64DCG Revisited

Posted by Castypher on July 17, 2013, 6:48 p.m.

The presence of this blog officially means I'll be sticking around after the Completition. You guys have shown me exactly what I was trying to prove to myself – that 64Digits can keep the same motivation, productivity, and interest in each other that it always has.

Just so everyone is aware, this is a project I'm establishing now, but will finish after the Completition. I plan on having a prototype ready by this weekend.

So those of you in the IRC and Cyrus's blog may have heard that I've decided to revisit the 64Digits Community Game, which was an attempt to revisit the days of when people could see themselves and other 64Digiters in a game. This project fell out of my priority list due to 64Digits' spiral downward, but I've decided to stop just waiting around for it and do something.

This time around, though, it will be a Castlevania-esque bullet hell platformer rather than the original RPG-shmup hybrid I was trying to use to get you people into my favorite genre.

Additionally, I'm collaborating with Mega, who will be handling things on the graphics end, and by the sound of it, he's not skimping. If any other spriters *cough*MUSH*cough* can assist while keeping the general style, you're welcome aboard.

Additionally, the later iteration should have multiplayer support, including both co-op and versus, which should be very entertaining.

I'm going for the style present in Touhouvania, which was the inspiration behind this rework (skip to halfway through the video to see the gameplay):

This also means I'll be redoing the characters submitted to me in the original 64DCG incarnation. More on that later.

Questions for you:

1) Due to certain constraints, not all characters could be playable in the first release. Instead, the characters will appear as allies and enemies, and you'll play an alternate protagonist. Who do you think this should be and what qualities should I give him/her?

2) At first I didn't take the story very seriously, but I want to see if people prioritize the gameplay and characters over a story, or if I should put effort into writing a dark/quirky/humorous story and which one to focus in on.

3) What characters would you like to see in the initial release?

4) For those familiar with the gameplay style, what revisions would you make?

5) Which do you expect to see more of in-game: the users or their characters?

I've already got quite a few people interested, and if the reception is good, I'll go ahead and ask for character details next time around.

If you do have a preference for a character who will represent you, you can still post it here.

Comments

Castypher 11 years, 3 months ago

Hmm, I'll be honest. The upper-to-lower body proportion is throwing me off a bit, the bounce might be a bit exaggerated, and the hands are swinging in a way that makes it look a bit prance-y. I know I'm taking you out of your comfort zone by forcing you to animate large sprites, so let me give an alternative:

- I have some run/walk templates that fit the style I'm aiming for, and you're free to use them. Or since you've expressed discomfort in this area, I can take over the player character if you want to do a few others, who are far less animation heavy.

- If you (or MUSH/REZ HINT HINT) could focus in on backgrounds, tiles, and scenery, I really need those as soon as possible.

- The 3/4 view on a run/walk animation is difficult to maintain. I'd go for a profile view with a 3/4 on the idle and various attack animations.

Also, if anyone can do character portraits, I think that would be a fun addition. I can do that myself, but I'd rather devote time to making the game playable first, and my patience for drawing isn't nearly as high as it used to be.

Astryl 11 years, 3 months ago

Quote:
I have some run/walk templates that fit the style I'm aiming for,
Might help, though I needed to speak to you about this anyway. I'll catch you on IRC.

panzercretin 11 years, 3 months ago

I don't know in what point that walk cycle is in development (too lazy to read) but from here it looks really stiff and slow, like he's walking through water or something.

Astryl 11 years, 3 months ago

It looks better in motion, and at 20FPS (ASE seems to make gifs play at 10FPS by default). I have tested it out, but… meh. Higher res pixel art. Haven't had enough practice with it.

Castypher 11 years, 3 months ago

Actually, I think hel's idea of factions would be brilliant, considering we've seen things like that in the past.

However, you forgot about Potfrog.

JuurianChi 11 years, 3 months ago

It indeed sounds like a Touhou style story.

Castypher 11 years, 3 months ago

That's not a Touhou story.

Quote:
hel: it's Cyrus' fault. LOOSE CANNON MASTER SPARK

JuurianChi: LOOSE CANNON MASTER SPARK

hel: LOOSE CANNON MASTER SPARK
This is a Touhou story.

(although I think I'll definitely be using hel's lines)

JuurianChi 11 years, 3 months ago

Story idea-

A new user joins 64Digits, upon hearing what a great place it is and all of the awesome features.

Unfortunately when they arrive after completing registration, they are immediately under attack by a group of enemies. After defeating the grunts. The player encounters A 64Digits user/character and must fight them. When they are defeated, the 64digits member/character thanks them and declares that there was a bad situation going on in 64Digit's mainframe and they were on their way to help.

The player's goal then becomes to find out what exactly happened to the community.

As they progress through 64Digit's chambers they will encounter clues, and other enraged mindboggled 64Digits members/characters.

Eventually they discover that the entire community has fallen under the spell of a rouge program that was embedded into the mind altering code.

Someone discovers that the code was Inputted by a hacker with Three independent aliases. Independent in the same sense as twins are, but these guys are in fact the same person, hired by Rival Community GoGo Corp to destroy 64Digits from within.

After defeating all the hacker personas, the location of virus source code is discovered to be located deep within GoGo Corp.

And the quest to restore 64Digits with a medicine program begins.

colseed 11 years, 3 months ago

Quote:
MASTER SPARK

MASTER SPARK

MASTER SPARK

u called

Mush 11 years, 3 months ago

I can do tiles. Just pm the details.