Late Night at the Kwik-E-Mart (PUBLIC DEMO V 1.2 RELEASED!)

...You've been waiting for this for a while, haven't you?

Or maybe you haven't. Whatever the case is, Late Night at the Kwik-E-Mart is finally here in demo form!

Scroll all the way down if you already know what you're getting into, or you want to go in blind. The download link awaits you there!

CONCEPT:
Late Night at the Kwik-E-Mart was a mod I started on my own (read: without the help of Loren or Jake) ages ago (around 3 years or so at the time of this writing). I initially got the idea from a very small piece of dialog Apu has in some of his idle replies. I realized that at the time the mod began development, there were a lack of mods that had a non-alien conflict, and thought it'd be interesting if a certain member of Springfield was the antagonist. It's a simple story, but one I feel is effective for a short one Level hack. I then slowly drafted out a story concept that revolved around the simple premise of Apu getting shot at the Kwik-E-Mart, and began work.

At some point, I ended up re-doing a good majority of the mod from scratch. It wasn't a huge loss, as only minimal HUD work and Mission 0 work had been done. The current version has been sitting around for a good while now, and I thought it'd be time to finally release it after keeping everybody in the dark about it for a good while. I realized I promised this release much earlier, and I apologize! I ended up getting sidetracked with other Donut Team-related content.

STORY:
After a late night at work for America's favorite couch potato father, Homer Simpson drives to the Kwik-E-Mart to find his favorite Hindu friend shot. It's up to you (and Homer, of course) to get to the bottom of this crime!

DEMO FEATURES:
* FOUR PLAYABLE MISSIONS OF HEART STOPPING ACTION! - That's right! Count 'em, 4 missions at your disposal! Each is sure to have a unique distinct feel to it and give you a moderate challenge. From carefully navigating the Power Plant to grab the world's most extensive key collection by a middle-aged man to grabbing goods for the greater good, you'll be having tons of fun! The demo ends after L1M3 is cleared, but don't let that stop you from trying this out!

* HEADS UP, A NEW DISPLAY! - Need some new life breathed into that now dull yellow HUD? How about some silver to spice up your day? The HUD has been extensively modified to breathe new life into what is essentially the same menu as before! Experience ear-tingling good new sound effects as you navigate the menu, brand new less intrusive HUD icons, and a new pet mouse on your display! What? Did you think that was literal? Sorry, buddy.

* FAMILIAR FACES, SPICED-UP PLACES! - Nighttime Evergreen Terrace, arguably one of the most beloved maps in SHAR, returns to be the main set piece for this adventure! Homer also returns after a late night work shift, too! But that's not all of it! Homer has some brand(-ish) spanking(-ish) new(-ish) animations that's sure to make the character just as enjoyable as he was during your first visit to the wild world of SHAR!

* A CROOK-ED TALE! - Late Night at the Kwik-E-Mart also offers a brand new alien and conspiracy-free story! Don't worry, the demo will give the gist of what's going on. The only thing that awaits you in the final other than additional goodness is making sure justice gets served!

* NEW DIGS, NEW RIGS! - As you'd probably expect from this mod, there are some hot new probably-not-retextured cars for you to take for a spin! Homer's Car for Homer stars as the default vehicle for this Level, but you can find other cars in this demo to take for a spin. Ralph doesn't have the best wheels, but look around! Maybe you'll find something else to suit your needs. Those aren't your thing? We've got some clothes that are guaranteed to make you the talk of the town!...Provided they can actually see it.

LATER TO COME:
* A PICTURE SAYS A COUPLE OF WORDS. - Introducing Character Canvases as your new collector card replacement! Each character canvas comes with a wonderful one-of-a-kind oil painting of your favorite Springfielders! Can you find them all?

* SUB-PLOT SCIENTISTS! - Word on the street is that Frink has gotten himself into hot water as of recent with his new "Frink Fly" invention. Seems like Frink was using these thingies to obsereve Springfield for research purposes, but they've gotten annoying and Frink has lost control of them. You're doing the world a favor if you can knock the daylight out of these obnoxious little suckers! Maybe you'll run into Frink yourself...

* GOREGOUS GRAMPAS AND SECRET SIDEQUESTS! - It's no secret that age can make your brain go cooky, and Abe Simpson has been no exception to this rule. This man has been sneaking his way into buildings all across the area, and has spouted out a ridiculous list of demands! Can you calm him down? Perhaps there's a reward for you. Speaking of rewards, SHAR wouldn't be complete without a Bonus Mission somewhere...wouldn't it?

DOWNLOAD LINK:
DOWNLOAD THE DEMO (1.2) HERE!

As a small bonus/apology for the long wait, I left the mod decompilable! I wouldn't recommend using this mod as a base as there's much to clean up and I want to release this to the public, but you can get an idea of what I'm doing if you're confused on something. You can also spoil most of the mod to yourself if you're a bad person.

Special thanks to YoursDiddilyTruly, TheKoopaKingdom, and Max Walker for taking the time to quickly test a small demo I let out into the wild briefly! Koopa caught one small thing I wanted to fix before release.

All comments, concerns, and criticisms are welcome.

nice mod s10 m10

Review
m0
1st stage
- pretty much carbon copy of l1m4
2nd stage
- same thing but unique locators
3rd stage
- 10 seconds to run and get 7 keys, can't do it lol. not enough time
- rage quit from there.
m1
crashes on losing the race
So far it's good, just things are all over the place like timers and bugs like crashing upon losing in m1. The attention to detail with the HUD and Assets are incredible but it seems the testers forgot to test a few things. (It happens lol).

The ai got me mad and what @Thomas Donofri said not enough time if you have no jump limit on its not that bad

@Jojo:
Love the kind words, man! Even though you're a dirty cheater, I hope what you saw at least gave you a small rush of excitement in what's coming up in the full version of the mod! The reason the game crashes when selecting those is because I commented them out in level.mfk, so the game gets very confused there. If you want, you can uncomment them by decompiling the mod, but they're basically vanilla Level 4 missions with no extensive modifications.

That bug you're referring to was a tricky sucker to work around. The Level 1 RMS is set to play Sunday Drive for L1M0 always. I used SetStageStartMusicEvent(); to try and work around the issue, though those with a good ear can still hear it kick in real briefly. You can also hear it if you enter the car after getting out of it in any stage. I was thinking of replacing the driving music with something more fitting for not only the mod's atmosphere, but also the mission.

And to clear up any confusion: I have not departed Donut Team. Me and the rest of the gang are still here! This was just a mod I worked on in my spare time I eventually wanted to share! This is why most Donut Team branding cannot be found inside the mod itself.

xUnknown:
Glad you liked it man!

@Thomas Donofri:
Really glad you enjoy the HUD so far! I still plan on making additional tweaks to it, but I'm glad it helps the mod stand out from the crowd so far.

Regarding your crashing issue, that's really bizarre. I've tried purposefully letting the Power Plant workers beat me and then restarting. I didn't get a crash. I also tried getting a Hit & Run and failing, skipping the mission outright, and completing the race while a Hit & Run is in effect. I still can't seem to get any sort of crash. Would you mind explaining in more detail as to what happened, and/or check to see if it's an issue that can be replicated?

I'll admit, this mod is a bit of a tough cookie. The testers I had let play the mod encouraged this harder design due to a lack of really challenging mods out there. As a word of advice, L1M0's timer carries over in every stage up until the Burns one. This means the faster you complete one stage, the more time you'll have in the other. The jump to the keys on the far left and right of the columns also don't have to be accurate. The trigger is actually big enough so you can grab them even if you miss the jump, they just have to be accurate enough to get close to them.

@Darknight:
Are you referring to the AI present in L1M1 (the Power Plant workers you need to race), or something else?

@Kenny Giles when you follow flanders he usually runs into you and when you try to drive to him after you get it he be far gone

I got hit and run when it crashed. idk

RIP

A very nicely done demo, Kenny! I give it a 10/10.