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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsMe and myself, like the sun and the moon
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guille
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« on: August 19, 2010, 04:06:48 PM »

Me and myself, like the sun and the moon is an action RPG made to look like an NES / Famicom game by sticking to some of this console features and limitations.

Set on modern times, with its dark and mysterious plot it will take you to a new intriguing world. The battle sequences have just the right balance between action and strategy.

I’ll be posting some game progress from now ’till the game's released. I'm working on this with Rich Vreeland, who will be in charge of everything you are gonna listen during the game, among other things.  Noir


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guille
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« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2010, 04:15:19 PM »

INSPIRATION

The main source of  inspiration, of course, was the next fake Famicom game cover from some of the Famicase competitions.



The game title, “Me and myself, like the sun and the moon” is a rough translation of this fake game cover name (Taiyou to tsuki to boku toka watashi).

Games like, Zelda II, Super Ninja Boy, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Kung Fu Heroes, among others, inspired some of the game mechanics. While others like Killer 7, Faxanadu, Gabriel Knight, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc as well as the TV show Twin Peaks inspired other concepts like audio, locations and graphics.

I like these competitions, because even when you don’t get to finish your entry (an RPG from scratch in one month is almost impossible!) it gets you started and fuels you with enough motivation to keep you working on your project for months and weeks until it gets completed.

For now I just wanted to talk about of some of the things that inspired the creation of Me and myself, like the sun and the moon, next time I’ll have something different to share. See ya!
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guille
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« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2010, 04:18:02 PM »

New kid on the block

We got a lot of feedback from those who played the demo and we have been working hard to fix all the issues that were reported before moving forward.

I’m sorry the demo is not officially available (it isn’t that hard to find anyways). But, besides being a bit short, it lacks a lot of “polish”, also it shouldn’t take long for the final game to be released, and being a free game, there’s not much point in having a demo, really.

As you noticed I used “we” instead the usual “I” in the fist paragraph, and that’s because Rich Vreeland (Disasterpeace) will be joining me in the development of Me and myself, like the sun and the moon. He’s a really talented and skilled guy and he will be mainly in charge of composing the game soundtrack and the sound effects. Check out some of his samples, amazing stuff! Hopefully soon Rich will be posting some preview of his work and all the details behind his creations.

The audio is REALLY important in this game. Since we are emulating the NES limitations, small chubby sprites and limited shinny colors don’t really help setting the right eerie atmosphere, so the music is supporting most of the mood setting and I know Rich is up to the task.

That’s all for now, until the next update, I hope soon we have something for you to see (or listen).
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guille
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« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2010, 05:29:54 PM »

Not just more of the same

Hey! This is the weekly update! You probably know that Me and myself, like the sun and the moon is gonna be some sort of homage to many of those old school NES / Famicom RPG games we all love, but maybe you are still wondering what’s so “different” about it. So here, my friend, let me enlighten you a little bit…

Battle System

The battle system is gonna be a weird combination of several things. First you can see the enemies moving on screen but when you enter a battle the terrain is gonna be randomly selected from a bunch of pre-designed levels. Also, there’s no way to know what kind or how many enemies you are gonna face. So in a way this should get rid of the annoyance of random battles while leaving the surprise element intact.

Battles are action based. You are moving and controlling your character all the time. No need to wait turns or choose commands from a list. Your character attacks using long range weapons only. There’s a bit of strategy involved too, sometimes you may run out of ammo, so your best option could be to run away, but if you do it you risk dropping money from your pockets when escaping, hey, that kinda stuff happens! Decisions, decisions, decisions…

I don’t remember any NES or Famicom game with a battle system like this, so, definitively it’s gonna bring fresh air to some…

Plot

Mature themes were scarce, if existent, on the old 8-bit consoles. For many reasons. But I think it’s pretty interesting to see how an 8-bit game, with all of its limitations, could have handled these.

By mature I don’t necessarily mean gratuitous profanity or gore (it’s present, but just as needed). More than anything, I mean complex situations. A storyline that’s more intricate than the average NES game plot.

Audio Design

Audio design is more than composing some tunes and sound effects. It’s about working along the game design and the diverse situations to create a more immersive experience. Rich, in charge of the audio, is doing great stuff in this field. He’s planning on adding situational music as well as location based tracks. He’s making “voices” for every character on the game and awesome ambient sounds too. Of course this isn’t anything radical in games nowadays, but back in the day it wasn’t common.

As you can see, Me and myself, like the sun and the moon is trying to get some current trends and mix them with old school concepts to create something different, and hopefully, awesome too. We aren’t just trying to rip off Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior, we are creating something new and special. For all of you, of course.

So thanks for reading and don’t miss our next weekly update!
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« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2010, 06:40:44 PM »

This looks fun, can I play it?
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guille
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« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2010, 06:33:18 AM »

Hey! It would be much better if you could wait for the final release. But here´s the demo submited to the A Game by Its Cover compo:

Download
Windows: https://sites.google.com/site/orugames/meandmyself.zip

How to play

X- Action/Talk/Shoot weapon
Z- Reload weapon
Arrows - Move

Keep in mind that this is highly unpolished, unfinished and bugged as hell, and many things will change on the final release:

- Collisions have been fixed on the final game.
- Ammo refill system has changed.
- No more random battles.
- Original music by Rich Vreeland.
- All bugs have been eliminated.
- Long etc.

 Coffee
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« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2010, 10:59:59 AM »

Intriiiiiigued.

I suppose it's only going to be a Windows application? That'd be a shame.

I'm a terrible sucker for narrative, and it's always great to see underused genres.
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« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2010, 11:04:53 AM »

Hey wanted to drop in and say I had fun playing the demo of this game and Im looking forward to it being completed! Wink Glad you have a dev log up!
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guille
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« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2010, 06:31:12 PM »

Thanks for the encouragment, guys.  Smiley

It's gonna be out for Windows at first, but you never know! A Multimedia Fusion (game engine I'm using) version that can build apps for Mac and iPhone is supposed to be on the works.

I'm sorry for the lack of graphical content, I promise to post some screens and plot details on the next weekly update. Also I will ask Rich if it's ok to post some music samples. Cheers!  Gentleman
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« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2010, 11:55:36 PM »

i love scanlines
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guille
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« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2010, 07:23:14 AM »

And I love you
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Yaay!


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« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2010, 07:48:57 AM »

Looks great, I like how this seems a little bit "hard boiled" (if that makes any sense.) We need more gritty cop games. I'll wait till the final release, keep going!
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guille
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« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2010, 11:28:39 AM »

Hi, last week I got a bit sidetracked by writer’s block, freelance work, personal problems, etc, but I’m back on track now. I have a report of the stuff I’ve been working on and a to-do list of some of the stuff I’ll be getting my hands into in the next weeks.



INVENTORY

Most NES RPG’s had word lists to manage inventory, but Me and myself, like the sun and the moon will have an icon based inventory, which looks better and is easier to access.

There are 3 kind of items:

Weapons:  There are 4 different weapons, each has its pros and cons. Weapons have 4 different attributes. POW (Power), SPD (Speed), SHT (Shots), RLD (Reload Time)

Equipable items: You can only equip one at a time. Some can be used only in battle and others only on the field. Some are automatic, but most are activated with the A button.

Usable items. You can have several of each kind and they can only be used from the menu. They are mostly healing items.

BITMAP FONTS

On the game demo I was using the Arial font to display text, this is not very good for several reasons, but I’m gonna use bitmap fonts now (thanks to a great Multimedia Fusion Extension I just found called Surface -made by Looki- ). Bitmap fonts will allow me to have smaller text that’s still legible, you can see a sample on the inventory screen above. That “I” is just 3×5 pixels!

COMING NEXT…

This is a small to-do list of the things I’m gonna work on next and I’ll talk to you about it next week:

- Shop
- New gun reload system
- Monetary system

Cheers! Thanks for reading!
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deathtotheweird
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« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2010, 11:39:24 AM »

ahh that sounds and looks awesome.  Kiss
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guille
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« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2010, 04:47:56 PM »

ahh that sounds and looks awesome.  Kiss

Thanks, my man, we are working our butts off to deliver a high overdose of awesomeness to you.

Stats

Stats are the heart of any RPG game system. Since the player skills are not important, stats are the ones determining the player’s progress and maturation.

Many RPG’s have way too many stats, being honest I don’t think most players really take all of them into consideration when developing their characters, so I decided to stick with a very basic set.

HP – (Health Points) This is your energy. If they hurt you it will be reduced, if it hits 0 you die. You can replenish it by using a healing item.

ATK – (Attack) This is your attack level. It tells how much damage your attacks can inflict on your enemies. It’s determined by the weapon and item you are equipping and your AIM.

DEF – (Defense) The higher your DEF the less HP you lose when you are attacked.

AIM – (Aim) This one is interesting, since it’s one stat I came up with for this game. I was gonna have STR (Strength) but it would make no sense in a game where all you use to attack are fire weapons. So AIM determines how good you aim is, the higher, the more precise your shots are and the more damage you can inflict on your enemies. When you are fighting an enemy, not only your ATK is important. The distance between you and the enemy is important too. The closer to the enemy the higher the damage.

LVL- (Level) Your current level. Indicates how strong you are. You level up by getting EXP after defeating enemies. When you level up all your stats increase.

EXP – (Experience Points) You get EXP after defeating a batch of enemies. Experience is expressed in the EXP/NXT format, where EXP are your current Experience Points and NXT is the number of Experience Points you need to reach the next level.

None of this is carved in stone. I’m not done with the battle engine, so I could still change some of the previous stuff, but I would like to keep it as simple as it is or even simpler if possible!



SHOPS

Shops are very simple and, unlike the list based shops of most RPG games, they feel more natural too. They are really similar to the shops found in the first The Legend of Zelda game for the NES. You have 4 tables with products, when you face a table you see the item description and when you press a button you buy the item. If you don’t want the item, just walk away. You want several quantities of that item? Just press the button several times. That simple.

COMING NEXT…

I’ll show you some screens of the new locations I’ve been working on and explain to you the new gun reload system, as a hint, it takes inspiration from a personal favorite of mine: Ys.

Thanks for reading, ’till next time!
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guille
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« Reply #15 on: October 05, 2010, 09:02:32 AM »

Every RPG has dungeons, right? And Me and myself, like the sun and the moon is not gonna be the exception! BUT, I’m thinking about doing something a bit different than the tired formula most RPG use.

One of the dungeons I’m working on takes place in the wild part of the forest, that part where people don’t usually wander, home of dangerous creatures and untamed vegetation. There, tall trees create dark areas, and when you get there, is hard to see too far. So this dungeon is basically just a big group of trees. From the outside, you can’t see anything but the top of the trees, and once you get in, you can only see the “room” you are currently exploring but not the adjacent rooms or halls. Look at the pictures so you get a better idea.


From the outside...


Inside the room

This creates an effective mystery mood, you never know what will lie ahead until you enter a different room or follow a different path. We have seen this kind of effect in games as old as the first Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest). But there the view was so limited it could get a bit frustrating.

In Me and Myself… dungeons will not be the classic temple, cave, shrine, maze, etc. Every one of them will be different in structure, theme and objectives. Level design is gonna be a key part of this game so I’ll make sure things are kept varied and fun, I want to balance originality with a bit of the classic old school design conventions we all love, so the game feels fresh but not too strange.

Since the game takes place in a somewhat reduced physical space, the dungeons won’t be too large, yet they will be more intense to provide enough challenge. Also there’s no map in the whole game, so that may add to the challenge a bit.

Next week I’ll talk about the game graphics, I’ll have several screens to show and I’ll compare Me and Myself… to other popular NES RPG games and explain why it looks as good as the best… Or better!  Wink
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guille
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« Reply #16 on: October 14, 2010, 05:37:24 PM »

Graphics

Most NES RPG’s didn’t try too hard to hide the tile based nature of their graphics. In some of them, like Dragon Quest,  it was quite obvious and it didn’t look that good, however, for Me and myself, like the sun and the moon I’m trying to add more variety to each tile set so things look more organic.



In Dragon Quest they didn’t even bother to use shadows (which give depth and volume to objects). You don’t need a grid to clearly distinguish each individual tile. Final Fantasy isn’t that much better.

If you look at the grass in both examples they only use 1 very simple tile for it. Me and myself…, in the other hand, will use 5 different textures for grass, each (but one) has 5 different tiles (top-left, top-right, center, bottom-left, bottom-right). That’s 21 different tiles just for grass!

Because of this, making the maps is taking a LOT of time, but hopefully, it will look very good in the end. In fact, I have to be cautious of not going overboard with the tile variety, as too much would probably not be possible on the NES and I want to somewhat stick to its limits. Still, I can’t deny I’m having a lot of fun building these maps, and I’m not far from being done.

My goal is to make this look better than any other tile based RPG on the NES!

Thanks for reading, as promised, here are some new screenshots, enjoy!:





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« Reply #17 on: October 14, 2010, 06:00:43 PM »

That second screenshot is delicious.

Chances are a tileset of that size would be a bit much for the NES' hardware.  Shrug Still looks awesome.
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« Reply #18 on: October 15, 2010, 11:30:22 AM »

haha, thanks! But who knows, those last NES games, like Mega Man 6, had a good amount of tiles!
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guille
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« Reply #19 on: May 02, 2011, 09:02:33 PM »

Help us out!

Hey! Excuse the lack of updates. The game is still going strong, sadly RPGs take a lot of time, but we are not far from done!

I'm trying to raise some funds to support the development of Me and myself, like the sun and the moon. Not asking for much, just what it's needed. I've been developing this out of my savings but they are all gone now. If you can help us, it will be much appreciated. If you can't, don't worry, I'm still gonna finish this, no matter what! Against all odds, baby!

Here's the fund-raising trailer. It contains a lot of new footage, and for the first time, you will be able to hear a bit of what Disasterpeace has been doing with the music. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

To help us, go here (New trailer inside):

http://8bitfunding.com/project_details.php?p_id=176

P.S. I'll start updating the blog again!
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