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Toying With a New Idea... Can't Make Up My Mind!
I've been having this idea since spring 2008 where I make a light FPS/RPG with Sayuri Kitsune (this character 
who used to be the original main character to NovaForce) who happened to fight with firearms and energy forces (fire and lightning) plus the ability to smell/hear enemies and to do running dives at them.
I kept imaging this FPS version where you just fight through enemies with the emphasis on getting a high body count and building up stats like an RPG. It would have a very simple story and the puzzles wouldn't be too complicated. There's no need for complex RPG elements either, just using different weapons and skills.
What keeps happening is that I'm always already working on something else and I am really not sure I could work at this. Writing it is very easy with Acknex as this is the sort of thing the engine was made for in the first place. I could make the basic walking and shooting at things part in roughly 2 to 3 days.
Now, the game would have as detailed maps as I could make and possibly some advanced sharers and things if I could find them, but the player, the weapons, items and characters would all be sprites DOOM style. Imagine swapping out the models in Half-Life 2 with sprites, and with the Anime-ish-sort-of style I like it would be as though you're fighting characters from the SNES jRPGs. These sprites would simply have an extra direction above and below to create this cube mapping for when a character is jumping over you or you're looking down from above through a scope (these can be rotated to orient with the camera).
Just imagine if the original System Shock had a way simpler HUD and standard WASD controls, and better map graphics yet with the same sprites. I haven't played many DOS shooters so bear with me. It's pretty much as if the sprites from RPG Maker VX got a little frantic and decided to fight you instead of the classic cyber demons you've fought before. Only you still level up and stuff.
It all sounds like a cool little addicting idea where I layer the features, and it will only take roughly a week to do the engine, most of my time will be spent drawing sprites (I have made something more complicated than this in the space of a week the spring break of the year 2003/2004 or so, I think you can even see pictures of it in a thread here somewhere).
What's the problem? This is something I would only make if there are people who want to play it. I already have a current project which have people who would want to play it and my time is better spent there if this idea isn't at all going to attract anyone and would be ignored. Tell me what you think please, and this is something for me to work on myself- this is also intended to be the thing I'm working on when I'm waiting for Mary4D, Tardis, or anyone else so it's going to be really small.
I kept imaging this FPS version where you just fight through enemies with the emphasis on getting a high body count and building up stats like an RPG. It would have a very simple story and the puzzles wouldn't be too complicated. There's no need for complex RPG elements either, just using different weapons and skills.
What keeps happening is that I'm always already working on something else and I am really not sure I could work at this. Writing it is very easy with Acknex as this is the sort of thing the engine was made for in the first place. I could make the basic walking and shooting at things part in roughly 2 to 3 days.
Now, the game would have as detailed maps as I could make and possibly some advanced sharers and things if I could find them, but the player, the weapons, items and characters would all be sprites DOOM style. Imagine swapping out the models in Half-Life 2 with sprites, and with the Anime-ish-sort-of style I like it would be as though you're fighting characters from the SNES jRPGs. These sprites would simply have an extra direction above and below to create this cube mapping for when a character is jumping over you or you're looking down from above through a scope (these can be rotated to orient with the camera).
Just imagine if the original System Shock had a way simpler HUD and standard WASD controls, and better map graphics yet with the same sprites. I haven't played many DOS shooters so bear with me. It's pretty much as if the sprites from RPG Maker VX got a little frantic and decided to fight you instead of the classic cyber demons you've fought before. Only you still level up and stuff.
It all sounds like a cool little addicting idea where I layer the features, and it will only take roughly a week to do the engine, most of my time will be spent drawing sprites (I have made something more complicated than this in the space of a week the spring break of the year 2003/2004 or so, I think you can even see pictures of it in a thread here somewhere).
What's the problem? This is something I would only make if there are people who want to play it. I already have a current project which have people who would want to play it and my time is better spent there if this idea isn't at all going to attract anyone and would be ignored. Tell me what you think please, and this is something for me to work on myself- this is also intended to be the thing I'm working on when I'm waiting for Mary4D, Tardis, or anyone else so it's going to be really small.
Let's add some consoles to the list
Some of us are a bit insane and have decided to write games for actual consoles. I've written the start of a series of tutorials on how to make games for the NES, and I personally like the GBA. The advantages of writing a game for an old system or portable system is that not only does your game run on every platform an emulator has been written for, but it also works in the original console itself! Because of the nature of writing games for other people's consoles, there really isn't a chance of you doing something commercial unless you do something for the XBOX Live arcade and such. It's really for hobbyists and a ton of fun.
I keep seeing games on this site trying to emulate old hardware, and I can't think of a better way of doing this than actually writing a game for use in the old hardware to be played in an emulator! Haha!
However, I only request that GBA be added to the list since that's the most commonly homebrewed for platform I've seen and the easiest. There's some awesome tool-chains available and it's even not all that hard to do. Even if you've never written C before it's pretty simple- you write directly to the hardware. Despite all this, your gamers will most likely be running this in VisualBoyAdvance or something even though there are tons of carts out there you can put files on and run.
There's something awesome about running a game I made on my DS. I plan on making PC versions of everything I make in GBA though adding portable compiler macros to make it easier.
I have no clue what you would put as the icon, though. However, the problem is conveying to the user that the file they are going to download has to be opened in an emulator, and this would help.
Finally, it's not illegal or anything, it's only technically illegal when you get images of commercial ROMs for games you don't physically own (or BIOS binaries for consoles you don't physically own). The emulators themselves are legal. However, even if you were to write games with 100% original resources, the game image must have a copy of the Nintendo logo for it to run in a real GBA. You could have the ROM image not have the logo inside, but then it would only work in emulators. That's how they get you if you were a 3rd party game company selling unlicensed games (which happened a ton back in the NES days).
Pretty much it's like a virtual machine only for video games when you think about it. It's also magnitudes more fun than JAVA.
I keep seeing games on this site trying to emulate old hardware, and I can't think of a better way of doing this than actually writing a game for use in the old hardware to be played in an emulator! Haha!
However, I only request that GBA be added to the list since that's the most commonly homebrewed for platform I've seen and the easiest. There's some awesome tool-chains available and it's even not all that hard to do. Even if you've never written C before it's pretty simple- you write directly to the hardware. Despite all this, your gamers will most likely be running this in VisualBoyAdvance or something even though there are tons of carts out there you can put files on and run.
There's something awesome about running a game I made on my DS. I plan on making PC versions of everything I make in GBA though adding portable compiler macros to make it easier.
I have no clue what you would put as the icon, though. However, the problem is conveying to the user that the file they are going to download has to be opened in an emulator, and this would help.
Finally, it's not illegal or anything, it's only technically illegal when you get images of commercial ROMs for games you don't physically own (or BIOS binaries for consoles you don't physically own). The emulators themselves are legal. However, even if you were to write games with 100% original resources, the game image must have a copy of the Nintendo logo for it to run in a real GBA. You could have the ROM image not have the logo inside, but then it would only work in emulators. That's how they get you if you were a 3rd party game company selling unlicensed games (which happened a ton back in the NES days).
Pretty much it's like a virtual machine only for video games when you think about it. It's also magnitudes more fun than JAVA.
Periodic Testers for WeaponBirth
Hey, do you want to try and bug crash my periodic rollouts of the WeaponBirth MK.2 I have been working on? Just PM me a GMAIL e-mail account you will use (posting it here in public == spammy spammy) so I can invite you to a private Google Group that allows you to download the periodic releases of WeaponBirth I make any time you want and report bugs and crashes. Your help, however big or small, is appreciated.
You can always change your notifications later when you go to the group, but when I add you I will set the default to a daily digest of what happens.
You can always change your notifications later when you go to the group, but when I add you I will set the default to a daily digest of what happens.
Hey, this is my first time pixeling something this big
Whenever I drew my own characters before I always did that NES 16x16 simplistic style. Now I can draw NES characters faster than it takes my microwave to pop corn, and I'm doing something different with an engine, I decided to try my best to increase in skill.
This actually took forever for me to get down and I'm not sure I'm quite happy with it, but at least I did it. I used that kawaii pink-hair cat character as a placeholder for my engine, but I liked the VX character style so much I decided to try and upgrade my old Tetsumori sprite to this one. No recolors or dress-up, I have to learn more advanced pixel art stuff.
Now I... Have to draw 20 more or so frames for all her fighting moves... Well, even though it's going to take me several ages to do, it's much more fun than rolling out the same boring old NES sprites time and again. What a difference a mere doubling of the frame size makes >.<
Where does your stuff come from?
I was playing back one of the RMNCasts for background noise when I heard McDohl criticizing Anime and Video Games for being all some of these people "take in". It's an interesting point, but there is something everyone gets inspired by and it reflects in everything they make.
Where do your ideas come from? What kind of things do you watch/read/etc. for this?
Personally, I'm a big fan of Japanese style Games and Animes, except for the fact that 70-90% of my ideas I actually take from my own dreams. I don't really like reading books for the sake of reading books that often, I watch more movies and things, but I always find my dreams interesting, crazy, disturbing, and vivid. My dreams are always lifelike enough and I am able to remember them. The other 30-10% would be from the 1 out of 10 Animes that are actually interesting and enjoyable, things I've seen outside, movies, lots and lots of music, and very rarely books.
Where do your ideas come from? What kind of things do you watch/read/etc. for this?
Personally, I'm a big fan of Japanese style Games and Animes, except for the fact that 70-90% of my ideas I actually take from my own dreams. I don't really like reading books for the sake of reading books that often, I watch more movies and things, but I always find my dreams interesting, crazy, disturbing, and vivid. My dreams are always lifelike enough and I am able to remember them. The other 30-10% would be from the 1 out of 10 Animes that are actually interesting and enjoyable, things I've seen outside, movies, lots and lots of music, and very rarely books.
German 3D Game Engine
There's been this very long running series of 3D game engines called Acknex (since even DOS days I think) that I think would be great on the list of makers to choose from in game profiles. The engine itself is called Acknex and the company that made it is a German company called Conitec Datensysteme. 3DGameStudio is the name of the suite of programs that came with it (level editor, script editor, etc.).
http://3dgamestudio.com/
I mentioned using it in the contest that's running and it would be nice if it said Acknex instead of Custom. The sweet thing about this engine, however, is that it can be custom. You can write your own engine in C compiled together with the SDK to make a program that runs Acknex games with your own code on top.
Here's the program icon for the version I'm using. These programs aren't free- that's the problem and I don't feel like spending money on A7 (I don't like to keep buying more software when I have stuff that already works)
That's just the styled DirectX logo with "A6" on it. Their actual logo is that epic cube with the engine version number on it.
(edit: I found another icon that's more personalized to the engine)
This would also be a nice addition so that I don't have to answer 80+ questions of "nice! what engine is that!?"
http://3dgamestudio.com/
I mentioned using it in the contest that's running and it would be nice if it said Acknex instead of Custom. The sweet thing about this engine, however, is that it can be custom. You can write your own engine in C compiled together with the SDK to make a program that runs Acknex games with your own code on top.
Here's the program icon for the version I'm using. These programs aren't free- that's the problem and I don't feel like spending money on A7 (I don't like to keep buying more software when I have stuff that already works)
That's just the styled DirectX logo with "A6" on it. Their actual logo is that epic cube with the engine version number on it.
(edit: I found another icon that's more personalized to the engine)
This would also be a nice addition so that I don't have to answer 80+ questions of "nice! what engine is that!?"
Unicode makes the site throw this crazy exception page
Whenever I type Japanese and hit Submit, or some other form of unicode characters, the site immediately shows me the large page of exceptions. The post actually seems to go through despite this and shows up as ?????????? characters. It's annoying because I usually want to show the characters to explain something to someone- I've only wanted to do it twice but still.
Whether you make it handle the exception and tell the user to post in ASCII or actually let it through is fine as long as the raw exception isn't scaring off the would-be international members.
Whether you make it handle the exception and tell the user to post in ASCII or actually let it through is fine as long as the raw exception isn't scaring off the would-be international members.
Testers wanted
Here is Information on the project itself if you're unfamiliar.
I scrapped my first Alpha (for WeaponBirth) because it was suffering from horrible execution. It however, does have fragments of the level-up system and the world map system completed out of all the systems I planned. I've got this tech demo I want to prepare (it's very very short, so it won't take up much of your time) just to see what testers think so I have some basic feedback I can keep in mind when I design the second Alpha.
I'll add you as a tester, but because it seems the tester system is a little buggy (according to a statement in another thread) I'll directly send you the download link in a PM or however you prefer (don't worry, It's going to be a simple download, not a crappy third company download service website like Rapidshare). However, If it's too big to fit in a simple download I'll use Mediafire which lets you one-click the download and doesn't make you wait or anything.
Despite being short, you will understand what sort of system I was trying to design. You'll also see why I'm not happy with it (possibly). You'll only need to provide feedback to help me make at least an OK game to play. If you have problems and can't test any future demos due to time issues or anything else, I won't mind.
Thank you for your time in considering this, every bit of advice can be helpful on this tech demo and future demos I will put out. If you decide to accept this, I hope you enjoy testing my demos as well.
I scrapped my first Alpha (for WeaponBirth) because it was suffering from horrible execution. It however, does have fragments of the level-up system and the world map system completed out of all the systems I planned. I've got this tech demo I want to prepare (it's very very short, so it won't take up much of your time) just to see what testers think so I have some basic feedback I can keep in mind when I design the second Alpha.
I'll add you as a tester, but because it seems the tester system is a little buggy (according to a statement in another thread) I'll directly send you the download link in a PM or however you prefer (don't worry, It's going to be a simple download, not a crappy third company download service website like Rapidshare). However, If it's too big to fit in a simple download I'll use Mediafire which lets you one-click the download and doesn't make you wait or anything.
Despite being short, you will understand what sort of system I was trying to design. You'll also see why I'm not happy with it (possibly). You'll only need to provide feedback to help me make at least an OK game to play. If you have problems and can't test any future demos due to time issues or anything else, I won't mind.
Thank you for your time in considering this, every bit of advice can be helpful on this tech demo and future demos I will put out. If you decide to accept this, I hope you enjoy testing my demos as well.
Tutorials for drawing things?
No, I don't need tutorials for drawing things... Actually I kind of do BUT that's not what my problem is. You see, I *have written* a tutorial for helping people draw their faces and characters in Illustrator. You can see it here.
Granted the example is something I did long ago and isn't really that great (and I've modified that particular character so many times to look better until she looked more feminine and kawaii, and the shadows didn't go away when I 48x48-ed it) but the underlying method stays the same pipeline-wise. And it's much easier than it looks- the quality of your characters depends on your actual artistic ability.
I just felt this site could use a copy of the tutorial- but all the tutorials in the site are game engine specific while this one is for any instance you want to draw a character and illustrate it. I couldn't figure out where to put it, so instead of getting it either moved or overlooked from being in the wrong section, I want to ask someone who manages tutorials here about it.
Granted the example is something I did long ago and isn't really that great (and I've modified that particular character so many times to look better until she looked more feminine and kawaii, and the shadows didn't go away when I 48x48-ed it) but the underlying method stays the same pipeline-wise. And it's much easier than it looks- the quality of your characters depends on your actual artistic ability.
I just felt this site could use a copy of the tutorial- but all the tutorials in the site are game engine specific while this one is for any instance you want to draw a character and illustrate it. I couldn't figure out where to put it, so instead of getting it either moved or overlooked from being in the wrong section, I want to ask someone who manages tutorials here about it.
Help for RPG Maker 2003 Agillity (For custom leveling system)
OK, right now I have two Speed+ gem tiles which add 5 Agillity when activated. For a mage, there's 12 tiles in all, you can only afford 8, 4 of those are INT+, 2 of those are SPD+, one is a STR+, another adds defense, one HP plus and 2 MP plus.
Now the problem is, I can add 5 to all the stats and it scales correctly in battle testing for difficulty. The problem lies with agillity. Is it ok if it adds 5 speed? The problem I am seeing is that even with just a little more agillity, enemies move way faster in the ATB than I wished. The problem I want to prevent on my thief character is that if the player decides to activate all 4 of their SPD+ tiles on the first level, that the +20 boost to speed doesn't make them several times faster than everybody making it horribly balanced.
Now the problem is, I can add 5 to all the stats and it scales correctly in battle testing for difficulty. The problem lies with agillity. Is it ok if it adds 5 speed? The problem I am seeing is that even with just a little more agillity, enemies move way faster in the ATB than I wished. The problem I want to prevent on my thief character is that if the player decides to activate all 4 of their SPD+ tiles on the first level, that the +20 boost to speed doesn't make them several times faster than everybody making it horribly balanced.
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