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Project Annie of the Stars fangame

DDB said:
You mean the shost offi- oh wait this is the wrong topic.
Watch SHOself
 
I like where this thread is going
Stephen-Colbert-Popcorn.jpg
 
Oh, god. It's spreading.

DDB! Quick! Fanperson about Annie!
 
shoryusatsu999 said:
Oh, god. It's spreading.

DDB! Quick! Fanperson about Annie!
He can't, Mike is blackmailing/bribing him not to in exchange for Annie happening one day
 
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I really hope Annie's facepalming in that animation instead of surprised.
 
She's supposed to, but im bad with repasting heads on all the animations
 
going to point out that having a highlight as well as the skull cursors would do well to explain what you're picking-- if you leave the cursor at the center, it looks like the skulls are just decoration
 
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Midiman said:
going to point out that having a highlight as well as the skull cursors would do well to explain what you're picking-- if you leave the cursor at the center, it looks like the skulls are just decoration
Instead of a silly glow thing how about the background changes colour? Like going from black bg for a tile to red.
 
Midiman said:
if you leave the cursor at the center, it looks like the skulls are just decoration
Well this is kinda true, what are people gonna do?
Just stop, sit there and be like "Huh. Well I guess that's the end of the game"?
Naw, they'll move it and figure out it's the cursor. I don't see it as a huge issue.
 
Goodbye18000 said:
Well this is kinda true, what are people gonna do?
Just stop, sit there and be like "Huh. Well I guess that's the end of the game"?
Naw, they'll move it and figure out it's the cursor. I don't see it as a huge issue.

That's not the point. And don't underestimate people's stupidity.
You should do something a little extra to make sure the screen is constantly animated, if only just to make it look better.
 
Goodbye18000 said:
Well this is kinda true, what are people gonna do?
Just stop, sit there and be like "Huh. Well I guess that's the end of the game"?
Naw, they'll move it and figure out it's the cursor. I don't see it as a huge issue.
you don't see it as a huge issue because it's already conveyed to you that it's movable in the first place edit: by this post showing it off and it being animated

it doesn't matter if you can infer it, you should be able to infer that the 4 skulls in the intersection of these squares are movable and are actually a cursor to begin with. There is nothing else that conveys that this is something SELECTABLE other than the header. You don't think it is a huge issue, and I ensure you that you are completely wrong. These are the kind of things that developers aim to eliminate by including game hints and tutorials as you play, and more importantly, highlighting an object with some sort of cursor in order to show it can be interacted with.
 
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i'd like it more if they were front views of their faces... but that's just me...
 
guys guys guys. we'll take your thoughts into consideration for the cursor. its just good we get feedback from everybody.
 
I've slightly edited it, so how's this version?

Spoilered so you can see the black better
Whatever character you're on, the eyes of the Skulls will light up/blink.
tumblr_mxk82811rZ1rwxvn2o1_400.png
 
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Immaevilspacewhale said:
I've slightly edited it, so how's this version?

Spoilered so you can see the black better
Looks too busy. Maybe highlighting the square with the skulls could help.
 
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Broseidon Rex said:
Looks too busy. Maybe highlighting the square with the skulls could help.
we did try that, but we decided to go a different route with the highlighting. we do have other plans for the select features, but I dont know if we can show or tell what it is yet.
 
I can tell you we're in the midst of a discussion on how to go about highlighting. While we will have something that makes it clear what's selected by the end I can't tell you with any certainty which idea we'll choose, however we'd like to have it match up to a certain theme, so lame highlighting like lighting up the images will NOT be happening.

My personal preference is tile colour changes, but there are some other good ideas flying around (we may be able to combine them for super deluxe visualised selection, but we'll see). Feel free to continue to contribute your own ideas for consideration ^_^
 
Target reticle where selection results in Annie's sword sticking out of the portrait.
 
Just keep the four-skull thing you originally had, but make the skulls blink so the user knows they function as a cursor.
 
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Immaevilspacewhale said:
I've slightly edited it, so how's this version?

Spoilered so you can see the black better
Whatever character you're on, the eyes of the Skulls will light up/blink.
tumblr_mxk82811rZ1rwxvn2o1_400.png

Honestly, it looks worse. What I had in mind was highlight the black border around the character its on, but the blinking eyes of the skulls combined with the old design could work.
 
The first one was better with how subtle it was while keeping up with the theme of the game. The 2nd one is looking unnecessarily cluttered with the presence of numerous skulls that serve as a distraction away from the character portraits themselves. Kind of overkill. Sometimes less is more.
 
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Number 13 said:
The first one was better with how subtle it was while keeping up with the theme of the game. The 2nd one is looking unnecessarily cluttered with the presence of numerous skulls that serve as a distraction away from the character portraits themselves. Kind of overkill. Sometimes less is more.
He's right, you know.
 
I took at a crack at showing what I meant r.e. highlights, I'm aware the actual positioning for the lines is wrong but I was too lazy to 0.5x and resize.

highlight fixed.gif


other than that, guys, make good game, and keep showing cool stuff. I'm rooting for you!
 
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I'm really liking how this is progressing, and I hope you guys make this into something completely awesome. However, I would like to offer feedback as far as Night Phyre's music. I like what he's doing, as far as thematic elements go. My only issue is the instruments being used.

You guys are making an 8-bit fangame, so I'm going to naturally assume that you are trying to be as consistent as possible with it, as if it were a NES cart. That being said, there's something off about your pieces... Which is due to "breaking the rules" of 8-bit.


History Lesson Time!

Back in the day, the NES' 2A03 SPU could only play 5 channels of audio in a mono setting: Two Square Pulse Waves, a Triangle Wave, a Noise Channel, and DPCM (samples). The Triangle Wave's volume couldn't be adjusted incrementally, so it was either at full volume or silent. Panning was non-existent, hardware sweep control was a thing, and the pulse waves had different widths: 12.5%, 25%, 50%, and 75%.

Then Konami came along with its Virtual ROM Controller 6, or VRC6, module. It featured 2 Square Wave Channels and a Sawtooth Wave Channel. This allowed you to compose fuller pieces and relaxed audio restriction on the NES.

Reverb is a tricky a thing in 8-bit because overlapping notes counts as two separate channels, so you're limiting yourself in your melodies unless you can adjust your melodies to have the perfect amount of reverb without overlapping channels.

Now, with everything that's been said, let's take a look at your "Hallway Boss Rush". It's got a nice flow to it, and the melody is on point with an 8-bit game. However, it has essentially wiped its ass with the "rules" of 8-bit composition. There's a segment where you have a channel playing solely on the left side; remember that NES = mono, and the instrument should be playing in both ears. From the sound of it, you made it in FL Studio or something similar using the Tweakbench Peach VST. If that's the case, your bass channel needs to be the "coneria" preset. When I first learned the "rules", I went back through all of my old work and overhauled some of it to keep in line with either the 2A03 constraints, or the slightly relaxed requirements of a 2A03+VRC6 piece. The difference is audible, and often for the better. Listen to Virt's single "Choppastyle"; you'll have a better understanding of bending constraints in your favor.

Here's something I worked on a while back when I learned about the VRC6 expansion:

All in all, you guys are on the right track. Keep up the excellent work.
 
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I'm pretty sure Night Phyre is aware of this (as he told me about it in great detail over a discussion around the music of LoZ), I can safely say that what he's doing is going to compliment what we're doing nicely, as I can't say we're completely following NES limitations in any particular fashion other than the art style taking from the whole 8-bit feel of Megaman (maybe if I were a better programmer I'd try, but as it is right now I'm just a scrub). I understand your concern but my preference differs and I'm quite fond of the music and instrument choice right now, I'm sure Night Phyre will have something more concrete to say when he next checks this thread.

On another note, my 2 weeks of break starts at the end of today, and I'd very much like to have something nice to show off before it's over, so (cautiously) get hype, I suppose.
 
RetroStation said:
You guys are making an 8-bit fangame, so I'm going to naturally assume that you are trying to be as consistent as possible with it, as if it were a NES cart. That being said, there's something off about your pieces... Which is due to "breaking the rules" of 8-bit.

Like DARKNESSxEAGLE said, the game's art and design isn't anywhere near true 8-bit, so the need to restrict the music to monaural 8-bit never really existed. Both the art and music are meant to simply invoke the sensation/memory of 8-bit games like Mega Man, not adhere to the style exactly. I'm not a chip composer, I'm a regular musician who makes some chip, and as such, I'm not of the mind that imposing restrictions on myself would improve the music.

Also, though, think of it less as a chip soundtrack, and more of a soundtrack that has lots of chip in it. Maybe it's not all chip. That's a hint.

DARKNESSxEAGLE said:
On another note, my 2 weeks of break starts at the end of today, and I'd very much like to have something nice to show off before it's over, so (cautiously) get hype, I suppose.

#twoweeks
 
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If that's the case, I apologize. I happen to be very passionate about 8-bit, especially anything that has a Megaman feel. That may have gotten the best of me in my critique. As I said before, you guys are doing well, and I hope this becomes a success.
 
RetroStation said:
If that's the case, I apologize. I happen to be very passionate about 8-bit, especially anything that has a Megaman feel. That may have gotten the best of me in my critique. As I said before, you guys are doing well, and I hope this becomes a success.
It's ok. I'm passionate about music as well, so I know what it's like to feel that nagging sensation.
 
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Just wanted to quickly drop in here and say that if alt OSTs become a thing, I'd like to collab w/ @Night Phyre as far as converting his work into VRC6 chiptunes. You guys have the potential to give me a lot to work with, and I recently came across a few tools that really help with transcribing :3

Besides, it's not like I work or anything (I don't).

Also, as far as animating the OP, does that requiring creating material from scratch, or simply piecing pre-existing material together? Just wondering, is all.

EDIT: I started a thing, based on that one song in the alpha.

https://soundcloud.com/xretrostationx/fish-mans-dance

I'll post the finished piece here and possibly my music thread once it's done.
 
Last edited:
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