Also some music and sounds would be nice too, but I should be able to track down some myself.
Any who, I do have the basic plot down, and the style of gameplay I'm going to use, but as I said, I need the sprites to make it work. The original guy who kind of started the project, was Edless, but I don't think any of us has heard a word from him for months. I can't help but wonder what happened to him.
Anyway, I believe I did get a new spriter, Zucca, who on the original thread said....
Zucca wrote:I'm eager to learn to do some sprites. For this I have compiled Grafx2.
I will, for sure, post if I get anything done, but it will take some time.
And that was pretty much the last thing on project, and I feel that I need a little help. Not that I'm saying you should make the sprites look exactly like the ones in the pic I've showed, but similar.
For those who don't know, the basic plot of the game, follows two characters from a past Phantasy Star title. Nei and Neifirst.
This pic, that was created by Edless, pretty much shows how the basic plot is.
Nei and Neifirst were recreated, but the lab is attacked, and they both escape, but are unaware of each other at the start. They are on a new planet, and travel to all sorts of locations to try and figure out what is going on. They both encounter each other once in awhile, and do team up to get through certain stages.
Neifirst is on a path of redemption, which is why she is on Nei's side. And I have the style stages pretty well thought out. There will be simple straight forward stages, and some stages that require a little exploration. And, last, but not least, town stages. These here are stages where you talk to towns people, and this is where you learn more about the plot. For these stages, you don't need to attack, unless you come to an area or situation that calls for it.
I do have the controls for them pretty well thought out, so I probably should provide how I figure they should work, so you guys know how to animate the sprites.
Now, as I mentioned there will be town stages where they don't need to attack, and the starting stages they don't have their weapons at first, so they have to get them. So that means there will be two intro animations, one for when they first get their weapons, and one when they pull them out cause they already have them.
Their styles do differ, as they both have different personalities, as well as weapons. Nei is of the young, quick, agile, Wolverine style. (And I refer to Wolverine cause he uses claws on his hands as well, so I picture Nei of being a similar style, just not as brutal, and not hunched over.)
Neifirst, is a little older, about just as quick, but a little less agile, and of the sophisticated swords-woman style.(Cause if you note her stance above, Neifirst sort of has a regal stance, so her sword fighting style would be similar.)
Now, onto the animations themselves.(I can go into detail on how just about each animation should go if you like. Just give the word. But for now, I'm keeping it simple. Also, just a friendly pointer, Nei's outfit is the one where her boots stop at the knee, and not go over.)
The basic standing without weapons drawn, will have both characters standing about their full height, Nei the more simple standing, Neifirst, the slightly more sophisticated style. They both have walking animations, which is only slightly different with their weapons drawn. Same goes for running and jumping.
When standing with weapons drawn however, is where they take on a stance of some sort.
Nei and Neifirst's walking and running are similar, but not identical.
Mostly the running and jumping stay similar for when they have the weapons drawn or not, but their styles are different. Nei is the highly athletic leaper, while Neifirst, more of the slightly stiff jump, but not super stiff.
For crouching, Nei and Neifirst do take on similar poses while crouching without weapons, but for when weapons drawn, the crouching is similar to their standing stance.(For those who will be working on the sheets, I'll go into full detail on how I think the animations should flow.)
Now onto the actions themselves.
Attacking
For when they start out, they have no weapons as I said before, but they aren't defenseless, they can still punch an kick. Which is the punch punch kick combo, where Nei and Neifirst's punches are very similar, but perhaps executed a little differently, and they kick with a different style kick, and probably with a different leg.
Attacking with their weapons is the same principle, except they don't finish with a kick this time. And they pretty much do what they do while standing while crouching, although it probably will flow a bit differently so it can still be affective.
And they both can slide, and I'm pretty sure we've got the basics down by now.
The jumping while they're attacking I'm still have a little trouble on how they would go about it.
Scaling walls
Nei can scale walls with her claws, but probably can't crawl on ceilings. Neifirst can't climb walls, but can jump from wall to wall.
Traps, hazards, and enemy attack affects
Kind of going by the Phantasy Star Universe and online series, there are certain things that can immobilize the characters, like say a creature that spews ice along the ground, thus freeze the character's feet in place, or ice breath that totally freezes the character over, or other such traps. But, I'm kind of wondering if we should go in that direction.
Basic animations
Mostly these are ones that would involve Nei and Neifirst interacting with switches, sitting and talking with the towns people, and the towns people themselves, which of course, I'll go into detail when it comes down to those.
The enemies
Haven't really thought about the bosses yet, but the enemies I think should Phantasy Star enemies that would translate well into a side scrolling perspective. Like the praying-mantis-like ones, and perhaps the sandworms for example. Couldn't you just picture having to run away from the giant sandworm?
That's pretty much all I can think of for now, so please, tell me your thoughts and opinions.