*coughs* Fade to Gray update (Egads! now with new screenshot

[Miles McCloud]

Good afternoon, for those who remember, I'm the guy who popped on up the board a bit less than a year ago and promised to create a full PS fangame in about a month's time. <p>At least, I used to be that guy. For those with REALLY good memories, I basically vanished after the release of the preview demo, due the beginning of my college career. Development stopped completly for a good four months, and then last January I looked back at what I'd been up to with my PS fangame. <p>The project was never actually canned, but did get pushed aside due to more important things, i.e, adjusting to college life, girls, and the like. At that time I examined my game and realized how much it sucked. <p>True, while it had nifty things like a more accurate PSIV styled battle system and graphics, my mapping, stats, and dialog needed MUCH MUCH work. The dialog was campy and at times didn't make any sense,and throughout the game I kept asking myself...*I* wrote this?????. The whole thing reaked of n00b to RPG Maker 2k3. Early scenes were sloppily coded and the dreaded TEXT OVERLAP bug was rampent. <p>So, began an on and off approach to remedying this. Basically, I wiped the slate off and started fresh, with only the original story, and a few maps left from the original. Everything received a huge facelift. Since January I have managed to bring the game back to the level of progress it was at when I stopped.<p>For those of you who are new or slow, Fade to Gray is a prequel to Phantasy Star IV, which stars Hahn during the year before he enrolls in Piata academy, putting the time about 8 years before PSIV. <p>Some highlights include a "class taking" system, which, depending on what classes you enroll in, Hahn's stats will evolve differantly, and differant techs will be learned, a dark plot with no obvious villian (hence, Fade to Gray), and cameo appearances by PSIV mainstays like Alys, Rune, and Zio. <p>I won't give a release date for the final or even a new demo, but I will say that as long as surivive and my PC doesn't explode, it will come out. I'm giving myself room here, because if anything, the past year has taught be to be realistic.<p>Anywho, are any of my ol' beta testers out there? If so, thanks. Your suggestions and such proved invaluable whilst remaking the game. <p>I'll hang around here a little bit, but I won't be as active as I was in the past. I merely wished to update y'all on the status and prove I hadn't vanished into obscurity.<p>P.S. Missagh, if you get the chance, could you link to this post from the "Fade to Gray" page in the fangames section? I figure it's best to warn people that the demo they're about to play is definitely not an accurate representation of the state the game is currently in. Thanks!<p>P.P.S. This isn't an April Fools joke XD<p>[size=small][Edit by Miles McCloud on [TIME]1112379217[/TIME]][/size]<br><p>[size=small][Edit by Miles McCloud on [TIME]1112542916[/TIME]][/size]

[Benoit]

I'm still here. Next time I'll beta-test a game, I'll make more efforts to actually put out a report. Though I hope you did get something useful from my comments through AIM. <p>Good luck!

[Siren]

Of course we remember you!<p>*cough* <br>Yes, about that report...I had wrote up a whole thing on missing collision (complete with screencaps), but I never finished it. When you left, you mentioned college and no net access, so I planned to give you *what I had* when you got back... <p>Since you're remaking it, that data isn't relevant anymore...so I'm very sorry for that. I hope my comments on AIM helped, though.<p>I enjoyed your game, and I wouldn't regret your mistakes; you've learned alot from them. Now, you are more equiped to make a better game.

[gm2987]

Good to see you back, I hope you improved your skills to make the game better, it was quite good for something you tryed to create in a month, I'm still working on my game (like you I'm remaking it although I haven't started much on it yet I'm a bit lazy)<p>

[Miles McCloud]

Thanks guys.<p>Anyways, here are some screenshots comparing how the the game has evolved (at least graphically)<p>Lobby of Krup acadamy from the preview demo<br>[img]personal.southern.edu\~edwardg\screenshots\old2.jpg[/img] <p>Lobby of Krup acadamy as it is now (still subject to change)<br>[img]personal.southern.edu\~edwardg\screenshots\new1.jpg[/img] <p>This was just me being logical. What does one usually find in lobbys? Potted plants, places to sit, and magazines. The hahn sprite is a stand-in. I'm moving a bit away from PSIV sprites, they limit me too much. I'm not a great spriter, and being able to use some more readily available spritesets as well as as the charas generator make things much easier. I have yet to create updated versions of the PSIV charactors, so for now ignore hahn with his orange shirt and blue jeans.<p>Anyways, let me know what you think of the new look.<p>EDIT: Typo in the link...<p><p>[size=small][Edit by Miles McCloud on [TIME]1112542474[/TIME]][/size]

[Benoit]

The slashes aren't right. You used backslashes instead of normal slashes. You also used a slash behind the file names. That's why the image links are broken.<p>Here are the images:<p>Old:<br> <p>New:<br> <p>I like the improvement.

[gm2987]

Just confirming something, that sprite that replaces Hahn is supost to be him correct?<p>BTW nice improvements, just make sure you fix it so you can't over everything

[Miles McCloud]

Whoops, thanks Benoit. I thought I fixed it since it shows fine for me, but it's obvious I did that wrong.<p>I guess it shows just how long I've been away from the internet XD.<p>gm, the sprite that replaces Hahn is just something I made in 45 seconds with charas so I'd have something to look at when testing. Hahn's final sprite is in limbo at the moment. I'll probably end up streching and editing his PSIV sprite to better blind in with the Chrono Trigger styled spritesets I'm using. The PSIV ripped NPCs will probably get similar makeovers.<p>Also, I tried to get ahold of your game's demo when you released it, but couldn't connect to the bittorrent tracker. Are you currently hosting it anywhere?<br>

[gm2987]

Uh not at the moment I can reseed it although hogfires been werid lately, I should prob. find a better place, really you should just wait for the next demo consitering I'm redoing everything and the demo I had out wasn't that good at all.