Scarlet Heart v2 [Update 09/09/09]

[anonl]

Time to try and restart this one.

Project page: http://code.google.com/p/scarlet-heart/

The idea was to create a Touhou fangame with gameplay based on Crescent Pale Mist. During the stages it plays like a sidescrolling beat-em-up but you temporarily get the ability to fly during the danmaku-style boss fights.

For more info -> old thread: http://code.google.com/p/scarlet-heart/wiki/OriginalThread

Still looking for anyone who wants to help out with music, graphics, story and gameplay.

A playable demo is also available:
Scarlet Heart r38 (gameplay video)
Scarlet Heart r50 (09/09/09) (Gameplay Video)

Download is a self-extracting archive (requires Java 6).

[Stuffman]

Gameplay video looks fun, this definitely has potential.

For bosses, obviously the first ones that come to mind are non-Sakuya SDM. Other options might be touhous we suspect are european, for instance the Prismrivers (Italian?) or Kana Anaberal (German?), maybe Rumia or Wriggle since their names don't sound Japanese either.

An alternative would be to have some Castlevania style huge monster bosses.

[Frazer]

Nope, it is not loading/downloading properly for me.

[Achii]

Man AnoNL You caught me in a bad time.
Wait actually, I think I Can work on this, I'll just see stuff 

EDIT:
Oh my god it works awesomely.
I'm definitely working on this. AnoNL if you want I can give you my Cirno sprites as stock graphics for the meantime while I work on the real sprites. I also have some new tilesets that has slopes and everything.

I've been thinking hard of bosses as well, the things that comes into my mind are demons summoned by Remilia ( I read vampires can summon according to the wikia) Hong Meiling and Flandre but other than that I'm not sure what else aside from OCs (Hell everyone hates these.)

I can think of some pattern movements for Sakuya using the IAMP movements she does  which I'll work on shortly and as for enemies, one thing I'm certain would be the FOEs, Fairies, some wisps probably and depending on the levels we're going to have for PreScarlet Devil Mansion layout.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

What about Patchouli and Koakuma?

(Don't mind me, I'm the musician of the project, pending the possibility of recovering the tracks etc. I'd already created for it from a crashed hard drive ...)

[Achii]

Oh yeah I totally forgot about them, how could I when patchy is my favorite D:

*screams in sheer horror*

[SONIC BHOCOLATE STRIKER]

Hmm. It definitely has potential, and works superbly for something written in Java. (I would've never guessed...)

[Achii]

Hey AnoNL I'm advertising it to youtube and some indie sites with hopes that maybe someone will be interested to join us!

Also I'm redoing that Sakuya portrait and doing her sprite for now. If only we could somehow get a writer aside from the super busy kerigis and kimiko it'll greatly help us. (Actually I have one in mind just now but she's currently having problems, I'll see if I can talk to her.)

Too bad we can't use this

[anonl]

(potential) bosses:
Wriggle, Rumia, China, Koakuma, Patchouli, Flandre, Remilia
monsters summoned/controlled by Remilia (vampires tend to bring stuff to life / control lesser vampires & monsters)

I can think of some pattern movements for Sakuya using the IAMP movements she does  which I'll work on shortly and as for enemies, one thing I'm certain would be the FOEs, Fairies, some wisps probably and depending on the levels we're going to have for PreScarlet Devil Mansion layout.

Fighting games (especially the more realistic ones) can also be a good source of inspiration for combo's / fighting techniques.

For normal enemies we can always go with bats/zombies/skeletons/lycanthropes/golems/puppets/magical-flying-eggplants. Stylistically they'd have to fit in with the Touhou characters though and I fear a shortage of walking enemies.

Too bad we can't use this
http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss158/Archeia_Nessiah/bookcases.jpg

What use did you have in mind? -- 3D backgrounds are certainly possible.

[Achii]

well the problem is making the other areas in 3d might be literally impossible for me, doing that book case well..heh x_x For BGS then I realized it's harder

Ano I've been working on the sprite as well but


I've been thinking, is it possible to have it smaller/bigger/wider? Like what max dimensions can we have? I'm concerned about the hitbox

I wanted to make them as adorable as these:


But I realized it's a serious game ...supposed to be D:

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I don't think Wriggle or Rumia or Cirno would work particularly well, since they're native to Gensokyo and this takes place before the SDM moved to Gensokyo. And Flandre's probably going to be an EX-boss, I've already given Setsuna an idea for how to do that ...

Hm. I had an idea for a "golem-maid" which had been created by Patchouli to do some of the tougher maid-work, and Sakuya would end up destroying it (and would thus replace it as the head-maid).

[Achii]

FINALLY finished the base sprite~



I hope the size is passable.

[anonl]

I've been thinking, is it possible to have it smaller/bigger/wider? Like what max dimensions can we have? I'm concerned about the hitbox

The level hitbox can be changed for any object, there's no fixed size.

[Zengar Zombolt]

Wow, this game has HUGE potential. Definitively going to my watchlist.

[anonl]

Uploaded a new version (r44)

+ damageable & underwater tiles
+ moving platforms
+ support for projectiles of arbitrary shape & size
+ moved some settings to config.xml
+ gamepad support
+ added hitbox and level editors

Using the editors:

Pan the view by dragging the mouse with the right mouse button pressed, zoom in/out with +/-.

The level editor has 3 modes which can be selected with the combo box in the bottom left:

Room mode allows moving/splitting/merging of rooms.
Tile mode lets you change the tiles of the rooms (change between foreground and background layer with the toggle buttons). You can select tiles from the bottom panel or by ctrl-clicking a tile in the main view.
Enemy mode lets you place/remove enemies.

(Adding/removing tilesets will be added soon)

In the hitbox editor you move and resize point/circles/rectangles with the directional keys (+ hold shift to resize). When you press the add button, it copies the currently selected set of hitrects (very convenient when doing a sequence of similar images).

Changing the level collision box from the hitbox editor isn't possible yet (but editing the xml manually is pretty simple).

[Kanako Yasaka]

I was just thinking about this the other day and how I wished it didn't die. Great to see that it has been started back up.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

It wasn't quite dead. In fact, it's going for a walk.

[anonl]

I was thinking about the levels a little bit. How about something like this:

stage 1
setting: Forest, moving towards the mansion/castle.
boss: China, guarding the gate

stage 2
setting: Moving through the main hallway, eventually leading up to some kind of large (ball)room.
boss: Remilia's current maid, probably some kind of giant monster.

stage 3
setting: The bossfight ends with Sakuya getting knocked through a window into the garden.
boss: Koakuma. Perhaps we can have Sakuya believe Koakuma is the vampire she's looking for. That way, we have an excuse for Remilia to appear, taunt Sakuya and fly back into the building.

stage 4
setting: Sakuya re-enters the building through a second floor window and finds herself in the library.
boss: Patchouli

stage 5
setting: Rooftop/tower?
boss: Remilia, perhaps use the undefeated maid from before as a midboss?

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I already suggested above that the "current maid" could be a golem Patchouli made. Another suggestion was that there could be two Remilia fights: one in a clock tower (you gotta have a clock tower in a Castlevania-ish game), and one in some sort of "top floor" area, possibly at the top of a tower which you can only reach and/or progress through via unlimited flight (probably the last powerup)..

Another random brainstorm: Sakuya starts out with all her powerups. After making short work of Meiling, she loses them all somehow (Patchouli shows up and zaps her, stealing them?), and must regain them throughout the levels.

I haven't mentioned these ideas before in this thread:

- A "Scarlet Mist campaign" where you can play as Marisa or Reimu, reenacting EoSD from stage 3 on. They'd probably start otu fully-powered from the start, though (except Marisa would get Non-Directional Laser from beating Patchouli). They, too, would have a New Game Plus with access to the Extra Stage.
- A "mysterious door" early on in the game. Attempting to interact with it results only in a brief cutscene of the character examining it, accompanied by a short tune.
- New Game Plus, which would allow you to start the game fully powered up and dressed as a maid, with dialogue to match ("Sakuya ... what are you doing?" "I am beating the fairies into submission, oujo-sama!!"), and which would also give you access to the Mysterious Door; what sounds at first like the theme from the cutscene begins, but then you realize that the music for the short cutscene was actually the opening strains of a remix of "The Centennial Festival for Magical Girls." Gentlechen, you have just found the Extra Stage, with Flandre at the end.

[Tir]

I'm still not that familiar with Touhou so forgive me if I ask something stupid.

Anyway, I'm really excited about this! I just played the new demo and it looks great so far (haha flying skulls).
Since I'm an artist I'd like to contribute to the artwork section if that's possible. I can do normal artwork for cutscenes and enemies and such, but I've never made a sprite like Setsuna did with Sakuya. The only problem I have is that I'm not quite sure what you want and where the line between normal art and sprites lies yet, so here are some questions I'd like to ask:

- Cutscene Sprites
I'd really love to do these, I'm just wondering about the format and what costumes they will wear; Is Setsuna this project's spriter? If so I'll wait for her sprites and base the artwork on that unless the characters keep their original costumes (but seeing as the Sakuya sprite has an original outfit I don't think that will happen). Any idea oh how many different expressions they need? (angry, sad, annoyed, happy, thoughtful, surprised, neutral ?)

edit: just found the format on the wiki it's 256x256, right? Got that then

- Title Screen
This will have a background image as well right? Any ideas yet? Though it'd probably be easier to do when the story and everything is done.

- pixel art/drawn?
The ingame character sprites (like bosses and the main character/Sakuya) aren't drawings, right? I've looked at Setsuna's Sakuya sprite and was wondering if all the attacks, bosses and little enemies in the levels are supposed to be pixel art like that or if they can also just be drawn.

- enemies
How many different enemies are you aiming for per stage?
And do you still need normal enemy suggestions? I think it'd be nice if they kind of fit with the stage (as far as that's possible). So if we take a look at the stages you've thought up now (which are fine if you ask me) then maybe some enemies like...

stage 1
setting: Forest, moving towards the mansion/castle.
enemies: Lycanthropes, mushrooms, trees, bats, vines, evil squirrels

stage 2
setting: Moving through the main hallway, eventually leading up to some kind of large (ball)room.
enemies: chairs, vases, puppets in uniforms of sorts, flying plates/mirrors/tiles, rugs/carpets

stage 3
setting: The bossfight ends with Sakuya getting knocked through a window into the garden.
enemies: Flowers, skulls, zombies, ladybug/various insects, little devils, bats, vegetables/pumpkins, eggplants

stage 4
setting: Sakuya re-enters the building through a second floor window and finds herself in the library.
enemies: books, chairs, flying lamppropellor things, falling bookshelves?, skulls, zombies, bats, zombie/puppet maids/monocle wearing butlers

stage 5
setting: Rooftop/tower?
enemies: crows, bewitched evil clouds, bats,....

And those are all the silly suggestions I can think of right now.
If you want me to help and when I know what to do I'll be sure to work on it :D!

Edit: Ugh, I need to read the previous info better; just tell me what you still need, I didn't mean to steal the other artist's job OTL.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

We aren't really doing things in numbered stages, I thought; it's going to be a Castlevania/Metroid-style setup (well, closer to Castlevania than Metroid, of course). "Numbered stages" only make sense insofar as what order you're going to the different areas ...

[Achii]

First of all, hi Trinity!

I'm still not that familiar with Touhou so forgive me if I ask something stupid.

Anyway, I'm really excited about this! I just played the new demo and it looks great so far (haha flying skulls).
Since I'm an artist I'd like to contribute to the artwork section if that's possible. I can do normal artwork for cutscenes and enemies and such, but I've never made a sprite like Setsuna did with Sakuya. The only problem I have is that I'm not quite sure what you want and where the line between normal art and sprites lies yet, so here are some questions I'd like to ask:

- Cutscene Sprites
I'd really love to do these, I'm just wondering about the format and what costumes they will wear; Is Setsuna this project's spriter? If so I'll wait for her sprites and base the artwork on that unless the characters keep their original costumes (but seeing as the Sakuya sprite has an original outfit I don't think that will happen). Any idea oh how many different expressions they need? (angry, sad, annoyed, happy, thoughtful, surprised, neutral ?)

edit: just found the format on the wiki it's 256x256, right? Got that then

They are all wearing original Costumes since this is Elegant Gothic Lolita Version of Touhou, excluding our Sakuya since she needs to be a bad ass Vampire Hunter. I already have designs for them, I just didn't have time to draw them digitally. But I'll get to them ASAP.

- Title Screen
This will have a background image as well right? Any ideas yet? Though it'd probably be easier to do when the story and everything is done.

I had a plan, the problem was the Logo, the person working on it, Piti (or should I say, Hima?) has completely forgotten about it so I'll find another way.

- pixel art/drawn?
The ingame character sprites (like bosses and the main character/Sakuya) aren't drawings, right? I've looked at Setsuna's Sakuya sprite and was wondering if all the attacks, bosses and little enemies in the levels are supposed to be pixel art like that or if they can also just be drawn.

Pixel art. Animating hand drawn stuff might be suicidal it's like making your own anime and pixel art is easier to animate just takes time and I can't animate hand drawn drawings Although, concepts will be very much appreciated.

I am not dead and working on it slowly, I'm sorry AnoNL :<


It's a wip but I just thought I'll keep you updated somehow that I'm working on it X_X

[anonl]

- New Game Plus, which would allow you to start the game fully powered up and dressed as a maid, with dialogue to match ("Sakuya ... what are you doing?" "I am beating the fairies into submission, oujo-sama!!"), and which would also give you access to the Mysterious Door.

Sounds like a good way of adding an extra stage, but it's too early to really start discussing bonus characters/costumes.

Any idea oh how many different expressions they need? (angry, sad, annoyed, happy, thoughtful, surprised, neutral ?)

We don't have a script yet

How many different enemies are you aiming for per stage?

Preferably 2-3 new enemies per stage.

We aren't really doing things in numbered stages, I thought; it's going to be a Castlevania/Metroid-style setup (well, closer to Castlevania than Metroid, of course). "Numbered stages" only make sense insofar as what order you're going to the different areas ...

I kinda prefer numbered stages actually, it eliminates backtracking and having to look for save stations all the time.

[Tir]

Thanks for the welcome~

And I see, that clears up a few things, especially this:

Pixel art. Animating hand drawn stuff might be suicidal it's like making your own anime and pixel art is easier to animate just takes time and I can't animate hand drawn drawings :P Although, concepts will be very much appreciated.

I just wondered since Ragnarok Battle Offline did use drawings, so I thought I'd ask to be sure. But I'll try to finish some concepts for small enemies soon then! Maybe it'll help. I'll just post them here, ok? :D

I like the animation so far btw and a Gothic Lolita version sounds pretty cool~

[Vile Lasagna]

People are talking about hitboxes, What about pixel-perfect collision? Wouldn't that work out for you guys?

[anonl]

People are talking about hitboxes, What about pixel-perfect collision? Wouldn't that work out for you guys?

For one, it's too computationally expensive for the boss fights (1000+ projectiles). And most people are so used to bounding box collisions, they barely notice the difference.

[Vile Lasagna]

Not if you do it smartly. If you're testing every hitbox against each other (or at least against the player) you're already going about this the wrong way. You should use hitboxes and either a "Sweep and Prune" or a grid system (break the screen into a grid. Only boxes that are in the same or adjacent squares can be touching) for a rough estimative of possible collisions. Then you can check those boxes to see if they DO collide and only then go about making a pixel-perfect check on the region they intersect.

[anonl]

Not if you do it smartly. If you're testing every hitbox against each other (or at least against the player) you're already going about this the wrong way. You should use hitboxes and either a "Sweep and Prune" or a grid system (break the screen into a grid. Only boxes that are in the same or adjacent squares can be touching) for a rough estimative of possible collisions. Then you can check those boxes to see if they DO collide and only then go about making a pixel-perfect check on the region they intersect.

The collision system already uses a uniform grid + collision groups to limit the number of checks needed. For pixel perfect collisions you only need to check the part where bounding boxes overlap, but the worst case performance is still pretty bad for large objects (they can collide with hundreds of smaller objects in a single frame). Also, pixel perfect collision doesn't work very well with rotated sprites -- you need to pre-compute a bunch of rotated images which makes the algorithm memory hungry and cache-unfriendly.

[Vile Lasagna]

The collision system already uses a uniform grid + collision groups to limit the number of checks needed. For pixel perfect collisions you only need to check the part where bounding boxes overlap, but the worst case performance is still pretty bad for large objects (they can collide with hundreds of smaller objects in a single frame). Also, pixel perfect collision doesn't work very well with rotated sprites -- you need to pre-compute a bunch of rotated images which makes the algorithm memory hungry and cache-unfriendly.

Hmmm... yeah, I guess you might be onto something there. I do believe I can think of some ways to actually test them properly even when rotated, but yeah, you would have increased performance costs, obviously.  It was more a way of checking what are you people already doing than anything else XD

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Hmm ... I haven't been able to connect to the server the chatroom's on ... anyone know what's up with that?