The VG Resource

Hello All!

My name is Luke Wall, and I'm a writer/composer with Atelier Interactive (the company is not quite official yet, but we're almost there). Right now our core project is a 3D RPG that we're doing a demo for to put up on kickstarter. But I've been assigned to work on a iOS game to put up on the app store so that we can have another funding venue to help boost up our core project. The iOS game will be called Dragonstar, and it's an action-oriented platformer with an artstyle similar to Final Fantasy XII. For more info on the game, please read below.

Story
"Dragonstar" follows the story of Delric Vonhaven, a common errand boy for his mother's store, who is given the Crimson Star by Allia, the carrier of the Dragonstar. At the end of every decade, a horde of evil demons known as the Var will invade the world of Astasia and attempt to destroy it, and every decade one who carries the Dragonstar will sacrifice his or herself to unleash Ignitus, the Dragon Lord, who will stop the invasion. The demons always have influence upon the weak minded and corrupt, and now the greatest danger has emerged when the demons gain influence over the coming king, Prince Cable. With danger now on all sides of her, Allia, the bearer of the Dragonstar, must hastily make the decision of choosing her Dragoon, her protector. This task falls upon Delric, who is given not only immense amounts of power, but is also handed the reigns of Ragnarok, a Dragon whose element can change completely depending on the situation of the battle. Now, with a party of mercenaries and loyal followers, Delric, Allia, and her original non-dragoon protector Orthus, must find a way to keep Allia alive until the Day of Reckoning... or risk the total destruction of the world of Astasia.

Details
The game would, as stated, be an action-oriented platformer. The player would be able to switch between any of the characters within their party. If they don't want a particular player in their party to be in their cycle, they can mark them off so that the particular character cannot be accessed when shifting between characters.
The player will not be able to change clothing, but there will be other weapons available, including ultimate weapons.
Controls
Movement will consist of running on an x axis, with a jump and roll option, and the player will have a basic attack button, and four skills to use. Each character will have it's own unique weapons and skills, and some characters will have 'duel equip', meaning they can have two different weapon types that can be interchanged, (Ex. Tasha, the sexy blonde-haired mercenary, could equip a bow, duel pistols, or crossbow into two different slots, and switch between the two). Some skills are 'Inherent', meaning they can be used with any weapon, and some will be 'Specific', meaning they can only be used with specific weapons.
Enemies
Enemies will each be unique, ranging from Soldiers, to Animals, to Demons, to Dragons. Boss fights will each have a different strategy, and bosses will either be fought in 'Standard' mode (same as the rest of gameplay), or in 'Dragon' mode, in which Delric takes the reigns of Ragnarok to fight much larger enemeis. This mode would be much like a side-scroller game in which the player can move in all directions, avoiding objects, defeating enemies, and ultimately killing the boss.
Gameplay
The plan is to have the game be played through by episodes. Once the prolouge episode is complete, the player will have free access to Episodes 1-3. Each Episode will allow smooth transition so that when an episode is completed, the player can return to Illaville. In Illaville the player can purchase new weapons, obtain side-objectives for each episode, and from here the player can travel to free-roam areas. After each episode is completed, an area of the world will be opened up for free roam, in which the character can get extra Thain (the currency), and earn more experience before going on to an episode that is too high level for them, if they didn't get quite enough experience during the last episode. Free-Roam will also include a hunting system, in which the player can hunt down a specific monster to gain extra experience and thain. Once 1-3 is completed, the player will be able to purchase 4-6 for $1.99 in-game. This will unlock a new town to visit once episodes 1-3 are complete, offering new items, new free-roam areas, and new monsters to hunt. The game will also include purchasable Thain packs, with prices from .99 to 4.99. Dragonstar is planned for release for iOS and Windows devices, and possibly Android in the future.
Compensation
The game, as you can see, will be for profit. If you do wish to work to with me on this (this will pretty much be a collab between me and you), there will not be any up front payment, but any profit made from the game will be split as follows:
50% to you, the sprite/pixel artist
25% to me
25% to support the core project for Atelier Entertainment.
And even if the game itself doesn't hit number 1 on the app store per say, it will still be a great chance for you to build up your portfolio while helping out a game corporation that is basically building from below the ground up.
If you'd like to show me how you would approach this game, I'd love it of some of the community could give a shot at some sprites for the in-game characters:

Delric Vonhaven- A young, cocky, sarcastic 16 year old. He has wavy, pale blonde hair, blue eyes, and a thin but athletic build. He wears a linen shirt with an iron spaulder strapped to his right shoulder, and his hands are wrapped in white bandage (not his fingers though). His lower body consists of baggy breaches tucked into a pair of iron plated boots. His signature weapon will be Infinita, a large claymore that has a large circle shaped blade tip, with a hollow circle in the center. The blade will be white, with other components being silver. He will usually have his weapon resting on his left shoulder (opposite of the spaulder). Some of his simple weapons will be claymore's, curved blade 2H swords, and elemental swords.

Allia Daemonium - Allia is a curly haired red head with bright green eyes and a perfect figure. She wears a cloth wrap around her breast (not so thin that it covers nothing but her nipples. Large enough to cover her breast mostly). She wears loose sleeves from her elbows down, which are white with gold details. Her lower body consists of a half dress on her left hip, and a solid yellow swimsuit bottom. Here feet are covered by laced leather boots. Allia is a unique character in that her special abilities allow her to bring in a specific character, whom the player controls. Allia then heals that character. Therefore her weapons are simply crystals with different colors and traits that offer different buffs after healing a character.

Orthum Blackheart - Orthum has a short, spiky white hairstyle, with one purple and one yellow eye, and a very athletic build. He appears to be in his twenties, but is truly over 300 years old. Orthum is what is known as a Hellmage, a mage who has sacrificed a part of his body so that he could defeat a powerful foe. In doing so, his left arm is now demonic, with black, hard, plated skin, clawed hands, and red energy seeping from cracks in his arm. He wears a black trenchcoat, with the left side being sleevless, and the right side having a wrist-long sleeve. He doesn't wear a shirt underneath, and wears jean-like material pants, and cuffed black boots. Orthum's weapon is his arm, and different Demon Souls will change the look and powers of his arm. His signature arm is the one described above. His arm at lower levels may look like a normal arm with black skin and claws, a red glowing arm with large fingers, etc. He also has the ability to camoflouge his arm, making it appear human excluding a large purple tattoo on his shoulder.

That's basically the only characters need for the prolouge, and maybe even for the first episode. If you could take a shot at some face-graphics as well, that'd be great!!!
Really hoping to get some good feedback! Thanks in advance for any help!!!


Sincerely,
Luke Wall

"Sprite Projects" is definitely not the correct section for this, as you would know if you had read tll the fancy text! I moved it to our GameDev section because I am feeling like being nice today (we have a strict rule against requesting which is basically what you are doing here, however, I'm letting it here at GameDev since you wrote a wall of text about your game, too).

Thank you. Sorry, life is really at full speed right now, so I've developed this nasty habit of not always reading the fine print. Lol. Thanks for moving it for me!
And technically, would this still be considered a request even though it's stating that it is more of a hire for profit?

And I do have 3D artwork experience to lend. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I promise you I'm not a moocher. Lol.

From what has been posted so far, this is definitely a request thread in disguise.

Can you post (even more) content about your game that isn't purely conceptual?
In other words, show us what you've done so far to prove that you're actually putting in effort on this yourself. If a project's leader can't even show that they've been working on their project, how can they expect anybody to want to join them?

(09-27-2012, 12:31 PM)Vipershark Wrote: [ -> ]From what has been posted so far, this is definitely a request thread in disguise.

Can you post (even more) content about your game that isn't purely conceptual?
In other words, show us what you've done so far to prove that you're actually putting in effort on this yourself. If a project's leader can't even show that they've been working on their project, how can they expect anybody to want to join them?

Your absolutely right!

I've been working on a window's version. Basically so far I just have the character who can run across platforms, attack creatures, and collect currency. Being as I am horrible at spriting and all I really had was Zelda sprites, I just used some of those to make a mock-up Zelda platformer. If I don't find the sprite artist soon I'll start adding some more features from LoZ, like being able to switch between Link and Zelda to demonstrate the character switching, a pause menu with the party options, interchangeable weapons, and a full interface. But right now this is just a basic mock up.

If there are many major bugs please let me know and I'll try and fix them. But the plan is to just use this as a template to build Dragonstar from.

Legend of Zelda: Son of Faore (version.0.0.1)
http://www.4shared.com/file/1qNk5cSq/Leg...ha_V1.html?

Chiming in to say that 4shared isn't the most accessible download website. It's amazing people still voluntarily use it when we have Mediafire, Dropbox, Minus and the like.
You should at least put up some screenshots; having people require and account at a download website won't draw attention. The more hurdles you put in the way of people viewing your work, the lower their interest will be.
On that note, since I'm already talking about project presentation, your topic intro post up there is a real wall of text and could use some restructuring, better organisation, or else you're mostly getting to tl;dr instead of having people gain interest in your project. Many people will see your huge text chunk and just move along without reading it. Basically, make it interesting.

I tried the download link but the file has been deleted, apparently due to a ToS violation.
Can you reupload it somewhere else?

Sorry about the download link. Here are some screenshots and the working game file.
I do not own any of this artwork. The rights to all artwork are all property of the original owners. These are simply placeholders to display the games functionallity

Legend of Zelda: Son of Farore v0.0.1
http://www.mediafire.com/?2ed5hz05aa1dbk0

A mock-up menu.


A basic version of the map system, in which the player can select locations where they wish to go. The blue button and location name only appear when the mouse is over the icon.


A simple cutscene (Yes Link is talking. Don't kill me. ).


An action shot of...Link Running towards a rupee. The text up top is the location intro title.


Link shooting a Deku Baba.


Link Jumping


A blue rupee

I'm really sorry that this seems kind of sloppy. I'm basically trying to run this project while working as art director for the core project we're working on as well as juggling school, moving, and a job. I'm trying to be as organized as possible, and in the nicest way I can put it, I could really use some help actually finding someone who'd be willing to help me instead being critiqued on my forum-advertising skills. I understand that your trying to help, and that you mean no harm in your advice, and I thank you for that. But I think the main help I need right now is just finding someone who'd be willing to help me put some numbers on the board. I will still take your advice into account and go back through and reorganize the text to be more fluent (it was a rush job anyway lol), but please understand that I'm somewhat in a stressed situation and I could honestly use any help I can get. Thank you still for your advice! And hope I didn't sound too much like a jerk!

P.S. If you'd like I can post the Game Design Document that I have so far. It's not much yet but I should give a clearer description of the game.

That's some faithful use of dialogue from Link, the silent protagonist.

I'm not sure whether to take that as a snide remark or a playful gesture, so for the sake of harmony on this thread ill go with the former.
Guys, I really need help with this. I'm in a very tight bind right now and the only thing standing between me and starting production is someone who'd just be willing to help out. And you'll get %50 of profit! It'd be nice if someone here actually acted like they want to help instead of criticizing every post I make.

As much as you're willing to start developing your game,

Gamedev Rules Wrote:While it’s technically a request, recruiting for your project is allowed if you meet the requirements. If you have enough legitimate content in your game (as in, you’ve actually done a large amount of work on the game YOURSELF), and have enough reputation from people (I’m not talking about the green number below your avatar; I'm talking about REAL reputation), you can recruit people to help you. Note that they may want money for their work, however. Be sure to explain how you'll pay the contributors, how much, and when.

Now, all you've offered until now was a wall of text with no sign of actual development whatsoever. Bear in mind that to make a functional alpha(or even beta) .exe, you don't need graphics at all (there are placeholders for this task).

The thing is, if your premise and/or presentation doesn't interest people, you won't get any support. The fact that this is your very first topic here makes your work even more dubious. The fact is, a ton of people ask for help, but there are few who return the favor. If anything, I suggest you to give us more >visible< work and solid gameplay features, because as it is, it just sounds like your average request topic.

I agree. But I posted the current progress of the executable. If the link doesn't work I will fix it. If you check out the file in the Link I have progress, using Zelda sprites as placeholders. If your saying I should actually present the gameplay/story for my game completely, then I'll start adjusting the current file and try and give you a more solid representation of the game.

P.S. I'll post the link/screenshots on the first post just in case the post with that content is getting skipped.

oh, I skimmed through the graphics, welp

But yeah, my point still stands. I think you'll need to do a lot of work by yourself to get better chances of getting support.

Alright. I'll do some more work and see what I can do. But I've already spent quite a bit of time on this, and its somewhat frustrating that its practically being regarded to as 'not that much work'. But if you think that more progress on my own will help than I guess that's what I'll have to do.

These guys are only trying to help you out. They know what they're talking about so please follow their advice and it may increase your chances of actually getting somewhere.
Believe me, most topics like this either just get locked or the OPs leave because they can't handle criticism and/or did not understand our intentions.
We've seen enough fangames to know what is good or not. This community has lots of talented game developers who have made great games, who have had to work really hard for a long time to get to where they are today, so please do not try to negate the feedback that they've taken out of their own time to give you.