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RTP (Ready to Proceed)
Red_Nova- 12/29/2015 08:48 PM
- 10000 views
Well this was a bit of a miscalculation. I was hoping to make this announcement a big surprise, but then I had to go and ask for feedback and help in the screenshot thread. Since it's pretty obvious now, I might as well make it official: that super secret super cool addition I mentioned at the end of the last blog is that I'm gonna be making custom tiles for Prayer of the Faithless.
Why did I decide to do this? Well, I think it's the same reason why my mapping is rather bland: the RTP just isn't inspiring to me. Sure, you can create interesting maps with RTP, but it all strikes me as generic and impersonal. If I wanted to tell the story of this game visually and take better advantage of the medium, moving on is the only solution. Now that I can create what I want to, I've found all sorts of ways to tell the story and build the world of PotF without resorting to dialogue.
Here are a few examples, still WIPs, but it should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
Here's Asala, just outside of the castle gates. The statues have been replaced with the knowledge and power statues because that's the creed of the Asalan Knights: as knowledge is just as powerful a weapon as any blade.
Commandant Vanessa office, seen in the intro. Now, her sword is attached to the wall instead of stuck in the ground. Also, the carpet and banner have been removed; She is a practical person and does not have patience for ostentatious displays.
This is the first room of the Brecellian Darkwood, which looks sliiightly different now. I removed the tree canopy in favor of just using trees, and the trees are a better size now than they were before! No wonky perspective issues! There's no hidden meaning behind this one, though. I just like this better than the canopy layer.
So yay! The game's getting a new tileset! ... Can you all at least pretend to be surprised? For me? Please?
But wait, there's more! The new visuals aren't limited to the tilesets! Thanks the hard work of a certain unity, the battles are getting an overhaul as well!
So check it out. Custom enemies AND a cool new battleback!
Just like Mia gets a new windowskin color, she gets her own battleback as well! No, this isn't an actual fight in Mia's story. This is just a sample.
You have unity to thank for the battle visuals. She made the battlebacks as well as offered to draw the enemies! I think she did a fantastic job on these, Thanks so much, unity!!
So here's the big question: How far will these new assets set me back? Well, the good news is that it won't be THAT bad. At the time this blog has gone live, I'm done with tiles for Asala, the Brecellian Darkwood, and some of the buildings of Honelleth, which accounts for about 50% of the tiles I need to include in the prologue. Originally, I just wanted to remake the RTP tilesets, but then I realized that there's really no need for that. The entire reason why I'm doing this is to break away from the RTP and be able to tell the story of PotF with imagery as well as with dialogue, and simply tracing the RTP tiles defeats the entire purpose of making custom stuff.
I'm currently on winter break from school, and I plan to take this time to finish the new assets for the prologue. I start school on January 11th, and I aim to have the new prologue out by then. As the available demo is still the RTP version, I'm keep the official screenshots as they are until the new assets are ready. In fact, I'm on the fence about just pulling the demo since it's about to become incredibly outdated. If you want to pick it up, now's the time to do it before I decide to take it down.
So that's where we stand as of now. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to off into hiding because I know that second paragraph is going to cause Liberty to hunt me down and murder me.
Why did I decide to do this? Well, I think it's the same reason why my mapping is rather bland: the RTP just isn't inspiring to me. Sure, you can create interesting maps with RTP, but it all strikes me as generic and impersonal. If I wanted to tell the story of this game visually and take better advantage of the medium, moving on is the only solution. Now that I can create what I want to, I've found all sorts of ways to tell the story and build the world of PotF without resorting to dialogue.
Here are a few examples, still WIPs, but it should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
Here's Asala, just outside of the castle gates. The statues have been replaced with the knowledge and power statues because that's the creed of the Asalan Knights: as knowledge is just as powerful a weapon as any blade.
Commandant Vanessa office, seen in the intro. Now, her sword is attached to the wall instead of stuck in the ground. Also, the carpet and banner have been removed; She is a practical person and does not have patience for ostentatious displays.
This is the first room of the Brecellian Darkwood, which looks sliiightly different now. I removed the tree canopy in favor of just using trees, and the trees are a better size now than they were before! No wonky perspective issues! There's no hidden meaning behind this one, though. I just like this better than the canopy layer.
So yay! The game's getting a new tileset! ... Can you all at least pretend to be surprised? For me? Please?
But wait, there's more! The new visuals aren't limited to the tilesets! Thanks the hard work of a certain unity, the battles are getting an overhaul as well!
So check it out. Custom enemies AND a cool new battleback!
Just like Mia gets a new windowskin color, she gets her own battleback as well! No, this isn't an actual fight in Mia's story. This is just a sample.
You have unity to thank for the battle visuals. She made the battlebacks as well as offered to draw the enemies! I think she did a fantastic job on these, Thanks so much, unity!!
So here's the big question: How far will these new assets set me back? Well, the good news is that it won't be THAT bad. At the time this blog has gone live, I'm done with tiles for Asala, the Brecellian Darkwood, and some of the buildings of Honelleth, which accounts for about 50% of the tiles I need to include in the prologue. Originally, I just wanted to remake the RTP tilesets, but then I realized that there's really no need for that. The entire reason why I'm doing this is to break away from the RTP and be able to tell the story of PotF with imagery as well as with dialogue, and simply tracing the RTP tiles defeats the entire purpose of making custom stuff.
I'm currently on winter break from school, and I plan to take this time to finish the new assets for the prologue. I start school on January 11th, and I aim to have the new prologue out by then. As the available demo is still the RTP version, I'm keep the official screenshots as they are until the new assets are ready. In fact, I'm on the fence about just pulling the demo since it's about to become incredibly outdated. If you want to pick it up, now's the time to do it before I decide to take it down.
So that's where we stand as of now. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to off into hiding because I know that second paragraph is going to cause Liberty to hunt me down and murder me.
Posts 
argh
792
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CloseI think the VX RTP is uniformly awful so this is an exciting development. It's always nice to see creators put this level of effort and detail into their work. Good luck!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Thanks!
And Liberty's hit list of RTP haters grows yet longer...
And Liberty's hit list of RTP haters grows yet longer...
Looking nice! My biggest issue with RTP is how hard it is to make things look natural. Your forest picture looks way more curvy and nature-y already.
And be glad you were told about the auto shadow removal script before you finished pretty much all the maps. It was a pain to get rid of them lol.
About feedback. In the forest picture, the darker green shade of grass might need to be redesigned to look like the blades of grass are taller than the below grass tile. As of now it kind of confuses me, my eyes almost think it's swamp water haha.
I'll give an example: (sorry for the image being small, but I think it still helps)
Personally, getting the taller grass tile down for me was one of the hardest tasks haha. I still don't even know what I did to pull it off.
And be glad you were told about the auto shadow removal script before you finished pretty much all the maps. It was a pain to get rid of them lol.
About feedback. In the forest picture, the darker green shade of grass might need to be redesigned to look like the blades of grass are taller than the below grass tile. As of now it kind of confuses me, my eyes almost think it's swamp water haha.
I'll give an example: (sorry for the image being small, but I think it still helps)
From Seiken Densetsu 3. The picture on the left shows some really nice taller grass on grass tiles.
Personally, getting the taller grass tile down for me was one of the hardest tasks haha. I still don't even know what I did to pull it off.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Yeah, that long grass was such a pain. Thanks for the pics! I'll see what I can do about it.
suzy_cheesedreams
1480
Doing your own graphics is awesome and totally worth the time and pain... because like Ed Begley Jr. and his eco-friendly car, you will be powered on by a deep sense of self-satisfaction. Uh, something like that :/
They do look neat. I like the bulbous cliffs and the trees especially.
Good luck!
They do look neat. I like the bulbous cliffs and the trees especially.
Good luck!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Emphasis on the pain part. I lay awake at night trying to suppress the nightmarish flashbacks of all the times I've scrapped and redone tiles. But you're right: the end result is totally worth it!
I'm glad you like the outdoor tiles, though. Those were by far the most painful thing to do, and I'm still reworking them!
I'm glad you like the outdoor tiles, though. Those were by far the most painful thing to do, and I'm still reworking them!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Screenshots have been replaced with the custom assets! Let me know what you think!
Man, I see pixel everywhere I go now. My breakfast turns into toast shaped pixels. My car looks like it had too much anti-aliasing applied to it, and I'm starting to wonder who had the time to make so many tree assets in the woods outside my apartment! I see pixels in the back of my eyelids, people's voices are starting to sound bitcrushed, and my brain is drawing tile lines on the floors and shifting them to figure out how the carpenters eliminated the tiling effect.
I'm doing fine, by the way. If I keep going at this pace, I'll have the redone prologue out by the 11th for sure.
Man, I see pixel everywhere I go now. My breakfast turns into toast shaped pixels. My car looks like it had too much anti-aliasing applied to it, and I'm starting to wonder who had the time to make so many tree assets in the woods outside my apartment! I see pixels in the back of my eyelids, people's voices are starting to sound bitcrushed, and my brain is drawing tile lines on the floors and shifting them to figure out how the carpenters eliminated the tiling effect.
I'm doing fine, by the way. If I keep going at this pace, I'll have the redone prologue out by the 11th for sure.
