Chrono Shift General Progress Thread

[Mr Bekkler]

In this continuity, the only magic that survives after the fall of Zeal is in the form of the auras getting mixed into the Earthbound population and dissolving away into the basic elements found in CT. These elements were studied by Zeal, but Zealean magic was more complex than just the basics. Shadow magic is supposed to be analogous to the Black Aura, and references the large moon always shown in games whenever you're dealing with Magus (behind the castle in CT) and I assume he learned most of his magic from the Mystics, who could only use the base elements, hence the Lightning2, Fire2, Ice2.

Magic comes from a recessive gene (or something magical but similar in concept <inserted to prevent myself from contradicting myself>) and does not show up in many people. Furthermore, it has to be "awakened" like what Spekkio does to the team after you fulfill his wall-walking fetish.



*This should be noted: I don't expect any of this to "become" canon in any way, but it is canon in my game for the sake of things being easy to understand and to work with, and for the sake of having some interesting new concepts to contemplate in the Chrono fanon universe.

[Mr Bekkler]

Working on battle sprites and enemy sound effects. The battlesprites are terribly difficult, and the sound effects are easy and fun, so I'm trying to spread them out and rotate between the two.

You may have noticed in the video the Nu has a sound. I'm making a few more, but more Jurassic Park style, heavily processed and mixed animal sounds to create impossible "new" animal sounds. I'm trying to get a good grasp on atmosphere, so I'm paying very close attention to music choice and sound design in general.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Concerning the magic... Whatever you do is fine. As far as many people are concerned, fan games aren't canon, so it's all fair game. I myself am one of those who could care less.

But I'm pumped for your project - I really am! If I had something worth offering, I would offer to help, but alas!

PS - I love the collective memory of the Nu, thus the save point feature. This is genius.

[Mr Bekkler]

Concerning the magic... Whatever you do is fine. As far as many people are concerned, fan games aren't canon, so it's all fair game. I myself am one of those who could care less.

I'm one too, I just wanted a system that I could defend if I needed to that didn't just do the same old thing.

But I'm pumped for your project - I really am! If I had something worth offering, I would offer to help, but alas!

PS - I love the collective memory of the Nu, thus the save point feature. This is genius.

Thanks man! Just knowing people are interested helps boost my creative output, I'm making battlesprites fairly quickly, if I do say so myself! Should have a battle demo video pretty soon.

And the Nu thing is one of my favorite parts of the game. I wanted to make them important, I needed a way to save. It felt like a very natural decision.





Also I updated the first post. If anyone can help out specifically with concept sketches, animation, level design and dungeon mapping, that would make this project move even faster.

[Mr Bekkler]

Most impressive.  A suggestion...is it possible to get the sprite to do the finger snapping thingy that Norstein does?  That would be cool to see a full human do. 

Totally dig it.

Yes. Yes he does do the finger snap. You'll see very soon.

[chi_z]

this project is looking very sexy so far.

[Mr Bekkler]

I have Norstein's battle sprites done, but no time to make a video before I go to work. Expect one by midnight one AM (Sorry for the edit, I'm having a bit of trouble with some new capture software with NO watermarks, so in the end it's more beneficial for the viewer.), eastern US time.

It's just a demo, the background and spells will be replaced, but I need SOMETHING there at least, cause the "casting spell" animation is wonderful and I just couldn't bring myself to use no background. Anyway, this is the first full battle sprite set I've ever made and been really happy with, so its debut will be a milestone for the game.

If anyone would like to help animate spells, let me know! I have a pretty good vision of what I'm trying to do, and if nobody helps, it won't bring down the quality, but the final spell animations that actually end up in the game would have to be put on hold til the game's nearly complete.


I'd also like to announce that TheMage has been promoted to Co-Director and LanceVII has been promoted to Lead Programmer. TheMage's efforts really can't be understated. Without her, this game would not exist, and if it did, it would be a mere shell of the game it is now, and we've still got a lot of work ahead of us. She's made sprites, maps, custom tilesets for said maps, is helping me with placing the soundtrack I've chosen, and has been extremely receptive and helpful while talking out the plans for the project.

Lance will be taking over the coding of the cutscenes. I'll still be writing and making the animation graphics, but he knows the ins and outs of RPG Maker 2k3 better than anyone I know, and this will only help make a better game, faster. Lance will also be creating a character swap system and taking care of some loose ends in my messy code (good luck! )  
In fact, Lance has recently taken over Fan Game Wiki duties, and we can thank him for this

Everyone involved is really excited and I can't wait to show off the first battle sprite! Makes me want to skip out on work. Almost.

[Mr Bekkler]

I'm giving permission to use the teen sprites of my parents if desired.

TheMage has fleshed them out into walking and emoting sprites. They look amazing and will debut in a future video.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

I'm pumped for this game... Wish I had coding/animating/spriting experience!

[Lance VII]

Dammit. I wanted to go to bed, now I have to stay up for another few minutes. D:

[Mr Bekkler]

[youtube]a-olczxpgp4[/youtube]

Norstein's battle sprites!

He uses two knives (viciously) and his spell animation and victory animation both include the trademark move.

I escaped just to show I could without it turning into RTP sprites, same with item use, defending (which is supposed to animate, damnit! I worked hard on that one!). This one is all out, as all the playable characters will be in-game. There's also another attack that's not shown in the video, because I can't figure out how to make it alternate between the two...yet.


(Edit: Stupid me forgot to try balancing the battle system a bit before making a video. All the enemy attacks miss and you can't see the taking damage sprite or the bad status sprite, so I'mma make a new video... maybe feature the death sprite too.)

[youtube]IoB5hQsFLGI[/youtube]

[TheMage]

Bekkler came out amazing! I love his victory animation! Way cool! Im so pumped about this project and glad to be a part of it

[Lance VII]

That looks hella awesome.

Are you going to make it to where he will run to the enemy and attack?

[chi_z]

this is a bad ass idea. are the 3 gurus prominent in this game?

[Mr Bekkler]

this is a bad ass idea. are the 3 gurus prominent in this game?

Yes, but not playable. I've created a "young" version of each one. If they were past their prime and over the hill in CT, then they're at the tail end of their prime, sitting ON the hill in Chrono Shift.

That looks hella awesome.

Are you going to make it to where he will run to the enemy and attack?

Yes, when I get the other battle sprites finished. How do you do it in yours? Do you use a battle animation instead of character pose? What works best for you?