Dr_Glaucous's mega mini mod thread

Dr_Glaucous · Mar 22, 2023

I'm not one for alliteration, but I couldn't resist that title.
Anyway, I'm dedicating this thread to mods that I've made that I want to share, but I feel are too small to get their own individual threads.
All of them are hosted on Doukutsu Club, but the search engines don't seem to like that website.
Many of these mods come from my participation in the CSMC discord's bi-monthly modfest gamejams, and vary in quality and length. Many of them could easily become full-sized mods if I had the time or desire to do so (one can dream, though).

Introduction aside, here are the mods in creation order:

Get it here

My third (I think) mod ever, and my first gamejam mod.
This was a messily implemented version of Jetpack Joyride over top of the existing Cave Story.

There is support for adding more characters, but I didn't have the time to do that.

Get it here

This mod uses (and abuses) SDL's bitmap scaling and rotation features, doing both to the game's playing area.
Additionally, a hint of randomness was added to the ORG engine to make the music sound dirty.

It is not recommended to play this mod if you have motion sickness, or if you hate stumpy.

Get it here

This one is probably most deserving of its own individual thread of all the mods I have (aside from the CSPB, which, although I do not show it, I am still very much developing, mind you).
Of all the mini-mods here, Does Not Commute is the most likely to be completed by me some time in the future.
This mod is based on the real Does Not Commute, a mobile game with cars released by Mediocre. It has a similar concept, just with CS characters instead of cars, which in my opinion, is much more fun.

This one was part of modfest 29 as well as a nerdio pre-showcase (didn't make it into the final cut, though. Probably because he lacked the skill).

Get it here

Cave Kart was quite an undertaking to finish inside a week. Much of that time was retrofitting cave story to support multi-axis sprite and window rotation (some of this code came from Quote Gets Drunk), but lots of it had to be special-developed just for this one.
As a result, the maps, character, and powerup selection is, um, skimpy, to say the least. If I had an iota of motivation, I would add these in and make this a truly great mod (why stop there? let's put Mode7 on that thing!), but, I only have half an iota of motivation, so that's not happening anytime soon.

Get it here

This is another big one that I may move to a dedicated thread if the circumstances change (maybe next Christmas...)

This mod changes a ton of things about the CS engine. For one, it operates on WASD+Mouse control instead of the classic ZX+Numpad scheme CS uses.
(here is a little spoiler: the WASD engine comes from my work on the CSPB mod, so yes, still working on that thing)

You take control of Santa in this mod, but instead of secret espionage into houses like the original Secret Santa game by Nicalis, you descend into the labyrinth guns-a-blazing, ready to kick those pesky Gaudi into next week.

The mod draws heavy inspiration from Soul Knight, Into the Gungeon, and Smash TV!
It has completely randomized level generation, a verity of weapons, but as of now, only one playable character (Santa), 2 enemies (both Gaudi), and 1 boss (I'll let you guess who that is).

Once again, like more than a few of these other mods, I could easily add more enemies, more bosses, more characters, more whateverelse to this mod now that the heavy lifting of creating the engine is finished, but will I? Probably not (maybe next Christmas...).

Get it here

Turns out I liked the WASD controller so much, I put it here as well. I also added a grapple hook.
Remember that old online game, IQ Ball? Well, imagine that but with more shooting, and you have this.

There's only three levels in here, but they're not easy. In fact, I don't quite know how hard they are. I know I couldn't beat them without using the cheatfile, but then again, I've never gotten the best ending in Cave Story without a helpful hand from good ol' invincibility hacking, so who knows...
What I DO know is that if it really is too hard for everyone, I have a way to cheat on this mod too, so you get to see all of its, um, interesting design choices.

(also, the download is kind of big... I went overboard with the music on this one. Normally, I go with ORG or tracker files because they can be edited, are small, and sound pretty good, but this Turrican music was just too much of a bop to leave out.)

Get it here
If it's a computer, it runs Doom.

Robots are computers.
'nuff said.

I used the most portable DOOM engine I could find. Being so, Quote won't be able to run all those DOOM mods that have been popping up all over the place as of late (I'm looking at you, myhouse.wad), but he CAN (and does, at least in the mod) run both classic DOOM and ChexQuest.
Also, due to modfest constraints, I wasn't able to put sound in there (though that shouldn't be super hard...)
I've actually had this one on the mod website for a bit, but forgot to put it here, but here it is now, so...

Get it here
Much like the title suggests, Balrog is the playable character here.

I tried to keep Balrog here as accurate behavior-wise as the original. You can shoot pellets, missiles, grab enemies, and fly through walls.

It's small, but still incredibly fun to zoom at high speed around the maps, destroying everything in your path.
Again, this seems like low-hanging fruit. A CS mod starring Cave Story's most recognizable character (I'd say even more recognizable than Quote himself).

I split this one off into its own thread, but I'll add it here too so that all these small "gamejam-type" mods are in one spot.
Here's the link.

This is another mouse-centric mod, but based on d-rs this time around. You play as Kanpachi in a game intentionally similar to Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy (don't worry though, because unlike his game, you can save in mine.)

Get it here

Collision is a little (lot) bit buggy, but I mention that in the mod. That makes it OK, right?

I decided to port an entire 3D backend to d-rs.
This works very closely to how CS-3D works, with NPCs and the player still using the OG collision code, but all the collision surfaces are hidden by 3D meshes. I plan on incorporating this functionality into my "mod-features" d-rs branch, so it can be used in a more general manner.

Get it here

The main character in this mod was a pain to animate. I think there are somewhere around 37 unique frames for this guy? (not counting different directions) -And I had to drop lots of planned functionality due to time as well.

At this point, can you even call this "Cave Story Mod?"
Also like my later mods, this one is made in d-rs, so it is completely open-source. The source code can be downloaded here.

HaydenStudios · May 7, 2023

Okay, so I finally got around to playing these mods. One thing that I kind of dislike about the new CSMC modding culture is that it encourages people to pump out lots of tiny, short mods instead of focusing on long-term projects that end up being more interesting. On one hand, they can help people actually complete something, but on the other hand, it diminishes the amount of time and effort that people end up putting into something more elaborate. It kind of reminds me of how TikTok has been diminishing people's attention span. But in any case, these were some fun little mods. Here are my thoughts on them individually:

I hadn't heard of Jetpack Joyride before I saw this, but quickly looked it up, and this is a fun little spoof. What struck me as unusual here was that you decided to make the jetback game a third option on the main menu of the game, and if you used the "new" and "load" options like normal, it seems as if it's just normal Cave Story. At first I thought there was some sort of gimmick, like transitioning into the jetpack game once you get to the Egg Corridor or something, but once things were still normal after I got to Egg Corridor, I decied to reset and just go straight to the jetpack game.

The jetpack game itself is fun, you definitely put some time into mimicking some of the mechanics from Jetpack Joyride. At first I was expecting for the people running around on the floor to hurt me, but then I realized they don't do anything to you. Pretty interesting how you have different types of jetpacks that you can use and different characters, although it seems I may be missing a few inside jokes. Not sure what the HH guy is all about. The TV as a means up propulsion gave me a few giggles, not sure if there was some sort of inside joke there that I'd find more amusing if I had deeper knowledge, though.

Is it just me, or did the main menu music sound a bit sluggish, like slurred speech when one is drunk? Maybe it's just been a while since I listened to "Cave Story," but I just remember it sounding smoother than that. Lol, this is a fun, silly little mod. I'll admit, I didn't put my all into completing it, but it was amusing. I've never been drunk before, but I guess maybe this is a taste of the dis-orienting nature of being drunk. A good lesson on teaching you the dangers of being drunk, and by showing that an otherwise easy level can prove wuite challenging if you're drunk. Very funny.

I haven't played "Does Not Commute" before, but by playing this, I think I can easily infer the concept. This is a fun little mod, and it's really satisfying to see all the characters do their thing once completed. I also like the cheeky humor sprinkled all throughout. It's also cool how you accumulate time throughout the game, that is a good gameplay incentive that makes you go back to earlier levels and complete them even more efficiently. I ended up stopping with Headman in level 3, though.

Fun little mod with an amusing musical library. The controls aren't all the smooth, and the physics are a little bit wonky. It you get stuck in the wall, then backing up and re-orienting yourself is a killer. But, at least your opponents will sometimes get stuck in the wall and not know how to correct themselves. The tracks are not the most neatly designed, you can't always see what's ahead of you. But still a fun little experience. I managed to win the polar cup on my first try, but then failed (got 7th overall) at the blade cup.

This was a pretty fun and cool little mod that takes CSS and turns it into Duke Nukem. The intro screen in particular was quite amusing. While it's kind of fun at first, the action gets kind of repetitive, especially when the best way to progress is to just charge into the crowd of Gaudis, button-mash, and keep yourself alive by collecting power crystals and hearts while you're in the fray. I don't know how many levels there are, but I died at level 7.

Also, in the readme, you have the controls for left click and right click mixed up. It didn't take me long to figure out and adapt, but just thought I'd point it out.

Hah, funny little mod with a twist at the beginning. The grappling hook mechanic is pretty fun to play with. some parts are kind of annoying when you accidentally grapple the butes, though. Like you, I had to cheat pretty hard by setting my max health to 990 in order to win this mod. The ending was pretty funny though, interesting how Ballos' head was a big machine, and how Curly comandeers it.

It's interesting seeing some of the mechanics that you've ended up working into your re-work of CSPB. I'll be interested to see how all of these things you've been working on ended up playing into it.

Dr_Glaucous · Aug 29, 2023

Ok, so I've got a new one.
(Well, maybe "New" isn't really the right word... It's be done for over a month now...)

Doom has been ported everywhere, so it was only a matter of time...

Once again, this was part of the monthly modfest (I think I just like seeing people play my mods, it's the payoff for the work I put into them).
It didn't win, but as we all know, the true prize was the mods we made along the way.

More mod info in the original post.

Dr_Glaucous · Oct 9, 2023

Another modfest, another mod.

This time, you are Balrog.
Seriously, you get to play as Mr. Flatscreen TV himself.

Like other updates, more info in the original post.

Dr_Glaucous · Aug 19, 2024

This thread was getting a bit dusty, so I come again with another update hopefully before this gets classified as "necroposting" (what am I doing then, geezer-posting?)
This mod was made back in march of 2024, but I've been putting off posting about it until now. This time, I set my sights on ruining Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy, the popular rage-bait climbing game from 2017.

Instead of a man in a pot, it's Kanpachi in his bucket trying to ascend the island for a better fishing spot. (why he doesn't simply carry his bucket is beyond the scope of this mod)

Dr_Glaucous · Oct 20, 2024

Another modfest (#39), so you know what that means...

This time I dabbled in the little-used third dimension and made a mod that uses 3D map elements.
Because of the short timespan, this mod has little by way of actual content beyond walking through the maps, but I think the maps themselves are quite pretty given my skill level with 3D map design (which is not high).

In it, you play as a kid who has awoken to a world very different than when he left it.

kurosurintomasu · Oct 20, 2024

glaucous, you scare me sometimes.