So, huge amount of effort this week and weekend getting the map loader to swap maps correctly and smoothly. Had to make a lot of decisions on how and what to load and when and had to figure out how to make flash do thing asynchronously when called from a frame updater function.
Long story short, there are places to explore in my demo now! It's only a simple level with some polishing and an empty house but still, it shows that I got something working at least. If anyone wants to make some levels I'll be happy to reproduce them as part of my demo...
@cemkalyoncu
I'm ready to start making a game when you are. When you get some story translated let me know, I can make maps and draw objects and make stuff! I think next it's time to work on an inventory system.
I've replaced all graphics in my previous demo with purely LPC graphics. I've also had to do some re-tooling because LPC graphics are setup differently than everything I had cobbled together. Please feel free to see my basic game engine demo with LPC graphics. I attribute nothing graphic to myself, it's all the awesome people here on OGA!
[See above for link to my site, I'm not going to post it again because that's spam!]
Funny you mention the minecraft cake. The author of eldcraft is also the author of that tileset you linked. That's a set he made before eldcraft.
I can see your point about the graphics though. I think I might have to use LPC graphics or stuff on here that's licensed in a way that I can do what I need with it.
You're a pretty darn good pixel artist, maybe you'd be interested in making some graphics... if not maybe you can recommed someone else who you believe is good like you ;)
That has so many assets and is so f*ing useful! WOW!
Okay, so, my final decision is to use LPC graphics. I'm still interested in the idea of contributing to a pixel artist and having some tiles made that I can contribute to the LPC effort (after I've had a chance to use some of them of course).
SECOND EDIT
Tiled map editor seems like a pretty useful tool also. I have to say, I don't know how I missed all these LPC links and assets and everything else when I was nosing around the other night. Goodness!
You're totally right, someone took RPG maker default graphics and put them up as their own. I found the exact same tileset several other places just by typing "RPG maker tileset" into Google. How ridiculous. Lesson learned. Double or maybe tripple check sources are legit.
About those sprites... I can't seem to locate them any other place besides the one website. I'm still thinking they're original but now you have me questioning everything. Here is the url where they can be found:
zch.neurohelmet.com/2000/
Below is the forum where they're being talked about and where I originally found them. You're smarter than me, please tell me if I'm a tard and I just missed something obvious:
A simple search on Google with the words "RPG maker spritesheet" didn't reveal any of those exact sprites but this is a link to some very similar sprites that make me question validity (by simple search I mean opening several hundred tiny thumbnails for almost 2 hours searching carefully for similar images):
angelfire.com/hero/straygames/rpg2dmiSheet.png
Please see comment below directed at everyone for a note about maybe animating your mockup levels and making them into something a sprite can wander around so people can see my game engine working with real content. If it's okay with you I'm gonna do that.
@cemkalyoncu
I've spent a few hours digging around LPC content and I have to say, I'm impressed. The quality and consistency standards were definitely followed by most and a lot of this stuff is quite usable.
I also did some digging for tilesets. Of course, in digging I decided to look around on the internet to see if there were other places to find interesting/usable content. I found a few places. More to come on that.
@EVERYONE
Still need some mockup levels! My engine consists of a lot of good game logic but only one level! I want to give people a feel for game play style. I don't think it's the most advanced thing in the world but I'm kind of proud I was able to emulate so many different other game styles so quickly with a little flash programming. I don't really care what tileset, terrain, or sprites you might use to make a mockup. Hell, I might just make Sharm's mockup with her graphics blown up to 200% just to demonstrate how the game might feel.
You're probably right about the tiles. I didn't check those thoroughly. I'm not familiar enough with default RPG maker graphics so I have no idea if they came from there or not. I can always figure out something else for the tiles, that's not an issue.
The sprites were originally made for use with RPG maker 2000 but are not default graphics, they were made to be compatible with that program, they're original works. Their creator has two other sets of sprites on a website that I've got in a folder in my game folder along with the author's contact info, etc.
The two texture packs are popular Minecraft texture packs that I did go through some lengths to get permission to use and I verified are original works.
@cemkalyoncu
Are you talking about Liberated Pixel Cup graphics? If so, I haven't really explored them and have next to zero knowledge about them. I'll have to go on an exploration tonight to see about them. Thanks for the tip.
Originally I thought I had a decent amount of logic already written for a game engine. Obviously I was wrong because I've been investing a large amount of time writing logic to make a demo! Thankfully I realize writing software is a process. It takes a lot of forthought, planning, and some serious time. So far I've invested quite a bit of time in this project and I've managed to make a map generator that includes events based on areas entered that can include any type of logic I like including transitioning from one area to another, firing some fancy visual effect, launching into a cut scene, etc.
I've decided on using 32x32 pixel based graphics and 48x64 pixel sprites. I have a sprite sheet with 8 characters walking up, down, left, and right. I've located and contacted authors of 3 sets of tile based graphics for painting objects and structures into levels. I've verified license for each of these is either CC-BY or CC0 and the creators/contributors are all okay with me using them for whatever I want to include commercial works as long as I give attribution. None of these graphics are my works but I'm allowed to use them to my hearts content. Attached are the 4 sets of graphics I've come up with.
I need mock-up stages to put into my game demo! I need the following:
Small town
Dungeon
Wilderness
Anything you're willing to contribute!
I don't plan to use any mock-ups for an actual game but if they're good I'll probably ask permission to use at least the ideas you present.
Thanks in advance!
Edit: I don't know why sprites.png and tiles.png are showing well over 100 downloads each considering I just uploaded them. If they already exist on this site and I didn't see them and they belong to someone here please let me know! I thought I did careful research on these and I have URLs and emails to support my claims!
My 2-year-old has recently decided he doesn't like his little brother sleeping in the same bedroom as mom and dad so I've been waking up at 2:30 every morning for a few weeks. My 2-year-old wants to cry and my 3-month-old wants to cry because his brother cries. It's like an epic evil cycle of anti-sleep gone wildly wrong. I have this wicked headache from sleep depravation but I've still managed to work out some bugs and add some logic to handle objects on the stage so you don't just run through everything now. I had to rework a pretty significant portion of my original code to get that bit working because of how I originally started writting it. It appears almost exactly the same but now you don't run through stuff like trees, light posts, statues, etc. The good news is I've almost finished a map drawing function that's separate from the rest of the game logic so it can quickly swap between maps without having to pause the game or do lengthy timers between area loads. Yes, that's right, it's almost ready to have more than one area to explore!
The server where my site is hosted seems a bit congested at the moment so if you get an error message just try back later, it's still there.
@cemkalyoncu - I didn't realize it was father's day this weekend. Naturally, my wife and kids wanted to spend some time with me so I didn't get as much time to work on game stuff as I wanted. Even still, I threw something together to demonstrate some basic abilities of the engine in progress.
Disclaimer: Lengthy techy explanation follows. Executive summary after this for non-tech people.
It draws graphics with transparent background directly from a sprite sheet, no need to chop them up into pieces or do weird conversions to them. It uses no movie clips (AS3 object) so memory doesn't bloat like mad. It's rendering everything as sprites (still images) and drawing a new image based on the number of ticks that have passed since it started ticking (right now it's counting frames rendered). Currently it embeds two sprite sheets I found that are free license (C0 I believe it's called) but I kept their source just in case. Nice thing about embeding whole sprite sheets is you can draw your levels as big as you want and the end result flash file size virtually stays the same. The display list gets carefully verified every frame and sorted when needed based on y index.
Executive Summary follows.
I've been careful to fine-tune the logic to ensure no memory bloat or processor madness occurs. It handles images easily without need to do fancy stuff to them. Objects like trees, lamp posts, columns, etc. that would hide you in real-life will also hide you in this game.
Controls:
It doesn't say this in the game file or on my site anywhere but WASD or direction arrows control the character's movement.
A link to my site where you can test this bad-boy out:
So, huge amount of effort this week and weekend getting the map loader to swap maps correctly and smoothly. Had to make a lot of decisions on how and what to load and when and had to figure out how to make flash do thing asynchronously when called from a frame updater function.
Long story short, there are places to explore in my demo now! It's only a simple level with some polishing and an empty house but still, it shows that I got something working at least. If anyone wants to make some levels I'll be happy to reproduce them as part of my demo...
@cemkalyoncu
I'm ready to start making a game when you are. When you get some story translated let me know, I can make maps and draw objects and make stuff! I think next it's time to work on an inventory system.
I've replaced all graphics in my previous demo with purely LPC graphics. I've also had to do some re-tooling because LPC graphics are setup differently than everything I had cobbled together. Please feel free to see my basic game engine demo with LPC graphics. I attribute nothing graphic to myself, it's all the awesome people here on OGA!
[See above for link to my site, I'm not going to post it again because that's spam!]
Funny you mention the minecraft cake. The author of eldcraft is also the author of that tileset you linked. That's a set he made before eldcraft.
I can see your point about the graphics though. I think I might have to use LPC graphics or stuff on here that's licensed in a way that I can do what I need with it.
You're a pretty darn good pixel artist, maybe you'd be interested in making some graphics... if not maybe you can recommed someone else who you believe is good like you ;)
EDIT
OMG how did I miss this page?
http://lpc.opengameart.org/static/lpc-style-guide/assets.html
That has so many assets and is so f*ing useful! WOW!
Okay, so, my final decision is to use LPC graphics. I'm still interested in the idea of contributing to a pixel artist and having some tiles made that I can contribute to the LPC effort (after I've had a chance to use some of them of course).
SECOND EDIT
Tiled map editor seems like a pretty useful tool also. I have to say, I don't know how I missed all these LPC links and assets and everything else when I was nosing around the other night. Goodness!
http://www.mapeditor.org/ (from LPC assets demo page)
@Sharm
You're totally right, someone took RPG maker default graphics and put them up as their own. I found the exact same tileset several other places just by typing "RPG maker tileset" into Google. How ridiculous. Lesson learned. Double or maybe tripple check sources are legit.
About those sprites... I can't seem to locate them any other place besides the one website. I'm still thinking they're original but now you have me questioning everything. Here is the url where they can be found:
zch.neurohelmet.com/2000/
Below is the forum where they're being talked about and where I originally found them. You're smarter than me, please tell me if I'm a tard and I just missed something obvious:
forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/960-2000-era-sprites-for-vxace/
A simple search on Google with the words "RPG maker spritesheet" didn't reveal any of those exact sprites but this is a link to some very similar sprites that make me question validity (by simple search I mean opening several hundred tiny thumbnails for almost 2 hours searching carefully for similar images):
angelfire.com/hero/straygames/rpg2dmiSheet.png
Please see comment below directed at everyone for a note about maybe animating your mockup levels and making them into something a sprite can wander around so people can see my game engine working with real content. If it's okay with you I'm gonna do that.
@cemkalyoncu
I've spent a few hours digging around LPC content and I have to say, I'm impressed. The quality and consistency standards were definitely followed by most and a lot of this stuff is quite usable.
I also did some digging for tilesets. Of course, in digging I decided to look around on the internet to see if there were other places to find interesting/usable content. I found a few places. More to come on that.
@EVERYONE
Still need some mockup levels! My engine consists of a lot of good game logic but only one level! I want to give people a feel for game play style. I don't think it's the most advanced thing in the world but I'm kind of proud I was able to emulate so many different other game styles so quickly with a little flash programming. I don't really care what tileset, terrain, or sprites you might use to make a mockup. Hell, I might just make Sharm's mockup with her graphics blown up to 200% just to demonstrate how the game might feel.
@FacadeGaikan
Ha! Well done good sir. You win an interwebs. Thank you for making me laugh out loud for real. That made my night.
@Sharm
You're probably right about the tiles. I didn't check those thoroughly. I'm not familiar enough with default RPG maker graphics so I have no idea if they came from there or not. I can always figure out something else for the tiles, that's not an issue.
The sprites were originally made for use with RPG maker 2000 but are not default graphics, they were made to be compatible with that program, they're original works. Their creator has two other sets of sprites on a website that I've got in a folder in my game folder along with the author's contact info, etc.
The two texture packs are popular Minecraft texture packs that I did go through some lengths to get permission to use and I verified are original works.
@cemkalyoncu
Are you talking about Liberated Pixel Cup graphics? If so, I haven't really explored them and have next to zero knowledge about them. I'll have to go on an exploration tonight to see about them. Thanks for the tip.
I need mock-up stages!
Originally I thought I had a decent amount of logic already written for a game engine. Obviously I was wrong because I've been investing a large amount of time writing logic to make a demo! Thankfully I realize writing software is a process. It takes a lot of forthought, planning, and some serious time. So far I've invested quite a bit of time in this project and I've managed to make a map generator that includes events based on areas entered that can include any type of logic I like including transitioning from one area to another, firing some fancy visual effect, launching into a cut scene, etc.
I've decided on using 32x32 pixel based graphics and 48x64 pixel sprites. I have a sprite sheet with 8 characters walking up, down, left, and right. I've located and contacted authors of 3 sets of tile based graphics for painting objects and structures into levels. I've verified license for each of these is either CC-BY or CC0 and the creators/contributors are all okay with me using them for whatever I want to include commercial works as long as I give attribution. None of these graphics are my works but I'm allowed to use them to my hearts content. Attached are the 4 sets of graphics I've come up with.
I need mock-up stages to put into my game demo! I need the following:
I don't plan to use any mock-ups for an actual game but if they're good I'll probably ask permission to use at least the ideas you present.
Thanks in advance!
Edit: I don't know why sprites.png and tiles.png are showing well over 100 downloads each considering I just uploaded them. If they already exist on this site and I didn't see them and they belong to someone here please let me know! I thought I did careful research on these and I have URLs and emails to support my claims!
For those still tuned in I've kept playing with the demo. You can find the link above. See what it looks like for yourself if you like.
My 2-year-old has recently decided he doesn't like his little brother sleeping in the same bedroom as mom and dad so I've been waking up at 2:30 every morning for a few weeks. My 2-year-old wants to cry and my 3-month-old wants to cry because his brother cries. It's like an epic evil cycle of anti-sleep gone wildly wrong. I have this wicked headache from sleep depravation but I've still managed to work out some bugs and add some logic to handle objects on the stage so you don't just run through everything now. I had to rework a pretty significant portion of my original code to get that bit working because of how I originally started writting it. It appears almost exactly the same but now you don't run through stuff like trees, light posts, statues, etc. The good news is I've almost finished a map drawing function that's separate from the rest of the game logic so it can quickly swap between maps without having to pause the game or do lengthy timers between area loads. Yes, that's right, it's almost ready to have more than one area to explore!
The server where my site is hosted seems a bit congested at the moment so if you get an error message just try back later, it's still there.
will-thompson.net/game
@cemkalyoncu - I didn't realize it was father's day this weekend. Naturally, my wife and kids wanted to spend some time with me so I didn't get as much time to work on game stuff as I wanted. Even still, I threw something together to demonstrate some basic abilities of the engine in progress.
Disclaimer: Lengthy techy explanation follows. Executive summary after this for non-tech people.
It draws graphics with transparent background directly from a sprite sheet, no need to chop them up into pieces or do weird conversions to them. It uses no movie clips (AS3 object) so memory doesn't bloat like mad. It's rendering everything as sprites (still images) and drawing a new image based on the number of ticks that have passed since it started ticking (right now it's counting frames rendered). Currently it embeds two sprite sheets I found that are free license (C0 I believe it's called) but I kept their source just in case. Nice thing about embeding whole sprite sheets is you can draw your levels as big as you want and the end result flash file size virtually stays the same. The display list gets carefully verified every frame and sorted when needed based on y index.
Executive Summary follows.
I've been careful to fine-tune the logic to ensure no memory bloat or processor madness occurs. It handles images easily without need to do fancy stuff to them. Objects like trees, lamp posts, columns, etc. that would hide you in real-life will also hide you in this game.
Controls:
It doesn't say this in the game file or on my site anywhere but WASD or direction arrows control the character's movement.
A link to my site where you can test this bad-boy out:
http://will-thompson.net/game
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