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[Soulliard]

Will large, scrolling levels be possible?

They should be, although I don't have any code in place for that sort of thing, yet.

The engine is interesting indeed. Yet I'm not fully positive about how the dodge system works. For example you can double jump and then dodge up even higher. Another thing is that the character freezes in one place after dodging even when airborne. Maybe in such a case the character should continue moving further in the direction of dodging (a kind of inertia)... And how about diagonal dodging (I haven't noticed if it's feasible now)?

To be honest, I'm not fully positive about it either. I agree that adding a little more inertia would be a good idea. Anyone else have suggestions for making dodging a little more smooth? Or should I remove it entirely?

[Soulliard]

On a completely different subject, who would be interested in contributing art?

I'll start.

But I need to know what.

Well, most importantly, we need sprites for the characters. We're working on Naija first, but I suspect it won't be long before work on more characters begins. The average character should probably be a little under 40 pixels tall. Just getting an idle animation is the most important step, but we'll eventually need animations for each attack as well.

We'll also eventually need portraits for each character (I think 48 x 48 pixels is a good size).

Finally, we will need art for each battlefield. I want to at least get some characters made before we really start working on stages, however.

Oh, and thanks! 

[godsavant]

k i'll call dibs on naija's character portrait. That's first on the list.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and what color are Naija's eyes?

[PenguinHat]

Will large, scrolling levels be possible?

They should be, although I don't have any code in place for that sort of thing, yet.

The engine is interesting indeed. Yet I'm not fully positive about how the dodge system works. For example you can double jump and then dodge up even higher. Another thing is that the character freezes in one place after dodging even when airborne. Maybe in such a case the character should continue moving further in the direction of dodging (a kind of inertia)... And how about diagonal dodging (I haven't noticed if it's feasible now)?

To be honest, I'm not fully positive about it either. I agree that adding a little more inertia would be a good idea. Anyone else have suggestions for making dodging a little more smooth? Or should I remove it entirely?

We need some kind of counter to ranged specials so I think we should keep the dodge.

Maybe we could turn off the gravity after the dodge so that the player stays in place for a very short amount of time after the dodge. Maybe we could have some kind of graphical effect like making the character 50% transparent during the dodge and having a transparent after image of where the character started the dodge from. That would give the player some important feedback.

[kyn]

k i'll call dibs on naija's character portrait. That's first on the list.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and what color are Naija's eyes?

From what I can see in the bit-blot's banner, their eyes are black. I'm assuming this is derek's official art

[PenguinHat]

What is the size of the blocks in the engine? I don't know, and the pixel artists will need to know before they can start.

[goshki]

Maybe we could turn off the gravity after the dodge so that the player stays in place for a very short amount of time after the dodge.

Well, that's exactly the way it is right now...

[Guert]

Maybe you guys should make a test character. Like, create a generic character that will become the standard for the sizes of sprites, numbers of frame and other technical stuff. Also, you can make a list of all the "states" a character can be in, such as punching, jumping, blocking, dashing, etc... This way, you will know what a full character implies and how much work and sprites are required to create it. It will also answer many questions for aspiring artists who are not sure what to do for those characters. What do you guys think?

[Soulliard]

What is the size of the blocks in the engine? I don't know, and the pixel artists will need to know before they can start.

They're 32 x 32, but the size can easily be adjusted.

Maybe you guys should make a test character. Like, create a generic character that will become the standard for the sizes of sprites, numbers of frame and other technical stuff. Also, you can make a list of all the "states" a character can be in, such as punching, jumping, blocking, dashing, etc... This way, you will know what a full character implies and how much work and sprites are required to create it. It will also answer many questions for aspiring artists who are not sure what to do for those characters. What do you guys think?

I could make a simple test sprite, I suppose.

As far as states go, we have:
-Standing
-Walking
-Jumping
-Guarding
-Hurt

Plus, we'll need sprites for each attack (and dodge, once we get the dodging system worked out).

[Cymon]

Wow. I had pretty much written this idea off for a number of reasons. But it's looking good.

[Xion]

someone said idle.

k bai.

_{(heh, this reminds me of my first post - BQ animations.)}

[goshki]

The movement of the left hand looks like she's flipping coin on her fingers.

[kyn]

Now this is just sweet

[skaldicpoet9]

The movement is all very smooth and the double jump feels great. The only thing that I noticed is that the attack felt a little bit cumbersome when attacking repeatedly. It would be cool if there was some sort of combo system to keep this game from being too much of a button masher like SSB tends to be at times. Nothing too complex mind you just simple stuff using no more then 2-3 buttons and the d-pad. Combos could be of three different varieties: speed, power and balanced and use a rock/paper/scissors approach to attack/counter-attack. I think this would mix things up just enough and provide a slight bit of strategy in the way you play the game.

someone said idle.

k bai.

_{(heh, this reminds me of my first post - BQ animations.)}

Very nice btw...

[muku]

I find this mildly creepy.

[godsavant]

It looks like she's listening to music.

snapping her fingers and bobbing her head.

[Soulliard]

To provide a little more of a guideline, here's a basic Nikujin sprite:



We may want to post Naija's sprites in her own thread, so this one doesn't get inundated. I'm curious about one thing, though: are we going to have dark outlines around the characters, like in Oracle's mock-up? It's a pretty easy change to add or delete.

[kyn]

I always loved hard outlines, in fact I always try to use them, so I'm a little biased saying that I'm all for the outlines in the sprites

[PenguinHat]

Those are good sprites! Personally, I like the outlines, but we should probably put something like that to a vote.

...It would be cool if there was some sort of combo system to keep this game from being too much of a button masher like SSB tends to be at times. Nothing too complex mind you just simple stuff using no more then 2-3 buttons and the d-pad. Combos could be of three different varieties: speed, power and balanced and use a rock/paper/scissors approach to attack/counter-attack. I think this would mix things up just enough and provide a slight bit of strategy in the way you play the game.

Could go into more detail there, because you are being a bit vague.

[medieval]

The naija idle sprite is not very... idle.