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Jan. 24th, 2014 06:40 amBeen exchanging emails with Matthew every now and then since the holidays, and he has expressed interest in programming the Starbound game.
Unfortunately, I don't have anything for him to actually work with yet. Currently, I have yet to even commission anyone for any kind of graphics or audio, which I'm not ready to do yet until I figure out what I'm actually gonna need and what should take priority over what. I've already given several household maps I've recently worked on to Chelle to refine, and she told me that she has another project she needs to take care of first. In the meantime, I myself am in the middle of creating a map of the path from Rokuna's house to the twins' house and everything within said path's vicinity, and will start with one from Konata's house to Rokuna's (aside from the woods that the party navigates) after that one's finished.
Matthew did say to find a game engine to work with, but that's probably gonna be something I'll have to discuss more in depth with Brian. While Starbound itself was inspired directly from Earthbound, certain game mechanics are going to differ (deliberately, in fact, so as to individuate itself from the canon games, just like each of those games from one another). For example, the party can consist of up to twelve characters at a time (up to ten mains, plus any possible guests), and those within it will form a different arrangement, both in battle and outside of, than in the trilogy. Enemies can form up to three rows in battle, and battles themselves will have some sort of strategic element introduced (such as no one being able to go around enemies to attack another enemy with a short-range weapon). And, also worth noting is the angle at which everything will be seen.
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About that... Well, this actually stems from some research I did on the Breath of Fire series, although Digimon World 3 and the SA-1-chip-enhanced SNES game Super Mario RPG also figure in to this. During said research that I did on Wikipedia, I noticed that the screenshots for the first two BoF games, designed for the Super NES, were both oriented cardinally overhead, while III and IV (both for the Playstation) were more diagonally oriented. From there, I decided that the Starbound game will have a diagonal overhead view (even though most other sprite-based PSX RPGs I've seen to any extent thus far are still cardinally oriented).
Naturally, this would be a bit problematic whenever the party decides to visit Miyuki or Minami's houses, which happen to be right across the street from each other. I never did plan on making a full-fledged 3D game, though, because not only would that be beyond what I could possibly hope to raise through Kickstarter, but Earthbound 64 was already going to be that game for the Nintendo 64, even though it did get cancelled very early on.
Well, I did see a possible in-between after watching some actual gameplay of Grandia and Breath of Fire IV. Note how people only face at 45-degree angles, while the camera angle is not fixed to a particular position but still somewhat restricted.
Spoke to Brian about that the other night, and he said that I should probably aim for just a single angle for everything to start with, before seeking polygons. I sent him an email linking to the two gameplay videos, so as to show him what kind of 3D I was talking about, and hoped that we might be able to discuss things from there, but I haven't been able to establish another conversation with him since.
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In any case, since I already know what I'm gonna need as far as mugshots go, I think I'll go around and ask people like nanashi-no if they're interested in designing any. (Agataylor did try her hand at it, but after having seen the not-so-stellar colored version of a basic shot of Kagami, I decided to call the whole thing off with her.) Also need to find someone to compose at least one song (will probably use pre-existing video game songs as placeholders for the rest), and then ask him or her to create some (not-prepackaged) sound effects. And, someone to create sprites, PK spell animations, graphics for what I already know the game will have, and possibly battle backgrounds.
Unfortunately, I don't have anything for him to actually work with yet. Currently, I have yet to even commission anyone for any kind of graphics or audio, which I'm not ready to do yet until I figure out what I'm actually gonna need and what should take priority over what. I've already given several household maps I've recently worked on to Chelle to refine, and she told me that she has another project she needs to take care of first. In the meantime, I myself am in the middle of creating a map of the path from Rokuna's house to the twins' house and everything within said path's vicinity, and will start with one from Konata's house to Rokuna's (aside from the woods that the party navigates) after that one's finished.
Matthew did say to find a game engine to work with, but that's probably gonna be something I'll have to discuss more in depth with Brian. While Starbound itself was inspired directly from Earthbound, certain game mechanics are going to differ (deliberately, in fact, so as to individuate itself from the canon games, just like each of those games from one another). For example, the party can consist of up to twelve characters at a time (up to ten mains, plus any possible guests), and those within it will form a different arrangement, both in battle and outside of, than in the trilogy. Enemies can form up to three rows in battle, and battles themselves will have some sort of strategic element introduced (such as no one being able to go around enemies to attack another enemy with a short-range weapon). And, also worth noting is the angle at which everything will be seen.
-----
About that... Well, this actually stems from some research I did on the Breath of Fire series, although Digimon World 3 and the SA-1-chip-enhanced SNES game Super Mario RPG also figure in to this. During said research that I did on Wikipedia, I noticed that the screenshots for the first two BoF games, designed for the Super NES, were both oriented cardinally overhead, while III and IV (both for the Playstation) were more diagonally oriented. From there, I decided that the Starbound game will have a diagonal overhead view (even though most other sprite-based PSX RPGs I've seen to any extent thus far are still cardinally oriented).
Naturally, this would be a bit problematic whenever the party decides to visit Miyuki or Minami's houses, which happen to be right across the street from each other. I never did plan on making a full-fledged 3D game, though, because not only would that be beyond what I could possibly hope to raise through Kickstarter, but Earthbound 64 was already going to be that game for the Nintendo 64, even though it did get cancelled very early on.
Well, I did see a possible in-between after watching some actual gameplay of Grandia and Breath of Fire IV. Note how people only face at 45-degree angles, while the camera angle is not fixed to a particular position but still somewhat restricted.
Spoke to Brian about that the other night, and he said that I should probably aim for just a single angle for everything to start with, before seeking polygons. I sent him an email linking to the two gameplay videos, so as to show him what kind of 3D I was talking about, and hoped that we might be able to discuss things from there, but I haven't been able to establish another conversation with him since.
-----
In any case, since I already know what I'm gonna need as far as mugshots go, I think I'll go around and ask people like nanashi-no if they're interested in designing any. (Agataylor did try her hand at it, but after having seen the not-so-stellar colored version of a basic shot of Kagami, I decided to call the whole thing off with her.) Also need to find someone to compose at least one song (will probably use pre-existing video game songs as placeholders for the rest), and then ask him or her to create some (not-prepackaged) sound effects. And, someone to create sprites, PK spell animations, graphics for what I already know the game will have, and possibly battle backgrounds.