Topic: CV Series Fan Game/Rom Hack and Game Creation/Hacking tools Directory Thread

[markyjoe1990]

Understood. Updating first post.

[Esco]

.............. this thread has been up 3 weeks now and this is ALL you guys can come up with for it!!!!???

Dang.... that brings a tear to my eye my peoples. 

[markyjoe1990]

It's exactly as I suspected honestly... I knew Castlevania didn't have many fan games, much less finished/good ones, but I was hoping that making a directory for the fan games and game making tools would help encourage more castlevania games to be made.

I wonder what it is that's holding people back from making a castlevania fan game/hack?

Methinks one of the reasons is because none of the later, more flexible castlevanias have been extensively hacked besides Symphony of the Night, so people have to deal with the archaic NES castlevanias.

As for fan games, I think the biggest issue is that to make a fan game, people need custom graphics, which requires talented artists. Additionally, they need a programmer, a story writer, composer, and other people. To get these all together requires organization and combined commitment.

Making a castlevania fan game/hack seems a lot harder to do than making a good Fire Emblem fan game/hack, which has become very easy and user friendly.

[Esco]

It's exactly as I suspected honestly... I knew Castlevania didn't have many fan games, much less finished/good ones, but I was hoping that making a directory for the fan games and game making tools would help encourage more castlevania games to be made.

My comment was actually geared towards the fact that there is quite a bit out there that people have yet to link to or put up. 

I wonder what it is that's holding people back from making a castlevania fan game/hack?

............... laziness, lack of dedication, and a "someone else will do it for me" mentality. 

Methinks one of the reasons is because none of the later, more flexible castlevanias have been extensively hacked besides Symphony of the Night, so people have to deal with the archaic NES castlevanias.

That again is due to my response to point # 2; if a nobody amateur like me can learn this stuff anyone can.

As for fan games, I think the biggest issue is that to make a fan game, people need custom graphics, which requires talented artists. Additionally, they need a programmer, a story writer, composer, and other people. To get these all together requires organization and combined commitment.

There are plenty of graphics out there just from the Castlevania series itself to make MANY descent fan games/hacks. Same goes for music; story is not that important and never has been to Castlevania or to making a fan game or hack.

As for programming, with something like GM all you need is basics; same for hacking MOST things.

Making a castlevania fan game/hack seems a lot harder to do than making a good Fire Emblem fan game/hack, which has become very easy and user friendly.

BWA HA HA HAAAA! You think hacking an RPG and making a GOOD hack for it, is harder than doing it for a simple platforming game? Sorry son, but that is soooooooo not true. 

As for the Metroid-vania types, that is a different story; they would be harder IMHO. But they are still VERY doable.

[markyjoe1990]

BWA HA HA HAAAA! You think hacking an RPG and making a GOOD hack for it, is harder than doing it for a simple platforming game? Sorry son, but that is soooooooo not true. 

I think you misread my post. I said making a castlevania hack/fan game seems more difficult than making a hack/fan game for Fire Emblem. Not the other way around.

My comment was actually geared towards the fact that there is quite a bit out there that people have yet to link to or put up. 

I probably should have looked into that before I made my assumption. My apologies.

[Esco]

I think you misread my post. I said making a castlevania hack/fan game seems more difficult than making a hack/fan game for Fire Emblem. Not the other way around.

Actually, that means that you misread my post; because I said the opposite of what you said above when it comes to the classic platforming versions of Castlevania (the one before SOTN and ones like adventure rebirth and the snes ones you mentioned).

However, I did then state that the metroidvania-esque versions MIGHT be more difficult to hack/edit than fire emblem. So in truth it really depends on which of the 2 versions of the Castlevania games you are referring to. 

[markyjoe1990]

I'm confused... nevermind.

[Claimh Solais]

I think you should probably post the status of each fan project in their descriptions. Stuff like for Esco's Symphony remake, you could put "STATUS: Demo Out", for Inccubus's project, put "STATUS: In Development" and for mine probably put "STATUS: Backburner" or something. That way we don't have people walking into a thread hoping for something only to find out it's still in development with no playable phase.

[markyjoe1990]

Sounds good to me. I'll get to work on that.

[Charlotte-nyo:3]

It's exactly as I suspected honestly... I knew Castlevania didn't have many fan games, much less finished/good ones, but I was hoping that making a directory for the fan games and game making tools would help encourage more castlevania games to be made.

I wonder what it is that's holding people back from making a castlevania fan game/hack?

Methinks one of the reasons is because none of the later, more flexible castlevanias have been extensively hacked besides Symphony of the Night, so people have to deal with the archaic NES castlevanias.

Generally what will probably cause more hacks is when the SotN editor is released, (if it is). I tentatively look at what happened when the Super Metroid editor got good and the explosion of hacks produced for that game. Sadly I don't think there's been an update on the SotN editor's progress in quite awhile though. While SotN may have been "extensively hacked" (actually I'm not sure I'd consider that true, look at Super Metroid or Super Mario World for games I'd call "extensively hacked") it still isn't simple enough to do so that someone without much technical knowledge can plop themselves down and make significant changes without reading a lot of material. And even then it'd be very difficult to make a proper level design hack without an editor that makes the process smoother. With the drought in proper CV Castleroids since OoE, about all one can hope for is the SotN editor, but I still don't hold out much hope for that at this time sadly. Harmony of Despair could've been a boon if they had thought to add a level editor and let people run through custom designed levels as well, but sadly that was only a very remote possibility.

On fan games though, I seriously doubt anything can give a shot in the arm to the making of fan games, as they will always be tons of work, which only few will be able to commit to and even fewer will be able to finish. Hacks are basically the same way, but the work load is more manageable, especially if the editor is good.

[omen]

hey, i'm new to game creation, i'm looking to make an original game from scratch and i'm wondering what the best program is to use for a non-programmer. i've read in this forum that one person prefers game factory 2 above the others. i am a novice at spriting but i have massive amounts of time on my hands...

[Inccubus]

I like GameMaker, but I am a programmer. Never used any of the others much.

[TheouAegis]

I am NOT a programmer and I like Game Maker. ... ... because it makes me feel like a programmer. And Inccubus is ripping off some of my ideas, so don't listen to him.  There are some decent Games Factory games out there, I think, but it's very possible Game Maker has the better support base (being Game Maker Community, the official forum for Game Maker, and all the blogs you can find using Google).  I know nothing about Games Factory, but it sounds like it might be less logic-oriented than GM. I swear, a lot of the problems I see on GMC are people not using good logic in their programming. That's not to say Inccubus and I are innocent of that, as reading through my thread in this forum will show, but I've spent a lot of time on GMC just trying to explain to someone why

if A & B
then C

is not the same as

if A
then if B
then C

[Inccubus]

<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------pirate

Me? Rip something off? Why whatever do you mean? 

[omen]

anyone point me to a good tutorial for making a vania game? muchas gracias i advance.