looking for some people to enter the contest together

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schepers_cp
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looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by schepers_cp »

i don't know if this is the right place, but:

since i can't get my uzebox games to run and am too inexperienced, and i still want to participate, i am searching for a few people who want to team up with me.

i want to create a classic japanese visual novel for the uzebox*
i can sprite characters myself in ms paint (my favourite spriting program XD), i can even provide a small storyline (with hard work/thinking) and some basic midi music.
but my speciality lies within the spriting and music area, which i enjoy the most to be honest.

* = if you don't know what i mean, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA13uqhwfGA or read my short description below:
a visual novel is like a interactive graphic book, in which you take place in a character and make choices, based on your choices, the game has different outcomes/storylines to follow.

so... anyone want to team up with me for the contest? :)
p.s. IF we win a pricze, it will be shared equally along the team ofcourse~
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Hmmm it seems interesting to me, but I don't know anything about it. I am not sure how they work with multiple story lines or what not, but it seems a scripting system is needed and a video mode that can load up full screen graphics from the SD card. I am sure a custom video mode is needed but what kind of events and choices are there out of curiosity?
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schepers_cp
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by schepers_cp »

i don't know exactly how to answer your questions in my own words, so i'll give you the wikipedia link if you don't mind~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_novel

and if you want to try one, i recommend fate/stay night
(it's one with some horror in it, so be aware please..)
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uze6666
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by uze6666 »

If it's not on the complexity level of mode 3 or 6, I'm always open to contribute a custom video mode 8-) .
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schepers_cp
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by schepers_cp »

i'd love to have that.

to see some basic features of a visual novel's graphic engine, try the ren'py demo visual novel as reference ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLCWHM2aNzs )
now, i know the fading and graphic effects are too intensive for the uzebox to do, but something like it would be awesome to have.
so things we need on the graphical part:
set a fullscreen background per scene
display character(s) with who you're interacting with (max 2 at the same time)
a options button (can be sprite) to show the options menu.
a text dialog

example options menu: load, save, go to title screen
a sample:
mqdefault.jpg
mqdefault.jpg (16.33 KiB) Viewed 13375 times
note: ren'py is a python based cross-platform visual novel engine so that you know ;)
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by D3thAdd3r »

SD card is the only solution. Max resolution in the video player is 147 @ 8bits per pixel and some cards can't even keep up with that it seems. I think 147 horizontal resolution would be quite disappointing for this type of game. The only solution I can see, is to use each byte we can get from the SD card for 2 pixels and have 16 color screens with the text, menu, and choices built into the actual image. No moving cursor or anything, literally push the corresponding button to select your choice which brings you to that screen with also has multiple links. I don't know how good it would look or work in practice but I don't think there is a much better way to do it.
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by uze6666 »

I would not count on the movieplayer mode since it's just don't work on the later kernels (not enough free cycles). Moreover, resolution is very low and many SD cards are not fast enough. That said, a static text-based, reduced color mode using palettes and a split screen would work for such types of games.

I didn't grasp the idea of a visual novel, until I recalled something similar I used to play as a kid: game books. I only played a series called "Way of the tiger" but recalled being totally into it. This kind of stuff can be done with the video described.
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by D3thAdd3r »

I only mention video player as a measure of the absolute, or even past it, limit of how fast you can get data off the card racing the beam. I have done a movie intro type thing with Lolo intro ~30 screens that get loaded from flash into ram during transitions(havent tried on hardware yet :? ). The problem with it is you can only have as many unique tiles as you have ram tiles obviously, and ones past will start to take flash(the actual tile map is always free just loaded right into vram). It could work wonders with mode 6 in the right situations... Schepers do you have an example of the graphics style?
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schepers_cp
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by schepers_cp »

the graphics style is most probably going to be like in the image i posted, or do you refer to something else?
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schepers_cp
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Re: looking for some people to enter the contest together

Post by schepers_cp »

nevermind, i gave up on creating games for the uzebox (for now at least) :(

i won't be entering the UCC either.

it's too frustrating for me because most of my ideas are hard to make (on my own), or require alot of resources for the uzebox (perhaps too much) apparently :(
all i can get out of my fingers is some documentation for non-existing code.. x')

instead, i think i'll hire someone to code for me (when i got enough money again after the UCC), and pick up spriting tanks again when i want to.
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