HM-style pixel art Options

[ZBoy]

That is amazing! So are you still using RPG Maker and just inserting these characters in instead of pixels, or ar you using a completely different program now?

[ClassicTyler]

What program did you use to make that?

[Nurse Fin]

I'm still using RPG Maker... since it's still the easiest way for me to do this. I've been familiar with RPG Maker for 10 years now, so I know my way around it, even though I don't think it's the best program for this kind of game. If I knew how to use it, I'd switch to GameMaker or raw programming, but my programming skills are limited to simple Python.

All the 3D graphics will be converted to 2D sprites and then imported into the game. It's the same way that sprites are handled in the HM DS games like IoH/SI/GB/TV.


For the 3D I'm using Blender, because it's free (and I'm not making anything super complicated so I don't want to spend too much). My friend recommended 3dmax, but it's like. $4k. No way.

It's so hard to get used to the interface though, especially since my laptop has no number pad. I spent the most time trying to make the head, because I messed up at least 5 times and had to start it over.

Gonna start rigging it for animation today :D

[ZBoy]

Oh alright that is awesome! I don't know if you had noticed my edit in an okder post, but I was wondering if you ever made that wiki you had mentioned that showed all of the characters.

[Lindstrom]

Earlier you mentioned how you were thinking of ways to deviate from the HM-norm, I would say probably one of the most simple (in theory) yet effective ways would be to make the game multiplayer in some fashion. I'd wager it would be hell to program but it would open up a lot of possibilities for players. I don't mean like a MMO, but more like a 2 player game or something, where siblings/couples/friends/whoevers could work together (or even competitively on separate farms).

Anyway you know what's best for your project so I'm sure you'll have everything figured out soon enough. I can't believe how much effort you're putting into this, the 3D modeling part is pretty impressive.

[ClassicTyler]

I've toyed a bit with Blender...I really need to go from Anim8or to it...


But yes, it looks good. Keep up the great work.

[Nurse Fin]

Multiplayer would be helk for me to figure out, probably not even possible (sharing a keyboard is pretty tough as-is)... and if I did find some way to make it possible, I have a feeling the mechanics would be really broken. I'm not personally one to play any kind of multiplayer game, only on rare occasions stuff like Soul Calibur or Mario Kart, which is arguably different from HM (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalatounge.gif) So I don't even know how to plan it out in theory.

My sister and I were discussing possibilities... something I've been toying with is the premise of "Main character has to get a life. Moves into town (generic explanation here, like 'because some relative X used to live there' or whatever), and starts doing odd jobs to help out the locals and find some direction. As Main Character starts to settle in, s/he gets to know the people in town, each has a story to tell etc. etc"

Aspects like farming would be balanced out with other jobs... fishing, cooking, community and so on. A stat system is implemented, with traits like strength, social, intelligence, charm etc, which is affected by what jobs the player takes on. For example, working at a library may increase intelligence and equanimity (for lack of a better word, I will think of a better term later), but decreases strength and social, while helping out at the blacksmith's could increase strength and artistic ability, but reduces charm and social. Stats mostly affect skills and salary, but would also determine the ending (see next paragraph). A bulletin board system with requests might also be useful, that could unlock "special jobs" (events or minigames) because I know it'd be even more annoyingly repetitive to have to go through the same minigames every day than watering crops and feeding animals.

This is all well and good, but there's one problem. This kind of game would work best under a time limit, like 4 years or so, because the premise and stat-raising suggests that there is some end goal in mind (main character deciding what they want to do with their life and getting on with it). While a time limit can fix some of the broken aspects present in most HM games (the whole 'the game started out challenging, but now I've done almost everything, I have more money than I know what to do with and I'm bored' bit)... it also means that an after marriage life couldn't be implemented sensibly. Getting engaged would certainly be possible within the time frame (which would kind of be like marriage), but settling down early and having kids would feel like it's defeating the point, in my honest opinion. Some people only play HM games for "the chase", and don't care about after marriage life, but at the same time I know a ton of people have been wanting a game with a better after-marriage system to begin with, like AWL's.

(tl;dr: the current concept would be kind of like Save the Homeland, but with ~*~more~*~. And Princess Maker, or Tokimeki Memorial, or any other darned stat-raising sim game)

This is my current dilemma. I can't think of a way to make "after marriage" or an infinite time frame work that wouldn't be broken. I could sacrifice gameplay in favor of adding cool "always wanted to see this" family system features (some of which *I'd* really want to see, too), but then the game may become stale and boring too quickly. Or I could make a highly interactive sim game, but it may deviate too far from what HM fans want to see. Oy. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/emot-kraken.gif)



Big block of text aside, I've been playing with 3D a little more.

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

Hope y'all don't mind the lack of clothing, it's mostly just a test. I changed the UVs and meshes around, so the texture isn't even lined up properly anymore. Can't tell from the picture, but I added ears, which took more time than it should have. I'm starting to figure out how to add hair and clothing and stuff. The model itself is ready for animation, but unfortunately I have no idea how to animate it. Time to hit the tutorials again.


edit: Oh oh and before I forget, yeah I do have a private wiki out there on the internet, but I don't think it would have anything of interest to anyone else. The information is really minimal and a lot of pages haven't been worked on yet. It's only really thorough in the recipe section. There aren't any characters featured on there that aren't already posted in this topic.

[ZBoy]

Beautiful 3D model Fin!

With your problem, I was thinking that maybe you could have a set time limit to finish the story, but after the ending event (unless of course it deals with your character leaving) you can just continue living your life. Not only would people enjoy playing for so many years, but then those that do care truly about family life can keep playing.

[Nurse Fin]

The idea would kind of deal with the character leaving, sorta... or even if they stay in the town, there wouldn't be any reason for the gameplay to continue as it normally does. Like, if the main player works in the clinic a lot and manages to get the "doctor" ending, and they're all like "I've found that being a doctor is my calling", there's no more reason for them to be testing the waters for different kinds of work.

And if the "after-ending" gameplay changes to being a doctor or something, I think it would become pretty mundane like there's nothing to do (not to mention the inevitable "Okay, I have 5 million G and the whole town loves me, I've seen every festival like 5 times, but I'm still waiting for some family events... now what?" issue). That's the main problem I see.

[ClassicTyler]

That's a good model. I'd tell you that it's okay to buff up the face count but I forget you're making it 2-D. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalatounge.gif)

[ZBoy]

The idea would kind of deal with the character leaving, sorta... or even if they stay in the town, there wouldn't be any reason for the gameplay to continue as it normally does. Like, if the main player works in the clinic a lot and manages to get the "doctor" ending, and they're all like "I've found that being a doctor is my calling", there's no more reason for them to be testing the waters for different kinds of work.

And if the "after-ending" gameplay changes to being a doctor or something, I think it would become pretty mundane like there's nothing to do (not to mention the inevitable "Okay, I have 5 million G and the whole town loves me, I've seen every festival like 5 times, but I'm still waiting for some family events... now what?" issue). That's the main problem I see.

Oh ok, I see what your saying. There wouldn't be much of a point to keep playing without getting bored. I see it would be hard if your character's career changes. With the idea your going for, I think an ending probably would make more sense. Maybe you can just do like a "Heaven Mode" like AWL:SE did where you just play as much as you want after the ending, but it continues as if the ending never happened.