Red Sands - Preview Build

Aug 27, 2019 at 6:01 PM
beep boop
Bobomb says: "I need a hug!"
Join Date: Aug 16, 2014
Location: no
Posts: 845
Age: 22
This is an early build of a mod for Cave Story Engine 2 that I've been making. The plot hasn't been incorporated into the game quite yet; although I have gotten the basics of the story written out, I'm going to wait until I've done enough drafts that I feel it's strong enough to start putting into the game. The mod is rather short as it stands now; in fact, there's only one room available in this build. I intend to make a highly polished mod, on all fronts: graphics, level design, enemy design, and general game design included. The reason behind me posting such a small demo is that I want to make sure that the direction for these elements is on point, so feedback and critique is highly appreciated.

Download Link:
https://doukutsuclub.knack.com/database#search-database/mod-details/5d655d4f2b51a50011d85fa8/
 
Aug 28, 2019 at 5:08 AM
Indie game enthusiast
"What is a man!? A miserable pile of secrets! But enough talk, have at you!"
Join Date: Apr 18, 2006
Location: Forever wandering the tower...!
Posts: 1787
Very nice...
Adding gif idle animations was a nice touch. And the parallax mountain background. Code it yourself? And the animated title... Mmmm...
Does the hopping/stabbing enemy have an enlarged hitbox when it stabs? I couldn't tell. It should if possible!

I'm not terribly keen on the title screen music, about when the baritone(?) instrument kicks in mostly. At one point it even sounded dissonant to me? Maybe I'm just being harsh, wonder what others think?
Maybe they could offer some tips? Or might think it's fine as is?
On the other hand, loved the first area song from the start.

Graphics are quite lovely, but perhaps some of the monsters could use some of the shading treatment the main character has? (Though currently they are very easy to spot.) I dunno... Was just noticing how there is a contrast between the player and the monsters vs the background.

Anyway, looking forward to your work!
 
Aug 28, 2019 at 2:55 PM
Senior Member
"Huzzah!"
Join Date: Mar 25, 2019
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Posts: 206
Something like a year ago I played Jenka's Nightmare and back then I thought I would never see another mod as polished as it was.
Then this year jables released MAD:LAD and I was like:"Alright this is the next new thing, it's going to be awesome", but then he stopped updating it, maybe due to low motivation, and I was sure that nothing could be that good again so believe me that I was very happy when I opened the game and saw that awesome title screen.
The first thing I noticed after the title screen was how detailed the graphics were, good lord. So detailed that I had to stop and look at them and then I saw the idle animation, a very nice touch indeed(also so fluent).
Let's talk about the enemies:So they are new from scratch, it must have taken a lot of time and effort to create enemies that are actually good at being enemies, I especially like the Usain Bolt snails.
The enemy placement could be more creative but hey, it's just one map for now.
Definitely looking forward to this one.
 
Aug 29, 2019 at 1:31 AM
Based Member
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Dec 31, 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 2307
Age: 27
Hey, Bionicobot! I haven't seen you around in a while. Nice of you to pop up again out of nowhere with this cool new mod.

I haven't played mods in a while, but I decided now is a good time to get back into at least casually playing mods since I'm out of college and have more free time now that I'm steadily working 9-5 Monday through Friday.

This was an incredibly polished first demo with a lot of personal touch. The custom art was simply phenomenal, and was complemented by some pretty good level design. The entities that you interact with had a familiar Cave Story feel, but had their own personal touch. For example, the custom enemies, and the save point and life capsule that take effect immediately instead of going through the text box message. The custom sound effects are also really good, and I think they do a really good job of complementing the unique tone. The mod overall has a very neat customized engine that maintains the look and feel of a Cave Story mod but still presents a fresh atmosphere; I haven't felt this way about a mod since I played openCS for the first time.

I liked the snail that charges at you, although I feel a bit conflicted about that toad thing that jumps into the air and shoots bubbles at you. I feel as if they may be a bit to fast (and their bubbles as well maybe charge at you a little too fast, or with a little too much accuracy) for that early on in the game, especially when you have your gun at level 1 with such short range. They weren't too difficult to take out once I adapted to their attack patterns, though. The music wasn't amazing, but I thought it was all right; it didn't bother me as much as X-Calibar.

Overall, very nice work, this was a good excuse for me to get back into playing Cave Story mods with minimal effort.
 
Aug 29, 2019 at 10:30 PM
Senior Member
"Huzzah!"
Join Date: Jul 6, 2019
Location: United States
Posts: 213
Holy jesus
This is amazing
I wish I had the skills to do something like this, but honestly I just am wondering how you made a idle animation and stuff, like woah
The graphics were changed so much, and for the better
This is why Cave Story is my favorite game, its a master piece alone, but its community is amazing!
 
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