Oddity (formerly Mother 4) - Winter 2014

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SSj_Ness said:
So, what's the official status of this project? Ongoing, cancelled? I remember they didn't want to set a date.
Click to expand...
Winter 2014
But really, rebranded into it's own IP, "it will be out when it's out", and constantly having leaks from former devs who left the project
also checked out youtube for additional m4 leak footage to see if anyone found work arounds: not much out yet aside from already leaked webms but there's two vids that were new/intresting
Level up jingle overlayed
video of the playable part of the Mother 4 build
youtube search sent me down a separate rabbit hole, this track was uploaded a couple days ago
At first I thought the song was bunk since again never heard this track before but I googled the composer's name in the description and low and behold found this
looks like back in the game maker 1 days the team was taking submissions for songs (not sure why, maybe to hunt for a composer?), the timing of the reupload compared to when the alpha versions leaked is pretty convenient though. though looking at the reuploader now, guy's been doing this for fangames for months especially for mother 4, so it's just a lucky coincidence
edit: found footage from the pre alpha from 2 years ago, apparently leaked before this set of alphas
Probably the real reason behind the 2019 date found in the files
 
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Rotollo 2 said:
Winter 2014
But really, rebranded into it's own IP, "it will be out when it's out", and constantly having leaks from former devs who left the project
also checked out youtube for additional m4 leak footage to see if anyone found work arounds: not much out yet aside from already leaked webms but there's two vids that were new/intresting
https://youtube.com/watch?v=d3OYeE1FQh8Level up jingle overlayed
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4-mqOiueJ_Ivideo of the playable part of the Mother 4 build
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I really hope somebody gets that most recent build with the music working, considering the playable build didn't have any music I'm wondering just how much further that build was.

For all we know it might be a fully working version of the first parts of the game, or it might just be the same, but the fact that there is music and none of the other builds had it does make me curious as to what lies beneath the crashes.
 
Made an account just to report my findings on that Mother 4 pre-alpha Game Maker build.

I decided to check if the crackling audio was exclusively a Windows 10 issue, and turns out it is: I plopped the build into my old laptop running Windows 7 and it runs perfectly fine! I then quickly set up OBS Studio (despite the download page stating otherwise, it runs fine on Win7) and recorded some footage as proof:

Also, the game does in fact include the music combo system from Mother 3, although I only got it to work with the remixed Retro Hippie battle theme.
When trying to record footage, by sheer accident I found that this build includes a bunch of stuff (mostly) accessed through function keys:
F1 brings up this "About" screen for the game's engine, which also makes this build actually being from around December 14, 2008, if not some time later:
M4_F1.PNG

No clue what's with the game's last modified date being March 7, 2019, perhaps it was compiled from source at that time? The music, on the other hand, has last modified dates ranging from June to November of 2008, so I'm certain the build itself is from around the time the About screen states.
F4 makes the game stretch itself to desktop resolution, which may or may not be a built-in Game Maker feature.
F10 brings up some sort of "Execute code" dialog box:
M4_F10.PNG

F11, interestingly enough, triggers some kind of debug battle, which also happens to include an enemy not seen in the overworld:
M4_F11.PNG

F12 takes a screenshot and prompts a dialog box asking for its name and location.
And lastly, pushing D makes a debug window appear, showing the game's framerate as well as joystick movement and some sort of graph:
M4_D key.PNG

I'm sure there's more stuff to be found within this build, but I'd need to get a Game Maker decompiler for that.
 
You can press the number keys in the 2015 build and the teaser build to start battles.
Some enemies seem to be different between the two builds.

Teaser
1634228543157.png


2015
1634228442226.png
 
Looking through the Map Test in the most recent playable build (the one that crashes at the movie theater) has a lot of maps that weren't in the teaser build, here's some highlights from poking around.

There's two new characters you can add in the Map Test, I presume these would have been temporary party members, Renee and Doggie O'Dogovan.
Renee.PNG Doggie.PNG
Onto some maps:

Decided to just start recording these with OBS so you can just see everything instead of me relaying it with screenshots.

(What I presume to be Travis's house.) "HomeSweetHome.dat":

(This one's really interesting, starts with a cutscene.) "Crypt.dat":
You get some control halfway through the cutscene before Travis goes back on autopilot. I had to finagle to not get this one to crash, normally it just crashes when you enter the door.

But wait! Disabling the cutscene via "Map Test Options" I was able to explore this area a little bit more.

Can't get too far due to the enemy crashes, but it's something.

"cavetounion.dat"
A broken cutscene that softlocks you after.

But hold on, there's more!
Just like with crypt, disabling the cutscene via the "Map Test Options", I was able to explore not only this room, but the surrounding rooms as well!
No enemy crashes this time as well.



"Belring Transition.dat":
What I presume to be a less broken version of the cavetounion cutscene that ends in the same result.

"dropple - pillar area.dat"

"belringstation.dat"

You can also leave here to just head back into regular Belring.

"DialogueTest.dat"


And here's something interesting I found that I can't see ANY of.
"mapleknob1.dat"
 
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Gru said:
Looking through the Map Test in the most recent playable build (the one that crashes at the movie theater) has a lot of maps that weren't in the teaser build, here's some highlights from poking around.

There's two new characters you can add in the Map Test, I presume these would have been temporary party members, Renee and Doggie O'Dogovan.
View attachment 2625510View attachment 2625514
Onto some maps:

Decided to just start recording these with OBS so you can just see everything instead of me relaying it with screenshots.

(What I presume to be Travis's house.) "HomeSweetHome.dat":
HomeSweetHome M4.mp4
(This one's really interesting, starts with a cutscene.) "Crypt.dat":
You get some control halfway through the cutscene before Travis goes back on autopilot. I had to finagle to not get this one to crash, normally it just crashes when you enter the door.
Crypt M4.mp4
But wait! Disabling the cutscene via "Map Test Options" I was able to explore this area a little bit more.
crypt2.mp4
Can't get too far due to the enemy crashes, but it's something.

"cavetounion.dat"
A broken cutscene that softlocks you after.
cavetounion M4.mp4
But hold on, there's more!
Just like with crypt, disabling the cutscene via the "Map Test Options", I was able to explore not only this room, but the surrounding rooms as well!
No enemy crashes this time as well.
cavetounion2.mp4
cavetounion3.mp4
cavetounion4.mp4
"Belring Transition.dat":
What I presume to be a less broken version of the cavetounion cutscene that ends in the same result.
Belring Transition M4.mp4
"dropple - pillar area.dat"
dropple - pillar area M4.mp4
"belringstation.dat"
belringstation1.mp4
You can also leave here to just head back into regular Belring.
station2.mp4
"DialogueTest.dat"
DialogueTest.mp4

And here's something interesting I found that I can't see ANY of.
"mapleknob1.dat"
mapleknob1.mp4
Click to expand...
also found Rufini aka their script editing software it seems, named after the dog that the developers inhabit in earthbound:
1634240488314.png
maybe it could help navigate some of the error sections in the game?
while here I'll document function key actions in the 2015 build
F1: position viewer
F4: fullscreen
F5: screen size change
F6: "save profile" (?)
F7: loads battle swirls
F8: copies screen shot to clipboard
F9:saves snapshot
F12: rest area to map selection/ exit game
`` collision data and combo timing in battles
1634242417852.png
a is noclip mode, hold a to keep no cliping
 
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Rotollo 2 said:
also found Rufini aka their script editing software it seems, named after the dog that the developers in habit in earthbound:
View attachment 2625946
maybe it could help navigate some of the error sections in the game?
Click to expand...
I can confirm Rufini works, I edited the "No Problem Here" text and it showed up.
GruTest.PNG

I'll see what I can pull off later, I'm going to take a break for now since I'm a bit tired of poking around, but I'll get back to this in an hour or two.
 
I hooked an internal save to file function for textures to dump the palettes and indexed textures for the .dat format textures, and combined the two into png files. While most of these can be found in their original non compressed formats within the files for the 2015 build, some were only present as .dat files. The extracted files from the teaser build seem to have some differences to the 2015 build (ex. older versions of enemy sprites).
https://anonfiles.com/NeUcNfNbu3/Extracted_Mother_4_Textures_7z
Teaser Modern Mind
modernmind.png

2015 Modern Mind
modernmind.png
 
Rotollo 2 said:
a is noclip mode
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Forget the break I guess, I need to see what I can find with noclip.

Already, I can get further in "dropple - pillar area.dat" and see what the pillar actually is.


Also, here's two maps missed before that are pretty interesting,one features a use of PSI Telepathy. "jazzbar.dat", the other features some more story dialouge "hospitalhall.dat"




Here's "theater.dat" which I couldn't see much of before because I was stuck behind a wall.


The rest of the Crypt room from before.


An entire explorable theatre, here's "theaterhall.dat"!


A more complete version of the city from the teaser build, the railway I found also seems to confirm that "union.m4md.gz" from the teaser build was indeed a room plan.


Here's another map I couldn't find a way into the main part before.


What's Pennyburg? Looking around and finding another map, seems to be an even less complete town with very little collision. I got in 1 time when I wasn't recording, but otherwise it keeps giving me an enemy crash, I'll keep trying to bruteforce my way back in and edit it in this post.

I got in, it's really fucking finicky as evidenced by the crash at the end of the footage.
 
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EchoGulch.dat


UnionCity.dat compiled from UnionCity.tmx. Has more NPCs than the other union city map.
 
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fineapple said:
Challenger approaching
https://youtube.com/watch?v=v0Fxz0VclBA
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The FAQ on the website (archive.md) gives me way more hope in this project than Oddity.

no subreddit or discord server.
no discord.png

they have the entire game planned out (unlike oddity)
plan.png


focus on the game instead of updates (winter 2014)
focus on the game.png


Give me rainbows, but the fact that the focus seems to be on "make the game actually happen" rather than just "let's make mother 4" does inspire some hope in me that this will at least get somewhere.

edit: this has to be a direct jab at oddity.
mother 4 jab.png
 
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fineapple said:
Challenger approaching
https://youtube.com/watch?v=v0Fxz0VclBA
Click to expand...
What the actual fuck, was this announced for the mother direct mother 4ever is doing? Mother 4 has become the ship of Theseus of fan games
Gru said:
The FAQ on the website (archive.md) gives me way more hope in this project than Oddity.

no subreddit or discord server.
View attachment 2759945

they have the entire game planned out (unlike oddity)
View attachment 2759946

focus on the game instead of updates (winter 2014)
View attachment 2759948

Give me rainbows, but the fact that the focus seems to be on "make the game actually happen" rather than just "let's make mother 4" does inspire some hope in me that this will at least get somewhere.
Click to expand...
I'm more curious about what engine they are using for this
 
These are all the devs I could find from follower lists but it probably has more
artist, animator, and modeler

pixel artist

Mother 4 dev he/him

programmer & artist

Concept Artist/Effects Animator.

Aspiring pixel artist and illustrator || he/him ||

They/Them Pixel Artist

Game Dev and General Storyteller. She/Her

MAPper

computers
I remember worrying I wasn't gonna have my PC in time for Winter 2014. I am going to assume this will fail because I can't take any more disappointment,
 
fineapple said:
I remember worrying I wasn't gonna have my PC in time for Winter 2014. I am going to assume this will fail because I can't take any more disappointment,
Click to expand...
It probably will fail, but I'm hoping they just dump their source code for people to fuck around with and potentially make their own games with.

If it does materialize, hey, that's a new game. Either way works for me. A trashfire would be a good laugh as well, can't go wrong here.
 
Shane Mesa is apparently making music for nuMother 4
Didn't he take all his good music with him from Oddity and told them to fuck off? I really hope this turns into passive aggressive insults from both dev teams I need more Mother drama
 
fineapple said:
Shane Mesa is apparently making music for nuMother 4
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bc2tWbPMsAwDidn't he take all his good music with him from Oddity and told them to fuck off? I really hope this turns into passive aggressive insults from both dev teams I need more Mother drama
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Has Shane taken his meds or will he scream racial obscenities stripping off the highway driving at 210 mph in a bipolar induced mania?
also here's some kino
glad mother fan projects still have great music tho, even stuff like encore has some bangers
 
Good news everyone!
There's been more staff departures and autists looking at the new development screenshots from discord have determined that the game may have had another engine switch. This time to gamemaker!

 
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