Hey guys! I've been spending the past couple of weeks learning this neat program called RPG Maker. It's a fairly easy-to-learn program that acts as a platform for you to build your games upon, doing most of the gritty coding work and letting the user do the rest. It's actually pretty cool though; some people have made professional games that sold for money with this thing.
My sole inspiration for doing such a thing and learning how to use RPG Maker, was that I learned it was possible to create an extremely awesome and detailed tactical battle system using only a few simple coding tricks. I also had a wonderful story idea in mind. And there's just nothing better than a really fun game with a really good story behind it.

Lemmie try and explain what I mean. In this program, combat looks a lot like this (Although it can be 205935458 times cooler):



But rather than it being the regular jump and hack and slash kind of game, the world of power and magic has turned the art of killing into a meticulous strategy game where powerful magicians hide behind immovable knights. The only option is to use your wits to counter the enemy's defenses before they find a hole in your own, and blow them into dust in an instant before they can correct their mistakes.


After a long time, I've figured out how I can accomplish this. The only problem is that I'm not a very good artist at all, and even if I was, it would take a single man months to draw up all the sprites and animations required to flesh out this game. That's where you guys come in. All of you. Anyone who wants to help out can do so, regardless of skill level. They will have to meet a certain (relaxed) standard though.

I'll provide every bit of information you'll need for creating sprites and animations that I'd be able to insert into this game, where your works could become the world the party walks on, or the enemies and bosses that they face, or the wide array of devastating attacks and defenses that will be used in combat.
It's also a good opportunity to try something new. This will not be stick figure animation. 60% of the art here will be good old fashioned sprites, although the animations for attacks can very well be created in Flash. Most sprites will be fairly small and quick to make, but my biggest problem aside from being a bad artist is the sheer quantity of them that will be needed.

So what do you get out of this? The same thing that I do. Together, every one of us will be able to create a game that's actually really cool. If pulled off correctly, this game will be loads of fun to play, with a story created by me and any other writers who want to step up to the task, and working together we should be able to create a really good story too. Not to mention that when finished, the game would be shown to thousands of people who would be able to see your work.

But there won't be any money to made off of this. Everyone who participates will do so because they want to. The purpose of this project is for people to try something new, and for us all to have an absolute blast while doing it. You guys will have full access to the game as it progresses to see how things are coming along, and you can work on any part of it you want. Everything that's needed will be listed in the post below. I'll also teach you all how to submit sprites in a way so that RPG Maker can read them. Same with animations.

I'll be able to explain things a lot more later, but right now there isn't much of a game. Just like this RPG, we'll work from the ground up. I'll update the list below with new work that can be done as we progress, and hopefully we should all have a lot of fun making this thing.

This post is reserved as I type up the list of sprites and animations that are needed, as well as any other information you might need.

If you want to help with creating characters, tiles for the world, buildings, enemies, basically everything in the visible game, here's how you can do so.




And to finish this off for now, I'll give a brief description of what's needed. There's no need to go any further until I know there's some people who're interested in this project. So everything you see below will be added to a lot, probably.

Spriting needed:





Writing Needed:



Animation Needed

Animation is needed for spells and player/enemy abilities. These are fairly small animations that can be anywhere from 6 to 60 frames long. There is no size requirement.

• A simple introduction bringing the player up to speed on the world has been created.
  
  
• The main character, Michael Osera, wakes up in his room to be summoned to an audience with the High Duke of Fire. It sounds urgent.
  
• On arrival, the High Duke gives Michael a heated description of how a single Life Magician, so powerful that she had killed everyone sent to stop her, is rampaging through the lands. She also has killed hundreds and hundreds of the Kingdom's people. As a last resort, he is being sent himself to bring down the rampaging Mage.
  

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IM so up for writing this stuff. Anything, antagonists, quests, the storyline, special factions, how they all look, etc.

Fantastic. How about I put you in charge of world building and character development? I can get you up to speed on IRC.

I'm up for either writing, or base designer(Generating basic designs for weapons or whatnot), if you trust me with this.

Sweet :) Designs for weapons sounds lovely. What way would you like me to get ahold of you?
Any time you feel like spriting, I can send you a list of anything I'd need, as well as the details and image sizes.

Wait, I don't know how to do spriting. I was thinking more of a "Draw it out on paper so the spriters could generate it" kind of thing (if you need it). If this is something you don't necessarily need, I'll move to writing.

I have a Skype account, so contact from there would be fantastic. ID: t.kakeru- Don't forget the dash.

Quote from Ken_Rou

Wait, I don't know how to do spriting. I was thinking more of a "Draw it out on paper so the spriters could generate it" kind of thing (if you need it). If this is something you don't necessarily need, I'll move to writing.

I have a Skype account, so contact from there would be fantastic. ID: t.kakeru- Don't forget the dash.

That actually works just fine. Anything you make, I can bring to the right size, fix it up and convert to a sprite myself.
My version of Skype is stupid though, and prevents me from sending or receiving files. Perhaps I'll just PM you stuff instead :) And you can upload everything through an image site.

Also, in a bit I'm going to update the first posts with a file to play the game as it is so far. And a run-down of the story.

Awesome sauce. I'll get right to it.

So, what could I do right now?

Here's a better list than what's on the first post. All that I really need is for the weapons to be posted straight up and down:

-One thing you could make would be Michael's sword, Blackblade. It's made of magical metal and cuts through steel. It's a hand-and-a-half sword (one handed, but made to fit a double-handed grip). And it's black :u
-Or literally as many regular swords as you want to do. They don't have to have a lot of variation: they'll just be swords listed in the shop as upgrades to the player's previous weapons. Maybe what would work is that you could make a bunch of different designs and I could just recolor them as needed.
-Same with spears. Spears can be regular spears, halberds, glaives, you name it.
-Same with maces :)
-And Warhammers, and bows, and a variety of different arrows like piercing arrows, bomb arrows, poison arrows, fire arrows, etc.
-Heavy shields too, if you know how to draw those.

There's not really anything in particular that needs to be done. Because right now, the game itself is still being created. Everything can be worked on, and in whatever order/quantity you want. Whatever kind of weapons you want to do, go for it.

Anything you complete, you can just upload the picture at whatever site and post it here/PM me. I'm also always on IRC.

Edit: A link where you can download the game so far:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rs7qf71nd4a3b7a/Untitled%20Game.exe

So, I made the "preffered" designs for Blackblade, and drew out a couple of weapons. If I only knew how to put the pictures on here...

Do you have other internet sites that you could check on Devour?

Seriously, can't post pictures on here? Just upload on imgur and take the forum codes here. Easy.

Well, I'm uploading from my iPad.

What if you e-mail the picture to yourself and post the link here? I don't know much about iPads haha

whats the theme like, is it swords bows and magic or is it possible for people to come up with high-tech aswell
also you mean that we cant use flash to make sprites or just the fact that the sprites shouldnt be stickmans?