THE SCREENSHOT TOPIC RETURNS

Ehehe... I always had this fascination with ascii art in games... Well, this is the scene where you meet the giant frog king whom orders you to kill all goblin revenue service agents.

Though you need clean images to do that or else they look worse than what they already are with white artifacts.

author=Large
I made a short video of the intro of my game. Feedback?

I think this is pretty terrible. You are aiming way too hard for YE OLDE EPIC INTRO. There is nothing engaging about it, because it opens with the cliche "mysterious monologue" and the audience is lost before you draw them in. The rainstorm effects are really fantastic, but your pacing is s o s l o w. There is a point where an elipsis is very slowly drawn into the dialogue box for literally 10 seconds and no actual words come out of the character's mouth. 10 seconds is too long to have nothing but "...." on your screen. Try some "emotion bubble" animations instead, and definitely speed up the intro. I understand the need for that 'cinematic' build-up feeling but this is way too slow. When I jumped 2 minutes into the video and it was still just very slow-paced meaningless dialogue between almost-identical hooded sprites, I almost facepalmed.

@Versalia: I understand what you're saying. However, I feel it NEEDS to be like that, because the aim of the game is serious. I hate the campy tone of most RPGs being made by the community; I'm striving for darkness in the characters, and maybe, a way to redemption... but you have to get there. You see, this scene is in the future of the game; you start much more lighthearted.

The only thing I find discouraging from your comment is the fact that you jumped 2 minutes into the video, and the video is 2:52. So, you judged it as "pretty terrible" only by watching 52 seconds? Huh.

@Chana: Thanks, that's what I was aiming for. This is a guy who's coming into town to do something pretty bad, and he brought henchies; they're just securing the place for him. I wanted to show action, that's why you see the guards and captains being attacked (In the background). The focus is HIS monologue, but things are happening around him.

However, and this is something I can draw from your comment and Versalia's, the characters are not having a conversation. This is a guy that is having a monologue; he is talking to his minions (which are actually undead creatures), because that's the audience he has. I feel like it might not be clear (Although their faces are grayed out, while his is not), so... any advice on how to make it clearer?

Thanks for feedback. I haven't created a project page, but when I'm further into development I will.

No, Felipe! (My middle name is also Felipe xDD) It's just that I'm not really familiar with SSBX, which I'm guessing is some sort of mugen-like project for Super Smash Brothers (And that rocks!)

I liked the playability shown in your video, but the character's jumps seem "short". Usually the sprites jump higher... that's the only "but" I can think of right now.

@Large :how about : "Hooded man : xxxx", just once, at the beginnning of his monologue, so it would be clear he's the only one talking the whole time (also make the minions faces much paler and maybe, the villain's cloak slightly darker?).

@Felipe : your battle is actually excellent, it's just that Dragonball Z and me.... (oh, sorry, it's SSBX, it's that kind of battle, but everybody his tastes.)

Why would you draw something, and then put it into 2k3? I'm not even trying to incite anything, I'm seriously asking.

Honestly I didn't have time to explain when posting.
This was an attempted and failed experiment. I used RTP graphics to build a map, and then drew over it to make a hand drawn look. Esp for the lamps. You can have individual looking lamps and shit. It looks more I.testing than say a forest of the same trees. I'm going to try again tonight, but this is trial one. Next try will be in RM XP or RM VX. clearly 2k3 is not good for this.

Well, the engine is really not to blame here. I've seen the idea working in other games (Lun Calsari's "The Way" did this, but not with hand painted graphics. 3D pre-rendered landscaping was his thing), but what you need is a more polished drawing. Your lamps, for example, have pink artifacts around them.

Oh... I just remembered that XP and VX are not limited by 256 colors, like 2k3 is. Maybe it is the engine after all.