Dawn of Mana remake. I'm making one. And I need ideas.

[manaman]

Hey bastian,

I'm glad this project is still going. It's starting to look good! I can't really think of an existing sprite that would work for him, but I'll sleep on it.

Peace,

manaman

[bastian]

I don't mean to disappoint, but it's on the backburner, unfortunately. I just can't find all the graphics I need. I can't find anything that looks like Lekius, nor anything that looks like Stroud. So after finishing "Sunbeam Forest" (the prologue chapter) I decided to take a break until I can find that stuff.

And my RPG has still been bug-ridden so I've been spending a lot of time cleaning it up. Quite a few people have completed it, but I still find things about it I don't like and keep making updates.

But I'm pretty much done with it.

So now I'm thinking about making a Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest crossover thing. But maybe I should hold off on that and focus back on DoM. Honestly, it seemed like not many people were into the idea. But I guess I'm not making it for them, I'm making it for me.

I suppose I could release a little demo of the prologue chapter if people want.

[manaman]

Hey,

You should always remember you're doing this for yourself. I'd love to play what you have if that's where you're calling it quits, though.

Peace,

manaman

[bastian]

Lekius . . . he's holding up development on this. Can someone suggest a pre-existing 2D character that they think he'd look enough like with recoloring? I'd really like to continue on with this project, but I just can't find anyone that looks very much like him. Maybe I'll just have to settle for a set of sprites that don't look anything like him and call it good. :(

[Hawk]

Lekius . . . he's holding up development on this. Can someone suggest a pre-existing 2D character that they think he'd look enough like with recoloring? I'd really like to continue on with this project, but I just can't find anyone that looks very much like him. Maybe I'll just have to settle for a set of sprites that don't look anything like him and call it good. :(

Why dont you try making the sprites yourself?

[bastian]

Why dont you try making the sprites yourself?

To me, that's like saying to someone: "Oh, you want a house? Why don't you just build it yourself." . . . Because I have no house building skills, of course.
And I have no pixel art animation skills. So there's no way I could deign a fully animated sprite for Lekius.

That being said, I DID get annoyed enough with my Keldy-recolor-of-Randy, and recolored/altered a different sprite for my 2D Keldy. I think he works a lot better. What do y'all think?


I'm almost done with all of his poses and stuff. Then it's back to work on the game. Working on English translations of those SD3 sequels got me excited about this one again.

[Kimiko]

Wow, Bastian, you're one productive fan

[Marini]

2D Keldy looks great!

[nick912012]

I wish I could help ya out, but I'm sure my sprite skills would be even worse. =P

But yeah, Keldy is looking really good.

[Dr. Sheexy]

Hey man, that looks pretty good. Is there a reason it's so blurry though?

If you are resizing sprites and it makes them blurry try using next neighbor in whatever you're resizing in. It's the best for upsizing stuff with pixel details.

Also I love those shadows. Really gives the old background graphics some neat atmosphere. In the old screen it looked kinda weird, but here it looks really cool.

[bastian]

Hey man, that looks pretty good. Is there a reason it's so blurry though?

Yeah . . . when I tried "next neighbor" on these, it looked pretty awful, though. Maybe I'll post both versions and let people decide which version they think looks better.

Also I love those shadows. Really gives the old background graphics some neat atmosphere. In the old screen it looked kinda weird, but here it looks really cool.

In the old Keldy version I was using a more translucent and smaller canopy shadow thing. I didn't really like it, so I experimented around and found that if I made it less translucent and larger, it looked a lot better. I also added sunbeams in (since the area IS called Sunbeam Forest after all) but you can't really see them in that screenshot.

I spent ALL day on Keldy sprites. Ugh. I forgot how annoying that part was. Every tiny little thing (walk, run, getting hit, holding an item, no sword equipped, sword equipped, branch equipped, other weapons equipped, etc.) for every direction requires a separate sprite. Yesterday I did regular walking, running, diagonal walking, axe equipped, spear equipped, bow equipped (I probably shouldn't tell you about the weapons! But, yes, *SPOILER* the seed in his hand transforms into most of the staple weapons. I'm not so sure about boomerang/chakrams at this point, though) and half-finished sword. Then I have to do charging each of those weapons for special attacks, then I have to do the various special attacks for those weapons. Yikes. I have my work cut out for me.

THEN I can finally get back into the truly fun stuff of actually setting up the events in the game and mapping out the levels and stuff. Wish me luck!

[Abdul_Moti]

You do really working hard. Outstanding, two thumbs up upon you!

[bastian]

A quick update: I've done a LOT lately. And yet I still can't really say that I'm done with the blasted prologue! But that's because I've structured the beginning completely differently. I decided it would seem strange to see your hometown for the first time merely as a cutscene between the prologue and first chapter as in the original DoM, so I've decided to begin the game with Keldy waking up in his room at the Elder's house and then he can interact with all of the people in Sanctuary (the village) as he makes his way out of the village and then finds his way to Sunbeam Forest (which I've decided to locate to the east of Rolling Knolls).

So that being said, I've finished creating Sanctuary village and all the NPCs and such, the beginning part of Rolling Knolls (up to that wooden fence you needed a key for in the original DoM), a much more expanded Sunbeam Forest (I guess I never really revealed much of that place anyway), and I just finished up recoloring some sprites for Stroud and those marching golems. I need to finish the Masked Guru's now and then I'll be ready to finish "eventing" the cutscene with them marching up to Sanctuary and Keldy and Ritzia discussing sneaking into town.

THEN I can start on the part north of Sanctuary that leads up to the Great Tree (where you later have to fight that golem on his tank thing) and THEN I can do the Great Tree caves dungeon.

What I'm wondering is: do you guys want me to release a little demo at some point for you to play?

Anyway, here are some new screenshots:
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/2549/domf.jpg
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7021/dom2x.jpg
http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/6586/dom3j.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6079/dom4z.jpg
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/1632/dom5a.jpg

[Marini]

What I'm wondering is: do you guys want me to release a little demo at some point for you to play?

The screen-shots have me intrigued - a demo sounds like a good idea. But, I'll need some sort of guide getting it to run

[Dr. Sheexy]

Can you show off some of the Golems? I wanna see how those turned out.

Demo would be neat.