Marta 1: Lunar Quest

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Paramultart
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Marta 1: Lunar Quest

Post by Paramultart »

After nearly three years of development heck, VikingBoyBilly's masterpiece is finally finished, and frankly, it's freaking great!

As for my involvement, I would like to think of myself as the "Henry Selick" to his "Tim Burton" in this "Nightmare Before Christmas", though I don't mean that to understate or discredit the vast amount of labor that VikingBoyBilly himself invested into this project.

As co-developer, I am releasing the mod in his stead.

Without further ado, I proudly present to you Marta 1: Lunar Quest

EDIT: Latest version: v1.3, updated 6:38am, 11/21/13
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zfwqxvc4zlf69 ... 1_v1.3.zip

Special thanks to Levellass, StupidBunny, BagShowTrow & MortimerMcMireStinks. Detailed credits are located in the end text.

Note from me, Para: In a world where gamers, even Keeners, have the attention span of a gnat, I implore you to take the time to fully explore this mod. We worked pretty hard on it, and it is chock full of graphics, content and secrets to keep it interesting. For example, the purple cave level I made, though it's skippable, I feel like is a whole game in itself. Like some other levels in the game, it has an exclusive tileset to keep the levels from getting too repetitive. There are plenty of easter eggs (no pun intended) in this game, but that level was one of my biggest and favorite contributions.

Thanks.

Note 2: If you find yourself busy for the next month, you might want to note that a revised version, complete with a launcher, DOS version of the WristGirl, and bundled with Marta 0, Keen Rescue and a few other surprises, will probably be released sometime around Christmas... so no rush.
Last edited by Paramultart on Thu Nov 21, 2013 13:11, edited 3 times in total.
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Levellass
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Post by Levellass »

Folder within a zip file.


0\10.
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Paramultart
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Post by Paramultart »

Levellass wrote:Folder within a zip file.


0\10.
But my polls, surveys, marketing data and "SINGLE MOM DISCOVERIES" revealed F's within Z's to be hip new thang.
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Post by Bernie »

hey i had a play of it and it was alright. i like the 'girly' theme to it (i liked her ship), and all that cheese stuff.

but personally i just dont like the first 3 keen game engines and i dunno why people make mods out of them :( but meh, thats just me. also i found it too hard, but pretty much every keen mod i've played is too hard :/ maybe we're all masocists here.
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Post by Paramultart »

Bernie wrote:hey i had a play of it and it was alright. i like the 'girly' theme to it (i liked her ship), and all that cheese stuff.

but personally i just dont like the first 3 keen game engines and i dunno why people make mods out of them :( but meh, thats just me. also i found it too hard, but pretty much every keen mod i've played is too hard :/ maybe we're all masocists here.
"Hey guys, I played level 1 and I was like 'Oh, it's a Vorticons mod' then closed DosBox"

You betcha this is a Keen 1 mod, and proud of it! Perhaps I should have clarified that in the first post as to scare away 80% of the Keeners here.

Vorticon mods aren't for everyone I suppose, it's just so strange that so many of you guys have so much difficulty playing these games. All I ever hear about is how they're too hard, regardless of their actual difficulty. It's sad to think so many are missing out on so much classic Keening.

This mod has been thoroughly play-tested, and I don't believe it is the least bit "too hard"... at least not by the original trilogy's standards.
Anyone who hasn't beaten Keen 3 surely won't survive level 5 of this game; then again, those aren't exactly the target audience anyway.
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Post by Captainkeen »

I can't unzip the file it gives an error that's its damaged. Furthermore it's only 28,2 kB big. So I am thoroughly puzzled how Bernie has already played it.
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Paramultart
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Post by Paramultart »

Captainkeen wrote:I can't unzip the file it gives an error that's its damaged. Furthermore it's only 28,2 kB big. So I am thoroughly puzzled how Bernie has already played it.
Well, I don't know what that was all about, but the link is updated now.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qfwh5v0qjv34hbk/Marta1.zip

I had to update the file anyway to fix a flame animation, a door that's easily bypassed and a broken bridge on the blue cheese level. I also took out some unnecessary files that wound up in the .zip.

Enjoy.
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Post by Benvolio »

Nice work guys!!! Apologies in advance for my short attention span. Though my love for Keen and its mods has not diminished with the years, my single-minded obsessiveness with it has. So let me delve right in and give you my first impressions.

VBB is in my mind the Keener who specialises in the V2 slopes, having produced the masterpiece 'Bananasauros'. In this game I note that, while the slopes are not used with the same graphical beauty as in Bananasauros, they are used with greater ingenuity. The 'cheese-string' puzzle in the third level, where Keen must think to get out of the level and think even more to get the ammo/points, was a great little chunk of Keenery. I expect more challenging instances of this as the game goes on.

Let me also note that the sprite graphics are superb - adding some hilarity to the game. As for the backgrounds, I thought the yellow sand was great - if a little reminiscent of Keen8. The cheesy theme and indeed the whole premise of the mod is very entertaining. I wasn't quite so impressed with the 'construction' tiles i.e. the buildings, however. They were a little too similar to Keen3 buildings for my liking - and furthermore, using identical keycards/doors didn't help. The white liquid (?milk), on the other hand, looks great and seeing as it is an uncommon colour for a deathly item in Keen, is all the more noxious-looking in this setting. So well done. Other things I liked are the title screen and the sounds. The music is nice and subtle, not stealing the show as it does in some mods. That said, a strong soundtrack (à la Keen9) doesn't automatically detract from a mod.

I could go on describing what I've seen in the first few minutes of playing but instead I'll go play some more!! Well done Para+VBB, or as you call yourselves seemingly, "Zapado".
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Re: Marta 1: Lunar Quest

Post by troublesomekeen »

Paramultart wrote:In a world where gamers, even Keeners, have the attention span of a gnat, I implore you to take the time to fully explore this mod.
You can sure say that again. My gnat-attention-span always gets the better of me--even with Galaxy mods. Nothing against Vorticon mods. I love them. Especially Bananasauros. I was looking forward to this release. I had not forgotten about it. The Story is deliciously cheesy. Brilliantly written. Well done, well done. And now I must put this mod on hold and go play Marta 0. But I did play the first few levels of Marta 1 here: http://youtu.be/T1ihbSZzWlY
Levellass wrote:Folder within a zip file.0\10.
I prefer it this way. Otherwise I accidently end up extracted the content of the zip. into my download folder which is already a giant mess. :dopefish
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Post by tulip »

Man, this is what I call a perfect mod.

Graphics: They're outstanding but still simple enough not to confuse you (yes Lass, I'm looking in your direction). I almost never died from anything simply because I didn't get it was dangerous. I loved all the reference bits, and I got all of them before reading the ending credits except one (but that's okay I'm not a fan of P. anyway). I loved the G.M. reference (yes, I've watched that movie), and the experience of walking on a round thing in a Vorticons mod was implemented perfectly. Also the purple level smelled a lot like Paramultart, so I wasn't surprised it was yours. I also laughed when I saw the Vorticons' arch nemesis.

Gameplay: Nice level of difficulty, not too hard. And a nice learning curve, the early levels are easy and let you find into the game, while the later ones pose a bit of a challenge but not too much. I liked the secret passages which you could discover if you only paid enough attention (as opposed to discovering them by chance since they're invisible anyway). Only thing I have to say is that for the first half of the game ammo was rare (which I find good in most mods, it should be part of the challenge in a keen game not to be able to shoot all enemies) but in the second half I had ammo in such an abundance that I could spend multiple shots on moon mice if I wanted to.

Story/Setting: I like the story and that's it's a continuation of the Improv mod I already voted for. The wording in the end text is a bit childish for my taste, but overall fits the mood and main character (after all she's 7). The only thing I'm wondering now is where does Keen Rescue fit into the timeline?

The only thing I didn't rate so far is the music, because I played without sound so far.

5/5
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Post by StupidBunny »

I'm super stoked to try this, though I still can't at the moment. :( Me, I love Vorticons mods and feel I have enough of a grasp of the gameplay mechanics to approach the most challenging ones. (Which, sincerely, no offense to those who can't...it takes a lot of practice, which in turn takes a lot of patience. And I have a disproportionate amount of that for things I enjoy doing. :P )

Sorry I couldn't playtest this in spite of all my insistence that I could. I loved the last Marta mod, and that was(?) a quick, off-the-cuff project. Anything from you guys with a 3-year development time must be incredible. I'll play it when I can give it the time, attention and love I imagine it deserves.
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Post by Flaose »

Since I'm a huge fan of putting EVERY version of a mod on the wiki, would you mind reuploading the original, slightly broken, version?
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Post by Bubbatom »

This is a beautiful piece of work!

Although I prefer galaxy over vorticons, this is a really great vorticon mod, cream of the crop stuff.

Also, the music really does suit the levels and gives them a great atmosphere, something other mods should really have, instead of just a meaningless tune that goes along with them.

Nice work! I'm looking forward to future work that you guys produce, well done!
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Post by Levellass »

Ok, so some points I would raise.

First up, the purple level is superior in every way.

Second up, blue carrot level, wut?

Third, you should have tweaked the highscore graphics a bit including the game over, they're so jarring ont he much darker base of the mod itself. (And those black squares! Why didn't you patch them out?)
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Fourthly, same goes for the F1 bitmap, did we even need it anymore?
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Fifthly, and those ^v arrow square things, they should have had a black background, they stick out too:
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Finally, these flame circles don't animate:
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All in all while well done it still feels slightly rushed, unfinished. There are things that could have used a little more effort and polishing.
Last edited by Levellass on Wed Nov 20, 2013 22:49, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by tulip »

Levellass wrote:
Finally, these flame circles don't animate:
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All in all while well done it still feels slightly rushed, unfinished. There are things that could have used a little more effort and polishing.
You obviously didn't redownload after the fix by Paramultart.

Also LOL at the last comment, coming from you.
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