Power Master Power Master's Power Master Thread

[Alex95]

Here's a bunch of boss clips! (Plus one minor character.)

I'll try main characters and some others maybe later lol, but yeah.

Steel Huntsman James Dave Red Mage Fire Soldier Elderly Man

Awesome! Haven't had any bosses done, yet, aside from the Mages, who seem to be the popular ones of the bunch. Though I can't see Red Mage as a male. :P

The sound is somewhat muffled, though, and some of the voices sound kinda slurred together... Maybe work on that?

[twice]

I'll work on it! (I'll try to fix the muffle, prob bc my mic isn't the best..)

[Alex95]

How about this one? I made the outlines entirely black so they show up better, and I thickened some of the areas on the lines, mostly around the points that had something underneath them to make it look like a small shadow.

I know it's not too different from last time, but it looks a bit better.

EDIT: Merlina as well. Thought I'd see how she'd turn out.

Edited July 16, 2016 by Power Master

[Alex95]

I tried to come up with different variants for the portraits, see which one I like more.

My favorite is either the bottom-middle or the bottom-right. I'm thinking I'll just avoid the hand-drawn stuff; hand-draw it, digitize it, then...something.

Me testing out different styles for the portraits, with Merlina standing in for a Kyle, cause that variant got overwritten for some reason and I can't fix it.

From top to bottom, left to right

1. Full color pencils
2. Color pencils with standard pencil shading
3. Pencil shading (excuse the drawing lines)
4. Digital drawing
5. Digital drawing/shading
5. Digital pencil sketch

Suggestions?

[carefreejules]

Your portraits...if I'm going to be honest, they look kind of lifeless. Have you considering colouring the shine in their eyes like this:

This isn't even a stylistic choice because if you look at eyes in real life: https://www.google.ca/search?espv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=eye+&oq=eye+&gs_l=img.3..0l10.4162.4301.0.4685.2.2.0.0.0.0.86.168.2.2.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.2.166.7uWq8Z-CBQ0

There will be shine for eyes in most situations. Putting the shine can do a lot to make your characters look less spacey looking. The only time where they wouldn't have shine is if they're in a really really dark place or, they're possessed

[Alex95]

Yeah, I forgot the highlights on the digital drawings, and they don't show up well on the hand drawn ones. That's my bad. :P It's strange, though, because that's something I've been doing but then totally blanked on it here.

I'm mainly doing these for now to test to see what I can come up with. The final ones will be more polished, though I'm trying my best on these ones as well.

[twice]

I redid a couple clips (and added some extra lines, just wanted to read a bit more lol).

Btw, it's in flac. It sounds better imo than just uploading on vocaroo.. But I can always do that if needed.

James Hunstman

edit: also recommend using the desktop ver of dropbox

edit2: some reason the links were being weird so I fixed them

Edited July 22, 2016 by Jin

[Augestein]

Honestly, the portraits you have now are fine for placeholders. I'd honestly say you put a little bit too much effort into placeholder ones. Really, just have all of the would be sprites down first, and then patch them up later. Same goes for Voice Acting. I never got around to VAing because it seemed you were more concerned with spritework, but I can still do that if you need be.

[Alex95]

I redid a couple clips (and added some extra lines, just wanted to read a bit more lol).

Btw, it's in flac. It sounds better imo than just uploading on vocaroo.. But I can always do that if needed.

James Huntsman

edit: also recommend using the desktop ver of dropbox

Cool. Don't worry about the file type, I can always convert them later.

Dropbox, vocaroo, email, whatever. Any way you can get them to me. :)

Honestly, the portraits you have now are fine for placeholders. I'd honestly say you put a little bit too much effort into placeholder ones. Really, just have all of the would be sprites down first, and then patch them up later. Same goes for Voice Acting. I never got around to VAing because it seemed you were more concerned with spritework, but I can still do that if you need be.

I know, placeholders are pretty much all I'm doing at this point. I'm trying to figure out the style I want to use before finalizing them, so any input is appreciated.

Spritework took over the thread cause that was the thing I had the most trouble with. But there's still a number of characters that need voices, and I will choose who does what at the end of August.

Also need music as well, but I may have to look elsewhere for that...

[Augestein]

I can help with music I guess. I need some practice anyways. What style of music do you have in mind?

[Alex95]

Well, first I want to see what you can do with the song linked in the OP. Remake it in your own way.

Depending on the number of people that get involved with the music (which probably won't be a lot), I'll divvy up the music based on the way they remade the song.

You're also welcome to submit other tracks of your own if you want to show what else you can do.

[Augestein]

Clicking the link honestly sends me directly to drop box. Not the midi in question.

[Alex95]

Clicking the link honestly sends me directly to drop box. Not the midi in question.

The midi file and sheet music are in the downloadable file. But here's the link again in case other problems arise: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iiiujm1e4ur44qq/Test%20Music.zip?dl=0

So messing around with the graphic options on paint.net; coloring it it, ink sketch, then coloring it in again using the NES pallet given earlier, this is what I came up with:

I quite like this one, actually. The colors blend well enough, I think.

I also like the glow the "ink sketch" option gave me, that's a nice touch. Earlier I used a white outline to separate the portrait from the background, but the glow works even better in this instance.

Would this be suitable for the final outcome? The tilesets use the NES pallet as well, so this would be a great match. Is there anything I need to adjust here?

EDIT: Looks like the glow cuts off at the ends, but I can fix that.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Power Master

[twice]

That looks best so far!

[carefreejules]

The midi file and sheet music are in the downloadable file. But here's the link again in case other problems arise: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iiiujm1e4ur44qq/Test%20Music.zip?dl=0

So messing around with the graphic options on paint.net; coloring it it, ink sketch, then coloring it in again using the NES pallet given earlier, this is what I came up with:

I quite like this one, actually. The colors blend well enough, I think.

I also like the glow the "ink sketch" option gave me, that's a nice touch. Earlier I used a white outline to separate the portrait from the background, but the glow works even better in this instance.

Would this be suitable for the final outcome? The tilesets use the NES pallet as well, so this would be a great match. Is there anything I need to adjust here?

EDIT: Looks like the glow cuts off at the ends, but I can fix that.

Actually...imo, since you're using a NES Palette, those colours don't actually mesh well together because the way lighting works doesn't really make sense. I don't really understand why you're putting those dabs of colour because to me, it looks like you're trying to shade, but you're not shading enough. For example, it looks like your character is in a setting where there's green lighting because of the hair but then the darker colours on their clothes aren't green - do you see the inconsistency? When it comes to shading, you need to think about the colour of the light and where it's coming from and keeping that colour of light consistent throughout.

Green and brown don't really look good together. I know you're trying to go for an NES/Retro colour palette, but you shouldn't use green as a shading colour or an accent colour for the colour brown.

Also, I find the glow kind of unnecessary. I don't think the glow is going to be all that noticeable if you were to show that portrait in the game.

Edit: To add, the green inevitably clashes with the orange as well.

Edited July 22, 2016 by carefreejules

[Augestein]

Try brown and red if you must shade in this case if you're keeping with a 8-bit palette. Brown is based off of red more than it is green so that'd be a better choice.

Take a look at Maria and Mindu here. Both from Final Fantasy 2. Maria's made up of 4 colors. When it comes to shading, you're not going to have a lot of room. So you have to be very careful with 8-bit portraits. Honestly, I'd recommend chopping off the portrait so you have less body showing and concentrate more on a smaller head with slightly less detail (it'll look better for the 8-bit style you seem to be going for). I'm a bit busy at the moment so I can't do much to help, but here's kind of what I mean:

The issue you're running into here, is that the portrait is so large that it needs more detail because of how large it is and the colors employed. You're going to run out of colors eventually but be unable to support such a large "sprite / portrait" with so few colors. But a smaller one like this:

Is inevitably going to get the style across better and simultaneously look more presentable. That said, the portraits are improving at an extremely rapid pace, so whichever way you decide will probably be solid enough in the mean time.

Basically what I'm saying here is that you'll have to remember that these are going to be smaller portraits closer to Maria and Mindu, so you'll need to keep the shading to a minimum because too much and they'll just end up looking blobby.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Augestein

[Alex95]

Green and brown don't really look good together. I know you're trying to go for an NES/Retro colour palette, but you shouldn't use green as a shading colour or an accent colour for the colour brown.

It's green on the tips? ...Ugh, darn color-blindness... I thought I had the right color...

Alright, I'll fix that.

Also, I find the glow kind of unnecessary. I don't think the glow is going to be all that noticeable if you were to show that portrait in the game.

I kind of like the glow. It looks better then the white outline I had earlier. But I'll weigh the options.

Try brown and red if you must shade in this case if you're keeping with a 8-bit palette. Brown is based off of red more than it is green so that'd be a better choice.

Take a look at Maria and Mindu here. Both from Final Fantasy 2. Maria's made up of 4 colors. When it comes to shading, you're not going to have a lot of room. So you have to be very careful with 8-bit portraits. Honestly, I'd recommend chopping off the portrait so you have less body showing and concentrate more on a smaller head with slightly less detail (it'll look better for the 8-bit style you seem to be going for). I'm a bit busy at the moment so I can't do much to help, but here's kind of what I mean:

The issue you're running into here, is that the portrait is so large that it needs more detail because of how large it is and the colors employed. You're going to run out of colors eventually but be unable to support such a large "sprite / portrait" with so few colors. But a smaller one like this:

Is inevitably going to get the style across better and simultaneously look more presentable. That said, the portraits are improving at an extremely rapid pace, so whichever way you decide will probably be solid enough in the mean time.

Basically what I'm saying here is that you'll have to remember that these are going to be smaller portraits closer to Maria and Mindu, so you'll need to keep the shading to a minimum because too much and they'll just end up looking blobby.

Yeah, I thought the color I chose for the shading was a brown, but nope!

The portrait is quite large, but I was going to shrink it once I actually started putting them in the game (putting them in now would take up the whole screen!)

For size options, well there are two: One is a large bust that "sits" on top of the dialogue box (like PoR or RD, though not as big?). Another is just the head, that can be placed either in said dialogue box or above it.

I don't know...should I stick with just a small head portrait, then?

[Augestein]

Oh, color blindness? Yeah, that's going to make it harder because you're always going to have to analyze the palettes.

The head is the better option when it comes to 8-bit style portraits. Bigger body style portraits start looking very weird when they are that large. The larger a picture, the more detailed it should be, and 8-bit colors specifically go against that idea.

As for the remix... I messed around with it a bit, (this isn't necessarily complete as is as I still have to remaster it and balance instrumentation), but I think trying to remix a song that's around 210 BPM is a bit too fast. I can't for the life of me not make this sound intense. THIS was the least intense I've made it so far keeping in mind that it's a remix. http://www.filedropper.com/powermastertech2

Do you have a bit more ideas about the world, the style of music you want? Because I couldn't really craft an identity with what I had. This isn't an insult either, it's just... This song I feel is coming out a little bit too intense for a theme song. I wouldn't mind just throwing the base theme you have out in favor of making a new one from scratch if I had more of an idea on the themes and style you want.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Augestein

[Alex95]

Oh, color blindness? Yeah, that's going to make it harder because you're always going to have to analyze the palettes.

The head is the better option when it comes to 8-bit style portraits. Bigger body style portraits start looking very weird when they are that large. The larger a picture, the more detailed it should be, and 8-bit colors specifically go against that idea.

As for the remix... I messed around with it a bit, (this isn't necessarily complete as is as I still have to remaster it and balance instrumentation), but I think trying to remix a song that's around 210 BPM is a bit too fast. I can't for the life of me not make this sound intense. THIS was the least intense I've made it so far keeping in mind that it's a remix. http://www.filedropper.com/powermastertech2

Do you have a bit more ideas about the world, the style of music you want? Because I couldn't really craft an identity with what I had. This isn't an insult either, it's just... This song I feel is coming out a little bit too intense for a theme song. I wouldn't mind just throwing the base theme you have out in favor of making a new one from scratch if I had more of an idea on the themes and style you want.

Detail is hard for me to do, especially when using computer graphics. idk, it's just harder to get my head around it. Perhaps smaller portraits are the best bet here, so I'll come up with some.

In my opinion, I think the song sounds great! I think it has an 8-bit, retro feel to it, which is awesome! This this particular version (demo or not) would best fit a boss theme, however. Still cool :)

Oh, just as detail confuses me, so do descriptives... Um...

The original song bit shown is really just what I put together after some inspiration happened. The rapid notes playing, the three ascending then one lower note that's the same key as the second of the four in the measure... idk, just kinda came to me. If there's not a good way to blend them together, you can do your own, sure. But I'd like to see people take a shot at the original bit first.

Okay... story synopsis... :/

There are two sides to this story: Kyle's and Merlina's. Kyle's more or less is the same as Power Master 1: Kyle is told to gather the Gems. Though this time there are new environments, new challenges and a new character, Marvin, to give it a bit more of an "edge." Kyle's journey is more light-hearted - simple, so I want the music for his side to fit. Overworld music is different than Merlina's, the battle music, etc. Dungeons could probably share a song, though.

Merlina's story is entirely new, but I'm still going over how I want to do it. She and her mother just moved in Moneo and, the next day, her mother starts acting strange. Merlina is told to gather the Gems, same as Kyle, but soon rebels against her mother and seeks help. Merlina's journey is more... energetic? Um... Yeah, I don't know the word to use here, but her overworld and battle music would be different than Kyle's.

One more thing: the four notes I mentioned are the same ones that are heard at the 00:15-17 mark of "Girl of the Spirit Forest" from FE4. Don't know if that's where I heard it from or if it's purely coincidental, but I like it, so whatever.

[Alex95]

EDIT: Had to post & run, so I just stuck the head there for now.

Shrunk the drawing to it's appropriate proportions (96 x 96 pixels), then draw over it like last time. I'm pretty sure I didn't shade with green this time, everything looks fine here.

Kyle doesn't have to much going on above his neck area, so there wasn't much detail to draw here. Merlina's scarf and Marvin's jacket collar will show, among others.

Also, positioned Kyle to be in the center of the square, so I can make taller characters and smaller characters appear accordingly later, should I use this format.

All-in-all, despite doing this multiple times, I think this is going rather well!

Edited July 24, 2016 by Power Master

[Alex95]

Wanted to see how well I can do adding the expressions on the blank template. I think they came out rather well, I just need to make sure I place everything correctly.

Edit: I'm rolling with this one. Looks good, easily edited, and I have to decide on something.

Keep sending voice and music samples!

Edited July 27, 2016 by Power Master

[Alex95]

There's a month left of getting in your voice, music, and idea submissions. 31st of August is the cut-off point. After then, I'll start weighing the options and divvying up the roles.

http://power-master.wikia.com/wiki/Board:News_and_Announcements

[Dangerus]

Okay?

[Alex95]

Bump for update. Once I had something solid I wanted to work with, I officially announced that Power Master 2: The Legend has entered development, along with a SECOND game: Power Master 1: A Strange Journey MV, which is a revamp of the original game I released earlier this year.

From the thread on my forums here:

Two new Power Master games are in development! Power Master 1: A Strange Journey MV and Power Master 2: The Legend are both being developed at the same time using the RPG Maker MV engine. I don't have much done yet, as what you see in the photos is all I've got so far. But I will be hard at work creating both games anew.

For Power Master 1: A Strange Journey MV, the game will contain entirely redone sprites, two new characters, a revamped story, and different mechanics. While I think the original Power Master 1: A Strange Journey came out great, there were some things that either didn't work or look right (it had two different art styles for the enemies) or wasn't able to be implemented. If you read the Power Master 1R Story, the two new characters should at least sound familiar; the tall, muscle, red-head is Matt, who appeared in Chapter 10: The Failing Flirter, and the young, dark-haired girl is Alice, who appeared as Hamilton's sister in Chapter 18: The Light-Headed Digger. The two new characters will join Stephan, Jennifer, Hamilton, and Helen on the redone adventure. The game will use locations from the first Power Master 1, but will be reimagined using all new sprites!

For Power Master 2: The Legend, the story takes place at the start of Exitilus's reign, one thousand years before the events of A Strange Journey. The player will be the ancestors of the hero from Power Master 1 and depending on the gender of the chosen character, the story will play out differently. Kyle and Merlina were the original characters with the green-haired, broody-looking Marvin being included to help the story along.

For those of you that have sent in voice overs for the future games, I have some bad news: I have decided to cancel the use of voice overs for these games. Originally, it was just for Power Master 2, but now that Power Master 1 MV is being developed alongside it, it would be too much work for me to handle between two games. Maybe I'll bring the concept back when Power Master 3 rolls around. I am still accepting idea and music submissions, however.

Power Master 1: A Strange Journey MV and Power Master 2: The Legend are in development with Power Master 1: A Strange Journey MV likely being released first. Shooting for a late 2017 release, but we'll see how that goes.

One thing you may notice is that I have decided to cancel the use of voice overs in the games. Once I decided to build two games at once, and considering the low amount of submissions I received, I decided against using them. I'll have more info on the games soon.

Also, titled the thread for general Power Master stuff.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Power Master

[Augestein]

Do you have a download for the original game? I'll play it if you still have it around.