HM-style pixel art Options

[Nurse Fin]

Well, I'm no expert spriter or anything, but it's kind of fun (yet tedious... go figure). I know a lot of people have attempted to make their own HM games with little luck. I'm only really able to program stuff like a cooking system, advanced social system, calendar, mining system... but the actual farming has me stuck. Oh well. :P At least I can make graphics, too. If I ever get around to making a full working test bed I might want to make a fan game with original characters (not ToT/AP chars, I just used them for testing purposes) and stuff like that. :D Maybe... someday.

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/rinfin/dcee1391.png)
(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/rinfin/1bf96d52.gif)

I've only made a few floor and wall tiles so far, no furniture or anything, and I've only finished a standard female walking template. But I made all this in about 6 hours, which isn't too bad :D

[Saffy]

I've started doing some spriting myself of late. It's definitely enjoyable, but boy does it take ages if you're not sure what what you're doing. I have to say for a beginner (at least I assume) you've got some skills going.

Are you working with RPG Maker? The way your tiles are set up makes me think this.

Ah, the days of making a Harvest Moon fan game in RPG Maker <3

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Wow. Those look great. Well, since these are still in my memory, I have these in the style of Pokemon G/S I made when I got bored last night.

[crap removed because it sucks]

They're not actually accurate as I observed later, but I used no base nor did I have anything to look at while I messed around. I mostly just saw a dot graph that greatly resembled Maria but apparently wasn't and decided to go for it.

[Nurse Fin]

Yeah, RPG Maker (VX). It has a lot of stuff that's useless for a Harvest Moon game, but the item tagging feature makes it really easy to define characters' likes and dislikes, and some other miscellaneous categorizing things. And I wouldn't know how to make a game engine from scratch. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalatounge.gif)

So I'm sticking to spriting right now. I've done on/off sprite art for a couple years when I get bored, but I'm new to working with tiles. I'm using the FoMT/DS graphics as a reference, though I'm working with 2x the resolution, and to my experience with sprites, the larger something is, the more difficult :/ Tiny sprites are more fun!

[Lindstrom]

Oh man, I remember my days of messing around with RPG makers. I liked doing battle animations, graphics, and backgrounds but I hated sprites and other things like that. Everything was so tiny and I couldn't draw to detail that. Your came out really nice and detailed, so I'm a little envious of your ability to focus on it.

[Harvest Sprite]

RPG maker 3 for PS2 was a piece of crap. I always wanted to get the PC one though. (I have a mac.)

I can't believe I didn't see this topic yesterday, GREAT work Nurse Fin!

EDIT: For farming try to incorporate the cooking system, if you have an ingredient thing going then do like water, seeds, and so forth.

[Nurse Fin]

So... I actually did start developing a game... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) ;
I've been working on it the past week non-stop, and it's hard to juggle between graphic design and gameplay design.

I'd say maybe half of the basic systems are set up-- I've done farming, calendar, weather, shipping bin, storage system, holding items, shortcut menus, HUD (the clock and stamina info that shows over the screen)... there are a lot of aspects of HM games that are normally taken for granted.

Since I don't have any characters yet, the social system hasn't been touched. But it's one of the easiest parts, IMO. All I know so far is that I want a spunky/tomboyish mayor's daughter, boy at the library, and a blacksmith's daughter (or granddaughter) that does gem appraisals.

These are a few of the neater things I have planned, though:
- 6 bachelors, 6 bachelorettes
- The protagonist you don't choose becomes an NPC (will marry the left-over rival)
- 6 rival kids
- Your kid will be unique in looks, gender and personality based on who you marry (so 12 possible kids, unless I add extra marriage candidates)
- HAIR SALON (nifty idea from one of the threads here), and a Tailor Shop.

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/rinfin/9a83bec6.gif)

I've set tiles aside (as I'm debating how to go about drawing the maps), and instead have been making a lot of icons. These are the season/weather images, and a watering can, just 'cause I liked how it turned out. Making icons for all the different recipes (I was wise enough to make templates for different kinds of bowls, plates, and cups) and varieties of fish is going to be.. interesting...

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/rinfin/73c937b8.gif)
This is a crappy mock-up I did of a possible town layout (certain areas are empty because I don't know how many buildings I'm going to need yet...). It's mostly inspired by ToT's layout, because I liked it so much. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) Ironically, this took me 2-3 hours to make, while the icons above took a little over half an hour...

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

I like sunflower.

Man you're good. I'm not sure how an HM game'll feel in RPG Maker of all things, but I'm quite hopeful.

[Harvest Sprite]

When do you plan to finish it Nurse Fin? I'll help you out with some of the tilesets if need be.

[Nurse Fin]

I'm not really sure how long it will take to finish. I think it will depend on how long I take with the graphics, and setting up all the characters (I'll look for help when the time comes to design the characters, like their appearance and personality/likes/dislikes/etc)... I'd say maybe sometime at the beginning of next year, it should be finished. If I can complete it earlier, that would be great, but I'd imagine it would take a minimum of 4 months to really make anything worth playing.

Help on the tilesets would be awesome :o But I haven't quite reached that stage yet; I'm going to set up all the core gameplay mechanics (sans social system) before getting all the map and character graphics done.




As for how it would feel... well, I'm going to try and make it feel as much like a Harvest Moon game as possible, by the end of it I don't plan on having any RTP graphics or sounds in there...
But in this stage of development, I'm pretty much limited to the RTP and placeholder graphics
The little half-circle on the top screen rotates around based on the time of day, and the portrait art (when I get around to it) will change depending on the player's condition, like if s/he is tired, sick, etc. If nothing is equipped, the "equipped" window will disappear. Likewise, if the player is holding something a similar window will appear on screen with the held item's name and icon (a picture of the item will also appear over the player's head, and the walking graphic will change to a "holding" one).

Unfortunately, I couldn't make a classic HM-farming system with a wide open field. I tried working on it with programming, but it ends up lagging pretty badly (not to mention I'm not the greatest scripter out there), and if I did it all with events it would use up hundreds of variables (5 variables and 2-3 switches for each single square on the field), possibly more, and the lag would still be terrible. Even the creators of the series often seem to have troubles dealing with lag when there are lots of crops on-screen, and their engine is built specifically for the farming system... so yeah.

Instead I've made something more inspired by My Little Shop's system, but faster-paced and more advanced. So basically you farm your crops in small patches; using your hoe tills the soil, watering can waters it, hammer removes tilled soil/seeds, sickle removes growing crops/dead crops. Hoe level determines the size of your harvest, and watering can level determines how long it takes for the crops to grow. If you neglect your crops, or if it's the wrong season, they die. It's nothing really fancy but it retains most of the basic features.

[Harvest Sprite]

I done gone and made mahself a tree stump! :B

(IMG:http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/549/stump.png)

Yay for first pixel art after 4 years! :D

[Lindstrom]

Outstanding. I'd love to help but aside from my own style of graphics, I would really only be able to help design characters and stuff, which you are surely more than capable of.

[Nurse Fin]

Character design is actually a part that I tend to get stuck on. I only have a few vague ideas of what I want, and I *think* I've set up a basic list of the marriage candidates. But most of them are only titles right now, they don't have names or concrete personalities, or item preferences yet. Even the characters that I have an idea of what their personality should be like, and what their appearance looks like, still don't have any names. The only ones I know are library boy, mayor's daughter, blacksmith girl. The rest are kinda floating about in limbo.

I did draw a little picture of the blacksmith's... granddaughter? for morale.

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/rinfin/f7e89bbc.jpg)

But it's not finished, as you can see (and she still doesn't have a name (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalacry.gif) ). I'm thinking her grandpa is a retired swordsmith who moved to (name of town here) for the relaxing scenery yadda yadda and now does work making tools and things for the people in town. His granddaughter has an interest in gemstones and making jewelry, and she's been studying some of her grandpa's craft. Maybe she even has some swordfighting skills for coolness points, I dunno. HM always seems to have random Asian people here and there, so why not have them making tools and accessories this time.

[Harvest Sprite]

That's awesome (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) See if you can get in touch with Kail for concept art, she does that sort of thing. It'll make it go faster at least.

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Brain reminds me I wanted to comment on stuff. But it's 2:30 and I don't remember what I was supposed to be saying. I like things I see and want see more.

Yes.

[Nurse Fin]

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/rinfin/7996575f.jpg)

This is all I have to show right now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) It's not much, but most of the work I've been doing has been on the programming/gameplay side. This kinda shows what it looks like when the player is holding an item. And I realize now that I haven't set a day for that screencap, but it's debug mode and I didn't really need to set one for this.

I need to tweak the grass tile, too. Smooth it out a bit or something. I wish the game engine wasn't so graphically limited so it wouldn't look so blocky. The edges of the water are pretty much as round as it's possible to get with this program.

Yeah, game development is slooooow...

[Peter]

That is insanely impressive, Nurse Fin. Seriously, I'm speechless. You're doing an impeccable job. And you're doing this all through RPG Maker VX? I didn't realize it was that powerful. Anyways, if you need a bug/beta tester, I'm your guy. I am very inept when it comes to art/programming myself. My skill comes from my meticulously incredible attention to detail. Haha. So... yeah. I'm here for that, and of course, moral support, because this looks like it could go quite far.

Ever considered HM style game as an MMO? PM me if you're even remotely interested.

[ZBoy]

This is truly unbelievable Nurse Fin. I'm so excited to see more. Keep up the awesome work! :)

[Marley]

Wow, this is all insanely awesome. O_O Looks fantastic so far.

There, uh... seems to be a bed in the middle of the field. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) I'm very curious, why is that? Is that the future location of the house, or just some kind of programming weirdness?

[Nurse Fin]

Wow, this is all insanely awesome. O_O Looks fantastic so far.

There, uh... seems to be a bed in the middle of the field. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) I'm very curious, why is that? Is that the future location of the house, or just some kind of programming weirdness?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif)

I made it to test the "going to bed" event.

When my little debug character goes to bed, the clock moves a day forward (unless they go to bed after midnight, in which they would just wake up late at 8 AM that day), and they get paid. I have it right there outside because it makes testing crops more convenient. I need to make sure that all the different crops work, since there are 27 varieties...