KS: The Fighting Game

[Beoran]

Well, action speaks louder than words I guess. So I took Slick, Java, and Eclipse, and some artwork from here and there, and started to program a bit. Expect to be underwhelmed, but it's here:
https://github.com/beoran/ksf

I guess it won't be useful if you're not a programmer., but if you're curious I can give instructions.

[ObliviousKnowledge]

Well, action speaks louder than words I guess. So I took Slick, Java, and Eclipse, and some artwork from here and there, and started to program a bit. Expect to be underwhelmed, but it's here:
https://github.com/beoran/ksf

I guess it won't be useful if you're not a programmer., but if you're curious I can give instructions.

Hey man, good start! I would suggest getting a jar at least that people can download to run it and at least check it out if they dont know how to setup eclipse. Also make sure you have the x64 natives for lwjgl included since most newer computers will have a 64 bit windows installed.

[Beoran]

ObliviousKnowledge, you're right, but I'll need help with windows since I ony use Linux I'm afraid. I dont' even have any Windows computers. Feel free to fork me on github and send me patches, whatever you can, or please make the jar file for windows if you can!

Oh, and another thing we need a lot is ART, even concept art is fine! Every character will need about 100-200 different frames of animation. I tried to draw mr stickman for testing, for a few "moves" but even that takes too long for me, I don't have the patience nor the skills for such high resolution pixel art. I'm wondering if we really should use a window of 800x600 pixels, the art requirements will be stellar. If we guess every frame takes around 1 hour to draw, then that's 200 hours per character... Almost a whole year if you draw one frame for 1 hour per day. Smaller characters at a 640x480 "virtual" resulution would be also OK, I think, they will be much less work, and Slick can automatically upscale this to a higher resolution if that is needed. For now I'll carry on developing and testing with paintown characters.

[ObliviousKnowledge]

ObliviousKnowledge, you're right, but I'll need help with windows since I ony use Linux I'm afraid. I dont' even have any Windows computers. Feel free to fork me on github and send me patches, whatever you can, or please make the jar file for windows if you can!

Oh, and another thing we need a lot is ART, even concept art is fine! Every character will need about 100-200 different frames of animation. I tried to draw mr stickman for testing, for a few "moves" but even that takes too long for me, I don't have the patience nor the skills for such high resolution pixel art. I'm wondering if we really should use a window of 800x600 pixels, the art requirements will be stellar. If we guess every frame takes around 1 hour to draw, then that's 200 hours per character... Almost a whole year if you draw one frame for 1 hour per day. Smaller characters at a 640x480 "virtual" resulution would be also OK, I think, they will be much less work, and Slick can automatically upscale this to a higher resolution if that is needed. For now I'll carry on developing and testing with paintown characters.

I might be able to help you there, though I am also trying to smooth out the compatibility issues with our own tests, along with getting the framework finished.

The resolution and art is already taken care of. The artists are already slaving away at the immense amount of frames needed for the 5 main girls.

-As a side note, we could still use some more artists!!!

The resolution will definitely be able to go higher than 800x600. you will be able to change it in the settings when we roll out the finished product. The height of the characters will be roughly 300 pixels, and if need be they can be scaled a bit in slick.

[Cropsy]

As a side note, we could still use some more artists!!!

I might be able to help out, what assets are you still looking for artists for?

I can probably do backgrounds and effects and such, and possibly even help out with some of the fighter animation frames. For what it's worth, I do have prior experience with spriting and texturing and such, I' work with that stuff a lot on the DooM engine.

[Beoran]

ObliviousKnowlegde, you guys already have the game itself partially programmed? I didnt' see anywhere I could see/get the code, so I just jumped in and started something myself, but if you gyus are already busy, I'd rather try to help you out in stead, if that's still possible. I do think you should share the code over some public repository, it's going to be a free game anyway, right?

[Halkure]

If we guess every frame takes around 1 hour to draw, then that's 200 hours per character... Almost a whole year if you draw one frame for 1 hour per day.

Yep . _.

Our character resolution is roughly 300px tall. See examples here v and there >

[futatsu]

if you guys need music, i'm doing remixes of Katawa Shoujo themes.

or i could come up with some original music for the char. selection screen, start screen, etc.

and do you need any voice acting?

[ObliviousKnowledge]

ObliviousKnowlegde, you guys already have the game itself partially programmed? I didnt' see anywhere I could see/get the code, so I just jumped in and started something myself, but if you gyus are already busy, I'd rather try to help you out in stead, if that's still possible.

Yes we are already working on the code. Currently we are about as far as you are in functionality, except we have somewhat realistic movement and jumping.

Pm me with more details abut how familiar you are with programming. I have not taken a look at the code in your test, but I will when I have time between classes and work.

I do think you should share the code over some public repository, it's going to be a free game anyway, right?

As a team we have discussed this. The game will be free, but no individual resources will be available, and our repository is private. I might decide to change the repository at some point, but the final art assets will most likely remain unavailable. We all agreed that we would hate to see the art, that had countless hours put into it, loaded into MUGEN or something and have the KS characters forced to fight the Simpsons... I for one would hate to see that, and we all pretty much agreed with that.

if you guys need music, i'm doing remixes of Katawa Shoujo themes.

or i could come up with some original music for the char. selection screen, start screen, etc.

and do you need any voice acting?

Can you post any samples? A mix of both, remixes and original works would be great.

At this point we are not even looking into voice acting (despite how bad I think we should have it). Currently there is a lot of work to do, and trying to find voice actors, organize them, along with setting up/finding/implementing a way to record the voices and have any kind of quality or sound standard is just beyond us at the moment. This could change in the future, but we are not even at the point to consider it again.

However if you do have any suggestions on how to remedy these roadblocks, please let us know.

[Meower]

.

[Oddball]

I like the idea of Kenji being behind it all, but think that saying he's kidnapped Hisao gives him too much credit.

Perhaps we could just have him say he's kidnapped Hisao in order to get the girls to beat each other up, when in truth, Hisao's just had to go out of town or to the hospital unexpectedly and has no idea any of this has been going on until he comes back at the ending.

[Beoran]

Yes we are already working on the code. Currently we are about as far as you are in functionality, except we have somewhat realistic movement and jumping.

I sent a PM. Yeah, I didn't do much in the way of physics and motion yet, that's the next step.

As a team we have discussed this. The game will be free, but no individual resources will be available, and our repository is private. I might decide to change the repository at some point, but the final art assets will most likely remain unavailable. We all agreed that we would hate to see the art, that had countless hours put into it, loaded into MUGEN or something and have the KS characters forced to fight the Simpsons... I for one would hate to see that, and we all pretty much agreed with that.

For me it's important that the code itself is open source. Otherwise you could just as well be using MUGEN.

As for the art I understand the feeling, but I think it's just pointless to fight it. If you release art on the internet, people will use it in their own wicked ways. There's just too many people out there to prevent this from happening. Also, anyone with an unzip will be able to get the resources from the jar file anyway. Just look at how many MUGEN characters, etc are plain rippoffs of commercial games. I'm 100% sure that this game will be ripped as well in the end. I don't want to waste time having to deal with the rippers, so in stead of worrying about them, I'd just go ahead and put everything out there in a public repository, and slap a creative commons noncommercial sharealike license on the art and be done with it. Like that the worst abuses can be stopped if they occur, and we keep development easy for us.

Of course, if I join this project I'd handle the art with respect for the artist's wishes. But I think it's important to not to want to be overprotective of your own creations that you share on the internet. I also throw much of my code, which is also hundreds of hours of work, out there on github for the world to use, abuse, whatever. I don' t care too much. If someone "rips me off", I don' t feel ripped off, I feel like I helped someone.

[futatsu]

http://soundcloud.com/ynbf/sets/katawa-shoujo-remixes

^^^this is my Katawa Shoujo remix set, which i update with new songs when they are completed.

VVV This is a link to all of my other releases

http://soundcloud.com/ynbf


i can edit any song on request.

[Halkure]

As for the art I understand the feeling, but I think it's just pointless to fight it. If you release art on the internet, people will use it in their own wicked ways. There's just too many people out there to prevent this from happening. Also, anyone with an unzip will be able to get the resources from the jar file anyway. Just look at how many MUGEN characters, etc are plain rippoffs of commercial games. I'm 100% sure that this game will be ripped as well in the end. I don't want to waste time having to deal with the rippers, so in stead of worrying about them, I'd just go ahead and put everything out there in a public repository, and slap a creative commons noncommercial sharealike license on the art and be done with it. Like that the worst abuses can be stopped if they occur, and we keep development easy for us.

You're probably right. :\ We'll deal with it eventually.

I respect your position on not sharing the sprites nor the source code, although, at least as far as the art goes, it'd be cool just to have a few appetizers of some common frames so that we could either praise the artists' job or give some critic feedback. Just to keep things within a coherent style, mind you.

If I might ask, though, what kind of fighting engine does this game resemble the most, as far as mainstream fighters go?

Street Fighter or King of Fighters. It's too early to say more accurately. There will be no air dashing or long juggling combos though, I think we've said that a few times. I can dump some things here. I'm sure you mean well with the feedback, but there is probably not anything I haven't noticed already in the last year. I'm letting many mistakes slide for now just to get to alpha sooner, since I have no idea how many frames will need to be scrapped or replaced during balancing. I'll also include some roughs and bits of our reference/research. Plus shenanigans. There are some butts. Does anyone browse this at work? Well, you've been warned.

[Sajomir]

Hal's a noob and forgot our most recent cool thing. These aren't finished yet, but these are the product of work from all of our artists combined.