I Wanna Be The Story [v1.3]

One day, I had a fun thought: "I have seen so many IWBTG fan games dedicate bosses or entire levels to Cave Story. Why not do it the other way around?"

This was the result.

Yes, I am serious. No, I am not sorry.

Spoiler: Screenshots

DISCLAIMER: The health bar was deemed vestigial and got removed in future updates. RIP. o7

Spoiler: Changelog

v1.3
- Fixed an out-of-bounds jump I missed. Then re-added it as an easter egg!
- Music now properly continues where it left off after dying.
- Thanks to the above, respawning after dying is even faster!

v1.2
- Fixed a faulty crab-related achievement.

v1.1
- Miscellaneous polishing.
- Added the ability to remove the Cape.

v1.0
- 5 new areas.
- 1 new weapon.
- 5 new bosses.
- 1 joke "difficulty" mode.
- Jukebox and achievements.
- The rest of the goddamn mod.
- Honestly there's probably more to list that I'm forgetting or neglecting to mention because I've been slowly working on this for a very long time!

Demo No.2
- 2 new areas.
- 1 new weapon.
- 2.1 new bosses.
- Addition of custom music.
- Redone forest background.
- Several small QoL fixes and changes.

Demo No.1
- First public demo.

DOWNLOAD (v1.3)

Spoiler: Old Versions

DOWNLOAD (Demo No.1)
DOWNLOAD (Demo No.2)
DOWNLOAD (v1.0)
DOWNLOAD (v1.1)
DOWNLOAD (v1.2)

 

I tried it out, and I enjoyed it. The levels were well-made, using lots of elements from IWBTG in a Cave Story fashion. Interesting little opening cutscene at the beginning of the mod with your basket getting stolen. I liked the way you could spring the random traps that would cause you to fall. I especially liked the one at the beginning where I thought I was avoiding that apple at the beginning but then jumped right into that pit that killed me. I didn't get very far, I stopped playing at that map with the lever, the two critters, and the tree with three apples since I couldn't figure out how to get past that. I liked your use of customized graphics with a little bit of ASM hacks. I probably would have preferred if the double jump feature only let you jump extra upward instead of boost to the side or down, that way the jumping physics would be more like in IWBTG, and it would be more convenient to pull off those double jumps. Another thing I was hoping for that I think would add to this mod is ORG renditions of some of the music used in IWBTG.

Anyway, I probably won't be playing any more of this, but good job.

 

I tried it out, and I enjoyed it. The levels were well-made, using lots of elements from IWBTG in a Cave Story fashion. Interesting little opening cutscene at the beginning of the mod with your basket getting stolen. I liked the way you could spring the random traps that would cause you to fall. I especially liked the one at the beginning where I thought I was avoiding that apple at the beginning but then jumped right into that pit that killed me. I didn't get very far, I stopped playing at that map with the lever, the two critters, and the tree with three apples since I couldn't figure out how to get past that. I liked your use of customized graphics with a little bit of ASM hacks. I probably would have preferred if the double jump feature only let you jump extra upward instead of boost to the side or down, that way the jumping physics would be more like in IWBTG, and it would be more convenient to pull off those double jumps. Another thing I was hoping for that I think would add to this mod is ORG renditions of some of the music used in IWBTG.

Even if you haven't beaten the mod, I'm still glad that you liked what you played. If you want to know the specifics of how to get past the lever map:

Spoiler

You have to shoot the lever, which will cause the delicious fruits to fall from the tree. With them no longer in your way, you just have to double jump over the spikes.

I was hoping that shooting it instead of interacting with it would have been a little more obvious considering how you already have to shoot save points to save your progress, but I guess I could throw a hint-bearing sign into the level to drive the point home.

I've heard from a couple people now that they would prefer it if the double jump was a true double jump, so I think I'm going to look into the double jump hack that I think is floating around somewhere. It hopefully shouldn't mess with any of the obstacles while at the same time being more convenient to use than the current method of letting go of the arrow keys before jumping again. At the very least, it will make 1-4's jumps more tolerable.

Getting the Guilty Gear music that IWBTG uses would be perfect, but the only ORG I could find of it so far has been incomplete. Definitely going to try asking around a bit more for assistance, though; it would be criminal to make a mod like this without the ORG.

 

Even if you haven't beaten the mod, I'm still glad that you liked what you played. If you want to know the specifics of how to get past the lever map:

Spoiler

You have to shoot the lever, which will cause the delicious fruits to fall from the tree. With them no longer in your way, you just have to double jump over the spikes.

I was hoping that shooting it instead of interacting with it would have been a little more obvious considering how you already have to shoot save points to save your progress, but I guess I could throw a hint-bearing sign into the level to drive the point home.

Spoiler

Yeah, I shot the lever, it was just timing that jump right that gave me trouble. I didn't keep trying long enough to figure out if it was possible to clear both of those spikes, or if there was some other trick to it.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, I shot the lever, it was just timing that jump right that gave me trouble. I didn't keep trying long enough to figure out if it was possible to clear both of those spikes, or if there was some other trick to it.

Spoiler

Yep, I guess that's as good a reason as any to try out the double jump hack. I should've seen it coming when I still have the occasional hiccup and dash when I mean to double jump, what with the whole "the game creator will almost always be better at their own game than the player" thing.

 

I was expecting unfair difficulty, but it was quite reasonable!

Spoiler

Only issue I encountered was on 1-2, if you jump too high near the end, you get accused of H*CKING eeeeeeeeeee lol.

Other than that, I took my time checking all nooks and crannies for that final capsule... Figured you would give it before the boss... turns out it was after the boss x( lol That's april fool's material! Argh! lol

@the double jump
A true double jump will probably be easier to manage, and less prone to abuse... (As you can quickly tap jump up to 3 times and get a reasonably high jump, so with the double jump hack it'll be easier to control but you won't have a the dash mechanic to play with... Either way works I guess!

Anyway, neat concept! Btw are you working on yet another level for the level contest? Or could this be...?

 

One day, I had a fun thought: "I have seen so many IWBTG fan games dedicate bosses or entire levels to Cave Story. Why not do it the other way around?"

This was the result.

Yes, I am serious. No, I am not sorry.

Spoiler: Screenshots

Spoiler: Changelog

Demo No.1
- First public demo.

DOWNLOAD (v1.1)

It was a pretty good mod. It had a tutorial that wasn't nagging and was completely optional. (I chose to read it because I had no idea how to play). It was also good that you edited the death screen so it showed immediately instead of taking a second to display the dialog. The new blocks are also pretty cool and the shooting the Save Disk is a pretty neat feature.

 

Because of the finnicky way that Cave Story physics work it seems like you really have to get the timing down on precisely when in your jump you have to double jump or else you barely gain any extra height. Also it took me a good five minutes to get the hang of the vines thing because if you press left before you press jump you just fall off the micro-ledge. Other than that, well polished and looks good. Some custom music would do some good as well.

 

Because of the finnicky way that Cave Story physics work it seems like you really have to get the timing down on precisely when in your jump you have to double jump or else you barely gain any extra height. Also it took me a good five minutes to get the hang of the vines thing because if you press left before you press jump you just fall off the micro-ledge. Other than that, well polished and looks good. Some custom music would do some good as well.

Yeah, it's a bit of a pain when trying to cross bigger gaps. I've been trying to look into better alternatives for the double jump, but gamemanj's double jump hack is being very resistant to changing how high it sends the player. I could also try to extend the hitboxes of the wall jump entities by one or two pixels; just gotta make sure they aren't TOO wide. Finally, getting that one Guilty Gear track for the Forest levels would be perfect, but the only ORG of it that exists right now is incomplete.

Glad you liked it aside from that, though!

 

Finally, getting that one Guilty Gear track for the Forest levels would be perfect, but the only ORG of it that exists right now is incomplete.

I could see about making that happen if you'd like, just PM me about it.

 

I am proud to announce that Demo No.2 of I Wanna Be The Story is now ready for everyone to give a go! It can be found here or in the OP, and it features changes including, but not limited to: 2 new areas, 1 new weapon, 2.1 new bosses, new custom music, and more.

As always, feedback is welcome!

 

I streamed this mod today and I have a few things to say:

Thanks for tuning in Seasons/recommending it, your mods are always good and I love you <3
Difficulty was JUST RIGHT, not too hard, not to easy. The bonus area was just the right difficulty for the bonus area being an extra 2 steps above everything else.

The caves were great in how you had to think about how to get past enemies, or fight them it wasn't too hard or too easy to do and I loved the experience.
The only thing I didn't really like was the Malco boss was a little bit meh just using vanilla entities in vanilla ways, such as you saw me just kinda stand there with the pea-shooter and hit the re-skinned armoured gaudi until phase two happened.
Then I got lucky so he/it flew close enough to the ground for me to mash my lazer gun and put him to ruins pretty quick with mashing skills once I figured out how to not get hit by the lazers.

I've always praised Ordeal pillar is being one of the best mods this year and I think that with slightly more content this will easily top it.

Thanks again for making this seasons, great work.

 

I streamed this mod today and I have a few things to say:

Thanks for tuning in Seasons/recommending it, your mods are always good and I love you <3
Difficulty was JUST RIGHT, not too hard, not to easy. The bonus area was just the right difficulty for the bonus area being an extra 2 steps above everything else.

The caves were great in how you had to think about how to get past enemies, or fight them it wasn't too hard or too easy to do and I loved the experience.
The only thing I didn't really like was the Malco boss was a little bit meh just using vanilla entities in vanilla ways, such as you saw me just kinda stand there with the pea-shooter and hit the re-skinned armoured gaudi until phase two happened.
Then I got lucky so he/it flew close enough to the ground for me to mash my lazer gun and put him to ruins pretty quick with mashing skills once I figured out how to not get hit by the lazers.

I've always praised Ordeal pillar is being one of the best mods this year and I think that with slightly more content this will easily top it.

Thanks again for making this seasons, great work.

Glad you liked the mod. The stream certainly was interesting to watch, though I must say you were a little too paranoid for your own good.

I might try to add some extra attacks to APE's first phase if I can think of them, but I also want it to be fair to someone who doesn't have any upgraded weapons; it certainly would have been a much quicker phase if you used the Mining Laser on it. As for it flying low, you might have shot and killed Phase 1 while it was in the air, which gives it less time overall to jump high due to how strict the <WAI's are. Depending on if I can find a suitable entity to replace the dead Gaudi with, that shouldn't be a problem in the future.

Finally, I'm not sure how to feel about a mod I've spent a month or two on being better than a mod I spent a year on. It's probably just the pure gameplay of this one appealing to a different audience.

 

Glad you liked the mod. The stream certainly was interesting to watch, though I must say you were a little too paranoid for your own good.

Maybe a bit in parts, I mean I did get hit by that apple in the caves because I kept thinking that some of the blocks where it was a 2X1 in the shape of a press was going to fall on me, but alas in between them was an apple. It's super funny in hindsight though.

I might try to add some extra attacks to APE's first phase if I can think of them, but I also want it to be fair to someone who doesn't have any upgraded weapons; it certainly would have been a much quicker phase if you used the Mining Laser on it. As for it flying low, you might have shot and killed Phase 1 while it was in the air, which gives it less time overall to jump high due to how strict the <WAI's are. Depending on if I can find a suitable entity to replace the dead Gaudi with, that shouldn't be a problem in the future.

Understandable, I'd recommend using vanilla entities in non-vanilla manners like the fruit battle, that was very inventive and super interesting overall. And the Purple slimes, while not super inventive other than some TSC rigging for enemy spawns it was also pretty fun.

I'm not super versed in how to use vanilla assets to make the battle better, but the doors always open for me to make a hack or two for you as I'd love to contribute to your mods in any positive manner. Even something like simple where when it drops to half HP it hooks into a separate set of TSC, or becomes more aggressive, or has different attack patterns (that are reactable of course.) I'm just spit-balling here but yeah I'd love to help if you'd want it.

Finally, I'm not sure how to feel about a mod I've spent a month or two on being better than a mod I spent a year on. It's probably just the pure gameplay of this one appealing to a different audience.

I really enjoy either story driven or gameplay driven mods overall, and the appeal of IWTBTS is a little higher atmospherically than Ordeal Pillar, especially with the new art, new weapons, new characters, and it's almost as if your work has come to fruition in somewhat of a REMASTERED version for wiiware.

While Ordeal Pillar was more "inventive" (at least comparatively, but even then only slightly) in mechanic changes and vanilla resource management compared to this mod, It just makes for a better atmosphere in my opinion with the new art, a character that doesn't look like a quote clone, and very nice music all wrapped together.

I'm just an aesthetic person overall and it's my fetish so w/e. Either way you're doing great with your mods and so far I'm just going to sum it up to you're getting better and faster at making good content.

 

I'd say that you're just getting better at modding and that's why people like it right off the bat. I'd also note that there are less cutscenes before gameplay/retries which allows you to get in a good groove, especially in the Grotto. That was just a genuinely fun area too

 

Can't say I didn't have fun. Though, I'm all around just not the biggest fan of IWBTG-style games so I wasn't sure what to expect when I loaded this up, needless to say I got my ass handed to me... That's not to say it was a bad mod, not by a long-shot (atleast, imo). This is my very first taste of what a Cave Story mod can be and I gotta say I'm pleasantly surprised! Can't believe I've been playing this game for almost eight years without even realizing there's an entire modding community out there keeping things interesting.

 

Time for a long-awaited, almost-eight-year-old bump to this absolute meme of a project... because it's now finished! Probably. Maybe. Assuming nothing slipped past me, or that I don't feel like tweaking it further. ANYWAYS, the OP has been updated with a new link! This time hosted from Mediafire because my old Dropbox was tied to a college email that no longer exists, oops.

While I've busied myself with other communities and pastimes, this mod was always taking up a little bit of my brain RAM with how fondly I remembered it being received. According to my stock of backups, I started working on this again around February of 2025, then continued throughout the months as inspiration struck and whatnot. While I can't reproduce everything I absorb through watching others tackle IWBTG fangames, I nonetheless haven't had a shortage of ideas to draw from!

The mod has more than doubled in size map-wise since the old, dusty Demo No.2 was posted back in 2018, and I've tried my best to polish what was already there. I understand the difficulty to come with IWBTG will scare some players away, but do keep in mind that I've thoroughly tested it all: it's possible, even if it'll make you sweat! I've deviated slightly from the plans I had back then for how I wanted the mod to progress, but I figured it Just Worked™ to wrap it up at a point like this instead of dragging it out further... though again, who knows? While it wasn't necessary, I did whip up an endgame "achievements" section simply because it sounded cool, after all!

 

I can't believe 2018 was 8 years ago
Anyways, it's fun, not as 'unfairly difficult' as I remember the original IWBTG to be, but... I seem to be having the same problem HaydenStudios had. The combined gap and spikes in the room with the lever seem to be way too wide to double-jump over, no matter what I do. Can you give a detailed breakdown on how to do this? There has to be some trick I'm not grasping.

 

I'm glad I said I'd check this out after Modfest 42, I needed the warmup from that for this.

I understand the difficulty to come with IWBTG will scare some players away

Feel like this might've applied to me 10, perhaps 8 years ago out of fear of rude kaizo traps because I felt like stuff like that was 'way too difficult' for me.
Sadly for me I like more difficult platforming now (and sometimes more difficult games in general, got the Shiren Mystery Dungeon mood again this week) and a number of things going on in this mod are just right for me.

Haven't finished yet nor do I know if I've even been getting in the V1.0 stuff yet, but here's a recording of my playthrough and some thoughts so far;

Spoiler

The cape stuff sometimes makes me want to push it's limits, I don't know how much of it is intentional but there's enough 'energy' to get two taps out of it, not that I've been getting a lot out of it so far besides maybe a bit more speed.
Telling people about how one can hold up while 'double jumping/dashing' combined with hard requiring an upwards boost in a jump without spikes is absolutely a good move to make people aware of how to handle that, feel like people might run into issues otherwise.
It would've maybe been helpful to warn about occasionally tapping with the Jump Boots as well, was stuck at the section after getting them because I didn't realize that was necessary to get further (to the point that I even tried to get past with a spike jump lol).

I really like the idea of the Delicious Fruit boss.
In theory you could just safely hit it a couple times, take care of the adds that appear as result and then get back to hitting the boss.
But safe = boring sometimes and you could also opt by hitting it a bunch and then dealing with what comes at you (Including mashing like a madman at everything that comes at you).
Fun risk and reward and all that.

Mother Batslime I found considerably easier by comparison, the extra batslimes at the sides don't really do anything if you just stick to the middle and narrowly avoid the boss.
Don't think that's a bad thing though, it certainly is a good excuse to try your shiny new weapon.

And speaking of that weapon: While I think the Snake has always been the cooler Cave Story weapon I'm not sure if leveling the mining laser from 1 to 2 does a lot for it's reliability.
Maybe that's just me though, I sometimes felt like I had a sliightly harder time hitting the bricks but it's not a complete detriment that ruins the weapon.
It only felt like a bad thing for the bridges in the Cavern but honestly by the time you have it leveled you're probably already done in the places where that could be a problem.

Excavator bot was a pretty cool boss, although it's positioning in the second phase feels sorta random.
This is also where I sometimes started wishing some of the boss introductions were a bit shorter in repeat attempts. I feel like there might already be skipflags? I can't tell for sure.
Granted I've also a been bit hyperaggressive so even if it feels like I'm spending a lot of time watching the intro cutscenes it's maybe also kinda my fault.

Similarly I kinda wish toggling between the cape and boots was a bit faster but that's just nitpicking at that point.
Less nitpicky though is that I kinda wish I could turn both off?
It's a little scary doing the sections in 2B with either of them on- my want to mash the jump key to swim doesn't match the holding down for the Jump Boots very well while the Cape sometimes throws me off.
Also in my first clear of 2B-2 (Around 1:50:50 in the video) I kinda went past both the pocket of air and the save point unknowingly walking into a boss room, where I triggered a boss while I was trying to get air and subsequently drowning because it dropped me, after which I had to try 2B-2 again for like 9 minutes.
Probably kinda foolish of me for skipping the save but the exit felt like the one for the webbed glove where you get tossed in a pocket of air immediately.

At the Ninja battle it kinda suffers from how awkard it feels to jump right after a dialogue box in Cave Story but otherwise feels pretty fine.
I'm just a bit confused at the body of water that appears when the Ninja speeds up.
Am I cheesing a part of the battle because I went out of the way to become able to swim or was I always expected to get it?
His attacks do look really difficult to avoid without that being there anyway.

The bunker is where I stopped for now, was getting a bit tired and realized the game was starting get a little bit meaner.
The Delicious Fruit chest especially is mean!! D:<

Also cool life pot that essentially does nothing lol, always funny to have in 1HP mods.

I still had a fear that there'd be a lot of "oops! should've seen that coming, lol!" and while it's still kinda here and there it is not to an annoying degree.
And onestly? So far I'm having a pretty good time, there's some really great level design.

I fear whoever could play and beat this on Impossible Mode though lmao.

 

Thank you for trying IWBTS, and double thank you for posting about it! Heck, triple thank you for recording yourself doing it, because all of this helps me analyze what I did right/wrong and all that. Plus, it's just fascinating seeing how people react to stuff I make.

I'm especially glad to hear that my level design cooked well enough to appeal to those seeking a challenge! Gotta hit that sweet-spot of not too easy, but not "coat everything in spikes", y'know?

Also, going off of your shared thoughts, you reached v1.0 content by the time you made it to 3-1! Back in the old demo, it ended after fighting the APE and progressing to the right.

Spoiler

With the cape being a very shortened Booster v2.0, I'm not surprised that there are enough frames in its boost to squeeze out enough fuel for a couple taps! I rightfully didn't design anything around it, though, due to it being so finicky... so heck, if someone figures out some tech involving the cape, that'd be pretty fun. I think I added in the sign explaining how to more easily force a double-jump than a sideways dash after a commenter or two mentioned having difficulty in 1-4, where the double-jump is required to get enough distance to jump over the spikes/fruit.

I'll have to consider leaving a sign at the bottom of 3-2, though, to explain that the boots aren't all used up in one upward boost.

The Delicious Fruit boss was annoying to code, but I'm with you on the "safe = boring" approach; referencing how a similar boss worked in an IWBTG fangame whose name I can't quite recall, I wanted to give the player a choice between safety or balancing their DPS versus the amount of additional fruit spawned.

Also, to be fair, the Mother Batslime is more of a mini-boss than anything! I was wanting to give the player a chance to use their new weapon alongside making them fight for the right to use said weapon in other areas (by locking it behind said mini-boss).

You're kinda right in how leveling the not-Snake from Level 1 to Level 2 doesn't have as much an impact; it starts to curve, but the curve doesn't last long enough compared to how it is at Level 3. I've had niche cases show up during testing where it helps beyond intercepting shots a little easier than the not-Polar Star does, like curving in front of a moving beetle platform to kill slimes hopping towards you.

You're correct in that the second phase of the APE is a bit random, too; without a fade to black to hide changing its position and whatnot, the timing of my script so that it doesn't explode when being knocked down nor does it throw pickaxes before swapping to its second phase is kinda tight. I figured the slight randomness doesn't impact the fight too heavily, though, but I'll see when I watch your video (I'm writing all this beforehand!).

There are skipflags, also, but typically what I do is halve all the <WAI times where applicable and <TUR the text so that there is still some semblance of a cutscene while also sped up a good deal!

I've noticed that cape/boots issue while in the water myself, but it'd be complicated to let the player remove the cape since my TSC has you automatically swap one for the other through removing the boots, and I dunno off the top of my head how I'd let you remove the cape without breaking that. I could figure it out if it's enough of a problem, though. For now, I typically swap to the cape and dash sideways to swap to "swimming mode" quickly, or swap to the boots if all I care about is swimming vertically.

That 2B-2 exit thing is... interesting, since I figured players would immediately see the save down below while doing the back-and-forth swimming parkour and beeline for it once the path was clear. If that happens to anyone else, I'll have to consider moving around some tiles so that you're forced down by the save before exiting to the right.

I had a hard time justifying an "in character" reason why the water appears during the Ninja fight, but ultimately it's there to reward the player with a much more possible way to survive the Ninja's final shuriken barrages before he's open to attack... because with how I wanted the last ones to be cool, I dunno if it's even possible to dodge them without TAS-like reaction times, haha. What you're doing is what I intended, don't worry!

The Bunker as a whole is where I felt like getting a bit meaner with my traps since it's actually the final area of the game! Granted, it might not be the case if you haven't been completing all of the bonus areas (in which case you gotta eventually do those to reach the final boss), but still, I guess you could say I was feeling cheeky. :3

And yeah, I wanted to include various easter eggs for the explorers, and I think having a Life Pot was someone's idea to include. Fun fact: it's tied to an achievement!

Naturally, any IWBTG fangame's gotta have that level of unfairness to it, but with how quick it is to respawn and try again (like IWBTG), it's not as punishing as it could be, for sure.

... and lmao, if someone goes through the trouble of earning the achievement for beating Impossible Mode, I dunno what I'll do!