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« on: February 22, 2021, 10:08:35 pm »
Hi JonLeung,
There's a bit of grieving involved for every project that I end up abandoning, like a dream I have to give up because I'll never be able to make it come true.
Some are closer to my heart though but I often have difficulty making the hard choices as to which project to hold on to, and which to abandon.
I think it's ultimately a good (though painful!) thing when someone else comes along and submit full maps for a game I've been working on and off for years without much passion and often, just hanging on to that dream. That means I can finally move on to other, more meaningful games.
I think my present signature is actually honest for once as to which games I really want to finish mapping.
1) Drill Dozer (GBA): I stopped mapping this for a very stupid reason at a time where lack of mental energy (cause by a combination of untreated sleep apnea, work-related stress and severe social anxiety disorder) made me very susceptible to stop for a stupid reason.
It's back on but it's moving forward at a slower pace because:
a) I never stopped working throughout the whole pandemic so not much free time;
b) I actually pushed myself to have more regular social interactions for the last year or so and that ends up eating several hours I would otherwise have used for mapping;
c) I try to play more games in general so that too takes time away from mapping.
2) Sonic 3D Blast (GEN): I don't know when I'll get back to this one but I'm at least confident that if someone else maps it before me, they'll most likely stick to the actual in-game maps which do not fill the whole area between the screen borders and are full of bad tiling and inconsistencies.
I want to correct as much of those problems as I can which won't make them perfect (some perspective problems aren't fixable for example) but will at least make them much nicer to look at.
3) Naya's Quest (PC): An unknown indie flash game that plays with perspective, this game was practically made for me and is probably the single most stimulating challenges I've encountered while mapping since Battletoads' last level with the rotating tower.
It just takes so *long* to make a single animated map that visually portrays the location of each tile through elevation and rotation and there are 30 rooms in the normal mode in addition to several more in the New Game+ mode.
Hi Cleeem,
Sorry for the overlong psychoanalysis, I didn't mean to hijack your tread!
I'm really curious to see your final maps.
Regarding the map names, you most likely used that huge scanned one from also appears in the manual but with all the area names added to it.
I've been trying to find out whether that map is official of not for years!
Strangely enough, according to The Cutting Room Floor, there are a bunch of unused names inside the ROM that would have indicated the name of the area you've just entered, as well as the areas east and west respectively. They were most likely from an earlier version of the game because they don't fit the final game but it's a neat thing to discover!
If you are curious, here are all the unused directions :
Welcome to the Scarecrow Field. West: desert, East: Spiderwood Forest
Welcome to Spiderwood Forest. West: Scuttle Town, East: Dribble Falls
Welcome to Dribble Falls. West: Spiderwood Forest, East: Water Town
Welcome to Flushstone. West: Dribble Falls, East: Slime Flats
Welcome to Slime Flats. West: Flushstone, East: Quaggore Swamp
Welcome to Quaggore Swamp. West: Slime Flats, East: Splinter- Grave Grove
Welcome to Splinter-Grave Grove. West: Quaggore Swamp, East: Stumprot Forest
Welcome to Stumprot Forest. West: Quaggore Swamp, East: Mount Brazier
Welcome to Mount Brazier. West: Stumprot Forest, East: Pinestone Bluff
Welcome to Pinestone Bluff. West: Mount Brazier, East: Mud Bog
Welcome to Mud Bog. West: Bandit Town, East: Sandy Dunes
Welcome to Sandy Dunes. West: Oasis Town, East: Scuttle Town
Welcome to Skitterclaw Desert. West: Golem Mine, East: Wasteland
Welcome to Wasteland. West: Skitterclaw Desert, East: Scarecrow Field