Now Hiring! (Megaman Fangame)

[PressStart]

It's not like someone like me actually is working on his own Megaman engine and has a passion towards Cutstuff.

Oh wait. I am. I'd probably show stuff of it when I get a handful of stuff done. it'd seriously impress you all really.

Awesome! This is exactly the kind of thing I think a lot of people would enjoy helping out on; a self-driven project that just needs a few extra hands. Looking forward to seeing it : )

edit: One thing DinnerSonic mentioned to me is that it would be great to have a Mega Man fangame that really sticks out from the crowd. Most Mega Man fangames are done in the "8-bit style", so it would be amazing to see one done with Mega Man 7 or the arcade game's level of graphics. There's a good number of reasons why this is not usually done but... it is something we should seriously consider if we do start up a new project.

editedit: He also suggested the Battle & Fighters (Neo Geo Pocket game) style, sort of an "updated 8-bit" look. This would be easier to achieve while still helping our game stand out!

[DinnerSonic]

I'm guessing you guys will stick to Game Maker or that N64Mario MMF2 engine, those are probably superior to mine anyway, but since Start's tossing our brainstorms here I wonder if I could help with that? If I can find a middle ground between contributing nothing and trying to take over the game.

What I was thinking myself (as mentioned in Start's edit) was a mix between 7/arcade and NES using the Battle & Fighter sprites from the NGPC as a start. Give them an 8-bit or SNES style makeover, they can keep familiar bits like the face style while coming off just a bit more modern, moreso if you gave them the 16-bit makeover, while avoiding the issues of animating a larger sprite.

It also keeps it within the classic size limits, it'll play more like the 8-bit games physically but could expand more while not feeling like you're breaking the rules. You could have stages with a flood of 8/16 enemies or moving platforms and feel right, you could put weapons that are more like 7/8 or even X games without looking overdone and you'd have three characters with most of their sprites done! All that and you stay however much out of the "MM9 clone" feel that might begin to feel old after SFxMM comes out. You'll be "That one with the small 16-bit sprites" rather than "That OTHER other 8-bit game that feels genuine" and being forgotten.

I could toss in more ideas(for a year or so I've had mental images of a different variant of Mega/Proto/Bass gameplay and my engine was the testing ground for several weapons and Mega Buster upgrade concepts) but, again, don't want to take over, just want to help.

[Heat Man]

I'd recommend doing original graphics from the ground up myself. Of course I'm not MAKING any so that's easy to recommend. But I think it would help the game have a consistent look, as opposed to borrowing some MM7 sprites and then trying to make everything else also look like it's MM7. But I do agree, a 16 bit-esque style would look nice. They don't even have to be all that detailed, just more expressive than the standard NES sprites.

Just to throw up an example, the mock screens in this article stand out quit a bit, but if you were to comb over them you'd realize they don't use very many colors - less than what MM7 displayed. They wouldn't need to be all that lavishly animated either - a six frame running animation is probably just fine (this is what the Zero/ZX games used, I believe), as opposed to the ridiculous 12+ frame animations of the PSX era games.

[Magnet Dood]

Well then, if we try to go to a different style, that counts me out of spriting.

I would especially like to see MM7 style for this game, though, as I love that game to pieces and the art style was pretty cool but unfortunately underused.

[Hallan Parva]

It's not like someone like me actually is working on his own Megaman engine and has a passion towards Cutstuff.

Oh wait. I am. I'd probably show stuff of it when I get a handful of stuff done. it'd seriously impress you all really.

Awesome! This is exactly the kind of thing I think a lot of people would enjoy helping out on.

He also suggested the Battle & Fighters (Neo Geo Pocket game) style, sort of an "updated 8-bit" look. This would be easier to achieve while still helping our game stand out!

If I'm not mistaken Donut's engine used those BattleFighters sprites. They sort of look like an 8-bit Mega Man 7 (where he looks around when not moving) right?

[LlamaHombre]

You know? We have a sizable chunk of people willing to work on this. If there are people wiling to go an extra mile to make the game that much more satisfying, I say we should take advantage of it. The only difficult thing is thinking where to start when it comes to an art style like this. We could mimic those screenshots rather well and come up with some rather vibrant and memorable environments, which to me makes a game so much better. I wouldn't want a 7 styled game or an &Forte one for that matter. I feel like DinnerSonic and Heat Man are right when they say that a completely unique art choice could benefit this game beyond belief and make it stand out that much more.

It'd be a challenge, but I'd be willing to help contribute to an entirely new graphical design.

As a famitrackerererer though, it does leave the question of what to do with the music. Switch to one of the more complex sound chips like Konami VRC6 or just remove famitracker from the equation completely and use some other music making station?

By the way, welcome to the forums, Heat Man and DinnerSonic!

[Heat Man]

Actually I'm beginning to have second thoughts. I think the method I mentioned would be the ideal route, especially for impressing people. However, everyone who wants to be involved really needs to think about how much effort they want to put into a project they cannot own or sell (and in fact may be kaboshed by Capcom if it becomes high profile).

[Donutyoshi]

New styles could be great.

Would it seem satisfying for both sides if we with the NES style, BUT without any of the NES restrictions? Fine with the regular style too.

[Hallan Parva]

I'm in support for the NeoGeo sprites. I've always loved pixel art, and using pixel art that isn't named Mega Man 2 would keep things in a familiar tone yet add a needed breath of fresh air not only to fan games, but to Mega Man in general.

Also, I want NeoGeo sprites so we can have pimpin' Famitracker compositions to go with them.

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As the game is going to be loosely based on Cutstuff, why not have some 8BDM-inspired weaponry for Mega Man to obtain? For instance, an offensive barrier weapon that depletes ammo over time but deals "hugging" damage, similar to our Fire Storm and Star Crash.

Also I'd like to know if Smash Man would be an acceptable Robot Master. If so, I could start on some tiles and create an AI draft.

[Donutyoshi]

First, let's just not focus on Robot Masters this early.

And I'd really go with a fresh lineup instead actually.


And normally the stages usually come first before the robots from what I seen from Capcom's methods.

[LlamaHombre]

I'd also be fine with NeoGeo sprites as they're different yet same and gives us excuse to go crazy on animations, but I'd definitely need some more color out of them.

Mega Man just looks kinda bland with only three colors on his being, after all.

We have spriters, coders, and musicers so far. I could help with map/tile design. Anything else needed?

[Donutyoshi]

Anyone can mimic the official artwork can be a neat addition, but really optional.

Other than that, we got the people for the job.

[Heat Man]

I would say it would be best to plan out stage/boss themes first. And this is what will really make or break the project. It needs to have a fresh, newish feeling without getting to out there. The common theme is, Dr. Wily often steals robots made for other purposes (usually industrial/labor) and reprograms them into battle robots. The robot masters ought to reflect this but without getting too off the wall. Don't want to insult anyone's tastes, but let's stay away from the Plant Mans, Spring Mans and Clown Mans.

In the meantime, you need to craft out what the world is like. What kind of facilities haven't been done before and would be interesting to explore? What kinds of elements or industrial functions haven't been touched? With as many MM games that have come out, it might be hard to think of things that really feel fresh. My best advice is, look at how MM3 follows MM2. All the robots were virtually new ideas and didn't reuse any elements. As just one example, steam hasn't really been explored as a theme in MM, and having a steam themed stage and boss would negate the need to come up with fire and water type stages. Of course it also needs to be considered what interesting mechanics and weapons can come from the themes that are thought up.

[Donutyoshi]

Funny enough I thought of some bot concepts that's hardly used or even occured.

[Dr. Freeman]

I've been trying to get ideas for composition, and I may have a few ideas in mind, that don't sound horrible.
Of course ideas are first, because the song follows the theme to a certain extent.