You know, I always see a bunch of homebrew NES games, but has anyone ever really made a full fledged SNES game? All I ever really see are little games that wouldn't be out of place on an iPhone. I think the reason there are a lot of NES games compared to SNES games is that, just like any console, the more advanced it gets, the more effort it takes to properly utilize the system. (For example, If I had planned on making an NES game, I would have had the artwork done ages ago.) I just feel that the SNES was when decent sized development teams started to come together, and I wondered if maybe more things would get done if people used this approach. Of course, The main problem with this would be people have conflicting opinions about things, and I am not asking people to help me on anything, because I've really hardly even done anything at this point and would prefer to at least try.
Have you sat down to write a game design document, so that everyone on your team can be on the same page? Here's a useful exercise: Try writing the game's instruction manual (the old SNES era booklet kind, not the 3DS era folded poster kind) before writing the game.
A few months ago I tried to schedule a homebrew meet up on NintendoAge.com. It went nowhere.
As tepples said, for you and your team, a GDD (Game Design Document) is a must-have for keeping your project organized and focused. I not only outline the narrative and aesthetic bits of the game, I also make a large table of "events", basically a written version of If/Then statements in the game; I write down how collisions, weapons, counters, etc should work; pretty much every minute aspect of the game's workings are outlined on paper before I even begin writing test code.
But yeah, it it's more than just you, set this GDD up on Google Drive, and have your team work on it, you can post comments on the document, and collaborate to outline something agreeable and good.
But yeah, it it's more than just you, set this GDD up on Google Drive, and have your team work on it, you can post comments on the document, and collaborate to outline something agreeable and good.
There was a semi-recent thread about this exact thing but for the NES -- the same reasons/points/etc. presented there apply to any kind of collaborative game development, regardless of console or system. I'm trying to find it but not coming up with anything right now. I think rainwarrior and I both commented in it, but right now I'm just not able to find the thread or relevant posts. :/ I bet Tepples will find it...
I suspect you're thinking of "Creating the 'best possible' NES game".
Yup that'd be it. Thanks Myask!
There was a time when me and KungFuFirby were on a SNES Development team called >Entertainment.. We had a lot of people on the team that wanted to make a game but had no experience.. one guy Undisbeliever took charge of making an Engine for the SNES but that never really yielded results... I think that without seeing results people become discouraged, like myself. Although I never gave up, looking back it seemed that one day things were simply no more.
>Entertainment was miraculously formed and then evaporated... Sometimes Kungfu and I reminisce of those times..
At the time, I was responsible for creating an intro, Here's an intro I was developing at that time, for a game called Super NES: Allstars. It was going to be like Smash Bros. for SNES.
http://www.cs.umb.edu/~bazz/snes_roms/s ... _intro.smc
The music was made with probably the old xm2snes, predecessor to SNESmod. and it won't work on SNES9x for some reason.. I recall that it works on real hardware.
I was making that while Undisbeliever worked on the engine that never came thru.. Once the project disbanded I ceased development... but my work would have continued to feature the game's full cast of characters alongside kirby, then a transition to a killer title screen and main menu.
Wow.. just found this by accident, this was at the public height of Undisbeliever's engine, lol: http://www.cs.umb.edu/~bazz/snes_roms/P ... bHB%5d.fig
I dunno when KungFuFurby joined then... WTF?? he's no in the creditz... maybe I left this group?? and he joined afterwards?? I dunno, don't care.
The idea of SNES Tracker was given birth to during my time with >Entertainment, and culminated between a dude Cartridge and myself. At the time, it was going to be a tracker on the SNES, for the SNES, and although it sounded like a good idea, I assumed the limitations of SNES resolution and syncing would ultimately lead a PC app to be the best product. However, I still to this day imagine completing a WIP I had where I actually breadboarded a SNES cartridge with a MIDI IN port, to allow using a MIDI controller to control the SNES DSP.. I still have dream to create a custom MIDI controller and MIDI cartridge to really make the SNES sing live!!
>Entertainment was miraculously formed and then evaporated... Sometimes Kungfu and I reminisce of those times..
At the time, I was responsible for creating an intro, Here's an intro I was developing at that time, for a game called Super NES: Allstars. It was going to be like Smash Bros. for SNES.
http://www.cs.umb.edu/~bazz/snes_roms/s ... _intro.smc
The music was made with probably the old xm2snes, predecessor to SNESmod. and it won't work on SNES9x for some reason.. I recall that it works on real hardware.
I was making that while Undisbeliever worked on the engine that never came thru.. Once the project disbanded I ceased development... but my work would have continued to feature the game's full cast of characters alongside kirby, then a transition to a killer title screen and main menu.
Wow.. just found this by accident, this was at the public height of Undisbeliever's engine, lol: http://www.cs.umb.edu/~bazz/snes_roms/P ... bHB%5d.fig
I dunno when KungFuFurby joined then... WTF?? he's no in the creditz... maybe I left this group?? and he joined afterwards?? I dunno, don't care.
The idea of SNES Tracker was given birth to during my time with >Entertainment, and culminated between a dude Cartridge and myself. At the time, it was going to be a tracker on the SNES, for the SNES, and although it sounded like a good idea, I assumed the limitations of SNES resolution and syncing would ultimately lead a PC app to be the best product. However, I still to this day imagine completing a WIP I had where I actually breadboarded a SNES cartridge with a MIDI IN port, to allow using a MIDI controller to control the SNES DSP.. I still have dream to create a custom MIDI controller and MIDI cartridge to really make the SNES sing live!!
Neither of those SNES All-Stars builds are what I remember... but it's nice to see them again. I remember one with an actual Title Screen logo attached, but I lost that build. I have two builds of Elevator Madness on my end: one from the G3, and another I found online. I sent both of them to the NESWorld forums for preservation.
I wasn't in the credits for one simple reason. I wasn't an authentic SNES musician back then, so I have no music in any of the games. Elevator Madness was the only one in which the music was even remotely converted (I have two SPC files), but the samples were replaced for obvious reasons. I'd probably redo that soundtrack. Plus, I was only a member on the forums, and I was no musician back then.
I was at SNESDev.net from mid-2007 (my earliest tracks were for SNES All-Stars... I think???) all the way to its demise in late 2009 when the site went down. The hard drive crash in mid-August 2008 essentially terminated my progress on my music, as I never recovered from that.
However... I am reviving my SNES RPG soundtrack because I was successfully able to get in contact with Malachi from the SNESDev.net forums. I'm concentrating on theoretical themes that would have a more generic use, as I seem to have concentrated too much on more specific events. My original music that I made has been surprisingly successful in making the transition to actual SNES music, although I'm inventing a new sound driver anyways because some of them are overkill. The new tracks will use the same approach as the originals: I'm creating master-quality versions (as in, with the original samples mostly unaltered), and then I'll deal with replacements and optimizations. This is for style consistency.
You're actually jogging my memory on why I was creating all of those themes for SNES All-Stars in the first place! I'd redo most, if not the entire soundtrack to account for the fact that I need to scrap remix references (I remember that concept change, and I have the e-mail, too!). The fact that you've made me realize what the concept was in the first place is tempting me to revive that one too, even if there's no other development. After all, I can now make authentic soundtracks!
I wasn't in the credits for one simple reason. I wasn't an authentic SNES musician back then, so I have no music in any of the games. Elevator Madness was the only one in which the music was even remotely converted (I have two SPC files), but the samples were replaced for obvious reasons. I'd probably redo that soundtrack. Plus, I was only a member on the forums, and I was no musician back then.
I was at SNESDev.net from mid-2007 (my earliest tracks were for SNES All-Stars... I think???) all the way to its demise in late 2009 when the site went down. The hard drive crash in mid-August 2008 essentially terminated my progress on my music, as I never recovered from that.
However... I am reviving my SNES RPG soundtrack because I was successfully able to get in contact with Malachi from the SNESDev.net forums. I'm concentrating on theoretical themes that would have a more generic use, as I seem to have concentrated too much on more specific events. My original music that I made has been surprisingly successful in making the transition to actual SNES music, although I'm inventing a new sound driver anyways because some of them are overkill. The new tracks will use the same approach as the originals: I'm creating master-quality versions (as in, with the original samples mostly unaltered), and then I'll deal with replacements and optimizations. This is for style consistency.
You're actually jogging my memory on why I was creating all of those themes for SNES All-Stars in the first place! I'd redo most, if not the entire soundtrack to account for the fact that I need to scrap remix references (I remember that concept change, and I have the e-mail, too!). The fact that you've made me realize what the concept was in the first place is tempting me to revive that one too, even if there's no other development. After all, I can now make authentic soundtracks!
I was on that website towards the very end. I had a different username back then. I feel a bit embarrassed saying what my username was, because I had a bad rep on multiple websites with my old username.
I think the biggest factor is lack of time. It's hard for a lot of people to justify spending a year or more worth of spare time to make an entire game (and all the tools required for art, levels etc.) on a retro console, just for fun.
And having a sizable team increases the chances of someone losing interest over time, possibly causing development to stagnate resulting in everyone eventually losing interest.
That's a couple reasons why it's easier to stick with a smaller scope, perhaps "iphone games" as you call it. Regardless, having a solid plan is key, re game design document.
Hi Drakon o/
And having a sizable team increases the chances of someone losing interest over time, possibly causing development to stagnate resulting in everyone eventually losing interest.
That's a couple reasons why it's easier to stick with a smaller scope, perhaps "iphone games" as you call it. Regardless, having a solid plan is key, re game design document.
psycopathicteen wrote:
I was on that website towards the very end. I had a different username back then. I feel a bit embarrassed saying what my username was, because I had a bad rep on multiple websites with my old username.
Hi Drakon o/
maybe one day we can all pull together and a make NesDev Forumz celebrated game 