[Large/Maze/Slightly Hard] - Metroid Landings

Hi. I'm quite a fan of the Metroid series... I've seen a remake attempt of Super Metroid in the archives (Zebes), it looks nice, but very unfinished... so I'd like to finish my own Metroid level! I'm working from Zero Mission. I might focus slightly more on gameplay than on the graphics, since I already have to get used to manipulating tilesets. But this won't be a litteral translation, rather a Knytt world based on the maps and components of Metroid.

Storyline: Junis Aran beat the mother brain, leader of the Space pirates. As she was leaving the planet Zebes, her mission accomplished, a pirate gunship tracked her down. Her own spaceship was shot, and crashed on the planet. When she woke up, she was left defenseless and stranded... the enemies gone, presuming her dead. You have to explore areas around Zebes... maybe you'll find a way to escape.

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Completion:
Brinstar - 100%
Crateria - 99%
Kraid - 40%
Norfair - 65%
Ridley - 5%
Maridia - 85%
Tourian - 0%
?? - 1%
?? - 2%

Custom tilesets - 1 of 2 (Basic set done, Tourian set to do)
Custom tiles and objets - 5%
-255 CO icons set - done

Music - 4%
Endings, cutscenes and intro - 40%
Screens count: 410

Estimated release: December 21st 2012, or maybe later if the apocalypse doesn't take place.

EDIT on August 21tst:
Worked on the Ridley area lately! Hopefully, you'll be waiting more for "more" quality... if not, then you'll have hundreds more screens anyway. My creative glass is half full. OH BTW, I'm making my own music tracks for the level, isn't that great?! 

The screenshots...:

Hello!
No one has replyed or anything here so i might as well! 
The screen looks quite nice and promissing and would look foward to see what you can create
I dont think it is possible to modify Juni's sprite as someone would have done that by now 
And yes you do have to get permission from the author to use the music.
Keep up the good work!

I really like the screenshot. Old tileset, but somehow it looks very nice, the light is very beautiful... Good luck and I hope you finish the level

Answers to your questions: as far as I know, there is no way to modify the character's sprite. But you may want to ask at the Knytt Stories Level Editing Support board here. As for the music, DEtM was made a long time ago, when people would use copyrighted music every now and again; today, however, this is discouraged and you should ask for permission to use copyrighted tracks. (Or better yet, find a CC-licensed or free alternative.)

The 2D Metroid games are one of my favourite series of all time, so good luck with this project!

Answers to your questions: as far as I know, there is no way to modify the character's sprite. But you may want to ask at the Knytt Stories Level Editing Support board here. As for the music, DEtM was made a long time ago, when people would use copyrighted music every now and again; today, however, this is discouraged and you should ask for permission to use copyrighted tracks. (Or better yet, find a CC-licensed or free alternative.)

Ah, thank you for your answer! I will try to find a song (or midi) alternative that recreates the effect I'm looking for

And thanks to all for your comments, it motivates me! I've done 4 screens now. It may not seem like much, but I always work on the details before starting a new screen. Gonna post new screenshots soon!

edit: 10 screens done... I complete 2-3 every day
edit: 21 done. I don't have internet at home anymore, but I'll update from another place. I want to get this project completed, or advanced enough to tie the loose ends and release it.

edit:I really wanted to make a real update, but I lack time anyway, 50 screens done (nearly), plus one tileset, and a few custom objects. I'm working hard. I plan on about 600 screens. I'll make a real update with screenshots in the next days.

I've written an update on my project (first post, last paragraph)! 

Good luck with this. The first screen shot looks great. I don't really think we need literal adaptations of games into Knytt Stories; most of the time it just shows up the limitations of engine rather than pushing it to its best, but I love Metroid too much not to be curious and it looks like you're doing good with the visuals; that's a great screen.

The first of the new screens is very intriguing. I hope you finish this Never played the original Metroid, btw, but kind of meant to, recently, using an emulator... eh.

The first of the new screens is very intriguing. I hope you finish this Never played the original Metroid, btw, but kind of meant to, recently, using an emulator... eh.

If you're emulating it I highly recommend going for the FDS version instead of the NES. It has two save slots instead of using that irritating code 

Sorry about the thread-hijack!

Thank you!

The 1st of the latest screens is very early into the adventure... just like in the original game, you get the Morph Ball at the start

I see what you mean, that -literally- recreating a game just shows the limits of the engine... what I do, is I base myself on the original Metroid's map, and Zero Mission's map, and build something both based on Metroid and from ideas I get from KS levels I play. Some areas that would be extra-boring in KS are truncated, and I modify and add my own stuff... I can tell you I put a lot of secret rooms. (If you download a map of Zero Mission from Google, you'll get a *general* idea of where you need to go). There are a few spots that you need to figure out how to move on. Nothing should be limited, but rather adapted!
I probably won't put bosses in there... I don't think Ridley (a swift flying dragon) would come out well. It's gonna be "challenge rooms" instead.

(thanks for the tip, I didn't know the Famicom disk version had save slots! )

Bump. I've updated the topic and added 2 screenshots.

Since there's decent progress, I've updated.

I like the last screenshot a lot! It seems like the backgrounds are kind of bland, though.

Well, thank you. I feared someone would comment on my backgrounds It seems that I have barely enough of 2 tilesets just for the structure of most screens, and when I want to put some "scenery" in the back, I can't find something that doesn't seem to be in the front... or look like it's in the front, if you know what I mean. It's not the case with all screens in the game (for example, the 1st screenshot in my 1st post isn't too empty), but I'd say it's a problem with a huge 90% of 'em.


More screenshots -

This looks like it's developing nicely. I have no problem with the backgrounds, but the last two screenshots kind of bug me... the one with the leaves I just don't like the colors, the other one seems like a nasty, difficult place to pass because of all the diagonal movement. Eh.