Amy's Kingdom
- Thread starter Ellie
- Start date
I think Time Fantasy looks more charming (as much as the mixed resolution is stressing me out). The little straw huts have a flat perspective to them though, their roofs need to be tilted forward to correct that.
The 8-frame characters look like generic mid-2000s online game. The first one is the cleanest looking and easiest on the eyes - you've also got more experience working with that style so there's that to consider.
Also consider which one would look best with animations - I have a feeling Time Fantasy is not going to look great when high-resolution animations are played above the low resolution characters and tiles. Time Fantasy may also limit your artist direction in the future; what if you decide to have 3D models and effects on the map? Will that look as good in Time Fantasy? Or maybe you want to playback a video cut-scene, will that look as fitting?
I vote; go for the one that is easier for you to work with.
The 8-frame characters look like generic mid-2000s online game. The first one is the cleanest looking and easiest on the eyes - you've also got more experience working with that style so there's that to consider.
Also consider which one would look best with animations - I have a feeling Time Fantasy is not going to look great when high-resolution animations are played above the low resolution characters and tiles. Time Fantasy may also limit your artist direction in the future; what if you decide to have 3D models and effects on the map? Will that look as good in Time Fantasy? Or maybe you want to playback a video cut-scene, will that look as fitting?
I vote; go for the one that is easier for you to work with.
Here's a demonstration of 8-frame, 8-directional movement; various plugins hashed together.
http://afar.ws/demos/movement/
(It's a bit jerky because my collision boxes are daft in this test as I didn't feel like actually mapping)
http://afar.ws/demos/movement/
(It's a bit jerky because my collision boxes are daft in this test as I didn't feel like actually mapping)
Nathaniel3W
Member
Great work. The controls are responsive and the animation is fluid. Not a fan of the sprite though. I think the cartoony sprites look better. If you keep the realistic sprites, I would recommend making their elbows and knees bend a little more and maybe giving them a little bounce to their steps.
Tech Demo 2: Look at these ABS
I've discovered an amazing plugin and piece of software called QSprite. It's used to turn huge spritesheets, perhaps a few hundred individual sprites on each, into individual animation sequences used at different points in the game.
And PVGames create such sprite sheets, as paperdoll graphics. Ideal for my game... whatever my game now is. I don't know. But ideal for... my requirements.
So in this tech demo we'll see:
- Basic setup of QABS. This is an action battle system with a lot of functionality. I haven't configured anything yet or created any of my own spells or enemies, just using the examples in their demo
- QSprite and QMovement: pixel based movement, including 8 directional sprites.
- Idle animations: two (leave your character standing still for a while and they'll place their hand on their hip).
Two enemies at the moment. Walk left and you'll find a pirate who only attacks with melee. Move right and you'll see a rogue who uses a ranged attack.
Not animated spell sequences yet. Trying to see what animations are in this huge-ass spritesheet.
Is there anything really impressive here?
No. But it did take a long time to set up the animations in QSprite (my fault not the program's, there's just so much functionality here).
http://afar.ws/demos/ABS/
For my actual game I won't be having MP, just cooldowns (some could be quite lengthy, for more powerful skills).
I've discovered an amazing plugin and piece of software called QSprite. It's used to turn huge spritesheets, perhaps a few hundred individual sprites on each, into individual animation sequences used at different points in the game.
And PVGames create such sprite sheets, as paperdoll graphics. Ideal for my game... whatever my game now is. I don't know. But ideal for... my requirements.
So in this tech demo we'll see:
- Basic setup of QABS. This is an action battle system with a lot of functionality. I haven't configured anything yet or created any of my own spells or enemies, just using the examples in their demo
- QSprite and QMovement: pixel based movement, including 8 directional sprites.
- Idle animations: two (leave your character standing still for a while and they'll place their hand on their hip).
Two enemies at the moment. Walk left and you'll find a pirate who only attacks with melee. Move right and you'll see a rogue who uses a ranged attack.
Not animated spell sequences yet. Trying to see what animations are in this huge-ass spritesheet.
Is there anything really impressive here?
No. But it did take a long time to set up the animations in QSprite (my fault not the program's, there's just so much functionality here).
http://afar.ws/demos/ABS/
For my actual game I won't be having MP, just cooldowns (some could be quite lengthy, for more powerful skills).
Small update but I threw in my resolution script and moved the skill bar to the top. Need to clip map if the resolution goes too large.
Also to demonstrate how cooldowns work rather than MP I have tweaked some of the cooldowns. Can see their cooldown times by hovering over them.
And removed the horrible flashing box on walking.
Also to demonstrate how cooldowns work rather than MP I have tweaked some of the cooldowns. Can see their cooldown times by hovering over them.
And removed the horrible flashing box on walking.
Thanks to some help on the official frums (sorry gusy) I have remade my paperdoll system.
Basically to save on resources before what I was doing was generating the images server side. But as my images are now a lot bigger for all the animations, this was impractical.
So now I've made it client side instead.
Basically I can rename any event in the game as:
%Base-PPD-1-2-3-4-5-6-7
Ignore the %Base part, that's from QSprite. PPD tells the game it's a paperdoll sprite. It then layers seven images on top of one another with the IDs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
But it does so asynchronously so you can still gameplay while waiting for the images to load... (a manner of frames but still noticable)
We'll see how it works out.
This all ties in with QSprite though. So on top of the paperdoll sprites are all these animations that they can perform as in my previous demo.
The sprite set comes with other images such as faces, portraits, etc to create menus and such. I'm not sure I like them though. They're a bit too realistic; an uncanny valley moment.
Next Step
Next up will be to throw in my live players and set them up with QSprites and paperdoll graphics.
Because of how this all works that's as simple as renaming their graphic as %Base-PPD-1-2-3-4-5-6-7.
So you'll see other players walking around the world, but you'll also see their equipment, clothing, swords, hair styles, etc.
Further Customisation
Originally I planned to have hair, hair colour (from a set palette of six), clothes, and skin colour.
Now with the sprite packs I'm about to purchase we'll have:
- Hair
- Skin
- Top clothes
- Bottom clothes
- Feet
- Weapon
- Armour
Potentially I could also add accessories although personally I don't see the point in adding small accessories to such small sprites as it seems a waste of game resources.
However I could also set up:
- Race selection
- Gender selection
- Hair colour based on hue
Gender selection I have tried to touch upon in eZine 19: viewtopic.php?f=202&t=78211
I will be sticking to my principles on this, I think. Though it will ironically be more work to turn female sprites and male sprites into gender neutral ones.
We'll see where we are after then.
Brief screenshot although I guess it doesn't really show much.
Basically to save on resources before what I was doing was generating the images server side. But as my images are now a lot bigger for all the animations, this was impractical.
So now I've made it client side instead.
Basically I can rename any event in the game as:
%Base-PPD-1-2-3-4-5-6-7
Ignore the %Base part, that's from QSprite. PPD tells the game it's a paperdoll sprite. It then layers seven images on top of one another with the IDs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
But it does so asynchronously so you can still gameplay while waiting for the images to load... (a manner of frames but still noticable)
We'll see how it works out.
This all ties in with QSprite though. So on top of the paperdoll sprites are all these animations that they can perform as in my previous demo.
The sprite set comes with other images such as faces, portraits, etc to create menus and such. I'm not sure I like them though. They're a bit too realistic; an uncanny valley moment.
Next Step
Next up will be to throw in my live players and set them up with QSprites and paperdoll graphics.
Because of how this all works that's as simple as renaming their graphic as %Base-PPD-1-2-3-4-5-6-7.
So you'll see other players walking around the world, but you'll also see their equipment, clothing, swords, hair styles, etc.
Further Customisation
Originally I planned to have hair, hair colour (from a set palette of six), clothes, and skin colour.
Now with the sprite packs I'm about to purchase we'll have:
- Hair
- Skin
- Top clothes
- Bottom clothes
- Feet
- Weapon
- Armour
Potentially I could also add accessories although personally I don't see the point in adding small accessories to such small sprites as it seems a waste of game resources.
However I could also set up:
- Race selection
- Gender selection
- Hair colour based on hue
Gender selection I have tried to touch upon in eZine 19: viewtopic.php?f=202&t=78211
I will be sticking to my principles on this, I think. Though it will ironically be more work to turn female sprites and male sprites into gender neutral ones.
We'll see where we are after then.
Brief screenshot although I guess it doesn't really show much.
Here is my project thread as posted on the official frums, explains some of the things I wanna do with this game. Definitely still in the ideas board though.
I am trying to flesh out a new project. My previous games have all been MMORPGs - in fact, the one I am working on was meant to be an MMORPG. Having set up the system and got it working, I realise that all this time I've never actually been making a game, I've just been faffing around with online systems. And that's all well and good, but if there's nothing to do then what's the point?
So I suppose this will be my first real foray into game making in a decade, since in that time all I've been doing is trying to set up my MMO.
Open World RPG
I have not chosen a name yet. My previous game was called Afar and that will still be the name of the world, but I need a new title.
The basic premise is that this is an open world game, similar to a typical MMO. A Western-RPG.
The main game will have a lot to do, but this will then be supplemented by expansion packs. I don't think you'll typically have to pay for those packs, it's just a way of always adding to the world.
Standalone or MMO?
I don't think the game itself will be an MMORPG as such, but there will be the option to add MMO elements to it at a later date; you could quite happily play the game self contained on a device without Internet however. So perhaps you could launch the in-game forums, but if you don't want to you don't need an Internet connection.
Fully Interactive World
I will be using QABS and QSprite to create this game. I will be using this to give me full control over the player and give them interaction with much of the world. Most objects will be messable. So you see a crate and you can do something with it. Harvest materials from the world around you, and so on. There will be spells you can use on enemies, but you can also use them on the world itself, perhaps filling a well, burning a cart of hay, or unblocking a path with magic.
Magic and the Dynamic Class system
Classes are going to be dynamic in this game and are not something the player chooses themselves. Basically you choose a roster of eight skills to take into battle with you. Based on these skills you are then given a class that describes you.
Why is a class important? It gets you access to guilds and secret locations, special equipment unique to that class, small stat boosts, and different conversations.
I have not fully worked out this idea but as a basic version let's say we have:
Spell: FIREBALL. Dark Magic = 2, Fire Magic = 3, Dragon Tamer = 1
Spell: NECROMANCY. Dark Magic = 4
Spell: DRAGONBREATH. Fire Magic = 2, Dragon Tamer = 3
Spell: HEAL. Dark Magic = -1, Dragon Tamer = 2
I've contrived that so that I could make some daft situations just for emphasis. But let's say you chose the skills:
Fireball, Necromancy, Dragonbreath: DM=6, FM=5, DT=4 -> you are a NECROMANCER.
Fireball, Dragonbreath: DM=4, FM=5, DT=4 -> you are a FIRE ELEMENTALIST.
Fireball, Dragonbreath, Heal: DM=4, FM=5, DT=6 -> you are a DRAGON TAMER.
It will be a little more complicated than that and those aren't real examples, and obviously this will be over eight spells (you will have to take eight spells with you).
Graphics
Graphics will be a mix of Pioneer Valley Games and Celianna.
Here are a few examples, although these are just very quick maps with little thought to them just to demonstrate the idea and probably won't be used in game, certainly not as-is. It does demonstrate how quickly I will be able to create maps for this though as each represents maybe an hour of work.
You can imagine the interactions you'd have above.
Animations will be a key feature. For example, this very quickly made one (needs more work).
An example of a keep:
Again that's not a very well thought out map, I just wanted to demonstrate Celianna's castle tiles. The building in the middle makes little sense, I just needed a centrepiece.
Here's an example of a connector map, because I need to learn how to map nothing.
I firmly believe that until you can map emptiness you can't map detail. I'm not quite there yet but I think I'm getting there.
Some more house examples:
And a rough example of how interiors will work.
Interiors
You walk up to a door and the house cuts away like in The Sims.
This example is a bit small, I will be making future houses a lot larger. But the interiors, relative to other games, will be compact.
Further examples but these were made for RTP scale.
Character Animations
I will be using the full PV Games sprite sheets to enable eight directional, eight frame pixel based movement. This will be coupled with running, sitting and other animations. I still need go through them all and see what I've got.
Hopefully I will also be implementing a kind of faux-3D world, with climbing and jumping between "platforms" and some idea of height to the world.
Head-Up Display
The HUDs in my game have always been complicated affairs so I have tried to be more frugal this time around. This will be the extent of the HUD.
The player will have their own HP bar above their sprite, decluttering the actual view frame.
Those are skill icons, and I made these a while back, they're available in a thread here.
The point of the skill icons is to be reasonably descriptive of what the skill does (so some fire, water, etc) while also being memorable. If you hover over your icon you will get a description anyway however.
Casting Spells - No MP
There will be no standard attack in this game, or defend option. Everything is broken down into skills.
As such there will also be no MP.
Different skills will instead have different recharge times. So a basic attack equivalent might recharge in a second, while a vast summoning spell might take a full few minutes to recharge!
You won't be able to change your build outside of safe spots - hotels, inns, that kind of thing. They'll be the equivalent of going to an inn in a Final Fantasy game, and I've designed it that way to make going to a town a more important moment, otherwise the whole world just blends into nothing.
Storyline and How to Not Make a Boring Game
The bulk of the game is going to be made up of quests, MMO style. However these quests won't be obvious, they'll be started and finished through general conversation and actions. I want there to be a lot of such quests available and the best will link together to create campaigns.
So as a quick example, your player becoming a knight. Starts with them trying to get into a special bar and realising it's the Knight's regular haunt. They get chatting to a drunkard outside and find out how they became a knight. Through various journeys and adventures the player eventually becomes a Knight, all to enter this one pub.
That's just a quick example and there will be more complex storylines of course. I haven't got that far yet.
Some quests will have others you can do instead of them in the chain. So for example, to start one main quest you might need to "be a good person". That could have been helping a cat out of a tree or helping someone fix their cart.
To start another you might need to have done some epic journey at some point, and there could be dozens of examples of that in your history.
I'm not sure what form these quests will take ultimately, and this is one of the things I still need to flesh out. Especially, how to create a world that feels expansive while still being within limits.
Thanks for your Input
I hope to build up a conversation and work out how all of the above is going to play out together. Let's see what we come up with?
So I bought six of the PVGames resource packs, primarily for the characters. There is 2.5GB of graphics here! Massive. Cost about £50.
This is my first time attempting this kind of cliff mapping, not sure how well it's turned out. I am also horrendously hungover as you can imagine.
Please ignore the circles, they're a bug in Fireworks.
This is my first time attempting this kind of cliff mapping, not sure how well it's turned out. I am also horrendously hungover as you can imagine.
Please ignore the circles, they're a bug in Fireworks.
So here's how water will look.
Using QSprite I'm going to set up several animations for the player. I will have to create a mod of QSprite to let it mirror some sprites. Because PVGames' characters are set up for side view battle, some animations only have sideviews. Do you think that will be too poor for an ABS?
Here are examples of what animations I should have, with the battle ones being sideview. The general melee attack will also be used for mining rocks with a pickaxe sprite.
Using QSprite I'm going to set up several animations for the player. I will have to create a mod of QSprite to let it mirror some sprites. Because PVGames' characters are set up for side view battle, some animations only have sideviews. Do you think that will be too poor for an ABS?
Here are examples of what animations I should have, with the battle ones being sideview. The general melee attack will also be used for mining rocks with a pickaxe sprite.
Ok so for sounds I'm gonna tell through old RPG makers later and see what I've got to play with, or source elsewhere if not. But I want:
- general footstep sound
- running sound
- long grass sound
- walking in water sound
- wading in water
- big splash if you fall in
- small splash if you walk in
- rain sounds
- river sounds based on proximity
- general footstep sound
- running sound
- long grass sound
- walking in water sound
- wading in water
- big splash if you fall in
- small splash if you walk in
- rain sounds
- river sounds based on proximity
Successfully implemented footstep sounds, based on terrain type and using natural sounding BGS instead of SE. Turns out it's a really simple event (will script it later for optimisation).
Basically, start playing a BGS if the player is moving, and quickly fade it out if not; start the BGS at a random spot for natural sound. Need to work out that part.
Footstep sprites work in four directions. Need to work out how to do 8.
Also set up map based battle music.
Basically, start playing a BGS if the player is moving, and quickly fade it out if not; start the BGS at a random spot for natural sound. Need to work out that part.
Footstep sprites work in four directions. Need to work out how to do 8.
Also set up map based battle music.