Requesting help to make a touhou fangame

[william123]

This is my first time to be on a forum, so I would like to say hello. I have had an idea for a touhou fangame for quite some time, but I have a few issues. I am not a good computer artist,  I can't do sprite are or ZUN styled art, I don't understand how to use danmakufu well, and I am terrible at making music.

The idea behind this story came to me as I was literally sitting around one day. I had nothing to do, an suddenly thought "why not make a touhou game with a new intersting plot?" so I tried to do that. The following plot is: An industrial city has popped up in the far distance, causing the air to go bad and destroy much of gensokyo while the city rapidly expands. The 3 main characters being Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya, along with a secret character that I will not reveal, will go to stop this Industry from killing off the natural life from its expansion. I realize how "Eco-friendly" it may sound, but its far from it...kinda.

I already as well have some characters thought up, but its not a full cast. What I have so far is (in stage order): 1st stage being a Lantern Tsukumogami. The idea behind the stage 1 boss came to me when I saw the old fashioned candle light lanterns. Stage 2 N/A, stage 3 N/A, Stage 4 being a Gypsy of Greed and Wind. This idea came to me from learning about how some gypsies greedy, and how they traveled a lot. The reason why I chose wind for her is because her being a traveler who go's by swiftly, and sometimes powerfully! Stage 5 is a well known character, Nitori. In the back story behind the game, Nitori had originally created what is to be the final boss as a helper to the kappa's. She had plans to do a more smaller version of what the final boss did, and lost the plans when the final boss...well...not ruining the whole story now. The final boss is, as I said, a automaton created by Nitori. She is the mother of the 1st stage boss (in back story said in story mode) and wanted to use the plans to make the land a place for herself, the daughter, and the gypsy (in back story during story). Finally, I made the extra stage boss an Elf. Not the short cute ones we know, but an older figure, like Yukari. She has a power of mental control, causing people to sometimes do something weird. No she wont do that during game-play, otherwise that would be cheap. She does dwell in the past a little, and so she has learned to use fire to her advantage as well.

As I had said earlier, I am not good with music or music making, so I would need help with that and the art/sprite art.  I also wish to do the game on danmakufu, but the only problems I have are a half working computer screen, lack of knowledge on how to make these types of games, and the lack of experience of music making in general. I am able to make a dialogue and story though, so that wont be an issue.

If anyone would please help, I would gratefully appreciate it. Thank you

[Romantique Tp]

Ideas alone don't make games. If you want to get anything done you'll need to learn danmakufu, if people really like your script then maybe someone will help you with the art and music, but in the meanwhile placeholders should work just fine.

[william123]

I have danmakufu, the only problem is it won't run. It keeps crashing after I select anything on the title screen. -_-;;

[Darkness1]

1) Use applocale. You probably should read any stickies available here because they explain alot of the main problems. For example, applocale can run japanese character programs (like danmakufu) without using a japanese-unicode computer.

2) Because of your specific problem, I assume you're using danmakufu 0.12m. Not to be rude or anything, but if you aren't using danmakufu Ph3, I reeeeeally suggest that you should. Especially if you're looking to do a legit fangame with the .dnh engine.

3) What Bigode said about art and stuff, if you don't know anyone willing to help you.

[Helepolis]

Echoing what has been said above.

Since you registered on our forums (welcome by the way) it means you're automatically gaining access to a lot of resources, knowledge and assistance. You might want to make use of that. 

[william123]

Alright. I have gotten the other version on Danmakufu (the not .12v or what ever it is) and it works fine. Thank you for telling me that for I didnt know what the issue was originally. I also looked up a lot of stuff to day so this is going to be an interesting time for me to do. First script and I am trying to make it a game lol. I have a few character concept arts and I am going to try to make this the best I can. Also, thanks for the welcome.

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

Before trying to make a game, try practicing first and making single boss battles and getting grips with how danmakufu (either 12m or Ph3) works.

I'm not trying to sound rude but you're not ready for a full game yet. It's nice to have your ideas in order but you need the actual knowledge to do things more.

[Darkness1]

Obviously, as a newbie, his starting moments wouldn't be to code the more advanced stuff of danmakufu, which is (arguably) needed for a full game. Boss fights are a large part of a stg game and so improvement would come naturally. If his goal is primarily to make a full game, I personally see no reason to delay it, even if it is only making boss fights for the game itself.
I'm sorry for any misunderstandings this may be based on.

[william123]

You did not sound rude. I am aware that I am in need of some desperate practice for making danmaku stuff. I am currently fiddling around with that

[Spectral Nexus]

Just so you know, I am willing to make music for you, if you would like, though relating to the former posts, it would be quite some time.
Notice me if you would like that.

[TresserT]

If you're having trouble learning you should try to remake some of ZUN's spellcards. Then you can focus on figuring out how to use all the functions rather than spending tons of time trying to come up with an original idea. EoSD or Mountain of Faith are both pretty good for this for this. IN is good too for it's spell practice.

[Sparen]

If you're having trouble learning you should try to remake some of ZUN's spellcards. Then you can focus on figuring out how to use all the functions rather than spending tons of time trying to come up with an original idea. EoSD or Mountain of Faith are both pretty good for this for this. IN is good too for it's spell practice.

On that note, don't start by trying to make a spell card practice. The amount of pain it caused me was excruciating, and it still won't save replays correctly.

I'd say to start with a simple plural, then work your way to a stage. If you plan to make a full game... you should learn ObjRender, ObjMove, and ObjText as soon as possible.

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

Spell Practice isn't very hard at all, just using commondata to choose what plural and spell to load. The hard part is making a complex menu but even then it is just a lengthy process and get can a bit messy but the end result is satisfying. I made MMS's Spellpractice look almost like 10D and DDC's. (missing score and spell history)

Anyway, I think it is time to really start on that package/full game tutorial that I promised (on Skype) to do about two months ago.

[Helepolis]

Attempting to create a full game from scratch is like climbing a cliff with no equipment or safety. You'll fall too much down. You two are throwing in terminology that is kind of out of the league for william123 :V

Since he is new, it would be wise to start with (as stupid as it may sound) playing around with the bullets and boss spawning. Once you got an understanding of the engine and scripting style, you can start working towards an attack (don't even bother with effects or any other complex things). What tresser suggested is how I also learned Danmakufu, re-creating ZUN's simple attacks. They don't have to be 1:1, but it does helps you discover bit by bit each style and behaviour.

Baby steps. That is all I have to say.

[Sparen]

That being said, if you have any questions about Danmakufu, there are plenty of resources here and on the Danmakufu Wiki. I suggest starting out with 0.12m in order to get the hang of things, and once you have some level of proficiency in bullet patterns, move to ph3.

A tutorial compilation can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/sparensdanmakufututorials/other-dnh-tutorials
The Danmakufu Wiki can be found here: http://dmf.shrinemaiden.org/wiki/Main_Page (It's also in the top banner)

And feel free to post in the Q&A threads.

[Helepolis]

Do you think that is really a good suggestion though Sparen? 0.12m is quite outdated and for newbies there is no really a reason to attempt 0.12m as knowledge of patterns has nothing to do with the engine. To be honest, ph3 actually allows easier implementation of pretty much any thing.

Good luck.

[Sparen]

Do you think that is really a good suggestion though Sparen? 0.12m is quite outdated and for newbies there is no really a reason to attempt 0.12m as knowledge of patterns has nothing to do with the engine. To be honest, ph3 actually allows easier implementation of pretty much any thing.

Good luck.

Personally, I found the presence of a default system, a default background, no (0,0) spawning, built-in stage and enemy scripts, built-in event system, etc. friendlier. ph3 isn't as friendly to those with little to no computer programming experience. Also, 0.12m has CreateLaserA and CreateLaserB built in; in ph3 you need to manually set that up by manipulating an object return value. For a full game, 0.12m is easier for the actual stages but ph3 is way more flexible/

Then again, if you don't want to deal with Japanese Locale, ph3 is much easier to work with, and ph3 is much more customizable. So it's really up to the scripter.

(in terms of difficulty to learn, 0.12m is easier to learn and it's relatively easy to transition to ph3. But once you use ph3, you'll never return to 0.12m).