Concepts and Mock-ups

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  • Haven't seen any of these up, and since I'm still in the "what-the-hell-am-I-doing" phase, I just have some arts right now.

    I hope this is the right place for this, lemme know if it is not and I will scram. = )

    ----

    (Pardon if this introduction is a wee bit long, I have no slept in a while and may ramble)

    I've been working on this game for quite a while now. It began as a Turn-based RPG made in RPGMaker XP(three months work went into a playable demo), then moved to VXAce, where I quickly realized it was not exactly the engine but the genre that was the issue. It is not a turn-based RPG.

    It is an action game.

    So, moved my idea to more of an isometric Zelda style and Construct. Oh, but iso is a pain in the butt and this is my first project, all alone. Well, mostly. I do have the skills of a very talented composer working with me. Which means an original soundtrack, and this is amazing in it's own right. Especially considering he asked me to work on it, based solely on the story. That was a motivation booster, certainly. ^.-

    To make matters a bit easier on myself, I switched to side-scrolling platformer. They were always a favorite anyway, and less directions are easier on the animation side.

    Now that you know the brief of -how- I came to this lovely forum, here is what I have of the game to share.

    -----------

    For a quick low-down of the game's premise -

    2D action RPG side-scroller about a little mage girl, aided by her enchanted dolls, on a quest to find her big brother.

    For a little more;

    Behind a small cottage, at the heart of a tiny village, a little girl is practicing her fire spells. Her mother has told her time and again not to do so near the trees. She can never find a spot without trees, and she really needs to practice...

    Her brother has been missing for some time. He was sent on some important quest long ago. Missed her birthday this year. She's been dying to show him the new spell she learned to cast on her teddy..

    But that's not important now. What's important is that everyone seems to have forgotten about her big brother.

    Her father keeps teaching his magery at the local Academy. Leaves every day, kisses her and mother goodbye and drones on about proper rune structure and how important annunciation is to spell-weaving.

    The neighbors, with their strange thumbed cat that walks on two legs, have stopped coming by to offer sympathies. And candied apples.

    Only she and mother keep vigil every night at the gate. They watch. They wait. They care.

    But she's had enough watching. Enough waiting.

    If no one finds big brother, who will stop the monsters from attacking? Who will go to the big city and ask for help? Who will pat her on the head and tell her she's a good little magical girl? - Mother has asked she not call herself that, but "magician" just sounds so...boring.

    No. She is a Magical Girl and she will save the wo- err Village. Yes, village.

    If they wont go do it. She will. She'll find her brother and help him get to the big city. If she can't find him, she'll go to the city. Father says no one can resist her pout. The Elite Mages are bound to give their sympathies to a sweet little girl..if she has round enough eyes and pouts loud enough. Right?

    Right. Besides, if they don't listen she could just sic her teddy on them. She has been getting better at getting him to attack things. Even if it's only the cat...and he only runs after it and falls on it's tail.

    She can do this. She is a Magical Girl. She can do anything.

    -----

    Mock-ups and Concepts

    <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iwni1QOTau8/UEChFleTyKI/AAAAAAAAAcA/JzAhEo9vlLY/s1600/Chelestra+Home+Mock-up.jpg" border="0">

    Nini's Home, she's up in her room at the top left there.

    <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EbVsr1muHLE/UCLhlJiSveI/AAAAAAAAAZw/yz1EPbNlFXE/s1600/Sidescroll+Mock-up.jpg" border="0">

    Outside the house, and a shot of the current HUD design

    <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uHKcoV9RJqg/UAZeoMk8P1I/AAAAAAAAAWo/pnRediJW22A/s1600/Menu.jpg" border="0">

    Current Menu design, background is old mock-up of iso veiw

    <img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PSpgElL8kq4/UE3K8lURAnI/AAAAAAAAAdw/bymY8MJiwTc/s1600/Nini_walkcolor.gif" border="0">

    Work in Progress walk cycle for Nini

    More Art and Updates can be found here; Only Imaginary

    ----

    That was quite a bit, but hopefully enough to explain why I'm here. This is also my first post, so I suppose a proper, "Hello" is in order. Hello, everyone! I am Dyre, and I want to make games. ^.^

    If you have any questions about this one, ask away. I have everything all figured out for it, just a matter of getting the look down and everything in the engine and playable.

    Please check out that XP Demo if you'd like a look at the dialogue and story, as most of that will remain unchanged.

    ---

    This is the first of, hopefully, many games. I have a lot of little ideas floating around that I'd like to make a reality. Also, a wonderful husband with his own ideas who is learning to program. Eventually we'll be making games together. For now, I need to make sure I am up for it. And you guys seem like pretty awesome people, hope you don't mind if I stick around to learn some new things. ^.-

  • I'm digging the concept art! I like the story idea as well! Concept art reminds me a bit of an old Wonderboy game/The Dynastic Hero. Construct Classic is fairly easy to get into, especially if you have any background in programming at all. If you are a designer/artist (which is easy to tell you are by the concept art!), you should have a lot of fun bringing your creations to life.

    Doing a side-scroller in CC is fairly straight forward. Follow the tutorials found on this site and you should have no problems at all. If you have any problems at all this is the right place to ask, although I think there is an actual help thread instead of this particular one for Construct Classic :)

    I think you'll find that this is probably the easiest game creation software you'll get for windows! It's almost completely visual building, it helps to know some math for the trickier things but aside of that - gravity and all that fun stuff is there already!

    Have fun and good luck!!

  • I really love the context of the game, and the storyline that you'd conjured up!

    Though I do feel that the art style conflicted a little with the seriousness of the game, and a slightly taller, less roundish, cute character would somehow make the game more appealing overall.

    It's a good start you have here, and I think you made a wise choice moving from RMVX all the way to C2.

    Good luck with the project!

  • Thank you both for the kind words. = )

    I've gone through a lot of the Construct Classic tutorials already. I'm currently working through the Platformer School, instead of just playing through it because it's actually pretty fun.

    Playing around with the program has shown me that it can do quite bit. I'm pretty excited to work with it and, so far, it's been fun to learn.

    Rory, thank you for the suggestion. I may go back to one of my older designs for size, but keep the colors, clothing and hair. The chibi look is more to practice animation. Making her taller made her look too old, but my first design of her may work better, with some edits.

    This was the first - <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c8gSxTXDm74/TqtLoqNdeeI/AAAAAAAAAE0/97JFVikZLoQ/s1600/Nini+Battler.png" border="0" />

    The art style is meant to be cute, to give the serious parts more impact. Also, simple, so I don't kill myself. Subject to change, of course, but I think it's finally getting to a place I like. You can see the previous mock-ups on the blog I linked, if interested.

    Again, thanks for the kind words. I'll start a proper topic when I have something playable. Knowing people are interested is awesome. Maybe this topic can turn into a "post your concepts and mock-ups" thread?

  • If you haven't started yet, I suggest just doing a player sprite first and a simple platform. Build from there. That's how I've started my projects. My Go!Go!Maddi! game started off as a quick sketch on a piece of paper, I sat down and had banged out the main sprite (just the running and standing animation) in about an hour. I was originally going to hand drawn and scan but it actually makes more work as you have to clean up everything after the scan, etc.

    I think the small cute sprite suits the game style you're going for now. And you are right - taller would make the character look too old. And as soon as I pictured that it turned into a much less innocent knee high stalkings, short skirted anime girl with giant teddy bears.

  • I have actually been using a simple sprite and basic platforms to get started. Glad to know I'm on the right track there.

    And I ended up liking the slightly taller look, not really taller but slimmer and more defined.

    <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t-pdfexf5fQ/UFCTkVmOEfI/AAAAAAAAAeo/uMIG04m2bm0/s1600/Slim+Nini.jpg" border="0" />

    She doesn't look too old and the hair is a little easier to work with. Surprisingly, longer hair is easier for me to animate.

    This is still the one I'm working with in Construct -<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gXpXkPBN-oE/UEjJqwdfXII/AAAAAAAAAdU/2smrziSJP0k/s1600/Nini_walk.gif" border="0" />

    Once I have things figured out and am starting to really build the game, I'll fix up the new design and use it. The blog I linked in the first post also shows some sketches of her family, for size comparison. The new one looks a lot nicer with them, and the environment.

    Hopefully this newer look isn't so tall that it borders on ecchi. I've been trying to avoid the anime look for that reason. Fortune Summoners is one of my big inspirations, being one of the few story-driven side-scrollers I've found let alone one that stars little girls. However, it has quite a few innuendos and uncomfortable moments that make you wonder why the creators chose little girls as the main characters. I'd like to avoid that as much as possible.

    If I'm influenced by any anime for this, it's probably Miyazaki's films. The little girls who lead his movies are amazing characters.

    (I have no idea how to resize images, I will have to figure that out, these are big. ><)

  • Ah, your first character would be more interesting visually in my opinion. Though the details, especially the hair, might be harder to animate.

  • The first meaning the one in the original post, or the one with pigtails that I posted with the description of "this was the first"?

  • Been working on a less complicated platformer to start myself off in the engine.

    I plan to use light and shadow as the main theme. Her health is dictated by the circle of light around her. I'll be keeping it simple. Enemies touch her, she takes damage. She can pacify them or hide by adjusting her light.

    All I have is the basics of movement, HP and the shadow/lights. It's not even a full level yet, just what I'm playing with.

    Thought I'd share to let anyone who's watching this thread know I'm actually working on stuff. There's been delays due to life and it's many distractions, but I'm hoping I'll have more time soon.

    Here's the little bit I've done, you can run around in the tiny area and see how the lights/HP work. Everything is subject to change, of course, but the overall look is close enough to what I'm shooting for.

    <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AR6rFHSEWX4/UGgQaevWbtI/AAAAAAAAAfg/QIMVt7UinGU/s320/Glimmer+Wip+Screen.PNG" border="0" />

    dl.dropbox.com/u/57993819/Glimmertest.exe

  • I love seeing threads like this pop up, it's always fun and inspirational to watch other people develop their games.

    I love your idea and you seem to be quite good at art. To be honest I wanted to say that I think your older design for your character that you posted seems to fit your story better.

    Making tests is the way to go. This forum is excellent for getting help and finding threads where people have gone through the same stuff, but often when I don't understand how something works in Construct I'll start a new project just to learn that one thing. It seems to help a lot.

    Welcome aboard, and look forward to seeing more of this!

  • I also love threads like this, and it really helps to get feedback during development. Not to mention seeing other people show interest in something you've created is an amazing motivational boost. =)

    Thank you for the compliment. = )

    The taller design? I've been working with that one now. It's easier to animate, offers more detail and I can show emotion with it. Also the chibi is a little creepy now that I look at it more closely.

    Tests are important, I'm just learning that now. Going from such a limited program to one with virtually none was a bit more overwhelming than I expected. I need to learn more about Construct before I can make this game, so little games will have to come first.

    I look forward to being more involved in these forums. Everyone seems so helpful, and honest, it's refreshing.

  • I'm still around, working on enemy AI and trying to figure some things out.

    Have a mock-up, it's not perfect but it's something(there are more but they are unfinished or I've deemed them hideous). I still need to figure out how to actually get the enemies to do that(crawl along the wall, or same enemies but different gravity for each).

    <img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZT0b1MGpo2c/UImcx-riiXI/AAAAAAAABSE/6fSa3MvLOb8/s1600/Glimmer+Mock+Level.jpg" border="0" />

    The plan for visuals will likely be a painted style like the mock-up, using solid masks to make it work in-engine. Because I have yet to figure out how to make properly sized tiles. I end up making them too big or too small and resizing mucks with the collision. So, solid masks it is.

    The tutorial I have been following uses masks as well, so I'm going to assume this is how it is generally done. I do not know.

    I'm currently stuck on figuring out the art style, it's apparently something I have to do or my brain wont let me do anything else. So I'm drawing things, trying to get the levels figured out and how enemies will move along (of course how the player will as well). Fun stuff, but not much to really show. =/

    Will post when there's more to show. The month is almost over and I don't know if I'll make my self-imposed deadline, but I will keep trying. I might have a level done by then at least. Whatever helps me learn and get closer to the bigger project is all that matters to me.

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  • <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c8gSxTXDm74/TqtLoqNdeeI/AAAAAAAAAE0/97JFVikZLoQ/s1600/Nini+Battler.png" border="0" />

    i like this one :D

    you have any playable stuf yet?

  • Man, I just sort of forgot about this thread and now I feel awful.

    I do not have anything playable yet. =/

    I keep hitting walls and having to switch to a simpler starter project. Currently I am halfway through the first level of a candy-themed Mario clone. It seems to be going a bit quicker than other attempts, so I think it will be the first thing I actually finish.

    Oh, Brother will have to wait until I know what I'm doing. ><

    ---

    For the Mario clone, I do have assets to show. Sprites, mainly (working with placeholder backgrounds/tiles until I get the level finished).

    <img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57993819/screentest.png" border="0" />

    An in-game shot. Current title is Sugar and Spice.

    Story is; Little bubblegum girl, Princess Sugar, battles her gingerbread sister, Princess Spice for control of Gumdrop Castle and all of Candy Kingdom.

    Spice has stolen the crown, banished her sister to the Taffy Pits and now fancies herself ruler of Candy Kingdom.

    Sugar must escape her prison, battle through her sisters cookie creeps and take back her throne.

    When she banished her, Spice tore much of Sugar apart.

    Because of this, Sugar is very small and lacks power. She will need to acquire new gum pieces to grow and regain her strength.

    <img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/57993819/Sugar%20set.png" border="0" />

    Sugar

    <img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/3d151b88ac97e7f5f0c7385181b48f27/tumblr_mk9c2cF4PP1ru8d6io1_250.png" border="0" />

    Spice

    More here; coffeedaydreams.tumblr.com/tagged/sugar

    -----

    I promise to update when I have something playable. ^.-

    Edit; Okay, that is the third time my post was eaten - if you want to see more Oh, Brother stuff (I do have the style figure out now) you can find it here; coffeedaydreams.tumblr.com/tagged/oh+brother/page/2

  • i kno this, but i think this back and foward is normal, i'v redone my project like 6 times(now i have like 7~8 different game ideas)

    start as a handdraw with CC, then i give C2 a try, stuck at the animation process and learning curve figuring out how i make my ideas; and so i'v started making pixelart and now i'm remaking the design stuff again

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