Outquest Options

[Ceiling Cat]

Trying to fake a NES game by following the said system's limitations.
Completely ditched RM's systems in favor of my own - merely using the maker as a tilemap engine.

Progress:
- Story is outlined completely, as is the world's history timeline.
- All playable character sprites are finished.
- System framework laid down
- Battle system in progress.

[Show/Hide] Currently working on

Finishing the BS

[Show/Hide] Story

The world is facing a major crisis. A militaristic nation of Zein got in the posession of knowledge that might give them threatening advantage over the world... and they are willing to use it.
One man, however - could not stand this turn of events. Tormented by guilt of taking part in letting the unworthy claim great power, he ran away and set out on a suicide mission, which will turn into a chain of events known later as the Journey of Liberation...

[Show/Hide] Characters

[Show/Hide] Raine

A girl from Narett, daughter of a hero of the Agorean Invasion. Orphaned at a young age, she became a mercenary due to lack of skill in any other area. Not a single thing is known about her mother.
Raine doesn't trust people easily - if a conflict is present, she's the last to think about negotiating, holding a firm belief that a corpse is less likely to deceive you than anything else. The only person she doesn't eye suspiciously is her only friend, Sarya.
She's naturally talented in using light, close range weapons.

[Show/Hide] ????

Yet to be revealed.

[Show/Hide] ????

Yet to be revealed.

[Show/Hide] ????

Yet to be revealed.

[Show/Hide] ????

Yet to be revealed.

[Show/Hide] Zirielle

Prototype screenshots removed until I get to show actual ingame things.

Disclaimer - The screenshots shown above were all taken in different and earlier stages of development, and most likely do not represent the current progress or quality.

This post has been edited by Ceiling Cat: Apr 1 2011, 07:38 AM

[Harryb412]

Straight up -I adore those character facesets. Such a nice style.
The story sounds interesting enough for me to play,
A question though, what battle system will you be using? Is it timed or turn based?
And what does "E1" and "E2" mean?

[Ceiling Cat]

Turn based, with heavy emphasis on planning ahead. (you'll be able to preview the turn order)
E1/E2 are related to the game's (hopefully) unique magic system... that's all I'll disclose right now.

To clear things up, the screenshots don't exactly picture any situation from the game - they're just tests.

[Ceiling Cat]

Some updates, screenshots, art and stuff added, also bump because 3 days.

[Peaceful_Chaos]

I like this a lot. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but your characters in battle look slightly slanted. Like they're standing like / instead of |. Especially in the last one with Raine. Overall, I think this looks/sounds really great.

[Absinthe]

I like the idea of using the NES' system limitations, it's like a hint of nostalgia for something new. You've done a good job capturing it with your art. Seems like you have a lot of important details finished, I hope it won't be too long until we get something playable.

This post has been edited by Absinthe: Feb 27 2011, 03:45 AM

[Ceiling Cat]

And I hope you meant "too long" :v
I'm afraid there's still things to take care of, a demo will still need all the systems working. But when I can, I'll slap something playable together.

[Absinthe]

And I hope you meant "too long" :v
I'm afraid there's still things to take care of, a demo will still need all the systems working. But when I can, I'll slap something playable together.

You're right, haha! I was going to bed at the time I wrote that

Looking forward to anything you can cook up!

[Ceiling Cat]

I made some changes to the character sprites themselves to make them look good both on map and in battle. Walking frames were optimized and their style was unified between all characters, and I made some battle frames.


This post has been edited by Ceiling Cat: Mar 4 2011, 02:06 PM

[Reshiram//Exe]

NES-Style game? Wow. Is there going to be a SNES-Style game? Not saying I dislike the Idea, but I've always liked the SNES more; Maybe because it started off and evolved many of my favorite series(Final Fantasy, F-zero, Mario, Mario Kart) This is extremely original and I fully support this.

[Ceiling Cat]

SNES isn't too limited - so there's no "SNES style" other than keeping to 256 colors per screen, and some occasional use of Mode 7. NES is more specific because it's 12 colors per layer and 3 per sprite - meaning you have to resort to all sorts of tricks to make your game look like something better than Action 52.

[Harryb412]

What are you planning to do for music, btw?
There is a program called Famitracker which can make music with the same limitations that the NES has, iirc, you might be interested in looking into that if you haven't already

[Ceiling Cat]

I know about FT, I'm using it for sound effects. I'm looking for composers at the moment.

[Nanaki]

Looks legit. I'd give it a download. The NES idea is pretty awesome. The story outline, as it stands, doesn't reveal much that looks like it would pull me in, but I'm sure it's because you don't want to give anything away...

My original concept for my current project was to do something "SNES styled" but as you've pointed out, that's basically come to mean 100% pixel-created graphics with no anti-aliasing and no MP3s, and not much else. So, respect for those 3-color sprites -- they are pretty true to concept.

This post has been edited by Nanaki: Mar 5 2011, 09:26 AM

[Ceiling Cat]

And you're right, I'm not revealing the story because I may feel like changing it in the last moment and I'm generally more absorbed with the system right now. The only thing about the story which is 100% decided are the characters and locations involved.

On a side note, basic action processing, and target selection mostly works. (only a blank attack command is implemented so far, but the framework for processing all possible actions, items, skills and spells along with their CT calculation is already working)

[kraz007]

I like the classic look. As a gamer that started playing RPG in the 90s, it's very nostalgic.

[elliott20]

I am LOVING the NES style graphics. Seriously, it's giving me goosebumps. I'm so going to play this when it's done.

[Shadyone]

I definately agree with elliott20, I'll also play when this is done and the NES gfx look awesome

[Ceiling Cat]

Well, it's a shame that all the progress done now isn't exactly something to make screenshots of or babble about... it's just a bunch of assembly-like memory operations and a few drawing instructions right now. If it makes any of you feel better, I'm about to proceed to making monsters and processing actual (non-blank) actions.

[LiberalElephant]

Great job at capturing the NES style, I really like it! It reminds me of those old FF games like I and II...