Game Making

[Simply_Dark]

Hello people
I'm new around here, and I registered in the forums because I was told this was a great place to befriend people, pose some doubts, ask things, etc. I'm making a Pokemon game, although I wanted it to look really like Anime. I mean, instead of normal sprites, using Pokemon images from the episodes and so that are in a similar position to have the same effect, and some other things to look like Anime, like taking the tiny cities from the videogames and putting in the gigantic cities from Pokemon Anime :D , but all maintaining an Anime look. As you can see by what I said, though, I will have a lot of work to do all this. This includes things like getting all the episodes and movies from the Net :P to get the necessary resources. Of course I'm not asking for the episodes, I can handle this. I'm posting here to ask some things that might make things clearer to me. For example, what should I do to get maps and tiles that look like the anime instead of the "digitally" ones from the videogames? Also, is there way, and if there is, how shall I do, to produce sprites like the little overworld sprites, that also have an anime look? Should I just take screenshots where the characters appear seen from the front, back, or sides, and resize them? Also, if I can't see the whole cities, for example, in the Anime, should I make up things as long as it doesn't differ from the parts we are shown in the anime? My game would also have something like, in the middle of a conversation, when someone says something relevant, a frame on the middle of the screen with a screenshot of that person's expression would show up, so it looked like the anime, among many other things I'm planning to do... if the game ever starts being done. I have completely no idea how to handle with RPG Maker :P , but that is a minor problem, as all I need for now is the resources to understand the game :classic: . So, I'm just asking if someone can help me out, because maybe there are even people who have done this before, both with the images as with the sprites, to try to convert the videogame environment into a "Anime game", where you feel like if you were in the episodes themselves. Thx for the help,
Vasko

PS : I know each game project page must have a screenshot and a plot to keep it running, but I don't consider this thread as of that. I think of it more like a disucssion page ;)

 

[Prof Plum]

I can just see Phoenix walking along with his closing stick.

You say that each project page must have a screenshot and plot, but that is different because it is a discussion page? That's even worse. ALL threads in this forum need to be "project pages".

As for the idea you are putting forward, I think it is a fresh and original idea (although I don't particularly like the anime myself).

Please post this kind of thing in the Help thread.

 

[Simply_Dark]

Yes, you're right. I'm developing a game, and so on, and even though I might have some good ideas, the particular thing I specified here was asking for help. Sorry

PS - You like the idea? It's just the tip of a big project but I currently only have the ideas. I'm trying to produce a real game, as you're supposed to be completely free, in terms of characters and Pokemon. For example, if you instead of Pikachu, reached the lab in time and got a Squirtle, the story would be exactly like it is with some little deviations, like at the start instead of Pikachu shocking you Squirtle would spill a water shot, and other minor things. You can also choose among various characters and team up with anyone you know instead of just Misty and Brock. This is gonna be the game that pulls Pokemon out of the "childish" status it is confined to - This might be ambitious, but i'll do my best :classic:

Could a mod please move this ? (No need to hurry too much, as the game developers that visit this particular threads might help me out, other than just the Help threads people ;) )

 

[Dawson]

I have completely no idea how to handle with RPG Maker

That is the reason why you are going to have huge problems even getting this started. You wont find anyone here that is willing to make the whole game for you, get yourself acquainted with RPG Maker so much so that your comfortable that you are able to do most things by yourself and then try asking for help. What you are asking for is the greatest programmers and artists here to make this game and getting them together is gonna be extremely difficult.
But, to be honest, this sounds impossible in any of RM series, especially RM2K/3. It seems to graphically advanced for it to handle and RM2K3 can only handle 256 colors. You may want to lower your sights if you ever get this started.

That's even worse. ALL threads in this forum need to be "project pages".

That's not entirely true. This area is used for discussion about the Game Makers too. As the forum description says
"Discuss your games here, get help, and chat about the programs you use! (RM2K, Sphere, Game Maker, RM2K3, etc"
And we've also had threads where people have tried to put a team together in the past too and, while the teams haven't worked out, the threads have always stayed open. And this does like a team recruitment thread, so I'll leave it open since there is nowhere suitable to move it to. If the thread isn't successful then it'll just die down.

 

[Simply_Dark]

Phoenix, I don't want anyone to do the game for me 0_o you must have miunderstood me. I just want to know how to do some things, like the sprites and the field tiles that look Anime, in case you didn't get the point. I have completely no intent of being bugging anyone to program anything, and besides, if I have to learn RPG Maker programming language (is it C?) for a year, I won't mind at all. Get it now?

The only problem I don't know how to handle is that if RPG Maker really only allows 256 colors, how will I make the game... does XP have True Color, or does any other game creating program have?

So the problem maintains, can anyone help me with this? Do I have to make a color set of a Anime screenshot and try to replace the game tiles with more realistic colours? And about the sprites? Anyone willing to help a poor guy victim of dilemma?

 

[Krazy_Meerkat]

I like some of your ideas, Dark, I once had the same plans.. I think you'll find that you won't get very far though.. For starters, All the buildings in a town would have to be screenshots taken at exactly the same angle then all the other pixels would have to be seperated :S too complex for a mere game..
Also, It can't be done in any other RM maker than xp.. Because of the picture qualities you are demanding.. And it would take some advanced coding just to even do the story you proposed with average graphics..

I wanted to use anime graphics in a game once but using digital graphics is just smarter.. You need walking animations for each direction of every character in the game, you need terrain for all the maps which wouldn't look digital.. then you need to design towns and a battle system all using those graphics.. It's just not as easy as you would think..
Don't give up though, you could always use anime graphics for the battle system.. perhaps the mart and pokecenter...

 

[Simply_Dark]

btw the buildings don't have to be at the same angle, you can just do a rough sketch with digital graphics and convert the colours, like finding a common texture like a tile and setting it in all of the building. Also, the moving characters would be the easiest thing to do, since it may be Anime, but just three frames in a move would still be smart. Programming would take A LOT of time, I know, but there are people who really dedicate to things like these, ya know :D . About the battling, it would be not the easiest, but the hardest thing ! Imagine this. You see a picture of Pikachu from an episode and imagine it in a battle, right? Wrong. You have to have poses for a healthy Pikachu, half health Pikachu, and red health crawling Pikachu trying to stand. Now these three poses are done differently for each status problem, so there would be a lot of them. Also, the attacks wouldn't be common to all Pokemon like in the games - for example a Blastoise's Hydro Pump would imply exactly taking its cannons out and shooting, instead of sliding the sprite to the rigth and creating a water effect in front of it. Besides, this is just a minor part of the game, as the mechanics would be so complex you wouldn't get a chance to understand the status rise with level up at first glance ! Dark, Light, and EX Pokemon, each with unique attacks, new places, expanded places, everything that cares about Pokemon, from the places drawn in the Cards, to the kinds of cups existing in games, would be in here ! Even though I don't have the minimal idea of how to make this work, I do have a H-U-G-E archive with screenshots, sprites, text that people say, among many other things. Besides all this, I have to calculate the events, expand the history for example - Being able to play as any starter trainer known or having acitivities like going to the Travel League, finding mechanic plates to put in Celio's Synthetizer to find special items, evolve Pokemon with different techniques, like having a Shellder battle with a Slowpoke and use Bite on it - using maybe the Friendly Matchmaker, a guy who lets your Pokemon battle each other in his field, but they only get a certain experience, participate in Blaine's quizes (That's right - Gym leaders don't just stand around the gym all day. They go on shopping, go to cafes, meet people, among other things, like normal people do. You also have a Friendship, Respect, Love, and other meters that when are at a porper level, for example a 5 start Trust from Prof. Oak, you can borrow some of his Pokemon or attend his private lecture at Saturdays noon where he talks about a random Pokemon, among many other things. In sum - Have fun!)

PS : Sorry for making you read this testament but it might give ideas to a lot of people I have ideas like this all the time and if you want to use something i mentioned in your game go ahead, no credit, I get a spectacular idea from the simplest thing and then go on developing several different things, like when I stared at my pencial accidentally while thinking for Pokemon ideas and came up with a possibility to enter the Tech School in Kanto or enter Flannery's Grandfather's Poetry Contest, where if you use a certain kind of words in your poems, and combined right, you might get nice things. I was also thinking of putting some Manga ideas into the game, like th part where on the way to the Indigo Plateau you see Blaine being attacked by Mewtwo, and you help him out, or you decide to evolve Raichu in a very sentimentalist cutscene for the final battle of your journey, or things like that, but that would be too different from the things you use to do in games. Maybe putting it later.

Cya :classic: