New Fan-Made Mega Man Game - Need New Spriter to Help!

[Borsk]

A couple of guys and I are working on a new 8-bit Mega Man fan-game that's been in the works for quite some time. I've fronted on art direction, sprite creation, concept development, story, etc. I have a programmer who's helping write the code for the game as well and he's been steady working on all the different aspects of the game.

As for the game itself, we're planning to have it ported to many different platforms:

PC
Mac
Linux
Nintendo Wii Homebrew
OUYA

Essentially, we're looking to have a new spriter come aboard this project if at all possible to help speed progress, make edits, additions, and possibly offer any new ideas or concepts to the table. Both me and my programmer of course have a lot of things going on in our lives, but we definitely have a lot made so far to have more than enough of a foundation going for the project.

Here are some samples of the game that I've made. It's all subject to change.







We need a spriter who can definitely bring forth fruitful progress to this and is definitely talented.

[Vipershark]

So you've got a couple of mockups.

Any actual screenshots?

[semirhage]

Hi all,

This is the programmer for the game and I am going to outline a little bit about the progress we have made so far in design and development.

The Engine
The engine is being developed in C++ with platform independence in mind. What does this mean? It means that the game will work on most major Operating Systems without the need to create a port for it. We have already tested that it works in Windows, Linux, Mac, and even the Wii Homebrew. We have also planned to compile (create a final version for) it on OUYA.

The Game
The game development, as it stands, includes a physics engine for the character and enemies, a stage player that controls the BG and FG tiles and screen transitions, weapon physics, ntsc filter and nsf player, and a menu and cut-scene player.

NSF Player
Before I get into the things that I can show screenshots for, I wanted to talk about the NSF Player. This is an emulator built into the program that emulates the hardware of the real NES. This means that the program uses the same .nsf files to play sound that the original NES would use. The hardware limitations of this are also emulated by using only four plus one sound channels and canceling out the correct channels when things like sound effects are played.

Screen Shots
As with any good game development, the game is being developed in parts based on functionality and will be integrated in later development. Because of this, the following screenshots come from two places. The program containing the Menu system and Stage player, and the program containing the most up-to-date version of the game engine. The latter of the two is shown in the debugging stage without any BG or FG textures.


This is the Stage Player with two older versions of tiles. These are all subject to change but it shows how the program handles it.


This is the Menu System for the engine. Again, subject to change but allows for customized controls including game pads and joysticks (Tested and works)


These images show the built in NTSC filter allowing for the game to appear as though it were being played on an old NTSC TV.


This set of images show the weapon engine in the game and the two different characters currently in the game


So again, we are looking for some great spriters who can help us in our development.

[Thumbtacks]

Sure does look just like Megaman would.

You gotta sell me on this, What's going to set this apart from Megaman 1-6/9/10?

I've played every single Megaman game and I'll probably play this too, But is there anything special to this one?

[Mag]

The NTSC filter looks amazing! Sounds like a really cool project, but since you're making it for Ouya, are you going to have an android version too?

[Borsk]

To answer your question Thumbtacks, this game will have these many things to offer:

1. Multiple stage paths in Dr. Wily's Castle (ala Castlevania 3)
2. New Special stages
3. A level editor as a separate program that will allow you to create stages (using provided tiles) and upload them to a server (which'll be made later in the future)
4. The standard Endless Mode from Mega Man 9 and 10
5. New items to buy in the Shop
6. Play as either Mega Man, Proto Man, or Bass from the start
7. If beaten in Hard Mode with any of the characters, you earn something very special for the one you chose (you can probably guess what they are, well Proto Man and Bass might be tough to say, I'll keep you guys guessing )
8. Challenges
9. Along with the level editor, you can create new enemy sprites, Robot Masters (bosses), weapons, and even playable characters! (So in theory, you could recreate MM1-10 with this if you wished to! )
10. Not sure if this fits the mold, but we're not naming the game something stupid or generic (like Mega Man Revolution or anything). We're aiming to tie it to the actual canon of the real Mega Man series and not do anything dumb or immature.

That's pretty much the gist of what's going down with this project.

[semirhage]

The NTSC filter looks amazing! Sounds like a really cool project, but since you're making it for Ouya, are you going to have an android version too?

Thank you! And yes, there is a possible version coming out for Android. It is not explicitly part of our supported platforms but we do plan to develop it!

[Gaia]

Not like it's gonna be Mega Man 11: Revival of Forbidden Knowlidge or something.. And if you want to release it on Android you might want to talk it up with capcom.

Also, I would pitch in if I could but I'm biting off more than I can chew right now so yeah. A video demonstration would also help back it up, as some of the projects here are more bark than bite.

[Thumbtacks]

If they're releasing it on android for free then Capcom would have no problem with it.

also Roll should be playable
Melee broom and all that.
Fun.

[Hoeloe]

You would have to get written permission from Capcom, though, since it is a blatant violation of their copyright, even if it is free.

[Borsk]

As long as you say in the game that the properties of Mega Man belong to Capcom, why should getting permission even matter? Mega Man Unlimited's a good example exhibiting that.

As for the whole Roll thing, you might want to make those edits yourself whenever the editing becomes available for the game because we don't plan on adding her. :/

We still need a new spriter! If anyone knows anyone interested in this, have them PM me or semirhage, it'd be greatly appreciated!

[Previous]

As long as you say in the game that the properties of Mega Man belong to Capcom, why should getting permission even matter?

Copyright laws! Technically, Capcom can jump in any time they want, file a C&D and demand the project to be stopped.
I don't know how likely Capcom would be to do it, but Square Enix wasn't happy about a Chrono Trigger fan game
Of course, you could always hope that they don't mind. However, if you'd put it on the Android Play Store, you should have a written permission at hand or else they could take it down for copyright infringement without Capcom saying a word.

[semirhage]

Copyright laws! Technically, Capcom can jump in any time they want, file a C&D and demand the project to be stopped.
I don't know how likely Capcom would be to do it, but Square Enix wasn't happy about a Chrono Trigger fan game
Of course, you could always hope that they don't mind.

This has been a concern and we are taking actions to help prevent the possibility of this and be able to keep our name on things that we have developed. The engine itself, along with all original sprites created by our development team will be packaged separately from any label of Mega Man or Capcom. It will be essentially an NES-like platform game engine that functions similar to Mega Man but contains no copyrighted materials. This is all fair use. To make the game a Mega Man fan-game, would require "someone" to make a graphics pack that would contain the proprietary material and any references to Mega Man, such as cut-scenes, Title screen, etc. We would have no control over someone creating such a graphics pack

Furthermore, this thread and the post by Sven states that Capcom, although it does not directly support fan games, will most likely not take action against any. This has been a recurring statement by Capcom and it's employees.

However, if you'd put it on the Android Play Store, you should have a written permission at hand or else they could take it down for copyright infringement without Capcom saying a word.

We would never put it in the Android Play Store. As I mentioned before, Android is not a directly supported Operating System and there will not be an official Android version of the game made. This is the same for Wii and Ouya. Although they are not ports of the game and will run native on the consoles, they will not be released as official Wii titles or in the Ouya store. We do plan to make an Android version for personal use. If that get's leaked we would never endorse it

[Cobalt Blue]

still and everything, it feels and sounds like ANOTHER megaman game, and i'm prety sure that if you dont work towards adding some cool or atractive gimmicks, then its not different than any other megaman game ever relased so far.

[Yamcha the Desert Bandit]

I'm lovin the BG's(Backgrounds). Cool man!