SMBX and SMBX2 are Mario level creators much like Lunar Magic, but easier to use, with many more features, and don't require a smw ROM to play.

SMBX is the original engine by Redigit of Terraria fame. SMBX2 is "an evolution of Redigit's SMBX fan game engine with new playables, NPCs, blocks, game modes, and much more!"

I think SMBX2 would be a great format for botb, it's easy to use and more customizable than Lunar Magic.

Cons are accessibility (it's windows only, although apparently has good WINE support) and legality (questionable) but those are the same problems for SMW/Lunar Magic format.

SMBX2 homepage:
https://codehaus.moe/

Now for the complicated stuff, feel free to skip this part. There are actually a number of different branches of SMBX. This Wiki covers them pretty well:
https://wohlsoft.ru/pgewiki/Branches_of_Super_Mario_Bros._X

Most notably, "Moondust Project" seems to be the most promising as it is cross platform and completely open source -- the issue is it's still far away from being usable, so at the time of writing this SMBX2.0 is still pretty much the "best" of all the SMBX variants out there.

Another option would be to have the format allow for *any* variant of SMBX but I think this would make voting too complicated. However if there's any reason people prefer forks other than SMBX2.0, it could be worth it.

YOOOO SMBX2 ON BOTB???

i am backing this shit



(I lack anything useful to put here for the format suggestion, lol)

likewise! honestly i’ve found this easier to use than lunar magic, so i 100% approve. would submissions be the level text files similar to Mega Man Maker?

holy shit its been so long since ive heard this name... heavy fw this

I agree with agar, SMBX2 seems like it'd be the right thing to start with, not sure if there's any particular advantage to any of the others - and it definitely seems more user-friendly up front than Lunar Magic 😅

I haven't tried adding too many custom assets, but I threw together a small level real quick without any trouble at all, even custom scripting is pretty easy (chatgpt was surprisingly helpful with the lua)

submisisons would probably have to be a .zip, since you can add other assets that live in the same directory as the .lvlx file - and it looks like you can chain levels together as worlds, etc, so - yeah, probbably want a zip so everything comes together.

It does look like the level format IS mostly plaintext, though, in answer to your question, Retro.

I know it's not as 'close to the metal' as lunar magic smbw romhacking is, but zquest makes a good precedent, right?

I don’t know all that much about SMBX admittedly, but from the interaction crossover with SMWC I can tell it has it’s own community that, to my knowledge, is thriving, so I honestly think this could be a sensible format, even if it overlaps with SMW (heck, we have both doom and boom, so overlap was never an issue).

SMBX? I can vouch for it, I used to play and make worlds in it years ago, it's very user friendly and also you can play as link.

i can get behind this, i used to mess with smbx2 a lot