Mimiga Story ~ Metal Paws

Metal Paws (with easy and normal modes)

UPDATED 8/9/11
I've implemented many of the changes highlighted by feedback in this small update. I have also put together an easy mode for those having trouble and am releasing both versions in one zip. Easy mode features more health, easier grinding and some of the tougher parts simplified. It was a quick set of edits i did because i need to compile a changelog of every coordinate i changed for the easy version. Because i may have to redo the changes later. The mirrors section has the new link you need. I heed all the feedback i recieve, so thanks for it. If it seems rushed, i admit it was a little. Mainly because i want an easy version for my nephews to check out. Also because this is like a trial run of "easy mode". What is likely is that the game will be available in both easy and normal modes every update.

Well it's been roughly a year, so i think it's about time i made a new demo of this. I'm releasing this demo mainly because theres already alot to look at and critique. From feedback, to critique to full bug reports, any help will be greatly appreciated. Me and my offline playtester Wayne combed the game many times for bugs and just seeing if things look right. He's as passionate about the game as i am and very much adores the characters. Everyone who has helped me with problems in the past is awesome.

First of all, this game is what i'd consider "pretty tough" so i have included the debug room in this release. Inside the debug room there are warps to various parts of the game, and various other things. Please make a reasonable attempt to play through areas legally before resorting to it. The weapons in the hack are intentionally flawed in the same way that castlevanias whip is intentionally flawed. The details for the debug room can be found below here, if needed.

If you arent cheating, dont enter the room in Mados bedroom, dont enter ANY of the door objects anywhere on the mountain quest (first quest with Mioko with you), These are warps, only for a last resort, and WILL cause bugs

Spoiler

Only ever use the debug room if your very very stuck alright?
The door to it is at the very begining of the game in Mados bedroom. There are options to give you weapons, ammo and more max health. Even one to turn you into Mioko. The rest are warp doors, in order, left to right, corresponding to how far they will send you in game. Please note that warping to the dream sequence will trigger an autosave. Also there are warp doors at the begining of the mountain quest and further up the mountain. These will warp you to the rest of the areas.
Please note that using the debug room WILL cause bugs

Ok, this begins at the very begining of the final game, and ends in the room which has a boss based on Balrog two. This room is unfinished, so dont worry if thigns go wrong in there.

Onto the actual game. You control a Mimiga in a villiage of Mimigas who trains under an elder martial artist. This Master, has foreseen trouble in the villiages future and calls upon his two best students to look into it. The game involves travelling through your own dreams using "lucid stones" and uncovering what the threat on the villiage is. The antagonists are a band of discarded weapons from the war. Mimiga cyborgs leading the rest of the robots and machines into conflict with the Mimigas. At this point it's left ambiguous what they want and what thier problem is. To be revealed in coming demos.

Speaking of coming demos, i will always provide a save file up to the end of the last demo, so noone needs replay areas they have done. The save file will be the equivelent of 100% completion up to that point each time. Speaking of which, the game has a good ending and a bad ending. It's up to the player to figure out how to achieve the good one. And i'm planning on making it possible to obtain the good ending even by backtracking at the end of the game.

Here, have some screenshots.

http--,,--//i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/MilesValentine/title.png [/url]]

http--,,--//i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/MilesValentine/waterfalls.png[/url]]

http--,,--//i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/MilesValentine/underwater.png[/url]]

http--,,--//i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/MilesValentine/extractor.png[/url]]

http--,,--//i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc453/MilesValentine/mountain.png[/url]]

Here is the easy and normal demo:

http--,,--//www.mediafire...iojz9uwlo6c8glr

Please let me know if these go down. Well, i hope you enjoy the game. I'm sure it'll challenge most of you :3

e: replacement link https--,,--//dl.dropbox.com/u/42853625/Permanent/Mimiga Story - Metal Paws.zip[/COLOR

 

Tip: I suggest pressing the insert "image button" and pasting the "direct link" of the uploaded image in that field rather than giving an ordinary hyperlink. If you can not use Imageshack I suggest http://picturepush.com/upa. I am not, but some people are lazy to click.

Also downloading. It's always nice to see new mods coming up

 

Done and done. I was worried the images were too large, but they seem to fit nicely. Hope you enjoy ^^

 

I like the like of this!!!! I will give some feedback when I have some more time for the game. Only one thing I would comment on (which is as personal preference)... is that it doesn't look like you have spent a huge amount of times on finishing off the maps. I think it looks a big better if the walls aren't so "blocky"... so that they have a bit more detail. Apart from that the sprites look great and the title page very cool. I can't wait to play it!

 

Thanks man! I'm glad you do. But yeah, thats a fair comment. Particuarly in the sections of the mountain where theres two tone rock. I havent made any transitions between the tones, and it looks a bit yeah, blocky, as you say. I'll be sure and add some kind of transition for those.

I just noticed, i havent any screenshots of the first dream sequence, which is all custom and really abstract. Guess you'll have to play it to see it XD

 

Is the first boss beatable without a full clip of ammo?
I was going to try to tediously grind those enemies at the save point to get upgraded gun to at least do a better chunk of damage to him before having to resort to (somehow?) killing it with a knife but limited-use save points?

So I'll probably have to enlist the help of my friend Oleh Yuschuck to get past this
(I am going to cheat)

 

the map layout looks a mite sporadic

 

Is the first boss beatable without a full clip of ammo?
I was going to try to tediously grind those enemies at the save point to get upgraded gun to at least do a better chunk of damage to him before having to resort to (somehow?) killing it with a knife but limited-use save points?
So I'll probably have to enlist the help of my friend Oleh Yuschuck to get past this
(I am going to cheat)

Mmm well Noxid you need i think about 15 shots to kill it with the crossbow only. Normally i have to resort to the knife for the last quarter or so of his health. It'd be nice if you didnt cheat, but i cant stop you.

the map layout looks a mite sporadic

Mmm yeah it is in places.

 

Mkay, so I've had a chance to play the mod a bit more (with god mode hax), and the one concern I have that really overshadows everything else is the difficulty. There's very little health, the weapon is very close range (or limited ammo), and the enemies and spikes are plentiful. The bosses have a lot of health and can effectively insta-kill you, as well as existing in extremely hazardous arenas. Add the fact that I'll drown if I don't hurry it up half the time and it all adds up to a mod that I think would test the patience of even the most skilled Cave Story players.

You do have the cheat rooms and warps which are only really a bandaid solution and to me indicates that you're aware of the issue, but not quite facing the right direction to solve it. I think it needs some balancing, from a design standpoint, to make it more accessible to everybody. Because after all, if you go to all the work to make a mod then you want lots of people to be able to play it right?

Making really difficult mods is a common thing that seems to happen to people when they first start out. I had a lot of complaints from people about how my mod was too difficult (something about needing to dodge a dozen dragonflies while making a pixel-perfect jump) so I kept adjusting and reworking it until they shut up it was better.

There are some other pros and cons I can go over but this is all I have think to make at this time of an hour

Basically there's a time for difficult level and it's not the first ones

 

I haven't finished this mod yet, but here's my review up my current progress.

Spoiler

General comments / feedback / thoughts and/or praise:
--Very weird transitioning between maps, rooms, and such. It's a unique experience when compared to Cave Story though.
--The title screen is very nice.
--Facepics are good in most cases. Especially the ones for the main character. Mioko as well.
--Health bar and EXP bar graphics are well done.
--I like the fact that things are hidden in non-obvious ways in the first area. Prevents boredom, I guess.
--You get 2 weapons at the start. Nice.
--EXP "sparks" look good.
--I like Trapper's "trapping you in a cage" animation.
--Heh. Len. That name cracks me up for some reason. Maybe I've been spending too much time on the Internet.
--Does Mayun's coin serve any purpose?
--Realm of dreams is cool. It has a nice custom background & good tileset.
--Just the idea of lucid stones + world of dreams is quite original.

Points for improvement:
--The fade in/fade out transition is interesting, but it's too colorful for its own good.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I suggest sepia tones.
--Yes, the maps need to be more coherent, like other people have said.
Since coherent is possibly the vaguest word ever, by that I mean the landscapes should be smoother, the buildings should look more organized in their construction, and blocky ends should be capped with curved tiles or something that gives texture to flat line borders. Otherwise some maps are hard to look at. Even so, I think that one case of good map design is inside the castle.
--The main character's sprite (not the facepic, which is fine, but the in-game sprite) is a little iffy. It looks like he's constantly trying to punch the air. Can you make his walking animation more realistic?
--Is there a reason there's no death animation?
--I'm sorry, but the first dungeon is far too difficult. It is tedious to grind and ridiculous to expect any safety when approaching a monster. In other words, it's difficult in a not-so-fun way.
--The first coin is not very obvious... well maybe it is considering that the pipe has "opened", but hidden chests inside pipes are not the first thing that comes to mind.
--During the Cyborg boss fight, the cutscene should probably skip using a skipflag after you die for the first time. Otherwise it gets really tedious.
And yes, I am trying to knife him to death because my crossbow isn't leveled up.

Sorry if I complained too much in the review. I'd just like to say that you clearly know what you're doing in terms of modding.
Your mod isn't boring and it certainly doesn't consist of traditional gameplay.
This mod is also decently long, and I thank you for that.
Just need to polish up some areas, tone down the tediousness of some fights / monster-filled zones, and things will be great.

 

Spoiler

Mkay, so I've had a chance to play the mod a bit more (with god mode hax), and the one concern I have that really overshadows everything else is the difficulty. There's very little health, the weapon is very close range (or limited ammo), and the enemies and spikes are plentiful. The bosses have a lot of health and can effectively insta-kill you, as well as existing in extremely hazardous arenas. Add the fact that I'll drown if I don't hurry it up half the time and it all adds up to a mod that I think would test the patience of even the most skilled Cave Story players.

You do have the cheat rooms and warps which are only really a bandaid solution and to me indicates that you're aware of the issue, but not quite facing the right direction to solve it. I think it needs some balancing, from a design standpoint, to make it more accessible to everybody. Because after all, if you go to all the work to make a mod then you want lots of people to be able to play it right?

Making really difficult mods is a common thing that seems to happen to people when they first start out. I had a lot of complaints from people about how my mod was too difficult (something about needing to dodge a dozen dragonflies while making a pixel-perfect jump) so I kept adjusting and reworking it until they shut up it was better.

There are some other pros and cons I can go over but this is all I have think to make at this time of an hour

Basically there's a time for difficult level and it's not the first ones

Well one of my main priorities was making a challenging game. I'm a big fan of thr unfinished corridor mod. And this game as far as i can see is nowhere enar as difficult as the corridor mod. What i did in fact intend to do, was, at the time of final release make three versions:

Casual mode: For people who may not have played the original game
Original mode: How the difficulty is progressing as is. Intended for the skill level of this forum.
Extra mode: A harder mode specially made for Wayne... Because he's very good at this game and i want to challenge him too. No i'm not kidding.

The difficulty for me is really challenging. Therres alot of areas i cant consistently beat, but it's kind of a reflection on me. I love masochistic games. I wasnt hoping to make this game masochistic, but i was intending to make the player suffer XD

In all seriousness, if soem people dont tell me that they had fun with it despite it's difficulty, it's going to have to be changed. I dont know. I liked how it was going...I wonder, what did you think of all the custom stuff and the rest of the game?

Spoiler

I haven't finished this mod yet, but here's my review up my current progress.

Spoiler

General comments / feedback / thoughts and/or praise:
--Very weird transitioning between maps, rooms, and such. It's a unique experience when compared to Cave Story though.
--The title screen is very nice.
--Facepics are good in most cases. Especially the ones for the main character. Mioko as well.
--Health bar and EXP bar graphics are well done.
--I like the fact that things are hidden in non-obvious ways in the first area. Prevents boredom, I guess.
--You get 2 weapons at the start. Nice.
--EXP "sparks" look good.
--I like Trapper's "trapping you in a cage" animation.
--Heh. Len. That name cracks me up for some reason. Maybe I've been spending too much time on the Internet.
--Does Mayun's coin serve any purpose?
--Realm of dreams is cool. It has a nice custom background & good tileset.
--Just the idea of lucid stones + world of dreams is quite original.

Points for improvement:
--The fade in/fade out transition is interesting, but it's too colorful for its own good.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I suggest sepia tones.
--Yes, the maps need to be more coherent, like other people have said.
Since coherent is possibly the vaguest word ever, by that I mean the landscapes should be smoother, the buildings should look more organized in their construction, and blocky ends should be capped with curved tiles or something that gives texture to flat line borders. Otherwise some maps are hard to look at. Even so, I think that one case of good map design is inside the castle.
--The main character's sprite (not the facepic, which is fine, but the in-game sprite) is a little iffy. It looks like he's constantly trying to punch the air. Can you make his walking animation more realistic?
--Is there a reason there's no death animation?
--I'm sorry, but the first dungeon is far too difficult. It is tedious to grind and ridiculous to expect any safety when approaching a monster. In other words, it's difficult in a not-so-fun way.
--The first coin is not very obvious... well maybe it is considering that the pipe has "opened", but hidden chests inside pipes are not the first thing that comes to mind.
--During the Cyborg boss fight, the cutscene should probably skip using a skipflag after you die for the first time. Otherwise it gets really tedious.
And yes, I am trying to knife him to death because my crossbow isn't leveled up.

Sorry if I complained too much in the review. I'd just like to say that you clearly know what you're doing in terms of modding.
Your mod isn't boring and it certainly doesn't consist of traditional gameplay.
This mod is also decently long, and I thank you for that.
Just need to polish up some areas, tone down the tediousness of some fights / monster-filled zones, and things will be great.

Thanks very much for your praise. I'm glad you found some of the secrets! Oh and yes Mayuns coin is important for obtaining the good ending. Getting the good endign requires special objects from characters in the real world, which you use to be accepted into thier dreams from the "collective unconcsios" That coin grants you access to Mayuns psyche later.

You dont like the fade? hmmm... I'd need to see how it looks with less jarring colours. Worth a look.

Yeah i'll need to visually scan over a bunch of the maps and add in some extra tiles specifically for this purpose.

I've been over the main characters sprite many times. I think the main problem is that i had a specific idea of how boosting is going to look. I tried to improve him in every revision. But i definetly agree, he isnt looking as sweet as i'd like, and i'm having trouble getting him up to scratch. Does Mioko look any better to you? You can switch to him via debug room.

Yeah there is. I have no idea how... And now that i think about it, there cant be one. Because Mado and Mioko look pretty different. So we cant have Mioko turning in to Mado when he dies.

The ammo boxes and save points were made to self delete to hinder grinding. I'll admit, leaving the cave, under the circumstances that arise, is rather difficult. But you know.... Like i said to Noxid... I kinda like really hard games. I may even have to start releasing two versions every demo. Which is a bit of a pain.

This was a concern for me. I'll add a text box saying Mado tripped over something when he goes into the pipe.

I dont really know how to set skip flags up, or safely for that matter. It'd certainly reduce the tedium for sure. Theres nothign i hate more than a delay before a difficult fight. Like in kingdom hearts riku boss. Where theres like a 5 minute cutscene before you fight.

Thanks for your detailed reply. It shows an appreciation for the game which make creating it all the more worthwhile. I hope that people put the time in to master the bosses and areas, because it isnt meant to be blown through.

 

I really enjoyed the mod so far, I liked the story and thought the facepics were really well done. Nevertheless, there were a few bugs that irritated me:

1. Unfortunately I accidently entered the "cheat" debug room and saved overriding my save. Can you add a Yes/No jump that makes the player confirm with a yes before entering this room. This will prevent accidental entering of the cheat room so players wont ruin their saved profile. I don't mind replaying from start if there is no exit, but this room bothered me.

2. The purple rock before the boss fight can be picked up twice. You can pick it up before the boss, and again it re-appears after the boss and you can pick it up again.

3.Graphics wise, some rooms (although I liked the cutaway views) were hard to tell where the exits were once you entered. Adding a doorframe (without a door) might be useful in these areas.

4.With respect to difficulty, for me personally the point is moot. In almost every mod I play I hex-hack the health to 255 by changing the health values (at 03) to (FF). Nevertheless, I feel that the boss would be very difficult without me doing this. (I did not see any health-increase pickups) in the areas that I played.

I don't mean to be a "negative-Nancy" but these things I feel are only minor issues. I enjoyed what I played so far, and am looking forward to finishing
a later version of this mod.

BackyardcabinXY

P.S. I would like to thank you for the comments and support you made about my mod. I appreciate it.

 

Spoiler

I really enjoyed the mod so far, I liked the story and thought the facepics were really well done. Nevertheless, there were a few bugs that irritated me:

1. Unfortunately I accidently entered the "cheat" debug room and saved overriding my save. Can you add a Yes/No jump that makes the player confirm with a yes before entering this room. This will prevent accidental entering of the cheat room so players wont ruin their saved profile. I don't mind replaying from start if there is no exit, but this room bothered me.

2. The purple rock before the boss fight can be picked up twice. You can pick it up before the boss, and again it re-appears after the boss and you can pick it up again.

3.Graphics wise, some rooms (although I liked the cutaway views) were hard to tell where the exits were once you entered. Adding a doorframe (without a door) might be useful in these areas.

4.With respect to difficulty, for me personally the point is moot. In almost every mod I play I hex-hack the health to 255 by changing the health values (at 03) to (FF). Nevertheless, I feel that the boss would be very difficult without me doing this. (I did not see any health-increase pickups) in the areas that I played.

I don't mean to be a "negative-Nancy" but these things I feel are only minor issues. I enjoyed what I played so far, and am looking forward to finishing
a later version of this mod.

BackyardcabinXY

P.S. I would like to thank you for the comments and support you made about my mod. I appreciate it.

Sure thing, adding a YNJ would be a good idea there. I was sure that the lucid stone was behavign correctly, i'll need to look into that.

With regards to appearence with entering rooms, my tester personally found it difficult to grasp what i was going for. It's intended to be logical and realistic. When you enter a room, you would NOT see the doorframe you just entered, because it is now behind you. Many of the rooms in mods assume the camera angl changes 180 degrees every time you enter a room, because thats the only way you would see the doorframe you just came through. I realise this effect comes at a cost, that the exit can be difficult to find, but it's a trade off. It wouldnt make sense otherwise.

Difficulty wise i wish people would give this a chance. The bosses and areas are supposed to be overcome with practice. It looks like however unavoidably i need to include an easy mode with the next release. Because not everyone seems to be up for the challenge. I'll look into alot of these issues people have raised and once solved i'll release a twin pack of normal and easy modes next week or soemthing.

 

Okay so I don't know how much I'll have to add but let's take a look-see.

AOIUKWEA

...Alright, I'm currently up to the mountain-y part. As other people have said, the screen transitions are often choppy and inconsistent, and the dialogue is a bit like that too (e.g. the faces always stay during system text). A couple of doors are also missing a <PRI. The walking sprite is kind of wonky, but you said you're working on that already.

I know you're aiming for a challenge, but the mod so far hasn't been hard so much as it has awkward and frustrating. The first dungeon is so cramped that it's hard to even move, so the not-critters are difficult to get past without getting smacked about and reaching the save point is too dependent on getting a random health drop. It doesn't help that the range on the knife makes the protagonist from Lagoon look well-equipped. The crossbow works fine, and I didn't have a problem with over-using the ammo, but having such a limited alternative doesn't allow for much finesse when it comes to dealing with enemies at mid-range. As others have said, the only other alternative is to grind, which isn't interesting and requires no skill (and also defeats the purpose of disappearing save points when you can just reload and use them again). The first dream area was nice though ._.

I got through the maps on my own well enough, but I turned hax on for both of the bosses. Not meaning to sound rude, but have you really tested these very much? Both appear to be one-hit-kill deals in cramped rooms that involve jumping back and forth from one side to the other, meaning you're screwed if you put one foot wrong and/or need to use the knife. Makes those health-ups feel a bit pointless as well. I also found a bug in each of them:

Spoiler

The first boss can fall down the bottom from where he can't get back up, and if you jump too far before the second you will die from an appearing spike as soon as the cutscene starts.

I like the premise of the story so far (dreams = ), so I'm interested to see where that's going. I'll make another post when I finish the demo with some more detail about the non-gameplay elements, so excuse my bluntness here. It just seems a bit like you haven't done much testing in some of these areas after making them, and combined with the odd screen transitions it's hard to find a playing rhythm. Or it might just be me being way overtired, we shall see

 

That an interesting idea actually for a mid range weapon.... I'll have to think on that. It'd certainly make alot of situations in the game less akward.

In regards to testing, both me and my playtester have beaten all areas and bosses countless times. It's necessary because i have to debug cutscenes and events before and after. The disappearing stuff was supposed to makegrinding harder to do, andp alce a focus on working with what you have and grinding the players experience rather than the weapons artificial experience. I can respect that Noxid, Carrot lord and yourself are busy people, and dont have time to play a game for too long. I can relate when i'm in a game makign mood. I'm still thinking about how to make an easy mode when the main game is done, the current easy mode is just an experiment. I've mentioned Corridor before, and i admit i was inspired by it. I enjoy putting the player in situations that make them uneasy and test thier limits.

Thanks for your time dude, i'll be sure and try my best to tackle this stuff.

 

I can't DL it.

 

Thanks for notfying me dude, i have a new mirror up. Enjoy! :3

 

Yeah it works now. Wait didn't I play an older version of this a few months ago? Anyways it has improved. I like how you managed to create a new way of entering houses, it's quite impressive. Also the dialogues improved dramatically. I always knew you scotsmen were good at writing!

 

Well, I can only assume I've reached the end now (top o' the mountain) because there's no way to advance.

Cont'd:

Maybe when I said "it's hard to even move" I should have been clearer about what I actually meant. The tiny passages and uneven map tiles mean that the game physics are constantly pushing you around and messing with your movement through already frustrating areas. This takes control away from the player, which is never a good thing to do in a serious challenge mod because it means too much luck is involved in beating it.

There are sections that I am pretty certain are designed such that the crossbow must be levelled up or (at least have ammo) in order to proceed. I can see no other way to get past those Kulalas and Mannans without taking a forced hit because the air timer runs out too quickly. This makes it seem like grinding is in fact not optional but required, and it takes so long to do that it becomes tediously repetitive. Same with grinding for HP after reaching a save. However, I think a small change in design thinking would remedy this with little hassle.

Requiring such huge exp amounts is counter-intuitive, not only because weapon levels are needed long before they would come 'naturally' but because they will never have a chance to level down with such a tiny HP total. On the other hand, if you make the levels require small exp, you can go right ahead and design difficult areas that assume the player will be at max power (and possibly max health (which would allow Mado to actually take a hit maybe)). Makes everything a lot easier to balance.

Spoiler

Speaking of HP, the scene with Mayun in the water is bugged, such that you can go back and redo it over and over to get infinite +2 max's.

I felt a couple of parts to be kind of dick moves as well (and so more hax was involved). The Omega fight is disgustingly slow because you can only take one shot at a time with the crossbow, and it's often blocked by Omega's own projectiles which you then can't clear properly because the knife is garbage. (Bug in this fight as well: it appeared to me that you have to jump just the right way when you take the shot that finishes him off, otherwise your momentum is cancelled and you fall down the bottom during his death animation (and die).) It wasn't very fun grinding to level 3, making it through that water section and then drowning in the escape part due to aforementioned lack of control as well. If you are really capable of beating any of these bosses with what's currently available then you can be on the STGT team next year

As for that non-gameplay stuff... some of the facepic proportions are a bit blocky, but they're generally not too bad. The colouring also gives a lot of them a kind of unnatural 'shiny' look, which could be improved if you blended the colours more evenly like you did with Mioko (?). The new tilesets/sprites are fine, and the story hasn't developed a lot more since my last post so I'll let that simmer for now.

 

I know the sort of areas your referring to that are akward to move in. My trouble is i'm more creatively focussed than focussed on functionality. This is why when i get things looking right, sometiems they dont perform right. I'll have to find a way to make these particular areas more manageable.

The XP and weapon damage has been tweaked and tuned many times. I suppose i need to make levels more accessible.

Essentially the main reason weapons level up slow is because i dont intend to have many. So ideally i'd like it to take more than half the game to get them to max. And for it to be possible to lose XP as well somehow. I may have to make weapons at each level more powerful. I'll need to think about rebalancing the weapons effectively and making the desired effect a reality.

Firstly, thanks very much for the bug reports, thsoe will be purged in the next release. The fight your talking about is supposed to be a test of accuracy, but you are correct, that its pretty painful if you dont have a reasonable level. Again, calls for weapon tweaking.

Cool, i'll take a look at Mioko to see how i did a bit better with him. It's all much appreciated. I need to be brought back down to Earth sometimes.