Definitely a must buy.  It's honestly like playing a movie, but the key part is that you're still playing.  The recent trend in games is to give the illusion the player is doing something cool, but take over right before you get to do it and show a long cutscene of awesome stuff.  In this game 90% of the time, you're playing through exciting cutscenes.

Lots of times I was so involved in what was going on, I didn't realized I was supposed to be playing and died.  Great game, great acting, great writing.

When I picked up my 360, I traded in my PS2, my Xbox and all the games I had for both (about 20 of the "must-haves").  I got about $60 for all of it.  This was over a year ago.  You're not going to get anywhere near $200.  Sorry, trading is a great way to save money from game to game, but when you're looking at bigger purchases you have to weigh your options.

Are you EVER going to play any of those PS2 games ever again?  If you're not, then just trade them regardless of what you get.  It'll be better then them sitting around doing nothing.  As far as I know the PS3s are no longer backwards compatible, so you'll need to keep your PS2 to play them.  Just some things to keep in mind.

All I have to say is the PS3 is definitely worth the $299 (in Canada) now.  Great exclusives like Uncharted 2, Demon Souls, Infamous and Ratchet & Clank definitely make this system worth it.  Used to be a 360 guy, but I'm slowly favouring the PS3.

Good luck!

Every story is cliche.  Always.  Beginning, middle, end.  Problem, climax, solution.  The devils in the details.

I look at my characters the way I would act a role in a movie.

What are their short term goals/what do they want the current scenes?  What is their super objective/what compels them from beginning to end?

When you answer those two questions for every character you should get a clear indication as to who they are.  Relate these characters to people you know (fictionally and non) and pull qualities that match your game's theme.  If you're game tells a love story, you're going to need two people who can fall in love.  If it's about family, you'll need characters who can relate to one another in some way.

After that my characters just kind of come together and write themselves.

More than 20 times , Jesus says that he is God.
I am just making a game about what is historically accurate.

I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.I am God.

Let there be light.

Could you possibly just make the monster's HP appear above them briefly when they lose/gain HP?

I guess I wasn't paying much attention when I posted it (I mentioned in the Youtube description, not thinking that it wouldn't be seen via embedding), but this is more or less the first cut.  It's not completely polished as I'd like it to be, but it's more or less how the scene will play out. (Previous remarks in spoilers because I don't want this to be more of a wall of text than it already is!)


That's pretty much how every other RM cutscene is, but I see your point.  I tried having moving mouths, but didn't like the way it looked.  Perhaps I'll revisit the idea.  I will also add some frames in the idle poses so that they're not completely still.


Fading the text in and out is a good idea.  Ideally though I'd love to have voice overs for these scenes, but I'm not counting on that.  I don't really know what other font to use, I want something readable, not something fancy.  If you have a particular font series in mind please suggest away, but at the moment, I don't see what font I could substitute that would accomplish what the current font doesn't.


Well, generally wyverns are a classification of dragons that are bipedal and have no arms.  In the reality of my game, wyverns are a smaller breed of dragons that fit the physical description of previously established lore.


Not going to lie, that's partly it.  I'm not the best pixel artist in the world and I'd rather have a pose that fits the situation than a pose that looks like a god awful pixel mess.  If I have the ability, I'd love for the cutscenes to be completely hand-drawn, but I don't have the talent or time, unfortunately, so I'm making do.  However, this pose in particular does irk me now that you bring it up and I will try to come up with something better.

Thanks for giving me some stuff to think about/work on!

@oc_gunslinger

Haha, that's pretty nifty! (The intro movie that is). How long did it take you to put all that together?

Not long at all, actually.  The hardest part was importing the graphics.  Now that I have all the main character's poses/common animations (like walking, staggering, etc) I blast through the actual animating in about 20/30 minutes depending on the length of the cutscene and that's mostly just fiddling with text positions and everything.

Yeah, I'd imagine it'd look fine whether you did or didn't, but with the crazy stuff people are doing these days I didn't know if it was something you were going to tackle.  Again, it's just outstanding.

Screenshots:

All major cutscenes will be fully animated like so (not the real music used in game)  EDIT: It should be noted this is still a WIP and only used to set the general pace of the scene:

I've shown this before.  Some chipsets errors exist, but they've been fixed.

Is that RM2k(3)?  If it is, are you actually going to be dealing with the perspective (implied by the bridge)?  Either way, that looks phenomenal.  Kind of reminds me of adventure movies from the late 80s-early 90s.

I understand your points completely, which is why I've added a quick transport system (much like a point and click world map) that can be accessed through any save point in any of the main areas.

I guess I got tired of world maps.  I wanted to give the player a sense of immersion when traveling from location to location.  I find world map traveling disconnected from most games.  So, I opted to give a smaller scale journey from one place to another.  Instead of seeing a grand scope of the world that you trudge across, you actually get to see the country side of major cities that would otherwise be depicted as arbitrary trees and mountains on a world map.

To me, really creating a back story for every location is key to making that location worth visiting.  If I can't think of a reason why the player is traveling to/through a location then chances are I'm going to scrap it.

In the end, I think it actually compresses my game.  Rather than a huge spanning world map that the player finds themselves wandering around, they have these actual areas that they can explore personally instead of extrapolating from generic forests/mountain ranges placed on a map to herd the player to their next destination.

I know it's much harder to model in 3D, and I absolutely respect 3D work, but the mech's walking animation looks off to me.  It just lacks that satisfying power of movement.  It doesn't seem to be walking, so much as it is gliding as if it were cross-country skiing.

I don't know, if you can take a look at some videos of the new Red Faction game.  The Mechs in that game have great animation.

Still, it's great work!

@Cray: Logically, in our world, nothing can grow there, but that doesn't mean it has to stop you.  If you want to add plants though, why shouldn't you?  It's your world, you create the logic.  As long as it's not big, lush, green trees/bushes I'd believe it.  Icecap Mushrooms?  Snow lilies?  Why not?

I think a soft pink flower or fluorescent blue mushroom would look really good.  Especially if some of it came from the cracks in the walls.

I would prefer a game where you don't travel on an overworld, you either travel on foot on actual maps from one town to another

My thoughts exactly, which is why I cut out the world maps.

I have a world map drawn for my own sense of direction/refrence, but it will never be used outside of my own planning.  I try to keep things interesting and engaging on the "tweening maps" by examing where they are in the world and what settlements are near by.  I approximate my location to a location similar geographically in the real world and then do some research to what kind of flora/fauna live there.

For example, early in the game you travel to a large kingdom that has had to shut down its mines due to infestation.  This has caused the kingdom to shift focus from mining to logging, so the connecting forest is thinner (more stumps, less trees) in the surrounding area, but once you travel further east, closer to a secluded village that houses a religious shrine, the forest becomes thicker and vegetation becomes more untamed.

I'm not doing this so that people will notice it.  If I do it properly, no one will.  That's the point.  I want people to just understand that, "Oh hey, the kingdom must cut down trees for lumber."  It doesn't really impact anything other than how immersed the player is in the world I am inviting them into.  If it was just generic kingdom that has monsters in a mine that you need to kill in order to progress to generic forest that you must travel through to get to generic shrine, I wouldn't want to play it either.  I hope that when people travel the world they see how the rest of the world effects everything around it.

Because I have yet to really start scripting the story (I know the details, I know the characters, I just haven't started writing complete scenes, etc.) the locations in my game are sort of the star at this point.  I take into consideration three aspects of a city before I start mapping it: economy, politics and religion.  My game focuses heavily on those three aspect of the world, so before I start working on a town I think how important those three things are.

For example, I have the first major city you come to is important in the political setting of the game and an economic powerhouse.  There are religious statues here and there, but only as decoration in parks/lobbies.  Instead, the town is filled with crates for import/export and tonnes of flags.

I also try to associate a national colour to important locations, so if a smaller settlement is a colony of a bigger entity, they'll be flying the same flag.

My game is unique in the sense that it doesn't have a world map at all.  The world is 100% traversal through full maps.  At no point are you transported to an overworld.  Instead, you travel from place to place via foot and later by ships and airships as routes become available to you.  Obviously, there are some parts cut out and fast traveling via special save points is available, but overall if it exists in the world you can walk through it, which I think gives the world another level of depth.

@Twin Matrix: I think he's referring to the gaping holes in it.  If that were to actually make it out to see, water would fill the hull and sink it.  Unless, of course, it is a ghost ship.  In which case, you know, it can do whatever it wants.  It looks great, by the way.

@Foliage: White text on a white background is never a good idea.  Maybe if the text had a full outline rather than just a drop shadow, but as of right now I would never pick up your game out of respect to my eyes.

@Liberty: With the characters being so tiny, I see no reason why the party leader can't be shown on the skiff.  It'd be nice to see her hope on and start sailing away.  Unless the party leader can change at anytime, then that would be a bit excessive.  And yeah, the text is kind of off-center for the item.

@UPRC:  I'm confused as to where the canopy is coming from.  I'm aware of Norse mythology (my game is filled with references), so I know the size you're trying to convey with that tree.  So, if the tree IS that big then why is the canopy so low?  I understand that you're trying to give the map a frame to focus the attention to the center, but it just gives off the illusion that that is the top of the tree.

I don't get the sense that what we see is only the base of the tree.  The canopy should stop at the sides and allow the trunk to run completely off the screen in the center.

Actually, I'm working on a Hookah for the interior chipset as we speak.

Thanks all!

@Arulon: I'll be getting rid of those parasols, for sure.  I'm not too sure why they're even there in the first place, I guess I saw the red and needed something to fill up some space.  Bad idea.  I get what you're saying about the port, but my logic is that a giant stone building really wouldn't be built on top of a wooden platform.  I was trying to find something that matched the rest of the city, perhaps I should keep looking?

@Zatham: Any suggestions for a signature Arabian item?  Furthest thing I got were some of the custom/edit windows and some other small custom chips.  Other than that I really can't think of specific items that really scream Arabian, to me it's a general atmosphere, but if you (or anyone else) has some ideas, I'd love to toss them in!

@Neophyte: Yeah, I see what you mean.  I guess I got carried away with trying to infuse some colour into an otherwise boring palette.

Question: What's the easiest way to lower saturation levels?  I use iDraw for most of my spriting needs and the only way I'm aware of is by using the sliders to edit individual colours and that would be tedious.