Streets of Rage: Everest (Demo)

Hi everyone,

I'm not a stranger to the community, but have been lurking the SOR Maker forums for a while. I've been working on something that I hope you'll enjoy. Here's a sample of my progress thus far. I'm still learning about layering and enemy placement, but I hope this is enough to get you interested in my project. I've posted a few screenshots. I don't have a working title screen or any cutscenes yet, but I'll work on those as my mod progresses.

Please keep in mind that this is a fairly difficult mod. These stages are intended for later parts of the mod, but I wanted to give you a sample of the difficulty you'll be facing as you advance through the completed version.

Credit: I borrowed elements from the creators of the Metal Slug SE, Sonic, and Path of the Shadow Dancer mods. Also, many thanks to Don Vecta for his inspirational work as well as the people that have posted sprite rips on Spriters Database. If I've forgotten to give credit for anything I reused, please be sure to notify me so I can update the post accordingly.

Also, this is very important to me, but if you have a YouTube account and normally upload videos, please upload a video of yourself playing this demo. I'd like to see how other people play this game, so I can get an idea on player behaviors and tweak the difficulty as necessary.

Thanks!

Download link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B79BG48qCnm5SC1NdVhVVXc2OWs

Cool, glad you decided to post your demo here, dude. 

I've had a very hectic weekend, but now I'm ready to give it a try.

EDIT: Tried it.



Dude, you said it was difficult, but either you're a marvelous player to come out that fucking stage without losing a continue or I'm a lousy player, but I definitely think the kung -fu is too high for me (I play in Mania). I'm not sure who do you use to test your scenes, but if it is Max or Shiva, it's kinda fucked up cuz difficulty wise it's harder for other standard characters like Zan (which I used this time).

I'm gonna break it down per scene (the only two scenes I was able to play):

• Scene 1. Fantastic effect of a nasty blizzard with extremely limited visibility. Yes, it does look good, but... uneven pits that I practically CAN'T SEE THERE'S A FUCKING PIT!? Traps that I can't see either!? Dude, I lost a fucking continue just in this scene! The waves kept coming and coming and coming, no food, uneven (and invisible) pits, invisible traps, dragging floor, wind effect, NO FOOD until reaching the end and the worst offender: boss characters like that? Dude, that was broken. wasn't challenging, I didn't even have fun with it. You need to tone it down, make the area more visible to see there's an actual fucking uneven pit. The concept and the appearance is great, but the pits has to go, balance your waves, get a theme of enemies appearing (they look like picked randomly just for the lulz) and get rid of boss characters like that!
  
• Scene 2. Same syndrome: boss characters like normal mooks. You have no idea how much I hate that. The judo characters are fine cuz when set without the Yasha and Onihime names, behave like average mooks, but Jet and Antonio with other mooks with swinging pipes? Then a Bongo with a drunken Trucker? Okay, that ain't that tough, in fact, I'd get rid of the stupid Jet and Antonio, leave those mooks and then in round two, that mid boss fight... and then it came a game breaker. When reached the waiting Yamatos, game went Walt Disney and got stuck. That's what I've got recorded.
  

Bottom line: the concept of reaching a high peak is fantastic, I really love the scenes how are they looking and the theme, but learn to balance your scenes. First of all, don't use Max or Shiva as your test characters (that was actually part of my mistake when I started my career as a modder), because they're too powerful compared with the rest. Pick a standard character that anyone can play (Zan, Adam, Axel, Skate, etc.) and test your difficulty yourself. also, try playing in Mania first so you can build skills and second to see if the behavior isn't too much for the average player, otherwise, learn to scale your enemies per difficulty, but actually testing all the difficulties: you put a shitload of mooks and bosses thinking they'll behave in Mania like you tested them in Normal? lol. 

Now, as you keep advancing in building your scenes, play, play, and replay everything from the beginning to the point you reach. Did you lose lives? Where you in need of food? Did I lose a continue? Did I have fun? Remember many players don't know the traps and other things you do. 

If you're setting invisible traps or pits or other stuff like that, make sure there's a hint somewhere to show the area is actually hazardous so players can be aware of those traps (i.e. the spikes traps in that horrible dungeon in Path of Shadow Dancer, had a layer of blood in the tiles where the traps were in). Blind, invisible traps placed in random places ain't fun.

I didn't even dare to try the elevator you put there, but just seeing the sea of cluttered enemies (including those annoying Ninjos who are shoulder block-happy), a time bomb there, snow and whatnot,... well... doesn't look appealing for me to try.

My best advice is to start building your scenes from stage 1 (you said this was meant to be for an advanced level, yes?), be modular and learn to balance your waves (don't go beyond two waves per stop, maximum 3 but with low health), avoid using fucking bosses as mooks or mid bosses so often. Instead, play with the combination of mook/sub-boss for normal fights. Learn to build up momentum as you advance your mod, PLAY AS YOU PROGRESS and see how the mod's feeling as you reach where you left. If it drags, you need less waves or less health, need food or pick ups, etc.

I'm a rather astringent and vocal person when people ask me to test their mods. I have absolutely no intention to degrade or look down at anything, much to the contrary, I always welcome new modders, and specially if they approached me to help testing their works and my criticism is always with the idea of delivering a quality work. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to test the work and so far the concept is good, just learn to set your fights fairly.

Thanks for the feedback, Don. I've enjoyed playing your mods and I'm grateful you took the time to play the demo and upload the accompanying gameplay video. I'm not offended at all. I'm just sorry you weren't able to advance due to the bug at the end of the video.

I fixed the game breaking scene, so there are only 3 Yamato enemies as opposed to 4. The boss fight does begin as it should and it advances you to Scene 3 (elevator). I updated the download link and tested it for myself to make sure it's correct.

BTW, If you wanna keep that snowy mountain feel, try using resources from Ninja Warriors SNES and Cliffhanger.

Don Vecta wrote:I didn't even dare to try the elevator you put there, but just seeing the sea of cluttered enemies (including those annoying Ninjos who are shoulder block-happy), a time bomb there, snow and whatnot,... well... doesn't look appealing for me to try.

Well, let's put it this way - with my specialist toon I finished it with 6 secs left, dropping 2 lives along the way. (and I'm well-used to the troll mod style of gameplay, having trawled the completed mods list)

Don Vecta wrote:BTW, If you wanna keep that snowy mountain feel, try using resources from Ninja Warriors SNES and Cliffhanger.

I'll consider that. Thanks.

As far as the changes you suggested, I'll definitely make a few. What I won't be changing is the screen wide pit from the blizzard scene. I really like the challenge associated with that. But what I will do is add more food items. I'll also remove one or two of the ground traps and then add hints for the remaining ones.

I really like the sequence where Robot X appears from behind the truck while on fire - even if it isn't a boss fight. I'm considering keeping him, but I'll reduce his health and remove Jack and Slash.

As for Antonio in the next scene, I may replace him with a SOR2 Big Ben and remove Jet altogether. I'll remove the SOR1 Bongo and keep the Trucker in the next round, though.

Which enemies did you think made the most sense for those scenes and which ones would you add? I wanted to break away from using Galsias and Donovans.