SUPERSTROKE'S PROFILE

Actually, I'd suggest to just do your work in normal color mode and then save in 7-bit mode, chances are you are actually using less than 256 colors on the resource you are working on, unless you have crazy super defined gradients.

Whatever software you have should do it pretty easily and choose the best 256 colors for your image while maintaining it as much as possible. Just don't use the bmp 256 color option in paint, I think it uses the predefined web safe colors.

I know in paint.NET, Photoshop, Gimp and the likes all have a really easy way to convert to 256 colors either when saving or by indexing to a color mode in some tool/option.

Make a picture like this:



import it in 2003. Make sure you select the black as the transparent color.

Then make an event on the map that is:
Parallel Process
<>Show Picture 1: name.png (Make it use transparent color, transparency 100%
<>Move Picture 1, 0% transparency, 0.5s wait
<>Wait 2.0s
<>Move Picture 1, 100% transparency, 0.5s wait
<>Erase Picture 1
<>Erase Event

The little text will show up upper left every time the hero enters the map.
The problem now is that if the player enters a different map while this is visible, it will always be visible and never disappear.

You can:
1. put an
<>Move Picture 1, 100% transparency, 0.5s wait
<>Erase Picture 1
<>Erase Event

parallel process event on whatever map don't have a name appear, it would remove the name should there be one.

2. You could use a common event that is like:
(When you Enter town -> activate switch "show name")

Parallel Event: Switch "show name"

<>Show Picture 1: name.png (Make it use transparent color, transparency 100%
<>Move Picture 1, 0% transparency, 0.5s wait
<>Wait 2.0s
<>Move Picture 1, 100% transparency, 0.5s wait
<>Erase Picture 1
<>Turn switch "show name" OFF


Now that you know how to do that you can do great things with pictures :D
You could even make the name sort of ease in with a little motion.

Maybe I worded it wrong I guess it's more "In how much time would you like to finish this."

And you'll guess wrong, when you realize you did you'll have to either make that number bigger or, as I argue in this article, remove some unneeded features in the game.

Hey, welcome friend of Oniromancie.
It was the first RM community I joined, back when the unofficial RMXP french translation was first spotted on the Internet. I think I've seen your avatar and name around before.

Thanks!

I think you are right in the spot with everything (well maybe except the 100% worth your time :p), so no I didn't think this sounded harsh.

I really wish the quests were better as well, yet still having the bit of an empty mindset while doing them. I personally thought "Blood in the Snow" and "A Grave Remembrance" were the best of the lot because it sort of told a story, instead of the fetch ones which, while mindless (which I was going for), only seem to have a very superficial meaning where you really have to read between the lines to get.

Honestly that part was just that I had an easy time coming up with 5 quests that worked with given names and I had the hardest time coming up with the last few.

Though on the subject my third favorite one is "Dark Side of the Road" because it sort of tells a story as well. That was the last one implemented and I just couldn't come up with an idea. zDS, who playtested the game then, is the one who came up with that one actually!

For the camera thing, there's a one frame delay between every camera move (also, only 6 speeds in 2003, my biggest grievance about rm2003 along with no picture pointers) so I hoped to make it like a "nudge", did every event "stop" as you seemed to describe with "the action"?

A few notes and fun facts!

• I got the resources on that sketchy japanese website: http://hi79.web.fc2.com/material/frame-material.html . Dunno if it's so sketchy you should use tor, because I can't read Japanese.
• You are right that there is no story really, I was just going for a "daydreaming" kind of experience.
• There is no dialog because people don't actually hate pretentious art games. People hate the pretentious artsy monologues in weird pretentious games. That way I can pretend my game isn't a pretentious art game. Which it isn't.
• The first player playtest I did of the game (at about 5 quests in) was with somebody who had never played a RM game so that's why there's so much handholding and the main menu and game menu are like that.
• The idea of making sideways came from the word sidequest.
• That slide puzzle was so much of a pain to program that once I was done I considered writing a tutorial on how to break up problems for event programming.
• A big inspiration for this game is Grave Spirit if you're looking for similar game except for the fact that it's a pretentious art game with monologues.
• I almost included the text of the tale of the dreaming butterfly by Zangzhui at the end of the game but decided not too.

Thanks again! :D