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sfried
199th Post

Regular Customer

"Videogame making tools" , posted Fri 8 Aug 23:25

Are there any simple programs out there where I can start scripting basic platform games? I know there are probably tons of software out there like Game Maker and Macromedia Fusion, but there has to be a simpler program with some pre-built templates for a basic 2D action game.

Replies:

Shindekudasai
242th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(1):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 03:00

Sorry, I got nothing :(

Ktallguy

1017th Post

Red Carpet Premium Member

"Re(2):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 03:18

quote:
Sorry, I got nothing :(

The sad thing is the only thing I could think of is Little Big Planet or something.

But actually Flash is probably the best for starting out.

And BTW I miss this forum. :(
How are all you guys doing?
I wish there was an MIRC channel.

Play to win.

Tai-Pan

254th Post

Copper Customer

"Re(3):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 03:36

quote:
Sorry, I got nothing :(

The sad thing is the only thing I could think of is Little Big Planet or something.

But actually Flash is probably the best for starting out.

I've been reading all the praise given to little big planet. Do you know what the game is about? Why is it so extraordinary? Is it a game or a tool? I just don't get it.

"Those who follow the path of a warrior must be ready to die in order to stand for one's convictions live for one's convictions die for one's convictions"

Ktallguy

1018th Post

Red Carpet Premium Member

"Re(4):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 03:47

quote:
I've been reading all the praise given to little big planet. Do you know what the game is about? Why is it so extraordinary? Is it a game or a tool? I just don't get it.

LBP is a platformer with 60 levels that you can play through. Basic mechanics are jump and grab on.

As you play through you unlock items and tools and such to add to your collection of stuff you can use to create.

In some levels the game will allow you to create objects to help you get past obstacles, in other levels you just have to platform your way around like any other platformer. There are enemies and obstacles and moving objects and switches and etc.

At any time you can choose make your own levels. You can use all of the items you've collected in single player to do so. This feature is pretty robust looking, you can create objects with engines and rotors and wheels and switches, etc etc. You can also make invisible switches and triggers to make scripted events. If you have the PS3 camera thing you can take pics and import them. I think you can also manipulate gravity and such.

Finally, there's this youtube-like service thing that lets you upload your levels. Anyone can access and play them (unless you password them or something). If the level is good, people will rate them highly, etc.

So it's a robust platformer-creation-youtube hybrid.
I'm sure people will recreate the entirety of Mario 1 in the game.

Play to win.

Gojira

2420th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(5):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 04:56:

Yeah, LBP was the real reason I got a PS3. Too bad it keeps getting delayed to kingdom come.

As for scripting basic platform games, learning Flash is probably your best option. At least if you're not into the whole programming-from-scratch thing.

~~shipoopi~~

[this message was edited by Gojira on Tue 12 Aug 04:58]

sfried
201th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(1):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 08:37:

Sorry, I don't have a PS3.

Any other game creation tools out there that would allow me to make my own platformer? And by that, I don't necessarily mean Mario-style "momentum-based" jumping games, but something a little bit more action-arcadey, weapon based and linear, like Rondo of Blood.

[this message was edited by sfried on Tue 12 Aug 08:39]

Toxico

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"Re(2):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 09:07:

quote:
Any other game creation tools out there that would allow me to make my own platformer?

A friend of mine is making a ghouls and goblins tribute game here (free forum account required), a post where he details his game constructing woes; following the diary you could most likely create a game, however, absolutamente toda explicación y relato esta en español; y este tipo no esta cerca de hablar inglés.

While this game hasn't been completed and released, he previously completed released a mega man "make over" using the same experiences; as soon as I find it, I'll add it.

However, these two games don't avoid the "I don't want a 'Mario type' side scroller" complain.

Update: short mega man game

Controls :
Esc Exit
F1 Info
F4 Full Screen/Normal

The only evil of the word; is the one in the heart of men

[this message was edited by Toxico on Tue 12 Aug 09:58]

sfried
201th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(3):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 10:05

quote:
Any other game creation tools out there that would allow me to make my own platformer?

A friend of mine is making a ghouls and goblins tribute game here (free forum account required), a post where he details his game constructing woes; following the diary you could most likely create a game, however, absolutamente toda explicación y relato esta en español; y este tipo no esta cerca de hablar inglés.

Uh, I don't understand Spanish that well. (I know a bit of Deutsch.)

Tai-Pan

255th Post

Copper Customer

"Re(2):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 12:58

quote:
Sorry, I don't have a PS3.

Any other game creation tools out there that would allow me to make my own platformer? And by that, I don't necessarily mean Mario-style "momentum-based" jumping games, but something a little bit more action-arcadey, weapon based and linear, like Rondo of Blood.

I think you are expecting too much. I can tell from personal experience that in order to develop any kind of game (even simple platformers); you need to invest a lot of time learning a lot of techniques. When I used to be into programming, I spent summers developing my own simple engines in C for DOS. And they sucked..Later on I found available tools and engines made by other people that REQUIRED knowledge of programming and a LOT of time and effort as well. Its not easy.
It used to be easier during the good old days of DOS 2d programming because nobody was willing to make money with their home made engines. But nowadays its a different story. However, nowadays the easiest way and the common standard is FLASH. I think thats the path you should take.

"Those who follow the path of a warrior must be ready to die in order to stand for one's convictions live for one's convictions die for one's convictions"

sfried
202th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(3):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 13:21

quote:
I think you are expecting too much. I can tell from personal experience that in order to develop any kind of game (even simple platformers); you need to invest a lot of time learning a lot of techniques. When I used to be into programming, I spent summers developing my own simple engines in C for DOS. And they sucked..Later on I found available tools and engines made by other people that REQUIRED knowledge of programming and a LOT of time and effort as well. Its not easy.
It used to be easier during the good old days of DOS 2d programming because nobody was willing to make money with their home made engines. But nowadays its a different story. However, nowadays the easiest way and the common standard is FLASH. I think thats the path you should take.

Well, I didn't mean to makes something as complex or well designed as Rondo. I'm just saying I wanted to make a simple 2D action game.

Tai-Pan

257th Post

Copper Customer

"Re(4):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 13:45

quote:

Well, I didn't mean to makes something as complex or well designed as Rondo. I'm just saying I wanted to make a simple 2D action game.

Of course, I understand your intentions. And thats exactly what I was taling about, simple things,,however, they are hard to do. I think the easiest way for you is flash, and if you can't cope with that,,well, you are gonna have to wait for something else to come out then.

"Those who follow the path of a warrior must be ready to die in order to stand for one's convictions live for one's convictions die for one's convictions"

Juke Joint Jezebel

3628th Post

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"Re(5):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 14:07

hm

i'll reply to this thread in a week

celebrityfest
36th Post

Rare Customer

"Re(6):Videogame making tools" , posted Tue 12 Aug 23:38

Maybe i can make a new fighting game on flash instead of mugen...(mugen crashes too much)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/celebrityfest/issue1cover.jpg [Image Attached]

Ktallguy

1019th Post

Red Carpet Premium Member

"Re(7):Videogame making tools" , posted Wed 13 Aug 02:24

quote:
Maybe i can make a new fighting game on flash instead of mugen...(mugen crashes too much)

Ya, honestly I think Flash games usually have a certain "feel" that turns me off. But maybe that's just the programmer. I imagine that if you have good knowledge of platformer physics and enough time and energy, you could recreate Mario platformer mechanics perfectly.

You may also want to look up Knytt, it's a great platformer. I think the guy wrote his own engine though.

Play to win.

sfried
203th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(8):Videogame making tools" , posted Wed 13 Aug 12:05

quote:
Maybe i can make a new fighting game on flash instead of mugen...(mugen crashes too much)

Ya, honestly I think Flash games usually have a certain "feel" that turns me off. But maybe that's just the programmer. I imagine that if you have good knowledge of platformer physics and enough time and energy, you could recreate Mario platformer mechanics perfectly.

You may also want to look up Knytt, it's a great platformer. I think the guy wrote his own engine though.

I think it's written in Multimedia Fusion 2, the same language/engine as Noitu Love 2.

dr baghead

3772th Post

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"Re(7):Videogame making tools" , posted Sat 16 Aug 03:11

quote:
Maybe i can make a new fighting game on flash instead of mugen...(mugen crashes too much)

Out of curiosity has anyone ever played a fighting game based in Flash that was actually any good?

I've played 3 Fighting Games made in Flash I can remember: Family Guy Vs American Dad, Teen Titans, and Bible Fight.

All 3 were chunky and unresponsive so really the game boils down to more "mash buttons and hope you do a super move" then actual "using a strategy to play the game", and don't get me started on how retardedly impossible it to play using a keyboard (when w,a,s,z is the d-pad and the arrows are the attacks buttons it's REALLY confusing, when it's the arrows and a,s,z,x are the attack buttons and the arrows are the d-pad it's backwards)

Granted FGvAD and Bible Fight exist more to kill 5 minutes of your time then to be actual fighting games and Teen Titans was made for 13 year old boys who play games that exact way... but the fact they all share similar faults makes me think there's something about Flash gaming that just doesn't work for fighting games.

Now if someone wants to link to a flash based fighting game that can use a control pad and has responsive timing I'd like to see that.

Blanka and Dan make for a most excellent tag image (yeah

still not funny)
my silly little drawin's

ZamIAm

1747th Post

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"Re(8):Videogame making tools" , posted Sun 17 Aug 10:18

quote:
Out of curiosity has anyone ever played a fighting game based in Flash that was actually any good?

I've played 3 Fighting Games made in Flash I can remember: Family Guy Vs American Dad, Teen Titans, and Bible Fight.

All 3 were chunky and unresponsive so really the game boils down to more "mash buttons and hope you do a super move" then actual "using a strategy to play the game", and don't get me started on how retardedly impossible it to play using a keyboard (when w,a,s,z is the d-pad and the arrows are the attacks buttons it's REALLY confusing, when it's the arrows and a,s,z,x are the attack buttons and the arrows are the d-pad it's backwards)

Granted FGvAD and Bible Fight exist more to kill 5 minutes of your time then to be actual fighting games and Teen Titans was made for 13 year old boys who play games that exact way... but the fact they all share similar faults makes me think there's something about Flash gaming that just doesn't work for fighting games.

Now if someone wants to link to a flash based fighting game that can use a control pad and has responsive timing I'd like to see that.

I think it's really the fact that people aren't making good fighting games in Flash. People have made fluid platform games in Flash so I think it's more due to the developers.

BTW, um...where's a link to the TT game?

nobinobita

385th Post

Silver Customer

"Re(9):Videogame making tools" , posted Sun 17 Aug 11:08

There is the potential to make a good fighting game in flash. There have been some great sprite based ones that tend to control much better than the vector based ones.

Probably the most impressive original Flash Fighter I've seen is the Capoeira Fighter series, which is mostly made by one dude:

http://www.spiritonin.com/capoeirafighter/

It's got great animation and the controls work well within the limits of a keyboard. The character designs and overall look of it is very polished too. Plus it's just cool to see a game with a cast full of cool looking brothas and sistas who aren't just token characters.

You might also want to check out the port of Fist of the North Star that someone did a while back:

http://kotaku.com/370666/fist-of-the-north-star-fighter

There's a link to it from there. I'm linking to Kotaku though, so you can read the hilarious comments where the readers say things like:

"Anyway, works surprisingly well for a flash fighting game. It's apparently a mod of Guilty Gear, so it certainly looks nice enough."

and

"i wish Atlus would make a FOTNS game, imagine a game with the animation style of guilty gears? that would own."

Humorous!

quote:
Out of curiosity has anyone ever played a fighting game based in Flash that was actually any good?

I've played 3 Fighting Games made in Flash I can remember: Family Guy Vs American Dad, Teen Titans, and Bible Fight.

All 3 were chunky and unresponsive so really the game boils down to more "mash buttons and hope you do a super move" then actual "using a strategy to play the game", and don't get me started on how retardedly impossible it to play using a keyboard (when w,a,s,z is the d-pad and the arrows are the attacks buttons it's REALLY confusing, when it's the arrows and a,s,z,x are the attack buttons and the arrows are the d-pad it's backwards)

Granted FGvAD and Bible Fight exist more to kill 5 minutes of your time then to be actual fighting games and Teen Titans was made for 13 year old boys who play games that exact way... but the fact they all share similar faults makes me think there's something about Flash gaming that just doesn't work for fighting games.

Now if someone wants to link to a flash based fighting game that can use a control pad and has responsive timing I'd like to see that.

I think it's really the fact that people aren't making good fighting games in Flash. People have made fluid platform games in Flash so I think it's more due to the developers.

BTW, um...where's a link to the TT game?

Shindekudasai
245th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(10):Videogame making tools" , posted Sun 17 Aug 18:49

Regarding controllers and keyboards: you can always create a Joy2Key profile to emulate keystrokes with your gamepad. If you save the profile, include it your game download, and instruct people to download Joy2Key, then BAM, you've got pad control. There are also other programs that can do this, like Xpadder, but I prefer Joy2Key due to it's simplicity.

sfried
206th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(2):Re(10):Videogame making tools" , posted Sun 17 Aug 22:29:

Going back to platformers, I'm not sure if Flash is ideal for "stiff" action platformers a la Castlevania or the like (where your character lacks momentum to change his/her direction of jump in mid-air). A common thing with these games is that they have a single run speed, and usually include a slide kick to compensate. I know Flash can be programmed well, but I was looking into making something that was full-screen.

Right now I'm checking out Mokoi Gaming. I don't know if it's any good.

[this message was edited by sfried on Sun 17 Aug 22:31]

sfried
208th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(3):Re(10):Videogame making tools" , posted Fri 22 Aug 14:58

Also, the reason why I wanted to avoid Flash was because of robust hardware support. I know I've heard somewhere that Flash can support joysticks, but I always wanted to experiment using different sound modules as well to simulate the sounds of 8 to 16-bit games.

dr baghead

3773th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(2):Re(10):Videogame making tools" , posted Sun 24 Aug 03:44

quote:

BTW, um...where's a link to the TT game?

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/games/teentitans/battleblitz/index.html

my computer says I'm missing the software needed to play the game so this *might* be it or it might not.

basically it was the 5 Titans and 5 oddly choosen villians (Jynx, Gizmo, Mamoth, Cinderblock, and Plasmus) it has striker attacks and some other weird shit...

quote:
Regarding controllers and keyboards: you can always create a Joy2Key profile to emulate keystrokes with your gamepad. If you save the profile, include it your game download, and instruct people to download Joy2Key, then BAM, you've got pad control. There are also other programs that can do this, like Xpadder, but I prefer Joy2Key due to it's simplicity.

So it IS possible to use a control pad with Flash?!

Sweet! I've always wanted to make a Final Fight style game where you played as "Classic Monsters" (you know a Frankenstien's monster, a Dracula, a Wolfman, a Mummy, etc) and fight other more modern monsters (zombies, masked psycho killers, dream based supernatural killers, etc).... now only chronic laziness prevents me from being able to do that!

Blanka and Dan make for a most excellent tag image (yeah

still not funny)
my silly little drawin's

sfried
209th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(3):Re(10):Videogame making tools" , posted Sun 24 Aug 12:10

So I went ahead and purchased Game Maker. Now slowly learning the language, but at least the basic interface is simple enough to grasp.

That said, I'm still looking for the common elements among these "stiff" platform games (i.e. Valis, Rondo, etc.). I know they have a single speed walk motion, slide kick is almost mandatory, but overall they utilize powerups. I'm just not sure if there are simple templates out there which I can start off from.

sfried
210th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(4):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Mon 25 Aug 00:47

That said, what is the best recommended program for editing animated sprites? (That leaves out MSPaint) I don't really intend on modifying them; more like study how the animation works as well as the tricks pixel artists use.

Toxico

4433th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(5):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Mon 25 Aug 14:46:

quote:
That said, what is the best recommended program for editing animated sprites? (That leaves out MSPaint) I don't really intend on modifying them; more like study how the animation works as well as the tricks pixel artists use.

I have heard that it is actually, easier to use both, a picture editer and a gif animator. Remember that an animation is just a secuence of several images, so you can edit them / resize them as you insert them into the animation, in this regard, I would advice to stick to something simple as paint or psp.

For the gif animation part the guy that made the game that I posted before used 'gif animator', he claimed that it's very complete and easy to use, but you can't learn everything in one day; that program is included in an application pack called "Ulead Webrazor Pro".

The advice of my friend was "you need to handle photoshop + gif animator + paint + gold wave to make something worthwile". (gold wave is a sound editor).

The only evil of the word; is the one in the heart of men

[this message was edited by Toxico on Mon 25 Aug 14:51]

Shindekudasai

250th Post

Copper Customer

"Re(6):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Mon 25 Aug 15:50

Ah, Ulead! I don't know about this 'webrazor' stuff but I used to use Ulead GIF Animator when I was working on Dragonball REMIX (has it really been almost 10 years already?!), it's very simple to use. The way I worked it (and the way I reccomend) is to do each frame as a seperate image in paint using the same resolution, then simply "import frame" using Ulead. This makes it MUCH easier to line everything up so that there's no 'popping' in the animation. Of course if you choose to change things, you can edit it after importing through Ulead itself. You can of course opt to go with Photoshop instead, your mileage may vary. But I was more comfortable using 'simple' programs to do the bulk of the work and falling back on the 'fancy' stuff only when I needed it for specific effects.

sfried
211th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(5):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Mon 25 Aug 23:26

Right now I'm using GraphicsGale, and posted my first sprite on Pixelation. I know it's rather crumby.

Tai-Pan

280th Post

Copper Customer

"Re(6):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Mon 25 Aug 23:46

quote:
Right now I'm using GraphicsGale, and posted my first sprite on Pixelation. I know it's rather crumby.

Looks good to me!!
Keep up the good work

"Those who follow the path of a warrior must be ready to die in order to stand for one's convictions live for one's convictions die for one's convictions"

sfried
212th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(7):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Wed 27 Aug 12:51

quote:
Right now I'm using GraphicsGale, and posted my first sprite on Pixelation. I know it's rather crumby.

Looks good to me!!
Keep up the good work

Eh, my sprite' too big given the resolution of most platform games. (I know most standard contemporary ones display at 640x480. Wiki says PC-E displayed up to 512x224 with most games displaying at 256x240.) Also, I have much to learn about the in-between tricks most artists use.

Juke Joint Jezebel

3635th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(8):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Sun 28 Sep 18:40

i guess it's been a little over a week. my comrades are using Torque. if $29.95 is too expensive for you, i'm sure you can find it somewhere

i haven't had the chance to try it out yet, but i've been told that it's easy to pick up. of course, some programming knowledge would help. it should still be able to handle a basic 2D game with little or no programming though

think well your answer

Professor

2512th Post

MMCafe Owner

"Re(6):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Sun 28 Sep 22:03

quote:
Right now I'm using GraphicsGale, and posted my first sprite on Pixelation. I know it's rather crumby.

GraphicsGale and Edge are the two best known pixel editors used by Japanese artists.

Gojira

2454th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(7):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Mon 29 Sep 03:19

quote:

GraphicsGale and Edge are the two best known pixel editors used by Japanese artists.

Nice, I like the Edge app. It's a lot like another program that I use, but that one only works in DOS so it's been hard to keep using it. Thanks for the link.

~~shipoopi~~

sfried
233th Post

Frequent Customer

"Re(7):Re(10):Sprite editors" , posted Mon 29 Sep 16:57

quote:
Right now I'm using GraphicsGale, and posted my first sprite on Pixelation. I know it's rather crumby.

GraphicsGale and Edge are the two best known pixel editors used by Japanese artists.

Thanks for the link to Edge. What does Domino do, though? Can compose music using only it?