I had taken some time off from creating SMM2 course to catch up on playing other Switch games (I recently completed Catherine Full Body, Dead or School, and Valkyria Chronicles 4, LA Noire, and Wolfenstein II The New Colossus in the past 2 months which is a very good run of game completion for me). While enjoying the 3 day Labor Day weekend holiday though, I decided to pop SMM2 back into my Switch and take a look at the notifications that had accumulated. After reading some kind comments left recently on my courses, I was inspired to begin crafting a new course. I used the "Labor Day" holiday as a tongue in cheek theme and began creating the course under the title "The 7 Labors of Hercules" (In Greek mythology, Hercules performed 12 Labors, but I was determined to create a "World Map" overworld with 4 decently sized sub-world areas with each Labor culminating in a Red Coin collection required to complete the course. And, so I limited the minor tasks in the overworld to 3, rather than create a series of single screen tasks like my Action 19 course). The 7 labors contained within the course are only inspired by and therefore very loosely associated (most not at all) with the actual 12 Labors of Hercules.
I would have liked to have gotten the course uploaded on Labor Day, but I included 2 checkpoints due to the length and multiple red coin collection tasks which thus required fully completing the course 3 times into to successfully clear check and upload the course. This was actually a good thing, because 2/3 of the way through the clear check I realized that I had a mini boss fight very early in the stage that yielded a key to continue progressing through the mini sub world area. If left the way it had been created, a player could have taken that key back out of the sub world entrance and "cheesed" their way past the other 6 Labors and exited the course. I momentarily considered leaving this in, since I had already completed 2 of the 3 clear checks, and players often have fun finding "hidden cheese" and using "unintended strats" for beating a creators course. In the end though, I decided to edit the area and make it impossible to descend back to the 1st sub-world entrance once acquiring the key. I'm glad I did, because by going back into the edit mode on the course, I had a chance to make other additions to the course and overall improvements to the aesthetics now that I was no longer under the "deadline" of uploading the course on a particular day. This gave me the inspiration and time to add 3 more mythology themed mini-bosses to the sub-world areas that didn't originally have them. As stated, I made background improvements to the course that I feel really enhance the theme. I also gave each power-up within the stage their own "mystique" by placing them on "pedestals" to make them feel like mythical power bestowing treasures. And, I even put some extra work into the "soundtrack" of the course as well. At this point, I can say with confidence that I am 100% happy with the course and am now ready to upload it.
I've already done a straight run of the 1st clear check on my first try and will get the other 2 done hopefully on my lunch break today. In the meantime, this post is to serve as teaser for the impending release of my new course. Since I created more of a mythology to the course than could possibly be typed in the level description in the game, I thought I would detail it here.
If you want to go into the course completely fresh though with no forehand knowledge, you can stop reading here.
Story:
The Golden Apples of the Hesperides (Red Coins) have been scattered across ancient Greece. King Eurystheus tasks Hercules to reacquire the apples in order to gain entry to the city of Mycenae and continue on his legendary journeys. 7 Golden Apples were stolen, and so 7 "Labors" must be completed to regain them.
1st Labor: Enter the "Tower of the Winds" and obtain Prometheus' Fire to defeat the Wizard Aeetes. The Helmet of Hades must also be acquired to reach the first of the Golden Apples and escape the tower alive.
2nd Labor: Cross the "Pillars of Hercules" to reach Mount Parnassus. One of the Golden Apples is hidden within a cave in the slope of the mountain. Treacherous winds make entry to the cave difficult.
3rd Labor: Ascend to the top of Mount Parnassus to the Temple of the Oracle of Delphi. Buried deep beneath the temple is a crumbling cave of ice. The third Golden Apple is guarded in the depths of the cave by Medusa.
4th Labor: Soar to the Heavens to find the 4th Golden Apple outside the Temple of Zeus.
5th Labor: Descend into the Underworld to find the 5th Golden Apple precariously laying above a bottomless pit. The three headed guard dog Cerberus must be avoided to reach it.
6th Labor: Return to the world of the living and find the Tree of Life. Inside the tree rests the Sword of Peleus. Obtaining the sword is a necessity to defeating the multi-headed Hydra guarding the 6th Golden Apple at the top of the tree.
7th Labor: Antaeus awaits outside the massive gate to Mycenae. Antaeus has buried the 7th Golden Apple and must be wrestled first in order to safely retrieve it.
Last edited by Mandalore76 - on 10 September 2020