[From hack to indie] Path of the Midnight Sun

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Choke all the points! (or just that one)

Edited March 12, 2015 by L95

[noitanaperT]

There should be some pressure in this chapter. FE chapters where you are free to lackadaisically sandbag enemies at your leisure are badly designed.

Usually pressure is felt from bandits threatening villages or thieves going after chests, but there appears to be none such here. You're actually benefited from taking your time on this chapter, because the boss keeps summoning more free exp to send your way.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

I agree. Make this chapter have a turn limit

Hmm, monsters won't destroy the village in the lower right, will they? (I don't remember.)

[Brendor]

no, they do not

[noitanaperT]

Finished. Thoughts:

*Thank you for the hack.

*Thank you again, because I don't want the following criticism to be confused for ungratefulness.

*Scarcity of some basic weapons like Heal staff and Iron lance. I don't know if this is intentional, but it's strange.

*Red text for important clues is a smart touch and well-implemented.

*The writing is pretty dumb most of the time. The characters lack a lot of personality. Markedly, the Demon King, whose lines in fe8 were some of the best, here seems like an easily surmounted pushover rather than some age-old monster of myth to be feared. Most of the characters have thin and uninteresting personalities and dialogue, even by fe standards.

*Main lord not being a sword user is a welcome change from the formula.

*Hellios should not scale as well. If he's going to have a strong start, for balance' sake, he should have his growths and potential scaled back, especially if you're going to get him back at some point in the game.

*A tank or two (besides Hellios) would be nice. Most if not all of the units are weighted towards balanced stats, or offensive ones. Very few are defensive in the traditional sense. Having the option for a reliable, defensive frontliner would be good.

*Lots of chapters can be taken at a leisurely pace that results in dumb things like: Weiss getting to level 20 in his intro, Ceo to 16. The game gave little reason to use Shiori, and thus waste exp that could be being fed to the stellar unit Weiss.

*Mounteds being able to move twice seems to be a relatively unaccounted-for advantage. It's a strong ability and there should be something to offset it, but mounts and cavs seem to have all the utility and power they've always had.

*Half of my core force is at 20, the rest are 15. Not a promo item to be seen. A bit frustrating. Perhaps reduce exp (and sandbag potential), and/or give promo items early. Even if you don't use them until 20, having the option between 10-20 is a good thing.

*Puledra brings staff utility, but low start and low potential means there is only 1 practical option for using him, and it's "sparingly." It's not a difficulty problem, but it would increase the value of choice here if he had, say, a higher start so that players didn't know he was just going to be benched as soon as something better inevitably comes around.

More later maybe.

[ErrantDShepherd]

[spoiler=CH.8 SPOILERS weird scene]

Bud... use spoilers please, for those who do not wish to know the plot twists/make-up of later chapters.

[spoiler] <insert image here> [/spoiler]

Edited March 12, 2015 by TheErrantShepherd

[The Iron Rose]

chrom and frederick

oooh point taken.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

So I've played and enjoyed this hack once more. Still great :)

Though I have noticed a few things:

• In chapter 7 NPCs can detect and attack hidden enemies despite FoW. On the one hand it makes ths chapter easier, but on the other hand it seems to be a little bit unlogical. To be fair I don't know any FoW maps with NPCs except for 3-P in FE10. In this chapter the NPCs cannot attack hidden enemies.
• It's a point I've noticed in MarkyJoe's latest episode of his LP: Units like Puledra and Schwarz have way too low base luck. So in a few situations you have to take the risk that an enemy can crit you. I don't like to gamble (it's just a personal opinion). Maybe the bases of Puledra could be increased a little bit. Prepromoted units only tend to be useful in the earlygame, but healers are always welcome and necessary at least till mages can promote and use staves. His ridiculous base luck is a serious problem.
• Either the battle experience should be reduced a little bit, or a knight crest for Weiss should be added. Weiss always tends to reach level 20 in this hack version. I have to admit in 5x I use him WAY more than Shiori.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Mister IceTeaPeach

[mmKALLL]

My hype for soon™ is almost uncontainable at this rate.

[Alfred Kamon]

Here's a biiiig INTERVIEW for you guys! It took me a while to answer all these questions, ahah. I hope you'll find it interesting!

Many thanks to mmKALLL for creating this interview to begin with.

The amazing Q & A with mmKALLL that came out of nowhere

Since the beginning of Midnight Sun I've been wondering about various things related to this hack and its background. I'm pretty sure many others have as well. Seeing how excellent FE: MS has turned out so far, it's not surprising that there are also a lot of fans who don't know how the game started out, not to mention the dozens of pages of stuff happening on the forums. Here are a bunch of questions covering all that for you to answer! You might want to post this in the thread or something, so everyone will get to know your darkest secrets understand the creation of a masterpiece!

Q1: To start off, can you tell a bit about yourself? What do you do apart from playing and making videogames? Is Alfred your real name?

A: Sure! I’m a 21 years old guy from Italy. My father is Italian and my mother is Thai, and since I’ve inherited most of my physical traits from her, I don’t look European at all. I’m studying to become a psychologist, in particular I’m specialized in marketing, counselling and social media.

Alfred is my real name, and I’ll tell you more: Kamon is my real second name too!

So my full name would be Alfred Kamon [insert Surname].

Q2: I've understood that you had the idea of telling a great story using a game coming up for a while. Why did you choose to make an FE hack in the first place?

A: I wanted to make a hack since I played MageKnight404’s “Fire Emblem: A Sacred Dawn” (the actual FE8 reskin, not the DX version). I’ve always liked to tell stories, and since FE was my favorite vg series, I decided to realise this little childish dream of mine in 2012, when I started working on my hack.

Q3: How much of the current plotline did you have planned beforehand? Did you have prior experience in making hacks or designing games in general?

A: Most of Midnight Sun’s plotline was created as the game was being built. When I started to hack, I had barely any idea of what I wanted to do with the story. Moreover, I had to follow The Sacred Stones’ original layout since I couldn’t hack the world map events. All things considered, it was really hard to come up with the plot.

And no, this is my first project ever.

Q4: The project was originally known as FE: Sunpath of Midnight - what happened to all of that?

A: As I said earlier, when I started to hack I didn’t know where the project was going. It was literally just me experimenting with stuff and seeing if things worked the way I wanted them to be. I had even included an anime character in the game because I felt like doing it. So, when I realised that Sunpath of Midnight wasn’t up to my expectations, I decided to scrap it and make a more “serious” hack with the skills I had developed in the meantime.

Q5: What were your expectations with announcing the project? How did you deal with the severe initial criticism?

A: When I first posted the screenshots of Sunpath of Midnight, I expected people to write long comments about them, to be kind and gentle, and perhaps to offer their help. Oh man, I was so naive!

The comments were short, quite harsh, and almost nobody wanted to join my team. I felt really sad because of that. Sunpath of Midnight wasn’t just a hack to me, I really had poured all of my soul into it. So I stopped posting updates for months because I was afraid of receiving other harsh critiques, and a bit ashamed of my reactions to some of them in the past.

Even so, I tried to understand what people were saying in their critiques, and I took most of their suggestions in account when I remade the hack. That’s how Midnight Sun was born—it was all but easy! Critiques were hard to deal with but they definitely helped me grow both as a hacker and as a person.

Q6: How were the first stages of building the hack? Were there a lot of things you had to learn from scratch?

A: Since this was my very first game, I had to learn everything from scratch. I remember passing entire days trying to understand how something worked. I started with battle animations, then maps, music, and finally events. I slowly made my full-custom FE hack, and it was really satisfying. Overall, it took me a month of hard work (i.e. nerding without much of a social life) to build my first full-custom chapter (with a map, events, a couple animations and mugs, and custom music as well). It required a sheer amount of time, patience and dedication.

Blazer’s Ultimate Tutorial helped me quite a lot! If it weren’t for that, I would have never been able to make this hack.

Q7: Considering that quality games require talent from various fields, how have your artistic skills improved due to this project?

A: Well, I had never sprited before starting my project. Since nobody was willing to help a newbie, I decided to make my own sprites. And since the critiques were that harsh, I wanted to be able to do pretty much everything, so that people wouldn’t have to complain anymore.

I can’t say my artistic skills have improved that much since then, but still, I think I’m better than your average newbie splicer still, I’m no expert and nobody should ever ask me a mug because there are VERY talented people out there.

I’m quite good at maps though—all of the maps in MS were done by me. I think it’s easier to create some good gameplay if you’re the one making the maps: this way you know what’s going to happen from the initial projecting phase.

Q8: Have there been compromises due to technical limitations or the gameplay style of FE?

A: Of course there have been, but I tried to overcome them and make one of the most original FE games ever. I hope you enjoy the fresh gameplay in Midnight Sun!

Q9: How is designing a plot for a game different from other mediums? What kind of enhancements has the usage of FE made possible regarding the narrative? As for pacing and structuring, what problems or benefits does the chapter-oriented style have?

A: I like videogames because they are a very complex form of art. In a book you have the story, in a film you have the story, the actors and the soundtrack, but in a game you have to deal with all of those plus the gameplay and the programming—it’s so damn hard! However it also delivers a lot of feelings. I like to see games as “interactive books” where the player has an active role and feels like a part of the story.

Q10: What have been your biggest hurdles in creating a game like this? How do you go about designing the gameplay?

A: In my earliest stage, my biggest problem was that I had no idea about how this shit worked. It was so frustrating to get errors and glitches and figure out what was going wrong. Sometimes it took me days to fix a problem!

First thing first, in creating a chapter, I build the map. While building it, I get a lot of ideas about the gameplay or even the events or the story!

Take chapter 5x for example. When I had to design it, all I knew was that “it was going to be Shiori’s chapter”. I created the map and I decided to put a river in the right corner—that was when I realized that an escape mission would have been awesome! However there still weren’t those cliffs next to the starting point, so the whole map was just a bunch of boring plains with a couple mountains... I had to redesign the map after testing it many times.

Q11: The sheer willpower needed to get a hack this far must be immense. What drives you forward?

A: At first, it was the desire to realize my childhood dream and to be acknowledged as a hacker and as a person. Now that I feel satisfied with the latter, the only thing that drives me forward is the desire to not leave things unfinished, and I believe I’ll always regret it if I don’t finish Midnight Sun. It IS hard to keep working on this, please understand me. To release patch v.1.0 I spent 4000+ hours working on this project, having very little social life for 2 years. I have a girlfriend now, and I also have to focus on my studies in order to get a job relatively soon, so I can’t afford to spend as much time hacking as before. This is a hobby after all, and I won’t get paid for it—I say, life takes priority now.

But I WILL finish the hack someday, it’s a promise. The burning desire to realize that dream of mine hasn’t disappeared yet, and I doubt it ever will until this is finished.

Q12: A project spanning multiple years must have its ups and downs. Can you tell more about all that? How has your motivation kept up? Have you taken longer breaks?

A: As I said earlier, when you work for free for a project that lasts years, it’s very hard to keep your motivation high. Creating a videogame all by yourself is hard, you have to focus on the story, the hacking, the eventing, the music... Luckily enough, I get some help with graphics (thanks Regina!) and with ASM (you guys on FeU are awesome!), and that helps me quite a lot in keeping my motivation high—sometimes Regina shows me a new portrait that inspires me to make new chapters revolving around that character, or some new discoveries in the ASM department make me want to create some awesome, innovative gameplay.

So, even if I was burnt out at some point and I have passed several months without hacking, in the end the community was able to give me new reasons to hack.

Q13: You've said from the very beginning that creating this hack is something very special to you - why is this? Has that feeling diminished over time?

A: That... is a secret! ;)

Q14: The extremely positive reception of v1.0 was a huge contrast to the initial criticism. Again, what were your expectations when publishing it? Did the success surprise you?

A: To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t that surprised of the huge success Midnight Sun had. When I posted the updates and the trailer some weeks before the release, I noticed that people were very hyped for it and I received a lot of enthusiastic comments that cheered me up. So I was glad that my hard work had been repaid in the end.

Q15: How has development been more recently? Do you spend a lot of time with it? What is the actual creation process like?

A: As I answered in Q11 and Q12, I’m a bit busy irl as of late, so I’m not spending that much time hacking anymore. I still try to work on the hack for one or two hours in the evening, so I get some progress done anyway. As of now I’m focusing on some features like new promotions, new items, and character skills. I can’t make new chapters if I don’t take care of those things first, so... it’ll probably take me a while before I start making new chapters. Actually, making chapters is the easiest part for me now!

Q16: What does making an FE hack - or any game for that matter - require from the people behind it? What makes a game good in your opinion?

A: Passion. Motivation. Dedication... and a brain.

Because if you have all of those but you lack the latter, it’s hard to make some coherent story or good gameplay, and you can be as motivated as you want but your game won’t impress anyone anyway. Also, it’s good to see what people are expecting from the project, or what they think it would be cool to see in a later release. Sometimes some ideas might be far-fetched, but sometimes you can get some good inspiration. As I said, you need a brain that helps you decide what to do with your stuff. Most importantly, your teammates will be offering their help for your project, so be sure to repay them by making your project the best.

Q17: Any words for future hackers wanting to follow your footsteps, or to the fans of this project?

A: To the people who want to hack: don’t do it unless you really know what you’re doing. Be prepared to face severe criticism, to work some thousand hours, and to be pressured by time, people and/or your own conscience. And most importantly, you’ll be doing all of this for free.

To those who enjoyed Midnight Sun: thank you! I’ll be sure to not let you guys down. V.2.0 will be awesome, so look forward to it!

Q18: when will moar chapters come out please???!?!??!?!?!

A: It took me 2 years of pure nerding to release 10 playable chapters.

Consider that v.2.0 will include:

- Chapters 9A to 15A

- Chapters 9B to 15B

- Chapter 16

- Three or four levels in the Tower of Trials

- Supports

So that’s a total of sixteen/seventeen chapters plus supports and other new contents.

The amount of work is pretty much immense. I don’t have as much time as before either.

So, I really don’t know. I’d like to say 2016, but I’m not even sure about that. We’ll see!

Stay tuned anyway, because I’ll release some balancing patches and some new content every once in a while anyway, just to keep you interested.

Cheers,

Alfred Kamon

[Crimson Red]

oh hey Al is alive

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

A very revealing interview.

Interesting to know a little bit about your person, how you came to hack and which things you all must do in the progress.

I don't want to know, how much time and work is invested in a hack. Never would have the time and patience to do it.

I only enjoy them.

So much more I admire these people, who do this.

Can't wait for 2016!

Really excited about the upcoming chapters.

[Mage Knight 404]

Q2: I've understood that you had the idea of telling a great story using a game coming up for a while. Why did you choose to make an FE hack in the first plac

A: I wanted to make a hack since I played MageKnight404’s “Fire Emblem: A Sacred Dawn” (the actual FE8 reskin, not the DX version).

From humble beginnings, friend. Very humble.

[Tsuree]

Q17: Any words for future hackers wanting to follow your footsteps, or to the fans of this project?

A: To the people who want to hack: don’t do it unless you really know what you’re doing. Be prepared to face severe criticism, to work some thousand hours, and to be pressured by time, people and/or your own conscience. And most importantly, you’ll be doing all of this for free.

To those who enjoyed Midnight Sun: thank you! I’ll be sure to not let you guys down. V.2.0 will be awesome, so look forward to it!

Sounds...fun.

Regardless, it's nice knowing how many hours you've poured your soul into for this, so keep up the good work!

[ErrantDShepherd]

Fascinating inside look... Would love to see more of these interviews... But obviously not just easy to set up/make good.

Very cool info in there, interesting hearing about how things started for you, major kudos Alfred for having the nerve to stick with it. :)

Edited March 16, 2015 by TheErrantShepherd

[Alfred Kamon]

Version 1.5 is in the works.

It will feature:

- Chapters 0-8 + first floor of the Tower and a couple skirmishes

- Polished gameplay (especially chapters 5, 6 and 8)

- "Info" Command

- Tweaked dialogues

- New Secret Unlockables

- Supports (maybe)

- Difficult Mode balancing

- Nerfed Andre, buffed Cristoph

YOUR v.1.2 SAVE WON'T BE COMPATIBLE WITH V.2.0!

So I decided to release this 1.5 version to make sure that people get a new save in the meantime.

[TheMoniker]

Awesome, can't wait!

[ryan5152001]

YOUR v.1.2 SAVE WON'T BE COMPATIBLE WITH V.2.0!

So I decided to release this 1.5 version to make sure that people get a new save in the meantime.

Oh well. I messed up a lot anyways. Maybe this time I'll use all of the units more, and Faratress will get more than 2 res. I just hope she gets really high magic again (I think mine had 17 at level 11).

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Aw, I guess I'll go through 1.5 to get a good save. :B

-does a dance for supports-

Edited March 21, 2015 by L95

[Alfred Kamon]

Pic of the day:

[Book of Ereshkigal]

feu hacks :D

I like how the picture delivers more little nuggets of info the longer you look.

[ryan5152001]

If the armor knights have different map sprites for each weapon they use, does that mean there will be different classes, like axe knight? And is Schwarz able to use lances now? Or did you just recolor the sprite?

[Alfred Kamon]

If the armor knights have different map sprites for each weapon they use, does that mean there will be different classes, like axe knight? And is Schwarz able to use lances now? Or did you just recolor the sprite?

Yeah, there are different knights.

Hmh, no... actually Schwarz can still use only swords. Unless L95 updates the map sprite, I will keep it as it is.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Alfred Kamon

[tuvarkz]

Is the 1.0 save going to be compatible with 1.5? can they be converted, for what matters?

[Alfred Kamon]

Is the 1.0 save going to be compatible with 1.5? can they be converted, for what matters?

No, and no.

Sorry.

I had to install a patch in order to expand the class limits, and said patch caused a mess with the saves, so yeah, v.1.0-1.2 won't be compatible with any of the future releases.

My suggestion is to play the incoming v.1.5 from the beginning, or to wait for v.2.0 that will include a standard savefile for the Interlude so that you don't have to replay the game (that also means you won't have your own units, though).

Edited March 21, 2015 by Alfred Kamon