Hexoshi - New Metroid-like game I'm developing is being crowdfunded
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This is what I'm working on now: Hexoshi, a free-roaming game inspired by Metroid (or rather, Super Metroid). I'm doing this one differently than ReTux. Rather than trying to fund it all at once, I'm doing it in milestones, and Milestone 1 is what is being crowdfunded.
Website is here:
And the crowdfunding campaign is here (hosted by CrowdSupply):
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi
As I'm writing this, the campaign is not yet launched, but it should be launching in a couple of days if everything goes well.
Looks very promising indeed. I think you'll attract a way bigger audience than with retux. Did you do the character design by yourself?
I love the metroid games and would also love to see a modern yet classic version of it.
You'll write it in python?
> Did you do the character design by yourself?
No, that was Luke Bunday, who is also going to do the art needed for Milestone 1.
> You'll write it in python?
Yes, it's in Python. You can actually download it already from the Git repository:
Hopefully you can promote yourself better in this campaign. I think that was a critical problem in your previous one.
Yeah, it certainly was. I've learned a lot since then, so I'm hopeful that I'll do better this time. It also helps that it's on CrowdSupply. Really, it's like a completely different world from IGG. Lots of amazing feedback.
The campaign is live!
Interesting project. But isn't the character still a bit too similar to Samus? Nintendo is extremely bad about going after people over this sort of thing; perhaps going with something that looks more different from the Varia suit would be a good idea?
Nintendo wouldn't have a case. Anneroy looks just as similar to Samus as the guy from Halo does; the similarity is inevitable since they are all wearing armored space suits. Copyright doesn't extend so far as to prohibit you from designing a character that has trivial similarities to another character.
If anything, Nintendo going after this project would be a positive in the long run. Since they wouldn't have a case, it would be free publicity for Hexoshi at the expense of Nintendo's reputation.
Hope you're right... Anyway, have you tried posting anything about this in the various Metroid communities? A year ago, I would not have advised it (some Nintendo fans are sadly, militantly protective of the companies "IP"), but after what happened with AM2R there are a lot of Metroid fans who might be supportive of this project. You could even relate to how being free and open can pravent what happend to AM2R to happen to Hexoshi.
I'm not familiar with or active in any Metroid-centered community. Is there one in particular you would recommend?
I've been out of the loop there for the better part of the last decade. But r/Metroid seems like a decent place to start.
I don't think /r/Metroid is an appropriate place to post a link to Hexoshi. I think it would violate the first rule of that sub-reddit.
Could be right... Like I said, I'm well out of the loop with Nintendo's fan-communities.
This seems like an appropriate place
http://www.metroid-database.com/forum/
Speaking of AM2R, it might be worth reaching out to the developer. As far as I know he's not an advocate for FOSS, but he has a real talent for this particular type of sprite work.
Also, are you settled on having just the one character? Might be nice to one-up Nintendo with being able to choose male or female characters, at least.
> Also, are you settled on having just the one character?
I'm thinking at this point that Anneroy will be the only playable character, but I haven't taken the idea of switchable characters (as in, characters with different abilities you can switch between in-game) off the table entirely.
> Might be nice to one-up Nintendo with being able to choose male or female characters, at least.
I have not indicated anywhere what Anneroy's gender is. This is no accident. :)
Yes, AFGNCAAP for the win. (For those that don't get it it's "Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Culturally Ambiguous Adventure Person".
Yes, I want everyone to make their own assumption regarding what Anneroy is.
593ddf5ec8e18078217c81013577001945f548140abff298dad5e9796184bb71
The character doesn't even have to be human.
It really depends on the story.
It could be a drone.
Anyway, what's the meaning of the name?
Hex, like six?
Sounds vaguely like exodus too.
Or something related to spells and sorcery (http://wikidiff.com/sorcery/hex)? and japan?
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110302143330AA5pquN
Maybe it means pressure/support etc.
I give, I don't know what it could mean.
> Anyway, what's the meaning of the name?
I was trying to mimic the way Metroid was named, combining parts of two words to approximate what the game was about, but the most important things were that the name is unique and that it sounds cool. I was using Japanese words, and these were the ideas I came up with, but none of them were really satisfactory:
Chikama (地下魔), from "chika" (underground) and "ma" (demon)
Chikoshi (地下道士), from "chika" (underground) and "madoushi" (sorcerer)
Chixoshi (地下阻止), from "chika" (underground) and "soshi" (obstruction)
I liked the idea of using an X in the name, so I started thinking about how I could change the last one to make it better. There wasn't a Japanese word I could find that worked, so I figured, hey, it doesn't have to be all Japanese; why not "Hex"? That would sound cool. So the name "Hexoshi" is a combination of "hex" (six) and "soshi" (obstruction).
So really, while the name originally was a reference to the setting of the game, that was ultimately evolved into a name that's nonsensical, but at least sounds nice. :) I would like to make the name meaningful, though, mostly by putting in references to the number 6 and in particular probably having 6 bosses. But that's not set in stone; making the game good has a higher priority.
I just now got an idea of the meaning of Metroid's name.
Underground android, huh. At leas it does sound nice.
Yours does sound nice as well, definitely.
As for the meaning, you can play with words having hex(a) as a prefix for further ideas. It can represent obstacles based on the number 6 as a common ground.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hexa-#English
Of course if you wanna go insane, you can pick music composed with hexachords only (or even compose it yourself).
;)
This should be a great game.
> I'm thinking at this point that Anneroy will be the only playable character, but I haven't taken the idea of switchable characters (as in, characters with different abilities you can switch between in-game) off the table entirely.
Switchable characters like Open Sonic?: opensnc.sourceforge.net
Nah, more like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NES, Castlevania III, or Mega Man ZX Advent. Where you only have one position, but can switch out between different characters that have different abilities at will. But again, it's probably not what I'm going to do, mainly because that would add more cost than it's probably worth. If someone were to volunteer to do the animations for extra characters, that would make it more likely of a possibility.
New update: https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/update4
We've reached 50%!
It looks really nice.
== Small budget ==
Using milestones and a very small budget is a very interesting idea.
That way you need very few people to fund the first milestone, and if it is successful,
you might have an easier time funding the next ones afterward.
== Crowdsupply ==
I assumed that crowdsupply was only suited for hardware as they take a percentage of the sales[1].
Since they seem really friendly to free software, it might be a way to fund some tasks that benefit the free software community.
References:
-----------
[1]https://www.crowdsupply.com/launch
All crowdfunding services take a portion of the funds raised; that's not unusual.
On a side note... HOLY CRAP, someone just donated roughly $500 today! With no perk! I don't know for sure who it was, but that sent this campaign just $10 away from its goal. That is amazing and highly appreciated!
And now the goal has been reached!
I've added an "Ideas" page to the Hexoshi website:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/update7
https://hexoshi.gitlab.io/ideas.html
New update: Special characters
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/special-chars
New update, or rather, lack of updates:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/busy-week
The campaign is almost over!
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/finish-line
I like what you're doing here onpon4 and I wish you luck in this endeavour, as I think it could be a very good example of how Free Software game development can be done. I like the concept as well.
Lots of stuff, including the first vote:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/the-fun-begins
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/first-vote
The nomination phase for new enemies has begun:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/nominate-new-enemies
GitLab issue is here:
Enemy nomination has been extended:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/enemy-nomination-phase-extended
Hexoshi has finally moved to Savannah:
Have you considered taking a page from the Prime trilogy and make the enemies scannable? I suppose you could also go the Chex Quest rout and have a beam or device that transports enemies to your ship/base for study. This could pad out the game quite a bit, and give completionists more to do. You could even build some enemies around being more difficult to capture/scan.
I have never played or even seen gameplay of Metroid Prime. It isn't an inspiration for me. I also don't understand what exactly it means to make enemies "scannable".
However, I don't have any intention of giving enemies any greater of a role than mere obstacles. If it's about statistics, though, one thing I could do is add a database of enemies killed (probably presented as a percentage, like the artifacts stat).
In a 2d game like Hexoshi, you could have a beam that functioned as a scanner to get information about enemies, perhaps to add to an in-game bestiary. But since you seem against the idea, I'll drop it.
No worries, I do appreciate the input. And really, I would be quite interested in adding a statistic for how many types of enemies you have killed. It's not quite the same as what you are suggesting, but it would encompass some of the benefits and add an additional element to 100% speedruns, in particular. :)
In fact, I think I'll add that in right now, since it's such a simple thing to do.
I'm not so much in favor of a full-on database, though. Hexoshi is supposed to have very little text (and no text at all would even be preferable if it was possible). To that end, I'd like the lore to be more implied or shown than explained/told.
Fair enough on that. I also meant to ask if you pan on adding the ability to grab onto ledges like in Super Metroid and later.
That was introduced in Metroid Fusion, not Super Metroid. No, I don't think it's something I'll do. It would only serve to let you go a little higher, and there would be very few situations where you wouldn't be able to just wall-jump to do the same thing. Plus, I don't like the idea of a player getting frustrated because of accidentally latching onto ledges they don't want to latch onto. That can be prevented with thoughtful design, but I don't think it's worth dealing with.
Having a bit of trouble getting Hexoshi to run in Parabola... Here is the error:
$ ./hexoshi.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./hexoshi.py", line 40, in
import sge
ImportError: No module named sge
Just execute: sudo pip install sge-pygame
You may need to install more dependencies. See the requirements.txt file.
Is there something I'm forgetting here?
sudo python -m pip install pathlib six sge-pygame tmx xsge_gui xsge_lighting xsge_path xsge_physics xsge_tmx
Requirement already satisfied: pathlib in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: six in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: sge-pygame in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: tmx in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: xsge_gui in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: xsge_lighting in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: xsge_path in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: xsge_physics in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
Requirement already satisfied: xsge_tmx in /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages
You have those installed for Python 3, so you're going to need to use Python 3 to run Hexoshi:
python3 hexoshi.py
I suppose you must only have pip installed for Python 3, hence why it installed the packages for them.
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