a break for now*

 

I haven't finished playing through it yet, but it seems quite good so far. I just have a couple of small suggestions (may contain spoilers).

In the original Cave Story, pixel always used <FOM0016 if he needed to restore focus to the player at the end of a script. If you don't want to use the number 16, that's fine, but shortly before the Ancient Cave, you must have used <FOM with a number much lower than 16 because the camera motion is really jerky and annoying in the Ancient Cave.

When you are in jail, it's really annoying to have to go through the dialog again every time you are killed by the gaurds. You should set a flag when you talk to the robot, and then put an H-trigger right next to the savepoint, so that when you respawn at the savepoint, the trigger is triggered, and it checks to see if the flag is set. If it is, delete the robot, and change the map tile so you can escape.

 

Alright, this mod's improved A LOT. I'll admit I was mostly being polite earlier, but the quality (and fun factor) has improved drastically. The new levels are all very well designed, both visually and from a gameplay standpoint. Speaking of which, it feels like you've changed first cave--it seems a lot shorter. Thanks for that.

Anyways, no matter the quality there's always room for a point-by-point:

Spoiler

The roach with the explosives feels contrived, and doesn't really seem necessary.
The egg corridor remake was pretty well designed for the forst half, but you inexplicably let up on the difficulty immediately after the savepoint. What happened to right-half Basil?
The jail level was very pretty, I thought. The trial and error was annoying though--maybe instead of narrow passages the guards should be guarding pitfalls and easy/direct paths and make you manouver around them?
Arthur seems very trusting. Handing you back your weapon like that, and another while he's at it. Nothing really to say about this except I thought it was funny.
The "save point" room in mimiga village shouldn't be unlocked--it kills the illusion of all those houses being full of hiding mimigas if you can enter one and find it empty. It's not like you need that save point; there's one at the beginning of the jail level and one in Arthur's house once that's over.
Arthur doesn't actually give you a key to his house. Considering "Arthur's key" is already an item and you don't even have to edit anything, that should be pretty easy to solve.
Arthur's house has no bed.
Grasstown's fortress needs a save point on the other side as well. Rooms full of moving instant-kill traps are fine. Having to complete a room full of moving instant-kill traps and some spike pits after, then having to do both going backwards, without a save point inbetween, is sure to annoy, even if neither is all that hard.
Unless half of them die by the end, there's too many mimiga children in the opening cutscene for year 3--and then all but three disappear when it ends! There were exactly four in the original.
The sleeping mimiga muttering about you killing his dad seems... Contrived? Disturbing? Unrealistic? I'm not sure, but that part didn't seem right to me.
There's a bit of a long period of no save point between leaving Jenka's house and reaching the disk in Pyramid. Actually, that didn't turn out too bad; the first stretch was long and annoying but the second and third LOOKED difficult without really being so, thus scaring the crap out of the player. Also, love the surprise when we got to Omega's area from the original.
I especially like the level design on pyramid. Very devious; if you have to start over you'll THINK you can remember it without your map, but think again!
That applies to the bulk of the pyramid. However, it was unclear (to me at least) what the deal was with the spikes in the last part of pyramid. At first I thought they were sandcrocs, since that's what I was expecting and they do the same damage. And since sandcrocs require that you run... Of course, since sandcrocs aren't invisible that might've just been my stupidity. Interesting how you made them show up on walls on the map; I think that's part of what threw me but without that the whole thing's pointless. Probably best left as-is.
Falling block section was unexpected, but fair enoguh. The prescripted ones after were cool, though the second set felt like it was cheating since they fell right through the platform above you without slowing and you could SEE them do so.
That long series of short jumps right before Omega was annoying, especially since a full jump would take you offscreen for the first few.
It's really kinda sad how easy Omega is, with so much plot significance handed to him. I wonder if there's anything that could be done to make him harder? I suppose more health is always one option, or perhaps spikes? Or I bet a sandcroc or two would make you think twice before spamming the fireball. Or some falling blocks (or is that too hard?).
And after that... Another falling block section? I'd call you out on it if this one weren't pathetically easy itself--you never have to let go of the left key, and the sandcrocs ensure you'll probably die if you try to.

Anyways, that's when you reach the part where you screwed up a flag and we can't continue.

Also, two errors in the writing:
"Could've I been a Mimiga slaughterinng robot..."
"Up until now I've gotten help from the mimiga villag" line is too long and gets cut off

 

Spoiler

-Heeey, a chapter room! Neato! But starting the second year reset my Polar Star for some reason

That's supposed to happen. The weapons all reset when each new chapter starts.

Spoiler

In the original Cave Story, pixel always used <FOM0016 if he needed to restore focus to the player at the end of a script. If you don't want to use the number 16, that's fine, but shortly before the Ancient Cave, you must have used <FOM with a number much lower than 16 because the camera motion is really jerky and annoying in the Ancient Cave.

I don't recall using <FOM in ancient cave but I'll check it again.

Spoiler

When you are in jail, it's really annoying to have to go through the dialog again every time you are killed by the gaurds. You should set a flag when you talk to the robot, and then put an H-trigger right next to the savepoint, so that when you respawn at the savepoint, the trigger is triggered, and it checks to see if the flag is set. If it is, delete the robot, and change the map tile so you can escape.

Good idea.

Spoiler

The egg corridor remake was pretty well designed for the forst half, but you inexplicably let up on the difficulty immediately after the savepoint. What happened to right-half Basil?

Well I wanted to do something with falling spikes but it didn't turn out to be as hard as the basils.

Spoiler

Grasstown's fortress needs a save point on the other side as well. Rooms full of moving instant-kill traps are fine. Having to complete a room full of moving instant-kill traps and some spike pits after, then having to do both going backwards, without a save point inbetween, is sure to annoy, even if neither is all that hard.

Well the moving traps aren't exactly instant kill. You should be able to survive 1 hit if you got all the life capsules. (provided you don't take any damage on the way.)

Spoiler

Unless half of them die by the end, there's too many mimiga children in the opening cutscene for year 3--and then all but three disappear when it ends! There were exactly four in the original.
The sleeping mimiga muttering about you killing his dad seems... Contrived? Disturbing? Unrealistic? I'm not sure, but that part didn't seem right to me.

I messed up the flags with that part too, theres supposed to be 4 in the opening scene and 4 you can talk to after, but I put the wrong flag and all of them appeared at the same time, except 1 which didn't appear at all. I already fixed it though.

Spoiler

There's a bit of a long period of no save point between leaving Jenka's house and reaching the disk in Pyramid. Actually, that didn't turn out too bad; the first stretch was long and annoying but the second and third LOOKED difficult without really being so, thus scaring the crap out of the player. Also, love the surprise when we got to Omega's area from the original.

Now that you mention it I suppose there could be a save at the start of Sunken Ruins.

Spoiler

And after that... Another falling block section? I'd call you out on it if this one weren't pathetically easy itself--you never have to let go of the left key, and the sandcrocs ensure you'll probably die if you try to.

I was disappointed about this too but the only time this trigger appears in cave story was when you were running from left to right. So the first falling block section (when you are running left to right) was hard but the second (right to left) was easy. There isn't anything I can do about that besides adding some obstacles.

And thanks for pointing out spelling errors and other text related problems.

 

I must've missed a health capsule then. Could you maybe list what levels they're in?

Also, that's kinda funny, because there were a LOT of things which killed me in one hit but wouldn't if I had a single extra capsule, all the way up until Pyramid (where I got to 12, as nothing hurts more than 10 in this game). You mean to tell me that wasn't intended?

 

I must've missed a health capsule then. Could you maybe list what levels they're in?

Also, that's kinda funny, because there were a LOT of things which killed me in one hit but wouldn't if I had a single extra capsule, all the way up until Pyramid (where I got to 12, as nothing hurts more than 10 in this game). You mean to tell me that wasn't intended?

Life capsule locations:

Spoiler

The first is where Curly's panties are in CS, there's one in the tunnel, one in the fortress and one in the pyramid.

 

I was disappointed about this too but the only time this trigger appears in cave story was when you were running from left to right. So the first falling block section (when you are running left to right) was hard but the second (right to left) was easy. There isn't anything I can do about that besides adding some obstacles.

There's two falling block sections in the original game, one of which makes you run left to right and the other of which makes you run right to left.

 

I just remembered there was a falling block part after you kill undead core but notice how it's alot easier than Sacred grounds falling block section. Same trigger.

 

I finished playing through, and wow, this mod keeps getting better and better. The addition of the Omega subplot is pretty sweet, and the Sunken Ruins level design is difficult, but fun nonetheless.

EDIT: I noticed the Pyramid in the Sunken Ruins doesn't have any music. None of the original Cave Story songs really fit, so I made I song the you could consider using.

Here it is

 

Wow, absolutely wow, I just finished it...i think if being stuck after getting out of the sunken temple is right. Unfortunately for me though i thought it wasn't over so i tried going through the water like 40 times then tried to use one of the game editing programs to give me Curly's air tank...Hey seeing how hard those last parts were i thought this was part of the mod...and it ended up changing my location to the clock room in the original game and now i can't get back...but that was my own dumb fault so...GREAT mod and i hope to see what comes in the next version!

 

I finished playing through, and wow, this mod keeps getting better and better. The addition of the Omega subplot is pretty sweet, and the Sunken Ruins level design is difficult, but fun nonetheless.

EDIT: I noticed the Pyramid in the Sunken Ruins doesn't have any music. None of the original Cave Story songs really fit, so I made I song the you could consider using.

Here it is

Hey I loved the song as soon as I figure out how to add custom music I'm putting it into pyramid. Btw did you make that just then?!

And thanks for the feedback Zeta and welcome to the forums.