Metroid-themed live wallpaper for Android devices

[MarauderP]

So I spent the last few days throwing together an Android live wallpaper as an homage to my favorite video game series; it's far from complete but I thought I'd see about getting some feedback from people before I go off in a direction that nobody else would like. I haven't put it up on the Android Marketplace yet, but will as soon as I'm convinced that there are no major problems with it. (Completely free, of course -- this is for fun, not to make a living)

A link, for everyone who has sideload-enabled Android 2.1 or newer phones:

http://abusivestudios.com/Brinstar.apk

Grab that application package with your phone's browser, install it, then load up the live wallpaper the same way you would any other.

This is a *very* early preview. I only have 2 different corridor types for now; tonight I'll be working on adding some more. I have all the sprites for Brinstar already ripped so it's just a matter of using them. Might see about getting Skrees and Wavers working too.

Shoot me an email at scott.jeremy@gmail.com or reply here if you have problems and/or suggestions. I don't do a lot of forum lurking but I'll keep an eye out for replies. Would love to get some feedback from other Metroid fans.

--Jeremy

[Tianna]

Pretty cool.

[VGMStudios]

Here's some more constructive feedback other than saying "cool".
Will this be like that super Mario live wallpaper? If so will you have samus running through the level shooting at the baddies? Also maybe allow the user tap the screen to have samus shoot manually as well or double tap to have her jump.
will there be options to turn on and off the background music. Or an option to select the levels you want to see.
lastly I would love to see this in the super metroid variety with all those glowing effects. I tried to make my own but couldn't figure it out.
thanks for doing this. Its very good so far.

Vgm out...

[MarauderP]

I don't plan on making it completely playable like the Super Mario live wallpaper, but it's a possibility. I just can't stand touchscreen 'controls' for platformy games and I wouldn't want to make something that I, personally, think sucks. That, and I'm trying to keep this as CPU-friendly as possible, so I don't want to run more complex movement and AI routines.

Who knows though? If I have a stroke of brilliance and figure out how to solve those issues I might add Samus to the wallpaper.

I've found a couple of .NSF libraries that could work to play emulated versions of the original BGM and sound effects. I'm honestly not 100% sure that I would want to add them though, because then I'd really be treading on thin ice when it came to copyright claims by Nintendo. If I did add them, sound effects and music would both be optional.

As for levels, I plan on making it so that as you move through the different corridors, you can tap doors to open them and explore a randomly-generated maze. I plan on keeping track of power-ups that you've found, and making it possible to 'kill' Kraid and Ridley and eventually get to Tourian to defeat Mother Brain. I'd also like to add a password system that generates a random seed for the player to start with. Haven't decided if I'll make it possible for the player to 'die' yet, or if missile/energy pickups will be entirely cosmetic. Oh, and I will add secrets as well that will probably be activated in ways that are even more diabolical to find than the crystal flash.

Not sure what you mean by the 'glowing effects' from Super Metroid -- I would like to add Super Metroid tilesets at some point (probably Metroid II and Fusion as well), but for now I'm just doing Metroid 1 because the rooms are very easy to randomly generate and still have them look authentic.

Once I'm happy with it, I'll probably release the source code for others to play with, so maybe that'll help you figure it out and you can make your own spin-off.