SMG2.5 is a Super Mario Galaxy 2 hack project which I help lead. The goal of the project is to remake SMG2 with all new levels.
You can read more about it on its site Kuribo64.
I can already see you doubting about the legality of the project: it is fully legal. No copyrighted data will be distributed; releases will be made under the form of patches that will require players to own a SMG2 disc to play them.
Right now the project mostly needs competent 3D modelers, to model the planets for our new levels. Modelers can use Blender, or whatever their favourite 3D modelling software is, as long as it allows exporting models in Wavefront OBJ format.
Here’s how we work in our team:
First, we make written designs of the galaxy we want to remake. After that, come drawn designs, representing what the galaxy will look like.
Once the drawn designs are finished, modelers model the planets required. We then run their models into a converter that converts them to the game’s model format.
Once the needed planets are made, we use specificly made galaxy editors, like Whitehole or Anarchy in the Galaxy, to place the new planets inside the galaxies, and then place all the various objects that make up a level.
This thread is a perfect example of our workflow.
Here are a few examples of what we have already done:
Planet models in the works:
(large image) Models for Digital Circuit Galaxy
Video of a Rolling Halfpipe Galaxy planet test
Another RHP planet test
Various screenshots of the planets shown above, during the modelling stage
Pictures of Shrapnel Sandbar Galaxy planets being modeled
More of SSG
Picture of a planet for Toxic Terror Galaxy being modeled
If you’re interested in making planet models for us, let us know by either posting in this thread or contacting me.