The VG Resource

A really quick overview of my attempt at Paper Mario: TIF (secret acronym) project; Paper Mario has always been a past time favorite and has left a high impression on me and influenced (pretty much) all my spriting, and some of my game designs. This project is to show thanks to the Paper Mario franchise by spreading the word of Mario to the world.

My goal is to educate those that may be unfamiliar with the Mario character base as a whole. If the player has limited knowledge on the mainstream Mario series, the player may learn about new characters from past games. Even though this project is based in the Paper Mario universe, characters or locations outside of it may make appearances anyway. For example, if you heard of Super Mario Galaxy: Rosalina, her Lumas, and her Comet Observatory may make a major appearance...


*A handful of from-scratch sprites I've developed so far. "Designs may or may not be final". OC's are not displayed.

*Each of the above listed sprites has at least one animation loop. The PA's are stored in game somewhere when Tattle'd on by a certain character.

The project will be composed of several short (possibly game-relevant or driven) original stories written by me, the best writers I personally know, or (as a last resort) stories written by fanfiction authors (with their permission, of course). Each story should contain 'at least' one cameo appearance of an existing named character within the Mario universe. If you have played a few Mario games in the past, you may be able to recognize some of the characters we might put into one of the stories. These short stories are all connected to a single massive storyline that ties the knot between all the events, but that's for the story we're still developing to tell.

I have a limited engine to test the game physics. The project will combine elements of 2D and 3D platforming and imagery, including some of our own designs, which I'll go into depth at a later time. Below is a few examples of what I have already built, and are part of a playable demo that I don't plan on releasing yet.


#1 - A far shot of Mario's house, the game will be capable of zooming in and out at appropriate times.
#2 - Inside Mario's house, Mario cannot see anything outside of the house and the camera is set at a specific point.
#3 - Outside Mario's house, the world will appear very flat and orthographic.
#4 - Inside Toad Town Tunnels, everything is a 3D model except for things like characters (Mario and friends) and decor.
#5 - A perspective view of 3D from the same spot as #4, allowing the player to view the world differently.
#6 - *A classic Paper Mario turn based battle; game will NOT be turn based after a certain plot point in the game.
(The images represent the current engines I developed in the span of about 1-2 months so far, some models may appear out of place or pixelated. There are some features I deliberately left out at this time.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I have about 4 years experience with GM Language (this game will be programmed with Game Maker 7.3 or 8.1 (when it comes out)), and even longer experience in spriting. I envisioned this game to be a cameo fest of the adventures Mario was placed into in the past; it should be an enjoyable, fun, and refreshing experience to the player, as they learn about our interpretation of lore behind the characters (based on available or gap-filling data) involved in this game.

Once I get a working demo (of possibly a chapter of the game), I will major update. A note to all: I like to take my time when designing sprites and game content, so "Please" do not ask me to hurry up and update (I get stressed and nervous when I read these kinds of posts). I am working on the project, unless I personally state otherwise in a future post. I will be able to provide an update sparingly when it is ready, and not a moment sooner. Thank you for your understanding.

Having the game be turn based for however long then just switching to real time for the rest of the game isn't the best idea imo.

This sounds like it's gonna be awesome... I'm actually pretty interested to see where this goes! Good luck to all of you!

Also I kind of agree with Colton, but I get a feeling you'll make it work.

Our original logic and debate was that the Turn Based battle system is native and unique to the Paper Mario mushroom kingdom (Paper Mario in 64 and TTYD) are both locations on his home world, but once a dimensional fabric is crossed (Paper Mario leaving the Mushroom Kingdom to another galaxy or plane; such as Flipside) a new battle system is introduced and used while Mario is within that galaxy or plane, since TB battles were not present in Super Paper Mario but real time was (with the exception of one scene). I try to make as much sense as I can, but sometimes it just gets in the way of gameplay, and logic is thrown out the window.

Turn based battles, although not designed to be the core of the gameplay, will likely still make an appearance somehow after the turning point, most likely as a minigame. This also holds true for other unexpected gameplay changes, such as the "unexpected shmup level" trope.

That idea is valid, but only if the gameplay 'rules' change regularly (every world location, for example) and the core gameplay engine doesn't change.

I reccomend you take a look at NIER (PS3/360) and/or Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (DS) - they both explore regular gameplay style changes to reasonable effect.

I will say though that those sprites and screenshots look rather distorted.

Gameplay changes will exist only when they are appropriate for the setting, but the majority of the game will follow a single theme. For example, 1-1 through 1-4 may use the same standard platform engine (each chapter containing a new theme for story, enemies, and terrain), but for certain single levels (like a random number... 3-1 for example) may retain a new style of gameplay that lasts a short or entire duration through the level, but still retaining some of Mario's moves in the main engine.

A automated mine kart ride may allow Mario to switch to 3D (like he can in the standard platform engine) to switch tracks or other functions I'm sure we'll come up with.

As for the screenshots listed above, they remain untouched from their original resolution, but the game camera is set to interpolate colors between pixels, which may look a little bit blurry if viewed up really close.

The main problem with the Mario sprites in those screenshots is that it looks that his tallness/wideness ratio is 60%/150% instead of the 100%/100% you'd want everything to have.

And the turn-based gameplay is the only reason to play the Paper Mario series: SPM was an anomaly and ever will. I mean, the 3DS Paper Mario game will be turn-based only. I don't think it's a good idea to suddenly take away the core gameplay and "make it a recurring minigame". It will, sorta, fail, and likely reduce the experience of the game too.

Man, that's what I hate with fans that didn't follow the series from the beginning <_<


Anyway, I'm glad to see that you have Mallow there. At least you've done proper research. And the Ninja Koopas? Gosh, make sure they pop up multiple times troughout the game. That can't fail.

Oh, and switching the world perspective between 2D/3D was perhaps the only good thing Super Paper Mario introduced. I won't whine if that's included. But the non-turn-based gameplay... bleah.

As well, make sure that game gets a proper difficulty level so that you players will be playing it for reputation instead of witty dialogue. How about enabling multiple difficulties where enemies use more snazzy moves on Difficult?