ACTION SCENES IN RM2K3

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I was wondering about what people thought of cutscenes/action sequences using low quality sprites, with the limitations of rm2k3(especially my own spriting limitations).

I'm pretty new to the community, and my first experience was hopping on the rmn irc where I showed a youtube video of one of my cutscenes. I was told categorically that it looked too weird using battle animations and choreographed fights with low quality sprites was too cheesy. From what I could tell, those comments were from long time indie gamemakers, which I'm not. It bothered me that they were really only focused on how plain the maps were or that a character had a few ellipses in his dialogue(when ellipses were fully appropriate), and didn't have much to say about the scene itself.

Anyway, I wanted to hear what more people have to say about this kind of scene. Is it really too cheesy? A waste of time? There's not a whole lot of traffic on my game page, so I figured to post it here where more people can comment on it.





What do you guys think? I enjoy making this kind of scene. But I do care if other people like it. I just know that the last time I showed something like this, it was panned critically.

This is my first post on these forums, by the way, so this'll double as a "hi, I'm new" post.
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EDIT:

Sorry, I wasn't very clear on what this was about, exposed myself to criticism, and I started some trouble over it.

I want to know if people think action scenes with low quality sprites is entertaining. Basically if people like watching it. I know my example has some cringe worthy graphics, but say hypothetically, there wasn't anything terrible about it. Are 2D sprites duking it out cheesy or badass??

Also, I've found that these kinds of scenes are pretty rare. ASSUMING people like them, why are they rare? They're not lacking in technical ability or commitment to excellence in gamemaking, so why not?

visual inconsistency everywhere. you have like every different style of faceset, man.

you overuse the fuck out of battle animations. it's GREAT how you have bodies flying around and stuff, that's cool—and I like the little puff of dust or w/e when that one guy slides around. but for the most part the animations work to make it look worse—the battle animations are HUGE and BRIGHT and clash horrendously against the really dark screen tone.

make the animations more subtle and it'll work better. your choreography's cool but it's hiding underneath all the animations.
I can tell you that there's plenty that people could say is "wrong" about that. (mismatched graphical style, rtp use, repeating sound effects, some of the battle animations and re-use of things seems a little off, etc - The usual list of complaints basically)

BUT.

I've never seen a more impressively choreographed RM cutscene in my life. (except when it gets dark it's barely visible btw)

That must have taken a long time to event.

I like it. Sure it could be improved in ways, but the choreography in that is amazing imo.
author=NewBlack
I like it. Sure it could be improved in ways, but the choreography in that is amazing imo.


This. I actually enjoyed this when I saw it.
author=Despain
visual inconsistency everywhere. you have like every different style of faceset, man.

This is basically what I'm talking about. I'm not used to the rm community, maybe 2 months, but from what I've seen, I hear this all the time. It's a 2D pixel game. Who cares about the graphics? If I wanted to see some sick graphics, I'd go play some PS3 game, not an indie game. Oh well, time to give up on this stuff and go make custom and consistent graphics, I guess.
author=Sauce
I was wondering about what people thought of cutscenes/action sequences using low quality sprites, with the limitations of rm2k3(especially my own spriting limitations).


author=Sauce
It's a 2D pixel game. Who cares about the graphics?


You, apparently.

And... everyone else.
Making cutscenes is clearly what you're best at. By no means stop doing it.

(this doesn't mean the dialogue/graphics complaints aren't warranted, but they have nothing to do with the actual cutscene. If you were part of a team, you'd be the eventer, no doubt about it)
the dark screen tone is because of youtube or fraps, I dunno why, it's much brighter when I testplay
don't ask for criticism and then handwave it away with a "who cares?". that's insulting to the people who take the time to give you critique and it makes you look like an ass.

you asked, I gave you an honest answer.

if you don't want feedback, then you're just posting this to show off. if that's your only goal, go do that on youtube or somewhere else. this is a site for your fellow developers and we will have criticism.

and the problem isn't that they're good or bad—but they're inconsistent. You have multiple different styles going on and it creates a disjointed feeling that your game lacks polish. it looks lazy, even if it isn't. you have faces ripped from games, and some faces from the RTP, and some other anime faces—they don't MESH, and that's the problem.

if you hear something "all the time", then maybe take the hint and start to think about what you're doing with that.
author=Sauce
author=Despain
visual inconsistency everywhere. you have like every different style of faceset, man.
This is basically what I'm talking about. I'm not used to the rm community, maybe 2 months, but from what I've seen, I hear this all the time. It's a 2D pixel game. Who cares about the graphics? If I wanted to see some sick graphics, I'd go play some PS3 game, not an indie game. Oh well, time to give up on this stuff and go make custom and consistent graphics, I guess.


Well everyone's impressed with the choreography it seems. People in the community tend to care more about consistency than quality. Yeah, it's 320x240 and pixel based but that's (around here anyway) not an "excuse" for sloppiness. THAT SAID. A lot of people seem to get mired in thinking about presentation and quality (myself included) and things and end up never really getting much done.. So I can understand where you're coming from totally. The golden rule is generally consistency is more important than quality. People will even love a game with absolutely crappy graphics so long as the style is consistent throughout the whole thing.
author=Sauce
author=Despain
visual inconsistency everywhere. you have like every different style of faceset, man.
This is basically what I'm talking about. I'm not used to the rm community, maybe 2 months, but from what I've seen, I hear this all the time. It's a 2D pixel game. Who cares about the graphics?

They provide presentation but it doesn't mean it's absolute if it's your first time really. But it helps things look more nice and consistent.

Oh well, time to give up on this stuff and go make custom and consistent graphics, I guess.

Do this when you have more experience with RM~
author=calunio
author=Sauce
It's a 2D pixel game. Who cares about the graphics?


You, apparently.

And... everyone else.


I actually don't care that much. I'm just kinda surprised how much it matters to other people. Don't people make their own rpgs, because they want to write their own stories and what not?
Tau
RMN sex symbol
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The only 2k3 game Ive seen achieve the whole action sequences was from Pokemon The Evil Inside 2(It's on this site) but they were pictures of bigger versions of the sprites themselves though.
author=Sauce
I actually don't care that much. I'm just kinda surprised how much it matters to other people. Don't people make their own rpgs, because they want to write their own stories and what not?


They can make RPGs for that reason, but people who play them don't just want to see other people's stories. They care about the whole package. If you make a game with wild graphic inconsistencies, people will take it as a joke game. Just saying.
author=Sauce
I actually don't care that much. I'm just kinda surprised how much it matters to other people. Don't people make their own rpgs, because they want to write their own stories and what not?

People make RPGs for Immersion...It IS called Role Playing Game for a reason. Aside from writing, you have to make a balance between graphics too. Why do people make nice Book Covers if presentation doesn't matter? Making custom graphics is different from making consistent graphics.
Despain, I asked nothing about my graphics( I know they're bad compared to most others), yet you felt the need to comment about that.

I asked what people thought about low quality action scenes in general. And gave an example from my game. This isn't asking for an opinion on my game or cutscene specifically, though you can talk about the video directly if you want.
author=Sauce
Despain, I asked nothing about my graphics( I know they're bad compared to most others), yet you felt the need to comment about that.

I asked what people thought about low quality action scenes in general. And gave an example from my game.

I talked about how the poor graphics detracted from the action scene. I wrote a paragraph about the battle animations and how you overuse them. Your battle scene is two things: sprites moving around and battle animations. the sprite choreography is cool, but the animations are distracting from the action.

If you don't think that's feedback on your action scene, then I give up. You're clearly not looking for actual opinions and using this thread as a thin attempt to seek praise for something you spent all afternoon putting together.

My aplogies. This is the best scene I've ever seen and I envy your godly skills at setting event move routes. Keep doing what you're doing—there is no room for improvement. Thanks for posting.
author=Sauce
author=Despain
visual inconsistency everywhere. you have like every different style of faceset, man.
This is basically what I'm talking about. I'm not used to the rm community, maybe 2 months, but from what I've seen, I hear this all the time. It's a 2D pixel game. Who cares about the graphics? If I wanted to see some sick graphics, I'd go play some PS3 game, not an indie game. Oh well, time to give up on this stuff and go make custom and consistent graphics, I guess.

You don't necessarily have to go fully-custom at all to achieve consistency.

There are a few very popular matching sets of resources for RM2k3 on the internet you can find. The most commonly used are REFMAP (aka: Mack & Blue/ First Seed Materials) and "Theodore's" (or Theo) and you can get your hands on those resources pretty easily with a little searching (in fact you've probably used bits of both of those in that cutscene already). Also, some stuff looks alright mixed together so long as you do it right. Learning to do your own minor edits to resources can get you far too.

Also, don't throw in the towel :P I like what you've managed to do there, personally.
@despain
I didn't see the rest of your post buddy. When I responded, all I saw was "facesets don't match" and that was the end of the post. (you've since edited)

Btw, try not to call someone out for sounding like an ass and follow that up with some pathetic sarcasm.
Those battle animations look absolutely retarded. The last thing you want to do in rpgmaker is show off the limitations of rpgmaker. If you're going to have all those battle animations on the screen at once you need to convert the frames of the battle animations you want to use into single picture files and use those instead, otherwise you're going to be limited to a single battle animation at a time.
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