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Hey guys, finally submitting a page here so my game is more accessible. TLDR: project is largely on hiatus, but I do plan to finish the bombing mission.
A little about me:
I graduated from a Bachelor of Engineering majoring in Software Engineering (2011), and I'm currently working as a developer for a startup (web, Android, iOS).
When I started my degree I decided to experiment on a high level with the programming concepts I was learning in something I was familiar with; RPG Maker 2003. Over the years I've seen many people attempt a 2D remake of FF7 and fail, so I thought I'd try do it right.
About the remake:
My core goal is to make the FF7 that would've existed if it was developed in 2D instead of 3D. We were so close to living in this reality, so I find it an intriguing idea that I'm almost writing this love letter of a game from an alternate dimension. To that end I'm really fortunate that FF7 was designed, albeit unintentionally, in such a way that it's very easy to relate back to 2D.
The game itself is made in RPG Maker 2003 (rm2k3), however the only built-in feature I'm really using is the tiled movement for the field. All the other systems (menu, combat, message boxes/text, etc) were built from scratch using rm2k3's event scripting. As a game engine rm2k3 is extremely restrictive so I'm using quite a few hacks to make it more bearable (special thanks to Cherry, who is well known for his RPG Maker hacks).
The bulk of the time spent developing the remake has been reproducing the menu and battle system in excruciating detail, which was my starting point before I even touched the art assets. 95% of the game mechanics are well documented, thanks to qhimm.com, such that my remake also plays exactly like the original as well as looking like it (this is why I say remake instead of demake). Even though my remake only has a few scenes, the menu and battle system are functionally able to handle all the mechanics in the game (I even use the exact same enemy AI). What isn't well documented is the behaviour of the interfaces, which I've spent a lot of time studying to make sure mine are 99% accurate.
Another part of replicating FF7's feel was in getting the art style right. If you look at the pre-rendered backgrounds in FF7 they really do look like crap - you can tell the artists didn't know how downsampled the renders would be in the final product, so there's a lot of blurry things-that-you-aren't-quite-sure-what-they-are everywhere using way too many colours. I translated this feeling to my sprites by using really rough dithering that gives it that same shitty feeling that is very FF7. I also use the exact same colour palette, such that if you reverse image search screenshots of my remake, it will return results of the original game. To make sure Cloud's battle animations felt the same I recreated them frame by frame in 2D (not rotoscoped).
I'm probably the only person who's glad the PC version of FF7 used midis because I was able to dump them, add flags so they loop properly and use them in rm2k3. Similarly I was able to dump all the sound effects as well (sadly there's over 700 of them and they have no file names - that's been fun). My remake wouldn't feel nearly as authentic without these, so a special thanks really has to go to the folks at qhimm.com who have done fantastic job reverse engineering FF7.
Where I am now:
The real FF7 has over 700 scenes, and the process for replicating each one takes me at least a week (I don't use tiled graphics - each background is drawn by hand, pixel for pixel) - you just need simple math to work out how long it would take me, and this is ignoring the additional time needed for character and enemy sprites. My personal goals have already been satisfied though - I gained experience designing/implementing complex game mechanics, and I answered my question of if you can really make a 2D game feel like its 3D counterpart (hint: it's yes!). I still want to finish the bombing mission to make a complete package of "what it might've been like", but my progress on this is glacial - the work left on this is Barret's battle animations, a few enemy sprites and about 7 more scenes.
What I didn't account for when I started the project was my own personal development, and I've moved beyond it being time well spent working on this project. I'm a full blown software engineer now and I'm capable of much more than a remake in rm2k3. I used to have insane amounts of free time, but now am married and work full time so I'm very particular with what gets to occupy the remainder of my time. I want to start developing my own games that I have the rights/ability to release on Steam or Android/iOS, so my remake is on hiatus, although I do return for it from time to time when the motivation strikes.
Intro demo (Midgar opening is still WIP)
Battle demonstration
A little about me:
I graduated from a Bachelor of Engineering majoring in Software Engineering (2011), and I'm currently working as a developer for a startup (web, Android, iOS).
When I started my degree I decided to experiment on a high level with the programming concepts I was learning in something I was familiar with; RPG Maker 2003. Over the years I've seen many people attempt a 2D remake of FF7 and fail, so I thought I'd try do it right.
About the remake:
My core goal is to make the FF7 that would've existed if it was developed in 2D instead of 3D. We were so close to living in this reality, so I find it an intriguing idea that I'm almost writing this love letter of a game from an alternate dimension. To that end I'm really fortunate that FF7 was designed, albeit unintentionally, in such a way that it's very easy to relate back to 2D.
The game itself is made in RPG Maker 2003 (rm2k3), however the only built-in feature I'm really using is the tiled movement for the field. All the other systems (menu, combat, message boxes/text, etc) were built from scratch using rm2k3's event scripting. As a game engine rm2k3 is extremely restrictive so I'm using quite a few hacks to make it more bearable (special thanks to Cherry, who is well known for his RPG Maker hacks).
The bulk of the time spent developing the remake has been reproducing the menu and battle system in excruciating detail, which was my starting point before I even touched the art assets. 95% of the game mechanics are well documented, thanks to qhimm.com, such that my remake also plays exactly like the original as well as looking like it (this is why I say remake instead of demake). Even though my remake only has a few scenes, the menu and battle system are functionally able to handle all the mechanics in the game (I even use the exact same enemy AI). What isn't well documented is the behaviour of the interfaces, which I've spent a lot of time studying to make sure mine are 99% accurate.
Another part of replicating FF7's feel was in getting the art style right. If you look at the pre-rendered backgrounds in FF7 they really do look like crap - you can tell the artists didn't know how downsampled the renders would be in the final product, so there's a lot of blurry things-that-you-aren't-quite-sure-what-they-are everywhere using way too many colours. I translated this feeling to my sprites by using really rough dithering that gives it that same shitty feeling that is very FF7. I also use the exact same colour palette, such that if you reverse image search screenshots of my remake, it will return results of the original game. To make sure Cloud's battle animations felt the same I recreated them frame by frame in 2D (not rotoscoped).
I'm probably the only person who's glad the PC version of FF7 used midis because I was able to dump them, add flags so they loop properly and use them in rm2k3. Similarly I was able to dump all the sound effects as well (sadly there's over 700 of them and they have no file names - that's been fun). My remake wouldn't feel nearly as authentic without these, so a special thanks really has to go to the folks at qhimm.com who have done fantastic job reverse engineering FF7.
Where I am now:
The real FF7 has over 700 scenes, and the process for replicating each one takes me at least a week (I don't use tiled graphics - each background is drawn by hand, pixel for pixel) - you just need simple math to work out how long it would take me, and this is ignoring the additional time needed for character and enemy sprites. My personal goals have already been satisfied though - I gained experience designing/implementing complex game mechanics, and I answered my question of if you can really make a 2D game feel like its 3D counterpart (hint: it's yes!). I still want to finish the bombing mission to make a complete package of "what it might've been like", but my progress on this is glacial - the work left on this is Barret's battle animations, a few enemy sprites and about 7 more scenes.
What I didn't account for when I started the project was my own personal development, and I've moved beyond it being time well spent working on this project. I'm a full blown software engineer now and I'm capable of much more than a remake in rm2k3. I used to have insane amounts of free time, but now am married and work full time so I'm very particular with what gets to occupy the remainder of my time. I want to start developing my own games that I have the rights/ability to release on Steam or Android/iOS, so my remake is on hiatus, although I do return for it from time to time when the motivation strikes.
Intro demo (Midgar opening is still WIP)
Battle demonstration
Latest Blog
Vanit
- Hiatus
- Vanit
RPG Tsukuru 2003- RPG
- 12/06/2013 03:00 AM
- 04/04/2023 09:43 PM
- 07/27/2099
- 169273
- 46
- 5987
Posts 
Vanit
83
View playlists
Closeauthor=noory123
Hi, I hope this game is still going development.
However, currently does the game not go further than the bombing mission? As I cant enter the next area.
Definitely not in development in any way, shape or form :)
dethmetal
990
author=noory123
Hi, I hope this game is still going development.
However, currently does the game not go further than the bombing mission? As I cant enter the next area.
This game is not in development and you cannot go further than the bombing mission. Think of this game as a tech demo. It's amazing what Vanit accomplished.
noory123
0
Hi, I hope this game is still going development.
However, currently does the game not go further than the bombing mission? As I cant enter the next area.
However, currently does the game not go further than the bombing mission? As I cant enter the next area.
Hmm... Yeah, there's just so many functions, not even I, who have been using the hell out of it for over a year, know nearly 10% of what it can do??? like, I keep finding new uses for all the stuff it provides every week. Though a lot of it is providing access to baseline DBS stuff which is irrelevant in this project. And a lot else of it is stuff you probably have figured some other way to do. But, for example, it has a very powerful Show String Picture function which you can use to render text as a picture, and it lets you control how the windowskin behaves. So I use that to make the Windows of every menu I design rather than relying on pictures, for example. I don't know what solution you came up with for this game's dialogue boxes but I personally can't imagine how I'd do custom dialogue/text on vanilla 2k3 D:
Then there's stuff like advanced variable pointers and operations, controlling variable arrays, the Get Picture Info command which retrieves information of positioning and size of a given picture ID, the change picture ID command which lets you change, swap or otherwise modify a picture (or an array of pictures)'s ID... Global saves, access to Save, Load and Get Save Info, there's even a crazy Call Command command which, for anything that the patch failed to turn into pointers (and there isn't that much) you can use to call a command with pointer refeences kind of like a script call in a newer maker.
That's not to mention the extended functionality added in 1.12 itself, most notably the powerful new Picture functionality which allows innate use of spritesheets, which can be auto-animated and either loop infinitely or be erased at the end of a loop, or can display an individual cell based on a variable pointer, and it also allows you to point at the last X digits of a picture based on another variable (say, for example, Idle_03 if you want to show the animated Idle pose of the hero you set up as ID 3, and i mean specifically animated because if it was static you could really just use a spritesheet and figure which cell through a variable)
IDK it's a lot and I'm in love with all its extended functionality. But it reaaaaaaaaally shows how difficult it was to make some things happen in previous iterations of 2k/2k3. I see a lot of games that would have their code reduced into something quite small, that have pages upon pages of laborious code to overcome some limitations that EVERY rpg maker still has up to this day (barring RGSS/JS extensions)
anyway IDK. Maybe if you play around with Maniacs it'll interest you. Maybe not. I don't mean to disrespect your work, though. This is amazing. Once again, it just makes me think. I want to see what more stuff people make in this day and age with 2k3 :)
Then there's stuff like advanced variable pointers and operations, controlling variable arrays, the Get Picture Info command which retrieves information of positioning and size of a given picture ID, the change picture ID command which lets you change, swap or otherwise modify a picture (or an array of pictures)'s ID... Global saves, access to Save, Load and Get Save Info, there's even a crazy Call Command command which, for anything that the patch failed to turn into pointers (and there isn't that much) you can use to call a command with pointer refeences kind of like a script call in a newer maker.
That's not to mention the extended functionality added in 1.12 itself, most notably the powerful new Picture functionality which allows innate use of spritesheets, which can be auto-animated and either loop infinitely or be erased at the end of a loop, or can display an individual cell based on a variable pointer, and it also allows you to point at the last X digits of a picture based on another variable (say, for example, Idle_03 if you want to show the animated Idle pose of the hero you set up as ID 3, and i mean specifically animated because if it was static you could really just use a spritesheet and figure which cell through a variable)
IDK it's a lot and I'm in love with all its extended functionality. But it reaaaaaaaaally shows how difficult it was to make some things happen in previous iterations of 2k/2k3. I see a lot of games that would have their code reduced into something quite small, that have pages upon pages of laborious code to overcome some limitations that EVERY rpg maker still has up to this day (barring RGSS/JS extensions)
anyway IDK. Maybe if you play around with Maniacs it'll interest you. Maybe not. I don't mean to disrespect your work, though. This is amazing. Once again, it just makes me think. I want to see what more stuff people make in this day and age with 2k3 :)
Vanit
83
author=JosephSeraph
i wonder how lighter and easier to achieve would this project be now that Maniacs Patch is out... it'd probably decrease the amount of lines by, at least, idk 200x. yeah 199 out of 200 lines being magically erased. but i don't know
I'm having a really hard time finding *anything* that neatly explains the capabilities of that patch. I did find something about writing expressions in plain text which is awesome and would've reduced a lot of 10-liners to 1 line, but wouldn't really affect the overall code size. What else is there?
i wonder how lighter and easier to achieve would this project be now that Maniacs Patch is out... it'd probably decrease the amount of lines by, at least, idk 200x. yeah 199 out of 200 lines being magically erased. but i don't know
anyway this is one of the absolute beasts of vanilla 2k3 coding and i adore it. it's just weird, how different the paths we take to achieve the same results are now than they were pre 1.12/Maniacs
anyway this is one of the absolute beasts of vanilla 2k3 coding and i adore it. it's just weird, how different the paths we take to achieve the same results are now than they were pre 1.12/Maniacs
Vanit
83
author=Darken
https://rpgmakerhistoria.home.blog/2020/04/18/final-fantasy-vii-remake-the-2d-one/Wrote an article about this, since you know, a big remake came out.
I missed this message, but you were technically the first person to alert me, so thanks :)
Darken
3952
https://rpgmakerhistoria.home.blog/2020/04/18/final-fantasy-vii-remake-the-2d-one/ Wrote an article about this, since you know, a big remake came out.
Darken
3952
shouldn't you uh, post your own gamepage?
also im amazed resolutions like that still exist
also im amazed resolutions like that still exist
bussoli
538
I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy VII
I'm also developing a project called Final Fantasy VII Regenesis.
The game is being developed in the
RPG Maker 2003 and will tell the story 8 years after FF7 Advent Children of Dirge of Cerberus.
Genesis Raphsodos will be the Antagonist of History.
He was thinking of losing his authorization to do a demonstration of his game in the Final Fantasy 7 Regenesis Project, only the first part of the Mako Reactor 1 attack.
So, what does it say?
I'm also developing a project called Final Fantasy VII Regenesis.
The game is being developed in the
RPG Maker 2003 and will tell the story 8 years after FF7 Advent Children of Dirge of Cerberus.
Genesis Raphsodos will be the Antagonist of History.
He was thinking of losing his authorization to do a demonstration of his game in the Final Fantasy 7 Regenesis Project, only the first part of the Mako Reactor 1 attack.
So, what does it say?
dethmetal
990
Stop making excuses, Vanit. The fact that you can't name the characters makes this demo literally unplayable.
Just kidding!
Just kidding!
Vanit
83
author=bulmabriefs144
You failed. The first intro Cloud is ??? but you had him not get named, and just be Cloud by default.
*stifles laughter*
Even with patches, rm2k3 could only show 127 pictures at a time, and I used every last one of them to get the menus and battle system as accurate/dynamic as they are. There simply wasn't room to make names customisable.
As part of designing the game's systems I had to tightly manage how I allocated the picture budget in all the UI, I still have this documentation:
1 Background
2 Enemy 1
3 Enemy 2
4 Enemy 3
5 Enemy 4
6 Enemy 5
7 Enemy 6
8 Enemy 7
9 Enemy 8
10 Enemy 9
11 Char 1
12 Char 2
13 Char 3
14 Spell Animation 1
15 Spell Animation 2
16 Spell Animation 3
17 Cursor 1
18 Cursor 2
19 Cursor 3
20 Cursor 4
21 Cursor 5
22 Cursor 6
23 Cursor 7
24 Cursor 8
25 Cursor 9
26 Damage1 1
27 Damage1 2
28 Damage1 3
29 Damage1 4
30 Damage2 1
31 Damage2 2
32 Damage2 3
33 Damage2 4
34 Damage3 1
35 Damage3 2
36 Damage3 3
37 Damage3 4
38 Damage4 1
39 Damage4 2
40 Damage4 3
41 Damage4 4
42 Character Select Triangle Thingy
43 Main Frame
44 Char 1 Frame
45 Char 2 Frame
46 Char 3 Frame
47 ATB 1
48 ATB 2
49 ATB 3
50 Limit 1
51 Limit 2
52 Limit 3
53 MP 1 Grow
54 MP 2 Grow
55 MP 3 Grow
56 MP 1
57 MP 2
58 MP 3
59 HP 1 Grow
60 HP 2 Grow
61 HP 3 Grow
62 HP 1
63 HP 2
64 HP 3
65 Barrier 1
66 Barrier 2
67 Barrier 3
68 Barrier 4
69 Barrier 5
70 Barrier 6
71 Move Descriptor
72 Move Announcer
73 Char 1 Current 1
74 Char 1 Current 2
75 Char 1 Current 3
76 Char 1 Current 4
77 Char 1 Max 1
78 Char 1 Max 2
79 Char 1 Max 3
80 Char 1 Max 4
81 Char 2 Current 1
82 Char 2 Current 2
83 Char 2 Current 3
84 Char 2 Current 4
85 Char 2 Max 1
86 Char 2 Max 2
87 Char 2 Max 3
88 Char 2 Max 4
89 Char 3 Current 1
90 Char 3 Current 2
91 Char 3 Current 3
92 Char 3 Current 4
93 Char 3 Max 1
94 Char 3 Max 2
95 Char 3 Max 3
96 Char 3 Max 4
97 Char 1 MP 1
98 Char 1 MP 2
99 Char 1 MP 3
100 Char 1 MP 4
101 Char 2 MP 1
102 Char 2 MP 2
103 Char 2 MP 3
104 Char 2 MP 4
105 Char 3 MP 1
106 Char 3 MP 2
107 Char 3 MP 3
108 Char 3 MP 4
109 Menu Backing
110 Attack 1
111 Attack 2
112 Attack 3
113 Attack 4
114 Attack 5
115 Attack 6
116 Attack 7
117 Attack 8
118 Attack 9
119 Attack 10
120 Attack 11
121 Attack 12
122 Attack 13
123 Attack 14
124 Change/Defend
125 Char Selection
But if all things considered you think that's a failure, then sure. Welcome to game dev.
You failed. The first intro Cloud is ??? but you had him not get named, and just be Cloud by default.
Nagi82
0
Today's 3D FF characters are just soo ugly!!! I don't like them all, and Cloud's face is no exception! Where are the nice artworks from my favourite RPG series Mr. Tetsuya Nomura? I'm disappointed...
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Yes, they don't want to give you the source code so you can steal it and use it in your own game.
Also, if your virus protection does that to unknown programs like this, it's worse than 99.99% of viruses, and you should get rid of it.
Also, if your virus protection does that to unknown programs like this, it's worse than 99.99% of viruses, and you should get rid of it.
Why didn't they just release this demo as a normal Rpg maker 2003 demo ? because now it's only an exe file my virus protection just removes it straight away and I have to turn off protection if I want to use it. But as soon as I turn it back on it deletes it. are people afraid of their work getting re used ?
author=Vanit
Hey guys! I used Molebox to bundle the game into a single exe, which is the reason your antivirus is treating this as a false positive. The reason this occurs is that Molebox effectively hides an exe (the rm2k3 runtime) inside an exe (the Molebox bundle), which is normally suspicious behaviour. If you're running into this issue you just need to make an exception for it in your antivirus.
How's everything going? Is there any new updates compared to back when it was on that other RPG maker site? Which the name of escapes me.
