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.

To be honest, when I see "Final Fantasy" in a game title, especially followed by "VII", I tend to be scared of what I'll see... But here, I have to admit, I'm impressed. Very impressed. It really looks like FF VII, but with RM2k3.
You have some serious skill, there's no denying it.

Now that's out the way, I still can't understand the point of remaking a game when we can play the original easily, but it's your time and your work, you can do whatever you want, eh... Or maybe you're doing this for the sake of the challenge, and if that's the case, this is a challenge you can definitely win.

With your skill, I'm more curious about your original creations, though...

I love FF7 and this project looks incredible, however I do have some gripes mainly with the overworld stuff.
I can only imagine how many events are used with the menu and battle system alone and that can cause serious lag, I know there was like an anti-lag patch(which is slightly better than 4X 0.0 wait times)

I don't have to say anything about the graphical limitations with rm2k3 as I'm sure you're aware and there's always XP/VX if you ever get to the point where it's bothersom to your own game.

Very impressed so far(minus the sprites though.. if you're putting a lot of effort into the chipset/tiles I'd put a bit more effort into the sprites as you can barely tell who's who)

There's been so many of these, but all of them have failed - either because they don't get finished or they r just not very good remakes. From what I've seen so far, this is looking pretty good.

If this is a remake, then u need to update and flesh out everything from the original ok? To bring up to date. The menu and the battle window r still the same, but there's nothing u can do about that, is there?

Keep up the good work

Why does he need to update and flesh out everything from the original? and what does he need to update and flesh out and bring up to date?

Well, that was 1997 when the original game came out and it's now 2011, so he needs to bring everything up to date, we r not in 1997 anymore. (For example, Fire2 into Fira) It'll be pointless, if it's going to be exactly the same wthout any updates and changes to the game.

U must of seen alot of remakes and they had alot of updates and changes to make it more up to date. Look at all the rest of the FF remakes, they r all still the same in gameplay, but everything else were brought up to date like items, magic etc. Do u know what I'm on about?

Aside from changing Spell2 into Spell-ra and Spell3 into Spell-ga, I have no idea what you mean. In what other ways should he update and flesh out and bring it up to date?


I've never seen a single remake, let alone one that has had "a lot of updates and changes to make it more up to date".

Oh, forget it.



U've never ever played or seen a remake

Resident Evil (GC)
Final Fantasy I (PSP)
Final Fantasy II (PSP)
Final Fantasy III (DS)
Final Fnatasy IV (DS, PSP)
Golden Axe: Beast Rider (PS3)
Goldeneye 007 (Wii) etc.

All them games have been updated and they have a few changes to make it fresh and new ok? If u go play a game and then go play the remake of the same game, u'll know what I'm on about.

I like this... Even your test monsters look like Square's, heh. As for the "update", probably meant to be "retranslate and finish" like Square did with FF1-6. FF7 was a beta at best due to its deadlines, many things were half-implemented and poorly translated.

Would you be interested in having the graphics look more 2D FF-alike and just better overall? As much as my free time is scarce due to my own game, I'd lend you my spriting skills. And other skills if you're lacking anywhere.

I think he meant a remake of FFVII.

wow what an undertaking of an project. Now this will be an great RM2k3 remake of FF7 itself.

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Hope to see an demo out.

I am not a big FF fan, in fact I have only ever played Mystic Quest. As it happens though, my brother in law is a huge FF7 fan, and the quality this game displays is simply astounding. If it gets finished (If? More like "when") I'll be compiling it for him and giving it to him as a birthday present or something.

Also, I love how even the simple things, like the way the menu pops out and pops back in when you press the start button are animated and detailed. The little sounds you hear are also pretty faithful too. I couldn't stand the datedness of FF7's graphics, but I'll give this a try when it's finished. You might even convert me to a FF fan!

Sorry, I thought we were talking about fangames. Nonetheless, you said he needs to update and flesh out the game, but the only point you mentioned was the new spell naming system.

Hey hey, this is very impressive.

When I saw it I just thought it'd be another not so well made remake of FFVII. I'm not saying that because it's FFVII, to be honest, I've never seen a good remake in RPG Maker.

But it seems things are changing here. You project caught my attention. You are making all the graphics and programming by yourself?

I'm waiting for new updates here ^^
See ya \o

No, we r talking about real remaked games and I'm not going to go into detail about it on the author's topic ok? If I can think of a new topic about this, then I'll post it.

EDIT: New topic posted about this remaking games, u'll find in the theory & design discussion.

Looks superb, and the attention to detail is extraordinary. Hell I loved the original game, so goodluck with the
production, and hope this finishes up a completed game. The menu system looks awesome too.

I forgot to mention.. Expecting a C&D from Square soon?

Wow, I have to agree with everyone else and say that this looks really awesome but I also have to agree with Ceiling Cat. Square Enix is notorious for their C&Ds against profitless fan projects, and they usually end up waiting until the last minute after you've put all the work in. As amazing as this looks I would seriously be considering whether you're willing to risk all your work being for naught. I any case I'm not sure any game you make will be seriously amazing.

Thanks for your encouraging replies everyone! To answer a few questions/comments:

@Rukira: Lag in rm2k3 is usually the fault of the code, solved by the separation of code by graphics rendering and calculation. The menu is a little slow at times, but only where I've tried to do things that are a little ambitious (like the bubble sort for the materia which has a wait time of a few seconds when you've maxed out the materia). However, I've specifically designed the battle system such that there's no slow down at all. Basically every module is independent in a parallel event and they poll and wait for eachother with semaphores, and I created my own wait for user input code that allows menus to auto-update themselves or self terminate (like if the menu detects the user is dead or incapacitated, or if selection target dies it'll automatically retarget a new enemy, etc). I think if I showed you my code it'd look quite alien to you.

@Drtmttr2007: I can see where you're coming from, but part of the appeal to this is the nostalgia factor and for that reason I won't be changing anything from the original. Ideally I want someone to be able to finish my remake by following a walkthrough from the original.

@CeilingCat: I didn't think anyone would notice the test monsters were the same as Square's! I won't be changing the script though, there will still be the famous "this guy are sick" etc.

@megalukes: All graphics and programming have been done by myself.

@Knot: I'm trying to keep this as low profile as possible for that reason. Ideally I want to put it out there out of the blue like the FF7 nes remake did, when it was too late for Square to do anything about it. Also in both cases of CnD's its been a bit unclear why they were stopped. The 3D Chrono Trigger remake would've competed directly anything they had planned for CT, and the new Chrono Trigger snes game someone was making was a hack of the original rom, so they were stealing Square's code basically. This may be non-threatening enough and non-competitive enough that it goes unnoticed, we'll see.

You should totally use this as the test battle BG.
Finally, rm2k3 in the hands of another good coder. Judging by the variables, your system resembles mine a bit. You should use pointers a bit more perhaps, if you aren't.
What about the graphics, would you accept some help? Here's a sample... No need to explain what it depicts. It's rather sketchy. If you like the style, ask and I'll make something better.

I don't know what makes you think I'm not using a lot of pointers. You may be refering to how the battle system has a different set of character variables? The battle system does A LOT of pre-processing such as working out what magic and summons you can use, how many all's/quadra magic/turbo mp each one has, what attack commands you have access to, what derived stats you have, etc. The menu does these calculations on the fly as the user is sporadically nagivating a menu to see temporary outputs, but I decided to do away with that overhead by pre-processing everything at the start of a battle.

And I appreciate it, but I don't need any help at the moment.

Um, the fact that you label and use a lot of variables. With pointers and some thinking, the memory could be managed during runtime for repeated, multi-variable structures such as character/monster info and sprite info, with no need for naming this stuff. (I assume you did the latter at least since you use PPP)
But it doesn't matter since the system is finished as far as I can see. Good job.

Amazing dude. I wanna see the Materia system!

@Ceiling_Cat: Ah thats what you meant. I'm using structures, it would be madness without them. The variables are named so I can use the debugging tool with relative ease, as you saw.

@ranmaster: Heres a vid from a while ago of me playing with the materia menu

I'm really looking forward to the demo, this looks awesome.. and it's FF7 (which I've never played btw) so I'm going to assume it's going to be as good as the original (>^^,)>

Wow dude, with that kind of skill man, It's hard to see where your limitations are.
Psst, if you need a spriter or animator or sound dev, PM me. I'm willing to lend a hand.

I remember this project -- all to well -- back on Gaying Worldz a long time ago, and I remember all the feuds between everybody, my game, and this game. At first, I thought that we weren't gonna see much from this project because all Vanit should us was menu shots -- menu shots -- AND even more menu shots; but now, this game is slowly starting to be put together -- and I love it! Your slowly starting to prove all the naysayers wrong, Vanit; and I wish you the best of luck in finishing this masterpiece! Everything looks great, and I really don't have any problems at all! Weither you make small naming changes, or whatever, I don't care what you do to this game -- but keep on truckin'!

Keep us posted whenever you have made anymore additional progress, okay, son? ^^

Haha I remember those days and thanks for the support! I'm going to try post updates as soon as I have something to post.

why bubble sort?

When I was studying the Arrange function in the Materia menu I came to the conclusion the programmers had used a bubble sort, so thats what I decided on.

Haha, really, they did? That's kind of sad, but whatever works I suppose.

I don't remember there being any lag over it in the original though, so maybe a better algorithm would be in it's place in terms of keeping the feeling of the game similar rather than the code. of course I realize this would be more of polish rather than anything else though, considering it's working and shouldn't be a problem until you've amassed quite a bit of materia.
By the way, just how much materia is max?

Well unfortunately rm2k3 uses a non-compiled language so it'll never be as fast as compiled code on the PSX. The max is 200 materia including what you have equipped, in the worst case scenario of the materia being maxed out, all unequiped and completely jumbled up, the performance of a bubble sort is O(200^2). I just ran a test and in that worst case scenario, the bubble sort I wrote in rm2k3 does 19010 iterations of the bubble sort in about a second. This worst case scenario is only going to exist if you play FF7 for like 40 hours and for some strange reason have unequipped all your materia. I don't think this is too bad for poor ol' rm2k3.

At the time I was looking into the bubble sort I considered using other sorting algorithms that had a worst case scenario of O(nlogn), which is a hell of a lot faster. But my programming knowledge wasn't that great at that point. Now I think about it however, I could probably implement a non-recursive quicksort, so I'll write that down on my todo list.

I can't recall if this was asked already, but why did you choose RM2K3? Was XP or VX not available? Did 2K3 suit your needs better? Was the default battle system exactly what the doctor ordered?

I'm not using the default battle system, or any default systems for that matter. I don't want to get into a huge discussion about my choice of rm2k3 over xp/vx because in my experience users of xp/vx will defend them to no end like king and country.

In short though, I found that rm2k3 was more appropriate for the feel I was after, and it was the resolution I wanted without having to make everything twice as big. I also didn't want the game to look like Generic RPG #5023, like how all the xp/vx games seem to look to me. Additionally, though I haven't used xp or vx before, it looked like people who aimed for custom menus and battle systems always ended up with something still tainted by the feel of the default systems, and it seemed a lot easier to make something completely new and separate from the default systems in rm2k3. I've yet to see an rpg that looks really diverse from the look of xp/vx made in xp/vx.

You are a great developer to say that. Although I only use VX, I totally agree with you about many games seeming similar and how all the custom systems and scripts resemble the default stuff.

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.

So honestly, this will be the exact remake only in 2d graphics, right? Will you keep the same scenes, how to get special scenes, dialouge and all that? Will anything else be added or removed? By the way, I think it looks amazing. You're doing a great job making it look like FF7.

Oh, and I adore your sig for your game! :33

Thats correct, an *exact* remake. Nothing will be added or removed, and I'm paying very close attention to detail, the characters even do the same little gestures they do as they talk (this'll be evident in the proof of concept demo I hope to release on Sunday).

And thanks, I'm glad you think so!

So Aerith will still say "That guy are sick"? Right? :33

And you're welcome. I can't wait to see the next video. I know I'll be amazed

Yep! And from memory I think its "This guy are sick"

Oh that's what people meant when FF7 was rushed and poorly translated.

I don't think its as bad as some people say it is, personally. There's only one or two instances where the dialogue is that bad. FF7 has always struck me as "gritty" and I think the down to earth, by no means Shakespeare, dialogue matches that theme well.

Time for an update! I'm VERY close to being able to release a limited playable demo, here's a taste of the near complete battle system.

How many soldiers? Is there really going to be that amount of soldiers or enemies in the game? When u do release a demo, I'm not playing it, it's pointless playing the entirely same game twice.

This is just spam. Your warn level has been increased. ~Rob_Riv

So to break down Drkmttr's post...

QUESTION????
SMILEY FACE
QUESTION????
NOT GONNA PLAY IT BECAUSE IT'S POINTLESS.
Right.


@Vanit
When you showed us the triangle demo, it was actually kind of funny, you getting pwned by the Triangles. They attack quick and there's no delay in between attacks.This last video was tedious as hell though. Maybe lower the number of enemies by half and double their damage when you do another vid like this, just a suggestion. That being said, here's why I'd be interested in playing this game when it's finished.

The old FF7 was for PS1, and is so highly sought after that to play it you'll need at LEAST $50, if not $100 or more. The 3D graphics are horribly dated and really take away from my enjoyment of it.

However, this remake of it places the "best" FF game of all time in 2D mode, which makes the graphics just fine, and hopefully will still retain all of the greatness of the original.

My only worry is, will RM2k3 be able to handle such a huge game as FF7?

That's not a smiley face, I was surprised to see how many soldiers are in that video ok? I did say that before about his game.



Seriously? fair enough.

I'll play it faster than original version. Why? Graphics. It's better to use well 2D graphics, than crappy 3D models.

Regarding your question, it was a battle test video, Drkmttr2007. Seeing as Valit already said...


There obviously won't be "that amount of soldiers or enemies in the game".

Nonetheless, you didn't really need to reply to Klokinator's comment (although Klokinator didn't need to reply to your post either).

@Drkmttr2007: Rob_Riv is correct, I certainly won't be adding monster groups like that to the game. This was just for testing purposes. I've seen all your posts Drkmttr2007, and its pretty clear you've already decided you don't want to play my game - you don't have to come in here and say it everytime I update the thread.

@Klokinator: They weren't balanced to give Cloud a hard time. I just wanted to show off how the battles looked and let him win so the new victory screen would appear. I don't see why rm2k3 couldn't handle the size of this. To partially answer your question I've designed this battle system to be very powerful - its not a new map for every new combination of monsters like I've seen some people do. Everytime I want a battle I just load the enemy and character's data, and it looks up the AI and scripts all by itself and handles the rest and uses the same map everytime. So in that respect, it makes it very easy to make a full, long game with it!

When you say exact remake do you really mean EXACT.. like if I

When you say exact remake do you really mean EXACT.. like if I played through this, then played played through FF7 original.. would the story and everything be the same? coz I haven't played the original and I don't plan on being able to.. so I was just wondering since I will be playing this.. I'm excited about this project <(^^,<)