Topic: Any good engines?

[Rudolph LagnaGaisaer]

Try this one -->  http://www.godotengine.org/projects/godot-engine

I make all my game projects in it.
Simple, easy to use(uses a node system) and have an easy-to-learn language similar to Python.
Also, there are many built-in features that are easy to use such as shaders and hardpoints.

A example of what you can do with it --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZuQIbMEjLw

[piscesdreams]

Clickteam Fusion 2.5 is on sale 85% off for $14.99 on Steam through 1/4/16.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/248170/

[KaZudra]

Try this one -->  http://www.godotengine.org/projects/godot-engine

I make all my game projects in it.
Simple, easy to use(uses a node system) and have an easy-to-learn language similar to Python.
Also, there are many built-in features that are easy to use such as shaders and hardpoints.

A example of what you can do with it --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZuQIbMEjLw

That's a damn nice engine, but my coding skills beyond ruby (thx RPGmaker XP) are fairly okay, I'll give it a shot but clickteam seems to be the easiest I can use for this game.

Clickteam Fusion 2.5 is on sale 85% off for $14.99 on Steam through 1/4/16.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/248170/

aaaaand bought.
Now for the hard part to begin, so many design choices...
Should I stick to tile based mapping? or should I use more artistic aesthetic to make maps seem not tile-like (kinda like Aladdin on the Genesis)
There are a TON of music choices but I really want to stick to a synthesized feel, maybe something along the lines of SNES or Genesis or even the Rebirth kits sound good, the DS sounds too general Midi and 8-bit chiptune is an easy cop-out at this point.
Graphics are also a thing, on one hand I can keep the good-ol' Castlevania look, but the Lecarde chronicles proves that hi-res isn't a bad thing, I wish I could just draw a what-if NEO-GEO made castlevania out of my ass, that would look sweet.

Level design is already locked in, the Game will use Simon's quest as a guideline, only that there are going to be Linear sections as well as metroid sections, this is going to keep things fresh as Backtracking can be somewhat minimal and Stage design can directly challenge the player's ability to master that new power-up as well.

That's just the castlevania game I'm looking at.

I do have another project that is non-linear and features a Zombie killing mechanic, but Halloween will have to wait.

[piscesdreams]

If you will be using Castlevania assets then tilebased is the way to go.  But if you are creating your own assets, as long as they "tile" together then you can get away with a lot more.

[darkmanx_429]

That's a damn nice engine, but my coding skills beyond ruby (thx RPGmaker XP) are fairly okay, I'll give it a shot but clickteam seems to be the easiest I can use for this game.
aaaaand bought.
Now for the hard part to begin, so many design choices...
Should I stick to tile based mapping? or should I use more artistic aesthetic to make maps seem not tile-like (kinda like Aladdin on the Genesis)
There are a TON of music choices but I really want to stick to a synthesized feel, maybe something along the lines of SNES or Genesis or even the Rebirth kits sound good, the DS sounds too general Midi and 8-bit chiptune is an easy cop-out at this point.
Graphics are also a thing, on one hand I can keep the good-ol' Castlevania look, but the Lecarde chronicles proves that hi-res isn't a bad thing, I wish I could just draw a what-if NEO-GEO made castlevania out of my ass, that would look sweet.

Level design is already locked in, the Game will use Simon's quest as a guideline, only that there are going to be Linear sections as well as metroid sections, this is going to keep things fresh as Backtracking can be somewhat minimal and Stage design can directly challenge the player's ability to master that new power-up as well.

That's just the castlevania game I'm looking at.

I do have another project that is non-linear and features a Zombie killing mechanic, but Halloween will have to wait.

Good for you man. I remember when I first joined the forum and there was barely any MMF2/2.5 users. Be sure you also link up with the Clickteam Forums if you haven't already. They are good chaps over there and good about answering questions you have.

Keep everyone abreast of your progress.

[piscesdreams]

Btw, if you are building a low res game for windows this isn't as important now, but be sure to respect the "power of 2" rule. This is the number one reason people have low frame rates.

Keep image (sprites, counters, background tiles, etc) resolutions in powers of 2. 8,16,32,64,128,256, etc. You can mix like 32x64 or 8x128. But if you make an image of say, 129x129, your system will round up and use the memory equivalent of 256x256 for a 129x129 image.

Not a big deal when learning, but when optimizing this is a very important rule. That's the main reason old games all operate on tiles.

[ProjectDread]

That's a damn nice engine, but my coding skills beyond ruby (thx RPGmaker XP) are fairly okay, I'll give it a shot but clickteam seems to be the easiest I can use for this game.
aaaaand bought.
Now for the hard part to begin, so many design choices...
Should I stick to tile based mapping? or should I use more artistic aesthetic to make maps seem not tile-like (kinda like Aladdin on the Genesis)

The level editor in Clickteam Fusion leaves much to be desired, especially in terms of creating games from tiles. It doesn't properly support tilemaps like almost every other engine out there, so building a Castlevania-like stage from dozens of different 16x16 tiles will prove very frustrating. I'd recommend using a program like Tiled to build your stages in. It's free, easy to use, and very robust. Best of all it allows you to export the maps you create so they can be imported into Clickteam Fusion, which is how I build all of the levels in my game.

[KaZudra]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zq1yo0lxOU

a new source of inspiration.
Time is a crunchy thing, most of my hours are spent working and sleeping, BUT goes without saying there is a bit of researching done here and there.
Ambitions goal statement.

Candles with light source

Frames of animation, usually a good consistant amount for everything, I want to average 24 frames for every animation with exceptions.

Scaling and rotations, Skeletons jumping from the foreground and some effects as such

Blade of Thunder like backgrounds, instead of a 3D object, let's try to push 2D to fake 3D in inventive ways.

Weather effects.

Goal Stage will be a Mansion, Large and mazelike with both Metroidvania and Linear sections.

Overall Lighting effects, NO IDEA on how to do this, maybe some gradient overlays with light sources? In SOTN the effects are faked as the backgrounds are pre-shaded.

Shiftable perspective in 2D, as in if the hallway makes a 90° turn, the camera will shift like Fez, but will probably make for some good technical difficulties.

Devil May Cry style progression in a metroidvania style area, To get to the basement, you gonna smash the chandelier into the floor.

Balanced yet challenging Bosses, lately Bosses seem to be sequential or just plain ol hit-sponges, how about bosses who change up tactics based on health and maybe some environmental elements, example: you can get a cheap shot on ____ by hitting him with the bell before he destroys it when he's half down.

Trying to make shops not so Grind-like, and make shops useful, This'll probably be score for currency, lets up on grinding and maybe a few good items in the shop that won't be easily replaced by finding something better in maybe 15 minutes.

Puzzles!, but old school kind, so that means things aren't halted to a complete stop for a meaningless puzzle, but you solve it within progression of playing.

Unintrusive Lore, Story can buckle you down, but if it's done right. you can solve a mystery and be entertained at the same time.

Stages with compitent layout without seeming tile-based, this is a true challenge in the art department, but if Aladdin Genesis can do it, so can I.

The Mansion was the biggest undertaking I was working on with the misfortunate Castlevania2 project, but I want to revisit it and finish it, so that will be the current goal, just the mansion, once that is done we'll see if things can go forward from there, if successful the fate of the project then lies with the success/failure.

[piscesdreams]

Overall Lighting effects, NO IDEA on how to do this, maybe some gradient overlays with light sources? In SOTN the effects are faked as the backgrounds are pre-shaded.

Gradient maps in combination with shaders (add, subtract, overlay, etc) is going to be the best route if you aren't baking light maps directly into your sprites and tiles.  The ADD shader will quickly become your best friend.

I made a rudimentary god ray demo in the attached image several months ago for an idea that I had for Anathema.  I didn't really tweak much of my settings to distribute the transparency better, but it basically makes the god ray more visible as it centers the screen.  Point is, you can do all kinds of things to fake lighting but you will unfortunately not be able to create dynamic lighting in Fusion.  However, depending on your dedication, there is a pretty neat program called Sprite Lamp and this can create some great lighting effects for your sprites, but it would still be baked in.

http://www.snakehillgames.com/spritelamp/

[KaZudra]

Gradient maps in combination with shaders (add, subtract, overlay, etc) is going to be the best route if you aren't baking light maps directly into your sprites and tiles.  The ADD shader will quickly become your best friend.

I made a rudimentary god ray demo in the attached image several months ago for an idea that I had for Anathema.  I didn't really tweak much of my settings to distribute the transparency better, but it basically makes the god ray more visible as it centers the screen.  Point is, you can do all kinds of things to fake lighting but you will unfortunately not be able to create dynamic lighting in Fusion.  However, depending on your dedication, there is a pretty neat program called Sprite Lamp and this can create some great lighting effects for your sprites, but it would still be baked in.

http://www.snakehillgames.com/spritelamp/

Hmmm, I could use pre-baked in curtain areas with a static light source with minimal shadows. Still, the effort in lighting will be great since it's very essential in fleshing out an stage and building sweet atmosphere

[piscesdreams]

It will definitely be a lot of effort, but it goes a long way.  I've been working on one block alone (section of a stage, not a tile) for the last 2-3ish weeks finetuning lighting and just about any other environment related work you can think of but it is definitely paying off.

[Donvermicelli]

I use Unity with C#. It works really nice, and it's free, but the learning curve is a little steep.

I second this. If you are familiar with object oriented programming languages however it should be pretty straightforward once you get past the initial engine specific quirks.

A plus is that there's awesome documentation available though.