Maps and screenshots thread

[DerVVulfman]

K/DA POP STAR AKALI!


I'm STILL not done with her hair. But with that conditioner, her ponytail is VERY bouncy.... though still untamed. And still untextured.

And for those wanting to try her out in a project, I still have this.



There's still no dragon on the back of her jacket, nor the small gold badges on the sides, and no buckles on her shoes. And along with that, I don't have her white belt with a brass V-shaped buckle. Heh. You'd think a simple belt would be the first thing to work out.

[Kain Nobel]

DerVVulfman can sprite :o OMG! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING THIS SECRET FROM US?! Hey, you're pretty good!

Believe it or not, I'm working on two games now. Actually, I always have been.

Project Beast

The Belly of the Beast game I made years ago for that contest, well... it still exists and is still in development. The one on the forum is way old and doesn't represent the current project, not even the slightest from a technical standpoint. The dungeon is still relatively similar, but larger and with more troop formations. There are 3 more chapters and the enemies... let's just say YOU WILL NOT HOLD ATTACK! Players who do nothing but hold Attack will be slaughtered and enemies can smell your fear now. I'll post some menu shots.

Content Hidden

Project Beast : Skill Menu

This menu is separated into skill categories. Skill categories have their own column settings and two different sort settings. Setting A only provides data for skills currently learned. Setting B preserves the indices of all skills that you have or have not learned.



Project Beast : Status Menu

Character animation is provided from the new Minkoff inspired animated battler engine. Since Tifa is HP critical, she is displaying the proper animated pose. Cloud is petrified so his portrait is grey-scale and his sprite is stone. Aeris is KO so her portrait is red tone and her sprite is lying unconscious.

This is pretty basic for now, but it will provide element and status affinity in the near future, just press the X (X-Box) / Square (PlayStation) / A (PC) button to see further data. 

Project Echo

This project is a lot older than Project Beast and has approximately 17 hours of game play. I'm planning on eventually going commercial with it and am allocating an advertising budget. I've always preferred to keep this game secret until that time but I will share some screenshots.

Content Hidden

Project Echo : Skill Menu

Outdated as the Spirit Gems system has changed, but here is an old screenshot of the skill menu.

Spirit Gems are similar to FF7 Materia but not exactly the same as you permanently learn the skills provided and the Spirit Gem itself never "levels up" or "becomes mastered" like Materia does. The newer system is like FF7 materia meets X-Men Legends skill system. That means Yuffie can steal your Spirit Gems but she can never take away what you have learned from them. Ever.

(I wanted to get a different screenshot but many of my magic icons have changed names so, until I update the settings, all it does is crash. This is due to renaming of files, the system itself actually works fine.)



Project Echo : Configuration Screen

Everything is functional except for Control configuration. Animated ATB is 90% implemented and yes the player can set Active/Wait and the speed of battle as well as battle and field message speed. The controller in the bottom right corner is functional; I actually programmed it when I was programming the Input/Keyboard module for ReGaL as a means of visually testing game pads. Prior to that, I was using Aleworks/AWorks by vgvgf but the new modules have been rewritten to work for Mac, Linux and PC. Gamepad works now too. In the picture I'm holding R1, Left/Up, Square, X and Select because that's all I was able to hold while pressing "Print Screen" with my pinky.

Right and Left analog as well as R3 and L3 actually do work but none of that has been implemented in the gamepad test yet, as do R2 and L2. I've never got these buttons/analog sticks to work in RPG Maker and I probably never will as I'm limited to what the F1 menu provides.



The system does read PS3 controller well, but I have trouble with PS4. I've never tested an X-Box controller and I don't have sprites for them. Regular PC game pads should work, I don't know if I need XInput for X-Box, X-Box 360 or X-Box 1 controllers.

Both games now utilize elements from a massive Ruby library, but they're not 100% backwards compatible with each other, I don't know if it ever will be. Game data for Project Echo is edited via command prompt, not sure if I'll ever build a GUI to edit all this nonsense but it sure would be nice to have.

Yikes, there is too much to do ;_; I'll be busy for the rest of my life. Sometimes I feel I'm going nowhere with all this but I've got so much done. Meh.

[kyonides]

I have never finished a single game, especially Detective Aluxes, so I know a bit about unfinished business. By the way, I recently updated HiddenChest, but it is just a maintenance version so I am not advertising it on the official thread.

It seems both of your games, Kain Nobel, are Final Fantasy like indeed. Do you plan to keep them like that? Or did you include other games' features as well? O_O

[Kain Nobel]

From a technical standpoint, yes, it is heavily FF inspired but that is all smokescreen and these are mere placeholders and prototype pieces used to push the design process further, nothing more. FF inspired but it is not a fan game or clone, something a little different. It is easier to NOT have original characters in this phase of development, but I will eventually be creating a brand new cast and everything right now is unofficial. Right now I'm focusing on stabilizing the battle system and designing animated battlers; the different human templates (soon featuring weapons) and a handful of monsters.

There are some key Metal Gear Solid mechanics baked into the design already. Some of these will be obvious and discovered (overt) but there are some things that very few people will discover (covert). These are not planned speculative features, they've already been designed and tested, but these need to be discovered I can't really talk about what exactly it is. No, you probably won't be crawling on your belly, it's something else...

[Kain Nobel]

A mockup of some sprite work. Tifa is more than finished, Cloud is just getting started. They will eventually be replaced by original characters Logan and Mysti, among others. The enemy is a Tesla Wyrm, an original monster, which battle animations are fully complete!



The purpose of this exercise is I'm starting weapon poses, namely two-handed sword for male, but all 5 templates (child, female, male, male (muscle), fat) is to have these same or similar poses. I'll move on to spears, maces, flails, guns, etc. and things will be an absolute hoot! Might take me a while though...



Ah, the Save menu, with a mix of original characters and the temporary FF cast. Game will be broken down into Chapters and Missions. Types of Missions will be Story, Side-Ops and Alliance. Story missions push the story further, eventually triggering the next Chapter. Side-Ops are (mostly) optional, some which are Chapter-dependent while others will remain for most/all chapters until completed and have their own mission sub-series. Alliance is the story-pivoting friend/foe branching system, which alternate key details in the core Story in unique fashion.

(If anybody has played InFamous 2, I'm basing my story model off their technical model. Very simple and too the point, really. Alliance system would be similar to the Karma system; similar but NOT the same. Both affect story up to the final mission and ending. At least two distinct endings at minimum, extending the replay value FTW!)



Modified hero command window for battle. Fight and Defend will also have their own sub-menus similar to Magic and Items. To skip their respective sub-menus, the player can select the command with / instead of / issuing the original function of the Fight and Defend commands. Pressing / and / will cycle previous and next actor, respectively. Holding / for a second or two will trigger the Escape function for battlers whom do not have pending actions.

The input system goes slightly deeper than that but the current test model allows for fast and efficient player action for swift and challenging combat. Project Beast already has these exact things implemented as described but I've yet to port them over to Project Echo.


Modified battle status bar. The "Special" bar is divided into (up to) 4 sections. This is similar to FF7's "Limit Break" system, but each sub-section represents the level of Special Attack the player has access to. If we're basing this dummy data on Cloud's Limit list, you'll see one bar is filled enough to unlock Limit 1.1 "Braver" and Limit 1.2 "Cross Slash" but nothing of 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, etc. (See window above) This would allow the player to queue up several revenge attacks (ie use "Braver" more than once) or fill up all (up to) 4 bars fully for their ultimate attack (ie Limit 4.1 "Omnislash").

These are the current state of affairs, things are 80% implemented but I still have bugs to work out.

[Kain Nobel]

REVENGE system allows characters to learn unique skills of varying levels. A new bar segment is added as the Level goes up, allowing for lower level skills to be used more than once. REVENGE is charged depending on style; "Victim" charges when hurt, "Warrior" charges by physically attacking foes, "Lunatics" have an auto-charge rate dependent on moon phase, etc.

Credit to my son for creating some of the active REVENGE Style icons. Of course we're using FF7's Tifa and her skills just as an example, she'll be replaced by Lindsey or Mysti or someone original later on with a completely different skill set.



An old map but I don't think I ever posted it.

[Kain Nobel]

*Yawn*



Working title. Planet spins a full 360 every 3 or so minutes. Sun, moon and stars are static so I might undo the spinning planet thing.



This is basically the very first map. Character lands via helicopter, gets provisions from the cave and then takes off on hang glider. The first mission starts as soon as you land.



The first actual mission / "dungeon" type level. Heavily inspired by GoldenEye 64; a mix of Facility and Archives in style, even has a series of bathroom stalls and stairwells. Has an indoor / outdoor segment and two separate escape methods. Flashlight and NVGs are both unlocked here, and there are actually very specific reasons to use one over the other depending on situation. Whole level can be completed with stealth, it will not negatively affect your EXP. Grinding is capped as enemies only respawn an X number of times, meaning "Perfect Stealth / No Kills" will net you more EXP / Gold than killing each enemy to extinction would.



After the mission, a national emergency is declared. There is much confusion and deception.

Prior to becoming the Myrian president, John Price was one of the original 7 founding members of the STARS Council, an international body which regulates space exploration. There is drama between the 6 surviving founders and the poor suckers that live on the surface have to deal with the fallout.

[kyonides]

As if the spy or soldier could exfiltrate the base as dead meat or a zombie!
You want the population to suffer, you are a tyrant, Kain!

[kyonides]

Some guy named ReptaliaCA had shared these screenshots over discord...





I wonder if Melana would envy him.

[Mel]

They look really good especially the lighting on the first one.
But I'm not an envying person at all.