Into the Unknown v0.1: Escape

This is my sixth mod for Cave Story, and I guess this is going to be my final post.
But I doubt the members here will allow me to "retire", so only time will tell. And the polls.

Yes, I'm probably annoying everybody with the fact that I'm making so many mods.
Sorry about that. It definitely won't happen again, as this is my final mod (at least, until I stop being lazy and decide to redo everything that has been lost on 30 December 2012*).
So if I am going to get in trouble, anything will do, as I doubt it'll be worse than me being unable to go to my own forums' Admin Control Panel or having to go without food for eight days or not having electricity for an entire month.

Basically, the demo consists of having to get out of a prison. And go across a desert into a town, which is where the demo ends... but it's still possible to explore one last area in the demo that would've been for version 0.2 - a desert under the ground.

DOWNLOADS: Into the Unknown (first and probably final version as well as a Christmas release)**

http://www.mediafire.com/?vm83ll9oo9u1hu6

Copy and paste the link into the browser's address bar.


The off-topic stuff:

Spoiler

* Because of a virus, almost everything was deleted from my computer today, including Cave Story, several hundreds of games on my computer, my Cave Story mods and all the sprites and tilesets I had made before today and after 25 December 2012. Thus, until I stop being lazy and redo everything that was lost, including the ORGs, all my mods are cancelled. And no, I didn't have a memory stick or whatever it's called, because my father borrowed it and it got stolen.

** I was unable to access these forums and the Tribute Site itself until today, so I couldn't post this on 25 December. Also, as it's a Christmas release, there's a little bonus included.

WARNING: This mod contains a large amount of blood. So if you don't like games with blood in it, do not play this mod. You have been warned.
WARNING 2: Due to a minor glitch, entering the music room after defeating the first boss and leaving the prison area will be impossible (as the event will continuously play). It is recommended that you enter the music room before you leave.
WARNING 3: You won't be able to harm the boss if you ignore the first treasure chest - it is thus possible to enter a boss fight without a weapon. Again, sorry for making so many mods.


Also, this is slightly off-topic, but since when has there been a quick editor? Was this added during the time I was unable to visit these fora?

 

Don't stop

 

Please. Don't stop

Mods are like fighting your way through a kiddie ball pit.
You keep trying to get out them, but whatever happens, people will want you to stay "in" and keep working on it.
Also, I'd look for people who HAD downloads of your mods, and ask them to upload them
( to mediafire or somthing) so you could continue.
I'm for moding, I just think 6 is just a bit crazy.

About the memory stick, flash drive, pen drive, oh why so many synonyms:
I think you should get one. You can get one for around $10, and I still have my 4 GB drive (from elementary school) only half full.
I have maybe 8 dev. copies of my mod plus around 12 other people's mods+random junk, so even the smallest data stick is good enough.
So, after that wall of text, the moral of this story is...

Don't give up. But pace yourself.

 

Just by looking at who voted for what, you certainly don't seem to be encouraging yourself. I guess I don't know what it's like to be working on six mods at once, but I do know what it's like to have a bunch of projects going on. The best thing to do is try to solve the smaller problems to help you solve the bigger ones, as well as keep you from abandoning them. I encourage you to finish all of these mods. Of course adding more mods to the list does seem like beating yourself up and deliberately increasing your workload, but if you really have a story you want to tell, I suppose I shouldn't say no to starting yet another mod.

It really all comes down to this:

If you say you can't finish all these mods, then you can't, because you simply don't have the motivation.
But if you tell yourself that you CAN finish these mods, and put your mind to it (you can do absolutely anything you put your mind to), then then I don't have a doubt in my mind that you can finish all of these mods.

Also, though working on six mods at once deviates from the norm, this does not mean it's a bad thing- it's just not something anyone else does. And for me, personally, it does not bother me at all. I actually find it a bit funny, more than anything. (don't take that the wrong way)

 

I see quoting works differently now. At least there's a BBCode Mode now

Don't stop

Please. Don't stop

Considering how many members are ceaselessly going to ask me to continue my mods, I guess I don't have a say in the matter.

Mods are like fighting your way through a kiddie ball pit.
You keep trying to get out them, but whatever happens, people will want you to stay "in" and keep working on it.
Also, I'd look for people who HAD downloads of your mods, and ask them to upload them
( to mediafire or somthing) so you could continue.
I'm for moding, I just think 6 is just a bit crazy.

All my mods are still uploaded, deleting them because of viruses and stuff would just cause people to get angry with me. I'm still waiting for some to say what they'd like in the first demo of the Cave Story - Time Warp remake, though. I'm keeping the original just in case people want to see the differences between the mods.
Regardless, I am very random, very crazy and very weird, according to most people in my hometown. Usually after they beat me up.

About the memory stick, flash drive, pen drive, oh why so many synonyms:
I think you should get one. You can get one for around $10, and I still have my 4 GB drive (from elementary school) only half full.
I have maybe 8 dev. copies of my mod plus around 12 other people's mods+random junk, so even the smallest data stick is good enough.
So, after that wall of text, the moral of this story is...

Don't give up. But pace yourself.

That's not a wall of text, that's a fence of text.
Regardless, memory sticks are expensive in South Africa, as far as I know.

Just by looking at who voted for what, you certainly don't seem to be encouraging yourself.

That's because of me being unable to stop my father from going to a site which would cause a virus to wipe out almost everything from the computer except Windows 7 defaults and Google Chrome. I already know that I'll get in trouble for that, because my parents blame me for everything, including earthquakes that happen in Japan or tornadoes that happen in America.

I guess I don't know what it's like to be working on six mods at once, but I do know what it's like to have a bunch of projects going on. The best thing to do is try to solve the smaller problems to help you solve the bigger ones, as well as keep you from abandoning them. I encourage you to finish all of these mods. Of course adding more mods to the list does seem like beating yourself up and deliberately increasing your workload, but if you really have a story you want to tell, I suppose I shouldn't say no to starting yet another mod.

Beating myself up would be useless, I'm too weak to even hurt myself. A 12-year old could easily beat me up as I found out painfully a few days ago when I had to stop the neighbor's children from throwing rocks at my cat.

Not taking everything literally like I used to in the past before my post-ban of 3 March to a few days before September (thanks, Noxid!), adding more mods only help when I'm bored with the other mods or if I can't work on them because I'm waiting for someone to work on the ASM-related things and I'm bored with the video games on the computer. (Well, there's no longer any game on my PC thanks to my idiotic father...)

It really all comes down to this:

If you say you can't finish all these mods, then you can't, because you simply don't have the motivation.
But if you tell yourself that you CAN finish these mods, and put your mind to it (you can do absolutely anything you put your mind to), then then I don't have a doubt in my mind that you can finish all of these mods.

If I put my mind to mods, everything becomes insane. Like... things-that-I-will-not-mention becoming enemies (if I mention it I'll probably get banned again) or everything being upside-down somehow (that would be hilarious).

Also, though working on six mods at once deviates from the norm, this does not mean it's a bad thing- it's just not something anyone else does. And for me, personally, it does not bother me at all. I actually find it a bit funny, more than anything. (don't take that the wrong way)

Nine mods, to be technical, one of which I have ignored because I'm too lazy to sprite it. I had a back-up on 4shared at least.
Regardless, if it's funny, then I guess it's a good thing after all.

...

Anyway, found a list of things for version 0.2 on my forums.

Spoiler

• Add "Subterranean Desert - Temple" area
• Add "Sonskyn Village, Beach" area (by the way, "sonskyn" is Afrikaans for "sunshine")
• Make it impossible to get to the other side of the beach
• Add more non-player characters (as the only ones that exist are either enemies or corpses, and there's nobody in Sonskyn Village)
• Find all glitches and fix them except for Glitch Rifts, that are deliberate "glitches"
• Add skipflags - I'll probably use all 64 of them if I force people to save thus preventing a "no-save" run
• Either enforce saving at certain points, or add an Auto-Save thing at certain points (i.e. entering the Subterranean Desert or something)
• Add Easy Mode (more save points, probably less enemies, max life is increased a bit more than usual, and maybe add extra ammunition for the Bubble Gun)
• Add even more places that can only be reached through cheating and add a punishment for cheating
• Add the Tower that Never Was from Shane's Cave Story 1 - probably making this mod related to SCS1 I guess
• Add the Sky Labyrinth area (by the looks of thing, I like Sky Mazes and Sky Labyrinths so much that they've appeared in almost all my mods)
• Add more ORGs - probably several "remixes" or "transpositions" or whatever of Wind Fortress, I guess
• Replace the refill station with... something else
• Add hilarious cutscenes when using the refill station replacement the first time (just like with the save point, which goes with "breaking the fourth wall")

If anyone has suggestions feel free to suggest. I doubt anyone here will let me stop modding and that nobody will forgive me if I do.

 

I would forgive
buuuuut
I don't want you to stop

 

I may have a few of your mods somewhere on my 8GB flash drive. Just in case if you happen to lose them.

 

If/when you actually get to see this: Your level design has definitely improved. There's less confusion about where to go and a lot less in the way of redundant/easily skippable map features (the Subterranean Desert is an easy fall-down, but it's clearly meant to be climbed). The sparkly on the right of that section appears impossible to reach at the moment, however.

The mod also looks like it includes some of the mapping/story ideas from your earlier works; this is a good philosophy to have when it comes to modding, and even creative work in general. Ideas don't need to be forgotten or remain unused, and characters don't have to disappear, even if you discontinue a mod or two or seven. One of the positive side effects of the fact that it takes me forever to get anything done is that I'm always finding space to fit old ideas into my current work, or into side projects that I end up doing, so nothing goes to waste. A minimod could be a great way to burn off a few ideas you're not so sure about, while providing some always-wanting experience at setting a proper endgame.

 

I really like this mod, don't stop! Plz?

 

Shane said,

I'm going to reply to this thread via the help of somebody from the Shane's Cave Story Forums, due to my inability to access these forums.

If/when you actually get to see this: Your level design has definitely improved. There's less confusion about where to go and a lot less in the way of redundant/easily skippable map features (the Subterranean Desert is an easy fall-down, but it's clearly meant to be climbed). The sparkly on the right of that section appears impossible to reach at the moment, however.

Yeah, I figured it's better to change my level design style than to annoy everybody with walls so secret that they're unseen
Thanks!
I've also added a nasty surprise for cheaters who tried to access the Life Capsule in the Prison area

As for the sparkly, that's there to remind myself to add some item there.
The Subterranean Desert is technically there only to give a metaphorical taste to what will come next.
(I don't think a literal taste would end well. Heh heh.)

>The
mod also looks like it includes some of the mapping/story ideas from your earlier works; this is a good philosophy to have when it comes to modding, and even creative work in general. Ideas don't need to be forgotten or remain unused, and characters don't have to disappear, even if you discontinue a mod or two or seven.

Or ten, as of 23 January 2013, although those three are mainly to help me cope with my grandfather's passing away on 18 January 2012

For the curious, it's Hope of Shané: Frost, Hope of Shané: Ember and Hope of Shané: Spark, the final one being named by someone from TV Tropes (who thought I was making Pokémon mods, heh heh).
Anything else related to it, well, read more about it at the SCS Forums. I'd make a post at the Cave Story Tribute Site Forums (Ideas/Developments) but as I'm unable to access the forums...
Oh, and "Shané" is pronounced "sha-nei", in case anyone was wondering.
Wouldn't want people to guess like with "Il'andri'iel" now, right?

One of the positive side effects of the fact that it takes me forever to get anything done is that I'm always finding space to fit old ideas into my current work, or into side projects that I end up doing, so nothing goes to waste.

Me, I just force it in my memory or make notes. Or both.

A minimod could be a great way to burn off a few ideas you're not so sure about, while providing some always-wanting experience at setting a proper endgame.

Yeah, like the RPG-style combat I tried implementing via TSC... ^_^"
I just lost track of it though, but I'll try eventually in making it even more senseful!

I really like this mod, don't stop! Plz?

The only way I'll stop with this mod is either if somebody deletes everything from my MediaFire account and my computer, or if I die, or if I have to wait for ASM hacks for two years.

I'll work on this mod as soon as Randolf (Wayne at the SCS Forums) finishes some ASM hack requests.
Anyway, if anybody wants to contact me via e-mail who is not an administrator or moderator (as those are allowed to know my main e-mail address), then e-mail me at "kimfintyranto@gmail.com".
I don't want to use my current e-mail address for things related to my Cave Story mods.

 

Posting this for opinion-asking, so that people can't think that I'm entirely lazy

A few enemies from a future version; ignore the parrot and the cave rock. It’s there for in case I have to recolour a foe or two because of a glitch of some mysterious sort. And yes, the dragons’ eyes are visible.

Spoiler

One of the longest spritesets I have ever worked on – mainly because of the skeleton. Sure, the giant skulls are easy to recolour, as is recolouring a shaded Midorin and recolouring Butes and Hoppies, but the rest of the enemies? They took a while – exactly how long, I’m not sure, as the bone-throwing skeletons took several weeks instead of days. Finally finished it on 16 January.

Spoiler

More undead. This took one a day or so. Tried my best making them skeletal, though I think it failed.

Spoiler

What do you members think?

 

By the way, Shane got around to his inability to access the site by using a proxy.



I helped him do that.

<%2



EDIT: In case you're wondering, the internet unusually became too slow to properly handle site features. This caused the curruption of my post.



Anyway, at least Shane knew what I've said before the post got currupted.

 

By the way, Shane got around to his inability to access the site by using a proxy.

I helped him do that.

And it was X-Calibar who mentioned proxies in the first place, I think...

Anyway, you're really talented at turning sprites into something else ("respriting"), Shane.

Danke.

The only things that don't resemble skeletons in the last pic are the Bute's death animations, the Armadillo and the Bats. Also, does the blocks also meant to look like skeletons?

To answer the question I had to go to my blog to see the pics. @_@"

Anyway, the Butes are zombies, and I tried adding bones to the Armadillos and the Bats (it's a little hard to see).

The blocks, I'm going to assume you're talking about the Sunstones near the Armadillos. Well, they're there for no apparent reason, because I don't know if they'll be in version 2, inside the Subterranean Desert.

 

Forgot the mention that the Fuzz and the Fuzz core also don't look like undead.

---

Sorry for this bump... but I understand it is okay to bump the thread if it's a mod update, right?
So, around 22 December 2013, the real Shane released version 0.2 of Into the Unknown: Destiny's Tears.
However, it looks like nobody had a chance to post it here, so I decided to ask KarjamP to post it, along with this message.
Version 0.2 download.
Due to a glitch, "Normal Mode" switches to "Easy Mode" when some enemies are killed... stupid flags.
Could a staff member please add the link to version 0.2 to the first post, and rename the thread to "Into the Unknown: Destiny's Tears"?
If anyone needs to contact Shane, ask Wayne or Polaris to deliver a message to Shane, or join one of his forums:
The Vresun: Ciraian Ruins forums that Shane started on 23 January 2014, or the Dragon Riders Planning Forums.
Apparently, Taylor Smith, an admin of the latter forums, said that some CSTSF members will be made VIP members at the Vresun forums, though I don't know why.
At the moment, she's a bit... insane. :-/
- Kim, a.k.a. "The Eternal Light", the ex-girlfriend of "The Eternal Darkness", the bastard that impersonated Shane for some time

Yes, that's her real name.