So for the past few months since I released this stage, I noticed that this stage could pretty much be a DOOM map instead of a SRB2 stage. And I feel like I just didn't grasp the full potential of how this stage could truly play like. And the longer I looked at the now legacy version of this stage, the more I felt like it was unfinished or had a S06 rushed feeling to it. And because of all other worries I had about this stage, I finally decided to remake it from the ground up...
Now Super Schoolhouse Zone will be based less around the regular BB's gameplay, because it doesn't really translate well into a platformer. But instead it will be more focused on exploration, puzzles and hopefully a bit more of platforming. And now knowing that the WAD size doesn't equal PK3 size, I decided to go absolutely wild and port 90% of BB's graphics to make this stage as accurate and varied as possible. And just add more BB's elements like decorations and objects.
And I already have some stuff planned, and some stuff already implemented!
1. I made a new "decal" engine as I called it. And the way it works is that instead of me having to make 5 different variants of a poster for all the available wall textures, I decided to make a single transparent texture with a poster, and use midtextures to insert these on whatever texture I want without any limits.
2. A bit more smooth lighting "engine" I already recreated the BB's tile-based lighting engine but it kinda looks too sharp for me. So I decided to make it a bit smoother and closer to the actual BB's lighting engine! (For example, the old lighting engine had less light states and here they are. [255, 225, 200, 175, 150] And now for the new lighting engine [255, 230, 215, 200, 175, 165, 150] This change makes for a more smoother and less sharp lighting.)
3. The stage now will be a bit more wide and open so you won't have to make any sharp turns every 2 seconds, and even if I will have to make a sharp turn, I will put an extra tile in the corner for more breathing room.
4. In the legacy version, there wasn't any actual reason to enter the optional rooms if you ignore the goodies. But now I'll try my best to make the optional rooms lead to possibly a bit faster route, or just make it so you won't have to just backtrack from them every time.
5. More BB's objects, like a lot more. There's so much stuff that I could spent like 15 minutes just talking about it all.So just take what I got for now. I added blue lockers, the long cafe lamp, the cabinet object, and yeah that's pretty much all for now. :P But still expect more! >:3
And here's the first look for the v2.0. And at this point in dev, this version could pretty much be called just a simple tech-demo, so just know that the further sections will change largely. And if you already played SSZ then you will notice that the first section is just a remake of the legacy one. And yeah, I feel like I'll just slowly remake the old sections, with adding new ones in-between them! :D
And while working on this stage I also got a pretty wholesome idea. And that idea is the...
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So basically what it is, is that you can do a custom poster for this stage, and then see it in-game! :D And it can be basically anything from a regular poster that's in-character of BB's style and humor, or just something that will make you stop in your tracks and just say "that's pretty cool!" And you can also dither you art for some more BB's flair. It especially works good on 3D models and gradients. And the posters could just be ads, but just make them look cool instead of just words. In other words, just go absolutely wild, shatter the barriers if you will.
And there's no dead-line for submissions!
But I bet that the whole dev cycle of this update will be enough to make a small poster. And I will accept custom posters even after the update releases. In which case, the posters will be added in the beyond 2.0 updates/patches.
And I made three available templates that you can draw on:
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The glued on poster.
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A regular info poster.
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And a wall painting, or a wallpaper if you can call it like that.
And in the last area of this stage, I'll probably make a "gallery room" where you'll be able to see every custom poster made for the collab. And remember to put some sneaky credits of yourself on the art you made so the person that will see the poster will know who made what without any outside sources. But I'll probably still make a list of the collaborators either way too both in-game and on the overview page, so it’s your choice if you want to add credits.
And if something is unclear then just ask me or something. •3•
I wrote all that while being in that weird mental state between being tired, high, and unfocused (So just the average mental state while having a fewer, and on the weekend of all the times this could happen to me. >:C) so sorry if something is weirdly written, because I'm sure that I forgot a lot of details I wanted to say, but I just wanted to announce this remake already... And I kinda randomly got into writing this without any kind of preparation so yeah. :|
Also, should I use the discussion thread of this addon for the W.I.P progress, or should I comeback to my pre-historic W.I.P thread? And I don't think I should even mention this, but this update won't be coming out for a long time. :C I made a guess that It would come out at spring of the next year, and I hope it won't take any longer than that. -.- But It pretty much will seeing how many w.i.p projects I have. :C
This update is pretty tiny compared to 1.1, but it still has some neat things worth checking out. (And I wouldn't able to sleep at night If I wouldn't release this update.)
CHANGES:
-I changed the campfire sprite to one from the 0.7 update and now it's animated too! (WOW!)
-I changed the sky from flat textures to skyboxes so you'll be able to see the celling and stuff. It's most noticeable in the sunset texture.
-I changed the bus sprite to one from 0.7. (Includes Baldi judging your every move from the drivers seat.)
-I recolored the motivational poster so the gradient will look prettier. :3
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TO DO LIST:
-Add rocks from 0.7 over some fire wood in the camping field trip. And maybe in some other places too.
-TRY to make custom music for farm and camping field trips. (Try, because It wasn't and still isn't going very smoothly for me. :C help.)
-Redo the main title screen so it won't look kinda cheesy...
-Add these small flag thingies from the farm field trip.
I guess that's all I have planned for now. The already implemented features will getstriked throughand will disappear in the next update post.
And thanks for the 1K downloads on this addon! :3I would like to make a custom silly render for this mile stone but I unfortunately function on a pretty tight time schedule and I don't have a lot of free time left when I'm done with the high-prioity things for the day. (I practically have to get ready to sleep.)
I promise the next update will have more major changes. :C
And this time I checked multiple times If I set the spawn position correctly after testing. >:C
My dumb-ahh forgor to change the spawn position that I left here while testing the stage!
Thanks to @ZrUltra for pointing this out to me, I don't want to know how long this would be left like this if not for you.
I feel like I need to apologize for any ruined experiences of this stage to anyone that was unfortunate enough to play this stage in the time frame of this stage being in this state.(Yes, I got a bit stressed out because of this! How did you noticed!?
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While posting 1.1 I felt that I forgot about something but I didn't realize that it was such a major oversight...Just act like this entry never existed in the first place and that I didn't had to make a AAA gaming company level patch...
Due to some criticism I received, I decided to change some things about this stage that will hopefully make it more fun to play than it already was!
CHANGES:
-I re balanced the enemy placement and now lance-a-bots have "rare enemy" status which means that they only appear in:
-Added a new poster which tells you about many posters with gameplay tips and gimmick explanations. These tend to appear near checkpoints or gimmick explanation posters:-Optional areas with extra goodies.
-Some specific areas so they won't be literally everywhere.
-Most frequently in late stage, but it's still balanced in such way so you will understand that you're getting close to the ending and that the difficulty curve is getting higher.
-They appear as "traps" in the farm-maze field trip.
-In places where you can simply run forward to completely miss them. (unless you're searching for a fight.)
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-Added new signs to the farm field trip that better explain it's gameplay. And this time I actually made something silly with the back-side of it:
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-I added a checkpoint in the middle of the pit-stop area. Because it just fits for one to be here. C:
-I remade the outdoor pit-stop button challange, so it won't be plain boring. -.-
I guess that's all if I remember correctly. But now about these-
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Some people that followed development of this addon could already know about this, but there's a mainly BB's oriented youtuber that I watch and I planned to ask him if he would play this stage. So here's the kicker... I GAINED ENOUGH COURAGE TO ASK HIM ABOUT IT!!! :D But If he will make a video out this stage is pretty much unknown even by the youtuber himself. But I just want to hope for the best...
And If some how you're reading this Graysland then... hi.I hope you'll enjoy this playing this stage! :D And remember to take your time with it because if you rush through it you might miss some neat details that I added to this stage!
UPCOMING UPDATE PLANS:
-I have a pretty crazy plan. So I received a piece of critique that gave me a really cool idea. So because of the lenght of this stage, the music gets old and because of it, it may start getting annoying. And to counter that I decided to make custom music for specific areas. And that includes both field trips and maybe some other scenarios.
-And I have a silly idea too. So when you enter the johnny's store area, the music will force itself to play the elevator theme. Why? Just for goofs and laughs.I want this stage to have the same cheeky humor as the source material. And this fits perfectly in this specific category.
-I also will remake the custom title screen when I finish making the field trip music. Because it's kinda meh as of now.