[Concept] Chronocide

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Composing and voice acting? Right here. I've got bunches of unused tracks for projects just like this one, and my experience in theater and good-quality recording system can provide solid voice acting as well.
If you're serious about making this, notify me, I'm very interested in joining a project like this!

Might as well put a sample of the type of instrumentation I use... it's not a fit for every game. If you'd prefer I use some sort of other software, it's fine as long as the software is free. Here's a victory theme from one of my past WIPs: https://www.dropbox.com/s/khezezmwcu7b5gh/Victory Fanfare.ogg?dl=0

 

[Radical Larry]

Composing and voice acting? Right here. I've got bunches of unused tracks for projects just like this one, and my experience in theater and good-quality recording system can provide solid voice acting as well.
If you're serious about making this, notify me, I'm very interested in joining a project like this!

Might as well put a sample of the type of instrumentation I use... it's not a fit for every game. If you'd prefer I use some sort of other software, it's fine as long as the software is free. Here's a victory theme from one of my past WIPs: https://www.dropbox.com/s/khezezmwcu7b5gh/Victory Fanfare.ogg?dl=0

It sounds very nice! And you can voice act? Well, I'd love to see it, but first I would need to know if you're a male or female, so I can give you some characters you could try.

Okay, but why not just give those movesets to completely new characters? In your original description, you said that you planned on having 30-35 characters, give or take. With that kind of roster, I'd spread out those moves across the cast a bit. Besides, it doesn't make sense that a character would have a completely different fighting style just by switching weapons. Even scythes and naginatas are pretty similar in concept ( as weapons go ), so it would make sense that this character would have mostly the same moves, with a few minor differences. For example, due to the size and shape of the scythe, the character would be able to hit at a greater range with more power, but at the cost of less speed and more weight, as a scythe wouldn't be the easiest to wield. However, with a naginata, the fighter would have the same basic attacks, but with less power and more agility. Of course, some attacks would vary, as scythes are slicey-slicey and naginatas are stabby-stabby, which is why I would make the variations semi-clone status. Those are just my thoughts, though, so if you really feel that each character should have very different movesets, then by all means, good luck to ya!

Well, I see your point in there, because that might include a lot more work than I already would have for the game. I might do the semi-clone thing (but no true cloning, as I'm trying to avoid it) for the variations if need be.

However, for the scythe and naginata, the character who wields the scythe in the game would actually be very fast and swing somewhat fast with it, in similar vein to how Marluxia plays in the game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days; the character would have decent strength, combo ability, speed and reach in the game.

With the naginata variation for the character, the character would have even longer range, but slower start-up on attacks, less combo ability and stronger attacks the closer the blade gets to the opponent; the character's weight and speed would be heavier and slower as well. The specials between variations, however, would be completely different.

 

[Dr. Bran]

It sounds very nice! And you can voice act? Well, I'd love to see it, but first I would need to know if you're a male or female, so I can give you some characters you could try.



Well, I see your point in there, because that might include a lot more work than I already would have for the game. I might do the semi-clone thing (but no true cloning, as I'm trying to avoid it) for the variations if need be.

However, for the scythe and naginata, the character who wields the scythe in the game would actually be very fast and swing somewhat fast with it, in similar vein to how Marluxia plays in the game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days; the character would have decent strength, combo ability, speed and reach in the game.

With the naginata variation for the character, the character would have even longer range, but slower start-up on attacks, less combo ability and stronger attacks the closer the blade gets to the opponent; the character's weight and speed would be heavier and slower as well. The specials between variations, however, would be completely different.

So basically, naginata is slow Marth, and scythe is just Cloud?
Shoot. I was hoping the scythe character would look like this:

Spoiler

Anyway, I don't get how a naginata would be any slower than a scythe. If anything, the naginata should make the character move FASTER. Whatever, it's not my game. Do whatever floats your boat.

So, hypothetically, if the naginata character you described hit with the shaft and not the tip, would it do less knockback, allowing the player to combo into another weak attack and finish them off with a tipper?

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Male voice. More interested in composition though.
How many stages will there be and do characters correspond to the stages? I'd like to know the scale of how many stage themes you need, and then each could be turned into a victory fanfare for the stage's corresponding character(s).

 

[Radical Larry]

So basically, naginata is slow Marth, and scythe is just Cloud?
Shoot. I was hoping the scythe character would look like this:

Spoiler

Anyway, I don't get how a naginata would be any slower than a scythe. If anything, the naginata should make the character move FASTER. Whatever, it's not my game. Do whatever floats your boat.

So, hypothetically, if the naginata character you described hit with the shaft and not the tip, would it do less knockback, allowing the player to combo into another weak attack and finish them off with a tipper?

Actually, the scythe is meant for a combo game akin to Marluxia, if not heavily inspired by Marluxia's moveset. The scythe itself (one of my character's, not Marluxia's) is a single-handed scythe made of a strong and light material in its own canon, allowing it to be swung.

With the naginata, however, unlike the scythe, the naginata would have a much heavier head and shaft, as well as almost no curve. That makes the character and attack speeds slower. And as for hitting with the shaft, it's sort of like in a sense, but the attack speed on Smash attacks is about as fast as or . Hitting with the tip would end the opponent quick, though, while hitting with the shaft or butt would not. If I implemented Marth physics by using Weak, Strong and Tipper, the butt of the naginata would bury or lightly meteor the opponent on some attacks. However, there'd be little combo game with the shaft of the naginata.

Again, just concepts, so they aren't definite.

Male voice. More interested in composition though.
How many stages will there be and do characters correspond to the stages? I'd like to know the scale of how many stage themes you need, and then each could be turned into a victory fanfare for the stage's corresponding character(s).

Well then, I might have around 36 different stages that correspond with each individual character (this doesn't include possible stages afterward that go along with DLC characters). One to three tracks for stages would work quite well, so that it doesn't take up too much space in the game. I'll be showing off what two stages would look like to correspond with two of the characters I'm bringing in; of course, things will be slow due to not having a reliable computer outside school and a temporary computer at my home that I borrow.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Ok, now I see why you want 3 composers. If it's just me who wants to provide BGM, I don't have the time to make 36 stage themes, but I can make one theme for each dimension, which would be less, and all characters from that dimension would have the corresponding victory theme. If more composers sign up, then dividing the stages amongst them would still work since it takes place across multiple worlds.

 

[Radical Larry]

Ok, now I see why you want 3 composers. If it's just me who wants to provide BGM, I don't have the time to make 36 stage themes, but I can make one theme for each dimension, which would be less, and all characters from that dimension would have the corresponding victory theme. If more composers sign up, then dividing the stages amongst them would still work since it takes place across multiple worlds.

Ah, that would be nice.
As of yet, I might only have three to four primary universes to go by as my cast, due to having only three other concepts for series'. However, if I end up with only three or four primary universes (13 and 9 characters each, respectively), the characters will be divided into their "Sagas", due to my universes having multiple different sagas within them.

 

[Dr. Bran]

If the characters in the game come from many different universes and "sagas", will you create a "story mode" type thing so that players understand the context of each universe and It's characters?

 

[Radical Larry]

If the characters in the game come from many different universes and "sagas", will you create a "story mode" type thing so that players understand the context of each universe and It's characters?

Well of course, but I can't truly make something that will spoil the universes I made.

 

[Radical Larry]

Larry's Update #1

I believe I found out the art style I'd want to use for the game. I have two choices to use for the game, which are my normal art style which is semi-realistic and proportionate, or an art style akin to Skullgirls. While I would love to do my art style, I think that doing an art style I normally do would be extremely tough and too big (literally, the size of my normal art is enormous before being shrunken down).

As for the computer problem, I'm currently using my father's computer closer to the night with various projects that I have. So if I can get the time to or the access to, I'd like to try convincing my dad to allow me to utilize my Wacom Tablet, printer/scanner and the Paint Tool SAI program, as well as an efficient GIF animator. If all goes well, I might introduce the first character draft within a few days or a week or two. This also depends on if I will have time to do it, due to having entered a writing contest to get someone to make a comic out of it; the theme was a Fairy Tale and I chose Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as the base model for that.

And before I go everyone, I'll just have to say that I'm still searching for people to aid me with making the game and I will start going around to ask others for aid. What would you guys think if I wanted to use Game Maker Studio for the game? Is there any other game software that I can potentially use for it? Any coding software, too?

Until my next update.

 

[Radical Larry]

Larry's Update #2

The Tablet Situation

Alright, alright, alright guys, to be real with you, my parents have been trying to find me a new tablet pen to replace the chewed one that my annoying dog had in its grip a few weeks prior. This may mean that, if I can find the installation disk, too, that I can ultimately end up drawing the characters! This may be something very amazing! I do own a tablet known as a Wacom, like I said in the last post, but hey, when I get everything done, I will be able to do some digital artwork.

Art Style

As I mentioned over a week ago, I said something about the style of art being akin to Skullgirls. Well, after a long and tiresome thought process, I decided to make the art style similar, but still different from Skullgirls entirely, as I want to make my game its own thing, even with the style. So I'm going to draw up what the characters may end up looking like in the game, and when I get my digital stuff up, expect any female to have some unexpected features.

Character Roster

So as with the amount of characters, I'll have to be very, very honest. I won't be able to put in a total of 36 characters, I won't even be able to do 30 if I ever do the character art, have to do variations and other stuff, before the game's release. So for now, I'm going to tell you guys how many characters are going to be in the game without revealing any: 24. That is twelve less than expected, but don't worry, they'll be very great characters nonetheless.

As for the process of brainstorming which of my characters are getting in, I've made a list containing about 72 out of 106 total characters, the characters who I consider to be the most relevant to their respective series' and sagas. Also, there's 4 characters in the list that aren't owned by me, but are owned by close friends that have characters who are official to one of my universes (and the ONLY universe I allow others to bring in characters).

So what I've done with the list is that every character will either have a check, 'X' or hyphen to determine if the character should be playable, shouldn't be playable and should be a variation of another character. It's going to be a long and arduous process, but it will all be worth it.

So remember, there will be 24 total characters in the game now, so expect nothing more.

Variations

Also, I've decided to take the suggestions of other people and am going to announce that the Variations of characters will be semi-clones. Characters will have a lot of their moveset changed, as well as all of their specials and some attributes and frame data, but otherwise, to save my left hand from getting into extreme stress and pain, I won't be making all the characters' variations outright different...that's if they have three.

If I decide to give each character just TWO variations, however, the characters will end up completely different as a result, in terms of moveset and aesthetics.

Oh, and with some variations in characters, the character might not only have a costume change, but they may have a character swap, adding even MORE characters into the game, basically as semi-clones.

Dissouled

Trust me, this isn't even relevant to what I'm posting, but it's also not even in any encyclopedia or dictionary.
Go figure.
Anyways, this really isn't going to be anything relevant to Chronocide, and I got bored, so I just pulled a word out. Hope this part of the post wastes your time.

 

[Dr. Bran]

Thanks for the update! I'm glad that you're going with a smaller roster and semi-clone character variations! That's going to save you a lot of time, as well as allowing you to give more time and care into each individual fighter! However, don't feel like you absolutely need to have a 24 character roster either. That's a good long-term goal, but I would maybe go for about 14 or so for right now, just so you can focus your time on a smaller roster to ensure that each fighter comes out unique from the rest. By the time that you've grouped these characters into their respective roles and movesets, you'll have brand new ideas that you came up with while creating the first few fighters, which you can use for the new fighters!

Now, just as a little advice for designing moves and attributes for characters, don't hold back with your ideas. These are all original characters that you're working with here, so the sky is the limit of what they can do or what they can play like! You have complete creative freedom here! Use it! ...well unless you're referring to your friend's characters, in which case, you need to force the creative freedom out of THEM.

Also, a while back, I offered to help with the stage design. You seemed optimistic about that notion, so you should know that I also have a Wacom tablet, so I may still be able to help on that front, though not at an especially accelerated rate, as I'm a bit busy at the moment. However, to design stages, I'll need descriptions of what you want to see, and pics of the characters that inhabit them, so I'll wait for those. If you can't quite use your tablet to draw right now, you can always take pics or scan your original drawings and post them here, just so I can get an idea of the settings of the stages. And if you want to gain more support or comments/criticisms/opinions/suggestions for your project, put a link to this forum in your signature. If they're like me, they wont be able to resist clicking it.

Good Luck!

PS: What the heck is THIS supposed to mean?

Spoiler

"expect any female to have some unexpected features"

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

A 24 character roster sounds much more manageable. Best of luck with all of the programming!

 

[Radical Larry]

Dr. Bran If you want to know what I mean, just wait for the art style in and of itself. And about the stages, I'll certainly give you some ideas on what the stages will be, and I'll also be taking your suggestions about putting in some scanned images of the characters. As for the friends' characters, if I do put them in the game, I'll certainly ask them what the characters' moves can have and whatnot. However, if I add two, then the roster will turn out to possibly be up to 26.

However, I do have good news to share! Not including the variations of characters, not including possible guests or friends' characters, I've finally come up with the finalized Chronocide roster! However, until I release each character, you'll all be left in the dark of who the characters are, what series they represent, etc., unless you work alongside the game with me, and even then, you have to keep it a complete secret.

However, I will state this, 12 females, 10 male characters, 1 hermaphrodite character and 1 gender-shifting character are all in the game. There is going to be a lot of neat stuff within all of these characters, but if we include the variations, 3 more males and 2 more females are also included within the game. So have nice expectations of what's to come, I'll just be going crazy as all hell making the movesets now.

 

[Radical Larry]

And just as I say it, I reduce the amount to 20 total characters. But you know, it's more manageable than 24, at the least. As for the art style, I...might have another art style planned for this, too.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

20 characters with 5 clones? You have officially equalized to Melee. (or was that 6 clones?)
Sounds much more manageable. So, how many stages do you plan to make, and how many victory themes are needed? This soundtrack might be completely manageable by one person at this rate. (You can edit the above post to conserve space.)

 

[Radical Larry]

20 characters with 5 clones? You have officially equalized to Melee. (or was that 6 clones?)
Sounds much more manageable. So, how many stages do you plan to make, and how many victory themes are needed? This soundtrack might be completely manageable by one person at this rate. (You can edit the above post to conserve space.)

(I know, but I like giving updates.)

Yes, there may be 20 characters, but the "clones" are just variations of the characters that are semi-clone in nature. However, the semi-clone variations are actually treated like independent characters, as they will be having their own profiles and everything that a normal character would have; what I may even do is that, if the semi-clone variation is selected, the mugshot of the character who houses the semi-clone changes on the CSS to reflect the variation's appearance, much like how it works in Resident Evil: Revelations 2.

As for stages, like I said before, each character gets their own individual stages, and since semi-clone variations are treated like their own characters, they will also get their own stages from their universes. However, there will be more than just 25 stages to represent characters; there may be 7 additional stages or more depending on if I want to add them, if there's DLC, etc.

As for victory themes, since there are around 4 universes, I'm going to probably look into individual themes for the "Sagas" of the characters in the universes, and only a handful of characters get their own individual themes (meaning about 3 or 5).

Oh, and there were six clones in Melee (Ganondorf, Young Link, Roy, Pichu, Doctor Mario and Falco).

 

[Dr. Bran]

If there are going to be multiple universes/sagas, will the characters have different art styles, meaning stage style and stage music need to reflect them?

 

[Russell_SSB]

Hello again. How is the game?
Sorry I haven't done more characters for ideas for you yet. I have been busy lately. If you need me to send you some, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Yeah, that's a whole lotta stages.
If you end up with no other composers, what I could do for you is 3-4 stage songs per universe (each a different style of the same universe theme), two menu themes, and a victory theme for each universe that is restyled depending on the character. And at that point... at its core it's only five songs, so it's not very difficult.

 

[Radical Larry]

Yeah, that's a whole lotta stages.
If you end up with no other composers, what I could do for you is 3-4 stage songs per universe (each a different style of the same universe theme), two menu themes, and a victory theme for each universe that is restyled depending on the character. And at that point... at its core it's only five songs, so it's not very difficult.

That would actually be a great thing to have. That sounds reasonable at least; but I can also deal with having up to only 2 stage songs per universe to save memory and work necessary. Two menu themes would also work very well, but like the Smash games, a cheerier one would be nice to have once all characters are unlocked.

If there are going to be multiple universes/sagas, will the characters have different art styles, meaning stage style and stage music need to reflect them?

For the art styles, if that were the case, then the game would be like Street Fighter vs SNK; two different art styles not even fitting close together and making it look so bad compared to one another. No, in my game, it may end up being just one art style, since I already use an art style that I've stuck by for quite a long time, and I don't want to use more than two art styles.

In an end result, this second art style has to be something decent and appealing to audiences, not like a trash-looking crossover game that faded into obscurity quicker than Mega Man.

Hello again. How is the game?
Sorry I haven't done more characters for ideas for you yet. I have been busy lately. If you need me to send you some, please let me know.

Thanks.

Now AS FOR THE GAME'S PROGRESS...
I've gotten the characters all done in terms of selecting them, but I've yet to select an art style to represent the game.
I'm still searching for a crew, and it's very, very hard to even do that.

As for character ideas, there may be no need UNLESS DLC is a thing.

Knowing that the progress of the game is slow currently, I'll keep you all updated in terms of how things are going. I'm still in the brainstorming stage and when I'm out of it, the production of the characters' designs for the game (some of which may be different than their canonical counterparts) will start, then the sprites and the search for the development team, all of which may happen simultaneously.

 

[Radical Larry]

New Update Time

Well I ought to jump over a June bug, because my printer/scanner works on my dad's computer. This means only one thing, and it's that I'll be able to actually post up some artwork here about the concepts of the characters and art style! This is phenomenal news, so I'll finally be able to show the two concepts of Chronocide's art style on the characters. Now as I try perfecting the other two styles, I should show you the first art style that I'm considering on using.

Now below will be a character that I have created, and this character will NOT be a playable Chronocide character!
This character is simply an example of the first art style I would use, which is my most comfortable style.

WARNING: The following image is 300 dpi, which is huge!
The image was scanned today.
(Removed for Response)

Now while this is an art style example, the character above is known as Abyssal Reiko, who will appear in a saga of Silent Evil that accompanies another character. Even though she's not a character in Chronocide, she may appear in it in some way or fashion. Now remember, this image is just an example of the first art style, and is not even started on digitally.

The example is more anatomically correct and (more or less) proportionate and realistic. The characters have more detailed expressions and, in digital, the hair would have lines.

The other example of art will come soon, and they will possibly feature characters that still won't be in Chronocide.

 

[Dr. Bran]

I think a more realistic take like this would be a nice change of pace from other smash clones (and smash itself), and would be a pretty unique edition to the genre. I haven't seen your Skull girls-inspired art style yet, but there are a lot of games now with that kind of art style, or a cartoon style similar to it (Brawlhalla). Chronocide will stand out if you keep it somewhat realistic. Plus, if you want this game to be a true reflection of the characters and stories you've created, keeping your own art style should be necessary to do so.
That said, it will make the job of animation a bit more tedious, and perhaps more difficult, but I think that you'll feel much prouder for the end result. I bought Spriter a couple of months ago on a Steam sale, and the thing with that program is that it allows you to create a main skeleton of your animation so that you can add different body parts/pieces and create joints, which can be switched out with another piece mid-animation. I haven't used it much, but if you can get it for a good deal, it may help you.
P.S. Have you drawn any of the playable characters yet? If so, I'd like to see what they look like.

Also, please give more info on your "sagas". Every time you mention them I get confused.

 

[RagnorokX]

I believe sagas are different universes that will collide in the course of the game, and as such allowing several different types of characters be in the game, and still make sense canonically.

 

[Scribe]

Personally, I'd say that for semi-clones, a Style system akin to Mortal Kombat X would be a good alternative. Each character has two or three different variations on their moveset. Effectively, it's merging clones and semi-clones into one character.

 

[Radical Larry]

I think a more realistic take like this would be a nice change of pace from other smash clones (and smash itself), and would be a pretty unique edition to the genre. I haven't seen your Skull girls-inspired art style yet, but there are a lot of games now with that kind of art style, or a cartoon style similar to it (Brawlhalla). Chronocide will stand out if you keep it somewhat realistic. Plus, if you want this game to be a true reflection of the characters and stories you've created, keeping your own art style should be necessary to do so.
That said, it will make the job of animation a bit more tedious, and perhaps more difficult, but I think that you'll feel much prouder for the end result. I bought Spriter a couple of months ago on a Steam sale, and the thing with that program is that it allows you to create a main skeleton of your animation so that you can add different body parts/pieces and create joints, which can be switched out with another piece mid-animation. I haven't used it much, but if you can get it for a good deal, it may help you.
P.S. Have you drawn any of the playable characters yet? If so, I'd like to see what they look like.

Also, please give more info on your "sagas". Every time you mention them I get confused.

Thanks. I intend to draw with my own style instead of going for some generic styles for the games. I really do want my game to actually stand out among the competition, so you can say that now I have a literal hell on my hands; but like you said, I'll feel much prouder of the result in the end. Though I plan to make the sprites myself, I might look into Spriter.

Secondly, yes, I do have some of the playable characters drawn; a lot of them, actually, but I don't know if I will really show them yet.

I believe sagas are different universes that will collide in the course of the game, and as such allowing several different types of characters be in the game, and still make sense canonically.

Alright, looks like I really do have to reveal things about not only my universes, but my sagas, as well. And after looking for everything, I have to tell you guys how they all are and how they may fit in.

So in my game, there are going to be a total of four different universes. They are Silent Evil, Eternal Fantasy, Boundless Destiny and Enigmate

Silent Evil - Silent Evil (Saga), The Ghost Ship, Circus of Fortune
Eternal Fantasy - Khollation Saga, Telebrai Valdura Saga, Jhiece Saga, Glamour Highway Saga
Boundless Destiny
Enigmate

Neither Boundless Destiny nor Enigmate actually have sagas, as they are projects with far different plans. I only have one representative from Enigmate and this representative is going to be a teaser for what is to come from that. I also have seven reps from Silent Evil, six from Eternal Fantasy, three from Boundless Destiny and three special characters. Though because of spoilers, I cannot and I will NOT reveal the stories behind the sagas whatsoever, only the characters' backstories.

I'm sorry that I'm keeping you guys on the down low, but it's hard to even try thinking of what I may do. I need to think of planning.

 

[Dr. Bran]

Why not have everyone coexist in the same universe? Are they too different?

 

[The Legendary DJXYZ]

Oh, by the way, if some day you need any "third party DLC", I have a character from my own game that can fit the bill.

 

[Radical Larry]

Why not have everyone coexist in the same universe? Are they too different?

Correct. Silent Evil and Enigmate are both horror series, but the two are completely and utterly different from one another. While Silent Evil focuses on survival and may even be a game (the name itself is a play on SILENT Hill and Resident EVIL), Enigmate is going to be a 'found footage' YouTube series focusing less on the weapons aspect of survival for the characters, but it's focusing on the characters and who is chasing them, like it was 'a game'.

But now I will say this; not all of Silent Evil is going to be horror, since Circus of Fortune actually has no survival horror elements, but takes place in the same universe all because of the species of certain characters and the fact that the evil within the Circus of Fortune is silent/hidden.

As for Eternal Fantasy, it's actually in a co-existing universe to Boundless Destiny; both series' are in the same universe due to them baring some similarities. Eternal Fantasy however focuses on three civilizations; Ancia, Moden and Futira (Ancient, Modern and Future), all of which co-exist in a world known as Artarise. Though I cannot reveal the story, I can reveal that, at least. Boundless Destiny, on the other hand, focuses on the medieval aspect of fantasy and has an original species known as the Hina (they're humans), as well as the Gotoan, Ekenezzai and far more, and both Eternal Fantasy and Boundless Destiny take place in single-digit years apart.

As nonsensical as that explanation was, I have stuff planned out, and I normally start with the beginning and end, then the middle stuff, but that's not really important.

There's reasons they are not in the same universe, with exceptions. Some just don't fit well with others.

Oh, by the way, if some day you need any "third party DLC", I have a character from my own game that can fit the bill.

I will consider it.

Oh, by the way, I will be starting up on drawing out and entirely planning out the first stage of Chronocide to go with the first announced character, the name of the stage, etc. I will have to work on the stage and the poster of the character, so please hold on with that. That and I'm going to be working on the graphics for the menu and CSS and whatnot; I actually have some skill in doing that on my own.

(I'll update the OP too, later)

 

[Dr. Bran]

Got it. Thanks for the explanation! Now, will the universes that these characters come from differ from characters from other universes? Well, obviously yes, but when I think of survival horror, I think slow and drawn out game play with limited and stiff control, and that doesn't sound like it would translate very well into a wild and frantic Smash style of game play. I'm just interested in what you're planning for that type of thing. Also, it seems like you are doing an opposite take on smash, where you introduce the characters here and then split them into their separate "franchises". Cool idea. To be honest, I've been doing the same type of thing with my characters and worlds. Heck, I turn everything into either a smash character or stage just out of habit because I have so much practice doing it. It's fun. Anyway, I'm still game for stage ideas if you feel like you need it. Again though, It's your game, so if you hate my ideas, feel free to shush me. Good luck!

 

[Radical Larry]

Got it. Thanks for the explanation! Now, will the universes that these characters come from differ from characters from other universes? Well, obviously yes, but when I think of survival horror, I think slow and drawn out game play with limited and stiff control, and that doesn't sound like it would translate very well into a wild and frantic Smash style of game play. I'm just interested in what you're planning for that type of thing. Also, it seems like you are doing an opposite take on smash, where you introduce the characters here and then split them into their separate "franchises". Cool idea. To be honest, I've been doing the same type of thing with my characters and worlds. Heck, I turn everything into either a smash character or stage just out of habit because I have so much practice doing it. It's fun. Anyway, I'm still game for stage ideas if you feel like you need it. Again though, It's your game, so if you hate my ideas, feel free to shush me. Good luck!

Alright, so despite Silent Evil being a Survival Horror genre series (bar Circus of Fortune), the some of the characters are relatively fast in terms of speed, and it just depends on the weight of their weapons and their age! There is one character from the Ghost Ship as a representative, and they are the youngest character in the game, and despite the lack of power, they will have a gain in speed.

Then by comparison. I have a character from Eternal Fantasy, a series with fast characters. One character is actually slow with attack power, but still has good grounded mobility.

My slowest character will be my only representative from Enigmate, and there will be a reason as to why they are slow, but that's for when they and their stages are revealed.

With that out of the way, just so you know beforehand, I am planning to have rather proportional height for all of my characters in the game, and as scary as it sounds, my three tallest characters stand at 12'08'', 10'08'' and 8'00''. By comparison, my three shortest are 4'07'', 4'11'' and 5'02''. That sounds like a very, very unfair match-up and the big characters would take up the screen and have more reach, right? I have a plan for that, and it's shortening them or just making the stages much larger. No plan is actually final, so I am still going to think about how it will work.

I will be explaining how frame data and variations will work later.

 

[RagnorokX]

The height might not be as much of a problem, seeing as their is a massive difference between Pikachu and Ganondorf, and that really doesn't affect gameplay that significantly.

 

[Radical Larry]

The height might not be as much of a problem, seeing as their is a massive difference between Pikachu and Ganondorf, and that really doesn't affect gameplay that significantly.

I'd have to make the stages much bigger so the taller characters don't get stuck or merge inside the stage itself. 4'07'' is around the normal height range, and it looks big enough as it is, so you'll expect the tallest two to be the size of Twilight Princess Ganondorf (the tallest is even taller than that Zelda version of Goliath.)

 

[RagnorokX]

Ok, I see your point.

 

[Radical Larry]

Addressing New Updates on Concepts

Alright everyone, I've got some good news: Since Spring Break is coming, I'll have some time to actually work on the characters, stages and items more than ever! So this means that I could be giving you all the first look at the first stage concept for the game, and hell, I'll even give you the name and description of it, for now at least, as I develop it:

Stage: Umbra Cor
Series: Silent Evil
Saga: The Circus of Fortune

Description: Fight along the top of the Umbra Cor, the "Heart" of the Circus of Fortune and one of the Four Towers of Gambling. The stage is surrounded by the night sky, stage lights are blaring, fireworks are burning and the music is pounding. There could be more to this stage than one will see later~

Although I do have to update the OP whenever I do get the chance.

 

[Radical Larry]

I'm sorry for the horrible lack of updating lately, I really do. The fact of the matter is that I haven't been able to get my new tablet or SAI to work on my father's computer (I'm trying my best to). Other things such as real life also have part in this, and I've been lacking in trying to find some coders and development team, as well as finding a reliable resource for making this game.

Now I'm sorry about how that happened to be, but rest assured that I am a very determined person and I will get some evidence of work on this game out as fast as possible and as soon as I humanly can. I'm going to update the OP today to make it look significantly less like a mess and more professional.

Regardless, I've had so much go on, so I hope you all understand.

 

[Radical Larry]

Holy hell, it's been literally uh...forever since my last update. I'm actually here to say that for now, I'm redoing my thoughts on what Chronocide can be. That and I'm working on a special series known as Flashified on my own deviantArt page (no, I'm not Lisnovski). So I might have to hold off for a little bit.

I promise, however, Chronocide will be going strong, but I will have to do some things beforehand.

 

[SvartWolf]

I haven't read too much actually but I have read enough and i will give you a serious piece of advice.
put some down to earth goals. for the little I´ve read your goals and your resources are just unrealistical and if you keep this pace you will even struggle to get one character.
you really should focus on 3 to 6 character Max. don't even design the others. I mean, you even want to do hand drawn sprites? i will assume that you don't want to run them in 30fps, still with that amount of characters you will have enough work to want to kill yourself. Hand drawn sprites is by far the hardest (work consuming) way of creating characters, the reason almost all animated media is shifting to 3d animation isn't because is new and shiny, but because it's efficient.
There is a reason why a game like skullgirls only had 8 characters on release, rivals of aether doesn't exactly have too much either.
Focus on 6 characters max (probably 6 characters is still a lot), choose the ones that will be the most interesting to design and work from there. if you get more help and better resources keep that goal anyway. if you manage to get something working together even if the project fluke you still will have got a valuable learning experience. if you keep thinking such high numbers you will end drowning in them before you even get the more basic part of your system working.
This is not meant to be a discouraging post. but right now you are running straight into a wall.

 

[Radical Larry]

I haven't read too much actually but I have read enough and i will give you a serious piece of advice.
put some down to earth goals. for the little I´ve read your goals and your resources are just unrealistical and if you keep this pace you will even struggle to get one character.
you really should focus on 3 to 6 character Max. don't even design the others. I mean, you even want to do hand drawn sprites? i will assume that you don't want to run them in 30fps, still with that amount of characters you will have enough work to want to kill yourself. Hand drawn sprites is by far the hardest (work consuming) way of creating characters, the reason almost all animated media is shifting to 3d animation isn't because is new and shiny, but because it's efficient.
There is a reason why a game like skullgirls only had 8 characters on release, rivals of aether doesn't exactly have too much either.
Focus on 6 characters max (probably 6 characters is still a lot), choose the ones that will be the most interesting to design and work from there. if you get more help and better resources keep that goal anyway. if you manage to get something working together even if the project fluke you still will have got a valuable learning experience. if you keep thinking such high numbers you will end drowning in them before you even get the more basic part of your system working.
This is not meant to be a discouraging post. but right now you are running straight into a wall.

Well, that kind of depends on how fast or slow you think I am when drawing. When now drawing the references for my characters and adding the visual backgrounds and whatnot, it will take me complete hours, and that's because the characters start off as the largest kind of images you'll normally see. That's how I detail them.

What does that have to do with me and making the hand-drawn sprites of this game? Well, everything, since the sprites I'm making will be put on paper that is in the landscape position, then I will draw the skeletons of the characters' movements [yes, skeletons, not models]. Afterward, I'll draw every single thing with an outline and just go on and color and detail them individually.

Now while I don't disagree that my project is very ambitious, and the amount of characters for a hand-drawn sprited game is humongous, I do disagree with doing so little. Call it pride or stupidity, but I plan on doing every single character that I am planning for this game. My aim is to at least excel the amount of characters put in the original Super Smash Bros. game, if not match Melee.

I do not plan on making the game super fluid with characters' entire movements, I'm taking a note out of other 2D fighting games and I'm going to make them semi-smooth with stretching, waves or flow for the characters, so that the impact stays.

BUT...

I do have great news to everyone~

My tablet came in last week. I installed it yesterday...and now I'm able to say that the character designs and sprites will come some time sooner or later. Of course, everything will take time since, well, I have other things to do as well.

 

[Radical Larry]

Hey guys, so I have downloaded Game Maker: Studio [and I'm pretty sure that my license key works when I signed in...hopefully], and I'm just wondering if anyone can point me towards any sort of coding necessary, a decompiler or even join me into making this game by giving me some pointers and simple basics, or even aid me completely into making the coding of the game. The thing is, I'm only able to read and duplicate coding that I see within the GM file itself, so my uses are heavily limited in terms of making this game in programming.

I really do need this so that I can develop the game if I should do it myself. I can make almost everything else for the game, but I lack literally the music talent and the ability to program from scratch. I want to make this game possible, but my limitations are slightly halting it.