At a crossroads...

[Mako]

Well I've been working on my game on and off for the better part of a decade starting all the way back from XP. I can comfortably say my game is approaching 30+ hours of game play. That is both the good, and the bad news. Upon MV's release it has been difficult to go forward. The Chibi and battlers are just to attractive, but busts are obviously lacking when compared to the art I've purchased over the years. So here I am, do I sacrifice busts for sprites? or keep the less detailed sprites with no side view in favor of beautiful busts?


I've been racking my brain for weeks trying to convert VX dull color pallete to the vibrant ones found in MV sprites with absolutely no luck. Problem is I can't draw to save the life of me. That is precisely what every character I have ever purchased needs to make it in. Ideas? Have any of you successfully converted something like Futuristic Hero pack to MV style? If so how did you accomplish this? 

 

[bgillisp]

My suggestion is to not convert it. There's always going to be a newer engine and a shiner graphical system to use, and if you always upgrade to it, you'll be always upgrading and never making. I'd say stick with your current engine and finish the game, then once it is done maybe look at the new engine for your next game.

 

[Scythuz]

I completely agree with bgillisp, I'd just go ahead and work on releasing it if I were you. You don't want to end up in a Duke Nukem Forever situation after all.   


As you said, you've made over 30+ hours of gameplay, don't you want the world to see that someday?

 

[Mako]

Very true and a very valid argument, I should have stated that I am still going through with the engine conversion now... with no loss of game play features. It was more a question of while I am in the process of doing that do I convert the sprites as well.

 

[Scythuz]

Personally, I wouldn't unless you deem it absolutely necessary, particularly since you don't seem to know where to start with it and, I'm not even sure how well an experienced artist would be able to do it without needing a fair amount of money and time.  It's entirely circumstantial of course, but based on the current information, I'm more inclined towards no.

 

[Uzuki]

You could upscale the sprites and tilesets but they won't look as great as the default MV stuff. And if you really wanted to you could use Shaz's converter script to make your maps and events compatible with MV. And I believe there are plugins to allow the game to be played in a 32x32 view, but this has it's own drawbacks. Personally I say finish it in the current engine seeing as you put so much work behind it.  

 

[Mako]

Upscaling the assets to 50% more hasn't provent difficult, in fact I was able to complete that with photoshop scripting in under a days work. With Nearest Neighbor I havent seen any real drawbacks. It's more the style of MV, the sprites are just more detailed. Very well I will move forward. Thanks!