Final Fantasy VII: 2D Remake, DEMO OUT! Options

[Vanit]

I'm sure most of you have seen my efforts occasionally posted around the various RM communities and since this forum seems to be the most active these days I've decided to make it my games new dev home. The main purpose of this thread is just to show people where I'm up to and hopefully get some encouraging feedback if people like what they see.

This remake is aiming to be as faithful as possible, and hopefully it should be impossible to tell its even made with rm2k3.

Feature List:

- Custom Menu System 99% similar to the original FF7
- Custom Battle System 99% similar to the original FF7 (including all mechanics, enemy AI, battle formulas, insane materia combos etc)
- Custom Text System (using the pic pointer patch I've devised my own system that uses the actual FF7 font and is capable of multiple windows etc as in the original FF7)
- Completely custom graphics (This won't just play like FF7, you'll recognise it all instantly in its 2D glory)
- Basically everything will have a custom system. Shops, mini games, chocobos etc. NOTHING will be cut, expect everything (in due time).
- Also for those wondering I've ripped the SFX and midi's from the pc version of FF7, so sound is completely authentic too (and not bad recorded quality either!)

Demo:

Release 1: "Proof of Concept" (8.5mb)

Screenshots:











Video:

A taste of the intro (the whole Midgar shot will be done once I get the bombing mission finished)


The battle system:


Also there's a few other vids in my youtube profile that you're welcome to go fishing for if you want to see a more detailed look at the cms/cbs.

This post has been edited by Vanit: May 30 2011, 08:54 AM

[Vanit]

How long has this project been in development?
How many people are you collaborating with to make it?
What is your level of ambition in completing this project on a scale of 1 to 10?

The project started in around August 2008, but actively I've probably only been working on it for about a year. I'm juggling full time uni (Bachelor of Software Engineering) at the same time so unfortunately I can't work on it nonstop (trust me, I'd love to do this). As people have noted already, the custom systems are very polished and thats where all my time has gone so far. When I was doing the feasibility study before I undertook the project, I looked (and continue to look) at all the previous attempts people had made, and it seemed that people had the pattern of making the opening scene, getting to the first battle and being like "fuck, how do I handle the battle system and where the hell am I going to get the sprites?". So I started with the menu, then onto the battle system, and when I don't feel like coding I draw sprites. This is actually my first real attempt at an rm2k3 game, and when I started I had only very basic programming knowledge. Over time I've used what I've learnt at uni to supplement how I code in rm2k3 (I couldn't do pixel art at all either), and I've figured some stuff out in rm2k3 thats also helped me with programming in uni.

No one has ever collaborated with me on this, its entirely my work. Having said that, there are several people whose peripheral efforts have made this possible. Without Cherry's hacking it would've been impossible to replicate FF7's systems in the way I have (due to the pic pointer patch and increase to 126 simultaneous pictures). Also Gutts from GW forums provided me with a patch that increased the max value of variables to 99999999 up from 9999999, which I needed for the gil variable. I also have to give thinks to TFergusson and many others over at Qhimm.com that have put a lot of work into documenting all the algorithms that the FF7 battle system used, and without that I was left doing a lot of guess work (I like to think I helped as some stuff wasn't documented until I started prodding people with questions about lacking areas, particularly the time mechanics of the ATB). Anyone who's written a walkthrough or a guide for FF7 has been helpful too, I've probably looked through them all at one time or another.

I'd also like to give a shoutout to anyone whose ever helped me with blackbox testing. Occasionally I release moleboxed builds so I can have a deluge of people ravage the custom systems and see where they break (I'm planning a new release VERY soon), which is extremely helpful and I'm very grateful to anyone whose taken the time to poke around what I've produced.

My ambition level, despite all odds, is unrationally 10/10.

-----

Revenge of the triangles! I've implemented a fair portion of the AI code now, so the triangles now fight back. In the video they're running the AI script for MP (the guards in the first battle), though I've inserted the AI for all the monsters in the bombing mission. I've also done an overhaul of several modules under the hood including the target selection so no more targetting blank spaces! The cursor will automatically navigate to a new target if its current target dies mid-selection and skip blank spaces, and will follow targets as they move around the screen.



This post has been edited by Vanit: Mar 13 2011, 03:37 PM