Lightning Heroes

Thought i'd go ahead and start the thread, -so here it is.

Development's coming along pretty slowly, but so far I'm satisfied. I'm definitely gonna need to speed up if I want this to turn out good, so I'm also gonna be doing more at once.

I have a good bit of the prologue done. most of the "opening cutscene" business is done, I just need to finish mapping the town and adding the tutorial/fetch early equipment section. I hope I'll be able to wrap it all up by next Friday. ( Not this Friday, though.) If things turn out right, I'll probably have a demo ready the next day, so I can make sure i'm playing my cards right.

Now, there are a few things I still need, namely sound effects and music. I'll probably be able to cover the music part, but could you guys lend a hand with sound effects? I can't find any good sources, and I'm never satisfied with sfxr's results.

Well, I have about five minutes of the game done. If I keep at this rate, I should be able to meet the mandatory 30 minute quota... but hopefully I'll be able to kick my ass in gear and do an hour or more. Heh, hope so.
Screenshot so maybe somebody replies:


by the way, is it possible to define different borders for the portraits, and to give them solid backs? If not, would it be hard to implement?

Also, does anybody know've a good source for sound effects? All I can find is either way too elaborate and specific, or requires a paid subscription, or both. :/

Mm, no, I don't think so. Portrait-boxes are pretty much what you're given, take them or leave them. You could PM James or someone to find out if other options for it are feasible.
For now, I say work with the boundaries. It's not too hard to squish all the text in the box to the left or right and putting the portrait in the corner (and if you have to compress your dialogue, all the better, because no one wants to read a wall of text at once.) Or, you know, you can keep doing what you've done in that screenshot, it looks fine.

Sound effects? I just rip what I can with what I have, and when I run out, I either scour the internet aimlessly or make the sound effect myself. This is a good option if you have decent sound editing software like Audacity.

Well if there aren't any good sources for me to get ripped files from; I guess I'll just have to deal with sfxr. Oh well.

And for the portrait deal, I'm considering using slices... or I could just do 'em like I have them.

I should add a slice lookup code so you can get the rectangle slice handle for the box around the portrait. Then you would be able to tweak it.

I'm curious, though; why didn't you give portraits the option for solid backs and different borders?

By solid backs, do you mean coloured backs? All you need to do is fill the pictures background with a colour that matches the text box.

Also for your sound effect problems try searching Google for Free Stock Sound Effects, or Free Stock Video Game Sound Effects.

Having to make several portraits with different colored backs just to comply with the theme of my game is both unconventional and tedious.

It seems like every time something in the vain of convenience is suggested, or even mentioned, you guys like to say "Why would you wanna do that when there's a much harder, more time consuming way to do it? :D "

The engine has definitely proven itself to be flexible and powerful, but it's premise is targeted towards amateur developers. That's completely fine, except that this has got to be the least user-friendly engine I've worked with, only because to do most of anything is presented as a "work-around" or "cheat". :/

Maybe I'm just dumb and insane and this engine's perfect, and having to take the "long way" to do things is more fun to most people. heh, oh well.

Anyways, about my game, I might have a demo up by Friday, but no promises. If I do, It'll be 95% cutscene.

ANYONE WHO DOES NOT TAKE THE LONG AND HARD PATH IS NOT A REAL MAN

But anyway, the deal with the OHR, I think, is that you must learn to become flexible and change the way you approach problems if the easiest or best way is not possible. If the engine adapts to your needs later, you can always come back and change it, but by then, you might think it wasn't such a big deal after all.

Well, maybe. Anyone remember when there were no portrait graphics? When we finally got the chance to use them, it became so popular, even Wandering Hamster was updated to include them.
And I kind of forgot where I was going with this, sorry.

Oh, I know. I considered the "filling portrait with a color" substitute as soon as I saw I couldn't give portraits solid backs. I also knew, every single time that I've suggested something, that it could be done with plotscripting.

I don't have a problem with having to do "work-arounds" to get what I want from the engine. in fact, it makes things a good bit more rewarding. It just bothers me that everybody's so reluctant to make the engine more user-friendly.

Okay, so, I probably wont have a demo up by Friday. I could, but I don't think anybody wants to see just ten minutes of rough-cut animation.

However, if things go smoothly, I should be able to squeeze in enough gameplay for a demo by (next, not this) monday or tuesday, Maybe.

Some more details about the game:

It WILL use the backdrop-animation method. Not often, but it will. Mostly for high-quality special effects that the engine couldn't do (Easily) otherwise.

It will shift from light-hearted to dark and gruesome. The general theme will still be pretty cheerful, though.

Leveling and battles will be standard OHR. The equipment system will be used as a means of assigning different attacks, which will be what ultimately define the class of your character. Other characters will have assignable attacks, but all of their classes will be predefined and they'll be restricted to very specific moves. Every character will have two attacks that are completely unique to them.

The game will have a pretty heavy focus on story, and a lighter one on combat. Leveling up will take forever, and grinding will be downplayed. (Though still possible, if the player so chooses.)

The only way to get money will be to do jobs or sell items. The game will encourage the player to barter between different town and their economies, and there will be specific items for this. (Beer, for example, will be purchasable, though unusable; and It's value will differ greatly from town-to-town.)

The will be a means of "Fast travelling" from town-to-town, and the only way to exchange some members for others will be to visit their particular towns.

Oh, one last thing; there will be three protagonists with different stories each in the final release. This will NOT be in the contest release, though.

The first 1/5th of the game, you'll be playing the blue-haired "good guy". After a certain point, you'll be able to choose between him, his sister, or a crazy-powerful rogue bandit. In accordance to the rules of clique, the bandit will, of course, convert to the good side.

Oh God, I need me some help.


I don't think I need to show the whole script, if I do, let me know and I'll post all of it.

But anyways, here's what's supposed to happen:

NPC 4 turns to the left.
Music fades away.
Screen fades to black.
Sound effect plays.

What really happens:
NPC 4 turns to the left.
Music fades away.
Everything stops, no fading to black, no sound effect.

I can't see what could possibly be wrong. Either I'm blind, It's something to do with the rest of the script, or It's an engine bug.

I think your problem is the variable you used for the FOR command. I think the way a FOR works is that you create a separate variable specifically for the command to update. It looks like you've set it to the same variable you're using for music volume, and if that's the case, then your DECREMENT command is keeping the FOR command from counting up to 128.

Try this:


Just be sure to create the new variable "volume fade."

Also, I could be completely wrong. If so, feel free to tell me how wrong I am. If it helps someone at least think about their script in a different way and maybe come up with a new idea, then it's worth being called an idiot.

---

Email contributions to the OHR Collab project to:

ohrcollab@gmail.com

All contributions will be recorded in the credits.

That was exactly the problem. The funny thing is, I already had a variable for the for loop defined, I just forgot to use it.

But yeah, anyways, thanks a lot for the help. You probably just saved me several days of heinous decoding and research.