Mario's Sticker Stage

[Zero Kirby]

This is just something I'm working on to give myself a little break from Super Mario Classic. I think a little focus on this will help me focus on Classic once this is done.

Mario's Sticker Stage is a minigame that's basically a combination of the battle system from Paper Mario Sticker Star with the audience and refinements of The Thousand-Year Door, rolled into an endurance-type thing.



Like in The Thousand-Year Door, the audience is randomly generated in random seats. (All the Luigis are just placeholders for now - when I finish Luigi's programming I'll start adding new audience members.)



The audience is fully interactive, cheering for you when you do well.



They'll even throw items at you!



And you can even rile them up with a Stylish move or two.



The battle system itself is more like Sticker Star though. Before your turn you can purchase a variety of stickers using coins you've won from battle. You then use these stickers to defeat the enemies in waves to get more coins and time bonuses. As you get the audience to cheer for you, they give you Flower Points, which you use to level up your health, unlock better stickers for purchase, and make currently available stickers cheaper.

The individual members of the audience will have certain move preferences. For example, Luigi loves it when Mario attacks but won't like it as much when you use a Partner-sticker. Goombas hate Jump-attacks while Hammer Brothers love Hammer-attacks. Using their preferred attacks gives you more Flower Points while their disinterest will get you less. And of course, doing poorly overall will make them leave or throw rocks at you.

It's still in progress right now, but so far the audience is almost completely programmed and a rudimentary Mario is in place to expand upon.

EDIT: I've pretty much got the Audience down-pat, so I've started adding more types of audience members.



You're just as likely to get one as any other, but obviously you can't have more than one Luigi.

You can also attack audience members who want to throw something at you.



... But if they're throwing something helpful, attacking them not only makes them leave, but demoralizes the rest of the audience.



... To the point where many of them will also leave most of the time.

But, of course, performing well will begin to fill in the empty seats once more. It may not happen every time you do an attack (unless you're being Stylish), but it'll happen.

[magicsnake]

This really looks interesting !
Good job !

[puggsoy]

I haven't played Sticker Star nor TYD (yet), but this looks cool either way. Good luck with this!

[Zero Kirby]

Thanks. And I suppose I should extend the offer here since I made it at MFGG, but...

If you can sprite in M&L3 style and want to be an audience member or help other people here be an audience member, go right on ahead and say/do so. I won't get around to adding anyone until after I've finished a demo (which is aways off yet), and if I don't get any I won't be upset, but I figured it'd be a neat idea all the same.

Just... if someone offers their skills, don't bug them too much about it. Or bug me too much about it. Then you won't get added.

[megamario1234]

Thanks. And I suppose I should extend the offer here since I made it at MFGG, but...

If you can sprite in M&L3 style and want to be an audience member or help other people here be an audience member, go right on ahead and say/do so. I won't get around to adding anyone until after I've finished a demo (which is aways off yet), and if I don't get any I won't be upset, but I figured it'd be a neat idea all the same.

Just... if someone offers their skills, don't bug them too much about it. Or bug me too much about it. Then you won't get added.

I probably might give it a try since I have been spriting my own custom sprites in M&L3 style.

[Zero Kirby]

Here's a mockup of what the battle menu might look like:



Good, bad, could be better, suggestions?

[recme]

I feel as if there is too many rows for people. In PM:TTYD, people were overlapping each other and it really didn't look much like a nuisance. You should give more space for battle and remove one (or two) rows.

As for the menu, you should make it smaller. I don't think it should be that big.

[puggsoy]

^Pretty much this. More space for the battle might be better, the UI up top looks a bit close to Mario and the enemy (even more so when you're jumping, I imagine).
The menu is a tad large, perhaps if you made it a bit shorter in height and longer in width it might look better. It's not too bad as it is though, so whatever. I think it should overlap enemies though, since bigger enemies might obscure too much of the menu. For example enemies like Wiggler would seriously be a problem (although I have no idea if you're planning to have those sort of enemies in the game).

By the way, if anyone sprites more audience members I wouldn't mind being one. Not that I'm really dying to be, but I mean if anyone makes them and feels like doing that it'd be cool. But no pressure or anything.

[Zero Kirby]

I do plan on having larger enemies as boss fights, but they wouldn't be as far to the left as the Goomba in the screenshot is. There's room to fix the battle menu right now anyway, I'm just trying to find a good look for it.

As for rows in the audience, I don't want to remove any rows since larger audiences are essential to levelling up, so I compromised and squished them together a bit more, and then moved the stage downwards.

[Candel]

you know wth all the time taking for several audience members to come through their seat one at a time, you might want to make them all come at the same time,

don't know if that was just a demo of how they all came in and it would be changed. But it took really long

[Zero Kirby]

you know wth all the time taking for several audience members to come through their seat one at a time, you might want to make them all come at the same time,

don't know if that was just a demo of how they all came in and it would be changed. But it took really long

It was just a demo (and I improved the seat finding system so it doesn't hang as much as the theater fills). They all fill the theater at the same time now when they come in groups.

By the way, if anyone sprites more audience members I wouldn't mind being one. Not that I'm really dying to be, but I mean if anyone makes them and feels like doing that it'd be cool. But no pressure or anything.

I forgot to mention - if you do get sprites for being an audience member you'll also need member preferences. Like, what kind of stickers you react positively or negatively to (or just conditions, like needing to get an Excellent on Action Commands or never throwing anything but harmful objects) and your "patience". The five Sticker Groups are Jump, Hammer, Item, Partner, and Special. Whatever the case, don't come up with more than three conditions for the character. Patience is just at what point you start disliking Mario and at what point you start loving him. Put them on a scale of 10 - 3 is where you hate and 5 is where you love, etc. etc. If you don't feel like it, I can always come up with something on my own.

[puggsoy]

Well, if anyone does make a sprite of me I'll probably make them, if not I won't bother.

By the way yeah that looks a but better, the menu has a bit of space now. As for the design of the menu itself, not sure if I can really say much for it since I don't know how you use stickers and all that, but it looks good.

[Kriven]

Do you have some kind of animation list for people who want to make audience sprites?

[Zero Kirby]

Do you have some kind of animation list for people who want to make audience sprites?

That is also a good idea

• Walking left or right into the theater
  
• Standing facing the stage
  
• Jumping into the air / ready to throw something
  
• Cheering wildly
  
• Getting stomped / the hell out of there
  

Not much of a list, really, it's like, nine separate frames at the most (five of which are just walking).

[Zero Kirby]

So guess what? Bigger stage.



Previously the audience capped at 39. Now it caps at 85. Ho boy that's a lot of people watching you all at once. I also gave the stage a bit of a makeover so that it looks nicer. Here:



Might fix up the curtains and seats a little bit, too.

And now here's a full list of things on how you can become an audience member.

I'm fairly certain I've finished up the programming on Audience Members now, so if you're skilled at spriting in M&L3 style (or have a friend who is) and want to show up in the audience, make some sprites, pick preferences (basically what your audience member likes and doesn't like to see), and I'll throw you in! Here's a list of needed sprites:

• Walking left/right for finding a seat.
  
• Facing front, in the seat.
  
• Jumping up/holding item aloft. These are the same sprite.
  
• Cheering loudly. This is the "audience going nuts" as it were.
  
• Running off. A single sprite simply showing your character being kinda disgusted and jumping away from the stage.

And as for preferences, you should pick only a couple of them. You don't have to be balanced, like one positive and one negative. The double-positive and double-negative Fan and Heckler bonuses, though, are single bonuses - you can't pick any other preference if you go with one of them. And I am putting a limit on how many people can be either one of those things. Especially the Heckler. I foresee that one being kinda popular.

• + May particularly like one (or two) types of Sticker: Jump, Hammer, Item, Partner, or Special. (Will gain more appeal, give more Flower Points.)
  
• + May particularly enjoy Stylish Commands. (More appeal, Flower Points.)
  
• + May particularly enjoy Excellent Commands. (More appeal, Flower Points.)
  
• + May love Battle Spinner bonuses. (More appeal.)
  
• + May be patient, never throwing unhelpful items on stage. (Throws helpful things only, and is more easily persuaded to do so.)
  
• ++ May be fans. (Starts off with a lot of appeal already, so they are harder to lose, and throw helpful things more often, but if they leave they'll take some audience morale with them.)
  
• - May particularly dislike one (or two) types of Sticker. (Will not gain appeal or give Flower Points except on Excellent Commands for said Stickers - will lose appeal with repetition.)
  
• - May particularly dislike failing Action Commands. (Will lose more appeal than usual and will not give Flower Points.)
  
• - May require Excellent Commands to be impressed. (Will lose appeal and not give Flower Points unless the player gets Excellent Commands for all Stickers.)
  
• - May particularly dislike failing to block attacks. (Will lose more appeal than normal.)
  
• - May be impatient, never throwing helpful items on stage. (Throws trash only, and is harder to impress so that they don't.)
  
• -- May be hecklers. (These bizarro Spectators are more likely to throw trash at you, aren't scared away if you attack them, and failing will only make them stay longer! Do well to get these guys to leave.)

For instance, a Goomba's Audience Profile is:

• + Loves Battle Spinner bonuses.
  
• - Hates Jump Attacks.

While a Hammer Bro might:

• + Loves Hammer Attacks.
  
• - Is easily bored.

As Luigi normally:

• + Loves Mario's Attacks (Jump and Hammer).
  
• + Is patient.
  
• - Hates Partner Stickers.

While Toads tend to:

• + Love Jump Attacks.
  
• + Are patient.

Appeal just determines how much a Spectator likes Mario. It maxes out at thirty. They leave at zero. They have thresholds where they throw helpful things, unhelpful things, or just chill out (this is where they should also enter the audience at unless they're patient, fans, impatient, or hecklers). So what a custom (i.e. you) Spectator should look like is this:

Zero Kirby

• + Loves Jump Attacks.
  
• + Loves Stylish Commands.
  
• - Particularly dislikes failing Action Commands.
  
• Throws trash at or below 7.
  
• Throws items at or above 19.
  
• Enters at 15.

And then you would post the sprites. They really shouldn't be too much taller than Luigi, and not much wider than Mario. I don't have any since I cannot sprite. I intend to bum mine off a sufficiently talented person. (At least I admit it.) One could even consider it the price for the first person who makes sprites of themselves to put in this game. (It is not. If you don't want to I won't force you to and kind of can't anyway. And I'm too nice.) Of course I reserve the right to refuse you entry if I don't like you. (Which would be an accomplishment, trust me.) Or your sprites are an obvious five-minute slap-together just to get in the game. (At which point I would not like you, and would probably not let you in even if you suddenly gained super-spriting powers.)

Of course you could (not should) go my route and ask someone who can sprite in the M&L3 style very politely and nicely to make you some sprites too. And if they refuse, don't pursue it. I don't want people mad at me so I'm not telling you who you could (not should) ask. Ever.

Keep in mind the preferences your Spectator has when assigning their thresholds. If they're a negative nancy and yet you make their "throw items" threshold really easy to reach that makes little sense. And again, not too many preferences. Start with two, three's a maximum in general, four can potentially be bargained for if I like you, but five is right out.

Oh- and I am putting a cap on how many people I'll accept into the game. I'm not assigning a solid number to it but rest assured I'll let you know when it's been reached.

And everybody - EVERYBODY - would share the same probability of showing up in the first place. The random number would have to land on the "MFGGer" square and then one random member generated from there. And then that guy being unusable after that since there's only one of that guy at a time ever. So as time passes you'd actually be more likely to show up than the MFGGers who already did, who shouldn't complain anyway since they're already in the audience.

EDIT: Changed the curtains.