New game with engine similar to LF2

[savail]

Hey all,
It's my first post here but I've been watching this forum from time to time and I'm really glad that there are still so many LF2 fans . It's cool that this forum is alive and so active all the time . You guys are doing really good job here.

Firstly I would like to ask you to read whole my post though it might seem a bit long :P. I'm going to cover here all the features (known atm ) that my game offers so I would be pleased if you could survive to the end of this post .
Well, I'm 18 years old C++ programmer and I would like to show you my project in hope that I could find some really good spriters that could co-create the game with me. The game is written from scratch in C++ in DirectX 9 graphics library and I'm using CEGUI system for interface elements. I'm creating this game since 2 years but it's a long story... At the begining I was using OpenGL instead of DirectX and had to face plenty of problems connected with this, but learned a lot as well. However I came across a problem in OpenGL which didn't depend on me but on my system. Therefore I couldn't fix that and I've decided to quit OpenGL but take up DirectX. I had to spend a lot of time on learning DirectX and finally I've managed to succeed. Also at the beginning game's code was very bad, characters for game were created in code... Pity I've regreted this only some time later and had to redesign all the code to make it more flexible and allow anyone to create his/her characters, stages, objects, skills via .txt files.

LF2 character data loading is really genius and I'm not sure if I was able to create as good engine as their without such pattern. I really appreciate their work. Anyway, my game's engine is very similar to LF2's engine, but I have improved it a bit and I'm going to enhance it all the time, adding features that users suggest . Actually it's a bit hard to list here all the features of creating your own character but there's a tutorial in the package with game called: "how_to_create_your_own_character". I've described there all actual procedures and features that can be added to your custom character. If you're interested, take a look at some points. IMHO the engine I've created is very flexible and powerful. I feel that it's possible to create at least as good skill effects as in LF2. Not all are implemented yet but I will be adding new effects regularly.

Some really excessive features are that you can create obstacles on which your character can jump(see stage1 in the game) and that it's possible to create very interesting stages. I've created custom tool to create stages for my game. It's included in the package as well and is called: "map editor.exe". While creating a stage you can add there elements that have features like skills so that they're not just static elements of landscape but they interact with player as well. You can create traps in stage: for example a bomb that explodes on touch with character, flying blades that move across stage and actually almost anything you want.

All the sprites and graphics used in game are currently done by me. I know my sprites aren't great but it was really huge pain for me to make them look at least like this. The only graphics that aren't mine yet are: mouse cursor, crates(taken from Lf2) and images called karakura.png namek.png konoha.png and portraits on the stage. Yeah I'm anime fan too :P.

My main idea is to let anyone create his/her own mod to my game and easily attach his/her mod to the original game's client. I'm planning to create battles via the internet, but not as it was in LF2. Here you will be able to simply sign in with your account and connect to any mod available in game. All mods would be accessible from original client via the internet. Maybe the creators of such mods would be able to earn some money based on advertisements or something .

I hope that game will work for you. If not, please let me know and I will try to fix that. Atm there are only 2 options available in the menu: championships and settings. Computer opponents aren't available yet and I'm not sure if to implement them or not. This would be discussed with my future co-workers, if any. The only one existing character (Savail) has only 1 skill atm. You can activate it using
block + attack + right or left arrow
keyboard keys. I know it looks crappy becouse it lacks animations just as crate but it's just becouse I'm bad at graphics and didn't want to spend hours on creating simple animations for destroying / damaging a crate for example. And the skill has only 1 sprite displayed in every animation atm. The stages in game also look crappy :P but I didn't want to look them cool atm, just to show how certain objects in stage move. Note that some objects move as quickly as your character(crates), some slower(the portraits) and some don't move(the buttons on the top).


DOWNLOAD LINK -> game_static.rar (new link (hopefully no more problems will occur. If you still encounter any prolems you will have to run dxwebsetup.exe which is in the same folder as game. Alternatively you can download this file from official microsoft page: here)

Well, as I mentioned above I'm looking for good spriters that could create some characters to this game, but maybe I can find a musician here as well? Currently I'm not sure if I can use current songs in a commercial project... There's still a lot to do but I believe we would be able to design the game together to make it as interesting as possible. If we managed to create the game and if there will be any income it would be proportionally shared among us. All ideas, suggestions, constructive criticism are very welcome!

edit: Sorry, I forgot to mention that all sounds (except songs) are borrowed from LF2 as well.
For anyone who can't run the game! Run and install dxwebsetup.exe which is included in the folder with game. It's a microsoft package containing all necessary dlls to run my game. Alternatively you can download this file from official microsoft page: here

[A-Man]

Some guy here called Azriel made some game similar to the lf2 engine too (Hero Quest. not released yet). But i still think that the idea is cool! For some reason it didn't work for me. After i chose champion ship, my character, stage then click go the game closes.
Other than that it looks awesome! I looked at the dat files and i found things which are simillar to lf2's. I also found some hp: tags and gravity tags and everything looks neat and simple. Hope i can help but i really such at spriting and i haven't got enough C++ knowledge to help u with programming (i grew up with python and i love it). GOOD JOB AND KEEP IT UP!. And please fix that thingy so i can get to c how is the gameplay.
I think this thread should be moved to the programming section by a moderator.

Regards,
A-MAN

Simoneon edited this post 08-18-2012 06:06 AM because:

Well it is a project nonetheless

[savail]

A-Man,
Thanks a lot for feedback. I believe I know what's wrong. I will have to simplify it more in the future but atm I can only provide you with a package from microsoft containing all necessary dlls etc needed to run the game. It's already included in the folder with game(new link) and is called dxwebsetup.exe. You should run it and install. I hope it will work for you now!
BTW except for showing the project I'm actually looking for spriters here too. Is there a better section to this thread :P? I hope I chose best place ^^

[Shymeck]

savail,
it would be nice if your game used an exact .dat files as LF2. You could use legacy LF2 characters and bgs, but also fanmade ones. It would be really fantastic if there was an opensource version of LF2, compatible with the original. I hope you will finish it quickly

[EpicMickeyBR]

very good guy, if it worked more functions LF2 will also bring new advances very good job, but still have to be open source and free xP

[Jernemies]

I kind of read that this is like a easier-to-mod Lf2 engine. I'm sure I missed a lot in that lithany . Thought, the latter half in the below quote made me think: is this commercial or free/open source?

maybe I can find a musician here as well? Currently I'm not sure if I can use current songs in a commercial project...

PM me if you need. You can look at the link to soundcloud at my signature (Too lazy to link now).

[savail]

hey guys,
Actually I thought that I could make something like an item shop in this game. For some it might be obvious but let me clarify that commercial doesn't necessary mean that it's pay to play or buy to play. It means that the creators are going to earn money through the game. And my game's going to be 100% free but commercial. It won't be open source I'm afraid.
Anyway, I'm not quite sure about item shop, if making it makes any sense. If anyone will be able to create his own mod and anyone will be able to play it through original game client, then I guess not all of mod creators would like to have item shop or something like this. And actually I'm not sure if we could create some really useful (not overpowered) items in item shop. It's quite hard for this game I guess. But if anyone has some good ideas, I'm really open to suggestions .
What is 100% sure is that we could have some income from advertisements and donations. This game is going to be aimed at network a lot, so the income would have to cover server payments as well.
And my idea is to let users create their own skill trees. In offline mode you can use all skills of your character but in online battles you create your character and begin with only some of those skills and you level up. You earn skill points and can add more skills to your character or features like damage resistance, movement speed, health etc. Maybe it's a good idea? Would force players to stay longer

Jerkington,
Dude, your songs are pretty cool but I feel that most of them are too calm for this kind of game. They suit more something like an RPG. I've looked through all your songs and I like mostly those 2:
It's vulnerable now! - though instead of those instrumental sounds in 0.57 - 1.07 I'd put something else.
No dark feelings v2 - this song seems to suit perfectly as intro for a game. A song played on the main menu screen and character selection for example. Generally sounds great! But as for intro maybe it could be more repetitive? Mostly interesting is for me part from 0 - 0.57.

I need also sounds for walking, running etc. Do you think you could manage to do such sounds? And do you think you could do some more fight themes? Something more dynamic and maybe add some electric guitar parts?
Anyway, good job there! Keep it up!

And btw I've seen your sprites. They are OK, but I think that I'm actually looking for some other style. Spriting one character is like 100+ sprites(with skills) and I'm looking for maybe a few people that are already quite experienced with making whole sprite animations. I'm planning to release the game in the next year and would like to have at least 500 sprites in it.(not sure if my sprites will be in this game, not sure if they're good enough :P)

[EpicMickeyBR]

Some ideas I have is to put a reward system in doing such a task appears a picture and a text that Modders will do, could also contain an online mode as IP connection, can put NPC, though in LF2 is possible, but with greater ease, and in campaign mode, have as a break to put cutscenes, or anything that will make the game more free and more chance to win, do what the Modder choose which character will be blocked or not and eg in the middle of the campaign mode, releasing characters after spending some phases or kill some boss or put a "cheat mode" depending on the keyword that you release certain character.

To be very picky xD but that time does not get so excited xD

[Jernemies]

Jerkington,
Dude, your songs are pretty cool but I feel that most of them are too calm for this kind of game. They suit more something like an RPG.

Back then I made good tracks pretty randomly; I could begin from a speedy concept and end up in ambient. Now I don't really need to make speedy tracks, so I practice my orchestral, calm, and slow skills. Thanks for th note though.

It's vulnerable now! - though instead of those instrumental sounds in 0.57 - 1.07 I'd put something else.
No dark feelings v2 - this song seems to suit perfectly as intro for a game. A song played on the main menu screen and character selection for example. Generally sounds great! But as for intro maybe it could be more repetitive? Mostly interesting is for me part from 0 - 0.57.

Noted, thanks.

I need also sounds for walking, running etc. Do you think you could manage to do such sounds?

Don't know. I can forge a variety of sounds to my tracks to give ambience, but I don't know about their stand-alone quality.

And do you think you could do some more fight themes? Something more dynamic and maybe add some electric guitar parts?

>Like this?<

And btw I've seen your sprites. They are OK, but I think that I'm actually looking for some other style. Spriting one character is like 100+ sprites(with skills) and I'm looking for maybe a few people that are already quite experienced with making whole sprite animations. I'm planning to release the game in the next year and would like to have at least 500 sprites in it.(not sure if my sprites will be in this game, not sure if they're good enough )

I won't promise anything about this. My sprites turn out to be good or horrible so randomly. And I certainly won't promise a sheet.

hey guys,
Actually I thought that I could make something like an item shop in this game.
Anyway, I'm not quite sure about item shop, if making it makes any sense. If anyone will be able to create his own mod and anyone will be able to play it through original game client, then I guess not all of mod creators would like to have item shop or something like this. And actually I'm not sure if we could create some really useful (not overpowered) items in item shop. It's quite hard for this game I guess. But if anyone has some good ideas, I'm really open to suggestions .

I'd suggest that item shops would be available at the beginning of a round/match. Like, you're given a certain amount of points (let's call it 10). There's be some helpful acessories and such, passive or powerless items would cost, say, 1 point, more important ones 2-3 points, powerful items 4+ points. I hope you get the idea.

For some it might be obvious but let me clarify that commercial doesn't necessary mean that it's pay to play or buy to play. It means that the creators are going to earn money through the game. And my game's going to be 100% free but commercial. It won't be open source I'm afraid.
What is 100% sure is that we could have some income from advertisements and donations. This game is going to be aimed at network a lot, so the income would have to cover server payments as well.

IMO it'd be fair, or even obligated, that spriter(s), artist(s), sound engineer(s)&musician(s) (possibly me) would get a share if the sums get way over the server upholds.

And my idea is to let users create their own skill trees. In offline mode you can use all skills of your character but in online battles you create your character and begin with only some of those skills and you level up. You earn skill points and can add more skills to your character or features like damage resistance, movement speed, health etc. Maybe it's a good idea? Would force players to stay longer

Or then not. In case it's tied to account, and 1lv vs 100+lv fights are made possible, it would unbalance the game. In a way, that idea could be good. However, IMO it should be tied to the match and game mode rather than any accounts.

[savail]

>Like this?<

Wow, this song is pretty nice! Yeah Something like this would be awesome. In further songs you could include also some gloomy elements or some orchestral/instrumental in order to make them different. I especially like good drums Well if you managed to create sounds/music that would be great and I would be happy to have you in the team!

IMO it'd be fair, or even obligated, that spriter(s), artist(s), sound engineer(s)&musician(s) (possibly me) would get a share if the sums get way over the server upholds.

Of course the income would be shared among whole team, but I don't want people to be driven by possible profits but by a fun mainly . The game might not produce income if it won't be popular enough. And if the income wasn't high enough to cover server costs the game will stay offline and game's mods will be available to download through website(which will be for sure on free server). Maybe server for a game could be free too, Im not sure yet. I want to implement the network in next 2 weeks and by this time I'll surely know something more.
Even if I won't find enough teammates I think I'll release the game (maybe some good modders would get interested and create mods that would be better than original ). I just don't want to leave my 2 years of hard work wasted. Want to share my game with others eventually.

Or then not. In case it's tied to account, and 1lv vs 100+lv fights are made possible, it would unbalance the game. In a way, that idea could be good. However, IMO it should be tied to the match and game mode rather than any accounts.

Yeah, you're right. That's why something like this would have to be seriously thought over. Could you expand your idea?