Hey guys, I don't know if we have a topic like this, but I wanted to make this little topic so that us fan gamers can discuss or ask questions on how we create assets for our fan games. From textures to models to music. Feel free to ask any kind of how to questions, I'm sure that there is someone with the right skill sets that will respond. If you have any tutorials or tips regarding fangames, please share them, as they may be valuable to other community members. Keep in mind that it does not matter what game engine , or program you are working in. (I'll be adding some sonic related modeling tutorials in the future)
Though many probably won't use the program, I can help with SketchUp if anyone wants to use the program for anything. If I had video capture software, I would make video tutorials, but for now I guess I could try to make image tutorials if anyone's interested.
There's a free program that I use called "BB Flashback Express". It's free and works pretty well as a recording program. I'd appreciate video tutorials on how to use SketchUp, if you'd be willing to try the recorder and give it a shot. I don't know much of anything directly about making a game right now, but I can always provide links to stuff I find, such as art tutorials. It could help people with graphics and textures.
If u can't make games, thats OK, Lets say, If you can use photoshop, or mix and or make music, and have any tricks up your sleeve, than that could be used as a tutorial. Mainly hoping for Forum user made tutorials, don't want to crowd the thread with links to external ones. By all means post the links if they are good.
Thanks for the link. For now I'll try to make some basic tutorials (for things like Loops, curved surfaces and the like). College is starting up again, so I probably won't be able to do these often. Nevertheless, let me know of any other specific things you might want to do/create in the program, and I'll try to include it (I'm new to video recorded tutorials, but I'll give it a shot).
Just gonna post some Max Scripts I think might help with some 3D Level Designs. Name: Function Sculptor Versions: Max 2012+ Name: Geometry Projection Versions: Max 2012+(?) Name: SuperExtruder Versions: Max 2009-2011 By the look of the video, this could work great for Sonic levels. Name: Sweep Profile Versions: Max 2009 SP2+ Name: GhostTown Lite Versions: Max 2011 and 2012(?) *Great for city/rooftop type levels. Name: Stone Placement Tools Versions: Max 2011(?) Name: Rock Generator Versions: Max 2011 and 2012(?) *Not sure about these two. They seem to work in 2011, but might before 2008-2009. I've tired them in 2012 an I gotten a few errors, but it did work. Name: Spline Toolbox Versions: Max 2010+ Name: Deformed Edges Versions: Max 2010+ Would be awesome for rocky environments. Name: Arrangement Versions: Max 2009+ Name: SplineRig Versions: Max 2009+ (?) This looks like what I've been waiting for. Name: Pulldownit Versions: Max 2008-2011 =================================== Also, this might not help with level design, but it might help with vidoes or aniamted logos. Name: SplineRig Versions: Max 2009+ (?)
Personally, GhostTown looks like the most promising plugin. I mean, holy crap, look what you can do with it. Also, for open source 3D assets, you guys should check out this guy's stuff. There's some excellent suitable models in there, and a ton of fantastic-looking textures.
Oh yes. Looks like I might get the remake one my favorite levels in Sonic Advance. Here's a hint. The Stone Placement tool and the rock generator will come in handy.
Well I'm not making a fan game but you guys don't mind if I ask since this is probably a common thing in all 2D games? I haven't worked with collision at all for the past 3 years of programming (I'm more of a graphics guy) so I'm having tons of trouble wrapping my head around this. Basically, ground/wall collision. My game has no slopes so that's not a problem. But basically, I have a player object that can switch between running on the ceiling and floor. There's a box object that he can come across which he can run past. However, if the player interacts with this box, I want it so that the player gets pushed by the box. Because of the game mechanics, the player can hit the box from below or from above. In this case I could just cancel the player's velocity but the player can also hit the box from the front. In that case, I can't cancel the velocity because the player would need to be pushed by the box while falling. I honestly can't figure this out. I think it would be exactly like colliding with walls and ground, just with a moving object. Think anyone could help me with this? I'm coding in C# using XNA but I think the basics of collision are pretty much the same no matter what you're programming in.
I have 2 sets of values for each character, one for foreground walls and one for solid object walls. That way I know in each direction (left or right) how far is the next wall. We know that Sonic is about 11 pixels wide to one side, so if the distance value is bigger than 11 I don't bother with it. If its less, then Sonic gets pushed back the difference (11-value). You only take the values for object walls that are nearest to the character. The thing will probably work with even only one set of values for left/right wall, but I prefer it with 2 sets. Also I used to do the character translation not after you go through all of the objects, but at each instance of "close wall". You have to decide which method is best for you.
This might sound like a strange question and request but there's a project that I'm thinking of working on (quite seriously thinking of working on) that requires "neon colours". You know when you have something like a lamp post or a fire in an MMF game whereby the shape and colour shines and glows like a neon light. I wanted to ask how someone might go about finding those or generating those in MMF? I think there's some screens of Sonic Classic 2 that shows the effect in action (I hope Hez doesn't mind me hotlinking his screens). Something like the shield in this image. It's not a perfect example but how do you create an object that glows like that? A custom animation? The project I want to work on basically needs this. I would only need one object or an explanation on how to generate one and then I could move forward. Anyone?
It's a combination of two images: the shield (which is fully opaque) and the glow, which is drawn using additive blending. To make an image for additive blending, you simply draw what you want on a black background (since black is RGB(0,0,0) it doesn't get added).
You basically want this? I use this image above, and then set the effect in the objects properties to ADD, which is shown below in both regular and HWA MMF. I have a request. ONLINE MULTIPLAYER. I don't get it one bit, and if someone could PM me about it or just post here with explicit instructions that would be great. Trust me, SC2 with online multiplayer will be worth your while.
I had a question for Gamemaker, I've been looking for different ways to implement a switching feature like the Sonic 2 Heroes hack. I want have the player to be able to switch between two different characters, the reserve character being taken over by ai. I just need help programming a switch code that could work with a Sonic engine, currently, I'm trying out the Super Ring Engine.
There are so many routes to accomplish this. Depends on what you want, and if they're going to switch locations, or just sprites, camera position, etc.
You know Sonic 2 heroes by Flamewing? I'd like to have a system like that hack. Both characters will be on the screen at all times, nothing should change about the character positions or the camera. I just want the controls to switch from one to the other. Meanwhile, I want the other character to become the following partner. I don't know if that clears it up or not.
Personally, it's a long procedure, but I'd go about it by copying the code for player one, and making a player two. I'd then go about it by creating AI for both players, and just having a flag whether or not it's in effect, and to ignore controls if it is or not. That way, you'd have a button to switch between the two and bam. There's a way to have code for just one player, and just have multiple instances of the player object, but it would be pretty time consuming to do.
