99 replies to this topic

[Kentilan]

Download link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3WBM9CTW

Original post below:

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Hello everyone.
Recently I've been trying to make a fangame similar to NiGHTS into dreams. It's a 2D game similar to my other fangame "Reala's Nightmare" (I've reused most of the code), except it now works more like NiD, you have to get 20 Blue Chips then go to the Ideya Capture then go back to the Ideya Palace and you can do extra laps if you want.

But I would need help with some stuff that I think would not be good enough if I did it myself.
So I'm looking for:
- an artist, to draw the sprites, level tiles and/or backgrounds
- a level designer, assistant game designer and tester, preferably someone who know NiD's gameplay well
- optionally, a music composer (else I'll just use music from the games)

Some more information about the game:
The game will include 3 levels and 4 mares per level. There are no bosses for now and I don't think I'll add any.
Items implemented so far are Blue Chips, Star Chips and Rings. I may add enemies and other items (especially level-specific items), but I have to discuss this with the team first.
For the levels, I'd like to keep the same "blocky" layout as Reala's Nightmare, because even if it's not good aesthetically, collision detection is much easier to implement that way (and has already been implemented).
There are no kids, you play only as NiGHTS. Kids wouldn't be interesting to play as in 2D anyway. That means if you run out of time, you lose directly.
So far the only move is the Drill Dash. I may implement the Paraloop if I can.

That's about it. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or if you want to be part of the team, then please say so!

[viperxmns]

As I usually tend to say I'd try and do some sprites or other artwork, I'd just need to know the size parameters first.. (sign me up for level design as well)

[Kentilan]

Thanks a lot. Could you draw NiGHTS's sprites then? I would need one idle sprite, one flying sprite and 4 Drill Dash sprites. Reala's flying sprite's dimensions were 83 x 35 pixels, so it should be around that. Thanks

[Noctourne Wonderland]

I could do ideya/blue chip sprites.

[Kentilan]

Thanks for the offer, but I'll probably do that myself.

Meanwhile I've implemented some kind of Paraloop, but it doesn't seem very useful. Maybe I should reduce the size of the Chips.

[Razer112]

What are you using to make this? I can do some sprite things like Ideya Captures and Palaces.

[viperxmns]

Here's an idle GIF, let me know if this'll work-

[Kentilan]

What are you using to make this? I can do some sprite things like Ideya Captures and Palaces.

I'm not using anything in particular; it's programmed in C, compiled with Dev-C++.
Thanks for your offer, I actually need sprites of Ideya Palace & Captures.

Here's an idle GIF, let me know if this'll work-

This sprite is awesome.
The only problem is about the transparency, because this sprite doesn't have transparency data aside from the background (or if it does, I don't know how to extract it). This sprite has some anti-aliasing which blends the colors between the sprite and the white background, so if I put the sprite in the game, it will be surrounded by a whitish border, even on a dark background.
When I use sprites with transparency for the game, I use two separate pictures, one with the color and one with the transparency data. I don't know what you want to do about that, but thanks for your efforts anyway.

[viperxmns]

Oh, hm.. I'd have to look into that, I'm sure I'd be able to make one proper, I'd have to look into this transparency issue, never dealt with it before. I did use the brush with this one, rather than a complete flat color with the pencil tool. I could do that instead if it'll help, otherwise as mentioned I'll just have to check about how to properly streamline these types.. found one webpage which may help.

[viperxmns]

I added a neutral gray matte color to go with the transparency, hope this helps.. I feel like I suddenly grasp cel-shading..

[Kentilan]

Well, it's now surrounded by gray instead of white. Though by subtracting one picture from another I can extract the alpha channel to some extent, but the border colors are still blended with gray.
I don't think GIF pictures allow partial transparency, actually. Could you use PNG instead? Maybe it will solve the problem.

[viperxmns]

Had a thought that maybe I should just save as a PNG, wasn't sure if that was compatible or not.

PNG-

[Kentilan]

Thanks! It works perfectly.

[Kentilan]

I've decided to release a tech demo, so that you know what to expect. It has only 2 test mares and uses Reala's Nightmare's graphics for the most part. Sprites of the Palace & Capture are temporary placeholders. Also, I've called the game "micro NiGHTS".

Download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0ZI6ESB2
Hope it works.

[viperxmns]

Cool, I'm on a Mac though, so I'll have to see about what I can do to open EXE files.

[Razer112]

Okay, I had some Capture Sprites done before I offered, I just need to Work on them a bit more.

[charlie]

I've decided to release a tech demo, so that you know what to expect. It has only 2 test mares and uses Reala's Nightmare's graphics for the most part. Sprites of the Palace & Capture are temporary placeholders. Also, I've called the game "micro NiGHTS".

Download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0ZI6ESB2
Hope it works.

Sweet! Nice job so far Kentilan! Always helps when you can reuse some existing code

So I'm looking for:
- an artist, to draw the sprites, level tiles and/or backgrounds
- a level designer, assistant game designer and tester, preferably someone who know NiD's gameplay well
- optionally, a music composer (else I'll just use music from the games)

I'd like to help out with the level design/games design and tester. As you may know I have some of the highest scores in NiD so I know it quite well!

Do you have an editor yet? Or would you like me to draw it out by hand?

One thing I did notice in the game is that the objects don't reappear when you do reverse laps. Not a big deal but it is something you could do in NiD.

I have this coming week off work (sweet!) so I can definitely put some time into this if you'd like some help.

Is there any chance of supporting controllers? Or is it strictly keyboard support?

[Kentilan]

Thanks! viperxmns also said he wanted to do the level design, but I guess you can share the levels. I do have a level editor; I'll send it to you.
I didn't know you could do reverse laps in NiD; I will add that in the game.
So far the game only uses the keyboard. I don't know how to add support for controllers, but that would be nice; I'll have to look into it.

[Razer112]

Okay, Here's my finished Capture.

[Kentilan]

Okay, Here's my finished Capture.

Great! Thank a lot!

[charlie]

Do you think you could have the chips and stars follow you when you paraloop them, rather than disappear?

This will help with the gameplay in trying to get long links. The first mares in NiD would usually have an infinite link where you could continue from the first lap to the last lap, if you paralooped chips properly.

Thanks!

[viperxmns]

flight..-

[Kentilan]

Do you think you could have the chips and stars follow you when you paraloop them, rather than disappear?

This will help with the gameplay in trying to get long links. The first mares in NiD would usually have an infinite link where you could continue from the first lap to the last lap, if you paralooped chips properly.

OK, I will try.

flight..-

Thanks!

[Razer112]

Does anyone Have a reference picture I can use of the Ideya Palace?

[Kentilan]

Does anyone Have a reference picture I can use of the Ideya Palace?

I have these two screenshots from the PS2 version: top bottom
The Ideya Palace's size should be 256*256 pixels or less. Thanks for your help.

[Noctourne Wonderland]

I have some sparkle sprites from thr GBA link attack game; would that be of any help?

[Kentilan]

You mean, for the Twinkle Dust? I appreciate your willingness to help, but I already have such sprites.

[viperxmns]

Four fresh dash frames-





I have some in-betweens I made as well, which I'm trying out in my new avatar to the left.. Flash seems to have really crap background color functionality when it comes to GIFs.. it should match perfectly.. *is being driven crazy*

[Kentilan]

Thanks. They're not quite the same color as the other sprites, though. (they also seems smaller, but maybe that's just me.)

[viperxmns]

Thanks. They're not quite the same color as the other sprites, though. (they also seems smaller, but maybe that's just me.)

I noticed watching the PS2 version that NiGHTS seemed to brighten all over when he dashes, so I lightened the color, maybe it wasn't the best choice.. I worked them into the same space as the other sprites, but it may have turned out a bit smaller, I could scale it up..

[Kentilan]

I didn't know that about the PS2 version; but I was under the impression that the Drill Dash sprites were more of a different tone rather than just lighter. Though maybe that's just me.

As for the size, the different sprites don't have to occupy the same space. The dimensions I gave before were just the size occupied by Reala's flying sprite, but other sprites can have different sizes (and the final size of the sprite is always 128*64 anyway, because the dimensions have to be powers of 2). What's most important is that the character have the same scale on each sprite. (by the way, I think the flying sprite is a bit to small as well).
I hope you don't mind me telling you that; I appreciate your efforts.

[Kentilan]

So... is anyone willing to draw the backgrounds, please?

[viperxmns]

What are the parameters for the backgrounds? That factors into level design..

[Kentilan]

The backgrounds are pictures of 1024*768 pixels that must loop horizontally.
There's also another background layer (1024*512) for background objects (in "Reala's Nightmare", it contains the torches and the folding screen things), but it's optional.

By the way, viperxmns, you said you wanted to do level design as well; are you still interested, and if you are, can you execute Windows programs?

[viperxmns]

I am interested in concpetual design but I'm useless for programming. Compounded by the fact that I use a Mac these days.

By the way I resized some of the graphics, I hope these work better (the lighter, blurred dash frames are intended to reflect NiD graphics)-

[Kentilan]

Thanks a lot! These should be perfect.

I was asking about Windows programs because you would need to use the level editor to make the levels, then launch the game to test them. So if you can't, I guess you would have to draw the levels, unless you have another idea.

[Level 99]

Wow, this is pretty cool! It looks like quite the nice homage-little-time-waster game. If the NiGHTs arrange project were due out any earlier I'd offer at least some of my tracks for possible use, but we have quite a long timeline. Keep up the good work, though!

[Kentilan]

Thanks for your encouragement.

[Razer112]

Sorry if I'm late, But here it is.



You have to do Some things your Self, Like Positioning the Pillars, And Recoloring the Circle above the Ideya.

I'm crap at positioning things like that, And I wasn't sure what you wanted.

[Kentilan]

Pretty! Thanks a lot! This should be perfect.