https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/voting-results [quote][b]Voting Results[/b] The first poll has concluded, and the results are in. Of the 25 eligible voters, 12 voted and 13 abstained. The results were as follows: 1. 5 votes (36%) 2. 1 vote (7%) 3. 8 votes (57%) So the first task we will work on is: Add Anneroy’s new abilities. Thank you to everyone who voted! [b]Progress Report[/b] I had Monday and Tuesday available this week, so I dedicated both days to Hexoshi’s development. I timed myself for 3 hours of work on Milestone 1’s goals, though I also spent several hours on some extra things which I did not time myself doing. The following developments occurred: * 9 new rooms have been added, bringing the total number of rooms to 23. * A message is now shown the first time you activate a warp pad explaining that you can press “up” to teleport (similar to the messages seen when powerups are collected). * I made sloped versions of the stone tiles. they can be seen below the E-tank to the left of the Handheld Map. * Support for “map hints” to change the way the map is generated has been added. These hints are used in some of the new rooms. Their intended purpose is to enable the creation of non-rectangular rooms. * Lines of Code – a track which was previously rejected because of its loudness war syndrome – has been added back in for use in the credits screen, where this isn’t so much of a problem. * Support and graphics for useless artifacts has been added. These can be used sparingly to add some purpose to corridors designed to take players in the wrong direction, and to otherwise add filler to the game. It can also be a handy way to put easter eggs into the game. [b]Other Notes[/b] Someone contacted me and asked if there is a mailing list to discuss voting issues. Unfortunately, there currently is not. However, I do want voters to discuss these issues, especially more important ones like the next one, so from now on I will open an issue on Hexoshi’s GitLab page for discussing each poll. The corresponding issue will be linked to both in the nomination phase announcement and in the voting phase announcement.[/quote]

The nomination phase for new enemies has begun: https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/nominate-new-enemies [quote]Although it seems a bit early, I think it's a good idea to begin the nomination phase for the question: What new enemies should be added to Hexoshi for Milestone 1? The nomination phase will last until January 20. During this phase, anyone (regardless of whether or not you are registered to vote) can nominate any number of candidates for possible choices on the ballot. Nomination does not guarantee appearance on the ballot; that decision is ultimately up to me. However, this is your chance to share and discuss your ideas. Please either send your nominations to onpon4@riseup.net, or post them to the following issue on GitLab (which can also be used to discuss the question): https://gitlab.com/hexoshi/hexoshi/issues/5[/quote]

I don't understand your development on this. Can't you just add things without having to run a poll? Or am I missing something?

The purpose of the voting is to involve backers in Hexoshi's development. I want it to be community-driven, at least in part.

An open-source Metroid, huh? I totally missed this one, but that's because I'm usually not reading the forum outside my topic, lol I'm a member of Metroid community at AM2R forum, and ever since the game was DMCA'd by Nintendo, there have been some talks about recreating it, or making Metroid engine for future fan-games, or move on from the franchise and create a spiritual successor to the series. There are some engines created, but they mostly use Game Maker. I even did one, in Ruby, just like Mariovania. I see you have taken an approach of making a spiritual successor (sort of). Since you are going open-source, I'd suggest to make it easy to adjust and expand your game. Maybe someone could use it for Metroid fan-games or such. Or it could evolve into sort of Metroid Maker (something I tried to do) (I know yours is not a Metroid). I played the source and I like it so far. The gameplay is fine. I especially love how smoothly the camera works. The music is enjoyable too. I like the direction the game is going in. What I didn't like, was diagonal aiming controls. There's no way to aim diagonally by using arrows only, but you need additional button. I know it's a design choice, but it should be toggleabe to the classic controls. Axiom Verge had an interesting take on this too - it introduced a button, that locks you in place and allows free aiming in all directions (doesn't work when running though). Also, the fact that all items on the map are always marked with dot. I hope this will change to the dot/circle (or similar) system, because it's a thing I absolutely hated in Super Metroid when I wanted to reach 100% (I never did because of this). A separate button for showing map would be nice too. Overall, it looks promising and I hope it will be successful (it already is, sort of). Definitely looking forward to new updates! :thumbsup: One thing though... [quote="onpon4"]If the campaign is unsuccessful, then Hexoshi will just not be further developed.[/quote]Sounds like you won't make this game if you don't have money. When I saw this quote, I imagined that you are on some kind of "mission" to create a libre metroidvania, but it won't work if you will have to do it for free. That's wrong approach. Making games doesn't cost money - it costs only time (and you can convert money to time). You make a game, because you want to make a game, not because you have some vague reason to do so and it depends on how successful it is during development. If you don't have funds for living - get a job and develop it in free time. If you don't have money to pay for an artist - learn art yourself and hope someone volunteers to fix it later for you (or if making a commercial game - use the money from (pre-)release to hire an artist). That's just me, at least. I know this quote is quite old and is probably irrelevant now, or just gave me wrong impression, which I hope so. Wishing you luck anyways. Especially since you helped me with my project ;) (and I love metroidvanias)

[quote="Ulquiorra"]What I didn't like, was diagonal aiming controls. There's no way to aim diagonally by using arrows only, but you need additional button. I know it's a design choice, but it should be toggleabe to the classic controls.[/quote] As in inverting the diagonal aim button (making it a vertical aim button)? If that would be sufficient, I could add a "diagonal aim lock" option. [quote]Also, the fact that all items on the map are always marked with dot. I hope this will change to the dot/circle (or similar) system, because it's a thing I absolutely hated in Super Metroid when I wanted to reach 100% (I never did because of this).[/quote] Yeah, the problem with that is that the map is not dynamically generated and the only meta-data available for the map is what "map objects" should be drawn in each particular region. I do have one idea to overcome that, though, so I'll give it a whirl. [quote]A separate button for showing map would be nice too.[/quote] I keep forgetting to do this. xD [quote]Making games doesn't cost money - it costs only time (and you can convert money to time).[/quote] It does cost me money since I'm not making most of the graphics and they don't already exist. Regardless, even if I was able to do this all for free by myself, it would be better to get paid to do it. [quote]You make a game, because you want to make a game, not because you have some vague reason to do so and it depends on how successful it is during development. If you don't have funds for living - get a job and develop it in free time.[/quote] I already have a job. That's not really the point. Time that I have to spend checking people out at Kroger is time that I [i]can't[/i] spend developing games. So if I can get paid to develop games, I can develop games more often. [quote]If you don't have money to pay for an artist - learn art yourself and hope someone volunteers to fix it later for you[/quote] It's not as simple as just learning art. People practice for [i]years[/i] to get good at drawing. That's a lot of time to dedicate to a craft. I don't realistically have the time to learn to match that, and I don't have the patience anyway because I don't like drawing. "Programmer art" can work as a placeholder, but I want the games I develop to look good, and I think it's unrealistic to expect others to just come along and donate their talent to my little games, and then do so in a way that keeps the game looking consistent. [quote](or if making a commercial game - use the money from (pre-)release to hire an artist).[/quote] I'm not sure what you mean by that. Money from where, exactly? If the Milestone 1 hadn't been successfully crowdfunded, there wouldn't be any money. [quote]Sounds like you won't make this game if you don't have money. When I saw this quote, I imagined that you are on some kind of "mission" to create a libre metroidvania, but it won't work if you will have to do it for free. ... I know this quote is quite old and is probably irrelevant now, or just gave me wrong impression, which I hope so.[/quote] Yes, you did misunderstand. The whole reason for my approach to this (only continuing if the crowdfunding campaign succeeded) is that I am [i]not[/i] in particular on a mission to create a libre Metroid-like game. If I'm on a "mission", it's a mission to get paid to develop libre games so that I can spend more time on this activity. I was going to crowdfund a game this way regardless of what it is, and the main thing that inspired me to choose to make a Metroid-like game was in fact the AM2R takedown. Don't get me wrong, I love Metroid-like games, but I also love other kinds of games. :) To be perfectly clear, after Milestone 1 is completed and released, a crowdfunding campaign will begin for Milestone 2, and the story will be the same: if it fails, I will simply move on to something else. That wouldn't necessarily mean death to Hexoshi, of course. It would simply mean that I wouldn't actively be developing it anymore. That wouldn't stop others from picking up where I left off and finishing it.

I've added in the map button (default "M"), and I've also managed to make it so that map indicators for powerups are deleted when you collect them. Also, the nomination phase for enemies has been extended: https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/enemy-nomination-phase-extended [quote]Because of the nature of this particular issue and the fact that nominations only started coming in a few days ago, I have decided to extend the nomination phase for enemies until January 27. Please feel free to send any ideas for nominations you have to onpon4@riseup.net, or post them here: https://gitlab.com/hexoshi/hexoshi/issues/5[/quote]

I noticed this: [img]http://i.imgur.com/uYDgLUw.png[/img] Is it maybe possible that we will get some multiplayer/coop in the future? That would be the first 2D Metroid-like game to do so, probably. It would be super awesome!

That's actually an engine leftover from ReTux (which I did want to make a multiplayer mode for, but couldn't due to a lack of funding), but it's possible that I could add something similar to what the Sonic games have, where you have a companion that a second player can take control of. Someone would have to draw and animate the companion, though, unless it becomes a Milestone 2 or later goal (which it might). I'm imagining something pretty simple, like the familiars in Symphony of the Night, though I don't have any specific ideas.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi/updates/savannah [quote]Hexoshi has been approved on Savannah! Because of this, further development will be done there. The project has been fully moved, and the GitLab project has been archived. The new location for the website is found here: http://hexoshi.nongnu.org And the new project page is here: https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/hexoshi/ To be clear, the new enemies issue will continue to be discussed [url=https://gitlab.com/hexoshi/hexoshi/issues/5]on GitLab[/url], while future issues will have either an associated task or an associated bug on the Savannah project page. Savannah supports a lot of features that GitLab does not. In particular, I have started using the [url=https://savannah.nongnu.org/task/?group=hexoshi]Task Manager[/url] to track our progress on the goals of Milestone 1, and I will be posting updates to the news feed in addition to Crowd Supply from now on; you can subscribe to the news feed here: https://savannah.nongnu.org/news/atom.php?group=hexoshi Other than the move to Savannah, the news is relatively modest. Luke has begun to work the ball form, and I have completed some more rooms and made some other enhancements to Hexoshi. The time I recorded myself working on Hexoshi since the last update was 1 hour and 30 minutes. This is inaccurate since I forgot to time myself a few times, but that's fine; I'll just say a wizard did it. So officially, the amount of time I've spent in total is 4 hours and 30 minutes. Changes since the last update include the following: * Six more rooms were added, bringing the total number of rooms to 30. * The E-tank to the left of the Handheld Map has been replaced with a useless artifact. I felt that it was too early to give a health upgrade there. * The map disk near the second warp pad is now complete (i.e. the rooms it maps out now all exist). * A "map" key has been added (assigned to "M" by default). * Powerups are now removed from the map when collected. Because of the nature of the map, this cannot be retroactively applied to old save files; you will have to start a new game. * The URL in the credits has been updated to "hexoshi.nongnu.org".[/quote]

[quote="Ulquiorra"]If you don't have funds for living - get a job and develop it in free time. If you don't have money to pay for an artist - learn art yourself and hope someone volunteers to fix it later for you[/quote]omg that is the /worst/ advise ever. dont assuming you know enough about an dev's personal live to that you can tell them how to manage ther personal live and ther game in work. and telling sommeone to just learn a new skill nonchalantly is horribly logic. again u dont knw enough about personal live to think they have that kind of time. and someone willing to do free work do not just fall into ur lap. if that are true, my game would be coded and done by now

Hey! Are you still continuing this topic? I saw your post about first area name nominations and wanted to give some. However, I got lost in Savannah's cluttered interface and I don't know how to comment there >_> [size=50](y u left gitlab)[/size] Anyways, I hope you count nominations in this topic too. Here's some: [spoiler][list][*]Eniri [*]Eisago [*]Darj [*]Oruulakh [*]Betree [*]Yngean [*]Arayn [*]Gitt [*]Miditra [*]Ulu [*]Vstupit [*]Galaan[/list][/spoiler]I got the idea from Axiom Verge. Its first area is named Eribu, which means "Enter" in Sumerian (clever, huh?), so I just went over Google Translate with "Enter" and picked the most interesting ones XD btw, I played the newest version with the ball and boots. I love the ball mechanics, it really feels like you are rolling a ball, somewhat like in Metroid Prime. Hopefully, you will use these physics in a clever way later. My minor concern was the ball/boots powerup sprite. I know it's just placeholder, but why not use a more meaningful placeholder? Like, one of artifacts looks good for boots. And ball powerup could use player's sprite before it has it's own. But that's not too important I think, depending on how long these placeholders will be in game. Also, is it just me, or the saves get deleted when I update the game? ;_: (just git-pulled stuff) This will become a problem when the game gets bigger.

[quote="Ulquiorra"]Anyways, I hope you count nominations in this topic too.[/quote] Sure thing! :) EDIT: By the way, the way you post a comment on the Savannah task is with the "Submit Changes" button, on the top-right. [quote]I got the idea from Axiom Verge. Its first area is named Eribu, which means "Enter" in Sumerian (clever, huh?), so I just went over Google Translate with "Enter" and picked the most interesting ones XD[/quote] I actually did the same thing with one of the names I nominated. Hey, if it sounds cool, why not? ;) [quote]btw, I played the newest version with the ball and boots. I love the ball mechanics, it really feels like you are rolling a ball, somewhat like in Metroid Prime. Hopefully, you will use these physics in a clever way later.[/quote] I'm glad you like it. :) Yes, I do hope to use it in interesting ways later. Just to note, fully experiencing it properly requires the latest xsge_physics from Git; it enables making the slopes speed you up when you go down them and slow you down when you go up them. I'll be making a new release of that pretty soon. [quote]My minor concern was the ball/boots powerup sprite. I know it's just placeholder, but why not use a more meaningful placeholder?[/quote] Mostly because it's going to be replaced probably in the next month anyway, so I didn't see the point of either putting effort into it or cluttering the Git history with an image that's just going to get deleted soon after. [quote]Also, is it just me, or the saves get deleted when I update the game? ;_: (just git-pulled stuff) This will become a problem when the game gets bigger.[/quote] That would be a bug if it did happen, but it doesn't to my knowledge. I've been continuously using the same saves for the most part. The only way Hexoshi would delete any save file is if either you started a new game, or if save_slots.json was corrupted somehow.

[quote="onpon4"]EDIT: By the way, the way you post a comment on the Savannah task is with the "Submit Changes" button, on the top-right.[/quote]Ooh, I suspected that, but it says "Submit Changes" and I didn't want to break anything >_> [quote="onpon4"]Mostly because it's going to be replaced probably in the next month anyway, so I didn't see the point of either putting effort into it or cluttering the Git history with an image that's just going to get deleted soon after.[/quote]Yeah, but I mean using already existing images. [img]http://i.imgur.com/3wduqHs.png[/img] Doesn't it look better than using the Health Orb? (the Compressor gets a cool rolling animation too) [spoiler]atomic_compressor_sprite = sge.gfx.Sprite("ball", os.path.join(DATA, "images", "objects", "anneroy"), fps=10) # TODO monkey_boots_sprite = sge.gfx.Sprite("artifact1", d) # TODO[/spoiler] [quote="onpon4"]That would be a bug if it did happen, but it doesn't to my knowledge.[/quote]Huh, then I don't know what happened. I played this game after like 2 months and my saves were gone. Better - I yesterday completed it, but then my save got reverted to before I got ball (and I almost surely remember saving after getting boots). Maybe it was my mistake tho, somehow >_> [quote="onpon4"]As in inverting the diagonal aim button (making it a vertical aim button)?[/quote]Sorry for the late reply, but that was actually what I meant xd Is the map item supposed not discover everything, or it's just unfinished? It shows like only half of the area. Also, not sure if it's possible, but normally items are not supposed to be marked before you visit a room, but map item shows them all. But maybe that's intended. Also², you can unmorph while rolling, but you can't morph into ball while running.

[quote="Ulquiorra"]Ooh, I suspected that, but it says "Submit Changes" and I didn't want to break anything >_>[/quote] Oh, no worries; you can't break anything as an anonymous user. ;) Only project members can break things. [quote]atomic_compressor_sprite = sge.gfx.Sprite("ball", os.path.join(DATA, "images", "objects", "anneroy"), fps=10) # TODO monkey_boots_sprite = sge.gfx.Sprite("artifact1", d) # TODO[/quote] Well, since you put it that way... added. xD But really, it would have been fine. These images are the next ones Luke is going to work on after the spike animation. We've even already brainstormed some ideas for what they could be. [quote]Better - I yesterday completed it, but then my save got reverted to before I got ball (and I almost surely remember saving after getting boots). Maybe it was my mistake tho, somehow >_>[/quote] Hm, yeah, there's no possible way for Hexoshi's code to do this. If the game were to crash because of a segfault in Python, then that would prevent the saving from working. But if that were to happen, the game would crash, obviously, and Hexoshi writes the save data to the disk every time the game is saved. So that can't be the cause. What I would guess is that you just didn't make it to a warp pad after you did everything; touching a warp pad is the only way to save the game. Perhaps I should look into doing something to prevent that. [quote]Is the map item supposed not discover everything, or it's just unfinished? It shows like only half of the area.[/quote] It's only supposed to show you a designated segment. There will be more map disks in the future. [quote]Also, not sure if it's possible, but normally items are not supposed to be marked before you visit a room, but map item shows them all. But maybe that's intended.[/quote] The map disk reveals all information about particular designated areas, including items that might exist there. So yes, that's intentional. :) Basically, the map disk is just a way to discover a set of rooms without visiting them. They're the same thing as the map data spots in Super Metroid. [quote]Also², you can unmorph while rolling, but you can't morph into ball while running.[/quote] Yeah, that's just because you morph while you're crouching. Come to think of it, though, I could just allow double-tapping to do it (like when you're in the air). I'll do that.

I have a very important announcement regarding Hexoshi: https://savannah.nongnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=8830

DANGIT! You got me! I've been on high-alert all day but you've been the first person to successfully fool me. Considering there are people who [url=http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?t=37904]legitimately like BASIC[/url] you had me going there for a second. XD

The last update was of course an April Fool's joke, as DragonDePlatino found out first-hand. :) However, this is a real update, and it's a huge one: https://savannah.nongnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=8838 [quote]I must apologize for the late announcement of the voting results. I just so happened to launch a Patreon page at the same time as the voting ended, so I forgot to do so. On that note, please consider contributing to that Patreon page, which can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/onpon4 It will not have anything to do with Milestone 1 of Hexoshi, but it supports my other game development efforts, and if I get enough funding through it, I may be able to make the Milestone 2 crowdfunding campaign entirely focused on raising money to commission art. That would make the campaign smaller (and therefore more likely to succeed), and it would also make the way Milestone 2 is developed much more flexible. In any case, the voting results. I assigned a number of points to each choice based on where people placed them among their preferences: first choice got five points, second choice got four points, and so on, up until the fifth choice, which got one point. The top three choices by this metric were: 1. Iridia (17 points) 2. Aoshi (14 points) 3. Ulu (7 points) The voter turnout was low (again), but that's OK. Iridia was one of my favorite options too, so Iridia it is. But that's not all; there have also been a *ton* of new developments since the last progress report last month. These are the most notable developments: * Iridia is finished. A temporary ending, a macguffin, has been included in the last accessible room (which will lead to the second major area in Milestone 2). * Fixed a defect in map scrolling that caused it to take almost a second with each interval (and it would have gotten even worse later on). * Changed Anneroy's ball form to behave a lot more like a ball. This requires an update to xsge_physics, so do remember to update that to version 0.13 or later if you haven't already! Rolling down a slope as a ball now allows you to get a massive speed boost, while rolling up a hill requires a running - or, rather, rolling - start. * Added a statistic for the number of enemy types killed. It's pretty meaningless right now, but later on, it will be another useful indicator of progress. * Added an animation to show that decompressing failed when it does (due to being in a one-tile-high space). * Added a "lax" to decompressing, so if you're close to a 1-tile-wide hole but not quite there, you shift over. * Fixed a defect in wall jumping: you jumped a shorter or higher height in an inconsistent way based on when you released the jump button. Variable heights was not supposed to be possible, so it has been removed and the wall jump height has been reduced. * It is now possible to compress while running; simply double-tap "down" as you would if you were in the air. * Added a warning if you attempt to leave the game when there is unsaved progress. * Added a "diagonal aim lock" option, which reverses the function of the "aim diagonal" button. * Changed the way game data is saved so that it is more robust. Unfortunately, this was a significant enough change that old saves would crash the game, so any save files in the old format are automatically deleted. * Added some map walls to room 5 and gave it some camera guides to better hide the hidden artifact found in it. * Added the Hedgehog Hormone, which briefly causes spikes to grow out of Anneroy's ball form, damaging enemies and protecting Anneroy from damage by contact with enemies (but not protecting from bullets). * Fixed a bug in map generation that caused some map objects to be drawn multiple times. The practical effect of this was to prevent artifact indicators from being erased. * Added a sound (taken from Minetest) for when stones are broken. * Pulled an updated Spanish translation from Jorge. * Changed the credits screen to black instead of that purplish color. * Changed the way stones generate fragment objects to limit how much this slows down the game. Basically, if the frame rate is low, the number of fragments generated is reduced to prevent it from getting any lower. * The E-tank in room 10 has been changed so that it requires a ball jump ability combined with the hedgehog spikes to obtain. Previously I intended for it to be obtained with a wall climbing ability, but I have found the task of implementing wall climbing physics too complex to be worthwhile. * Fixed a crash caused by attempting to pause the game with a game controller. * Fixed a bug that allowed Anneroy to be in a "rolling" state while walking. * Switched the spike stone image to make it more visually distinct. * Added the Atomic Compressor sprite. * Added links to my Patreon page and the Milestone 1 CrowdSupply campaign to the title screen. Milestone 1 is on the horizon, but much more work needs to be done. Stay tuned![/quote]

Yay! One of my nominated names took third spot. [size=50](lol)[/size] [quote="onpon4"]Changed the way game data is saved so that it is more robust. Unfortunately, this was a significant enough change that old saves would crash the game, so any save files in the old format are automatically deleted.[/quote]Why not just convert the old files upon load? What if similar change happens in the future? Also, I just played through the whole game, but somehow it didn't save properly and I have to do it again ;_; (I'm sure I save this time, as I was teleporting). It's just, the save file didn't update at all somehow. Same with config file. But it's ok now after restarting the game. The compression during running requires too fast tapping. It should be more forgiving in timing. Also, the diagonal aim... Turns out switching the functionality wasn't exactly what I wanted, the way it is now. Do I have to explain this that much? :| In a common Metroid game (or most games where there is diagonal aim), you can aim diagonally when pressing Up/Down + Left/Right. So, holding Up when standing, makes you aim up, but when running, it makes you aim diagonally. The gripe I had with the old system was that when you held Up while running, you were aiming directly up, which is uncommon and nonintuitive (at least when you played games with these common controls). The way you changed it, it's worse. You don't aim directly up when standing still and holding Up. It... makes no sense. The diagonal aim button is supposed to allow you to aim diagonally while standing (because normally you need direction arrow, which makes you run). Seems like you need to rework this a bit, so Up and Right + Up are two different things. I'm not sure if direct-up aiming while running is that important, but maybe the diagonal aim button could make you aim diagonally when standing, and directly when running. Uh, I hope you understand. Can't believe I'm the only one who has problems with this >_> EDIT: [quote="onpon4"]Added a warning if you attempt to leave the game when there is unsaved progress.[/quote]How does it work? EDIT2: ^ For some reason, it doesn't always show D:

[quote]Why not just convert the old files upon load?[/quote] Mostly because it's pre-alpha (not an actual release), and the inconvenience is too minor to justify the additional code since the game is so small at this point. [quote]It's just, the save file didn't update at all somehow. Same with config file.[/quote] That sounds like some kind of permission problem that Hexoshi wouldn't have anything to do with. I don't know why that would happen, especially only on certain runs. What OS is this, and where are the files being written to? [quote]The compression during running requires too fast tapping. It should be more forgiving in timing.[/quote] Yeah, I was thinking that too. It works just fine on a keyboard, but it's harder to double-tap a d-pad. I've just doubled the double-tap time. Could you let me know how that is now? [quote]In a common Metroid game[/quote] Ah, I see, so you just meant that you want Metroid-like behavior. It was actually a deliberate design choice so you could more finely control your aiming, but I guess some may prefer the familiar, so I have replaced the "diagonal aim lock" option with a "Metroid-style aiming" option. I even added in an aspect that I think is there in Metroid Fusion's diagonal aim button (though I don't remember for sure since I only played it once, years ago). How's that? [quote]^ For some reason, it doesn't always show D:[/quote] It only shows if you have done something to advance your progress. This could be learning about or going to a new part of the map, finding a new warp pad, finding a new artifact, killing a new type of enemy, or getting a new "progress flag". If you just saved, walked back into a room you have already visited, and shot a couple enemies (which doesn't affect the save file except to increase the time stat), it doesn't warn you since you don't lose anything in that case.