What are you working on? (Game Making Thread)

[coyotecraft]

I've got my hands on a Sata-to-USB cable to transfer all my files over to my new computer.
Steam makes it surprisingly easy. I was afraid I'd have to download and install everything all over again. But there's a simple trick to move installed files over to a new HDD. So it only takes minutes rather than hours or days.

So I have RPG Maker MV at least. For non-Steam related software, Idk what I'll do. RM Ace, I can still install the old fashion way with an activation key or whatever. But I got Rmxp from an old distributor before Degica took over. I don't really neeeed RMXP but its nice to have if someone else needs support. I managed to reinstall it once before somehow but I'll have to go through my old Emails to see if I was given a new activation code or what. And if that's the case, see if it still works. It's been so long, I just don't know.
Yes! The "new" activation code I got from customer support back in 2010 still works.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Thanks to some much helpful friends I found royalty free anime opening songs and chose one, with it I remastered this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2J5-TXmF14
Not sure how yet, but the plan is to have it play on the title screen after idling long enough.

Oh, another music track is done too, the theme for the second phase of Svoli's fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WjysZj_ShY
It is indeed an enhanced or Hyper version ofa similar theme from PFC.

And in other news, the rewrite of the scene where Yi shows her ungodly power and Lilac gets frazzled I decided demanded a video with voice acting by yours truly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6g9Iv_IoXo
It has been a productive week, oh my oh gosh!

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I felt like my battles were missing something. They're all kind of the same. Some battlefields are more open and some are more restrictive. And they all have visual distinctions. But I feel like they're all just kind of the same. So I started working on these:

I've wanted to add castle sieges for a long time but there were a few design issues that I didn't want to spend any more time on. And then I picked up Age of Wonders III when it was free on Humble Bundle. I like how they did a few things in their sieges and I stole a couple of their ideas.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Setting up a mock battle. Flying and walking pathfinding are working OK. But there are still a million other things to work out.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Nathan you might wanna scale that image in your second last post there down to about 1500-1600 width, even I shrink down my images when they get too large, some of the things i post on the sketch thread are 2000 pixels wide and wider before you guys see em, lel.

You don't have to but I mean, I feel bad that I'm setting an example when I'm usually the one twisting them xD

Anyway, that aside, friendos I have done things! So... very many things... I think. Oh actually not that much, mostly been dealing with a fever, but my artists will make it look like it's all been pretty productive, so yeah, let's get this on the road, then!

First off, Pjcr finally got me SOME of the long-awaited resources, one of these was a new pose for Yi and a new pose for Kyoshi. I've also given Kyoshi and Yi some better animations to compensate for previously lacking ones.

I;n not gonna show em all because too much space.

Secondly, Xiie has completed another sprite!

Yep, it's yer boi, Sven! He finally has a sprite that isn't a terrible mash of RTP tall sprites and a cats head and errgh! Sped is up next.

Speaking of cats, hailing from a less red, more eastern variety...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28w3P8UfVk4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruPxBPAFwJc
The Khao Manee from across the black sea, Kara Marx is back and she's here to kick ass!

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Hey Biz. Is Sven there higher resolution than other sprites? He looks more detailed. How much bigger is a tall sprite than a regular sprite?

And yeah, I need to remember to reduce the resolution when posting here. Most other forums I use automatically reduce the size of pictures.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Hey Biz. Is Sven there higher resolution than other sprites? He looks more detailed. How much bigger is a tall sprite than a regular sprite?

Regular sprites dont exist in this game by their definition, but Pep's sprite is closest, none of them are a mere 48x48 though.

https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/inde...body-character-templates-with-mv-heads.77002/

Basically i take bases from here and then place them in a 96x96 grid to allow for more customization and movement. Sven is the same resolution as the other tallsprites from my game, what you might be noticing is the gradual jump in quality of Xiie's work, seeing as the first sprite she did for the game (Lumi) was also her first sprite virtually ever. By now she's getting craftier. Every character sprite in the game will be fully custom before long.

And yeah, I need to remember to reduce the resolution when posting here. Most other forums I use automatically reduce the size of pictures.

Same, it took a bit of getting used to, but as it stands this is now the only forum I'm not banned from and have interest in.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

...this is now the only forum I'm not banned from...

Wait. What? Does Biz moonlight as a troll everywhere that isn't HBGames?

 

[coyotecraft]

Nathaniel3W, dunno how your sprites move, but maybe have an internal stairway or ladder hole that the sprites can disappear into at the top and out the bottom side, or vis versa. Then you can avoid any awkward motions or need for animations.
I was just thinking while posting this of a double platform lift. Where party members weigh down one part to keep the other half aloft. I can see some tactical staging that way. One unit tags-in, moving the other unit up or down to safety to recuperate or something. All kinds of environmental gimmicks are coming to mind.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I made some ladder meshes and I gave my characters "spider" physics, so they just scale up the side and not necessarily along the ladders. It doesn't look realistic at all, but it sort of works.

That's a really cool idea for the lift though. When did you think that up? You didn't just invent that for me, did you?

 

[BizarreMonkey]

...this is now the only forum I'm not banned from...

Wait. What? Does Biz moonlight as a troll everywhere that isn't HBGames?

Story in spoilers if you want it.

Spoiler

During my years I was making a foothold in the Rpgmaker Scene my skills became respected fairly quickly as a writer and eventer, after the great fire of VX.net and the people who i once thought of as my friends struck a deal with degica, and a large reform was done- the friends i once knew becoming little more than corporate shills, I kept clear and decided to keep going with making games, eventually I started playing against their rules and one thing led to another. They created some rumors about me that weren't true, and this is a COMMON habit of those louse, but instead of retiring from the scene like most did i stuck my feet down firm and kept creating, amassing a team and a large band of followers, too little too late did degica's puppets realize how out of control their despot had become, they sent an attack dog my way in an attempt to sully my reputation, but because I'm honest about who I am no one was remotely surprised and nothing came of it, sans me sending the attack dog back to them in tears, even before they sent her they'd made miserably pathetic attempts to get me removed from places, accusing me of things most knew me too proud to do, such as plagiarism and shit like that, which every believed about as much as one who knows me would- not at all.

After I sent their weeping bin back to their office they decided I had become too powerful and left me alone, fearful that one day I'd be petty enough to come after them as they feared.

I did but it was a light attack just to remind them i hadn't forgotten, the maneuver was completely legal, and was me posting a shit ton of words in a post, then making that same post in like 80 different threads. The campaign resulted in a 50 minute site maintenance.

After the fact, you were required to be approved by an admin before posting, you've me to thank for that little gem of a security precaution at rmwebs.

Since I was doing nothing illegal they knew they had no legs to stand on legally so they tried to swat it under the rug and acted like it never happened. But some were there to witness the ominous threads telling them to be ware of the motivation of adhering to the whims and wishes of those whose souls died long ago.

Other places have commonly welcomed me with open arms, but it's only so long before an admin gets a big head with power and tries to cheat, the most notable example was on rpgmaker MV.co when Xyphien tried to get away with plagiarizing art provided by a friend, by conveniently cropping the signature out and using it as the sites background without permission.

Amy was my friend and respected by many so i jumped in with verbal bullets, and the conflict was resolved after i'd made it public just how fuck shit was getting, but the site had become a warzone and most of the decent userbase had been scared off. I was of course, banned for " spreading misinformation and lies" by the now borderline insane admin of the place who could have resolved it all had he just not tried to worm his way out and fessed up, admitted errors were made and asked amy for permission.

Rpgmaker.Net I enjoyed too much and had to get out lest it eat too much of my productivity, so I made a declaration of 'please ban me or I'm gonna litter this site with donald trumps face' and despite initial rejections to outright ban me, they eventually caved.

VX.net I supported and was virtually unbannable (due to how much I'd done to help the site recover post the great fire of 2011) until iEntry stamped it into oblivion for good some years later. RMRK and I never jived, and rpgpavillion may as well be a corpse, so while I remain unbanned, I don't care much for either.

Since RpgmakerCentral is a sister site to webs i was banned from both at about the same time in late 2012.

In the end it simply taught me greedy people can go die in hellfire, and that they were all essentially meaningless in the long run with sites like desura, gamejolt, itch.io and others picking up their slack and by a much wider margin.

Right! Now that the big story is over, let's talk about some stuff that actually matters, what I've been working on!

Mostly my team, Jake is halfway done with Kara's second boss theme, but it's not ready to be shown yet.

Pjcr finished up getting me all the files for Yi, meaning in the last 4 days he's gotten me all of Kyoshi and Yi's portraits. I will now show you the complete set of Yi's animated portraits, albeit, not quite in full.

So yeah that's awesome.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Amy, somehow I missed your last FF7 post. Every time you moved the cursor, in my mind I heard the sound effect. It sounds like a high-pitched "breep?" to me.

 

[coyotecraft]

Wanted to do some animating so I'm tackling the quadruped walk cycle conundrum. It just doesn't look good limited to 3 frames. It's not bad if I do a sprint. But trying to stagger the legs to trot is visually messy.
I've been through this all before with horse and centaur experiments for rpg maker. I always come to the conclusion that I need to make a custom sheet that uses 6 or 8 frames.
And If I'm doing that, then I want to do something like what Digimon World 3 did, and have a special 3 frame stop animation. Where they lurch forwards as they halt momentum. It's a nice touch IMO.

Of course, this is something I always think about doing but never actually do.

 

[coyotecraft]

6 frames. I dunno what this will look like in MV. I'm kinda going at it blind with the timing and character movement speed.

The problem with animation is that you stare at it too long and you can't tell if you're making it better or worst.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

That's the most clever use of a marquee I've seen used on this forum virtually ever. Giving me some ideas for game presentations.

On the note of games and presentations, I may have teased this cinematic earlier, but I doubt I'd have shown it- due to how the voice acting was my shitty placeholders and not the actor's.

Now however the voice actress for Yi has finished and due to me saving over the original vegas file while developing Fantasia Scene 11, the whole cinematic has changed, and for the better.

But enough building it up, here is Fantasia Scene 12 - ESCHATON.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qkmRUh13-Q
The only thing I have to update is the music, and I'm going to make sure Jake handles this one with velvet gloves so it keeps the emphasis I built upon with the original.

There's more I could show, but not that I should, I'll save it for a future post.

 

[coyotecraft]

I'm not sure where the last couple days went.
Last thing I remember, I was looking for the MV plugin folders to refresh my memory on how to make those. To make my own plugin for custom spritesheet formats. But I got lost along the way, since I moved to a new Hard Drive and my files and stuff isn't in the same locations.
Then I blacked out. I never opened a .js file...Oh right.
I think I went looking to install Notepad+ which I've gotten used to working in.
Then I ended up on Rule34 somehow. Because internet. So magical.
I have a headache.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Coyote's pony animations remind me of something my daughter told my wife the other day. Whenever my daughter asks me to draw her a horse, I draw a My Little Pony, but whenever my son asks me to draw him a horse, I draw a knight on a warhorse.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

It is now a time I should show that bit more I talked of earlier, as the post will be quite substantial with thanks to my patience.

Not only is Kara's final battle theme complete!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMWJriv0C0M
But it sounds all kinds of amazing! But ohoho, just wait~ There's more...

Two of Tristy's themes are complete, too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXwPfweNPDMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_7W_EG0cVc
Her passive theme and her battle theme, which has yet again become along the lines of "Tristylovania"!

And speaking of Tristy, this may as well be the Tristy update, as she also just recently got her Sprite for her ascended form.

But she isn't the only one to get such a Sprite, Sven and pep's father- Sped, received one also.

But Biz... I hear you ask- What have YOU been doing?

Well, I've been adding in some placeholders and getting more Assets ready for the two-phase battle with the last kangaroo. Once this horrible flu passes I'll be able to begin on it proper. Yes, my work has largely been hampered in thanks to a nasty fever and then flu combo... fun stuff. It's just as well I have already finished the main storyline (Tristy's battles notwithstanding) and done several optional events.

Oh I've also been adding flavor text around the place, and SOMEHOW managed to make a good start on a cosmic timeline, going from the first Divine Year until 2133. granted, it's not yet complete. There's a lot of events I have to add to it.

But I feel it is off to a good start.

 

[coyotecraft]

Coyote's pony animations remind me of something my daughter told my wife the other day. Whenever my daughter asks me to draw her a horse, I draw a My Little Pony, but whenever my son asks me to draw him a horse, I draw a knight on a warhorse.

Well RPG Maker does use a chibi style. The problem with the MV (and VX) horse sprite is that the legs shuffle along and they weren't designed as riding horses. People will put the character sprites on the horse, but the human heads are so much bigger than the horse's. It looks off.

So my design has a larger horse head in addition to picking up it's feet. Potentially giving the horses more personality. In the vein of .Hack's Grunties. And theoretically serving MLP fangames. Plus a bigger head better harmonizes with the default human sprites, imo.

Anyways. I've got a functional plugin now. It's really simple a.t.m., but damn, I was struggling to make it work. Like WHY ISN'T MY ALIAS FUNCTIONING?! [3hrs later] Oh, I see. Wait. Now it's only playing 4 frames. Did I change something somewhere... [3hrs later] WHY DOES RPG MAKER HAVE A MAX FRAME COUNT! Where is it even using this?

So my next step is improving the character motions. If the player just taps a dir button the character glides over a tile and may only change by 1 frame. I think easing the character motions to have a slow-in and out will look and feel more natural. Plus, one complaint I keep hearing about RM games is that a player can't turn-around in place.
MV actually already has a isStopping function. I think I can expand on that for a follow-through halting animation like in Digimon World 3.

 

[coyotecraft]

My plugin is a little more sophisticated now. The MV v1.5.0 update allows for some more advanced parameter tags, and I'm still exploring structures.
Right now all it can do is select any number of character sheets to have a custom number of frames. There are already other plugins that can do this. But they all have an annoying file naming convention it has to parse for.
Doing it my way, I can easily add XP spritesheets into my project, select them using the plugin and set the custom frame number to 4. And that's it. No renaming required! Player or Event, it'll use 4 frames.
It's also handy for inanimate sprite objects that only need 1 frame. Does this sound familiar? You make a graphic, but before you can use it in RM you have to configure it as a character sheet with directional and walking frames -that it's not even going to use- and later, if you make changes to the frame size, you have to reconfigure all of it. It's a time consuming process. But no more! Now you can just throw it into the project, and make a simple selection.
But wait! There's more...
J/k, that's it.