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Hey, new devlog, new archives opened.

The game that we are going to discover and compare with HopDrop is quite a special game for the engine on which it is running. Here is Mario Kart MegaMix, a jewel of extravagance and ambition for this game engine called RPG Maker.

Mario Kart MegaMix, what is it?

Mario Kart MegaMix is a Mario Kart fangame, it takes the gameplay introduced by Super Mario Kart, an ambiance similar to that of Mario Kart 64 and some subtleties of Mario Kart Double Dash. The principle of Mario Kart MegaMix is also to resume circuits ranging from Super Mario Kart to Mario Kart Wii, by integrating some exclusive circuits and some from other games.

You will complete 3 laps of the track to win the victory, against 5 opponents, you will be able to rely on your objects to get by ... But the opponents respond! Also pay attention to various obstacles and manage your terrain well.

One of the circuits of Mario Kart MegaMix, the CheepCheep Islands from Mario Kart Super Circuit

The development of Mario Kart MegaMix debuted on November 2, 2013, just a few months after GoldenWorld -Nokoshi the evil king-. The 2 games were in simultaneous development and each offered a different experience, both for the player and for the developer. Later, Mario Kart MegaMix was also the side project to GoldenWorld 2 -Legend of Atlantis-, and even to HopDrop and The Myths of Lightis!

Mario Kart MegaMix had a longer development than expected, and was canceled on the eve of its finalization, the fault of an insurmountable ordeal ... The same that killed the GoldenWorld series.

What was his context of creation.

One of the kinds of games that I always wanted to make, with the platform game, was the Mario Kart-like, I even made paper and cardboard models of circuits when I was in elementary school.

Otherwise, since I like to branch out and make RPG Maker spit its guts out, making the Mario Kart MegaMix game genre is in my opinion a interessent exercise to do.

My previous attempts to make a Mario Kart-like were failures, Mario Kart MegaMix was the first working game of its kind that I made. It must be said that before, I did not have the skills to do it, but you have to know how to be persistent. So, I finally managed to develop a lap system, I also familiarized myself with the use of Mode 7, to that I added an object system and created a somewhat wobbly AI. I'm also starting to re-adapt the graphics of Super Mario Kart for RPG Maker VXace. The first version of Mario Kart MegaMix is on the board.

The first version of the Rainbow Road of Super Mario Kart, the first working circuit of Mario Kart MegaMix

But the game still comes a long way. Initially, very few objects are available, camera rotations are absent, the AI system is very wobbly (especially since there was only one), the circuits were very narrow, it there were only 4 playable characters and their choice was only aesthetic ... In short, it was subject to improvement. The improvements came with the third demo I released at the time, it incorporated camera rotations, new tracks and 4 new characters.

However, this version of Mario Kart MegaMix had become an ordeal to develop, as I wanted to add more AI, have larger circuits and have a more modular game. In 2015, I therefore began to restart the game from 0, to make larger circuits and integrate 5 AIs that work stabler.

The SNES Rainbow Road in its 2015 version

But the biggest ordeal was Narcissus, I'm talking about this knot head here. If Narcissus was a real plague on GoldenWorld, it was the same with Mario Kart MegaMix. Especially since I suggested to my teammates at the time (including Narcisse) to participate in the development of the game to do the funniest thing about this game: make circuits.

If the participation of my other collaborators was satisfactory, that of Narcissus was at best a bad joke, at worst a big shit put in my mouth. His first track, based on the Castlevania universe, took the shape of the logo of the German metal band Rammstein, which didn't really make sense with what I expected. The second was deliberately very ugly, psychedelic, all based on awful music that would make deafness deaf. As if that wasn't enough, Narcissus never missed an opportunity to humiliate Mario Kart MegaMix or myself.

When switching from the first to the second version of Mario Kart MegaMix, I ended up censoring its circuits, before finally eradicating all traces of Narcissus in Mario Kart MegaMix when our collaboration stopped.

Mario Kart MegaMix therefore inherited the same thing as the GoldenWorld series: a loathing of this game. Perhaps I should not have abandoned Mario Kart MegaMix on the eve of its finalization, I was still very attached to it and it is giving too much importance to Narcissus. But the experience I had with Narcissus was traumatic. I also said to myself that I would resume this game one day, when HopDrop is sufficiently advanced to justify a spin-off.

Mario Kart MegaMix will have seen a lot of evolutions in its development, but ended up being canceled at the same time as GoldenWorld 2 -Legend of Atlantis- in November 2015, at a time when The Myths of Lightis had a fairly active development and where HopDrop got its first graphics and its first intro cutscene.

What is its content.

Mario Kart MegaMix is still a fairly complete game. Although there are 26 tracks natively planned, here are the 20 playable tracks when Mario Kart MegaMix re-launches:

There were also 9 playable characters (8 basic and one hidden), each with their own driving characteristics and special items:

Mario Kart MegaMix looks like a small crossover. The presence of Kirby was inspired to me by the romhack Mario Kart R. That of Henke Uranus by the fact that Mario Kart MegaMix was parallel to GoldenWorld -Nokoshi the evil king-. Felix Vengelis came later, to reassume my paternity towards the series of which this character is the protagonist.

However, some contents from the old version has not been integrated into the second, a mission mode and a battle mode, whereas they were planned. The game should also have been multilingual. Here is a comparative table of the 2 major versions which will be released later:

What legacy did it leave to HopDrop?

It seems quite obvious that the legacy that Mario Kart MegaMix bequeathed to HopDrop concerns mainly the technical aspect, especially with regard to mode 7. It is the experiments on Mario Kart MegaMix that led to the realization of cutscenes in mode 7 in HopDrop, but also for various other things, like Question for a Sphinx or the title screen. HopDrop was also initially planned to be fully in mode 7, but this was abandoned quite early in development.

Screenshot of the oldest version of HopDrop, fully in mode 7

Mario Kart MegaMix was also the first of my games to feature its own graphics ... it was mostly rip from Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart DS, sure, but it also paved the way for a graphic charter specific to HopDrop.

Earlier I was talking about taking back Mario Kart MegaMix later in another form, with the HopDrop universe. In its great diversity, HopDrop has a mini-game that directly pays tribute to Mario Kart MegaMix: the White Alps Grand Prix. The layout of one of the circuits present in HopDrop v0.6.1 resumes Wind Gardens.

 Mario Kart MegaMix compared to the White Alps Grand Prix

The White Alps Grand Prix is of course better made than Mario Kart MegaMix, it even gave rise to a prototype racing game on HopDrop: HopDrace (I would be grateful if you don't mind this moldy name). HopDrace is therefore the continuation of Mario Kart MegaMix ... Even if HopDrace will rather focus on another engine, the influence of Mario Kart MegaMix will not end for all that.

Another thing that Mario Kart MegaMix has given to HopDrop is area gestion, especially to manage offside. The influence of Mario Kart MegaMix is therefore quite substantial.

What to remember?

Mario Kart MegaMix and HopDrop are two very different games with regard to their genre (a racing game and a platform game). But they come from the same learnings: area gestion, game behavior, specialized graphics for video games, consistent use of mode 7 ...

The list is quite long, so we can summarize like this: even if it has hiccups and has bugs (fault of an unfinished game), Mario Kart MegaMix is a real lesson in game design. Its existence influenced HopDrop, the latter could have been very different without a Mario Kart MegaMix to bring its technical heritage and its distrust of a toxic Narcissus. Mario Kart MegaMix is, together with Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- and GoldenWorld -Nokoshi the evil king-, one of the foundations of the game design of HopDrop.

In the end, the most important with Mario Kart MegaMix is not to have finished it, it is what it was able to bring. Its abandonment in favor of HopDrop and a future more successful Mario Kart-like was clearly worth the candle.

Another lesson to remember, the same as with GoldenWorld: you have to know how to surround yourself well, to spot toxic people like Narcissus. Maybe if I had ousted this big jerk earlier, maybe Mario Kart MegaMix would be finalized and instead of talking about HopDrop, I would talk about an opus of GoldenWorld succeeding the 2 and Mario Kart-like who should have followed ... Even if HopDrop was planned in the time of GoldenWorld and Mario Kart MegaMix, it was not intended to be what it is, the fall of GoldenWorld and Mario Kart MegaMix was fertile ground for the climax of HopDrop and The Myths of Lightis.

Ah it's so beautiful! I think we can leave each other on that.

Remember that the HopDrop v0.6.1 demo is available, it is attached to this devlog. If you go to the White Alps, you can participate in the White Alps Grand Prix while waiting for the publication of Mario Kart MegaMix and the other archived game that will accompany it :) .